by Shawn Stack
Degoth swung out with its left mace, unleashing a shadowy wave of energy. The light bubble around Medens blocked the attack.
“Nice block,” Logan said, as Degoth charged towards Sandalphon.
Degoth became a whirlwind of attacks left mace, right mace, a tail swipe, shadowy black wings, all swung out at Sandalphon. Sandalphon parried, blocked, and dodged. Unexpectedly Degoth’s shadow jumped up, pierced the light shield of Medens and grabbed Medens, wrenching it from Sandalphon’s grasp. Casting aside the stolen weapon Degoth came at Sandalphon again. Without the mace, parrying and blocking Degoth’s attacks was much harder. Degoth’s maces gave him a reach advantage. Max tried to have Sandalphon step into range of Degoth to punch back, but when he did so the draconian scored a good hit on Sandalphon’s side. His armor saved him from any serious damage, but from the mace shot out black shadowy energy that slammed into Sandalphon knocking him back.
Sandalphon backed further away, and took flight to escape the onslaught. Degoth was right behind him though, and when Sandalphon tried to fly towards his mace, Degoth intercepted him. Both went tumbling down to the arena floor. Sandalphon ended up closer to Medens than Degoth, and dashed towards it. Degoth shot out from his right mace a black shadow wall that engulfed Medens. The mace became locked inside and Sandalphon tried to break through the wall, but his punches, even powered up by his steely gauntlets, had no effect on the black wall.
“Now that your weapon is out of the way for good, we can end this fight,” Logan said. Max ignored him and had Sandalphon beat away at the wall, trying to free his mace. Degoth swung his left mace out towards Sandalphon and the black wave of energy slammed into Sandalphon, knocking him back. “You tried so hard, but this is the end.” Degoth sent out another black wave of energy out and Sandalphon tried to dodge, but it came at him in a wide arc, making part of it still hit him.
Max tried to ignore the damage, and think of a way for Sandalphon to fight back. To Max, Sandalphon appeared to move on his own; he held up his right hand with light swirling around it. Sandalphon then pulled out of the light another mace, Caliber. Light emitted from the mace, a different light than that of Medens. Where as Medens emitted a softer gentle light, Caliber’s light was harsher, sharper, it pieced the eyes.
“Oh? You have two maces too,” Logan said, unimpressed.
“Yeah, and this mace is a bit different,” Max said, Sandalphon slammed the mace down on Degoth’s black wall that surrounded Medens, the wall fell apart into chucks of black rubble.
Logan had always thought that Degoth’s black wall was indestructible; he was stupefied watching Sandalphon shatter the shadow wall.
Sandalphon picked up Medens and charged at Degoth leading a set of attacks with Caliber and defending with Medens. Degoth was on the defensive for the first time this tournament. Feverishly trying to block all of Sandalphon’s attacks. Degoth set its shadow to snatch away Sandalphon’s maces like he had done before, but Caliber flared up and its light threw back the shadow. Then, point blank, Caliber launched a wave of white energy out at Degoth slamming him in the chest. Degoth stumbled back a few steps. Quickly recovering, Degoth breathed in and unleashed a black inferno of flame, towards Sandalphon.
Max was not going to let Sandalphon be done in with that. Sandalphon pointed his wings forward and from them unleashed his own white flames to intercept the black flames. The two streaks of flames combined and ended in a tornado of white and black between the two avatars.
Logan began to shout “What is this? You going to copy me all day?” His face became a mix of emotions; anger, fear, annoyance and surprise. Calming down, he said, “fine, then I’ll do something you can’t do.”
Degoth folded itself in its wings and its tail curled around its legs. Its shadow came up and wrapped around it, forming into a giant black ball. Then the black shadow expanded and grew. To everyone in the crowd, it was a spectacular transformation. Degoth had turned itself into a full fledged Dragon. Its body looked like it was pure black no details could be seen other than its outline. And over the outline tendrils of shadow rose off its body. Its extended dragon wings spanned four times as long as Sandalphon’s.
Sandalphon sent a wave of white energy towards the monster. Not even bothering to dodge the wave bounced off the dragon’s shadowy hide. Sandalphon then flew towards Degoth, but the dragon whipped out its tail and slammed Sandalphon back tumbling through the air. The dragon reared up and from its giant maw breathed out a torrent of flame, impossibly large, at Sandalphon. Sandalphon raised up his wings and released his white flames to counter, but the white flames were no match this time and Sandalphon was engulfed in the black inferno. For a few seconds Sandalphon was not able to be seen, until the black flames died down and there Sandalphon stood amongst the dissipating flames. Medens’ light bubble had saved Sandalphon’s body from most of the flames. Sandalphon did not escape unscathed, his wings were burning with black fire. When the flames finally died out completely Sandalphon’s wings were burnt and useless.
“HAHA, this match is over,” Logan said, claiming victory as Sandalphon stood there grounded without his wings.
“Why is it that all my opponents talk so much?” Max said. “The fight is over when Sandalphon hologram is broken. And there is no way Sandalphon is going to break before Degoth!” Max said, ending in almost a shout.
Logan sneered at Max. The shadow dragon reared up for another black flame burst from its mouth, as it did so Sandalphon sent a wave of white energy from Caliber at the head of the dragon. The energy slammed into its head disturbing its attack. Sandalphon charged at the dragon. Degoth accepted the charge and swiped out at Sandalphon with its claws. Meeting the swipes with Medens, Sandalphon pressed his attack and connected Caliber on the beast’s chest. The hit warped the dragon, its shadowy body began to wave and ripple from the blow. Max used Medens to hold off the dragon’s claws and bite attacks. Caliber connected over and over again onto the dragon’s body. Then in an immense blow the dragon’s body fell apart and Degoth was revealed inside.
Degoth came at Sandalphon and the two exchanged blows. Medens blocked Degoth’s attacks, but Degoth had trouble blocking Caliber; the golden mace scored many hits on the draconian’s scaly body. Right when it seemed that Sandalphon had the upper hand Degoth’s shadow came up from the ground and bound Sandalphon. With his wings burnt off, he could not break the binding shadows like before. Logan knew this, and using the shadow, Degoth stretched Sandalphon arms out wide. Caliber’s light only kept the shadow at bay to a degree. Degoth started to draw in a deep breath. Sandalphon struggled harder, but the shadow’s grip was too strong.
“A good fight, but this is the end,” Logan said. Then he yelled to the crowd throwing up a fist, “I’m going to states!” No one cheered.
Max panicked and pleaded for Sandalphon to break free. Max then could swear he saw Sandalphon look his way and smile. A river of light pored out of Medens encircling Sandalphon, the light healed him, restored damage to his armor, and best of all re-grew his wings. The wings burst out and shattered Degoth’s shadow’s grip, then, as Degoth unleashed its black flames, Sandalphon unleashed his own. Their flames met again; this time Max did not have Sandalphon stop. He wished for Sandalphon to produce more and more flames. Degoth ran out of breath and Sandalphon’s flames overwhelm it.
The flames burned Degoth. Its scales were singed and its black leather wings were full of holes. Sandalphon took to the sky. Degoth attempted to follow, but was grounded; no air would fill its tattered wings. Degoth unleashed waves of shadow energy at Sandalphon, but they were easily deflected by Medens. It unleashed its black flaming breath once more, but Sandalphon was too fast to hit.
Circling around Degoth faster and faster, from his wings ,Sandalphon left a trail of white flame. Sandalphon was moving so fast the trail was overlapped once, then twice, then again and again. It became a hurricane of white flame filling the whole of the arena. The flames blocked the view from everyone and no one could se
e inside the arena.
“It is over Logan,” Max said
As the flames died out, there stood Sandalphon over the prone body of a defeated Degoth. He had clonked the half dragon on the head with Caliber and the white flames burnt its body even more. Sandalphon held up his maces, his wings outstretched, as Degoth broke and shattered into tiny holographic pieces. There was silence in the arena as the fight ended. Then, a great cheer rose up from the crowd.
The announcer that had been speechless the whole fight finally spoke, “We have our new champion Sandalphon!”
Chapter 30
Trophy time!
Lizzy ran up to Max and throwing her arms around his neck kissed him.
“Congratulations champ!” she said.
“Ha-ha, you didn’t wait at all did you?” Max said.
Max’s brother Davis and his parents came down to the stage as well.
“That was one crazy fight Max,” Davis said. “They are going to be playing this fight over and over again for a long time.”
“It was pretty intense,” Max said. “Oh hey.” A trophy was brought over and handed to Max.
“YOU CHEATER!” Logan yelled at Max coming over to his side of the stage.
“What? How did I cheat?” Max asked.
“You used your flames to block my view from Degoth. That is a violation of the rules.”
“He blocked everyone’s view,” Davis said. “Including his own. You messed up by not moving your avatar.”
“Yep, I had Sandalphon attack where you were standing last. If you had moved, I would have missed with that last attack.”
“Cheater. Team Gold is going to crush you,” Logan said. An official came over to hand him his second place trophy. He walked past the guy not bothering to take it, going straight out of the stadium.
“Ignore him Max, let’s go celebrate,” Davis said.
The rest of the Clash club came down to congratulate max on winning. Max looked at his parents and asked “Party at our house?”
“Sure, we can hold a party,” Max’s dad said.
“Just got to stop and pick up some snacks and drinks,” Max’s mom said.
“Party at my house!” Max said to all his friends.
Chapter 31
To be continued!
A lot of people from the tournament ended up coming along with Max and his friends to the party at his house. His parents had been worried about so many people showing up to the party, but Davis promised to clean up afterwards. They turned on the holographic-channel and re-watched the game as it was broadcast over the holographic-net.
“I am going to study you and train just to beat you for next year’s tournament” Lizzy said.
“Wait, what does that mean?” Max said.
“It means I am going to watch all your matches, but you can’t watch any of mine.”
“That is so unfair.”
“Too bad.” Lizzy said giggling.
“Hey Max, can I talk to you for a sec?” Davis said as he came over interrupting Max and Lizzy.
“Yeah, sure Davis. I’ll be right back Liz.” Max said following his brother to the side.
“So, you going to register for the state tournament?” Davis asked.
“I plan on it.”
“I know we talked about it before and I don’t want to pressure you. But I really think you should do poorly at the rankings at states. Max, you and Sandalphon are strong enough to win no matter who you fight. So if you do badly in the rankings no one will expect much. Also, because they have a low standard for celestials no one will think much of it. It would be so cool to take out the state champ in the first fight too.”
“Honestly, I think you are right. I think that a lot of people that do bad on the ranking tests are cheated out of their first round fights. They are scaring away people from participating in the tournaments. If they don’t understand that I’ll make them change the system. Also, I think it will be fun to take out all the Team Gold members if I go to states.” Max said.
“Alright, sounds good.” Davis said.
Max walked back over to Lizzy. She was talking to her brother and the two previous Collis champs: Kurk and Decon. “Just give up Jason, he won the tournament and he has beaten you twice.” Lizzy said.
“I don’t care, I know I can beat him.” Jason said.
“Hey guys,” Davis said, walking up to the guys.
The three high school clash club members recognized Max’s brother.
“Why don’t you guys come and duel me over here. I haven’t beaten you guys in a long time. I don’t want you getting full of yourselves. And Jason you ready to play me finally? When you got your band a year ago, you said you wouldn’t play me, until you got better.” He took the high school Clash club members off to the side.
“What is he talking about?” Lizzy asked Max
“Davis was always undefeated at the Clash Center before he left for college,” Max said.
“I remember hearing a rumor about a guy that would show up there and beat everyone from time to time. I guess it was your brother.”
“Yeah, let’s go watch him beat your brother.”
“Okay,” Lizzy started to go over there where they were dueling.
Max stopped her remembering something. “Don’t you have to tell me what that other reason was?
“Do I really have to?” She was looking really embarrassed
“We had a deal. And you kissed me practically in front of the whole country. I think I deserve to know.”
“Okay, the other reason I was avoiding you was that I have had a crush on you since fourth grade.”
That blew Max’s mind. “Wait. Have you been avoiding me since fourth grade?
“Yep.”
Max felt like he was not in control of his own life.
“WHAT? I LOST ALREADY!” Jason yelled. Lizzy and Max looked over at Jason and Davis then at each other. They could not help themselves and laughed.
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