novelraw Chapter 321 - 263 - Forged by Stormy Seas
Chapter 321 - 263 - Forged by Stormy Seas
The real reason, it turned out, that the day prior was all about relaxation, was the fourth day of the festival.
A battle competition.
"Really?!" Rebecca asked, her tail swishing with excitement.
Given their lack of interest in competing themselves, the quartet waited until a touch bit later in the morning to get started. Nine in the morning appeared to be the sweet spot between the breakfast still being open and the insanity of the early morning rush. As such, they actually got a table in the cafeteria and could fill their plates as many times as they wished.
"Yeah, apparently today is a city-wide Resonator battle tournament, the winner of which will go on to Selvica Nationals to compete," Pacifica read off of her tuner as they ate breakfast.
"Ohhhh, that explains the academy people," Taika realized, before taking a hearty bite into her cream cheese pastry.
"Good catch Taika! Yeah, those Zacara Academy guys did talk about 'going wild' yesterday," Pacifica recalled.
"Oh yeah, you did mention meeting some of those guys," Rebecca hummed, remembering their note-comparing conversation from last night. "One of my old Maestros came from there," she revealed, twirling her fork in the air.
"What did they say about it?" Shouri wondered, as he swirled the coffee in his mug.
"It's where gifted kids go to get humbled," Rebecca repeated.
A hush fell over the table. Taika swallowed hard, her gaze darting between the others. Shouri sipped his coffee, his eyes closed with indifference. Pacifica fidgeted with her fork, while she tested what she wanted to say on her lips.
"Is it… that bad?" asked the otter.
"From what I heard, tons of supposedly 'future Grand Masters' go there expecting it to be easy, and get totally wrecked. The school has a mini system of like Grand Masters. What do they call them? Uhhh, the Four Guardians. Except they have a leader, named the school Emperor or Empress," Rebecca explained.
"Interesting," Shouri sipped his coffee, nonplussed by the whole organization.
Pacifica nodded, glad she was right that Shouri was less than interested in the academy.
At that moment, her tuner beeped--it was time for the first part of the story for the day.
"Ruscel was a strange sort of fellow. He practiced ice school magic almost exclusively. He was known as the crew's dead weight, not because he was useless, but because he was basically a ghost. Thanks to being a opossum, his rhythm couldn't be sensed, and most people got spooked by his sudden appearances and chilly disposition. That being said, he was a terror in battle, turning battlefields into icy tombs for those who crossed the Paglia Pirates."
"Spooky," said Shouri, before he polished off the rest of his coffee.
"Opossums can't have their rhythm sensed?" Taika questioned.
"Yeah, pretty scary things. Imagine if that Vienna chick couldn't be sensed. It's wild to think about. Opossums can even spook Scherzando," Rebecca revealed.
"Apparently, the tuner can't sense them either. It has a special 'opossum mode' which just removes the rhythm from the vitals," Shouri said. "Not that it's their fault, but damn that must be a pain in the ass," he grumbled.
"It's a common complaint from what I heard," Rebecca added.
Breakfast finished up and the quartet hit the streets.
"Oh, they were not kidding," Rebecca shook her head.
"A lot?" Shouri asked.
"Yeah, tons of battles everywhere."
Sure enough, if they listened close enough, the sounds of spellcasting echoed down the streets from all directions. A couple of excited Maestros ran down the street, their shouts incomprehensible as their poor Resonators chased after them, barely able to keep up in their exhausted states.
Another pair negotiated terms for a battle, their Resonators sizing one another up for the upcoming battle. Other groups walked at a more relaxed pace, eagerly chatting among themselves about a battle they just watched.
Shouri had his nose in his tuner, not paying the other tourists any mind. "Holy shit," he muttered.
"What's wrong, Sho?" asked Taika.
"Vince is on the other side of fucking creation," he grumbled, showing the girls the map.
The trio of Resonators studied the map, and sure enough, Vince apparently according to these directions was about a twenty to thirty minute walk across town. Probably worse given all the foot traffic clogging the streets.
"Probably should get going now before the crowds get real rowdy," Pacifica suggested.
"I mean, he never mentioned when we had to meet him, right?" Rebecca looked to Shouri.
"Technically, no. I would ideally like to get there before the dinner rush or something," Shouri replied.
"Fine, fine; but if we see something cool, I am stopping," warned the fire fox.
With that matter settled, they took off in the direction Vince said he'd be.
Initially, they followed the map toward the booth Solana had. As promised however, Rebecca found something cool and pivoted without a word to her loves. The other three followed their feisty girlfriend to whatever she had spotted. A pair of Maestros were squared up in one of the many fenced off battle courts all around the city. A crowd had gathered around and chattered among themselves with excitement for the upcoming fight.
Shouri and the girls peeked into the court to see what the fuss was about. As they walked up, Pacifica's tuner chimed with an app notification chime, but Shouri swiftly silenced it.
"Hey, we met both of these people yesterday," Taika noted.
On one side of the court was Sofia, one of the Zacara Academy's Four Guardians, and the other was the woman who worked the booth for the René Group--Abilene.
Rebecca studied the two battling Resonators, and Shouri could sense she wasn't going to budge until she got to at least see the start of the fight. Vince would have to wait.
"Natures, both of them. The horse girl is really small, not sure what breed she is at a glance," Rebecca mumbled, appraising Briar. Her gaze rested on the wood horn, her eyes narrowing.
"It's fake apparently," Pacifica commented.
"The Maestro lady said she was a pony," Taika added.
"That doesn't make sense," Rebecca continued to mumble, her eyes never leaving the strange Resonator.
"What's her opponent?" asked Taika.
"Noolbenger, off-brand Zalavan. No big deal," the fire fox waved it off.
Taika and Pacifica exchanged a glance and a shrug.
The battle began suddenly.
Briar rushed the much larger man, her focus unshakable, her speed blistering.
"Palmer!" Sofia called.
Even that short cry of his name conveyed everything he needed to know and the rodent man returned the pony's offensive charge with one of his own. He used her stature against her, and flipped over her, using the opposing nature element as a springboard to vault over.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Briar was no slouch, and immediately spun to face her adversary, a smirk rising on her lips.
"Carboncino Sparare, Legato!" Abilene called.
Rebecca would have flinched if she wasn't already scrutinizing the supposed pony Resonator.
Briar threw out a hand and a lump of blazing charcoal fired from her palm like a bullet. Palmer dodged but--
"Carboncino Sparare, Legato Staccato!"
The noolbenger's eyes widened, but he stayed focused as a barrage of flaming wood rapidly approached him. He had no choice but to flee from the assault, Briar tracking him like a turret.
"Marea Rossa, Legato Staccato!" Sofia commanded.
Pacifica, who had been focused on Briar's impressive fire assault, was hopelessly drawn to Palmer.
The nature element threw out a palm of his own and retaliated against the briquette assaults with a stream of red water. While Carboncino Sparare was obvious in its function, the water-nature ossia was a different story.
"It's poisoned water basically," Rebecca answered Pacifica's unasked curiosity. "Even if it doesn't hit, it leaves poison on the ground that can infect others after the fact. Nasty spell," the fire fox explained.
Pacifica nodded slowly, as Briar and Palmer circled one another, throwing out their respective ossia spells. Briar was on the back foot however, seeing as how her spells were getting eaten up by the stream of poisonous water. Even with noxious liquid not meeting its mark, it was altering the battlefield for the pony.
The two battlers took a brief reprieve from their spell casting, glaring one another down, heaving breaths while the ground between them shimmered with red poison. Even if neither could be affected by poison, it was possible their footing could be impaired based on the slickness of the toxins that coated the court.
Sofia broke the silence. "Barba di Vecchio, Lento."
Palmer threw out a long mass of bundled gray tropical garlands that almost resembled a graying beard.
Briar dodged the thrown spell, but slipped very slightly on the red muck that still clung to the battlefield. Sofia smirked.
"Barba di Vecchio, Lento!"
Before poor Abilene could process what was just said, Palmer acted. He threw another bundle of the gray plant beard spell, Barba di Vecchio, which was dodged by Briar. Unfortunately, the pony dodged right into the follow up blast of charcoal. The smaller Resonator was hit hard in the chest by the fire-nature spell and slammed into the ground hard, sliding through the poison that laced the court.
The smaller nature element pushed herself up with a groan, only for her eyes to meet the open hand of Palmer, pointed at her like a weapon.
"Aw man…" the pony sighed, lowering her head.
Rebecca raised brow, narrowing her gaze as she tried to figure out what Briar was doing. The fire fox thought the battle was about to heat up, but--
"You got us!" Abilene called, much to Rebecca's shock.
"Yeah!" Sofia shouted, pumping her fist into the air as the cheers of the crowd began.
The Zacara Academy student was pretty good, but Rebecca couldn't figure out Briar and Abilene's actions. Her gaze flicked to the pony Resonator. "Why did you quit?" wondered the fox. It felt so weird to the fox that they'd end the match there when it was obvious (at least to her) that both the Maestro and Resonator had so much left in the tank. It couldn't be that they were preserving themselves for other battles, could it?
That didn't feel like a satisfying explanation.
Maybe she just really cared about her Resonator. Rebecca watched as Abilene hugged her pony tightly, holding her out by her shoulders. The fox caught the Maestro saying "are you okay?" and smiled. She had to be over-thinking it.
"What was that last spell?" Pacifica asked.
With the battle over, the quartet took their leave from the festivities, returning to their trek to Vince's location.
Rebecca snapped out of her thoughts to address the question. "Barba di Vecchio, like most of the nature element spells, is a nasty thing. If you get hit by it, it attaches to you and starts sucking out your rhythm to give it to its caster. Also I heard its itchy as fuck so it makes it hard to focus on casting spells properly," explained the fox.
"Nasty, you weren't kidding," Shouri commented. "Oh, your app started bugging me while we were watching that," he said, handing Pacifica her tuner.
"Thanks Sho!" Pacifica beamed. She opened the festival app and began to read.
"Rinco was a whale shark mermaid who didn't mind the loss of his water magic if it meant he got to work on massive boats. He was a huge Resonator that towered over many others with few that could match his stature. More than swimming though, he preferred to sail ships. He loved boats with all of his heart, and had mastered the art of sailing from a young age. It is said that he could sail any storm in any boat with no problem. Rufus greatly respected Rinco for his mastery of the ocean, and Rinco reciprocated that respect, joining the crew as their helmsman."
"Wait, how can a mermaid work on a boat? Wouldn't their lack of legs make it uhhh, hard?" Rebecca wondered.
Paciifca blinked. "Oh, you don't know? I'm surprised."
"Know what?" asked the fire fox.
"Spurn the sea and crawl to land you'll lose Marovo's grace, in their absence Lanvi's embrace, though she is grateful you'll find no replacement for that which has been lost," Shouri waxed poetic.
"Mermaids get legs when they go on land, but lose their water magic," Taika added. "There's a lot of old stories about it."
It clicked for Rebecca in that moment. "Oh, I get it. That's why I'm not familiar--they get people legs, but lose their ability to cast water magic, right?"
Three nods, cemented that understanding.
"Gotcha, duelists wouldn't want a Resonator that they feel is dead weight. There are very few water arenas, and basically none in the upper levels of competitive," Rebecca mused.
"Still, magic doesn't define a Resonator," Pacifica beamed.
Shouri smirked. "Kind of tells you what sort of person Rufus was to take a Resonator that wouldn't have magic most of the time."
Pacifica looked to her app and appreciated the little lessons of the past. Even in history there were people like them--those who found solace in those they loved and respected, no matter who or what they were.