Someone who could take a beating … how would such a person look like. Tall? Bulky? Amounted to the teeth? Probably all of that. Which was why I felt completely misplaced in the tank group.
I didn’t know for sure why the saint had divided us all into the typical RPG roles, but it may have been a sensible decision if one prioritised group strength and adaptability.
“Okay … the hundred participants have been selected. Please enter the coliseum one by one starting from Alicia Eberhardt.” And then there was Luna as well for whatever reason, organising a large part of the first selection.
I wasn’t entirely sure why she was there, but she was the heiress to a duchy so it was kind of understandable she had a large role in this event.
Four quite the long time, I was waiting for my turn until Luna finally called me up.
“Good luck!” She said as I walked past her and gave me a sweet smile. But I was already focused on my task ahead and walked into the coliseum under the applause of the visitors. In the lodge one the other side, I could faintly see a person completely clad in a white shoulder free dress, looking over to me right away. Truly, from what I could see she looked exactly like the Lucy I knew which did strike me as odd, even though I was already told that fact.
And then, the best fighter I knew made herself audible to my side, hiding near the entrance of the arena.
“Ellie. It’s nice to see you again.” Completely stunned, I looked over towards Hannah wondering right away why she was here.
“What are you doing here?” I asked straight away.
“I was asked to come and here I am. You are going to be tested by me.” She explained grabbing an iron spear right next to her and lifted it up.
“Okay?” I asked, still not following right away.
“See that target over there? I will stand on the opposite side and throw a spear at it. The less force I can apply on it the better you score.” She said and already walked away from me while I thought about all these times I tried to stop her attacks and failed miserably.
“That’s … has anyone succeeded until now?” I asked stunned. The ones who went inside before me were surely not capable of achieving such a feat.
“The goal isn’t to win. It’s not to lose.” She said and pointed over towards the target. Rushing in between her and the target, I observed all of her movements including how the spear started to crack with red lightning.
Needlessly, she let it float in the air right next to her where it cracked the already badly damaged ground open even more.
“Barrier.” Right away, tens of barriers appeared in between the target and Hannah, all with different capabilities which I hoped could become useful. And last but not least, I created one of my infinity barriers which blocked everything but her attacks previously.
She gave me time to prepare as much as I wanted, that much was clear. Nodding to her a bit thankful, I stepped aside from my creations and saw how the spear slowly accelerated until it touched my first barrier, the lightning already destroying parts of it even before it was touched. And then, it broke though it faster than before, propelled forwards by a storm of wind which chiselled away every barrier before they could become useful in slowing the spear down.
Panicking, I dispelled a few barriers to create a very small one in the path of the spear, but even that proved to be useless.
“Oh god of infinity, please heed my call!” I spoke out quietly and created a whole lot of infinity barriers without caring that my nose started bleeding.
With an ear shattering sound, the spear crashed against the barrier which separated normal space and time from my warped bit. Surprisingly, my magic wasn’t dispelled right away, but the spear slid off to the side, rushing past the barrier I had created.
But the next one was already created, catching the spear once more for a split second before it broke though my barrier.
“No!” I screamed, right before the spear broke through completely and my warped infinite time vanished. And then, milliseconds turned to seconds, seconds to minutes and hours to day. Time slowed down to a halt, which affected everyone including me. But strangely enough, I was conscious about the effect and felt the time pass by normally.
I didn’t know at all what I had done, but I was grateful for it. With my last remaining mana, I fuelled another infinity barrier this time tilted to the side.
Seeing it appear, I managed to blink once as time returned to normal and stunned the audience either by throwing up, or by the fact that the spear embedded itself deeply into the wall right beside the round target.
Applause filled the arena while I nearly collapsed from exhaustion.
For a few seconds, I didn’t react to anything, neither how Miss Dove clapped along, nor how the saint followed suit. I only stood up as I felt a warm touch on my hands which hurled a lot of mana back into my body.
“So – Sofie?” I muttered looking up to her.
“You did well. Really well.” Did I? I nearly collapsed if not for Sofie’s support while Hannah looked just like usual which showed how much distance there still was between me and her. “Here, we need to hurry up so the next contestant can come in.” She said and grunted a little as she pulled me upwards.
“It’s fine. Thank you.” My knees still shook violently, but the never ending applause from the visitors did motivate me a lot more than it should have. While Miss Dove went towards us to retrieve the spear, Sofie guided me towards another tunnel near the lodge the saint sat inside. Lucy smiled at me brightly, just like the Lucy I knew would. Even worse, they didn’t look similar … they looked exactly like each other. But I didn’t have a chance to talk to her yet as Sofie hastily guided me into a room with a few of the other contestants and a priest watching over her every action.
“Why is Miss Dove here?” I muttered, still not believing that she would separate from Lucy’s side at all. These two were basically inseparable, which made the whole development rather odd.
“You haven’t realised it yet?” She asked surprised and looked through the room towards another groaning person.
“What?” I asked, right as she let go of me and turned away.
“N-nothing. I need to take care of someone else right now.” And with that, she strolled away towards the other person who was slowly healed by her powers.
“She is kind of amazing, isn’t she?” A man to my right asked looking wherever Sofie went.
“What do you mean?” I asked quite bewildered while still thinking about what Sofie had said.
“She reattached my limb …” He muttered and made me look at Sofie in another light. She couldn’t do that kind of thing before, that was for sure. Closing my eyes, I leaned against the nearest wall with my back and thought about what had happened. Everything from start to finish. And I could help but to think I was lied to by Lucy.
I had trusted her the whole time largely because I saw no reason to doubt her along with the fact that she appeared before the saint did.
But thinking about it objectively, it was quite hard to ignore the facts. She knew far too much, had a sister by her side who was possibly the strongest elf and was way too considerate and friendly to everyone.
Lucy was the saint, and Sofie knew about it before I did. A bit angrily, I pushed myself away from the wall and made my way over towards Sofie while trying to be as quiet as possible to let the others recuperate. With my loud amour that was easier said than done though.
As such, Sofie heard my approach rather early and turned to face me a bit embarrassed.
“Can I help you?”
“Lucy is the saint, isn’t she? She didn’t even change her name, she didn’t even try to hide it that much and we still never got any idea?” I asked a bit angry at Lucy and Sofie for not telling us sooner and letting us figure out everything on our own.
“Well, I had realised it a bit sooner … but yes.” Sofie admitted and looked to the ground a bit ashamed.
“And why did she hide it? Isn’t everything a bit suspicious? Why make all of this when she knows very well we are already an exceptional group?” I couldn’t understand Lucy’s reasoning at all. We went on adventures with her already, and now she was searching for people who could replace us? Why do that?
“You should ask that yourself. She did have an undeniable reason though, so don’t be too harsh on her.” Angrily, I balled my hands to fists and stomped away from her out of the room.
“Miss, the contestants are supposed to remain inside their respective rooms.” A guard at the door commented but I disregarded it completely. Instead, I stomped towards the stairs I had seen previously and ascended them right away.
Turning left, I walked towards two guards who stood in the hallway and eyed me suspiciously.
“Miss, you cannot go past this point.” A guard said and blocked the way with his spear.
“I need to talk to the saint.” I admitted straight away, hoping they would let me go through.
“Many people want that.” The left guard said and gripped his spear a bit tighter.
“But I am her friend.” At least I thought so … but maybe even that was a lie.
“And even more people claim to be friends with her.” One guard said which made me ball my hands into fists right away. But luckily, I heard Luna ascending the stairs and turned around to look at her.
“You too, right? You knew all along?” I asked looking at her frustrated.
“Knew what?” She asked oblivious and returned my gaze rather confused.
“That Lucy is the saint?” And suddenly, she understood what I was getting at.
“Yeah. I was there as she woke up.” Luna admitted, putting the tips of her index fingers against each other embarrassed.
“Who didn’t lie to us?” I asked and grabbed my head in a fluke of desperation.
“Are you … it’s best if you come along.” She said, patted my right shoulder and strolled through the two guards unhindered. I immediately followed her through the rough hallway until I could finally see the sun again.
“Hi Lucy! The the two other groups are waiting for your sign and Ellie wanted to speak with you.”
“Hi Ellie. How are you doing? Did you get enough sleep?” Lucy asked while smiling brightly, completely disregarding the feelings I had from being lied to.
“No? I did not get enough sleep but that’s not important right now. Why did you lie about you being who you are?”
“Truth to be told, I did it because it was nice to be a normal girl in the beginning and afterwards as I showed you more of what I could do, it was more because I wanted to see your progress. I had no ill intentions whatsoever.” She claimed while looking at me a bit bummed out. It did truly feel like she was incredibly sorry for lying to us for so long, which made my anger evaporate into thin air instantly.
“You should have told us. I feel a bit betrayed.” I admitted honestly. It didn’t feel great to be lied to by her, especially because she was the one selecting the heroes of this world.
“Everyone does have a fair share of secrets. You, Luna, I, everyone. And that’s not a bad thing right away, is it?” She asked, apparently a bit in thought as she grabbed her chin while talking.
Her words … I could hardly deny her, could I? We were hiding our real identities from her as well, fearing that we would be exploited by someone otherwise or even worse someone would try to murder us. But hiding it from Lucy was … useless, wasn’t it? She had no intention of ever using us against our will and therefore it wouldn’t hurt telling her everything.
“You are … right. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have blamed you.” I said a bit saddened by my own feelings and looked down into the ground in shame.
“I see. I apparently need to go back now, so if you don’t mind …” Lucy said as another round of applause resounded through the arena. Turning around, she walked back to her seat while Luna tapped my shoulder.
“Let’s go. I need to get back to the last group as well.” Nodding towards her, I turned my back towards Lucy as well.
Someone who could take a beating … how would such a person look like. Tall? Bulky? Amounted to the teeth? Probably all of that. Which was why I felt completely misplaced in the tank group.
I didn’t know for sure why the saint had divided us all into the typical RPG roles, but it may have been a sensible decision if one prioritised group strength and adaptability.
“Okay … the hundred participants have been selected. Please enter the coliseum one by one starting from Alicia Eberhardt.” And then there was Luna as well for whatever reason, organising a large part of the first selection.
I wasn’t entirely sure why she was there, but she was the heiress to a duchy so it was kind of understandable she had a large role in this event.
Four quite the long time, I was waiting for my turn until Luna finally called me up.
“Good luck!” She said as I walked past her and gave me a sweet smile. But I was already focused on my task ahead and walked into the coliseum under the applause of the visitors. In the lodge one the other side, I could faintly see a person completely clad in a white shoulder free dress, looking over to me right away. Truly, from what I could see she looked exactly like the Lucy I knew which did strike me as odd, even though I was already told that fact.
And then, the best fighter I knew made herself audible to my side, hiding near the entrance of the arena.
“Ellie. It’s nice to see you again.” Completely stunned, I looked over towards Hannah wondering right away why she was here.
“What are you doing here?” I asked straight away.
“I was asked to come and here I am. You are going to be tested by me.” She explained grabbing an iron spear right next to her and lifted it up.
“Okay?” I asked, still not following right away.
“See that target over there? I will stand on the opposite side and throw a spear at it. The less force I can apply on it the better you score.” She said and already walked away from me while I thought about all these times I tried to stop her attacks and failed miserably.
“That’s … has anyone succeeded until now?” I asked stunned. The ones who went inside before me were surely not capable of achieving such a feat.
“The goal isn’t to win. It’s not to lose.” She said and pointed over towards the target. Rushing in between her and the target, I observed all of her movements including how the spear started to crack with red lightning.
Needlessly, she let it float in the air right next to her where it cracked the already badly damaged ground open even more.
“Barrier.” Right away, tens of barriers appeared in between the target and Hannah, all with different capabilities which I hoped could become useful. And last but not least, I created one of my infinity barriers which blocked everything but her attacks previously.
She gave me time to prepare as much as I wanted, that much was clear. Nodding to her a bit thankful, I stepped aside from my creations and saw how the spear slowly accelerated until it touched my first barrier, the lightning already destroying parts of it even before it was touched. And then, it broke though it faster than before, propelled forwards by a storm of wind which chiselled away every barrier before they could become useful in slowing the spear down.
Panicking, I dispelled a few barriers to create a very small one in the path of the spear, but even that proved to be useless.
“Oh god of infinity, please heed my call!” I spoke out quietly and created a whole lot of infinity barriers without caring that my nose started bleeding.
With an ear shattering sound, the spear crashed against the barrier which separated normal space and time from my warped bit. Surprisingly, my magic wasn’t dispelled right away, but the spear slid off to the side, rushing past the barrier I had created.
But the next one was already created, catching the spear once more for a split second before it broke though my barrier.
“No!” I screamed, right before the spear broke through completely and my warped infinite time vanished. And then, milliseconds turned to seconds, seconds to minutes and hours to day. Time slowed down to a halt, which affected everyone including me. But strangely enough, I was conscious about the effect and felt the time pass by normally.
I didn’t know at all what I had done, but I was grateful for it. With my last remaining mana, I fuelled another infinity barrier this time tilted to the side.
Seeing it appear, I managed to blink once as time returned to normal and stunned the audience either by throwing up, or by the fact that the spear embedded itself deeply into the wall right beside the round target.
Applause filled the arena while I nearly collapsed from exhaustion.
For a few seconds, I didn’t react to anything, neither how Miss Dove clapped along, nor how the saint followed suit. I only stood up as I felt a warm touch on my hands which hurled a lot of mana back into my body.
“So – Sofie?” I muttered looking up to her.
“You did well. Really well.” Did I? I nearly collapsed if not for Sofie’s support while Hannah looked just like usual which showed how much distance there still was between me and her. “Here, we need to hurry up so the next contestant can come in.” She said and grunted a little as she pulled me upwards.
“It’s fine. Thank you.” My knees still shook violently, but the never ending applause from the visitors did motivate me a lot more than it should have. While Miss Dove went towards us to retrieve the spear, Sofie guided me towards another tunnel near the lodge the saint sat inside. Lucy smiled at me brightly, just like the Lucy I knew would. Even worse, they didn’t look similar … they looked exactly like each other. But I didn’t have a chance to talk to her yet as Sofie hastily guided me into a room with a few of the other contestants and a priest watching over her every action.
“Why is Miss Dove here?” I muttered, still not believing that she would separate from Lucy’s side at all. These two were basically inseparable, which made the whole development rather odd.
“You haven’t realised it yet?” She asked surprised and looked through the room towards another groaning person.
“What?” I asked, right as she let go of me and turned away.
“N-nothing. I need to take care of someone else right now.” And with that, she strolled away towards the other person who was slowly healed by her powers.
“She is kind of amazing, isn’t she?” A man to my right asked looking wherever Sofie went.
“What do you mean?” I asked quite bewildered while still thinking about what Sofie had said.
“She reattached my limb …” He muttered and made me look at Sofie in another light. She couldn’t do that kind of thing before, that was for sure. Closing my eyes, I leaned against the nearest wall with my back and thought about what had happened. Everything from start to finish. And I could help but to think I was lied to by Lucy.
I had trusted her the whole time largely because I saw no reason to doubt her along with the fact that she appeared before the saint did.
But thinking about it objectively, it was quite hard to ignore the facts. She knew far too much, had a sister by her side who was possibly the strongest elf and was way too considerate and friendly to everyone.
Lucy was the saint, and Sofie knew about it before I did. A bit angrily, I pushed myself away from the wall and made my way over towards Sofie while trying to be as quiet as possible to let the others recuperate. With my loud amour that was easier said than done though.
As such, Sofie heard my approach rather early and turned to face me a bit embarrassed.
“Can I help you?”
“Lucy is the saint, isn’t she? She didn’t even change her name, she didn’t even try to hide it that much and we still never got any idea?” I asked a bit angry at Lucy and Sofie for not telling us sooner and letting us figure out everything on our own.
“Well, I had realised it a bit sooner … but yes.” Sofie admitted and looked to the ground a bit ashamed.
“And why did she hide it? Isn’t everything a bit suspicious? Why make all of this when she knows very well we are already an exceptional group?” I couldn’t understand Lucy’s reasoning at all. We went on adventures with her already, and now she was searching for people who could replace us? Why do that?
“You should ask that yourself. She did have an undeniable reason though, so don’t be too harsh on her.” Angrily, I balled my hands to fists and stomped away from her out of the room.
“Miss, the contestants are supposed to remain inside their respective rooms.” A guard at the door commented but I disregarded it completely. Instead, I stomped towards the stairs I had seen previously and ascended them right away.
Turning left, I walked towards two guards who stood in the hallway and eyed me suspiciously.
“Miss, you cannot go past this point.” A guard said and blocked the way with his spear.
“I need to talk to the saint.” I admitted straight away, hoping they would let me go through.
“Many people want that.” The left guard said and gripped his spear a bit tighter.
“But I am her friend.” At least I thought so … but maybe even that was a lie.
“And even more people claim to be friends with her.” One guard said which made me ball my hands into fists right away. But luckily, I heard Luna ascending the stairs and turned around to look at her.
“You too, right? You knew all along?” I asked looking at her frustrated.
“Knew what?” She asked oblivious and returned my gaze rather confused.
“That Lucy is the saint?” And suddenly, she understood what I was getting at.
“Yeah. I was there as she woke up.” Luna admitted, putting the tips of her index fingers against each other embarrassed.
“Who didn’t lie to us?” I asked and grabbed my head in a fluke of desperation.
“Are you … it’s best if you come along.” She said, patted my right shoulder and strolled through the two guards unhindered. I immediately followed her through the rough hallway until I could finally see the sun again.
“Hi Lucy! The the two other groups are waiting for your sign and Ellie wanted to speak with you.”
“Hi Ellie. How are you doing? Did you get enough sleep?” Lucy asked while smiling brightly, completely disregarding the feelings I had from being lied to.
“No? I did not get enough sleep but that’s not important right now. Why did you lie about you being who you are?”
“Truth to be told, I did it because it was nice to be a normal girl in the beginning and afterwards as I showed you more of what I could do, it was more because I wanted to see your progress. I had no ill intentions whatsoever.” She claimed while looking at me a bit bummed out. It did truly feel like she was incredibly sorry for lying to us for so long, which made my anger evaporate into thin air instantly.
“You should have told us. I feel a bit betrayed.” I admitted honestly. It didn’t feel great to be lied to by her, especially because she was the one selecting the heroes of this world.
“Everyone does have a fair share of secrets. You, Luna, I, everyone. And that’s not a bad thing right away, is it?” She asked, apparently a bit in thought as she grabbed her chin while talking.
Her words … I could hardly deny her, could I? We were hiding our real identities from her as well, fearing that we would be exploited by someone otherwise or even worse someone would try to murder us. But hiding it from Lucy was … useless, wasn’t it? She had no intention of ever using us against our will and therefore it wouldn’t hurt telling her everything.
“You are … right. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have blamed you.” I said a bit saddened by my own feelings and looked down into the ground in shame.
“I see. I apparently need to go back now, so if you don’t mind …” Lucy said as another round of applause resounded through the arena. Turning around, she walked back to her seat while Luna tapped my shoulder.
“Let’s go. I need to get back to the last group as well.” Nodding towards her, I turned my back towards Lucy as well.
