Chương 59: The Game

The next time Selena disappeared, Arielle knew precisely where she was. Selena's movement didn't come with sound, as she'd used a Vacu combination to eliminate that and the drag from the atmosphere in order to boost her speed. However, Arielle knew what to look for, knew what the essences surrounding Selena looked like. So she knew Selena was standing still, watching her. What was she waiting for? Perhaps she was trying to trick Arielle into believing she had moved so that Ari would point in the wrong direction.

Or maybe she was investigating whether Arielle's earlier discoveries had only been lucky guesses. However, Ari used that time to take note of the specific orientation of particles around Selena's body, in order to predict exactly what the spell did. It was hard. The spell was complex, advanced beyond anything she'd learned. It had to be a bloodline spell because the chaotic scattering of Calor and Vacu, leading down to a long trail of Calor, wasn't like any other spell form she'd seen.

Then again, it didn't have a signature, and it seemed to move with Selena almost instinctively. The only time Ari had seen a spell adjusting in real time like that had been with the Phasewalkers. That was the last solid thought she had before Selena charged. This time, Arielle couldn't react in time. Her opponent was too quick, impossibly fast, like a shooting star. Arielle had not so much as drawn a complete breath before Selena appeared right in front of her. She jerked back and gasped in surprise.

Selena chuckled.

"I suppose that was too much for you, wasn't it?" she asked, seemingly happy with the result.

"A little," Arielle admitted, her heart racing due to the speed with which Selena had come at her. If she really had wanted to take my head, I'd be dead already.

"Should I decrease the speed then?"

"No." That wouldn't be fair to Selena, as it wouldn't allow her to adequately test the limits of her skill. Besides, Arielle wanted to know if there was anything she could do to overcome that speed, any spell she could utilize without revealing her secret, of course.

"I think the speed is fine," Arielle said, "But do you mind if I use my wand? I promise I won't cast any attack spells."

"No, of course. Go right ahead. I expected you to in the first place." Selena leaped back again as Arielle withdrew her wand, balancing it between her fingers. As Selena got back in position, Arielle stared at the particles surrounding her. It's a spell that combines speed and void. Empties out the atmosphere and somehow makes her one with the wind. But how? How can a living thing become wind?

"Are you ready?" Selena asked. Arielle nodded.

"Yes. I'm ready." Once again, Selene blended into the air, and once again she remained still for some time. Arielle knew that she was going to do the same thing, wait for some time, and then charge. She thought of ways to counter it. First of all, it would help to know the exact second Selena moved. Brom always told her that in battle, one could, to some extent, predict their enemy's next attack. There were tells. She just had to find Selena's. Ari also had to be faster with her movements.

There was no point in her knowing where Selena was coming from if she couldn't point in time. So she needed to increase her pointing speed. That part was easy. A simple speed spell was applied to her left hand, one that she could scale up if necessary.

"[Quick Draw]" she said. That was a good spell, often used in card games or to aid teams of soldiers in drawing their weapons faster– Selena appeared in front of her. Once again, there was no warning. Once again, all she could do was jump back and inhale sharply after it was already done. As Selena raised an eyebrow in triumph, Arielle thought to herself," There's no point in having a fast hand and a slow brain. Though she'd quickened her body with the spell, her perception became the limiting factor.

She needed to boost that.

"Again, please," Arielle said and used the spell, "[Sensate]." She closed her eyes as she focused the spell on only Selena, boosting her perception of everything from the sound of her heartbeat to her breathing pattern, to the light sound of her feet. But that wouldn't be enough to keep up with Selena's speed. This time, when Selena rushed at her, Ari didn't bother pointing because she knew it would be too late.

Instead, she focused on Selena's tells, the way her heart stuttered before she moved, the way her leg shifted back just an inch, the sound of her pre-charge breath coming out just a tad shorter than the rest. In addition to that, an idea took hold for how Arielle could overcome the speed component. [Creature Control]. But not in the way it was often used.

The spell operated to bend and reprogram a creature's will, but it only worked on Class N non-sapient creatures, those that moved purely on instinct with no high-level reasoning beyond the baser wants and needs. It would not work on other humans, trolls, or anything with an even minimal level of intelligence, because those creatures were not as easily programmable. There were likely other spells at higher tiers that could control other reasoning creatures, but not this one.

However, the limitation of the spell was precisely what made it perfect for what Arielle wanted to do. Essentially, she was reversing the spell onto herself. Not necessarily, her entire self. Just her arm. Very easily programmable. And the conditions she assigned were for the hand to move in tandem with Selena's speed and direction, once Selena had broken within a given boundary that Arielle termed her personal zone. As this wasn't really what the spell was intended for, Arielle had to do editing.

She adjusted the spell as she cast it, weaving the conditions together with some more Luxa, attaching it to Selena'sessence movement, setting the boundary to just around Ari, and giving her arm more fortification so that a quick point wouldn't yank it out of its socket.

"I could teach you how to do this, you know," Selena said as she walked back into place, her back to Ari.

"If I were your mentor, you would have learned powerful spells beyond your wildest imagination. I bet you're regretting your choice now."

"Not really," Arielle said.

"You are very powerful; however, there is something I need from Telip that you cannot give me. But I'm very honored that you are playing this game with me. It has been entertaining, so I'm grateful for this." Selena's nose flared, her sharkish smile returning.

"I'm sure it's about to get even more entertaining." Before Arielle could ask what she meant by that, Selena shifted again. This time, Arielle closed her eyes so she could focus deeply. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. She knew precisely when Selena was about to charge. She knew when Selena broke through her personal zone. Her wand hand moved like a compass needle pointing straight in the direction Selena was coming from.

Selena likely saw this, and at the last minute, she ducked and shot up to the opposite position. Arielle sensed Selena's delight, her chortle at having been victorious again. Except that before she appeared, Arielle's finger was pointed right at her once more. The arm had followed at the same speed, and though Arielle's muscles ached from the quickness of the switch, the pain was nothing she could not handle. Arielle opened her eyes in time to watch Selena's smile disappear.

"I won this round," Arielle said.

"How?" Selena demanded.

"A speed spell," Arielle said.

"And the [Sensate] spell." Arielle figured she shouldn't mention her adjusted [Creature Control] spell, as that would expose too much. Still, Selena shook her head in disbelief.

"I don't believe you," she said.

"There's absolutely no way you should have caught me. Are you using a charm?" Arielle shook her head. Selene peered at her, but didn't say anything else, marching to the other end of the circle.

"Again," she demanded.

"Okay," Arielle said. Once again, she was ready for her. This time, when Selena entered her zone, she did something very strange. She approached Arielle, then darted away, and shot forward from a different direction, then darted away again, and zoomed at her from yet another direction. Arielle's arm followed the trajectory, adjusting with every switch, but the yanking was also starting to hurt.

She held on as Selena rocketed around her from side to side, but Arielle was getting worried that the rapid switching would damage her muscles or dislocate her arm. Arielle adjusted by reducing the size of her personal zone to a few inches around her feet so that Selena's farther away movements didn't affect her arm as much. The risk with this was that, with the reduced zone detection, her arm might not be able to catch up in time when Selena finally stopped truly.

However, Arielle compensated by boosting [Sensate] to alert her of a true stop. She knew what Selena's heartbeat sounded like for true stops. She knew the sound she made, the way she breathed, when she was nearing the end of her play. With that, Ari predicted her movements and pointed even before Selena moved herself. With her eyes closed, Arielle knew when Selena arrived at the end of her finger. She also knew that Selena was too shocked to breathe. Ari opened her eyes and smiled.

"I got you again." Selena didn't smile back at her. Her eyes blazed, her face contorting with anger. Arielle had a moment of doubt as she cocked her head. Had she done something wrong?

"Are you still having fun?" she asked. Selena bared her teeth, talking through them.

"Yes. So much fun." She whizzed away so fast that the wind blew Arielle's hair back. Then she disappeared again. Arielle knew something was wrong. Selena was angry, but Ari wasn't sure why. Was she not doing her job well enough? She thought she was. Her catching on to Selena enabled the master to boost her speed even more and get better. For example, this time, as she shot toward Ari, she was even faster, and Arielle sensed her casting another spell.

She shifted in a zig-zag pattern all around the room, so fast that Ari could not even hope to follow her with [Sensate]. Ari closed her eyes instead and sank deeper into the spell, expanding her senses even more. As Selena approached the barrier, Ari noted that she had something in her hand, which made a whistling, sharp sound as she thrust it towards Arielle's leg.

"[Air Shield]," Arielle said, and the orbs had already snapped together protectively before she could finish the phrase. A powerful blast of wind rushed around her ears as Calor met Calor, the thin whizzing air grasped in Selena's fists, caught by the air that surrounded Arielle. Both girls stared at each other in the silence that ensued. Arielle's heart raced as she wondered what Selena had planned to do with that air knife.

Selena was also staring at her contemplatively, releasing soft breaths that echoed in the silence and mirrored hers.

"What on earth is going on here?" Professor Graham's voice had them looking away from each other and towards the doorway where both the Professor and Telip were standing with identical disapproving frowns.

"Is this a duel, Selena?" he asked.

"No, professor." Selena banished her air knife and withdrew her hand.

"Of course not. She was simply helping me with an exercise."

"A fun exercise," Arielle concurred.

"You had a dagger in your hand," Professor Graham said, practically glowering.

"Don't think I didn't see it."

"Yes, well, I was just testing her perception. I also thought I should teach her a couple of fundamentals that I feared she was lacking."

"What?"

"A sense of danger," Selena said, facing Arielle again with that spark in her eye.

"You did not fear me, not even when I arrived faster than you'd expected."

"No," Arielle said.

"Because we were playing a game." Why would she be afraid during a game?

"Why would you trust me to keep to my word?"

"Pardon."

"Why would you trust that I wouldn't hurt you?" Arielle thought about it and shrugged.

"Because why would you?" Something resembling frustration filled Selena's face. She looked away and faced Telip.

"If you're going to mentor her into attaining a Vacu-Calor lean, you're going to have to do something about that naive nature of hers. For her to simply trust that I wouldn't hurt her because I said so is unbearably stupid." Arielle blinked. She hadn't been called stupid in a while, not since she'd been in the schoolyard. What was going on here? What had she missed? As Selena walked off, seemingly angry, Arielle wondered when their fun game had turned into such an angry fight.

Also, Selena had said that she lacked two fundamental things. Arielle wondered what the second one was.

"Are you okay?" Professor Graham asked as he approached her.

"Yes."

"I'll report this."

"Why?"

"Because someone with Selena's stats isn't allowed to duel with you."

"But it wasn't a duel."

"She can call it whatever she wants. It stops being an exercise when she draws a weapon. If you hadn't managed to stop her…" He shook his head, then paused."How did you manage to stop her anyway? I couldn't even see her at first, so the fact that you were able to hold off her attack is shocking, even for you."

"You caught her stealth," Telip said, approaching slowly, looking more interested than he ever had.

"That's nearly impossible. What spell did you use?" Arielle opened her mouth to answer that it was a simple [Quick Draw] and [Sensate] spell, then she closed her mouth. She could use his desire for knowledge to her advantage.

"If you agree to mentor me, I will tell you." Telip rolled his eyes.

"This again. You're not going to give up, are you?"

"No. And I'm sorry about looking into your notebook."

"That's not why I refused you. I don't have time. I have too much work to do, including my final project." His project being the portal to another world. Oh yes, Arielle wanted to learn from that one, too. Perhaps she could find herself in exciting places like Elfheim again.

"I can help with your work," Arielle said.

"If you need help stabilizing your portal, two pairs of hands are typically better than one."

"You're an apprentice," he said.

"It can be dangerous."

"I won't have to be in the room with you. I can just help you detect things. I'm good at detecting. Also, if you teach me to make runes, I can help you make more, so you can focus your time on activating the portal." He stared at her for a few seconds, frowning in thought.

"That sounds like a good deal to me," Graham said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Oh come on, you would be an idiot not to take it, Telip."

"Yeah," Arielle said, and when Telip raised an eyebrow, she added, "I do not think you're an idiot. I think you're smart. And a smart person should make smart choices. Working with me is the smart choice." Telip sighed.

"Fine. But I can only spend fifteen minutes a week teaching you, sometimes not even that."

"That's good enough," Arielle beamed, happy at having gotten this opportunity.

"I'm a fast learner."

"She really is," Graham said.

"I have to go see Professor Woden," Telip said.

"Meet me in the library after dinner."

"Alright," Arielle said, and as Telip left, Graham nudged her in the shoulder.

"I've been talking you up to him, by the way," he whispered conspiratorially.

"So I think it's partially my doing that he said yes, and partially that you impressed him with how you won Selena's 'play' duel. That was amazing, by the way. I'm still in shock at what I saw. No one keeps up with Selena's speed."

"Thank you," Arielle responded.

"But why would you help me?"

"Because I like you, Arielle," he said and put a hand on her shoulder.

"And I have a strong feeling that one day, you are going to make me very, very rich." Arielle didn't know what he was talking about, but she didn't have time to find out. Now that she'd achieved what she came to achieve, it was time to search for information from the Dean's office. However, the only thing she got from there was a student file on Heimenech. Disappointment. Of course, she hadn't expected it to be easy, but she didn't expect his stat sheet to be the only thing that fell in her lap.

If the dean himself didn't know much about the reason for the student's disappearance, who else would? She inhaled sharply. Maybe there was one more person. What if there was more information on Woden's office? If Heimenech had been targeted by the Unmaker in the same pattern that Arielle had, by researching him for class... Then that meant that maybe he'd turned in a report on the things he'd learned before he disappeared. And that report might still be with Woden.

Arielle went outside, cutting quickly across the courtyard. She went to the lawn behind the greenhouse and cast Orion from there. She opened her notebook, staring to see if anything would appear. She held her breath in anticipation, steeling herself for another round of disappointment. Then the words began to print The Church of The Wayward. Anchors of the Living, Souls of the Dead...