Tor, Loki & Kiv
Akamori stared down the two hatchlings opposite him. Both adorned in expensive looking spell armors of draconian design. The white scaled warrior, Tor twirled his hand from a leather loop. Arcs of electricity writhed from the large rectangular head of the hammer, clearly sending the warning message to Akamori that it was to be avoided at all costs. Tor’s counterpart, the green scaled hatchling, simply eyed him observantly. Akamori got the sense that was the smart one. The dangerous one.
“He’s first.” Akamori whispered softly with a grin.
Wise decision, Thanaton purred affirmatively.
But doing so meant that Akamori would have to push his way through Tor and that menacing looking hammer. Akamori eyed the weapon wearily. That did not look like getting struck with it would feel well. And he wasn’t wearing the top of the line armor Kusinaki had originally gifted him. The armor that Lucinda had disintegrated. He pushed the dour feelings at the armors loss aside and refocused.
“Right. Avoid the hammer. Get the green guy,” Akamori said. As plans went, it was as good as any.
Tor twirled his imposing hammer, electricity arcing off it wildly, not giving Akamori a chance to act. Tor’s attacks were powerful, involving sweeping strikes that built momentum and made blocking nearly impossible. It was all Akamori could do to parry and avoid the blows. Each sweep of the spinning hammer forced him back further and further. A cloud of smoke exploded at Akamori’s back obscuring Tor from sight after evading yet another attack.
“You gonna dance or fight, kinslayer?” Tor growled.
Akamori responded by sweeping Thanaton through Tor’s midsection. He watched as the white scaled hatchling gurggled in surprise as his upper half slid free of his lower, hitting the ground with a sickening plop. It’s a deception! Thanaton hissed.
Ionized ozone tingled at his skin, cueing the incoming attack microseconds before the hammer fell. On raw instinct, he threw himself into a roll. The brute force of the momentum aiding further in shoving him along. An arc of lightning arced from behind him striking the top edge of the temple roof, which exploded in fire. Tor took advantage and flew towards him again. The hammer whirled in a circle orbiting Tor’s clenched fist slamming into Akamori’s chest. The armor resisted temporarily and then gave out. That was at least a few ribs broken, Akamori was sure of it.
He rolled to his feet and triggered his potion loader, but nothing happened. With a sigh he glanced back and saw the shattered tubes. The last drops of his potions bled free of the shattered bases. He glanced back at Tor who glared at him.
“You lack all honor. Bringing potions to this trial.”
“Fight with what you can carry.” Akamori repeated the rule. “No one said anything about not carrying potions. So spare me the outrage. Let’s get this moving.”
The white scaled dragon hatchling scoffed before lunging forward swinging his hammer into Akamori’s shoulder. The armor absorbed some of the blow, and it sent him rolling straight into a row of rock spikes that extruded from the surface of the stone. Akamori shoved himself up into the air avoiding the spikes at the last minute only to find himself in the path of the hammer again.
“Oh come-” he started. Cut off by the impact, his body wrapped around the hammer, electricity biting at his skin as he was rag dolled to the ground. Smoke wafted up from his dented and smashed black armor. His limbs screamed in agony and he tested his sword arm several times. Pain spiking with each rotation. Sure would be nice if he had a healing potion about now.
The illusionist and brute were a dangerous tag team. He had to deal with them either one at a time in isolation, or at once. He doubted he could separate them since the pyramid offered a clear line of sight with no obstacles. That left brute forcing them both. Void Tornado, it was. He checked his available AP. Not much pool left. He’d need to make this count. Then a thought occured to him. His wind slash ability cost less, but infused with void could do just as much damage. A few of those placed and timed correctly could box them in nicely for a good finish and leave him with just enough pool to spare.
The black crystal around Thanaton crumbled away, revealing the Nodachi length blade beneath. Thanaton’s dark blade shimmered in the sunlight. Hints of Blue, Red and White glinted beneath the obsidian sheen. All colors indicative of the many infusions of magic the blade had undergone. Seeing the blade in its true glory stopped Tor short.
“You wield the first blade.” Tor said, a note of respect leaking into his voice.
“Just as you possess the first hammer.”
“Two legendary weapons gathered in the same spot. This is highly unusual.”
Akamori just grunted his agreement. The two began to slowly circle each other. Their enchanted weapons thrummed, eager for combat. Tor lunged forward, Mjolnir rotating on its leather grip beating out a steady beat of displaced air. Akamori hopped back, unleashing his first attack. But he went to heavy on the void in the mix, and the spell disolved itself before it launch.
Too much void! balance the mix. Thanaton advised.
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He tried again, missing the precious pool he’d just wasted with a curse muttered under his breath. This time on his follow up slash, the arc of energy lanced out, and Tor twisted to avoid the attack. The tip of his left wing and the end of his tail severed clean off. Loki for his part was unharmed, as the void slash split an illusion that decomposed into a flurry of aether motes that dissolved. The real Loki rematerialized not far from the false image.
“Limited range then. Good to know.”
Akamori whipped Thanaton into another diagonal slash that would catch both Tor and Loki. Tor was unable to avoid it, instead attacking it with his hammer. The void tinted wind slash struggled against Tor’s hammer. The spell crackled against the hammer, but eventually micro fractures formed on the surface of the hammer, and a keening wail erupted as the hammer exploded, and the slash spell surged forward. Tor was cleaved in two by the attack as it swept across the surface of the pyramid. The slash passed clean through Loki. The illusory magic rippled apart. Akamori paused, waiting for Loki to shimmer back into view. Eventually, the emerald hatchling mage would need to emerge from hiding to attack.
Standing with his eyes closed, Akamori lifted Thanaton to just in front of his face. He shut the world out and let the blade and himself merge together. Through it, he could sense the other mage. He leaned to the left, avoiding a lunging tail spike. Then stepped back and leaned away from a pair of slashing wings, responding with a riposte of Thanaton. The blade clashed against a spell staff.
He continued on like this, in a battle trance, intercepting and responding to Loki’s attacks. The combat flowed frantically, but Akamori remained rooted in the meditation. Thanaton moved itself of its own accord, with Akamori reacting and assisting as needed. Blocking attacks he sensed and directing himself around others that were more energy efficient to avoid. As abruptly as the combat began, it ended when he rammed his sword into Loki. Akamori opened his eyes to see Loki’s eyes rolling into the back of his head. The last of his breath eased past his pointed teeth.
“Well fought. Maybe in another life we could be allies. At the least, I look forward to a rematch. I owe you both that much,” Akamori whispered and gave them a reverent bow.
His body ached as though he’d allowed an orange eared steer to trample him. Fire raged in his chest from at least three fractured ribs and his right shoulder felt dangerously close to coming out of its socket. He glanced at the stairs and to the hatchling awaiting him on the ultimate level. With an exhausted and pained sigh, he limped forward. Grunting in pain with each step, Akamori began the last climb.
“Be careful, cousin. This one is one of Keimut’s best hand-picked champions. You must defeat him.” Astri counseled him.
“Can’t we just missive it in? I’m a little tired of the fighting.” A sentence he never imagined himself saying. He needed a few hours with a few dedicated healers, at a minimum.
Kiv eyed him and allowed a soft chuckle to pur out. The sound reminded Akamori of a bellowing alligator. “You have heart, warrior. You may not have begun on our world, but I see its influence in your moves. I sense a dragon’s ferocity buried in you. After watching you dispatch all your opposition to reach this level, you’ve revealed your true self. If not to our shared Air mother, then to me at least. I find myself conflicted now. I would rather not cross blades with you. Perhaps, in another life, we could have been friends.”
“Hmph. Perhaps.” Akamori said dryly. It was hard to not feel a bit put off by the whole fight to the death thing.
“Very well then. Let’s dispense with the pleasantries and begin, shall we?”
That said, Kiv stepped back, giving Akamori room to mount the top of the pyramid. They stood on a flat surface made of carved stone bricks. Akamori guessed they had about 15 square meters to work with. Shallow grooves smoothed over by erosion marked the passage of previous battles fought. Victories and losses alike. Several blackened marks noted some kind of intense burn.
He wasn’t given time to ponder the nature further as Kiv rushed with a thick falchion. Thanaton’s blade swiftly cut a slash upwards to intercept the attack. Akamori nimbly spun around Kiv only to be swatted by the hatchlings tail and sent spinning like a corkscrew. A quick change and he landed on his feet in a stumble in time to catch Kiv closing again with his weapon. The falchion sported a bigger, thicker blade. It was mostly silver with white streaks up and down it. Subdued red hinted at a fire infusion. Its power was not infantile.
Each clash of the blade brought with it a shower of electricity that played havoc with Akamori’s nerves. His stamina was tapped, his body failing. He lacked potions. No AP. He was consigning himself to the possibility of death. Despite his best efforts, they’d brought him down with the death by a thousand cuts method after all. He parried a strike of the falchion and dropped Thanaton. His hand hung limp at his side, the tingling numbness rendering it unusable.
Kiv sensed his victory, stalking forward air falchion, ready to strike. Kiv frowned as he stalked within striking range. “You fought with great skill and dedication. I wish I didn’t have to be here.”
“You could have declined.” Akamori said. Exhaustion making him sound as if he’d just spent days in the desert without water.
Kiv gave Akamori a sympathetic look. “And decline the most powerful wyrm on Anazi Prime? I think not. Surely, you can see the foolishness of that choice.”
The exhausted spell soldier gave a tired glance around Kiv to see Thanaton sitting on the ground. He then turned his focus back to Kiv. “Just end it.”
Kiv nodded, storming forward and ramming his blade forward. It punched clean through the crumpled and weakened black armor on Akamori’s torso, drilling out of Akamori’s back. At the same time, Thanaton whipped around and speared Kiv to Akamori. The hatchling’s surprised expression shifted to weak humor. A bubbling chuckle rippled up through his throat. “Well played rider.”
“Now we can die together.” Akamori coughed out with a wince. Alarmingly, his body was in so much shock the sword barely registered. He just hoped he died before it wore off.
The clouds above the temple darkened, and Kiv looked skyward as the light in his eyes faded. “She judges...now. Be worthy...sword brother...” As Kiv breathed his last. A storm of lightning crashed into the top of the pyramid, and where the two warriors sat kneeling together. The lightning scoured their bodies away in a puff of ash. Not even their blades remained, leaving behind only charred stone on the pyramids as evidence of the warriors ever being present.