SpellShocked (SpellShocked Saga: Book 1)

Chapter 31 - Olivia VS Kevin

Olivia stepped out on the field, looking determined, fearless. Her opponent, Kevin, was a tall, skinny guy. Judging from his Focus mark, he was an Evocator, and I could vaguely recall seeing him during our Focus lessons, not that I looked at the other students much in case they saw it as an opportunity to harass me for 'staring'.

Kevin was jumping up and down, swinging his arms around, and I almost laughed at the fact that he looked like he was warming up for a sprint rather and a magical death battle. A man wearing a white t-shirt – the arbitrator – gestured for Olivia and Kevin to join him in the centre of the field and he placed a hand over each of their crystals, which flashed blue; both Olivia and Kevin seemed to develop a blue tinge to their skin, like I was looking at them through some kind of filter. I assumed this must be the warding spell Az was talking about.

The man then gestured for them to shake hands, and Kevin smirked and said something I couldn't heard through the TV. Olivia glared in response and said nothing. They shook hands briefly and then walked to opposite sides of the arena. The crowd grew silent when the man raised his hand. When he brought it swinging down, he disappeared suddenly, and the match began.

Kevin immediately summoned two balls of ice from his hands and hurled them at Olivia. Olivia, to my surprise, didn't move immediately; in fact, her eyes were closed.

'What is she doing?' I thought to myself. Maybe she was planning to create a ward.

Her eyes snapped open, and a second before the ice balls hit her, she ducked and rolled to the left, the ice balls sailing harmlessly past her and exploding into shards on impact with the arena wall. Then she closed her eyes again.

Kevin, not seeming to take the hint, summoned another two ice balls and threw them both together, but Olivia once again opened her eyes a split second before impact, and simply turned to her side, slipping between the balls of ice.

This happened a few more times and each time Olivia seemed to have the uncanny ability to dodge the ice, fire, and lightning orbs Kevin threw at her. But I quickly understood what she was doing. I had read that talented Focus Diviners could use an ability called Futuresight; it essentially allowed them to see into the future with varying degrees of clarity, and the further into the future you wanted to see, the less clear the result would be. Olivia was using her talent with divination and her Futuresight to see seconds into the future, meaning her visions were probably very clear: clear enough to know how to avoid all of Kevin's attacks as he made them.

I was in awe.

Kevin eventually decided to stop wasting his magic on pointless attacks and instead bent down and placed his hands on the ground. The ground beneath them began to freeze solid. I thought this was a decent plan, to freeze her in place so it would be harder to dodge his attacks, but Olivia was, of course, one step ahead of him. While Kevin was looking down at his hands, focusing on freezing the ground, Olivia had summoned two fireballs. She immediately ran straight towards Kevin and, just as the ice reached her feet, she jumped forward in the air and threw the fireballs. One of the fireballs struck the ground, melting a circle into the forming ice, while the other shot directly towards Kevin. By the time he had looked up and realised what was happening, the fireball struck him right in the face and he went soaring backwards. Olivia, meanwhile, landed perfectly inside of the circle she had melted, eyes once again closed.

Kevin stood up, looking unharmed but pissed off. He then spread his arms out and a strange black mist began to pour from his them. The mist began to thicken and coalesce around him, before spreading outwards. Within ten seconds, his half of the arena was covered by the thick black mist. Nothing happened for about a minute, until eventually Olivia opened her eyes again. She jumped over the last of the ice on her side of the field and walked to the edge of the mist. She closed her eyes once again, and then seconds later opened them, moved two steps to her left and put both hands out in front of her. It almost looked like the air shimmered in front of her and then the black mist split as though someone punched a hole into it.

Then from the other side of the mist, Kevin went flying out and hit the wall of the arena from the blast of force energy Olivia had thrown at him. Olivia walked around the side of the mist to where Kevin lay propped up against the wall. After closing her eyes one final time, she advanced on Kevin, who, in desperation, was shooting small fireballs from his palm like some kind of weird gun. Olivia dodged most of the fireballs and blocked the rest with a small ward, before she created a shimmering orb in her hand and, once close enough to Kevin, threw it. It hit him square in the chest and his body was thrust backwards into the wall, cracking it.

The blue aura around Kevin seemed to shatter and disappear then a loud whistle blew. The man from before reappeared at Olivia's side and raised her arm into the air.

Olivia was the winner.

The crowd erupted into applause, as did the majority of the other contestants in the room we were being kept in, myself included. Theo and his friends did not join in and glared at the tv screen. I clapped along with the other contestants, stunned by her performance. I was beyond happy for her and hoped her dad was in the crowd to see just how wrong he had been about her. I hoped he was filled with shame over how he had been treating his daughter.

On screen, I watched as Kevin stood up and walked towards Olivia. Frowning, he said something to Olivia, and to my surprise, he put his hand out and Olivia shook it. I didn't really know what to make of this. The arbitrator then led them out of arena as the crowd's cheers renewed.

Olivia and Kevin didn't re-enter the contestants waiting room, and neither did any of the other students as names were called two at a time. The skill with magic being displayed in all of the matches I watched was extremely intimidating, so by the time my name was called, my confidence was in the gutter.

'Charlie Hill. Adalrik Nilsson. Please report to the entrance of the Arenam. Your match will begin in two minutes."

I stood up and saw Adalrik stand on the other side of the room. We both exited the room and walked side by side to the entrance of the Arenam in silence. I hazarded a glance over to Adalrik and his face was stony. Was he as nervous as I was? Somehow, I doubted it, given that I was his opponent.

Ms Carter met us at the stone door leading into the Arenam. She smiled encouragingly at me.

"Are you both ready?" she asked kindly.

"Y-Yeah," I squeaked, my voice breaking. Adalrik simply nodded.

"Then good luck to you both." She pressed her hand to the door which split in half to reveal the blinding light of the day, and the noise of the crowd gathered to watch us fight. Adalrik stepped out onto the field without hesitation. I glanced once more at Ms Carter who nodded and smiled.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped through the door.