Disclaimer: I don't own Wizard101. Those awesome people at KingsIsle own it.

True Darkness

Chapter 2

It was such a gloomy afternoon. Thunder rumbled in the sky and the sky itself darkened from the rainclouds while rainwater was pouring heavily from it. Great, I thought. We were still in the arena and we've been practicing for more than two hours. My hands were on my knees and I was kinda out of breath. Standing in front of me was a Snowman-like creature wearing a hat and carrying a dagger. If you are wondering, that Snowman wasn't mine. It was Penny's. As you can probably guess, I haven't succeeded in summoning that creature, and I was grumpy as heck.

The sound of constant giggles and laughter from the people around me were somehow magnified in my ears, and that didn't help my temper at all. I trembled slightly, fighting the urge to yell at them to mind their own businesses. That was the hundredth time I have failed in summoning the Ice creature and I didn't want them to remind me how stupid I really was. I was already aware of that myself, thank you.

"This kid is hopeless," said a heavy voice. I looked up and saw the Snowman pointing its dagger at me. "Now Penny if you are done with me, I gotta go. I have better things to do than watching this hopeless kid for hours. Do not summon me unless it's an emergency! Farewell!"

"Don, wait!" Penny called out, but Don the Snowman has already gone in a puff of smoke, leaving a puddle of water where it once stood. That's right, I'm hopeless. I let out a bitter laugh. I was going to make my prediction come true –to snap my wand in two when Penny reached out to stop me from doing so. "Please don't do that."

I gave her a you-can't-stop-me-whatever-you-do sort of look while she encountered with a sympathetic look. "I know how you feel but you can't give up," Penny said softly.

"Yes I can, Penny. They won't answer to my call! That's a fact!"

"That's not true. You are just not doing it right yet. You just have to keep trying…"

"And what would make it different from before? I've been doing this stuff for two hours! Two hours and fruitless, Penny!" I shouted at her, one thing I rarely do. However, this time was different. I didn't feel bad for doing so because she kept telling me to do what I couldn't do. It was already frustrating enough without thinking about the guilty feeling I would feel to have failed her expectations. "It is over. I can't do this."

I slung my backpack over to my shoulder and turned to leave but Penny grabbed my arm. "Just try one more time. I promise I will stop pestering you about this stuff after that."

I considered her offer for a moment. Yeah, it would be better than have her talk about it the whole time. I just need one more failure and it's all over. "Fine," I said, throwing my backpack to a nearby bench and readying myself.

I recalled Penny's advice she gave me for the umpteenth times. "Concentrate. Feel the element then picture the energy flowing out of you." I wiped the sweat off my forehead and took a deep breath. I closed my eyes then. Okay, concentrate… think about the ice… ice is cold, ice is solid… I felt a brush of wind on my uncovered arms and face. It was cold but it helped me grasp the feeling of the element. Now picture the energy flowing out of me, like the stream of a river…

I opened my eyes and started waving my wand to form the Ice symbol in the air. "O, Snowman the creature of Ice. Accept the power I am offering. I bid you to come!"

My wand gave off a little spark and more cold wind was blowing in my direction. For a moment I thought I really made it but I knew not to have my hopes high. One second later the spark on my wand-tip was gone and the wind was apparently coming from the open door where three figures were standing. One of them was looking at me mockingly while trying hard to suppress his desire to laugh rolling on the floor; Hamz Thunderwalker.

Anger suddenly rose inside of me like a volcano as I saw him approaching us, snickering.

"Well well well… if it isn't the moron who can't even do a simple spell," Hamz said smugly as he stopped several feet in front of me, his hands on his hips.

"Go away, Hamz!" Penny said somewhere from my right. Suddenly I was not aware of anything else in my surroundings; it was just Hamz and me. My green eyes were focused on his blue ones before he averted them to meet Penny's.

"Now here, little Miss 'Dreadful', you can't just shoo me away as you please. I have the right to be here, you know. It's not like this place is yours anyway," said Hamz, smirking. His two buddies followed suit. Penny retorted but I heard only little because I was busy observing the jerk in front of me. The way he smirked made his eyes narrowed even more, making him look more evil. That and my frustrated feeling I felt during the practice has fueled my anger even more to go up past the usual boiling point. Something was tugging inside me and I felt my whole body tingling, like it was electricity that ran through my veins and not blood. Before I even knew it, I've blasted Hamz with whitish yet deadly looking beam from my wand. He didn't have time to react to the sudden development of the situation and received the beam head on in the chest, causing him to fly backwards to a group of people. They screamed and fell to the ground once Hamz's body made contact with them.

Penny's eyes widened twice their normal size as she processed what was just going on. "Oh no, this isn't good…" She then turned to me and tried to pull me out of the arena, but I held my ground. "Come on Sophia, we must leave right this instant…"

I shook her hands off me. "No!" I said without taking my eyes off Hamz who was now already at his feet. "I've always wanted to do that ever since…" I didn't get to finish my sentence as at that moment a yellowish beam hit me hard in the chest. I stumbled backwards, coughing. "Dang it, who's…"

And it was the first time I became aware of her presence in the room; a beautiful blonde girl wearing yellow robes and pointed hat, the sign that she was a Conjurer who study Myth magic. Her blond hair was tied to one side and her gray eyes were drilling me. Her wand was still pointing at me.

I looked at her for a moment and I could only make out a great resentment in her eyes. It wasn't used to be like that. The gray eyes I remember were always full of warmth and calming. Her smile could even melt the most awkward situation. I would have never thought that the one cheerful little girl I got along with back then would become a cold person with full of hate towards me, a person who wouldn't hesitate to blast me with magic. I bit my lip, feeling a little hurt inside. No, I couldn't hate her. True she hurt me but I completely understand why she changed the way she was now…

"Stand aside, Jessica," said Hamz who was standing behind her. Jessica lowered her wand and turned to him, asking if he was alright. "Yeah yeah I'm alright. Now would you please stand aside? I have a score to settle here," he shoved her to the side and walked towards me once again. "Don't interfere," he warned everyone in the room. His gesture would probably angered higher ranked students but there were none of them at the moment. As you probably know, no one objected; they were smart enough not to make him their enemy, and also they would get to see a Death student beaten to death.

I quickly got up, my wand ready to encounter whatever he would throw at me. But he didn't do anything, not yet. Instead he chuckled, "So the little Death missy here finally has the gut to challenge me after three years. Took you long enough, missy. How pathetic…" he laughed and everyone but Penny and I mimicked him. They were now forming a wide circle with me, Penny, and Hamz in the middle. So this is it, I get to finally fight Hamz for real now, I thought.

Hamz seemed to think the same thing as he then said, "I'm glad that we can finally have a decent fight here. It's just too bad that this isn't official. I would love humiliating you in front of everyone, but…" His smirk was apparent then as he looked around the room. "this amount of people will do."

"That's not going to happen," I growled, clutching my wand tighter.

"We'll see about that." Just then, he suddenly raised his wand and blasted a lightning bolt in my direction. I managed to move a feet to the side as the bolt crashed to the ground between me and Penny. Smoke erupted from the impact, but strangely the floor wasn't damaged at all.

"Whoa!" we tumbled backwards and were now on the ground.

"Sophia," Penny started. "this really isn't good. We have to…"

"Penny, you have to move out! I don't want you to get caught in this fight!" I helped her get to her feet and pushed her to the small crowd that formed the circle. Penny protested but she stopped when Hamz fired another bolt at me. I jumped to the side to avoid it and countered with a whitish beam of my own. Hamz avoided it with ease and let it pass behind him, where a guy jumped up to avoid it from hitting him. The beam then crashed uselessly on the magical barrier ever present between the arena's outer wall and the audiences' seats.

"Heh not bad, Deathy. It's just too bad that little miss Dreadful over there would not join this fight, don't you think? I would really love to see your desperate faces begging me to stop," he smirked.

"Shut up!" I yelled angrily. "Penny has nothing to do with this!" I drew the black Death symbol in the air and it glowed whitish color. "Come forth, Ghoul!"

A foul smell filled the air as a zombie kind of man wearing ragged suit and a tattered top hat materialized in front of me, weighing his shovel in his bony hands threateningly towards Hamz. He lunged at him, thrusting his shovel forward.

"Getting serious, are we now?" he chuckled as he sidestepped the Ghoul's shovel. Then he drew the purple Storm symbol in the air. The symbol glowed as he shouted, "Lightning Bats!" Suddenly the air crackled with electricity as three bats made of lightning appeared a few feet above his head. The bats made a chirping sound as they swooped down towards the Ghoul and swarming him, electrocuting him every time they make contacts with his body. The Ghoul roared in annoyance while he swung his shovel around, trying to whack the bats to the ground. Apparently the bats were too fast for him for none of his shovel assault hit them. Two bats then dive-bombed him and struck him square in his chest, making him groan as the bats electrocuted him. And not long after that the Ghoul disappeared along with the two bats.

"No!" My eyes widened in shock to see how easy it was for him to destroy my spell.

"Forget something?" Hamz's voice made me look up, just in time to see the third bat swooping down at me before ramming into my body. I groaned as it electrocuted me before I fell to the puddle of water left by Penny's Snowman. Gosh, that hurt! I rolled to my side, trembling slightly from the shock. Good thing the freezing water from the puddle helped me soothe the pain.

A lightning bolt fell very close to me, startling me. Two more bolts came my way as I backed away. I countered then with my white beam and used that split second moment as Hamz avoided it to get back up. Apparently Hamz didn't let that second go to waste as a second later, a large cobra snake was materialized. I felt the hair behind my neck stood up and that had very little to do with the electricity that sparked off the snake; I HATE snakes! The snake uncoiled its body and tackled me back to the ground by using its tail. Once again electricity coursed through my body from the impact. What came afterwards was agonizing. My scream was reverberating through the domed ceiling as my body engulfed in electricity the snake was sprouting. Again I found myself fell on the water puddle. I heard Penny's worried voice call to me but I was too busy trying to stop my trembling body. I looked down and saw my reflection in the water. The reflection I saw was pitiful; a black robed girl with disheveled long black hair, partly wet, and there was a look of desperation on her green eyes… Desperation…

"What's wrong Deathy? Is it over already?" Hamz laughed mockingly, which soon was followed by everyone else.

It's too much, a voice deep inside of me said. Indeed, the difference between our powers was too much. I could now understand people were not making up about him being a genius. I have seen it by myself; how he could control his spell very well. The fight hadn't even lasted for five minutes and I felt like I could no longer going. Yeah, a lousy person at magic like me, with a genius Diviner like him, I'll be absolutely no match…

I gasped. No! Stop thinking like that! Isn't that what he exactly wants? To see me desperate? I squeezed my hands into fists, new determination came rushing at me. No, I won't let him get that pleasure! I can't give up, I have to believe in myself! Then the tug inside of me was getting stronger as I was getting up. It spread warmth all over me and I felt like I could do ANY magic at that moment.

"I see you can still going, although I'd be disappointed if you don't. To be knocked out just by a spell like that would make you a forever loser," sneered Hamz from across the room.

I smiled slightly. No matter how talented he might be, I didn't want to lose! "I assure you that I won't disappoint you, even better, I'll make you the loser." And I started waving my wand and murmuring a certain incantation I was so familiar with from the last two hours; "O, Snowman the creature of Ice. Accept the power I am offering. I bid you to come!"

The Ice symbol I drew was glowing as I felt energy flowing out to my wand-tip. The next second, I could feel the change of temperature as the darn Snowman finally materialized in front of me. It was big and taller than me, probably because of its hat, carrying a dagger, looking evil and… mine! If it wasn't for the serious situation at the moment, I'd have cheered like a kid. Everyone seemed to be staring at me with their jaws open to see my sudden development, though I could hear Penny cheered and said, "You did it, Sophia! You finally did it!"

"Heh, so someone finally answered to my call, huh?" I said sarcastically to the Snowman.

"You got a problem with that, kid?" the Snowman said without turning. I grinned at it and said, "No. Not at all. Thank you for coming."

With that, the Snowman quickly slide forward, leaving ice track in its trail, and slashed at the Thunder Snake. The snake dissolved into nothing, clearing its way towards Hamz.

"Argh!" he screamed as the Snowman had managed to slash his left arm. The sleeve of his robe ripped and blood could be seen flowing out from it. "How dare you! You will pay for this!" His eyes flashed madly while he drew the Storm symbol in the air with his wand. The symbol glowed brightly from the amount of energy he put into it. Outside, the thunder rumbled as if it was reacting to whatever spell Hamz was going to unleash. "Come forth, Kraken!"

And I was speechless as a giant figure was slowly materializing in front of me. It was a tall purple, scaly creature with a long pointed tail supporting a… lightning bolt? It roared to the domed ceiling and the voice echoed in the building, scaring everyone out they backed away to the wall.

No way! Isn't Kraken an Adept-ranked spell? How could an Initiate wizard like him master it already?

"I mean what I say and I won't hold back my power." That practically said that he wouldn't hesitate to seriously kill me. "Let's see if your little Snowman can stand a chance against it!" The Kraken roared once more before it lunged for an attack.

I gritted my teeth. However you look at it, the monster wouldn't be defeated by just using a mere dagger. Despite the thought, I called to the Snowman to do its best. It slide backwards to avoid the swings of the Kraken's bolt. I knew that would not last long because the Snowman just barely managed to avoid it every time. The Kraken was fast too and after some time, he managed to graze the Snowman bit by bit every swing he made. They were slowly getting closer and closer to me so I had to move backwards near the door that stood ajar to my left.

"Not thinking of running away I hope?" Hamz mocked when he saw me slowly retreating.

I ignored him. If the Snowman hit the wall, I'm dead, I thought panicking. What should I do? What should I do? I won't be able to cast the shield as long as the Snowman is in there, but I also won't make it in time even if the Snowman is defeated. It's too close and fast it will get me before I can cast one.

I must have been thinking too much as I didn't realize the two creatures were already ten feet before me. I gasped as the Snowman's back finally hit me, causing me to fall to the ground. That only meant one thing. The Kraken saw its chance as it pulled its arm back and swung the bolt so hard to the Snowman. The Snowman didn't even have time to scream as it disappeared instantly the moment the bolt made contact with its body.

"Payback time!" Hamz laughed as the Kraken focused its eyes at me and readying itself for a last swing.

Yea, I guess it's the end…

End of Chapter 2

A/N: I hope it's not too early for a fight scene cause I had fun writing it XD Again, if you find any mistakes please let me know so I can improve. Thanks and please review :)