While the knights were off on their assignments, Celeste decided she may as well have the others do something as she turned to them and said, "For the next few hours, I think it's only necessary that we all train. Any objections?"
"No, ma'am!" the soldier exclaimed, Neil and Taylor actually excited. After all, this only gave Neil more time to practice.
While Celeste walked down the hall to the training facility, she noticed the king and queen walking in the opposite direction. She quickly bowed her head along with the other soldiers as both bowed back.
"Training?" Henry asked as Celeste replied, "Of course," before turning to the other knights and adding, "You can all head to the training facility and start without me. I need to discuss something with the king."
The knights nodded before heading off, Henry tilting his head to the side and asking, "What do you wish to talk about? Is it about putting the armour into the gauntlets?"
"No, not that," Celeste replied, "Actually, I noticed that on the list of assignments, you marked off protecting the school as a priority quest. With all due respect, sir, that is a mistake, right?"
Esmeralda blinked as she asked, "Is it?" Henry shaking his head with a light chuckle and replying, "I can see where the confusion comes from. Yes, normally protecting the school isn't a big deal as invaders almost never have a reason to attack it, but today is a rather big one."
"I don't follow," the commander replied as the king added, "Well, you see, the grade five teacher, Mrs. Hart, is giving a lecture on talismans today and how they work, so she has asked to borrow an entire deck full of them to show around to the students. While there are no demon heroes in the deck we lent her, I do fear that someone from the Rose Kingdom might try to take them for Richard."
"What!?" Celeste remarked, her eyes and mouth wide open before she thought, 'Oh no, and I just sent Izy to guard that spot! And Will's only slightly more helpful!'
"Esmeralda chuckled at the commander's reaction and said, "Don't worry too much about it. We were very secretive about it," Henry nodding and replying, "The only reason I labelled it as a priority assignment was because of the off-chance that one of Rose Kingdom's spies might have seen one of our representatives handing it over, but the odds of that are still up for debate."
"Oh, thank god," Celeste replied with a deep breath, "You terrified me."
Henry then took a deep breath and replied, "I'm sure whoever you sent out can handle an attack anyway, right?" Celeste thinking, 'Please, fate, don't let me down.'
All the while, Izy and Will were right outside of the school in the pouring rain while their heads were soaked. However, while Will was having trouble dealing with it, Izy had a big, cute smile on her face as she tilted her chin upward and opened her mouth, catching drops of rain with her tongue.
Will stared at her for a few seconds before snickering, Izy turning to him and asking, "What?"
"Nothing," the man replied while trying his hardest not to look more professional, "It's just that I used to love drinking the rain when I was a kid. I don't know why I stopped. Guess I just figured I was too old for it."
"There's no such thing as being too old for fun," Izy remarked with a pout, holding her hands against her hips, "Go on, try it."
Will gulped and looked around to see if anyone was watching. He took a deep breath when he noticed only he and Izy were in the area, and thus the man faced upward and did as Izy did, catching a few drops on his tongue.
As he gulped it down, he smacked his lips and said, "You know, that's actually quite refreshing," a big grin forming on his face as Izy nodded and sighed, "I love rain. Every time it rains, I just have to run out and enjoy it, you know."
Will stared silently while thinking, 'I have to admit, Izy's actually pretty cute. I mean, I thought she was cute before, but damn.'
However, while this went on, a woman with black hair in a thick ponytail was sneaking about. All the while, she took a deep breath and thought, 'Why did it have to rain today? This is awful.'
But who was this woman and what did she want? That would have to wait as back at the castle, Henry walked in on a group of people in charge of crafting armour. Of course, one of these people was a wizard who would cast an enchantment on each suit of armour that bound it to the magic of the gauntlets.
"Hello, your majesty," the wizard in question said with a bow of his head, "What brings you here?"
"Just wanted to know if you can pull this off," Henry replied, "We're not exactly sure what Rose Kingdom did to make it work, but I trust you."
"It might take some time," the wizard replied with a sigh, "but I think I might be able to crack this. After all, if we can bind armour to gauntlets, then we can merge armour with gauntlets. Mark my words, this task will be achieved by the end of the month."
Meanwhile, Izy and Will continued to stand around as Will sighed, "I'm sorry for dragging you into this. This is a pretty boring job, isn't it?"
Izy shook her head and replied, "Hey, as long as I'm helping out, it's all good in the end. Besides, you don't even know me and you still wanted my help. That actually means quite a bit to me."
Will blinked as the brunette added, "While I enjoyed working in the circus, my heroes growing up were the famous knights of old. Prince Alexander and the mighty Ben were just small samples, but to think there were even women like Emma, Malinda and Cora just made me want this sort of thing more."
Will nodded and replied, "Well, that's part of why I applied for the army. That and my father gave me talismans so I could pursue this path," before adding, "You know, some of the women don't believe that your speech you told Celeste during your initiation was true, but I fully believed it. Glad to see I wasn't wrong."
Izy grinned and replied, "Yeah, the others can think what they want. Words are just words, anyway. I wanna prove how dedicated I am to protecting the lives of people so they can cheer for a better reason. As much as I love the applause of the crowd, a part of me always thought I could do more than just entertain people, that I could save lives and give them something to really look forward to."
Will could not believe it. At first, he just saw Izy as the newcomer to take advantage of, but he was genuinely touched by her words. Was he feeling actual love toward the brunette?
"By the way, where did your dad get his talismans?" Izy asked, "My dad found his in a nearby cave while mining while Mom had a few passed down from my grandma. I think I already told you that Edward got some for me from a bet."
"I remember that detail," Will replied with a grin, "Well, it's a funny story. See, my dad used to be a famous knight. They used to call him the Mighty Ben."
Izy's eyes and mouth were wide open as she grinned and squealed, "OH MY GOD, YOU'RE BEN'S SON!? THAT IS SO COOL!" Will's cheeks flushed pink as the brunette took hold of his hands and exclaimed, "I don't care if you're a raging flirt! You're practically a celebrity!"
However, the moment was interrupted when Will noticed the woman from earlier trying to sneak into the school through a window and spat, "HALT IN THE NAME OF KING HENRY!"
Izy noticed this and gasped, "What he said!" the black-haired woman narrowing her eyelids and sighing, "I guess I have no choice but to fight you."
Will gulped and said, "Hey, I could easily win this alone, but what say we take her down together?" Izy asking, "Can we do that?"
Will nodded and replied, "Yeah, there's actually no limit to how many knights there are in a magical duel?" Izy saying, "Well, it will make things easier."
With that in mind, the brunette and the man both activated their gauntlets at once while the black-haired woman strapped on her own gauntlet as her armour came out of it and covered her up. Will blinked and said, "Wow, Celeste wasn't kidding. How did you guys pull that off?"
"If you must know, it required a great deal of magic to pull off," the woman remarked, "Not that you're going to live to tell anyone about this."
But before they could begin, Izy put on a polite smile and said, "By the way, I'm Dame Izy," Will and the enemy both staring at her as she shrugged and added, "I figured we should at least introduce ourselves before a duel."
Will nodded and replied, "Well, that's not a bad idea," before adding, "I am Sir William, but everyone calls me Will."
The woman let out a sigh and said, "This seems unnecessary, but if it gets things started quicker, my name is Dame Rachel of the Rose Kingdom."
Izy smiled and said, "Nice to meet you, even if it's not under good circumstances," Rachel giving her an odd look before shrugging her shoulders and saying, "Since you issued the challenge, you will decide who goes first."
Izy turned to Will who nodded and said, "Luckily for you, this isn't my first time partaking in a two-on-one duel. I'll help you out," Izy beaming and replying, "Thanks."
With all said and done, Will agreed to go first as he took a deep breath, all five knights drawing five talismans. With that, he whispered to Izy, "Alright, here's how this works. After I have my move, Rachel will go next. Then you go and Rachel goes again and that's how the order works, got it?"
"Oh, okay," Izy replied with a nod, "Wouldn't want to mess this up, that's for sure."
With this in mind, Will looked at his hand and grinned, saying, "I'll start with an incredible spell known as Burden of the Mighty," the man inserting a talisman into a slot as a strange dark magic formed on Rachel's side.
"What did you do?" the black-haired woman asked as Will explained, "As long as this spell remains in play, every one of your demons loses one hundred attack points multiplied by its level."
"Not bad," Izy said with an impressed look, Will then slapped a talisman onto his middle square as a knight of his own with short blond hair and light-blue armour appeared, the man explaining, "This here is my Marauding Captain. He may not look tough, but he comes with a very useful power, and that's the ability to let me special summon a level four or lower demon from my hand, and I choose Spell Striker."
With that, the man proceeded to summon a tiny demon with a perfectly round head and torso, a blue viking helmet and matching suit of armour along with a spear with a lightning bolt-shaped head. However, Rachel was rather unimpressed as her had weak attack power, even when put together.
"Let me guess, there's a reason you summoned these weakling, isn't there?" she asked as Will smirked and replied, "You catch on fast. But yes, you're right, for I choose to overlay both these warriors in order to summon Artorigus, King of the Noble Knights!"
Izy's eyes sparkled with admiration as all of Will's warriors formed into balls of light, fusing together. And once the light faded, another warrior stood in their place, a knight with brown hair, a rugger face and white and blue armour. With a sword that resembled his armour in hand, this man certainly had a threatening presence.
"Wow, that is so cool," Izy uttered, thinking, 'His father must be really proud of him.'
Will, all the while, smirked while thinking, 'Well, she's impressed. But what's important is ending this as soon as possible,' and with that, the man set one last talisman into a slot and ended his turn, saying, "And that should give you a good sample of what's to come."
"I'll admit, that's actually a little intimidating," Rachel replied with a shrug before drawing a sixth talisman for her hand, "Unfortunately for you, I already have a way to counter this."
"You serious?" Will uttered as the black-haired woman nodded and placed a talisman into a slot and tapped on it.
At that moment, a big twister formed and swept up Burden of the Mighty along with the spell Will had set. With that, both returned to his hand as he blinked, Rachel explaining, "The spell I just used was Giant Trunade. It sends all of your spells and traps back into your hand."
'That's not good,' the man thought as the woman proceeded to summon a demon in defence position, setting another talisman into a slot and ending her turn.
Will took a deep breath and said, "This isn't too bad, Izy. My knight is still out. You can use Artorigus to destroy the defending demon."
"Don't worry, I have every intention of doing that and then some," Izy replied with a big grin as she drew her next talisman.
As a matter of fact, Izy could not have asked for a better starting hand. She had the perfect set-up to defeat Rachel in one move as not only did she have both of her pendulum mages, but she also had three demons that met the right criteria to be summoned.
With that in mind, the brunette proceeded to set Stargazer and Timegazer on the sides next to her gauntlet's squares. Will's eyes sparkled as both mages appeared, Rachel asking, "How did you summon them both at once without breaking the rules? Is it their power?"
"Actually, I set them," Izy replied with a grin, "See, these are called pendulums and they double as spells. As for what they allow me to do, well, allow me to demonstrate."
A big pendulum appeared behind the two mages and rocked back and forth as Izy exclaimed, "With the power of Stargazer and Timegazer Magician, I pendulum summon all three demons from my hand! Introducing Blue Dragon Summoner, Red Sparrow Summoner and my favourite, Performapal Whip Snake!"
Blue Dragon Summoner was an intimidating young man with a wavy blue haircut and a dark-blue cloak. Red Sparrow Summoner was a beautiful young woman with scarlet hair in a ponytail and a dark-red sleeveless battle dress. Both combined were strong enough to deal three thousand damage, and combined with Whip Snake's power, there was no doubt that she was set to end this duel quickly.
'I can't believe it,' the brunette thought, 'I never thought victory could be so easy to obtain. Again, thank you, Dad. If you hadn't given me the pendulums, I never could have pulled this off.'
However, it seemed something was wrong as Rachel said, "I have to say, I'm actually impressed. It's just a shame I happen to have the perfect trap for this."
The woman then proceeded to activate the talisman she had set at the end of her turn as a big burst of water came up from the ground on Izy and Will's side. Five streams shot up, each one covering a different square as all four demons were pierced. However, this also effected Rachel's side as her defending demon was destroyed, but she did not seem the least bit upset about this.
"No," Izy uttered as Will laughed nervously, saying, "It's okay. I'll make up for this next turn."
"I'm afraid that won't be necessary," Rachel replied, "Anyway, the spell I just used was Torrential Tribute. When my opponent summons at least one demon, I can activate this trap to destroy every demon on the field. Sure, that includes my own, but one is a small price for four."
"Why even summon that demon in the first place if you were just going to destroy it, though?" Will asked as Rachel remarked, "I wanted you to have a reason to summon another demon. If you couldn't attack me directly this turn, it would be pointless for you to do so."
Izy bit her lip and said, "Wait, my Blue Dragon Summoner has a special power. If he's sent to the graveyard, I can add a dragon, spellcaster or warrior to my hand."
Even so, this was all she could do as Rachel rose an eyebrow and asked, "Hey, why haven't those mages of yours been destroyed?"
Izy nodded and replied, "I told you, pendulums double as spells. Unless I summon them normally, they're not considered demons."
"So that means you can't attack with them," Rachel replied with a shrug, "That's fine."
"Why are you so calm!?" Will retorted with a grin, "After all, with both pendulums out, Izy can just summon the demon she drew from her deck!"
Izy then shook her head and laughed nervously, replying, "Sorry, but I can only pendulum summon once per turn," as Will sighed, "Oh well, it's still cool."
However, Izy could not help but feel like she was forgetting something about the pendulums that her father had told her. But she could not put her finger on it.
Whatever it was, she would have to figure it out soon as Will asked, "Are you sure there's nothing else you can do? I mean, you didn't use every talisman in your hand, right?"
Izy gasped as she nodded and said, "That's right," before activating the one talisman she had not used and thinking, 'Thanks, Will. I almost forgot I had this.'
At that moment, a tablet appeared as two vials came out of it. One had a green liquid in it while the other had a purple liquid.
"Oh, I've heard of this spell," Rachel said with a smile, "I'm impressed you even have Poison of the Old Man."
"Yeah, I do," Izy replied with a serious look, "And I choose his second power, which is to inflict eight hundred damage to your armour!"
With that, the purple vial disappeared back into the tablet as the green one opened up, the poison flying out of it and soaking Rachel's armour. The black-haired woman winced as her damage points dropped to thirty-two hundred. At the very least, Izy had done some damage.
However, Rachel did not look the least bit intimidated as her turn started up, the woman saying, "I'll admit, that pendulum summoning of yours is intimidating, but you only have one talisman in your hand, and it's likely a weak demon that you can summon easily. Your ally, however, still has those two spells I sent back to him, and I already know one of those will be a royal pain. As such, I think I will take care of him first."
Izy was confused now as she asked, "What does she mean by that? I thought we were both sharing the same damage points."
"Yes, but two-on-one duels are different from two-on-two duels," Will replied, "No one knows exactly why this is the case, but during a two-on-one duel, I guess the magic of the gems makes it its duty to make things more fair for the single opponent, so if one of us is attacked for a total of two thousand damage or more, that knight is removed from the duel, leaving his partner to take over and turning it into a one-on-one duel."
Izy scratched the side of her head and said, "That's weird," Will shrugging and replying, "Well, it's magic."
Rachel proceeded to activate a spell, saying, "I now use Double Summon. As the name implies, it allows me to summon two demons normally this turn."
"Oh no, I have that spell too," Will groaned as Izy said, "Sometimes I forget there's more than one of most talismans in the world."
And with that, Rachel proceeded to place two talismans next to each other on the squares of her gauntlet. This allowed her to summon two demons.
One had human-like features but a mostly fish-like body and held a trident. This was Spined Gillman. The other was a blue two-headed serpent with cat-fish like whiskers on its snouts and fins covering the sides of its torso. Its name was Lost Blue Breaker.
Both demons were pretty weak, but their combined powers combined gave them a total of twenty-eight hundred power, meaning Will was doomed. However, Izy seemed to have something to counter all of this with in her hand as she thought, 'Hopefully, she doesn't have anything else planned. I need to at least survive her turn.'
Will gulped as Gillman rammed his trident into the man's armour, bringing both his and Izy's damage points down to twenty-seven hundred. However, it only got worse when Breaker formed a stream of water with the rain before swimming toward Will, both of its heads biting into his shoulders.
The man cried out in pain as the damage points were reduced to thirteen hundred. With that, his armour started to crack as he uttered, "Finish her off, Izy," before his armour came clean off, the man falling hard on his back and coughing up blood.
Izy stood there, frozen in fear. She had never won a duel by herself, and if she lost, not only would the school likely get ransacked by Rachel, but both she and Will would likely die. Hopefully the demon in her hand would be enough as she did not have enough damage points to survive another attack from either one of Rachel's demons.
