- Grand Colosseum Arena -
Still holding the shattered remains of his sword, Vect's eyes were staring up at the sky in confusion. He wasn't sure what was happening, only that it felt bad.
"What is this," Stanley asked, staring at the sky aswell.
"I- I'm not sure," Vect hesitated.
-
The crowd's cheers had shifted to uneasy whispers. Those in the Grand Colosseum could only see the pillar of light jutting into the sky, but those closer to the source could see a portal opening up slowly. Guards ran to the area to assess the situation. Those first on the scene were the first to meet the horde of monsters that came pouring out of the portal. High above and invisible, Alyvia watched the carnage as city guards and unarmed citizens alike were overrun.
"Looks like Maximillian's portal is also active," she mused looking at the slightly smaller portal adjacent to the main one. Much more creatures were coming from his portal as he had gathered much more test subjects over a longer time. She wrote her observations down for later. "No infighting save a few warning swipes over 'food'. And," she craned her neck to look at the one person that they seemed to be ignoring, one of the marker coin holders, "marker coins seem to be working." No sooner had she wrote this, than a large serpentine head darted out of the portal and swallowed the coin holder and 2 other creatures whole. "Except for the one super hydra," she hastily added as the head retreated back into the portal.
-
"What is that thing," Sara gasped.
"A holding vessel failing," Vesper answered. "Mages use magic items to hold creatures for later study, and judging by the size of that, there were a lot of things in it."
The announcer's voice yelled out over the crowds. "All senior adventurers and staff please proceed to the portal to aid the city guard, anyone else with combat training please remain here to defend the citizens."
"With what," Jack asked looking at his empty hands. Most of the spectators didn't come to the arena armed or armored so unless they had magical abilities they were unarmed. But as if to answer his question, his body began to shimmer and his clothing was replaced with his armour and a short sword appeared in his hands. The same was happening to all those that had participated in the tournament.
"Guess that's another reason for registering your gear," Vesper said inspecting his trident.
A large portion of the crowds left in a hurry, either flying up and out or running towards an exit. A fair number remaining behind, including Salazar.
After a few minutes of people leaving Jack looked around. "So what now?"
"Now we wait," Salazar surprisingly answered.
- Mages School Library -
3 of the assailants had been dispatched quickly from either Freed's magic or Eva's masterful axe skills and were laying motionless on the floor. Celine was having trouble landing a hit on Freed and was mostly on the defensive.
'What's going on? He has never been like this,' Celine leaned to her left to avoid a powerful blast of fire that incinerated another one of the infiltrators. Her eyes went wide when she saw the remains. 'He's not holding back anymore. Freed is going all out now.' Her eyes darted to the visible skin and saw the binding tattoos were crumbling faster than they could regenerate. Celine called out to one of the clerics they'd recruited, "use barrier to hold them! We need to focus on our job!"
A large blue dome formed around both Freed and Eva with Celine flying out of the area just in time. Freed and Eva tried to break through the barrier but seeing that it wasn't having any impact, stopped and Freed began to pace.
"Celine what are you doing," Freed asked. "Petty theft isn't exactly something you would sink to. Especially since its obvious to me you want me dead, thanks by the way."
Celine began to order the others to continue their jobs of packing times and scrolls for transport before turning to face Freed. "This is what I am forced to do to get back to normal."
"I could have still helped you. Even after you almost killed me in the arena," he added. "But then you had to kill those city watch guards and now this."
"Hey! They attacked me! And secondly, you would never have been able to fix this, and you want to know why? Because past experience has shown you are a terrible mage. A failure!"
Freed's shoulders sagged and he broke eye contact. Celine continued, "alchemy, transmutation, conjuration, basically any subject available you've lagged behind in performance. If not for students like Vesper and me, you would have dropped out first year."
Freed sighed. "Yeah, yeah you're right. And I was always thankful for all the help I got. I am nothing without you guys having my back. But," Freed began untying his white healers robe and passed it to Eva as he continued, "If I cannot convince you to come back with me and stop this whole thing."
"You can't," Celine spat, but she was bewildered why Freed had disrobed in front of everyone. "And what in the 7 hells are you doing? Have some decorum!"
"Heh, I've already ruined 3 sets of clothes and these are on loan." He slowly began to transform into his actual form, his lower body elongating and covering with scales and his second set of arms pushing out of his sides. As the horns finished growing he resumed speaking. "Eva, I'm counting on you for a few minutes while I recharge." She nodded, and Freed looked around the library through the barrier's blue tint. "Its a shame, but if it means keeping those books from evil hands I'll do what I must." He took a wide stance to stabilize himself and dug his claws into the stone floor. The tattoos on him began to glow and mana began to gather in each palm, forming into orbs of swirling colors. He then slowly moved all his hands together and merged the orbs.
"Celine! What's he doing," the cleric maintaining the barrier asked worridly.
"I don't know," was all Celine said as she backed away from the barrier.
"How close are we to breaking the seal on the forbidden section," one of the senior members asked frantically.
"1 minute," came an answer from somewhere in the back.
"Well hurry up," the same guy urged, "and get someone up here to help Trent!"
A pair of clerics ran up, both more junior to the one named Trent and added their own power to his barrier. The energy just kept building, and Freed turned to face the trio of people holding up the barrier and away from where the forbidden and restricted sections were.
"You are right Celine. The finer points of magic are difficult for me, but if there is one thing I am good at it's raising hell," and he released the built up mana in a beam at the trio of clerics. As the beam was sustained, the tattoos were slowly burning away.
"Heh, is this really your hail Mary? This is just sad," the senior taunted, the other 2 joining him in laughing.
And then the taunting suddenly ceased as the beam began to get more powerful.
Celine, still wondering why he wouldn't aim for the forbidden section, looked at what was behind the trio. "He's aiming at the wall!"
No one knew they were here besides Freed and Eva, and the spells put up prevented magical communication from getting out. But it was very hard to miss a huge beam shooting out of the side of the school.
"Stop him! He'll alert everyone to us!" 3 mages school 5th years ran to help and reinforced the barrier, but cracks began to show in the barrier.
Gabriel's words began to echo through Celine's mind, 'as the ribbons disappear, the flow of magic will increase like a dam with a crack.' Almost half of Freed's tattoos were gone and dove behind a fallen bookshelf just as the barrier gave way.
"Oh shit," the last words of the senior cleric just before the blast hit.
- Grand Colosseum Arena -
Sara, Mai, and several of the others that remained at the colosseum had flown up above the walls of the area to see what was going on near the market. Blasts of fire, ice, lightning, and other attacks were shooting in many directions as the pitched battle with something was raging in the streets near the market. Just then a beam of energy blasted out the side of the mages school, nowhere near the current battle in the market.
"What was that," Sara asked Mai.
"I don't know. The school is supposed to be empty," she answered. Several of the other flyers also saw the blast and were muttering to each other.
-
Alyvia saw the blast too and cursed. 'That's going to attract some unwanted attention. Well, that is what plan B is for.' She reached into her handbag and pulled out her own marker coin. Rubbing it, she whispered a spell to activate a mass message to the other holders of the coins. "Let the attack begin."
-
"Should we get the others and investigate it," Mai wondered.
"We were told to stay and protect the citizens, but they didn't- LOOK OUT!" Sara tackled Mai and pushed the pair narrowly out of the way of a bolt of lightning. "What the fuck are you-," Sara raged, but stopped when she saw that some of the flyers were attacking the others. Down below was a similar situation. "What's going on," Mai asked horrified and they dodged an arrow.