Chapter 215.

PART 1.

Hatori has a pinched expression after that blast. They have walked into an explosive situation. The king is surrounded by the reporters, and some nobles are nearby, screaming for his blood, though not getting any closer. And now, Avinash has added fuel to the fire with such a bold announcement of his arrival.

The king is happy that the team survived, but he senses that things are different between them. the guarded expression of his apprentice Zeko is also an indication of this. Many reporters look at Avinash but decide to back off. He already cast one spell to give them a warning, they do not wish to get in the middle of his path when he has such a determined face.

“Porus, king of Subcontinent,” said Avinash, “I challenge you to a duel for the throne as a prize. Fight me!”

Some people cheered, while others started to curse Avinash. “You’re a young welp, you have no right to get involved in these matters!” screamed one local lord, who got his leg promptly broken by Kalicharan, because he got too close.

“Why you!” Zeko looked at him furiously.

“He got too close!” justified Kalicharan. “We’re supposed to guard him, remember?”

Zeko puts on a stoic expression once more and looks at the crowd more carefully. He might hate the man, but he cannot deny that Kalicharan is right. if he was in his proper state of mind, Zeko would have done something similar, since in a lot of situations they do behave the same way.

The nobles continue to jeer and boo Porus, while the king has to make a decision. Actually, there is no decision. Avinash is older than his legal age of maturity. Meaning, that his challenge has to be accepted by the king, he cannot back out. but he did not want to fight the boy in a situation like this.

‘Just like how I did not want to lose Sundar.’ Porus shook his head after thinking that. “I, Porus, king of Subcontinent, accept your challenge.”

The reporters immediately hightailed out of the area, and Avinash and Porus started to glare. They wait until Kalicharan and Zeko create a burier to keep them safe. Once the burier is erected, Hatori walks to them.

“We’ll need to act fast once the fight is over.” He whispered to Kalicharan and Zeko. “I do not trust this crowd.”

“Don’t worry boy,” said Zeko. “Just keep an eye out for an escape. Leave the rest to us.”

“Same here,” said Kalicharan.

And thus, Hatori sits down after extracting a large boulder from the ground, assuming a lotus position to watch the duel, as Porus and Avinash look at each other with hostility clear on their face.

The king summons a leaf from the ground and shows it to Avinash. “Once this leaf hits the ground, we will begin.”

“Very well,” said Avinash, keeping the eye on the leaf, as it made an arc in the air, and then landed on the ground softly.

As soon as it touched the ground, the duel began with a loud bang!

The crowd cheered, as Avinash and Porus began to exchange spells. the stream of fire is blocked by Avinash with a swirling shield of water, and that same water is used to attack the king, which is now scalding hot. Showing his grasp of alchemy, the king split the water into two gasses. Avinash also knows enough about alchemy to take advantage of this. A small spark from him, and the entire cloud of hydrogen and oxygen explodes, and Porus is burned badly as a result. If he had not coated himself with alchemic water to put out the fire, he would have been burned alive by that one move.

Now realizing how deadly Avinash is, the king infuses his fire with alchemical properties as well, and as a result, the fire becomes very clingy, like a psycho-ex. Avinash has to discard his shirt, and create a bubble around his head to avoid breathing in that oily smoke. He is certain it is bad news. Good thing he came prepared with this bubble enchantment to filter the air, which he put on the locket around his neck.

But while he defended himself, the king is not sitting idly. He transmuted the twigs and leaves in the area that survived the fiery attacks into vicious-looking birds, and then this flock then assaults Avinash. Hatori winced after looking at these ugly birds. He will have words with Porus if he survived this conflict one way or another, for transmuting these hideous examples of bird species. There is no beauty in them at all.

Avinash shot a few of them before they could reach them, but upon being hit, they exploded in even more of this oily fire. Avinash decides to mutate the rubble around him into his own birds and sends the flock to battle the king. explosions fill the sky, as both flocks try to take out each other. In the end, Avinash has one more bird than Porus.

“Looks like I have numbers on my side.” He smirked.

“Think again.” Said Porus.

Avinash is attacked from behind by a surviving bird, which explodes on him. luckily, his clothes protected him from the worst of the damage, but his hair was sizzling, while his skin was burned when it got exposed to the fire.

While Avinash is busy dealing with his burns, the king conjures some plastic soldiers and animates them to attack Avinash. While fending these attacks, Avinash conjures flying discs that decapitate these soldiers. before the plastic can dissolve because the king did not put much energy into it, Avinash appropriates it for himself and transmutes it into more birds. But these birds did not attack the king directly. Instead, they went above his head, and the enchantment inside of them was triggered. They are melted inside out, and the king is battered with the molten rain of plastic. Judging by the howls of Porus, Hatori imagines it to be a very painful ordeal.

Seizing the advantage, Avinash brings out his ultimate conjuration: his fire-tiger. Seeing the beast standing behind him, Porus breathes and channels his magic to heal the smallest of his injuries and soothe the ones temporarily that cannot be healed yet. And then, he conjures his own elemental spell: an elephant made of earth. Porus looks down upon the challenger from the top of the back of this elephant.

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“While I can change this spell into many forms, I am very partial to this one.” said the king with a grin. “Prepare yourself, boy, you are about to receive the beating of your life.”

“Bring it!” said Avinash.

The tiger is not as strong as the elephant. but its heat is enough to damage the rocky surface and melt it to slow down the giant elemental construct. The king kept his word. Avinash received a beating like he had never received before. The elephant nearly trampled him and tossed him in the air with its trunk, where Porus nearly took off his head. the tiger repeatedly got under this construct, and attacked it from below, but it is not enough to take it down. Despite this, Avinash is not willing to give up, even though some of the bones in his body are broken, and others are likely out of place by this point by the repeated jarring impacts of the trunk of this elephant.

As the elephant came to trample him again, the tiger got underneath it and attacked its belly once again. This time, with a groan, the entire construct collapsed. Porus hits the ground back first, not having enough strength to keep himself on his feet. The tiger disappears and reappears behind Avinash, while he pinned the king to the ground with a massive pile of stone.

“I win old man,” said Avinash, walking to the trapped king with unsteady feet. “I outlasted you.”

“You… win.” With that final gasp, the king acknowledged his defeat and lost consciousness.

The burier disappears with that acknowledgment, and just like Hatori predicted, the crowd moves in, the spells already flying from the hoard. But Zeko and Kalicharan contain them, while Hatori secures both Porus and Avinash. It is rare for a king to survive the duel for the throne. Taking Porus will be useful since they can mine his experience later to give them an edge to themselves.

Zeko and Kalicharan had to fight their way during their entire walk to the port, where Hatori took Porus and Avinash inside the ship. Once that was done, the two old mages jumped onto the ship as it began to fly, and they escaped the angry crowd who still launched many spells at them despite their ship being in the sky and out of their range.

PART 2.

As everyone is focused on the duel, another attack is going on in the City of Throne. Some rogue military soldiers have teamed up and attacked them when they had their guards lowered.

Raven is kicking himself for that oversight, but there is nothing he can do about it, apart from fighting it and making sure that the city does not face another siege. They will lose the goodwill of people which they have managed to earn so far.

“You shouldn’t sulk so much,” said Josh, giving him a plate filled with sliced fruits. “Eat up. you will need this energy to defend the city.”

“Thanks.” Said Raven, lifting one of the slices and taking a bite of the juicy fruit.

“Here’s the map you asked for.” Said Shin, entering the room and giving the map to Raven, on which he has marked the enemy positions. “Did you tell him about his sulking?”

“Yeah,” said Josh.

“Good.” nodded Shin. “You can’t do everything yourself.”

“Thanks for looking out for me,” said Raven, touched by this care of his friends.

The mirror that Hatori built for them all those years ago to communicate starts to vibrate, and Raven picks up the call. “Yo. How’s it going?” asked Hatori.

“Not much.” answered Josh, “Just facing another attack.”

“Damn.” Said Hatori. “Anyway, good news. We have a new king. Avinash won.”

They all cheered after hearing this. “We are coming to the castle, Porus has survived,” Hatori informs them. “Both of them need medical attention.”

“I’ll inform James.” Said Raven.

PART 3.

“Sir, everyone is in position.” Informs the soldier. “We need your orders.”

“Very well.” he said, “We move in an hour.”

“Yes sir.” Said the soldier, and then left.

The conversation Subhash had with Rani all those years ago pierced him deeply. When Zeko visited them in that bar with that kid, and Rani called the military a weapon who did not ask any question, he made up his mind that given the slightest chance, he would rebel, and establish himself as the controller, rather than be controlled.

He never joined the rebelling nobles, because he saw it as exchanging one master with another. And judging by how things have gone for them, Subhash considers it to be a smart decision.

Speaking of Rani, it seems she has done well for herself. Becoming among the top officers of the military. “I’ll offer her to join my side once I get the throne.” He decides. “Or else, she will die, just like the others.”

Given the civil war, it was easy for Subhash to find disaffected soldiers from both sides. After gathering this bunch, he remained in hiding, until he sensed his chance. Now that the king is missing, the general is dead, and his position is taken by his inexperienced apprentice, this is a perfect time to strike. He will become the new king and will answer to no one afterward.

PART 4.

the group receives the information about Avinash’s victory. “The young man protected the new king, while Zeko and some unknown necromancer cleared the path.”

“In short, they fail to kill him.” deduced the Succubi.

“True.” Said the Incubi.

“What about Porus?” asked the human.

“It is inconclusive. He was alive at the end of the duel, but his current condition is unknown. He could have died by now for all we know.” Said Justice.

“We have to operate on the assumption that he is still alive.” said the human.

“You are right.” said the Incubi and Succubi together. “This will be troublesome.” Continued the Incubi. “That much experience in the corner of the new king will be to their advantage.”

“But we have already made our move.” Reminds the human. “They might have Porus, but he is not what he used to be. This young king will not be able to handle what is coming his way.”