Chapter 131: School Spirit?

Sophie zig zagged effortlessly while shooting fire and ice from each katana. The entire arena was loud, especially for the home school. Her opponent dropped their weapon and surrendered. Tyler was the first person on the stage. Normally, the officials would have thrown a fit, but it was Tyler and all of Vexarra knew they were an item. He sprinted over and swooped her up in a giant hug.

He spun her around several times before setting her down and kissing her.

"You were amazing!" Tyler exclaimed, excitement pouring from his face.

Sophie used her hand to gently graze his cheek. She smiled and was taking in the moment.

"You really mean it don’t you? Even with all this power and all this fame... you still are amazed and proud of me everytime." She said with a small tear forming from her eye.

"Of course I do! I wouldn’t be who I am if it wasn’t for you and the others. Imagine a world where you didn’t give me a chance or didn’t warm up to Amanda. That world would suck." Tyler said while walking with her to the scorers table.

She laughed. "Thankfully that didn’t happen. Nyxara’s match is in 2 hours and yours is at 6 PM."

They went to the scorers table where Master Sanju congratulated Sophie and explained her next battle would be tomorrow would be in the outdoor arena with Professor Chase officiating. He wished them good luck and they caught up with their group.

They all gave her hugs and congratulations and Sophie couldn’t stop smiling.

’It’s nice to know people appreciate me. Wait, are those my parents?!’ She started immediately blushing.

Sophie’s parents walked down from the stands and gave her a hug.

"Good job kiddo," her dad said.

"Great job sweetie. You really kicked that young man’s ass!" Her mom laughed.

"Hey Mr. and Mrs. Grace!" Tyler said politely while shaking Sebastian’s hand and hugging Susie.

"Oh, hello!" Mrs. Grace said with a big laugh. "It’s good to see you too Tyler. Where are those other beautiful ladies, ah, Amanda, there you are!"

Her parents introduced themselves to the rest of the friends while showering the group with love and affection. They kept saying how proud they were of everyone but especially Sophie, which made her and Tyler smile. They both knew how far her parents had come from that first meeting and it was great to see her getting the love and support she deserved.

Tyler looked to the sky, smiled and whispered. "Take your time before you get here. I still have a wedding and I don’t really want a war."

"Uh, bro, what war?" Adam asked.

"Oh, nothing. I’m just saying I don’t want a war between the schools. We just beat Armitage again. They’re probably pissed," Tyler laughed while wrapping his arm around Adam.

’I hope he bought that.’

***********

Sophie’s parents decided to take them all out to a quick lunch. They enjoyed their favorite spot in Vespa and it was nice to get away from the school. Once again, people continuously walked up to their table politely but this time some asked for pictures or autographs.

Tyler watched each of his future wives pose for a picture with a family or a couple, even some single people and just smiled, basking in the moment.

’Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be marrying 4 beautiful women.’

Amanda was surprised how many people wanted her autograph and pictures with her. She made quite the impression during the forest event by her keen thinking and use of buffs to make her team stronger. Her and Sophie healing Tyler when he was unconscious gave her an entire fanbase she never knew existed.

After lunch, they returned to the school in time for Nyxara’s duel.

She was against a third year Arctic Academy werewolf.

The werewolf transformed and swung his claws, sending out razor thin icicles but Nyx just dissolved them with a fire spell. She teleported behind him, dodging his swing. She used a sweeping leg kick to knock him over and put her rapier right at his throat. The crowd erupted in cheers. The fight only lasted around 30 seconds. She was just that good.

The "Crimson Valkyrie" chant from the year prior was back and to their surprise, Nyxara knew how to play to a crowd quite well. They all laughed and felt foolish afterwards. Of course she knew how to entertain a large group of people and get their attention quickly. She was a vampiric princess.

Sophie waved to her parents, who were still there and everyone was walking to dinner in the cafeteria. They were surrounded by students from all types of schools and it was starting to get slightly annoying, but they only showed positive and thankful emotions to their supporters. Tyler and Nyx teleported the group to their apartment and Adam freaked out.

"You just teleported me?!"

"New space based familiar. He makes traveling a lot easier," Tyler said while helping Adam up.

They turned on some of the televisions and checked the streams. Almost the entire focus was on the duels and apparently Armitage had a first year student that was quite talented no one knew about.

"Why did they keep her out of the forest, I wonder?" Tyler asked.

"Probably to hide how powerful she is. Apparently she’s 2-0 today in duels and her average match time is 8 seconds. That’s insane." Sophie said while shaking her head.

"That’s faster than my match time last year..." Nyx said while face palming.

"You can’t seriously be worried about it?" Tyler asked with a frown.

"Do you take anything seriously?!" Amanda pleaded.

Tyler felt bad. He had been pretty non-chalant since the forest and the more he thought about it, he had kind of been that way since he arrived on Vexarra. It’s not that he didn’t care, he just was overly optimistic and had faith in his ladies abilities.

He showed them his ring and said, "I take everything seriously. Sometimes too seriously, that’s why I often joke or deflect. If I stress out about one of you losing or not having your best day, that’s one thing, but the thought of something terrible happening to any of you, I just can’t let my mind go there. I’m really sorry if I have come across like a naive jerk," Tyler said sincerely while walking up to each of them and kissing their forehead.

"I think Amanda was just giving you shit but it’s good to know you care. We all know you take us seriously Tyler, it would just be nice if you didn’t always play it off like we’re going to win. It puts a lot of pressure on us," Kass said while kissing his cheek.

"You could lose every single match in this tournament and it would never change my opinion of you...so go out there, have fun and know I’ll be rooting for you no matter what! I can’t help that I’m confident in my future wives!" Tyler finally smiled.

They hugged him.

"Well, that’s good to know mister because your first match is in 30 minutes!" Amanda grinned.