The ground shook, the atmosphere was in an uproar, and the chanting of the beasts wanting to see a fight of enormous proportions was getting louder and louder; their synchronized footsteps made the sand shake, and the sound of them together was like drums, but not just any kind of drums; they were threatening, deep, of those sounds that even vibrate you inside, a rumbling that could only mean one thing for the witch of the seventh ring; death.
Both Hunter and Griezu looked directly into each other's eyes, from one end of the arena to the other, on one side, the determination of the young human girl trying to defend her people from the oppression of the beasts, and on the other, the prince of the kingdom, destined to be king by descent, who would face the rebellion incarnate.
After that, Hunter let out a growl that progressively turned into a yelp.
“GRRRrrrrrRRaaaaaaaaUUUUuuuuuuuu!”
And he buried his front claws with his enormous bestial strength, getting on all fours like a wolf, going full speed ahead against her.
Griezu, for her part, reacted by using magic that was so acclaimed in her election debut, with two twirls of her staff in front of her, she summoned a magic circle with the words 'Rolig Vind Der Er Stille Afviser Min Fjende Nu' inscribed on its edges. It looked like it had been painted by someone careless, the brushstrokes were not to the millimeter and several of those lines did not connect to others directly. A work based on the free spirit of a carefree person who longs for peace.
From the magic circle appeared a vortex that completely enveloped the battlefield, a kind of force field that prevented the intervention of third parties in their battle.
Hunter was getting closer and closer to the witch, preparing to give an attack with his infinite chains, he could notice that Griezu was serene, he did not perceive any kind of concern coming from her.
Hunter, wrapping his beastly fist in his chains, did a leaping spin over Griezu; he loosened his grip on them and lashed out with one of his chains.
Immediately, some gusts of wind from the force field were redirected to where the chain was going, cutting it into tiny pieces and protecting Griezu.
“Tch,” exclaimed the witch, frowning and looking at Hunter.
Hunter landed behind her and immediately wanted to lash out, but Griezu with her index fingers pointing towards the ground, drew two small magic circles, the outline of these this time was firm and very marked, I could not read what they said on them because of how small they were, I only know of a type of magic that requires magic circles with those outlines, something I had not seen for a long time; much less in Lydenfrost. The believed extinct arcane magic.
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- “Arcane magic? Pff cut the crap. I'm not a magic expert, but the actual archives don't have any information on that, it's just a manifestation of advanced magic." - Hunter said, lying on his side.
- “Remember a couple of days ago when I mentioned that you were trying to use magic in a non-magical world?”
- “I remember it clearly.” -Hunter mumbled as he looked down at his hands, remembering his attempts to generate water, a basic spell.
- “You see, magic in simple terms is the representation of the user's will projected as a change in reality, based on the energy of souls in a dispersed or concentrated state; in your case, dispersed. And I think it's best to explain to you how this works, because of the journey we are embarking on, so pay attention.
There are three types of magic, congenital, environmental, and arcane magic.
Congenital magic can only be used by those who were born with the gift of possessing more soul energy than usual, those who have that gift can use magic depending only on their Stamina, they are usually born with a specialized organ to store the extra energy given off by their soul, located just below the heart; the capabilities of these mages are extremely high, it has been developed to the limits of complexity and can be used to some extent in non-magical worlds because running out of energy in this world for example would leave you quadriplegic for a whole month.
On the other hand, ambient magic can be used by anyone who has the decency to pick up a book and read three pages of it, the most basic of magic and most simplified, originally created by congenital magicians to experiment without depleting their energy, concentrating that of their surroundings enough to use spells; Hundreds of years later non-magicians began to experiment with it, seeing that although their soul was not as powerful as that of the magicians, they could somehow manipulate the energy of their environment with simple training and concentration, the spells did not advance much in terms of power, but in terms of practicality it is very useful. More advanced ambient mages can store up to 5 spells, and make combinations with them, emulating what congenital mages do with beginner magic. And, like you, Hunter, it cannot be used in non-magical worlds.
Finally, arcane magic, or as the “Ones from Above” call it their Instrument of Creation and Destruction.
Ideated as a universal magic of exclusive use to them, they created a system that drew energy from Origin itself to materialize their ideas in an instant; from the creation of a star to a simple flame, it can be used to create or destroy anything, modify it or integrate it into other objects as well. It consists of drawing magic circles, with its style of tracing, representing its effect, the inner symbol, its element, and the words in its circumference, the action it will perform.
It was all thanks to an oversight by the “Ones from Above” Those mortals saw how arcane magic was summoned, deciphered it, and perfected it so much, to the point of challenging the “Ones from Above”, those who called themselves “Arcanists.” No mortal should have so much power at their fingertips, so they eradicated them and sought alternatives to arcane magic to modify the worlds already created or to create more. By eradicating all the Arcanists, their world was partially recycled and turned into many more, making the mistake of not erasing the contents of the books altogether, meaning that there are worlds where the books of arcane magic exist.
- “Are you telling me this to bore me and put me to sleep or what?” Continue, at once, you bastard. I only listen to you because I'd hate to be humiliated by you tomorrow."
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
- “I'll go on then”
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With her two magic circles, under the soles of her boots, the witch used the power of the waters to skate across the sand, gliding smoothly over it, and dodging the attack. The witch sought to create distance between Hunter and herself, steadily backing away from the beast, buying herself time to summon her spells, sparks of light teleporting at her opponent, shooting out from a huge, enduring magic circle behind her.
“Enough of your games, you damned vermin, let's see if you can escape from me chained up!”
Hunter buried his claws in the sandy soil and the chains on his arms slithered rapidly into the earth, like ravenous serpents, imbued with soul energy; the chains twisted and leaped out of the earth and then sped back into it at greater speed.
Griezu turned her attention to the fierce chains approaching her, redirecting the sparks of light at these, but no matter how hard she hit them, they seemed to be shielded or the spark spell was weak.
Griezu then realized that something was wrong, the light spell was powerful enough to break those chains, a wind spell could do it, why now it wasn't working?
“That light! It can't be that-!” - Griezu said, still running away from those chains.
The combat arena shuddered with every impact of the chains to Griezu's spells, who almost turned it completely around trying to escape from them. You could see the desperation on her face, she was trying to think of something that would work and in a desperate attempt, she jabbed his staff into the ground, dragging it along and conjuring an earth element spell into the crack she had created. Prominent stalagmites appeared from the ground, made of pure obsidian. Griezu began to zigzag erratically, causing the chains to tangle with each other in the stalagmite path she created, and now that she had them immobile, Griezu summoned another magic circle, this time variously colored, more like a pentagram than a magic circle, with the words “Guddommelig Renselse” on its edge and painted with a firm stroke on the air.
The chains lost their essence of souls and broke instantly when the spell effect ended.
"Souls.... How it... It's impossible..." -said Griezu.
Something she didn't expect was that Hunter was going to be waiting for her behind her.
Hunter had freed himself from the chains long before Griezu had them under control and taking advantage of the time he had he quickly approached her unnoticed, readying his sharp claws to finish her off once and for all.
But the Griezu turned around at the last second and with his staff hit Hunter in the stomach, stunning him, followed with two more earth attacks, and ended up drawing a huge magic circle that gave out a river of water propelled with the same force as a waterfall a thousand meters high, crashing Hunter into the wall of the combat arena.
The beastly audience in attendance gasped, they could not believe their eyes, their Hunter... had lost? They questioned each other, and the discussion went on and on in the stands. They saw their betrothed king devastated, bruised, and bloodied; stuck in a wall where the debris had penetrated his skin and in front of him, an ominous figure with his staff in his hand, drawing a circle again.
Not this time... three circles, a main one and three smaller ones above it is the most detailed magic circle I've ever seen, with lions, grapes, golden goblets, white wings, with brambles tying it all together.
Griezu, soaring through the air, levitating from the power emanating from her body, seemed intoxicated, even possessed, the wind field dissipated from the sand, and out of nowhere, Griezu's voice became omniscient as she was illuminated by the moonlight.
"Sorry Hunter, at this moment I am not angry with the beasts, I don't hate anyone except you, now I just feel very comfortable in this world, as well as in these last 20 years. The advantage of magic is that there is only one manual for it, and the disadvantage... none that I know of. What you are about to witness, arises when the wills of an entire species, and the soul of the best archmage in the world collide to eliminate hindrances like you."
A varis av ixyuu, debuardo wueverbia.
A blinding glow arose from such a high concentration of magical energy, being shot into Hunter's body in a single instant. It was so much energy that the magical illumination of the place failed and when it returned we only saw the magician collapsing on the sand, exhausted from that last spell.
A large crater had been left where Hunter had been and there was no trace of him.
“As you saw beasts, I am now your new ruler here, and as a first order I tell you-”
But she felt the presence of someone behind her, as if they were watching her, but not as if from afar they were watching her, but the presence was felt millimeters from her, breathing millimeters from her...she turned around half paralyzed with fear and there was the huge beast in front of her who grabbed her shoulder tightly, and in her ear whispered.
“You missed.”
Immediately, Hunter delivered a devastating punch to her thorax, knocking her to the ground.
Hunter concentrated the soul energy from his talisman to his right foot and gave a big stomp, the shockwave lifted Griezu into the air. Hunter then threw his chains and made Griezu a cocoon.
Hunter began spinning on his axis, preparing a hammer-style throw, spinning and spinning faster and faster with poor Griezu in chains until he abruptly stopped and the chains came off throwing Griezu at full speed out of the arena.
"I won...I WON! TAKE THAT HUMAN RACE! WHO WOULD THINK OF TAKING SO LONG IN HER FINAL ATTACK, THAT'S RIDICULOUS; MUCH MORE RIDICULOUS WAS ALL THAT SPEECH SHE GAVE HA, HA, HA"
The crowd celebrated and their chants were “CHAM-PION!, CHAM-PION!, CHAM-PION!, CHAM-PION!, CHAM-PION!” and so on. A new air of hope was at last arriving, the lineage of the beasts still stands after all, and I am sure the humans will do well.
“PRAISE YOUR CHAMPION, PRAISE THE LEGITIMATE SOVEREIGN OF THE CENTRAL BEAST KINGDOM, HUNTER WOLF”!
It was a great sight to see, but I had to go, it was already dark and I had to leave, I had nothing else to do there.
*blip*
Or maybe there is. Right, the “Ones from Above” had not assigned anyone to me that day, the notification on my bracelet confirms it, they were not going to let me take a day off; it had even taken me long enough to give them the last day's
I saw my bracelet and there it was.
"Huh? Curious...well, if that's what you want, I'll give it to you; give me a few minutes." - I thought aloud as I walked through the rejoicing crowd in the coliseum.
The coronation ceremony had begun, two beasts rolled out a huge red carpet, with golden edges, reaching the foot of the royal throne, which they had carried from the special hall of the nobility to the arena, next to it, stood the priest with the king's crown, waiting for Hunter who was already walking towards his future on the carpet, step by step he was getting closer and closer to the throne, where the priest told him.
“With this ceremony, we name and crown Hunter R. Wolf as the rightful ruler of the Central Beast Kingdom and its environs, now Hunter will say his last words as a prince, to become a king.”
That's when Hunter spoke
“TELL ME? IS THERE ANY OTHER HUMAN OR BEAST HERE PRESENT AS BRAVE OR AS FOOLISH AS THAT WITCH, TO TRY TO TAKE ON ME, THE ALMIGHTY HUNTER! KING OF THE BEASTS”
The audience was silent, only the wind could be heard; the priest was about to place the crown on top of his furry head until I said from the distance behind him...
“Well, I do”