We Three Mages (Editing)

Chapter Twenty One: Round Two, No Interference

Ever since Ms. Fells told Jared about the robes and their history he’s been going there every day during lunch and after training. He’s searched through books, scrolls and different relics looking to prove his theory behind them. It was because of these study sessions that Jared’s world changed around him in less than an afternoon.

“Shoot!” Jared looked up from a book he had just found when he realized the time. “Lieutenant Ross is going to kill me.” He jumped up quickly, grabbed his bag, and teleported just out of sight of his Battle Training class. Ever since he got Ridden suspended Lieutenant Ross had taken over the class. “She’ll understand.” Jared smiled as he shouldered his bag. He checked to make sure he didn’t forget his Legend then took a step forward.

A single step forward.

It was at that step forward that he looked up. It was when he looked up that his blood boiled and he could feel hate make its way up from the bottom of his stomach. It was when he looked up that his heart began beating harder and faster. It was when he looked up that he saw Ridden.

He’s back. Jared thought to himself. It was the next moment that made Jared act. In that next moment he would change his academy life forever; because in that next moment, Jared witnessed Ridden cast a high level spell on a student and the student wasn't able to read Ridden’s movement so he never saw it coming. The student was then caught in an explosion and flew backwards. Jared quickly teleported behind one of the other students who watched in horror.

“What the hell is going on?!” He hissed in the student’s ear from behind.

“Ridden…he…Ridden, he was looking for you. Asking everyone where you were because it time to start class and you weren’t here. He asked everyone one by one and when no one answered he figured we were all covering for you. So he grabbed Vinny and started to just, well, hit him with spells one after the other.

“Vinny couldn’t more than a few and got knocked out. Ridden said something about that was just a taste of what he planned for you so then Dex…he stood up and….” The kid looked back to the scene before them. Jared slowly rose his eyes. He hadn’t noticed before because of all the dust and smoke that hung around but with everything cleared, Jared could see that Dex was currently trying to fight against Ridden and was losing very, very badly. “Dex, he kept up pretty easily at the start but Ridden noticed that too so he came faster and harder. After every five minutes or so Ridden would increase the spell level.”

“How long?” Jared’s hatred rose. “How long has Dex been fighting?”

“Fifteen minutes or so now. We all want to help but.” The kid just looked at Jared, pleading with his eyes.

Jared teleported between Ridden and Dex and blocked another explosion spell as if it was one of Tess’s firecrackers.

“Enough!!” He yelled at Ridden. “Dex, go to the nurse, Devin would be proud,” Jared didn't take his eyes off of Ridden.

“Jared, I tried,” Dex coughed.

“I know, you did great. Now it’s my turn,” Jared put his bag on the ground next to him and prepared to fight Ridden.

“Oh ho? We’re apart for only a year and you  think you can still fight me?” Ridden chuckled. He curled back his lip to reveal his nasty yellow teeth. “Lieutenant Ross won’t be here to save your sorry self from me this time.”

“If you think I was sitting on my ass for a year waiting you to come back then you’re dead wrong,” Jared bared his fangs.

“Then show me, oh great Savior, show me what have,” He laughed. That was Ridden’s mistake. In the moment he had laughed, he had shut his eyes for half a second. In that half a second Jared had jumped and teleported behind Ridden.

“I will,” Jared said from behind him. He drew back his fist and punched Ridden in the face as he turned around to face Jared. That punch sent him flying a good few feet. Jared landed on the ground, fists balled and he waited for Ridden to stand back up.

“I see you learned a new trick,” Ridden tried to keep up the tough guy act but anyone would be able to see the slight tremble in his knees. Jared did.

“That’s not all I learned,” Jared teleported again. He didn’t reappear for a moment and Ridden was too busy looking for a Flash trail to notice that Jared had teleported back to his bag, “Here,” Jared threw it at the kid he talked to before. “Things are about to get heated. Watch that for me,” The kid nodded.

Jared cracked his knuckles and then walked over to Ridden.

“It’s about time I give you that ass whooping you’ve been craving,” Jared raised three fingers and then pointed them at Ridden. “I’m tired of hearing that obnoxious laugh of yours,” Jared curled his fingers and Ridden clutched his throat, Jared was crushing his windpipe. Jared curled the fingers until they barely touched and then swung his hand to the right; Ridden’s body followed and was flung a small ways. Jared then decided that he wanted to try out Tess’s firecracker spell and sent a rapid fire of that. Ridden was able to block the second half but he was still burned.

“You punk,” He choked. He then began to make the ground shake and caused a crack to form beneath Jared. Jared fell about a foot and then Ridden closed it. He felt accomplished for all of two seconds before Jared appeared below him and jammed the heel of his hand into Ridden’s jaw. Jared heard a definite crack. He didn’t bother adding that little extra kick like he did with his punch because it was evident who was going to come out of this without a scratch.

But that didn’t mean Jared would let up. So long as Ridden fought back, so would Jared. Ridden stood up and spat out a glob of blood. His eyes reflected the flames of hell. Ridden charged at Jared and swung a fist at him; Jared simply dodged to the side and kept doing it, ducking, jumping and moving side to side, easily avoiding this man’s punches. He waited for Ridden to tire himself out. Jared got bored of that so he caught one of Ridden’s punches and flipped him onto his back. Before Ridden could spring back up, Jared placed a foot on his chest and added some weight to it so he wouldn’t be able to move.

“Want to know something? Last year, Lieutenant Ross wasn’t protecting me from you when she pulled us apart. She was protecting you from me. Too bad she’s not here now to save your weak sorry ass,” He then set his fist aflame and dealt the final blow.

To Jared, the entire fight seemed to happen in slow motion. But to the audience, it was lightning fast and Ridden hadn’t even stood a chance. Jared was never in the same spot for longer than a second and every spell he had cast was something the students hadn’t thought was possible at their level. Rather than be in awe of their classmate, they were terrified of him.

And they weren’t the only ones.

Five minutes after Jared had knocked Ridden unconscious and bound him, all the teachers came hoping to stop what had already finished. When they arrived, Jared was sitting next to Ridden’s non-moving body, back to the them and  knees to his chin. No one dared to approach him because of the left over malicious intent that lingered around him.

“Move! Out of my way!!” Lieutenant Ross commanded everyone. When she reached the front of the crowd and saw Jared, she instantly went to him. She knelt down next to him and just looked straight ahead and waited for him to say something.

“I’m not sorry.” Jared finally said with small tears in his eyes.

“I know.” She gingerly placed her hand on Jared’s shoulder and looked behind her to see that everyone had terrified looks on their faces. “I know.” She said again. She flashed him away from there, leaving Ridden to the teachers.