Rettew the Myriad was an Assuine Blessed human who dabbled in wizardry before his ascension to godhood. Before they called him mad, many called him eccentric. He held a passion for all of Assuine's creations. While he admired Assuine, he also saw ways her initial designs could be improved upon. At first, he did little things. He took the bioluminescence from the creatures of the ocean depths and Torac and spliced it into bugs so the surface dwellers could experience the beauty they'd otherwise miss out on.

  -Excerpt from Wicket’s Guides to the Pantheon.

  —

  The dimly lit ready room of Kole’s surroundings vanished, replaced with the scorching noon day sun and overwhelming roar of a crowd.

  The sudden shift was disorienting, and it was only Zale stepping in front of him with her shield upraised that saved Kole from being taken out by an early spell.

  “We’re in the Orinqth arena!” Zale shouted.

  The words allowed Kole’s mind to catch up. Llooking around at the sea of faces rising around him, beyond the flat expanse of unbroken sand, Kole recognized that she was right.

  He could see the similarities to the architecture he’d seen before, but even seeing the place from outside couldn’t prepare him for finding himself suddenly within the massive structure.

  Zale held her shield above them, and Kole attempted to draw on his Fade ability to sneak a look around her, but the instant he thought about drawing on the power, he felt the overpowering attention of the crowd shatter the attempt, like reaching for the last piece of bread from a basket only to be trampled by a horde of thousands of... really hungry things.

  Kole’s mind was still reeling, and he couldn’t think of a decent analogy.

  Rakin kicked the sand at his feet and using his magic caused the spray to spread out into a cloud, just large enough to obscure them. He next dropped down into the sand, and began forming a barrier, sculpting the sand into a chest high wall with his hands, and when he moved on the wall remained.

  As he did that, Zale spoke quickly.

  “We are up against the Baronets!”

  She’d briefed the team on all the groups they might face today and Kole actually remembered this one.

  The Baronets was a team of four young heirs to different Baronies in the region of Tilias. Each was a fairly capable fighter in their own right, but their main strength was the wealth their families were willing to throw after their ambitions to become adventurers.

  Knowing who they were only told Kole that he didn’t know what to expect, for just like with every dungeon delve last semester, the team had arrived with a fresh array of enchanted and runed equipment. The only constant each time being the ensouled artifact shield their leader bore.

  “The dust is going to follow me,” Rakin said, finishing up his wall. “Zale and I will charge them, give us covering fire!”

  Kole and Doug both gave sounds of agreement and moved to hide behind the newly constructed sandstone wall.

  Kole couldn’t see through the cloud of dust and had to hold his collar up to breath, but he knew Zale and Rakin had begun to move when the dust floating around him suddenly began to drift to the ground instead of unnaturally swirling as it had been.

  He waited a breath before peeking a look around the corner. Rakin and Zale were visible as vague shapes in a cloud of dust that was charging across the distance between them and the other team. The pair were running off to the side of the enemy to give Kole and Doug a line of sight, and as soon as Kole saw the reflection of light on steel through the clearing cloud he sent a Radiant Bolt at the gleam.

  The other team was just at the edge of his range, and his bolt passed through the cloud of dust, transforming from a brilliant beam of light to a section of glowing dust before vanishing.

  Flood! Kole cursed himself, knowing he’d missed as there was no lingering glow of a struck target.

  “Down!” Doug shouted as he fired an arrow high into the air.

  Kole ducked behind the wall while throwing up his arm while empowering this shield bracer. Above him in the air, there was an explosion where Doug’s arrow hit a projectile that had be lobbed over the obscurement. The arrow struck, creating a billowing cloud of fire, but that flame coalesced into burning liquid that continued towards them.

  Doug had jumped behind Kole after losing the arrow, and the liquid struck the magical barrier, parting around it and splashing into the sand on either side. Despite the shield, Kole felt the heat hit him in a wave. The ground around him had turned to molten glass, leaving only a small pocket to stand in while retaining the cover of Rakin’s wall.

  Doug jumped back out and began firing arrows while Kole started to construct another Radiant Bolt. Kole jumped to his feet to find the cloud of dust had finally dispersed. Rakin and Zale had covered the distance and were now engaged with two of the melee combatants.

  Zale was facing off with another armored student, his gear both more ornate and all encompassing. They circled each other, trading blows and taking hits to their plate to get an opening. Rakin seemed to be dancing with a foe of his own, the other combatant practicing a martial art similar to Rakin’s. But judging by the unnatural way his muscles bulged, with purple veins pulsing beneath, he seemed to require alchemical enhancement to counter Rakin’s Ki powered strength.

  For whatever reason Kole couldn’t discern, Rakin was making no use of his primal abilities to aid him in fighting the other monk.

  Off to the side, two other foes stood, alternating between watching their allies and risking glances to Kole and Doug. One wore full plate and a magical tower shield floated around him, while bandoliers and satchels covered the other and he held a short sling in his hand.

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  The vial draped student flung another project towards Doug and Rakin, only this one Doug shot out of the air far enough away that the molten alchemist’s fire splashed harmlessly into the sand.

  The crowd around them roared with each blow the melee combatants exchanged, but when Doug shot the second arrow in full view, not obscured by the cloud, they erupted and Kole could feel the sound shaking his bones, almost forcing him to lose his spell.

  As soon as Kole crested the wall, the student in full plate pointed a stick at him. Kole sent his Radiant Bolt at him and dove back down and once more conjured his shield barrier, just in time for an explosion of flame to billow around the wall and his shield.

  “Fireball!?” Kole couldn’t help but scream in surprise.

  How much was that wand? he thought before more usefully wondering how many charges it might have left.

  “I did it!” Kole heard Doug’s shout of triumph, somehow audible above the roar of the crowd.

  He looked around to find Doug, but he wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

  Before risking another look, Kole cast Mirror Image, and readied another Radiant Bolt. While Kole would have struggled to get around the alchemist’s fire heated sand before, the fireball had trapped him in place now. Luckily the ground on his side had was obscured by the wall, and no one could see that the sand his duplicates stood in was glowing orange.

  As soon as Kole’s head extended above the wall, a bolt of force came at him, and Kole sent his own golden blast of light back in return. The force bolt went for the center copy of Kole, which was a duplicate, but Kole ducked anyway. His own magic projectile was blocked by the floating shield, which began to emit golden light.

  Standing, Kole saw that Doug had traveled across the arena, clear across the molten sand, and was running down the boy laden with jars. His target backpedalled, filling the ground between them with dozens of gold worth of consumables to bar the demon kin’s path. Doug’s bow was missing, and he was running with his hatchets out.

  Kole ducked back down, considering a plan to get out of the area of heated glass. He tested a portion with his toe, and while it was manageable for a moment, he didn’t think he could get out before whatever mechanism governed the teleportation system deemed him too harmed to compete.

  Instead, he decided to continue to provide covering fire. Jumping back up, Radiant Bolt at the ready, Kole found the battlefield had changed drastically in the short time he’d been down. Rakin was now completely ablaze, as one of the alchemist fire vials had struck him, exploding and covering him in burning liquid.

  Zale continued to battle against the more heavily armored foe, who had skill to back up his wealth. Or Kole briefly considered as he noticed the unnatural speed the other student moved with, the wealth to use alchemical enhancements to make wealth and skill one and the same.

  To Kole’s surprise, Rakin didn’t rage, but instead acted as if the flames weren’t real. The other martial artist he’d been fighting had run when it had become clear attacking would only result in a burn, and Rakin chose not to chase, instead heading for the wand user with the floating shield.

  The martial artist, however, was running right for Kole. Unleashing his stored spell, he sent it right at the charging attacker. The boy tried to sidestep out of the attack, but unexpectedly to both the attacker and the caster, three Radiant Bolts—one from each illusory copy—streaked across the arena, converging.

  Had that happened before? Kole wondered, unsure. He felt like he would have noticed if it had.

  One bolt was dodged, but the other two struck, one of which was the real one. The wealthy monk stumbled but turned it into a roll, continuing to run at Kole—now a glow with an inner light. Before Kole could cast another spell, he was on him, leaping over the hot sand and haggard sandstone wall at Kole in a flying kick.

  Kole abandoned the Radiant Bolt he’d been casting and instead powered his shield bracer. A foot struck hit the barrier, and Kole felt the full force of the weight of the other student’s leap transmitted through the bracer, knocking Kole to the sand. His attacker wasn’t as lucky, and bounced off the barrier, landing in the hot sand where he rolled and jumped out of it, falling in the cooler sand a safe distance from Kole.

  The exposed skin on the martial artist was seared red, lightly burned by the still hot sand, but not hot enough to send him out. Despite the burns, he didn’t waste a moment before attacking again. He took two steps back, and then took another running jump at Kole.

  Somewhat more prepared, Kole steadied his feet, taking a bracing stance Zale had taught him to use in combat. Once more the kick deflected off the shield, but this time both Kole and his opponent recovered better. Kole only sand deeper into the sand, while the attacker planted one foot in the hot sand and jumped over the dangerous area.

  “You’re going to run out of Will before I run out of kicks Kole!” the other boy shouted.

  “I wouldn’t be so sure... you!” Kole said, embarrassed he didn’t know the other students name,

  The other boy jumped again, and they repeated the dance twice more.

  “How are you casting that spell so many times!?” he exclaimed between pants. His burns were starting to grow more and more severe and hindering his movement.

  Kole risked a glance to see that Rakin had vanished at some point, and it was Doug and Zale against the two plate armored enemies.

  “The bracer!” Kole heard his foe exclaim, and turned back to see him pulling something out of his pocket and tossing it to Kole before he could react.

  Kole began channeling the intent into his bracer for a shield, but before he could finish, thunder erupted from the small object, hitting Kole with a familiar wave of intense sound, throwing him back across and over the heated sand. The unburned sand softened his fall slightly, but when he lifted his hand to prepare to block the next attack, his bracer crumble to nothing and fell off.

  That’s one way across the hot sand, Kole thought even as he scrambled to recover.

  His whole body ached, every joint in pain like he’d swung a metal rod at a stone wall over and over. Distantly, Kole was aware that blood was dropping down his ears, but he ignored the pain—or at least tried to.

  His enemy ran at him, taking long jumps over the sand, only landing lightly before gracefully leaping again. Kole fought his woozy head to construct a Thunderwave, but the spell kept falling apart in his mind. After the second leap, the distance between them halved, Kole tried again with Radiant Bolt, but both the spells were too new for his addled brain and aching body to complete.

  Leaping into the air a third time, Kole’s opponent turned the jump into a spinning kick, and some long practiced part of his mind reached for a spell that wasn’t there—Shield. But, to Kole’s bewilderment, he found the spell template somewhere in his vault. A place both familiar and unfamiliar.

  He didn’t waste time overthinking it and channeled his Will into this unexpected spell template, finding it to function exactly as expected. The spell formed in an instant, and the translucent barrier appeared before Kole, draining the last of his Will. A wave of mental fatigue washed over Kole, just as the kick hit the barrier. Unlike last time, the force of the blow wasn’t transmitted through the bracer, and Kole didn’t even feel the impact.

  The attacker didn’t benefit from this change. To his credit, he overcame his surprise at the shield’s appearance despite the broken bracer, and he tried to turn the kick into another roll. But instead of the shield moving with the impact and cushioning his blow as it had before, this time it didn’t budge, and Kole heard the snap of breaking bone over the ever present cheering of the crowd.

  Kole retreated, pulling the vial from Zale out of his satchel, but stopped himself. He noticed that his Mirror Images were still up, and his opponent was lying in the sand clutching his leg.

  Instead, Kole walked up to the downed student, and held his hand out. Instead of casting Radiant Bolt, he conjured a light cantrip in his hand and pointed it at the downed boy.

  “I yield!” the boy shouted, and vanished, whisked away by the magic of the arena. And then Kole was taken as well.

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