Zalan looked around the room for items he could use to conduct electricity toward Morloch as he approached. The golden table would be a great target. Gold was highly conductive, and the lightning’s charge would flow through with minimal resistance. But he was afraid that trying to use it as a weapon would count the same as consenting to give away his power. He had no idea how the Artifact worked. His heart pounded madly in his chest. He felt like he did just before he fought his first bout in the Elemental Rage Tournament. Pressure built in his brain as he tried to find a way out. He wished Rep had offered a better plan.

He stood in front of the table. The tornado that was spinning wildly around Morloch died down. The series of Elemental Powers fell to the ground harmlessly and wind stopped whipping at Zalan’s torn tunic. Morloch held out his hands expectantly, awaiting his power.

“Come on now, I have waited a very long time for this,” Morloch insisted.

His words sent a pang in Zalan’s heart. Another reminder of how long this betrayal had been planned. Perhaps even from his first meeting, he had always intended to take the power. It occurred to Zalan that it was why the instructor was drawn to him to take him as a student. He saw a novel Elemental Power and wanted it for himself. It also explained why no one ever heard from Nold’s students once they completed their training with him. The bloodstained floor was stark in Zalan’s eyes.

He felt like such a fool to play into it exactly as Morloch wished. Zalan gripped his hands into tight fists and slowly began to raise them. Without any other ideas, he would blast the table and hope he could incapacitate Morloch.

“Zalan! Look!” Rep screamed.

Zalan turned around and saw that Rep had thrown something bright high above him, descending toward Morloch. It was glowing like a light bulb. Zalan immediately registered that it was an active Radiance Orb. Morloch watched it with mild disdain, unconcerned by the harmless Artifact.

“Shock it!” Rep called. “And close your—”

Zalan didn’t hesitate. As soon as he heard the words ‘shock it’ his hands aimed at it and fired. Morloch brought up a small wall of sand in front of him to protect him from the oncoming lightning, but nothing to shield him from the Radiance Orb. The lightning connected and it exploded in a powerful flash.

The explosion hit Zalan like a flashbang. He couldn’t see or hear anything but a white mess in his face. He heard nothing except a loud ringing in his ears. Zalan reacted quickly, assuming Morloch was affected by the same impairments. Zalan threw bolt after bolt of lightning in the direction he last saw Morloch. He had no idea whether any of his attacks were connecting, firing blindly as his eyes tried to regain focus.

Blinking furiously, Zalan was able to see once more. He was throwing lightning at a mound of sand vaguely molded to Morloch’s height. Rep was already next to him, holding an assortment of Artifacts he collected from the edge of the water. Zalan opened his mouth to ask where Morloch had gone, but Rep grabbed Zalan’s tunic and threw him to the floor.

A column of fiery sand swiped above them, just as they moved out of the way. The few grains that fell from the attack again burned Zalan’s skin. The superheated sand was like molten pellets.

“I tried to give you an easy way out! I even tried to negotiate with you, just as you liked!” Morloch exploded, frustrated. He had run a few paces to the right of the table when he had been blinded by the broken Artifact. There was a blast mark from lightning on one of his knees and he was rubbing one eye angrily. “But somehow you decided that you were better than my benevolence!”

Rep responded by casting a Wind Wand his way. Only a faint breeze came of it, but Morloch flinched, unaware of what the Artifact did. Rep took Morloch’s moment of hesitation to throw another Artifact to Morloch’s rear. Morloch brought the Artifact straight to the floor by Elemental Air. It crashed hard and popped open, exploding in flame. Rep seemed to expect this response and immediately redirected the growing flame to Morloch’s face. Zalan threw lightning into the flame, trying to overwhelm their enemy with too many powers.

Morloch ducked beneath the lightning and redirected the oncoming fire, but took on some burns. Seeing the wounds made Zalan feel like they might be able to actually beat him. Then, just as suddenly, Zalan realized something in shock.

“His Elemental Fire isn’t as strong as yours! Whoever he stole it from didn’t have as much Wisdom as you! He’s locked to a lower band of fire power!” Zalan said. Rep registered the words stoically, keeping his focus on Morloch’s next move.

“I stole nothing!” Morloch shouted menacingly.

Rep threw a large ball of fire at Morloch. Morloch reacted quickly, summoning a pillar of air to throw it aside. While he was dealing with that, Rep threw another activated Radiance Orb at Morloch. This time, Zalan was ready and didn’t need Rep to call out the oncoming attack. He closed his eyes and blasted it.

It exploded, and while Zalan was made deaf by the destroyed Artifact, he wasn’t blinded at all. Morloch shielded himself in a thick cocoon of sand while he couldn’t see. He was out of view of both Rep and Zalan.

Rep nudged Zalan and placed an Artifact that Zalan wasn’t familiar with into his hand. He mimed something that Zalan didn’t quite understand. Rep placed more Artifacts into his friend’s hand. Zalan grew more confused, but knew they were running out of time to explain while his hearing was becoming clearer. Morloch would come out of the protective sand shell soon.

Through a series of gesticulations, Rep told Zalan to fire at the Artifacts himself. He placed another in Zalan’s hand. Zalan got it now, they were both supposed to throw random Artifacts at Morloch and attack them in hopes of causing another explosion similar to the broken Radiance Orbs. They knew their former instructor was an incredibly experienced and nimble fighter from all their sparring on the way to the Elemental Rage Tournament. They couldn’t beat him with their Elemental Powers alone, but combined with using exploded Artifacts, they might be able to take him on.

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

Their ears began to clear of the deafening ringing. Rep surrounded the cocoon of sand in a hot cover of Elemental Flame. He was trying to burn Morloch as soon as he tried to escape and attack once more. Zalan felt his hearing return to full strength and Morloch’s shell reacted immediately.

Morloch didn’t bring down the sand, but instead created a massive, powerful tornado on top of him. The fire that Rep supplied was snuffed out in a moment. The wind pulled at Rep and Zalan with enough suction to drag them forward. They had to run away from it to avoid being pulled off their feet. Zalan threw a bolt of lighting at the tornado to try and reduce its energy, but the lightning spun around the vortex once and flung out wildly. Zalan wondered if he would be able to bring a bolt of lightning down directly in the eye of the maelstrom. Focusing quickly, he summoned lightning from the sky.

This time, not only did the chamber rumble, but a small hole opened above them. They could see the sky. It was already dark out, and Zalan was still prevented from seeing the sun. He wondered if he could thread another bolt of lightning through the new hole in the ceiling. But Morloch screamed, breaking his concentration before he could try.

“I have had enough! I thought I would allow you to come to your senses once you saw the gap in our power,” Morloch shouted, all the facade of patience gone. “Clearly I need to make the chasm between us more clear.”

The tornado grew in size, swallowing a third of the room in a violent vortex. Zalan lost grip of the Artifacts that Rep gave him, and they went swirling among many other Artifacts pulled into the growing wind storm. They bumped and crashed into one another and other random debris. Rep stared at the gathering Artifacts with a bit of fascination. Fear came over his eyes as he had an epiphany.

“Strike the tornado! Who knows what kind of damage the hundreds of destroyed Artifacts could cause? It may be enough to kill him!” Rep said. “But be prepared for anything!”

Zalan raised his arms, but hesitated. He didn’t know if he was ready to kill another man. He had no reason to believe that Morloch was actually a monster. A literal one, anyway. He had shown no indication while they were traveling together for so long. This fight would have to end with him killing the man named Morloch. Not a supposed “Monster of the Mindscape.” He had another inkling of doubt planted in his mind over the situation.

The tornado began to burn with flame. Pellets of the molten hot sand flew out wildly, burning the two friends wherever it touched them. Rep stared at Zalan, openly wondering why it was taking him so long to attack. Morloch approached with his strengthening tornado. He looked more than furious.

“Zalan!” Rep pleaded, his body dragging forward in the wind despite his best efforts to pull against it.

“Fine!” Zalan snapped regretfully. His and Rep’s life called for him to go all the way. He had to kill Morloch to save himself.

Feeling like he was at his mental limit, Zalan put all his concentration on the little hole in the ceiling. He summoned lightning from the sky. He redirected it slightly as it came down, ensuring it would strike its intended target. It went cleanly through the hole in the ceiling, but lost control as soon as it reached the inside of the tornado. It whipped around in a frenzy before striking one of the Artifacts. Rep tackled Zalan to the ground.

The room exploded in a blinding array of colors. Artifacts of all types were infused with several points of energy, all going out of control within the twister. Morloch screamed as he raised his hands above his head, trying to protect himself by means of both his Elemental Air and an Elemental Sand shield. But the Artifacts were far too unpredictable and explosive to be able to fully protect himself. Rep and Zalan hugged the floor, feeling several pieces of shrapnel stab into the earth around them in a wild randomness of the multi-Artifact cataclysm. Zalan couldn’t stand up if he tried, both the ongoing tornado and the room shaking causing too much of a disturbance in his sense of balance. His hearing came in and out. Every time he thought he could be able to raise his head, another burst of power enveloped the room causing him and Rep to hit the deck even harder. He braced himself, waiting for the explosions to pass.

The tornado dissipated and the Artifacts exploding came to a stop. Rep and Zalan looked up. Somehow, Morloch still stood. Morloch was looking at his arms in a blind rage, blood spilling freely from one of them. The upper half of his tunic had burned away throughout the explosions. His purple and black wrist, looking poisoned, was on full display. His gloves had been obliterated and Zalan was shocked to see that every single finger wore a green ring. All the time that Zalan thought Morloch’s knuckles were swollen under his gloves, it was actually rings.

“Dear God,” Rep gasped, pointing slightly at Morloch. “He wears Rings of Range! Ten of them! I have never seen so many! That is how he compensates for his lack of Wisdom with the other powers! Their power stacks, the more you have! He can extend his range to whatever distance he pleases with so many!”

Morloch looked up to Rep, realizing his secrets had been put on full display. He looked over his fingers, wiggling them. It wasn’t often he looked at his own fingers. He sighed in frustration.

“Perhaps I have been hiding too many things. There is nothing to hide when you are this powerful,” Morloch said, taking a limping step toward Rep and Zalan.

Zalan saw the opportunity for what it was. Morloch was in a bloody, weakened state. Together, he and Rep could defeat him. Zalan sprang up and blasted lightning forward. Without hesitation, Morloch expertly summoned a small wad of Elemental Sand. It was the exact same size of the lightning, and he placed it exactly where it was necessary to intercept and block it. Rep tried throwing two balls of flame. He used his superior redirection to spin them in wide arcs, coming at Morloch from opposite directions. Without even looking at the oncoming attacks, Morloch flicked his less injured arm upward. With that, he redirected the oncoming fireballs, causing them to collide harmlessly above him. He sneered at the two friends. Zalan looked upon Morloch with growing dread. He had run out of ideas. Without the Artifacts, Rep and Zalan were outmatched. Even when Morloch was bloody and beaten.

“Come on, boys! I taught you everything you know! But not everything I know,” Morloch said sharply.

Morloch raised a bloody hand and formed it into a fist. A torpedo-like burst of wind kicked Rep from behind. He went flying into the air, the trajectory throwing him directly toward Morloch. Rep tried to cast fire at Morloch on his way down, sending a column of hot flames his way. With a thrust from his foot, Morloch redirected the attack far away from him. With his arm, he brought another gust of wind and slammed Rep into the ground. Rep’s eyes went wide as he lay flat on the ground, looking as though a bone had broken on his way down.

“No!” Zalan cried, seeing Rep cry out in pain. It all happened so fast. Zalan had barely realized that Rep was flying in the air by the time Morloch smashed him into the ground.

Morloch placed a foot on Rep’s neck.

“I am no longer asking!” Morloch screamed. “Give me your power now, or he dies!”