HDMGF Book 2- Part 13

Jake’s POV

“Are you ready Jake?” Suma asked as we finished my preparations. Lieutenant Datahu had a condition for her co-operation with the memory delve: she wanted a sparing match with me.

“As I’ll ever be.” I said summoning my armor, Jericho, onto my body.

“Do you have a plan to win?” Suma asked and perched on my shoulder armor. I started walking to the pit for the bout.

“I am not expecting to win, she is a professional with years of experience. I’m just some lucky idiot with a couple pointy magic sticks.” I said.

“That is true.” She agreed, maybe a bit too quickly though. “Then perhaps I should ask: do you have a plan to not be horribly maimed?”

“I’m going to put up Aegis, and summon Destiny, then activate their runes. Hopefully that will keep some distance between us.” Aegis is a shield I had made for me, and Destiny is my spear. Both were fitted with magic runes by an acquaintance of mine in exchange for letting her do experiments on me.

“Jake, you do remember that she is a ranged attacker, right? It is her specialty.” Suma pointed out.

“Yeah, but so am I. My weapons work well in case someone gets close, but all of my attack spells work best at a distance.”

“JAKE! You cannot attack her with your attack spells, she would be obliterated!” Suma shouted.

“Don’t worry, I won’t use Railgun or Lightning Bolt. Besides, those take to long anyway. I was just going to use my fireballs and the runes on my weapons.”

“Even still, it seems too dangerous.” She said worried.

“Won’t there be healers standing by?”

“Yes, but healing magic has its limits.”

“I’ll be careful.” I said. A few moments later, we arrived at the pit for my match. There were dozens of other Neame perched on poles and vines set up around the pit’s dome. Members from every squad had come to watch, even the captains and the Major had come. Suma as we got closer, Suma flew over and perched with the other members of our team.

“Are you nervous?” Odens asked.

“A little.” I said.

“That’s probably smart.” Nine said laughing.

“Any last words?” Rou asked jokingly.

“Very funny.” I said ducking under one of the bars of the dome and dropping into the pit.

“Please try not to get hurt too badly Jake!” Suma said.

Even you, Suma? I thought. The lieutenant landed on the ground at the other end of the pit. In between us, Captain Gigoales, our team’s leader, landed.

“Alright,” the captain started, “the rules are as follows: no lethal spells, no purposefully maiming one another beyond healing capabilities, no using summoned creatures or familiars, no leaving the pit, and absolutely no hard feelings after you lose.” When he said that last part, his eyes cut to me for a moment. I sighed; I knew I wasn’t going to win, but did they have to keep reminding me? “Do you both consent to this bout?”

“I do.” Datahu said.

“I do.” I said.

“Well then.” The captain flew up and out of the ring quickly. “BEGIN!” The lieutenant started before I could summon Destiny, but I was already in my armor and had Aegis, so I wasn’t caught off guard. She launched the attacks with fire in rapid succession. Pang! Pang! Pang! One after another they hit Aegis, but I barely felt it. I summoned Destiny and pointed the tip at her. I activated the runes and a softball sized bullet of air shot out at her. In and instant she spread her wings and bolted straight up; the bullet just narrowly missed her tail-feathers as it hit the ground behind her. As we started the fight, the cheers from the other squads began.

“You got this Viking!”

“Get him Lieutenant!”

Fanning her wings again, and turning on a dime, she dodged a second bullet I had fired. Trying to keep track of her in flight was like trying to watch a bumblebee fly around; my eyes almost couldn’t keep up. She launched two more attacks from the front. Pang! Clang! The first hit Aegis, but the second connected with the armor on my shin. That one I felt. Even through the metal, I could feel the force of the attack; like someone shoved my leg to the side. I managed to avoid losing my footing, and activated the rune on Aegis. A wave of force exploded from the shield, knocking me back slightly with the recoil, but not too severely; I had plenty of time to practice and get used to it back in boot camp while training with the attack mages. The wave hit her and sent her flying to the other end of the ring, but it didn’t seem like it hurt her much.

I dropped Destiny to the ground and shouted, “Fireball!” I sent a weakened version of my normal fireballs at her. It was much smaller, because I used less mana, and it was a more bright purple than normal as well. I thought she would dodge it; I was wrong. Instead, she caught it with mana wrapping and did a barrel roll. The fireball changed directions midflight and was flung back at me. I had dropped Aegis to my side to cast the spell, and couldn’t react fast enough to put it back up. My spell hit me square in the chest plate; knocking the wind out of me. At the time, I was surprised, but thinking back on it, I was grateful the attack didn’t hit her; even holding back, I still put way too much power into that attack. It might have really hurt her.

“Vines!” She shouted, casting her first verbal spell of the match. Instantly, the vines that were scattered randomly around the pit started wrapping themselves around my arms and legs. I activated the runes on my armor, not bothering to think specifically about which one and simply activating them all. I knew I had one rune for times like this, but didn’t have enough time to remember where it was. I felt several things happen all at once. My chest stopped hurting as the healing rune activated, I stopped breathing so heavily as the stamina rune kicked in, and a massive blast of air shot out from every inch of my armor, forcing the vines off of me. Splinters and chunks of vines shot across the arena, and I quickly stood back up and summoned Aegis while the lieutenant was distracted with that. It didn’t take her long to adapt though, she dropped to the ground and put up a wall of vines to protect her. I Summoned Mori, my sword, and activated its rune. A slash of air whipped towards the wall, leaving a gash, but not doing anything to draw her out. I thought about using a spell to create some kind of trap around the wall and her, but wasn’t able to because several vines had started wrapping themselves around my legs again. I was about to activate the runes again, but the vines suddenly went taunt and I was pulled off my feet. I hit the ground and was dragged for a second before I tried activating the runes, this time nothing happened. Well, I still got the healing and the stamina boost, but there was not explosion.

I had dropped Mori and Aegis when I was toppled, so I resummoned them and cut the vines with Mori. I stood up quickly cast a spell that engulfed the wall of vines that had been protecting the Lieutenant. I thought I had managed a miracle and won, until I was hit in the back five times and had my organs rattled. Clangclang! Clangclang! Clang!I fell to the ground and the Lientanent landed next gracefully to my battered body. It felt like one of those scenes in anime where somebody gets rocked hard and they cough up a liter of blood.

“Ugh…” I moaned painfully. She definitely broke one of my ribs with that last one.

“Winner! Lieutenant Datahu!” The captain announced.

Yup, that’s about right. I thought.

“Good job, Sentinel, and thank you for the bout. I will be sure to put in your memory delving request.” She said.

“No problem, thanks.” I was able to strain out. She flew away, and I activated my armor’s healing rune.