The Coming Darkness

Maya walked as quickly as she could back to the school, and arrived in a short time. She was curious and feeling a little uneasy, so she went to go find the others downstairs. When she went down the stairs, she came across large steel doors. She could sense the others inside, but still felt uneasy as she knocked to be let in. When the doors were open, Enzo and Silver were lying on the floor. Silver was seeming to gain consciousness again, but Enzo was still unconscious with a large wound across his stomach. "What...?" She frowned and hugged the dragon against her chest.

"Sucks to be you, welp. You just missed out on an entertaining fight between two mentally challenged people." Red laughed at his own joke, despite it's harshness. Kenji tipped his hat toward Maya as a greeting, then looked over at Enzo. "It's fine, Enzo's used to punishment like this. The last time he's been in a fight with a girl, he got stabbed. Not like this, though." He walked up to Enzo, who was actually starting to create a small pool of blood.

Kenji took out his pistol, and aimed it at Enzo's body. The barrel of the gun started to shine an unnatural light. He pulled the trigger, and a small beam of light covered over the wound he had, healing it up quickly. The blood had also disappeared with his healing. "One more..." he said to himself, turning around and doing the same to Silver.

"Oh, so this is normal, okay." Maya said loudly and sarcastically. "I guess since we have someone who can heal us, would anybody like to train with me? That is, if you can even land a hit." She took off her sweater and put it in a corner, gently laying the dragon's body on top and turning towards the others again. Maya leaned on her right leg and put her hand on her hip. "Any takers?" She didn't know what had come over her. It was a combination of her uneasiness and her suddenly doubting her own skills. She knew she could not land any hits, but she could dodge any that came at her.

Red scoffed at Maya's crazy offer. "Do you even know what it means to fight? You can't just dodge all the time. You'll have to eventually beat your opponent down." Red cracks his knuckles. "If you still think you can fight, i'll take you on."

Ling let out a whistle. "That sure was an intense fight." He made sure he said that under his breath. "This is going to be troublesome if we intend to be put in the roster." Ling decided to make a worried expression and rushed up to Enzo and patted him on the back. "Are you okay Enzo? You two seriously went all out." Joanne was getting more annoyed with Ling putting up such a fake act. But she dares not say anything. She simply hanged back near the entrance silently.

Ling talked to Kenji afterwards. "Well Kenji, you should really be a bit more easier to Enzo. If he keeps this up, he might end up in a predicament."

Maya tilted her head and smirked. She reached into her sweater pocket and pulled out stainless steel bracelets, clipping them on and looking at Red confidently. She looked over to Kenji and nodded. "You really do need to go easy on Enzo." She sighed. "Whenever you're ready." She walked over to Red and stood about 3 feet foot infront of him, and slowly and smoothy leaned into a fighting position.

"Trust me, I wouldn't let anything bad happen to Enzo. I'm his bodyguard, after all." Kenji smirks. Enzo rubbed his head a little and yawns. "Well.. She was holding back.. I could tell." Enzo added in. He noticed Red's sword rising from the ground. He gripped it , and surges of red electricity flow through the sword.

That reminds me.. Enzo looked over to the gloomy female at the entrance. I can see Ling winning any fight with just sheer power.. but what about her? He stood up and realized he had cuts in his shirt. "Ahh, this is no good." He said to himself. Then again, He noticed something quite late. "R..Red, who are you fighting?"

"The weird dragon girl." He said. "But you can't! Volti-" "-Shut it! It's different if they're looking for a fight."

Silver opened her eyes and sat up slowly. She looked around at everyone, blinking quite a bit. Hearing a voice next to her, she looked over to see some strange guy talking to Enzo, who was in decent condition. Wait.. How is he okay?.. Was I out for that long?
Her hands went to find her swords, which were right by her side. She grabbed them, and held them close.
She stared at the guy who was talking to Enzo for a moment before standing up, walking over to where her bag was, and shoving her swords back in it. She threw her bag over her shoulder, and sat back down against the wall where she was before. She looked over to Maya and Red who were about to fight, or so it seemed. This should be interesting.

Maya was not prepared to make the first move, but that's what seemed would happen. She made one that would be easy to deflect, just to get things started. Maya, with no extra powers except sensing and strength, put all of her weight behind a punch aimed for Red's lower body followed quickly by her other hand aiming for his eyes.

Red quickly sidestepped, simply watching as Maya pretty much flew by him. "Man, you're new to this, aren't you? You don't even have a good fighting stance.." It had seemed like Red was focused on seeing how well Maya fought, rather then actually winning the fight.

Maya frowned. "I don't fight. I watch other people try to fight me, usually." She continued to try to hit him, which was really only a distraction from what she was practicing on her way through the forest earlier. Her dragon, which was now the size of a small or medium-sized dog, was much easier to control. She was commanding it with her also well-practiced hiding and sneaking abilities. Even though it was very young, its jaws were a dangerous place to have anything you love.

He continued to avoid the attacks Maya were throwing at him. "Then I guess I'll end this quick then." Red tightened his grip on his sword and swung it horizontally at Maya with a quick motion.

Maya jumped back and dodged with ease. "That was insulting." She went for his eyes again swiftly, still making a distraction. The dragon softly and quietly trotted up behind Red, avoiding his steps backward and forward. It waited until the prime moment when he was about to attack.

Red barely dodged Maya's attack, only getting scratched in the face. "Quick.. but not very effective." Red's sword charged up in electricity. Then he quickly stabbed the sword into the ground, releasing some of the power into the ground around him. It would take whatever was within 10 feet of him.

Maya jumped, but her dragon was not so fortunate. As the dragon was right near the center of the attack, it was in great pain, and, by extention, so was Maya. She knelt down for a few seconds before standing up again, her dragon curled up into a ball. She still obviously felt some pain, but, in her true spirits, smirked. Now she knew what else to be careful of.

"And now, to finish this." Red pulled up his sword from the ground, and pointed it toward Maya. Magical energy was forming inside of the sword. "Wait.. I know this attack.. It was used on Volitaire..." Enzo said.

She leaned forward and prepared to dodge. This attack looked so harsh that it could probably kill her, but she stood her ground. There was nothing more she had confidence in than her ability to dodge anything.

Volitaire walked down he side of the cliff. There was a narrow path that slanted down that Volitaire could walk down. It was damp and mossy, he was beginning to want to fly over it, but wanted to enjoy the sights and continue to walk. After he made it down the narrow walkway he was at the shoreline of the river flowing from the waterfall. Taking in the sights more, his pace slowed. He never came down this way since he first lived around there. He saw the treeline that began the other part of the forest, old memories of running out that same treeline suddenly played back. He tried to shake it off, but by the time he caught up with his imagination he was already half way in. Then he began to see some ruin in the distance, and small remains of humans. Seeing this haunted him, but he looked around for a hatch door on the ground. He felt this was the final thing that was preserved of his old home.

Once it was fully charged, Red's sword shot off a large beam of red energy towards Maya. The beam itself ripped up the flooring it was flying over.

Maya leaped from side to side, barely avoiding the blast. She wasted absolutely no time in going for Red. She threw quick punches and stabs at his face, neck and stomach. If he tried to defend himself, she would quickly dodge and continue her attacks.

After firing his beam weapon, Red had no ability to block or move. The attack itself pinned him to one spot, and he was unable to guard against Maya's punches.

As Maya realized he was completely vulnerable, she put all of her strength behind the last streak of punches. She would not stop until she had won or she was knocked out.

Red used his free hand to block half of the attacks being thrown at him. He was getting hit in weakpoints, which made the strength he had wither down. He put the sword down sluggishly, and clenched his fist. His arm changed, forming into a rock arm. He swung it downwards at Maya.

Maya jumped back quickly, his arm barely scraping her. She again wasted no time for resting, even though her own strength was dwindling. Maya had to win this fight. There would be no exceptions. To her surprise, she could sense him getting weaker. One specific strike to the lower abdomen at full power, and he might not be able to continue. She excecuted her strongest attack, using both hands together and her metal cuffs for this punch.

"Damn it, stay still!" He shouted before realizing that she was nearly about to hit him. His rock arm was too heavy to use for blocking, and his other arm was too weak to withstand the attack. When the attack landed, Red stumbled back, his arm changing back to normal. His sword had sunk back into the ground, with a red aura, and found himself laying on his back, staring at the ceiling. Part of him couldn't believe he had been defeated by a girl with no fighting experience. Speed must not a good match up for me. He figured.

Enzo jumped up instinctively and threw his hands in the air. He didn't think Maya would have won, but he was hoping she did. After getting some looks from the other people in the room, Enzo put his hands down in embarrassment. "Good job, Maya." He said. "You lied when you said you couldn't fight, but to beat Red..."

Maya coughed loudly before sitting down beside Red, breathing heavily. "Remind me to breathe next time." Through her heavy breathing and uneasiness, she still found time to look at Red and smile, ecstatic about her victory."For my first real battle, that was interesting." She stopped resisting and simply layed back. She had used up too much energy too quickly. She would need some way to build up stamina and maybe use speed as her primary method of attacking, if she did ever want or need to fight.

Ling was pretty impressed at Maya being able to fend herself against Red. This is becoming more and more troublesome. If someone like her doesn't have much trouble handling Red, then getting myself into the roster would be difficult. There must be some sort of loop hole that could get me into that competition. Ling looked over to Enzo and then to Joanne. He then came up with some sort of idea, but this was something of a gamble. "I never expected that there was so much strong people at Sorcerers. The competition is really high if I intend to participate in the upcoming battle. Aiyaa."

Enzo nodded in agreement. "That's true, Sorcerers does have alot of talent, but I don't think getting into the would be a hard thing to do. we're down one person, right?" "Yeah, I recall red saying he was only with team Valor for the Aurora mission." Red continued to stare at the wall, like he was still stuck on trying to believe he had gotten beat by Maya. "Whatever." Red replied. His tone confirmed that he had no interest in the team whatsoever. "I'll just form my own team again." He added in, while sitting up finally.

"Yeah..." Enzo's expression looked pretty sad in the fact that Red didn't want to be in team Valor. "Volitaire will be out too. He's not a real member of Sorcerers." He looked towards Ling and Joanne and returned to his usual optimistic expression. "You two are probably crazy strong, though. That's two spots open for you already, I think."

Ling let out a small chuckle. "Well hopefully you don't rely on the two of us a bit much. We both can't use magic like you guys. But if it's like that we will definitely give it out all for Team Valor." Ling gave a fist pump and looked over to Joanne. "Right Joanne?" She just let out a scoff and exited the room first. "Whatever." Ling started to chase after her. "Wait up..." He turned around to Enzo and gave a cheerful wave. "I'll catch you later Enzo."

Enzo nervously returned the wave and turned to Red and the others. "He's right. if we're going to even stand a chance against other schools, we'll have to prove that we're the best, starting here."

For a few more hours, Enzo and Kenji trained with those who decided to stick around. He trained with his new move. the X-burner, and nearly trashed the training room. But that wasn't the only thing going on at the time.

Meanwhile, in the headmasters office, Boone sat at his desk after receiving the teams that were to arrive in Whiterun to challenge Sorcerers. Beside him stood his assistant. "Every one of those teams on the list equal atleast 3 of our teams combined. I don't think we'll make it past this year." The assistant commented. Boone continued to skim through the team name list, until he fell upon the ones that were to face Sorcerer's teams. There were only three there.

The names automatically escaped Boones mouth as he read them.

Mech... Nor's warriors... And... Phantom?"
The last name worried him. Not many schools took on the name 'Phantom', but those that did were usually a corrupt school. "Phantom..." His assistant echoed what he said, and turned to the window. "Only a corrupt school could bare a team name like that." Boone sighed and reread over some things on the paper. "I guess it makes sense that they want to challenge team Valor exclusively." Boone stopped reading suddenly. "Phantom did?" Boone asked his assistant. "Yeah. The word is, the teams are in town today. They're taking shelter in a hotel for the tournament battle."
"Let's pay them a visit."


Enzo, accompanied by his partner, Kenji, came out of the training room and went back to the lobby. He realized that it was already sundown, and that he'd have to return to the dorms soon. The students had finished their classes already, and were lingering around the lobby and cafe until the school closed. others went out to shop and prepare for the battles to come. Enzo caught sight of Boone on the way out, and Boone went to him. "Enzo, I forgot to tell you.." Boone carried a briefcase with him, and was also accompanied by a scary looking person. "Your first fight is tomorrow. The teams are already here." He said. Geez.. my body is sore, too. "Ahh, okay, Mr.headmaster sir! We'll do our best to make Sorcerers the victors!" Enzo cheered. Boone smiled as a reply and left with his assistant.

[[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5yxv...hannel&list=UL ]]

Hundreds of miles away, A red-headed boy stood in the center of a burning town. People around him were badly injured. Most of which were moving away from him. The boy had a red flame on his head, similar to Enzo's.

"Enzo Ferrari. status: Alive. Location: Unknown."

http://i50.tinypic.com/1zn1kbt.jpg

"Objective: Elimination."

It had been a few minutes after Silver had finished training with the others, or rather, observing the others train. She thought seeing how they all fought was very interesting, and enjoyed learning their moves, seeing how different they all were, which person was quickest, which was strongest, etc. She walked out of the training room and went outside for some fresh air. They had been at it for longer than she thought, since the sun was setting now. She stared off at the horizon, noticing the bright colors that lit up the sky. She loved how red, orange, and pink the sky looked, after all, those were her favorite colors. She took a deep breathe and let it all out at once, smiling softly at the sunset. She decided to sit and watch it until the sun disappeared completely.

Sarus knew about the challenge, even though he had to leave before that big mission. It was a family emergency about his grandfather having a heart attack that made him leave, he didn't regret it though. He was able to help his grandmother out at their home, and he got to see his grandfather come out of the hospital still alive and well.

During his stay as soon as he found out about it, he made himself train to keep up with the others, and he made sure he kept up .
He sighed out in relief as he saw the gates of the school.
'Home sweet home huh?' He laughed tiredly to himself. He stepped through the gates, his travel pack strapped to his back, looking all sorts of worn out. 'Yeah... I'm going to bed...As soon as I sit on that bench!' he thought to himself amused.

He walked over to his destination, and flopped down and spread out on his seat, taking his back pack off before he got comfy. you could see the stars in the sky shine brilliantly even though the sun was still a sliver showing in the distance. "I don't think I will mind to much if I actually fall asleep out here tonight" he said lazily. It was completely clear and he was sure no rain would make it's way here, but a bed would be even better to crash on.

Enzo had no business shopping or anything else. He had no cash in his pocket, having spent all he had from his dad on the dorm. Though he had money in his account, he didn't know how to take it out. He made his way out of the school, bunched in a group of students leaving aswell. Most of the students had vehicles of their own. Some of them were pretty nice sports cars, too. Kenji sat on Enzo's shoulder, eating what looked to be a snack bar. "I want you to get plenty of sleep tonight, so you don't pass out in the middle of battle." Kenji mumbled, spreading crumbs everywhere. "I won't pass out while i'm fighting!" Enzo shouted. He sighed and saw the boy he met from the Aurora mission. Enzo approached him with a friendly smile. "Hey, aren't you Soren?" He asked him.

Sarus, who eye's where starting to droop a minute ago, blinked the sleep away as he was addressed by someone. He looked over to his side and saw the boy from the mission he was on before he had left.
"Yes, and your...Enzo? I think it was..Right? what's up?" he asked nonchalantly, like it was perfectly normal to be falling asleep on his(as he has mentally claimed it so) bench. After talking to Enzo, he probably should head to his dorm room though, otherwise he might get sore before the tournament..

"Nothing really, I have a question for you, though." Enzo scratched his head. "Are you... still in team Valor?" He asked Soren. He felt a little out of place, seeing as how he interrupted Sorens sleep.

Sarus looked down as he thought a moment. " I guess... I didn't like quite or anything, I just had an emergency to attend to." he said after a few seconds, he raised his head again and stood up and stretched.
He looked at the boy curiously.
"Any reason for asking? heh if you don't mind me asking..." he replied in a with a smirk.






(Ooc:mheading out but ill reply when i get beck! whenever that is...)

"Well, we're in the tournament, representing Sorcerers. It would be awesome if you were still in!" Enzo tried to get all the fighting power he could. He simply had no idea on what they were up against. And he wasn't prepared to fail publicly, either. Kenji poked Enzo in the head. "It's time for you to retire for the day." Kenji stated. "But.. it's so early!" "Yeah, while everyone else is sleeping on the battlefield, you'll be wide awake." Kenji finished his snack bar and pulled Enzo's hair. "Let's go, team leader." He teased him. "Ow ow, okay!" Enzo lopsidedly made his way towards the dorms and waving back at Soren before disappearing from his view.

Volitaire looked around rubble, and pulled up stone fragments from he ground. He continued to look for a trapdoor, searching the entire ruin. After nearly an hour of searching, he found it under a large piled of stone fragments. He found it odd they were all stacked up like this. He pondered it for a bit then left it alone. He opened it up and climbed down, it was dark going down the ladder in the small tunnel. When he reached the floor and he hopped down and patted at the walls for a switch. He touched a seal on the wall and the entire hallway lit up with glass orbs with light inside. The walls were a iron silver. All lined up with doors leading to small rooms with different patterned and colored seals on the ground. He went around looking for the room with a purple seal and two wings extending from a demonic lambs head. Volitaire felt at home, back in his old training hideout... Though he wasn't alone. A figure was following him from when he entered. He hadn't noticed him because the figure quietly stepped behind him beginning to catch up. Volitaire felt as if he was being watched and drew his sword. The figure made one bad step and left a faint banging sound on the ground. Volitaire immediately turned around. "Who are you!?" He pointed his sword out and the figure drew a thin, but long cutlass. Assuming a battling stance.

A little while later, Boone and his assistant arrived by car at the only hotel in town. It was well kept, and quite fancy. Employees used magic to aid them in their work.
Boone and his helper went inside the hotel, and asked for the floor numbers of the teams who were to compete tomorrow. Even though they wanted to meet all of the teams, they were mainly there to see Phantom, So they went to their floor first.

Phantom got the highest floor in the building by speical request, and so an elevator was the best way to get there in a short time. They stood in it and pressed the button for the top floor. "Are you worried?" His assistant asked him. "A little. I'm mainly concerned about why they want to compete now out of all this time."

The elevator doors opened, and they walked out of it. The entire top floor was owned by Phantom. Finding the team leader wouldn't be hard, they just had to look for the biggest room on the floor. Boone knocked on the door to the master room, and it opened by itself. It had seemed like the leader was by himself, sitting in a chair fit for a king.

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"Ivan, is it?" The leader said. "Headmaster of Sorcerers, yes." Boone replied.
"You must be X." "I don't give out my real name." X narrowed his eyes at the two. Boone's assistant wasn't feeling too joyful about the meetup either. "Why are you competing in this years battle royal?" He spoke up. Boone shot him a look, but X replied quickly. "I caught wind of my brother doing pretty bad. I'm going to snap him out of whatever shitty streak he's in." Boone looked back at X, a suspicious look on his face. "Your brother is in Sorcerers? What is his name?"


Enzo tossed his bag across his room, and collapsed face first on his bed. Kenji on the other hand went to turn on the TV. "I thought you weren't tired?" Kenji asked, switching on the TV. "I'm not.. I'm just worried." "About what?" Enzo sat up on his bed, looking down. "My team.. How are we going to win this? What is battle royal really like?" Enzo had alot of questions about the tournament, and kind of regretted going head-first into it without any knowledge. "If it's worrying you that bad, i'll look it up." Kenji assured him. "I'll also look up those two students Red was talking about." Enzo switched his gaze over to Kenji. "Huh? You mean Ling and Joanne?" "Yeah. Something doesn't sit right with them.. They're in a magic school, but they can't do any magic?" Kenji crossed his arms in deep thought. After a little moment of silence, Enzo broke it. "They're new. There's no way they'd know magic this early on, right?" No matter how odd the two seemed, Enzo felt he had a duty to keep the peace between everyone. They were his friends, after all. "Sure, but i'm still going to look into it." Kenji said before walking off towards the computer.

A couple of punches were being dealt to a punching bag in the small flat belonging to Joanne and Ling. Joanne was busy on her laptop keeping track of the economy market while a rhythmic beat was coming from his boxing like jabs. "For someone who hates to do troublesome thing, you very much seem very excited to participate." Ling wiped a streak of sweat from his forehead and let out his signature chuckle. "So what if I am? This is a better chance to get our hands into something a lot more interesting. Enzo Ferrari. After a clear examination of him, he has the making to be one of us despite being a magic user. You can say that his ability is the next level." The punches were coming harder and louder thumps started to echo the whole room. "I don't understand why you are so fond of him. That sort of magic isn't a rare case. There are many cases of regeneration ability around the world." Ling let out a smirk. "You're thinking naive Joanne. Regen magic is just the premise. No, if I were to say what his power is closer to... it would be something like a Phoenix. We still have yet to see the full extent of his power. But when we get it in our hands, it'll so please our leader." His punching became faster as if his arms disappeared entirely and the punching bag started to take invisible blows and creating continuous dents before exploding from from too much impacts. Joanne kicked the back of Ling and he crashed into the pile of sand. "Idiot, start cleaning up your mess before you start breaking another one! That's the 9th one tonight." In the corner was a pile of broken sacks and sand mounting into a pile.