Belinda didn’t need to wait for too long before Horác came back.

„Use this.” he said and taped a talisman on her forehead.

Belinda was surprised. She was able to see the fights properly. It didn’t make the things she saw move slower, but somehow her brain was able to conceive the information. It even worked as a telescope. It was so mysterious for her.

She looked around as saw others using the talisman too. She realized, she neglected to pay attention to others.

„How much? I pay for it.” she said to Horác. Now she was sure, it was sold somewhere in the building.

„No need, I get it for free.” he said proudly.

  Don’t tell me, you frightened the seller so much he was even ready to give away his life if you ask?!

Belinda was speechless. She finally realized why Horác could do everything the way he wanted. No one dared to say no to him!

They watched the matches in silence. From the 20 stages, 18 were used for the classes’ exams. In the last 2, the older students had the chance to fight. In the classes’ duels, they had the right to choose or draw their opponent. The 3^rd year’s students had their exam in the morning and now it was the 4^th year students’ time. Every day, there were 2 classes that did their exams.

„Look at the 12th stage! The fight I wanted to show you will start slowly.” he pointed to them. „That kid uses water spells, her root is 3 colored, and her opponent uses ice and she has a single colored root. It’s a good chance for you to see the difference in the strength of the roots. I hope you can learn something from it.”

Belinda looked there and saw the 2 girls shake hands. They stepped back and a teacher gave the signal to start. The water user created some shields and the ice user attacked. Of course, the water broke through by the ice! The water user tried to run away, but she was surrounded by ice. She tried to attack, but that was easily destroyed too. In 5 minutes she lost badly.

  What the..? They repeatedly used 2-3 spells and didn’t even attack with weapons… There wasn’t any meaning to watch them! What the hell can I learn from it?

Belinda watched other fights too and realized, they were lacking in ideas… or was it so hard to learn them? She didn’t know. Those children were in the 4^th year, she hoped to see older students fight. Maybe there would be something interesting…

She finally found a stage where the next fight would be between two 18 years old students. She watched their fight with strong interest, and she felt satisfied. The wind user showed some exciting skills and his spells were really good, he was able to boost his speed too. His opponent used soil and he was close to win but the last moment, the wind user created a tornado and broke through the wall. Hardly, but he won. It was finally a real fight.

Horác watched her and felt relieved. Most of the time, girls hated to fight that’s why he wanted to show her that match. He wanted to know if Belinda’s hate for learning hand to hand combat was because she didn’t like the style, or she hated the fight itself. Seeing her shining eyes, he was sure they just need to find the right combat style for her. Maybe it’s time to try out some weapons…

They spend half of the afternoon there when Bertold’s duel finally started.

Zotmund walked elegantly in the middle of the stage. He smiled and waved. Girls cried out his name and the whole place became crazy.

Belinda’s face darkened. She swore if Bertold dared to lose she didn’t speak with him for a month… Then she realized, they usually didn’t meet for weeks…

Bertold expressionlessly waited for Zotmund to finish his greetings.

„Hey, I didn’t think you would accept my challenge.” Zotmund said. „I hardly saw you in this month. You even left your student alone. You really forget what it means to be a mentor.”

„… Let’s fight.” Bertold took out his sword and attacked. Fire burnt around them.

„Hey, hey! Wait a little!” Zotmund grabbed his spear and protected himself, then he became confused. „Why do you really stopped? You never listen to me…”

„To try out something.” he said casually.

Zotmund felt that the air became hotter around him. He breathed slowly and felt his throat burned too. Be stopped breathing but it was too late! The burning pain went down to his lungs, then slowly spread in his body. He started to sweat and kneeled down. He tried to say he gives up but wasn’t able to utter a word.

The teacher found out something wasn’t right and announced Bertold’s victory.

The fire disappeared, but Zotmund still felt the pain and wasn’t able to stand up. He took out a pill and eat it. He slowly healed and looked at Bertold.

He always stood behind Bertold. No difference how hard he tried but he never won against him. The last time they fought was 3 months before, and it was their first tie, so he believed that just a little more and he could win! But now he lost so miserably without even starting the duel. He never felt so humiliated.

„Just what the hell do you do?!” he roared. He couldn’t find out what happened to him. Why he felt that as if he was burnt from the inside?!

Bertold didn’t care about him. He took a fast look at the viewing platform, then left.

A lot of girls foolishly shouted Zotmund’s name and tried to comfort him, but the other spectators didn’t even dare to breathe. They couldn’t understand what happened.

Horác was shocked. He only saw similar fights when a wind user tried to drown his opponent. He looked around and sighed. Because of his poisonous body, he was used to be called a monster, but now the other teachers would say that he successfully helped another one to grow up!

He shook his head and looked at Belinda. Seeing her bewildered face, he smiled. At least this little girl was normal.

  He… he… that f@&ing bastard saw my memories!!!