Chapter 24: The Rank VI
At the five minute mark, neither Harvey nor Danny made a move to fight each other, just pointing their swords and hurling insults.
"Prince charming is afraid of a country boy?" Danny grinned, taunting the blond teen.
Last season, Danny went against Raxith, and he lost. He bragged that he'd win if he went against Harvey.
"My don't waste my time fighting with a scum like you." Harvey bit back, and the other students in the arena laughed.
Xiao sighed, and she began channeling her mana into her sword. Then, she dropped it. Instead of hitting the ground, it stopped two inches above it. The young witch carefully stepped on to her sword.
Broom riding is sitting on the broom, but Xiao is standing on her sword in an attempt to ride it. She's seen people did it, people from the east, her mother included, but her mother never taught Xiao about it. The young witch had done it before, last season during the tsunami in this very arena, but it's more like her holding the handle of the sword, not standing on it.
Five minutes and fourty five seconds, Xiao balanced herself on the sword. Thus, she made the sword go higher and higher, slowly until she's two feet off the ground. The first years giggled at her actions, but none of them said anything.
"Xiao Lan, what are you doing?" Raxith's voice was calm, but it travelled across the arena, so all eyes are on her now.
"I'm bored." Xiao managed to keep her composure.
"Same." Alexander chuckled before he threw his sword to the ground.
Black steel hit the marble with a clang, then it hovered a few inches above ground. The prince took one step on it, than both of his feet are off the ground.
Rosemary decided to join in on the trend, and so did Jin Qiu. The younger twin shot Xiao a look, and his dark eyes moved from her to the heating marble floor and back to her again. The young witch gave the smallest of nod, enough for the twin to see.
Once suspended three feet off the floor, Jin Qiu called out to his twin. "Jacob!"
"Yeah?" The older twin responded, oblivious to the trail that has already started. Jin Qiu switched from speaking their common father's language to the eastern mother's language.
«The floor is burning. Don't touch it, brother. Get on your sword and fly like mom.»
It gathered attention, but no one seemed to understand it. Except Xiao and Yin, whose frown deepened by every word that came out of Jin Qiu's mouth. Next to Xiao, Wenera put her sword on the floor, and it looks like she's trying to make it float. Oh, first years... They have a lot to learn.
Seven minutes has passed, and Jacob didn't give his brother a verbal reply. He only shrugged, as if his twin said something funny, and he held his sword in front of him. Once he let go of the handle, the sword is floating in mid air. Without wasting anytime, Jacob jumped on it.
"Hey, that's cheating!" Yin hollered, and she placed her sword on the floor. "We have to start from the ground up."
Her sword was an inch off the floor, and she stepped it with both feet. Slowly, she began lifting herself higher. Even though he doesn't understand what the language, Raxith caught on quickly, and he did exactly what Yin did.
Gillian gave Xiao a look, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he place his sword on the ground. Then, he stepped on it and tried to lift himself up. An inch off the ground, and he's wobbling.
"Focus." Xiao whispered to him. "Channel your mana through your feet into the sword, and focus."
"Thanks." Five inches off the ground, and Gillian was still a bit wobbly, but that's progress. His older brother is sending him glares across the arena, but Gillian seemed to be holding strong so far.
So, Xiao turned to the first years, who were stomping on their swords at this point.
"Patience." She said to them. "Channel your mana into your sword like you would with a wand, and use it like you would use a broom."
"To sweep the floor?" A first year boy chined in, his light green eyes sparkled in wonder.
The young witch parted her lips and rolled her eyes, but she smiled at the end. Fluffy strawberry blond hair shook as the boy tried to do as told.
«Xiao Lan, you can't just tell the others!» Jin Qiu's voice sounded casual, but Xiao knows he's scolding her.
«The first years know it began. They sat on the floor.» The young witch said back.
«Xiao Lan, why didn't you tell us earlier?» Yin huffed, and she ran her hands through her long brunette hair, pulling it off her face.
«She did, don't blame her.» Jacob added in. «Besides, Xan was the first to notice it.»
"I heard my name, what's up?" Alexander chuckled, and Xiao was about to tell him what they said.
"We're not in the eastern lands, so speak our language." Harvey cut into their conversation, and Xiao pressed her lips into a line.
Nine minutes was gone, and Raxith was six feet off the floor now. Xiao decided to match him, and then go seven feet.
Now that she's high enough to look outside the barrier, she saw the professors and audience students talking. Right, the barrier blocks sounds from outside, but the audiences can hear the inside just fine. Xiao sighed and lifted herself higher, at least ten feet off the ground just in case.
"Show off!" Jacob chuckled and lifted his sword higher to match Xiao.
There's still people on the floor, and they began noticing the heat. Nine minutes and thirty seconds, a breeze sent shivers down Xiao's spine. Not because it's cold, but because it's dry, like one would feel the wind in a desert. Specks of sand also entangled in Xiao's hair, and she easily combed them out of her hair using her fingers.
Wait, sand?!
"Get off the ground!" Rosemary shouted before the young witch could, and Harvey was the first to respond by levitating two feet off the floor.
"Oh, boy..." Danny turned around and began climbing the wall.
Similarly, a boy from second year did the same. What's his name? Xiao totally forgot.
Ten minutes hit, and everyone was either on their swords or hanging on to the wall. More and more sand covered the floor until the marble can't be seen anymore, and if Xiao had to guess, it's at least a feet deep. A feet deep covering ten thousand square feet of arena is a lot, and she's not even sure if the sand itself is a monster or there's monsters underneath the sand.
Suddenly, one of the first year boys was pulled into the sand. In a blink of an eye, the dark skinned boy went from hovering two inches above the sand to being buried completely in it, his sword flung off into the wall.
The strawberry blonde boy was the first to scream when his friend disappeared, and everyone erupted into shouts at the same time.
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fly higher!" Alexander shouted even though he's a good several feet above.
"What the hell is that?!" Harvey stopped lavitating and attached himself to a wall. Well, lavitation takes a lot of concentration after all.
The display board was updated,
______
Stage 2, Round 2:
Name, Year-Section, Weapon, Time
1. Xiao Lan Devinsky, 2-1, Sword
2. Harvey Cassius, 5-1, Sword
3. Jin Qiu Devinsky, 5-5, Sword
4. Raxithak Silvester, 3-3, Sword
5. Yin Hong Devinsky, 3-5, Sword
6. Rosemary Ophell, 4-2, Sword
— 7. Nicolas Smithsonian, 1-6, Sword, 11 minutes
8. Gillian Cassius, 2-3, Sword
9. Jacob Devinsky, 5-3, Sword
10. Zech Nahum, 1-3, Sword
11. Danny Vanderburg, 4-3, Sword
12. Wenera Jiang, 1-1, Sword
13. Blake Quinton, 2-6, Sword
14. Luke Asher, 4-5, Sword
15. Alexander Mistichestor, 3-1, Sword
______
Poor Nicolas was operating on the worst luck among all of them. Xiao's eyes then landed on the strawberry blonde boy, who's a feet above the sand. He reached down to touch it, and as soon as his hand hit the sand, he quickly pulled back.
"Zech! What are you doing!?" Wenera's shouting at the boy, and he looked up at her.
"The sand is hot! Like a stove!" He barely finished his sentence when the sand latched on to his sword.
The boy shrieked as he's being pulled down. Sand rose up and covered every inch of his body. Is the sand a monster?
Wenera paled, and she flew a little higher up, but she's still lowest to the ground compared to the rest of them.
______
Stage 2, Round 2:
Name, Year-Section, Weapon, Time
1. Xiao Lan Devinsky, 2-1, Sword
2. Harvey Cassius, 5-1, Sword
3. Jin Qiu Devinsky, 5-5, Sword
4. Raxithak Silvester, 3-3, Sword
5. Yin Hong Devinsky, 3-5, Sword
6. Rosemary Ophell, 4-2, Sword
— 7. Nicolas Smithsonian, 1-6, Sword, 11 minutes
8. Gillian Cassius, 2-3, Sword
9. Jacob Devinsky, 5-3, Sword
— 10. Zech Nahum, 1-3, Sword, 11 minutes 37 seconds
11. Danny Vanderburg, 4-3, Sword
12. Wenera Jiang, 1-1, Sword
13. Blake Quinton, 2-6, Sword
14. Luke Asher, 4-5, Sword
15. Alexander Mistichestor, 3-1, Sword
______
"What are we gonna do now?" Danny's voice brought everyone's eyes on him. "We're not gonna sit around for eight minutes, right?"
"We only need ten people to advance into the next round." Luke said from his place on the wall. One of his hand is moving while the other hand is holding on to a decoration of sorts protruding from the smooth surface. His hand pointed at Xiao's general direction. "I say we drop the first and second years."
As soon as he finished the sentence, a fire ball was aimed at him, and the fourth year instinctively dodged it, only for him to lose his grip on the wall and fell.
The sand rose up and caught him mid air.
"Gillian!" Rosemary screamed at the second year, and Gillian looked away in shame of being caught.
"He did what he did to survive." Harvey had a smile on his face. "Luke got what he deserved."
______
Stage 2, Round 2:
Name, Year-Section, Weapon, Time
1. Xiao Lan Devinsky, 2-1, Sword
2. Harvey Cassius, 5-1, Sword
3. Jin Qiu Devinsky, 5-5, Sword
4. Raxithak Silvester, 3-3, Sword
5. Yin Hong Devinsky, 3-5, Sword
6. Rosemary Ophell, 4-2, Sword
— 7. Nicolas Smithsonian, 1-6, Sword, 11 minutes
8. Gillian Cassius, 2-3, Sword
9. Jacob Devinsky, 5-3, Sword
— 10. Zech Nahum, 1-3, Sword, 11 minutes 37 seconds
11. Danny Vanderburg, 4-3, Sword
12. Wenera Jiang, 1-1, Sword
13. Blake Quinton, 2-6, Sword
— 14. Luke Asher, 4-5, Sword, 12 minutes 2 seconds
15. Alexander Mistichestor, 3-1, Sword
______
Rosemary scoffed at the blonde boy, and she turned to face the others.
"Luke was right, though." Danny chimed in. "We only need ten people to advance to the next stage. If we keep sitting around, the trial will get worse."
"What are you suggesting we do?" Jacob said to the teen. "Surely not hurling fireballs until someone falls."
"Good idea, let's do that!" Danny laughed, and no one laughed back. His careful voice turned into madly serious. "If we don't do anything, a storm will come! Take out the second years, they don't deserve to be in the third stage anyways."
His words earned a glare from Harvey, but the blond fifth year only clenched his jaw and didn't say anything.
Yin gave Xiao a single blink, so the young witch eyed the twins and then Alexander and Raxithak. The prince nodded and his bright green eyes glared at Gillian and the other second year next to him.
"Not funny, man." Jin Qiu looked at the fourth year, his finger pointing at him. "We vote out jerks."
"We?" Danny frowned at the word.
Harvey was the first to launch a fire ball at the fourth year, followed by literally everyone else.
The fourth year pulled a barrier to save himself from Harvey's attack, but he can't keep up the barrier for long when a dozen more fire balls hit it. After a moment, the force from his barrier breaking sent him flying off his sword and into the sand.
The young witch watched as the boy hit the sand with a thud, and it took another few seconds for the sand to devour him. Xiao looked to her side since she didn't see notice a fire ball from there. Maybe Wenera didn't attack? She already had a hard time keeping afloat after all.
Beady black eyes was met with an empty space between the sand and the wall.
"Alright, I saw we vote—" Jacob's voice was cut by Xiao's.
"Where's Wenera?"
"Who's Wenera?" Alexander asked back.
"The first year?" Rosemary added.
Their questions was answered when the display board updated:
______
Stage 2, Round 2:
Name, Year-Section, Weapon, Time
1. Xiao Lan Devinsky, 2-1, Sword
2. Harvey Cassius, 5-1, Sword
3. Jin Qiu Devinsky, 5-5, Sword
4. Raxithak Silvester, 3-3, Sword
5. Yin Hong Devinsky, 3-5, Sword
6. Rosemary Ophell, 4-2, Sword
— 7. Nicolas Smithsonian, 1-6, Sword, 11 minutes
8. Gillian Cassius, 2-3, Sword
9. Jacob Devinsky, 5-3, Sword
— 10. Zech Nahum, 1-3, Sword, 11 minutes 37 seconds
— 11. Danny Vanderburg, 4-3, Sword, 13 minutes 25 seconds
— 12. Wenera Jiang, 1-1, Sword, 13 minutes 9 seconds
13. Blake Quinton, 2-6, Sword
— 14. Luke Asher, 4-5, Sword, 12 minutes 2 seconds
15. Alexander Mistichestor, 3-1, Sword
______
"Holy shit, we did it!" The other second year cheered as the sand began moving out of the arena.
Xiao's eyes still fixated on the display board while the others were getting back down to the ground.
It took the sand a little long to take down Danny, so that means... It was taking down someone else before moving on to the fourth year boy. Her her jaw hung from her face, and she closed her lips and looked at where Wenera was last seen.
She should've paid more attention to the girl. If she did, Wenera would be the first first year to ever reached stage 3.
"New fear unlocked." Jin Qiu flew on his sword towards his cousin. "Being eaten by sand while no one was looking."