11 11: Orientation VII

"Okay which way do we go?" Jane asked looking back at Nigel.

"T-T-That way!" Nigel stuttered pointed toward a massive coliseum off in the distance then screamed and held on tightly to Iris.

I held my hands above my eyes to block the glare of the sun and looked toward the coliseum. It was so far away that even as high as were it we could just barely make it out.

"Got it! Jingles please hurry!" Jane ordered. Jingles roared and picked up speed. We flew over the team that left the library on the steed. Looking down I could see them screaming and cursing as we passed them.

'Yes! We're going to beat them at this rate!' I thought.

"It's gotten really late." Iris said. "In a few hours it's going to be sundown."

The sky had already started to take a gold and crimson color as the sun started to set. The large silver spirals and gold laced buildings of Andromeda reflected this light making it look like millions of shining jewels were dancing on the ground below us. It almost felt like a special light show that the collage was putting on for us.

"We've been at this for hours. I'm starting to get hungry." Iris added. Now that she said something I realized I was hungry too.

"Hold on!" I exclaimed.

Carefully I grabbed my backpack and set it on my lap then reached inside and pulled out a energy bar.

"Here!" I said and handed it up to her.

"What…is this?" Iris asked. She held the bar away from herself, pinched between two fingers.

"It's a energy bar." I replied. I could feel Iris scowling at me. She turned around and narrowed her eyes at me.

"What the hell is a energy bar?" She asked. I looked at her flabbergasted.

"How do you not know what a energy bar is?"

"I don't know maybe because I'm not a poor street urchin!" Iris snapped. I growled and held my hand out.

"Give me back my energy bar Tri-clops!" I snapped. Iris glared at me then smirked. She tossed the bar over her shoulder. The bar flew past me and fell to the ground before I could grab it.

"Hey! You owe me two dollars!" I snapped. Iris smiled smugly and turned around.

"Iris!" Jane groaned.

"What?! He didn't catch it!" Iris said innocently.

"Oh for Ra's sake." Jane muttered. I pulled out another energy bar and aggressively ate it, tossing the wrapper over my shoulder.

"Can I have one?" Jane asked

"Lady Jane you don't need to eat his peasant food!" Iris exclaimed.

"We haven't eaten all day and we've used quite a bit of mana today. We need to eat something in order to replenish it." Jane said.

"These bars are definitely good for that. I always ate them back at home of I used too much mana controlling evos at the factory." I said. I picked out another and passed it up to Jane. Iris looked at it like it was garbage but still handed it to Jane.

"Thank you." Jane said then opened it and took a bite. She smiled pleasantly and quickly ate the rest of the bar. I took put another bar and held it out to Nigel.

"Want one?" I asked. Nigel just shook his head and held on tighter to Iris. He was doing everything he could to keep from looking down. I started to put the bar back in my bag but stopped. Iris might be a annoying and condescending but I needed her if I was going to get into this class. I sighed and held the bar out to her.

"Take it." I said. Iris scowled and waved it away.

"I don't want it. I don't need peasant food." Iris said.

"You need to eat something. We don't know when or even if we'll be able to eat and we've already used a bunch of mana. If we want to get into this ass we'll need to be at full strength. So stop being a spoiled princess and take the bar." I argued. Jane chuckled a little at the spoiled princess line.

Iris grumbled to herself and snatched the energy bar from me then quickly ate it. I smirked triumphantly and zipped my backpack up and put it back on my back.

The coliseum was much closer now. Jingles was trying its hardest to get us there as fast as it could. I could clearly see how massive it was now. It made Olympic stadiums look tiny in comparison.

"So what was that spell you used?" Jane asked suddenly.

"Mana manipulation and attribute conversion tattoo." Nigel replied for me.

"You knew what my spell was?" I gasped.

"I knew what all the spells were in that box. I helped pick them. When that was added I basically thought anyone/that got it was going to fail but after seeing you control those five steeds with no problem I figured you probably had enough mana to activate that spell." Nigel explained.

"Activate? Don't you mean learn?" Jane asked. Nigel shook his head.

"That sigil card is actually a encoded spell. Try to cycle mana into it and it start siphoning your mana until it has enough to activate the spell or you run out."

"So what does it do?" Iris asked.

"Allows me to change the attributes of my mana. You know fire, lightning and all that. It's how I wrapped my hand in lightning earlier without a spell sigil."

"WHAT?!" Iris screamed.. Her head snapped around to look at me so fast it was a blur.

"Rather than casting spells he can change his mana attribute in order to have a similar effect." Nigel explained.

"That's cheating!" Iris exclaimed.

"The spell has a few downsides. I can't be affected by enchantment or utility spells anymore. It also burns through mana unless you have master level control apparently." I explained.

'Which explains why I felt so hungry earlier.' I thought. The energy bar helped but I was still low on mana.

"Depending on the spell used on you that could be good or bad. Then there's the fact you don't really have any mana control." Jane observed. I nodded and sighed.

'As powerful as that ability sounds its way too dangerous to use too much during this test. ' I thought. I would need to learn a lot more about mana and controlling it before that could become something I could rely on regularly.

"We're almost at the coliseum!" Jane announced. Everyone looked to see the coliseum quickly approaching. From a distance it looked like it was made completely if stone but not that we were closer I could see that it was just the entrances that were. The rest was made out of steel that was painted to look like old stone.

"Yes!" Iris and I exclaimed.

I saw something moving out lf the corner of my eye and looked down. There were three groups of people racing towards the coliseum on the backs of various evos.

'Oh my gods it's the other teams!' I realized. 'They must have left not quiet an hour ago. At this speed we'll make it before they do and be the first ones!'

I started to tell the others about the teams below us when I saw a flash of red light. Two bolts of lightning suddenly flew at us, just barely missing Jingles!

"What the fuck!?" Iris yelled. It came from one of the splicers in the team heading up the rear of the pack. Two more red lights flashed as he prepared more attacks.

"One of them is firing at us! DODGE!" I roared pointing at the teams below us.

"Jingles evade!" Jane ordered. "hold on!"

Jingles preformed a barrel roll and dodged a barrage of fireballs. It started flying evasively as fire and lightning was flung at us. Jingles effortless dodged every attack while Nigel, Iris, and I clung to it for dear life. Nigel looked like he was about to throw up, while Jane seemed unbothered by Jingles erratic movements.

Three blue fireballs zipped towards us. Once again Jingles artfully dodged the attack but as they passed us the fireballs changed direction and came at us again. Jingles roared and started doing flips and barrel rolls to try and get the homing fireballs off us but it couldn't shake them. With a powerful flap of its wings it ascended quickly. The fireballs followed getting closer and closer.

Jane threw her arm back and a blue sigil formed in front of her hand. A shield of ice formed behind Jingles just as the fireballs nearly ganged on us. The fireballs slammed into the ocean shield and exploded. The shockwave knocked me off Jingles' back and hurling to the ground.

"CHASE!" Jane and Iris screamed.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!"