Chapter 7: The Final Trial (2)

Daniel encased his shield in rock to increase its strength. With his new abilities, he’d found that he could still change the shape of the shield by controlling both the vines and the rock at the same time. Although it would take a bit of getting used to, he only had about 2 hours to learn it.

Rushing forth with his sword and shield in hand, Zephyr stood still. Seemingly expecting more, Daniel obliged. He dropped some acorns behind him and carried them around behind Zephyr like they were surfboards, and the earth was the waves. As it seemed Zephyr didn’t notice, Daniel took his chance.

Projecting his mana into the acorns which sat around Zephyrs’ legs, Daniel leaped forwards and tried redirecting some of Zephyrs’ energy into them to speed up the growth with his essence threads.

Trees sprouted from underneath Zephyr, coiling around his legs and moving quickly up his body. In no time at all he was completely covered, not a patch of skin uncovered. Making space for Zephyrs’ face, Daniel took some energy from the tree, both partially healing his leg, and causing the tree to retract back.

Despite his winning stance, Daniel flinched. There was a vast amount of energy flowing out from the next square over.

Shit… is Kana alright? Who am I kidding, it must be her with the power, there’s no way Kaelin could do that. Anyway, gotta concentrate.

“Not so tough now then eh.”

Zephyr didn’t look phased at the blatant taunts Daniel threw his way. As always, his expression blank, he sighed. All of a sudden, the trees started to wither away, its branches writhed around as if they felt pain, they turned black like coal and shrivelled up into twigs. Even the trunks did the same. Eventually all that was left was a rotten pile of God knows what kind of sludge. It seemed like they’d aged more than a thousand years in only a few seconds.

“What the fuck!? What is that, what did you do!”

What the hell’s going on, is he trying to kill me!?

“You aren’t going to get far if you don’t know the basics on what each thread can do. You seemed almost just as surprised at my speed increase earlier.”

“It’s not just that Zephyr, can’t you feel it?”

“That power’s nothing to scoff at, but you should really focus on this fight rather than the one next door.”

Zephyr grabbed Daniel’s sword and shield, causing the same thing to happen. Rock crumbled away into dust, the vines and brambles decayed quickly and slipped right off Daniel’s arms.

Jumping back to make some space, Daniel plunged his hand into the earth, removing it to reveal a stone gauntlet encasing his fist.

Stepping forwards to meet Daniel, Zephyr blocked the first punch. This was followed up by a flurry of attacks from Daniel.

“You can’t just keep blocking. Where’s the counterattack?”

“Good question.” Zephyr replied.

Stepping back lightly, a wave of earth was sent forwards, knocking Daniel off balance. He fell backwards, hitting his head on the ground, dust billowing up around him.

“Shit, I’m out of seeds.” Daniel exclaimed, rolling to the side in an effort to dodge any incoming attacks.

After the dust cloud cleared, Daniel saw Zephyr covered head to toe in a makeshift set of armour, crafted from the very rock at his feet. Each piece looked like it had been drawn up by a 10-year-old. He might be strong, but he clearly wasn’t an artist.

Daniel stood still and concentrated on the earth. If he was to copy this technique, he’d need every ounce of magic in him. He stomped forward heavily, propelling shards of stone up from his feet and had them hover around his head.

Zephyr watched, and darted forwards. Daniel remembered his practice, albeit limited, and focused. Flinging the shards one at a time at Zephyr, he begged for one to hit some flesh or at least break Zephyr’s armour. But alas, nothing.

Zephyr grabbed Daniel by the shoulders and threw him to the ground violently. Calling vines up from below, Zephyr wrapped Daniel up like a present with a little bow on top and faced the referee.

“Winner: Zephyr Kalyndria,” the referee announced.

Zephyr swept his hair back, turned away from Daniel, and left the arena just as smug as when he had entered.

Daniel stared at where Zephyr had stood in disgust.

* * *

At the same time in the arena just one over, Kana had an easy matchup. Not like Kaelin could fight anyway. If anything, it made it harder for Kana to prove herself.

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Kana started the fight produced a variety of illusions, some clones, some monsters, but nonetheless scary to someone without magic. Kaelin ran around the square trying her luck at the various versions of Kana with her fists.

“I know you’re lacking magic, but still, this isn’t really much of a fight.” Kana said from behind.

“You really shouldn’t have given yourself away!” Kaelin shouted, charging at the newly revealed Kana.

But again, she struck air.

“There isn’t anyone there. There never has been.” Kana started, her voice echoing inside Kaelin’s head. “See, I’ve been in your mind this whole time. You clearly haven’t had any mental training, despite the amount you’ve practiced everything else. Although it wasn’t easy, your mind is weak! I know I’m talented but still… I’m barely a beginner. It shouldn’t have been that easy to break in!”

The words rattled inside Kaelin’s mind; this torment felt near eternal. Kana produced haunting images of her and Daniel, pushing them into Kaelin’s mind to subdue her as she inched closer, not wanting to break the spell. Kaelin cried out in pain, clearly the high-pitched noise was too much, the screaming she heard was her own, but Kana’s spells were amplifying it and throwing it right back at her, containing it within her head.

Kana was only a few meters away, so close to her goal.

“AHHHHHH”

That was Daniel’s scream. Kana thought about stopping to go see if he was okay but decided against it. He’d never let it go if she lost to Kaelin, not even if it was forfeit. So, she hoped for him to be okay, and continued with crafting her plan.

This plan was to get up behind Kaelin, grab her by the neck and put her in a choke hold, forcing her to surrender. Mind threads were mainly used as support in proper fights, although some talented mages could produce physical copies of their illusions to help fight. In 1 on 1s, they were forced to be resourceful, and physical training was definitely up there on their list of things to do. And because of this, Kana was stronger than most guys her same age, though this didn’t mean much when magic was involved.

“AHHHHHHH”

Again, Daniel.

But as she brought her focus back onto Kaelin… something had changed. Compared to the previously lacking aura, an immense power was flowing out of her. Despite her experiences with it being limited, she was sure. This felt so similar to the aura of those who used time threads. It couldn’t be a coincidence.

Then, she just wasn’t there, though with all that power, it wasn’t hard to notice Kaelin behind her. Without delay, Kana was knocked prone and lay flat on the ground. Shocked, Kana blinked a few times, pinching herself to check she wasn’t dreaming.

This was real, and she had to accept that. Rolling to the side, she summoned 6 clones, the most she could control, and started to formulate a plan. Kaelin wouldn’t last that long with so much power being used, her body wasn’t used to it and hadn’t been trained in magic at all. Using so much energy will eventually tire her out and cause her to collapse. Although it wouldn’t be the most gracious victory, a win is a win, nonetheless.

The idea is to keep producing clones to take up Kaelin’s time and therefore energy, the only problem is whether she could last any longer. Controlling the clones took up a lot of energy in its own right, if she could get it over quickly, she would. But trying that led to a much greater chance of claiming a loss.

Kaelin, overflowing with power darted between the clones, each time one was disrupted, Kana made a new one and moved herself in an effort not to get caught. Kaelin’s movement was slowing down significantly, no longer was she faster than the eye can see in fact, she wasn’t too much faster than Kana herself, but still, it seemed that Kana was losing. The speed at which Kaelin was slowing down was nothing when compared to how quickly she could destroy the illusions. Kana had to act. And fast.

She shifted her positioning, creating the illusions in front of Kaelin rather than around her, Kana hoped this would take her attention away from her surroundings and push her focus onto the clones. Kana crept up behind Kaelin, but she noticed.

Kaelin sent a punch right into Kana’s abdomen, sending her flying. The increased speed along with Kaelin’s already well-trained body was enough to launch her across the square. Landing just in front of the border she gasped for air, trying to get her breath back. Kana was winded, unable to move and in devastating pain.

Kaelin walked slowly toward Kana, her power dissipating. She picked her up by the arm and threw her out of the ring.

“Winner: Kaelin,” Darrek declared.

As the announcement was made, Kaelin collapsed.

The medics were called over and took her away into a building nearby on a stretcher, while Kana was treated in the arena. She spat blood from her mouth to the side bitterly. What a joke. She had no magic, for 19 whole years when most people had all their affinities by age 16. Even Kana was late only unlocking it in her late 15s but at 19 was simply unheard of.

***

Kana looked around for Daniel after she’d been healed up only to find his still stuck tied up like a present.

“At least I wasn’t the only one who lost.” Kana said with a laugh.

“Just hurry up and get me out of this… I can’t believe they left me like this.”

Kana crouched down and untied the knot, releasing Daniel back into the world.

“It’s pretty surprising Zephyr’s magic’s still stopping you from using your own on it.”

“It’s not that cool, anyway what was that power I felt in your battle, surely that was you right? Also, how’d you manage to lose to Kaelin!?”

“You’ll never guess…” Kana started, still feeling the shock, “She randomly unlocked a time affinity of all things! Out of no-where this massive power came flooding out of her, she was fast as lightning. Honestly, I’m surprised I even lasted as long as I did after that. Although she did collapse right after she’d thrown me out of the square.”

“You’re okay though right? That was some crazy power. She must be proper chuffed to have done that. Although it’ll take a while for her to get to grips with it, and anywhere near us will take her at least a year, no matter how talented she is.”

“And I thought the gods looked favourably upon you. That power after just having unlocked your affinity could be a real danger, although she’ll be a big asset to the kingdom, as much of a weakling she was.”

Despite how much they disliked her, they had to admit, it was pretty impressive.

“Also, what was up with you, I heard some pretty loud screams, were you okay?” Kana said worriedly.

“Nothing I can’t handle, just a broken leg…”

“And the second one?”

“That was me putting back into place.”

“Oh my god we need to get you to one of the medics!” Kana exclaimed, “Fuck, if only they weren’t all with Kaelin.”

Kana lifted him over her shoulder into a fireman carry and took him to the nearest medical centre.

“Do you really have to carry me like this? It’s a bit embarrassing.”

“If you want to be worried about something as trivial as that, you shouldn’t have done this to yourself.”