Child of Ice

Michael didn't care for the duels, nor did he care if he won or not. His standings didn't necessarily matter to him.

What did matter, was upholding his families reputation and respect.

With a sigh, he stood up from his seat as Barren gave him a simple nod.

"Michael of House Everfrost, you will face... Gemini of House Ironclad."

A couple of gasps filled the classroom bleachers, as many realized just who Gemini was.

Michael turned to Gemini, as he walked down the bleachers a few steps behind him.

"No hard feelings, your majesty."

He said, with a hint of arrogance in his voice.

"Yeah, no hard feelings..."

Gemini responded, while not even bothering to look him in the eyes.

'Let's see if you really do carry the dwarf king's blood.'

Michael turned, and walked down the bleachers, and then continued to his side of the training platform.

The floor had already been cracked by the previous students who fought. 

"'How in the three worlds am I ever going to top that show."

He muttered, with amusement leaking out of his quiet voice.

With his scimitar at his side, he turned and readied his blade, at his challenger. 

'This will do, although I do prefer a scythe.'

With that thought, he looked up at his brunette friend, who sat next to the so called "Prodigy of Lightning."

Something wasn't sitting right with Michael.

How did the boy who killed The Naga, lose to some bratty princess? The answer wasn't going to come from Chase. He was clearly beaten down by his defeat, and Poppy wasn't going to tell him either, but he obviously knew what she was thinking from the expression on her face.

She didn't like the outcome?

'No, that's not it.'

He thought, with a his mood turning sour as he looked Gemini dead in the eyes from across the room- waiting for professor Barren to start the match.

'Ah...'

She was expecting more, as was Michael. In fact, he still did expect more, everything about the boy from the forest, the lone survivor, the slayer of the Naga, and the child of Blaze of the House of Phoenix- simply just didn't make sense.

Yes, Michael knew who he was. His entire family had been indebted to Blaze, and when the news of his death reached his family they immediately sent search parties into The Dark Forest. 

Instead of Blaze, they had found a skinny and short boy who had been through hell.

He shouldn't have survived, and yet he did. 

No one else knew of Chase's origin outside of Michael's family. He wasn't even sure if the boy knew, himself.

So, when he seen the black markings on the boy's arm, and the terrible scars on his body- decided to not ask him about it.

In a way, Michael felt inferior to Chase for no reason in particular. Maybe it was the long lost, ancient lineage, maybe it was his calm and collected demeanor, but still was able to keep the obvious anger inside bottled up.

It was all truly unknown, and he hated the unknown. 

Not because he cared about knowing things, or even that he thought he was smart in any way, it was because he didn't like when unexpected things happened, especially when those unexpected things threatened the very society that he had grown up in.

'Too much damn thinking.'

"Start!"

With one more glance at Chase, Michael shot himself forward as soon as Barren had started the match.

'I have faith in that kid, but I'm not going to lose either.'

Michael brought his scimitar down on the half-dwarf with all of his might.

CLANG!

'What?'

Gemini had brought his onyx war-hammer up, and met his blade head on- causing a thunderous ring to echo throughout the room.

Michael quickly ducked underneath the hammer, switching his footing, in order to maneuver around the dwarf.

Lifting his blade above his head, he met the shorter boy's hammer once more.

'He's stronger then he looks, I'll give him that much.'

Michael had already moved though- Without a seconds notice, he was on the other side of Gemini.

Slashing his scimitar horizontally, he finally landed a hit on the dwarf boy. 

A shallow cut had been driven into Gemini's upper chest. 

The mock swords weren't supposed to be able to cut into the flesh of even the weakest of students.

But, that just said how strong Michael truly was. In the official pre-rankings of the first years he was put at the fourth spot, only behind Neo of House Cobra, Poppy of House Aries, and Hans of House Gaia. 

Granted, the skill gap between him and the other three was far too vast for his liking.

Pushing himself off of the ground, Michael launched over Gemini, their eyes met briefly, and all he could see was fear.

It was pathetic really.

To be son of the king of dwarves, and not have any of the skill to back it up.

Not that he didn't like the boy, more so that he only felt pity when he looked at him.

Michael swiftly landed, immediately throwing another horizontal slash aimed toward Gemini's back.

He wasn't fast enough to turn around this time.

With a loud crash, Michael was able to put enough force into the strike to nearly knock the boy over.

'Damnit, just surrender already.'

Gemini turned, this time when their eyes met, a look of anger was bestowed within his look.

Michael threw himself out of the way, and into a violent roll, as the hammer swung down, crashing into the ground with the true might of a dwarf.

The ground cracked and rumbled.

'Finally...'

A grin appeared on Michaels face.

'Thought the other students were gonna fall asleep from boredom at the rate this was going.'

Swinging his hammer once again at the newly positioned Michael, Gemini pushed his back foot off of the ground and in the direction of him.

He wasn't going to block the attack, that was just suicide.

However, Gemini had one truly terrible, yet obvious flaw...

The dwarf was painfully slow.

Michael twisted himself around the direction of the hammer, and threw himself at the boy now unable to defend in time.

His blade grew cold, as did nearly the entire room.

Things like this tended to happen when he got to take part in anything remotely close to a real fight.

After all, Michael was the first ever member of the house of Everfrost to have total control over the entire element of ice.

He had the most Primis potential in the history of his family.

With his hands cold, and his breathing slow, he swung his blade at Gemini- hoping to end the fight here.

CLANG!

This time, Gemini had blocked the attack.

Now they stood on opposite ends of their clashed weapons, pressing against each other's with immense strength from both ends. 

Gemini, with his brows furrowed, seemed to have adapted to Michael's agile fighting style.

Which only meant that he could go all out on the prince of dwarves.

With a quick chuckle, Michael released his scimitar from the clash, and slid underneath the weapon, reaching back with his sword, as he shot to the other side of the boy.

'I win...'