Humanity's Hero Of Despair

As the dust settles, we notice the figure of the Oriventh member lying on the ground.

The rock, which was thrown into his chest by Estes, knocked him out. The remaining two Oriventh members look like they are shaking in their boots as I approach them. My wand overflows with dark magic, which consumes the despair from my enemies.

If you are a spectator in the audience, you may think I am just restraining the dark energy like a dog from biting everyone. Which, in this case, is what I am doing.

It is now one versus two since Estes collapses onto the ground with exhaustion from protecting all of us for so long. He has ran out of mana. All that is left for this round is to defeat Oriventh member number one and Oriventh member number two.

"Any last words?" I ask the two Oriventh members, who are now backed against the wall.

Their bodies are visibly shaking, and their body language suggests the possibility they need to use the restroom. They don't realize their fear of this power gives it more power. Oriventh member number one casts a defensive spell and tries to create an ice wall between us.

"Blackthorn!"

A dark powerful energy ray hits the ice wall making it fall apart into thousands of pieces on the ground. Sensing their fear from my display of power makes me feel even more powerful. In some ways, I feel guilty because of how their despair fuels me. The other Oriventh member number two tries to do the same thing, but with earth magic. The result?

"Blackthorn!"

His earth wall crumbles to the ground instantly. The power of my wand with the magic dark eye near me is almost too powerful for even me to handle. I feel its raging energy fighting to escape my hold. I don't want to hurt anybody needlessly, even if this is a competition. For my last attack, I decide to use my fire magic.

My amulet glows bright orange as flames begin to rapidly gather around the tip of my wand.

"Flaro!"

Since the amulet's magic strengthens my mana and controls my magic to an extent, the fireball is very effective. As the fireball strikes both Oriventh members, their cloaks start to burn. They both immediately surrender, and the Keeper Academy of Tarondar claims victory. We then all go to our private rooms before the next round starts.

Justus meets up with us in our private team room before the next event.

"Congratulations! You guys did splendidly," Justus says happily.

Estes collapsed on the battlefield, but he can still be conscious. He just needs some time to rest to gain his energy back. Zephyr is knocked out cold, and they sent him to the hospital. We are now down a member.

Luckily, our Keeper Academy nominates a new person to join the fight with us in our upcoming duos round. After Justus checks up on everybody, he leaves the room saying that the next person who enters it is our teammate.

"Hey guys! Are you happy to have me back?" Matteo says, as he shuts the door behind himself.

Estes and I are both too tired to answer him. It makes sense our Keeper Academy sends him as a replacement. He is powerful, yet he is also expendable in many ways. Matteo walks over with confidence and sits down next to me, putting his arm around my shoulder.

"Come on, Nico, don't look so grim. Now that I am on the team, we can win this thing easy peasy, right?" he says, grinning like his usual self.

I roll my eyes and shake my head as I take a sip of water from my water bottle. Matteo does not know how hard it is fighting those guys out there. Zephyr is incredibly powerful, and he was overwhelmed. Estes is very strong, and he even fought three people at once for a long time.

However, it does not mean he is invincible.

If you are talking about me, then that is even more of a reason we need to take this fight seriously. It is only because of Ignis's tough training that I can pull off what I did today. The amount of energy though it takes to make those techniques and spells come into existence is staggering.

With my current ability, I can't handle using it multiple times in a row.

Estes, who is still pale and groggy, says nothing, but he gives a thumbs up in response to Matteo. He is even more tired than I am considering his physical state. Estes is a person to admire because almost nobody can hold off three guys for over fifty percent of the fight.

After a minute of silence, I muster up enough energy for a basic response.

"You better give it your all, Matteo. This competition is seriously not a joke. Be cautious, someone might even knock you out," I tell him.

"I know. I will keep them busy with my firepower! You can always finish them with your cool seventh affinity dark magic techniques!," Matteo says as he stands up from the bench confidently with his eyes gleaming with excitement.

This is a display of the typical Matteo I imagine in my mind. He is always eager and always ready for anything that crosses paths with him. Matteo seems completely unfazed by the challenge ahead. Is this the power of a son of a noble? Is it the result of specialized learning?

From outside our private room, we can hear cheering. This is the sign that the second round is going to begin. Even if we both somehow win this round, we still have one more to go through before the Glozaria Keeper Cup is over. I get up from the bench and take one last look at Estes, who has an icepack on his arm now.

Matteo glances at me, noticing me tense up. "Are you ready for this?"

"Born ready," I reply, taking deep breaths to calm my mind and heart rate down.

My seventh affinity level magic is on cooldown. This doesn't mean I cannot consistently use lower levels of magic. In my case, I just have to be more cautious of everything going on around me. It is time to enter the arena. As the doors swing open once more, my eyes settle on my opponents. It is now or never.

The crowd's roar is deafening. I feel the pulse of energy in the air. This energy is mixed with fear, anxiety, anger, and, most importantly, of despair. This energy makes my energy levels go back up to normal. Across the field from us, we notice as the duos from team Ryndoria and team Oriventh are preparing to fight us.

It looks like they are about to tag team us from the mutual aggression I feel from both teams. This is going to be a long day, I think to myself as we all get into our fighting stances.

"Begin!" the Keeper Principal announces again.