Arthur's Point of View

Crawlana

“Still so defiant.” I asked as I cocked my head slightly as I leaned in. “What would it take to break your spirit? You are strong, but without your water surrounding you, you are far below many others I’ve faced.” More ice shot from her hands to try and freeze me over in vain. “You’re getting very annoying very quickly.”

“You’ll run out of magic before I do.” She replied.

A sigh left whatever manner of lips I had as I tightened my grip on her face. “Fine.” Creating a gravity pillar beside us, I started to overlap it continually. “As much as I want to say, ‘I didn’t want to have to do this’, inside, I’m rather glad.” My strongest pillars continued to combine until a literal bend in space appeared beside us which alarmed the Aridian. “Do you have any idea what this is?”

“Spare me your thre-“

Moving her over to the bend in reality, one of her legs dangled into it before twisting in on itself horribly. The leg ripped apart, and it took a moment for her to realize what had happened. Screams soon rang out. Horrible bellows of pain as her lips quivered in pain while tears streamed down her face and froze over. I covered her mouth as she flailed about in my grasp.

“Do you really think my magic will run out?” Pulling her from the rift, she scratched at my arms as blood dripped to the temple stone. “You want to know why this fight is so simple for me?”

“…” She didn’t responded except for her muffled sobs of pain.

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Pulling her closer to me, I softly whispered in her ear. “I don’t have to protect anyone.” I moved away from her, and her eyes were focused on me in a glare as tears streamed from them. “No city or kingdom to protect. There isn’t anyone here I need to save or worry about. It’s rather liberating.” I mocked before I held her by the rift threateningly. “Now, do you want to continue?”

Magic gathered in her hands as she brought down two ice swords on my arm that held her in place. They pierced the armor I had and tore through my skin. She ripped it apart as my grip loosened. With her wings, she shot away from me with the flaps of her missing leg fluttering at her speed. My arm put itself back together as her magic went to work on her leg. As it returned, I saw her magic was significantly lower than it once was.

While killing her would be simple, I had the advantage. She clearly cared for the people here. That was a given since she had yet to flee. While I did think she was foolish, it was doubtful that she truly believed she could defeat me at this point. Killing her would also serve no purpose. I finally had the opportunity to get some answers. However, she was acting very suspicious throughout the entire fight.

My eyes looked back at the door where the construct of dancing magic resided. It never changed, and it blocked off the rest of the kingdom. This seemed to be a separate part of the ocean bottom, or it was something unique to this Aridian. All of it was suspicious. As was the fact that she received no aid or reinforcements.

Magic still filled the area. However, now that the Aridian’s magic supply was lower, and not as suffocating, I noticed an ambient magic filled the area. It wasn’t the water or her magic anymore. Instead, the temple seemed to be giving off some manner of magical pulse. While it was faint, I realized perhaps there was more to this temple than meets the eye.

Without hesitating, I pulled Defiance from my back and held it over the rift. Dropping it, Defiance plunged into the temple as it immediately disappeared. As if teleporting away, the temple began to crack and break apart. A massive hole where Defiance shot down appeared as spiderwebbed cracks shot through the stone. Parts began to crumble away as dust shot into the air.

The ground shook under my feet, but I merely stood there despite it starting to break away. To my surprise, the Aridian landed immediately on the temple. She looked horrified. No longer did she pay any attention to me as she placed her hands on the temple. Her magic began pouring into it and the destruction of the temple came to a halt as if time had some to a complete stop.

“What did you do!?” She yelled at me without looking.

In response, I held out my hand as Defiance tore its way back up through the temple and into my hand. “Interesting…” I commented.

Her guard was down, but she looked at me in terror. “Do you realize what you’re doing!?”

“I find it fascinating that you didn’t react this poorly even when I threatened your people.” Walking over to her, she looked at me fearfully as I held Defiance at the ready. “Is your temple truly more important than the people of Crawlana?” I asked before I stopped beside her. “Or is this temple just that important?” Even though I was right beside her, she didn’t move.