Chapter 10: Raging Bulls

Towards the end of the fall semester, it was nearly final exam time. Students and teachers were getting ready for the tests that barred them from a fun Christmas in their home worlds. I walked in to Ignus's office to take my fire exam. I had studied for several hours for this test, so I was determined to do well.

In the room was another human boy my age about. He was a bit taller but also lankier than I. He had tan skin and messy light brown hair. His eyes were a deep ocean blue. If he wasn't wearing fire robes I'd assume he was a very lost ice wizard.

"Ah hello Matthew!" Ignus greeted me from his desk. I waved back, as well as at the other guy in the room. "Meet Cody Sunspear. He's in my afternoon class and he will be your partner for the final exam."

"You have got to be kidding me….:" Cody sighed. That's when I noticed his Pigswick class ring. "You're from Ravenwood?"

"Yup," I smirked. "But we're both at the Arcanum now. We should work together or we both fail."

"I think Nastrond would thaw before I would work with this doofus," Cody rolled his eyes as I took a seat.

"Your assignment is to defeat a Spirit of Nevermore in the exotic realm of Mooshu to get a few ingredients for a Raging Bull spell," Ignus explained.

I have never been to Mooshu but I had learned its intriguing history back at Ravenwood.

"Mr. Ferric, can I please get a new partner?" Cody begged.

"Matthew Dragonblade is the only other pyromancer student at the Arcanum, so no," Ignus chuckled.

"Fine, I'll work with him, but I'll end up doing most of the work," Cody scoffed.

"And why's that?" I asked, holding back a laugh.

"Because I'm smarter," Cody crossed his arms. "I've been to Mooshu before. I'll lead the way."

"From Ignus's map, the spirit we must face is in the Crimson fields," I said to Cody as we crossed an unstable bamboo bridge over a river.

"No need to worry," Cody said, stopping and admiring the view. I noticed a crack below Cody's feet.

"CODY! You might wanna get off the bridge," I shouted as I walked towards the other end.

"Matt, I'm fine," Cody rolled his eyes. I ran as fast as I could and grabbed his hand. "ACK!" Cody said as the floor gave way. I had caught him just in time. It was a 10 foot drop to the river. I used all my strength to pull up Cody, with his help of course. "Thanks, Matt. You saved me," Cody said in shock.

"What was that?" I smiled.

"Don't rub it in Dragonblade," Cody said, rolling his eyes. "Consider us acquaintances."

"Deal," I said, shaking Cody's hand. "Now let's go!"

Cody and I reached the Crimson Fields an hour later, which was a compound for some warlord that held power in Mooshu. We easily defeated the samurai who tried to arrest us for trespassing.

"You're not bad, Matt," Cody said, impressed when I summoned a volcano to take care of some samurai.

"Same to you too," I returned the compliment. "You don't seem to be a cheater like the rest of Pigswick."

"Oh, I know," Cody rolled his eyes. "It's no fun to cheat really. Ahnku, the Ember professor tried to teach me cheating moves, but I refused. It didn't seem right."

"Yea," I laughed a little. "One of your classmates that I dueled in the Spiral Cup a few years ago somehow knew astral spells at such a low level."

"Sorry you had to deal with that," Cody said shamefully. "I am glad Ravenwood won the cup."

"Either way, we should find this spirit. It's almost sundown," I mentioned.

It was a chilly grey evening and a few light snowflakes began to flutter down. It was December after all. We reached the clearing in the bamboo forest where Ignus had left a mark on the map, but it was empty.

"Huh… where is the Spirit of Nevermore?" Cody asked, looking around.

I heard a rustle in the bushes. Both of us raised our wands. Out popped a horde of ninja pigs!

"Let's make some bacon!" Cody laughed.

We blasted the little pigs with fire, but the spirit still didn't show up. As we were about to leave the clearing, a transparent being in light blue materialized before us. It looked like a stereotypical ghost.

"I am the Spirit of Nevermore. What in the seventeen thousand planes do you want with me and why did you disturb my clearing?!"

"Uh, sorry sir. We were sent by Ignus to retrieve something from you," I said politely.

"Ignus Ferric? He sent you?" the demon asked. "Why didn't you just say so?! He's, like, my best friend in all the planes."

"Wow. That was easy," Cody shrugged.

"I was being sarcastic," the demon rolled his eyes. "I hate that man! He took my soul and banished me to the spirit world! He had a good reason though, as I was terrorizing poor villagers, but that's beside the point." Cody and I glanced at each other, confused. "You two boys will have to fight me. I will NOT go easy on you."

The demon was a powerful fire spirit and he cast down dragons and meteors on Cody and I. We both used fire prisms and both of us used plenty of fireblades before casting Fire From Above, which became a very strong spell with all our blades and traps. The spirit was defeated after both of us attacked.

"Good job, boys," the spirit laughed.

"Uh, sir, aren't you ashamed you were defeated by two teenagers?" Cody asked.

"This was all an act!" The spirit re-formed in front of us. "Ignus Ferric and I go way back. Back when I was alive in fact. He hired me to test you two for the Raging Bull spell card. Here you go. You've earned this. Run along now!"

The spirit held out two Raging Bull cards and Cody and I each took one.

"Woah, sick!" Cody said in awe.

"Thanks, man," I said to the spirit, but he had vanished into the wintry night.

"Great job guys," Ignus said as we re-entered Ignus's office the next morning after a night in the warmth of our dorms. "Was the spirit hard to beat?"

"Actually, yes," Cody said, conceding. "But he turned out to be your friend and he was just acting evil."

"Yes. He's an interesting ghost. I hope his actin' career goes well for 'im," Ignus chuckled. "Enjoy your break, young pyromancers. May you cast great bonfires to keep you warm on these cold yuletide nights."

"We will," I said to Ignus shaking his hand firmly. "Cody, that was fun. I hope to work with you again sometime, if you'd be willing to call me a friend."

"Of course I will. Us Pyromancers have got to stick together. Feel free to send me a message scroll anytime."

"Sure thing, Cody," I said, waving goodbye to my new friend as he left the office. Ignus was also getting ready to go. "I'll see you after break, Ignus."

I left the room to return to my dorm to pack up my stuff when I bumped into Ellie in the hall.

"Hiya Matt," she said, smiling. "I just returned from Polaris for my exam to get a spell called Snowball Barrage."

"Hey Ellie," I hugged her. "I was about to go home to spend the holidays at home.

Ellie hugged me back. "I'll see you in a few weeks, okay?"

"Of course," I said. "Message me if you ever need to talk."