The Third day of competition for Holfort's school Festival is the melee tournament, where students are allowed to participate in three rounds of melee combat against one another using the weapons of their choice, be they spears, swords, shields, axes or metal knuckles all appropriately dulled of course. Range projectiles such as bows, guns or rifles or magic beyond support magic though are strictly forbidden. Skilled healers are deployed from the church in order to save the lives of the participants in the event of an emergency. Thus the Broken Bone rule applies where participants can keep competing until such time that one of the competitors have had one of their bones broken. Beyond this, competitors have permission to beat each other into submission to their heart's content!
Excerpt from the Pamphlet for Holfort Academy's school festival
Watching Leon race on his airbike was one thing, watching him beat people up or get beaten up was another, so Livia had opted not to watch this time around, and Angie had opted to join her partly for her own protection. She was after all not the only person who was on the student council to begin with. Thus the two were now experimenting in the Courtyard. For Olivia's work from Rodin she was given the task of learning about and independently controlling the various elements in the body, so now she was branching out into water, air and earth magic. Water and air was relatively obvious, but it turns out the human body is full of all kinds of minerals and metals, things that are normally thought of as being 'earth.' It's the same reason why the Church's healers are taught to supplement their healing with water, wind and earth.
"Maybe I should ask the church for some advice?" Livia asked as she looked down at the Devil Arm Rodin had lent her.
Gilgamesh: Gilgamesh is the name of a unique metal from Inferno.
It has the unique properties of repelling nearby objects, converting flesh into metal, and acting as a conductor of demonic energy. It's also the name given to Demons who go too far in its use and are turned into metal permanently, becoming vastly more physically powerful and durable but costing them their five senses. There are many cases where high ranking demons use large demons converted into Gilgamesh constructs as siege engines.
During the Siege of Urizen which served as a prelude to the shattering war one such monstrosity was released into the world capturing humans and encasing them in suits of Qlipoth roots and Gilgamesh to mass produce Angelo Foot Soldiers, such demons make for powerful but obedient Devil Arms.
Excerpt from Rodin's weapons catalogue
"Don't." Angie was off to the side meditating, ball of fire in one hand and an apple frozen solid in the other. She opted not to risk giving herself frostbite if she doesn't have to. "Remember what Master Lucas explained to you about etiquette?"
"What I do and how I do it affects how other people see me?" Livia replied speaking through the mouth mask that came as a set with the gauntlet and greave weapons.
"Correct. And if you are seen working alongside the church?"
"I'll be seen as part of the Church, and they'll try to recruit me." Livia slumped a little bit at that. Wanting to help people is fine but she has to think about her own safety and happiness too. Of course if there's an emergency then Livia would act anyway, it's the same case as if the Church isn't involved. "Rather..." Right now though that wasn't her biggest priority. "Why does it feel like I'm slowly moving away from being a healer?" The Young girl wearing the big heavy Gauntlets and armoured boots asked as she looked down at herself.
"...you're imagining things." Angelica stated as she returned focus to developing her own affinities.
"Angie, why did you hesitate to answer that?" Livia's anxieties only ended up growing.
Greg of course strongly protested his friends and lover throwing their lot in with his EX-Fiance, which made him a oddball among the festival, whereas everyone else were wearing uniforms proudly displaying who was paying them to show up and fight on their behalf he was entirely shirtless, much to the admiration of the female audience. He was a well known body builder, and that was before he joined the army and learned support magic that sent waves of mana rippling through his muscles to help them build tissue. It also meant that he couldn't get any money for Marie unless he either gambled or took the grand prize, and Marie already made it clear how she thought about gambling, as a added bonus he'll be able to spite the others for siding with that Bitch Sarah.
"For the first match of the first round we have Greg Fou Seburg!" Greg spun around arms raised into the air as the crowd cheered him on. "And his opponent! Leon Fou Blackmore!" Greg's face cramped at the mention of his opponent.
Slowly turning around, arms raised in the air as if he forgot to drop them, Greg saw Leon walking into the arena, a black body suit with the logo of the Blackmore Coffee company in purple on his back and chest, his only weapon being his gloved hands. Greg calmed himself down, Leon was unarmed, and more importantly Greg was already familiar with his fighting style, he had the advantage in the arena because of his stupidly strong armour but now it was no where in sight. He and Greg were on even footing.
"Didn't bring your exclusive servants to do the fighting for you?" Greg got into a fighting pose as he got ready to go on the offensive.
"Against you, during a sports festival? No it's going to be hard enough to hold back to the point you don't die as is." Leon stated as he got into a basic boxer's pose.
Greg's brow twitched angrily as he prepared to spring into action, he'll show Blackmore what he gets for underestimating him!
"HHHAAA!" Greg used his legs to spring himself forward, spear extending to it's full length, and Leon dodged, grabbing hold of the spear and pulled, once again using his long reach to his advantage, and drew Greg directly into a hard punch to the man's throat dropping him to the ground, and he wasn't moving.
"Alright you get up, I know I didn't hit you that hard." Greg was conscious, and in fact actively trying to get up, but that was it. The man had a hand on his throat and was struggling to speak beyond anything in terms of gasps. "Shit." Picking up Greg's Spear, Leon broke the head off of it, then followed that up with using two finger nails to sharpen the edge until it can cut, he then spotted what he needed in the audience and quickly ran over before grabbing a cup with a bendy straw in it before taking the straw and running back over to Greg. Using the knife Leon slit open Greg's Trachea before sticking the straw inside, Greg's body instantly relaxed in relief as the sound of drinking in air through the straw sounded and Leon collapsed in relief. "Competitor Leon Fou Blackmore has been disqualified for use of a bladed weapon and striking competitor Greg Fou Seburg while he is down!" Leon sighed at that, no good deed and all that.
Advisory Notice to All Students: In light of the recent bomb attempts during the School Festival's Races all exclusive servants are subject to mandatory background checks and code of conduct.
Any servants who are reported assaulting students will be removed from the premises effective immediately.
No exceptions.
Students whose servants are caught engaging in illegal activity will not be allowed to hire new ones until after their week long mandatory detention with master Lucas has been completed.
No Exceptions.
One Awkward stay in a jail cell, one testimony from the medic explaining how Leon's impromptu tracheostomy saved Greg's life and one... passionate speech from Angelica and Leon was able to return to the competition. On one Condition.
Chris was happy about how Greg's fight had gone, not because he had almost been killed, but he hoped the experience would teach him humility. Maybe now the idiot would spend less time building muscle and more time learning how to put it to use. For now Chris had a fight to win.
"First for the Winner of the second match of the first round we have, Chris Fia Arclight!" Chris was originally shaping up to be a seed candidate, the one that if they got another unexpected double knockout he would step in, an unlikely scenario considering how relatively few rounds of the tournament that they had to work with. "And his opponent, returning after a shocking first round, Leon Fou Blackmore!" Leon walked into the arena, much to the boos of the crowd, many of them were hurling garbage at him.
Chris had nightmares about Garbage, why does it keep being piled up in the dormitory in front of their door? They even started setting up bells and trip wires so that they would be awoken if someone came in to pile garbage and trash the hallway in the middle of the night and they still wake up in the morning to discover a mountain of trash.
"I'm surprised they let you compete Blackmore." Chris stated getting into a proper swordsman's pose.
"On one condition." Leon held up two bright red boxing gloves before he got into a proper boxer's position with both of them on.
Chris felt like he had been insulted, as if they expected him to fall into the same trap of arrogance as Greg. The match started, Leon and Chris charged at each other, Leon broke his into a slide tackle much like their first fight that Chris deftly leapt to avoid. He wasn't falling for that again. Chris followed up the dodge with a slash that Leon punched away from him as he stood up with an upper cut strike.
"You've been practising." Leon genuinely praised.
"Yes, but I'm also aware of your cheating now." Chris had long since grown tired of such empty platitudes.
Leon was at a disadvantage, his reach was longer than what Chris was capable of with a sword but his fists had been covered in leather gloves filled with cotton, support magic or no his striking power had shrunk significantly. Chris's blade though dulled had not lost any of its offensive power since the first round, even Blackmore would get tired of dodging eventually. Then suddenly while in the middle of a dodge roll avoiding Chris's downward strike a dirt clod was thrown into Chris's face, and while his eyes were protected by his glasses the glasses themselves were now covered in dirt.
"You miserable-!" Leon grabbed Chris's arm as he was about to remove his glasses and with a loud snap broke the limb in two. "Yeow!"
And that was how Leon won the second round.
Livia and Angie were still working on developing their respective affinities. Olivia was getting a better feel for Gilgamesh's flesh to metal deal, blood had iron in it, it used it to carry oxygen apparently? And somehow it pushed magic away? Olivia felt like it was an important discovery, that Iron was able to push mana away somehow, but not always because Livia sees the guys coating their blades in it most of the time. A thunder crack echoed out as a metal block was thrown to the side. Angelica was tackling multiple affinities at once, aside from ice and wind she had also been working to develop lightning as well, the block of metal had apparently been a teaching aide towards that end.
"Angie what are you doing!?" Livia looked over concerned at Angie who was sitting in front of the block of metal that was sitting in the middle of a crater she had just made.
"Durga decided to make a teaching aide to help me figure out lightning." Angie waved the smoke out of her face as she picked up the block of metal and examined it.
"According to her lightning's all about separating and recombining energy." Livia just looked confused.
"Like making two fire balls and then squishing them together?" Livia asked giving the contraption that had been sitting next to Angie a side long glance.
"That's what I said but no." Angie stated as she held up the block in question. "Apparently the two specific energies I need to separate and recombine have been trapped into opposing ends of this, if I can figure them out then I'll be one step further to lightning." It was common sense that you could only use the magic you had affinities for, fire affinity meant that you could only cast fire spells, water water etc etc. These demons seemed to think differently, and if Angie was an indicator then they were right.
"I wonder why most of the demons don't talk to people?" Livia asked as she looked down at the weapon in question.
"Well what does Leon do with them?" Angelica asked as she thought through the situation some more. It was common sense for adventurers to sell whatever they get from the Dungeon to the Kingdom, which is usually everything but the one or two drop items they can use themselves. Leon on the other hand sells off the most of the lower rank demonic and angelic weapons but keeps the Halos and Orbs. She knows that Leon Help Angie once with a potion he made out of red orbs once, but that's just excessive so...
"Do you like eating Red Orbs?" The Gauntlets let out a glow of contentment to Livia's question. Leon said that Devil Arms like to skim off materials from the fights with other demons and angels to help them regain their former power, maybe they negotiate with them for other things too. The weapons in question seemed to hum in contentment to Olivia's suggestion. "Alright, lets see if we can find you some food."
As a rule. People think poorly of Demons and Angels. Justifiably so. Asking around the academy, especially in the later years, you'd be hard pressed to not find someone who hasn't lost friends or families to something living in the dungeons.
Of course I suspect that if you posed the same question to the demons and angels they would say the same thing about us, they simply don't hold a grudge like we do. In many ways they are people who are trying to make their way in the world, people we normally see as enemies but when you consider that their consciousnesses reside in the weapons we take from them they're also our allies.
Many of them hold knowledge that we do not, about the natural laws of this world and it's relationship with magic, negotiating with them and giving them what they need to help regain their original forms is the best way to obtain this knowledge for our own use.
Fire magic is not just fire, it's heat, it's cold, wind, lightning, light and dark, it is energy in all of its forms.
Healing isn't just healing it's water, earth, metals, air, warmth and electricity, it's everything that your body is made out of and needs to function.
Through conversation and discussion with the various demons and angels we come to understand how they see the world around them, the various myriad interactions between them and the elements around us. Through this book I will discuss and record each of the ways these interactions take place.
Excerpt On Demons, Angels, Magic and the Elements By Olivia Blackmore in her senior year at the Holfort Royal Academy
Julius breathed out a sigh. Chris and Greg had both been beaten, Greg had almost been killed, of course that bastard Blackmore wouldn't fight fair, he did save Greg's life from what he heard, but he shouldn't have landed a fatal blow in the first place.
"For the Final round of the Tournament, we have Julius Rapha Holfort!" The crowd boo'd loudly, various pieces of garbage like empty drink containers and empty popcorn buckets were hurled through the air and in at least one case bounced off of his head.
How quickly the court of public opinion turns. Mere Months ago he had been the most popular student in the school, the man other men wanted to be and the object of desire for women, now he was irrationally considered to be a loser and why? Because he defended the woman he loves and tried to free her? Because he has some unkind things to say about a girl who would mutilate another girl with a blow torch? Julius dismissed the lot of them as the fools that they are, this was way outside of his narrow circle of friends and Marie he had no interest in the people of the academy, a toxic cesspit the lot of it and he was the focus of it since the moment he stepped into the academy grounds.
"His opponent who has had a rocky climb getting here, with one near disqualification, Leon Fou Blackmore!" Leon stepped into the arena glaring ahead at Julius as he cracked his knuckles.
The misunderstanding with who had left trash outside his room has been cleared up, so the total number of punches owed to Julius dropped back down to 999, with the humiliation and harassment that he's been put through Leon will be generous and narrow it down to 500.
"Still Angelica's lap dog I see." Julius was armed with the classical sword and shield combo, Leon would have to deal with that first before he can give Julius his beating.
"A garbage man has no right to call me a lapdog." Leon replied bluntly as he assumed a boxer's stance.
Three beeps sounded, and the fight began. Julius began with a shield charge, with Leon's longer reach he'd need to focus on closing the distance first before he could get into cutting range with his sword, if he was lucky Leon would even start by attacking his shield. Of course, Since Leon is not a idiot he chose not to punch centimetre thick sheet of steel, instead he grabbed hold of Julius's shield arm and flipped him over laying him out on his back with a judo throw before pinning him down with his foot and pulling the shield off and frisbee throwing it over the stadium.
"Coward!" Julius snapped as he attempted to cut Leon's leg with his blade, Leon in turn stomped on the blade pinning it down in the process.
"I entered the arena this morning bare handed, by noon even that was nerfed, you on the other hand chose to come in armed anyway." Leon pulled Julius up and threw him aside a few feet. The Sword on the other hand was still pinned beneath Leon's foot, which he then kicked so hard that it was sent flying across the stadium and embedded in a wall. "A coward here and a coward in the duel, I shouldn't be surprised."
"Excuse me!?" Julius snapped glaring angrily. "You didn't want to be beaten up in front of the entire school, so you sent your minion to sabotage me before we could fight, even after it came to light what happened instead of accepting responsibility you pulled the classical Marmoria move and had Jilk take all the blame for your wrong doing and surrendered the match once your mommy brought your little pet back out of hiding." Leon wasn't even bad mouthing Julius at this point, this was genuinely his opinion on the situation.
"I love Marie! And I surrendered when she was no longer in danger!" Julius snapped back angrily.
"Marie was never in any danger you moron." Leon wasn't even angry at this point, that was how far Julius had sunk in his opinion. "As for loving Marie I sincerely doubt that."
"Excuse me!?" Julius snapped angrily. "I've had lots of time with Angie to discuss the countless abuses you've hurled at her over the years and in more recent months. You've accused her of not loving you because she doesn't know anything about you?" Leon just stared calmly, he was so far beyond rage at this point that he's looped back around to feeling calm again. "What do you know about Marie?"
"I know everything I need to about Marie!" Julius snapped angrily. "Then you're aware of her family circumstances?"
"Yes!"
"Then why didn't you do anything about them?" Julius gawked as he took a step back. "Either you were just as ignorant about Marie and her needs as Angelica was about yours and thus by your own standards your feelings are just as flimsy and one sided or you were fully aware of what she was going through and you chose to ignore it." Leon was lethargic enough from the power limiter, he didn't need to have to deal with navigating the prince's mental gymnastics on top of that. "Which one is it?"
"Ah, ah, ah..." By the looks of thing's Leon's lecture got to him. "HHHYYYAAAHHH!" Reduced to gibbering screaming Julius ran forward, Leon just shook his head in response. Maybe a concussion will cure some of the prince's idiocy?
Leon judo threw the screaming child to the ground again and this time he straddled him, not facing his face, he'd get to that later, he was facing Julius's stomach at which point in time Leon started to wail away on his stomach, and didn't show any sign of stopping either.
"-5,6-" Suddenly Julius had both of his feet wrapped around Leon's head and using that used both legs to throw the other young man off of him. The joke was on Julius. Leon's reflex's were good enough to correct himself mid-flight and land on his feet, followed up by wrapping his arms around Julius's body before lifting him up into the air and slamming him back down again in a pile driver. "You still alive or do I have to do throat surgery on you too?" Julius pushed himself up, holding his head where he was bleeding as he did so. Leon grabbed him by his collar before he proceeded to slap him, not just once or twice either, but rather the sound of constant rapid slaps echoed out of the entire arena. "-21,22-" Julius interrupted the concussion inducing slaps to his face with a kick to Leon's mid-section pushing himself away as Leon was forced to let go of him. The handsome prince was unrecognisable in the mutilated man in the gladiator arena. In the mean time a certain realisation had gone through the crowd.
"This isn't even a fight any more, he's just going out of his way to humiliate him." Greg had nearly been killed in one hit, Chris had managed to last a few minutes but Leon hadn't waste any time breaking his arm, with Julius however Leon was deliberately striking him in a way that he avoided every bone in his body, each blow calculated to deliver maximum pain and humiliation to the crown prince. Case in point, this time when Julius charged Leon used a single hit to lay him out flat on his stomach on top of Leon's knee who then proceeded to smack his ass like he was disciplining a unruly child. Finally the judges had enough.
"Leon Fou Blackmore!" One of the referees walked over to Leon. "Your opponent has been defeated! Cease striking him immediately or you will be disqualified!"
"He hasn't had any of his bones broken though." Leon complained as he nonetheless stopped beating Julius.
"Dish figh ish no-" Julius's tantrum was interrupted by the abrupt sound of bones breaking as the Judge slammed his foot down on top of his hand. "GAAAHHH!"
"See his bones are broken." The judge wasn't in any sort of mood to let this humiliation continue any further than it already had. The Judging committee was already drafting new rules for next year's competition.
Pierce Fia Spencer: I was hoping that we would be able to begin by discussing your final fight of the Tournament against Prince Julius. You understand that there has been some controversy around your treatment of the prince correct?
Leon Fou Blackmore: I did nothing wrong.
Pierce: The rest of the capital disagrees with you.
Leon: The rest of the capital can kiss my-EXPLETIVE- Julius has had this beating years in the making, my only regret is that I wasn't able to finish it.
Pierce: You smacked him in the face to the point his own mother wasn't able to recognise him, you spanked him like a child until he wasn't able to sit any more and he's been relegated to the royal hospital to treat his ruptured organs. What more were you planning on doing to him?
Leon: Please I only hit him less than a hundred times, considering all the-EXPLETIVE- he's responsible for he deserves much worse.
Pierce: You nearly beat him to death!
Leon: Healers. Unlike his boo boos there's no convenient magic to fix what he's done to my friend. His injuries will last a week, her trauma will last a lifetime, my rage will last until I give him the rest of the beating he deserves.
Pierce: How many more times do you want to hit him!?
Leon: Rounded down? I think 400 should cover it, considering the -EXPLETIVE- that he's already been through I decided to reduce it from the full 1000 punches I initially planned on giving him. Who knows, assuming that he doesn't screw up anymore he might suffer enough by the next time I see him I'd even be willing to forgive the rest of his debt.
Leon Fou Blackmore's Interview for the Daily Adventurer
Blackmore was a monster. There was no other conclusion that Mylene could draw looking at what happened to her son in the arena. It would take a team of the Church's best a week to put him back together again. He hadn't even been changed out of the uniform he was wearing during the fight, the healers were that scared that he would not survive the attempt to do so. One can imagine that it's the result of Blackmore losing his temper, the conversation prior to the fight going in the direction it had with it becoming blatantly obvious that Julius had not reflected upon the duel in the least bit. As Julius's mother Mylene wanted to do nothing more than cry tears of joy as soon as Julius recovers, as his Queen she wanted nothing more than to scold him for his vapid and lackadaisical attitude that had provoked this assault in the first place. And Erica insists that he was the best hope the royal family has to salvage the situation with Julius and his friends.
"In many ways Leon is the man that they want to be." Someone seemed to have read Mylene's mind, the Grey orb who was the culprit floated in a few moments later. "Brad desires to blend physical ability in with his magical power, Leon possesses both brutal levels of power and immense magical aptitude." Convincing Brad of that is the biggest issue here though. "Chris desires his father's approval but has accepted his ability as a swordsman has platued, if Leon keeps beating him then he might expand to other areas." Easier said than done. "Greg's obsession with spiting his Ex means that he refuses to use any of her equipment, this could be resolved through either myself or the Blackmore family. As for your son and his sworn brother." Luxion played footage that he had taken from inside of the dungeon proper, Angelica in the middle of a ritual circle being fed some kind of mystery potion by Blackmore. As Mylene was about to ask what was going on Angelica suddenly had a seizure as some kind of black ichor came out of her pores and produced a six limb six bladed demonic jester.
"A demon?" Mylene looked very concerned by what appeared to be Blackmore using her Angie to spawn a monster.
"Correct. The footage was taken shortly before your son challenged Angelica to the duel." Luxion played the conversation afterwards, the explanation Leon gave explaining how Angelica's depression over a prolonged period of time had given birth to a Sloth and then how the three of them killed it.
"Do you think that Julius is suffering from the same thing?" It was possible, but Mylene didn't know what would've led Julius to develop such a thing either, but then she didn't know that Angelica was depressed either. Two of the people she loves and cares about the most in the world and she didn't know what was wrong with them.
"I cannot say for certain. I do not know what to look for." Luxion admitted bluntly.
Historically? There has been precedence of people who have been inside of dungeons for too long suddenly mutating into demons or angels but Luxion had yet to witness the phenomena for himself since he had come back into the world. He had at once point in time proposed continuously exposing death row criminals to demonic or angelic energies until such a time that they transformed and tracking the physiological differences in their bodies until that point to prevent more wide spread transformations down the line but his captain overruled that proposal, as it basically meant taking a individual of low morals with a existing grudge against them, mutating them into a monster, and that monster possibly then going on a rampage.
"Put off medical treatment for my son until we can find a expert that doesn't want to kill him." Mylene stated as she let out a sigh at yet another brilliant mess that her 'Sweet and Adorable little boy' had managed to land her in since school started.
Review Section:
RonaldM40196867: Characters will appear and disappear as the plot demands, there are very few that I intend to 'get rid of.'
RED BELL: Thank you for saying so.
Guest: Spoilers. Screwed and Tattooed.
RedRat8: The first step to fixing a problem is admitting that you have one.
