The Lightning Mage

49 | The Annual Guild Battle

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"54th Annual Dawn Avengers Guild Battle!!! Come join us in the iconic Fenway Stadium, where the top questers in Dawn Avengers battle it out and show off their skills!"

Sin-Ni had first noticed these posters pasted on the motel entrance at Pittsburgh. As she got closer and closer to Boston, the posters kept appearing more and more around her: on every street lamp, in every restaurant—and then freaking everywhere in Boston. The sheer amount of hype was almost obnoxious.

Therefore, she had to check it out.

After abandoning the idiot trios in Wisconsin, Sin-Ni crawled her way across the rest of America for another three months, trudging through miles of cornfields, almost freezing to death in a lake, and even accidentally ending up in Canada for a while.

Finally, she made it to her destination: the Dawn Avengers headquarters. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting to see, but it was definitely not a giant, dome-like structure that took up half of downtown Boston.

Crowds of people were streaming into the building. There were families with excited children, groups of friends, couples, and the occasional sword-wielding questers saying, "If you ask me, the quality of Dawn Avengers have dropped over the years," in a voice just loud enough for everyone around them to hear. The atmosphere was lively and brimming with anticipation.

Soon, Sin-Ni was swept into the headquarters. The posters she had seen everywhere were now enlarged a thousand times and draped down from the tall ceiling. The way people were pointing and gushing at the portraits made the event feel like a concert or a sporting event.

Her belief was solidified when she followed the crowd and stepped into what looked like a baseball stadium. It was massive, with hundreds of thousands of audience squished together like sardines. There were seats in the lower levels that were spaced out in a much more dignified manner, but she doubted that those were free like the standing zone she was in.

Making use of her petite figure, Sin-Ni squeezed past everyone to get to the front, where a group of kids was leaning against the railing and staring at the arena eagerly. She was sure that she was at least three times their age, but she pushed herself into the group and blended alongside them anyway.

"Hey!" a little boy on her right asked with a toothy grin. "Who's your favorite?"

"Erm, I don't know yet," Sin-Ni admitted. "Who's yours?"

"Azarius, of course!" He proceeded to slash his hands around as if he were holding a sword.

"Oh, Azarius? He's so cool!" the boy on her left exclaimed.

"Is he also your favorite?" Sin-Ni asked.

"Nah, Azarius is cool but he doesn't fight anymore. I like Ender Enric more!" He also started whirling his fists around like the other boy. "He will be fighting later on! His sword is bright blue and so cool!"

"You boys and your fighters." A little girl next to the Azarius fan stuck her nose up and snorted. "They're all the same and so lame. Elemental mages are much cooler."

"Ew, elemental mages are laaaame!" The Azarius fan, presumably her brother, pretended to gag. "Anybody can do elemental magic, but fighters have swords!"

Elemental mages? Sin-Ni had never heard of them. Was elemental magic what was required to work all the appliances she could not get to work? Was it that form of magic that everyone could do, but she could not? And most importantly, was elemental magic the magic required to send her back home?