Chapter 23: Don’t Expect to See Any Tears Again
As Noah had predicted, Marcus struck first.
“Wanna check out this new trick I learned?” he teased. He planted his feet on the ground, raising both his hands into the air.
Three columns of fire erupted around him. As the flames died down, they transformed into creatures, each taking the shape of a different animal: A wolf, a falcon and a serpent, all entirely made of fire.
A summon skill, huh? Well that complicated things. A status bar popped up over each of the creatures.
--
Ignis Lupus/ Lvl 3
1500/1500
--
Ignis Falco/ Lvl 3
1300/1300
--
Ignis Serpentis/ Lvl 3
1400/1400
--
One popped up over Marcus’s head as well. His name was hidden, but his level and HP were clearly displayed—4 and 1750 respectively. Interestingly enough, Marcus’s level was still lower than his.
What demanded his attention, however, was the HP of the summoned creatures. Each one had nearly as much health as Marcus himself. Wasn’t that a little too overpowered? Noah was fairly certain his own was a flat 2000. Combined, his opponent’s total HP pool was nearly three times his own. He supposed that made sense, given Marcus’s Rank. Inferno was just that good. Noah sighed. Life just wasn’t fair sometimes.
The summons charged at him, leaving him no room to adjust his strategy.
Whatever, that didn’t matter. All that changed was the number of enemies. Zero would still work the same either way, provided that they didn’t instantly drain his MP. It was worth a shot.
“Zero,” Noah mouthed, planning to inflict all of its effects on all four of his opponents.
Huh, it looked like he didn’t get any error messages this time. Flashing open his Vitra for a split second, he noted the amount of MP he had remaining. 36/56? He had much more remaining than he had expected. Noah attributed the possibility to the fact that their levels were simply still low, especially when compared to the Diamantises.
“Come on, are you just gonna keep running?” Marcus yelled, watching as Noah began weaving between his summons’ attacks. He himself strolled forward at a leisurely pace, letting his creatures do the work.
He hadn’t realised Zero had already been activated, Noah thought. Perfect. He should start noticing it anytime now though.
He threw himself to the side as the falcon divebombed him from behind. However, this left him open to the wolf, which managed to clamp its jaws around his left leg. As expected, the pain was barely noticeable.
At the same time, Marcus sensed that something was wrong with him.
‘Wh-why am I taking damage?” he cried. His summons, beginning to move noticeably slower now, had also lost about half of their health.
Off to the side, Noah could hear his classmates growing restless. He could also see Anna floating ominously in his peripheral vision. Even without looking directly at her, he could feel the amusement radiating off her. She was probably grinning from ear to ear as she watched the battle unfold. In fact, she was most certainly downright ecstatic.
I hope you’re satisfied, you little witch.
In a panic, Marcus attempted to rush forward, but he looked as if he were trying to wade through mud. “Can’t…freakin’… move!” he moaned. He had Shackles to thank for that.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Zero was really showing its power now. The last of Marcus’s summons, the wolf, just had its HP bar completely drained. It vanished with a bright flash.
“Noah!” Marcus croaked.
“Relax, I’ve already disabled my Talent,” Noah said. He had planned to deactivate Zero as soon as the summons were taken out, since Marcus didn’t have much more HP than they did. It was the perfect indicator of when to ease up on his attack.
243/1750. That was the amount of HP Marcus was left with.
“Ooh I think we have a winner!” Anna announced, flitting up beside them.
Even though he had won, Noah didn’t feel particularly victorious. “Are you really gonna kick him out of your guild?” he asked.
“Well, I am a girl of my word!” Anna confirmed.
“Is it alright if I decline?”
Anna stared at him. “I’m sorry? You’re rejecting an A-Ranked magician?”
“I mean, he’s powerful, but I don’t think he’ll fit in well with us…” Noah had the same doubts he’d felt when he imagined Anna joining Spark Nimbus. With his personality, he would probably clash with the other guild members. He was particularly concerned about Carter and Kiera, and he had a feeling they wouldn’t mesh well.
Anna pursed her lips. “Is that really for you to decide though? At the end of the day, you guys will be getting a powerful magician. What would Tanna say if she found out you turned down a potential ally of his calibre on her behalf?”
Well, she had a point... or did she? Noah looked back in Marcus’s direction. His classmate—or should he say, former classmate at this point—was busy being tended to by a couple of medics who seemed to have popped out of nowhere. His health was already regenerating at a rapid pace.
“It’s a shame… I really wanted you to join us…”
He turned back to see Anna muttering to herself again, her eyes downcast. For a split second, a familiar chill crept through the air, the same ominous sensation he had felt back in her study. But just as quickly as it came, it vanished. When Anna lifted her head again, she was all smiles.
“Alright, I’ve decided! The terms of this duel will be voided. Marcus gets to stay with us.”
“Terms? This is the first time I’m hearing about it,” Marcus groaned. He had clearly overheard the entire conversation, and Noah wondered how he was feeling now. Not good, that’s for sure.
Marcus struggled to his feet. “There’s no way he’s an F-Rank!” he shouted, pointing an accusing finger at Noah.
“Oh, but he is!” Anna countered. “Noah, show him your Vitra.”
Noah had rather not, but he decided against resisting. He displayed its contents to Marcus.
The latter’s eyes narrowed. “Zero? What sort of Talent is that? And huh, looks like you’re really an F-Rank. How’s that possible though? Aren’t F-Ranks supposed to be Talentless?”
“Right? Isn’t he like the most interesting person?” Anna gushed. “Anyway, let’s wrap it up for today. It looks like my recruits are gonna have some training to do. Noah, how would you and Sophie like to return to your guild? A portal, perhaps?”
Noah considered her offer, but he still didn’t trust her enough to willingly step through one of her portals if he could help it. “No thanks, we’ll walk.”
“Suit yourself. Exits right over there,” she replied, sweeping her hand past the courtyard. “If the guards ask, tell them that you love milk chocolate.”
“Milk chocolate?”
“It’s one of the codes we use here. They’ll know I sent you,” Anna brushed it off.
“Wait, a quick question before we leave, if you don’t mind.” At her go-ahead, he continued, “Why didn’t you force me to duel you? You could’ve essentially forced me to join your guild if you wanted me so much.”
Anna giggled. “True, but that wouldn’t be any fun now, would it?”
Yep, this girl was insane.

Together, Noah and Sophie navigated their way through the palace grounds.
“You have such a cool Talent,” Sophie suddenly spoke out aloud.
“Uh, thanks. I’m still trying to figure it out though,” Noah answered modestly. He thought of following up with something like “Your Talent’s pretty cool too”, but if he was being honest, she hadn’t exactly done anything impressive with it. He figured lying about it might’ve made her feel bad instead.
“I bet none of them were expecting you to even last a couple of seconds, let alone win the fight,” she continued.
“Well, his magician level was lower than mine.”
Marcus probably hadn’t done anything that had given him a decent amount of XP, like discovering new places or killing mobs 60 levels above him.
“Yeah, but still, what you did was hella impressive. I wonder if I could do something similar someday,” Sophie added wistfully.
“Most definitely. We’re still really low-level in the grand scheme of things, so there’s a lot of potential for you to hone your Talent,” Noah consoled her. Internally, he was cringing. Here he was speaking like some sort of seasoned veteran.
As they continued walking, Noah noticed that his friend was looking a little dejected, or weary, or possibly both. He could make a rough guess as to how she was feeling. Unlike him, she had been gifted with a rather unremarkable Talent. That, plus the bad news they had received from Anna earlier, probably hadn’t done wonders for her mental health.
“You doing alright?” he finally broke the silence.
“Yeah, I just… kinda feel like I don’t belong in this world.”
“I get that. It’s a whole new world, and it’s hard to adapt to t—”
“You seem to be adapting just fine though,” she said, not meeting his eyes. “You’re like… already so powerful. I feel like you’ll fit right in before long.”
Noah bit his lip. He knew she was simply reacting emotionally, but she couldn’t be any further from the truth. How could anyone just take suddenly being transported to another world in stride, even him?
But instead of defending himself, he knew the right thing to do was to console her. He considered giving her a reassuring hug, but he wasn’t sure how Sophie would take that. Instead, he decided to touch on the positives.
“Hey, we’re both still breathing. And we have a place to stay, with good company. I’d say we’re doing better than expected,” he smiled.
Sophie didn’t respond right away, still staring off to the side.
Was he doing it right? What else was he supposed to say?
After a few awkward seconds, Sophie took a deep breath. “Okay, I’m good,” she relaxed, shaking off the tension. “Sorry about that. Yeah, you’re right. We can only get stronger from here.”
“Exactly! And look, you didn’t cry this time.” He added a playful grin, hoping the lame joke would lighten the mood.
Sophie lightly smacked him in the arm. “Heh. Yeah, well, don’t expect to see any tears again.”
Noah returned her smile. Sometimes, that was all it took.