When they all cleared out of the room, she turned towards Xylas and Alyson. The latter only had slight concern in her eyes, but she nodded to Viri to let her know that she was ready to stand behind her if necessary. Xylas, however, looked furious. She held back her sigh. “So, I take it you’re upset?” His voice boomed and echoed through the room as he spoke. “This isn’t a game! You just accepted a challenge from the strongest Ifrit I've ever known.” She tried to lighten the mood by saying, “He can’t be that strong if I've already knocked him on his ass once.” Her attempt failed. Xylas only sighed and said, “You’re a fighter, so you know as well as I to never judge someone’s skills based on a hit they received when they were caught off guard.” She knew that. Of course, she knew that, but this wasn’t the time to cower at an opponent. “Look, I can’t focus on how much stronger than me he may be right now, because if I lose confidence in myself, I’ll lose this fight for sure. So, unless you have a better idea of how to figure out who I am to Anzel, this stone is our only hope for now.”
Xylas clenched his fists, and she couldn’t ignore it any longer. “What is the issue with you and Ephraim, anyway? That wasn’t normal ‘I hate it here’ angst.” He took a deep breath while rubbing his fingers through his hair and she tried not to focus on that movement too much and pay attention to what he was about to say. This was not the time to pine over a guy. She mentally shook herself to focus as he spoke. “Ephraim wanted me to be his second in command due to me being the second strongest Ifrit since arriving here, so he took it very personally when I decided I'd rather be out in the world than enslaved at some temple.” She gaped at him. “You’re the second strongest Ifrit at this temple?” She realized she was practically yelling and tried to tone her surprise down some. He simply shrugged and said, “I’ve always had a massive amount of power. I’ve just never cared to use it. Ephraim is the opposite. He lives for power, and it pisses him off that I'm not the same. He considers it a waste.”
She could see the sadness in his eyes that he tried to hide as he spoke, and it made her see red. He must’ve been able to tell that she was getting angry because he touched her shoulder to make her look up at him. “Hey. It’s no big deal now” She was ready to argue that it was, and he cut her off. “You need to focus on the duel Viri. Not this. Let me show you where to go.”
They started making their way to the arena, walking through more golden hallways with sculptures and paintings of Anzel around every bend. She cringed at every single one. No wonder he never came to visit anymore. This was overkill. The arena wasn’t ridiculously huge like the grand hall they’d just left, but it was still big. Ifrit had already begun piling in and seating themselves. She tried to lighten the mood again by saying, “You guys sure are a punctual bunch, huh?” Xylas side-eyed her. “The Ifrit haven’t seen an outsider in ages, so, of course, they’d be eager to see a battle with one.
They settled into a corner to wait for the match to begin. She leaned closer to Xylas as Alyson scanned the room. “Is there anything I need to know about Ephraim before the battle starts?” Xylas looked at her. “I’ve never witnessed Ephraim fight aside from sparring matches, so I wouldn’t be much help there. I know he went easy on me in training, but I doubt he’s willing to do the same with you.” She sighed and looked over at Alyson. “You’ve been awfully quiet. Don’t you have any worrying to contribute?” Alyson snorted. “I worry about you in love and you in your day-to-day life, but you in a fighting arena? Never. I know you’ll kick grandpa’s ass and soon Xylas will know it too.” Alyson nudged Xylas and Viri beamed at her. “I wish everyone could have such an encouraging pony in their life.” Alyson made fake gagging noises and they both giggled. Viri looked around at the Ifrit sitting in the stands. “So, I guess now we wait?” Xylas nodded and the three of them fell silent.
Ephraim eventually walked in with a swagger that made it obvious that he practically owned the place, and the look on everyone’s face as they watched him showed that they knew it as well. He stepped up to the combat area that Xylas pointed out to Viri earlier, so she decided to walk up to the opposing side of it. Ephraim looked at her. “I don’t take false comparisons to Anzel lightly, so I will ask you only once if you’re sure about wanting to take me on.” She kept her face the perfect picture of nonchalance. “I don’t take this lightly either, but my only two options are to fight Mr. Ancient here in front of me or try to find an alternate route to my lineage, and I prefer to tackle things head-on.” Ephraim smiled at her, and it seemed genuine. “I meant what I said about liking you earlier if it was under different circumstances.” She gave him a half smile in return. “Likewise.”
An Ifrit, who she assumed was the referee, announced the rules of the duel, which were summed up to whoever quits or dies first loses, as Ephraim said earlier. Pretty straight-forward. She heard a loud gong and instinctively crouched down into a fighting stance. She watched Ephraim do the same. She instantly felt warmth on her feet and legs and realized that Ephraim wasn’t one of those, ‘wait and let you come to me’ styled fighters. Good for gramps. She flared her flames around her lower half, and they vanquished Ephraim’s. He smiled at her. “Not bad, but playtime is over.” She smiled back at him, letting her teeth show. “Your punchlines are almost as old as you are.” He laughed and lunged at her.
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She blocked every attack he made, but she also couldn’t hit him either. His movements were a blur for her, so she was solely relying on her instincts. He started pairing his movements with fire attacks and some subconscious part of her began matching them with her fire. If she wasn’t a part of this battle herself, she’d be mesmerized by the colors. Reds, golds, and oranges flowed around them, in sync with their movements. They kept going hit for hit for what felt like forever. She vaguely heard various Ifrit talking in the stands. They were mostly cheering on Ephraim. No surprise there.
She was fending off so many upper body blows that she was too late to block the kick to her right shin that brought her down on one knee. He moved to hit her while she was down, but she blocked his arm and caught him with a punch to his crotch. He backed up a step and she was instantly up again going blow for blow with him. She could feel herself sweating and Ephraim spoke low enough that only they could hear, “Is that fatigue I sense?” She huffed back at him. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of hearing her lie about it because she was getting tired. So tired that she missed blocking a blow that landed on her jaw and forced her to skid across the floor. She skidded like this was some action movie, and she didn’t even have time to register the pain before Ephraim was on top of her choking her.
She could barely hear anything aside from the ringing in her ears. He smiled at her as he hovered over her with his hands around her throat and it pissed her off. She refused to lose like this. Sure, he was some god-appointed warrior, but she was built for this too. Her mother made damn sure of it. She calmed her breathing and remembered her training. She grabbed his wrists and twisted out of his hold enough to kick him off her. They both immediately stood, and she was blocking blows again. He seriously wasn’t one of those people to drag out a fight and she wished he was so that she’d have time to catch her breath.
She finally landed a blow to his rib cage and felt satisfaction in hearing his pained grunt. The satisfaction didn’t last long though, because the pain set him off even more and it was pure instinct that kept her going toe to toe with him. Okay, maybe it wasn’t actually toe to toe because the only thing she could do was block. She had no time to direct her punch, and if that wasn’t bad enough, he found a way to grab her by the back of the neck and hit her in the gut hard enough that it knocked the wind out of her. She couldn’t fall back because he was still holding her as he kept his fist in her stomach. Suddenly, her stomach felt warm, but she didn’t see fire. She looked up at him and her vision was swarming as he said, “I’m going to boil you alive. I thought about letting you live, but you shouldn’t want to live with the shame of losing here. And once I'm done with you, I’ll kill your friends. We can’t have people coming back to this temple to search for your remains. Despite this, you should know that I don’t have any ill feelings toward you. This is honestly for the best.”
She knew that he was serious. She knew that once he finished with her, he’d kill Xylas and Alyson and the thought of it unleashed a rage within her. He’d kill Xylas whose only want was freedom. Xylas, whom she now had all these feelings for and needed to give them the time to figure them out together. And he’d kill Alyson. Alyson, who held so much of her heart for all these years. She was her world. The rage grew and she couldn’t see Ephraim anymore. She couldn’t hear him, and she couldn’t feel the heat in her stomach anymore. All she could see, taste, feel, and hear was rage. It took over all her senses. One minute she was lost in a sea of rage, and the next minute she was brought slightly back to reality by the sounds of everyone gasping in the arena, including Ephraim.
She opened her eyes to lock her gaze on Ephraim and realized her vision was crystal clear. It was like looking at photos from a super HD camera. She reached for him, and even the shock of seeing a ridiculously large, feathered wing and golden talons grab him wasn’t enough to quell the rage within her as she grabbed his neck and lit him on fire. It was a much different fire than he was used to. Flames of gold, vermillion, and ruby were all around him as he let out a guttural scream. She choked harder until he couldn’t scream and let the flames burn brighter. He began whispering and begging her to stop. He said he conceded, but she couldn’t stop. He’d threatened her friends. She wouldn’t stop. He deserved to feel everything he planned to do to them.
There was a hand on her shoulder, and she turned to see Xylas. Looking into his eyes banked the rage that had taken over her. She felt herself let go of Ephraim’s throat and heard the thud of his body hitting the ground and the coughing that ensued shortly after. She heard the catch of everyone’s breath in the stands as they realized the match was over. Her hearing was incredible. She stopped for a second to take everything in as Xylas stood beside her. She could hear massive wings flapping and realized they were hers. Steady and strong. She found her reflection on the marble floor beneath her, and she was breathtaking - terrifying, but stunning.
Her wingspan was almost the size of the battle floor in the arena, and her feathers were the same deep vermillion color as her hair with a few golden feathers mixed in. Flames of the same color were all around her. She had two insanely large golden talons at the ends of her feathered legs, both of which were also huge. She had a golden beak that set off the golden specks in her eyes as they shimmered in her reflection. What caught her eye, though, was her tail. It was made up of five long plumes of vermillion and gold feathers that seemed to curl at the tips. Each plume had a mind of its own as they flowed gracefully around her. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. She tried to speak, but a wave of exhaustion hit her so strongly that all she heard was Xylas rushing to catch her as darkness enveloped her vision.