Today the entire academy was expected to go to the main coliseum in the city. They were required to watch a bout between two infamous duelists who have a long grudge. This is an extremely important match politically. The two duelists are both the heir to huge family fortunes, it seems that they have been feuding since children. Now one of them finally went too far and it has become a matter of life and death. Jack asked why they had to fight but no one seemed to care about the reason. Everyone just seemed excited about the duel. The two duelists were known for being extremely flashy and performing incredible feats in their duels. Both feature unbeaten records and have fought in more than 20 matches each.

Jack was happy to have something to distract him from the thought of the monster beneath the city. He was constantly looking over his shoulder and was sure he kept hearing the ticking sound. Jack had put Pyke back into the box he had originally put him in and hadn’t let him out since.

This was Jack’s first trip to the coliseum. Gant had told him all about the building. It was world famous. Even countries that were at war constantly with Lidad would still have yearly sanctioned duels in the famed building due to its historic heritage. The original coliseum was created centuries ago, there are only a few tiny bricks left. Now the newer coliseum had been built in the same spot. As Jack entered he was amazed at the size. The arena was massive. Chad explained the dueling area provided was exactly 100 meters squared. It was a very large area to fight within and the seating was even more impressive. It was reported that in total it could seat 100,000 people comfortably. That number of people in one spot was unfathomable to Jack. The arena looked to be half full and it was the most people Jack had ever seen in one place ever.

The favored to win the duel was named Albert Lancaster, and his opponent was named Darius Scorant. Albert had absorbed 4 fire elements, all of them in pure form. Only one of the richest families could afford such refined stones. The Lancaster family was famous for their fire users and had been using the element for many generations. His opponent, Darius Scorant followed the other philosophy of picking elemental powers. Darius had picked 4 different elements: Motion, Power, Metal, and Air. This was known to be one of the most dangerous combinations ever used. This combination made Darius an absolute threat on the battlefield. Jack went with Sable and Chad. All three were quiet as they thought about the match to come. After some quick opening ceremonies, the dueling area was cleared for the fight.

It was Darius first who walked into the arena, and everyone went wild. It was incredible, Jack’s entire body shook with excitement as everyone cheered for the man entering the ring. He walked with casual confidence, and around him floated 5 large metallic daggers that looked incredibly sharp. The daggers floated from shoulder to shoulder over his head in an arc. They moved smoothly with his body as he walked into the arena. The man had a smirk on his face and waved to the crowd as he swaggered in. First his right hand, then his left, he made sure he waved to all of the crowd.

Then it was Albert’s turn to enter. He wore a thick set of armor, that looked extremely heavy. He slowly strode into the arena, step by step. His presence was overwhelming. Every step almost seemed to shake the entire arena. His footsteps left small cracks in the ground. Once he reached his designated spot he stopped and turned to his opponent. They stood facing each other. Darius still stood confidently, but now his face had taken a more serious form. He was looking at Albert with his eyes slightly narrowed. A horn marked the start of the duel, and the battle began. Darius flicked his hand and the blades floating around him flashed toward Albert at incredible speed. As the daggers soared towards Albert, he made no motion to dodge. Just before the daggers reached him, he calmly grabbed for the large Sword on his hip. As soon as his fingers touched the sword an unbelievable heat washed over the entire coliseum. The blades flashing toward him stopped dead and started to melt from the heat. The smile on Darius’s face shrunk a little, but not completely. The metal from the blades quickly flowed back towards Darius before they could completely evaporate. The metal formed into a spear that floated over his right shoulder. The heat emanating from Albert had slowly been increasing but it didn’t seem to bother Darius at all. Jack looked closer and he could see a shimmer around Darius. Something must be protecting him from the heat, Jack thought. Albert just stood still with his hand on his hilt while he blasted the arena with heat.

Darius, with a smirk still on his face, flashed his hand and disappeared. His entire body went invisible, but the metal spear could still be seen. The spear floated in the same spot, not showing any sign of moving. The crowd scanned the arena looking for some sort of sign of Darius. Suddenly Albert drew his Sword and started parrying invisible strikes. His sword was a beautiful red metal that was coated in a thick flame. He would swing his sword and there would be a loud sound like blades striking. He didn’t move from where he stood as he parried. The blade was double-edged, and he held it in front of his body with both hands. He moved slowly, but he seemed to block every invisible blow without any problem. Suddenly he swung his Sword in a wide arc and flame flew out in a flash, engulfing the entire arena. A magical dome above the arena protected the spectators as the field below was washed with flames. It was so fast, suddenly the entire area was engulfed. The next second the flame was gone. Albert stood holding his sword out in front of him, its blade was white hot. It hurt Jack’s eyes to look at it. The entire arena floor looked badly burned except for one little piece in the middle of the field. The spot looked completely untouched. Albert slowly turned towards the spot. Darius revealed himself, the smirk still on his face. What he did next was weird. He casually lifted his right arm and pointed his finger toward Albert, then he lifted his thumb. He had created a fake gun with his hand. And then he casually pretended to fire his finger gun at Albert.

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But to everyone’s surprise, a huge gunshot sound rang out and Albert finally moved from his spot. It was incredibly fast, he used heat to blast himself sideways with astonishing speed. A huge hole appeared in the wall behind where Albert had stood. Darius calmly moved his hand, continuing to point his finger gun toward Albert as he moved. He continued to mimic firing the gun, which was followed by large gunshot sounds and huge holes being blown out of the wall. Albert continued to blast himself sideways, the wall being destroyed right behind him. Suddenly Albert changed directions and flew right at Darius with unbelievable speed. He swung his Sword in a huge arc, planning to cut Darius in two. Darius finally drew the Swords on his hip. Darius wielded dual scimitars and lifted them to stop Albert’s swing completely. After a moment his swords started to heat up. With his power element, Darius was able to hold off Albert. But Albert’s huge flame blade started melting right through Darius’s Scimitars. Darius seemed to focus on his swords for a second, and they stopped melting. But then after a moment, they started to melt again. The heat from Alberts Sword was too much for Darius to handle. The spear abruptly flew at Albert from behind, but it couldn’t handle the heat and completely melted.

Darius flickered back amazingly fast. But Albert was right on his heels, he didn’t give him a second to breathe. Albert swung his huge Sword in wide sweeping strikes, launching flame bursts with each swing. The smile on Darius’s face finally started to falter. His face took on a more serious expression and then the tides started to change. Darius slowly started moving faster and faster. And slowly the direction changed. Albert started backpedaling as Darius rained down blow after blow with incredible speed and precision. Darius was a blur as he showed off the motion element. Darius looked like he was teleporting around Albert because he was moving so fast. With the enhanced view provided by the dome, you could clearly see subtle air gusts helping Darius move even faster. Darius created small stepping stones for himself in the air, flipping over and around Albert, looking for any weaknesses.

Albert didn’t seem to like being pushed back because he suddenly switched tactics and fired a red-hot laser out of the front of his Sword. The laser was made of pure flame, it shot out straight, then started following Darius as he danced back, the beam spiraled and spun. It left a non-ending trail behind it back to the tip of Albert Sword. The arena was slowly filling up with the coiling hot beam, when suddenly the beam seemed to wane, then puff out. It looked like the flame ran out of air. Only the flame directly around Albert seemed unfazed. It seemed like Darius must have moved the air away from the flame coil, suffocating it. His incredible display of control had taken a toll on him. Darius finally looked tired. He stood there across the arena staring at Albert. His face once a cocky expression, was now one of anger as he stared at the man across the arena. Albert calmly entered a basic duel pose as he pointed his blade directly at Darius, mocking him. Darius, his expression completely serious now, started to walk towards Albert. Darius took his time; his walk was completely different from earlier. He walked with only one thought in his mind. Destroying the man before him. Darius no longer acknowledged the crowd or did any antics, he held out his blades in front of him, the blades quickly melted and then reshaped into new undamaged blades. Darius stopped 15 feet away from Albert and took a stance of his own. Darius’ stance was similar to Alberts, with his one Sword held high near his face with the blade pointing toward the enemy, and his other Sword fell low, pointing at the ground.

There was no signal to start but somehow, they both moved at once. This fight was completely different from the fight they had witnessed earlier. Neither seemed to use their elemental powers. Both men moved with normal speed and fought entirely off their fighting forms. The men had practiced Sword fighting their entire life. The old royal families still loved to use the ancient style of weapons due to tradition. Both men seemed to enjoy said tradition and fought with incredible grace and precision. It would have been hard to tell they were not using abilities had you not seen the beginning of the fight where they moved at supernatural speeds. Darius seemed to have more skill when it came to outright Swordsman ship, but every time you thought he was getting an advantage, Albert would dance out of the danger with perfect footwork. The crowd was silent as everyone knew they were witnessing a one-in-a-lifetime spectacle. Only the Swords clashing and the breathing of the men could be heard through the arena. It seemed to go on forever, incredibly hypnotic as they flowed around the arena, in a lethal dance to kill each other. Darius had long flowing black hair that had been tied in a loose ponytail behind his head. As he danced some of his hair had come loose and made him look slightly feral as he moved with deadly grace.

Unfortunately, the deadly dance couldn’t continue forever, and Darius suddenly backed off. Something was wrong, Albert had never hit him, but he unexpectedly dropped to his knees. He started to cough blood, looking confused. Albert immediately dropped his Sword, took off his helm, and ran to Darius’s side. The crowd could clearly see Albert was also confused and distraught by Darius’s sudden succumb to an invisible illness. Then all of a sudden Albert was also coughing blood, and they both fell over. A large floating cannon became visible from where Darius had entered.

That must be what was shooting earlier, Jack realized. He had kept the giant gun invisible since entering the arena. But since he was obviously sick, he was no longer able to conceal it. The last thing the boys saw before the dome blocked off all viewers, was arena staff running out to the two collapsed combatants.