Page 57 of Two Who Live On

“Warlock Wars is a timed event, and if members of either team remain active when the buzzer sounds, the match will be declared a stalemate, and neither team will move forward.”

All eighty names were displayed on a screen and slowly filtered out until only eight remained. Four in red and four in blue.

TEAM 1

TEAM 2

Yaritza Vargas

Jamius Watson

Melanie Dawson

Harrison Heywood

Layla Smythe

Amani Williams

Jennifer Jung

Kenzo Ito

I frowned. I figured the odds were against my homeroom coven, but six names drawn in the first round? Yikes. I wanted to support Team One, but Kenzo had a ruthlessness in and out of the classroom. Either way, no matter how the match turned out, my perfect covenscore had ended. Not that that was a concern. It would’ve been interesting, though, since no one ever had their entire homeroom coven place in the finale for a first- or second-year showcase. My highest number was four kids in a final bout.

All the students stepped into the arena; cameras kept close to them, allowing the audience a more personalized vantage, and standing at the edge of the arena as a proctor gave me closer insight. I handed Team Two their dampening cuffs so they could detain the warlock enemy. Peterson handed Team One their cuffs to detain the warlock enemy. I hated this game. However, the cuffs were useful for peacefully nullifying magic. Unlike Kenzo’s hex magic, these didn’t disrupt the channeling receptors but instead temporarily drained them.

It was difficult creating enchantments strong enough to neutralize branch magics considering they all require different frequency variables. The broader the enchantment, the weaker they were, requiring far more to handle any job. Hence why the auxiliary gym was covered in well over a thousand enchantment symbols lining all the walls of the building. Dampening cuffs simply fed off the magic it contained like a little battery. That said, they were still just metal with sigils carved into them. The right person could pick them, break them, or sear the sigils destroying their function.

“This is going to be amazing,” Harrison shouted, rifling through his fanny pack.

A useful magic along with a decent ranking. Bet Chanelle was relieved only two of her homeroom coven students had been drawninto this round, whereas six of mine took the stage right in the first match.

“No early preparations,” Chanelle scolded her homeroom student. “Each team will have five minutes to develop a strategy and ten minutes to execute it. Best of luck detaining the warlock threat.”

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