Chapter 293: To Be A Veres Part 1
Blue streaks of lightning crackled over Kalliste’s fingers and traveled up her left arm. She narrowed her scarlet eyes and bared her fangs, “Say hello to your mother for me.”
Indignant rage filled Callum’s heart, but he took a deep breath and held back his voice. He briefly wondered if Kalliste knew that his father’s wife, Regina neé Lilith, had killed his mother.
No, it didn’t matter. Not right now. All that matters is how Kalliste feels.
He knew he had struck a nerve when he mentioned the frost giant Lynn. Though he hadn’t expected the cool-headed Kalliste to react so well. Now he just needed to prod her insecurity even more.
Callum channeled white mana into his hand, though he didn’t form a spell just yet. Instead, he smirked, “I think after this round I’ll just pay a visit to your frost giant ‘friend.’ I’d love to have a taste of that hybrid blood.”
“You’re not walking out of this arena, you pig,” Kalliste snarled.
“OOH, LOOK AT THAT STORM MAGIC ON TEAM CAPTAIN KALLISTE’S HAND! SHE SEEMS EAGER TO GET THIS FIGHT STARTED, MARK!” Jane Stemme yelled from the Herald’s Tower.
Mark Stemme cleared his throat and yelled into the Herald’s horn, “THEN LET’S GIVE THE CROWDS WHAT THEY WANT! WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, LET THE 6TH MATCH OF THE CHALLENGE OF SPELL & STEEL… BEGIN!!!”
Kalliste didn’t hesitate, she swung her left arm forward and pointed her open palm straight at her opponent. The lightning crackled with excitement and stretched outwards before it suddenly twisted the wrong way and fizzled into the air. The muscles in her left arm spasmed with electricity and grimaced painfully.
Callum did not falter, he quickly pointed his outstretched fingers at her and summoned the white mana swirling in his hand. A bright spell exploded outwards, the white light blinded the vampiress and singed her sensitive skin.
Kalliste flinched back and threw her arm over her face as she fell to her knees.
She failed! Callum thought excitedly. Keep her angry, keep her dazed, then go in for the kill…
~~~
…A few minutes before the duel… the training room…
“What do you mean ‘keep her angry’? Why not just kill her?” Sylvie frowned.
“He’s not actually trying to kill her,” Freya shook her head. “Right, Cal? Cal…?”
“That isn’t the goal, no,” Callum said carefully.
“Aw,” Sylvie whined.
“If you can’t manage to kill her, then a stab in the gut should be enough,” Stryg pointed at Callum’s sword.
“Yes!” Sylvie cheered.
“That’s not what I mean,” Callum said. “I just need to beat her.”
“And how are you going to do that?” Stryg raised an eyebrow.
“Simple, I’m a Veres,” Callum smiled knowingly. “My House is more than just its magic, we weren’t always mages after all. Our founder achieved greatness through his skill with the blade and his strategic mind. It was Veres I that taught Gale I’s son the way of the sword which would eventually become the legendary Gale Swordsmanship Style.”
“Sure, but you’re no swordmaster, and your hand-to-hand combat sucks,” Sylvie said.
“Well, that’s hurtful,” Callum muttered glumly.
“Ignore her, she thinks all swords are stupid,” Stryg said.
Callum shook his head, “It doesn’t matter. I’m not planning on beating Kalliste with expert swordsmanship anyway. That’s why strategies exist.”
“Huh?” Stryg cocked his head to the side.
“I’ve known Kalliste since I was a kid,” Callum said. “She’s a powerful penta-manifold mage. More importantly, she hates me. She’ll want to defeat me as quickly as possible, her honor demands it, an instant victory to show how unworthy I really am of her.”
“I’m not hearing a plan in any of this,” Freya noted.
Callum smiled, “Kalliste’s favorite chromatic color, the one she relies on the most, has always been her Blue. Rule number 1 of storm magic: Complete emotional control, never let your emotions interfere with your spell casting. Storm spells are too volatile, they need perfect precision. And if they don’t…”
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“Backlash,” Stryg muttered grimly.
“Or death,” Sylvie chipped in.
“Yeah, but Kalliste would have to lose control of her emotions for something like that to happen,” Freya said. “I don’t see one of the most powerful mages in this tournament just losing her shit like that.”
“Leave that part to me,” Callum winked.
“And if that doesn’t work?” Stryg asked.
Callum smiled half-heartedly, “I predict I will feel terrible agonizing pain, probably paralyzed limbs, difficulty breathing, impaired vision, plenty of blood loss, and possibly death.”
~~~
Callum’s bright spells were not at the level of a master; his spells were incapable of forming powerful light beams, but against a vampire, they didn’t have to be.
He sauntered towards the fallen Kalliste, white mana flowing into his hand once more. Kalliste tried to stand, but he fired off another flash of bright magic into her face. She cried out in pain and shielded her face.
“What’s the matter, Kal? Having trouble seeing?” he asked with a soothing voice, his scarlet eyes filled with mischief. “Are you nervous? Having trouble casting, maybe?”
She gripped her limp left arm and glared in his direction, though her eyes were unfocused.
Callum blasted another bright spell at her. The flash of white light was almost like a hammer, knocking Kalliste down to the ground. He stepped closer, only a dozen paces away now.
“Bastard…” she growled under her breath, but her eyes were still clenched tight.
Pain always interfered with a mage’s focus. Disorientation was just as bad. Bright magic caused vampires both.
He suddenly remembered Freya’s words of mercy and how the actions in their duels could affect their Houses as well. House Veres and House Lilith had been allies for a thousand years, did he really want to jeopardize that?
A painting of his mother flashed through his mind, the only portrait he had of her.
Did he really want to jeopardize his family’s alliance?
Callum steeled his heart, Yes, without question.
Callum raised both his hands and brought his will into focus, white mana surged into his veins, the heat almost burning his hands. A seed of light coalesced between his palms and began to quickly expand, a powerful beacon blazing at the center of the arena. Callum stared at his feet, the spell too bright for even him to look at. Kalliste cowered on the ground, her skin beginning to burn and smoke.
Callum roared with vengeful anger and swung his arms down, the searing light exploding over her. For a brief moment, the arena was bathed in white light and the crowds looked away, all save for one.
Stryg kept his focus on the battle down in the arena’s sands. His lilac irises had expanded past the whites of his eyes. He shot to his feet and from the bottom of his lungs screamed, “CAL, RUN!”
A red-hot pain slammed into Callum’s chest. The world spun around him. He realized he was in the air right before he slammed into the hard ground several paces away. He wheezed for breath and slowly looked down at his chest. A sharp sliver of rock was protruding from one of his ribs. With shaky hands, he pulled the stone out and casted a simple healing spell. The soft white glow stopped the bleeding but did little else.
In the distance, a small dense dome of shadows fell apart in tatters. Kalliste hid underneath the last strands of black magic as they faded away. She opened her scarlet eyes, stood to her feet, and dusted off her pants.
“That was close,” Kalliste said in a calm, cold voice. “I admit I let my emotions get the better of me if only for a second, but my oh my, darling, you really know how to seize your moment.”
Callum sat up with a grimace and stared at her warily, “How did you…?”
“Instead of throwing out random spells in a panicked frenzy after my storm spell failed, I took the time to recollect my will and focus. Granted, you really made it difficult with your little white flashes.”
“A shadow dome… shouldn’t have worked…” Callum said between labored breaths.
“You don’t know?” she laughed. “This particular spell weaves layer upon layer of shadows to counteract bright spells. The Dark Veil Spell was created to protect vampires against the white mages of the Ivory Realm.”
“Dark Veil…?” Callum furrowed his brow.
“Does it sound familiar? It should. One of your ancestors created the spell. You’d know this if you were an actual Veres, but you don’t even have your family’s signature chromatic black magic. Instead, you use white’s bright spells. Your weak nature is a shame to the vampire aristocracy,” Kalliste raised her foot and slammed it into the ground with a hard thud.
Callum’s eyes widened. A blur appeared at the edge of his vision. He threw himself to the side. Shards of stone swept above his head and stabbed into the ground where he had been seconds earlier.
His ribs throbbed with burning pain. He grimaced but pushed himself to his feet.
Kalliste chuckled, “What’s the matter? Having trouble casting? Ribs hurting too much?”
Callum ignored her and pulled out a small pink vial from his pocket. He yanked the cork out with his teeth and down the pink liquid in a single gulp. It tasted like ash and oil, but the numbing effect was quickly taking hold, the pain in his ribs dissipating.
Kalliste watched him drink the Red potion as she slipped off her leather boots and dug her toes into the sand, “Resorting to low-grade potions now? Can’t you brew anything bigger?”
“I don’t need anything else to beat you,” Callum drew his sword and took a defensive stance, his sword pointed loosely at the ground.
“Is that so?” she smiled serenely and channeled more green mana into the earth.
A volley of stone shards burst out from the sand and flew at Callum from all around. His body tipped over, like a fallen log. At the last moment, his feet shifted and he jumped, his body spinning in mid-air. Steel flashed in a storm of cuts, slicing apart the stone shards at once.
Callum landed on his feet and took the same defensive stance, sword pointed loosely at the ground.
Kalliste’s eyebrows lifted with surprise, “How did you…?”
“You’re right, Kal, I was weak…” Callum muttered. “I couldn’t save the man who had sworn his life and loyalty to my family… I failed to live up to my family’s name… So I swore to myself, I’d change.”
“Change?” Kalliste narrowed her eyes.
He chuckled softly, “My family may not have archives of secret White spells at the ready for me to learn, but I do have access to the teachings of some of the greatest swordmasters in the entire Ebon Realm. I learned, I trained each day and night….”
“And you think because you have a bit of fancy swordplay that you're now somehow a changed man? You’re still a coward who hides behind tricks and words. You are, always have been, and always will be, a disgrace to your House.”
“Maybe. But it seems to me you have forgotten who my House truly is,” Callum took a deep breath and stared into Kalliste’s eyes, “Let me show you then, what it means to be a Veres.”
Kalliste raised her arms above her shoulders, and the ground beneath their feet began to shake, “Then let me remind you why Veres I chose to make an alliance with my House.”