Charles king lonely hope part 1
Chapter 13

I was worried when I realized that all the first-year boys would be getting dressed in one dressing room, the same one I was in before, but to my pleasant surprise it has grown a lot and has more than enough space for me to get dressed into the one-piece magic suit. Now that I know it will protect me from any magic, I feel very protected, Why doesn’t everyone just walk around wearing these all the time? On top of our suits was a bracelet I assume helps with the shield spell and a sword hilt similar to the one Mr Ridgewell had in class Everyone was instructed not to activate it until the royale started, but the second a teacher left I saw a boy hold out his arm and another one activate his sword and slowly pass the sword through the arm of the other boy, his arm slumped to his side and the teacher walked back in a blonde haired guy with a large nose.

“Right come forward all those who have stabbed themselves or got someone else to do it.” About 8 kids stepped forward and to the teacher, and he handed them a new one-piece one, “Do not do it again, anyone who does it will start the royale with the injury you have inflicted on yourself and do not sabotage or attack anyone else either you will be Disqualified before it even begins, the royale will begin in soon, get ready” and he left leaving an entire large dressing room full of boys silent and becoming increasingly nervous, I took some deep breaths in and the boys who had injured themselves got their friends to help them get their first suit off. Mr. Ridgewell walked in holding a bingo ball spinner filled with small bits of paper.

“Hello boys” Mr Ridgewell shouted, getting everyone’s attention instantly, “I’m going to come around and hold out the ball spinner When I get to you put your hand in and pull out one piece of paper and then put it in the small pocket on your right hip this will be your starting position, it will be blank so no point looking at others.” When Ridgewell got to Kevin and me, we put our hands in and pulled out our papers and showed each other, They were blank, I slid my hand down my right hip looking for the small pocket and found it then slid the small piece of paper in.

“Now everyone has their piece of paper, stand up and follow me out of the changing rooms and on to the royale, oh And last bit of information, the royale is about to begin, Hold your hilt and do not activate it until you’re outside because once you are, the royale begins, follow me” all the boys stood up slowly and walked quietly to the door and out into the entrance of the sports halls, the blonde teacher with a big nose was standing outside the girls changing room and gave Mr. Ridgewell a nod, then we were lead down a corridor and I noticed that the sports hall where I sat in today was to my right and must be going out of the door to where the reveal was. The door that I went through that led to the field wasn’t there, it was a silver liquid wall, it’s a transmission wall, Now The small piece of paper makes sense we will be put randomly into a spot.

“Remember the plan?” Kevin nudged me and asked.

“I do,” I said and gave him a nod before he disappeared through the silver wall, and I followed him through.

I walked through and stumbled over a tree stump I was in a forest, trees all around me blocking out the sunlight apart from the odd rays shining through, A squirrel noticed me and scurried up a tree, Unsure what to do I just decided to walk and listen out for people, friend, or foe.

After at least 10 minutes of hearing nothing, I heard a scream to my left, it’s the only thing I had heard for a while, I walked closer to it and peered around a tree and saw Charlotte on the floor, crying, crawling backwards with a second-year boy with a brown mullet standing over her.

“Stand up and fight come on” he shouted.

“Leave me alone” she replied.

“Come on, I thought that posh people were meant to be strong” he kicked dirt at her and that was it, I’m stepping in, I’m all for wanting a fair fight but not picking on someone who doesn’t want to fight. I remembered what Mr. Ridgewell said, the sword can go through any part of the body and it won’t physically hurt them, but it will stop them if you get their chest or head, I slowly walked forward and and got behind the guy, Charlotte noticed me, and I grinned at her.

“You okay there?” I asked, and the second-year boy spun around but I had already activated my sword and with a sideward swipe my sword passed through his neck and he fell to the floor looking furious at me. I looked down at him, “I technically live in a posh area Does that make me posh?” he didn’t reply or couldn’t either way if looks could kill I would die. I stepped over him and offered Charlotte a hand up, she accepted to my surprise then looked at me and said.

“Thank you” She looked down at the floor.

“Have you seen anyone else? Apart from angry face?” The mullet boy’s bushy eyebrows couldn’t be closer together and his thin lips squeezed together trying their best to force a sound out.

“Now I have only seen an angry face,” Charlotte said copying me, the random bad nickname I gave him. “He jumped out at me when I was walking past that tree, She pointed at a cluster of trees, it could have been any one of them.

“Okay, anyway good luck” I turned and walked away.

“Wait” she called out, I turned around and she was pulling small bits of tree out of her hair, and she looked like she was trying to say something but was struggling to replace the words, I think I knew what she wanted to say.

“Actually,” I said, she looked up at me, “if we stick together for a bit, I don’t think anyone will jump out at us” She smiled at me, “Let’s go” I waved her over and did a little run to me.

We walked for a few minutes in silence before Charlotte spoke. “So, you live in a posh area?” she said the word posh in with air quotes.

“Yeah, we moved there last week,” I said and now that I think about it, I don’t know the area where I live, all I have to get home is a ticket that takes me to the right station, “it’s in the city, I don’t know where if I’m honest just that it’s posh and not far from my parent’s guild”.

“Oh, I have think, I have an idea of where you mean, where did you live before that?”

“Caster, a small place by the Lake District, have you heard of it?”

“No, but I know the lake district”. This was nice I didn’t expect to get any conversation out of her at all and now we are having a full-on talk.

“Where do you live?” I asked.

“I live on my family estate, about an hour’s drive from the city.”

“Estate? You are posh!” I joked.

“Shut up you” she joked back.

“Yeah. Shut up you” said a sinister voice, I spun around and looked around us, but all I could see were trees close and far away. Charlotte nudged me and pointed to my right, barely visible but definitely, there was an elbow poking out from behind a tree,

“I can see you,” I said but he didn’t move, “You’re behind the tree” he didn’t move again, so I shot a blastball past the tree and a head appeared around the tree, glaring at me, he stepped out and so did a second boy from the tree next to him.

“Let’s run” Charlotte whispered to me and began pulling on my arm.

“We can’t, they will follow us,” I said, “we will only tire ourselves out.”

I turned back around to look at the boys, They were both bigger than me, I think they must be second years, One was ginger covered in freckles and green eyes, and the other was a blonde boy with pale skin and a boxer’s nose. I noticed the ginger boy’s hands shaking. We can win this.

“What spells can you use?” I whispered to Charlotte, without taking my eyes off the boys creeping towards us.

“Only blastballs,” she said Her hand was shaking holding on to the back of my arm. I’m not surprised at how that other boy treated her before.

“Get ready to use it, we can win this, do you trust me?”

“Not really, but okay,” she said and let go of my hand.

I stepped forward and tried to remember what my mum told me about fighting with swords.

“Charles do not look down at the floor” my mother screamed at me in our garden back in caster, “looking down at your opponent, leaves you vulnerable for attacks from above, you look at your opponent in the eyes, and take in their actions and their surroundings...”

I looked at the blond-haired boy in his eyes and hoped to God Charlotte would fire spells at the ginger boy, The blonde boy had, his hilt in his right hand and his left hand twitching, behind him a tree stump. He is getting ready to put a shield up.

“Charles! Everybody’s first reaction is to defend their chest or head, it’s instinct especially if they have no experience” Thanks mum I know what to do. I raised my hand as quickly as possible, The blonde boy reacted and activated his shield, and I fired a spell at his feet. The blonde boy jumped backwards and hit the tree stump and fell onto his bum and accidentally deactivated his shield this was my time now so I fired many blastball at the blonde guy, hit his chest and face and then head laid back looking furious I started to sense a theme here, Charlotte is shooting balls at the ginger guy, he had his shield up and suddenly notice his friend and the floor and looked shellshocked, I took the moment to walk around and the dummy turned around to me with his shield too, Charlotte’s spell hit him square on the chin and he fell, a whoop for charlotte and that fight was over. My first one teaming up with Charlotte.

We walked away in a bright mood, Charlotte had a spring in her step, but the reality of where we were, came crashing down around us, Grace came sprinting past us, Charlotte and I looked at each other and I thought wondering the same thing, what’s going on here?

Grace came running back and stopped in front of us, I don’t know looked more confused at what they were seeing, her or us, because I was staring at Grace with her hair bushy to the point as if birds made a nest out of it, I wouldn’t be surprised.

“You, okay?” I asked. Don’t know why but this seemed to annoy the life out of Grace with the look on her face.

“Am I okay? Am I okay?” she repeated, “I have had to run all the time, everywhere I go there is a second year ready to beat me up.”

“Don’t think we have had that problem” I said, “only seen three people, four if you count Charlotte.” Grace’s eyes flared the same colour as her insane hair.

“Three? Bloody three?” she shouted, “I saw three within the first 10 minutes.”

“That must have sucked” I joked, that’s it she might kill me, she stomped forward, but Charlotte stepped in front and hugged her and then began to fix Grace’s hair.

“Why are you running?” I asked but that was answered instantly when two second-year girls came running through the trees.

“There she is!” one shouted, before firing blastballs at her, I managed to get in front and block it with my shield. “That’s the devil boy! A girl with dark hair shouted, her friend also had dark hair but had one eyebrow.

“It is,” one brow said. “Isn’t he the show offs younger brother too” They must mean Lincoln, great.

“He is, let’s tell the others we can beat him and the other two right now!“, one brow ran off and I had a stare-down with the brown-haired girl a good ten metres apart.

“There are like 10 of them,” Grace said, “they have been Chasing me for ages, calling me names too.”

“We should run,” Charlotte said and then Grace agreed, I thought about it.

“No point they will follow us, You two run now, I’ll stay, they will want to beat the devil more, no offence.”

“Don’t call yourself that” Charlotte snapped, taking Grace and me by surprise,

“I’m right though, get going, I can beat her” I stepped forward to the girl and she looked shocked, to say the least and heard the footsteps of Grace and Charlotte leaving. Time to try and do something I suppose, I kept on walking forward and the girl moved, back, Come on remember what mum said. I looked her over, sword on the right, shield on the left and a tree behind her and if she was focused on me, she wouldn’t expect to hit it. I faked running at her, and she fell for it, She turned to run but ran straight into the tree and before she knew it I had hit her back and the back of her head with blastballs. I didn’t get a chance to see her face, I had company in the second 5 boys and 4 girls came sprinting through, All I could do was fire my blast balls spells off at them hoping to hit them and I did because of people moving out of the way and ones behind not expecting it. I put a shield up and looked behind me making sure nothing was there and began to move back and shoot my spells.

Great I’m surrounded, there are two fewer now but that does mean there are 7 left. I have two shields up to prevent as many spells as I can.

“Come on devil boy.”

“Little demon can’t move.”

“Aww baby Lucifer stuck is he” That one made me laugh.

“Am I stuck?” I questioned “Or are you afraid to attack” I laughed loudly; I needed to get them to make a mistake.

“INFERNO!” A spiral of fire flattened the 4 to my right. I see Lincoln panting with a sinister smile when the bodies hit the floor.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” Grace and Charlotte came screaming out from the trees on the other side firing spells on the other side, firing spells and distracting them, This is my time, I activated my sword and cut down a boy and girl to my left. I turned around and Lincoln got to me and stopped a sword from hitting me with his shield. We managed to whittle them down to the last boy.

“Baby Lucifer you said?” I stood over him, “You might be right” I fired a blastball and hit his face They all looked furious at me. This time I love it. “I told you two to run” I turned on Grace and Charlotte looking rather pleased with themselves.

“We were going too,” Grace said, “but we felt bad.”

“What they were saying wasn’t nice,” Charlotte said. Her lips pursed looking at me sympathetic.

“Not the worst thing that has been said to me recently,” I said honestly. “Oh, this is my brother Lincoln.”

“Hey” Lincoln nodded at Charlotte, “have you seen Yasmin or Kevin?” he turned to me.

“No, just this lot, and 3 others, How many people have seen?”

“About 20 I think,” Lincoln said.

“Did you run away?” Grace asked.

“No why?” Grace and Charlotte looked at each other and mouth wow, “Let’s get going, are you two okay to back us up with blastball if need be?” Grace and Charlotte nodded quickly, I think they were impressed and slightly intimated by Lincoln. We began walking, Lincoln and I walked in front and the two girls behind us.

“What do we have here?” Lincoln and I stopped and spotted where the voice came from, 6 boys and 3 girls appeared, and Ethan and Tori were a part of the group at the back. Suddenly a tall brown-haired boy ran at us at top speed, Lincoln fired a blastball at him but the shield was up.

“His feet” Lincoln whispered. I instantly knew what to do and fired my blastballs at his feet tripping him and he fell and slid to a halt at our feet, Lincoln hit the back of his head with a spell. “Get ready, here they come, shields up girls” Lincoln pushed me and ran to the right, I followed suit and ran to the left, Blastballs rattled the girl’s shields and then splattered the trees that I ran past,

I turned to face them and let the blast balls hit my shield before a second-year girl closed in on me swinging her sword at my leg, but I lifted my leg and it swished past me, I kept my shield active with my left hand and then fire a blastball with my right hand that narrowly missed her head skimming her blonde hair. She swung her sword again, but I dodged it and blocked blastballs from the group in the middle, In the corner of my eye I saw Lincoln drop a boy with a slash of his sword! Grace and Charlotte are holding their Shields strong while two boys pounded on with swords. Think Charles thinks, a boy and a girl have run at Lincoln, Ethan and Tori are firing blastballs at me, but they aren’t strong.

Run at them, run at them! was screaming in my mind, so did as fast as I could I pressed my left hand into the ground and narrowed my head A blade flew above it, I pushed off and ran at Ethan and Tori and another boy who likes like another 1st year. Ethan and Tori looked shocked and stopped firing. Bingo. I Let go of my shield and fired my blastball and hit both Ethan and Tori. They stumbled backwards and fell into the first-year boy. I ran past him to Lincoln fighting the other two, I could hear the footsteps of the girl behind. And in the corner of my eye, I saw the two boys turn from Grace and Charlotte and begin to run over. I pulled my sword from my waistband and slashed the back of the girl who was attacking Lincoln.

“Duck!” Lincoln commanded.

I did and a Blastball with specs of red flew past me and hit the girl behind me right in the eye. I took the moment to slash the legs of the boy who Lincoln was fighting, he hit the floor and shouted.

“Oh, come on!”

“Where are you going?” I heard Lincoln shout, at 3 boys running away. “Well done all around,” Lincoln said, before helping me up, his eyes flicked to the boy whose legs I slashed before, he was crawling away quietly, hoping nobody would notice him but Lincoln hit him with blastballs.

In the space of 20 minutes groups of 2 or more have tried attacking us over and over again and each time we have knocked them back and out of the royale, Grace and Charlotte grew with confidence, even feeling confident enough to chat to Lincoln and ask him questions both of them wanted to know about his fire spiral spell. Inferno I think it is called.

“It’s something I learned from my dad,” he said, stepping over a second-year boy knocked out by Charlotte’s blastball.

“Yeah, but you’re a second year,” Charlotte said, “who can do a spell most adults can’t.”

“Exactly” Grace added “I have never seen an Adult do that.”

“Just a family thing girls’” Lincoln said, his face changing shade, glowing red.

Lincoln raised his hand, and the girls instantly stopped talking, We watched him closer and tried to listen out for any noise, distant yelling could be heard.

“Someone is fighting,” Lincoln said, “Let’s go check it out”. we walked towards the noise, The thought that maybe it was Kevin and Yasmin sprung across my mind, and my footsteps picked up. I got to a tree that was close to the noise but was big enough so I could hide behind and no one could see me. peering around the tree I saw two groups firing blastballs at each other. I recognise only two people, one from either side. Darren, A ginger boy from form A and Antonia the headband girl from form B, were part of the group who stood up in the first assembly.

Antonia is leading a group of girls, while Darren’s group is a mixture of boys and girls.

suddenly Kevin and Yasmin burst through trees into the middle of the two groups. I looked at Lincoln. “Time to help out”. he jumped out from the tree, I thought he was going to use the blastball spell.

“Inferno!” he yelled, Flames and fire erupted out of Lincoln’s hand, like eying down a firey whirlpool. Lincoln’s inferno spell cut through Antonio’s group and knocked all but Antonio out. Darren’s group hit the floor too! how? I did not send any spell over, Grace and Charlotte did not either.

“Oh a fire spell?” a voice came from behind Darren’s group, we did not have to wait long to see who was talking. Wyatt and what I assume is his brother had a big group with them! complete with all of Wyatt’s posh group minus Charlotte,

“Lincoln,” said the older Wyatt. such a smug tone to his voice, he has shoulder-length blonde hair and beady blue eyes.

“Barty” Lincoln replied coldly.

“It’s Bartholomew”

“Whatever Barty,” Lincoln said.

“Charlotte!” Wyatt called out. “come here, away from the demon scum” Oh god, I hate this guy, if anyone is scum it is him. I don’t know who he thinks he is, short posh prat! I was not surprised when Charlotte walked past me, her head staring at the muddy ground. I did happen to be surprised when Grace said.

“Oh you backstabber”

Kevin walked over to us, all muddy and puffing his cheeks out, he has for sure had a long battle royale or at least one that feels like it has been a long one.

“Hello Charlotte” Barty said through a grim smile, “nice to see you got this far, unfortunate that you had to spend time with low-life scum”.

“Watch who you’re talking about Barty,” Lincoln said, “You know I will win”

“I don’t think so, you and your pathetic little family are second-tier, compared to us” Barty threw both hands up to his side like he was some biblical figure.

“So he thinks a lot of himself,” I asked Lincoln.

“That’s just the beginning of it” Yasmin answered wiping dirt off her shins “But that is a story for another day, if lincoln fights him Lincoln wins, it’s just the others that we need to worry about”

“no point coming up with a plan” Barty shouted, and stepped forward with Wyatt waving their hilts in the air, “come on scum, hurry up, so we can beat you and get on with our day. It shouldn’t take long, they are from a family that has fallen off, look at their mother!” their group laughed.

who in the hell does he think he is? talking about my mother.

“she was once a powerful mage and now mother to these two such a fall from grace, I bet she couldn’t even complete an easy mission nowadays, scum raising scum!”

My blood was boiling, my mother could wipe the floor with his entire family and cold sensation travelling all over my body in a furious rush in Stark contrast to my burning blood

“I’m going to end you,” Lincoln said, I heard Yasmin gulp,

“Let go,” I said to Lincoln, I dashed forward and remembered something shields and magic suits will only absorb magical attacks. I got as close as I could to Wyatt and Lincoln to Barty, Wyatt put his shield up and I booted him! kicked his Chest and he flew right back. Barty looked shocked and that was a stupid decision as Lincoln gave his one disgusting Haymaker, then spun the spot!

“Inferno!”

Okay, never mind nobody was more shocked than the posh group staring down a furious inferno spell from Lincoln.

“Charles! Duck!” Grace said. in my joy at what Lincoln had done, I forgot that their group was big, A chubby boy with short hair had grabbed my legs, holding me still.

“Bye-bye!” Wyatt said, holding a spell that...