Chapter 191.

PART 1.

The stadium is buzzing. The match is going to be exciting. The Subcontinent, losers of the previous five leagues have suddenly become strong competitors, having remained undefeated so far. Whereas Europa, their opponents have also remained undefeated, but they are also winners of the previous league, held five years ago.

Both teams have faced tough competition. The highlights of which are shown on the large multiple screens. Despite that, they have remained undefeated. But today, one of them will lose their streak, and one team will lift the trophy. The stadium is houseful, both teams are ready, and the monarchs are watching from the royal box. The match is about to begin.

“Captains, send out your duelists!” said the referee.

“Who will you send first?” asked Lewis.

Peter gets a vicious gleam in his eye. “Emmeline, of course.” He spoke. From her annoyance, he gets a sense of satisfaction.

“Why don’t you save me for the last?” she asked, setting her face into that innocent face.

“Forget it,” said Peter. “I won’t give you any chances. Go in the ring, or I’ll announce you’re forfeiting.”

Emmeline grits her teeth and glares at Peter. But this time, the captain is not backing down. “Fine.” She snapped and went to the ring.

Meanwhile, for Avinash, it is not a difficult choice to make. “Hatori, you’re up. be careful. Don’t play around much.” he cautioned.

Hatori gives him a nod and leaves for the ring. Seeing Hatori as her opponent, Emmeline is worried. But she touches the pocket of her robe and then feels assured. Hatori is looking at the robes. He cannot understand why would anyone duel in a dress like that. it pools on the feet, flutters, and ruffles in the air. Hatori could practically use his magic to tie his opponent to their own clothes if he wanted to.

But he still is not willing to underestimate Emmeline. Though he cannot sense any magic or enchantment, those clothes are likely full of protection to keep their wearers safe, no matter how ridiculous they might look.

On the bench, Lewis watches Emmeline standing next to Hatori. Compared to her large opponent, she looks like a fly. “I wanted to fight him,” he grumbled. “Teach him not to make those surrender jokes.”

The captain ignored the grumblings of Lewis. He is hoping that this will be a normal match, and whatever happens, they can go to their respective homes and countries in peace. His hopes don’t last long, however. He sees the duelists shaking hands, and Hatori withdraws as if he got stabbed. “…Fuck.” He cursed after seeing that.

“What the hell? what was that?” asked Michael and Samudra together.

“Have you seen something like this before?” asked Samudra.

“Not once in all the years of commentating on this league.” Said Michael. “Whatever this is, it is not good.”

The crowd, excited moments before, is now buzzing with murmurs and discussions, speculating what has just happened in front of their eyes. That handshake should be normal, but that sudden withdrawal of Hatori hints at something very sinister. But what are the implications of it, they have no idea.

While others are wondering what has happened, Hatori is hearing a voice in his head. ‘Give up. relax, let me take care of everything.’

“Shut up,” he muttered.

The referee taps him on his shoulder. “Do you feel okay?”

Hatori turns at him and snarls at him wordlessly. The man takes a step back, as the illusion around Hatori’s eyes is undone, and he looks at the plastic eyes on the human face. Coupled with his anger, it all looks horrifying enough to scare an adult mage.

‘Do you not feel tired already? Why do you resist so much? come, rest in my arms. Give up this resistance, find peace in my obedience.’ Said the voice.

Emmeline comes to Hatori with a haughty expression, which turns into a caring one. “He cannot compete, declare me the winner.” She demands from the referee.

Hatori is driven to his knees. ‘That bitch bypassed my protections through my blood!’ he realized.

“Do you give up?” asked the referee once more.

“Go fuck yourself, you magic damned toady!” said Hatori with another snarl. “I refuse to give in to that bitch.”

Emmeline’s face takes a sour expression, as the match starts. Hatori defends despite being on his knees and attacks Emmeline. One of his spells grazed her cheek and drew some blood, and with an angry snarl of her own, she summoned Hatori’s staff to her. “See? He can’t even keep his foci in his grip. Declare me the winner.” She demands again.

“Do you give up?” asked the referee once more.

“In your dreams,” said Hatori.

Lightning sparks around his body, and he fires many bolts from his fingers. Emmeline balks at this display. She tried to sidestep these bolts, but they were too many. She gets struck by some of them and falls to the ground. Her legs have gone numb from the electricity, and more bolts are coming her way.

“What’s this? It seems that Hatori is more deadlier without his foci!” said Michael.

“Nothing new.” Said Samudra. He has seen this display once already.

“You speak as if you have seen him doing this before.” Asked Michael.

“I may have.” Said Samudra, not confirming anything.

While Hatori attacks Emmeline with lightning bolts with one hand, he creates a net of electricity with his other hand. He makes a fist, and that entire net is draped over Emmeline. He used positive lightning for this, and in his state, the intense electricity has also done some damage to him. but for hearing that cheating bitch’s screams, Hatori is happy to pay this price.

Soon enough, she passes out, her body smoking from the shocks she has taken. And a shocked referee announced the winner. “Hatori Eagle wins.”

PART 2.

While the crowd is divided about this victory, and the commentators are praising the performance of Hatori, the monarchs are furious. Albus is regretting to sit with them, as he feels alone in the entire box. No one is supporting him, not even a little. Isn’t it geopolitics? Since when did they become so much emotionally involved?

“I don’t care what are your reasons,” said Porus. “You tried to poison a citizen of my country right in front of me, in a competition, while promising us their full safety. Tell me, is that also the plan of those Succubi?” asked Porus, not deciding to beat around the bush, and call Albus out openly.

“I would like to know that as well,” said Zuo Chi. “It is one thing to have a rivalry. But such an underhanded tactic to win is not going to fly. You hear me? you are already standing on a thin sheet of ice as it is.”

Albus has remained quiet, not responding to their accusations. Instead, he is looking at the boy who ruined his plans in an instant. The Subcontinental team is standing around him in the ring, keeping everyone away. As the matches are stalled, and the doubts of the crowd turn into confirmation, they are also beginning to get furious.

The healers come and speak with Avinash. Though unwilling to trust them initially, Avinash relents after one of the healers manages to convince him to let them check out Hatori. Albus thought of taking the boy as a hostage, but he could not give any such orders in front of all the kings. They might decide to kill him then and there, and then deal with the fallout later.

“What should we do about the match, Your Majesty?” asked the referee. Due to the speakers in the box, all the kings heard his question.

“Offer them a draw.” Said Albus.

Porus exchanged an incredulous look. “That won’t work.” He said in a flat tone.

On the ring, the referee relays the offer of a draw. “What the hell? First, you cheat, then one of my members destroys you. and then you offer a draw? Get lost!” said Avinash, in a loud enough voice that everyone heard him in the stadium.

“Told you,” said Porus, though he is not feeling any glee from being right as he usually does.

“Very well,” said Albus. “Let the match proceed.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

PART 3.

Once the news spreads that the matches are going to proceed, the crowd calms down and prepares to see more of this drama. “Shin, you’re up,” said Avinash. “Don’t show any mercy.”

“I won’t,” said Shin with a grin.

“Fergus, go in the ring.” Commanded Peter.

“But—” he is silenced by the glare of the captain. “Fine.” He grumbles and goes into the ring.

He perfectly knows why he has been chosen. As an Incubi, he is a perfect lam to sacrifice to calm the angry opponents. But he does not plan to go down that easy. This lam knows how to fight.

“Do you think it’ll calm them down?” asked Wolfgang.

“Difficult to say.” Said Peter. “I just hope that they won’t try and cripple you.”

The match starts, and Shin refuses to shake hands. Forgoing his music this time, Shin relies on his wind element. He made it difficult for Fergus to see what was going on, and after a while, the wind started to cut at his skin. Some added fire later, and a roasted Fergus is lying outside of the ring.

“Such a brutal combination of fire and wind is rarely seen.” Said Michael.

“Though not difficult to understand. Shin has many fire-using teammates, he is bound to pick up some tricks from them,” said Samudra.

“Ravina, you’re next.” Said Avinash, not even waiting for the other team to choose their fighter.

“Shouldn’t you have sent me?” asked Daphne, after Ravina left.

“No. just wait and see why,” said Avinash, looking in the ring.

The other team has sent Maria, and both girls are glaring at each other fiercely. The match starts, and Maria has to sidestep the initial barrage of spells by Ravina. She tries to gain some initiative, but Ravina is not giving her any chance. Maria comes running at her, but Ravina stomps on the ground, and the ring starts to shake. This upsets the footing of Maria, and Ravina seizes the advantage.

She blasts her out of the ring, and Maria is lying outside dazed, and wondering what just happened. “And there you go folks, another victory bagged by the Subcontinent. Unless the Europa Academy manages to get a draw, I don’t think they are winning this match,” said Michael.

“It might prove to be difficult to get a draw from this bunch though,” said Samudra. “Avinash is not the kind of captain who would accept such a decision.”

“Tom, you’re up,” said Avinash, once again choosing his fighter before the other team.

Wolfgang is chosen by Peter to face him. The rudimentary sensory training he has done with Hatori tells Tom that Wolfgang has a strong magical presence. But he is nothing compared to Avinash and Hatori. still, Tom is not going to underestimate him.

When the match starts, he goes after Wolfgang with full force. He cuts off his way to sidestep by a lance of fire and then tries to catch Wolfgang in the whip of fire. He is demonstrating using both hands to cast spells, though, unlike Hatori, he is using foci from one hand. Still, it is another example of superior spellcasting.

“Seriously, what the hell is going on in the Subcontinental Academy?” asked Michael, seeing another spectacle of using both hands to cast spells.

“It is all because of the supreme headmaster. You should also stop resisting, and join his vision.” Said Samudra.

“Yeah right. in your dreams.” retorted Michael.

Tom feels an exhilarating feeling in his gut, as he makes Wolfgang run around the ring, making him expend his energy. He finally understands why Hatori gets that disturbing grin when he is dominating someone in a duel like this. He must keep himself in peak physical shape if he wishes to feel this more often in his future life.

As for Wolfgang, he is gasping on the floor, unable to keep up. he is struggling for every breath. The referee comes in the way before Tom can blast him outside. “Tom wins.” He announces.

He comes back to the bench, still sporting that same smile on his face. “That was fun.” He declared.

“We saw.” Said Avinash, getting up. peter is making his way to the ring, and Avinash has decided to face him.

“Both captains making their way to the ring. Given what has happened, and the trouble his team is in, Peter is likely to fight like he is cornered.” Said Michael.

“On the other hand, Avinash is a very prideful person. He likely has not taken what happened with Hatori well. nothing else but a total victory will satisfy him today.” Said Samudra.

From the very beginning of the match, the captains did not hold back. Just a few exchanges of spells are enough for Avinash to conclude that Hatori was right. Peter is a strong mage, and not to be underestimated. But that is true for him as well, something which the other boy would do well to remember.

After poking at each other’s defenses with simple spells, they quickly switch to elemental spells. As it turns out, both of them are heavy-fire users. But Peter seems to have deep alchemic knowledge, as he is using that to enhance his fire. Avinash knows the signs of that. some of them include weird smells, odd-colored smoke, and fire which seems to cling to things like a sticky substance.

The ring is set on fire, and these two are standing in the middle as if nothing has happened. Peter smiles, and with a slashing motion of his staff, the ring explodes. “Looks like he conjured a lot of explosive chemicals, and they reacted with fire.” Said Michael.

“The ring is gone. What do the rules say about this now?” asked Samudra.

“The match will continue, of course. But now, only verbal signs of giving up, and unconsciousness will be counted, as the ring is effectively gone.” Explained Michael.

Peter sees Avinash picking himself up from the rubble, a little bit of dried blood on his hair, but otherwise looking fine and lucid. He makes a motion with his own staff, and the fire twists and a tiger stands behind him. Peter smiles and does the same, and a horse is standing behind him. the two spells attack each other, and the audience has to scramble out of the way to avoid getting set on fire.

The tiger is attacking the horse by standing on its hind legs, swiping at the elemental horse with its claws. The horse is ramming and kicking the tiger, trying to make it fall to the ground so it can trample on it. it is taking their full concentration to maintain these spells, and Peter and Avinash are not willing to give up.

As the horse shows some signs of weakness, the tiger pounced on it, and through its weight, fell it to the ground. The animal bit the neck of the horse, and the fire elemental winked out of existence. At the other end, Peter is lying unconscious, unable to get up.

Avinash is declared the winner by the referee, and the crowd starts to cheer. “What a tremendous end of the tournament, ladies and gentlemen. The talent we saw this year is rarely seen, and all these mages have a bright future ahead of them,” said Michael.

“Indeed. What kind of miracles will they accomplish in the coming years, we can only speculate.” Said Samudra. “And of course, it was very fun to do this duel commentary.”

“Indeed. If anyone is willing to pay both of us fairly, we might do it again.” Said Michael.

PART 4.

While the matches are going on, the monarchs have not stopped grilling Albus. “You must get rid of those Succubi, we will not take no for an answer.” Said Batya.

“I fully support him,” said Zuo Chi.

“And what, let you take over my domain?” asked Albus.

“Is that what they have told you?” asked Porus. “Let me tell you something. Between me, Batya, and Chi, we run some of the largest countries in the world. we don’t need your pathetic collections of islands.”

“You say that now, but you won’t be saying this, once I create a world-spanning empire.” Declared Albus, having fed up with their grilling.

“So that is what it is all about.” Said Hiruma. “You want to dominate us all.”

“Never happening.” Said Henry. “We rather turn everything to ashes instead of submitting to you.”

The argument raged on, and the king of Albion kept digging himself deeper and deeper. By revealing his ambitions, he successfully managed to divert the attention of the monarchs from the Succubi. By the time they realize it, it is too late.