Chapter 26

That night none of the men got much sleep. When Errrkkkk and Riakon had entered the treehouse outside of Bo’s, they heard splashing coming from the spa room and decided against bothering Roden beyond a quick knock followed by a hurried reply that he was indeed just fine.

Both Errrkkkk and Riakon were restless with thoughts of their new toys and potential. When the men did finally fall asleep they slept into the late morning. When they did finally wake, the men found Bo lounging in the sitting room of the treehouse.

“Well I’ll be damned, yall really have moved up in the world. Where’d yall get this?” Bo said, looking around the room.

Roden, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes, laughed through his nose, “it’s a spell of mine. I visualize what I want to make and then I conjure it.”

Bo looked surprised, and let out a slow whistle, “that is one hell of a spell.”

“It sure is.” Roden said, taking in his treehouse as he moved to make some tea.

“Well does anyone want to fill me in on what the actual hell happened last night?” Bo said indignantly.

Riakon and Errrkkkk winced slightly.

“I’m the son of gods, cacaw.” Errrkkkk said nonchalantly.

Riakon glared at him, “we are the sons of gods.”

Bo sucked his teeth, “yeah, I’d figured that part out on my own. I’m wondering why there was a divine gathering in my backyard.”

Both men shrugged, Riakon answered first, “not sure.”

“Don’t care, cacaw.”

Roden raised a hand to halt the conversation.

“I think I might have an idea.”

All three men turned their full attention on him. Roden briefly shied away from their intense gaze.

“It’s just a guess, geez. But, I’m thinking it has to do with Riakon’s divine mandate. It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that we slay a dragon, he gets some magic back, and then all of a sudden the gods show up.”

Everyone’s attention then shifted to Riakon, who wilted under their scrutiny.

“Hey I have no idea what’s going on. I’m just glad I have some powers back and this.”

Riakon raised a hand as if to grab something out of the air. There was a couple thuds and a scraping sound before something whizzed down the spiral stairs and into Riakon’s outstretched hand.

He held a jagged stone hammer firmly in his hand. Roden thought the hammer looked comically large in his one hand, but had to admit it was impressive.

Riakon gave the men a wide toothy grin, “my dad made this for me, once I showed him I was using a whip.” He said the last while turning his eyes to Roden.

Roden held up his hands in defense, “hey I never actually used the thing. I took it just to have something and it came in handy.”

Riakon looked at his hammer with pride, “I’d say you can have it back, but my dad destroyed it out of disgust.”

Roden just laughed at the thought of the God of War vaporizing a weapon because it wasn’t enough of a weapon.

“What about you Errrkkkk? Did you get anything?” Riakon said, reading his adoptive brother’s expression.

“I got a little something, cacaw.” He said and held out his hand just as Riakon had done. Except instead of a weapon coming to his call, a great wind rushed into the room and swirled around each of them. All of the men were slowly lifted off of their feet, or in Bo’s case his ass.

Errrkkkk lowered his hand and the wind cut off instantly dropping everyone back down with a slight jostle.

Riakon’s eyes went wide, “you can make people fly?!”

Errrkkkk nodded, “among a flock of other things, cacaw.”

Roden shook his head, “you know what that means.”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Bo frowned, “what does it mean?” his thick drawl drew out the words.

Roden took a long sip of tea, “it means he’s going to want to spar.”

To his surprise Riakon spoke first, “dibs on first.”

“Cacaw!”

Roden laughed, “I only got a couple new spells so by all means yall go first.”

Riakon and Errrkkkk froze and slowly turned their heads to look at Roden as if he’d grown a second head.

“What?”

“You got an Advancement?” Riakon said, his tone made it sound like an accusation.

“Yeah, didn’t yall?”

Both men responded simultaneously “No.” followed by Errrkkkk’s lone, “cacaw.”

Roden laughed a deep belly laugh that echoed through the room.

“Looks like yall got some catching up to do.”

Riakon and Errrkkkk looked at each other and nodded to each other firmly before both men set to gathering up their gear. In a matter of minutes all of them were back in Bo’s backyard, Errrkkkk and Riakon stood opposite one another, while Bo and Roden sat off to the side as spectators.

Bo gave the count down, “Three…Two…One…Go!”

Riakon wasted no time and immediately threw his hammer forward. Errrkkkk moved to bat the weapon away until he caught the hum of magic coming off of it. Instead, he leapt into the air intent on turning the dodge into a falling kick.

As he came down, Riakon already had his mouth open and unleashed a gale of wind infused with cold magic. Errrkkkk’s kick cut through the elemental breath and crashed into Riakon’s shield with enough force to shatter the thin crust of ice that formed on his leg. Errrkkkk twisted, popping off Riakon’s defense. A hard flap of his wings lifted him into the sky. As he flew back, he fired forward a series of short chi blasts.

Riakon managed to raise his shield to the incoming attack. His shield alone may not have been enough to nullify Errrkkkk chi, but a yellow aura emitted from Riakon, a sign he had cast his Faith Shield. In the same motion Riakon had recalled his hammer and was already in a throwing motion before the dust around him had settled.

Roden and Bo followed the fight intently as their two comrades traded attacks,

Roden leaned in slightly and spoke softly to Bo.

“Man, these two are two sides of the same coin.”

Bo never took his eyes from the fight, “what’d you mean?”

“Both of their styles revolve around not getting hit. Riakon just uses shields, while Errrkkkk dodges everything.”

Bo grunted, the guttural nature of his response told Roden he should probably shut the hell up and watch. He hadn’t realized until that moment how much easier it must be for him to follow than Bo. For Roden it was second nature, Bo seemed to strain just to keep up.

To Roden the fight seemed like the two men were at a bit of a stalemate. Both men thrived in close range, yet their fight was taking place in the mid range. Errrkkkk was the one who dictated where the fight took place so Roden deduced that must be part of Errrkkkk’s plan.

The exchanges were becoming repetitive as Riakon would toss his hammer, Errrkkkk would dodge then fire off a volley of chi blasts, Riakon would block, rinse and repeat. That was the case until during an exchange Errrkkkk fired off a chi blast causing Riakon to turtle up.

In a flash, Errrkkkk vanished and reappeared to Riakon’s exposed flank. His hands were couched at his hip. He drove them forward unleashing a beam of chi energy with his patented,

“Caaaaaaaaa, Caaaaaaawwwwwww!!!!!!”

Riakon had grown complacent and took the beam head on. Things did not look good from Roden’s perspective, As Errrkkkk’s beam dissipated, Riakon’s form was curled up behind his shield, but still standing.

Steam came off the big Dragonkin, a byproduct of Errrkkkk’s radiant energy attack. Riakon lowered his shield to reveal a wolfish grin. He swung his shield in a backhanded strike and stomped forward hard. Upon impact with the ground a bright red energy shot out in arcs around Riakon. Errrkkkk was caught in the field and struck by one of the haphazard streaks of magical energy.

Errrkkkk danced backwards out of the field, but it was too late. The spot he was hit glowed a bright red, but otherwise the Birdfolk seemed unharmed. His gaze flicked to the mark on his chest and then back to Riakon.

“Is that all you got, cacaw?” He said smugly.

Riakon’s grin never faltered, that same red glow trailed off his eyes as he slowly moved forward.

“Oh that wasn’t meant to hurt you, but this will.” He flung his hammer forward once again except instead of Errrkkkk easily dodging, the hammer found its mark in the midst of Errrkkkk’s movement, the impact slammed into Errrkkkk hard nearly sending him sprawling.

Errrkkkk squawked in surprise. Riakon charged after him, while calling his hammer back to his hand. Riakon lunged forward with a sweeping strike. Errrkkkk was caught off balance, he couldn’t dodge. He met Riakon’s hammer with a forceful chi powered block using his left elbow.

What Errrkkkk hadn’t seen was Riakon had turned the swing into a Smiting blow. The force of the added divine magic slammed through Errrkkkk’s defense. Riakon’s divine magic was slow compared to Errrkkkk, but when it was able to connect it was overwhelming in its power.

Errrkkkk managed to fade with the strike and twist off, taking some of the force away, but both of the onlookers to the fight could see. Riakon’s attacks were doing some damage.

Errrkkkk flapped his wings hard, but instead of rising into the air, a gust of wind rushed through Bo’s backyard and buffeted Riakon as he recovered from his attack. Riakon was unflappable, he braced himself against the wind and opened his toothy maw sending a bolt of lightning straight toward Errrkkkk.

Errrkkkk must have anticipated Riakon’s move because Errrkkkk was already prepared to meet the elemental attack with a beam of his own.

“Caaaaa, Caaawwww!!!!!!”

Riakon’s choice of lightning gave Errrkkkk little time to fully charge up his chi for his attack. His weaker beam was pushed back instantly by the lightning. A rush of chi erupted out of Errrkkkk as his golden aura surrounded him. His transformation empowered his beam resulting in a stalemating explosion at their point of contact.

The dust cleared revealing Riakon standing tall with shield and hammer, his Faith Shield still granting him a faint glow. Errrkkkk stood opposite his aura surging and a smug grin on his face. He took his newly blessed staff in both hands and pressed the base into the ground.

A green light traveled up the staff as if it were being drawn out of the ground beneath it. The light reached Errrkkkk’s hands and began to mingle with his already thrumming aura. The two energies swirled like water and oil.

Errrkkkk felt a rush of power as the nature energy from his staff was converted to chi within him. A dark green aura began to form within his golden aura. He felt his power swell. It was then that Riakon charged.

Riakon threw his hammer with confidence, however that confidence evaporated as he watched Errrkkkk twist and knock his hammer off course with a swift kick. Riakon drew his hammer back to his hand.

The exchange of blows that followed was nothing short of cataclysmic. Riakon’s Smiting blows and power shots landed against Errrkkkk’s new nature chi infused blocks and strikes. The two men attacked relentlessly, with neither man gaining any significant advantage.

Roden and Bo watched intently as the fight dragged on.

“Not to interrupt again, but I think Riakon is slowly down.” Roden couldn’t keep himself from saying.

Bo grunted, “yeah he’s not up to his full power just yet no matter how great that new hammer is he ain’t gonna be able to outlast Errrkkkk.”

The fight carried on for another minute of nearly constant exchanges before it was clear Riakon didn’t have any magic left in the tank. By Roden’s estimation he should have run out of magic a few spells ago, but assumed his hammer must be picking up the slack.

There was a pause in the action after a clash forced the men apart. Errrkkkk’s auras dissipated, but he looked as if he had barely exerted himself. Riakon on the other hand looked as if he’d run a marathon. He panted heavily, his hammer hung low in his hand, and sweat poured off of him.

Errrkkkk smiled at his adoptive brother and newly discovered cousin, “should we pause here and pick up another day when you aren’t so tired, cacaw?”

Riakon gave a big toothy grin, “fair enough, I accept your rain check.”

The feathers that served as Errrkkkk’s eyebrow twitched at the notion that he couldn’t finish Riakon off then and there, but the birdman let the Dragonkin have his moment.