Chapter 3

Amaryllis duels Mr. Flay. Who will win? What will happen?

The class widened their eyes and there was a shuffle of chairs as the class turned in their seats to look at Amaryllis, who blushed.

“Mr. Flay wants to fight her?”

“What is going on?”

“This is going to be epic”

Mutters rippled over the class. They had never heard of anything of the sort: Mr. Flay wishing to duel with an inexperienced new student.

“Silence, whoever speaks next will regret it,” Mr. Flay’s voice cut through like a knife. The class fell quiet once again. Mr. Flay strode up until he was nearly face to face with Amaryllis. “Answer me, girl” he hissed. Amaryllis felt her blood boil with anger that he treated so harshly and embarrassed her. “Yes, I would like to duel you,” she answered icily.

A flash of shock and something like recognition flashed through Mr. Flay’s eyes for an instant. Dumbstruck, he watched as the slender figure glared at him and then strode up to the stage without a flicker of doubt or fear. As a strict and harsh teacher, this was unknown of to him and he was more used to fear and cowardice in his students rather than the display of boldness and courage he was seeing. Mr. Flay quickly recovered and took his place across Amaryllis.

Then, without warning, he attacked. A fiery spear of fire arced through the air. Amaryllis had been expecting that, from what she knew, Fire and Earth users were rather straightforward and knew little of subtle techniques such as concealing what they were going to do next. At the last moment, she had seen Mr. Flay’s knuckles tighten and whiten. She reached the delicate balance of the four elements and made a screen of cool water vapor. The spear of fire disappeared at once. Her reflexes quick, Amaryllis shaped her multi-colored aura into arrows. One was an arrow of fire, an arrow of icy air that could pierce skin, an arrow of water and an arrow of earth with a sharp broad head.  The slender arrows arced through the air and struck Mr. Flay, who let out a shout of pain and pure agony as the power of the four elements were unleashed on him all at once. He recovered soon and attacked Amaryllis with renewed vigor; he molded weapons with his fiery aura and sent them flying at Amaryllis. Bolts, arrows, spears, axes, maces, daggers, clubs, all made of red-hot fire, lanced through the air at Amaryllis. Amaryllis defended hurriedly and deflected the weapons with her Water and Air magic. A last spear lanced towards Amaryllis, who acted instinctively and heated the spear so that it was white-hot, and sent a fistful of earth flying at it. The mixture formed red, boiling lava which splattered onto Mr. Flay, who shouted in pain and shock that the element he controlled would go against him.

Amaryllis pitied him for a moment, and then remembered the mocking words that he had said, and a fierce satisfaction that left a sweet taste in her ran through Amaryllis. Now for the finishing touches, she thought. Amaryllis then using her Air magic and Water magic, made a tornado. As it spun, she heated the swirling air and added bits of soil, and then, she waved her arm.

The tornado hit Mr. Flay and the stout combat teacher gave a screech of pain and fury and toppled over, his head hitting a desk. He then lay there, unconscious. “One, two, three four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, TEN!” the class was in a frenzy as they watched their teacher being beaten by a new student.

Amaryllis was surprised when the class erupted into cheers. She had expected everyone to be afraid of her after her little show of how she could control all four elements. She had expected fear and was very surprised to receive admiration and awe instead. Shyly, she smiled and returned to her seat. Amaryllis received many smiles and claps on her back. It was a comical scene, Amaryllis sitting at her seat, coolly pushing a strand of dark brown hair away from her eyes, the epitome of peace while Mr. Flay struggled to stand up, an ugly bruise on his forehead, scorch marks on his arms and pieces of soil all over him.

Glaring at Amaryllis furiously, Mr. Flay staggered up, “class dismissed!” he announced and hobbled out of the room to nurse his injuries. The class erupted into peals of laughter once he left the room.

People came to congratulate Amaryllis; the first was a handsome boy with warm brown eyes who introduced himself as James. “Nice one Amaryllis,” he said softly, giving her a smile. He said her name as if he was savoring the word and Amaryllis liked how he said it. Amaryllis smiled shyly in return. Her smile froze on her face when she spotted a pretty girl with dark blond hair watching the scene enviously from a side. She must have a crush on him, Amaryllis thought. The girl caught her gaze and returned it with a venom studded gaze.

A girl with light brown curls called Resa also came and congratulated her, smiling. “That was nice, Mr. Flay will probably not mess with you anymore,” Resa said, her green eyes twinkling.

“I guess,” Amaryllis replied shyly. She was surprised that people bothered to talk to an average-looking girl like her.

Resa pursed her lips, “You are new at the Academy, aren’t you. Would you like me to show you around and take you to your classes?”

“Yeah sure!” Amaryllis replied enthusiastically. Resa nodded a couple of times, and then turned to her group of friends.

“I guess you don’t know everyone here, eh?” Resa introduced her friends one by one to Amaryllis, “Alright let me introduce them to you, this is Maria…” Resa continued saying. Resa also introduced the girl with the dark blond hair as Penelope. Penelope fixed Amaryllis with a deadly gaze which Amaryllis turned away from. Someone gave her pins instead of peas or what, Amaryllis thought, she looks like a deadly snake. Amaryllis pushed the thought aside after a moment of hesitation, it’s only the second day, don’t want to spoil the year by making an enemy, she thought and turned her mind to brighter things.

As she packed her belongings and left the classroom with Resa and her new friends, she thought inwardly that perhaps the duel with Mr. Flay had made things better instead of made things worse and maybe the year at the Academy of the Gifted was not going to turn out bad after all.

Author's Note

Please review this