Swift Wind easily defeated Boar House. Stallo and Kang clashed while Binder and Hayworth dismantled Westley and Brian. That left Stallo facing three magi alone. He didn’t quit, and he made them work for it.
Gregory felt bad for Binder— the wind magi was the weakest of the three, so that meant Stallo went for him first. Or, rather, tried to go for him first. Hayworth pushed to save his clan mate at that moment, making Binder vanish. He was replaced by Kang, who smiled as his attack hit Stallo square in the chest.
Sasha called the fight over. Stallo’s armor had been crumpled in, and Kang’s practice weapon had shattered. Kang helped Stallo out of his ruined armor, as it was causing him trouble breathing.
After the fight, Gregory and his wives got into their armor. Their fight wouldn’t be right away, but they knew they should get ready. Gregory was still getting into the last pieces when Hayworth led his clan back into the waiting area.
“Good fight,” Jenn told them.
“Thank you. They shouldn’t have tried to bunker again.”
“Are they okay?” Yukiko asked.
“Yes. They passed out from too much pressure. It might’ve ruptured their ears, but that was fixed when the fight was over,” Hayworth said.
Binder shrugged. “When Hayworth got the portal open into their enclosure, it was easy to seal their vision slit with air and just pour air pressure into it.”
“And that switch at the end?” Gregory asked.
“It was obvious that he’d have to remove one of us, and Binder would be the one they went for. We’d planned for it, which is why Kang was ready.”
“Taxed you, didn’t it?” Jenn asked.
“Moving two people like that isn’t easy, especially as an apprentice,” Hayworth replied as he stripped his armor off. “We’ll be heading up to watch before your fight starts. Another get-together afterward, right?”
“Should be,” Yukiko smiled. “Probably end with the Peaceful Fist again.”
“Hmm. It’s different. It’s hard to think that such slow movement can push the body so much,” Kang said. “I was curious, though… how do you know it’s working for both paths?”
“The spirit path sees the aether cavern,” Gregory said. “For you, it would mean you’d suddenly see it. For a spirit path follower who has already seen it, they’d know it was working when sparks left the aether flame to widen the channels that the body path makes.”
“Aether cavern?” Kang asked slowly.
“Yes,” Hayworth said. “If you didn’t try to expand your mind, you’d never know about it.”
“Was busy working on my body path,” Kang muttered, stripping off his armor.
Gregory finished getting his armor on, thanking his wives for their help. “We’ll try to expand on your win, but between the potential firestorm and a spatial mage… I’m not feeling good about it.”
“As we’ll be in the same boat tomorrow, maybe we’ll get to see more of what they have planned,” Hayworth said.
“Maybe. Be ready to see some surprises, at least,” Gregory chuckled.
“Sounds promising,” Hayworth laughed. “Come on. Harrison will no doubt wish to critique our fight.”
Binder and Kang followed him out, with Kang muttering as they went, “It was basically flawless. What could he—?” The door shut behind them, cutting off his sentence.
“Fire, wind, and spatial…” Yukiko said slowly. “I’m not sure they’ll try for a firestorm again. If it doesn’t work, they’ll be exhausted. If it worked… they’d win easily. Neither of you could get out of the way in time.”
“Which is why I have Gregory’s ring for this fight,” Jenn said.
“I’ll go straight to them,” Gregory said. “That should surprise them, and I might be able to catch Pavil or Claudia by surprise.”
“I’ll jump near them— out of the way— and hunker in the shadows until something happens,” Yukiko said.
“I’ll rush in like Gregory. I’ll need to hold two cores in that hand, just in case,” Jenn said. “What are you both taking for items?”
Gregory considered it for a moment. “I’m going to use the necklace. If I use it just before I leave the flames, they won’t know what hit them.”
“Oh, that would be devastating,” Yukiko smiled. “I’ll be using my fire ring, just in case they do something that I don’t expect. Some protection is better than none.”
“What will they have…?” Gregory murmured. “I’m pretty sure Claudia will stay with the tiara, unless she wasn’t able to recharge it.”
“Something to take away shadows,” Jenn said. “To negate Yuki.”
“And barriers to hinder Jenn enough that Adriana can use a rift to take her out,” Yukiko added. “Pavil will have the light item, and Adriana the barriers… Unless we’re wrong, of course. They could just go with aether storage to not tap themselves with the firestorm.”
“Which would prolong the fight normally,” Gregory nodded, “but if they can’t see me to stop me, the fight will be over almost as soon as it starts.”
“The announcer is coming back out, so we should know soon,” Jenn said.
They made sure they had the right enchanted items with them and went to the door. Egil gave them a nod. “For the empire.”
“For the empire, Armsmaster,” they replied back in unison.
“Well, we’ve come to the last fight for today,” Mikal began. “Remember: after the fight’s end, we’ll be showing some demonstrations of new inventions, so stick around. But before we get to that, our final match for today, and it should be a good one! From the empire, we welcome Aether’s Guard. Victorious in their first match against Boar House, can they keep their streak going? Led by Gregory Pettit, user of foresight magic, we’ve seen him win every fight he’s been in. Beside him stand his two wives: Yukiko Pettit, accomplished shadow magi. Will she be able to assassinate one of her opponents? And last, but far from least within their clan, Jenn Pettit. She might be small, but she’s shown her fierce determination in every fight. Backed by her physical enhancement, she has proven strong enough to take on the best from Buldoun’s houses.”
Gregory led his wives out of the waiting area, all three of them waving to the crowd. The crowd was mostly jeering, but the cheers were louder for them than for any of the other empire groups. Mikal let the crowd go for a bit before he decided to end it.
“Who will they face? Eagle House, led by none other than Claudia Firetongue. The fire mage is known to be passionate about winning and there’s no doubt that she’ll be ready to do so with her fellow house members behind her. Pavil Cutter helped her almost win the first match by mixing his wind magic with her fire magic. Will they make another firestorm, or have they opted for a different avenue? Either way, today, they get rejoined by their third member: Adriana Locus. Will a spatial mage be the difference between failure and a win? Let’s find out!”
Claudia led her teammates out, and the audience cheered for Eagle House. All three of them waved to the crowd, smiling. As they crossed to the middle, their smiles dimmed as they got ready to fight. Gregory reached up, attaching his mask in place so his nose and mouth were covered. He glared once it was in place, letting the snarling dragon mouth speak for him.
“Same rules. Any questions?” Mikal asked. When no one said anything, he went to the Buldoun waiting area door. Opening it, he got ready to rush inside. “Fight!”
Yukiko was gone in an instant, using as much aether as needed to vacate the area. It was good that she did, because the majority of the arena was suddenly engulfed in flames. Appearing in the shadows behind and to the side of Eagle House, she was glad she didn’t go straight behind them— Adriana was there with her spear poised to strike, light coming from the necklace she was wearing. Yukiko drew a little farther away, waiting for her moment.
Claudia was suddenly backing away, yelling at Pavil just before Jenn came bursting out of the flames. The fact she moved before Jenn was visible had Yukiko frowning. The firestorm died as Pavil turned to throw wind blades at Jenn, who darted backward to avoid them.
A murmur went through the crowd, as Gregory was nowhere to be seen. Everyone was trying to guess where he was when Pavil crumpled to the ground, his hand touching the back of his head. The next moment, Adriana fell, touching her chest. A wooden naginata had appeared only a heartbeat before it hit her in the chest. Gregory reappeared behind Pavil’s prone body, apparently untouched by the fire.
Jenn stopped retreating and rushed back at Claudia, who threw her hands up. Sasha yelled for them to stop. Claudia spun to Gregory, marching toward him— she had questions. The crowd was loud as they tried to unravel what had happened.
“How?!” Claudia asked in exasperation when she got close enough.
“My armor and my enchanted item,” Gregory replied. “We have to fight all of you in the last fight, so I’d like to not answer more than that for now.”
Claudia looked like she was going to grab him, but Pavil groaned. “What carriage hit me…?”
“Sorry. I did check it some,” Gregory said. “I had to stop you from throwing more at Jenn.”
“I never saw you…” Pavil muttered.
“Nor did I,” Adriana said as she came to join the group. “Nice throw.”
“Glad you didn’t see it in time or I’d have been unarmed,” Gregory said.
“I was… not useful,” Yukiko said simply. “But Claudia, you knew Jenn was there before she was visible.”
Claudia looked away. “My enchanted item.”
“Not the tiara,” Jenn said, storing the extra bane core in her obi, having had to use one to get out of the firestorm.
“A different one, not that it did us any good,” Claudia hissed. “Damn! I have to win tomorrow now. I can’t lose all three fights.”
“It would be bad if we do,” Adriana grimaced. “He’ll be upset.”
“Archmage?” Yukiko asked.
“Yes…” Claudia sighed. She stepped back, after helping Pavil to his feet. “Good win.”
“Thank you,” Gregory said. “We just had the right items to survive the firestorm. You had no way of knowing.”
“Is it even worth trying against Swift Wind?” Adriana asked Claudia.
“I don’t know,” Claudia exhaled.
The six of them bowed to each other, and Gregory went to retrieve the naginata. As the announcer started extolling the victory, Gregory paused in walking back.
“Still coming over to eat?” Gregory asked Claudia.
“Yes. We’ll see you there,” she replied, her smile strained.
Gregory nodded before joining his wives to walk off the arena floor.
