Chapter 5 Part 3

A little later Heather comes back with Willow happily flying behind her. "They can indeed fly. He was having a blast flying with one of the frost dragons."

"That's so adorable, I wish I could've seen it." Christopher says.

"Yeah, it's just unfortunate that they can't talk." Heather grabs Willow and scratches behind their ears.

"What if they could?" Christopher has probably been thinking about this for a while, his face shows his confidence that this could be done.

"How do you mean?" Heather asks.

"I mean, you could be the first Alustrious to figure out how to give a soulustriosized entity the ability to converse." Christopher says.

"I wouldn't even know where to begin with something like that." Heather says, letting Willow go to explore. Willow decides to introduce themselves to Ibun.

"Isn't that the great excitement of discovery? Experiment." Christopher says.

"That's all well and good but, how would she go about it?" Haider asks.

Christopher shares his thoughts. "I've been thinking about this ever since you made Simon. My first thought was to use the ability sharing mechanic of a Soulustrious. What if you could install a copy or a model of a voice box into their body. Or what if you make something that translates their thoughts into words, or maybe teach them to manipulate their body to be able to make words. It's never been done, maybe you can be the one to elevate the mastery of the spell."

"That sure is an attractive proposal. I can't experiment now, we still have the tournament to worry about." Heather says.

"True enough." Heather says.

"Uh, Heather was it? I have no idea what to do with this dragon on my lap." Ibun says, looking nervous and sweating profusely.

Everyone turns around to look and Willow has settled down on Ibun. Heather lets out a little chuckle and says, "You don't need to be so nervous, just treat them like a pet. Most Soulustrious act like cats or dogs. Unless you give them their own personality, that's almost always how they turn out."

"Oh, ok." Ibun cautiously lays a hand on Willow and they stretch out their wings.

"That means they trust you. They love scratches on the underside of their wings." Heather says.

"How are these leaves so sturdy yet flexible? It would make a good set of scale armour." Ibun realises what they said. "I didn't mean it that way, what wood is this?"

Heather grabs an Ironwood acorn and tosses it to Ibun. "plant it and it will grow on its own in a few years, it grows faster on soft soil. You can also speed up the process using magic. These trees require obsidian axes or tougher to chop down. It's got the density of iron, hence the name."

"Thank you." Ibun says, putting the acorn into their bag and continues to interact with Willow.

Moments later a knock on the door alerts everyone to look. "The first match of the day will start in 20 minutes Haider, please make your way to the waiting room at the cathedral."

"I guess it's time. Wish me luck." Haider says.

"I can teleport you two there if you like." Christopher says.

"No need, we can make it there in less than half that time. Plus you shouldn't be using your magic right now." Heather says.

"Alright, good luck. Make sure you win." Christopher encourages.

(Narrator) I guess we won't be seeing Christopher for a little bit. Heddwyn is also fighting today. I believe he is in the 7th match of this bracket.

Now back at the cathedral, Haider waits with his sister for the announcer to start day 2 of the Dragon Festival.

"It seems most of the people from yesterday have decided to rest for tomorrow." Haider says.

"Looks like it. You're against someone called Heldon Feldon. By the looks of it, they're a Lizardman." Heather says.

"Hello everyone and welcome back to day two of the Dragon Festival. Are we excited for today's matches?" The crowd erupts in cheers.

"It seems yesterday's matches has hyped up the crowd." Heddwyn says, suddenly appearing beside them.

"By the Mother! You scared the living shit out of me." Haider says.

"Yeah, I'm still hunting you. We're in a truce because of this festival." Heddwyn says.

"You can at least be a normal person and not sneak up on me." Haider moans.

"I beg to differ." Heddwyn sasses back.

"Will you two stop acting like spoiled brats and just get along again?" Heather says.

"It's not my fault, he's the one that started it." Haider grumbles.

"Shut it. No more moaning, arguing, or muttering. We're family, act like it...where did this hostility come from anyway?" Heather asks.

"You remember I said I spared with dad before we left?" Haider grimaces at the simplicity of his answer, feeling it could be unsatisfactory.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, we both silently decided that we're rivals now." Haider says, exhaling swiftly.

"Seriously, that's all?" Heather says, baffled by her brother's statement.

Haider gets called away from the conversation to his match with Heldon Feldon. Heddwyn answers for him. "It's not like we dislike one another or anything, it's just a little rivalry. We jab at one another."

"Friends do that. Not father and son!" Heather gives a look of disdain as she yells at her father. "I'll ignore it this time, but make sure you keep things respectful to one another. No name calling, nothing. You hear me?"

Heddwyn chuckles a little. "You sound like a fed up mother."

Heather tries to keep her disrespectful look towards him but breaks once she sees him laughing.

Haider stands in that dimly lit room full of weapons hyping himself up. Haider warms up by swiftly creating his signature ice sabres and skillfully swinging them a few times before discarding them and creating a shield, throwing it and sublimating the ice.

"It's time for the first match in bracket B. Who's excited to get started?" The announcer pronounces. The crowd starts chanting Heldon, apparently he's famous or something.

"Alright let's get started with today's matches! The arena has been fixed and the injured are being treated. For the first match we have our 4th and final Human of the festival. His name is Haider Longstaff, sharing his name with the spectacular Heather Longstaff which we saw yesterday as she ate and left no crumbs after her match. Will Haider be able to compete with his relative? You'll have to stick around to find out. Give it up! Haider Longstaff!" The announcer hyped up this match so much the chanting can be heard across the city.

As Haider makes his way into the battle area the commentator lays down some details about Haider. "From what we were able to gather, Haider is the twin brother of Heather, they were adopted by Heddwyn Longstaff along with their adopted sibling Christopher Newman. Haider has the Ice attribute with two affinities one creation and one snow, this is seemingly new for this attribute as not much is known about the snow affinity within this attribute."

"And next up, you all know him! He's a local Platinum Class Adventurer! Heldon Feldon! He's a Lizardman with the fire attribute, manipulating fire at will. He also has a passive spell active at all times that protects him with a thick armour of flames!"

(Narrator) They manifested that! Fucking good luck Haider! He's a Platinum Class adventurer, you don't stand a chance.

"Why do I get the feeling that I've already been written off?" Haider asks himself.

"Hey, human child. It's unfortunate that you got matched up with me. Your magic is going to be useless against my fire." Heldon cockingly laughs at Haider and dismisses this match as he waves to the crowd.

This shatters Haider's resolve to keep this match honourable and mutters, "I'm going to destroy that self image of yours, you self centred prick." He grabs his staff instead of brandishing his signature blades and readies himself.

"Let the 1st match begin!"