Chapter 48: Stage

Chapter 48: Stage

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryugii. This has been pulled from his Spacebattle publishment. Anyway on with the show...errr read.

Stage

The flames swept across the arena floor and surged up the walls, kept in the ring only by my will. They clung unnaturally to every surface, refusing to fade despite the lack of fuel, as I kept them burning on the lingering power of the spell and my Elementals. Maintaining such an enormous quantity of flames would have taken a massive amount of MP if I kept them going with Suryasta alone, but I didn't botherinstead, I kept the flames alive with Suryasta and set Levant to the task of fanning them higher, keeping the stadium floor a raging inferno.

Flare, I named it for old times' sake, like Magic Missilea way of remembering the games I'd loved before. The flames roared around and over me as I walked through them, feeling their scorching heat but in a distant waylike touching a wall with fire on the side instead of actually burning. With my Elementalist title equipped and Elemental Mastery and Suryasta protecting me, I stood within the flames and was unburned.

The flames should have been blindingand were, on several levels. Even with very little smoke rising from the stone, the sheer amount of fire, of light, left me unable to see with my normal eyes. The amount of heat cast off further reduced my thermal vision to uselessness. But I had other forms of sight, ones that did work, and used them to compensate. In the crowd around us, the people who'd come to watch the champion practice were on their feet, making enough noise to mess with my sonar vision as well. Shouting?

I reached out to Levant and the air shifted, sounds reaching me over the roar of the flames.

Not shouting, I realized then. Cheering.

They were cheering for me. My perspective shifted and I could make out faces, if with the colors all wrong. I scanned the crowd and heard the applause, saw their expressions, even Observed them to make sure what I was seeing was parsing correctlybut no matter how I looked at it, they were cheering for me, for us. Most of them were shocked, stunned, disbelieving, but they applauded the battle nonetheless, enjoying the scene they were being treated to. The stands were set high, to compensate for the sheer destruction battles between hunters could cause, and still very few people sat near the front rows of seats, but those few who did seemed all the more enthused by it. Hunters or trainees, they probably saw the fight for what it was, could watch and analyze the exchange of blows thanks to years of experience, and they cheered.

There were people recording the fight on their scrolls, as well, though a strangely excited part of me recalled what Grigio said, about the fights being broadcast. Would that apply to something like this, a simple training match? I had no idea, but maybe

My hearing shifted and I heard different voices as Levant's attention was drawn to the only people in the crowd actually saying my name. Kyanos did most of the work, but his energy was infectious, enough so that he spread to the others around him and the people above him in the stands began to slowly use my name as well. Melanie and Ulaan stood beside him, expressions focused, and though neither seemed much like the cheering type, Levant carried whispers of support to me.

I laughed again, celebrating in the flames simple because they were celebrating for me. This fight wasn't over yet, I knew that, but this wasnew. And nice.

Suddenly, the cheers increased in volume and I turned to see Pyrrha standing in the center of the flames, a figure of light and dark shades beneath my sight. She looked more than a bit ruffled now, her pony tail coming partially undone, but she appeared unharmed, thanks to the defensive effect of her Aura, but a quick Observe showed how much that blast had taken out of her. It'd taken a lot out of me, as well, to say nothing of maintaining it, but even beyond the attack's initial damage, I could see her Aura steadily, slowly declining in the flames.

Even so, she didn't back down. She could have run from the area, escaping to higher ground, but she stayed in the ring, prepared to fight.

"Shall we continue, Pyrrha?" I asked, stepping closer in the flames and letting them arc and lick around me. To my human eyes, she was nothing but a barely visible shadow and I doubted she could see me any better, but I didn't want to play keep away until her Aura ran out, not with this. I didn't even really care if I won or lost, but this fight

Without a moment's hesitation, Pyrrha turned and cast her shield at me. Grinning fiercely, I didn't try to dodge or blockI attacked in turn. A Cannonball connected with the shield midair, sending it careening back towards its master, who caught it easily as she charged fearlessly towards me. I thrust my hand towards her, refusing to back down, and the flames before me suddenly intensified as a rush of wind streamed over them. The gust barely made her slowdown, but the flames crested over her like a wave, something she couldn't fully block with her shield. While her vision was even further obstructed, I hit her with a Cannonball, intending to push her back.Visit no(v)eLb(i)n.com for the best novel reading experience

Instead, the ground beneath her feet cracked as she braced herself against the blow, halting for a minute before continuing her advance. Her spear came up and when she threw it, her aim was true for all that she could only barely see me. I saw her squint against the light of the flames, extend her arm with the throw, and knew that though she was all but blind, I still probably couldn't dodge.

Once again, I didn't even bother trying. With all of her strength behind it, the spear drove me off my feet, to the ground, and then carved a furrow in the arena's floor as it pushed me back. Her strength and control over magnetism became a force that even I couldn't stand against as I was nowI slammed full force into the back wall, barely slowing down on the way.

It didn't matter, I thought, quickly healing myself. She might have been trying to distract me, to keep me out of the fight until she could close in and try to end it, but if so, it wouldn't work. I wasn't alone in this fightI was never alone.

Not bothering to cross the space in-between, Suryasta appeared to stand guard over me, gesturing with a hand. The flames right beneath Pyrrha's feet suddenly erupted upwards, throwing her into the air. Floating ten meters above the direct center of the arena, Levant started laughing, an echoing sound unheard by anyone but me. She extended her hands before her, as if reaching out for something, and the wind swirled on the ground below to catch the fire and send it swirling upwards in a storm that quickly took shape. In moments, two massive, burning hands extended from the ground below, Pyrrha hanging neatly between them.

Expression gleeful, the Air Elemental clapped her hands and the massive constructs followed suit.

Pyrrha mouthed something again, expression almost upset, and changed direction at the last second, falling faster than gravity alone should have allowed. She just barely fell below the hands, only to be thrown fiercely back to earth by the thunderous shockwavea wave of wind and sound empowered by Levant. Pyrrha came quickly to her feet and started moving faster then I'd have expected from herfast enough to surprise me until I noticed her skimming several inches off the ground as she 'ran.' Even so, Levant's fake hands did not fade, nor was my second spirit content to stop with something so small. From their base on the ground, the arms began to spiral up, into the still connected hands even as they began to loss shape and come together. In seconds, the arms had been absorbed into a massive sphere that hung above the arena like a giant star before suddenly falling towards Pyrrha, adjusting as she ran.

The warrior's expression tightened, but fear was evidentially a foreign concept to her, as she merely adjusted her stride slightly to keep ahead as she ran towards me. I rose as she came near, swords coming to hand once again and she drew back her spear and prepared to smash me into the ground. I knew my efforts wouldn't be quick enough to keep her from hammering me down, but I wasn't one to back down either. Before she could hit me though, Suryasta snarleda strange, inhuman sound, between the roar of a tiger and of a massive fireplace. He reached out invisible to catch Pyrrha's face with an intangible hand, something that should have done nothing, yet which sent the redhead stumbling suddenly back.

As she moved, I was able to see why. Though he still had no form of his own, he'd formed a glove of sorts, overlapping the same space as his hand. He stepped forward as Pyrrha retreated, more flames rising up his legs, giving him a pseudo-manifestation. As it formed, it didn't look like him, thoughor like a human, needless to say, though I thought I saw some subtle traces of myself in the design he chose. Instead, he chose to make something more impressive for his first real fight, rising into a form well over two meters in height, with four arms and a massive, bulky body as if he were someone wearing armor, though the flames all blended together. Mostly shapeless flames roared where his hair might have been, but some of it rose inconsistently into the shapes of horns, altering between those reminiscent of demons and animals. In each of his four hands, he formed a sword, each blade jutting straight out of a palm.

Barely hesitating, Pyrrha slammed her spear through his head, but with no material form to speak of, he wasn't the target. Dancing back a step, Pyrrha seemed to realize that, too, and attempted to dance around him and strike at me, Levant's burning orb getting closer.

In response, Suryastaopened was the only word I could think of to describe it, lines across his body yawning wide as he opened straight down his body like a bizarre suit of armor waiting to be stepped into. Or maybe a mouth was a better example, as he lines the evidentially hollow interior of his shell with blow-torch like 'teeth.' He stepped closer to Pyrrha, trying to draw her in, and even she gave him a wide berthand a rather ineffective blow to the head, of course.

Levant's sphere lowered, preparing to fall upon Pyrrha if she continued her advance andhaving experienced firsthand my willingness to bring such a thing down upon myselffell back a step with an aggrieved frown. As she did so, tube-like streams rose from Suryasta's back, rising up to connect with the sphere above him, causing both flames to brighten even as the effort on me lightened.

A lot of them.

Needless to say, they all made a beeline for Pyrrha, even as Suryasta and Levant tried to swat her with their massive hands.

The three-time champion tried to ignore both the attacks and the twin giants who made themwhich must have been pretty damn hard, consideringand continue on her path towards me. I respected that; even with everything going on around her, she'd picked me out as the source of the threat and remained focused on dealing with me no matter what distractions arose. I thought that was kind of amazing.

Which is not to say I was having any of it.

I leapt as hard as I could and struck out above me with my Lash. Focusing slightly, I summoned another for my free hand, a pair of blades appearing with the casting and swimming together into a single shape. Sending my second weapon in the same direction as the first, I pulled myself higher and higher and then flipped over. Pulling against it with my arms and pushing with my feet, I 'stood' on the dome of the Coliseum and looked down at the sight below.

Now far beneath me, Pyrrha took a deep breath, nodded her head, and kept moving, shifting her focus to trying to stay ahead of both the seeker tornados and the explosions Suryasta would build beneath her while probably also attempting to come up with a plan. Even in a situation like this where she couldn't harm her main attackers and the entire arena was against her, she refused to surrender, kept looking for a way to win.

And maybe she'd find it, yet. Even moment in the flames, every defense and attack, everything she did below slowly ate away at her Aurabut every second of keeping this going did the same for my MP, draining it perhaps even faster. I had so much of it, we were still close, but

I pushed harder. The chains that kept me latched onto the ceiling loosened just enough for me to raise my hands abovebelow?me. I called power to my hands and rained attacks down on Pyrrha; more distractions, more things to deal with. I fired Cannonballs at her first, blasts of stone shattering force to add to her troubles, adding Fireballs and Magic Bullets shortly after. She raised her shield above her head like an umbrella, hiding her face from me as bore the assault. I called upon my Mana Rope next, casting it down to try and bind her limbs, succeeding for a moment before she tore through it with sheer strength. The moment's pause gave my Elementals a chance to draw nearer, though, and so I cast it again and again.

A skill has been created through a special action! A skill to tie the enemy up with rope, 'Bind,' has been created through continuous application of Mana Rope!

Switching instantly to the new technique, restrictive energy raced from my hands. I was curious as to how I might combine the skill with my Elements or with Vorpal Lash, but first

The ropes pulled tight around Pyrrha, snaking around her arms, her legs, even around her throat and mouth, pulling tight in an instant. The Champion stumbled, but was on guard from my previous attempts and whether with skill or magnetism, managed to trap her blade between flesh and rope, and she used her power to cut the edge swiftly. Even something like that only bought a second against her.

But a second could be enough; a bunch of seconds, even more so. In that brief pause, wind and fire had drawn nearer and I could just hit her with it again and again until they caught her and ended it. Eventually, she wouldn't escape quickly enough, would take a hit or series of hits, and it'd be over. I knew that instantly from that one brief pauseand I knew that she knew as well.

The only question was how she'd deal with itand it was a question.

Can you do it? I wondered. Can you push this even further? Or is it my win, Pyrrha?

I saw her look up at me for a second.

I saw her make her decision.

She changed directions suddenly, hurling herself towards a yet burning wall, surmounting it quickly and leaping from the top. In midair, she aimed her spear up towards me and I thought for a minute that she'd throw it again.

Instead, she did something much more impressive. As she planted a foot at the base of the spear, fire spurted from the end and she rose like a rocket, magnetism lightening her load. She flew towards me, surfing her spear high into the air, and if thoughts of giving up had ever crossed her mind, I couldn't tell.

I smiled, thenand laughed in joy, amazement, even a little astonishment. My Lashes released their hold on the ceiling and I began to fall, but it could have been in slow motion compared to her rise. I reached out and the Lash around one arm struck out at the arena wall far below, swiftly reeling me towards it.

It wouldn't be enough, I knew before I even saw her responseand sure enough, it wasn't. As I fell past her, Pyrrha pulled down, the spear arching high as it curved to follow me back down to earth. I'd known I couldn't escape her like this.

Or at least, not just like this. With the first shot having moved me enough to the side to escape her original trajectory, I pulled it back even as my other arm Lashed out. The second chain sank deeply into the burning sphere below and began pulling me into the inferno.

I looked above me at the woman on my tail and our eyes met.

She knew I wasn't bluffing.

I knew she wasn't running.

And in that moment, as we fell towards the flames, I was pretty sure I was smiling just as widely as she was. This was it. This would decide it. We

"That's enough."