The Fusionist Book 2 -- Chapter 63

Chapter 63

The crowd went silent again as the Penelope and Bartholomew reached the other team’s fortification. Or at least, that’s what Larek assumed because it was out of his view, but also because Kimble started lobbing fireballs in an arc from his position on the walkway and Vivienne did the same with her blunted wooden arrows. They were aimed off to the left, but it was probably at their extreme range if they hoped to hit their opponents. Whether or not they actually succeeded was irrelevant in Larek’s opinion, because the two Martial trainees that just went over there were more than capable of dismantling the other team by themselves – as long as they didn’t get caught by one of the flaws in the Repelling Barrier.

With the crowd so quiet, it was easy enough to hear the observers shouting.

“1B down!”

“1F down! 1F out!”

“1E down!”

“1C down!”

“1D down! 1D out!”

“1A down!”

There were a few other shouts as those that had been downed were counted out after either Penelope or Bartholomew “killed” them, but as soon as the last one was down Vivienne leapt off the wall and landed down below, racing away. Not more than 30 seconds later, she was back with the other two behind her, all of them carrying bright-colored flags that were somehow not as vibrant as the teeth-filled grins on their faces. Without a word, they placed them in the flag bases behind Larek; as soon as the last one was slotted in, the announcer broke the stillness and silence of the arena.

“Uh… Team Firestrike has been eliminated! Team Fusion is the winner of this match!”

This time, the announcer didn’t hesitate or forget Larek’s team name, though he had still likely delayed calling the elimination of the other team. Not that Larek cared all that much, but even as his shoulders slumped a little at the realization that they would be moving on in this competition, the crowd erupted in tremendous cheers that seemed doubly loud when compared to the quiet before.

Even Nedira was smiling as she descended the stairs from the walkway behind Kimble, though when she caught the sight of Larek’s expression her face fell. She nearly missed a step but managed to catch herself from falling, but the reason that Larek had even agreed to participating in the Skirmish had obviously just reoccurred to her.

“Congratulations Team Fusion once again – we’ll be seeing you in the semi-finals! It was a, uh, well-fought battle from all of our teams; you should all be proud of the efforts you displayed! Now, please clear the arena while we set up for our next match.”

“I guess that’s our cue,” Penelope said with audible excitement in her voice. Larek turned around and saw the same wide grin was still on her face. “We did it! And it’s all thanks to you, Larek!” She looked like she was going to rush over and throw herself on him again, showering him in kisses, but fortunately all she did was wave toward the entrance of the Fortification as a few staff members and a couple trainees entered. “We’ve got to get going; they’re resetting for the next match and we don’t want to be in their way.”

Larek followed behind the others as they exited, and he saw the staff members grabbing the three extra flags; he assumed they were there to return them to their respective fortifications. The two trainees went toward the “dead” invader to help him up and out since he still had two broken wrists, but he was already on his feet and he looked angry. He quickly caught up to Larek and his team as they filed out of the entrance and immediately accosted Penelope.

“Hey! I don’t know what you did, but you had to have been cheating in some way! As soon as its discovered, your whole team is going to be disqualified!”

She looked at him and said, “You tell yourself whatever you want to, Davis. But we beat you fair and square.”

The broken-wristed invader, Davis, just sneered at her and took off at a run, which looked slightly odd as he had his hands pressed up to his chest so that they didn’t move around too much.  No one from his team said anything as they made their way to the side of the arena where they had been sitting before, which now held 18 less people, as the losers of the first match were no longer there. On the way, Larek noticed the triage area where those serious injured in the matches were being treated, and he saw the two armored trainees who’d been flipped upside down laying there, with the majority of their armor removed. Fortunately, both of them were sitting up and complaining loudly, meaning they weren’t too terribly hurt, though Larek only caught a handful of their complaining words over the murmur of the crowd; of those words, “impossible,” “cheating,” and “unfair” stood out the most to him.

He supposed, upon further reflection of what had just occurred in the match, they could potentially consider it unfair, especially if no one knew of his Fusion’s flaws. But cheating? Well, he wasn’t an expert on the rules to these Skirmishes, as he only had a passing familiarity with them, but he was fairly certain he had stayed within the parameters. While the repelling effect of his Barriers was strong, all it technically did was push down with incredible force; the same could be achieved by someone who had an incredible amount of Strength. It didn’t attack anyone directly with a damaging effect, and was, in fact, purely reactive and not offensive in the least.

As he sat down next to his team, who all seemed practically giddy at their victory, Nedira took his hand in hers and said, “Sorry. I got caught up in the whole thing and forgot—”

“No, don’t worry about it,” he assured her, gently squeezing her hand. “I have a feeling that even if you had done nothing, we still would’ve won.”

She nodded slowly. “Yes, I do believe you’re right. While what I contributed certainly helped, I don’t think it actually changed the outcome in any way. So, what does this mean?”

“Well… I think our next match will be even more dangerous because the risk of those who observed what just happened learning of the Barrier’s flaws will increase.”

Nedira hesitated for a moment before she asked, “Do you think you should tell the others of the danger?”

“No, not yet. They are already aware that the more we use these Fusions, the more others will begin to find workarounds, but I’m hoping that shouldn’t matter for our next match. I don’t believe anyone saw anything that they could take advantage of yet. Besides, how would I explain why there is a possibility that someone might get seriously hurt?”

“Hmm. You have a point, I guess,” she admitted. “Still, should we—”  Nedira stopped talking as she looked past him.

Turning his head, Larek saw that all of their other competitors were staring at him and his team with various expressions on their faces. There was disdain on a couple, anger on a few others, but the majority of them had curious expressions that was somehow worse, as it was tinged with greed. They wanted whatever it was that had allowed Team Fusion to win, that much was clear.

“Uh, oh. Just remember; don’t tell anyone anything,” Penelope warned. Just then, as the announcer began to inform everyone of the next matchup of teams, a handful of participants from scattered teams all left their teams and converged on Team Fusion.

“How did you do that?”

“What did you do to them?”

“Is whatever you did even legal?”

“Was it some kind of Fusion?”

“Did you cheat to win? If so, how did you get past the observers?”

“How are you so fast?”

They all ignored the questions, but they were insistent and wouldn’t leave Larek and the others alone even when the next match started. Eventually, Penelope held up her hands and said, “Enough! We’ll tell everyone about our strategy after the Skirmish, not during it.  You’re just going to have to wait until then.”

That didn’t really stop the greedy questioners from prying some more, but they eventually left once no one responded to them.

“Cheaters, each and every one of them. That’s why they won’t say anything,” one of them said loudly enough that everyone around Team Fusion heard him. When their questions didn’t seem to be getting answers, the rest of the questioners took this as an opportunity to accuse them of cheating, saying that it was only a matter of time before they were found out. It didn’t bother Larek all that much and was in fact just the opposite, because he hoped that any doubt of his Fusion’s legitimacy might end up disqualifying them from participating further. Even if that were to happen, his entire purpose in joining the Skirmish had already been achieved, as the truth of his Fusions (most of them, of course) was revealed after the competition.

“Ha! See! Look, they’re going to be hauled off to be disqualified for cheating!”

Larek looked over to see a group of a half-dozen Professors and Martial instructors walking toward the participant’s section along the bottom edge of the arena. Their stern expressions didn’t bode well for whoever the target of their ire was, and the Logger-turned-Fusionist didn’t have to guess who it was going to end up being.

“Team Fusion; please come with us immediately.”

Larek got up off his seat as soon as he heard the hard-faced Martial instructor’s demands, followed reluctantly by the others. Penelope opened her mouth to protest, but a hand held up by the instructor stopped her from talking. “Not here.  Follow.”

As they began to walk away, Larek heard the rest of the teams calling out.

“Ooh, look at the cheaters being hauled away!”

“They’ll get to the bottom of this, I’m sure!”

“You’ll about to see why you can’t get mess with the Skirmish like you did!”

Interspersed between the shouts about cheating and similar themes, Larek was surprised to hear others actually defending Team Fusion.

“How do you know they were cheating? What if it’s just some tactic that they’ve discovered?”

“I bet one of them found some sort of Fusion I’ve never heard of to win.”

“Did you see how quick they were? Even without… whatever that was… I wouldn’t be surprised if they won anyways.”

“I’m telling you, the stat boosts I’m seeing are huge!”

Larek was glad that they had all deactivated their Repelling Barriers before leaving the actual arena, otherwise it was entirely possible that someone could’ve detected its presence. As it was, the Magnitude 10 stat boosts were visible enough to those sensitive to identifying Fusions from afar, which he’d found was a rarity even among Fusionists. He didn’t know who had spoken about seeing them, but they were probably a decent Fusionist in their own right.

They were led out of the arena where the second match was still in progress, the constant cheers of the crowd having resumed after the strangeness of the first match. Entering the side of the Academy building near the library, they entered an area that he’d never been in before, but there was a general feeling of two worlds being combined into one. There were hints of Martial and Mage in the decorations along the hallways, as if this area was shared between the Academy and the Fort.

Everyone was silent as they walked along, though he could see that Penelope appeared to be fuming and ready to burst from whatever she wanted to protest. Nedira was silent at his side as they walked down the long hallway, but she slipped her hand into his as if seeking comfort. Other than squeezing her hand gently once again, all Larek could feel was a sense of hope that they would hopefully be told they couldn’t participate in the Skirmish anymore due to accusations of cheating or for his Fusions being unfair to the competition.

Eventually they came to a set of double doors which led into a fairly large room with high ceilings, a long table in the shape of an “L”, and 10 different people. Half of them were Martials and the other half Mages, and while he only recognized a single person on the Martial side of the L-shaped table – the instructor that had been there the day Larek healed Bartholomew – he recognized all 5 of the Mages, 2 of them well enough to actually know their names. It was, in fact, the same group that he had seen in Dean Lorraine’s office, including the Dean, as well as Shinpai, who had a stern look on his face… and an amused twinkle in his eyes that he didn’t think anyone but someone who knew him well would notice. While Larek didn’t claim to know his Advanced Fusions instructor all that well, he had worked with him enough to recognize that the Grandmaster Fusionist was only adopting his current expression and was actually finding this entire thing humorous.

Team Fusion was led into the open space in between the branches of the L-shaped table where they were instructed to stand, while those that had brought them exited the room, closing the doors behind them with a *boom*. Silence reigned in the room as the echoes of the door’s closing faded away, and Larek could practically feel the stares of the powerful people behind the table facing them in seeming judgement.

“I apologize for the theatrics, but as this is a serious accusation of cheating during the Skirmish, I thought it was better for everyone out there know that we take these kinds of things seriously,” Dean Lorraine abruptly said, garnering the attention of everyone in the room.

A grizzled-looking Martial sitting in the opposite position of the Dean spoke up before she could continue. “Are you implying that you don’t take this seriously, Lorraine?”

She shook her head. “I already told you, I don’t believe there is any evidence of foul play here, Whittaker. In fact, I can guarantee that this team did absolutely nothing against Skirmish rules.”

“That is ridiculous!” the man that the Dean called Whittaker slammed his fist down on the sturdy wooden table, causing it to splinter and nearly collapse from the strength of the blow. Hmm… his Strength stat must be extremely high if he did that on accident. I wonder if he’d even be stopped by my Barrier?

“What is ridiculous is this farce—” the Dean began, but the other man cut her off once again.

“They obviously had help from someone, perhaps Shinpai—yes, I see you trying not to smirk over there—made some sort of powerful Fusion for them.  Or they were taught spells that are above what they should be learning at Copperleaf; I don’t know exactly, but I’m determined to get to the bottom of it!” He slammed his fist down again, punching a hole in the table this time instead of bringing the entire thing crashing down, but he barely even seemed to realize it. Larek saw Whittaker’s face flushing with anger, which was copied by the others on his side of the table – or at least by all but one: the instructor that he actually recognized from the day he met Penelope and healed Bartholomew.

“Fine, fine,” the Dean sighed, crossing her arms over her chest in annoyance. “This was supposed to be his big reveal to everyone in Copperleaf and Pinevalley, but now you’ve gone and tainted it. I guess he’s just so talented that he couldn’t help himself in making something miraculous; and now we have people thinking he’s some sort of cheat.”

“What nonsense are you talking about, Lorraine?”

For the first time since he and the rest of his team had walked into the room, the Dean looked straight at Larek.

Uh, oh.

Book 2 Chapter 64: https://www.patreon.com/posts/fusionist-book-2-84729361