Alexander stared wide-eyed at the newly created forest clearing and the fearsome reindeer that had just changed the topography solely with her aura. Two large horns extended out of the sides of her head, both ablaze. Her wings had fully spread by now showing a total wingspan somewhere in the range of 25 feet. Gazing more intently at Udra, Alexander noticed her back legs were that of an eagle. In fact, the reindeer shared only her namesake in her front half; the back end, wings included, were all that of an eagle: large talons, a feathery hind, and a wedge-shaped tail.
Back, Ander!
Pengu’s warning stopped Alexander’s admiring glance just in time to evade a swarm of feathers. All of them were wrapped in wind mana, and based on the holes in the ground, more than enough to rip through Alexander’s body.
“Empower your partner. Otherwise, your death will be the only result in this challenge, and do not put on your armor. This challenge tests your body’s power not the depth of your pockets.” Udra’s tone was cold, but her words had reminded Alexander of the new tool at his disposal.
The examiner waited patiently as he began the slow procedure of converting his white flames into indigo flames. This was different from when he formed his connection with Pengu. Rather than tethering them together, it was more like he was injecting his flames through the channel the connection formed. He’d seen the process many times in the indigo waterfall’s vision but actually doing it what very different. Luckily, Pengu was there to help.
Placing both his hands on her back, Alexander poured in as much indigo flames as he could, letting a few white flames through as well. When Pengu could no longer handle any more fire, she simply let him know. All in all, the exchange of power took about ten minutes due to Alexander’s inexperience.
Looking down at his hands, Alexander felt the true power of the indigo flame for the first time. Before, he was subjected to the indigo flame’s capacity only as a spectator in the vision, but in this moment, Alexander could feel his mana reserves more than double and his agility improve slightly. The knowledge the waterfall had provided flooded back into him.
The indigo color was a branch of magic mainly focused on support. Whoever was chosen as the indigo color user’s champion would benefit from a huge strength bonus in exchange for their prowess. A mutual exchange by all means, but that’s not to say the original Elementalist would gain no buffs. On the contrary, a snippet of magic was able to flow back through the connection giving the Elementalists two main power-ups: a small measure of their partner’s magic and access to their mana reserves. Beasts faced an uphill battle when comprehending the vague concepts found within the 9 colors of magic, and one of their greatest advantages for bridging the gap in understanding was their massive mana pools in proportion to humans.
Armed with a new caliber of power, Alexander clenched his fists and slowly brought them up into a boxer’s stance, or at least his best impression of it. Beside him, Pengu’s flippers gained a green sheen before igniting. The fire slipped onto her flippers like a sheath of red, with white and indigo sparks interspersed throughout.
Twigs cracked under Udra’s hooves as she began to walk forward. Her fire had shifted into a blue tone over time, but Alexander knew this was not due to her magic. The air around her horns trembled and blurred from the blistering temperature, the heat being the reason for the new coloring.
Jump!
Alexander reacted to the warning without even knowing what was coming, crashing into thick forest foliage. His jump had carried him much further than he planned, but he was not complaining. Below him, scorched earth and ash marked the ground where Udra had directed a wind gust by flapping her wings.
Gulping nervously, he clung to the branches while watching Pengu charge at the ferocious reindeer. Fearlessly, she somersaulted over a blast of fire Udra released from her mouth and slashed down on the reindeer’s antler. A crushing defeat was all that awaited Pengu as she was blasted away.
Letting go of his branch, Alexander sprinted to Pengu to make sure she was okay. By the time he arrived, she was already on her feet. Shaking her head to do away with the dizziness, she squawked angrily and readied her flippers for a second round. Scrapes and bruises were healing on her body at a pace visible to the naked eye, displaying the white flame’s exquisiteness.
Eager to help his partner however he could, Alexander whispered. “I can’t fight, Pengu. I don’t know any martial arts nor are my fire abilities particularly aligned with combat. I can help distract, Udra, though.”
Pengu nodded her head, accepting Alexander’s plan.
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Thudding steps were heard as Alexander ran towards Udra, not even flinching when she shot out a fire breath at him. When the blast cleared, bright red skin could be seen, but it didn’t last for too long. The white flames healing the damage at breakneck speed. Within seconds, no evidence of the damage was left save for a white glow emanating from his skin. Spreading her wings out, a new rain of wind enhanced feathers shot towards Alexander. Bobbing and weaving, he did his best to minimize his injuries, managing to reach Udra with cuts only on his arms. Sliding beneath her legs, he punched at her abdomen before rolling away from the stomp of her hooves.
A hissing sound approached the unaware Udra from the skies. Blitzing directly to Udra’s exposed back, Pengu ran through the skies. Her flipper was wrapped in a coat of wind and fire extending it to nearly 4 feet. Just as Pengu’s piercing blow came within inches of stabbing into Udra, she spun around, swatting down with her wing. As she spun, her front leg kicked Alexander in the chest.
Flung back several feet, Alexander began healing his fractured ribs on impact, not daring to stop to complain. Pengu used a wind blast to fly over to Alexander, awaiting the blessing of the white flame. Udra remained in place; the only indication the fight was continuing was a ball of fire floating about her antlers, slowly growing denser.
Alexander wasn’t sure how long it had been, but surely their fights had long crossed into quadruple digit territory. This was how it went every single time, though. He and Pengu would both rush Udra, throwing at her any attacks they could muster. Sometimes the rounds went long, turning into a battle of attrition, but most of the time they ended in seconds- Udra seemingly able to come up with the perfect counterattack in the blink of an eye.
As he healed his fractured knuckles, Alexander smirked in joy at the progress they had made in their battle with Udra. We almost got her. The first fight he had frozen up as soon Udra aimed an attack at him, forcing Pengu to suffer deep burns when she shoved him out of harm’s way, but the more they engaged with the reindeer, the more used to combat Alexander became. In recent rounds, the duo were slowly edging towards victory, getting closer and closer to inflicting some real damage on the examiner. Alexander was by no means a powerhouse yet. No, the muscle in their fight was absolutely Pengu, but he was beyond excited to have overcome his fear of battle. The shark attack near the Port of Talan still haunted his nightmares on occasion, and to know he could be more than a burden in a situation like that was a relief.
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Finishing up with his own injuries, he leaned forward to aid Pengu. Most of their time was actually spent on healing. After they were blown away, Udra would stand still for a few seconds charging an attack. In that time, Alexander would recover Pengu and himself back to an optimal condition. His white flame had actually managed to evolve from all the active combat. Fire attacks no longer required any type of defense on his end, leaving the wind enhanced blows as Udra’s only lethal attack. Pengu had also perfected a new ability the Turtbros had taught her. Focusing wind mana on her feet, she was able to step on the air, effectively gaining the power of flight. Their magical gains could mostly be attributed to the fact they were essentially spamming their abilities.
This was where the strangeness of the forest lied. Despite what Alexander estimated to have been several days of fighting, the sun had never set. In fact, nothing in the forest clearing had changed. Alexander had never felt a drop in his mana tank, and Pengu confirmed this condition. It allowed Alexander to always have his white flame burning at maximum capacity and kept them tireless, so he wasn’t exactly complaining, but it was odd. Nevertheless, the massive improvements with each new round led Alexander to look forward to each successive battle and disregard the mysterious forest magic. After all, the swamp and plains all had their own special circumstances.
The fireball grew from the size of a tennis ball to that of a bowling ball, indicating it was time to move again. Alexander ran left while Pengu broke right, narrowly dodging the fireball Udra had chucked in their direction. Used to the constant threat of death, Alexander was unfazed as the explosion of mana warmed his back.
Bending her head back, Udra inhaled sharply and blew out a gale. With no time to dodge, Alexander increased his pace while screaming mentally to Pengu. “Block, block, BLOCK!”
A flaming slash met the brunt of the gale, dissecting a path for Alexander to continue his sprint. Overhead, Pengu gathered wind and fire mana back into her flipper as she pranced directly towards Udra. Her right flipper still needed time to recharge, but her left one was more than ready attack the reindeer.
Using the last of the distance between herself and Udra to gain some elevation, Pengu completely cleared her feet of wind mana, aiming to enhance her attack with the momentum of her fall. On the ground, Udra saw her intentions and began to gather wind and fire mana into her own wings.
Distract, Ander!
Hearing Pengu’s words, Alexander knew exactly what to do. He had never stopped running forward, knowing he would only be able to assist Pengu if he was in close quarters to Udra. Slowing his gait, he bent his knees and pressed hard on his toes, lounging over the reindeer’s head. Channeling all the white flames he could to his hands, Alexander gripped the flaming antlers, tilting Udra’s head back and causing her attacks on Pengu to miss.
Digging her talons into the ground, Udra, however, remained standing with Alexander hanging from her head. Her wings rose once more to cover her exposed underbelly and block Pengu’s impending strike. “Go around to me!”
With a burst of wind mana, Pengu spun around and stabbed directly at Alexander who just barely managed to heave himself up and out of the way. The expected fountain of blood did not occur; instead, a wave of mana repelled the duo away.
Landing on his feet, Alexander still skidded back a couple feet. He healed the burns on his hands quickly before looking up. A tiny red dot on the otherwise pristine coat of grey fur was the only damage their best attack to date had dealt.
No effect?
“Don’t let yourself get down, Pengu. This is already much better than we expected. That was real damage! Be on your guard, though. I think that blast of mana means we are leveling up to a higher difficulty.”
Standing side by side, the two inched their way towards the frozen body of the reindeer. Facing Udra’s back, Alexander couldn’t make out any discernable change. She was still standing on her eagle’s talons and her wings had extended back after unleashing the wave of mana, but other than that, she was reminiscent of a statue following their attack.
A few wary steps later, the duo was standing right behind Udra. Out of an abudnace of caution, they had chosen a slow approach, afraid of suffering at the hands of an untimely surprise attack. Yet their worries were unfounded. Udra hadn’t moved so much as a twitch. Pengu began to charge a slash, but Alexander stopped her by raising a hand in front of her. “Wait up. She hasn’t moved. Maybe our earlier strike hit much harder than we thought.”
Using scan on the reindeer only revealed what Alexander already suspected, she was in perfectly good health. In fact, her violet aura shone more strongly than anything he had ever analyzed. Still concerned, Alexander tapped her back and spoke loudly. “Ms. Nidra? Are you okay? Do you need me to tend to any hidden injuries?”
A full minute without a reply left Alexander anxious. “Pengu, what do we do? Is there a punishment for killing an examiner of a challenge? She still looks good to me, but I’m no vet! Dammit, I wish I knew more about reindeer biology. I know I joked about it, but I don’t want to be eaten by a dragon.”
Alexander was pacing back and forth as Pengu tried to sooth him. Not our fault. No punishment.
“It’s not that easy, princess. Anybody would hold a grudge if their kin were killed. Oh, geez. We’re gonna have a whole clan of overpowered reindeers hunting us. Thomas is gonna freak!”
No freak, Ander… She moved! Pengu excitedly began to slap at Udra’s body, urging her to move again.
“Stop it, Pengu! Why are you slapping her?” Moving the penguin back, he examined Udra. “Are you sure she moved? I don’t see anything. Not even her eyes are blinking.”
She did move! Let me slap her again. I’ll show you.
“But I don’t understand, why would slapping help?”
That’s how Pola woke you up in the forest. This is a forest, and we need to wake her up… So I’ll just slap her.
Dumbfounded, Alexander shook his head. “That’s not how that works, Pengu! Or.. well, I guess it kind of does. There are some people who do a little slap as opposed to a sternal rub, but that’s not the point. No slapping allowed, Pengu.”
“What’s this about slapping? Did you defile my body by slapping it while my consciousness was away?” All too suddenly, Udra came to life, opening her eyes and flapping her wings.
“There was no slapping here! Pengu and I were just worried about you. You simply stopped moving midway through our fight, madam. We were concerned for your health and come forward to try to mend your injuries.” A light squawk supplemented Alexander’s words.
Udra venomously stared down at the pair, attempting to peer through the guise of their words. Finding no lies, she continued. “Well, I am quite alright. I merely shifted my focus to inform my clan of your success. Our king was using an unquantifiable amount of mana to uphold our little formation, and I was ordered to pass the message with the highest priority whenever you cleared the third challenge.”
“We passed?”
Nudging her head towards one of her talons that had stepped forward slightly, Udra explained. “I was fighting you with several limiters placed on me, but even then, you were still but children facing off against a giant. Thus, I was not allowed to move from my spot. The two of you superseded my expectations however, by not only forcing me to move but also making me briefly display my power. Congratulations.”
Accepting the small nod from Udra, Alexander exclaimed. “We passed!” Holding on to Pengu’s flippers, the two danced in a circle. “Wait how did you inform your clan? And what formation was King Nidra supplying?”
“Quite the curious one now that you passed, aren’t you? My clan has a special technique where we can move our voices through the wind. It requires our full attention, though, which is why I remained a shell of myself for some time." Udra bent down, returning to her natural position on all fours. "As for the formation, I’m sure you noticed it. King Nidra used most of his mana and an ineffable amount of treasure to slow down time in a sector of the forest. I created the clearing earlier to remind myself of the parameters.”
“I see. I did notice time was being wonky, but I couldn’t quite explain how. How long did we fight for then? 5 days? A week?”
Leisurely cracking her neck, Udra responded. “That was 68 days of live combat, Alexander.”