Academy Competition (Pt. 4)

Thanks Miss Hemiko" I say with a smile and I walk off to leave the ring

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" Miss Alice" I heard from behind me, the familiar voice of the Overseer of ring six.

Spinning around I reply " Yes sir?"

" You have Three Hours to Rest and roam at your leisure, after which you will be required to return as to complete the final part of the Bracketed competition."

" Affirmative" I respond with a lazy salut, looking him in the eyes, they were a pretty sky blue color if you were wondering. ' Who am I even narrating to?' I question but then ignore the wonders of my internal monologue.

I look over the grounds and notice that their are a few big stone plates showing the ring numbers and their winners names below. It was cool to see my name being carved into stone by seemingly nothing, but I knew it was magic.

' So we were the second group done?' I thought the only other ring finished is ring 5 won by someone named Julian Herplin.

I wander to the stands and go over to see the other rings and watch the matches of ring one and Three which luckily were right next to each other so it wasn't overly difficulty to keep an eye on both Caroline and Emmy. Ring one where Emmy was, two boys swordfighting. They were about as good as the fillers in my ring and it didn't really supprise me they took forever. In Ring Three, however, Caroline was fighting and I was shocked to say the least. In her hands were blue flames and they seemed, hungry. Caroline shot the two fireballs at her opponent who seemed to be a girl with a spear. The girl with the spear dodged the first one, only to be hit by the second the girl caught on fire and the girls screamed in pain before the flames went out, her cloths completely intact, and she stood back up to be hit in the face with another fireball this one was red however.

" Winner Caroline" I heard from the ring. The fireball was seen as a fatal attacks and the battle ended there.

Caroline returned to her seat, so I'm assuming she hasn't finished in her ring. I decide to sit and watch both the of them until the end.

glancing between the two rings I see Emmy finally was up to fight so I focus in on her ring.

" Match 4 Finial Round Emmavailya vs Corn" The Female Overseer of Ring one called

I begin laughing a little when I heard of someone named corn and it got better when her walked into the ring, he actually reminded me of an unshucked cob of corn.

He had yellow hair and a slightly paleish yellow skin color rocking a complete deep green outfit looking like link without his cap, green outfit and a sword on his back with a shield.

Emmy walked onto the grounds in a white dress with matching colored frills that reached her mid calf that revealed leather boots and had a sword hilt tied to her waist. The oddest part was the unnatural clinking sound that faintly reverberated when she made larger movements. It definitely didn't come from the sword.

" Match Start"

Corn started chanting which wasn't supposed to happen, and a green spell circle appeared. 'Link can't talk and nor can he use magic, he's breaking character!' I rant to myself for no real reason, I knew he wasn't really link but I can imagine right? I think it would have been cool.

During my pointless thoughts Emmy had begun to run at Corn. As she got within range to hit him he backed off and fired the spell he had been creating while grabbing the hilt of his blade. Vines emerge from the ground halting Emmy's advance as Corn drew his blade and went for a downward cleave. Emmy blocked the sword and redirected it to the side, the force Corn put onto the move being used to cut the base of the cluster of vines binding her to the ground. Emmy lifted her foot tearing the rest of the vines that remained uncut and twisted her body kicking Corn in the chest onto the ground and cutting the vines binding her other foot in one clean move. She then ran up to Corn to put her foot onto his chest and render him incapacitated.

However, when she put her foot onto his chest, he quickly readjusted his body so that his shield blocked the kick and he pushed up causing her to stumble back, disorienting her so she just barely twist out of the way of his follow up thrust. She recovered and they were at momentary stand still, and stared at each other for a moment. Corn decided to attack again, as he charged at Emmy, as she shuffled back a little, and went to try a overhead cleave again which was once again blocked by Emmy's sword he then spun around, his sword aimed for her side and his shield positioned to block any attack to him while he is open. This didn't work as in the next moment Corn found something tied around his ankle and flew through the air over Emmy landing on the ground with a thud. In the time Corn had his back to Emmy she had taken out a chain from the ruffles of her dress and caught Corns leg literally throwing him out of the competition.

" Winner Emmavailya" The Overseer of Ring called out in an excited high pitched voice " Emmavailya Astra will be moving to the Main Competition. This will concludes the competition for ring one. Good job to all competitors and do not feel down for a loss for it is loss that give us knowledge of victory and how to achieve it." The Overseer started off hyperactive and quickly turned sagely in her tone. She walked over to Emmy and told her some things I am assuming it is about the second half of the competition. I turn back to watch Caroline's ring but she is already finished and walking towards me.

" Dang you noticed me, I was hoping to scare you. Whatever! That was fun!" Caroline said as she stretched her arm over her head and arches her back making a loud popping noise that silenced all of the talking from the groups of people surrounding us. It sounded like she broke something.

She collapsed on the floor and rolled to the side reaching one arm up towards me and said " I'm sorry I'm afraid my time has come." in a dramatic voice, I just roll my eyes because

I know she is fine.

" No! Caroline don't leave me!" Emmy was her knees and holding the body of Caroline and had tears starting to form in her eyes " Caroline, you can't die" Then she actually started crying.

I was in shock. 'What the actual hell was going on right now? I assumed that Emmy was slow but I know for a fact she is not that dumb, she couldn't be. Also Caroline seems to be a pretty dramatic person so Emmy should know she's ok, is this like some kind of unplanned skit? Regardless I am impressed at the acting abilities of Emmy. 'Laughter broke me out of my thoughts

Both Caroline and Emmy were now on the ground laughing, apparently they were able to convince the others around me they were being serious and a few people even when to see if they could help, one even ran off to seek medical attention. I could only facepalm at their actions and start laughing myself.

We start to cool down and everyone realizes what had happened, some were mad they were tricked and some where embarrassed to be fooled most likely from Caroline's bad acting. We all ended up apologising, me included, despite the fact I don't know what I did wrong, and left the arena. I looked at my watch and noticed it was about 11:30. We had spent a lot of time waiting in the seating area for the competition to start. The first round of the competition took about 45 minutes, the other groups ending about as we were leaving, so it wouldn't be long before the second years would start their competition. We decided to head to the front and get some food to watch the fights.

Arriving at the Guild Restaurant that now had small snacks and sweats on racks lining the walls for people to buy, I was stopped by Kline.

" Alice could you do me a small favor?" He asked with a smile, it was a harmless smile but it still made me shudder a bit. I had a bad feeling about this.

" What do you need?" I ask

" Would you be willing to help me sell some snacks to the crowd during the rest of the competitions?" He asked

"What would I get out of it" I asked. I wasn't on duty so I had no obligation to help.

" I'll pay you" he said

" I'm still not convinced" I replied training away from him. To be honest I was slightly because, I wanted to have some money and not having any makes me feel anxious, probably from my previous living conditions, but I also wanted to actually spend some time with Caroline and Emmy.

" I'll have Garrett make you a chocolate milkshake."

Kline said

I stopped as he said this I loved just plain milk, so I assume a milkshake would be similar, also it has chocolate in it, I love chocolate, chocolate was my Achilles heel, my weakness. As a child you could get me to do anything for a price of chocolate, I was obsessed and not much has changed much since then but currently the incentive was too great.

Reluctantly I turned to Caroline and Emmy and say " I'm sorry but I have to" My mental conflict showing on my face. They both just laughed and my face flushed slightly.

" Can we help" Caroline abruptly asked shocking both me and Kline.

"Sigh ... what do you want for it" he asked knowing she was going to request something

" I want my free coffee" She said smiling triumphantly.

"Is that ..."

" I want my free coffee" Caroline repeated and walks close to Kline grabbing his hand and looking into his eyes, in a tone between pleading and threatening

" I. Want. My. Free. Coffee."

"Ok you'll get a free coffee"

" Two, Two Free Coffees!"

"Ok you'll get two"

"Yay! Thanks Kline" Caroline seemed absolutely delighted.

" Emmy what do you want?" Kline asked probably assuming she was going to follow Caroline and I.

" I'll just have you owe me, and I decide later. How does that sound" Emmy asked

" Ok, I believe that would be acceptable as long as the favor is not something outside of my power." Kline replied and started walking towards the kitchen.

" Ok, since you all will be helping you will need uniforms come with me I do believe I have some in your size from" Kline stopped for a moment "... nevermind that's not important. Stay here until I come back, Alice you should already have yours, put it on." He continued to the kitchen.

'Wonder what that was about' I think while walking to the bathrooms. I may be able to just equip cloths but I still want to be hidden. I can only put them on how they were intended to be used so I still shift some things here and there to make it look slightly different. Looking in the mirror I shift around some of the ruffles, and readjust the sleeves; I also put the Void Flower back in my hair. I had to take off from before while I was fighting.

Giving clover some head pats I walk back out of the bathroom as Emmy and Caroline were coming in.

" How did you change so fast" Caroline asked shocked at how I managed to put everything on so quickly

" Magic?" I reply,' technically it was but was it really a good point I will probably spend way too much time considering in the future'

I walk out before more questions arise, not wanting to wait for the interrogation to continue.

Soon we were all done getting ready, but what Caroline and Emmy were wearing that got on my nerves. Even though they were the same uniform, mine was far more frilly. Kline reviewed the items we were selling, then we were given baskets with to take with us. A collection of goodies from small, brittle, sweet treats to little bags of jerky, whatever your fancy their was probably something for you. The amount of different products were few, only about 6 - 7 in total, but the disparity between them gave a selection of which almost any audience would appreciate at least one. We were then told we could leave and unless we were going to fight we needed to stay working to get our payment. The last little thing we were sent off with is that, as a thank you, we would be given a small amount of money based on our personal sales.

We started to walk around the stands and sell our treats to the people watching the matches.