Eternal Awakening

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

Visitors in the Night

With Daiya's help, Richard sat down on the hard and cold wooden bench in the cavernous underground room beneath the arena. He was covered in sweat and adrenaline still coursed through his blood, causing him to shake slightly as he breathed deeply and tried to calm himself down. Daiya took a step away from him and some of the gleeful light in her eyes had faded, as a more concerned look painted her features.

Being this close to her, Richard was able to see how truly beautiful of a woman she really was. Her skin was tanned a perfect shade of light brown that accented her large brown eyes almost perfectly, and her long brown hair that was pulled back into a tight ponytail showed off her long and slender ears that Richard still couldn't help but stare at. She was also tall and had a slightly athletic build, but not so much that it diminished her womanly figure that was sure to draw the eyes of every man who looked upon her. To put it more simply, she was absolutely gorgeous.

“Are you sure you're okay? What happened?” she asked with a touch of concern in her voice. It was strange to hear her speak like that towards him, as only a week ago she wouldn't even address him in the first place. Richard figured that had something to do with the fact that she, like everyone else at the school, had been told that he was actually a mage and was supposedly Aura's secret son.

Richard sighed heavily and stayed quiet for a moment, the sound of hundreds of confused students leaving the arena filling the void. Richard really couldn't blame them for being confused though; they had been told he had won the duel, only to have him forfeit the win a second later. He hadn't won though, and he was certain of it.

“You hit me with that fire whip, remember?” he chuckled softly, but Daiya didn't seem to find it funny in the least.

“But why is it affecting you now? You just shrugged it off earlier like it hadn't even happened.”

Richard shrugged and brought up a hand to the area of his face that he had been hit. There was no real damage done to his skin, but he could still feel a little heat radiating from the spot and he wondered how long that would last. If Daiya could hit like that then he didn't want to imagine what would have happened if the barrier protecting the arena had been brought down again. He probably would have been turned into a smouldering pile of ashes before he even knew what had hit him. He was lucky to still be standing, and thankfully all he suffered from in that moment was fatigue and being winded, like he had just run a marathon without proper training.

“Why did you forfeit the win?” Daiya now asked, her voice a little harder than it had been a moment before. Looking into her eyes, Richard found that she held him with a pointed glare and her pink lips were a hard line across her stern face.

“I'd like to know that myself!” a loud and booming voice suddenly exploded through the cavernous room, reverberating off the walls and bouncing back at Richard as he sat there. Looking towards the entrance he found the source of the voice, and tried to stand up; only to find that his legs didn't work and he remained sitting on the bench.

Queen Lystia, Aura, Coni, and the Dark Elf King walked through the room towards them, cutting an imposing presence that culminated in the sight of the massive Dark Elf King.. Richard had only seen him from a distance when he had been on the arena floor, and even from there he had looked imposing. Now that they were closer Richard noticed that he was even more so impressive, with large muscles, tanned skin, a powerful jaw, long white hair pulled into a top knot, and a few battle scars on his rather large body.