Chapter 42 Magic Abilities

I couldn't believe how many males were eliminated in just the first round. There were thousands of males in the first round and now there were only one hundred left standing for the second match. They really do know how to wheedle out those who aren't physically strong enough to stand by my side. Helios interrupted my thoughts, "the first round not only teaches strength, but also speed, and agility navigating the course, as well as the ability to hunt you down and find you even in the most unlikely of places, when they located the rings, they had to use all of their senses." I was impressed, and here I thought it was just a show of power and muscles.

The hundred or so males still left filed back onto the field. I saw Silas and the others among those in the front of the crowd leading the way. They all stopped when they got to the center of the field in front of the squat little male from before. I held my breath waiting for what was to come next. "This match is going to test your magic abilities, this time you won't be locked in a spell box, you will have free reign of the entire field. Use every spell at your disposal and show us what you can do, you will be battling each other to the finish. The last five standing will move onto the final match. With that the squat little man raised his hand in the air, "on your marks, get set, scatter!" The air went eerily silent before the stadium began to shake.

I grabbed ahold of Helios, is this an earthquake? I asked myself. The atmosphere in the stadium completely changed, it almost felt like static electricity was charging the air around me. There was a giant BOOM! as everyone's magic was released ten fold. Shear immense power coursed through the stadium, leaving an ominous feeling in the pit of my stomach. Battle cries rang forth all across the stadium as the males down below charged at each other. Ira was the first to make contact with one of the males. His opponent clapped his hands together and lighting charged forth surging down from the sky. A brilliant light flashed in front of me blinding me momentarily.

Ira dodged the attack and with all his might conjured a rock wall greater that the wall of China in front of him. He place his foot on the wall and with one shove the wall went bare along toward his opponent. With a loud screech he was flattened to a pancake as the wall fell forward crushing him. Immediately after he disappeared off the field. I had never seen so much raw power before. The spells I've seen thus far were cute little charms that Helios, Ihloi or my friends cast knowing they were my favorite spells. The spells I saw until now must have been used to charm females because magic I am seeing in the tournament couldn't even compare. What I am witnessing right now is unbelievable God like powers, meant to be used in a time of war or in my case protect me.

Arthur had morphed into an Eagle again, he was flying above the stadium screeching his Eagle cry, the males gathered down below were shooting blasts of fire in the air trying to shoot him out of the sky. But with wicked speed and a keen eye, Arthur managed to dodge every attack. Using his wings he created a gust of wind that he sent flying toward the fireballs being launched. It caused the fireballs to grow in size and engulf the males down below causing their magic to reign out of control. "Fire is a deadly type of magic that takes many many years to control and even then the best fire mages have trouble controlling it," Helios whispered in my ear. "Arthur was smart to use a wind spell to counterattack his opponent's with.

Silas and Lucas were tag teaming together. Silas twirled his hands together like a wave and all of a sudden a hint waterfall appeared out of nowhere cascading down below those unfortunate enough to be in the way. Lucas with incredible balance flew to the top of the waterfall and with a wink toward me he ran down the waterfall running at a ninety degree angle. My jaw dropped, was when possible to run on water let alone a waterfall?! Laughing like the devil Lucas began to hurl ice the size of lances toward the ones still remaining on the ground. He used the speed of the waterfall as momentum for his attack. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a giant whirlpool come barreling out of nowhere, horrified I screamed, "watch out!" But it was too late.

The whirlpool smack Lucas off his feet launching him to the ground far below. Silas dropped his hands and ran toward his best friend, a moment later he caught Lucas by the scruff of his robes just before he hit the ground. I sighed with relief, at least he was saved from falling to his death. "Thanks buddy I owe you one," Lucas shouted over the chaos. "Don't thank me just yet, match isn't even half over with." He hollered back. "Oh how sweet, look at that Uzal, two commoners working together to try to win this tournament," he mocked them. "Yeah yeah yeah, Bairzet they are so stupid thinking they are gonna win this thing," he said sounding like a hyena with rabbis.

"I'm sorry but you two are not getting anywhere near her. Uzal and I are gonna win this tournament and take our rightful place in her court. Maybe then the king will recognize us and give us a position among the higher court so that way we won't have to babysit a newborn. It'll be so boring having to watch her day in and day out with nothing to do. We only entered this tournament to get close to the King," Bairzet jeered. "Yep that's right, we're doing it for a position," Uzal copied his friend. "Would you stop repeating everything I say, you are getting on my nerves." "Getting on his nerve... wait what?," Uzal said slowly processing what Bairzet said. He glared at his friend before turning back to them "As I was saying, two of those spots belong to us..."

"Like hell they do, Silas interrupted him. "We will never let you take those spots just to satisfy your greed. I would rather die than let you two bone heads win. Those spots are meant to protect her Royal Highness, they are not to be used as a stepping stone to the Kings Court. If she knew what you two were planning she would never accept you as her guards. Her heart is too pure she will be able to see right through your charade in a heartbeat." Lucas nodded in confirmation. "She's not stupid like you two dunces. You two are incompetent to stand next to her highness let alone the King," Lucas sneered back laughing with all his might. Bairzet frowned at the two commoners.

"Well if you are willing to die I can help you with that," Bairzet grinned wickedly. "Only a Royal belongs in the court with the King and Queen. Commoners have no right to a position let alone living on the top level. You are nothing more than ruffian scum that needs to learn their place and be sent back to the level you came from." "Yeah sent back to where you came from," Uzal repeated. Unleashing their magi, flames engulfed their hands as they backed the commoners into a corner. "You do realize fire beats ice every time right? You may know other spells but ultimately your magic is ice. Bairzet laid his hand on the ground and flames burst forth spreading around the two hunched in the corner of the stadium.

I watched as Silas and Lucas were backed into a corner of the stadium, flames had them completely surrounded on all three sides minus the wall. I couldn't watch they were going to get roasted alive. I covered my eyes only peeking through a crack in my fingers. The bigger of the two ganging up on my friends raised a fiery fist and was about to punch Silas when all of a sudden the ground began to shake. I looked to my left and saw Ira barreling toward my friends. Stretching out his arms, rocks all over the ground floated up into the air and encased Ira's entire body with rocks and boulders. It looked like he was wearing a giant armor made of rocks. Then two mounds of rocks appeared under his feet as he ran on top of the rock piles toward my friends.

"Ira pointed at my friends and then pointed up toward the sky, realizing what he was trying to communicate my friends crouched at the ready giving him a thumbs up sign. Just as Ira was baring down on the two fire mages, Silas and Lucas leaped into the air at the last second just as Ira slammed his rock body into the fire mages and into the wall of the stadium. The entire Royals box shook and swayed as a part of the stadium was was taken out. Thank goodness no one was sitting over there otherwise they would have fallen into the flames down below. Thank you Ira I whispered under my breath. You saved my friends. I am eternally grateful. Ira jerked his head toward me and smiled waving at me with his rock hand.

I shook my head, there was no way he heard me from all the way over there and with all the commotion going on around us, it was impossible but yet Ira gave me a thumbs up sign letting me know that he had most definitely heard me. Males and their super hearing I muttered. The two fire mages disappeared off the field, thank goodness they were eliminated. I would have been upset if they won knowing they were about to hurt my friends. After a quick assessment there were probably close to about thirty or so males left on the field. Helios suddenly stood up and sat me down in the arm chair again. "I must go and prepare for the third round. Stay here and be good. Don't get into any trouble while I'm gone," he tapped my nose smiling.

"I need you all to watch her while I'm gone. Make sure nothing happened to her," Helios shouted to the Kings of the other tribes behind me. With a pat on my head Helios took off. I wonder what he was going to do? The Kings of the other tribes and Helios came over and sat down beside me, others stood behind me and Be'ron kneeled at my feet. "So what do you think of the tournament so far, "my Queen, Be'ron teased. "It's a little scary. I have never seen magic lime this before. It's a little intense to watch." All the Kings chuckled around me. She was so adorable sitting in her chair that seemed five times too big for her size. I turned my attention back to the fighting. Looking down I saw Lucas engaged in another fight. This time he was up against people from Ira's tribe.

Boulders were being hurled at Lucas as he dodged laughing manically. I smiled, he will always be a jokester to me. I liked how funny he was even in the face of danger. If anything he would be the one to make me smile when I was frightened. Lucas heard my thoughts briefly, smiling he grinned in my direction, I waved to him. With a bow Lucas raised his hand toward the sky and cast a spell. Thunderstorm clouds appeared above my head as lighting began to strike. Rain fell from the clouds and doused everyone in the stadium with rain. I felt the rain drizzle down on top of me, and in the next instant I saw four soaking wet cloaks flying toward me. "Oof," the air was knocked out of me as four very heavy cloaks buried me in my seat.

Rul'hal who was closest to me quickly unburied me from the pile of wet cloaks. My head poked out frowning, "why did you guys throw your cloaks at me?" Everyone tried not to laugh but a few sniggers escape, "your mate marks disappeared," Arlae whispered in my ear. My eyes widened as I saw the Kings look away in embarrassment. Lifting one of the cloaks I saw that I was indeed naked. They had tossed their cloaks over me to cover me up so I wouldn't be seen naked in front of the entire stadium. I blushed pulling the cloaks tight around me. Looking down I saw Lucas wink up at me before turning back to his fight, all of a sudden a huge rock came out of nowhere and smacked Lucas in the back of the head nocking him out.

"Ha serves you right you little pervert," I whispered under my breath, as I saw Lucas disappear off the field. Maybe this will teach him not to play tricks on me like that. Be'ron brought over the largest towel I had ever seen, it was the size of a blanket. He told the others to look away as he quickly draped the towel over me while pulling off the wet cloaks at the same time. I shivered as the semi warmth from the cloaks disappeared. He wrapped the warm towel around me and patted me dry before grabbing a fresh towel to keep me warm. "Can't have you catching a cold now miss," Be'ron said, as he warmed up his hands with the fire within him and picked me up and sat me down on his lap to warm me up.

It felt nice in his arms, Helios's embrace was cool like an autumn breeze but Be'rons embrace was like that of a warm crackling fire. I hunkered down in his arms enjoying the warmth. I was about ready to dose off when I jerked back awake. I couldn't fall asleep just yet. I had to make it through the whole tournament, I didn't want to miss anything. I slapped my cheeks trying to wake myself up. I turned back to the field down below, their were only ten males left. Ira, Arthur, and Silas were among them. I was glad they were still in the fight. That must mean that they are really powerful to have made it this far. I cheered them on as the fight continued.

Arthur dive bombed the males below him, grabbing ahold of one of them by the shoulders he carried them into the sky and released him. Screaming he fell and hit the ground, disappearing off the field. Next Silas took out another male with his ice lance, he snuck up behind him and stabbed him from behind, even though I knew this wouldn't kill him, I still felt bad for him, he was most definitely going to feel that in the morning. Last was Ira, he took on two opponents at once, he created two giant rock walls surrounding the two males, he clapped his hands together and the walls slammed together squeezing the two males into a walled sandwich. They along with the one Silas took out disappeared to the infirmary tent.

This only left Silas, Arthur, Ira and three other males. They only needed to take out one more male and the match would be finished. As my friends regrouped to hunt down the last male, they along with I soon realized that it was unnecessary, I immediately recognized one of the males, he was one of the males Sophie had pointed out to me yesterday. He was the freakishly large male that could tear me in two with the flick of his wrist! His vest told me he was from Astranova, Be'ron's tribe, he wielded the power of fire. Watching him, I saw that he was creating an army using fire. Soldiers popped out of the ground engulfed in flames. It reminded me of a slow match of zombies but they were on fire as they marched toward a male who was from Ruria.

As the male from Astranova stood back he let his fire soldiers do all the work. They surrounded the other male and in a matter of seconds he had caught fire! He ran around screaming in agony as he waved his hands in the air to show that he wanted to surrender. I shuddered under my towel, seeing those fire soldiers was like watching something right out of your nightmare. No wonder he made it into the top five. He was incredibly powerful not just physically but, magically as well. Why did I have to get stuck with him as my private guard? He looked like the Incredible Hulk who just stepped out of a Marvel Movie minus being green. His shear mass intimidated me. Sophie must have known that I would be stuck with him.

The last male finally disappeared off the field, leaving one male from Uelara, one from Astranova, one from Ruria, and two from Kosea. I already knew three of them, so that left me two of them to meet after the tournament. A moment later Helios appeared beside me, "what happened here," he asked frowning at Be'ron who was still holding me wrapped up in a towel on his lap. Embarrassed I quickly jumped down off his lap. "Lucas did it," I blurted out, Helios raised his brow. "He somehow made it rain all over the stadium and it got me wet. Everyone tossed their cloaks over me so I wouldn't be seen. Be'ron got me a towel and he was keeping me warm, I don't know how he was doing it but he felt like a fire in a fireplace. He kept me from catching a cold."

I stared down at the floor not sure why I felt so guilty. Helios bent down and whispered in my ear, "what happened to staying out of trouble," he asked chuckling. "It's not my fault, it just somehow always finds me. I feel like I'm a magnet for trouble," I mumbled nudging one of the loose floorboards with my bare foot. All the Kings including Helios bellowed with laughter when they heard this. Helios pulled me into his arms and hugged me tight. "You're going to need a whole army just to keep you out of trouble my love." I blushed knowing that he was probably right about that. Helios picked me up and carried me back to our seat. He placed me in the arm chair just as the squat little man came back out onto the field.