(Dominion Field.)
As soon as Nick cast this spell, the area at and around the departure ramp developed a slightly grey hue; Nick then raised his right hand with his right palm stretched out. The projectile that was originally thrown at Jessie and was now about to hit Nick suddenly disappeared and reappeared in Nick's right palm.
The man that threw the object at Jessie seemed to be around Nick's age and once Dominion Field's special space enveloped him, he cringed. The man was dressed in a kind of uniform that included a black blazer jacket, a pair of black dress pants, a pair of black dress shoes, a black tie and a white dress shirt; his blazer had an orange crest with the emblem of an erupting volcano sewn onto the blazer's left breast area. The man himself was slim, had blue eyes and short blonde hair.
Just as the blonde haired man was about to attempt to counter Nick's area of effect spell, the man suddenly disappeared and then reappeared at Nick's left side where Nick had already outstretched his left index finger, generating a marble sized sphere of red light at its tip and pointing it directly at the blonde haired man.
(Mars.)
Nick did not look at the blonde haired man immediately and turned his head to the object within his left palm; Spatial Awareness was feeding Nick images of his left side at the same time, its effect becoming more frequent while Dominion Field was active for some reason.
The object in Nick's right palm seemed like a thin, see-through, clear balloon filled with some kind of black, viscous liquid but Nick did not recognize the material that the balloon was made of nor did he recognize the kind of liquid that it contained. Nick then turned his attention to the blonde haired man, who was now staring at Nick's left index finger tip with wariness, and asked:
"What is this item and why did you throw it at me?"
The blonde haired man gritted his teeth in annoyance, not expecting that things would turn out like this; he thought:
(What the hell is this space path spell? I never even had a chance to resist before being teleported next to this freak.)
The blonde haired man remained silent and so Jessie took a look at the object and said:
"That should be a special magic stink bomb. I've seen it used by a few friends in th past during pranks. The stench is worse than rotten eggs and sticks on you for a week if you don't have a method to neutralize the smell."
Nick's right eyelid twitched after Jessie explained; he thought:
(A stink bomb? What a joke.)
Nick cancelled Dominion Field and Mars while lowering his left hand and then he tossed the stink bomb to the blonde haired man. The grey hue within the space immediately vanished. Nick spoke indifferently:
"I don't care why you threw it, just go away. Let me tell you, if this wasn't an academy sanctioned event, I would have killed you for throwing it at me."
Jessie chuckled and remarked:
"I think he was actually throwing it at me but I dodged it."
Nick reiterated:
"I don't care."
Nick walked out of the ship using the departure ramp, even walking past Varrow who was still observing the situation. Varrow asked the blonde haired man sternly:
"You should be from Fury Volcano Academy. Why did you throw a stink bomb at one of my students? Answer me honestly or else."
The blonde haired man knew that the robed Magicians were all likely to be Regular Magicians so he answered promptly:
"My friend has a grudge against Jessie Auburn and I was helping him to send a message of warning."
Varrow chuckled, saying:
"Is your friend Lewis Nefari whose name you shouted out earlier? Was becoming the enemy of multiple Magicians worth kissing up to one of the Nefari princes?"
The blonde haired man stayed quiet, not willing to answer. Varrow quickly lost interest in the blonde haired man and turned his attention to Jessie, saying:
"Looks like you have a problem. My advice is to handle it during the competition, that is why this competition is being held anyway."
Jessie silently nodded his head and walked past the blonde haired man without sparing him another glance. The other eight competitors from Richter Order Academy walked out of the ship one by one without even looking at the blonde haired man.
When all the competitors from his academy had left the ship, Varrow turned around and descended the departure ramp. The students still within the ship whispered amongst themselves:
"Since when did people from Fury Volcano Academy become lackeys of Lewis Nefari?"
"Fury Volcano Academy is supported by the royal family just like Grim Lord Academy so they have a relatively close relationship. That guy over there must be so embarrassed to get schooled like he did."
...
The various supervisors within the space said and did nothing in response to the commotion and pretended like it never happened. The nine students wearing the same uniform as the blonde haired man walked over to him with twitching eyelids and angry expressions. The group was made up of three females and seven males in total. One of the taller males with short, red hair and green eyes spoke to the blonde haired man with clear displeasure in his tone:
"Duane, what the fuck? You made some kind of deal with a Nefari behind our backs. Serves you right. That guy who used that powerful space path spell should have decimated your ass for being so stupid. Stop fucking around and get your mind on the competition and not on doing personal favors."
The blonde haired man apparently named Duane lowered his head in embarrassment and stored the stink bomb into his space band. He muttered softly with sadness in his tone:
"You guys don't get it. When the Nefaris ask you for something, they make it so that you don't have a choice..."
Outside the ship, Nick observed the port around him. The shipping docks were basically concrete structures that jutted out from the land and that were held up over the lake water with concrete pillars from below. The docks were each about twenty meters long and nearly ten meters wide; there were ten ship docks in total. The ship was anchored adjacent to the first dock's right side with its departure ramp facing the dock; each dock had a big number drawn in white pigment on its surface and Nick's dock had a huge '1' painted on it.
The port was relatively busy with non-magician staff moving around, loading and unloading cargo to and from ships and vehicles and carrying them where they needed to go. Varrow and the others soon arrived near to Nick's position. Varrow instructed:
"This is one of the main ports of Garden Isle, that is the name of this island at the center of the lake. Garden Isle has two other ports but one is for military access and the other is a special entry point of some private companies. This port's main function is to facilitate the reception of special guests and their cargo. Follow me, the ports are all a part of a large city that covers the entire island."
Varrow started walking towards another area of the port and the ten students followed behind him. Jessica Jones put on a thoughtful expression, then asked:
"A city? A city would only be built if a large number of people lived here long term, right? Besides the Magicians who collect materials from this realm, who else would live here?"
Varrow did not bother turning his head toward Jessica, who was walking behind him along with the other students, while he answered:
"The royal family extracts and sells the materials that it collects from this realm and believe me, that is no small operation. The royal family has its own company of Magicians that it privately employs and the ones stationed here are not small in number, they probably number a few hundred. Then you have the Magicians that work for private companies that handle, assess and buy the materials here since doing so back on Grand Earth would be more expensive. You also have military personnel that are stationed here for training and Magicians with affiliations to the royal family that use said affiliation to cultivate and hunt here."
Jessica, after being informed, came to a realization:
"That does sound like possibly hundreds of people."
Varrow replied:
"About two thousand permanent residents and one thousand temporary residents if you were looking for approximations and that number does not include members of the royal family."
Jet Kawasaki remarked:
"It's good to be unimaginably wealthy. You get to have authority over an inexhaustible resource point."
Calder Wright, who was only a few feet from Jet, shook his head and said:
"You make it sound like it's all good living. You seem to forget that this island is surrounded on all sides by powerful magic beasts and that everyone here would likely perish if whatever power that is keeping them away from this island ceases to exist."
Jet replied:
"I see your point but since the royal family collects resources here, this place must be crawling with Regular Magicians. How much danger could the people here really be in?"
Varrow sighed and corrected Jet:
"Let me tell you something based on my own experience. Once a magic beast becomes rank 4, it is incredibly difficult to defeat it by yourself as a rank 4 Magician. That is assuming that you and the magic beast are at the same stage of cultivation; if the magic beast happens to be at a higher stage than you are, you can likely kiss your ass goodbye if you don't have top tier equipment, spells and the skill to use them appropriately. If the royal family did not have skilled Formation, Space and Refinement Magicians under their employ, setting up a base here would be tantamount to throwing meat to wolves."
Everyone knew that Thompson Varrow was a world renowned combat expert so his words on the difficulty of battling high level magic beasts were as heavy as a mountain. Nick stopped thinking about the Cross Stream sword technique when he heard Varrow mention 'Refinement Magicians'. He creased his brows and asked:
"Refinement Magicians? I've never heard of a refinement path. Sir, Varrow, can you explain who those people are?"
Everyone present looked at Nick, confused. Although refinement path was not very commonly specialized in, most Magicians would have to make use of the path in their journey and it was spoken of often in their classes.
Varrow took the chance to jeer at Nick and replied to him:
"Well, that is what you get for not taking part in normal classes. I've come across your student file a few time since I've instructed you before so I can guess what your learning style is. Gaining information using purely books is great but sometimes little things go over your head. Refinement path is basic to magician training, so basic that people don't commonly refer to it as a path, even in books, but you would have certainly heard or read about it. Refinement path happens to be concerned with the manufacture of magic materials, equipment and chemicals and although most mechanics, potion makers and other magic item creators don't specialize in refinement path, the most powerful and/or successful ones do."
Nick still found it strange that he had never seen refinement path mentioned specifically in any of his books and so he asked another question:
"Are Refinement Magicians generally powerful?"
Varrow rubbed his chin with his right hand and spoke with a thoughtful expression plastered on his face:
"Yes and no. Refinement Magicians aren't necessarily formidable in combat because the items that they produce may not be of much offensive value and I would argue that most Refinement Magicians are like that and thus the path does not have much of a reputation; combine the latter fact with the existence of varied professions that Refinement Magicians can take up, they are usually just referred to by their professional titles. That being said, I do know of a World Class Mechanic that rules an entire realm filled with tens of planets as big as Grand Earth and is unshakable in his position. Also, although their personal power might be relatively low, many Refinement Magicians produce materials and equipment that make them very valuable to powerful groups and so they may have strong backing and many complicated affiliations that make them troublesome to deal with."
Nick was starting to understand the kind of path that refinement path was and he was very curious:
(What would a spell for that kind of path even look like?)
Varrow remembered something and continued:
"Oh, now that I think about it, high refinement magic affinity is incredibly rare, probably one of the rarest conditions in magic but since the path has very little to do with combat and more to do with skill in fabricating materials, virtually everyone could possibly be successful in it if they tried to specialize in refinement path no matter what their highest affinities are. That being said, it is very expensive to nurture a Regular Refinement Magician and they are sometimes defeated during head-to-head combat by Magicians of lower rank."
Varrow went silent after he finished speaking and Nick, after deciding that he would research refinement path later, went back to thinking about the Cross Stream sword technique. All sorts of images of the port was fed to Nick's mind by his Spatial Awareness talent.
While the port covered much land area, it did not have many buildings for storing goods or even to use as offices. All the buildings were well spaced apart, had one storey, were made with red or brown bricks and had few windows. Nick figured that the buildings were where documents were kept and the various employees that worked at the port rested and did much of their paper work.
The streets and surrounding ground were made of strong, grey concrete that appeared very well leveled and uniform in appearance throughout the approximately two hundred and fifty-meter radius area of land that the port covered. Varrow and his group soon approached the port gate after ten minutes of walking.
The frame of the port gate was made of red and brown bricks and it was cuboidal in shape, having dimensions of about six by four by 0.5 meters cubed, width, height and depth respectively. The frame was flanked on both sides by lengths of silver metal sheet fencing that had a brick-thick, white metal base and apex fixed along the length of the port's land locked perimeter which was about half of its total perimeter while the other half was bordered by the lake water.
The grilled and movable portion of the gate consisted of well-spaced, white, metal poles that were bordered by a square shaped, metal perimeter that had the same thickness across its length as the metal poles. The grill was designed to cover the opening of the brick frame portion of the gate in its entirety. When the gate was being opened upon Varrow's approach, the white grill slid smoothly to the right flank, allowing the eleven Magicians to leave without any trouble.
When the ten students cleared the gate, they were able to witness the magnificent sight many tall, towers of different styles, colors and sizes spread across the city, some towers even reaching as high as sixty meters. At this point, they realized that the port's land locked perimeter somehow hid the towers from view.
Edward Keslow, while maintaining an awestruck expression, asked:
"Who lives inside those towers?"
Varrow replied:
"Who do you think? Magic towers like those are symbols of wealth as much as they are a necessity for Magicians who do research. Those towers either belong to members of the royal family or their very wealthy friends."
William, Victoria, Jessica, Pearl, Jet, Jessie and Patrice were not impressed by the towers since they had each been to at least one of their family's own magic towers in the past. Edward and Calder seemed to be different, however, since they were both mesmerized by the towers for some reason. Nick discreetly glanced at the several towers and also became interested in them.
The three's apparent interest did not escape Varrow's notice as he turned his head slightly and glanced at the group from the corner of his eyes.
(When I was accepted to a magic academy, my home had been an area of the local dump that was nearby so I know the feeling of wanting one of those towers to live in.)
Varrow directed a question at the interested three:
"Keslow, Wright and Capitol, do any of you know what one of those towers are likely to cost?"
The three men shrugged their shoulders almost simultaneously and in response, Varrow threw out a figure:
"£800,000,000,000 or 800 vatas, the latter of which is special currency that Magicians use when handling large transactions. The magic materials used to make those towers are not cheap and the price that I'm giving you are for smaller towers than the ones that you are looking at."
Edward Keslow and Calder Wright cringed at hearing such a price but their feelings of longing did not diminish. They both still had thoughts like:
(I'll definitely be able to afford that someday.)
Varrow noticed that Nick seemed unmoved by the price but did not read too much into it, thinking:
(Who knows what that rascal could be thinking?)
Nick was not surprised by the supposed price of magic towers and was more interested in the currency that Varrow mentioned.
(Vatas? It's the first time that I am hearing about that currency but since we're talking about hundreds of billions of pounds of value in magic materials, I guess that's not surprising.)
Nick asked Varrow:
"Sir Varrow, do you own a magic tower like one of those?"
Varrow turned around, chuckling lightly and answered him:
"No, not yet. A first generation Magician like myself needs some time to accumulate wealth before I can manage that while minding my cultivation resources."
Nick immediately thought:
(Even Regular Magicians are limited by finances. Combat magic is great but proper cultivation clearly requires an aspect that allows you to generate a decent amount money regularly. I stumbled into gaining a lot of money but if I don't figure out how to make more while I continue my cultivation, I'll hit a plateau down the road.)
Varrow then focused on the area directly in front of them. The streets of Garden Isle were paved with gravel and black tar and looked clean as far as the eye could see. The sidewalks were made purely of grey concrete with metal manholes and drains of the same color embedded into the surface every now and then.
The buildings that the ten students could see were constructed in many different styles and consisted of various materials. There seemed to be no uniform pattern in terms of their placement and each of them may or may not have had a perimeter fence and gate. One thing was for sure though, every building seemed to be made of magic materials and that could be easily noticed if the students focused their magic senses appropriately.
Varrow instructed the students:
"The arena where the competition will be held is not far from here so we can walk to it. It just so happens that our lodgings are very close to the arena so I will introduce you to the competition site before having you take a look at your assigned accommodations."
The students were not opposed to walking since that would give them an opportunity to better familiarize themselves with the streets. They looked around and it was apparent to them that there were hardly any vehicles on the street despite the pristinely built roads. They only saw a few trucks enter and leave the port every once in a while.
Jessie Auburn muttered aloud:
"Licensed Magicians don't seem to like using cars."
Varrow walked ahead while commenting on Jessie's remark:
"Why would we? Any decent Magician would have a good movement spell or two that they could use to get to places at a faster pace than would be possible with a car and doing so would actually be many times safer. On Grand Earth, many Magicians still use cars because of laws restricting movement magic in places that are densely populated with non-magicians and because of cultural practices that are difficult to shake when you're there."
Calder Wright immediately asked:
"Sir Varrow, I've always wondered something. Why doesn't the government just force everyone to become Magicians? Wouldn't that be better for the country?"
Varrow sighed and answered:
"I can describe the crux of the best answer to your question with one word. That word is 'resources'. You should know from experience that being a Magician is a strain in terms of resources and if the government tried to implement public policies that would make everyone into Magicians, it would go bankrupt even with all the realms that they use as resource points. Not to mention the chaos that would follow. The more Magicians that a society has, the more violent fuckery that tends to go on. You all have been protected by the academy during your study so you hardly know the very real dangers that productive Magicians are exposed to on a daily basis. A Magician's life is not all charm and high society, much of it is brutal because of the stakes involved. In many high class realms that have civilizations that are even more advanced than Grand Earth's, there are persistent wars and conflict over resources and power. It's not even an uncommon thing for realms to be destroyed over one Magician's hunger for resources."
All the students had heard of or were told stories of how bad things could get in magician society so Varrow's words did not surprise them. After Varrow's answer, everyone walked quietly towards the arena with Varrow at the lead. About thirty minutes later, after traversing many streets and seeing much of the city, the eleven Magicians finally reached the arena where the inter-academy competition would be held.
The arena almost had the shape of an oval faced prism, which would be the case if not for its open and uneven roof. It had its longest internal length at about five hundred meters and had exterior walls that were made of some kind of metal. Windows, vents and other openings were visible at various places along the walls' surface and the gates to the inside were two in number, one seemingly to let in large objects and another for people to pass through.
The large gate consisted of two independently movable sides that were square shaped and lined with silver, metal bars. The smaller pedestrian gate consisted of one oval barrier made of silver metal bars, and it could probably be drawn out from its closed position at the appropriate time. Both gates were now locked but the eleven Magicians sensed activity inside using their magic sense. Although the gaps between the gates' metal bars could be seen through, the interior was completely hidden by a shadowy, magical haze.
Varrow explained:
"The inter-academy competition is set to begin three days from now and certain adjustments need to be made to accommodate so many competitors. Not to mention, the event will be broadcasted throughout all of Grand Earth. Fair warning, there will probably be a little national politics involved for whichever one of you wins the competition."
The ten students immediately noticed how Varrow spoke as if one of them would be the definite winner of the competition. William remarked:
"Your faith is well placed, Sir Varrow."
Varrow replied sternly:
"It better be. Since I taught each of you at one point or the other, you better not disgrace my legacy."
Magicians with little background often considered their reputation and their records of performance just as important as their life because those were important for when they finally decided to establish themselves firmly through creating a family. Varrow seemed to consider all his students' performance as a part of his legacy - their glory was a part of his very own and their shame was equally his to bare.
Varrow soon made a suggestion:
"Before we go take a look at our accommodations, there is actually something for us to do after five days of being on the ship. A sparring center for light combat training is located nearby. I want to see each of your standards clearly before the competition begins."
All ten students raised their brows and Victoria Nelson argued:
"What? Don't you trust the power of Might Eye? We still have its gold coins with us."
Varrow snorted:
"Hmph! The royal family's magic tool might have indicated that you're up to snuff but this daddy here needs to make sure that you are all ready to make use your potential properly. There are many academies that are participating in this tournament that are ranked higher than Richter Order Academy for various reasons and let me remind you, killing other students during the competition will be allowed during battles. If you are going to make mistakes, make them in front of me so that I can advise you."
The ten realized why Varrow wanted to see them spar - he simply wanted to make sure that they were adequately prepared for the difficulties ahead. William voiced his eagerness for a good spar:
"Let's go then. My bones feel itchy."
Jessica Jones silently pursed her lips and discreetly glance at Nick's back.
(How much better has he gotten?)
Patrice Suez only slightly squinted her eyes but said nothing while Victoria Nelson and Pearl Wiles wore expressions of readiness on their faces. The rest of the students except Nick displayed some level of interest in sparring. Nick, however, simply and indifferently summoned a bag of butter bread from his space band and started eating it. When Varrow smelt the fresh bread, he looked at Nick and asked:
"Does that bread taste good?"
Nick silently nodded his head while he swallowed a piece of the delicious bread. Varrow's right eyelid twitched and he spoke in response:
"Good, good, good. You'll be sparring first."
*****************************************************
While Varrow was taking his group to the nearby sparring center, another group led by a navy-blue robed Magician left the port via its gates. This group had eight male students and only two females. All the students seemed to wearing a kind of uniform that included an ash-gray blazer jacket, an ash-grey pair of dress pants or knee length, straight skirt, a white dress shirt and a pair of black dress shoes.
The blazer jackets had a crest stitched onto its left breast area that featured a black background with an image of a bare, white skeleton sitting cross legged while holding up a book with its arms fully stretched out. One young man in the group that had bone white but pointed teeth and light-blue, short, well styled hair, spoke to another man with a familiar tone while looking at his phone:
"Hey Lewis, I got some news from some of my people from Fury Volcano Academy. Your guy, Duane, botched the use of the stink bomb but he got the message out."
The man named Lewis looked at the student who spoke to him with a half interested gaze. Lewis had short, dark-blonde hair with black streaks that lowered to his neck. He had sharp, dark eyes, thin eyebrows and pale-white skin; unlike the other men, he did not tuck his white shirt into his pants. He replied to the blue haired man:
"I don't care about the stink bomb, Granger. I'm satisfied so long as Jessie knows that I'm going to deal with him."
The man apparently named Granger chuckled lightly and then said:
"Jessie Auburn should be pretty tough. I know for a fact that he has received a large portion of the Auburn's elemental transformation legacy inheritance. That inheritance is no joke. The first patriarch of the Auburn family was a rank 8 Transformation Magician. Not to mention that he gained a transformation path inheritance based on a very troublesome space path magic beast from Glory Sea. Even if you are the king of curses in the making, you will have a hard time fighting with him."
Lewis scoffed, retorting:
"Is my Nefari family any less blessed than merely the Auburns. Remember that Jessie only got that transformation path inheritance through my family's aid anyway. I will settle the score when it's time."
Another man within their group decided to enter the conversation. This man wore a pair of black rimmed glasses, had well styled, short red hair and many freckles on his pale-white face. He adjusted his glasses and said:
"I also know some people over at Fury Volcano Academy and they told me something interesting. The guy who put Duane in his place wasn't Jessie Auburn but was a brown man that had a head full of white hair and strange eyes that had blue spirals. A personal description doesn't get any clearer than that. Hey, Harvey! Come over here, it looks like the guy who kicked your ass in Forgotten Peril is participating in the inter-academy competition."
Lewis creased his brows when he heard the information and a man that was standing at the other end of the group looked over, annoyed. The man had short, silky, black hair, pale-white skin and dark eyes.
"You're saying that Nick Capitol is representing Richter Order Academy? That gives me something to think about. Now, shut up, Travis!"
The man that was apparently named Travis chuckled lightly in response to Harvey's command and did not take it to heart. Lewis Nefari eyed Harvey and spoke warmly but sternly to him:
"Bro-bro, I need you to defeat the guy who beat you, alright. Your loss was fairly embarrassing for the academy at the time; make things right."
Harvey's annoyed expression deepened for a moment but then he relaxed his facial muscles and turned away, replying indifferently:
"I'll deal with Nick. Just make sure that you best the Auburn brat."
Lewis nodded his head once and maintained a stern expression. Granger looked at Harvey, then at Lewis and asked flippantly:
"Well, it looks like the Nefaris have a beef to settle with Richter Order Academy. Who wants to start placing bets?"
The blue robed Regular Magician soon became annoyed with his students' talking; he had a stern expression accentuated by his dark eyes, black skin and neatly trimmed hair. The Regular Magician, who seemed to be in his mid-thirties, reprimanded them with a magically amplified voice that caused everyone but Harvey, Lewis and Granger to grimace:
"Shut your mouths! We've observed this area long enough and so we will be moving towards the arena now. Let me make this clear, Grim Lord Academy has no room for useless punks no matter what your last name is. I want absolute victory at all cost. Do you understand?"
The ten students all nodded their heads silently while sporting a seemingly practised grim expression in unison.
Harvey Nefari was mostly wrapped up in his own thoughts by this time, thinking:
(A rematch seems likely after four years...)
*******************************************************
The sparring center was a gymnasium like building in the shape of a wide box with curved vertices. Inside, a large green mat lined the floor that seemed to be made out of an extremely tough and resistant magic material. There were stands that internally lined the four walls of the building while different areas were demarcated for sparring between two people using a clear glass railing in the shape of a rectangle that had dimensions of about ten by fifteen meters squared, width and length respectively.
There were about six such demarcations and Varrow led his group to the one closest to the left corner of the building. He sternly instructed:
"Nick Capitol and Jessie Auburn. Get yourselves in gear, you two will be the first to spar."
Nick silently nodded his head once and then cast Space Rift in order to make a space gate appear below his feet. He fell through the space gate which also appeared above the closest sparring area, at the farthest end. Nick landed onto the green mat with his feet spread apart but his stance firm.
Seeing Nick already in place, Jessie wore a serious expression and walked into the sparring area through a gap in the clear glass railing at the longest right side and then proceeded to take his place at the far end opposite to Nick. By that time, Varrow and the other eight students had already taken seats at the metal stands some meters away. Varrow did not hesitate in instructing the two Magicians once they were in place:
"Begin the spar!"
Neither Nick nor Jessie spoke and simply cast their spells:
(Warrior Armor.)
(Flame Wretch Transformation)
Nick's body immediately flashed with red and silver sparks of light, following which he placed his right hand on Failed Tool's hilt at his left side and at which point his entire right arm and sleeve became coated with a metallic-silver hue. A feint red aura also emerged from Nick's body along with a slight magical pressure. Nick then eyed Jessie's changing state warily.
Jessie's body was enveloped by a white light that concealed his violently morphing features. Jessie's body grew half a meter taller in seconds and increased in girth so that he was now three times his original weight.
When the light of Jessie's transformation dispersed, what Nick and everyone else saw was a magic beast with brown, rock like skin that had cracks all over it. The creature was bipedal and had flat, bare feet that each sported five sharp, black, bone like claws; its hands were thick and human like but each sported claws similar to the ones protruding from its feet. The creature had large, ruby-red eyes, a long snout where a nose was not visible but where a mouth with sharp, blackened teeth were apparent; it had no visible ears and black smoke concealed and erupted from the top of its head continuously. Nick could feel a subtle increase in temperature the moment that Jessie's new form was revealed.
Nick immediately spoke after Jessie's transformation resolved:
"I don't recognize this magic beast, Jessie. Make sure to show me its abilities properly so that I can look it up later."
Jessie internally 'rolled his eyes' at Nick, not interested in replying to his opponent's remark. Nick kept his expression indifferent and seemingly shook his right hand while it remained holding Failed Tool's hilt. At least that is what Nick's actions looked like to Jessie until a moment later, when he realized that Failed Tool had somehow been drawn without him noticing and it was now positioned at Nick's right side, its single-edged blade shimmering with grey luster. Not even half a second later, grey light enveloped Jessie's vision.
(Tyrant Blade.)
(Tyrant Light.)
SHING! SHING! SHING! SHING!
Jessie stood firm in response to Nick's evident attack and by the time that the grey light dissipated from his vision moments later, four deep cuts appeared on Jessie's rock skin, two at each of his sides. Nick was surprised, however, when instead of blood flowing from the cuts, orange flames erupted from them in linear blasts.
Jessie looked at Nick with what Nick assumed was smugness and then Jessie spoke with a grating, rough voice:
"Don't get burned, Nick."