Subaru stared over the shoulder of the Vollachian guard who was driving the carriage holding himself and Al. At the helm of the wooden cart was a large lizard creature that reminded Subaru of Dinosaurs from back home. He had of course seen the creatures from afar when they delivered items to the arena, but this was the first time he had ever seen one up close.
He had spent practically the entire trip so far just resting his head on the side of the cart and watching it valiantly run across the dirt road while the three of them sat in silence.
Subaru turned his head to look back at Al who was leaning his helmet against the side and hanging his one arm off the edge. He couldn't be sure but Subaru was almost certain that he was asleep. The island wasn't terribly large, but the Arena of the Spirit was on the other side of the island so it was still quite the drive.
" 'S Called 'n ground drag'n"
Subaru was startled out of his thoughts by the sound of the Vollachian guard. He whipped his head over to the man, who wore the classic red and black Vollachian colored armor. His hair was long and wild, sticking up in all directions thanks to the black headband keeping it out of his face. He chuckled a bit at Subaru getting startled.
"Ya looked like ya never seen one of 'em b'fore which is crazy t'me ya know? Like who's n'ver 'erd of a damn ground drag'n, but 'n there ya go n'look at me all crazy like when I say it's 'n ground drag'n so I can tell ya ain't got no clue what th' hell n' ground drag'n is so I can tell ya don't know what 'n ground drag'n is ya know? Th' hell did ya ev'n grow up t' not know what a ground drag'n is?"
The man's way of speaking made him sort of hard to understand but Subaru got the gist of it.
'Shoot, It would look really suspicious if I just said I never saw a ground dragon right? He just said he thought it was crazy that no one had ever seen one…'
"Uh… I grew up in Western Vollachia, close to… Carigiari?"
Al had given Subaru a run down of all the different countries, but Subaru could never say any of them right aside from Gusteko and Vollachia, he always called Lugnica, Lugunica, and he always gave Kararagi a different name. The soldier took his eyes off the road and looked at Subaru like he was looking at some sort of exotic creature.
"Carigari huh… that 'ow ya say it? Doesn't sound right ya' know? I mean I always feel like 'm say'n it wrong though ya know, 'n I ain't ev'n been out there so what do I know ya know?"
Subaru just nodded and that seemed to be enough for the man.
"Makes sense then ya know, 'cause they don' use ground drag'n's over there. They use those fuck'n uh… what're they called? Th' dog things I mean"
He looked at Subaru expectantly, obviously waiting for an answer. Not expecting to be thrown into another situation where he would have to bullshit an answer he just said the first thing that came to his mind.
"Uh… Earth… Slaves…"
'Earth Slaves?, where did I even pull that out from?'
The man leveled a look at Subaru which was almost sinister. Subaru gulped. After a few moments he turned his head back to the road.
"Earth Slaves… soun's like somethin' a Carigarian would name their animal ya know? I'll tell ya what kid ya lucky ta be born on this side of the border ya know? They woulda sold ya into slavr'y for a couple coppers th' sec'n ya popped out ya' mama ya know? Don't think they know how ta treat 'n animal down there. Me? I give Gyzzy 'ere ev'ry thin' I can ya know? Gotta treat ya ground drag'n right ya know?"
Subaru just nodded along to the soldiers' ramblings. 'Is that racism? Or nationalism? Either way I should get Al to give me a rundown of Karirigi sometime this week. I can't just keep making this stuff up.'
"Well if ya n'ver ridden a ground drag'n b'fore then ya probably don' know about th' divine protection of wind evasion, huh?"
Subaru tilted his head in confusion. 'Divine Protection? I am gonna force Al to give me a proper lesson before I accidentally just end up telling someone I am from a different world'
"Figured, ya notice how there's no wind hittin' us?, n' how we ain't bouncin' 'round off 'f every rock ya know?"
Subaru took a moment but realised that the strange talking man was right. Subaru was so used to being in a car that he didn't even think about how illogical it was that this cart ride was so smooth. The lack of wind was the same, he looked over at the sleeping Al whose arm should be flapping a bit in the wind but it wasn't even moving.
"I didn't notice it, is that the… Divine Wind Evasion Protection?"
The soldier nodded.
"Yeah, the Divine Protection of Wind Evasion kid. It keeps th' wind off us 'n it keeps th' ride smooth ya know? That's why I gotta treat Gyzzy as well as ya can treat a girl ya know? She treats me good so I treat 'er good, ya know?"
Subaru started to get a little excited again, there was so much about this new world that he was in yet he was only able to experience a small portion of it thanks to being stuck on an island.
"Do any other animals have divine protections?"
The soldier smiled at Subaru, showing that he was missing several teeth. Subaru was used to the sight though, most gladiators only had half their teeth left after years of fighting in the pits.
"Nah, not that I know of 'nyway. That's what makes ground drag'n's so good ya know? Better ride for ev'ryone."
Subaru nodded along, a smile on his face as he watched the Ground Dragon drag their cart forward through the Gladiator Island.
Al jolted awake when the cart finally stopped, he groaned and tried to rub his face through his helmet before he realized that there was something in the way. He pushed himself up from the cart and turned his now sore neck towards Subaru who seemed to be mid conversation with the soldier assigned to carry them and supplies to the Arena of the Spirit.
"'N so if I ev'r see tha' son 'f a bitch I'll let 'em know they owe me a new saddle, ya know?"
Subaru nodded along as he bent over the side of the carriage and pet the ground dragon attached to the cart. Al had the inexplicable urge to push him over the edge with his foot, he pushed it down for the sake of not ruining any relationship that he and Subaru currently had.
"Morning bro, ready to head out?"
Subaru and the guard turned back to look at Al who was stretching his one arm and legs.
"Yeah, I was just finishing up with Gyzzy here."
Al nodded and hopped off the cart, Subaru following him shortly after.
"Bye Gyzzy, bye soldier guy!"
The Ground Dragon seemed to make a noise resembling a goodbye, and the soldier waved the off as he went to unload his cart. Al paid them no mind and continued on towards the large wooden gate. There were very few guards there to protect the arena… which Al guessed made sense. It was an island inside the country that didn't even have a noble living on it, in any attack on the country or even an attempted coup the island would probably be avoided.
The only person of note outside the arena was a bald man with an eyepatch wearing standard Vollachian armor who stood with his arms behind his back. As the gladiator and apprentice approached the gate the bald man called out to them.
"Oi, you transfering gladiators?"
The man's voice boomed towards them, his voice was rough and reminded Al of gravel. Al raised a hand and nodded in confirmation as they approached. When he finally stood across from the man he put his arm out as a greeting.
"My name is Aldebaran, but you can call me Al. The kid is my apprentice Subaru, we're here so he can learn magic."
The man looked over the two with one bright blue eye before nodding, turning on his heel and leaving Al hanging.
"My name is Captain Wess, follow me, we'll discuss all you need to know while we walk, okay?"
Al and Subaru nodded and followed the man through the gate and into the interior of the arena. The entrance showed a large wooden staircase with a long green, yellow, and red lightning pattern rug draped across it. It led straight up and into the stands for the arena, their small group walked to the side of it and into a hidden door that led to a long hallway that looked very similar to the ones seen in the Sword Arena.
"First off, fighting starts an hour into Earth time. You'll be fighting tonight so rest up while you have the chance, and leave your sword in your room, you can't use it here."
Al titled his helmet and scratched at the back of his neck at that, taking a moment to look down at Subaru who seemed to be busying himself by counting the repeating Vollachian flags on the wall.
"That's pretty late to start fighting isn't it? it's hard to see anything when it's so dark out."
The bald man grunted in response, not even turning around to look at Al.
"Magic looks better at night, brighter and all that, people like it. Don't worry about not being able to see what you're doing, you get used to it after a while okay?"
Al nodded although the man couldn't see it.
"Second, You WILL be fighting tonight, so I hope you got enough rest on the ride here."
Al scratched his neck again at that, sighing heavily and looking down at Subaru who still wasn't paying attention to what was going on, just muttering different variations of "Kararagi" to himself.
"That's fine, but what about Subaru? I didn't just come here to fight, I came here so that Subaru could learn magic."
The bald headed captain didn't answer right away, they continued walking for a while until eventually stopping outside of one of the rooms, the door being cross hatch bamboo making it easy to look into and see what was going on inside. The man turned around to address Al and Subaru directly, Al had to grab Subaru by the arm to stop him from running into the man, knocking the boy out of his stupor.
"This is where you will be staying in Aldebaran, your apprentice will be staying elsewhere. We had an… incident a while back and now we don't let them stay together. He can stay with you for now but after the fighting is done he will be brought to a new area in the arena where he'll stay with the other apprentice."
Al scratched the back of his neck.
'I hope Subaru will be fine with that, kid never slept with the other apprentices in the other arena when given the option to.'
"Other apprentice?"
Subaru spoke up while scratching his head, finally paying attention to the conversation at hand.
"Mhm, just one though, some kid from Eastern Vollachia. Now onto the matter of your apprentice having some training in magic… what is his affinity?"
Al turned his head to Subaru who looked up to him at the same time. Al nodded his head in the direction of Captain Wess, obviously wanting the boy to start speaking for himself.
"My affinity is uh… Yin"
The man's one remaining eye widened at that.
"I see, that explains why you've come straight here instead of the Spirit Knight Arena… as far as I am aware of out of the twenty gladiator's here none of them have a Yin affinity."
He placed a hand on his chin in thought for a moment before continuing. Subaru frowned at hearing yet again that there was no one to help him.
'Great, really cool rare magic affinity but no one on the whole island to teach me anything about it.'
"I will have someone stop by here when the fighting begins and take you to the spirit grove. None of the gladiators or workers here may have that same affinity, but if you're lucky you might be able to contract a yin spirit which will help you out."
Subaru nodded with that, scratching the back of his head.
"That's what Nat said too… this spirit grove sounds cool though."
Subaru sighed and slumped his shoulders.
"Don't get your hopes up too high kid, having a spirit affinity high enough to contract a spirit is pretty rare, and you already have a very rare magical affinity. In my opinion I suggest you just leave the island all together and either pay for someone who can teach you or see if you can get someone to take you under their wing based on your Yin affinity alone."
At this Al stepped in front of Subaru, although his face was impossible to see thanks to his helmet anyone could tell that he was frowning under his helmet.
"That won't be happening, we'll figure something out if this doesn't work."
Captain Wess shrugged and placed his hands behind his back in a lordly stance.
"Do as you please then, someone will come by to pick up the boy and yourself when the fighting starts. In the meantime do as you wish, though do try to rest up before the fighting though, it would be a waste to use up any mana you might need early."
With that the one eyed man turned on his heel and walked off down the hall leaving Subaru and Al alone in front of Al's new room. The two shared a look before entering the room, it looked almost exactly the same as Al's room back at the Sword Arena did, the only difference being that the rug in this room was Blue instead of Green.
Al unhooked his sword and sheath from his belt and propped it up against the wall in the corner of the room before taking his usual place on the shelf/bed, laying down and putting his one arm under his helmet.. Subaru walked across from the bed and smoothed out one corner of the rug before sitting down there, sliding his backpack off his back and placing it out in front of him.
He unzipped the bag and examined the contents, his binder for school, the crappy book from the library, his old lunch box and his dad's oversized tracksuit. He constantly wondered why he kept his binder in his backpack, it was full of nothing but outdated homework and notes from school.
If he had to guess why he kept it around it would be for nostalgia's sake. When he looked through it, it reminded him of sitting in class and copying notes from the teacher, trying not to pass out in the middle of class. Those thoughts also triggered other memories of school, like exchanging foods from bento boxes with his friends during lunch and running around the playground or the town and playing with his friends… for some reason those memories made him feel weird for some reason. He shook his head, dispelling those thoughts from his mind, Al said that he shouldn't hold on to them too tightly.
The two of them sat in silence for a bit.
..
..
"Alright, give me the book"
Al said as he rolled into a seated position, facing towards Subaru.
Subaru looked up from the carpet where he had been fiddling with a loose strand of rug.
"But you've read it like a hundred times now, it's not even that good. How can you like this garbage?"
Subaru dug around in his bag blindly and retrieved his now expired library book. He stood up to bring it to Al, but was surprised when the man met him halfway, snatching the book as he passed by him and took his seat on the rug where Subaru had been sitting earlier.
"Give it a few more years bro, you just haven't been away from Japan long enough. Now go ahead and take a nap on the bed, I got plenty of rest on the way here and I can tell that you didn't sleep a wink."
With that he opened up the first page of the book with one hand and dug his nose… or visor rather into the book and began reading. Subaru stared at him for a while before grabbing his backpack and moving to the shelf bed.
It was not very comfortable, the straw made him itch and the animal skin seemed thin making it hard to actually relax. After a moment of laying down he got annoyed and pulled his fathers oversized tracksuit on. It was so big on him that his hands couldn't even poke out the sleeves of it, and it covered his knees. He placed the backpack under his head and curled up in the jacket, still uncomfortable but he still felt oddly at peace.
"Maybe I am feeling nostalgic, and it's a book your grade level you know, you should be all over this kind of thing."
He leaned up against the wall and used the book to point towards the shelf bed.
"Whatever, go ahead and take a nap, I know that you didn't get a wink of sleep on the ride here. I'll wake you up when it's time to get moving."
Subaru had to admit that he was feeling pretty tired, the cart driver was so passionate about ground dragons that he couldn't help but stay up and listen to him talk about them… also hearing him mispronounce Kararagi over and over again was funny (Not like Subaru knew how to say it correctly though). He nodded with a frown and picked up his backpack before heading towards the shelf bed sticking out of the wall.
The bed was extremely uncomfortable, the straw poked his back and bare skin and made him itchy. The animal skin was thin and the wooden board hurt his back. With a sigh he put a hand into his backpack and pulled out his fathers oversized tracksuit, putting it on like a snuggie. The arms were too big for his hands to stick out of the holes and the bottom of the jacket sat just above his knees making him look even smaller than he actually was. He placed his backpack at the head of the shelf bed and laid down on it like a pillow while facing the wall. He closed his eyes and curled in on himself, drawing the tracksuit around him like a blanket and tried to sleep.
Subaru was shaken awake by Aldebaran a few hours later.
"Bro, get up. It's time to go."
Subaru rubbed his eyes and moved into a seated position on the bed, his fathers tracksuit hanging off his shoulders like a cape.
"Mhm.. I'm up"
He mumbled as he slowly pushed himself off the bed and stretched all his limbs. He looked to the door and saw the old one eyed bald headed man, and another man dressed in long brown robes standing next to him. The robed man was clean shaven, he looked to be in his mid to late forties with thinning slick back hair and green eyes with heavy eye bags making it look like he hadn't slept in a while.
"Leave the boy Aldebaran, you'll see each other later. Come on, You're up in fifteen minutes."
Al nodded without looking at the man. He ruffled Subaru's hair with one hand only to have it swatted away by a now fully awake Subaru.
"Alright, see you in a few hours bro."
He turned around and waved his hand with his back turned towards Subaru while he walked off with Captain Wess, leaving only Subaru and the ratty haired man in the robes. The two stared at each other for a moment, Subaru not leaving his spot on the bed. He really had rarely been alone with any adults except for Al, Nat, and the old blacksmith from the Sword Arena… he didn't trust the way the man looked at him.
"Well, come on then. I'd rather not sit here all day and watch you look at me that way, I want to go watch the fights."
Subaru instantly decided that he didn't like the man in front of him. His voice sounded soft yet bratty, like this whole interaction was beneath him. Subaru scrunched his face up even more than it was naturally. He slid off the bed and folded up his dad's tracksuit and placed it in his bag. He promptly ignored the man's impatient huffing at the door while he zipped up his bag and threw it over his bag.
"I'm ready, let's go."
With a grunt the ratty haired man turned around and began walking down the hallway at a quick pace, thanks to the man's long legs it forced Subaru to jog slightly to keep up. The two walk/jogged down the hallway for a few minutes, the man's constant muttering and the long walk finally got to Subaru, causing him to speak up.
"So where are we going?"
The man looked down at Subaru with a sneer, obviously not too keen on talking to him more than absolutely necessary.
'What did I even do to this guy?'
"We are going to the Spirit Grove. It's a place housed in the arena that has been specifically made to attract spirits. We'll go there, test your affinity, and then you can go eat boogers with the other brat."
The man sped up his walking, Subaru stuck his tongue out while he was behind him.
..
..
The two of them continued walking for a few minutes, Subaru could hear the cheering that indicated that Al's fight had begun a few minutes ago and hoped that it was going well. He was startled out of his thoughts when he nearly ran into 'eyebags'.
'That's a good nickname for him.'
"We're here."
Was all he said as he opened a door, Subaru tried to read the sign on the side but couldn't make out any of the words. The door led through to another, smaller hallway with no decorations. The two walked through in silence, reaching another green painted door with words that Subaru couldn't read.
The door led outside of the arena, into a small fenced off area of trees and strange looking plants. Sitting on top of the fences were a lining of cyan colored crystals that were glowing and slightly illuminating the outer ends of the grove. Inside the grove were more crystals, all of different colors that ran up the sides of tree's, along the branches and inside of bushes and plants.
Subaru was in awe at the sight, it reminded him of fantasy manga he would read when he got bored. Of course he had been in a fantasy world this whole time, but this was by far the coolest thing he had seen yet.
"We don't have all night brat. Do you even know how to communicate with spirits?'
The last thing that Subaru wanted to do was admit to this guy that he knew nothing about how to communicate or summon spirits… hell he didn't even know what a spirit looked like.
"No, I haven't even seen a spirit before…"
Subaru spoke with a pout Subaru and crossed his arms. The man simply sighed and ran a hand through his thinning hair. Subaru hated how similar the hairstyle was to his own.
"I suppose that is to be expected, outside of the grove, spirits are fairly rare in Vollachia… although that means that you almost certainly have a mid-range affinity for spirits at most, if you had an above average or higher you would definitely have at least seen one before."
The man almost sounded smug while talking, causing Subaru to grit his teeth in anger.
"Let me show you here."
He closed his eyes and placed his hands together as if in prayer. The grove was silent for a couple seconds as Subaru waited for something to happen. Then suddenly a handful of small balls of white light, no bigger than the size of a quarter appeared around the man in no particular pattern. He opened his eyes and held one palm out, letting the spirits float down to his hand and circle each other there.
"Woah…"
Subaru's eyes lit up in awe as he watched the spirits dance around each other in the man's hand. The spirit mage himself noticed the look on Subaru's face and gave him a smug smile.
"To communicate with the spirits you simply have to close your eyes and try to infuse the space around you with your mana. Like making yourself a beacon to draw them in. The pyroxene crystals here make it quite easy, even a novice brat like you could do it."
With a wave of his hand the tiny spirits vanished and Subaru's mood was ruined. With a light huff Subaru spun around and walked off about thirty feet away and stood under a tree with a lot of bright purple crystals sprinkled into the branches.
He closed his eyes and put his hands together as if in prayer, like the man had done. He scrunched up his face in concentration as he tried to project his mana around him… he didn't know how to do that. After a moment he heard a snort behind him which caused him to double his efforts. Gritting his teeth he copied what he did last week when Al tried to teach him Mana Enhancement. Only this time instead of spreading his mana through his body he pushed it out around him, spreading it into the atmosphere.
..
..
"Holy fucking shit…"
Al took a moment to look around the arena, it wasn't all that different from the one back at the Sword Arena. It was still in essence just a giant sandpit, the differences here come from the large crystals and torches lining the arena, lighting up the pit enough for Al to see… sort of. There was also a large metal net hanging above him, separating the pit fighters from the rest of the arena. According to Captain Wess it would turn any magic that passes through it into pure mana. A good way to keep spirits from wandering off he guessed.
He turned his attention towards his opponent, another robed man with short hair. He couldn't make out any other details from the lighting and the distance between the two. He took another look around the arena, letting his eyes scan over every speck of sand and crack in the wall. After he was finished he simply nodded, turning his attention back to the other gladiator.
A pair of horns and the cheering of the crowd signaled the beginning of the fighting.. Al changed his stance from relaxed to offensive as he turned on his territory, the faint sound of a coin being flipped filled his ears. The other man also changed his stance, wasting no time in summoning a spear of ice and launching it at Al.
"Dona"
With those words a wall of sandstone burst from the ground causing the spear to shatter to bits. Al poked his head out to look at the other gladiator, deciding to keep his cover up a little longer.
The man sixty feet in front of him hadn't moved yet, the only change to him was the golf ball sized orange colored light dancing around his head.
'Just my luck to get thrown against a spirit arts user on my first night huh?'
Luckily now he could see the man's face thanks to the glowing ball, he seemed to be tilting his head in confusion while looking at Al. With a shake of his head he put one hand up pointing towards Al's sandstone barricade. A large spear of sandstone burst from the ground and launched itself towards Al, who threw himself away from his cover and rolled on the ground just in time to prevent himself from being crushed by the sandstone wall.
Getting back to his feet he saw the man summon a number of ice spears and launch them towards him. He had no time to throw up a wall so he took to dodging, managing to roll out of the way of two, and jump over one, only to have three of them simultaneously strike him in the chest. His heart was luckily destroyed with the third spear, letting him pass one without too much pain.
..
..
Al blinked and he was standing back at the start of the battle, the sounds of horns blaring in his ears. Just like his first try he shifted his stance into an offensive one, waiting. The man across from him sent an ice spear, instead of blocking it with an earth wall Al decided to side step it at the last second to preserve mana.
He took off at a sprint towards the man.
"Doa!"
The sand coalesced at his feet hardening into a spear of sandstone and launching itself towards the man. In response a shield of ice appeared from the air and settled itself right in the path of his earth spell. Al smirked underneath his helmet, it had been a while since he had used magic while he was fighting but he still remembered that in terms of barriers, Earth magic was the best at both creating and destroying shields.
Sure enough Al's 'Doa' nearly completely shattered it. Unfortunately the ice shield still managed to stop the sandstone spear from reaching the mage. When Al could see him again he noticed that the orange earth spirit had appeared, it didn't matter though Al was just a step or two away from the man, he would surely be on top of him by the time any spears were able to get to him.
"Dona!"
The mage shouted as he hopped back. Suddenly Al felt himself being launched into the air, flipping in the air and seeing that the mage had used his spirit to create an earth wall right under Al's feet, launching him into the sky.
"El Dona"
Al could only watch as the sand where he was going to land shifted and turned into a pile of spikes. He clenched his teeth together as he was impaled several times over by the various spikes of sand. Al was far used to the pain of being injured in various ways over the years, one does not live with the ability to restart from death without going through a good few agonizing deaths. But here and now his body practically exploded in pain, all four of his limbs had at least one spike in them. Through his chest and surely piercing his lungs if his inability to breath was any indicator, in fact he was actually drawing in his own blood which had quickly pooled in his throat.
The roaring of the crowd around him signaled the end of the match, the spirit mage suddenly appeared in his view. He had short black hair and dull golden colored eyes.
"Honestly I don't know why I thought you might give me a challenge. Your performance was actually rather pathetic if I do say so myself." His voice sounded all too pompous for Al's liking.
He just watched Al bleed out on the pile of spikes for a bit before smirking.
"I don't suppose you wish to yield now do you?"
The last thing that Al heard was the man laughing loudly and obnoxiously at his own joke, and the crowd who cheered on his death.
..
..
Al awoke again at the beginning of the match. He liked to think he had pretty tough skin, after all he had been taunted at the gates of death more times than he could count. But the man still managed to piss him off with the way he laughed while he died, he always hated people like that.
He didn't manage to succeed in his next few loops, that was fine by him though. It was all part of the process.
..
He was speared through the heart with an icicle after launching himself through the air with an earth wall in an attempt to strike the mage from above. To no one's surprise someone with an earth affinity did not work too well in the air.
..
He failed at a battle of attrition when he tried to launch a barrage of sandstone spears at the mage from a distance.
..
The mages icicle had no trouble piercing his helmet and destroying his brain. When he failed to shove his opponent into a wall of earth spikes.
..
Falling into a wall of earth spikes, having his throat pierced by an icicle, his skull crushed by an earth spear, burnt alive by a fireball.
At one point when the mage seemed to feel particularly sadistic he used two earth walls to crush him… Al hadn't even known you could create walls at an angle like that… When he awoke at the beginning of the fight started to form a new plan in his head.
..
When he returned to the start of the battle he took a defensive stance rather than an offensive one. Crouching low with his one arm touching the ground, he would have to cast several spells back to back here so he needed to concentrate heavily.
The spear of ice traveled quickly, nearly piercing Al's helmet before he used Dona to summon a wall of earth. This time he summoned the wall right under the icicle instead of infront of it, causing it to be split in half, with one half flying just behind him.
He dived for the ice knife, holding it close to his chest as the wall behind him exploded from the mages El Doa.
He rolled back to his feet and charged at the spirit arts user. One thing he noted in his loops was that he followed a pattern with his spell casting. First it would be the icicle, then an earth spear, followed by a large group of icicles, and sure enough he saw seven or so ice spears appear around the man.
"DONA!"
Al shouted the spell loud enough for the man to hear, and jumped, in anticipation for Al to be sent flying by his own spell the spirits art user sent his vollet a few feet above Al. Unfortunately for him Al had not cast any spell, only miming a leap, he had learned his lesson from trying to fight from above several loops ago.
He continued his charge, now only steps away from man, he knew what was coming next.
"Dona!"
Al casted his barrier first, jumping over it as it emerged at an angle, slamming into the mages chest like a truck. Al landed on the angled barrier and ran on the slope, hopping off the wall quickly so that he didn't stay airborne for more than absolutely necessary.
The mage was used to fighting and rolled as they were launched, already standing by the time Al kept charging, although he could tell that the mage was injured from the way he scrunched up his face and held a hand to his chest.
As he began casting another spell Al chucked the dagger like ice chunk at the man's face. Stopping a fireball mid creation, the ice chunk was unfortunately either not sharp enough or not thrown with enough finesse to do any real damage. It did manage to buy enough time to let Al get right up in the mage's face though.
"Dona"
An earth wall shot up from under the man, sending him flying into the air in Al's direction. In a desperate attempt to deal some damage to Al he shot out several goa spells, sending the fire in all sorts of directions. None of them hit close to Al, although he did get to see one of the spells fly directly into the metal net, turning into blue colored particles and vanishing with the wind.
The crowd cheered loudly as the robed gladiator slammed into the ground, slowly turning pushing himself to his feet. A foot placed on his back sent him sprawling back into the sand. The mage spun around , propping himself up with his hands as Al slammed his foot into his stomach.
Al leveled his one arm, pointing an open palm at the gladiator's face.
"I yield!"
The man coughed out, with one hand placed on Al's leg. He and Al stared at each other from their different positions for a moment. Much to the robed spirit art users' horror Al did not lower his arm. Surrendering in the arena was something that everyone saw as dishonorable in the arena, but so was killing anyone who begged to be allowed to live. Al was the type to live and let live, but to see the man desperately begging not to be killed when maybe an hour ago he had just laughed at the very idea of Al yielding.
"Do-"
Al suddenly felt the energy sapped from him, his spell fizzled out before he could even fully finish the spell off. He stumbled backwards, his foot no longer trapping the mage on the ground.
Even the crowd got quiet as Al looked around the arena… There were hundreds if not thousands of spirits all over the place. Small balls of light of every color were occupying the space around them. Al looked off back towards the gate he entered the pit from.
"Subaru?"
"Holy fucking shit…"
The soft surprise that came from the man who had been berating him the last few minutes caused Subaru to open his eyes. They widened in surprise, all of the pyroxene crystals had dulled to nothing, and the entire grove was full of spirits. Red, White, Golden, Purple, Green, and Blue colored spheres brightened up the grove. The sight was so wonderful and beautiful that Subaru couldn't help but smile and laugh a bit.
He put an arm out among the spirits and giggled as a handful of them spun and danced around his outstretched arm before moving on with other spirits.
He turned around to look at the sour man who led him here and couldn't help but feel equally as smug as he did excited at his jaw dropped face.
"This… You… You have to have the greatest spirit affinity I have ever seen…"
Subaru couldn't tell the spirits that he had summoned apart from those the other man had summoned earlier.
"So… how do I contract with them?"
The robed man went from looking amazed to looking incredulous.
"You want to contract with ALL of them? Are you insane?"
Subaru sweatdropped, afraid now that his lack of knowledge about spirits was showing in full force. The spirit mage shook his head before regaining his composure.
"I don't even know how you can go so long without seeing any spirits or even knowing anything about them with such a high affinity, but since that seems to be the case let me inform you of a few facts about contracting spirits and magic in general."
He drew himself up straight and raised a hand, lifting a finger to emphasize each point made.
"First off, when you contract a spirit they feed off of your mana.
Secondly, as a child you probably don't have a very high mana pool, so you would undoubtedly die before you contracted all of the spirits in this grove."
Subaru's face fell a bit at that.
"So what should I do?"
The mage's smug face reappeared, making Subaru almost wish that he never asked.
"It would be best if you only contracted one spirit. Preferably one with your own affinity if we are considering your difficulties with learning Yin magic… the Yin spirits are the purple ones if you hadn't guessed that much yet."
Subaru turned away from him, looking among the possibly hundreds of spirits in the grove. There were so many spirits that it was difficult to pick out just one color over all the others.
'I wonder if I can call only specific types of spirits over the others… maybe if I just…'
"Um… hey… can all the Yin spirits come over here?"
Nothing happened from that for a moment causing Subaru to frown… then suddenly Subaru was surrounded in various sized purple colored orbs.
"Woah… okay… that's really cool."
Subaru looked among the spirits all around him, examining each one closely. He wasn't sure what kind of spirit he was supposed to pick exactly, they weren't exactly like fruit and vegetables where he could pick one up and examine it for bruises and rot.
After a few moments examining them he pointed at one spirit in particular that seemed to almost vibrate with what Subaru could only assume (and hope) was excitement. The spirit in question was what Subaru assumed was medium sized as the largest spirit was about the size of a golf ball, and the smallest was about the size of a sesame seed. This spirit in particular was about the size of a fifty yen coin.
He held his hand out and let the spirit float from its place in the net like shape the spirits had formed over him and landed in his palm. It danced around his hand and arm for a moment while Subaru watched in awe.
"Do you want to form a contract with me?"
Surprisingly he could feel several things from the spirit in his hand. Excitement, happiness, and acceptance… he guessed.
"Awesome!, the rest of you guys can go home now!"
He sort of shouted to the rest of the grove bound spirits. Starting out slowly but increasing in pace one by one all the grove spirits began fading out of existence, leaving the only light as the small purple spirit in Subaru's hand.
Subaru turned to the mage who brought him here, although now he thankfully couldn't see his face since all the Pyroxene crystals and spirits (save the one in Subaru's hand) had all vanished.
"So… Now how do I contract with my spirit?"
He couldn't see the man's face as he spoke but he could still imagine the smug look he had when talking down to him.
"Truly it has probably already been made already when you asked the spirit for a contract. You should probably give it a name though before we leave. I imagine that you would not like to call it "Spirit" or anything so insultingly simple as that."
Subaru brought the spirit up to his hand for a moment, staring intently at the excited spirit in his hand. After a moment he spoke up again.
"Seishin… Shin for short. That's your new name!"
The spirit buzzed in excitement, dancing around his fingers as it celebrated its new name. Subaru could feel the same emotions from his spirit from inside… somewhere in his body. He couldn't really explain it, but he could definitely feel a bond between them now.
Subaru let out a howl of excitement suddenly, startling the other man in the grove. He struck a pose he had not practiced in a while, one hand rested on his hip and the index finger on his other hand pointed towards the sky. His new spirit companion danced around his body and rested at the top of his finger.
"My name is Natsuki Subaru and I am going to learn magic!"