Country of Champions 21

Aiden wasn't as cocky or rushed as Orison thought he would be. Readjusting his thinking and observing the patterns of the red loving teen's fighting style, the young mage bobbed and weaved around the slower student, using him as cover and obstacle. The whole time, Aiden was screaming for 'Stretch' to get out of the way and for Orison to stop hiding behind him like a coward.

Once or twice, the poor kid tried to grapple with Orison to slow the young mage down so Aiden could land a hit only to find himself hit instead. Less than a minute in, tired of being Aiden's sandbag and Orison's acrobat prop, he tapped out with frustrated tears in his eyes. Wincing and slightly limping, he hobbled over to the first aid station.

Slightly winded, Aiden backed up and seeing that Orison didn't follow into the trap he tried to set, said, "What are you going to do now that your rubber turtle shell left?"

A cry of protest rang out from the first aid station.

"You spend too much time training alone. Third Wave and the Final Summit require teamwork. Better start learning now or you're going to stumble at the finish line," the young mage shot back.

With a bitter look on his face, Aiden said, "It's not that I don't wa-"

Taking advantage of 'Red's mental distraction, Orison dipped in for a brutal backhand to the side of Aiden's head. Quick to recover, the teen drove in aggressively instead of out, going for the young mage's exposed flank. Adjusting for a downward swing, Orison pulled in and half turned in a fluid motion.

What should have been a clean connect with the back of Orison's hand, turned into a hard greeting with barely padded knuckles to the temple. As Aiden staggered to the side, the young mage's fingertip snagged on the earring, partially pulling it out. Disoriented from the ripple of disrupted enchantment, Aiden lunged forward instead of rolling to the side with the flow of broken balance. It saved the teen's face from a backwards hooking kick but not his chest which took it full on.

Sparring covers didn't pad the bottom of the foot. When Orison's heel connected with something softer than what he expected too, the realization was too slow for him to stop himself. It did stop him from dropping a knee into Aiden's exposed side where 'he' was half sprawled on the floor, however. Calling a time-out which Aiden quickly agreed to, Orison knelt down.

The teen was clutching 'his' chest with one hand while another attempted to push the backing of the earring into place while whispering nearly in tears, "The post is bent. I can't get it back on."

Seeing that people were closing in from all sides for different reasons, Orison asked loudly, "Do you agree to me using item mending and healing magic?"

Desperate for a way out of discovery, Aiden quickly agreed just as loudly. Hiding his hand to call out the ring, the young mage fired off the two models as fast as he could. Enchantment and bruising chest back to functionality, Aiden straightened up right as the lead instructor pushed Orison out of the way and yelled for everyone else to keep their distance. Seeing that everything was 'in place', the instructor breathed out a sigh of relief almost as intense as Aiden's own.

To keep from having to have a lengthy and irritating conversation, the young mage said, "I'm taking this as a technical win. If Aiden is unsatisfied with the result, he and I can have a supervised spar at my home's training facility anytime tomorrow on, after school... Do you accept, 'Mr.' Firebrand?"

Still shaky from the enchanted wardrobe malfunction, the teen agreed and said, "You're getting ready to do the obstacle challenge, right? I'd like to be your partner. Just give me-"

Orison cut Aiden off and said, "Garret's my partner for the obstacle course."

For whatever reason, the instructor said, "It's not done often because it's not really that helpful but up to teams of four can take on any early clearance challenge from here, all the way through Final Summit. Captains tasked with first year Rowdies like to see training wheel teams. It saves effort trying to cobble them together or keeping second years from descending on ones like you and Aiden like hungry wolves."

Pulling Orison in close, the instructor whispered, "If this leaks, Aiden's going to be lost to front line support and that would be a waste. If you weren't planning on clearing all the hills today, I strongly suggest you change your mind and take Aiden along for the ride."

The young mage sighed and whispered back, "And if I don't, I'm going to catch hell from one side or the other of whatever secret BS is going on here? Fine. Let's go into the Third Hill virtual reality fight with no group training time and a member whose never really worked with a team. How hard can it be?"

Ignoring the dripping sarcasm, the instructor said, "That's the spirit. What's your mundane item?"

Orison said, "For the obstacle course? A pair of welding goggles, please."

The instructor laughed, "I knew it. You were planning on a double clear today anyway."

"Yeah, and a four day cool down in Juice Box with partner training before hitting Third Hill," the young mage said wearily.

"Consider it real world situational training for when you'll be slammed together with strangers trying to defend a camp or evacuating," the instructor said smugly.

After Garret requested a set of heavy duty rubber gloves and the instructor handed Aiden a nylon rope, while the course was being primed, Orison asked the red loving teen, "Which parts of the obstacle course will you find the most difficult."

Enduring a little self congratulating bragging, Orison said through gritted teeth, "Damn it. I get it already. You can do it all by yourself but here we are and I need to know."

Hesitantly, Aiden said, "Well, every once in awhile...not that often... I slip on the high wall. I-I'm not to good with the tingle bars either. They... sometimes they set off my abilities."

Turning to Garret, he said, "I'll shoulder lift and push for high wall. You piggyback for the electrified bars?"

Garret eyeballed Aiden's weight and nodded. "Looks like these rubber gloves are going to be useful for more than one spot."

As the three lined up at the starting line, they looked across the course. The real enemy wasn't obstacles so much as it was the time. With every few seconds that passed, moving parts would move faster. Parts that produced light, heat, cold or electricity would become more intense as well. More time meant more difficult and it was considered dangerous to even attempt crossing Chilly Pond and Boiling Moat if it took more than thirty seconds to reach them.

The instructor gave Orison a puzzled look when he saw the young mage put on the welding goggles before the challenge started. What would be a huge help with the constant blinding light of the Second Hill's trial would only cause blindness when the lights weren't pulsing during the First Hill challenge. That wasn't why Orison got them, though. It was so he could cheat.

With spirit sight turned up as strongly as he dared, the young mage scoped out hidden mechanisms that lay beneath the surface. Once the start buzzer rang, he began guiding them across the 'earthquake ground', avoiding the breakaway tiles completely. It was a smooth beginning but for a slip from Garret into a falling tile that, with Aiden's help to pull the weighty teen back up, didn't cost but a fraction of a second.

The high wall ahead of them was a fitness hurdle for the individual and a time eater for teams. Garret took a running jump and lifted himself into place. Reaching down, he grabbed and helped hoist Aiden up after Orison boosted the light 'guy'. Running slightly to the side, the young mage kicked off the room wall and slid over the top of the obstacle like it was oiled, landing at the same time as the other two. For all the precision, it still cost two more seconds than the original plan.

With the electrified bars ahead, Orison took a running head start and swung himself up on top, doing a massive leap frog before the bar under him could fold down. Taking a split second to recover his balance, he began running across every other one. Short leaping over to the second bar, Garret started monkey swinging, easily catching up to a pace that had him passing the spots other bars would raise in before they could.

Aiden, who was clinging to Garret for dear life, was shocked to see how seamless their use of available surface was. The bars were meant to add a little punishment to group runners but they may as well have been going at it alone for as much as they slowed each other down. Not much thought followed as flashes of light and sound disoriented them.

Taking advantage of the rope that Aiden had, Orison grabbed the middle with Garret and Aiden taking each end and lead them across the two watery parts of the course. All the while, light, sound and temperatures barely within the bound of human tolerance worked their ills as the young mage pulled them around and over time eating objects. It also didn't go as smoothly as Orison had hoped but only two additional seconds had been lost.

Once they faced the last obstacle, a suspended net ladder that would flip at the least bit of imbalance, Orison tied the rope around him and took a running leap over two thirds its distance. Before momentum let his weight fully settle, he yanked down with all his force, nearly headbutting the wall he awkwardly grabbed for under the wobbly twist that disrupted his pull-up. Seeing Aidan's dubious glance at the ladder, Garret didn't take chances and monkey climbed the ladder on its side with the light teen piggybacking once again, using the rope to get them safely the last bit.

With all three on top, they hit the buzzer. Despite the careful plans that Orison had made, they would only have seventeen seconds to run Second Hill challenge. He was expecting twenty minimum with a possibility of up to twenty-five. It would have been only a few seconds less than the thirty seconds most had to do to reach it while their goal was moving and no equipment to help.

Orison looked helplessly at Garret and said, "We have to try. It's about two seconds less than what I expect it will take but..."

Aiden said, "This is my fault but I can help. The only thing that makes this hard is the sharp spirit thingies that the ball throws off, right?...It can't get through my aura."

Annoyed, Orison said, "It can't get through mine either but... Wait. Do you not have to retract your aura smaller to resist it?"

Aiden blinked rapidly a few times. "How do you retract your aura?"

Orison sighed and said, "Alright, pace yourself with me. If you run faster than I do, then there will be a gap and Garret will get peppered with slivers of spiritual intent and pass out. He takes front for the first quarter of the way because that's the minimum and then we jump in front. If this gets messed up, redoing it with the thirty second timer while the damn ball slides around is going to be even harder. Without the rubber gloves, he might pass out before he can touch it."

Aiden was more confused but nodded.

Orison declared, "We're running on."

The instructor said, "You have seventeen seconds. It should be a cakewalk for a mage who's already strong enough to cast spells."

Orison sighed again and prepped himself. To help pace and timing, he had Garret grab the rope in the middle while they gabbed the ends behind.

As a last minute reminder, Orison said, "Remember, Garret. You just have to hit the first twenty-five percent... Run as close as you can behind him without tripping him or yourself, Aiden. Maybe your aura will overlap enough to catch some of the intent assault the ball throws out."

As soon as the buzzer sounded and they started sprinting to the ball that was throwing out blinding light and sleep inducing intent shards, Orison already saw a huge problem. It was far stronger than it should be. In the little bit of time that he'd had his fight with Aiden and ran the obstacle course, someone behind the scenes had already step forward to screw with them.

It was a shock and a surprise that Garret had made it a fifth of the way before starting to waver. The guy had undersold his spiritual strength by quite a bit but due to someone's interference, it still wouldn't be enough. However, if someone wanted to cheat, he felt he could too.

Gathering up the remnant pieces of his spirit essence within Garrets body from all the long periods of observation, he forced them to shoot to Garret's spiritual seat. Loading them with the screaming purpose of keeping the guy awake, they drowned out the lulling voice of the opposing intent. It was enough to get Garret to the switch point. As they ran, using the rope looped around Garret to keep the guy staggering forward, the orb kept ratcheting up intensity.

When it reached the point that it might possibly damage someone like Garret's spiritual seat if exposed to it, Orison screamed "Record the orb's output! Illegal tampering!"

They reached the Orb and Garret squeezed his arm between them to touch it but he screamed and collapsed right as the timer went off. They had failed.

Orison was like a building torrent of promised violence as he turned to the instructor and said, "The input to the orb's was multiplied in intensity over the duration of the test. Just reaching his rubber gloved hand through to touch the damn thing damaged Garret's spiritual seat. It's possible that it would have been lethal if he was fully exposed. Tell me someone's going to lose their job. This is reckless endangerment of a minor, at the very least!

"Attempted murder isn't out of the question considering the situation. I fully intend on pressing charges. Garret's safety is my responsibility as his temporary guardian and because of my trust in this institution, I failed in my responsibility. I WILL NOT fail in getting justice and restitution for him!"

A woman from the school's emergency medical response team confirmed that Garret's 'metaphysical connection point' did have minor damages. It wasn't serious but a three day minimum recovery was recommended before resuming physical training. It would be a minimum of one week if an elective medicine that cost 50,000 merits was used and a month without.

Orison said, "I approve the payment for the medicine but I want it added to the restitution I charge the school with."

A sneering older woman sauntered into the orb's testing area. "There is no proof of tampering. It's just your word, little boy... There's also no way of knowing if this... person had spiritual seat damage prior to the test or not. People who spend too much time in Juice Box can suffer stress weakness to their MCP. It's rare but documented. Spiritual seat, indeed. You shouldn't have tested out so quickly."

Orison gave a saintly smile and said, "You know what else is rare but documented?... Every second I spend in a public place. You never know when a person like me might just BLOW UP when I'm wronged by an authority figure abusing their power and hurting people under my care."

As the woman ramped up to dress down the young mage's character, Jacques appeared in a flash of light.

Upon assessing the situation and realizing that Orison's key word spouting of 'blow up' referred to temper, he frowned and said, "This usage of Sky Hook is 100,000 merits a shot, my errant apprentice. Since this is the first time you've incited panic, from your little friend Roy by the way, it's a verbal warning. The next time won't be treated as leniently."

Orison said excitedly, "I thought he was a night shift person but never mind that for now. Can he verify that the orb was functioning above acceptable levels for the test?... Roy, if you're listening, they hurt Garret. His spiritual seat was damaged through us AND thick rubber gloves from trying to touch it."

The woman chimed in, "All of these outrageous allegations are beyond contemptible. Adjunct LeStrange, I demand an explanation from your apprentice!"

The French man said darkly through an accent thickened from annoyance turning quickly into anger, "And you will receive one. An expert equipment specialist with years of exemplary service experience is reviewing what he personally witnessed as we speak!"

The woman turned to Orison and said, "Young man, you're about to bring problems upon yourself that are easily avoided. There's no need to blow this minor event out of proportion."

The young mage responded coldly, "Attempted murder of my foster child is not a minor incident, Ms. 'whoever you are'."

Looking faint, she said, "This is absurd!"

"I couldn't agree more. Abuse of authority to harm a minor at an institution that the general public needs to have utmost faith in is incredibly absurd," Orison shot back venomously.

Jacques, used to playing diplomat, summoned up a compassionate face and was preparing to talk Orison down when he received an audio message only he could hear. That impulse disappeared as he looked at the woman in shock instead.

The man said, "Justice department psychometry personnel request orange. Sky Hook authorization yellow."

As Orison left the scene to check on Garret, Aiden followed along. "Please believe me. This doesn't have anything to do with me and my situation. My father might try to pull something minor but he would never do something to hurt another kid. If he was willing to go that far, I would have been disqualified a long time ago."

The young mage said, "Your aura envelope is riddled with holes and leaking too much essence. Go see the medical team."