Freedom Jumper-Chapter 96: From The Beginning

Applauds, cheers, and banging of drums were rapidly sent into the center of the arena. The magnificent spell that barely a few people understood was the talk amongst the rowdy crowd.

Atop the Council box sat fifteen tall and established men and women. Their faces were filled with surprise, sadness, and a few wide grins that spelt devious with a single glance.

"Zion, grab Rodrick, get my staff, and meet me in the center. It is time." The words from the king silenced everyone nearby as his tone was straightforward and violent. "Maeve, fly me down to the boy..."

"Uhm, how do you know it is him?" Maeve asked with a worried expression.

"Don't ask me stupid questions. His affinity proves it, and I can also feel it..."

Despite the fact the fight between Emery and Elijah hadn't lasted longer than ten minutes, each spell and attack made was an improvement of the latter. From the crowd's perspective, these two were chummy friends and also rivals—who slowly raised their power of attacks leading to the finale.

Elijah was running towards Emery with the intention of making sure he wasn't badly wounded. However, during this process, he felt and heard a monstrous gust of wind from above which halted his steps.

"Uh oh. Looks like the king either wants to know what affinity I have, or he is coming to kill me..." Elijah muttered to himself as he took a neutral stance while knowing he could easily escape—minus the damage his organs would take from the change of speed.

"Young man, what is that affinity of yours?" Asked the king politely.

"Space." Elijah did not hide his affinity. He wanted to appear as normal as possible in the face of a potential threat. After all, Trey had said the King wants him dead. Knowing he had never come into contact with the King, he realized Trey may be talking about their supposed leader instead.

"Haha, I've never heard of an affinity like that being found. Did you find it yourself?" The king asked while taking a gander at his surroundings.

Elijah instantly put up his guard while seeing this action. He chose not to respond, and not even seconds later, a tall man with cold white hair and a light blue jacket adjourned with fur around the collar quickly appeared in between their conversation. The water droplets coming from a path of ice that signified his identity to everyone in the arena.

"Your majesty, I think you are making my mentee uncomfortable. He received his affinity from me as a gift that I told him to keep secret. I found the affinity deep within The Catacombs." Amaris began talking while motioning behind his back to walk away.

"I understand... Let me ask you something, do you know what is inside that boy? It is more than just a special affinity..."

"No I do not."

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"Well, if you must know, he was somehow given a large amount of ben—"

Amaris cut the conversation short and grew an icicle from his hand that was beginning to slide into the throat of the King. That is until Rodrick, the Lava Judge indented the earth as he fell from the sky. A piping hot and formed spike of lava melted straight through Amaris' spike, and caused Amaris to lean to the side to avoid his head being chopped off.

"RUN ELIJAH! RUN!!!" Amaris said while giving himself space to fight.

Sounds of temperature-based explosions began to resound in the arena, and just as Elijah turned around, an ominous figure clad in all black materialized from thin air. With the sun just beginning to set, darkness had been quickly seeping into the kingdom. This allowed Zion, the Night Stalker, to unveil his precise control of the affinity of darkness by flying within the absence of light. "If you don't resist, I won't cut your limbs off." Said Zion in a monotone voice.

"And what makes you think you can catch me?" Elijah asked while buying time.

"Red core mages are too confident for their own good." Zion muttered under his breath while a veil of black smoke trailed behind his instantaneous assault. However—when his arms re-materialized—his arms caught nothing but the still air.

The sound of wind breaking resonated with Elijah zooming into the sky. Unfortunately, not even seconds after his lift-off, his body became completely frozen while watching the color within his body disappear. Even the slightly burnt clothing on his body had lost all pigmentation. The feeling of paralysis caused his brain to seize as he couldn't fathom why his body was not moving. Only when he was caught within the arms of a purple robed figure did he figure it out.

"Seems like there's more to your affinity than we thought!"

"Lucian, don't get too excited. You won't even be the one who receives it..." Maeve said while strapping glowing handcuffs around the hands of Elijah.

Elijah panicked with only the ability to think. 'Why can't I move, I-I can't breathe!!'

"Lucian! Are you going to give him his color back?" Maeve said as he slapped the blonde haired man with closed eyes.

"Just having fun, Maeve." Lucian lazily waved his hand, sparkles of different colors of light moving towards the mystery boy.

The breath and ability to move returned to Elijah. And with all his screaming and attempts to use magic, he exhausted himself to the point of becoming motionless. All he could do was sit and watch the battle happening in front of him.

"Rodrick! What happened to you?!" Amaris asked while slowly freezing everything within the vicinity.

The king now held a tall black staff that curved like wood. Inside the top was a purple orb pulsating with power. The King felt hesitation within Rodrick, and slammed the staff to the ground causing a ripple of purple ethereal energy to expand from his position. A shockwave that removed any hesitation from Rodrick.

"..." Rodrick countered by releasing a spell that changed the terrain underneath both of them. Cracks of lava began to burst from the blackened and hardened floor, and when the combination of the two spells reached their peak, mini explosions of white light began to burst like fireworks from the battle of polar opposite temperatures.

Boom! Bam! Boom!

Everything within the arena had gone from zero to one hundred within a short conversation between Amaris and The King. All of it was because of the beginning of a word the King had begun to mutter.

It was as if Amaris knew this would eventually happen – without so much as a want to ask for peace or an explanation. Deep down, Amaris knew his path.

In the end, the exchanges of spells and swords between Rodrick and Amaris left them both at a stalemate. However, within the shadow of Amaris rose a fully cloaked man, A curvy and spiked sword of pure darkness pierced straight through the back of Amaris, and what quickly followed was the disintegration of the domains of opposite temperatures.

"Leon... Why?"

"NOOOO!" Elijah screamed and felt a strain in his vocal cords.

Amaris slowly slumped to the floor with Leon following suit. A man who had come to this kingdom with Amaris had betrayed him. Willingly, or unwillingly? With his final few breaths, he was able to release his final words. "I'm sorry Elijah... but my time was now. F-find... Banum... Gyfolt..." Of course there was a smile on his face...

Tears of despair began to flow rapidly down the face of Elijah. The man who cared for him, made promises to venture outside, and even had small hints of suspicion surrounding him had just sacrificed his life for someone on round two.

Dozens of heavy steps began approaching Elijah, and when he looked behind to see if Emery had escaped—he thankfully saw no one.

The arena went completely silent with the slamming of the Kings staff, but now voices of anger, confusion, and fear were being voiced once again.

"Are you going to shut them up?" Leon asked while walking next to the King and Zion.

"Of course, I just did not think this boy would have such an effect on the people of our kingdom..."

Bang!

A second wave of an ethereal and purple energy enveloped the surroundings sending the voices of panic and uproar into complete silence.

"Well Elijah, I have to say that I am impressed by your abilities. However, your brain is underdeveloped—especially with you coming from who knows where. Do not worry, your life will end within the next month. Although, I did want you to know this tournament was not held solely for the purpose of nurturing new talent. I have theorized you are an anomaly ever since your interaction with Cora."

King Astraea finished walking to Elijah with his staff gripped in his hands. "Don't beat yourself up about it. You were never meant to be here in the first place..."

Bam!

A strike to the head with the long black magical staff knocked Elijah into the stars. During the latter half of the King's words, he began to calm down after hearing his life would be ended.

Finally, it's over...

...

-{The Arena}-

"Stop! You know you can't fight them! If any of you go through that door, you will instantly die! Follow me, and don't ask questions until we are alone..." Landon, and Leah gathered all of Elijah's friends who were unaffected by the corrupted energy of the King's staff. Novius, Alexia, Emery, Theon, and Raylen were all running for their lives behind their supposed protectors.

"Where are we going?!" Alexia asked while running out of breath.

"I'll tell you once we get to The Catacombs, but first we need to pack lots of water and food. Novius, we need to go to your estate."

Within the Weltor estate, each child and adult were frantically running around grabbing onto anything they could take with them. At this point, everyone knew this would be a long journey, and persisted without any hesitation.

A large carriage was grabbed while hurriedly walking down the empty streets of the third band. Half an hour later, the group of eight made it to the drop off point of the Catacombs, and was given a thorough talk inside an empty and dark building.

"We need to hide in The Catacombs for a while. There is a path that will take us through orange, yellow, and green core beasts. Do not fret, we will protect you." The sound of Landon's voice echoed off the empty stone pillars. A large empty storage house was what they had all stepped in, and the feeling wasn't exactly good considering the only sound was most likely water dripping from one of the upper floors.

"How are the two of you going to protect the five of us?!" Novius asked the obvious question.

"Soon there will be a third, and once we reach our destination, there will be a fourth. Also, one of my squads recently cleared all the beasts leading to our destination..." Landon's voice dropped, implying one of those members was Amaris, the man who had read the situation for a gain of nothing.

The trembling bodies of the group slowly calmed down after sitting against the cold stone walls and pillars. The hands of Alexia were tracing random shapes in the floor as a way to distract her mind.

"Emery. What you said at the beginning of the fight... Do you mean you are dropping the hatred towards me?" Novius asked while breaking the silence.

"Uhh..." Deep down, Emery had felt this conversation was going to come the moment he fled into the windowless viewing room and was grouped together by Landon and Leah. "Yes, I have no reason to hate you Novius. I... I'm sorry for the problems I have caused you. To tell the truth, it was Elijah who changed me. Very quickly I began to realize how powerful and smart he is. When compared to the people around me, he is someone I know I can actually trust without even getting to know him."

"Did you see or hear anything that would tell us if he had a chance of surviving?" Novius responded with a gray smile.

"No. The only thing I heard before the fighting began was the King saying Elijah has a large amount of... something."

Slowly, the bond of Elijah's five friends began to grow as they reminisced about the character of Elijah. What made him different from everyone else in the kingdom...

Yes, the boy did not care for theatrics and enjoyed beating down people with bad intentions. But no matter the situation, he would end up saving the people around him, even while sometimes losing himself in the process.

A desire to save.