Alkalians

by Caleb S. Bugai

  Nicholas clamping onto him with his jaws coincides with the mid-air tackle into Matt, and they both dive beneath the water’s surface. The battle continues underwater as Nicholas shakes his head, his teeth tearing through armor to leave more wounds into Matt. After a few seconds of thrashing, Nicholas tosses Matt out of his mouth and swims past him. Matt, dazed and glowing with green wounds on his left arm and side, cocks his head to follow his opponent’s movement through the water.

  The Whale curves himself around swiftly back at Matt, and when he tries to get out of the way he finds with horror that his air balance is greatly slowed from the water submerging him. Realizing he can’t move quickly enough, he draws his large sword from his right hand and prepares to strike Nicholas. Before contact, Nicholas glides past him, and Matt’s blade cuts only through clear water. With great surprise, Matt tries to counteract the maneuver, but Nicholas, despite his size, is too fast. He circles around Matt, causing a funnel of water to form that immobilizes Matt in its spinning.

  As the funnel starts fading, a disoriented Matt discovers Nicholas coming back at him. He goes below him this time, and Matt then feels the sensation of being launched upward. He breaks out of the water, nearly impaled by another geyser spray, and plummets back to the pool’s surface, his wounds threaded as a yellow aura. In the moment before hitting the water, Matt sees an arc of water carried by a whale’s fluke coming at him, to which he can only grimace, before it slams into him and a huge splash from the impact swallows him from view.

  Every time Nicholas outmatched Matt, Rose and Sean cringed. Matt, if he wasn’t still in morph, looks unconscious as he sinks in the pool, the dark orange wounds radiating off him. Meanwhile, Nicholas swims to the far opposite end of the pool, reverses directions with a sharp turn, and propels back at his failing foe.

  In his mind, detached from time, Matt concludes this is the hardest battle he has ever had at the college, and he reflects to other conflicts with fellow students. Dante, Cain, Rose, and Buster. All four, important in their own way. And now, in what may be his most needed victory yet, he is being slaughtered.

  As he meditates with the little time he has left, something enters his subconscious thought without warning. Matt realizes that, in his matches against Dante and Cain, he had used his resolve, his will honed by anger and wisdom, to unleash fury upon them. But, in his matches against Rose and Buster, he lost due to his doubts and fears clouding his judgment and hindering his focus. Matt then understands he can’t let those emotions drag him down, and through his confidence and will could rise to overcome any foe.

  Matt’s eyes snap open, full of rage and determination, and he begins the Countdown to Destruction.

  As Nicholas races towards him, Matt summons a legion of his black clones, many with rifles aimed at him, that fill his entire side of the pool. Nicholas ascends when the clones shoot at him, and he breaches into the air over the pool and wall of bullets below. Coming back down, he dive bombs into the cluster of clones under the water, and while the shockwave of his splash scatters the most of them he swims in a circle past the rest, an aura of possessed water around him lashing out and shattering each clone.

  His assault concluded as he floats in place, Nicholas darts his eyes about, looking for the real Matt. Suddenly, he flinches when thrusts pierce his underbelly, as a few clones that escaped his attacks by sinking below him then spring back up and ram their swords into him. Nicholas does a barrel roll, and the spinning water repels and scraps the clones. The Whale stops to scan all about him again, and instead of finding Matt, he spots something odd.

  Outside the pool barrier, Sean and Rose are still watching, but now they have paling expressions of awe, eyes or mouth gaping wide open. A few seconds later, he then realizes they have their attention on something below him.

  As Nicholas guesses what they are looking at, it’s too late to avoid it. A giant, violet-and-white laser fires up through the water at him, drilling into his wounds and out his back, obliterating his dorsal fin, with devastating force. The laser bursts out of the water, through the air, and into the ceiling of the pool, sending ripples of impact through it and the walls, while the wounds from Nicholas being impaled rapidly flare into the red zone, his body bending in convulsion. In the numbing agony of that moment he releases a cry of anger and immense pain.

  ***

  Split seconds after Matt fired his ultimate weapon, a red demorph flash blurs the ravaging beam, the court’s barrier shuts off, and the pool water spills out on all sides as a flashflood. Rose and Sean brace themselves before the water runs through them. Rose stays upright, only having her lower body drenched, while Sean falls over, crying, “Spirits why!?” and becomes drenched.

  Back upon the cleared court floor, Nicholas lays face-up, soaked by water and sweat with his hair in a mangled mess, looking like a drowned man. He isn’t unconscious, though, when he twitches in reacting to someone walking across the puddles, and looks up. Still in his morph, Matt fixes a cold glare down upon Nicholas, his black armor streaked with red wounds giving him a more ominous, superior appearance. When Nicholas only locks eyes with his to return the glare, Matt then demorphs and, with hand extended, says, “That was a good duel, Nicholas.”

  Confused temper and curiosity flicker from Nicholas while he gets up without Matt’s help before he asks, “What are you doing?”

  Matt tries to explain, “Well, I won, but you fought well enough that you almost defeated me. So, I’m being a good sportsman and giving you due credit for…”

  “I deserve no credit from you,” Nicholas snaps back. “You, a mere freshman with rare powers, defeated me, a supreme senior with more experience and honed skills. Such a feat should be impossible, but it happened. That only means that I have failed in my duties as the better man, and I deserve no pity. You shouldn’t be honoring someone weaker than you.”

  Matt, at first baffled, replies, “But, what I’m trying to say is, oh, how would I put it? You are a great fighter, and I want to respect you for that. You see, I’ve been taught it’s wrong to make the loser feel bad, or make someone look weaker than you. If you are cruel and heartless toward everyone you best, no one’s going to like or care for your accomplishments.”

  Nicholas ignores everything Matt says until that last sentence. An upset attitude crossing him, he stomps off, leaving Matt and his two friends at the stone court without a word, heading back towards the campus.

  Matt is left puzzled, wondering what to make of Nicholas, when Rose and Sean come up to him. Sean, dripping water from head to toe, tells him, “Oh, don’t fret about him. Let Nicholas sulk, while you rejoice! It’s official, Matt, you’re now the strongest student on campus!”

  “Whoa, Sean, we can’t go boasting that,” Rose objects. “Remember, Buster’s already beat Matt in a fight.”

  Matt reminds himself how Rose has also defeated him. After a reflecting moment, he notices Rose’s wet pants and Sean completely soaked. “Hey, are you two alright?”

  “Oh, I’m sure our thorny Rose here is alright, and I’ll be fine, as soon as we get back to our cabin,” assures Sean, ignoring the scowl Rose gives him. By the way he replies, he doesn’t seem to care he was soaked in cold water during mid-autumn. He glances back to her, stating, “Anyway, you listen to me, Rose, and I’ll tell you just how Matt’s the new best of the best!”

  “Hah, oh really? I can’t wait to hear your reasons, no matter how ridiculous they are!”

  As the three of them leave the ancient court, with Sean and Rose getting into an argument about Matt’s standings, Matt can’t help feeling proud of himself on the inside. He defeated one of the most powerful and feared students at the college. What could he accomplish next?

  ***

  Later into the night that day, as the moon dares to peek from behind a cloudy sky, students are yet brawling each other for points in the Royale Project. On one of the open plains surrounding the campus, the scene is a battle royale. Numerous Alkalians in their battle morphs are fighting le
ft-and-right across the field, either focused in one-on-one confrontations or randomly launching attacks at the opponents closest to them. Once a student demorphs, he-or-she would instinctively stay low to the ground in whatever defeated posture they are left in, knowing it would be very dangerous to try getting up and running through the chaos of the battles around them.

  Amidst the carnage of the melee, there are a few characters of importance showing themselves as the champions of the battlefield. Cain, without a scratch of damage on him, is wild with pleasure as he strikes down every foe unfortunate to be within range of his sword and magic. Buster, his four guns each a different make and blazing, rains his fire power upon students in every direction, either close or afar, also in a jolly mood with minimal damage on his large frame. And James, in his twin Reaper morphs, portrays Death itself as he swoops down upon and barrages anyone with orange or red wounds to finish them off by scythe, talons, or magic.

  The madness of the battle soon begins to wane as there are only a few students still in morph, including Cain, James, and Buster. With the action becoming easier to predict, those already demorphed take their chances to stand up and hurry to safer distances, if they are able to move or are yet conscious. Cain, James, and Buster, each caught up in taking down a final foe before him, are realizing the combat is about to become only between them when an unexpected event happens.

  Without warning, out of the darkness of the night, a single morphing flash is followed by a tall wall of water rushing across the field towards them. The wave is so sudden and fast that only the black James has time to fly up and out of its way, and the rest of the fighters, including the white James, Cain, and Buster, are ran over and crushed by the freak wave, all of them except for the boss students instantaneously demorphing.

  Being the one closest to it when the flood appeared, the white James finds himself now flailing in the water, his vision disoriented and his battle morph fractured from yellow wounds and his wings snapped. The black James, meanwhile, is powerless to help his counterpart as he can’t see anything clearly in the black water below. Something big and fast then crashes into the white one, sharp teeth sinking into both of his legs, and pulls him under the waves.

  When the black James realizes who must be behind this surprise flood, and now has his white self in his jaws, an arrow of water is shot at him, taking out his wings and knocking him off air balance, letting him fall to the angry waters. Before he lands in them, a drilling jet stream carrying the white James sprays up and hits him, sending both of them high into the air. With orange or red wounds shared between them, they both know they are about to have a near-drowning experience as one last gush of water, wide in diameter and spinning like a twister, catches them, grinds into their wounds and bashes them against each other, and spits them out in opposite directions, each one demorphing at the same time before splashing into the sea.

  After the James’ disappear beneath the waves, two cannons stick out of the water before Buster emerges on his side of the sea. With his torso and legs glowing from green wounds, he has been struggling to swim up to the water’s surface due to the high density and weight of his battle morph’s body. As he is about to work at lifting himself into mid-air with air balance, steam spouts several yards ahead of him, followed by a tall dorsal fin breaking the surface and racing towards him. Cursing his misfortune, all Buster can do is brace himself as the Whale slams into him, his wounds bursting into yellow beside the splash of water from the impact.

  The next thing Buster knows, the Whale chomps into his left thigh and dives, dragging him underwater in his descent. Reacting as quickly as he can, Buster aims both of his cannons at the great mass of flesh between him and the dorsal fin, but his cannons are then bent and disabled by some great pressure squeezing them. His green eyes blinking, he notices the blue aura of magically charged water containing both him and the Whale, the cause of the pressure that continues constricting him.

  Once his wrists, ankles, elbows, knees, shoulders, and neck are all mangled into spots of dark orange wounds, Buster feels the jaws release him and the rest of the Whale swim pass him, leaving behind the blue aura that carries him back to the surface. The aura dispenses when he breaks through the water again, lamely floating in the tossing waves with his wounds near red, and he thinks bitterly of why Nicholas Narqailein had to jump into this battle as the Whale appears above him, leaping out of the water, and body slams into him with a huge splash.

  In the time after the tsunami engulfed him, Cain has been lost and immobile in the underwater currents juggling him about, his battle morph still without any damage on him. He gets a break when he finds himself in calmer water, and he takes the opportunity to survey the black water around him. He spots a demorph flash in the distance, and focuses in on it to see a lone, human figure floundering in the water, dwarfed by the Whale swimming away from him. His worst fears confirmed, Cain recognizes the new foe as Nicholas, whose black eye with the three gold stripes bordering it glistens upon seeing him.

  With a single flick of his fluke, Nicholas turns his body about and charges towards Cain at high speed. Bubbles escaping his mouth when he gasps, Cain desperately throws magic spells from his sword at the incoming Beast, who puts up an aura of blue water that shields him from them. Upon getting a few yards away from his prey, Nicholas bursts out of his aura and rolls to rush past him, whose sword was held feebly before him in hoping to impale him. Turning to look after him, Cain is startled to find himself spun into a wild somersault through the water from the gyro effect of Nicholas’ roll.

  A moment later, Cain’s somersaults end, leaving him dizzy and unable to see clearly around him. He could see enough, though, to pick out Nicholas coming back at him from above, his jaws wide open and lined with spearhead-like teeth. As sheer terror leaves its mark on Cain’s face, Nicholas bites down upon him, containing his head in his mouth and dragging the rest of his body along in his momentum.

  In the next few seconds, he thrashes his head, Cain’s body being flopped around like a rag doll as his teeth saw through his throat, and a squirt of wound energy coincides with him flinging Cain out of his mouth, whose neck gushes out wound energy to show his battle morph was decapitated. While Nicholas swims away, Cain is left suspended in mid-flail, the energy spilling out of his neck rapidly turning red in color before he finally demorphs.

  ***

  On a higher level of ground than where the battlefield was, the rest of the students that have demorphed watched the possessed pool of water stay in place before them. While the miniature sea was cruel to those still in morph, it mercifully carried those demorphed to where the defeated students are, spitting them out onto the dry land. Having watched in awe the parts of the battle’s conclusion above water, the students are not prepared when whatever force keeping the pool in shape shuts off, causing it to collapse and spread out in all directions. One of the waves sweeps through all of the students in its path, knocking many of them over and leaving them drenched, slipping, and choking on the dispersing cold water.

  Among those flattened by the flushing sea include James, both of his human, twin forms sprawled near each other and their hair resembling wet mops, Buster, raising himself to his knees while spitting some mud out of his mouth, and Cain, lying on his back while coughing up water. After the last of the water is out of him, he sits up, rubbing his sore neck, and pales when he sees Nicholas, in his human form with dry clothes and hair straight, stomping towards him, hate and rage gleaming in his black eyes.

  Trying to put on a calmer impression, Cain shuffles backwards while Nicholas comes closer, saying, “Oh, um, good evening, Nicholas! What a beautiful night we’re having, right? It’s a little chilly, but that might just be because I’m all wet! By the way, well done with taking over the battle, which is nothing new for you, right? The only downer, though, is you won’t get a score from me, because my badge is green, too, eh?”

  The towering bulk of Nicholas looms over him, his mouth twisted into a ferocious snarl.
He bends down, grabs the collar of Cain’s suit with his left hand, and lifts him up in one smooth motion. Holding Cain at eye level before him, his legs dangling in the air while he gargles from the hanging simulation, Nicholas digs his glare deep into him. “You may wrap yourself up to look pretty with your ribbons and bows, but that doesn’t change the fact you are nothing but trash. You were trying to use me, weren’t you?”

  Speaking through his gasps for air, Cain grabs at Nicholas’ arm to steady himself. “Me, use you? Whatever do you mean?”

  “You know exactly what I mean, you waste of flesh. When I arrived on campus, you came up to me and told me all about Matthew Calamos, how he was trying to take over the school community with his special powers. However, when I went to punish him in a battle today, I found he was nowhere close to the cocky, ignorant, foolish brat that you portrayed him to be. In fact, the only person I know who still fits that description is you.”

  Sensing his temper beginning to flare, Cain pleads, “Okay, okay, I’m sorry I treated you like a tool. But, you have to understand, he really is trying to bring disorder to our student community, and…”

  “Don’t start talking to me about all of your silly, pointless politics! Not only am I a senior student, but I have also become a military officer back in Corrasin, so I don’t care how a bunch of inferior strangers are going to behave around here after I leave this wretched place!”

  “Gah, Nicholas, please, have pity on a fellow senior!”

  “Pity? PITY!? Why should I show pity on an atrocious excuse of an Alkalian like you, a spoiled brat who takes his stress out on innocent, spineless children? You’re nothing but a hypocrite, bringing misfortune upon others and then begging for mercy when it bites you back.” Pulling his right arm back, Nicholas exclaims while forming his hand into a fist, “I should have done this years ago, on that cursed day I first met you!”