The day after his confrontation with Vaella, Arnik resumed school as usual. He was known to be a usually quiet person in class but the coldness emanating from him was a new feeling. Even Vilma who usually sat with him noticed it and decided to keep her distance.
Classes went on as usual and soon it was time for lunch break. He waited silently in his seat as everyone began leaving the class, Vilma noticed this and hesitated a little before approaching him, when she got to his seat she began speaking to him,
"Hi Arnik, I was -uhm wondering if you'd like to join me for lunch?" she stuttered,
Arnik looked at her, the usual bright blue eyes she had gotten used to seeing were gone and what remained were deep blue dead eyes,
"No thank you" he replied flatly.
" Oh, ok then " Vilma silently before she began walking away. Arnik had been this way since the fight, could it have been due to Rowan's injuries? she couldn't be sure but she genuinely cared for his well-being.
When she got to the door, she stopped to look back at him, he was still seated with his hand under his chin, "Please be okay" she muttered before leaving.
Immediately Arnik was left alone in the class, he closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. He was aware that he was being cold to everyone, but at the time it seemed like the most reasonable thing to do."What's the use of having friends if you can't even protect them" he muttered to himself.
He looked at his Atephra and quietly tapped on it and the familiar blue window that contained his stats popped up,
[NAME]
ARNIK RAGNIEL
[LEVEL]
PRIMARY MAGE
[ELEMENTAL AFFINITY]
FIRE{FLAMES OF BASAN}- Lvl 8
LIGHTNING-Lvl 2
[MAGIC GEAR]
RAGNIEL SOULRUNE- Lvl 2
His Fire affinity had risen considerably but his lighting affinity hadn't developed as fast. This was because he predominantly trained with his Fire affinity while he was in school.
He could only absorb mana to boost his Lightning affinity occasionally when he was alone to avoid raising suspicions from others.
"This isn't enough, I need to get my Lightning affinity to at least level 5" he muttered to himself. Also, he needed to get money in other to purchase magi-cores which he could use to upgrade his Soulrune.
He quickly remembered that he had an appointment with Olea and rushed to meet her in her office.
In front of her door, he knocked and waited for a response before he quietly let himself in. Olea was seated at her desk as usual and he sat opposite her. She was typing something on her computer and didn't even spare a glance at Arnik who patiently waited till she was done.
" I spoke to my friend and we agreed, meet me at the school gate at 7 pm sharp, I'll be taking you somewhere to meet him", she said.
Arnik nodded and left the office as quietly as he had come.
********************
The day dragged on and it soon came to a close. Unlike before Arnik was the first person to leave class, he intended to check on Rowan in the infirmary and then head to the Serdana dorm to meditate till it was time to meet up with Olea.
He quickly made his way to the infirmary and was pleasantly surprised to find Rowan sitting on his bed. When he had come here the previous day, he had been informed that Rowan had gained consciousness but was resting and so decided against disturbing him.
Rowan turned to look at who had just entered and wasn't too surprised to see Arnik after all he'd been told by the nurses that his friend had visited him almost every single day while he was unconscious.
" Hey buddy," Rowan said, smiling brightly. Arnik, desperate trying to hold himself, couldn't help but smile back, " Rowan" he muttered softly.
Rowan rose to his feet and spread out his arms, Arnik walked towards him and gave him a tight squeeze, he hadn't realized how much he has missed seeing his friend in the past few days.
"Too tight, too tight, you gonna break me in half" Rowan said laughing and Arnik released his grip,
" So what did I miss," he said, sitting back on his bed, he gestured for Arnik to do the same which the latter did.
" Well for starters, this" Arnik responded holding up his right hand, almost immediately, a small blue flame appeared in his palm.
"Hoooooo!!!" Rowan exclaimed, he was wide-eyed " This, blue flame, when, how, why," he asked rapidly,
Arnik then proceeded to tell him all that had happened while he was unconscious not skipping out on anything.
" I see," Rowan said, putting a hand under his chin, he remained like that for while before, putting the hand under his chin on Arnik's shoulder, he took a deep breath and then smiled at Arnik,
" Well, thanks for teaching that jerk a lesson," he said.
Arnik laughed a little before responding,
" Don't mention it" he said. He spent an hour talking to Rowan, updating him on what had happy while he was hospitalized and finally it was time for him to go.
" The doctor says I'm healing quite fast and I should be out by the end of the week, so don't worry about me okay?", Rowan said as Arnik got up to leave, the latter nodded and smiled at his friend before quietly leaving the room.
Arnik immediately headed for his dorm and wasn't surprised to find his room empty. Asides from Rowan's absence, the two seniors Crin and Resort shared the room with him and would be in the training room at this time and so would most of the other students.
" Perfect, just what I wanted" Arnik muttered to himself, he quickly changed and sat down to meditate. This was all according to his plan, classes ended at 4'o clock after which he had spent an hour with Rowan. He was supposed to meet up with Olea but Seven which meant that he had two hours he could dedicate to meditating.
"I was just about to enter Level 3 in my Lightning affinity, two hours should be more than enough," he thought to himself as he closed his eyes and began to meditate.
****************^^
About an hour and a half later, Arnik opened his eyes. He had successfully entered level 3 Lightning affinity and was happy with his new achievement. He quickly freshened up and hurriedly left for the school gate.
He got to the gate at Seven on the dot and looked around a bit before he saw a slim yet curvy figure walking toward him. Olea had changed out of the skirt suit and lab coat she usually wore in school and was now wearing a white top with a black jet and tight black leggings with sneakers. Arnik was at a loss for words as Olea walked up to him and spoke,
"You're punctual, that's good, let's go"
They stopped a taxi which they both entered and left for their destination. While in the taxi, Arnik played with his hands anxiously, Olea was seated beside him and he could smell the scent of her floral perfume.
"Dumb Arnik, focus," he told himself as he looked outside the window, they had left the wealthy part of town and headed towards the outskirts,
"Where are we going?" he asked facing Olea
"Bizma" she answered simply, Arnik wanted to ask more but decided against it.
Bizma was notorious for being a rough part of Lirdunia city, the living conditions were terrible and a lot of poor people gathered here. It was also home to robbers, kidnappers, and anyone that participated in social vices. Arnik, even though belonging to a low-class family, had never been to this part of town having lived in the Frost mansion his whole life.
The taxi driver drove for a while until Olea told him to stop in front of an old building that Arnik guessed served as a store.
They both got down and stood in front of the building. Olea looked at him and spoke,
"This, this is where the fun begins," she said smiling at him
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Olea handed over what looked like a small necklace with a purple pendant to Arnik who looked at it curiously,
"What's this? " he asked still observing the small necklace,
"It's a magi-gear used to change appearance, you'll need it" Olea responded, Arnik started to say something again but she quickly silenced him, " You'll understand when we get inside," she said.
Arnik decided not to probe further and quietly wore the necklace, it began to glow and then suddenly dissipated into light particles, the light particles floated towards where the Soulrune was and were absorbed into Arnik's body.
" Uhm was that supposed to happen, " Arnik asked tentatively,
" Not exactly" Olea responded,
" But this much is to be expected, after all the Camo chain is a magi-gear and the Soul rune absorbs them" she paused for a while before continuing,
"It should still work though, trying projecting an image of someone else in your head while imbuing some mana, and let's see what happens".
Arnik nodded and closed his eyes, the image of an old schoolmate came to mind and then he felt his face become slightly warmer than usual, he opened his eyes a while after and looked at Olea,
"Well, did it work? " he asked
" Why don't you see for yourself," Olea said handing him a small makeup mirror she had brought out of her purse.
Arnik took the mirror and hurriedly looked at his reflection, it was getting quite dark, but he could still make out his new facial features. His short brown hair had turned black and his hazel eyes had become a deep light shade of brown, facially he looked nothing like his old self, neither did he exactly look like the image he projected in his mind, rather he looked like a mixture of the two, no one would recognize him.
"Hooo," he said letting out a quiet exclamation as he looked at the change in his physical appearance. He hurriedly looked at Olea who smiled at him, satisfied with the results.
"You should also come up with a name for this alias," she said, looking at Arnik who nodded excitedly,
"How about Brid?" she asked, Arnik thought for a while and then nodded in agreement.
"Fine, since that's done, let's head inside, " she said, they'd been standing outside the building for almost ten minutes.
Olea led the way as Arnik followed her into the
shady-looking building, it was made of wood and looked to have been standing for quite some time, as a result, the overall structure looked weak and like it could collapse at any time.
The interior wasn't too shabby compared to how the building looked from the outside, it was a dimly lit bar with 4 round tables and a couple of chairs surrounding them.
Arnik could make out the figures of men occupying some of these seats but they looked uninterested in his presence and seemed to be stuck in a world of their own. He looked back at Olea who had walked up to the bartender, a chubby old lady with a dirty apron covering her dress, and began conversing in a low tone. After talking for a bit, the bartender smiled to reveal her dirty yellow teeth and then nodded excitedly.
"Let's go," Olea said as she looked back at Arnik who nodded and began following her. What he saw was a long narrow passage with a dead end and a couple of doors on each side. He expected that they would enter one of the doors but was surprised to see Olea walk past all of them.
When she got to the end of the passage, she placed her hand on the wall and pushed a little, it revealed a hidden passage on the wall to her left, she gestured to Arnik to follow him which the youth did promptly.
The secret passage led to a downward spiral stairway and they began descending. Arnik could hear the voices of several people coming from the bottom of the stairway, the closer they got to the bottom the louder the voices got until finally, they arrived at a metal door. Even though the door was locked Arnik could hear the voices of several people on the other sound," Where are we" he thought to himself.
Olea knocked on the door three times and waited, a wooden panel in the door slid open to reveal two glaring eyes, his eyes scanned both visitors before saying in a low deep voice,
"While everyone sleeps-",
Olea smiled a little before responding,
"-the hunters come out to play".
The panel closed and Arnik could hear several locks being opened from within. A few minutes later the door opened to reveal a tall dark muscular man, Arnik could only stare at his hulking frame, the man spoke again in the same low voice but this time a bit friendlier,
"Welcome to the fight club," he said with Olea simply looking at him and nodding.
She entered the big room in front of her with Arnik hurriedly following her. There were several people within the room surrounding what looked to be cages. Arnik looked around and could see five cages in the room, there were four smaller ones at four corners of the room. These smaller cages housed two individuals who fought each other using their fists, Arnik watched for a while longer before noticing that some of the fighters had coated their fists in elements. There were fighters of different sizes and each of them fought using different styles and tactics. The people surrounding each cage watched the fight as they cheered on the fighters, some could be seen holding small white pieces of paper,
" They're betting on the fighters," he thought to himself.
At the center of the room was the biggest cage of all, it was empty and a small stage rose from the ground, it looked somewhat fancier than the other cages.
Arnik who was very smart concluded that the other cages were only for small side fights while the biggest cage was probably used for main fights.
Before he could continue his train of thoughts, he quickly followed after Olea who had started making her way through the crowd of people towards the far end of the room and when she got there she stopped in front of a slightly muscular man with a scar across his left eye, he was sitting down and looking towards the floor.
"Geiko" she called out and almost immediately the man looked up at her, he had a scowl on his face but as soon as he Olea's face he let out a smile revealing his gold-coated teeth.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the beautiful Olea, what brings you to the fight club today, " he said rising to his feet,
"Cut the crap Geiko" Olea answered firmly,
"Where's he?" She continued.
Geiko let out a cackle before continuing to speak
" Still as feisty as ever I see, relax, relax" he paused to down the contents of the cup in his hands before speaking again,
" Loosen up, we've known each other for a long time and we're all friends here" he looked in Arnik's direction as he carefully observed the boy " Aren't we?" he asked.
Olea quickly stood in front of Arnik, shielding him from Geiko's gaze,
"He's with me ", she said and let out a sigh before continuing,
" You're testing my patience Geiko" as she said this Arnik could feel pressure emanating from her, it reminded him of the pressure Instructor Sykes had emanated in school but it wasn't quite as strong, it still sent a chill down his spine though,
" I'll ask one more time" she continued, "Where is he?".
Geiko smiled before pointing at the biggest cage behind Arnik and Olea," He's about to fight Small Pi" he answered as he gestured. Arnik turned to look at the cage, unlike before it was now occupied by someone and Arnik's eyes widened in realization.
The person referred to as Small Pi stood in a corner of the cage and there was nothing small about him. He was definitely above two meters tall and probably weighed more than 300 pounds, " He's a monster " Arnik thought to himself " Who would fight a guy like that "
Just then someone else entered the ring, he was a tall man with a slim yet muscular frame with long black hair that stopped just past his neck, he was wearing short black trunks and was barefoot.
He exuded a cold aura and had such a presence that despite the distance between Arnik and the ring, he still had goosebumps
The crowd that had gathered around the biggest cage began to cheer loudly, some cheered for Small Pi while others cheered for the mysterious man.
Olea had also turned and glanced over at Arnik, the boy was in complete awe at the presence of the man in the ring, she gently nudged him and he looked at her,
"That's who we're here to see," she said.
Arnik waited for a while, before asking the question that had been on his mind since the moment he saw the man,
" Who is he?" he asked hesitantly,
Olea looked at Arnik and let out a smile before looking back at the ring,
" Sido, his name's Sido"
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