Littleroot Versus Fairmont

“I said I’m sorry, Nora! Please! What can I do to make it up to you?” Lucas pleads.

I know Lucas promised to help Jane, and I let him know how proud I was that he crafted such impressive gear, but I also couldn’t help but chew him out for almost getting me eliminated.

“I don’t know if you can.” I pout. “I was friends with you first—how come you’ve never thought to make anything for me? Don’t you care about me?”

Petra strolls into the room.

“Nora, of course I—” His eyes dart to a smirking Petra.

“…care about you,” he mumbles.

I cross my arms and turn my head. “Well, you sure have a funny way of showing it.”

Petra elbows Jane. “Trouble in paradise?”

“Yup,” Jane replies as she fixes the straps on my satchel.

“What if I build something tonight? To help you win the tournament?” Lucas asks.

My ears perk up. “...Really?”

“It’s an idea I’ve had for a while now. I’ll build it extra special—just for you.”

“...You mean it?”

“I promise.”

…

“Oh, Lucas!” I give him a big hug. “I could never stay mad at you!”

Lucas looks away and adjusts his glasses. “I—uh, well… it’s probably time we start heading over to your next match.”

I pull back and beam. “Okay!”

We start walking over to the arena.

Unlike me, Lucas and Petra had pretty smooth matches, with neither having to reveal much of their arsenal. But who knows? Maybe I could get a match like that this time!

***

…I did not get a match like that this time.

As the crowd cheers, I look over at Sharky Guy—I mean, Finn, lying unconscious on the ground next to me.

The blue-haired sharped-toothed meathead from my testing group, he ended up in a couple of my classes, and turned out to be a really nice guy. We even studied together a few times.

That being said, him and his Landshark put up a brutal fight—and were just about the last opponents I wanted to face. His summon’s rocky armor was practically impenetrable, and its monster magic let him don that same armor.

I spent most of the match desperately dodging their attacks, failing to do any real damage—even when I hit him with a Counter Impact. Thanks to Lucas's lessons in crafting, however, I realized that by rapidly changing the temperature of material, you can cause it to fracture.

I came pretty close to running out of mana, but thanks to Lucas, I was able to break through his armor and take him down just in the nick of time.

It was stressful… but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t extremely satisfying when I finally figuring out how to pierce his defenses. The fight, it was actually… pretty fun.

I pet Sharky Guy’s head. “You did good, Sharky Guy… you did good.”