Celine wrestled with herself on if she should register the dagger with the officials the entire way to the arena. There wasn't any time to put the dagger away in her dorm so she would have to carry it with her for now. Her thumb brushed the split face design on the hilt as she thought. The face was split down the center one half a human with a blue gemstone eye and the other was a satyr with a green gemstone eye.
'But to register it means I intend to use it,' she contemplated. 'Would I really force something on someone else? Maybe one of those paladins. But I'm not fighting one of them, I'm fighting Vesper. I won't use it here,' she decided. She looked up and saw the gates of the Colosseum before her and stowed the dagger away on her belt hoping it would be secure there for now.
It took some convincing of Neisha's 2 guards before he was allowed to go to his match, but here he was entering the arena. Thankfully, Freed and the others stepped up and offered to be temporary replacements until he was finished.
He felt his stomach turning uneasily at the thought of facing one of his friends. He looked up to the stands for some relief of the tension he was feeling.
It was when he looked up to the stands and saw where his friends were seated that he smiled, but just 1 row above their seats was someone he wasn't expecting to see, their teacher Gabriel Barrister, who was enjoying a drink as he waited for the match to begin.
Gabriel leaned forward in anticipation of the upcoming match. As the horn sounded to begin the fight, Gabriel's mind began to recall the matches from when he was first starting out.
'It feels like an eternity ago, but it's only been 25 years since I first stepped into the arena to prove myself,' he took another gulp from his fruit drink and watched the pair below dip and dive away from one another's attacks. Their spells sending up clouds of sand.
"You know Celine, we've missed you these last couple of days," Vesper ducked away from an ice shard.
Celine just grunted as she shot another ice spike that ricocheted off Vesper's shoulder armour.
"Freed's worried about you," Vesper noted how her movement faltered for a moment before she dodged a blast of water. "He should be more worried about fixing us," she said through gritted teeth.
"He's doing his best Celine. He doesn't want to make things worse."
"How can you defend him?! You've been labeled an outcast by your own people," her voice was rising. "How can you live with people staring at you like some kind of sideshow freak!" The frequency of her attacks was dramatically increasing as her anger grew. Vesper ducked sideways of one ice spike and directly into the path of another that knocked him backwards, most damage being absorbed by the armour.
Vesper righted himself and took a defense stance. "I may look strange, but I try to look at the bright side of this. I can experience things I wasn't able to before. Yes I am hurt how things have turned out, but I do not deny what i am."
"You may have embraced being a freak, but I never will," she snarled. She pointed up to the stands, "even Freed is ashamed at how he looks! Have you ever noticed how he dresses? How he tries to hide any semblance of what he really looks like? Freed tries to cover up his horns and tail and binding ribbons all the time. He even tries to pretend he still needs glasses!"
Celine threw a bolt of lightning at Vesper, nearly striking his head as he leaned backwards to dodge.
Up in the stands Freed was slumping down at the indirect tongue lashing, feeling even more guilty for his mistake.
"Freed," Mai asked cautiously.
He didn't say anything and removed his glasses. As they came off, the illusion spell was removed and his eyes went back to their reptilian look and his sclera darkened to a deep black.
Before anyone could say anything to Freed, an explosion from the arena caught everyone's attention.
Vesper and Celine were sent flying in opposite directions, smoke billowing off of them both.
Vesper coughed as he slowly picked himself up with his arms. "Ok," he groaned, "matching a fireball WITH a fireball. (Cough cough) Not a good idea."
His trident was embedded in the wall some 80 feet away. Much closer however, Vesper saw a strange looking dagger between the 2 of them.
Celine saw the gleam of the gilded handle of the dagger Alyvia had given her in the sand halfway to Vesper.
'It must have fallen out during the fight,' She saw Vesper looking at it and panicked as Vesper started towards it.
'No I can't let him get to it or it might be confiscated,' she began running for it letting the disguise spell go to try to get a little extra speed. The 2 collided as they wrestled with the weapon, no magic was being used as they fought for it.
'She must really want this thing. It has to have some sort of enchantment on it to help her, but if I can get her with it I can end this,' Vesper began to wrestle even harder for it.
"Let go damn you! You don't understand," Celine was batting her quartet of wings to try to pull the weapon away from Vesper, stirring up a huge sandstorm. This was met with Vesper batting his wings to pull it away from her.
'Blasted wings are stirring up too much sand,' Vesper cursed. At him thinking of wings, the 2 eyes of the face in the hilt began to glow, but no one could see through the sand. Mana was manifesting around them like lightning as they tried to pull it from the other.
Celine was slowly pulling the dagger from Vesper's grip when he got an idea. "If you want it take it," he yelled as he used his coils to push towards Celine who was not prepared for the sudden change in direction and loosened her grip slightly. But this was just enough for Vesper to rotate the weapon and plunge the blade into Celine's shoulder.
Celine's eyes went wide in horror, mouth agape. "What. Have. You. Done."
The hilt began to glow, then crackle and spark wildly forcing Vesper to let go. An ethereal tether shot out from the hilt and latched onto Vesper. As this was happening Celine was desperately trying to pry the blade from her shoulder.
Just then Vesper gasped as he felt like his wings were being broken. He looked over his shoulder and watched as his wings looked like they were shriveling up and pulling into his back. As they disappeared the tether glowed brighter and seemee to pulse towards Celine. Celine then doubled over as her wings shifted and changed. The top left and bottom right wing's feathers wilted and were replaced with a skin membrane like the one Vesper's wings had. Celine's claws were digging into the ground as small 3 fingered claws formed on each wing.
She looked up at Vesper with a hateful stare. The tether then suddenly began to pulse erratically and it lifted both up into the air, writhing in pain. Vesper began to slowly grow fangs while Celine's saber teeth shrunk. Vesper began to develop tiger stripes on his long tail and Celine's tail started to grow.
Freed suddenly ran down the stands over several spectators as he tried to reach the arena. A nearby official tried to stop him but was knocked out by a sleep spell. He dropped the 15 feet from the top of the wall down to the arena floor and landed in a roll. As he ran to close the distance, Freed canceled his own disguise spell feeling the clothing give way as his speed increased.
He stopped before Celine and grabbed the dagger, jerking his hands away when the hilt burned him. Taking in a deep breath Freed grabbed the hilt again and pulled as hard as he could. The tether's glow began to encircle him as well. Freed's hands began to smoke from the heat, but still he continued to pull and finally was rewarded for his efforts as he fell backwards dagger in hand. He quickly dropped the weapon as its glow dimmed, it then cracked and shattered, leaving only the hilt.
The crowd's cheers had quieted to hushed whispers as they looked at the scene in front of them. The former catfolk's lower legs and feet had been transformed into green scaled dragon legs, with an orange scaled snake tail. Her hands had changed from retractable cat claws to wicked black talons. Her originally rounded ears were now pointed and located on the side of her head instead of on top. The single row of spines running down her back were now thick triangular plates like a dragon's. The long saber teeth had shrunk down to needle like fangs that framed a forked tongue.
Celine was turning in every direction as she heard the crowd's murmurs and she crouched down into the fetal position with her back to Freed and Vesper and brought her wings in as if to shield her from the world.
"Celine," Freed asked worridly.
He heard her mutter something he couldn't quite make out. Some where behind him, Freed heard Vesper begin to stir.
Freed walked closer and placed his hand on the back of Celine's wing. She whirled around and backhanded his away. "GO AWAY," she screamed. Freed had never heard her this distressed. Tears streamed down her cheeks. "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"
Freed took a step forward to try to calm her down and comfort her. "Celine I-," before he had a chance to finish, Celine swiped her claw at his chest, digging 5 deep cuts into his chest. Freed tried to push through the pain in his chest, and try to get through to Celine until he found he couldn't breathe properly. Looking down at the flow of blood, Freed saw some kind of vivid green liquid mixed in with it. The same liquid was dripping down Celine's bloodied claw. He then lost all feeling in his body and collapsed gasping for air.
The crowd began shouting out cries of monster at Celine, who began looking around pleading that it's not her fault. She covered her head at the onslaught of jibes and jeers and took off sobbing as she left.
Above Freed a rune would appear then break then reappear and break again. Vesper knew it was the death ward spell in the arena keeping him alive, but for how long he didn't know. Vesper could only watch as his friend was levitated away by healers as he was desperately gasping for what little air he could get. A few officials came to him to help him off the arena and away from the crowds.