Saturday October 7th, 2018.

  Helo and his party watch while Isla skillfully commands her team to fight through the monsters. Helo must admit that she is impressive. Plus, their teamwork is at a very high level.

  “Well, it is about time that one of us went up there.” Alli says when Isla is done. She finished the level 65 monster but had to stop. Isla herself still looked perfect. Which only goes to annoy Alli more. But her party members are all beaten to bits.

  “Yeah. I take it your going first?” Hinata says from her place leaning against Helo’s arm. Ever since she leaned into him to talk about Rohan, she has yet to move. Asking her to move isnt something that Helo has even considered.

  Alli looks at how comfy they look with annoyance. But she quickly grins. She gives Hinata an enthusiastic thumbs up. “Yep!”

  Then she turns to the rest of her party. “Let’s kick some ass!” She shouts with her hand in the air. Carl gives a perfunctory salute. While Luna rolls her eyes at her mistress’s playful attitude.

  Arisah on the other hand cheers extremely sweetly. “Yeah! Let’s kick their butts.”

  Gabi is the only one to really get into the cheer. “Oh yeah! Were getting to level 75! That Lopez bratt can suck my left…”

  “Gabi!” Luna shouts. “Seriously.” She looks at their great axe wielding battle maniac.

  “What… It’s true.” She looks away from Luna. Then the group all heads into the outside ring of the stadium and down to the main floor. From there they find their way into the tunnels that lead into the stadium.

  With a voice as bland as ever Hal’s assistant sees Alli step into the stadium floor. “Well, well, well. We have a treat for you all now. It is one of the Twin Heiresses. The Princess of the Wolves. Everyone, sit back and enjoy the show as Allisandra Brightmoon takes the stage.”

  Getting called Allisandra makes Alli glare at the man as she passes. But he pretends not to see her look. Considering sending a spell at the man, her long-time friend pushes her toward the Spacecallers.

  Stepping onto the stage she pulls up her status and wonders how it compares to Helo’s.

  Name: Allisandra Brightmoon.

  Bloodline: Arcane Wolf-Kin. (Uncommon)

  Tier 1

  Class: Arcane Mage (Uncommon)

  Level: 45

  Stats: 398

  Skills: Runic Construct (Rare), Piercing Bolt (Uncommon), Runic Hammer (Uncommon)

  She isn’t sure exactly what Helo’s status looks like; it has been a while since she has seen it. But she does know that all the meditation and cultivation she did at the Kashiwagi home helped boost her states nicely. Most of the stats came from her bloodline and went into her strength and intelligence. But the rest of her stats weren’t completely ignored. Her agility and wisdom also grew, just not as much.

  Just as her entire group stepped between the four Spacecallers, everything turned weird. Color inverted, the world twisted and suddenly they were in a different place. Alli stumbles a few steps as she looks around. To her side she can hear someone speaking.

  “So, this is Greenland?” Gabi asks while looking around. She holds one of her hands up to her face. “It feels just like a dungeon.”

  “GRRRRRRRRRR!” From their left a tiny creature is stepping up to the group. A few of their members have ‘Identify’ or some other kind of appraisal skills.

  Buck Tooth Beaver.

  Level 10.

  A small beaver with endlessly growing teeth. Its hunger is just as voracious.

  “Its so cute!” Alli says while stepping up to the creature. It is a little beaver that comes up to their calves. But it looks adorable and almost comical because of its massive front teeth. She looks back at the Spacecaller. She knows who the leader is based on the pressure around them. “Can I keep it?”

  The fur wearing and thick bearded man just rolls his eyes and doesn’t respond. Alli glares at the man and conjures a magic circle. Just before it is going to fire at the beaver it inverts itself and faces the other way. Then she launches a stream of water at the tier 3 man.

  “Kuh.” The man scoff before disappearing. He doesn’t reapper, but as soon as the water stops, he is back in the same place he just left. But this time he is looking at the spoiled princess with a raised brow.

  Alli aggressively looks off to her left and says. “Be that way.” Then she looks back at the tiny beaver. It is trying its hardest to reach them and eat them. Its little legs are pushing into the dirt, and its giant teeth are striking the ground. But a tiny vine has grown from the ground and is wrapping the creature’s hind leg. “Kill it.” She pouts and looks away.

  But when nothing happens, she looks around. Gabi, Luna, Carl and Arisah are all looking at the beaver with the same expression as her. “Dammit.” She mutters. She can imagine the laughing and mocking that is probably going on back at the stadium. Everyone is watching her entire party get beaten by cuteness.

  “Dammit, Dammit, Dammit.” She is about to step up and then a small object is tossed from beside her. She looks over quickly and finds Bibbin. This only causes her more annoyance. I totally forgot about him!

  But before she can say anything dumb. There is a massive explosion and then the beaver is gone. “Whew.” She is about to exaggeratingly wipe her brow, but the world twists again. When she is back on her own feet and in normal space, she looks at the Halfling. “Can you keep killing them. Once you no longer can, limit their movement.”

  They came into the challenge with plans, but they were quickly defeated by cuteness. Now she just really isn’t feeling like fighting.

  Ebony Orxy.

  Level 14.

  Snow Snowy Owl.

  Level 20.

  Parakeet of Cacophony.

  Level 25.

  Alli really was glad to have Luna and her ‘Sound Cancel’ skill for that encounter.

  Unseelie Redcap

  Level 30.

  Hellhound.

  Level 35.

  Doodoo Bird.

  Level 40.

  Cockatrice.

  Level 45.

  Finally, after six fights that ended with Bibbin simply tossing a bomb and exploding the creature. They find one where he needs help. The Cocatrice looks like a chicken that is mixed with a velociraptor and given a growth serum.

  It stands well over their height and is extremely quick on its powerful legs. “Arisah, help him out.” Alli says after the bird thing dodges his toss.

  Arisah gently brushes the ground with her hand and mana surges out from her body. “Overgrowth.” She chants. Then all the plant life in the area surges with growth. No matter where the Cockatrice runs around them, it finds itself in overwheleming greenery. “Commune.” She says while holding out her hand to the bird.

  Then with the clenching of her fist, all the plants around the bird surge and wrap its body. These are not the specially curated seeds that she uses. These are just the flora around her. But the bird isn’t strong enough to break free. Everyone watching can tell that durability isnt its strong point. As the plants constrict, they can hear the snapping of limbs.

  Then a tiny sphere is tossed out and “BOOM!” the Cockatrice is gone.

  “Well, that went well.” Alli says. Then they are whisked off to the next fight. The fight is with a peak level monster but in a short time Alli and her party kill it and are onto the next. Now they are fighting tier 2 monsters.

  Not only will they have a large boost in stats, but they also have the tier up modifier that comes from strengthening your lifeforce after gaining a new tier. But Alli and her party have fought tier 2 monsters before. The level 54 slime dies. But the fight is a long one, even though it was easy. This does mean that they get to enter their next fight feeling refreshed.

  This time they appear in the clearing of a level 61 Lesser Manticore.

  Lesser Manticore.

  Level 61.

  A lesser version of the legendary Manticore. This beast is a mix of lion and scorpion. Mixing incredible defense, deadly poison, and a predator’s strength.

  Alli looks at the beast with a bit of awe. This might be a level 61 creature. But it has a stronger bloodline than most others. She wouldn’t be surprised if it is stronger than the level 65 creature they fight after it.

  Just as she is lost in her thoughts thinking this, Gabi tackles her to the ground. “Watch out!” She shouts.

  Alli is about to ask her what the heck she is doing, but when she feels the air swirl overhead the beast venom tipped barbed tail slices through the air. She stares with wide eyes at the spot by her face where some of the venom dripped. It is sizzling and bubbling on the ground.

  Gabi quickly rolls off of her and up to her feet. Alli might have been surprised by the rapid attack, but she is better than letting the shock get to her. Rolling back, she slips to her feet gracefully. “Carl your on tail duty!”

  The large man accepts his duty with grace. He steps forward while clad in green spiritual energy and his armor glistening under he effects of his skills.

  “Arisah, Gabi! Keep it contained.” She calls. The two girls act as one and move quickly to the front of the beast. Gabi is starting her dance as she weaves between the large beast’s claws.

  At the same time Arisah is tossing seeds and commanding the plants around them to hinder the beast’s movements.

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  “Bibbin. Get a trap set up. Luna, buffs.” Alli says before raising her hand and conjuring glowing construct in front of her. It takes the shape of a circle, and runes start to form on its surface.

  A moment later an ‘Arcane Spear’ is formed as the mana within the construct burns away. “Go!’ She shouts and the spear whistles forward with an intense speed. Just as the beast notices the spear, Carl uses ‘Taunt’.

  They can see the tension in the beast’s muscles. It is aware of the spear and trying to fight taunt. But that was all the time that they needed. The spear strikes the lion like side of the beast. The thick mane of fur absorbs some of the force behind the spear. But it can’t absorb it all.

  The sharp tip digs into its side and the beast roars. “RAAAAAAAHHHHHHRRRRR!” Its roar is a physical force and every skill they are using is shattered as everyone in the party clutches their ears.

  The manticore leaps forward and on top of Carl’s armor covered body. It attempts to savage his chest with its sharp claws. As the claws drag across his armored chest they make or horrible grinding noise.

  Using every skill in her arsenal Gabi leaps forward with her axe drawn to her side. Her skin starts to glow as she stacks her skills. Using so many at a time strains her body and empties her reserves. But she just wants to free Carl.

  With ‘Strength of the Bloody Dancer’ activated as a passive, she is gaining a small boost to strength and agility from the cuts she has gained. But then she chants, “Momentous Blow. Steel Skin. Surging Veins.” One by one her skills activte. Then she is standing beside the Lesser Manticore.

  With a might swing her weapon whistles through the air as it cuts the wind. Then it slams into the manticore’s side with all the power that she can muster. The axe slipts open the beast’s skin, forming a massive gash on its side. Just as they think it is going to stop or maybe push the beast away. The axe head bursts forward and breaks through the Lesser Manticore’s ribs.

  The fight after that is easy. They take their time to give Gabi time to recover. Waiting for the beast to die from blood loss. Their next fight is against a level 65 monster that lives within the swamp. The monster is like a tentacled worm with multiple mouths filled with horrible looking teeth all over its body.

  Tentacle Worm.

  Level 65.

  The fight is tough, but at the same time it gives off a weaker pressure than the Manticore did. But with Gabi’s energy mostly spent, the team starts to flag as the fighting goes on. In the end Alli summons a massive construct filled with over fifty runes and rains down a pillar of freezing wind on the monster.

  After that Carl and Bibbin work to smash or blow up the frozen bits of the monster. It doesn’t die until they have destroyed the body around every single mouth and cut off every single tentacle.

  But with Carl and Bibbin taking care of everything, Alli and Gabi get a chance to rest. Sitting up she looks at Luna. “You’re going to have to deal some damage in this next fight. Let’s hope the creature has a weakness to sound.”

  Luna nods seriously. Her presnace is a contant on the field with her humming strengthening her team and weakening their enemies. But at the same time, she still has more than half her energy. Where her teammates have burned through large amounts of mana to injure their enemies.

  Eventually the monster finally dies. Just before they teleport to the next fight Alli can hear Bibbin’s quite speaking. “I am out of bombs.”

  Then space warps and the party is standing over a cracked landscape. It looks like a desert, but it doesn’t have the heat. Being in Greenland the air is cold and windy. They all look around to find their foe, but there is nothing around.

  Alli looks at Bibbin. “You’re out of bombs?”

  Bibbin jumps in fright and looks at Alli. He didn’t expect anyone to hear him. But he nods his head. “Okay.” Alli replies before looking around. She wants to say more, like, ‘You should tell me these things.’ But now isn’t the time.

  Then just as she is about to ask the Spacecallers if they made a mistake there is a loud “Thud.” From the distance. Her party all looks at one another. Then at her, she instead looks at Bibbin.

  No words are said but the small scared Halfling bolts away and disappears. A minute later and they all can hear the thudding get louder, at the same time it has a steady rhythm. “Are those foot steps?” Luna asks.

  Before anyone gets the chance to answer Bibbin appears from a dip in the landscape. “It spotted me!” He screeches out. From behind him they can all see the head of a massive ox appear.

  “Is that a bison?” Gabi asks.

  Usually, Luna is the one the answer questions like this, but Carl speaks first. “No miss Gabi, Bison are not native to this land.”

  “He is right.” Luna cuts in. “It must be a Muskox or something close.” The beast continues to follow Bibbin. Then it gets to the hill that Bibbin ran up. As its body comes into view, they all see the shoulders of a man, and a massive, furred chest.

  “Is that a Minotaur?” Arisah asks, her voice is pleasant and seems a little wistful as she asks.

  Alli uses her ‘Identify’ skill.

  Muskox Minotaur.

  Level 70.

  A powerful evolution of a Muskox. Increasing intelligence slightly and granting a small level of sapience to the Ox. The main benefit is the ability to command other Ox of its kind.

  Everyone stares as the monster steps further up the slope. “Thud.” It is as tall as Carl. “Thud.” It is twice his height. “Thud.” The minotaur makes it up the slope in three steps and stands more than twice Carl’s height, almost fifteen feet tall. In its right hand it doesn’t hold a weapon, but the trunk of a massive tree.

  “Bind it!” Alli yells. Before she is even finished, vines are breaking free from the cracked ground and spiraling up the monster’s body. The vines are so thick you can no longer see its legs. But with one mighty step, the vines tear around it. Then another step and it is completely free.

  As the rest of the party spreads out sound around them starts to change. First it is faster and their hearts and picking up the pace, then with a strong shout their muscles bulge with strength. Then an haunting noise wraps the clearing, it doesn’t affect the party, but the minotaur is weakened. Finally, all sound cuts off. This is Luna absorbing sound with ‘Sound Cancel’ so she can strengthen her ‘Concussive Blast’.

  Cycling through her skills takes focus and draws on her mana. Noramlly she can easily keep her buffs and debuff running. But the use of ‘Sound Cancel’ forces her to use her mana again to restart the buffs. Thankfully the buffs last long enough that if she does her work correctly, they won’t falter.

  While she does that, Carl steps forward to grab to monster’s attention. “This thing will launch me.” Carl yells, but he approaches anyway. Just as the monster is about to slam it’s club at Carl in a sweeping attack, vines sprout from the ground to slow the arm.

  The vines are torn one by one, but it is enough to slow the blow. Glowing with the light of ‘Knight’s Spirit’ Carl channels the wisdom of his ancestor. Dropping his sword Carl grabs his shield in both arms. Then just as the truck is about to hit him, he tries something he has never done before, only he can feel how it is supposed to work being channeled into him.

  “Ahhhhhhhh!” Carl yells and channels his sword skill ‘Thrust’ into his skill. Shooting his arms up his mana strikes the trunk and erupts from the shield. Carl is sent tumbling back head over heels. But at the same time the minotaur’s swing is sent wild and it stumbles forward.

  “Bing”

  Your skill Thrust (Common) has been copied and changed. You have gained the skill Shield Bash (Common).

  Carl briefly glances at his status to read the message. He is overjoyed at gaining a new skill. But at the same time, he can feel that this was not what his ‘Knight’s Spirit’ skill intended. But now isn’t the time to focus on this. Running forward he jumps back into the fight.

  Alli doesn’t let the opportunity go to waste. As Carl is sent tumbling through her vision. She only spares a brief moment to wish she had her phone out. Then she creates the spear she used before. During her training and lessons, she has learned that her Arcane Affinity means that not only are Arcane attacks more efficient, but they are also stronger. She can attack with any element that she can learn the runes of. But any element that isn’t pure mana, is less efficient and weaker.

  She can use this to always have an elemental advantage. But when a monster like this doesn’t have real elemental weaknesses, it is best to use what she is best at. Instead of creating a giant spear. Alli wills the construct to split into four parts.

  For spears emerge that are all a bit smaller than the original. Then with a mental shove, each one sails forward. The spears all strike the monster cleanly. But it has very little effect. Other than some broken skin and a prick of pain. The monster easily catches its stumble and roars out them in a bellowing “MOOOOOOO!”

  The fight continues in the same vein for multiple minutes. Carl’s armor slowly dents and Arisah is almost drained of her mana trying to weaken its swings. Gabi is doing her best to build up some damage. But she can’t commit to any big swings without leaving herself open to a devastating reprisal.

  Alli is a little lost as everyone continues fighting. Her ‘Runic Construct’ skill is incredibly versatile. As long as she can learn the runes, she can create the attack. But each rune that is different from the next weakens the overall strength. This means her attacks can’t be overly complex.

  As Arisah uses the last of her mana Bibbin starts to do his best to help. He already used the last of his explosives. But he has many random creations on his bag. Different types of traps with all sorts of odd effects.

  After five more minutes Alli pours everything she has into a massive construct. Using all her will she begs and forces each rune to hold more of her mana up until she is all out. Then just as the minotaur is about to dent Carl’s already destroyed armor. The largest attack she has ever made is launched.

  She falls to her knees and stares as the massive spears surges forth. The minotaur is already aware of her tricks, and it swings its trunk to block the attack. The spear surprises the monster and the trunk shatters.

  Then lodges into the minotaur’s chest. Every stares and starts to hope that it is enough. They have used all their stamina and mana trying to bleed the beast. They just didn’t have any attacks that were strong enough to pierce though the monsters thick hide.

  The minotaur stumbles one step back, then another. It starts to tip backwards with both its thick hairy arms holding onto the spear shaft. Then just as Alli thicks they won. The minotaur catches its fall and stands straight.

  Then ripping the spear from the side of its chest it glares at Alli. Taking deep heavy breathes, steam starts to emrupt from its nose with each breath. Then the beast drops onto all fours and paws the ground like a bull. It has blood dripping for each limb and even more gushing from its chest. But it doesn’t look like it is flagging at all.

  Just before it charges Alli uses the last of her strength to push herself to her knees, then onto her butt. “We give.” She says with her eyes closed.

  When her eyes are open, they are in a room under the stadium with a bored looking nurse studying them. She hands out a pill to each of them and kicks them out. Her entire party looks worse for wear. But thankfully there are no serious injuries. Only complete exhaustion and a very bruised Carl.

  As they walk, they all start to gain back bits of their mana, but it isn’t enough to cure their bone deep weariness. Even though she is exhausted. Every time Arisah has the mana she places a hand on Carl and says, “Nature’s Heal.” Then an emerald glow wraps Carl and soothes his body.

  It isn’t the almost capital ‘C’ Creation like healing of light magic. But the boost to his regeneration is enough to feel like a nice massage. It isnt long before they make their way through the stadium and back to their other half of their party.

  All Alli wants is to go home and sleep. Not only is she exhausted. But she wanted to do better than the others. Especially Isla. How could that bitch take Kenneth into her party.

  Isla and Maria beat the level 65 monster. But their parties were too injured to continue. She made it to the level 70, but they didn’t have the firepower to burst through. She wants to be resentful. She knows that if she had Helo in her party, they would have been able to kill it. Enemies like that with low speed and high endurance are putty to Helo’s darkness coated killing hands.

  By the time she reaches the steps to where Hinata is she is feeling a bit better. She cheers herself up with the knowledge that on paper they scored the same as Isla. But in truth they got further.

  Finally reaching Hinata she slumps into her chair next to Helo.

  “You know that you all didn’t need to come here?” Hinata asks.

  “Ahhhhhgggggg.” Alli groans. “I know but were not going to just leave.”

  “Thanks.” Hinata says with a smile.

  Like that they all sit for another thirty minutes. Alli is slumped over and recovering. With Aiko nearby everyone got a few good shots of ‘Restoring Light.’ It isn’t perfect and it won’t cure their exhaustion. But it does make them all feel better about staying, nobody is secretly wishing that they left.

  After thirty minutes there are only a few groups that have yet to go. “Well, it looks like it is about time.” Hinata says while standing up. Along with her Rocco, Cody, Aiko, Rurgrim and Helo stand. Each one is not even worried about reaching level 70. While they are all pretty confident about getting to level 75.

  The only two that know that reaching level 80 isn’t a pipe dream are Hinata and Helo. But they both already agreed that Helo is going to hold back. No double boosting with his skill and blood.

  They all make their way down and easily find their way into the stadium floor. There is only six teams left waiting. So it is only a few minutes before they step up to the platform.

  “And here we have it.” Comes a bored voice. “The other half of the Twin Heiresses.”

  Helo chuckles to himself as he can picture Alli grinding her teeth at the nickname.

  “This is the Maiden of the Forest. The young miss of the Kashiwagi family. Hinata.”

  Helo can’t believe that they made someone who is so bored be the announcer. To him the only way it makes sense is if he lost some kind of bet. Before he can think about it to much he feels the classic noodle like pulling of spatial travel and then he is far away from where he was just standing.

  Not just the stadium, but all over the Town of Awakening and the city of Hornheim people are watching the last noble family of the first years enter into the first challenge. Most people are watching with a passing interest, expecting them to reach the level 65 beast, maybe fail at 70 if they are lucky.

  One of the reasons that Hornheim is so popular is that it doesn’t just display the challenges and tournaments to the students. The School of Awakening displays the fights at every single bar in Hornheim. It is a great way to let others watch, while also strumming up business for the school and city.

  Many are watching with a passing interest. The first years are not the most interesting. If anything what they are truly excited for is tomorrow when the most powerful will be participating. They still go by years, but if a party ranks within the top one-hundred then they go after everyone, during the evening on Sunday. But still the event is popular, and tens of thousands of people are watching from all over the city and school.

  But there are a few people who are now sitting up at watching more intently. These are the people who have been interested in seeing how well the orphan that got picked up by the Birghtmoon’s do. All around Hornheim, more of the clan leaders and VIP’s are in the city than usual.

  Akira and Graham are sitting at a bar that is owned by the Kashiwagi watching intently. “I wonder how they decided who Helo went with?” Graham asks.

  “Oh? Your daughter didn’t tell you?” Akira smirks at his friend. “Well, mine calls me almost every day and let me know that the school forced them to split their party and keep it like that. The only concession they got was that Bibbin and Helo can switch freely.”

  Graham wants to yell are argue with his friend about who’s daughter is more attentive and loves her father more. But he can tell that at this moment, he lost. “Kuh.” Whatever. He looks away completely forgetting about his question.

  Beside Graham, Micah just rolls his eyes and his younger brother’s antics.

  At a separate table Cheyenne and Yuki sip wine while they watch their husbands’ antics. “Those idiots have been like that for years. Constantly arguing about our daughters.” Cheyenna lounges back in the comfortable seats. Her black cat ears and fluffy tail are on display as she closes her eyes and does a very cat-like stretch.

  Yuki chuckles as Cheyenne says ‘Our’ like their daughters’ fathers are irrelevant. She is about to respond, but her sister cuts her off.

  Kiyoki is already tipsy, which is expected and staring at Micah with a little too much heat. But at the mention of the girls, she perks up. “I’mmm. Nch.” She smacks her lips and lays her head down. “I’m just waiting for those cuties to awaken enough of their bloodlines to gain their ears and tails.”

  Both Yuki and Kiyoki are full blooded dryads with peak bloodlines and affinity. The same is true for Akira only he was born with a unique and powerful affinity for Foxfire. Yuki rolls her eyes at her sister. Kiyoki can’t see it with her head on the table, but she can hear it in her sister’s voice.

  “We both know that with our Dryad blood she might not inherit her father’s vulpine features.” Yuki says neutrally but internally she is just as sad as her sister.