Chương 46: Ari's Turn

With a war cry, Anne swung her hammer in the air, aimed at the ground.

"[Spell Breaker]." Arielle shattered the other girl's weapon, the debris flying out of the circle before falling to the ground. The stillness of the room was a punctuation to the ferocious anger growing within Arielle. A sharp, audible exhale escaped from Anne as she remained rooted to the spot. She stared at the hand that no longer had her hammer, her fingers flexing around air in memory. When she looked up at Arielle, she went pale.

"How..." she started, but Arielle was no longer in the mood for conversation.

"My turn," Arielle said, followed by, "[Kinetic Push]."

"[Rock Shield]." Arielle switched the direction of her spell, weaving around the shield to strike Anne in the side. Anne gasped as she flew, but Arielle didn't want her out of the circle just yet, so she said, "[Telekinesis]' and caught her right there before she hit the edge. The sudden catch jolted her, and Arielle almost immediately released. Anne managed a smooth landing, but Ari wasn't done.

"[Targeted Tantrum]" was the next spell she used, and Luxa and Vacu orbs swam around Anne in a cyclone, giving her a taste of her own medicine. It was a Tier 6 spell that would trigger a high-frequency maddening shrill in the victim's head, which, while not physically harmful, was mentally torturous. Anne instinctively slammed her hands over her ears, but it likely wouldn't help. Arielle added more Luxa particles to increase the volume of the spell. Then she ended it and said, "[Bound Tantrum Repeat]".

The screams in Anne's ears now became a drone, a repeated sentence that Arielle only had to think for it to sound in the atmosphere, louder around Anne.

"Apologize. Apologize. Do not use slurs. Apologize. Your mother used a slur. Apologize."

"Stop!" Anne cried out, pushing hard on her ears, but Arielle had not a merciful bone in her body right now. The slur had hurt her father, probably more than what she was doing right now was hurting Anne. Arielle wasn't done until mother and/or daughter both paid for that. Anne gripped her wand and started to form another spell, but right as she finished, Arielle said, "[Reflect]." The spell bounced off her invisible mirror, and it hit Anne in the chest.

She instantly dropped to the ground, so hard that she slammed her knees, and when she tried to get up again, Arielle said,"[False Foot]" destroying her balance and causing her to stumble again.

"If your mother does not understand how to apologize for her wrongdoings," she said as Anne struggled to get over the spell's effect, causing her to lose her balance again and again.

"Perhaps you should teach her." Anne glared and opened her mouth to cast a spell, but Arielle beat her to it.

"[Air Control]," she said, using the Tier 5 spell to compress the air particles around Anne's body, just like what Anne's spell had done to her, with the rocks. Except that [Air Control] was a lot more flexible. For example, after Arielle assumed command of the air particles, she increased the localized density and pressure exerted on different parts of Anne's body, using that to force it to move against the owner's control. She could then force the other girl to walk. It was a harder way to do it.

There was likely a Master-tier puppeteering spell that would do something similar, but [Air Control] worked with Ari's focus and constant calculations. Anne shifted, her feet stumbling but still holding on as Arielle made her march, awkwardly stomping on the ground. Anne's face burned with shame, which gave Ari some satisfaction. Since she could not hurt her physically, this was the only way to make up for the humiliation her father had suffered.

"No!" Anne cried out as Arielle turned her toward the edge of the circle, where her father was standing. She finally understood what Arielle was going to do.

"Don't... please!"

"Don't plead with her," Emilia snapped.

"Stop her!" Anne bit her lip and tried to resist, but Arielle's control was too good to be broken, especially since she'd fused Anne's wand hand to her side. Anne squeezed her wand, but Arielle pushed the air particles tighter to prevent her from lifting it. Anne kept edging closer to the circle. Angry tears glittered in her eyes as she bit her lip stubbornly, preventing desperate words from pouring out. Out of the corner of her eye, Arielle noticed another person enter the circle.

"Emilia, no!" Elric cried out, and that was her only warning, as the woman sent a spell at Arielle.

"[Petrify]!"

"[Spell Breaker]." Arielle shattered it right before it reached halfway, and then she said, "[Levitate]" yanking Emilia into the air with such force that she dropped her wand. Emilia screamed. From the observers, a lot of exhales, high-pitched sounds, and nervous laughter were unloaded into the air. Arielle half expected someone to put a stop to the duel now, but luckily no one did. She stared between mother and daughter, both angry and still.

Emilia was saying words to her in a different language, but Ari did not care to understand them.

"Apologize," Arielle said.

"Or I will make your daughter do it."

"You…" Emilia struggled and flailed in the air, trying to break the bond, but she could not without her wand.

"Unhand me! Right now!" Arielle ignored her and squeezed the air prison tighter around Anne. Not enough to cut off their airway, just enough to cause discomfort. Anne let out a cry. Ari felt a slight tremor in the ground, thought perhaps the other girl was trying to activate another bloodline spell, and yanked her into the air too, using "[Levitate]."

"She's holding three spells at once," she heard someone declare.

"As a first year!"

"Arielle…" She also heard Elric's cautioning voice, but she ignored it, the same way she ignored the crowd that went as silent as a held breath. She stared up at her opponents and said, "Apologize."

"No." Arielle would have to force them to do it. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"Let me go!" Arielle dropped them both on the ground, though not as hard as she wanted to. She used [Air Control] on Emilia too, and marched them both to stand in front of her father. Limb by limb, she forced Anne to her knees first. Anne struggled, fighting the compulsion. She looked like a broken puppet as her leg shook and she pushed against the ground, using every bit of strength she had to keep from falling. She stared at Arielle with a wide-eyed gaze, half-glaring, half-pleading.

"Don't." Ari simply held her gaze unperturbed. She adjusted the air at the back of her knees and shoved her. Anne fell into a kneeling position, and Arielle had her bowing her head for good measure. She did the same thing to Emilia, whose resistance was much worse than that of her daughter. Just like that, they both knelt before her father, who was staring at them in shock.

"Say you're sorry," Arielle ordered.

"Apologize for calling my father a slur, and Elric's mother a whore."

"I will never apologize for telling the truth," Emilia said.

"It's not the truth." A slur was categorically a hurtful misrepresentation of an identity, and there was no evidence that Elric's mother had ever accepted coin for sexual favors.

"Say you're sorry now." Both women still refused to say the words. Arielle scowled. It wasn't enough. She glanced at her father, who had been missing for years because he was protecting border towns from dangerous moss giants, who still bore the scars of his sacrifice. Only for two people who had likely never experienced what he'd gone through to imply that he was lesser, to call him ugly words. Arielle wouldn't stop.

Increasing the air pressure on their backs, she lowered them inch by inch, until their top half formed an acute angle with the ground. Even as they resisted, the angle became smaller and smaller, and she did not stop until their foreheads touched the earth.

"Stop!" Anne shouted.

"Stop this now!" Arielle didn't stop. She was going to make them apologize one way or another, even if she had to use up all her essences keeping them there.

"Arielle." Arielle switched her focus and saw that her father was no longer staring at the two women on the floor. Instead, he was looking at her softly, his eyes gleaming with pride. He walked into the circle toward her and put his hand on her shoulder, and said, "It's okay, my Ari. I get it. You can let go." Ari shook her head. She stubbornly held onto the spell for some time, but then her father pulled her into a hug and patted her back, like he did whenever she was upset.

"There, there, Ari," he murmured.

"It's okay. Everything is okay." Arielle pressed her lips together, even as the familiar crooning worked its way past her anger, offering her comfort finally. Despite herself, she felt the tension easing from her shoulders, the understanding seeping into her mind that if this went on any longer, she might end up making a mistake that would reveal the true extent of her power, and it would put Elric and her in trouble. How much essence had she used? Enough to raise suspicion, likely.

With one final glare, she released her hold on the two women who flopped onto the ground with gasps.

"There." Her father kissed her on the forehead as he pulled back.

"Thank you, Arielle." Ari's gaze dropped from his as she shrugged. She hadn't gotten them to apologize, so she wasn't sure what he was thanking her for. But then she was distracted when she heard Anne say, "Mother, no!" She only had a second to see Emilia pointing a wand at her father's back before she reacted. In the corner of her eye, she saw Elric and Professor Graham lift their hand and wand at the same time. Arielle beat them to it, pointing her wand as she said, "[Kinetic Push]."

Her spell reached the woman first, blasting her out of the circle, through the crowd, hitting the opposite wall with enough force to elicit a grunt.

"Mother!" Anne ran to check up on the woman who was now groaning on the ground. Arielle paused, wondering if that last hit had been out of line, but when she caught Elric's look, he nodded at her. She was fine. She'd done well. It was over.

Elric watched Arielle in a new light. Previously, there were times when he'd felt she behaved younger than her age. Because she was smaller too, it was easy to perceive her as just a child with a limited and naive understanding of the world. But clearly she understood things well enough to know precisely how to humiliate the two women in a way they might never recover from. She'd done it without flinching once, not a single thread of mercy in her cool gaze.

Elric now saw that he was wrong in thinking Arielle to be far softer than she was, simply because of the things he'd observed and what her family had told him about her. They'd said she rarely responded to insults, as though they didn't personally affect her. However, it seemed that insults against her family bore graver consequences. In a way, it made sense. Arielle herself did not care about other people's opinions, so any insult directed at her caused limited damage.

However, since she knew that her family did care about how they were perceived, she also knew that any insult directed at them would cause more hurt, which then made her angry on their behalf. Though Elric had almost moved to stop the fight several times, he hadn't. He understood exactly what Arielle was feeling, as his parents had suffered similar maligning, and he'd always wished to defend them in such a way. However, he was too weak then to stand up against the Earthbinders.

It was vindicating to see Ari do it now. He felt a little bad for Anne, considering she was a younger party in this, dragged into this mess by her mother's sharp tongue. However, since she refused to apologize on her mother's behalf, it was only right that she bear the punishment as well. He was glad that the situation was resolved and glad that Emilia had gotten her just rewards. Though it had certainly raised problems.

He could hear tendrils of conversation reaching him, all about how amazing Arielle's speed and control were. He had an explanation for that. Thankfully, Arielle hadn't cast any spell that he wouldn't be able to explain. It was Lord Wesley's reaction that Elric was somewhat worried about, because though the fight was over, he was making no move to leave the hall. And he was staring at Arielle with too much interest.

"Wow," one of Lord Wesley's sons said.

"In the beginning, I thought she was losing."

"Then you are clearly blind," Lord Wesley replied.

"She had really only been playing with her food. The outcome was decided once I saw her impressive casting speed. It was then only a matter of how she would end this, not if she would."

"How does she have so much essence to spare?" his wife murmured.

"First years have a weekly limit, no?"

"Yes, but she earns a lot working for the custodians," her son replied.

"I always see her with them, fixing something around campus. I'm sure she's acquired a lot of extra essence as a result."

"Maybe I should do the same," the other boy said. Judging by their robes, both boys were in the Third Cohort, and while there were similarities, there was one notable difference between the two. It likely rankled Lady Wesley that her son looked more like her than he did his father, while Lady Borja's son was the spitting image of Lord Wesley. As he observed the group, Lord Wesley switched his gaze, meeting Elric's with stunning alacrity.

He immediately began toward him and said, "I see the rumors about your cousin are in no way exaggerated, Elric." He gave the other man a pleasant smile.

"No, it appears they're not."

"I must find out more about her. You said her mother is Beatrice Arthur, a cousin of the Earthbinders? Who is her real father?" he said.

"Power like that does not just appear from nowhere."

"No," he said.

"I have not been able to learn who the father is. It might be Henry, one of the Knights of the Arthurian Order, but I do not know for sure."

"No, it can't be him." He shook his head.

"He was nothing impressive. Not like this."

"Well, talent can skip generations," he said.

"And it could just be that Arielle is extraordinarily blessed."

"Yes, but–""Perhaps it's less important to learn where she got her powers from than it is for us to celebrate that we have a new genius in our midst, one who will serve Earth well in the future." Elric knew that was what the man was preoccupied with, so he steered him in that direction, hoping it would distract him from his questions about her heritage. Lord Wesley pursed his lips, nodding slowly.

"I would like to meet her."

"Later," Elric said.

"Right now, she is understandably preoccupied with her adopted family." Arielle was still being doted on by her father, and her brother had joined them, too. All three were discussing in the circle, as people stared, some likely waiting to meet her. He would need to dissuade it. Arielle would be uncomfortable being swarmed by that many individuals. Anne had helped her mother off the ground, and both had slunk off somewhere to lick their wounds. Once again, Elric felt sympathy for his half-sister.

Being defeated so thoroughly by a beginner would be a stain that will likely follow her for life. Not to mention the additional punishments Emilia would receive for the stunts she pulled.

"I heard there was some business with counterfeit charms," the Lord said.

"They were not counterfeit," he said.

"Simply charms that she had purchased in Khor. But I have already taken care of that issue."

"Hmm. I admire those who would do anything to defend their family," Lord Wesley said, a smile teasing onto his lips."That type of loyalty transfers well into every aspect of life. I assume she has not been incorporated into your family yet."

"No, she has not. But I do not think she wants to be a part of any noble clan."

"Nonsense," he said.

"Talent like that has to be in the noble bloodline, and luckily, I have two sons close to her in age." He grinned and winked conspiratorially.

"Once she's done, let's meet her and see which one she prefers."