Duel Lyceum

Fighting Graves (1)

It was night now. The end of the first day of the tournament. Red lights scattered across the dark fields. There were very few green lights. Out of the corner of his eye, a few hundred metres away, he noticed a green light bobbing up and down. It was approaching. He thrust a hand over his own neck brace to hide the light and crawled back into the thicket where Jones was.

'Cover your light.'

Darkness submerged them. The green light crossed the grounds until it stood where Lyder had been a few minutes ago. Time past in bated breath and after what felt like an eternity the collar turned and walked away. For close to an hour they sat next to each other, feeling the soreness of their body.

'Let's work our way to dorm C,' Lyder said, feeling that he was strong enough to walk a distance.

'Yeah. I wonder what Emily and Miriam are up to.'

'And Edward.'

'And Edward,' Jones added.

With hands blocking their green light, they made their way through the campus. There was a melancholic air around them. The net of red lights appeared in front of them like a show of tragedy. Just what was Graves planning to do with everyone unconscious? They reached the front door and strolled down the stairs to dormitory C. The floor was littered with red lights.

'This must like ninety percent of the dorm C students,' Jones said, stepping over one of their bodies. There was a light turned on in one of the rooms.

'That's Varnyard's room,' Lyder said, running up to it. Instead of dorm C students lining the outside of his room, it was dorm B and A students. 'Varnyard.' Lyder entered the room. Varnyard was leaning back on his chair, jabbing needles into his neck brace.

'Oh, you guys. I thought you went up to the mountains.'

'It got boring,' Jones said, 'Emily kept telling us to climb up these really rocky parts. Besides, I'd rather duel.'

'How has disabling the neck braces been going?' Lyder said.

'It isn't really going anywhere. I just keep shoving these needles inside and hope it does something. I have no clue about technology, you know.'

Jones and Lyder exchanged looks.

'That's why I said to wait three days. Hopefully I figured something out by then.'

'Varnyard,' Lyder said, 'did you take on this many people?' He pointed to the entrance.

'Yeah. They kept pestering me. You guys look pretty beat up.'

'Had some pretty close duels,' Jones said, 'why do you have so many decks?' Jones pointed to his desk.

'One is my normal deck; another is for restraining the beast of dorm C. I made this deck specifically to counter him. The rest are counter decks. You all should rest here, don't try and go further down the hall to your room or you might meet him.'

'Right.'

They sat down on the bed and they were asleep a minute later, not realising just how tired they were. Lyder's thoughts drifted to Miriam and Emily.

Miriam hauled the unconscious body of Edward along with her while Emily trailed behind. Her excitement in hiking had been doused by the fact that she had no clear destination in mind. She would mope around, walk in circles and whine that there was no enjoyment when Lyder and Jones were gone.