Mantle of the Gods

I walked towards the other group.

“Savyn!” I waved, “I heard you don’t want Jovena to join your team because you think she’ll seduce all your zombie men out from under your control!” I smiled as sweetly as I could.

“Atlas,” Their blonde guide put his hand on her shoulder and stepped in between us, “I think you should go back to your camp.” He put his hand up to silence the lone woman on his team before she could speak.

“You’re new, so you probably don’t know this about half of those people.” I focused my eyes on the black haired woman, “But not only was she very rude to my friend…”

“She called me a Defiler!” Jovena yelled from behind me.

I swallowed. Nobility who married the children of Mundane were whispered about behind their backs. A Noble who openly wed a Mundane was openly mocked as referred to as a Defiler. Sometimes the word was used as an insult to Nobility who were with the child of a Mundane, which made it a very severe insult, but not as bad as the one I was about to use.

“Not only did she do that, but that heathen you’re protecting ganged up on one of my team members three-on-one, then turned them in for drawing a weapon to even the odds.” I tried to keep my voice as steady as possible. “If you’d move aside, I’d like to see how well the bully fights against even odds.”

“You were nothing!” Andes waved his fist, “I remember you! You were nothing but trash that should have been swept out of Zeb!”

“He’s on my list too.” I pointed at Gileon, “And so are you.” Of the three of them, he looked the least willing to fight. Upset, yes, but he did not look like he wanted to fight.

“It’s three on two and you think your team is going to lose?” Jovena spit on the ground, “At least we know that the teachers are smart enough to know we’re stronger.”

Andes muttered something and Arlo snapped his fingers. The blue eyed man turned around to look at the younger blonde.

“Seriously?”

The man from Zeb looked mortified. If I had to guess, one of us had just been the target of a debuff and Arlo had countered it.

“I believe that counts as an attack.” I smiled, “Which means that I can defend myself.” I crouched, but before I could move, I was slammed face first into the ground.

The pressure vanished as Gesai started helping me up. I realized that I wasn’t the only one that got hit. All seven of the other students were still on the ground.

“Stop it.” The redhead beside me pointed at Arlo.

“I’m not going to let them fight.” Arlo narrowed his blue eyes at my teacher.

“Then let her go and I’ll take them.” I saw sweat on her face. She was actively struggling against his ability. “There doesn’t have to be a fight.”

Honestly, I was surprised that Rix had stayed out of it as long as she had. I kept expecting her to pop out of invisibility at any moment,

“Why not?”

I looked to my right and saw Trent standing in the doorway of the building he’d been meeting with Celia in. The brown-haired Amazonian was standing next to him with a scowl on her face.

The pressure on the other students must have been released, because they started standing up.

“You’re seriously going to let them fight?” Arlo looked over at the two senior teachers.

“They want to fight?” Celia pulled a dagger out of her CB, “They’ve got an arena here. We could use that.” She tossed the dagger up in the air and caught it.

“The qualifiers are in sixteen weeks.” Trent nodded, “It might be good practice for them.”

Arlo threw up his hands, “Do what you want.”

“We should wait until the Mappers get back, let it get exciting.” Trent walked over to Gesai and put his hand on her shoulder. “That gives you time to run the other half of your team this afternoon.” He motioned for us to leave.

“One thing Trent…” Celia put her hands on her hips, “You’re not using that assassin of yours.”

“Don’t worry.” Trent waved at her, “Jovena here will do a fine job of representing my team.” He smiled, “And I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if I made another substitution?”

“However you want.” She turned to her team, “What are you standing around for!?” She clapped her hands, “Get your sorry butts MOVING!”