“Edwhite Avarez,” Uderach called my name. “Ordered Wizard of the Magical Cabal of Wizardy and Sorcery. Known for his raw magical power and hand-to-hand combat. He will be representing me as my champion.

“Some of you may not trust him – clearly a human cannot be fully trusted on his word – but I can attest that this one – pardon me – that he, Mr. Avarez, is a trustworthy individual. You are all aware of what he is capable as well as his friend, the freelance alchemist.”

Uderach kept speaking regarding the reasoning behind the duel, and as I heard, I kept looking at my adversary. He or she was pretty big for a radera. It might be because they are a radera but that normally doesn’t happen when one becomes a torviela, since the body is dead, they stop growing.

“This duel is therefore a battle to the death. Whoever brings their opponent to their death shall be victorious. Yielding and mercy are not permitted, and the duel will not end until one or both parties cease to live. On the occasion that both die, a new duel shall be appointed at a later date with, obviously, new champions.”

Hussegya didn’t seem any different than other torviela or vampire that I’ve fought. Normally, it would be easy to wage the power of an adversary using my senses but when it comes to supernatural creatures it is a gamble to use it. Especially in a room packed with so many leeches. I’m just going to have to rely on my human senses to deal with it, and hope that Tedet’s potions are enough to give me an advantage. But if I were to guess is that he must be strong, there is no reason why they’d bring a weak or novice fighter. This one must be strong.

“And at last! The duel shall begin shortly. Please! Head on through the entrance of this floor and into the one below. The participants of this duel – the champions and the Lords – must stay behind to prepare and instructions will be given soon after to direct them to where they shall duel.”

After he finished, several servants began calling the crowd to follow them out the floor. The only ones that stood behind were us four next to the podium.

Uderach turned and stepped down to call me with his eyes, and we gathered with the vampire and torviela team – I’ll call them the Red Team, for blood. Uderach and I – the Blue Team – began the talk.

“Nice to meet you,” I began. But it was mostly just a mocking statement.

“Cordialities in private are only necessary when you mean it,” said Elaiser. “It isn’t nice to meet us and it isn’t nice to meet you, wizard.”

“Calling me wizard is enough for me.”

“So, that was you on the fence,” Hussegya began. “Quite embarrassing, hadtherad.”

I sighed for two obvious reasons. “We can move past that.”

“Fence?” asked Uderach. “What did you do to my fence?”

“Nothing. I only tried climbing over it.”

“There’s an intercom next to the gate.”

“I know!”

“Why didn’t you use it?”

“I’m a wizard!” I explained for the third time and everyone looked slightly confused. “You have to be joking! Wizards jam radio waves!”

Hussegya began cackling and chirping.

“Ah,” said the vampire as if it remembered something.

“I forgot,” said Uderach. “I should’ve met you at the gate. To think I put you in such an awkward position.”

“You’re kidding. I don’t want to see your face. Thank the Merlin you weren’t the first face I saw. But your bouncer is pretty dumb.”

“Alas, nothing we can do about that,” he clapped, announce that the small tangential banter was over. “Anything we need to talk about or anything you need me to recite once again before we continue on this duel?”

“Are there any rules to the torviela duels that I am not aware of?” asked Elaiser.

“You’re not allowed to suck the blood of any radera present,” said Uderach.

“Mostly the same,” he said thoughtfully. “I guess that only works when there are non-combatants, but given how Hussegya’s opponent is a human, there is no reason why that should be a problem.”

“Indeed,” agreed Uderach. “Although that may be a rule to consider in future duels. Given that this duel will be the precedent to possible mortals involved in duels, it might just be something to be talked about.”

“Are you sure you want to talk about this in front of a mortal?”

“You were a mortal before. Do you believe them to be idiots? That may be a cause for your downfall in the future. Why do you think we are in a perpetual war against them? Why do you think we’ve not won over them? Keep thinking they are weak and stupid, and you will find yourself in an unforeseen circumstance.” Uderach was clearly taunting the vampire.

“You underestimate my knowledge,” said the vampire. “I know about human history. Something far richer than radera. I know all about what humans are capable of. But I’m also aware of what they lack and how they scheme. I don’t trust humans, not more than I trust your kind.”

“Fine,” said Uderach, and he growled softly. Hussegya growled in response.

I huffed to that in response. The vampire responded in kind and added a grunt.

Despite how much each side hates each other, we understand one another better than we want to admit. Vampires and humans, the two groups share the same origin, and similarly for torviela and raderas. It is incredible that the two species are in opposing teams. Clearly, both sides can put aside the species for the sake of something greater: power. Hate seems to be the most inclusive of all emotions, it sees no affiliations, so long as you hate someone. You could probably say the same for love, but I don’t know how far love can go. On the other hand, hate is limitless, and that we all know for sure.

“Anything else?” asked Uderach.

I interjected: “What about tools?”

“All allowed.”

“No matter the kind and origin?”

“No matter.”

“Guns. Magic. Alchemy.”

“Vampires have used magic and guns before,” explained Elaiser.

“Torviela, have recently used guns too,” added Uderach, to which the other torviela answered by unholstering a small railgun, a Short Barrel Railgun, or SBR – people just call it a pistol.

I swallowed my saliva.

“Scared, monkey?” taunted Hussegya. “I won’t be using it on you. I’ll give you that much of a handicap.”

“You’ll regret that,” said Uderach. “Right, Mr. Avarez?” And when he turned to look at me, he winked with the eye that was obscured behind his big head. Uderach seemed to have studied human social cues in his days off.

I smiled. “I bet he’s regretting that now.”

The torviela looked expressionless, but that was clear enough our taunt had worked. Uderach kept quiet for a few seconds and decided to clap his hands.

“Alright! If that’s all, then we shall proceed two floors below us – the 13th floor.”

Thirteen. Sweet Mary.

To those who aren’t superstitious, or think that I am exaggerating, I remind you that I am a wizard in a gathering of vampires and their Sovail homolog. With that in mind, do you think the number thirteen doesn’t hold any magical significance? Yea, I bet you feel real stupid right now.

Thirteen has been widely considered, in Western societies, as a bad luck number, or a number that has many other connotations regarding evil or horror, or anything bad when it comes to humans. Any number that has been associated with a magical property has a magical property due to sheer mass perception. The minds of people have magic and they can create magic if enough of them believe it.

Given my position, it is bad that I will be fighting on the thirteenth floor of a building. Torviela don’t know about this cultural problem, but vampires know of this advantage, and they normally use the thirteenth floor of a lot of human-built buildings.

I glanced at Elaiser, only to find him shooting daggers at me with his eyes. He knows. Sweet Mary, he knows.

We walked out of the hall into the main stairway and down two floors. We kept quiet all the way and into the room. The cacophony from the rest of the leeches could be heard as a rumble from beyond the walls. Everyone was restless, especially me.

This was it. This was the time. I’ve been holding my staff for a while, but it was only now that I took notice of it as more than just an accessory. It now took the forefront of my attention. The weight of my pouches felt heavy on my hips and they pressed tightly on my legs. I could hear the rattling of the potion vials, as if something was coming, heralding an earthquake – my fight against a torviela.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

We were beckoned to step across a doorway into what looked like an arena, surrounded by high walls with windows where people could watch down into the duels. This was a small Colosseum inside an apartment. A room made specifically to observe matches between adversaries. If I were to look at it closely, I might be able to find crusts of blood still sticking to the dark floors and walls made of finely polished stone. I bet they don’t clean it to make it look more authentic, but they might need to repair it anyway. They need the atmosphere to be perfect for fighting, creating the right ambient is important in the magical world, and if this was a fighting arena, then there is a good reason to keep the scars of battle as much as possible and to make it look like the king of arenas, the Roman amphitheaters, the Colosseum.

I felt the atmosphere consume me slowly. I felt the magical energies seeping within me. If I were to open my sense I would most likely be able to feel death. The screams of a hundred souls in savage war cries and agonizing pain and fear. I’d smell the blood, the rusted iron, and the stench of rotting carcasses. The sights of black miasma surrounding ghostly shadows roaming and striking at each other. What a horrible sight to behold. But I doubt my feeble human sense would be able to take it. The senses open up your every self to the experiences that surround you. I would be able to feel the pain and ire, every strike that was received and given. If I were to open my senses, I’d probably drop right here on the floor vomiting and crying, overwhelmed by everything.

I grabbed my staff tight as I approached the other end of the arena and turned to watch Uderach and Elaiser talk and address the audience and both of us, combatants. My awareness suddenly gained focus on certain things. I attribute it to my flight or fight response, my body preparing for an extreme activity. My vision narrowed on what I could see in front of me – my opponent. The sounds and voices were clear but the words lost meaning. My perception of time was slightly distorted, it felt like things were slow but at the same time, they were not.

I don’t remember understanding the words that came from Uderach but I somehow knew that things were about to start and I prepared myself. I gathered my will and I mentally recited my magic. I grabbed the stones in my pocket and felt their inscriptions. I recalled every vial in every pouch and I instinctively grabbed the ones I needed to use immediately as the match began.

The countdown began.

“Ready…” I thought I heard.

I crushed the vials on my hand and let the liquids flow into my palm and drip onto the floor. Up until recently, the throbbing in my ankle had subsided, I no longer felt it, but with the additional potions, I was supposed to handle it better. Each bottle had an adhesive tape stuck to it with an inscription that made me able to use the potions without alchemical knowledge. This is only possible if you know exactly what each potion is to its components and process. Grikhat, Tedet’s girlfriend, knew all of it with perfection and drew the inscription.

‘Let’s go,’ I told myself as I felt the potions taking effect immediately after.

Hussegya looked at me with bloodthirsty eyes. His face turned every color of the rainbow and he leaned forward ready to pounce at me.

I held onto my will and thought of fire. The fire within me. The raging fire took the form of millennia of hate towards the leeches. I felt my back turning cold and my hands began warming up. My vision began distorting as the hot air changed the index of refraction in front of my eyes.

“Duel!” the voice seemed to say.

In a matter of moments, the torviela, which was meters from me, leaped towards me in long strides and closed the distance quickly. I reacted as fast as I could and pointed my staff towards it and screamed.

“Flame!”

The torviela quickly sidestepped, reacting to my flow of magic. Unfortunately for him, I had bluffed my attack as I charged towards it with my staff pointing at it.

The leech’s face flashed yellow and green stroboscopically and began jumping sideways for the second time.

“Flamma!” this time I screamed truly. My will and magic flowed towards the point of my staff as its markings shone red and yellow, like flowing fire, and a bubble of plasma grew and popped, like a bubble, giving way to free-flowing fire.

It tried dodging but my spell was not aimed to be precise, it was meant to be a dirty flame that grew like a mushroom in a cone before me. It had no way of dodging the whole thing without burning somewhat.

I knew it wouldn’t kill it, but it would at least make it think twice before approaching me recklessly like that. I did not want it close to me since that would be much too dangerous, but I wanted him to think the same.

Message sent and received.

The charred clothing on his left side opened to a burnt arm and torso. I knew it must be hurting like hell since I knew how bad it was for Teddet to handle.

Of course, for me, it’s better to have it far away, but for it, having me far won’t get him anywhere. To do damage, it needs to get close. However, with the prospect of me being dangerous up close, its options on approaching me are limited to waiting for the right time.

The only problem for me is that I am now the one that needs to initiate an attack and that normally isn’t good for a wizard that has very little control over how flexible their magic is.

I was reminded of my vampire infiltration a few days ago and missed having a weapon with me. Unfortunately for me, the two love birds don’t own small arms, and using a rifle with a staff in close quarters would be an obstacle. However, I wish I had something else to engage in long-distance that isn’t my magic since it takes a lot of power.

“What’s the matter, hadtherad?” it taunted. “Have you got nothing else?”

“Look who’s talking? Didn’t I turn you golden crisp?”

“A small price,” it said before pausing. “No more tricks?”

I needed to initiate before I let him think of a way to attack me. Wind magic would be useless. Fire magic takes time and too much power. My only option is to reduce my earth magic power as much as possible to make quick attacks.

I grabbed a pebble inside my pocket and readied an earth attack. This was new magic for me that I recently developed. Using it won’t be easy, but the best way I can think of using it effectively now is to be ineffective with it and release the power prematurely.

I had already developed a type of magic that created shields. But that spell was only defensive. I had to think on the fly again and create a new spell that is based on the last one but can be used offensively. Sword and shield. A sword that pierces, almost like a spear. A roman shield and a Roman sword.

I readied my will and saw the torviela change its posture, perceiving my power accumulating. I looked at its feet and feigned a run to make it react to my movement.

“Gladius!” I cast my magic where I imagined the leech would jump towards and managed to predict it correctly.

A distorted thin lance erupted in anticipation to the Hussegya’s dodge and managed to strike it from below, impaling it. It clicked and popped as the lance ran upwards.

However, after it was done I realized I only managed to scrape its back. I took no time to strike again and cast my same spell again. The second lance erupted and as it did, I cast a third one just behind it. The second lance, that erupted away from my direction trying to pierce the leech’s chest, was swiftly evaded, and the third lance missed since I was expecting it to evade backward.

Hussegya made popping sounds and turned into a furious blue that extended from its face towards the back of its head and down into its pseudo neck.

I looked at it intensely waiting for it to do something. I took one of my stones from my pocket, with my left hand, and slid it between my thumb and the side of my hand then grabbed another inside a leg pouch, careful not to let them touch.

I held one of the stones with my staff hand, making it hard to hold both but I needed to access them both without having one activate unconsciously. The other one was still in my left hand.

The leech was walking slowly around me expecting something to happen, analyzing the situation.

I decided I needed to do something fast and I formulated a plan. I ran towards it. In my mind, I imagined a pitchfork, a trident, or anything forked and made sure to put an effort into my next spell and created two lances that sprouted at the same time. I hastily siphoned the magic from the stone in my left hand right after.

The torviela reacted and looked behind itself and was fast at jumping between the two spikes that were reaching at it from two sides. Just before the two spikes sprouted, I took the magic I siphoned and cast the fastest fire blast I have ever done.

“Flamma!” I screamed and quickly bent over in pain. As if my ribs got punctured, I reacted to it by holding the place I thought I was stabbed but found nothing.

‘I’m overexerting myself with unfinished and premature spells. I can’t keep going like this or I will start bleeding from the inside.’

A sudden screeching and cracking sound deafened me. Between the pain in my ribs and the dizziness from the noise, I could barely lift my head if I didn’t want to lose balance, but I managed to peek up and see Hussegya blackened all over and holding a gun at me.

‘Sweet Mary,’ I prayed.

I heard a knocking sound beyond the ringing in my ears and saw a flash of light. The next thing I understood I was pushed off my feet and fell to the floor.

‘Did I just get shot?’

I reincorporated myself and heard my name being called. I could not see blood on me. I felt dead already with how disoriented I was, like my vision came from a poorly made screen and the cold sensation on my skin made me feel retracted from my reality. I turned to look at Hussegya again but this time I felt like something punched me three times.

One. My arm burned as the bullet snapped into it, knocking me back. Two. My back burned too but the area was bigger, and my spine twisted as I twirled on my center of gravity, making me look forwards, towards Hussegya. Three. My breath was taken from me when the bullet struck my stomach and I pushed down to the floor again.

While on the floor, I saw the torviela walking towards me. My shoulder began burning and I realized this had to be the first time I was shot. My ankle throbbed as well, the potions must have run out. I was sure I was dead with how many times I was shot but I couldn’t bear to see my wounds. My staff was lost from my grip and I could not focus on magic.

The figure drew closer and I tried doing anything to it.

“Tem—” The words got caught in my mouth by a sudden gag reflex. “Tempesta.”

The torviela dodged my attack but the wind was strong enough to make it slip in the smooth floor and it tripped on its feet but quickly reincorporated. It clacked and turned blue again. I’m sure it must have hurt its pride, a downed human managing to make it look ridiculous in front of a hundred eyes.

I unconsciously laughed triumphantly.

“You want to make me look like a fool?” it protested.

“Heh.” I couldn’t hold my laugh and coughed right after. “You aren’t taking me down that easily. Flam—!”

Hussegya rushed towards me and grabbed me by the arm and lifted me off my feet. My casting was interrupted. As it did, I regained my full consciousness.

“You’re not bleeding…” it said. “How did you do that?”

I was surprised at the remark but despite the pain, I did not felt so bad.

“What?” I decided to keep taunting. “No more tricks?”

“I don’t need tricks.”

“Except going back on your word.”

“I don’t want to hear that from a human.”

“You don’t like humans for being tricky little rats that never keep their word. But look at you, acting like a human. Aren’t you proud?”

“If I get to tear up one, I’m more than happy.”

“Flamma!” I shouted and pointed my hand at its face. My stomach churned in pain.

The vampire immediately tore my hands apart and my flamed missed it, but it managed to burn its face a little in its way due to sheer heat.

“Any last words?!” it said mockingly while restraining its fury.

I was about to scream again to burst myself into fire and bring us both down. I might just be able to survive it.

“Flamm—!”

Suddenly, an explosion.

Next thing I know both me and the torviela are sprawled in the ground, flames rising from where we stood.

“What happened?” I whispered.

My spell had not yet activated. I wasn’t sure what had happened, but it had given me time to act. But before I do anything, I need to replenish myself.

I put my hands inside my pockets and realized what had just happened.

I definitely could use this opportunity to stay ahead of the curve and finish this fight once and for all. There was only a slight problem with this plan. Where several rocks should be, there was only one. On the other pocket, only emptiness. I touched my pouch to reach for potions, my backup plan, but it felt wet. I turned to look at it and felt anxious. I only had one stone and all the vials were broken.

“No more tricks.”