As Koda and his company set foot upon Water City Jhoone, they were welcomed by the citizens in an uplifting cheer. Quite the contrast from other cities they visited in the past. Stryneth pushed himself to the front as he greeted each citizen with handshakes, waves, and hugs. Never had Koda seen him so joyful and energetic. No, Stryneth was often somber and serious, as if he despised traveling. However, now he was like a child in a toyshop.

“Come, my friends, meet my people. Bask in the greatness of my city!” Stryneth said with a belly quaking laugh.

He turned to the others and spread his arms wide open and bowed. “This is Water City Jhoone!”

Koda had to admit the city was impressive, at least from an engineering standpoint. What set it apart from any other city in not only Abyss, but the rest of the world, was that it floated on many massive rafts. Each anchored by hefty weights. Bridges connected to the rafts and towers stood over the city, each attached to a zipline for faster travel. At the center of the large barge-like city imposed the mighty hydro mage school. Using its own gigantic raft and even several smaller rafts bordering it. Altogether, Water City Jhoone could have served as its own island, if it weren’t already the largest boat ever created by mankind. So impressive? It most certainly was.

Elucard stamped his foot on the ground. He waited for a brief moment. “Solid as a rock!”

“Yes this is unlike anything I have ever seen before,” Koda said, still in astonishment. “Cade, have you stayed here at all?”

Cade stretched out his arms after a long ride and yawned. “Yes, I have.” He scratched his cheek and smacked his lips. “And I whole heartily recommend the broiled sailor’s herring from the Fisherman’s Tale Tavern”

“Perhaps later after our battle?” Raines said as she hopped onto the dock. “You don’t understand how long I’ve been craving owning blue magic!”

Koda turned to her with a curious grin. “More of Raine’s origin has come to the surface?”

Raine chuckled. “I’m not a book you can read, Koda.”

Koda pretended to jot down Raine’s words with an invisible quill and parchment. “Not yet, at least.”

Raine huffed with a half measured frown. “If you must know, Hydro’s color was the first sash I went after once I earned the right to duel for magic. I was beaten terribly. A complete embarrassment. I swore to go after it last for my Tempest style.”

Koda nodded. “And here you are.”

“And here I am,” repeated Raine.

Wildeye patted Raine on the shoulder as she walked past her. “You have learned much, I am sure. No longer are you the weak girl you once were. Today will be different, I am sure of it.”

Raine gave the wolf a large smile. “Thanks, Wildeye.”

Stryneth clapped his hands. “Are we ready for our duel?”

Koda looked at Raine, who nodded. He turned back to Stryneth with determination burning in his heart and eyes. “Definitely!”

Stryneth gave him a wicked grin. “Shall we be using all of our colors this morning?”

Koda inspected Stryneth’s robes. He only had two colors. Blue made up the majority of his robe, and although he wore his blue sash, his robe’s trim lined with the color purple. Koda learned first hand that not all mages that he had encountered wore just their sashes. Sometimes they took the material of the sash and added it to their robes. Their robe designs grew more and more elaborate with each new color added.

Blue and Purple. That means water and lightning…a most deadly combination. What do you think, Wildeye? Should I risk it to use my vernal, fire, earth, and lightning?

“Hmm, I think it would be wise to keep the battlefield even. I’d imagine Stryneth is extremely skilled, and yes, having four colors would seem like an advantage, but I have the feeling Stryneth has dealt with odds like that in the past.”

Koda stroked his chin in contemplation. It is a two on one duel. I know I am well versed with vernal magic by now and I trust Raine is well versed with light magic as well.

“Then you have your answer. Raine’s light magic and your vernal magic against Stryneth’s hydro magic. I’d hope that is advantage enough, though I am weary that he offered this match up in the first place.”

One problem at a time, Wildeye. Koda looked up. He turned to Raine. “I think we should stick with our base.”

“Are you sure? Between you and I we have nearly every color represented.”

“I think this would be best. I don’t trust Stryneth’s experience with his two colors. There must be a reason he has been so content with those alone.”

Raine bit her lip. “I didn’t think of that factor.” She looked at Stryneth. “We have chosen base colors.”

“First hit, third hit, unconsciousness, or death?” asked Stryneth.

Koda glanced at Raine. “You choose, Raine. I could go with any.”

Raine didn’t skip a beat as she blurted out her answer. “Unconsciousness!”

“Very well, our match is set. Prepare yourselves for the fight of your short lives!”

***

The battlefield floated on one of the school’s smaller rafts. Squared grates checkered the field like a chess board. Allowing easier access to the sea for easy manipulation. Each dueler stood at their assigned ends of the battlefield as the referee, Elucard, Cade, and Wildeye stood at either side.

The referee raised his dueling flag. “Are challengers ready?”

Raine gave the referee a loud cry “Ready!!!”

“Is the defender ready?” the referee called out to Stryneth.

“Yes, yes. Get on with it,” grumbled Stryneth.

Koda flexed his hands, curling his knuckles into a fist and back out again. He rolled his neck and rtotated his shoulders. He was loose, but was he ready? Only time would tell, because the battle was about to start!

“Begin!” shouted the referee.

Stryneth dashed forward to the center of the battlefield before halting and popping the corks from the vials tied around his sash. From the glass vials he manipulated the chemicals within, pulling a string of water from each and vaporizing them into a sickly, green cloud.

Koda threw up, one above his head, the other hovering over his hip. He spread his legs, leaning on his back foot. He often watched Elucard and Cade train, and sometimes they used fighting stances like this one. Although he wasn’t sure if mimicking an Black Rabbit stance would help his battle, he felt more confident within it.

Raine crossed her arms over her face and thrust them away in a violent motion. At that instant her hands sparked with wild electricity.

“What do you suppose those potions do?” Koda whispered to his partner.

“I don’t know, but I don’t plan to find out!” Raine growled. She vanished in a flash of light and appeared behind Stryneth. In a quick motion she shot a trail of lighting from her palm, however Stryneth was just as quick and his body dropped into a puddle on the ground.

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The lightning bolt missed Styneth but hit the remaining cloud of toxins. It sizzled and rippled with electricity, growing by the second.

Raine balked and stepped back as the cloud grew larger and larger, charging with her magic, despite her best efforts to dispel the lightning.

Raine tried to shout a warning, “Koda—” but the cloud exploded in her face.

The shockwave ripped across the battlefield drenching it with a downpour of chemical laced raindrops. Even before Koda could react, he was soaked to the bone. The toxins seared his skin and ate at his clothing. His eyes burned from the haze left on the platform.

Koda wobbled on his feet before collapsing to his knees. The sky began to warp into various dark colors. Swirls of shapes appeared in front of him and his hands tripled in size and numbers. He cried out in madness, trying to string his words in a coherent sentence but failed miserably as they came out sluggish and slurred. “R-Ra-ine, w-wha-t is haaa—ppening?”

Raine fell back laughing in a manic fit. She rolled back and forth on the ground before panicking and curling her knees into her chest. “He-help me!!!”

Suddenly a chill sunk through Koda’s body. His teeth chattered and his body stiffened.

My body won’t listen to me! Those potions, they were poisons! If I could make a remedy using my vernal magic, I could counteract the effects!

Koda grunted and hardened his hands, attempting to get some sort of response from them. Any reaction. Anything at all but his drugged mind wouldn’t let him concentrate.

If I used the Magi, my body would flush this stuff out…

“No Koda, you don’t need it. Find the source of your magic. Focus. Meditate. Your tamed magic is powerful enough to turn the tides, you just have to give it your trust!”

“I suppose I should end this fight. You two do not seem to be enjoying my concoctions,” Stryneth’s voice sliced through Koda’s hallucinations.

“Now or never, Koda!” Wildeye’s voice pierced his mind.

Koda closed his eyes and growled as he forced himself to concentrate with all his mental dexterity. He reached far into the recesses of his mind. Deeper. Deeper. Deeper than ever before and there he found his four spheres of magic. Faint, weak, but whole. Koda cupped his hands around them. A glob of fire, pebbles of earth, streaks of light, and tiny leaves encircled his hands. Slowly Koda opened his mind and drew from the vernal magic. He imagined the lifeblood of the flowers deep in Abysses jungles and ointments found in the vines of his forest, Nashoon. He mixed them and intertwined their nectar until he created a medicinal concoction of his own. The liquid coursed through his body and the hallucinogens drained from his blood. He could the battlefield with clarity once again, and just in time too. Stryneth approached with a hand of ice wafting with vapor.

Koda thrust his hands forward and pushed him back with a rolling mound of twisting roots. Stryneth fell backwards, leaping from foot to foot attempting to escape the grasping wood. Koda took advantage of Stryneth’s problems. Propelling himself in the air, he rode a jutting tree that sprouted from the raft. Once high above the battlefield , Koda leaped off the branch and landed performing a quick shoulder roll to the side of the suffering rain. He placed a hand on stomach and injected the remedy into her body. It took her mere minutes to recover.

“Thanks for the assistance, Koda, I got it from here!” Raine said with a smirk.

Roaming clouds merged over the battlefield, booming with thunder and channeling with static electricity until Raine pulled hand to the ground and with it a thunderous lightning bolt crashed through Stryneth.

Stryneth fell to his hands and knees. His clothing was singed and charred, his body steamed with smoke. He panted heavily, fighting himself to collapse. He clawed at the raft, peeling curls of wood. He clenched his teeth, seething with anger and frustration. He raised his head and glared at Raine who charged another lightning bolt in the clouds.

Stryneth reached an arm forward and tightened his fist closed.

A sphere of water suddenly closed around Raine and filled with water. She gulped a breath of air as her head submerged underwater.

Koda plunged his hand into the bubble, but the sphere morphed and surrounded him as well, forming a separate watery prison around him too. Just a quick her began to drown in the pool of water.

Koda kicked and thrashed his arms, his cheeks turned red as he struggled to hold his breath. His eyes cracked and he shook his head. He couldn’t give in. He couldn’t give up. He had this battle! He needed to focus once more, to calm his mind, to reach in and—

A large lilypad unfurled from his hands and pushed through the bubble, flooding out the water and bursting with a pop! Koda fell to the ground. He gasped lungfuls of air. He quickly glanced at Stryneth before lashing a vine whip at Raine’s bubble, slicing in in half and freeing the purple mage.

Raine roared through labored breaths, “I’m ending this!”

Strength stood to his feet and brushed off the soot from his shoulder. “You may tr—”

Raine cracked with light and shot herself forward as a stream of electricity. Her voice rang through the battlefield.

He appeared inches away from Stryneth, still glowing with a blinding light. She spread both her hands and smashed them into Stryneth’s chest. A charge of electricity exploded through Raine’s hands and through Stryneth’s body and with the jolt the blue mage went sailing back and diving into the ocean.

Raine fell back to her rear, still panting like a dog. Koda cautiously walked to her. “Did…we…did we beat him?”

“There’s no way he is coming back from—”

Stryneth rose from the sea, catching Raine and Koda off guard. Around his body, keeping the blue mage in the air whirl a torrent of water. Fury was written on his face. He gnashed his teeth, spitting out his words. “Where did you learn that spell?!”

Raine stood up and puffed out her chest in defiance. “Michael wasn’t my only teacher!”

“So…you wish to play with Forbidden Magic?” Stryneth sneered. He held a single hand like an eagle’s claw and began trembling it. Raine and Koda floated up into the air, their hands and arms slapped against their sides. Their body wrenched and twisted and finally their body fluids seeped from the pores, mouths, nostrils, and eyes.

“Koda! Focus, Koda!” Wildeye’s voice echoed through his head.

I—I can’t, I’m tapped out, too tired. Koda breathing became erratic. Panic set in, striking his body like a hammer to a nail. His mind grew numb, his eyes went dark. No…please…no…

Koda’s body went limp.

***

Koda stirred awake. His body shivered and his head pulsed with pain. He licked his cracked lips. “W-water,” he croaked through a parched throat.

Elucard helped him to his feet as Stryneth approached him. He held two blue sashes in his hands.

“W-what is this?” Koda stuttered.

Cade shouldered Raine. She looked at Stryneth with confusion written across her face. “But we lost, Master Stryneth.”

Stryneth curled his lip. “You should be banned from your school for using forbidden magic on a headmaster…”

Raine lowered her head in sorrow.

“But you show—the both of you cunning, grit, prowess, and determination. I would be a fool to not reward those qualities.”

Koda and Raine swelled with pride.

“Koda, you did not disappoint me. Master Fen will most definitely hear of your skills.”

Koda and Raine accepted the sashes and wrapped them around their waists. Raine couldn’t help but giggle. “I’ve done it! My Tempest style is complete!”

Koda placed a hand on her shoulder. “You earned this Raine, you really did.”

“Thank you, Koda”

***

Strife sat at his desk, alone in his headmaster’s office chamber. He lowered his head and raised his eyes, keeping a focused sight in the deep shadow that began to grow in the corner of the room. “Master Wraslyn, I welcome you to my city.”

The mysterious, but handsome vampire stepped out of his shadow portal and walked to Strife’s desk. He placed a delicate hand on the desk and flipped his black Dead of Winter cape over his shoulder. “You have something to report, my hydro mage?”

Strife leaned forward and steepled his fingers. “Koda now has dominion over water and now seeks shadow and wind.”

“Good. Very good, Strife. Now see to it that Arrelion takes in and trains Koda,” Wraslyn said.

“But Master Wraslyn, Arrelion is our enemy. He will only reverse your influence with Koda!”

“No…” Wraslyn said in a low voice. “He will push him to me. He will build him into a far stronger mage than any other school could hope to achieve and when the time is right, Koda will leave him for me; with your assistance, of course.”

“Naturally I will do as you say, but I do not see how I could further your plans with Arrelion in the picture,” said Strife.

Wraslyn paced around his mage. “You must trust me, my dear Strife.” He placed his hands on Strife’s shoulders. “I would never lead you astray.”

Strife turned to look up into Wraslyns dark, golden eyes. “No, Master, I know you wouldn’t.”

Wraslyn moved in close to Strife’s ear. “Then you must trust me,” he whispered.

Strife shifted his eyes to the heavy double doors of his office. “One last thing, my master.”

“Hm?”

“Our Silent Master, Inle,” Strife began. He swallowed hard, afraid to throw a wrench in Wraslyn’s plans. “He has a strong infatuation with Elucard. I am afraid he may betray our guild.”

Wraslyn brushed his fingers over Strife’s head as he walked back to the front of the desk. “If Inle wishes not to be our Silent Master any longer, then I shall see to it that Elucard replaces him.” He looked to his shadow portal. “One way or another.”

A low growl echoed through the room. “I have already infiltrated Elucard’s mind, my master. He will be easy to break and then mold into your slave.”

Wraslyn grinned. “Hopefully it does not come to this.” He turned back to Strife. “See to it that Arrelion takes Koda under his wing.”

“Yes, master. I shall leave for Twin Cliffs at once!” Strife said.

“And Strife,” said Wraslyn. “It would be wise not to fail me.”