Falling Into A New Life

I gathered my mana as the arena shifted. Large spikes of rock broke through a floor of ice, glowing with lava flowing beneath and riddles with holes. Through out the rocks sat burning trees, though strangely the arena wasn't divided in half. I had figured that to be the norm. When the bell rang Black flew into the sky, barely dodging a spike of ice from below. I surrounded myself with similar spikes, and launched them one at a time, always making sure to gather more. Once black got close enough, I only had a glow of warning before fire started pouring from his throat. I kept it from burning me as I leapt towards Black, using the flames to keep me out of sight. I grabbed him by the throat and threw him to the ground while tearing it out, right where his breath had landed, breaking through the ice. He tried to flare out his wings, but I impaled them with more spikes, sending him into the lava below.

With a scream of pain, Black shot out of the hole, riding a plume of lava. Even with how badly he was burned, he could still concentrate enough to pull it off, and I was honestly impressed. My concentration wasn't nearly that strong. Before I could react he slammed directly into me. The plume quickly surrounded me from all sides and closed in. I couldn't move as Black compressed the lava, and after a while I started to run out of air. As a last ditch effort, I threw a giant spear of ice, right into the lava. It shrunk considerably in the brief amount of time it was in the lava, but it was enough to impale and throw me to safety. I pulled it out once I landed, and breathed in as much air as I could. I looked to see Black flying towards me almost completely healed. I had to think fast on a way to beat him. I doubted I could keep control of the surrounding fires in a battle of wills, and if I stay on the ground he can use the lava and earth to crush me. I smiled as a plan started to form. It almost worked on me once, why wouldn't he try it again?

It had been four minutes. It had taken four damn minutes of me dodging around him, and guiding him with spikes but it worked. We had finally arrived where he had broken through the ice. Just as I flew over the hole I stopped, I started to gather the ice below me and twist it around, but that was just for show. I secretly raised a giant spike behind him and started to bring it over his back. He caught up and stopped as well, and I barely managed to contain my smile at his look of recognition. I watched as a red glow seemed to go through my wings, and over to him. I felt the lava move and come soaring towards me. I heard the ice I gathered to delay it crack and brake. And yet I didn't move, not until I felt my hair starting to get singed, and confidence broke out on his face. He though he had won, but oh how I surprised him. At the very last second I moved, flapping and twisting my body, as the lava scorched my side in passing.

I felt myself start to drop, no longer able to stay airborne. It seemed I lost a wing, and yet I couldn't care. I smiled as all the smugness on his face, turned to surprise. As my spike impaled him from behind and threw him into his own lava. But I didn't stop there. I had imbued that spike with almost all of my remaining mana, and I wasn't going to let it melt until it served its purpose. Because with that mana filled spike, I cast a spell onto Black's body with a shout. I used the mana to latch on and pull all of the heat in the surrounding lava, and direct it right into him. Every last drop was used up until the lava had hardened to obsidian and developed a layer of frost. What I shouted you might ask, or probably already guessed, was the name of one of the first spells I ever read about. As my spell took effect, I shouted frostfire .

I watched and healed as the lava fell back down, and the ball of obsidian crashed into the ice, breaking open and sending shards flying. My audience held their breath as I walked over to it. With a whip of fire I cut it in half, and ash pooled out at my paws. Then I saw it, somehow perfectly untouched, his still beating heart. It was even trying to regenerate the rest of him, but I wouldn't wait for that. I picked it up with my claws, and I devoured every last inch of it. The audience cheered, victory was mine.

The next matches went just as my own, three more demons dead. To be honest I don't remember much else about what happened. In fact most of that day became a blur after I won. My mana pool had increased by another 70%, which is always welcome, but something just felt wrong. It wasn't guilt or anything like that, I was more than happy to kill Black. I was definitely happy to have gotten stronger, and I still hated demons, but it felt like something was missing. After my magic had grown stronger, it felt like I had grown weaker. But at the same time, my body felt amazing. I was quicker, stronger, I even healed faster. (I checked out of curiosity.) So what was wrong, what was I missing? I just couldn't figure it out.

The next three months seemed to fly by. I finished my journal and started writing all I could remember in it. The class battles came up and they told us to find a partner. They had also explained how it worked. Half the class, or twelve demons, would get together in the arena at once. It didn't matter how many died, or if any did at all. The match would end after 30 minutes, no exceptions. After six battles, three for both halves, there would be one final battle. The arena would be divided by three, and all three classes in the academy would fight at once. The tournament wouldn't end until only two demons from each side remained. Those six get to graduate and go on to enjoy demon society. I didn't understand how this was a school system. How everything revolves around slaughtering each other for amusement and power.

Though what did I expect from a bunch of filthy demons? But I digress, back to whats actually happened. All the strong demons started to partner quickly, and more than a few tried to partner with me, but I turned them down. I already had my eye on a partner, though it certainly came as a surprise to him. The one I wanted was a demon named Feltrix. He used nature and illusion magic, and was fairly weak. Not bottom of the barrel weak, but he only rated at like thirteenth place for general strength. I'm proud to say I was rated around third or second. There wasn't an actual test or anything, this was just everyones estimates. Safe to say though, we were way different in terms of power, and I made that very clear. I also made sure he knew who was in charge. It went down something like this.

After denying another demon, I finally saw my target. He was sitting in the back of the room, waiting to see which demons would be left to partner with. He wasn't the most brave of individuals, and that made him perfect.

"Hey Feltrix." His head snapped towards me. "Congratulations, you're my new partner, follow me." I caught his shocked expression as I turned around and walked away, I smiled when I heard him follow. I led him to the partner sheet, where you sign your name next to your partner's so they know who to place next to who in the battles. I wrote mine down than looked at him expectingly. He wore the same shocked expression, and I could see hope in his eyes. After he had signed next to me, I told him to follow me to the hall.

Once there, he asked me one simple question. "Why?"

And with a smile I told him. "Simply put you're weak. Without me you will have no chance of survival, so you can't afford to betray me, and if you do I can just rip your heart out and find a new partner. I plan to win, and I can use your abilities to do it. But I want to make one thing clear, Im using you. You are going to follow my every direction, my every whim, and I'm going to grow stronger. If you're lucky I'll feed you the scraps. But don't worry, I won't betray you. Two demons get to survive, and I'm fine with a weakling being one of them. So congratulations, you get to live, but you also get to me my slave and minion for the next six months."

"A-alright, I suppose it's the best I could hope for." He cast his eyes down and bowed his head submissively, and that spark of hope seemed to grow stronger in his eyes.

Now you're probably wondering, what was I thinking? The answer is, betrayal. The battles are a giant demon clusterfuck. I'd have to worry about being betrayed constantly if my partner was to strong. But with a submissive and weak underling, I don't have to fear that. I can just use him as a chess piece, and ensnare the enemy with elaborate plans and traps. Because not only is Feltrix unable to betray me, but he can use illusions to trick others and plants to create traps. I spent the rest of the month learning, practicing, planning, and working on my journal. The teachers never actually taught anything new. They just talked about what was in the books to help give us a better understanding of them. It was like they were teaching two year olds... actually now that I think about it, no one has batted an eye at me for knowing as much as I do. I mean, Frost thinks I was actually born as a feral a little over a month ago.

So how old are these demons really? Are they making demonic infants fight at a coliseum for their amusement? Probably, I mean, I never asked. That seemed like a suspicious question, and I didn't want that kind of attention. Goes against the whole fitting in shtick. Anyway, since I wasn't learning anything from them, I just ignored them and made new runes, and practiced my magic after classes.  When it came to my third class though, I planned with Feltrix instead of training. I helped him work out new spells, (all on illusions and traps, nothing that he could truly use against me in a fight), and planned on what we would do for the first battle. In the past, the first battle is usually when the stronger demons take out all the weaker ones together. It was sort of a tradition.

A few demons even thought I was going to eat Feltrix, and I only partnered with him so no one else could. I never told them so, but they were wrong. I did make sure to tell Feltrix that though. The plan was to wait for a pair of weaker demons to be cornered, and then feltrix would use all his strength to trap the strong ones with vines and illusions. (I'm talking about two demons cornering two, not all of the strong ones.) I would yell for the two weaker to target one, while I personally eat the other. Once I was done with that, I would kill the other demon while it's distracted, and then feed the two weaker to Feltrix. He smiled when I got to that part, but he didn't honestly expect me to make use of him being that weak did he? Anyway before I get into the battle, you're probably wondering why I went from perfect recollection, to a time skip. To be honest, I only remembered all that stuff so well because I was traumatized. It got burned into my memory. I only finished my journal a few days ago, and I can't remember all that has happened perfectly.

Not that it should matter, since only I'm going to read it. Hint, hint. So I'm basically just going to write down all the important stuff, skip the boring, and get caught up so I can write more detailed again. Anyway enough explanation, I'm sure I'll remember my reasoning later, back to the first fight. As we all entered the arena, we got one hell of a surprise. Frost himself walked onto a balcony and talked about how proud he was of our accomplishments and other stuff. I was to busy making plans to care. We all got into position, and waited for the gong to ring. Once it did, I grabbed Feltrix and took to the sky, waiting for the perfect opportunity. After a few minutes I saw it, and smiled.