The crowd roared, clapped, and whistled their approbation. Instead of being pumped up, I was annoyed. Why on earth were they excited about two young people flailing at each other like children? It wasn't like we were exhibiting high-level magical combat.

  Darlene, on the other hand, lapped up the praise from the crowd, jumping up and down while pumping her fists in the air. It wasn't hard to tell that this fight wasn't going to be a cakewalk like the one with Seraphina had been, but there was no way I was letting Darlene win. It was time to show what I could really do. I mentioned before that I had discovered how to store enhancement spells via a trick with Mia. It was time to unleash them.

  "Mia," I ordered, "it's showtime."

  "Redirecting spells now," my merged assistant acknowledged as she began ticking off spells.

  "Body of Radiant Beryl, Skin like Neutronium, Raging Strength, Whale's Endurance, Trap-Jaw's Speed, Mass Plus..."

  There were several spells that this technique worked with.

  "Greater Resistance, Surefoot, True Sight, Hypermobility, error: Vagus Overdrive already active, Wings of the Pegasus - passive mode, Expanded Intuition..."

  Okay, there were quite a few.

  "Mana Shield, Vital Reserve, Iron Will, Compress Mana, Oxygenation, Disassociation."

  Actually, more like a crap ton of spells. I felt a rush of magic envelop me as the spells roared to life. A faint golden aura rippled the air, a side effect of layering so many spells. My consciousness slid to the side as my animal instincts took control courtesy of the final spell I had activated: Disassociation. My body sprang high into the air as my super-enhanced leg muscles compensated for the extra mass the Mass Plus spell had added to my body. It slammed down on the ground in front of Darlene, shattering the tiles beneath it, before closing the distance in the blink of an eye and slamming into Darlene.

  To her credit, my opponent took my assault head-on, bracing her feet and slowing our combined momentum until it was spent. However, my Expanded Intuition allowed my body to dodge the counterattack, twisting out of the way as Darlene's knee sought my midsection and kicking her remaining leg out from under her. Instead of falling, however, Darlene used her arms, which were still locked around the back of my neck, to rocket past me and flip around. But before she could get her bearings, my body had spun around and launched a flying kick. Darlene landed just in time for her body to leave the ground again, this time with a foot buried in her spine. She hit the ground hard but managed to roll with the impact and end up on her feet once again.

  "I didn't want to use this spell," she smirked. "Especially on trash like you. But looks like I don't have a choice. Power Overwhelming."

  What looked like blue lightning bolts flickered all across Darlene's body as waves of magic pulsed out. Darlene grinned and gave me the "come here" wave. If I had been in control of my body I would have obliged, but my base instincts were still firmly in control. They apparently could discern something I could not.

  "What, are you afraid, Scaredabella?" Darlene sneered. "I don't blame you. All right, I'll go over there to you."

  My opponent closed the distance between us so quickly I had difficulty following her. At the last moment, my reflexes engaged, deflecting what would have been a knock-out blow. My body jumped back to put some distance between it and Darlene, while I thought furiously, trying to come up with a way to help. I could dismiss the Disassociation spell, but I wasn't trained in hand-to-hand combat and would probably lose very quickly against someone as fast as Darlene.

  "Mia, any ideas?" I asked out of desperation.

  "There is your Spiritbond," she reminded me.

  I wasn't about to do something that would put Ronaldo at risk, even if the odds of something really bad happening were almost nonexistent. So I did the only other thing I could think of, directing more mana into my muscles, nerves, bones, and skin to reinforce them at the expense of my stored mana reserves.

  The additional boost came just in time. Darlene's foot slammed into my chest, pushing me halfway across the stage and the air right out of my lungs. Had my sternum not been heavily reinforced by mana, it would have cracked. The Oxygenation spell helped me catch my breath in time for her next assault, which was a flying ax kick that my instincts decided I was better of dodging entirely. As my body rolled out of the way, chunks of the stage exploded out from where my opponent's foot had connected with the floor. This was getting out of hand. Part of me thought about just surrendering, but somehow I couldn't bring myself to give up just yet. Darlene was stronger, faster, and probably tougher than I was, but she wasn't smarter or better at magic. I knew I could figure out some way to win.

  My body blocked the next two blows, sending shockwaves of pain up my arms and rattling my whole body. It let the momentum of the blows push it back again as it switched Wings of the Pegasus from passive to active mode. Two ephemeral wings sprang from my back, their massive black feathers beating the air as I left the ground. Of course, the wings weren't really doing anything: they were just a cool effect I had added to a normal Fly spell.

  Darlene looked up at me as my body hovered over the arena, clearly angered by the turn of events. From my vantage point as a passenger in my own body, it was plain to see that she had not mastered any of the various spells that enabled flight. Suddenly, however, she began laughing hysterically. I wondered what was so funny.

  "Pretty neat trick, Scaredabella! You wanna know what's so funny?" She stopped to laugh a bit more. "I just...I just remembered that I have a stomach full of almost pure alcohol! Firebreath!"

  Darlene took a deep breath and put her hand up to her mouth as if she were holding an imaginary trumpet. When she exhaled, a red-orange flame shot into the air, enveloping me in an inferno. My Mana Shield spell resisted for a few moments before failing, and my body plummeted back towards the ground. The exposed portions of my skin screamed in pain. Even worse, all I could smell was burnt hair. It was nauseating.

  My body landed on its feet and flipped the Wings of the Pegasus spell back to passive mode. It began dodging this way and that in case Darlene had any more fire spells handy. While it tried to figure out its next move, I had already decided on mine.

  "Mia, I'm going to pull everything I can from the Spiritbond. I want you to monitor and, if anything goes wrong, try to shut down the spell."

  "Understood," she confirmed.

  I looked deep inside myself and focused on the part of my spirit that was linked to Ronaldo, reminding myself that winning here would give me more resources to help free his kind. I wasn't sure if it would make a difference, but I hoped that forming a clear link between my actions and the goals of my Spirit Oath would make the spell less likely to fail. When I felt I was ready, I sent a portion of my mana through my bond with Ronaldo.

  "Link Awakening"

  The mana I had injected acted as both a catalyst and a magnet, drawing power out of Ronaldo and back through our connection into my Spirit. Power poured into me at a rate I found hard to control. My body grew stronger, faster, and much more durable. Ambient mana from the link flowed in as well, replacing the mana I had spent empowering my body and guarding myself with Mana Shield. Once I had gotten a handle on all the changes, I checked my physical stats to see what the overall effect was.

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  Physical Attributes

  Strength 99

  Reflexes 95

  Durability 114

  I hadn't expected such a large boost just from borrowing power from Ronaldo. It made me worried, but after checking up on him via our bond I could tell that he was fine, albeit tired and confused.

  "Mia, everything looking good?"

  "No problems detected."

  "Great."

  My body's instincts had reacted to the influx of power as well, switching from a defensive stance to an offensive one. As I charged Darlene head-on, she unleashed another gout of fire. This time, however, my Mana Shield held as I plunged through the flames. My right palm slammed into her open mouth, cutting off her attack as my left struck her side just under the ribs. Smoke poured out of Darlene's nose as she sagged from the blow. My body followed up the attack by lifting my opponent off the ground and slamming her down to the floor below. I assumed that would finish the fight.

  Unfortunately for Darlene, my body had other plans. Instead of merely pinning her, my right hand released her mouth only to grab her by the leg. It tossed Darlene in the air and kicked her across the stage. I watched in horrid fascination for a few moments before realizing I had to act. It was time to dismiss the Disassociation spell before my instincts seriously Darlene. But something was blocking me from accessing the spell.

  "Mia, what's going on? I can't dismiss the Disassociation spell!"

  "The nature of the mana you received from your Spiritbond appears to be incompatible with previously cast spells. Until your natural mana regenerates, you will not be able to dismiss them."

  "So everyone here will get to watch me murder Darlene in cold blood? There's gotta be something we can do."

  "Insufficient information is available to hypothesize," Mia warned.

  "Urrrggh!" I yelled back.

  As I was arguing with my merged assistant, my body bounded over to where Darlene had landed and punched her right the back of the head as she was struggling to her feet. As she rolled away again, blue lightning once again crackled across her body, and she managed to regain her footing at the end of the roll. She deflected my next attack, which was a left jab aimed at her face, and countered with a straight kick to my midsection. My hands caught her foot and twisted it, sending Darlene spinning through the air.

  As she hit the ground, my body pounced, slamming my knees into her chest before moving into a straddle position. My hands sought her throat as she struggled vainly to both throw me off and do enough damage that I let go voluntarily. Even with my Body of Radiant Beryl and Skin like Neutronium spells, I felt every single blow. But my instincts felt no pain, even though I did, and they refused to release Darlene's neck.

  "And that's the match!" I heard Alcazar announce to the crowd. "There you have it, folks, Arabella Unbound is living up to her name tonight. Arabella, you can stop now...Arabella?"

  A rush of air and a 'whump' announced the arrival of someone else onto the stage. My body finally released Darlene, who to my relief began gasping and sputtering, and whirled around to face my next challenger. It was a woman an inch or so taller than I was, dressed in black leggings studded with gemstones and a matching sleeveless tunic. Her short blond hair was cut so that it framed her face, drawing attention to her stunning purple irises. I didn't need my Sensate abilities to tell that this woman was vastly stronger than I was: waves of impossibly dense mana radiated out from her in all directions.

  "That's enough, Arabella," the woman said. "Let Darlene go."

  I desperately wanted to explain that I wasn't in control of my body, but that required, well, control of my body. Instead of doing the smart thing and giving up, my body decided that the newcomer was a threat and acted accordingly. I found myself springing forward with a snarl. The woman moved so quickly I saw only a blur, then I found myself suspended in the air, a hand of iron around my throat.

  "I said that's enough," the lady reiterated, squeezing just enough for me to feel the pressure. My body struggled to break loose, twisting around until it could plant a foot right into the woman's face and use it as leverage in an attempt to free itself. Even with the Hypermobility spell, the efforts fell far short of success.

  "Ahh, I see the issue. You're under a 'disassociation' spell. Well, we can fix that."

  With that, she punched me square in the face. The last thing I remember was hearing a crunching sound as the back of my skull slammed into the ground and hoping that the tile gave way before my bones did.

  "Welcome back, luv. How are you feeling?"

  I opened my eyes to find Quill N. Squib looking down at me for the second time that day. My head felt like it had been jammed full of wool, and my neck was stiff but other than that I wasn't too bad off. I lifted an arm to see if my skin had been badly burned by Darlene's breath attack, but my skin was as unblemished as the day I emerged from the Metamorphosis pod.

  "I feel okay, but is it cool if I lay here for a few minutes? I need to figure out how to apologize to Darlene and whoever it was that stopped me."

  "You mean Manticore Niraza? I wouldn't worry about it. It's not a big deal."

  That didn't sound right. After all, I had tried to kill Darlene and fight Niraza when she showed up to stop me.

  "Uh....did you not hear what happened?"

  Quill shrugged.

  "You went berzerk and tried to kill Darlene, and when Niraza showed up you wouldn't stop struggling, so she knocked you out? Does that about sum it up, luv?"

  "Yeah but that wasn't me. I had cast a Disassociation spell that turned out to be impossible to turn off. I would never have done that! What's so funny?"

  Quill chuckled for a few moments.

  "Well, for what it's worth, I believe you. But not everyone will. Doesn't matter though. Most of these fights end more or less the same way. No one really got hurt, so there's no need to say sorry."

  "Yeah but I'm sure it hurt a bunch when I beat the crap out of Darlene. I know it hurt when she punched me."

  "You didn't cast a pain-reducing spell? There's like a thousand of them."

  Quill wasn't lying. Boscos' Big Book of Spells had several different spells that dulled pain through various methods, although none could completely eliminate it. I easily could have added one or more to my enhancement spell routine.

  "Uhhhh, yeah. I guess I could have done that...didn't think I'd need it to be honest."

  "Well anyways luv, the banquet has already started. I'm sure that your presence is greatly anticipated. Especially since you don't need to work on that apology."

  I sighed.

  "Fine, but I refuse to make any speeches."

  "I am pretty sure none will be required."

  That was a relief.

  "So what is the banquet going to be like?"

  "There will be food, in case you were wondering," Quill deadpanned.

  I sat up slowly and rubbed at my nose. It was still sore to the touch, so I left it alone and squeezed my stiff neck muscles.

  "And you call yourself an author," I snapped a bit more harshly than I meant to. "Sorry, my face hurts. Anyways, what will this particular banquet be like?"

  Quill shrugged.

  "All the formalities are pretty much over. You've finished the Oathtaking and the games, and now it's time for a feast. People will pretty much just eat and talk. Then we all go home."

  "I could eat. And go home," I said with enthusiasm.

  Quill laughed.

  "Well then, let me show you to the banquet hall. Oh, and I almost forgot that your mentors will introduce themselves. Not that it isn't obvious who you'll get."

  I followed her through a door and into another one of the long palace corridors until we found ourselves before an enormous set of wooden doors. Tempting aromas wafted out from the room beyond and there were sounds of merriment and laughter.

  "You should probably go first," Quill N. Squib urged.

  I walked up to the doors, which opened automatically as I approached. There was a moment of diminished noise from the crowd beyond, as the more curious revelers stopped talking long enough to see who was making an entrance. Then the room erupted and cheers and applause.

  "Arabella! Arabella! Arabella Unbound! Woooooooo!"

  It was a bit much. Had my new body been capable of blushing, I would have been beet red. There must have been a thousand people cheering me. To escape from all the attention, I looked around for someone I knew so that I could greet them quickly and sit down. My eyes were drawn to a table at the far end of the room that was situated on a slightly elevated platform. Manticore Niraza was waving me over to her.

  I had to wade through the crowd to make it to Niraza's table. Everyone wanted to greet me, shake my hand, slap me on the back, and occasionally try to hug me. Thankfully Quill proved to be rather resourceful at disengaging me from those who wanted to detain me longer than was appropriate.

  We finally arrived at Manticore Niraza's table. All of the other contestants except for Darlene were sitting at the table, looking more or less recovered from their ordeals. Doing some quick math, it was easy to tell that this table was reserved for those who participated in the Oathtaking as well as their mentors to be. Which meant...

  "Manticore Niraza, are you my mentor?" I blurted out before Niraza even got a chance to say hello. She laughed before confirming my guess.

  "Yes, I am."