The last chapter for Part 1: The Games. Enjoy!
Chapter 15
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~Dragon Dancer~
“Ha ha ha, it’s been awhile Gray,” I sighed, this was going to be galling.
“Would you take it down a notch? Do you want the whole world to know what you are saying?”
Luecor started to laugh again, “And you’ve changed your voice too!” He waved his hand in a circle using magic to make a bubble around the fighting ring, “There, now we can really talk.”
I unsheathed my swords, ignoring him, “So how’s it going baby? How long has it been since you dumped me? Sixty years?”
I lunged at him, he brought his sword up and blocked it, “Don’t call me ‘baby’. Furthermore I never dumped you, that would imply that I was your girlfriend.”
Luecor pushed me away, “Ah, now I remember. It’s been seventy years. Really babe it was harsh of you to chain me up in that cave. It was just a kiss.”
I swung at him, he dodged and I parried his swing and kicked at him, we both began to dance an almost-inhuman fight. “You should be happy that I didn’t kill you for trying to kiss me. Besides those chains and spells were supposed to last one hundred years and here you are. You aren’t powerful enough to break them, who freed you?”
Luecor frowned and shook his head, “Babe,” he deflected one of my blows and pulled me into his arms. “Shouldn’t you be happy I’m out?” he breathed into my ear, “Come on, give me a kiss…”
I elbowed him in the stomach and punched him in the face; he fell to the ground, “A kiss? How can a lowlife like you even dare to touch me?” I said coldly.
He got up spotless like nothing had happened, “I’m a lowlife? How about those humans you decided to join? You clothe yourself in rags and act weak to disguise yourself as one of them. Come with me. There’s no need to hide what you are from one of the divine race.”
Ugh, I hated my kind being called “the divine race”. It made us sound like gods, something we were not, “Those humans are merely entertainment. You however can barley be called one of my kind. Your weakness shows off more of your human blood than anything else.”
He smiled, “You’re as cold as ever Viela.”
“Enough with the Viela business, I’ve already told you that’s not my name,” I huffed.
“Since you will not tell me your name I’m going to call you that,” he said with a smile.
I decided it was pointless to respond, it would only encourage him. It seemed his only lot in life was to annoy me endlessly. I came at him again, reaching down, grabbing a rock, and throwing it at him.
“I’m not some bumbling human,” Luecor said deflecting it with his sword.
“Really?” I said as the second rock I threw hit him between the eyes. Like before his eyes closed instinctively, when he reopened them he found my sharp sword at his neck. “Give up; you’re no match for me even when I’m not trying,” I said, “Who freed you? Why did you nearly kill Sebastian?”
Luecor didn’t show any concern, “You’re a tough one. That’s one of the reasons I’m so fond of you. But I seem to recall reading somewhere that you signed up as a non-magic user…”
A wave of magic hit me straight on, sending me flying ten feet into the air. I still had a hold of myself though and had the time to flip over and land on my feet. Luecor laughed, “Oh that’s right! You can’t use your all powerful magic or you’d lose!” He was really starting to irritate me now.
Luecor raise his sword and the sky went dark with thunderheads and the wind began to blow in gusts around the arena. Brown gravel flew around in a spiral leading right to Luecor forming a tornado where his sword was. “Don’t worry,” yelled Luecor over the wind, “I’ll try not to kill you.”
I sheathed my metal sword, really Luecor was too flashy. This was more of a show to the crowd than a fight. Luecor swung his sword around, compacting the tornado that reached the heavens to one about thirty feet tall. I could have yawned but I just raised my clear sword, pointing it at him. Finally Luecor brought his sword down and like mine pointed it at me. The sound of a tornado is more like a train than anything else and here was one coming right at me. Still I held my ground, the gravel hitting me from every direction. The tornado came down on me, a pretty heart wrenching sight for poor Aaron. I couldn’t see Luecor’s face but I bet it was his unattractive smile, the one he made when he thought he was winning. That sure changed when the tornado turned on itself, spinning the other direction and shrinking rapidly. Eventually he was just left pointing a gaudy sword at me and a dust cloud circling me. His face was priceless when he saw that around my clear sword was a small brown tornado. It kept shrinking and shrinking until all I had left was a cloudy brown and now slightly pointed sword.
“Pretty impressive,” I said inspecting my weapon, not sounding the least bit awed, “Why don’t you try that again?”
“Maybe I will!” yelled Luecor, his pride hurt. He held his hand up in the air, closed his eyes, and breathed out. His magic concentrated into his hand and ignited into a ball of blue and orange fire. As he breathed it became larger and larger until the ball of fire was roughly twenty feet in diameter. I could feel the heat from where I stood thirty feet away. I shook my head, idiots never learn the first time. He opened his eyes and with a heave he threw the flaming ball at me. I moved my feet apart, digging them into the ground for a more solid stance. I swung my sword and it sucked in the flames, the tornado from before making it swirl around the blade. Again there was nothing left except for a sword with flames spinning around it.
“That wasn’t very smart,” I said, disappointed in him, “You’ve wasted what-sixty, seventy percent of your magic?”
Luecor was panting but he still had the energy to keep his sword up. “I’ve got enough,” he said and took off a short silver pole off his belt, he pressed the button on it and it grew longer and the silver at the top expanded and grew thicker until it was a gigantic ordinate axe. Aaron would be surprised, who would have guessed that Luecor was the one who saved him from the dragonet? It sure wasn’t me; no I preferred a more subtle way of killing things.
“You’ve always liked frilly weapons,” I said and lazily swung my sword at Luecor. The fire and the gravel combined into an ugly tornado (really Luecor should work on his magic) that blasted right at Luecor, the power of the magic was half of what Luecor threw at me but it was still enough to be reckoned with. Luecor’s own magic hit his axe straight on and unfortunately didn’t reach him but when it was over the metal was melted and dirty. I was a little moved, Luecor’s faith that I wouldn’t die from power twice of that was encouraging in a way.
Luecor threw his axe to the side, “What is that sword?” he hissed, “It’s not an MAO.”
The sword was now clear, no more flames or gravel, “It is like a vacuum,” I said, “It’s not fueled by magic but rather sucks it in. That’s not how it’s really works but it’s not like I’d go all out on you. Did you really think I’d come unprepared against magic?”
Luecor decided to do the smart thing and charged at me with his sword. I sprinted over to the weapons behind me and picked up a promising looking bow and some arrows. In the time Luecor took to reach me, ten seconds or so, I was able to shoot seven arrows. The first missed him completely which was expected as I got used to the bow, the next five would have hit him but Luecor deflected them. The last one however hit him in the shoulder in an exposed part between his armor and mail as Luecor was swinging his sword. Quickly I dropped the bow and parried Luecor’s sword with my clear one. As the two weapons hit I reached behind me, grabbed a mallet, and swung it sideways at him. Luecor barley had the time to switch his hand off the grip of the sword to stop the hammer. His right armguard blocked the hammer but my combined strength and force of the mallet probably broke his arm or at least bruised the bone.
Luecor jumped back and pulled the arrow out of his shoulder, seething. Not giving him time to retaliate I lunged, swinging both my sword and the hammer. Luecor deflected the sword and caught the mallet in his hand. The mallet crumbled to pieces from his magic and I swung at him with the clear sword again. I took out one of my daggers and once again Luecor and I began another swordfight. Every time Luecor tried to use magic with his free hand I’d use my clear sword to absorb and redirect it at him.
The fight we were having wasn’t at our full potential but more of a battle of how far we could go while keeping up the appearance of humans. I could see how Luecor could be considered “undefeatable” in a humans eyes but I was different. Luecor was used to flaunting his magic and though I was restricted from it I had more human level skill where it really mattered. His overuse of magic wasn’t helping either; he was starting to tire and his form was sloppy. My dagger was taking a toll as well, the small cuts ever so often were adding up. My condition so far was pretty fair, a cut on the leg and a burn on the arm from not stopping his magic fast enough. I was not even close to getting serious and not slowing down. The fight was starting to bore me.
One tricky twist of the wrist was all it took for me to disarm Luecor. “This brings me back,” I said, not even bothering to put my sword at his neck, “It’s really sad I had to defeat you twice, I hope that you learn this time.”
Luecor looked at me irritated and lunged at me, electricity crackling in the palm of his hand. With a sigh I easily hit his hand away with my sword that absorbed it. I sent it back to Luecor who for a few seconds became immobile from the pain. I stood over him and asked, “Should I finish you off?”
He responded by getting back up trying, his fist clenched about to punch me. My dagger plunged right into his stomach, Luecor fell down one last time. “Don’t worry,” I said to him, wiping the blood off of the dagger, “the doctors here won’t let you die. Just try not to succumb to the pain.”
The noise of the audience came back, I had won unsurprisingly. I looked over at the stands where Aaron and the others were, I could see their surprised faces from here. To make them a little happier I gave them a small wave.
Then everything went wrong.
All too late I heard Luecor from behind me, calculating in my mind I realized that if I reacted to him I would have to move at in-human speeds but if I didn’t I could be seriously injured. The millisecond had passed I couldn’t move…
There was a sudden earsplitting roar from behind me and a the sound of a gigantic creature’s thump as it landed. I turned and saw Dark at least one hundred feet tall with Luecor under his claw, growling. “Thanks,” I said to Dark, relieved.
The crowd was going wild and the announcer’s voice returned, “Because of the illegal use of a magical creature in this fight, I declare the winners of this tournament to be-THE EXCRUCIATES!!”
We lost.
