It’s only me and my magic against my rival, a torviela with its supernatural abilities and his gun. I was not sure if I could take it on if it decided to wield its gun again, but maybe I can stop it from using it somehow. Whatever the case, I still needed to put on a good show. I was doing well so far until those last couple of minutes. The moment the torviela shot me down, I had gone back to square one.

Sure, you can say surviving four shots would be good enough to surprise anyone including the vampires, let alone come out of it with only bruises but mostly unhurt is enough to make anyone think twice about throwing punches with you. The slight problem with it is that I still fell on my side and was easily grabbed by it.

If I wanted to simply survive this event, I’d turn this leech into a torch as it's crawling back up to its feet, but I need more. I need everyone to give up the fight later. I might be digging my own grave by doing this, but from my point of view, I’m going to be digging this grave sooner or later. And it might be my male chimp side, that is speaking right now -- howling and throwing a tantrum -- but I’d rather dig my grave today than later.

“Come on,” I taunt Hussegya. “Stand up.” I made sure to wave at him with wide movements so that the rest of the crowd can watch.

Somewhere in my head, I imagined the loud booing or cheering coming from the crowd, but the only other sounds that can be heard are the crackling of the fire, the whispers of a few watchers, and the rustling of our smoldering clothes.

“What a fool,” it spoke with a harsher accent. “You should’ve killed me while I was down.”

“And deprive these fine people of a fantastic performance?” I talked loudly, almost screaming. I needed to be bolder. I needed to be magnanimous.

“You humans are sick.”

“Coming from a monstrous leech, like yourself…” I stopped to let it ponder on my insult. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“You lost your chance, human. What other tricks have you got?”

“Honestly? None. I’m just gonna beat you straight up with magic.”

“More and more foolish. You only have you to blame for this.”

I lied when I said I had no more tricks. There’s still one more storing stone in my pocket and I’m going to use it for my final act. I hope I still have enough power for what is about to come. And adrenaline for the pain.

I breathed in deep and I readied myself for the fight without losing sight of my target.

One last act. One last magic trick.

Here we go, Tedet. I hope I learned enough from you.

I braced myself for the pain.

I ran straight towards it, staff pointing straight at my opponent. But instead of using magic, I swung my staff, faking a strike, enough to make Hussegya dodge back, then immediately swung it around my hand and use the power to extend the staff beyond my normal reach and aimed for its head.

Hussegya had not expected me to do any kind of martial arts. It seems like it wasn’t used to fighting wizards, because we’re at least trained in martial arts or hand-to-hand combat exactly for these kinds of reasons. I learned hand-to-hand, but my staff comes from Tedet.

The staff whiffed close to its head, missing but it made Hussegya lose its footing. My chance opened up to extend my left hand forward and utter a quick spell.

“Flamma!”

The premature spell exploded randomly beyond my palm. Without enough time to think of a spell and control my will, as well as using my bare hand instead of my staff, I made an unstable spell that might not be effective.

I felt a stab in my spine. My ankle was burning.

The fire shot straight at Hussegya, but it was not enough to burn him like the others before could.

I held on to my staff close to my chest and swung myself forward for another strike. This time, I swung straight down, clearing a bit of the smoke before me, and thrust towards its face the moment I could see its silhouette beyond the smoke.

I felt a knock and right after I chanted again. “Flamma!”

Another source of pain punched me in the gut, right under my ribs' left side.

The better control spell knocked the leech down, but it rolled to the side to evade me.

I was only managing so far because I caught it off guard after it had taken several beatings. Had I tried this from the start, I would’ve been torn to pieces. It was unintentional, however, that I had tricked Hussegya into thinking I only had magic to work with, that I wasn’t capable of physically attacking it. It’s working thus far and I’m going to take this advantage as far as I can.

I put my hand in my pocket, pointed my staff right at Hussegya, and screamed for my fire spell again, feigning my magic.

Hussegya, jumped out the way to its left again, as I expected. I brought my hand from my pocket and feigned a gun.

Several loud noises came from Hussegya, as he spoke words in Gotkoga. ‘Human!’ It screamed.

No bullet came out, but it gave me a chance to step once and making it go into defense as I brought my staff for a swing once again. The stone was in my hand and I needed a few more spells to finally push Hussegya to the limit of what it can take. My ankle faltered and I had to act quick.

“Scutum!” I raised my hand, palm up, imagining holding a rock and a small wall lifted from the ground stopping Huseegya from moving backward. “Flamma!” I screamed in pain while a churn in my stomach grew up into a severe headache with the second spell that was directed by my staff.

The flames landed a direct hit into Hussegya, finally hearing the roar of fire striking a solid shot at my target and then roaring as Huseegya caught himself on fire.

For a moment I felt a sense of déjà vu. However, more than feeling it, I was completely living it. A flaming hand grabbed my staff from beyond the bright red smoldering wall and tried yanking it from my grip, only for a second one to take a hold of it and twisting it aside.

The images from yesterday were still seared into my brain. The feeling of the burning vampire holding on to my body. The images of my friend burning on the floor. And it was only an instant of shock that gave the torviela the advantage it needed.

My staff came loose from my grip and it was thrown to the far end of the arena, smoke trailing behind, leaving a mark of its ballistic trajectory through the air.

The fiery figure extended its arms towards me but all I could do was instinctively react with another spell.

“Tempesta!” My voice cracked in terror. I lost my breath for a while as the premature spell knocked the wind out of me leaving me gasping deeply the hot and dry air.

The screaming wind fed the fire. The heat increased in intensity, now completely enveloping.

The unholy chirps of a radera screaming and the whistling of burning skin, added to the terrible sight of a radera figure standing before me, stunned me. I couldn’t move. Its hands extended right unto my face as it tried to grasp me by the head.

It looked straight out of a horror movie – except this movie was real, and the visuals were far more terrifying than any special effect or human imagination could come up with.

The hands failed to grab me but fumbled for a second time and grabbed me by the collar of my coat. The other hand extended but I managed to instinctively swing at it to push it aside, like how you would remove your foot when accidentally dropping something heavy.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Another eldritch chirping came from Hussegya, and, losing its footing, it fell along with me, holding on to my collar and fumbling with it.

We swung arms as it tried to grab me and I tried swatting them away. With every swing the flames spread and burned my skin, ever so slightly cooking it. My hands no longer felt like they were there and I could swear I no longer had hands if I didn’t see them opening a closing when I tried defending myself.

I heard the whimpering noises of a man fighting for his life in terror. They were only interrupted by deep jagged breaths.

I was finally aware of how scared I was of losing my life. The torviela was relentless. It didn’t stop fighting.

Just like that vampire in its dream. Just like the vampire yesterday. And right now, another one in flames kept fighting just to see me burn down with it.

It no longer cared for its survival, it was hellbent on seeing me die. Death was the only thing it thought and sought. The death of its enemy. The death of a foolish, miserable human. If it were going to die, it was going to fulfill a last-minute victory over me.

I knew it. I understood well what it was thinking because I too thought of the same. Another plan of mine was to bring everyone in this place down if I were to die. A final spell to destroy it all. A death wish.

It became clear now that my plan B was finally going to come to effect.

I accepted death when Hussegya finally held me down with its weight and I could no longer remove him from me without embracing him fully. I wasn’t going to die burning either. If I’m going down, I’m going down my way.

With the acceptance of death, a vail of silence and calm dropped over my senses. I no longer heard or felt anything, only the washed-out colors of the scene before me. I gathered my will – all of it. The will I had stored, the energy on the storing stone, and, finally, my life’s energy, the spirit that bounded my soul to my body. All of it was turning into power to fuel my death wish.

Blow it all up, I thought. Everything. Burn it all down. Let everything and everyone in this building vaporize in an unrelenting fire.

I am a bomb. A nuclear bomb about to go off.

This was it. The end of the road.

I was at least glad I could end my life with a bang.

Yatsra fiedt, Tedet. Goodbye.

Haergly cafth, friend. I love you.

And you too, Martin.

The final curtain fell over my eyes and I saw Hussegya’s body being ripped from my body until I lost myself to the darkness.

Did I blow up? I wasn’t sure. Who knows what it feels like to die. Much less die as a living bomb. Would I die before my spell triggered or would the spell kill me in a bang?

Whatever was the outcome, it did not matter anymore. I was dead anyway.

Let the last words or a rambling deadman be of use to you. Treasure your life, and treasure your friends. Friends give meaning to your life. You only do things for yourself in the eyes of survival, but once you don’t need to fight to live, you only get to fight for others.

I fought this last time for my friends. If I were to give myself up so readily for them, and just bend my neck over, they would’ve been angry with me… and sad. I fought because I knew they’d want me to do it. At least, if I fought to the bitter end they’d know I did my best.

This is the end of the road for me. I only wish Tedet and Martin treasure their lives more than I did. I was an idiot, they weren’t. I trust they will do better than me.

* * *

The duel was a complete fiasco. I had never trusted humans, but I had underestimated mortals once again. I had forgotten the lengths they’d go to achieve their own goals, even when that goal is total annihilation.

The flesh of a fresh radera meal felt magnificent, especially when warm blood oozed into my mouth. Another bite and the blood would flow better. The sound of the screams from the radera only filled me with greater joy. Feeling its body writhe as it tries its hardest to fulfill its deepest most important instinct, was a feeling almost reaching sexual for a torviela like myself. I no longer find the pleasure of sex satisfying or appealing after hundreds of years of living, not unlike the few decades of my life as a mortal radera.

Drinking blood was what brought me the greatest pleasure. When I’m not drinking, I thirst for it, I crave it. I feel like suffocating. It’s like I’m holding my breath or like being dehydrated. I hunger for blood and flesh. I see the flesh of my prey and I yearn to sink my teeth in it, like it's calling me, almost sensually, begging me to sink my jaws into it.

But tonight, I was drinking not for pleasure but to cure my wounds after the disaster that occurred a few hours ago at the last seconds of the duel.

Edwhite Avarez had tried activating his death wish before he was engulfed in flames. Everyone watched in disgust, as he turned Hussegya into a bonfire, but also in joy when they heard the screams of terror as the flames tried finding their way towards him.

I almost felt the same joy myself had I not remembered that his life also held my end of the deal.

However, what most did not see at the end was the amount of power the human was gathering right at the end, and only a few, including Elaiser, felt it right as the duel was coming to its end.

I saw the anguish in those that understood since no one could stop the man from triggering his final spell and we all knew that a man with such raw power could only come up with one type of spell at the end of his rope.

A duel was a contract made in power once it is accepted. Unlike humans that can simply ignore such troublesome things with Free Will, torviela and vampire, like all the supernatural are bound by the powers to adhere to the rules. Just like how thermodynamics rules the flow of energy, we are bound to such rules ourselves. It’s not like we can’t fight it, is that we just can’t do anything but be slaves to it like we are to Newtonian Physics.

And so, we watched almost helplessly as we saw him arming his life into a bomb to blow everything sky high and beyond. All we could do is watch or uselessly flee to a false safety.

It was only before the last few seconds that a sensation like a damn opened in me, just like it must have in a couple of others when my feet lifted me to my seat and directed me towards Avarez. Elaiser threw Hussegya’s body like it was trash and I proceeded to kick the man unconscious.

So long as he can’t concentrate on the spell, he could not trigger it willingly, and so long as he did not die after he had armed the spell, it could not trigger itself. Our only option was to knock him out and hope we had made it in time before he had knocked on the door and slipped away across the Gates of Jahret – the door to the realm of the death – to hang with Death itself.

I slumped to the ground in relief when after a few more seconds, we were still standing, our bodies still holding to their natural structure and not lifting away towards the Stratosphere by way of a mushroom cloud.

Avarez is lying unconscious in a hospital bed ran by Elaiser’s Court. It was thanks to the rules of the duel, a bit of sportsmanship, some slight monetary convincing, and a great amount of negotiation that I managed to get him to sneak the human into his hospital for a full treatment. My help towards Avarez was not going to come cheap, however. I had planned to make smaller deals with him after the duel, and hoped that negotiations would come in his favor by tricking him like I did last time. But now with what I’ve done for the man, I am sure I had enough leverage to sway the negotiations in my favor.

I only needed to wait for him to wake up to finally finish this whole circus. I couldn’t wait for it to end. I couldn’t wait anymore.

But before anything else happens, there were a couple of phone calls to make.

I thought of calling someone and my implant receiver made the call immediately.

The tone beeped twice before a female voice picked up the phone. She sounded scared and insecure, but she spoke determinedly, like someone who has worked hard to act like this over the phone. Anyone who hasn’t done this for centuries would mistake her for a secure woman, but I knew too much already, and I understood the nuances of her inflections.

“This is Edwhite Avarez’s residence, this is Misa Renstad speaking,” the woman stated. “If you’re looking for Edwhite Avarez, he’s not home right now.”

“Good morning, Miss Renstad. My name is Uderach Kayaket, a friend of Mr. Avarez. Is his friend Tedet Galieta at home right now?”

“Mr. Galieta? He’s… at the moment he isn’t—”

“Oh, who am I kidding. I already know he’s there. I’m sorry to interrupt you, sweetheart. Make sure to tell him Mr. Avarez is currently recuperating at the Green Hill General Treatment Hospital when he wakes up.

“Forgive me for cutting you short, but I have more business to attend to. I hope you and Mr. Avarez’s nephew are doing alright after that incident in the Law Firm, the night before.”

I hung the call. And proceeded to call another person.

“Mr. Duaihei,” I called out when a simple voice greeted me hello. “I’m Uderach Kayaket, a friend of Mr. Avarez.”

The rest of the conversation went on similarly to before.

The next call was another friend of the man, too. A young woman greeted me from the other side.

“Tangler household. Who is this?”

“This must be Miss Reira!” I said, feigning joy. “Is Mr. Haiyier Tangler, your father, home?”

“He’s outside with my dad.”

“With Mr. Loyter, I see.” I paused, making her think I was pondering friendly, but, in fact, I knew they were out already. “Anyway, could you give them a message for me?”

“Sure. Who’s calling?”

“A friend of Mr. Avarez – he’s a friend of your dad, Mr. Haiyer.”

“Who?”

The message was relayed soon after. Nothing else to talk about but a simple message with the same information as before.

There was one last phone call I needed to do. This one was not necessary, but I wanted to bring more spice into Avarez’s life after he had given me a scare last night.

“Hello,” a man answered. “Who’s this?”

“Hello! Is this Mr. Gerdson? Julian Gerdson?”

“Yea, who is this?”

“My name is Uderach Kayaket,” I explained and I was already tired of the same charade. “I was under the knowledge that you were once close to Mr. Edwhite Avarez.”

“I knew him. What about it?” he said, and I knew he faked disinterest.

“Well, he’s currently in critical condition at the hospital and I wanted to communicate with as many of his acquaintances as I could.”

“The hospital?! What happened to him?”

Bingo.

“He was on an accident – anyway I—”

“Are you a friend of his?”

“You could say that. We’re benefactors. I’m under the impression you two know each other closely as well.”

“Yea,” he said. And, with a somewhat solemnly sad tone, he spoke the next words: “we used to go out.”

Well, of course. I knew that, already.

I know everything about him. I know everything about the Wizard Edwhite Avarez. Who he is and who he was. And I will make sure he becomes what I want him to become.

I smiled secretly behind the call.

“A couple?” I feigned surprise. “I did not know that!”