Magic Discovered

Chapter 11

"Come on guys, let's go! We're going to miss the opening ceremonies!" James raced out of the Moonlight Glade with Delta following close behind, still yanking on his armor. "I can't believe you chose this day, of all days, to be so hard to wake up!"

"It's not my fault," Delta whined as they ran towards the teleport platform. "You know I have a hard time waking up."

"Yeah, but I thought that for just this one day you would be excited enough to jump out of bed for once. Now come on, Lydia and Algon are already waiting for us!"

Jumping onto the platform, James triggered his amulet and they teleported to the massive arena that had been constructed in the middle of Synthesis. Even though the tournament was only open to students at the Arcane Quintessium, thousands of mages showed up to watch and the actual competition was broadcast to a vast number of planets and viewers. 

Luckily, they made it just in time, flashing their team badge as they hurtled through the open doors. The attendant elemental rolled his eyes but let them through with a smile. Sliding into their seats, James got a premonition of danger and moved out of the way, but Delta wasn't so lucky. 

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!!! YOU ALMOST MISSED IT!!! DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG ALGON AND I HAVE BEEN WAITING?"

"Calm down Lydia," Delta said nervously. "We technically not late."

She sighed. "Yes, well 'technically' doesn't cut it, now does it? Imagine what would have happened if you had missed the opening ceremonies."

"Um, we'd just show up afterwards?"

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!!!"

"Delta, I'd stop talking while you're ahead," James whispered.

He wisely decided to take the hit. "Sorry Lydia. It was my fault."

She fell back with a huff. "I know it was. You're the only one that would sleep in on a day as important as this."

Algon just laughed.

"Alright, alright," James said. He pointed down to the middle of the arena. "Someone's walking out. I think that the ceremony is about to start."

Indeed, a man was walking out on the stage. He had an odd appearance, with a black cloak and hood covering most of his body. Casting a spell with pitch black energy to project his voice, he addressed the crowd in a soft and somewhat deadly tone. "Hello, everyone. Everyone settling in? Good, good. Well, I'm sorry to say that our announcer appears to be a bit late..."

"That's stupid!" Delta whispered, talking over the man's words. "How could he be late?"

"You were almost late."

"Stop it guys. I can't hear that well."

The man was still talking down on the stage. "We just need to be patient and wait a little while longer. I'm sure he'll arrive soon and then we can get started..." The man glanced up suddenly and raised his eyebrow. "Well, speak of the devil. He always did like flashy entrances..."

"GOOD MORNING UNIVERSE!!" a massive voice boomed, practically shattering the eardrums of everyone in the stadium. Out of the sky came a huge bolt of lightning, roaring down to crash into the stadium floor, shaking the entire structure. The light cleared to reveal a wingless dragon, clad in in a sleek black and grey jumpsuit with yellow lightning crackling around him. Twin horns jutted from his head and his tail thrashed around his legs. He didn't even need to cast a spell to talk, he was just that loud.

"WELCOME TO THE CELESTIAL TOURNAMET. I'M YOUR HOST FOR THIS YEAR, DRAGON GENERAL STRIKE!!!"

"HOLY COW!!!" Even Algon was shocked. "A Dragon General is the host of the tournament!?!" He looked over at Lydia, James, and Delta. "Were you guys expecting something like this?"