by Jesse Wilson
“Lumic, you're excited I can tell so I won't make this end too fast, I know how you like to play,” Elrox said and Melissa recoiled a bit but Lumic didn't react to it. “Alright Roxie, let's do this,” Lumic said as Elrox spread his arms out to his sides.
“One free shot to show you what you're up against,” he said to her and smiled. Melissa sensed a trap, Lumic did not and she rushed forward. She punched Elrox in the face with her left fist but he didn't move at all, his skin didn't shift or anything. It was like hitting a statue. Lumic jumped back and Melissa felt the pain in her hand.
“See, you can't beat me, you can't even hurt me,” Elrox said to her and smiled.
“You know he might be right, we can still walk out of here,” Melissa said to Lumic reconsidering her position on this fight.
“No, I never give up a fight, this guy has it coming, he used us all and plans on killing so many people we can't stop now,” Lumic said to her and formed the blade in her right hand. “Fine, let's give it everything we have,” Melissa said as Lumic's enthusiasm was proving to be contagious. Elrox started to walk towards her at a slow pace.
“Doesn't he know how fast I am, at that speed he'll never catch me,” Lumic said and in an instant, they were behind him. Elrox had already turned around and expected that to happen. He raised his right arm and a jet of sea water erupted from the ground they stood on and knocked them off balance.
The fall was harsh and they landed on their face. “So, what's plan B, Lumic, do you have anything interesting that might be useful,” Melissa said as she used her arms to push herself to stand back up.
“I didn't really have a backup plan,” Lumic replied to her. All of this eagerness to fight was suddenly gone. “Child, you're nothing more than a lightshow on legs. You can't beat me, you can't even wreck my suit, you're pathetic and you need to call it a day,” Elrox said to her and crossed his arms.
“I totally can ruin those rags you call a suit you arrogant prick,” Lumic said and Melissa was still trying to figure out just how they were going to do it. “Well if you think you can—“ Lumic formed her blazing white sword in an instant and at nearly the same time fired a white beam of light into him. Elrox was taken off his feet and thrown into the ground in the middle of talking.
When the light faded Elrox's top half of his suit had been shredded into ribbons. The God began to laugh. “Alright, so proved your point,” he said as he floated straight back up to stand.
“I've just begun to—“ Melissa was going to start talking but when she saw him, she was distracted. Elrox looked more human than a god was supposed to. He looked like he belonged on the beach, his body appeared to be carved from stone to perfection, then made into flesh.
“Well, you're pretty hot for a god,” she said as she caught her breath. “Focus, remember he's not human, he's a god,” Lumic reminded her. “Well he sure looks like I'd expect one too,” she replied to him and continued. “I suppose we have to mess him up all the same, that's a shame,” she said and almost did feel bad about it.
“Even your science will tell you the strongest force on the planet is the ocean, I am the God of the Sea, so by your logic alone I am stronger than any of the other gods, or blades. Water always wins and you've got no chance here so let's make this easy on you, just give up,” Elrox said to her and Lumic responded by charging him as fast as she could. Elrox knew Lumic would do this and had already begun the process to get out of the way.
Lumic was moving so fast that she couldn't register that he already moved. Elrox grabbed her ankle and stopped the both of them cold. He spun around to slam them into the ground, using her as if she were a toy an angry child might throw into the ground.
“This battle is coming to an end now, I tire of this nonsense,” Elrox said as he walked towards Lumic, standing over her he made his right fist crackle with blue energy just before he plunged it into her back. Rays of intense light burst from the wound and he tore Melissa out of Lumic's body.
The white armor disappeared back into the blade that lay beside it. He outstretched his hand to allow the blade to come into his left hand. He put the blade's point above her heart. The shock of being torn out knocked her out.
“If you care for this elf, even a little bit, you'll end this now Lumic,” Elrox said to her and narrowed his eyes. “You let her go right now,” Shane said and started to rush the ring. Pen and Yalen had to struggle to hold him back. “He won't kill her, this is just for the match,” Pen said to him and hoped it was true.
“You let her go right now you pathetic excuse for a god, don't and I will make sure you die before this night is over,” Shane screamed at him. Elrox ignored Shane, he kept his ocean green eyes staring at his victim with a smile.
“I stop, I quit, I won't kill her. Please don't make me do this,” Lumic pleaded with him. Elrox smiled and dropped the both of them on the ground.
“You never stood a chance,” he said as he walked away, his suit reformed as he did.
Shane broke free and ran to the both of them with thunderous footsteps. Melissa was knocked out, but still alive. “She fought well, but no match for the power of the ocean, let's get her out of here,” Sholtan said and carefully picked her up.
“I know you're not interested but I think that I can protect her while she heals, just put me back in her hand,” Lumic said to him as she lay there on the ground. Shane didn't have to think about it.
“Your right if things go bad you can get her out of here in a hurry,” Shane replied to her and pulled Lumic over into her left hand, reforming the body around her fallen form. Soon she was up and moving again.
“She'll be fine, but she's going to have a headache and body ache for a few days after this,” Lumic said to them as Sholtan put her down.
Thanks,” Shane said and was just relieved that she wasn't dead, they walked back to the others. “Well with some poor showmanship and tactics, Elrox is the winner and the match is now tied, it's time for our next two contestants to be called to the fight,” Taro said with disdain in his voice.
Elrox didn't care what Taro thought of his methods and paid no attention to it.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Taro sighed and summoned two more pieces of paper to his hands. The letter b and number one,” Taro said then. Not knowing who came next, he hoped the next match was would be more even than the last one. Loa took a deep breath and stepped up. “I am the letter b, apparently,” she said and wondered who her enemy was going to end up being. Pen looked at his paper. “I am number one,” he said as he stepped forward.
“We are number one, you mean,” Tinea replied to him.
“You know what I meant,” he said to her and sighed. “You got this, don't worry,” Ventrix said and put his hand on her shoulder. Pen smiled, “Thanks,” he replied and the two of them stepped on to the battle field.
“You're the ones who have been causing all of this trouble, wouldn't have been better just to do nothing?” Loa asked them as she met them on the battlefield. “At first I just wanted to make right what I put wrong, but now that I know the plan and the true evil behind it, namely you. I'll do everything I can to save this world from whatever archaic plans you and your friends here have planned. Also, you used me and that just pisses me off,” Pen replied to her in the meanest voice he could.
“Yeah, what he said,” Tinea added to it. “Right, evil, you are so limited to think like that but whatever, I'll make this short. I kind of wanted to test the limits of Arket but you'll do just fine,” Loa said and smiled as her red dress melted across her body as if it were alive and turned more into more of a thin looking suit of armor.
“You know, I'll hate messing up your good looks, if you weren't on the other side maybe we could have been friends, but right now I have to beat you,” Pen said as he formed his hands into long blades on instinct.
“Yeah you have to try,” Loa said with a hint of regret in her voice, her body started on fire that was a deep orange. She lunged at him but Tinea easily got ou
t of the way.
“Pen she has no idea what kind of powers we have, let's not show them all right away so we can keep her guessing,” Tinea said to him internally. “Yeah, I hear you,” Pen replied as Loa shot two streams of green flame in his direction out of her eyes.
“You guys might want to get back for this one, you might get hurt, this battle is going to get messy pretty fast,” Pen said to his friends as he raised his left blade to deflect the fire into the ground and the sparks flew in their direction. None of them bothered to listen and stayed right where they were at.
Tinea jumped over Loa and kicked her in the back sending her into own fire that she started. The towering flames simply disappeared as they were absorbed back into her body.
“The green fire looks pretty but you're going to have to do better than that to impress me,” Tinea said to her, scraping her left blade along the ground to make sparks of her own to mock her powers.
Loa's body fire turned from orange straight to white.
“Alright, that's star fire, it'll melt us if it touches us,” Tinea said and Pen smiled. “Don't worry, I played Immortal Combat a couple of times, remember,” he replied to her but didn't take his eyes off of Loa.
“You'll be nothing more than a pile of molten metal when I'm done, I'll drink your remains in tribute,” Loa said to them and from her hands came twin streams of pure white flame. Pen ran straight between her arms, leapt into the air, over her head and fired a stream of black corrosive mist into her face from his left blade.
Despite the flames surrounding her, the mist attacked her eyes. Loa stopped her attack at once and rushed to try and get the acidic stuff out of her eyes.
“Thank you, Brule,” Pen said to himself with a smile. “Loa, listen, there is a lot more where that came from, you have no idea what you're up against here,” Pen tried to reason with her. He always tried to do this before fighting but experience told him sometimes you had to lay the hammer down on their skull before they'd get the point driven in.
“We can't do this hit and run stuff, she's just gonna start everything on fire, we need to put an end to it,” Tinea said what Pen already knew.
“I will burn everything you love to the ground,” Loa screamed at them and slammed her foot on the ground. Star fire began to erupt from the ground in various places. Even the gods on the other side began to back off as did the blades.
“No pattern, we have to keep moving,” Pen said, due to Lumic's speed this was easy but there were increasingly few safe places left to be. “Ventrix, he touched us, did you happen to copy anything?” Pen asked her.
“Yeah, but I have no idea what it does, but I have a feeling he did and that's why he did that, you deal with the firefly here and I'll try and center on it,” Tinea said to him and went silent.
“Sure, but this is going to hurt the both of us here,” Pen replied to her as he took full control. Pen rushed forward, dodging the pillars of white flame. “Hey, hot flash, watch this,” Pen said and swung his right blade into her stomach as hard as he could, his blade melted on impact but the power was more than enough to send her flying towards her god friends. Tinea screamed as her right hand liquefied on contact.
“Pen what the hell was that?” Tinea asked through the pain. Pen was lucky enough that his hand was not there as well. “Sorry but we needed some time, keep working,” Pen said. Loa's concentration was broken and all of the flame pillars had died out as she landed on the far side of the ring, but still on fire. Her body was melting the cement as she laid there.
“Come on, get up already. I've heard of using what you know to your advantage but this is insane, even for you,” Pen said to her as Loa stood up all he could see was her blood red eyes in her white form.
“You don't get it and you mortals never do. We know what's best and you need to be cauterized so you stop doing everything wrong. You must be cleansed of the evil that grows in you,” she screamed the same old line as from before.
“Yep, still crazy,” Pen said as his right arm grew back, then a shiny black coating covered their form replacing the shiny and reflective silver.
“I found it. Ventrix is the blade of the undead and all things dark, his power is basically to negate positive energy like say, fire and light. Lumic's opposite, let's take this goddess down,” Tinea said and Pen smiled, reminding himself to thank Ventrix later for thinking ahead.
“Isn't star fire basically sunlight, isn't this a bad idea, I mean, does this even make sense?” Pen became worried. “Yes and no but it's complicated, we can discuss it later. Let's win first,” Tinea said and reformed her blades back into hands.
“I am the goddess of fire, I am every burning star, I am every point of light,” she screamed at them and focused her twin streams of white flame in their direction and became engulfed in the fire.
“No!” Shane cried out from the sidelines as it happened.
Loa began to laugh but stopped when she saw a dark form coming out of the fire, walking in her direction. The white flames died out inches away from Tinea's black form.
“What, no, how is this even possible, Xy, what did you create. What horror is this?” Loa was beginning to panic as two black hands wrapped around her wrists squeezing them with ease until they broke with a loud snap for everyone to hear.
“I created a monster,” Xy whispered to no one as she watched the powers of her creation be unleashed.
Loa screamed, her flames died and her body went out as she fell to her knees. Tinea let her go and punched her in the side of the face with her right fist. Loa fell to the ground without grace. Pen didn't give her a chance to surrender. He bent down and picked her up with both arms, the goddess looked dead, limp in his arms.
Elrox's pale eyes widened only for a second as he walked into the battlefield. No one was sure what he was going to do next.
“Here is your friend, Elrox. Notice how I didn't threaten to kill her, that's because I'm not like you,” Pen said to him and held Loa out to him. Elrox took her from them.
“Thanks for not killing her,” he said to him, turned and carried her away. Pen narrowed his eyes, turned and walked back towards the blades. “I thought my power might come in handy,” Ventrix said to him. “Thanks, I was hoping it worked the way I thought it did. That could have gone very differently,” Tinea said and Pen was alarmed.
“You mean you just guessed, how could you do that?” Pen was shocked. “I had to do something, we would have been a puddle if we didn't so you're welcome,” she replied. “Also. If you ever melt parts of me again like that with no warning I'll return the favor,” she added. Pen swallowed nervously.
Chapter Thirty
Taro was pleased that his blade managed to win and smiled, he also knew that he had to pick the next contenders in the fight.
“Tinea is the winner congratulations, but the contest must continue,” Taro said and two pieces of paper flew to his hands again. Taro turned them over and read out loud. “The number six and the letter g,” he said out loud.
“I am the letter g,” Xy said quietly and stepped into the ring as her black dress flowed around her almost as if it were alive. She showed no emotion one way or the other as she waited for whoever it was that was going to be her opponent. “I am number six,” Arket said and for the first time seemed rather timid about taking on an enemy. Everyone who had just seen the last battle knew that Arket didn't stand a chance.
“You don't have to fight her, you can quit, this match would tie us up if we lose,” Lumic said to her. “Yeah, we all saw what Tinea did to Loa, I don't think this can end well for you,” Brule said to her. “Maybe, but I have to try, right?” she replied to them weakly.
“No, you really don't need to try if you don't want to,” Pen said to her as she walked passed him. “Well, if she gets too rough with me, I know you'll have my back right?” Arket asked as she stepped into the ring.
“I'll go easy on you,” Xy said to her, never breaking her gaze from Arket in the slightest. “Whenever you're ready t
o fight, begin,” Taro said, knowing what everyone on both sides knew.
“This is for Loa, she is my friend and you've all earned what is coming to you,” Xy said to her but her tone of voice never changed even by the slightest margin. Arket formed her blade and held it in her right hand then she charged her as fast as she could.
Xy didn't move an inch as her black dress sprung to life, wrapped around her ankles and caused Arket to fall flat on her face. Her burning blade made sparks as it slid across the cement.
“I will make this quick, this bores me,” Xy said as her dress tendrils split and wrapped around Arket's wrists and lifted her up to be at face level. They pulled her close to Xy's face.
“Well tear me to pieces if that's what you're going to do, get it over with and make it quick,” Arket said, and just as Xy was about to talk her rainbow flames shot from her hands, curved around to hit her in the back setting Arket free. She was knocked forward at the same time Arket used her right hand to punch Xy in the face. The goddess stumbled back in surprise.