Chapter Thirty Two: Black Tactics

Frost's POV
Thirty knives, stained with blood. Thirty bodies, soaked in blood. Thirty hearts, bare of blood. Thirty souls, drowned in blood...

A riddle. A simple riddle I read in the very last paragraph of Drago's letter. He talked about tomorrow's trip to the Wilderness. How we'll get there, who's coming and WHY we're going. Apparently, it's going to be another test, similar to my last one, the Test Of Courage. Except it's now called the 'Test Of Colours' since every single 'Colour' will have to compete. The prize is supposedly the fact that you'll become superior to the first Colour of your own, and maybe even the rest. Drago also stated that there can be multiple winners on the paper, but when consulted White, she said that nothing of the sort was written down on hers. It's strange and it's something that's going to linger around my head for a while...

But for it to be tomorrow is one hell of a pain. Everyone's coming along on the trip but aren't going to compete... Well... Most of them aren't... In total, there's about fifteen to twenty five people contending... That's just a wild guess.

"You ready for tomorrow?", Phase asked me from behind as I sat on a wooden, freshly painted light blue porch that was surrounded by many beautiful flowers on a vast green plain. I pressed my back against the spine of the porch, looking up towards the amazing light blue sky that held a thousand clouds of serenity and one blazing ball of raging calmness. The clouds were formed in bubbly shapes, all connected nicely like a necklace which calmed my heart and soul to it's maximum content. I blinked, putting on a small smile across my face before I let out a heartfelt sigh, releasing all of my negative thoughts and stresses, putting my mind to ease.

"Kinda", Was my simple reply. She sighed.

"What's left?", She asked me in she sweet, innocent tone of voice, very similar to Mindy's.

I thought a second about it, debating whether it was either knowing my opponents better or to improve my combat abilities. After a good three seconds of silence, I answered her.

"To learn how to use magic more efficiently"... She gasped in what sounded like shock, humming loudly from right behind me as I blinked, destroying the bond between my eyes and the clouds the moment I turned my head around to look over my shoulder. She was startled. Her light blue, amazing eyes were as wide as a full moon and both her creamy white hands covered her lips. I gave her a confused look, blinking once again to her strange actions. "Is something wrong?", I plainly asked.

"Um... You have magic?", She asked, muffled by the covering of her palms, making my head throb a little to her strange question. She didn't know?... I thought it was obvious for anyone to suspect any traces of magic on me. Well, except for Humans who don't have 'clairvoyance' developed. I have her a small smile and nodded. "I... I had no idea!", She proclaimed, removing her hands away from her face, down to her stomach as she gave me a big, warm, amazing smile.

"Really? I thought you knew from the start", I said, chuckling lightly before I looked forwards again, this time staring at the grassy field that stretched to as far as the eye could see, all the way to Mount Winterfall, the tallest thing in the world... That snowy, ice caped mountain has many legends revolving around it. But one stands out the most. The Legend Of Six Point...

Putting that aside, this place will be filled with people tomorrow with all sorts of people and one hell of a massive air ship... So far, the thing that I dearly hate about the whole 'Test Of Colours' is the fact that we're going to have to travel via air... I don't know what was going through Drago's mind, but I'm as sure as hell that he did this just for me!

"Haha. I guess you're right. I should've picket it up when you managed to easily dodge that girl's bullet", She stated in a friendly, cheerful way that warmed my heart. "Anyway, you said that you wanted to learn how to use your magic more effectively, right?", She said, instantly catching my attention to the max with those spoken words of delight.

"Yep!", I said cheerfully, spinning myself around, leaning my left body against the spine of the porch, smiling with happiness which caused her to flush a slight red, giving me back a bright smile. A soft breeze slapped us from the right, causing her beautiful, light blue hair to flutter amazingly to the left as well as her light blue, simple dress.

"Let's go then. I want you to show me what you can do so far", She said in a serious tone of voice with a hint of enthusiasm. Immediately, I sprung off the porch and took a good eight steps forward before spinning around, digging my right hand into the waistline of my pants to pull out my Night's Melody in it's pistol form. Too bad this'll be the last time I see it like this since the games only allows a singular weapon of each kind, meaning you can't have a gun that transforms into a sword, rocket launcher, minigun and a shield at the same time. However, it can be combined... Haha, I can already imagine something like that! Using my mind, I quickly turned it into a large, black and red-stripped blade that matched my Ezarca's qualities almost identically. Just the name and the colours were very different. Nevertheless, it's still a blade that suits my tastes perfectly.

I held the handle extremely tightly with my lone right hand, holding it diagonally in front of my body right to left in a defensive position. My left foot firmly planted forwards as my right foot stood as my pillar of balance and power. Phase giggled childishly, hovering a good four meters forwards, keeping another four in between us. Her bare feet touched the prickly light green grass of the field, taking a simple, proud stance as she crossed her arms, waiting for me to show her my magic.

"Show me an orb of energy", She announced, instantly causing my mind to click as I channeled my dark energy throughout my entire left arm, focusing directly onto my hand. My hand, shaped like a claw, strained a little as a mass amount of darkness exploded into a black puff of shadows before immediately swirling together into a ball of my blackness. I looked down at my hand, smiling a little to see a small, significant change. In the center of the orb of darkness, was a little red glowing light. "Pfft?! I should've asked you what kind of magic energy you had", She stated in sudden realization, causing me to look up at her. "Cause as a spirit, I have my own magic. And that happens to be similar to yours, only weaker. I know almost everything about it but... Not the one that mortal would use. Let alone a Colour! You never told me that YOU were a colour ", She exclaimed, leaving me dumbfounded to what she had just said... I got so worked up... For nothing! "But I'm able to posses your weapons and give them direct magical energy".

Before I could even reply, an arrow whizzed by head a mere three inches, impaling the grass far ahead which caused my pupils to dilate and my eyes to widen in pure shock and fear. Instantly, I spun around, gritting my teeth instinctively to see Melody with a drawn bow alongside Sapphire who too, had her dark blue bow drawn.

"What are you two up to?!", I demanded, widening my stance as i caught a glimpse of a pink blade hidden behind them, making it obvious that Star was hidden behind them, waiting for me to make my charge. Knowing her, she'll try to catch me off guard and strike me in the chest.

"Warm up for tomorrow! Are you interested?", Melody asked me, making me smile slightly as I parted my jaws from hate, realising that their intentions WEREN'T to kill me. I guess warm isn't such a bad idea.

"Phase, I want to test out your possession against these three", I said to the spirit behind me.

"Gotcha!", She exclaimed before suddenly, a white wisp of energy entered my Night's Melody... Immediately, the unbelievable happened. An injection of adrenaline so powerful, that even a baby would be able to lift a car with a finger was unloaded into my bloodstream, forcing my body to freeze for a brief second as my blade became weightless... W...woah! "Show em Frost!", Phase said from behind me. "I only possessed it with a small fraction of myself, so the effects shouldn't be as great"...

"This is amazing", I whispered, blinking before I slouched slight forwards, staring right at the shiny link blade of Star's that was visible in between Melody's legs. Haha, I bet they thought hiding the only exposed part of her sword would be where I would never dare to look! "DEAL!", I yelled and at once, they began to barrage me with magical arrows. I stood my ground, smiling vividly as I used my own combat technique to avoid getting hit by them. And of course, it was though the tip of my blade and with the movement of my dance. I kept it going, hacking and slashing at the projectiles as they began to loose stamina, the source of normal magic! Crystal shards of glowing light blue and green particles exploded like confetti around me with every slice I made on an arrow, giving me a majestic look which intimidated my foes greatly... I'm going to charge in three seconds, on a their stamina drains.

Three! Two! One! GO! I launched myself forwards, spinning to the right to avoid a stray wooden arrow and split one of Melody's infamous 'never-miss' arrows with a horizontal backhanded slice. Quickly, I closed four metres in between us, leaving only six more to go which caused me to smile. As fast as possible, I slid down to my back, watching the two archers dive to the sides in order to allow Star to rush straight in for me with a serious look to her pretty white face. She lunged straight ahead to where I would've been if I hadn't lowered myself.

I easily passed through her wide open legs, looking straight up to catch a flash of light pink

which caused my face to redden like a tomato. I stood up immediately, turning around just in time to watch her sent a reverse slice for my face with her rapier.

I slashed it away with ease, causing her right arm to rise well over her head due to the sheer amount of force I inflicted onto her blade. She stumbled back, still stunned which allowed me to move in and slash her stomach with the very tip of the blade, shredding her white top like paper as blood splattered out like a fountain. She cried in pain, recovering from her stunned position before sending a stab to my heart with extraordinary speed.

I twisted my body to the left, just watching the tip of her blade miss my chest by a few inches. Like lightning, I raised my right hand up over my head and slammed it down against hers, sending her entire body flailing forward to the sudden force of my attack... As she fell to the ground, I jumped to the right by the feeling inside of my gut, JUST managing to avoid two lethal crystal arrow shots that would've killed me in an instant. Shit!

I focused my eyes on Melody, watching her every movement as I began my rush up towards her at full speed, aiming to slice her shoulder's tender spot to stop her from using her legendary grade bow. Another shot was sent, only to be sliced easily with the cunning sharp edge of my blade. Quickly, without hesitation, I leaped forward, smiling brightly as I watched her draw her fin arrow for the day, aiming directly for my face before she let go. Instinctively, I spun in mid air, arching my back to allow the arrow to safely pass by me by a mere inch before I finished off my spin with a harmless slash to Melody's left shoulder, causing her thick crimsons to splatter all over my clothing in an amusing manner.

She stumbled backwards, grunting in pain before she admitted defeat. I gave her a firm nod, turning around slowly to see my final opponent down on her knee right in front of me... Hmm?

"I surrender! You win!", She said aloud... Eh? I didn't think she'd be the type to surrender like that... Just like back in Hythin where I fought both her and Diamond! "Please, spare me!". I blankly blinked, letting out a friendly sigh before I placed my left, dark-charged hand onto my hips, slowly plunging the tip of my blade into the cold, fragile soil of the earth.

"Does this mean I win?", I asked her playfully. Her smile broadened evilly, greatly reminding me of our long battle back at Hythin which caused my eyes to widen... Before I knew it, I had something sharp stuck into the right side of my neck, releasing a strange fluid that literally ceased my respiratory and nervous functions just like that... Shit... I remember now...

They both faked their defeat and caught me off guard with their teary faces... Dammit! I always fall for these cheap tricks!

I instantly dropped down to the ground, unmoving and limp, easily resembling a corpse as my lungs were starved of oxygen... I couldn't feel the pain of anything at all... In the end, my being gave in and accepted the horrifying reality that my mind wasn't prepared for... My transformation... Argh!

White's POV
I quietly sat on my white, furry sofa that was positioned to face the left of my pale bed where Black lay down, reading a book about magic given to her by Serenity. I had my eyes just barely open to observe her, pretending to be fast asleep. My breathing was slow and controlled to mimic an actual sleeper's breathing pattern. My entire back leaned against the spine of the sofa comfortably with both my hands overlapping each other on my lap.

She held the golden plated book an elbow's length away from her face as a she read through it's contents, desperately wanting to learn how to properly use her magic. Her legs were partly spread apart, revealing her precious treasure that had a fine light blue cloth that concealed it from the naked eye... The black miniskirt she wore was loose from around her waist and the black shirt she worn was slightly pulled up, revealing a good portion of her creamy white belly. She took in a deep breath of the cold oxygen from this room and exhaled it all with a sudden frustrated sigh that made me focus onto her a tenfold.

I wonder what's up with her? Irritatedly, she shut the book close and turned to face me, gently placing the book down onto the small wooden table that sat beside the head of the bed to the left. She turned her body back to face upwards, placing both her arms to the side of her, palms facing down as she took in another deep breath of air. They must've given her a rigged book...

"Hmhm! Why do these things always have to happen to me?", She sighed sadly, sounding really depressed... So it IS rigged. "No. I'm not going to ask or let someone do something like that to me", She said... Hmm? Who's she talking to? Odd... "Even if it's for my own good, there's no way in hell that I'm going to let anyone do that", She's talking to herself?! "Argh! Phase! If stop asking me these embarrassing questions please!", She exclaimed, putting both hands onto her face as it turned a deep shade of red, making me smile and wonder what the hell was going on with her. It's almost as if she's talking to something invisible!... Maybe that's the case... "What about White?", She asked muffledly, instantly shooting a dangerous sensation throughout my entire bloodstream like an electrical current.

"No! I can't even with her!"... What is she going on about?

"Yes! I've done it twice before". Twice?

"Of course it didn't feel good! The only part that felt good was near the ending!"... Did Black go insane?! Damn Melody! She must've given her brain damage!... Black took in a deep breath of air, inflating her chest slightly before exhaling with a long sigh, releasing her of her stress. She turned her head towards me, blankly staring at me before she said something.

"I did it with White Heart... But she died last year... She had amazing purple hair, red sparkly eyes that shone like the sun as well as a great personality... Just like someone I know here. Only they're almost as great as Mindy... See her?", She stated, causing my heart to beat wildly in embarrassment and shock as I struggled to keep myself undercover... "I know she took a lot of my blood last night, but that doesn't mean that I have to stay away from her. I'd let her bite me as long as she warns me... White's a great girl"... B...B...B...Black?! "Anyway, Phase, what chance do you think I'll have in this Test?", Black asked before suddenly, I caught a glimpse of a girl floating above Black for a split second, instantly causing my eyes to shoot open in pure shock and fear... W...w...what?!

Black blankly blinked, raising from the bed to in fright and worry to my sudden movements as I sprung off the pale couch, standing uneasily to what I had just witnessed... A ghost?!

"Nightmare?", Black asked me in a comforting tone of voice as I stared into the thin air above her with widened, petrified eyes filled with pure terror... I was about to say something again, but I ceased, standing as still as a statue with a slightly parted jaw... H...huh?! Right there! Right before my very eyes was a GIRL! She floated in the air above Black, smiling brightly at me whilst Black gave me a confused look and a small smile. "You look like you've seen a ghost"... HAHA! How ironic!...

I think I need to lay off Black's blood for a while... Then again, that's a bad idea...