*
Azar stood before Blade, panting hard. The stone he had rushed to was an arm’s length behind the sorcerer. Blade rushed on to him again, seemingly unaffected by the not so gentle heat that permeated from the massive sun; even the ground was cracking and eroding in dryness. Azar practically switched places with the swordsman as his sword easily wiped through the hard rock. “Azanath!” Azar commanded, flashing mana at Blade. As the cloud of bright mana disappeared, an unmoving Blade was revealed, stuck in the motion of cutting through the stone. “Wha?!” Azar looked up as Lex jumped over stone and sent two ice spheres at him. “Anam Draug!” His red mana shield came over him quickly, its radius the length of his outstretched arm. Azar watched as the shield was coated heavily and quickly by Lex’s ice.
My suspension spell won’t last long, and I can’t keep shifting around… I haven’t attacked and my mana has already decreased this much… All my attack spells are fatal to these men with no resistance… But at this point… it’s either kill or die… “Anam Resal!” the prince commanded, and a thick beam of bright and deadly power burst through the ice at Lex and Blade. The rock was completely disintegrated. Azar stepped from within the remaining ice. He looked before him to his left and right. As the brightness cleared, he saw that Lex and Blade were standing about a meter from the range of the beam’s width. So Blade escaped it too… To think he broke the paralysis just in time…
*
Blade made another desperate jump. “Anam Resal!” Blade’s eyes slammed shut as everywhere became bright. The beam of mana struck the ground just before him. Azar had fired it from a hill. The blast it made flicked him away violently. The swordless Blade made a nasty landing, rolling a few meters on the hard, hot ground. Realizing he was a bit closer to his sword, he found himself on his feet quickly. To be using mana so loosely… It seems this Azar’s magical energy is unlimited… I wanted to drag the fight until he was out, but it seems that won’t be an option. The wizard, not even sweating or breathing very heavily, ran up to Blade with fists heated and lit by fire. Blade dodged desperately as the prince’s fists grazed him. He was almost feeling the effect of being hit. Blade jumped back as Azar launched himself and kicked at him. With no intention of holding back, Azar continued to pressure Blade with his fiery attacks. Blade continued to jump back, dodging each attack skilfully. He felt like he was in an oven. Finally, Blade struck back at Azar, with his left fist, which had almost the same striking power as his right. Azar gripped the incoming fist with a flaming hand. Uttering a sharp cry, Blade sent a strong blow to Azar’s face with his right fist. As the fist connected, the wizard staggered back, forcibly releasing Blade’s hand.
With little to no hesitation, Blade turned around and sprinted up the slightly rocky slope to where his sword was blasted. Suddenly, in a cloud of mana, Azar appeared around two yards before Blade, conveniently standing on the hot sword. With vigour powered by annoyance, Blade made a forceful jump, landing a foot in his opponent’s chest. Azar staggered back. Blade stooped quickly and grappled his sword, his eyes not taken off the enemy. Covering two meters in almost no time, Blade swung at Azar’s head swiftly, sure the strike would not hit. Figuring roughly where he would appear, Blade turned and moved quickly toward the just appearing Azar. Blade ran toward Azar again, predicting accurately where he would reappear. He jumped as he reached up to him, but instead of striking down at Azar, he turned mid-air and flung his sword mightily where nothing was.
POOF!
Azar appeared directly in the sword’s path, and was unable to shift out of the danger in time. The blade seamlessly slid through Azar’s chest. The handle of the sword rested in the centre of the man’s ribcage, and he flew backward. He landed bloodily on his back, helplessly skating down the slope of rocks and dust. His heart pushed blood forcefully through the tight space between his open wound and the sword. Blade ran down to the man with the familiar face, suddenly fearing he might have killed his companion. He knelt down at the soaked body in the expanding red pool. Blood escaped the man’s mouth. Blade’s eyes widened in wonder as he saw what looked like cracks appear all over Azar’s flesh.
“What the hell?” The man stood quickly and watched as the corpse quickly turned to dust and rise to be taken by the sudden wind. The swordsman dragged his bloody sword quickly as Azar’s body disappeared. Azar’s blood turned to water and quickly evaporated.
Blade quickly looked up, peering out into the distance at the prison of ice Lex had long been trapped in. The man’s eyes widened as he saw a small spec of darkness in the ice. He knew the darkness glowed from Lex’s eyes. There was a sudden pulse of blackness and the ice was shattered. Blade’s eyes were fixed on the slightly crouching black-eyed boy. “Oh shit… This cannot be good.”
*
Lex could hardly catch his breath. His eyes fixated on the firm, able-looking Azar just before him. Just behind him was a large block of ice, in which he had just captured the swordsman. Still, things seemed to be too difficult. “I’m done,” Lex told himself, fatigue getting the better of him. He was drenched in sweat, and the unfriendly heat stole bit by bit the last amounts of energy he had left. He didn’t have time to complain though. Azar put forth his hand and fire appeared about it. Lex just realized how poorly positioned he was. If I dodge this, the ice behind me…
Quickly, seeing what was necessary, Lex put his palms together, drawing from himself his last drop of ice energy. With a cry of strain, Lex flung his open palms forward, and a blue-white beam of ice shot out to greet the approaching beam of fire. There was a steamy, misty collision as both elements met. The beams met closer to Lex than Azar, and quickly enough to make Lex panic, the fire pushed the ice back, melting it away quickly and vaporizing the resulting water, not even allowing it to fall to the thirsty ground. Lex felt his veins bulging all over him as he strained to give this one last beam all he had left. “MAXIMO!!” the boy cried out as fire was eating his ice beam and coming at him fiercely. Suddenly, Lex found himself in the realm inside his soul, a place that had become quite familiar to him.
He saw before him, in the world of white, the man of black. The spirit was sitting in the same corner he had left him. Tiny bits of yellow light flickered and sparked about him, but he didn’t seem as wrecked as he did earlier. “Ma--”
“Behind you,” Maximo’s whispery voice uttered. Lex turned around quickly and jumped back in fright, nearly losing his balance, still stepping back. Before him was a massive dragon. It was black and red and silver, and had splendid grey wings and sharp iron teeth. Standing on the head of it was Maximo with his arms coolly folded. His aura of power fluttered and flowed behind him, resembling the cape and long hair of a superhero blowing majestically in the wind. “Let’s do this,” the man on the dragon said. Then, his entire surrounding changed in a flash.
As the beam of fire was mere centimetres from blasting him with consuming heat, Lex felt an exhilarating, familiar sensation rush through his whole being – the mighty power of darkness. The ice energy was completely drained, and a greater element replaced it seamlessly. A black beam rapidly tore through Azar’s fire at a speed close to that of lightning. There was a quaking boom and a splash of dark matter where Azar was hit. There was also some amount of redness, as the dark attack had smashed through a defensive mana shield made in an instant.
Azar sped through the air and bashed into a large boulder, shattering it like it was glass. In not so much as half a second, Lex covered several meters, reaching up to Azar. The man’s bones vibrated, and his nervous system became confused as the force of Lex’s fist reached him. Azar’s body flew over a few meters in a second’s third, landing brutally into a large slab of rock, sending massive cracks through it.
No need go easy on him. He’s not the real Azar, he heard Maximo advise.
More cracks ripped through the huge boulder and Azar fell on his feet, lunging over, his head down, his bones realigning with unspoken sorcery. Lex darted off toward the enemy again with greater speed than bef
ore, landing another darkly glowing punch. A wave of force went through both Azar’s and Lex’s bodies as Azar’s open palm met the incoming fist. Azar then held up his head, showing Lex, like a mirror, eyes of darkness.
*
Azar panted heavily. The heat wasn’t bothersome to him, but exhaustion was kicking in and his mana was running red. The emotionless Blade and Lex stood a few meters before him. Though they must have been tired, their faces gave nothing away. Mana glowed about Azar’s hands. “Why am I losing? This isn’t logical,” he said to himself. With no warning, Blade rushed off toward him again with the usual speed that accompanied his movements. “Abingush!” Azar blasted, accurately flashing mana at the swordsman. Blade made a swiftly skilful jump to the right, but he left his sword in the way of the mana. The blast struck his sword and flung it back from Blade’s hand. There was a red explosion of opaque mana.
Azar gasped when he saw Lex burst through the mana with unusual altitude, sending a beam of ice at him before landing. Azar could spare just enough mana to take him about two meters back. “Well this is the last of it… Anam Resal!” he commanded, and a bright red beam tore from his palms with speed and might. Azar managed to see even through the terrible brightness. He saw Blade kick Lex out of the way of the incoming beam, escaping it himself with his frustrating speed.
Azar’s breathing became heavier and less steady, and he felt light-headed. So he drew me out and purposely let the mana hit his sword so Lex could land a surprise attack… Then he saved both himself and Lex from my mana beam at that… Their coordination is far better than in reality… How can I pull this off with such little energy left in me? Ka… It’s not like dying in a place like this is an option anyway…
***
Blade made another desperate jump to evade a shadowball. The ball of darkness hit the ground near Blade, and that was enough to cause a problem. As dark matter was scattered in a sharp burst of pressure, Blade’s body was flung off with speed and force that weren’t even funny. He landed badly and rolled a few meters, tiredness and the unnatural heat taking a serious toll on him. He quickly got back up. My sword. It was not in its rightful place. “That thing didn’t even hit me.”
ZOOM!
Another shadowball was hurled straight at him at a speed similar to the first. With nearly impossibly quick reflexes, Blade escaped the deadly sphere. Blade made a slight glance behind him, analyzing the effect of the shadowball. He eyed his sword, marking exactly where it was, then returned his focus to Lex. Around fifty meters behind Blade was a massive boulder, much larger than any building. The shadowball that Lex had just flung had bored straight through the rock cleanly, even though it was meters thick. Also, the blast it made on impact sent wild cracks to every corner of the massive thing.
“As I expected,” Blade said to himself, “this attack is twofold. It can bore through materials that hard easily, plus it has a small blast radius that is also problematic. The worst part is that this is only a tiny fraction of what the spirit can do. By all logic… I should easily lose this fight… But I’m a dead man talking to myself while fighting my companion and gazing at death… I suppose logic carries little weight at the moment.
*
Azar quickly slapped away another shadowball thrown at him. It destroyed a large boulder a few miles off the next second. His hands were clothed with black fire and black mana, a combination that could redefine possibility. “Dark flame body technique!” the wizard declared, and black flames engulfed him wholly.
This is dangerous, Maximo warned Lex, he has now combined the strengths and speeds of fire, darkness and mana, and now wields roughly the might of one of my brothers. This will not be easy.
As Azar crouched a bit and jetted off, a sudden crater formed where he was standing, caused by the sheer force and power of his movement. Rocks and dirt rose from the earth as he moved at a speed not even Maximo could perceive. A force smote Lex that would make the force of a meteor’s strike feeling gentler than a loving stroke. Lex’s body was sent off at a speed a little faster than sound, easily bashing through large boulders with negligible loss of momentum. Finally, he was wedged into the base of a small mountain of rock a few miles off. Azar just lowered his right fist, which vibrated with a god-like power.
With no intention of accepting defeat, the black-eyed Lex forced himself to recover from such a catastrophic blow. Maximo was still with him, so he had no excuse to give up. The Icemaker took a few steps forward and flexed his muscles. I’ve never been good at flight, he heard Maximo admit, but there is only one way to defeat the enemy.
“Flight?!”
Remember that strange rain that fell earlier?
“Yeah, it gave me that rush of energy!”
We can’t wait around hoping it’ll rescue us again. We’ll have to go get it.
“In the sky??”
Suddenly, Lex felt excruciating pain as two massive wings made of thick darkness extended themselves from his back. The pain quickly ended, leaving a feeling of strange discomfort.
The hands are yours, Maximo said, I’ll fly. Attack the enemy as soon as you see him.
Azar stretched both his hands out to the direction in which he was sure Lex was still lying. Deadly quantities of energy quickly gathered right before his open palms – fire, mana and darkness, and quite a lot of each. All this energy took the form of a large, dense, quickly growing black sphere that vibrated energetically and seemed to be on fire, black fire that is.
“Anam Resal Erifkrad!” the man commanded, and an earth-shaking beam of pure power and destruction quickly made its way over miles, growing exponentially every second, extending itself much like a sound wave. Except it didn’t quite get weaker as it progressed. Lex stared with wide eyes at what seemed to be an approaching tidal wave of black power, a sea of death. With haste, Lex’s body was dragged up against gravity at an angelic speed. His inside friend was at work. In seconds, he escaped the range of the black wave, reaching just under the clouds. The awing Lex looked down at the flood of darkness, which still seemed quite massive even from such distance. He witnessed the hoard of power atomize and turn to nothing even mountains. He saw the earth rip apart, and heard a thunderous sound.
*
The devious Lex ran up toward the weary Magmalian, whose movements had become significantly slower. Ice energy glowed dully about the boy’s hands. It seemed even Lex’s energy was running low.
Seems the heat’s giving this kid a fight. Still, Azar was barely managing to dodge Lex’s icy fists. With great strain, Azar managed to fire up his hands. Azar grabbed the chilly wrist of Lex’s right hand. The prince’s eyes bulged as he felt his energy begin to drain even more rapidly. Lex swung at him. Azar’s heated fist caught the boy’s icy punch. As both energies battled, hot mist and hot water clouded. The mist slowly cooled as Lex’s power began to countermand Azar’s. The Magmalian prince shivered. His hands were gripping Lex’s wrists, and Lex’s hands were gripping his. Ice crept to cover the man’s hands and slithered along his lower arms. He made a quick glance as he saw Blade running toward him, sword in hand, ready to behead.
Blade’s sword moved through a cool, purplish mist. Azar transported himself and the clutching Lex a few meters behind Blade. Still, the ice was creeping up to his shoulders. Azar made a desperate move he had never before been forced to make. He rammed his forehead into Lex’s. The boy’s head jerked back and he released Azar, whose arms were frozen solid. Azar kicked Lex in the chest. The Icemaker staggered back. With clenched teeth, the cold, frustrated Azar swung his icy arms, bashing Lex in the head twice, and sending a cold, stabbing attack up his belly, even lifting him off the ground. Glancing in the direction of the quickly approaching Blade through the mirrors Lex had made him, Azar devised a quick plan.
With his ice-coated arms, Azar quickly grabbed Lex, hugging him tightly, raising him up to his own height with great strain. Blade’s sword was already well on its way to behead Azar. The prince made a backward jump with the boy to secure his pla
n’s success. Azar dug deep and used up his last bit of mana to shift out of death’s icy hands. He ended up appearing just a meter behind Blade. Blade’s steel-slicing sword slid through Lex’s neck easily, killing him without doubt.
Azar turned to face the bloody scene. Gravity began to pull Lex and his head – or Lex and his body, whichever – downwards. With no sign of delay or effect, like it was a tree or one of his thousand enemies he had cut through, Blade darted off toward Azar, the same insipid look on his face. Azar jumped back as Blade swung at him. The tip of Blade’s sword grazed Azar’s chest about a quarter centimetre deep. Blood flashed from the fresh wound as Azar skated back a bit. These weights are killing my judgement. Damn it, I can no longer move them at all! His arms were numb. And I have too little energy to melt the ice. What now?! With this drastic handicap, even Blade is bound to be a challenge!
*
Lex ascended quickly into the clouds, his black wings making him resemble a giant bird, or maybe an angel. He struggled to breathe as he moved through the air at a drastic speed. Maximo flew him way up into a heavy grey cloud. The boy closed his eyes, enduring the vivid sensation of drowning. Soaked, he swallowed a mouthful of the strange liquid.
Lex burst through the cloud, then headed downward with a new speed. In around two seconds, Lex hit the ground. Immediately, the earth was shattered where he landed and there was a quake for miles. The waste matter was just finished clearing from Azar’s spectacular attack.
“This power!” Lex said, Maximo’s voice blended with his. I feel as powerful as I did when I was in my original form. Azar was a mile before him, but somehow, Lex could see him plainly. All around for miles was flat, coal-coloured, burning rubble. Azar’s last attack had transformed the landscape entirely.
The Seventh Spirit Page 53
