by Max Jager
Kaden's chakram struck the bottom of the stone platform Estellese was standing on with such force, that the magic blade cut clean through the entire boulder and cut part way through the cliff behind it.
Once the attack had missed, Estellese looked back to see how much damage it had caused then looked back at Kaden with a shocked expression. That would have torn her to shreds if it had struck her, when did he get spells that powerful? She shook off the thought, it didn't matter, he was going to die right now. She let out a powerful blast of flames that burnt away the skeletal hands then jumped off her stone platform.
Estellese charged straight at Kaden, and as soon as he opened a portal beside himself, intent on slashing his scythe through again, she slammed her palms together and disappeared in a bright flash of light. She reappeared behind Kaden, but he immediately walked through his own portal. Suddenly the skeletal hands sprang out of the ground again and started to pin down Estellese, then Kaden swung his scythe backwards through the portals at Estellese.
That skeletal arms spell didn't seem like a normal spell. Estellese had a hunch that something Kaden possessed was granting him the ability to use it. She held out her hand and summoned her diamond staff. She quickly used the staff to block the scythe's attack, then focused. A powerful beam of flames burst out of her staff, then she swung the staff and the beam of fire down at the scythe. The heat from the fire melted through the handle of his scythe and severed it in half. As soon as the scythe was destroyed, the skeletal hands disappeared and the spell failed. Just as she thought, the scythe had some magic enchantment on it. She knew Kaden wouldn't have learned any necromancy, even he wasn't that bad.
Kaden closed the portals as quickly as he could once his scythe was broken, but it wasn't fast enough. Estellese jumped through his portal and came out of the one right next to him, then she slammed her staff into his knee. As Kaden stumbled backwards she slammed the staff up into his chin, then followed the attack up with a powerful punch to the stomach that sent him stumbling backwards, and then a sidekick that knocked him off the cliff.
Estellese knew that wasn't the end of him, he had his portals and no doubt would catch himself. So when he walked out of a portal a short distance from her she wasn't surprised. He was mostly unscratched, that armor of his was far too durable and strong. She watched as Kaden pulled a black dagger out of his boot, then he took a defensive stance, waiting for her move.
Estellese was struggling to stay on her feet, he hadn't even scratched her but she was nearly exhausted. She had burnt almost all of her energy earlier trying to heal the sick, and now she was blowing off massive portions of her energy fighting Kaden. She had to end this quickly, if it wasn't for that armor the fight would have been over by now. She was starting to calm down, her mind was clearing up enough to think this through and she knew what she needed to do. She switched her elements to Metal, and Mental: Empathy. She had to win this fight now, she was betting everything on this one move.
Kaden walked a little closer but was keeping his distance for now. Estellese made her diamond staff disappear, then focused for a moment.
Kaden didn't know what she was focusing on, but he took the opportunity to strike. He opened a portal beside himself and jumped through, springing out of a portal that opened beside Estellese and punching her hard in the stomach.
Estellese was knocked out of her focus and stumbled backwards. She caught her footing almost immediately and threw another spin-kick at him, striking his ribs and knocking him aside again. This was starting to hurt, every time she struck his armor it hurt her, and the spikes on his armor were starting to leave her arms and legs covered in little cuts.
Kaden quickly stumbled back onto his feet and spun around, he went to run back at her but by that point she had finished focusing for her spell. Using her Aether: Empathy magic she forced her way into Kaden's mind and immediately inflicted an overwhelming fear on him. The fear caused Kaden to freeze in his place for a moment, he took a few steps backwards as he tried to regain control over his mind and his emotions. He couldn't take another step towards her.
In the brief second he was frozen Estellese used her metal magic to take control of Kaden's metal armor, then while he was unable to resist her spell she tore it apart. His armor shattered into pieces and the pieces were thrown all over the mountainside. When Kaden regained control of himself all he had left to fight with was his dagger. His armor was gone, he was vulnerable now.
But Estellese was out of energy now, she was struggling to catch her breath, struggling to stay standing, and was fighting to stay conscious. She kept her focus on Kaden, and her elements changed back to fire and earth, she no longer had the energy for her signet to work. She watched as Kaden adjusted his grip on his knife to a reverse grip, then she resummoned her diamond staff and unfolded her wings from her back.
Estellese watched as Kaden charged straight at her, she focused for a moment and used her barrier spell to give herself some magical armor to protect herself from attacks, then she readied herself. Kaden charged her head-on but at the last second jumped through a portal and lunged at her from the side.
Estellese spun around and blocked his knife with her staff, then twisted the staff to strike him in the face. Kaden quickly backed off to evade the attack, then threw a side kick back at her. Estellese slammed her staff into his leg to block the attack, then leaned forward and punched him in the face. The force from the blow threw him backwards but as he hit the ground, a portal opened beneath himself and he fell through it.
Kaden fell out of a portal up in the air behind Estellese. Estellese spun around in an attempt to strike him down but he immediately fell through another portal and she missed. Kaden came flying out of a portal to her side and slammed into her, knocking them both to the ground. Kaden immediately pinned her down and stabbed his knife down into her shoulder, but the attack was blocked by her magic barrier. Estellese grabbed his wrist but Kaden slammed his other fist down on her chest and shattered the magic barrier.
Estellese kept a firm grip on his knife-holding wrist and twisted it, forcing him to drop the knife. She then slammed her other fist into the side of his head. Kaden was staggered by the blow and his head was badly bleeding by now, but he quickly pinned her other arm down. Estellese took a deep breath, then spat flames at Kaden's face, only for Kaden to open a small portal between them sending the flames off somewhere else in the mountain.
As soon as the portal disappeared Estellese headbutted Kaden and threw him off herself. The moment she saw Kaden stumbling back she stomped her foot and made the earth under his feet shift, throwing him off balance. As Kaden stumbled and fell she made a massive spiked stone pillar spring from the ground underneath him, aiming to stab it through his chest as he fell onto it.
But Kaden just opened a portal between himself and the spike and he fell through the portal. He landed a short distance away on the ground and sprang back onto his feet. As soon as his feet touched the ground stone chains sprang from the ground and tried grabbing onto him. Kaden quickly and swiftly evaded the chains, but the more he moved the more chains sprang from the ground, and they all chased him down. Eventually there was too many, but Kaden just opened another portal and jumped through it to move himself far away from the chains.
"Dammit Kaden!" Estellese roared at him. "You lost! You can't beat me! Stop running away with those damn portals and accept it." It was infuriating! She would have won this fight a hundred times over by now if he didn't have those stupid portals to save him every time he screwed up.
"Why would I do that?" Kaden asked.
As soon as he started to speak Estellese blasted a massive fireball at him, but Kaden opened a portal in front of the flame and sent it right back at Estellese. Thankfully, she controlled fire, so as the flame came towards her she turned to face it and held out her arm, then she made it disappear. She spun back around to face Kaden, who was running at her again. She threw a massive boulder at him, and he just opened a portal to redirect the boulde
r somewhere else.
But as the boulder neared the portal, she made it shatter into several smaller boulders. A few went through the portal, and the rest scattered in random directions around Kaden. Then, suddenly, all the boulders shattered again into small, one foot long, sharp stone spikes that all fired back at Kaden from every direction possible. There was no way his portals could block that.
Kaden immediately opened a portal and dove through it to get himself out of the line of fire, a few of the spikes had struck him, but he was mostly unharmed. As soon as Estellese figured out where Kaden had teleported to, she lifted her arm and another massive boulder rose from the ground. But as she swung her arm forward to throw the boulder at him, the boulder lifelessly fell to the ground and rolled away. Then Estellese collapsed and was sent into a coughing fit.
"Burnt up all of your stamina already?" Kaden asked. "Ya probably shouldn't have come alone."
"Shut up!" Estellese coughed out.
"I told you you couldn't win." Kaden shrugged.
"SHUT UP!" Estellese screamed at him with a sudden, yet brief burst of energy. But her shouting sent her back into another coughing fit.
"But that wouldn't be any fun, I like talking." Kaden replied.
"What do you want Kaden? You gonna kill me?" Estellese breathlessly growled back.
"Why would I do that? We are friends after all." Kaden answered as he walked over and started picking up the broken pieces of his scythe.
Estellese just growled back at him. She sat up, and her eyes remained locked on him, giving him a deathglare.
"Plus, if I killed you my plans would never work. I need you, I can't do this without you. I need both you and Mendelen. I'm not a leader, you guys are. I need someone to go back to the people who survived, and tell them how the new world order will be. I need someone to lead them, to make a new community, and to teach them how to really survive in this world." Kaden replied. "They were not safe in your village. You and Mendelen rounded everyone up to be slaughtered, just like I said. Now you need to lead them and help them to survive, to grow stronger through all of this. I know you will."
"No. We'll just make a new community, the same as before, and this time we will hunt you down and kill you first." Estellese growled back.
"You think anyone is going to buy that now? You think that if you offer a city where everyone is 'safe' again, after this failure, that people will come to it and expect to be safe?" Kaden asked. "They won't believe you, either of you, anymore. Make use of this destruction, go back and rally them all, they won't believe you if you say they will be safe. But they will believe you if you say that the Moderators are forcing you to train them. To make them learn to fight. They are all scared now, and now need someone to show them how to survive."
"No! Screw that! MY city WAS safe! Safe from monsters! MONSTERS Kaden! It was not prepared to be attacked by an f*ing army lead by some asshole with superpowers while everyone was ill. We were NEVER ready for that and I NEVER thought we were. But we WILL be now. You and your moronic army will be wiped out!" Estellese shouted back at him, slowly starting to catch her breath.
Kaden sighed, "Neither of you will listen to me. It's over. I already won. While we were fighting my soldiers destroyed the village, and then I opened portals to send them to all the other growing cities and villages. Not to destroy those, but to take them over and kick everyone out."
"Why are you only destroying mine!?" Estellese shouted back at him.
"To make a point. Yours had the promise of safety, the promise to protect everyone. Now it is destroyed, anyone seeking the safety of the village will see what happens when people want to pretend they can have a safe place to hide." Kaden answered.
"I will kill you Kaden." Estellese growled. "You got lucky today, I was exhausted before our fight even begun. Next time you aren't making it out."
"Good luck." Kaden replied. "Anyways, it's time for me to go meet up with my army. The last few battles are being won, so it's time to go celebrate."
Estellese just silently glared him down as he opened a portal beside himself, then walked through. Once the portal closed she was left up here, alone, and too exhausted to walk back down the mountain. She didn't even know where to go if she could walk, she couldn't go home now her home was destroyed. And if what Kaden said was true, every city had been taken over now. There was nowhere left to go.
No. Estellese forced herself to stand back up, then started walking down the side of the mountain. Moving on sheer willpower alone. Oline city was still standing, there was no way he took over all of those cities. It was a long walk from here, but Oline city must have survived the battle. There's no way the city fell.
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- Next chapter: Rise of the Spartans -
Chapter 26: Rise of the Spartans
" Estellese opened her eyes. She was in an unfamiliar room again, this one was dark and didn't have any windows, but a crystal light in the corner was lighting the room just enough for everything to be visible. Everything hurt, and she had a terrible headache. She slowly and cautiously sat up.
" "You're okay!" Pex shouted out. The little fairy immediately flew over to land on her shoulder. "I was so worried when Mendelen contacted me. "What happened?"
At first she didn't remember much, but as she thought about it she pieced her memory back together. "Kaden happened. He built up an army and attacked Belle village. I went to fight him, but he got the better of me this time. He made sure I was exhausted before we fought, so I couldn't fight at my best. He just avoided me until I used up too much energy to keep fighting." She grumbled.
"I'm sorry. I never would have expected that, he seemed like he was good friends with you guys." Pex lowered her head. "But how did you end up here?" She added.
"I don't even know where here is." Estellese replied. "Last I remember I was walking down the mountain to Oline city, but I collapsed on the way back and fell off the mountain. I passed out, then woke up here." She answered.
"That's... Strange..." Pex replied. "Mendelen said he found you here a couple days ago and-"
"A couple days ago? How long was I out?" Estellese questioned. "And where are we?"
"Three days. The attack happened three days ago. Cora has been here making sure you are alright, and when Mendelen contacted me I came too." Pex spoke up. "This is a bunker Mendelen and a few of the fairies who escaped the village made in the Emory forest shortly after the battle. You just appeared in the bed here a few hours after it was made."br /br / "How?" Estellese rubbed her forehead, trying to get rid of this terrible headache.
" Pex shrugged. "I dunno. Someone was trying to keep you safe I guess."
" "But who brought me here? Zanath?" Estellese asked, and Pex shrugged.
The door opened and Cora walked into the room with a clipboard and a pen. "Oh you're awake!" She smiled as she walked in and placed a hand on Estelle's forehead. "How are you feeling hon? You doing alright?"
" "I have a terrible headache, and I'm still sore. But I'm otherwise feeling fine." Estellese replied. "What happened?"
Cora wrote a few notes on her clipboard, then took a seat on a table across the room. "Mendelen and I found you here shortly after we built the bunker. Neither of us know how you got here, but you were in pretty bad shape. You used up too much magic and sent yourself into a coma, and you were pretty badly injured. I've been watching over you the last three days." She replied.
"What happened in the village?" Estellese asked.
"Well," Cora started. "After I arrived and ran a few tests, I realized that everyone was not sick. They were all poisoned. I'm not sure how three different types of poison spread through everyone so quickly, there must have been something in the water, or something everyone was eating." She explained. "I started healing them, and suddenly we were attacked. I got myself, Cathrine, and everyone else in the medical center out of the village. We found a woman named Fate along the way, Cathrine seemed to know her. She was in really bad shape so we carried her out with us. I'm pre
tty sure she'll be alright now." She replied.
"Did we win the battle?" Estellese asked.
p data-p-id="7dbaec83726908801bc24f4bca240899" "No." Cora answered. "We've gone out into the village a few times to scavenge for medical supplies, to help our healers treat the less injured people without magic. It saves them a little stamina that they can put towards the critically injured people. They are also searching for survivors, but the entire village was destroyed. There isn't a single building still standing."
"What about Oline city, and the others? Era city I think? Barre Village? Port Redwarren?" Estellese asked.
"Mendelen didn't know it was Kaden attacking..." Cora explained. "He ran straight for Belle village, and by the time he got there Kaden and his forces had left the village through a portal and attacked Oline city. With an Alpha attacking it, and no Alphas there to defend, the city fell. Everyone who survived the battle was kicked out of the city, the Moderators now control it and are keeping everyone out." She explained. "They also took over all the other cities you listed, and kicked everyone out."