Alex in the arena (Patreon)

Marie snickered as she watched her daughter walk into the living room with a small stack of books. “Dinner should be ready in a couple of minutes.”

Alex sniffed as she tried to figure out what they were having. Something with pasta sauce and a fair amount of garlic but other than that she couldn’t tell. “What are we having?”

“Alisa and Daniel decided to make spaghetti.”

“I could eat,” she replied with amusement.

Marie chuckled as she looked at her tall and slender daughter. “Good, you can set the table.”

“Sure. Just let me put my books down.” She smiled as she walked over and set her books on the end table. She took the chemistry book off the top of the pile and set it on her dad’s favorite chair.

Marie glanced at the chemistry book. “Are you sure that giving your dad a magical chemistry book is safe?”

She shrugged. “No clue, I didn’t notice anything strange about it but I’ve only taken basic chemistry so I thought I would have dad take a look at it.”

Marie chuckled. “Yeah, because that can’t possibly end badly.”

Daniel grinned as he poked his head around the corner looking in from the kitchen. “Did someone say magical chemistry?”

Alex laughed. “Nah, well probably not. I figured I’d let you look the book over while I looked at some of the other textbooks.”

“That sounds fun. I’ll take a look after dinner.” He went back to helping Alisa stir the spaghetti.  

“Thanks.” Alex smiled as she walked to the kitchen to grab the dishes.

Marie glanced at her daughter‘s books. “So did you have fun with Abby?”

Alex collected the plates that she needed then walked back into the dining room part of the living room and put the plates around the table. “Yeah, I picked up my course books without much trouble then I worked on a project with her.”

“What type of project?” Marie asked warily.

“We managed to create a pocket dimension. We’ve got to do a bit of work on it but when we’re done with the place it will be wicked cool. I‘m sort of hoping I can write up a report about it for my aether control teacher, I mean it would be nice to start with some extra cred…” She trailed off as she realized that her mother was looking at her funny, “What?”

Marie asked warily, “How large of a pocket dimension?”

Alex shrugged. “I’m not sure… we walked down one of the paths for a few hundred feet then there is the large pond/small lake and the arena… oh right and the castle not to mention all of the other stone buildings in the middle of town.”

Daniel poked his head out of the kitchen and stared at his daughter. “A Castle?”

“What land of magic would be complete without a castle?” Alex asked with amusement.

He laughed, “One with a secret laboratory…” He laughed, “Wait, did you build one of those as well?”

Marie shook her finger at her husband playfully. “You shouldn’t encourage her.”

“I’m not sure…” Alex shrugged, “we won’t actually know what types of buildings are going to be there until we destroy some monsters and they appear.”

He walked over to th,e silverware drawer in the kitchen, grabbed some silverware and walked over to put them on the table, “That would be neat to see.”

“Yeah… I need to do a bit more research before I risk taking you in there but I do have a doorknob so at some point I’ll show you the town.”

Marie wondered if Alex was joking or not. Sometimes she thought her daughter had inherited too much of Daniel's sense of humor. She still remembered her daughter joking about being able to turn lead into gold with alchemy a couple of years ago, never mind that it turned out that she could actually do it by using a sample of gold and pouring magic into the lead. Daniel had been a bit annoyed over that joke. She suspected it was probably because he had been hoping to figure out how to do it chemically so that he could cause his science friends a meltdown. “A doorknob?”

She grinned at her mother as innocently as she could. “How else do you open doors?”

“Some doors have a handle,” Marie deadpanned.

Alex snickered. “Either way it could be fun as long as you don’t stay there too long.”

Alisa looked through the kitchen’s doorway from where she was pouring the pasta into a strainer in the sink. “What happens if we stay there too long?”

“I’m not actually sure. Some normal humans have strange side effects from spending too much time in aether realms and some are fine for months without anything bad happening.”

Alisa worked on shaking the water out of the strainer as she asked, “Is there anyway to figure out what group people fall into before they go crazy?” She dumped the pasta into the pan with the sauce then carried it to the table.

Alex sat down in her chair. “Yeah, there is supposed to be something in one of the books about how to check. I figure I should have things figured out by next Friday.” That gave her a week to get the town looking more hospitable and parent friendly. She also wanted to run around with her camera over the next week and document the town so that she had a record of how things looked before and after they started defeating the monsters.

Marie sat down in her chair. “Well in that case let’s eat then you can start looking through the books. I’d like to look through the index of your enchanting book if you don’t mind so I know some of the stuff you can do.”

Alex chuckled as she dished herself up some spaghetti. “Sure, I was planning to read my aether control book tonight anyways.”

“I’d like a crack at your chemistry book to see if it’s different.” Daniel was hoping there would be a section that talked about the difference between magically boosted chemistry and actual chemistry.

Marie dished up some spaghetti. “If you need help with creative writing or algebra I can help there.”

“Thanks.” Alex smiled as she listened to her parents talk about their day and their summer plans while she worked on devouring her spaghetti.

0o0o0

Abby scowled as she glared at the gate a decent number of students had just used to flee her realm. She had woken up excited to start her day. After a quick breakfast of pancakes she had run off to school to see if she could talk anyone into helping destroy a couple of monsters. It hadn’t exactly worked out the way she wanted. Most of her fellow students had taken one look at some of the monsters that fought in the arena and run for the hills. “Chicken shit magic users.”

Devon laughed. “Honestly can you blame them? Most of the guys from the computer game recreation club are used to working with a safety net. If they die here, that’s it, they’re dead. It takes all of the fun out of things for them.”

Even though Abby could see the logic she had hoped that a couple of them would have enough magical gear to make at least the first couple of fights easy. It might even have worked had the first guy that tried not gotten his arm ripped off before he managed to kill the goblin he was facing. Most of the gamers had fled rather quickly after that. Never mind the fact that the school’s nurse had managed to put his arm back on as good as new. She turned and looked at Devon. “What about you?”

“I’m in no hurry to die but I’m not worrying about it either.” He shivered slightly. “There are worse things than death after all.”

Abby frowned slightly as she noticed the haunted look that flashed across his face before he managed to control his expression. “I guess. Are you up for trying a team battle?”

“Might as well, do you think we can rope Alex into helping?” Devon asked curiously.  

Abby glanced toward the castle where Alex had been taking pictures earlier. “Probably not before she's done taking pictures, she wanted to document the changes.”

“We should be fine, do you want offense or defense?” He started walking down the path toward the arena.

“I’m decent at both though I’m probably better at defense,” Abby admitted.

He grinned as he set off down the path toward the arena because he was probably better at offense than defense. “That works.”

0o0o0 

Alex conjured another couple dozen balls of floating purple flame and sent them flying to rest near the black stone walls of what might one day become the castle ballroom. She took a couple of moments to admire the structure and the possibilities then snapped a couple dozen pictures with her camera. She was rather glad that she could take hundreds of pictures per memory card and that she had a couple cards to spare stuffed in her pockets. She twisted her hand and sent most of the balls of flame racing out the door and through the hall to the last room she had to take pictures of. She kept two balls of flame floating around her to light the way as she walked toward the kitchen to complete her tour of the castle. She had already taken pictures of the rest of the castle, secret rooms and laboratories included.  

The nice thing about exploring the castle before it was rebuilt was that it made it easier to see where secret passages would be as some rooms had openings between them where she wouldn’t have expected to see any. The bad part of exploring the castle before it was complete was that she’d had to walk through dusty corridors and through narrow passages under the castle that looked like they hadn‘t been cleaned in years. She glanced around the kitchen with amusement. A couple of rusted pots and broken tables were scattered around the kitchen. She ignored her stomach rumbling as she took a couple of pictures of the room so that she would have a record. “Maybe I should go see how Abby is doing, she might have remembered to bring snacks.” She knew she got a bit grumpy when she didn’t eat and didn’t always notice until she was growling at people. She canceled the flaming spheres that she had around the room other than the two she was using to light her way then she headed for the arena with a spring in her step.

0o0o0

Abby grinned as she stared through metal gate into the arena. “How bad can it be?”

Devon gulped. “Seriously, you didn’t just say that.”

“Please, we can handle goblins even if they are fast little demons.”

He gulped as he suddenly reconsidered helping out the crazy girl that didn’t even know enough not to toss the universe lines like that. “Ah, I‘m not sure but after watching goblins pull off some supernatural speed...”

“Oh, point.” The gate rattled as it swung outward. She frowned as she watched a pair of dwarves in full battle armor step out from their side of the arena. “Do those axes look particularly sharp to you?”

“Yeah, we should probably stay out of range.” He conjured a fireball in the palm of his hand then tossed it at the dwarves. “Hopefully…” he trailed off as the ball of fire hit the dwarves and exploded only for the dwarves to look none the worse for ware. “That’s not fair.”

Abby gulped as they walked toward her with a rather determined gait. “We need a new plan.” She tapped into her mana pool and conjured an area of darkness around the dwarves’ heads. “At least that works.”

Devon shook his head as the dwarves simply stepped out of the small clouds of darkness. “It didn’t stick, was it supposed to?”

“Yes…” Abby trailed off not quite sure what to do next.

He gestured and large hands made of sand ripped themselves out of the ground and reached for the dwarves. The dwarves scattered and used their weapons to slash at the sand hands. “That…” he trailed off as the strikes caused his sand hands to crumble. “I'm starting to hate this world.”

“It’s not the world’s fault that your hands aren’t working.” She gestured once more and conjured shadowy chains around the dwarves’ legs. “That’s not likely to hold them long.”

Devon split his focus and conjured a bow and arrows. “Cael would be so much better at this than I am.” He took aim and let fly with his first arrow. The dwarf slammed his axe into the shadow chains then tumbled and rolled forward under the arrow and out of reach of the chains. “Damn it!”

Abby growled as her shadow bolt washed over the dwarf’s armor without effect. “Magic proof armor?

Devon scowled as he studied the slowly advancing dwarves. “Apparently, now what?”

Abby scowled as she reached out with her magic and ripped several large rocks out of the earth beneath the sand. “Now we go with the standard golem killing ideas…” She tossed one of the heavier rocks as hard as she could with her magic at the dwarf.

Devon watched with relief and horror as the dwarf’s head exploded as the rock smashed through it with the force of a cannon ball. He took another shot at the other dwarf while it was screaming in rage about his friend dying. He managed to put an arrow through the dwarf’s unprotected neck. He gulped as the creature shrugged off what should have been a mortal shot and charged him. He dropped the bow and gestured at the ground under the dwarf.

Abby winced as the ground in front of the dwarf turned into spikes. She wasn’t sure if any of them got through the dwarf’s armor but at least it slowed the rampaging warrior down. She gestured at the other dwarf’s axe and sent it flying into the back of the charging dwarf’s head. She watched the dwarf crumple with a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach as she realized that the dwarves could have killed her. “Yeah, I think we’re going to have to stick with teams, this place is a bit too dangerous for single combat.”

Devon not for the first time wondered if the girl was nuts when he realized that she would probably continue fighting in the arena rather than just fleeing like a sane person. “It just seems brutal…”

Abby shrugged. “Yeah, we should probably loot the dwarves before something claims the loot.”

“Do I want to know what would claim the loot?” Devon asked warily.

“Probably not but they did have magical resistant armor,” Abby replied cheerfully.

He shook his head. “You’ve got a point there. It‘s probably better that other people don‘t get a hold of it, I’m not sure it works that way but why take the chance.”

Abby floated the dwarf’s weapon over to her. She grinned as she noticed that there wasn’t any damage to the blade from cutting through the other dwarf’s armor and skull. “This is so going on my wall.”

Devon looked at the dead dwarves, “How do we get the armor off?

Abby giggled as she hefted the axe and stared at the corpses.“Well I do have an axe.”

“Oh…” Devon’s face turned a bit green.

0o0o0

Alex tapped into her magic and flew over the empty moat. “Wee!” She giggled as she spread her arms and flew through the air. She glanced at the arena then flew over the town. It was nice to have a place where she could fly around without having to worry about normal people freaking out. She spotted three bright street lamps glowing where there hadn’t been any before she started exploring the castle. “Huh, I should probably see how Abby is doing.” She flew over to the arena and landed in front of the building. “Are my friends inside?”

The doorman shook his head, “No, they went back to the school to grab someone.”

“Ah, sweet that gives me a chance to burn off some energy.”

The doorman kept his expression neutral as he opened up the door for Alex.

0o0o0

Abby skipped up to the doorman and asked, “Is Alex inside?”

“The tall redhead?”

“Yes.”

The man looked Abby and the two young men with her over. “I believe she was going to burn off some energy, you should be able to see her fight from the stands.” He opened the door for them.

“Thanks.” She walked through and after noticing that Alex wasn’t in the entrance room she started to head for the stairs that took her into the stands.

Matt gasped as he looked around the entrance hall in wonder. “Wow, this is so cool, thanks for calling.”

Abby stopped and glanced around again as she waited for Matt to stop looking around, “Yeah, sorry that I didn’t think to call you when we created the place but the game recreation group was on a schedule and most of them had helped build a world before.”

Matt shrugged. “No worries, so can we actually watch a real fight?”

Devon chuckled as he pointed up the stairs. “Yeah, up the stairs.”

Matt grinned as he ran up the stairs.

Abby snickered. “I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen him run that didn’t involve cake or threats of violence from the P.E. teacher.”

Devon chuckled as he followed Matt and Abby up the stairs. “Understandable. My old P.E. teacher was an ex drill sergeant.”

Matt hurried over to the railing to watch the fight that was just starting between Alex and a group of goblins. “Alex is going to paste them.”

Abby grinned as she ran over to the railing so that she could watch Alex’s fight.

Devon shifted uncomfortably as he watched Alex tear through a pack of goblins in the arena like they were low level minions in a bad B movie. He glanced away as Alex brutally crushed one of the goblin’s windpipe with her fist. He turned a bit green as she grabbed the goblin’s broken throat and tossed the goblin at the last two goblins standing only to follow it up with a running jump and a side kick that snapped one of the goblin’s necks. “That’s vicious, who the hell trained her to fight?”

“No idea but she’s effective…” Matt gulped as he watched Alex. “Is she even using magic?”

Abby watched her friend shatter the last goblin’s leg with a well placed kick, “I’m not sure, I doubt it. If she was using magic I'd expect to see more damage.” Her eyes widened when Alex conjured a blade and beheaded the broken group of goblins with a series of quick strikes. “I don’t think I’ll ever joke about who would win in a fight again…”

Matt shook his head frantically for a couple of seconds. “Yeah, not a chance in hell…” he trailed off as he realized that she wanted him to get in the ring with goblins. “You don’t expect me to fight goblins with my fists, do you? That’s not what I signed up for.”

Devon’s laugh was sort of forced. “Not what I signed up for either…”

Abby laughed. “Nah, most of us aren’t nearly that good, I wouldn’t mind seeing you toss some fireballs with us though.”

“That I can do.” He watched as warily as Alex let her sword vanish and started looting the goblins.

0o0o0

Abby smiled brightly as Alex walked up the stairs and over to where their friends they were standing. She ignored the fact that her girlfriend was splattered with goblin blood and pulled her into a hug, “You rock girl.”

Alex smiled as she allowed herself to be pulled into a hug. “Thanks.” She took a step back after Abby released her. “Hey guys, how did I do?”

Matt shivered as the scene of her fighting the goblins played out again in his mind. “Better than I would have.”

“Maybe, maybe not. Are you going to help us kill some monsters?” Alex asked curiously.

“That was the plan…” His hesitant smile turned into a queasy expression as he noticed the blood splattered over Alex’s shorts and t-shirt. “Blood...”

Alex responded gleefully, “Don’t worry, none of the blood is mine.”

Matt gulped. “That’s good…”

Abby asked Alex, “How much magic were you using when you were fighting them?”

“Just a basic armor spell to enhance my natural magic granted durability and I conjured the sword at the end so not much. I should probably look into enchanting one at some point though…” She stopped talking as she noticed the axe that was hanging off of Devon’s belt. “Oh, sparkly.”

He smirked. “Yeah, this puppy dropped when we killed some evil dwarves, it was pretty sweet. It didn‘t even take a scratch when it cleaved the dwarf‘s armored head open.” He took the axe out of his belt and held it out for her to look at.

Alex smiled as she looked over the axe. “Sweet.”

Abby shook her head. “I meant for the martial arts… how much were you using your magic to boost your strength?”

“I wasn’t. They’re just goblins…” Alex trailed off as she noticed her friends staring at her.

Matt frowned. “Wait… you mean you defeated half a dozen goblin warriors without anything other than an armor spell?”

“They didn’t have any supernatural powers or much of anything really.”

“So how come there were six of them?” Matt asked.

Alex glanced back down into the arena. “Probably because they’re so weak.”

Abby said, “Good call about the armor spell, it might not help if they’re immune to magic like the dwarves earlier but against most things it should help.”

“I’ve been working on streetlamps but I think we should see about getting the inn in working order.”

“Fresh pies…” Matt trailed off with a grin.

Alex laughed. “Nah, I think that’s the bakery.”

“I’m so up for unlocking the bakery,” Matt replied as he rubbed his stomach.

Alex laughed as she started heading toward the stairs. “Well then let’s go.”

Devon sighed as he glanced at the rest of the group. “When did I become the sane one?”

“You’ll get used to it,” Abby replied with amusement.