Lixarts Academy: First Year

The arena began to shift. Large trees that towered over us rooted to the top of the stadium, the lush flora had begun to cover the entire surface. We were placed into a forest for this terrain war.

They seem to love that.

“GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” The announcer shouted.

Everyone bolted as the announcer’s voice rang through the arena. Just as the previous match had begun; destruction filled the stadium as everyone was released in a ‘Gladiator’ way, the doors in front of each class lifted up and left everyone to fend for themselves.

Also, this is Terrain War so it’s pretty much the last one standing.

I did my best to avoid combat as I passed each corner with my team in suit. They had assembled the best of the best of the first year students for this team. All of them were more than a little mad that I made it when I quite literally had no magic. The whole Shadows fiasco with us directly involved wasn’t made public at the discretion of our parents and the Magic Defense Force’s General Garner aka Rose’s dad.

Edward, the student who scored #1 in practicals for the tryouts for this event, held his hand up in a fist signaling everyone to stop.

“What is it?” I whispered next to him.

“Enemies, a large group,” he turned to look at me then turned his face away with a disgusted look.

I backed up and looked straight ahead from our current location. I counted about 8. I’m honestly more concerned with whatever that look was about.

We came out from behind the trees and surrounded the enemy, as Edward had instructed. They eliminated the opposition easily. I wasn’t even needed.

Edward held up his fist.

He stopped and stood there for a good while.

“Yo, you good, Edward?” I walked up next to him and placed my hand on his shoulder.

His face was pale as was everyone else’s.

“That is a dangerous man. Something about him is evil,” He pointed straight.

The man was tall and muscular. His long, sleek, cold-black hair ran down to his shoulders. His face was that of a model. He held a student up by their throat, staring into their soul.

He wore the creepiest smile I’d ever seen. He cocked his head towards me. I ducked back down before he could get a good look at me.

“Do we move to strike or do we run?” He whispered to the class.

“Raise your hand if you think we should fight.”

No one raised their hand besides me. I honestly thought someone else was going to raise their hand.

“Then it’s decided… Let’s go…” They all began to turn around.

“Now, now, where do we think we’re going?” The man was standing behind the class.

“I thought we were just getting started,” he walked up to Edward and placed his hand on his shoulder.

“I heard that that bastard, Aaron, is here today. Would you happen to know where he is?”

“Who’s Aaron?” A girl asked him.

“Aaron Newsmith? The strongest magician in the past decade? Do you guys really not know who I’m talking about?” He placed his hands on his hips,

“God, it’s like no one knows anymore,” he pouted.

He took a step forward. No one saw him move but he somehow ended up in front of the girl who asked the question. He rubbed his finger down her face.

“Next time, if you ever say some stupid shit like that again, I’ll kill you,” he backed up away from her as she collapsed to the ground and held her face in her hands.

“Although…” He walked up to me. I stood my ground and stared him in the eyes.

“Oh, you’re a tough lil’ guy,” he moved his hand towards my head. I smacked his hand away.

I suddenly felt a lot lighter. He had picked me up off the ground by my jaw. I grabbed his hand and tried to pry it off. His hand wouldn’t budge as I began punching him across the face.

“LET ME GO!” I was muffled.

“Huh? What was that?” He moved me closer to his ear. I chomped down on his hand.

“Ouch!” He threw me into a tree.

“FUCK!” I grabbed my back as I laid there for a few minutes before wobbling back up.

“I’ll forgive your little transgression,” he tapped his chin with his finger, “if you can land a blow on me. Well, your little friends might want to participate too. Since I’ll kill you all if NONE of you can land a hit on me.”

The entire class prepared themselves for battle.

“Oh well, I was going to kill all of you regardless,” his cold, dead, black eyes betrayed the pearly white smile he gave us.

“WOOD HAMMER!” A boy chanted bringing down a hammer made of, well, wood down onto where he had been standing.

“I GUESS WE’RE DOING THIS?!” Edward shouted, “EVERYONE, PREPARE YOUR MAGIC!!”

I stood in the back, avoiding the battle. I couldn’t use my trump card or everyone else loses theirs.

“GLASS MAGIC: PIERCING SHARDS!” The shards whizzed past as the man quite literally did a ballerina dance in between them.

Everyone began to get angry as to how obvious his taunting was.

“You see, the issue nowadays is that you guys think you can only do ONE SINGULAR type of magic. I never understood that. When I was your age, I let my imagination run wild. I mean, we’re literally doing things that normal people shouldn’t be doing. That’s the thing, though. YOU ARE NOT NORMAL.” He was talking while dodging everything everyone was throwing at him.

He grabbed Edward by the throat.

“You see, you’re the Golden Boy. You think that since you’re the top dog around all of these little puppies that you’re the best and you’re destined to be the best,” he sighed before facing Edward again.

“You’re not.”

He threw Edward up and caught him by the leg.

“You’re not the best here, there, or anywhere. I’ve met children stronger than you.” He swung Edward up into the air, still holding onto his leg and slammed him back down onto the ground. Edward disappeared before the full brunt of the pain could actually be brought down onto him.

A female student had grabbed him out of the air as he came down.

“DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?!” His voice boomed throughout the forest.

“TO ALL OF YOU WATCHING,” he pointed to the screen, “SEND AARON NEWSMITH OUT HERE NOW,” he screamed before visibly composing himself.

“Or these students don’t get to leave this stadium alive.”

At this point, all of the other classes had gathered around and heard the commotion and decided to intervene.

We all agreed it would be best to team up against such overwhelming strength.

“More friends?” He looked straight at me. I don’t understand his obsession with me. Is he a part of the Shadows too? There’s so many questions that I can’t answer as of right now and it’s honestly irritating the hell out of me.

“STUDENTS, SECURITY IS ON THE WAY RIGHT NOW! PLEASE REFRAIN FROM ENGAGING IN COMBAT!” The announcer shouted. I just wish we could’ve had just a normal match like the other guys got.

Well, besides Rose.

Couldn’t they have done this literally any other time? Security is at an all time high here and there’s so many people watching, why would they attack now?

I don’t know and I don’t really care. If Aaron Newsmith or security doesn’t show up soon then we’re as dead as doornails.

“He's going to kill us if we don’t fight back.” Edward said, sternly.

“How do you think we fight back?” I asked him.

“Look at us, there’s an overwhelming numbers advantage in our favor,” Edward pointed towards the other classes who were gathered here.

The entirety of the students that were here joined together for the fight against the greater evil that had stood in front of us. The man never once took his eyes off of me while we were talking.

“SUPORT MAGIC: SPEED ENHANCEMENT! STRENGTH ENHANCEMENT!” A female student chanted in the back. A giant magic circle had enveloped the large group and everyone began to glow blue then red then it disappeared.

“Woah, I feel amazing!” Norman said, another one of Edward’s fanboys.

They began to charge at the handsome man. He sneered at them before running towards them.

He jumped in the air.

He was up there for a bit before we finally saw him start coming back down.

“Magnetic Sorcery: Pull.” He wore a sinister smile as he began to pull Edward off the ground.

“CHAIN MAGIC: LINK!” Steven sent a chain flying and wrapped it around the villainous man’s ankles. Steven grabbed the chain and swung it down. The man didn’t budge. Not a single inch.

“IS THIS ALL YOU’VE GOT?!” His voice boomed as fear began to settle in for everyone else. He snapped the chain.

“Phantom Magic: Ethereal Palm!” Edward shouted. A ghastly green hand appeared above the man floating in the air. It came down with a hard smack.

“A little better but not much,” he wiped the blood off of his lip. He held up the spell with one hand.

His magic never stopped. Edward had now been pulled to him. He grabbed Edward’s face in his hand. He held his face as he darted down to the ground like a missile. He made an impact on the ground with a deafening crunch. Edward laid there, body still.

“Is he…?” Another student asked, lip quivering.

“Dead? Yeah, probably. Now, does anyone else wanna fight me?” He looked around.

All of the students stared, some crying, some screaming, some just numb to this.

Death is a weird thing, different people react in different ways.

The students began running away, fearful and worried about staying alive.

“Did I say you could leave?” He zoomed in front of them.

The students’ expressions were full of fear. Their bodies frozen, unable to move. He put his arms around a male and female student. He leaned into their ears and whispered,

“Explode.”

Their heads popped like balloons. Everyone started screaming and running.

I stared at them.

This is when reality kicked in.

This isn’t just some guy beating us up for fun, well he might be, but he’s actually going to kill us.

I walked over towards him.

“Is it already time for the main course?” He turned around and started walking to me. He licked his lips.

“Colosseum Of The Damned.”