Azura could confidently say if someone had told him his father was ever chatty he would have laughed at their faces. “Glad to see you’re really keeping pace, I must have trained you well huh? How strong are your siblings? At least I assume you have siblings, since I didn’t really enjoy being an only child.” Yet here it was, that very thing shoved in his face like this. The longer the fight went the more comfortable the projection had gotten with chatting like they were old friends.
“My Sister is a noncombatant, and my brother is dead. He never did quite meet your expectations. His jealousy of me, and me being a prick eventually led him to do something stupid.” Whoops, some of his vitriol slipped out. He knew better than that. The projection in front of him hadn’t done those things, he had to keep sight of the things he really hated. He didn’t hate his fathers existence, just most of his current values. If the younger version had different values, then maybe they could get along.
To his immense shock the projection actually flinched at his words, and even froze in his assault. “He… I… What? No surely that can’t be. I knew I would have to be harsh, but surely not to the point of causing my children to committing suicide.” His father looked desperate, pleading even. To think that this man would somehow turn into his father was a little surprising.
He wanted to lash out, to use this to make his father feel even a portion of the pain he had to endure, but that wasn’t right. He was more than his hate, and he couldn’t let it consume him. He sighed. “Like I said you weren’t the only one at fault. I was just as much, no maybe even more involved in the way things ended up. I had not thought about the divide in talent. I assumed if I could do it and he couldn’t then surely he was just slacking. I pushed him too hard because I didn’t want the responsibility of being the heir.” He chuckled grimly. Oh how that had backfired, if he had just accepted things as they were his brother would be alive. He’d still be stuck as the heir, but that would be more bearable without the weight of his sins pushing him down.
His father looked on grimly. “It is a father’s duty to guide their children, to prepare them for the harsh reality of the world. My father would say that anytime he gave me an especially challenging task. It would seem I failed both in accomplishing the task, and in passing it on. I always assumed I’d be a good father, I mean I seem to be good at everything I put my mind to, so why wouldn’t I be? I’m sorry I failed you, and your brother and sister too.” His father spoke solemnly. Tears threatened to come to his eyes as he desperately fought them back. His father never apologized? Was this really him? Did he accept the apology from the echo of the man his father used to be? Turmoil pushed through him as his mind shut down. 2 words he never thought he’d hear in that voice turned his world upside down.
And just like that his tight control over his emotions failed. His rage boiled out, and before he could even think to try to calm himself he was rushing at his father at full speed. “You're sorry?! You can’t even begin to understand what you put us through! Every day we were set against each other, every day I was forced to bring them low! Why couldn’t you have just given up on them! It was obvious they couldn’t take it.” His true feelings that he’d been doing his best to hold in burst out with a desperate assault. The projection frantically dodged to avoid his brutal assault. “You didn’t even mourn him!” His throat raw from screaming he stabbed his sword into the ground causing an explosion that shot out to his father who took the blow head on. Only crossed arms protecting his fathers face from the explosion.
Tears streamed down his face making it hard to see his father who had been knocked back at least 10 ft from the explosion. His tight control having long since dropped he was panting desperately trying to intake air. “Is that why you’re still handicapping yourself? You’re trying to beat my older self, so you're weakening yourself against the current me to try and even out the difference.” Of all things it was that statement that snapped him out of his rage. The shouting had served as quite the catharsis though, as he felt a strange emptiness, but not really a bad one. It wasn’t quite the same as a lot of the things that had left him feeling lighter. It didn’t lessen the pressure on him at all, but it helped him work past some of his issues nonetheless.
He wiped the tears from his eyes. “You’re correct of course. It would seem I’ve done you a disservice. A remnant of who my father used to be you may be, but you aren’t who he is now, and it’s unfair to you for me to treat you as a mere proxy.” He released a deep breath as his hair changed to white. It was a little more natural to keep it black then it had been when he first exited the pool, but it was still something he had to subconsciously focus on. The air around him began to surge with dense mana, manifesting as little sparks of electricity. A thin layer of scales being the final noticeable change. “For all of the mistakes you will make, you did succeed in your goal of making me strong. I’ve berated you for his failures, so the least I can do is show you his success.”
It looked like his father wanted to say something, but quickly shook his head and nodded. Finally getting a chance to really air some of his grievances had done him some good. He was still raw, his throat hurt, and his eyes burned from the tears he had spilled, but oddly enough all he felt now was the thrill of unleashing his power against a strong opponent.
***
Luna jumped to the side as another blast of lightning struck where she had been standing. She had tried activating an antimagic field, but her opponent seemed to know enough about enchantment to deactivate the circle from the outside, and that meant she was stuck dodging and mostly failing to close the distance. Her opponent was a tall man. He didn’t look much older than them, but he was easily over 6 ft. The man had surprisingly long blonde hair, reaching all the way to his lower back. Not that she really had the time to be examining him very closely what with the constant lightning strikes he was raining down.
The only mercy was that her opponent wasn’t super talkative. As in he hadn’t said a word since he appeared. That was fine with her, his lightning bolts were hard enough to dodge without trying to focus on whatever he was saying. It was a little upsetting that all of the antimagic fields she had set up before his summoning were dealt with so casually, but at least that meant she knew this was probably somebody who lived a long time ago. Not that knowing that really helped much, but she knew that he probably didn’t have any other types of elemental magic so at least that meant she’d only have to deal with lightning.
She made a charge at her opponent again, but this time she was going to deal some damage to him, even if it cost her. She dodged the first few bolts of lightning, but when she started getting close her opponent shot several at her at the same time so that she could only avoid damage by retreating. She charged through the lightning, putting as much mana into a shield to protect her as she could spare. Her opponent's eyes widened as she successfully closed the distance for the first time. She was a little charred, and her muscles still spasmed painfully, but she still had the strength to thrust her spear aggressively at her opponent.
He reacted slowly, shock slowing him down, and the quick shield he had put up shattered leaving a fairly big gash on his side. “Well played.” Her opponent dissolved into golden light. She blinked, but it didn’t take long before the surprise gave way to a brilliant smile. She had done it, too bad she was about to pull an Azura. The pain from her injuries proved to be too much and her vision faded to black.
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***
Lily was pissed. What kind of opponent was this? How was fighting someone who could phase through all of her attacks supposed to help her grow stronger? Her opponent was a short girl with long brown hair, and a blank mask that covered her entire face. Frankly she wanted nothing more than to shatter that mask by punching her in the face, but unfortunately her physical attacks went right through the girl just like her spells. Her opponent hadn’t even bothered with counter attacking yet.
She growled. She didn’t have any idea how much mana it took for her opponent to become intangible, so making it a game of endurance wasn’t really in her best interests. She sighed as she stopped attacking, simply retreating some to create space between her and her opponent. “That unique magic of yours is a total cheat you know?” Azura’s was pretty busted, but at least you could still hit him, and hers was destructive, but hard to control. How was being untouchable fair.
“You say that now, but if you’d seen me when I was learning to control it you wouldn’t think so.” She supposed that was fair. She was just glad her opponent responded, that meant she might be able to dig for some clue to deal with her. Not for the first time she wished she could just pull answers out of seemingly nowhere like Azura did. She bet he would have come up with a counter for this girl after seeing her phase just once, maybe twice to confirm he didn’t just miss.
“Oh yeah? What was training that skill like?” She was both genuinely curious, and desperately hoping that there would be some weakness she could exploit. Thinking about it now that was probably why the masked girl was her opponent. It was an opponent that would force her to think outside the box, and come up with an answer other than hit it harder.
“It was tricky at first. You don’t really think about how important some things are until you start phasing through them. I’m honestly amazed I survived long enough to really master my unique magic.” She hummed in thought. That explained the lack of any other spells so far, the girl had to put most of her focus on her unique magic to not die, and hadn’t had as much time to train other things. That still didn’t really tell her if her opponent had any weaknesses.
“Sounds rough, almost makes me want to use my unique magic more to see if I can get the hang of it, but pretty much all of my friends told me I should never use it unless I absolutely have to.” She’d never forget the faces most of them made whenever her violet flames were brought up. Only Azura was calm when they were mentioned, and even he said she shouldn’t use them.
“What’s your unique magic?” Maybe if she revealed more details about her magic, then her opponent might do the same. She certainly hoped so, because she was drawing a blank on any way to beat this opponent, and she had a feeling her foe hadn’t revealed all of her tricks just yet.
“A fire that burns through magic, super powerful, but my lack of control makes it more dangerous than its worth.” Not always true, but true often enough she felt justified saying it. She didn’t hate her unique magic, even with the full extent of it being dangerous the natural inclination for fire magic had saved her a lot of trouble.
She noticed her opponent shiver. “That does sound pretty bad. Bad it’s one hell of a last resort.” She didn’t blame her opponent for being wary. Why wouldn’t the masked girl be wary? If she chose to, she could simply burn her away phasing or not, but Azura had said not too unless she would die if she didn’t, and as much as she wanted to win this she knew if Azura of all people was warning her about side effects it was probably best to follow his advice. Now she just needed to find another way to beat this opponent.
***
Azura was starting to really get into the swing of things. The fight between him and the younger version of his father had really ramped up. He had unleashed all of his draconic power, and pushed his enchantments to the max, but his father was still matching him blow for blow. He sped towards his father dodging and weaving between the shadow dragon where he could, and destroying or blocking them when he had to. It was obvious he was stronger and faster physically, but his father had him beat in terms of offensive and defensive magic, not to mention his father’s magic was much quicker to cast.
Thankfully his father had been silent since his outburst about his brother, but the man hadn’t started holding back, and it was clear that both sides were putting their all into it… Well maybe not technically his all. His copies were indisposed, and his grimoire had stayed safely stationed on his hip. Maybe it was time to change that. A tool that was never used was worthless, and thanks to his core he was able to charge the artifact much more efficiently. He had so much mana stored away at this point that using it every now and then would barely put a dent in it.
The metal dragon head forming to block his strike and the tornado dragon that blew him back across the field made up his mind. At this rate the fight would go on indefinitely, and while he was confident his fathers magic would run dry before his did, the same couldn’t be said about physical exhaustion. He drew the book out from its pouch, and opened it while his father watched on in confusion. He smirked as glowing symbols began to appear on the book as magic swirled around him dangerously.
His fathers eyes widened in shock, and the man quickly sent all of his formed shadow dragons at him. He smiled, it was too little too late. The symbols spread from the book as arcane magic shifted through his eyes. “Rend.” The dragon constructs his father had sent at him tore apart instantly, as if vicious claws had cut through all of them at the same time from every direction, but he wasn’t done yet. “Kneel.” His father was forced to his knees by an immense pressure, the symbols crawling up from the ground and onto the projection’s body from the spot the knees made contact with the ground.
At this point his father began attempting to cast spells, but the man found that extremely difficult with how much natural mana was saturating the area, and under his control as well. Still difficult or not his father wasn’t one of the most prominent mages on the planet for no reason, and the man managed to create several metal dragons to curl together to create a solid dome around himself. He frowned. That was going to be a bit tricky. Still he had gone this far, no way he was going to lose after pulling out all the stops. “Shatter.” The natural mana pulsed with an erratic frenzy that started forming cracks in the metal. It didn’t take long before the dome shattered.
He however was reaching his limit, the fact he was even still awake showed how much he had grown since the last time he used his grimoire. He could probably even push to 2 more commands if he absolutely had to. “Surrender. All it would take is one word for me to beat you a bit more violently.” It was difficult to hold all the power of the grimoire without releasing it, but oddly he found himself not wanting to brutally kill the projection, despite who the projection was of.
His father sighed, and he was admittedly a little disturbed at the proud smile the younger version of the man wore. “Alright I surrender. Well done, that was incredible. I’ve never seen an artifact in action before, but I know grimoires can be notoriously hard to control. Not that many people get a chance to try.” The genuine praise offset him more than any scorn could, but he smiled anyway. It was nice to hear his father genuinely praise him, even if this wasn’t the same man who raised him.
He closed the book, dispersing all the natural mana that he had seized control over. His circuits burned slightly from overuse, but not nearly as bad as they did when he had used the grimoire last. The positive feelings of besting his father didn’t last long though. Afterall it had taken almost every trick up his sleeve, and this was his father as a student, not even an adult much less where the man was now. The only bright side was he didn’t have to win against the real thing, just injure him in some way. “Thanks, it’s served as a great hidden ace for me so far, but it’s not nearly enough for the things I want to accomplish.”
“There’s no need to rush. You’ll get stronger simply by growing, let challenges come to you, and only seek out trouble you want. At least that’s what father always told me, hopefully you’re better at following that advice than I am.” With his parting words said, the projection dispersed in golden light. He sighed. For the first time in a long time he didn’t really feel like training. Hopefully that lethargy wouldn’t stick, he was already on a deadline after all.