TBATE: Art and Tess's Second Chance

Chapter 10: Familiar Faces and The Auction House

Tessia Eralith's POV:

'I'm going to kill you.' I glared at Art as I took my position across from grandma Cynthia. The weight of her death lifted off my soul a little as I saw her. It was good to see her again, she had done so much for me during my time at Xyrus Academy. When I found out she passed, my heart shattered and I wanted nothing more than to kill the Vritra. 

Now that we're back, we've been working nonstop to make sure everyone we cared about would survive. Grandma Cynthia is at the top of my list along with my parents and grandfather. I won't to let her die a second time. 

'Don't worry Tess, we will save all of them this time.' Art comforted me, feeling my anger, regret, and determination. 'Yeah you're right Art.' I met his eyes and saw his warm, charming smile that was able to calm my soul.

Taking a deep breath I met grandma Cynthia's eyes as she studied me from head to toe. "Are you ready gran-um director Goodsky?" She gave me a light nod which I returned then looked at Art to announce the start of our duel.

"Begin!" Art announced after locking eyes with grandma and me. Cynthia instantly cast a wind tornado at me while muttering another spell under her breath. I wanted her to take me seriously so I followed suit and cast a tornado spinning in the opposite direction to her own. The spells canceled out causing grandma's mouth to shoot open and her eyes to widen.

Quickly recovering, she finished her spell and sent three more tornados in my direction. I erected three stone golems each arm shrouded in wind to counter the tornados. I conjured vines to trap Cynthia's legs, she wore an amused expression as she used sharp blades of wind to cut through my vines. 

As I was running to get into melee range, four large concentrated bullets of wind shot out at me as well as my golems. The golems shattered into pieces while I shot a stream of pressurized water to break through the spell aimed at me. Cynthia steadied her gaze on me as she concentrated on her next spell. 

A violent ringing shot through my ears causing them to bleed as I screamed and collapsed to my knees. "Apologies child, that last spell was for extra credit and you passed, seeing as you're still conscious that is." With her hand held out she helped me to my feet. I couldn't hear what she said but I feebly nodded anyway as aether coalesced at my ear canals to heal them.

I had never seen grandma Cynthia use sound magic very much during my time with her. She would only use it to silence a room to get people's attention or stop them from saying something during my time at the academy. Having her use it on me offensively made me want to start practicing sound magic with her. 'Guess I'll have to ask her to teach me later.' I grinned as we made our way back to the others.

Arthur Leywin's POV:

"Was that last spell necessary, Director?" I asked, holding Tess's head and checking her ears. I wiped off the blood that had run down her neck from the sound based attack. "Sorry dear, I figured her ears would've been augmented." She remarked while shrugging her shoulders. 'This old bat and Gramps are both crazy!' 

"So, can I expect to see you two at my academy?" Cynthia inquired. "Will you see us, yes. Soon, no, we'll enter at the normal age for students in a few years." Cynthia's shoulders slumped but she quickly regained her posture. "What will you two do between now and attending my school?" I glanced at my parents before meeting Cynthia's eyes again. "We want to become adventurers." I said, glancing up at the night sky, the stars of this world illuminating it so much unlike my last world that was corrupted with pollution.

"Absolutely not! I will not allow you two to get yourselves killed diving into dungeons!" My mother snarled with firey eyes as she loomed over us and gave off a presence that could rival S-class mana beasts. "Alice, we should at least hear them out. It's obvious they have thought about this for a long time by the looks on their faces." My dad attempted to calm the raging beast.