Year Three at Hogwarts
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Chapter 17: Truth and Shared Pain
Shimroe started off by leaping out at Reggie but he quickly flapped his wings and became airborne. Reggie then circled Shimroe for a moment before he went and dived and lashed out at his back with his talons. Reggie gashed at him and took off before Shimroe could retaliate.
While Reggie was gaining momentum in the air, Tyler, Jacke and Brad were jumping and cheering for their flying friend. They strongly believed that Shimroe would easily fall, as did the Sphinx and the Soul Demon.
Reggie dived again and striked at Shimroe's panther face this time leaving three red scrapes of blood in his wake. While Reggie was going back up again, he couldn't help but feel that there was something odd about Shimroe. To him, this seemed just a little too easy to be confident of winning. He turned his head to look at Shimroe in his panther form, using his paw to stroke his face. Reggie decided to become a little bigger so that his talons could do deeper damage. He changed from average eagle size and made himself half bigger than he originally was. He would save other sizes for later; after all, Reggie could only make himself become as big as his original height due to the change that their elemental transformation did for their animagus ability. He went for the strike again but this time Shimroe appeared ready. He jumped with his four legs and dodged to his left. When Reggie's back had been placed to him, Shimroe opened his mouth. He didn't roar or anything but that didn't eliminate the chance of danger. A glow escaped his mouth and then a beam of white light shot out and went for Reggie.
When Jacke saw the light, he yelled for Reggie to look out. Reggie turned and saw the beam shoot from Shimroe's mouth and glided himself to the right getting out of the way barely in time as the beam went on and shattered a piece of the high ceiling.
"What…what in the bloody hell was that?!" Tyler couldn't help but yell.
"It looks…like Shimroe has mystical powers even when he's a common animal."
"That's not fair! Reggie's a common eagle now. How's he supposed to stand up against that kind of disadvantage? All he could do is change his size and that hardly makes a challenge next to shooting magic blasts at your opponent!" Jacke yelled stamping his feet.
Then there was chuckling on the field and they turned their heads from each other and saw that it was the panther that was laughing. "Did you really think that it would be that easy? I am a guardian of the power of creation. Just because you defeated my earlier brethren, doesn't mean that you were certain to the legendary power. I am able to release bursts of energy while in my transformed state giving me the advantage regardless which beast I confront."
'This isn't good,' Reggie thought from where he hovered from above. 'That means that no matter where I fly off to, I can't avoid the possibility of being attacked.'
Shimroe went back on his attack. He let out a faint flash escape his eyes before let twin beams of energy jet out from them, intending them to hit Reggie. Reggie took off and went on ahead. He left the energy behind him but several beams shot from Shimroe's eyes and he had to go into evasive action to keep from being hit. He didn't want to take the chance to see just how strong those beams were and if he could withstand them. He just kept moving away, around and ahead of them as they came but in was nonstop and he couldn't get a moment where he could counterattack.
"Reggie!" Tyler screamed over from where he was. "You can't keep dodging those attacks forever. I know you want to avoid taking a chance of getting injured if you could help it but unless you actually do damage to Shimroe then this will keep on going. I don't think you could keep this up forever. You're going to have to take a risk."
"Tyler's right Reggie. Unless you stand against Shimroe's strength and go into the offensive then you're going to lose this fight. You have to fight back," Jacke shouted after his friend.
"Reggie, if you're going to do something then you better do it soon," Brad yelled right after.
Reggie decided to act more like a bird of prey and started to circle his prey.
"Oh no you don't," Shimroe protested before he launched another wave.
Reggie avoided another shot and then started to swoop and charge at Shimroe. Shimroe let out an arsenal of beams from his jaws and they went for Reggie who dodged at the best he could at his current speed. He readied his claws and prepared himself to grow to his maximum height to get the hardest attack he could come up with. However, Shimroe let out a blast that unluckily struck at Reggie's right wing. Reggie let out a rough "Caw" sound put still was swooping down and collided with Shimroe. Shimroe was thrust back like he had been pulled by the tail; he moved but had his claws still firmly on the ground. Reggie went up again but he was doing it by putting most of the effort in his left wing because his right wing felt like it was ripped clean off and thrust right back into it's socket. It took a lot to keep him airborne.
"Well, I see that you are persistent Mr. Falkner. I can also see that it's taking you much of your strength to keep in the air despite your handicap. I can't wait to see how long you plan to prolong the inevitable."
'He's right,' Reggie thought in near defeat. I can't beat him with just one wing. If I transform back and hit the ground then I'll be cursed or worse. I…I can't beat him. Even I could muster getting myself to get near him, there's no way I can get him to be knocked out,' he thought before he caught exactly where Shimroe was. Shimroe was close to the edge of the arena. 'One good hit should knock him out naming me the victor. But…how am I going to gain the leverage for that on one wing.'
"Reggie!" called Brad from where he and Tyler and Jacke were standing. "Come on. Don't let Shimroe get to you. You've got to keep going."
"Reggie, honestly, if you dare to even consider giving up then I'll make the beating Shimroe gave you look like a tap," Jacke yelled up to his bird form friend.
"Look Reggie, we know that you're hurt. But you can't let that stop you. Use everything and I mean everything to your advantage. Leave nothing overlooked and I'm sure that the answer will blow by," Tyler shouted encouraging his friend by honoring his position as a wind elemental.
The effect of that comment didn't encourage Reggie but it opened up a possible solution. 'The wind. I'm a wind elemental. I've manipulated the wind many times and every time I do, I feel intoned with it. Maybe if I focus, then maybe I could pick up on which wave of wind would help me glide down and attack Shimroe. I may not be able to use my elemental powers as an animal but I can still use the wind to my advantage.'
Reggie closed his eyes and tried to let his body and birdly senses tell him how the air was blowing in the entire place. He found a good gust of wind being blown close to where Shimroe was and intersected with it. Reggie started to extend his left wing out like the wing of a kite. Shimroe made a smirk, which was obviously one on his panther face and opened his mouth, getting ready for another attack. Reggie stayed on course and tried not to be intimidated by it.
'Okay, my size is what's going to do it. Timing is going to have to be everything.'
Shimroe released a tremendous blast intending for it to be the final shot but Reggie put his plan to flourishon. He concentrated and made himself about the size of a tiny minute owl that could sit on a finger and avoided the attack. Then he felt it; he felt the wind changing and knew that it was going to blow down with a second wave. He then kept the charge and immediately brought his wings in and shot at him like a torpedo. Reggie then quickly made himself his maximum size and made a good collision with Shimroe, knocking him out of bounds.
Shimroe saw that he was defeated and let out a frustrated growl escape him as he whacked his tail. He left the arena grounds and changed back into that purple haired teenager again. The other three seekers were jumping and cheering at how their fellow seeker from Ravenclaw defeated Shimroe with a hurt wing. Reggie walked over to his friends in his animal state before he returned to his normal state. Immediately he gripped his right shoulder and saw that it was dislocated.
"Whoa, that must hurt."
"That's a big painful duh, Tyler!"
"Okay, easy there Reggie."
"Reggie," Brad said looking at him with narrowed eyes. "We're going to have to fix that."
"No…no…not that."
"Yep."
"No." Reggie was really starting to look scared of Brad now and Tyler and Jacke watched with pity.
Brad went over to Reggie and Reggie turned his head away. Brad went over to the part of the arm that was dislocated and swiftly popped it back into place and Reggie let out a bloodcurdling scream.
"Would you rather have constant, agonizing pain with the danger of losing your arm all through the trip or one mega painful moment with a guarantee of keeping it?"
"Right now Brad, I think losing the arm was the merciful choice."
There was a cough interrupting them and the four of them realized that they forgot all about Shimroe.
"I must say that you put up a well won fight." He waved his arm and the guard bars disappeared into the floor revealing the next passage. "Mr. Falkner, it was an honor to have you as an opponent. Mr. Carter, Walker, Slytherin, it's been fun."
"Wait, you know my real name," Tyler said holding his arm stopping Shimroe from going anywhere.
"Yes, we know all four of you. Orichai looked into your souls through your eyes and let us know about you four in advance. Good luck." Then he vanished into thin air.
The Seekers walked on, all with the same goal in mind, of getting past the last four trials. Reggie was last in line because he was trying to ease the pain in his shoulder by trying not to move his arm much. Reggie was massaging it when he was starting to see fog. His vision started to be blurred and soon, he lost sight of the corridors that he was walking in.
In front of him was a beautiful…angel was what he could call it. She let out a glow that just screamed life. Her eyes were as green as leaves and her hair was as brown as bark. "Hello Reginald Falkner, I am the spirit of the earth."
"You're the spirit of the earth?" he said deeply surprised. It was the same apparition that visited Brad just before Christmas accepting him.
"Yes. I've been watching ever since you became one with the wind. You showed true worth when you relied on your own element without even manipulating it. I will now unshackle you so you may realize your full potential."
Then out of nowhere, Reggie saw was seemed to be ghostly white shackles on his wrists that seemed to be made of wind. They immediately broke away and disappeared off.
"Doing this will allow you to be able to conjure real wind, pure wind. Also, you will realize that your progress with the wind will have deeply improved after every practice. You will be able to improve faster and better after you train unlike before when it took a lot of work to get the smallest results. You've been accepted in truly being your own with the wind. I wish you well."
Reggie then heard of voice that sounded familiarly like Jacke's. "Reggie, Reggie, are you still there?" When Reggie got out of his stupor, he saw Jacke waving his hand in front of his face.
He knocked the hand away and cleared his throat. "Guys, did I go somewhere?"
"No, you were just standing there like you were in a daze. It looked like you fainted on your feet," Jacke said rubbing his hand. "Why?"
"I was just talking with the earth spirit."
"What? She came to you," Brad said pushing Tyler and Jacke out of the way to be in front of Brad.
"Yeah, she said that I was accepted because of how I used the wind without actually using my wind powers."
"Sounds like her."
"How would you know Brad? You've only seen her once," Tyler said putting his hands under his shoulders and narrowing his eyes.
"Never mind, the point is that we have two elementals on our team that can reach our full potentials without the earth spirit pulling us back."
"Why haven't we been accepted yet Tyler? We've been elementals the same amount of time as them so why not us too?"
"Don't know Jacke. I guess we'll ask her when we get accepted. Let's keep going."
They soon reached a different kind of room. This room looked like it hadn't been stepped into for eons. There was webbing all around and a few spiders on the floor.
"Eh, this place needs a definite clean," Jacke said cutting the webs in front of him away.
"Is this a trial? To clean up the place," Brad said shaking discarded webbing off his clothes.
Tyler caught sight of the corridor out of there but like before, it was blocked by bars. "Guys we better be careful, this is a trial judging from the blocked way so we have too…"
He never got to finish because he got lifted up and pulled to the top of the room where it was pitch dark screaming.
"Tyler!" Reggie screamed. Are you…" However, he couldn't finish either because he was pulled up screaming too.
"Tyler! Reggie! Are you guys okay?" Jacke yelled as loud as he could muster.
"If you could just do something, send us some kind of sig…" Brad was stopped in mid-sentence because now he was pulled up and out of sight.
Jacke was completely left alone. He pulled out his wand and readied himself for the slightest bit of movement. He was as alert as the badge on his robes indicated, a lion. He was poised and ready to pounce at the slightest brush of an enemy. He heard a sound coming down and he jumped out of the way and was ready with a stunning spell but saw that it was Tyler. He was wrapped up in three tight lines of webbing and was hanging about 5 feet from the ground.
"Tyler! Are you okay?"
"Yeah, Jacke except for one small thing. I'm tied up and I can't get down!!!"
"Okay, no need for you to be all snappy."
Jacke was getting reading to try a severing charm but Tyler was soon joined by Reggie and Brad wrapped up in the exact same way; three tight strings of webbing hanging off what seemed to be a web behind them.
"You guys too? What happened to you three?"
"That would be my doing," said another voice.
Something descended and landed quite a few feet away. It was a 20-foot spider.
'Well, that at least explains the webbing.' Jacke thought as he gazed at the huge spider.
"I am Arachne, guardian and provider of the fourth test. Tremble before my awesome sight." It roared sounding feminine.
"We would, if we were flies," Jacke responded with a bored expression on his face to show that he wasn't scared.
"How dare you! You have a lot of nerve there."
"Whatever, let my friends down and we won't squash you unless the test happens to be that."
"No. Your friends are finding themselves in…a web of lies. Ha, Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha."
"Nice pun," Brad said dully.
"Should be since I'm the one who inspired it."
"Huh?" Reggie said with a look of confusion all over his face.
"When the founders had this test, I used it on them and they told it to the rest of their world and it's been adapted everywhere now thanks to my influence."
"Hooray, do you want a medal or something?" Reggie said mimicking Brad's dulled voice.
"Let us begin. Mr. Walker, yes you've been pardoned from this test but its best that you stay where you are. Now as for you three," he indicated at Tyler, Reggie and Brad, "You will be conducted in a truth trial.
"Truth trial? What do you mean?"
"Simple Mr. Slytherin. In this trial, you'll notice that the three of you are stuck in my web of deceit. This web is holding you simply because you are concealing a truth from each other through the use of lies, hence the web of lies. You three have been lying for quite some time for the web to be this big. It seems that Mr. Walker was the only one who wasn't hiding anything with lies or hasn't told enough to become a great web like this."
All four of them jumped at this and each made eye contact. What was everyone lying about? Jacke was looking at the three of them with a mixture of wonder and disappointment pointed at them. 'I'm the only one who makes an effort to try and be honest as best as I can,' he thought shaking his head.
"Know, they say that the truth hurts but in my test, it is the lie that will hurt. Each of you three will be given three turns to speak on what exactly is the lie that has been plaguing you three. If you tell the truth and let your conscience be free of it then the web will let your bodies free. Tell a lie to cover it or fail to speak and I will send a rush of pain through the webbing. Fail to free yourselves after the three turns will result in you simultaneously returning outside the beginning doorway. Shall we begin?" She walked under the four of them and stopped in front of Reggie. "Mr. Falkner."
"What? Me first. I have nothing that's been bothering my conscious," he said defiantly. Then all of a sudden he let out a hard scream. Reggie was feeling like someone was pouring hot water over his body concentrating on his trapped hands and feet. Then the pain stopped coming but still left an aftershock. Reggie suddenly knew what she might be implying. There was one secret that he kept covering up, he covered them up expertly but they were still lies to a degree. 'But maybe, if I tell the truth on something else that's been on my mind then maybe I'll be let free,' he thought.
"Wrong answer. One down. Now try again starting……….now." She said slamming one of her legs.
"Alright," he said, "there is something. I've been hiding the fact that…I got kissed by Claudia Ments on the first date and that was the real reason I dumped her."
"Wrong answer." After Arachne said this, more pain was sent.
"Reggie, you dumped Claudia Ments because she kissed you."
"It was on the lips Brad."
Tyler, Jacke and Brad would've whooped for their friend but didn't feel that this was the time.
"Anyway," Tyler said, "He told us something. Why did you say wrong answer? He did lie to cover that up and said because he wasn't interested.
"That wasn't a lie. I could sense that's not what made my webbing. He really wasn't interested by that kiss even though it was his first. He did feel her attraction but he realized that attraction and affection are different. Now you have one more try Mr. Falkner. Tell what made your web and you will be released. The truth always is hard to give up isn't it?"
Reggie lifted his head when she finished. 'It looks like I have no choice,' he thought with sorrow. "All right. Here's the truth. Do you all remember those times when I say that I have gels and other muggle stuff to change things like my hair and appearance? Also, like that time after we fought Arnold and we had to hide our wounds and I said I had a healing potion kit to hide them? Those were lies. The real reason that my appearance changes so often was because is because I'm a metamorphmagus."
Tyler and Jacke raised their eyes at this while Brad looked confused. Then all of a sudden, the webs surrounding Reggie started to disappear. Also, Reggie felt like the pain was being washed away from his body as the webbing was disappearing. He then walked over to Jacke with his head down.
"What's a metamorphmagus?" Brad asked.
"It's a rare ability. Some wizards or witches are born with the ability to change their own appearance at will. You know, like changing their hair color or the shape of their nose. Most changes like that require potions or concealing spells but if you're a metamorphmagus then you don't really need it." Jacke answered from below.
"Wow, Reggie, would did you hide something like that?" Brad asked.
"Yeah, you know we wouldn't have minded. I understand my secret of being a parselmouth but metamorphmagi aren't considered dark or dangerous."
"I don't really know. I guess I just wanted to keep it to myself. And I admit, if you guys did tick me off then I could've used it to spy or pull things over you and you wouldn't be the wiser. I also thought you guys might also be afraid that I would always do that."
"Ah come on." Jacke said slapping Reggie's back. "We wouldn't have done that."
"Well!" shouted Arachne and only then did they remember that they forgot they were in the middle of the fourth test. "Now that we've gotten that out of the way. I can move on." She moved over to Brad this time. "You have something that you're hiding from one or all of your friends."
"I do," Brad said nodding his head.
"Well, you're taking this nicely."
"Yeah well, when you were interrogating Reggie, I thought that I should search within myself for something that I've been hiding and I realized that I'm hiding something from Tyler and Reggie. I've already told Jacke but that doesn't mean that I'm not still feeling the effects of keeping this on my conscience."
When Jacke heard that, he was pretty sure what Brad was talking about. He had just told him only yesterday what he'd been holding out on for a while from Reggie and Tyler. Reggie and Tyler were looking at Brad and wondering exactly what he did that might upset them.
"I told my friend Hawkster Jones all about us getting the Potion of Fecundity some time ago and what it does."
The webbing came immediately off. Tyler and Reggie had shocked expressions on their faces. Reggie's didn't last long since he was in the same boat as Brad and he knew the reason that he didn't have webbing on that was because he only told Laura yesterday. Tyler couldn't help but feel like Brad just told him that he said a personal thing about them. Boy, would he get it when he came down.
"Well, I'm impressed with you Mr. Carter. You are a real honorable human to have cut yourself free on the first time. Now, let's see if Mr. Slytherin fares like you or can even get himself free." She crawled over to where Tyler was now and indicated that it was his first try.
"I've told them everything, I mean, what else is there?"
"Nope, you've lied to them about something." Then Tyler started to scream from pain. "Another chance."
Tyler managed to think while he was in pain. What could I have lied about? My first and second year, I told them about who I was and everything. This year, I didn't lie about anything, I even kept my word on the wands and…' Tyler eyes sprang open after the torture was done. 'That's it.' "Alright. I know. Okay, guys, I lied about the way I got your wands, I didn't get them in Diagon Alley. I found them in the secret chamber in my house. I was told that those wands belonged to the founders and I wanted you to have them as a bond between all four of us!"
The webbing let Tyler go and Arachne vanished into the floor and the bars followed her example. Tyler came down and felt like the pain washed away from him and he went toward his friends.
"I think I have some more to tell you guys," he said looking each one in the eyes. All three were deeply surprised when they learned that they each had their houses' founder wands in turn and also surprised when Tyler told them that he had his ancestor's wand too. He told them all about what he learned the day he found them and everything of how they were found in the Deep Level at his house and what Guardian had told him.
"Do you know what this means?" Brad said after Tyler was done explaining. "This means we have another gimmick for our group." He looked at his wand after he said this.
"Huh?" Tyler said surprised. He wasn't expecting that.
"Yeah, our wands are kind of like our own badges in a way for our group," Jacke said looking at his wand closely.
"Still, I can't believe that all four of us have the Hogwarts Four's wands. It feels kind of weird. Cool but weird," Reggie said also looking at his wand.
"You guys aren't mad I kept this from you?" Tyler said also pulling out his wand for good measure.
"No mate," Jacke said looking at his wand and him. "We're surprised but not mad. You could've told this from the start. I mean, you just gave us all something else that bonded us together even though we're in different houses." Brad and Reggie nodded in agreement with smiles on their faces.
"Oh, well, I wanted something else to bond us together and I guess you liked what I did. But anyway," he said starting to raise his voice a little. "I think someone has something to explain too," he said narrowing his eyes at Brad.
"Not only him," Reggie said looking at his feet. "I have something else to tell you guys. If Arachne's test has taught us anything then I shouldn't keep lying about something and have you guys upset that I lied and/or tried to cover it up by avoiding it."
Brad and Reggie told them all about telling Hawkster and Laura, in turn, what they revealed. Tyler was more angry with Reggie now then with Brad. Reggie said that he had Laura swear to him that she wouldn't reveal Tyler's secret about his family and that after they get out of here, that he could bring Laura to him and see for himself if she's trustworthy or not. Brad also took that as a signal to say that he'll do the same with Hawkster to show that they could trust him too.
"Okay," Tyler said. "We'll see if they can be trusted with my secret or not. Now we'll have to get going." When Tyler was listening to what Reggie and Brad had to say, he did feel angry and betrayed that they revealed his secret but it wasn't strong. He was filled with another emotion that overpowered those two: Jealousy. He was jealous that they let the secret off their shoulders to friends that they thought were noble enough to keep about him. He wished he could tell Regulus, Sam, Matt and Morgan. The talk he had with his godfather Timothy on if he told others made him think that he didn't give his slytherin buddies enough credit on their loyalty than they were truly worth. He would have to work on that. He also didn't know that Jacke was having similar thoughts on a pair of Gryffindors.
They moved on until they came to a room that looked as if it was completely made out of gold. It was remarkable how everything glowed. The worst part was the seekers couldn't think or admire the room at all. They were busy covering their noses because a horrible odor was covering the room. It smelled like the toilet after use and week old sweat mixed. In a corner of a room, was a shadow outline of a figure. It looked a foot taller than the four of them and it started to move into the light. When it did, it was the strangest thing that they've seen in these trials yet.
It had a head of a giant pig or a boar with tusks looking as though they were plucked from an elephant. His eyes were pitch black and his nose wiggled with slime shining on it. His feet were hooves and his arms were hairy and muscular with claws on the hands. He was dressed in battle armor complete a battle helmet that failed to cover his face to their inconvenience. When it spoke, it even had a boar's voice.
"I am Ram. The tester for the fifth obstacle. Do well as listen to my words and realize that you won't get pass me like you had with my other brothers and sisters."
"You're all related?" Brad asked completely shocked by this.
"I was speaking spiritually fool!"
"Sorry." He said before stepping back.
"Good, now, you must choose one among you to fight against me one on one. This battle is unlimited with how you could fight."
The Seekers went into a huddle. "Whose the one fight piggy over there?" Jacke started.
"Well, we already said that Brad and I should try to keep the two of you as fresh as we can. Brad, you're still fresh as it is. Why don't you?"
He considered and saw that it was the reasonable reason. "Yeah, I guess I should Reggie. I haven't really fought yet. I also have my water powers unshackled by the earth spirit so I could make real water now and who knows, I might teach myself new tricks."
"Don't forget. Your transfigurations skills are great. Remember the tournament second year? You went all out with them."
"Thanks Tyler," Brad said rubbing his hair and feeling a little embarrassed. "I'll fight you Rams," Brad said moving toward him.
"Very well. But you must choose an ally to be behind your fighting."
"Choose someone to be behind me? What do you guys think he means by that?"
"He must be talking about a second in case you can't go on," Jacke said.
"I guess so. Then I choose Reggie. Are you okay with that mate?"
"Yeah I do. We have to keep Tyler and Jacke as fresh as possible. They are the best duelers among the four of us so we have to do our best," he said as he stood about five feet behind Brad.
"Why do I feel like they're cutting us out from the fun Tyler?" Jacke whispered to him.
"Give it time Jacke. Would you rather have all four of us worn out when the biggest and baddest of these guys comes up against us instead of us having them at our full power?"
"Good point."
Back with Rams and Brad, Rams wrinkled his nose and sounded like he was smelling something. "I can smell Helga Hufflepuff's scent on you. It's coming from you side."
"Oh yeah," he said moving his robe out of the way to show his wand. "That would be because I have her wand right here," he said having his eyes look at Tyler.
"Yes, I can smell Rowena Ravenclaw on your partner as well. I can even smell Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin on you two too." He said looking at Jacke and Tyler. "I see that you are their wand heirs. I hope you'll provide me with good entertainment like they did a millennia ago."
"We aren't the founders, we're the seekers and we aren't going to stand and let a butcher shop reject push us around," Reggie yelled defiantly.
"Now let us begin shall we," Rams gruffed. Brad took that as the signal to pull out his wand. "On my count to three is when we shall start. 1, 2, 3."
"Averte Stature!"
Rams ran toward Brad. He then jumped forward and rolled toward him to avoid the spell and had a fist that connected with Brad's stomach. He felt like the wind was just knocked completely out of him before he chocked back and said in a squeaky voice "Flippendo!" Rams was knocked back but Brad heard of huffing sound and looked back and saw that it was Reggie and he was clutching his stomach!
"What…Reggie what's wrong? You look like you got punched like me."
"Of course he did," Rams said from where he was.
"What?" Brad shouted. "What's going on? What are you doing to him?"
"It's really what you're doing to him Mr. Carter. You see, when I said to choose someone to be behind your fighting, I wasn't completely serious. Every blow that you take, your partner will also feel. If your partner should faint from the pain then you will too and lose this battle." Brad and Reggie both opened their eyes and mouths in shock at this. Tyler and Jacke were yelling and saying that Rams should've said that part at the start before Brad picked Reggie. "Well tough. You should've chosen Falkner to be the one actually fighting me with you behind Carter if you're fresher. Falkner still is recovering from his fight with my brother Shimroe. That means that he can't stand too much pain and his time in this is your time, not the other way around. He will share your pain and if he passes out before you could win then you'll lose. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha,"
(---)
End of Chapter 17Well, the fifth test and already they're starting to bite off more than they can chew. How can Reggie stay strong enough for Brad to stay in this when he's still recovering from the third test with Shimroe? Also, Reggie and Brad going to get by at all to make good on their promises to show that Hawkster and Laura can be trusted. Also, what exactly will the sixth and seventh obstacles be like. We'll soon see.
On another note, I hope all of you will have a good holiday. I'm sure in the spirit. Please send a review
High Serpent King.