Chapter 115: Here We Go Again! The Forest Changes...

The dean and board of directors were in a heated discussion about what to do with the missing mythological heart. Mr. Pritchett showed several video clips of Tyler clearly gaining possession of it and it "was absorbed his staff, something he could not control."

Several of the board members thought no one should be awarded points for the mythological crystal heart because the point was to keep it as a tool to ensure the teams ended up dueling one another for a clear winner. The head of the board sat silently listening to everyone’s opinion on the matter before he finally came to a verdict.

"Ability Academy should be given the points for the heart. If another school wants it, they can try to steal Mr. Rask’s staff, although that probably won’t end up going well for them. It’s clearly evident he took possession of the heart from Armitage using one of his familiars, which by the rules, isn’t punishable nor should his team suffer because it dissipated. I don’t think any of us saw this coming so Dean, please update the scores accordingly."

"With pleasure, thank you very much everyone for the feedback. Hopefully the other events will be to your liking," he told the group, trying his best to hide his excitement.

’You sneaky bastard Tyler! I love it! The heart is ours and that’s 10,000 points no one else can get.’ He thought while walking to the command center.

Employees were working as quickly as they could while watching the reset take place. Every time this happened, they had no inclination on what would occur so they had to quickly adjust all cameras, replace the broken ones and try to get a location on the teams as quickly as they could. Fortunately, the arm bands had sensors in them to provide a "ping" on the GPS. The remaining seven teams were getting closer and closer together after each shake up.

"Adjust the scores and add 10,000 points to Ability Academy 1!" Dean Pritchett shouted to the room.

No one hesitated or questioned him and updated the scores.

"Sir, you should take a look at this. This reset looks dangerous." One of the workers yelled from his desk.

The dean quickly made his way to the monitors he was observing. He shook his head with displeasure.

’What the hell are these Eidolons up too?’

******

Tyler used Gaia to protect the girls from the change, but it didn’t help. They were teleported to an unknown area and grateful Sophie made the container to bring their sleeping bags, potions, etc.

"What the hell..." Tyler muttered, staring into a forest filled with fog with dead beasts lying everywhere.

He noticed everyone was coughing.

Sophie quickly cast magical bubbles around everyone’s heads. "I don’t think this fog is safe. We need to find somewhere to take cover!"

"Did they really release acidic fog into the forest?! Do they want us all dead!" Nyx complained.

"Why the hell would the school allow this?" Kass voiced her displeasure.

"They don’t have control over it, let’s just get somewhere away from this fog. Nyx, teleport us anywhere but here." Amanda pleaded.

Tyler didn’t even bother touching the dead beast’s crystal hearts. They looked into the sky and smiled.

#1 Ability 1 - 22,600

#2 Armitage 2 - 10,550

#3 Armitage 1 - 10,150

#4 Ability 2 - 9,970

#5 - BloodCrest 4 - 8,880

7 teams Remaining.

Tyler was amazed they could drink potions through the bubble without a problem.

"Sophie, you never cease to amaze me!" Tyler smiled.

She grinned. "Just a spell my parents taught me last year. It protects us from intoxicating fumes but allows us to speak, eat, drink and cast magic without damaging the protective bubble. It’s called the bubble-head charm.

Nyx teleported them away. They landed somewhere without the fog, but the forest remained dark and ominous, despite a cloudless sky and everyone knowing it was sometime in the afternoon.

They failed to notice the Victorian team, who quickly hid behind trees. As soon as Tyler’s group walked past them, the purple squad ambushed Ability team 1. They were able to land two clean hits on Kass and Amanda, who both fell unconscious.

Tyler was pissed.

"Vivian, Max, go charm them. The rest of you make sure they’re taken down quickly. Ash, go check on the girls and use your healing magic. Why haven’t you evolved yet I’m SSS?" Tyler realized his favorite familiar should have evolved again.

"On it and not sure. I thought I’d evolve when we visited my parents. Can’t control when it happens, but I’ll make sure they’re ok!"

"Rex, Shadow, protect Sophie and Nyx. Ritsu, clone time." Tyler spoke clearly and calmly despite his building rage.

’Link with Gaia,’ Tyler smirked. He turned into a pool of mud, completely disappearing into the Vexarran terrain.

’This is really cool,’ Tyler thought with a smirk.

"Should have signed one earlier," Gaia teased.

"His staff! Get the staff!" The Victorian captain yelled.

A fast student dashed toward it while the others fought off Tyler’s familiars but when the student got close, Tyler appeared, roundhouse kicking the young man unconscious. His staff floated into his hand and he turned, firing thorns rapidly at the Victorian students, careful to not hit Sophie or Nyx.

This wasn’t clear domination like the other fights. The Victorian students worked very well together and Maximus and Vivian couldn’t get in a good position to charm them. One of the Victorian students cast a spell Tyler inspected.

’It’s like magical contact lenses. That’s crazy.’ Tyler thought while recalling Vivian and Max.

"Sorry Tyler!" Vivian said sadly. She was disappointed in herself. She had never failed to charm someone before.

"We have failed you, I am sorry Tyler," Maximus echoed his wife’s sentiment.

"Stop apologizing. There was a spell that allowed them to protect themselves from charms. I hate when you feel bad, so don’t worry about it!" Tyler exclaimed empathetically.

Max and Vivian were both grateful. All of his familiars were and it was why Gaia was so angry with Tyler for not visiting her in the Land of Summoned Monsters. The Eidolon realm had tens of thousands of willing Eidolons all ready to sign contracts with Tyler.

The livestreams picked up the action and the chats were moving too fast for the hosts to read. The bigger streams apologized for their late responses and focused on the battle going on between the two schools.

"Shit, what happened?" Kass said after Ash woke her up.

"Ugh, I feel like I got hit by an anvil!" Amanda complained, quickly noticing the school’s dueling. She tried to get up but Ash used his wing to shield her from oncoming attacks while making sure she didn’t over-exert herself.

"Viv, get the box to those two. They need potions." Tyler said while engaging the Victorian captain.

Vivian appeared, grabbed the box and Shadow, Rex and Ritsu protected her while she ran it over to the girls. They both quickly grabbed all 3 of the potions, drank them and got involved in the fight.

"Ash, get in the air!" Tyler said enthusiastically.

"Shit! Watch out for that phoenix," the Purple team’s captain yelled.

Amanda buffed everyone and with the threat of Ash looming, the Victorian team did everything they could to fend off the oncoming attacks.