Click. Clack. Click. The sound of Nenos's heavy steps filled the hall. His sweat beat down his neck harder, even without the sun. He saw the light at the end of the tunnel and wanted to run. He wanted to flee, run away like he had before. But he couldn't, so instead he began to pretend. Pretend that he wasn't scared, that his blood wasn't cold in this warm heat, like the sweat beating down his neck had nothing to do with his opponent, like the cruel things that would happen if he got captured didn't exist, like his breathing was consistent.
The dust filled his nose as he entered the arena, he wished he could cough to get it out of his lungs, but in front of her, he could show no weakness. Her smirk was obvious, even from his distance line. She stood in that pose, arms to her sides, head slightly tilted to look down on him. He meets her gaze, trying to fill his eyes with fire to fight back the water's pressure. The arena was silent; not one but two newcomers were in the final place. One crimpled the flame prodigy and one seemed to rip poor Gul to shreds. They looked between the two looking for signs on weakness, for something resembling attachment, for something their King could use should either get to him. Instead the only offer to the silence was the ref, his pants and goofiness were the closest hope they had of attachment, and he could feel it.
The ref walked to the center instead of jumping this time. Tensions were high, if he spooked anyone there would be a mob coming for the arena. He needed to keep their focus on the match and make sure no one did anything hasty. He cleared his throat, "This is the final match folks! The champion will be decided here and now. To the east, we have the Wind pilot Nenos! To the west, we have the majestic lady of Kaiyaen Household, Lady Kreine! Contestants please come to the center of the arena!"
Pretend not to be afraid. Nenos kept repeating in his head. He could not look to his arms and legs, only straight ahead. But can I win, limited as I am. Nenos quickly tried to push the thought out of his head. His body was moving forward at a consistent pace, staring straight into her eyes. Her smirking face commanded the power between the two. His body wanted to tense, to run, he knew how crazy she was, his body still held the scars. They were facing eye and eye, ref in the middle. Nenos put his hand on his heart summoning his plane, when Kreine grabbed the microphone, and said "Ladies and gentlemen we have a special final match for you here today. It's a classic fight of brother vs sister, for the crown!"
The audience stood in shock hearing this, their blood seemed to grow cold. The final two contestants were BOTH from the Kaiyaen household. They stared at the ref, as he turned mouth open to Nenos. Pretend the cruelty didn't exist. She kept going on taking the spotlight she adored so much. "That's right folks, the wind Pilot Nenos is actually the bastard son that ran away, Luc!" Pretend you’re not scared. Kreine simply handed it back to the ref whose mouth gaped. Nenos stated threw gritted teeth "Start the match; it looks like I have something to settle with my sister." He placed his yellow plane in the ref's hand and walked back to start. The audience’s reaction was almost immediate as they through things at the barrier cube in a rampage. They would be hard to control for long.
Kreine watched him walk, his back to her, he would have never done that before. "Hmph!" she scoffed placing her plane in the ref's hand and walking back to start. Time seemed to fade away, like a blackout before the counter started. The crowd was now quieted after multiple people had been thrown out. They knew the consequences for being so rowdy, trying to disturb the games were punished harshly.
The counter began to tick down. "10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!" Turn the fear to rage, and strike her down. "0!"
The environment changed instantly. Showing of her magic Kreine formed a pure sphere of magic in her hand, she slammed it to the ground of the arena forming ice on the entire floor, and cracks formed up the walls. She looked up at Nenos, just standing there glaring. Fear to rage, fear to rage He made a small hop and landed lightly on the ice.
"Oh looks like you aren't as useless if you managed to dodge that." Kreine snarked.
Fear to rage; fear to rage, FEAR TO RAGE! Nenos breathing became heavy, pushing the wind out of his lungs. His rage seemed to fill the arena, as he stood facing his sister once again. He leaped to the air, hands and feet out stretched. His magic formed spheres under his feet, and in the palm of his hand. His wrath directed straight at Kreine.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
"You little piece of shit, you still want to pull on strings, but you’re never ready for the consequences. Are you Demon Girl?"
Kreine couldn't take that, Nenos knew that much. Pretend you don't notice anything. That thought crossed his mind. This had to be where he fought back. Time to return the pain tenfold! The spheres of wind made snowflakes as he hovered above them.
That comment had sent Kreine over the edge, as she skated like a blur on the ice. She made a blizzard behind her, much to the dismay of the audience. Nenos charged his spheres kept him perfectly balanced on the ice. They clashed at the center, snowflakes from their explosion.
"So you finally want to die, brother!" Kreine stated as the clash sent Nenos flying back. His light weight was a disadvantage as he hit the wall with a large SMACK!
Kreine skated towards the wall yelling, "You try to look all tough, but that's an act isn't it. Pretend you can take all the pain in hopes that it will go away." She punched his gut, obviously enjoying the pain he was in. As his body began to freeze from her hit, he summoned the wind magic at his legs to flip up, grazing her chin with his kick.
"Oh, looks like you aren't going to scream as easily this time."
He detached himself from the wall; his stomach had a thin layer of ice. Abigial had stated not to use his tattoos, hidden under fake skin. He needed to find another way. He had to use the magic he had. At this state all the damage Kreine did would be permanent. He shot straight at Kreine with a kick, the wind magic pushing his leg at higher speed. She simply skated back, watching Nenos with curiosity like a cat. His muscles tensed his forehead sweat with the idea "Can I even hit her at this speed." He had to take the chance. He charged in with another kick, but this time purposely missing, as his hand touched the ice, he pushed wind magic increasing his velocity and landed a kick to her chest. Sending her flying for once.
The audience gasped, the water demon had never been directly damaged before now, and the one who damaged her was the bastard son, Luc.
Her anger was instantly visible as she instantly sent shards of ice at Nenos. Nenos saw them heading straight for him and stood strong, he put his hand in a cup over his mouth and blew a force of wind out of it, sending up a wall of snow flakes, and redirecting the shards. As they landed on the ice, he realized just how much of a disadvantage he was at, as a hand of ice grasped his legs.
Kreine took advantage of the situation she had created, as he freaked out over the ice around his legs she would charge, if she touched him he would turn to an icicle. His silhouette formed from the sun beating down as she rushed him at such speed he wouldn't be able to hit her before she did the damage.
At least that's what she thought before his hand wrapped around her collar a second before she could attack him. Nenos reeled his head back, wind magic forming behind his head. THUNK! Blood ran down both their skulls. Kreine was stunned, no one had ever been able to attack her at her max speed; yet somehow this bastard had been able to. Her azure eyes saw it then, his silver eyes, were pure gold. He dropped her from his grip for one-third of a second, as stunned as she was she didn't dodge the two spheres of wind headed straight for her head. The magic encircled her head and began to form a variety of cuts, as she looked like a thousand needles had grazed her face. She fell to the ground, the grounds ice began to fade, as Nenos stood there above his sister, her hair cut from his magic, hardly any of her long hair was left. His plane landed, as his magic faded completely. He kept watch on her; he couldn't take any chances, so with a hard kick he hit her gut. No response. Her plane had landed as well, if that didn't get a response, he would be safe.
The ref counted down from ten, until he had reached zero. The silence filled the room, as Nenos walked over to his plane the back ends had become slightly straighter. He hoped no one had noticed. He put the small plane back inside of him. The ref raised Nenos's hand to the sky; the victor of the tournament was the bastard son, Luc.