Lightning's Limit Read Free

Vargas turns his head back to where Fortune was, only to see that there is nothing there. The booth and small tent that was behind Fortune was all gone.   But there is a message waiting to be read on his HaLO.
    It reads ‘ Advice when most needed, is least heeded ’.
    Bailey walks over to him and gives him a funny look.
    Vargas finishes what he was going to say, “Well I was talking with someone and it looks like they aren’t here any longer."  
    “You’re not going all loopy on me are you? I need you to at least be able to swipe your HaLO over the check in reader. Think you can do that.”   She remarks sarcastically.
    “Yea yea, I think I can handle that.” He replies letting the comment go. There were so many things he could toss back at her. How she was a rich kid with no skills, or how her father paid for her to be the captain over him. This wasn’t the place to be petty. He can show his skills in the arena and that will work just as well, team captain or no.  
    Registration had finally started and they walked over as a group. Being first in line to get themselves set up as the Pharis Magitecks. Their placements were all set up and they all swiped their HaLO’s over the registration scanner. The receptionist tells the group that they will all need to take all of their possessions and go to the rune scanner to register their belongings.   Vargas walks through the scanner and has no problems getting through because he doesn’t use runes. They slow him down too much, so he just doesn’t use them.  
    Bailey, on the other hand, was the only one of the group that had trouble getting through the scanners. She is a technology specialist and uses tech to augment her spells. One of those was a rune pistol she uses for long range attacks. The two Paladins that were doing the scanning told her that she had to check all of it in and use what would be provided.  
    She questioned why, and they went on to explain that the Captain Commander, Tyler Hemlic, is going to be presiding over the tournament today. He made the change because he wanted to. This news made Vargas’ ears perk up a bit. If the Commander of the Paladins is going to be here for this, they have to be looking for recruits. Why else would the highest ranked Paladin in the Order come to a high school event.  
    This could be the chance that he was looking for when he joined this MMA team. The Paladins get a good salary, do good work that he could be proud of and he could get recognition for it. Perfect! Vargas starts running through everything in his head that he can do to give himself a shot at winning. With everything he knows this should be easy.  
    The tournament is about to begin and right before the ramp headed for the main floor where the opening ceremonies are about to be held are a few tables filled with runes. All shapes and sizes as well as holders for them for every place they can be held. There is also a table with rune pistols of all different types.  
    Vargas looks over at Bailey and can see the drool building in the corners of her mouth over everything that is in front of her. She frantically goes back and forth amongst the different options, finally settling on roughly the same setup she had before everything was locked up in her storage box.
    The stage is surrounded with students from all around the continent. Center stage is the Astrum government insignia, a red arbor shape with a white shooting star traveling across it from the lower left toward the upper right surrounded within a circle filled in with stars. As Tyler walks onto the stage the crowd of high school students goes silent.  
    The coliseum seating filled to bursting and looks alive with the number of people that are pouring into their seats with the start nearing. The displays around the coliseum light up and focus on Tyler's face. The coliseum goes silent.
    "People of Eden, I would like to extend my personal gratitude for your attendance today. My name is Tyler Hemlic, I