Hidden Before Their Eyes

Chapter 5: The First Battle

After having watched a few battles already I know what to expect with my own. I do not know who I am facing, but I am not all that worried. Today, I will have my first battle so I have been excused from training in the afternoon to prepare myself.

Subconsciously I play with the key that is stung around my neck. It is odd to think that I do not even know exactly what Kalvik knew, that he would give me that box and say it is about my truth. I am more than sure that if he knew I was in fact the missing Esklan he would have turned me in, the reward it more than worth it. I wonder if they would give me the money if I turn myself in. Not that I plan on doing that, so no need to bother pondering upon it.

I sit up and dangle my feet off the side of the bed. Erphi hides under my blanket to keep a bit warmer as I stand and then get ready. Missing the time for the battle would be less than flattering. I am slow to head out, taking the stairs at less than breakneck speeds. Coming out to the green space is reliving from the claustrophobic conditions of the stairwell.

When I make it to where I will be staying until the battle starts, I plop down onto the ground and lean back, gazing mindlessly at the ceiling. My mind is basically blank as I wait for well over an hour. I came up far too soon. By the time I start to hear people filing into the arena I have ended up laying on the ground, my knees folded up.

The door that leads to the arena scrapes open and I sit up. Yara is looking down at me and offers a hand up. I take it, and once up stretch a bit to loosen my muscles from having laid on the hard ground for that long. Yara give me a look and I respond with a nod. She returns my nod and then leads me out to the battle arena.

This arena is a lot smaller than the training one. Probably about fifty feet across, it is surrounded by hundreds of seats that are raised up about eight or so feet above the arena level. Across the way I see a male being led out by one of the many professors. He does not look like a wimp, but I am confident that I will be able to win this without too much trouble.

"Be careful, you're facing a incubus Carino," Yara warns queitly.

The hell, I thought they would have refrained from crossing from the different levels. I am more suprized however that I did not notice before Yara mentioned it. Maybe he fell down to this level since I came here, it is entirely possible that he has hidden to keep out of sight in his future opponet. Either way I do not plan on loosing to him, whether he uses his magic on me or not.

As I walk towards him, I stretch my shoulders and flex my fingers a bit to prepare myself. He looks to have mirrored my bored expression, which I have been sporting for a few hours now. He clearly thinks this will be a walk in the park.

"Hello little incubus," I call out when we are less than ten feet from each other.

"Don't get cocky human," he responds.

I give a chuckle in response and out of the corner of my eye I can see Yara muttering. Probably she is complaining about how I did not exactly take her warning to heart. Honestly, what I got from her warning is that I need to be careful so I do not end up falling victim to the tricks that he may choose to play.

The whistle blows and we both start circling. So far normal, so far predictable. I take a few steps closer to him and notice his eyes shimmering. Unfortunate, he is already going in for the win via magic. Picking up my pace I step up to him and give a few testing swings. He had cast an illusion on me but it shatters when my fist passes though his body. I mutter a few underhanded words and then stop. Closing my eyes, I focus on hearing, waiting for him to give away his position. This is the biggest flaw in succubi illusions, they do not effect sound.

I hear shuffling behind me and swivel around going in for a roundhouse kick. He manages to block but it completely drops his concentration, dispersing the rest of the illusion. I smirk and right after dropping my leg down, bring the other one up twisting my body around to attempt another kick to the side of his head. Foolishly he grabs my leg. Using the force behind the kick I vault the rest of my body up and wrap my free leg around his neck.