Eric zipped around a tree to dodge a blast of air from the nearest Air Nexian, hearing the branches whip about angrily. He flashed to another tree by the time it came to a rest, his attention on the figure flying overhead, trying to knock him senseless with another blast. Some feet to the left, James slid into cover to avoid an attack from yet another opponent.
“This isn’t working!” James shouted. “We can’t help the others out if we’re stuck in the trees!”
“I’m working on that!” Eric replied, his teeth gritted. “See if you can draw their fire for a second!”
“Just a second? I should be so lucky!” James let out a rough bark of laughter. But he drew a long rope with a weight on one end from inside his shirt, and held it up with both hands, then gave him a quick nod. Technically, each Nexian was able to bring in equipment and weapons to fight with, except for weapons that could stab or cut. None of them had taken advantage of that fact so far, but this match was enough of a challenge that they felt the extra step was necessary.
James ran out of cover, making it several yards with his increased speed before the Air Nexians took notice and fired at him. Eric gave it another few seconds before dashing out himself. Instead of weaving between the trees as James did, trying to draw attention, he kept his pace quiet and slow. He didn’t activate his electricity until he was within a yard of the trees. Just close enough to have enough speed to run up the tree. Which he did, feeling the electricity forcing extra strength into his legs as he raced up the trunk. He’d chosen the one with the least branches, giving him a nearly perfect straight path.
When he erupted from the top of the trees, his path was carrying him directly toward one of the Air Nexians. He had a brief flashback of the last time he was this high in the air, which had been in the final moments of a brutal fight against a powerful mage in Ahya. Not that different, he thought, crashing into the Air Nexian and grabbing the man’s arms to secure his spot.
“What the!” The Air Nexian exclaimed, completely taken aback by Eric’s sudden appearance. He let out a grunt as the shock and Eric’s extra weight nearly pulled them both out of the sky, but he caught himself, still trying to break free to no avail. “Get off me!”
“Not a chance,” Eric growled. He slung one arm around the Air Nexian’s neck, then pointed his other arm in the direction of one of the man’s allies and fired off a lightning bolt. He was able to knock down two in less than five seconds, leaving just one other besides the one he was currently grappling with.
“You’re going to knock us both down!” The Air Nexian snarled, trying yet again to push Eric off of him. “You can’t drop that far without hurting yourself!”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Eric said. He swung one leg in a powerful kick mid-air as the other Air Nexian finally seemed to notice what was going on. The solid blast of air hit his ally in the back, sending him and his unwanted passenger flying several yards to the side.
“Let go of him at once, you damned rookie!” The Air Nexian said, swooping a few meters to the left to get a good line of sight on Eric again. Eric repeated his last action, and avoided getting hit once more. Letting out a yell of frustration, the Air Nexian pursued. “I said let go- aah!”
His words were cut off by a yelp of surprise. Unbeknownst to him, James had repeated Eric’s trick to get airborne, and had thrown the weighted end of the rope around his leg. It formed a perfect impromptu net, and the combined weight of the two figures was enough to drag them both down. James’s feet met the trunk of another tree, and he promptly ran downward as fast as he could, laughing uproariously.
“Damn!” The Air Nexian Eric held growled, and fired a point-blank blast of air at Eric’s face. He ducked the blast, then coated his body in electricity again. Unfortunately for the one he was holding, it was similar to being zapped by several tasers at once, and it knocked him out more effectively than if Eric had punched him. They both plummeted to the forest floor at once. Eric, his stomach jumping up to the region of his throat, tried to aim for a nearby tree, though it seemed impossible to control their descent.
He managed to catch a sturdy branch with the inside of one knee, changing their trajectory to a horizontal one and slowing them down, but it wasn’t enough. He lost his grip in an instant and met a few much sturdier branches on the way down before he managed to reorient himself and race downward at a more controlled pace. The forest floor provided a soft enough landing as he inevitably slipped up again, but the impact of the falling Air Nexian knocked him prone with much more force.
“Not the best idea,” he said, pushing the Air Nexian off with a groan of pain. “But at least it worked. Let’s get these guys restrained, James. James?””
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He looked around for his friend, and discovered him facedown on the forest floor. When he rolled James over, he saw a purple lump already growing on his forehead. He must have knocked himself out as he ran down, Eric thought. He seemed otherwise uninjured, as did the Air Nexians he’d knocked out of the air.
“You take a nap,” he told his unconscious ally, barely suppressing a laugh. “I’ll go help the others.”
He set off at a dead sprint, weaving between the thick tree trunks. Thankfully he hadn’t hurt his ankles and prevented himself from running again. In fact, apart from the scrapes and bruises, he felt fine. When he broke out of the trees and onto the battlefield, it was to see the remaining Thunder and Air Nexians locked into a fierce battle on the Thunder side of the arena. Eric could see their flag held by Nicholas, who was trying his best to get airborne as Kenta pummeled away at him. It was clear, however, that Kenta was starting to tire out, and Nick still looked fresh.
Eric was there by the time Nick managed to break free, vaulting over Kenta’s head and taking to the air. He seemed fiercely pleased with his escape, but failed to see the incoming threat until it was too late. Eric leaped into the air before Nick could fly too high, tackling the young man and driving them both back down to the ground. Nick hit with plenty of force, the air exploding out of his lungs with a loud grunt.
“I’ve got him!” Eric shouted, rolling to his feet and moving back toward Nick. “Go for their flag!”
Kenta raced off at once without replying, and vaulted easily over one of their allies who was wrestling an Air Nexian to the ground. Eric tried to jump on top of Nick to stun him, but Nick was already rolling back to his feet as well, the flag still clutched firmly in one hand. His foot lashed out in a high kick at Eric’s jaw and narrowly missed. As with Kenta, he tried to get airborne before a brawl could start, but Eric grabbed his ankle and gave Nick a nasty shock, bringing him back down.
“Damn, you’re stubborn!” Nick shouted, kicking Eric off of him even as he grunted in pain at the jarring electricity going through his body. He was a strong one alright, Eric thought. That same jolt had knocked out three of his comrades. “Unfortunately, I don’t have time for a rematch just yet!”
When Eric tried to grapple him again, he was stopped in his tracks with a strong blast of air at close quarters. The same blast sent Nick flying in the opposite direction and into the air, but Eric was quick to hit him with a bolt of lightning that knocked him down once again. “Let it go, Eric!”
“Not a chance!” Eric shouted again. He couldn’t pretend that frustrating an Air Nexian as they repeatedly tried and failed to take to the air was an addicting feeling. “You’re going to have to knock me out if you want me to stop!”
After the third time Nick knocked him away, tried to take to the air, and fell, he seemed to realize that Eric might have a point. Letting out a growl of frustration as he realized that his teammates were either too distracted trying to keep Kenta away from the midpoint or fighting the other Thunder Nexians, he resolutely turned to fight Eric seriously. “Fine! You get your rematch!”
He stuck the end of the flag into the earth and conjured his air staff, releasing a flurry of blows that forced Eric to jump back. He fired bolt after bolt as he retreated, trying to draw Nick away from the flag, but the Air Nexian Captain refused to move more than a few yards away from it before stopping his advance. He grinned at Eric, letting him know he was on to his trick.
“You can either fight me right now, or I’ll leave with the flag,” Nick said with a taunting laugh. “Make up your mind, or I’ll just hit you with a hurricane.”
Fine then. Eric charged forward again, this time attacking for real. Nick parried each of his blows with the staff of condensed air, not giving him a chance to unleash the electricity to stun him again. All Eric had to do was get in one good shocking strike, and he’d win the duel. Nick didn’t have enough time to recover from a proper disabling hit with how little time was left. And soon enough, Kenta would break free of his fight to race across the finish line and-
A loud horn blared across the city, and Eric came to a sudden halt, nearly tripping with the sudden acceleration. “Damn, that was fast.”
“He got across?” Nick asked, letting out a groan of disappointment. In the distance, they could hear the roaring of the crowd. “Well, good job, Eric-”
“What an unbelievable performance!” The commentator was roaring, cutting Nick’s speech off. “Neither team managed to get across in the thirty-minute time limit! Both teams put up an incredible defense!”
“Wait,” Eric said, his chest heaving as the exhaustion of the fight seemed to catch up to him. All around him, members of both Nexuses were looking around in confusion as well. He could see Kenta, mere feet from the halfway point, crouching low with hands on his knees, the Air Nexus flag laying on the ground. “Damn! Does that mean we tied?”
“That makes this match a draw!” The commentator shouted gleefully, as if he’d heard Eric’s question from so far away. “My, we haven’t seen a draw in nearly two years! Let’s hear a round of applause for the Thunder and Air Nexuses!”
The crowd let loose an appreciative roar, and Eric saw Edward approaching. “I don’t know how you managed to hold him still for so long.”
“Seems we both had our plan spoiled,” Nick sighed, speaking before Eric could reply. “Kenta kept me busy too long to manage to get across.”
“We should go get the people knocked out in the trees,” Eric said, his mind already getting over the disappointing and surprising end to the match. “James is out cold, along with four of the Air Nexians.”
“The Lieutenants are already taking care of that,” Nick replied, pointing. Indeed, Kiera and Charlisa were both helping two dizzy-looking figures out of the tree line. “Only one more match now.”