The Coming Darkness

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.

http://i49.tinypic.com/33tnpg0.png

"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.

The figure gave no answer, he wasn't easily noticeable from being in a distance away. The man charged with surprising speed and striked down with his cutlass at Volitaire. Volitaire blocked the blow with his sword, but with struggle. "Nngh..!" Volitaire kicked him back, the man skidded on he floor. He coated his sword in a blue light then started swinging. His arm was almost invisible, and small bullets of light came from the swings, whizzing and cutting Volitaire's upper body, his outfit also damaged. The man ran forward about to lunge with his sword while Volitaire was stunned, Volitaire acted immediately and put his hand on the wall and a seal formed and chains shot from it, hitting the man and pushing him through the wall into the next room. The man recovered himself before the chains could impale him to the next room. "Ironic.." The man said quietly before leaping out the hole in the wall. He made a copy of his first sword through magic, he positioned them by his sides about to make a strike with both swords. Volitaire jumped back and closely dodged the swings, the swings were enhanced with magic and made a swipe that left a single hack mark from both sides of the wall and they met at the back of the hallway. When Volitaire landed the man ran forward again, swinging downward. Volitaire kicked the sword out his hand and left it jabbed into the wall. The man, with his free hand, grabbed Volitaire's ankle before he could stand on it and tossed him through the door. Volitaire crashed into the room and landed on a green seal patterned with roses and vines. The seal lit up and the room shifted into a large forest with leaves covering all of the trees. Volitaire stood up in a open patch of grass surrounded by the towering trees. The man was nowhere in sight. Volitaire looked around, hoping he could see him coming. The quiet was broken when he leaped from in between the trees and dived down. Volitaire ducked and moved under him and grabbed his chest, coiling him with chains and throwing him down. The man gained his footing quickly and slid in the grass. He was more noticeable in the open sun. He wore a white and teal outfit and had silver hair. Volitaire felt something of deja vu when he saw his face, but he was still a bit unsure who he was, but didn't care. He attacked him. The man's index finger lit up with a blue light, he made odd traces in the air with his finger. Volitaire watched, unsure what he was doing, but instantly branches above the trees were cut and fell down. Volitaire looked up and charged a shadow bolt, his hands arced white and black electric-like energy, the ground and space around him was black and white, Volitaire shot the blast up a the branches falling down. The man capitalized on this opening and dashed, making an upward strike on Volitaire, cutting his chest. Volitaire stumbled back, holding his wound. The man kicked his stomach and launched Volitarie through the tree's into a small hollow trunk. A tree that fell from Volitaire crashing through blocked off the hollow log. Volitaire tried to gain his breath but the tree was cut to shreds by the man. Volitarie weaved the shadows around the log and made several spikes that punctured the man. Volitaire let out a sigh, hoping he won. The man bursts into a blue energy. Volitaire, shocked that it was a decoy kept his guard. In the darkness of the hollow log, the man appeared behind him and attempted to strike. Volitaire noticed his presence and moved back just enough for him to miss his neck. He ended up slicing his arm. The man walked from the shade, looking at Volitaire' ravaged body. "You're a tricky one, who are you and why are you inside a Lucath home?" The man asked in a demanding tone. Volitaire raised a eyebrow. "I am one...I would ask the same of you!" Volitaire was holding his arm wound, gritting his teeth in the stinging pain. The man holstered his sword. "Are you..your name?" "Volitaire Lucath.." "Chesabelle's boy...so, you're still alive?" Volitaire looked at him with confusion. "You know my mother..?" "First born..I remember you. You were very young, but I came by the house regularly. But I wasn't able to stay because I wasn't an actual Lucath." Volitaire's face lit up. "Artizle..?"

The next day...

Enzo woke up to a loud and annoying voice. He opened his eyes to see Kenji sitting infront of the TV. Was he there the entire night..? Enzo thought. He sat up and rubbed his eyes, catching Kenji's attention. "Oh, you're up earlier then I expected." He said with a smile. "Mm, well, you did tell me to sleep in early." He replied. The TV was on the local news channel, and he realized that they were starting to talk about Battle Royal.

On the TV were two reporters, who were infront of a large stadium that seems like it was having maintenance done to it. "Well that's your weather report from the station, but we're here infront of the new Battle Royal Stadium that's been built underneath Whiterun for nearly a year." "That's right, Generic News reporter 71. It's not only Whiterun's citizens that are hyped for this years tournament, but people from all over the world. 3 Teams have gathered here to battle it out with the Battle Royal Champion School, Sorcerers." "Now i've heard rumors that Sorcerers's strongest teams are out on dangerous jobs, so they've got a newly formed team, Codenamed: 'Valor', Battling for them." "Valor is currently being led by 17 year old Enzo Ferrari." A school picture appeared on the screen, containing Enzo's face. "Oh god..." Enzo burried his face into his pillow in sneer embarresment. "He's a new student at Sorcerers, along with his teammates." "We've talked with Valor's coach on the matter." Coach..? Enzo looked back up at the TV to see Kenji on it, surrounded by reporters and Battle Royal fans alike. "WHAT?!" Enzo yelled out. Kenji is our team coach?! Enzo gripped his pillow and continued to watch the broadcast, in fear.

One of the reporters held a microphone to Kenji so that he could speak into it. "So, Mr.PaoPao, How do you respond to the rumors about your team not having a chance in the tournament?" Mr. PaoPao....? Why does that sound familiar? "Well, I can tell you now that just because we're new to Sorcerers, doesn't mean we're new to magic, or fighting, for that matter. We'll handle whatever these teams throw at us." "Well spoken! There's other rumors that your team was involved in an explosion on an island near Whiterun. What do you have to say about that?" "I wasn't present. It was probably the work of my lackey, Enzo. He has rage fits often." By this point, Enzo was rolling around in embarrasment and shock. He sat up and looked to Kenji, who was supposed to be watching the broadcast aswell, but he was gone. "Typical Kenji... Always out to get me."

The TV that was given to them by the school, started to fizz out, and eventually, the rest of the interview was nearly impossible to understand. Enzo got dressed and walked out of his dorm room.

Maya was sitting placidly outside of her dorm room. Her stare was blank. Somewhere far off in the forest, her dragon was happily trotting around, practicing hunting. She was curious as to how far she could get the dragon to go before she no longer had control of him, and, so far, her connection had only gotten slightly fuzzy a few miles away. The only thing that would catch her attention in her normal body was Enzo, which is who she was offhandedly keeping a lookout for. There, she could suddenly sense him walking down the hall out of the front entrance of the dorms. Maya scrambled up and towards the entrance as well. She hurried after him and didn't catch up immediately, as his pace was fast. When she finally did, she called out to him, "Wait up!" At the same time, she was having trouble navigating her dragon back to the dorms.

Hearing Maya call out to who he thought was him, he stopped and turned around. Joyful that he could see one of his friends early in the day. "Oi, Maya!" He greeted her with his usual happy tone. "What's up?"

She smiled and chuckled, but then her happiness turned into nervousness. "What are we going to do about the competition? When does it start? What are the rules?" She wasn't exactly panicking, but she was nervous, and a perfectionist. What Maya was really concerned about was her own fighting skills, and if she'd be able to battle alongside her dragon. She believed her win over Red had just been pure luck, and it wasn't something she'd be able to repeat. "Oh," She added, a lot more casually, this time, "I heard a little bit of the news report. You're famous." She smiled again.

Enzo scratched his head and looked over to the others students passing by. He had just realized they were giving him looks. They were all mixed between jealously, and pity. "Yeah, I don't think it's for the better, though." He said, returning his gaze to her. "I had no idea the event was this huge."

Silver sat in the cafe alone, eating an apple she had picked up before. She hadn't slept very well the night before, but lucky for her she runs well on little sleep. She closed her eyes as she took a rather large bite out of her shiny red apple, and chewed it slowly, savoring the taste of the sweet juices that flowed from each bite she took. She swallowed it and took a deep breath, opening her eyes slowly to see that she was still alone, except for a few students walking around nearby. She let go of the breathe she was holding in and looked at her apple, thinking about what would come in the near future, and if all of her training would pay off.

Volitaire was laying in a bed in the barracks, with linen wraps over his cut wounds. The room was dark and had a few other beds inside with a cabinet beside them for personal storage. His ripped up white shirt and suit jacket was inside, hung up. The door opened and light from the opening door has traveled in and woke up Volitaire. Artizle was at the door. "It's early...you should get up so we can start. After we have something to eat of course!" Volitaire got up, his hair was a mess and his body was sore. He held his wound on his chest as he got up. Artizle's face a riddled in guilt. "Listen, Voli. Sorry about the-" "It's fine...I've had worse." Volitaire sounded tired and looked a mess. The bags under his eyes were puffier than usual this morning. "Did you even sleep last night? You look horrible." Volitaire shook his head and continued down the hallway to the mess hall. Artizle followed after him. "Are you going to shower or..?" Volitaire looked back, looked down and looked forward again. "Yeah...after I eat...I'm very hungry..." "Yeesh boy, how often do you eat?" "It's been three days since I last ate..." "Yeah...lets get you some food..." They both walked over to the mess hall, it was filled with foods in the cabinets and refrigerators. "Browse to your hear-" Volitaire already had a tray full of food. He sat at a table and started eating everything quickly, without heating it up. Artizle grabbed some food and sat across from him, sporting a friendly smile. "You're a bottomless pit aren't you?" Volitarie kept eating. "Listen, Voli I understand you may have come here to train, and I can help you with that. I've been training here for the better of a decade now." Volitaire looked at Artizle while chewing all his food and swallowed. "Well, yeah. That's what I was here for." "I imagined so. Why isn't Einso with you? I remember him running away with you." Volitaire kept silent and began eating again. "Is something the matter? Are you two separated..?" Volitaire nodded slowly. "He died.." Artizle frowned. "I'm sorry...but, after you eat your fill and shower, I'll be in the Ethereal Room. Think about if you wanna train with me or not." Artizle got up and left the mess hall with his food, leaving Volitaire to think. Volitaire got up and went to get more food, thinking about his decision.

She looked around at all of the other students, and looked back at Enzo. "You'd think that, it being so huge, we would be better prepared for it." She sighed, putting a hand under Enzo's upper arm and tugging his arm lightly. "Shall we go check out the stadium?" She didn't want Enzo feeling bad at all. He was most of their team's power, anyway. Maya smiled lightly, but her nervousness was still apparent.

Enzo felt a bit surprised at how familiar Maya felt towards him, and it left him confused a little. "I-I dunno. I think everyone will freak if they see me at the stadium." He wanted to avoid the public as much as possible after 'Mr. PaoPao' blamed the explosion at Castle Aurora on his 'rage fits'.

"To the cafe, then." Maya responded rhetorically. She tugged him along towards Sorcerers. "By the way, do you know the rules on the dragon being allowed into the competition?" A faint smile appeared on her lips, and it seemed like she was finally relaxed. She was not looking at Enzo, however. Maya only looked forward. At the same time, her dragon body was stalking them, preparing to pounce on Enzo. She let go of his arm. Practice makes perfect, she thought.

"I think they'll let him in if they think he's a familiar." Enzo said. He caught sight of Silver, eating alone and looking quite lonely. Silver.. I wonder what's wrong with her? He wondered.

Maya also saw Silver, but noticed that she actually didn't look too discontented by being alone. Silver might have just been nervous about the competition, as Maya was. Maya quickly noticed Enzo's distraction and made her move. The dragon, now with the body size of a large dog, picked up speed and pounced on Enzo excitedly. Maya didn't mean for her dragon to knock Enzo over, but she didn't quite have a grasp on the dragon's size, as he was growing quickly. Oops.

Silver finished her apple and looked up to see Enzo looking at her. She saw him get knocked over by the dragon, and smirked a little before tossing her garbage to a nearby trashcan. She stood up and walked over to them with an almost expectant look on her face.
"So, when's the first fight and where do I need to be at that time?"

Enzo lifted his face up from the ground, his back felt like it was going to snap any second now. Before he could speak, Kenji did. "Exactly an hour from now. The first battle is early." He explained to them. "Ugh..." Enzo grunted under the weight of the dragon. "Shesh, what a poor sight for a team leader." Kenji teased. Enzo saw Kenji and slowly but surely made his way out from under the dragon. "Mr. PaoPao... My ass!" Enzo shouted as he stood up, with a hand on his aching back.

Silver smiled. "Alright.. Do you know what sort of people we're up against?"
She stared at Enzo trying to get out from underneath the dragon. Truly he did look sort of pathetic in this state, but she knew that he was a great fighter and probably just as good of a leader when he needed to be.
She glanced at Maya to see what she was doing, acknowledging that she was there too. She didn't want her to feel left out.

Maya was leaning, watching passively as they talked. She noticed Silver looking and smiled at her. Once Enzo had stood up, the dragon padded over and sat beside Maya. "We're going to be up against some very strong people." She knew that, with an event this huge, nobody would go down without putting up their strongest fight. The dragon was staring at Kenji and his small size. Maya contemplated 'training' with Kenji for a little bit, since he was their self-proclaimed coach.

"We aren't all going to be in the same battle. it's a three part tournament. The teams that arrived here had already worked their way up the ranks. We're the substitute champions." Kenji explained. "During that interview, I had a talk with the owner of the stadium. He said that there's only going to be two people per team, and that the matchings would be randomized." "So we don't get to pick who we go out with?" "Nope. It's the same for the other teams, though. But, we have two 'rescue uses'." "'Rescue uses?' Now what's that?" Kenji nodded towards the dragon, who looked like they were pretty hungry, and was craving for small babies. "Basicly, over the course of the tournament, we're about to call for one person our team that isn't fighting. For an example, if Silver and Soren were to be in trouble, they'd call in Maya as a rescue to join the battle. They can only use this perk one more time throughout the entire tournament, so we have to be smart with it.""

"Sounds like it could be helpful, but I doubt I'll need it." Silver shrugged and yawned, stretching out her arms and putting her hands behind her head.
"I wonder what the teams will be?"

"I don't know that." Kenji stated. "We have enough training to make it through, though. Everyone on team Valor is either at the minimum power requirements or better." Enzo crossed his arms, and held a sly smirk. "If the first battle starts in an hour, we should leave out now." Enzo suggested.