A hundred mages. A hundred powerful figures. And amongst them, my half-brother who had nothing but disdain for me. And opposite of us, a hundred tanks standing at the tunnel on the other side.
“Welcome! As you have already heard it, all of you are invited to help fighting the demon menace, so you all did well in getting so far.” The saint, a distant figure clad in white explained in a voice I was all to familiar with. “On the other side of you are a hundred fighters who specialise in protecting others. You will pair up with them based on your results in the following tests, so please do your best. Your task is to destroy the largest area possible, while damaging the iron block in the middle. Please be aware that the size of your spell and the damage done to the block are graded. You may begin once everything is prepared.” Slowly, earth mages moved four massive iron blocks into the arena and guided us to them.
“Are you ready to lose?” Gregory asked, standing right by my side so that he could taunt me.
“I wont let that happen.” I said, balking my hands into fists.
“Sure, sure.” Gregory snickered and clapped happily as we were announced at the same time. Slowly, I walked over to the iron block and stood a few metres away from it.
Looking over to Gregory, I noticed how he merely stood there and watched me with a huge grin on his face.
“I … won’t lose.” I have gone through so much. I had bested a dungeon, I had levelled up so much that it surprised everyone. But he had none of that. He didn’t go through a month of tedious work, but rather lived in his castle leisurely.
And this was the day where all my efforts would pay off.
“Lava field.” I used a spell which I didn’t value too highly. It took far too long to take effect and everyone standing in it would notice the rising heat immediately. But that wasn’t of any issue here. The block of iron couldn’t move after all.
With a radius of ten metres, the ground started to glow hotly before it turned into some hot liquid with different gases bubbling out of it. The iron block quickly vanished in it and melted within the ground. Then, I dispelled my magic and looked over to Gregory with a smile on my lips.
“Not bad. Not bad.” He said, nodding several times before turning to his own block of iron.
“Lava field.” Just to spite me, he used the same magic I did. The ground heated up considerably around the block of iron and devoured it as quickly my field did. Turning over to me smugly, he waited for a few referee to measure our area of effect and announce the results.
“Louis … ten metre and fifty centimetres. Gregory … eleven metres and ten centimetres.” The two referees said, dragging a fireproof rope with knots in it to measure the distance.
“What? Can you measure it again?” I asked shocked while Gregory laughed happily by my side.
“We can … but it won’t lead to any other result.” Nevertheless, they did follow my plead and measured again with exactly the same results.
“You lost.” Gregory whispered into my ear and patted my right shoulder. Walking past me, he went towards the other contestants who waited in the distance.
Truly, I had lost this battle. But the war was far from over. Gritting my teeth, I followed after him without losing a single word. Standing with the others but far from Gregory, I watched the other contestants who couldn’t quite catch up to either of us.
The saint seemed to notice herself though, which was why she stood up from her chair and voiced her opinion loudly.
“Apparently, we have two strong protectors and two powerful mages which are distinctly separated from the others. Louis and Gregory Worchester, Ellie Maus and Zarfirbel Dunk … if you would please head the the middle.” The saint told us and a bunch of earth mages created an elevated area for us to stand on. “How about we solve this with a fight? The two who scored best in their previous exams against the second best?” The saint asked and the coliseum was immediately filled with approving roars of the audience.
This whole event wasn’t just for us, was it? It was also for the visitors who had their spirits lifted by witnessing humanities strength.
But for me, that sadly meant fighting against Ellie who was told to stand by Gregory. Meanwhile, a bulky man with more muscles than amour walked over to me and slapped my shoulder roughly.
“Ready to win this fight?” I wasn’t so sure about that. It would be hard to fight against Ellie for real, especially coupled together with Gregory by her side. I had to go all out to bring her barriers down, which meant my partner had to bear the brunt of Gregory’s attacks for the same time. It was basically a challenge who could bring down their opponents defences faster.
“Please focus on defending me.” I said and he nodded straight away.
Shortly afterwards, the fight began as soon as a coin hit the middle of the arena. Ellie immediately activated her barriers while I formed an earth spear from the dirt below and flung it over at her.
Gregory watched my attempt with arms crossed in front of his chest and laughed madly.
“That’s all you can do?” He snickered loudly.
“Lava field.” If they wanted to hide underneath the bubble Ellie created, then they would slowly feel the heat. But I knew from Ellie’s conflicted expression that my attempt was futile. My magic couldn’t penetrate her barrier this way.
“Tornado.” Immediately, a small tornado appeared in front of me, slowly creeping up on the barrier Ellie had created. I had hoped the wind would cut through it as it wasn’t necessarily dangerous, but that was apparently a mistake. As the tornado dissolved, they still stood there unharmed.
“I’m sorry Louis … but I cannot afford to lose either.” Ellie said driven close to tears. I could understand her though and didn’t blame her one bit.
“Let’s end this, shall we?” Gregory asked a bit too full of himself and let the coin in the middle float over to him. Grabbing it out of the air, he merely flung it as us with a speed I couldn’t comprehend. Electricity followed its trail, creating a wake of destruction through the whole arena until my partner jumped in its path, stopping it with his shield bravely. His armour cracked all over the place though and he collapsed right away after he had stopped the attack.
Shocked, I immediately ran towards him and kneeled by his side to check up on my partner. Glaring over to my left, I saw Gregory flinging a simple blue fireball over towards me while Ellie tried to stop him. She couldn’t create a barrier fast enough though as she had to change their polarisation which she rarely did. And so, it passed her barrier effortlessly and sailed right towards me.
“Enough.” The voice of the saint resounded through the arena and the fireball vanished in front of my eyes, much to mine and Gregory’s surprise.
Immediately, Sofie rushed over towards him to take care of his wounds while I looked at the saint who was apparently deep in thought.
“It is clear that Ellie Maus is indeed victorious. But I am not so sure about Gregory Worchester yet. Louis, do you feel ready for another round, this time solely against him?” I couldn’t ask for anything less. Nodding eagerly, I walked over to my side of the arena once more and faced Gregory.
“You may begin once more.” The saint said after Ellie and my partner had been brought into safety. This time, I chose another approach by using my gift.
The gift of creation. Using my mana, I created hundreds of birds from different species, some burning brightly, others frosty or protected by a layer of stone. By my side, two wolves appeared and a single massive boar to my front.
“That’s it? Animals?” They were animals. But they were mine. Instantly, the boar stormed forwards into a wave of spears that came flying.
“Hellfire!” Black flaming balls appeared all around me, flying towards him on different paths. For the first time, he had trouble defending against my assault. Most of the flaming balls were dealt with by a sudden stone wall, but others flew above it and targeted him, along with all the birds scooting towards him in a matter of seconds. My wolves jumped over the barrier as well, exactly as I saw the tornado of fire ripping most of my birds apart. My hellfire attack was dispersed the same way, even though I didn’t think of it as possible.
Then, I saw how his hands were covered in darkness and he punched the remaining birds to pieces with it.
“Tornado.” I chanted, hoping to disperse his fires this way which worked wonderfully as the two tornadoes merged and dissolved each other. Walking towards me with his face contorted in hatred, he grabbed the remaining wolves by their neck and killed them faster than I could react.
“Ice spear.” I mumbled and flung three thick spears at him. For a split second, I thought they would get through until he countered them with exactly the same spell, but sadly with one more spear.
Screaming in pain as it hit my shoulder, I went on my knees and pointed at him with my finger index finger.
“Lightning bo-“ I didn’t know when he got so fast. With some kind of magic, he suddenly accelerated rapidly and grabbed my upper arm with his right hand before I could do anything.
Immediately, I had to scream out loudly as my skin began to burn underneath his palm.
“Enough.” The saint shouted out with a slight angry undertone and Gregory stopped his magic.
“You will never best me, little brother. Because I have been gifted by my god three times while you only have one. And don’t even think about levelling up further because I level passively. Just die already. You have no chance to get the throne anyway.” Gregory hissed and finally stepped away from me while I tried to make sense of what he said.
He was one of us reincarnators, that was for sure.
“Louis!” Sofie and Ellie shouted running towards me. While I was looking at the ground in shock and pain, Sofie touched my wounds which healed right away while Ellie grabbed my chin to look into my teary eyes.
“Don’t cry Louis. This is not the end.” Ellie said, but that only made me angry. Standing up abruptly, I ran away from them towards the tunnel with tears in my eyes.
This was the end. Everything I had worked on was for naught. I would never achieve my dreams of saving the world by standing behind that asshole of a brother. My new life … was completely and utterly useless.
I would never be the person I hoped to be.
A hundred mages. A hundred powerful figures. And amongst them, my half-brother who had nothing but disdain for me. And opposite of us, a hundred tanks standing at the tunnel on the other side.
“Welcome! As you have already heard it, all of you are invited to help fighting the demon menace, so you all did well in getting so far.” The saint, a distant figure clad in white explained in a voice I was all to familiar with. “On the other side of you are a hundred fighters who specialise in protecting others. You will pair up with them based on your results in the following tests, so please do your best. Your task is to destroy the largest area possible, while damaging the iron block in the middle. Please be aware that the size of your spell and the damage done to the block are graded. You may begin once everything is prepared.” Slowly, earth mages moved four massive iron blocks into the arena and guided us to them.
“Are you ready to lose?” Gregory asked, standing right by my side so that he could taunt me.
“I wont let that happen.” I said, balking my hands into fists.
“Sure, sure.” Gregory snickered and clapped happily as we were announced at the same time. Slowly, I walked over to the iron block and stood a few metres away from it.
Looking over to Gregory, I noticed how he merely stood there and watched me with a huge grin on his face.
“I … won’t lose.” I have gone through so much. I had bested a dungeon, I had levelled up so much that it surprised everyone. But he had none of that. He didn’t go through a month of tedious work, but rather lived in his castle leisurely.
And this was the day where all my efforts would pay off.
“Lava field.” I used a spell which I didn’t value too highly. It took far too long to take effect and everyone standing in it would notice the rising heat immediately. But that wasn’t of any issue here. The block of iron couldn’t move after all.
With a radius of ten metres, the ground started to glow hotly before it turned into some hot liquid with different gases bubbling out of it. The iron block quickly vanished in it and melted within the ground. Then, I dispelled my magic and looked over to Gregory with a smile on my lips.
“Not bad. Not bad.” He said, nodding several times before turning to his own block of iron.
“Lava field.” Just to spite me, he used the same magic I did. The ground heated up considerably around the block of iron and devoured it as quickly my field did. Turning over to me smugly, he waited for a few referee to measure our area of effect and announce the results.
“Louis … ten metre and fifty centimetres. Gregory … eleven metres and ten centimetres.” The two referees said, dragging a fireproof rope with knots in it to measure the distance.
“What? Can you measure it again?” I asked shocked while Gregory laughed happily by my side.
“We can … but it won’t lead to any other result.” Nevertheless, they did follow my plead and measured again with exactly the same results.
“You lost.” Gregory whispered into my ear and patted my right shoulder. Walking past me, he went towards the other contestants who waited in the distance.
Truly, I had lost this battle. But the war was far from over. Gritting my teeth, I followed after him without losing a single word. Standing with the others but far from Gregory, I watched the other contestants who couldn’t quite catch up to either of us.
The saint seemed to notice herself though, which was why she stood up from her chair and voiced her opinion loudly.
“Apparently, we have two strong protectors and two powerful mages which are distinctly separated from the others. Louis and Gregory Worchester, Ellie Maus and Zarfirbel Dunk … if you would please head the the middle.” The saint told us and a bunch of earth mages created an elevated area for us to stand on. “How about we solve this with a fight? The two who scored best in their previous exams against the second best?” The saint asked and the coliseum was immediately filled with approving roars of the audience.
This whole event wasn’t just for us, was it? It was also for the visitors who had their spirits lifted by witnessing humanities strength.
But for me, that sadly meant fighting against Ellie who was told to stand by Gregory. Meanwhile, a bulky man with more muscles than amour walked over to me and slapped my shoulder roughly.
“Ready to win this fight?” I wasn’t so sure about that. It would be hard to fight against Ellie for real, especially coupled together with Gregory by her side. I had to go all out to bring her barriers down, which meant my partner had to bear the brunt of Gregory’s attacks for the same time. It was basically a challenge who could bring down their opponents defences faster.
“Please focus on defending me.” I said and he nodded straight away.
Shortly afterwards, the fight began as soon as a coin hit the middle of the arena. Ellie immediately activated her barriers while I formed an earth spear from the dirt below and flung it over at her.
Gregory watched my attempt with arms crossed in front of his chest and laughed madly.
“That’s all you can do?” He snickered loudly.
“Lava field.” If they wanted to hide underneath the bubble Ellie created, then they would slowly feel the heat. But I knew from Ellie’s conflicted expression that my attempt was futile. My magic couldn’t penetrate her barrier this way.
“Tornado.” Immediately, a small tornado appeared in front of me, slowly creeping up on the barrier Ellie had created. I had hoped the wind would cut through it as it wasn’t necessarily dangerous, but that was apparently a mistake. As the tornado dissolved, they still stood there unharmed.
“I’m sorry Louis … but I cannot afford to lose either.” Ellie said driven close to tears. I could understand her though and didn’t blame her one bit.
“Let’s end this, shall we?” Gregory asked a bit too full of himself and let the coin in the middle float over to him. Grabbing it out of the air, he merely flung it as us with a speed I couldn’t comprehend. Electricity followed its trail, creating a wake of destruction through the whole arena until my partner jumped in its path, stopping it with his shield bravely. His armour cracked all over the place though and he collapsed right away after he had stopped the attack.
Shocked, I immediately ran towards him and kneeled by his side to check up on my partner. Glaring over to my left, I saw Gregory flinging a simple blue fireball over towards me while Ellie tried to stop him. She couldn’t create a barrier fast enough though as she had to change their polarisation which she rarely did. And so, it passed her barrier effortlessly and sailed right towards me.
“Enough.” The voice of the saint resounded through the arena and the fireball vanished in front of my eyes, much to mine and Gregory’s surprise.
Immediately, Sofie rushed over towards him to take care of his wounds while I looked at the saint who was apparently deep in thought.
“It is clear that Ellie Maus is indeed victorious. But I am not so sure about Gregory Worchester yet. Louis, do you feel ready for another round, this time solely against him?” I couldn’t ask for anything less. Nodding eagerly, I walked over to my side of the arena once more and faced Gregory.
“You may begin once more.” The saint said after Ellie and my partner had been brought into safety. This time, I chose another approach by using my gift.
The gift of creation. Using my mana, I created hundreds of birds from different species, some burning brightly, others frosty or protected by a layer of stone. By my side, two wolves appeared and a single massive boar to my front.
“That’s it? Animals?” They were animals. But they were mine. Instantly, the boar stormed forwards into a wave of spears that came flying.
“Hellfire!” Black flaming balls appeared all around me, flying towards him on different paths. For the first time, he had trouble defending against my assault. Most of the flaming balls were dealt with by a sudden stone wall, but others flew above it and targeted him, along with all the birds scooting towards him in a matter of seconds. My wolves jumped over the barrier as well, exactly as I saw the tornado of fire ripping most of my birds apart. My hellfire attack was dispersed the same way, even though I didn’t think of it as possible.
Then, I saw how his hands were covered in darkness and he punched the remaining birds to pieces with it.
“Tornado.” I chanted, hoping to disperse his fires this way which worked wonderfully as the two tornadoes merged and dissolved each other. Walking towards me with his face contorted in hatred, he grabbed the remaining wolves by their neck and killed them faster than I could react.
“Ice spear.” I mumbled and flung three thick spears at him. For a split second, I thought they would get through until he countered them with exactly the same spell, but sadly with one more spear.
Screaming in pain as it hit my shoulder, I went on my knees and pointed at him with my finger index finger.
“Lightning bo-“ I didn’t know when he got so fast. With some kind of magic, he suddenly accelerated rapidly and grabbed my upper arm with his right hand before I could do anything.
Immediately, I had to scream out loudly as my skin began to burn underneath his palm.
“Enough.” The saint shouted out with a slight angry undertone and Gregory stopped his magic.
“You will never best me, little brother. Because I have been gifted by my god three times while you only have one. And don’t even think about levelling up further because I level passively. Just die already. You have no chance to get the throne anyway.” Gregory hissed and finally stepped away from me while I tried to make sense of what he said.
He was one of us reincarnators, that was for sure.
“Louis!” Sofie and Ellie shouted running towards me. While I was looking at the ground in shock and pain, Sofie touched my wounds which healed right away while Ellie grabbed my chin to look into my teary eyes.
“Don’t cry Louis. This is not the end.” Ellie said, but that only made me angry. Standing up abruptly, I ran away from them towards the tunnel with tears in my eyes.
This was the end. Everything I had worked on was for naught. I would never achieve my dreams of saving the world by standing behind that asshole of a brother. My new life … was completely and utterly useless.
I would never be the person I hoped to be.
