Chapter Seven

First thing in the morning Noah was off to the Arena. It had not seemed to change once since his time there when he was still a teenager. It took him several minutes to find the registration counter though. There were eight slots open for the arena that day, which was the standard amount of battles for the week day in Rozak cities arena. Entry fee was 20 crystals so he could only sign up for two matches; which would be booked for that morning and a couple hours later.

His first match was an hour away so he just patiently waited in the contender waiting area where there were a couple guards on watch for the player’s protection. The waiting area was a moderate sized room with a long hallway leading out to the arena and another smaller hall leading to the exit which also served as the only entrance into the contender’s waiting room. There was a small cozy bench in the waiting room, with a drinking fountain and a mirror.

Noah relaxed on the bench until the referee told him it was time, his first match would be starting now. He got up and walked out into the arena, it was so much different being down there. The stands were partially filled but it was early morning so no surprise there.

The referee instructed Noah to stand ten feet away from his pillar and to keep his hands out and open. He did so as well as his opponent whom he was studying. His opponent was a man who was not too much older than him with medium dirty blonde hair. And as soon as the fight began his opponent levitated up high into the air.

“Playing it safe huh,” Noah said to himself.

He then focused on gathering energy through the pillar which he found was very easy and much faster in gathering it as well as converting it. The pillar glowed a moderate blue light as Noah pulled out his defense cards first, then he summoned four Thunder birds for defense.

It took him a short amount of time to learn how to control his Elementals since this was the first time he ever summoned them but it was just as well since his opponent wasn’t as fast as him. By the time he got the hang of it his opponent summoned four gust birds. They were roughly head sized birds with very light grey feathers that had powerful wing strokes that could summon strong gusts of wind. Not very powerful but could repel attacks or push enemies away easily.

They were great for defense and Noah realized he and his opponent had the same ideas. Noah gathered energy faster though and was able to summon three lightning tigers and an electric unicorn and send them out to attack before his opponent summoned anything else. Controlling so many elementals at once was challenging for Noah so he just left the birds to stay where they were and focused on his offensive Elementals.

To his surprise though his opponent summoned two more gust birds and sent all six of them out. They got to his elementals fast and began pushing them back to his pillar until even his thunder birds were mixed up in it and they began getting scattered around. Noah’s tigers or unicorns couldn’t counter attack because he had to focus on keeping them from easily being pushed back and now with the birds it was even harder.

Fortunately the birds couldn’t do any real damage to the pillar but they did a damn good job of distracting and stalling Noah as his opponent summoned more Elementals. Five storm hawks; around twice the size as the gust birds and with a very light blue and brown feathered color scheme. They could summon razor sharp winds to cut through even some stone or spiral around really fast using their beaks as a drill.

The storm hawks charged after Noah’s pillar with great speeds while the gust birds continued pushing his Elementals around and away from the pillars. By now and with Primordious help Noah managed to start controlling all of his Elementals. He used the thunder birds to counter the gust birds and even slow down the storm hawks while his tigers and unicorn charged his opponents pillar.

He let his thunder birds defend his pillar while he aimed for his opponents. After that it was an easy win, his opponent was too distracted with controlling their own elements to be able to do much about Noah’s that destroyed his opponents pillar in a matter of a couple minutes. He lost four of his thunder birds in the fight and his pillar was slightly damaged as well but it was a win all the same.

After the fight he collected his rewards which were 3 red crystals and a certificate with the Ragnarock logo imprinted on it big bold letters: “ 10 E.P. ” And on the back were details like the city arena it came from, the time and date it was awarded and Noah’s name. He asked the lady behind the desk who gave him the rewards what the certificate was about.

She explained to him, “The certificate is proof of contender’s achievements throughout the annual tournament and is necessary for entering in higher forms of pillar of elements battles such as coliseums or capitols. They will also be needed to show evidence that the player has collected enough Element Points or ‘E.P’ to be eligible for the week long Grand tournament in the capitol city of Elysian on Aeon Toris.

“Contenders can turn in any amount of those certificates for a combined one with all their collected points to make carrying them around easier. Contenders are fully responsible for their own certificates and presenting false certificates is a hefty fine as well as banishment from the year’s tournament and being blacklisted in every arena or coliseum.”

Noah rolled his eyes a little and said, “Thanks, that was uh, very informative.” Then he left to go grab some food and talk to Primordious before his next fight. He ate at some small restaurant outside and used telepathy to speak with Primordious. “Well that was an interesting first match.”

Primordious responded with, “You are terrible at commanding.”

Noah scoffed then thought, “Hey it’s not that easy commanding so many Elementals at once.”

“No, I suppose leadership isn’t a quality for everyone but you do possess other strengths so I will have to re evaluate our strategies. For now keep using the birds but add a couple tigers and a unicorn to the defenses. I will guide the defensive Elementals best I can and you will guide the attacking ones.

“Still we might need stronger Elementals and just fewer of them. But for now we will work with what we have and adjust accordingly.”

After Noah finished his food he returned to the inn rearranged his cards set up just slightly for offense and defense, then relaxed until it was time to return to the arena for his second fight. He went through the same routine as before until the fight began and he gathered in energy and first summoned his birds for defense. His opponent gathered energy almost as fast as him as his pillar glowing a bright red. He summoned a large fire flan to defend his pillar.

Noah continued gathering energy and worked on his defense as before; he summoned two lightning tigers and a unicorn as Primordious said and began planning his attack. He couldn’t see his opponent pillar very well to see how much energy his opponent gathered because the flan but his opponent didn’t summon anything just yet.

Then from nowhere his opponent summoned up three hellfire drakes; which was a torso sized red skinned bat like creature on fire. The drakes charged straight at Noah’s Elementals, glowing an iridescent red. Primordious tried having the tigers shoot them down with bolts of lightning but the drakes swiftly dodged the attacks. And when they were close enough to Noah’s Elementals they exploded; destroying themselves to also destroy his defenses. His pillar remained undamaged but his defenses were gone and he would have to post pone his attack or leave himself open.

He was about to summon some more Elementals as his opponent summoned a couple more drakes and charged them at his pillar when Primordious said, “No, He’s mine!”

The ethereal summoned itself without Noah’s will and with a single arc of lightning he killed both the drakes coming for him and then threw out a beam of energy which erupted the fire flan into bits and shattered the pillar behind it in one single attack. Some of the jelly flesh from the fire flan landed on Noah’s opponent and began burning him as he screamed in pain.

Noah just starred wide eyed at Primordious; his power was insane, even for a lightning ethereal.

The referee quickly came in to declare Noah the winner and then attend to his injured opponent. Primordious instead of returning into his card right away he turned his complete attention to Noah’s pillar. He put out his hand on it and blocked Noah out all together until a few minutes later he returned to the card and Noah set out just trying to avoid the glares of everyone in the stands.

Of course nobody in the stands knew that Noah wasn’t fully responsible for hurting his opponent so badly, but he couldn’t explain to others that Primordious did apparently whatever he wanted without Noah’s permission. After he collected his rewards he returned to the Inn and tried talking to Primordious again but the ethereal only said, “We will talk when both of us have calmed down more.” Then he broke the mental link between them and Noah was left to his own thoughts for hours.

He could have signed up for another match that day but did not feel it was completely right just yet so he decided he would take the rest of the day off. And it wasn’t until that night Primordious talked to him saying, “You cannot use the pillar to generate energy anymore.”

“And he speaks at last.” Noah said sarcastically.

“Do you understand me child?”

Noah groaned and said, “I am not a child and I hear you but I don’t’ understand you, first of all what the hell was earlier today about, and second why not use the pillars to gather energy its faster.”

“I know it’s hard but you must be patient I will explain all when the time is right.”

Noah yawned and said, “Whatever, just don’t do that again without at least consulting me. I mean great job on winning the fight in like ten seconds after coming out, but now people are going to think I hurt my opponent on purpose, I really don’t want that bad reputation.”

Primordious appeared in a blinding blue light then said, “I will be back here tomorrow night, try to avoid the arena for at least one day. There is something I must do take care of.” Then Primordious vanished in an instant.

Noah was left wondering where he went but could do nothing and slept that night. He woke up the next day and Primordious was still gone. He went to the coliseum just to check things out and discovered it was only open during the weekend and he needed at least 30 E.P. points to be eligible to fight in it.

Realizing that the coliseum would open tomorrow and he was only one more arena victory away from being able to fight in it he went to the arena to schedule a single battle. He was able to get a single battle in for late afternoon.

Part of him considered just waiting until Primordious came back but he realized he didn’t need him to win in the arena; or so he told himself. Noah planned his strategy and when the time of the battle came he was ready as he ever would be.

His opponent was a strong stone magician. Noah won the battle but it was hard fought and it cost him not only his remaining tigers and two unicorns, but also his two thunder rams. He had no one but himself to blame, but still he felt annoyed with Primordious, feeling as if he had grown too accustomed to the ethereal’s aid in the first couple matches of his.

Later that night true to his word, Primordious returned to the room, which startled Noah a little seeing how abrupt it was. Noah didn’t bother asking him what he was up to since he didn’t think he would get an answer and instead told him he entered the arena today and won, but at the loss of some of the other elementals. Primordious was mad but admitted that they were not very strong anyways.

“We can enter the coliseum tomorrow for better rewards.” Noah said. He was lying on the bed starring up at the ceiling.

“If we did it would only be me and the serpents.” Primordious said. “It is too early to use the dragon or colossus since they are our strongest. No, I suppose it is time we got a few reinforcements. Tomorrow we will leave the city to go hunt storm wyverns. We can use them in conjunction with the serpents and to keep our best hidden until later, I will fight as needed. And Noah, do not rely so much on the elementals; remember I taught you many powerful spells that you can use to your advantage.”

Noah knew what he was saying and he was right it was time Noah used the wonderful techniques he had instead of relying only on the Elementals. A magician who used both their skills and the elementals would go the furthest. And Noah was determined to be the best.