"Do you hear it?"

 

Blue giant of a monster slowly turned his head as it cast about trying to determine the source of those words, "Who dares to-"

 

Echoing out of the tunnel that led to the locker room came walking a short figure. The shouting cut off the creature's question with another, "I asked... DO. YOU. HEAR. IT?" Ryan walked with his hands held behind his back, head tilted forward so that his eyes were hidden by silver hair falling in front of his face.

 

The crowd of goblins turned and started to chuckle as they readied their spears. Casually they moved to surround the approaching figure.  The entire crowd just stopped and stared. The headmaster's eyes widened is a growing realization of what was happening, "It's Reed." He swallowed nervously as his heart lept up into his heart. In his head he was working out the possible reasons for what he was witnessing, and none of the conclusions were particularly good.

 

The towering blue humanoid chuckled with a deep rumble that you could feel in your bones. He blatantly licked his lips, "Tell me, tasty morsel...  what is it I am supposed to hear?" A double magic circle formed around Ryan, glowing darkest crimson. It existed for the briefest of instants, existing only long enough to launch Reed at insane speeds right for the blue giant.

 

Nobody’s eyes could follow the movement, but they certainly did not miss the result. The Demon and Human alike turned and collectively let out an exclamation. For some it was amazement, for others it was terror.

 

The leader’s condescending smirk remained unchanged at first, but slowly changed to one of puzzlement. It slowly looked down as it coughed up a greenish fluid. Its disbelieving eyes settled upon Ryan who was shoulder deep in the monster's chest. A clawed, ice covered hand, having gone straight through bone, muscle, and flesh, and was holding onto the creature's mana core. The gore splattered stone still glittered with an inner light as both it and Ryan’s limb protruded from it’s back.

 

Ryan's face warped and contorted as if under tremendous pressure from within. His teeth shifted and sharpened as his eyes blazed a reddish hue. Grinning up at the struggling monstrosity, Ryan spoke in a high pitched giggle.

 

"The DOOM Music!" 

 

The creature's core shattered with a squeeze

 

---

 

The king put down the file and looked at Kyle, "Seriously?"

 

The chancellor just leaned his head back in the chair and sighed, "Keep reading. That's the last coherent part of the account you are going to read. After that, it just dissolved into a general melee."

 

The king picked up another folder, "It seems out of order."

 

Kyle threw his hands up, "Everyone's account differs. We have Ryan in three places at once according to witnesses. I just wrote everything down." He raised his head, "Far as I can figure Ryan absolutely destroyed the leader in that surprise move which, I might add, should have torn his arm off, not launched him through the air like that! But I digress."

 

The king's eyebrows arched ever higher, "Did he really beat an ogre to death with a goblin?"

 

Kyle pointed at the king, "That one was true. My son was there and he saw it."

 

"Uh-huh... and why was he screaming, 'Say my name!' over and over?"

 

Kyle wiped at his brow with the back of his hand, "Got me. In fact, I don't have a single report of him actually stating his name to anyone, so... I don't know how he expected any of them to say it."

 

The king nodded and picked up another report, "I'm concerned about this one... He… atomized a gobble by firing ice into it’s chest and this drenched his ex-girlfriend in goblin chunks. Immediately afterward he said 'Dem tiddies is too big to fail.' before he shot off to slaughter-" He put down the file, "What does that even mean?" 

 

Kyle got up and walked over to a side cabinet, "I'm getting a drink." The king swiveled in his chair as he moved onto the next file, "You never drink on duty."

 

The chancellor started filling up a glass to the brim with amber liquid, "I do now because-" He lifted the drink to his lips, "I’ll tell you, if you don't figure it out."

 

The king narrowed his eyes, then spent the next few minutes just reading through the reports, "Wait-" The king sat up in his chair, "How'd he get enough mana for all this?" Kyle laughed, "On the nose!" Kyle walked back over to fall back into his chair, "Where indeed? Read the reports. What's the one constant?" The king looked at some of the folders, "He's... singing?"

 

Kyle shook his head, "No no no... well... he is. And some insane stuff." Kyle gulped his drink, "I am god's wrath, the everlast... I was dead when I loaded my clip. What was one of the others? Oh. uh. I am infected. I've been rejected." The king looked up at that last line, "Do you think he knows?"

 

Kyle just shrugged, "Dunno! But he freaked everyone out. On the upside, he has already been so weird in the past that when he started running around on all fours with oversized ice claw arms shooting explosive bolts of... something... into goblins and splattering the crowd in demonic ichor, they just assumed it was Reed being Reed, not Reed having the heart of a demon inside him."

 

The king put down the papers, "Well... he might have gone insane... but at least he kept it to killing de-" The King stopped dead, "Wait a minute..." He picked up a report, then another, then another, "He... focused on destroying their mana cores."

 

Kyle pointed with his glass, "One point for the king!" He drained the rest of his drink then held the empty glass up to the king, "How was Reed able to pull off so much magic?" With his other hand he mimed jamming his hand into something, "By reaching into a demon's chest-" He pulled out an imaginary stone and 'crushed' it over the glass, "And refilling his core."

 

The king eyed the glass, "You think the only reason he wasn't murdering everyone was that he was focused on keeping his mana core full. So he went after the demons.” He thought for a moment then reluctantly added, “First."

 

Kyle sighed and rubbed one of his eyes, "Maybe he would have stopped after killing them all. Maybe he would have kept going and ate everyone in the stadium. Hard to tell. We may never know because when the second prince destroyed the mana suppression controls, everyone's magic came back."

 

The king stroked his mustache, "So what happened to Reed?"

 

Kyle shrugged, "Not sure. At that point it was a complete route. He had gone down into the tunnels after them. The suppression field was turned off and at that time, I assume, he returned to normal. Or at the very least his demonic core was suppressed."

 

The kick lifted up the last report, "And that's when your son found him in the tunnel screaming... uh..." The king raised an eyebrow, "Spine, work with me?" Kyle nodded, "Yeah. His legs weren't working. He was yelling at his own spine of all things."

 

The king continued, "Then they collapsed the tunnel and... your son managed to use his earth magic to keep the tunnel stable long enough to drag Reed out." The chancellor stared into his empty glass, "Maybe it would have been better if hadn't."

 

The king frowned at Kyle, "You are talking about the one who made the most significant contribution to saving everyone's life."

 

Kyle let out a strangled cry, "Mira damnit, I KNOW!" then hunched forward in his chair, "We need to put that collar on him. NOW." The king harrumphed, "We talked about this..."

 

Kyle stood up and headed back to the cabinet, "That was before the Headmaster told me that even with his full power he was afraid that he might not be able to take Reed in a straight up fight! You went to war with that guy! You know the headmaster better than I do. Has he EVER told you he was afraid of ANYONE???"

 

The king looked at the papers again, then up at Kyle, "I had a horse like Reed once. You don't dominate a horse like that, you become its partner. Yes, it might buck and cause trouble, but when the chips were down, that horse wasn't afraid of anything. It charged what I needed it to charge without flinching." He shrugged with one shoulder, “Of course, he was rather rough on my squire.”

 

Kyle started to refill his glass, "Your horse couldn't murder over forty goblins, four ogres, and an overseer class demon by itself." He gestured to the king with his drink, "Those are the ones he killed. The rest ran away..." He then sipped from the glass, "In FEAR. In Goddamn TERROR. They ran from him because he scared the ever living shit out of them!" He drank some more, "Anything that makes an ogre piss himself fuckin' terrifies me!"

 

The king frowned, "You're drunk. You only curse when you are drunk." Kyle shook his head, "Not yet, but soon. I am going back to my room and I am getting absolutely plastered." He paused to grab a bottle of the amber liquid and started for the exit. The king commented when he got half way, "If I read these reports correctly, your son owes Reed his life."

 

Kyle paused, looked back, then turned away as he silently walked out.

 

---

 

Ryan was having a hard time figuring out why his back hurt so much.

 

The goblin drove the spear deep into Ryan's back and laughed in triumph, but the sound of someone approaching drew its attention. The goblin pulled out his spear and started running away down the tunnel into the darkness that was lit only by the magical sigils that were holding it up.

 

Ryan tried to stand only to discover his legs weren't working, "SPINE! Work With Me!" He cried aloud. He felt out of sorts, like he was a diesel engine full of ethanol.. Like his insides were scrambled and his mana was just sloshing about uselessly. He didn’t even notice the son of the chancellor kneeling next to him until Kyle spoke.

 

"Finally ran out of steam, I see." He looked over Ryan, "Can you stand?" Ryan shook his head, "No. Not even entirely sure what happened." The tunnel started to shutter and dirt started to shower down.

 

The sigils were failing.

 

Kyle put Ryan's arm around his shoulders and pulled him to his feet, "Let's go!" Ryan tried to focus his mana. It was coming back in waves. He could force his feet to move a few steps, then he couldn't control it and he'd become dead weight, "Why you in a rush? Wait. Did you forget to use the toilet before we left?"

 

Kyle was huffing and straining to pull Ryan along with him, "Sweet Mira, can you be serious for even one minute?" The ceiling started to buckle and Kyle raised out a hand, using his own control over the element of earth to try and keep the tunnel open while they staggered down it. Behind them the collapse had begun and was catching up.

 

Fast.

 

"I was serious with your mother last night." Kyle looked at Ryan, "WHAT?" Kyle's concentration wavered for a moment causing the sides of the tunnel to buckle inward.

 

Ryan winced and instantly regretted speaking, "SORRY! When I'm exhausted that part of my brain that tells me to shut up doesn't work!" Ryan locked one knee and started to swing it around to help push towards the exit. The two were resembling what would happen if a three legged race was to the death.

 

The ceiling started to crumble as Kyle's mana was giving out, "I can't hold it! You're going to have to-" He noticed Ryan wasn't holding onto him anymore.

 

"Sorry man. This is where you get off."

 

Kyle turned around just in time to see Ryan pulling together a large bubble of water that slammed into him. The water didn't so much push Kyle, as coat him and acted like a frictionless surface so Ryan could swiftly push Kyle down the collapsing tunnel. Kyle spun around at random as he rolled and tumbled to the mouth of the collapsing tunnel. Through the shower of gravel and dirt, someone with steel eyes rushed into the mouth of the tunnel and grabbed Kyle's hand, yanking him up and out. As the sinkhole formed, Kyle and his rescuer were partially stuck in the now very muddy ground.

 

Kyle coughed and looked up to see the hand of Lance, the second prince. He smirked, "We'll that was close." Kyle nodded and looked about, "Reed?" Kyle struggled and started to pull his leg free, "REED!" He looked around and upon failing to see him cursed, "BLAST!" Kyle finished yanking himself free as he yelled up into the stadium, "ANYONE WHO HAS ANY SKILL WITH EARTH, GET DOWN HERE! NOW!" Lance frowned slightly at Kyle, “Wait, are you saying that Reed is still in the tunnel?” Kyle just nodded and started to wander over the sinkhole with an outstretched hand.

 

"No..." He staggered as the ground shifted under him, "No..." He moved his hand from side to side in an ever increasing arc. Lance looked rather impassive as he searched about, seeing if there was any evidence of which part of the collapsed tunnel would have Reed. People started to filter down to help. A few stated they were earth mages. Kyle called out of his shoulder, "Reed was in the tunnel! We have to dig him out!" People looked at each other, a bit at a loss as to where to even start. The second prince frowned, "I... hate to be the one to-"

 

"FOUND HIM!"

 

Kyle was standing over a cracked and fractured piece of the arena floor. He tried to move one of the chunks of marble, but almost fainted from the expenditure of mana.. Lance stepped up, "Down here?" Kyle nodded. Lance motioned for Kyle to move aside.

 

The second prince reached down to grab the edge of the largest piece of stone blocking the cave-in. With a massive grunt he lifted it up, and flipped it over with a boom that echoed throughout the stadium. Several earth mages stepped forward and raised their hands in concentration. Gravel and dirt started to fly out at an astounding rate. Within a minute, someone said, "Found something!" Everyone closed in. The audience, those who were no longer in immediate danger, were watching with abated breath.

 

The excavation revealed a dome of ice. Lance stepped up, pulled back a fist and hit it with a single blow that shattered it. Kyle slid down to help pull the ice chunks away and thus reveal Ryan who was lying in a fetal position. His skin was an unhealthy pallor with blue, oxygen deprived lips. A far darker sign of his health was the fact he wasn’t even shivering.

 

Kyle was about to call for a healer as Lance yanked Ryan free and carried him up to the lip of the sinkhole. Lance laid Ryan down and smacked him hard across the face. Ryan suddenly took in a deep breath and started to gasp for air, flailing about, his eyes flared wide as he panicked. Kyle finished getting up to the lip of the sinkhole and put a hand behind Ryan’s head to keep him from injuring himself. Ryan was coughing and shaking at the same time, his teeth chattering loud enough to be heard by people in the stands.

 

When people realized that they had rescued the hero of the day, there was a scattering of applause.

 

After letting Ryan catching his breath, they helped him sit up. He looked at Kyle, "Did you have to take so long? I might be able to make ice, but I'm not immune to it." He coughed a bit more. Kyle just shook his head and smacked Ryan on the back, "He's fine." Ryan shook his hair to get ice and dirt out of it, "Man. I'm so cold my balls pulled up inside me all the way to my throat."

 

Kyle spoke in perfect deadpan, "Now you know how I felt with your mother last night."

 

Everyone who was around the hole just stopped dead. Ryan slowly turned to look at Kyle. Kyle just raised a single eyebrow.

 

Ryan let out a 'pffft' then started laughing hysterically. Kyle's composure broke and he started chuckling in turn. Ryan staggered to his feet as he made his way over to a bench on the sidelines, "You know my mom's dead, right?" Ryan wiped a tear from his eye. Kyle looked thoughtful, "Ohhhh... that explains things." Everyone else around them just stared in confusion as the both of them started laughing even harder.

 

They both stopped when they heard the echoing scream of a woman exclaiming 'NO' at the top of her lungs.