Falling Into A New Life

In my excitement, I woke up before the alarm could make me. I was absolutely sure my new spell would blow her away. I had spent the day before reading through advanced magic theory just to complete it. It took me a while to find the book, and even longer to understand what I needed from it, but it was so worth it. I even made a few more runes on the back of my paper, just to accomplish this spell. Because I was early, I still had to wait ten minutes. So I spent the time thinking.

(It'd be kinda boring just sitting here. I could have a quick breakfast... wait. Have I eaten since I came here?) Thinking back I realized I had not. (What the hell, how does something like eating not cross my mind. I better still be able to actually eat food, because food is fucking awesome.) I glanced at the clock, grumbling to myself. (Alright, eight minutes to go. She is going to be so surprised! Though, why am I so excited. It's unlike me. Is it learning new magic? No, that isn't it. Do I... like her? I feel a little physically attracted to her but nothing like that. Do I want to make her proud of me?) A felt even more excited at the thought. (Wow, I really care what she thinks. That's... strange. I never cared about stuff like that before. Even if she didn't know it, she really helped me get over the stuff bothering me though.) With a nod I decided to find a way to thank her. Though looking at the clock, I saw I was 4 minutes late... (shit). I rushed to her room.

"Sorry I'm late, I lost track of time getting ready." She was sitting in the middle of the room, reading that book of hers.

"It's fine, just hurry up and show me the spell."

I was caught of guard by how pushy she was being. It seemed unlike her. "A-Alright, prepare to be amazed."

With a roll of her eyes she told me she was prepared. Something wasn't right here but, I couldn't put my claw on it. I shrugged it off as I prepared my spell. Gathering my new runes in my head, and drawing in my fire mana, I slowly cast. At first nothing seemed to happen, and she frowned. But I just kept smiling, I could see what I was doing. I drew the heat from some areas into others, than I latched onto that heat and moved the air downward. Next I drew out my ice mana, and took control of the cold in the air, Making it flow to the top of the room.

"That feels super weird, what are you doing?"

I just smiled even larger. Next I started to mix the two halves. I pulled the warm half up and swirled it with the cold as fast as I could. She looked on in surprise as the air started to move, than swirl, causing instability in the air. I had created a tiny tornado. Then I just let my control go, watching as nature did the rest. It slowly grew and grew, whipping stray papers around, then even some books, before collapsing in on itself. Since  it was only minor manipulation and movement, instead of a big spell, I only used about thirteen percent of my mana. It was the first time I felt true joy since I got here.

"You just... you figured out how to branch off your magic? Well, no matter. You lost control before it could actually become dangerous." She said with an annoyed expression.

She just played it off like it was nothing... my accomplishment annoyed her? All that joy turned into shock and confusion. I didn't understand what was wrong.

"Even if you lost control you still did the spell, so time for your surprise." She looked at me with satisfaction in her voice. For a moment I felt a spark of that joy again, before it once again turned to confusion. "I challenge you to the coliseum. Surprise!"

I could barely even register what she said. It was all to surreal.

"Oh and don't think about declining. If I can't kill you following the rules, than I'll just devour you in your sleep. The punishment isn't all the severe anyway. In other words, saying no is a death sentence. Not that saying yes isn't, but then you at least have a chance to fight. Now you might be thinking, 'But Alderra i'm like, way weaker than you are. What would you get out of killing me?" I wasn't thinking anything of the sort. "I'm so glad you asked. I get the satisfaction of slowly ripping your heart out before I eat it."

I couldn't even blink, I was to stunned by what she just said. It didn't make sense to me... where was it all coming from? Then I saw what I missed. The way her emotions would just disappear, like she was never really feeling them. How quick she was to anger whenever I questioned her. She never once told me how to improve my spells, and she took away the advanced books before I could learn from them. In fact, she only actually helped me once, making me learn almost everything on my own. She only explained how to combine my manna when I stopped progressing, because I wouldn't give up on it. All the pranks were just to keep me off guard. (This whole time she wasn't trying to catch me up, she was getting ready to-)

"Betray you. Their isn't any requirements for the academy. You just need to be a demon. This whole teaching thing was supposed to end after the second day, when I was supposed to have taught you how to access your mana. What I got you prepared for was the coliseum. They don't let anyone to weak into it since that wouldn't be very fun to watch. This entire time you've just been eating out of my paws like the love sick fool you are. Newborns are the easiest prey there is. The only thing I found difficult was making your room connect to mine everyday. Though you progressed quicker than expected, everything fell into place perfectly."

She laughed right into my face. But what really hurt was that I wasn't a newborn. I went through school for fucks sake. I should have noticed the way she acted was wrong. I wasn't some innocent child and I just played the inconstancies off because she was a demon... she is a fucking demon. I just fell into the trap of a fucking demon and I'm surprised at the betrayal? What part of demon didn't I realize? Isn't deception their whole shtick?

"But hey, I'm not without mercy." She turned around and shoved her ass into my face, lifting her tails up. "No one should die a virgin, so what do you say? Want some pity sex?" I backed away in disgust, using a wing to wipe of her sent. "Is that a no then? Oh you wound me my dear shade, you wound me. How do you think that makes a lady feel?"

"I don't care, and you're no lady."

"You're right, I'm a demon. It would be best if you didn't forget that. I'll just assume your answer is yes and schedule the fight. Make sure not to back out when they ask you if you're sure shade, you know what will happen. See you in a few hours."

As she left the room, my shock and anger just melted into pain. I know I should have seen it coming, but the betrayal still hurt. I gathered my stuff and went back to my room. She said I had a few hours, and I wasn't going to make this an easy fight. I worked as fast as I could making new runes and coming up with more ideas. Finally, I heard a knock on my door.

I opened the door to see the wolf demon from before. All she told me was to follow her. I did so in silence. The entire way there, I thought about how the fight might go. She uses electricity and illusion, and she knows how to branch off, so she could have any amount of surprises. She knows almost all my spells and capabilities, and she'll know what I'll do as I think it. So, I can't plan anything during the match, I will have to use random spells and misdirections, while keeping an eye on her at all times. She's strong enough that I didn't think I could stop her lightning form burning me for very long. When we got to the coliseum, I was not confident in my chances to win.

The coliseum was breathtaking. It was a giant building made of... you guessed it, white marble. There was gold designs marking it everywhere, and pillars shaped like creatures around the entrances. There was also no roof, and we were somehow outside. I was led to a small room looking out at the stadium floor, through a glass window. The inner stadium was the same as the out, but the floor was a darkish red. It actually looked kinda nice. As I was looking around the wolf demon tapped my side.

"Do you accept the challenge?"

I thought back to what Alderra said. I didn't really have a choice. "Yes I do."

She just looked at me like I was an idiot, and walked away. I still didn't know her fucking name. Dammit. I heard the crow start to cheer, but I couldn't see them. All I saw was a white wall surrounding the floor, with small black tinted rectangle shaped glass around it. That must be where the other 'contestants' are. The glass I was looking through didn't seem tinted to me though. I saw small glowing runes around the edges of the window. I figured it was illusion magic or something. I was still looking for the crowd when I realized I was an idiot, and looked higher. I had to press up against the glass to see them, but the stadium was packed with thousands of demons cheering and hitting the ground, sitting on long curving steps. A bird like demon told me I would be up in two fights. With a sigh I continued to wait.

On separate sides of the stadium, two windows melted away. Through each one stepped a demon. The first was a giant hairless cat, with red eyes like mine. The second looked like a cross between a squirrel and a ferret hopped up on growth hormones and steroids. It looked all kinds of wrong. The two of them stepped onto pentagrams facing each other, and before my eyes the arena changed. Runes flared to life and the ground below them shimmered. On the cats side was nothing but sand, and the ugly one had a meadow. At the sound of a great bell the battle began.

At first nothing seemed to happen, I just watched the two of them look at each other. Next thing I knew, sand was flying at Ugly before turning into glass spikes, only to crash into a wall of plants and get stuck. Seeing this Ugly went on the offensive, shooting blades of grass at Cat and redirecting them when they missed. A few of them managed to cut up Cat pretty badly. With a hiss of pain Cat brought up sand all around her and turned it into a glass globe. She smirked as the high speed grass could barely scratch it. I watched as her wound slowly healed. Cat then started to gather more sand for another wave of volleys, while Ugly grew dense foliage around himself, stopping the volleys once again. Wile Ugly was still in his plants, Cat moved sand all around his enclosure. Before Ugly could see what she had done, she forced all the sand underground, just as the plants moved so he could see what she was up to. Thinking she was recovering mana, Ugly smiled. Having no idea of the trap she had just laid down.

The sand started to swirl around Cats globe, much to her shock. At first I thought it was her doing, but I quickly realized ugly was making a tornado around her. As the wind picked up and the sand spun, so did her globe. Ever so slowly it turned, causing it to sink as it moved the sand. At first she built glass pillars to hold it up, but the rotation just caused them to fall over. She barely avoiding being crushed by one. With little time left before she would be crushed, she activated her trap. The ground beneath Ugly suddenly erupted with glass spikes, piercing his body all over. Without his control the tornado vanished, and the sand fell back down. Cat than moved the sand out of her way, creating a hole she could crawl out of. Once she was free she slowly walked over to Ugly, who had glass spears throughout his entire body, yet was still somehow alive. Even his head had been pierced, pushing out some of his brain. I couldn't look away as Cat used a spike to push out his heart. Even out of his body, it was still beating, and he was still struggling to live. He did not stop trying to move and heal until she had bit down on his heart. When she had eating all of it, his body turned to ash.The crowd cheered louder as she pranced back to her window. When she entered, it closed up like before, and the stadium flashed before removing all signs of battle.

I couldn't help but imagine me as the one being killed, and it almost broke me. I wasn't an impressive person. I didn't have many friends, or some important job. I was just some loser who lived in a crappy apartment. The only thing I took pride in was my morals, and they haven't gotten me anywhere. Here I was, with magic, actual magic, and I was whining about someone not being my friend. I didn't need people to lean on before and I certainly don't now. (I've been turned into a fucking badass demon and its time I acted like one. I refuse to go out like a little bitch! She thinks she can play me? Well then she has another thing coming.) When the next fight started, I didn't even pay attention. I was to busy thinking on all I had learned.

(So magic is basically bending nature to your will. It's really just a science with its own rules. Instead of focusing on the complicated steps you run your magic through, you can use images called runes to do it for you. Runes work because you have their meaning memorized, and they mean those complicated steps to you. It's not the runes that are important, you just use them to say what you want your magic to do in a shorter time period. So why only use runes? Why not incorporate body gesture and words into your spells to? That way you can tell your magic what to do even faster.) I couldn't help but smile as my plan came together.

I looked back to the stadium just in time to catch the ending of the fight. I watched as a giant parrot with a hyena head, burnt a deer with two heads alive, before ripping it apart and eating its heart. The bird demon quickly flew back through its window, and the arena reset. I couldn't help but be nervous as my window opened and I stepped out. All that was replaced by anger when I saw Alderra walking towards her pentagram. The only thought going through my head was crushing her. Even if I couldn't win, I'd be damned if I didn't try.