Chapter Forty Nine

Maryam was… rather embarrassed. That was actually a bit impressive with how draconic she was, the dragon inside of her normally cared little for things such as embarrassment. Everything has its limit though, and Maryam had just found hers, both in her magic and how badly she can mess up before her face turns red.

Ahh, and I finally got that spell working, I can’t believe I just fucked up so bad! And now I bet he’s gonna lecture me about how I shouldn’t use spells I haven’t properly mastered, ugh.

Arlom starting his countdown snapped Maryam out of her thoughts and focused her entirely on the coming fight again. Three seconds wasn’t a lot of time to prepare, so she had to be fast.

I’ll go extra aggressive this time, but I need to make sure he doesn’t take me out before I wear him down enough to get a hit in. I’ll use a defensive spell now, and then use my mana quickly to transform myself enough to keep up with him physically.

With a plan in mind, Maryam started to put it in action. Unlike the haste spell, she was quite used to casting her defensive armour spell and finished casting it with time to spare. Time she used to take in a deep breath and infuse it with mana directly from her soul. Normally infusing things with unaltered mana didn’t do much, but a draconist’s mana was never unaltered. The moment Arlom’s countdown finished Maryam let loose her dragon breath and a wave of pure magic force erupted out of her mouth. Arlom stood his ground, bringing his arms up to defend his face at least. The wave hit and the monk was pushed back a foot, but Maryam knew it didn’t do any actual damage. That was fine, she was running even before her attack landed. He was already protecting his face, but Maryam didn’t feel like going around his guard, so she decided to go through it instead. Gathering up her mana, Maryam sent a good chunk into her fist. It did nothing as is, but the moment she landed a hit, she would detonate the mana and cause a small explosion at the area of impact. It would hurt her as well, but Maryam had scales and her defensive spell, all he had was his bare skin. Her attack never landed though, as Arlom, in one smooth motion, deflected her fist to the side with one hand, and struck her in the chest with the other. It hurt, but Maryams draconic mind only cared about one thing, and it wasn’t pain. She continued her assault, throwing punches and kicks, each one blocked, deflected, or dodged, with a corresponding counterattack that followed.

This isn’t working. I can take the hits but it isn’t getting me anywhere. Maybe I can use that spell? It won’t win me the fight but it might get me a hit in. I’m not looking to win anyway.

Mid pummeling, Maryam took in another deep breath, and let out her dragon breath. The force wave didn’t do much, similar to last time, but it did force Arlom to brace himself, giving Maryam the room she needed. A moment later, her spell was done, and two purple fists floated around her. They were simple force constructs that she could control at will and a personal favourite of Maryams. The problem was, they sucked and she knew it. Controlling them properly in the middle of combat was difficult enough that even with practice Maryam could only do it when she was transformed enough for her draconic mind to give her an unnatural focus. For how hard they were to use you’d think they would at least be useful, but no, their power was middling at best and any serious attack directed against them would break them. But Arlom didn’t know any of that, so they would at least be useful distractions. By the time the hands had manifested, Maryam's legs had morphed to become fully animalistic, covered in scales and bent in ways human legs didn’t normally bend.

I got the dragon legs now? Good, I’ll need the extra speed. I think my entire body is covered in scales now too, except my face. Why does it always cover my face last, it needs the most protection. Well, only having one weak spot does have its uses.

Maryam’s new legs tensed up, and then shot her at her opponent at shocking speeds, while her two conjured hands struggled to keep up. A counter was waiting for her, but Maryam knew it would be and she knew where it would be aimed. Her face. At the last second Maryam opened her now toothy maw and bit with the force of a dragon. She didn’t get her opponents hand, but she almost did. Arlom had to pull back his hand, aborting his attack and giving Maryam to opportunity to get truly aggressive. Maryam had four fists, two legs, and a very bitey mouth and she used all of them. She stomped a clawed foot towards the monk’s shins as she sent her conjured hands to strike at his face and her own fists aimed at his chest. Maryam expected him to dodge backwards, or to the side, what she didn’t expect was for him to jump straight up. He ascended so quickly that it took a moment to process where he had gone, but in that time Arlom had already grabbed her outstretched arm and used it to pull himself behind her before he landed. He also never let go of her arm, and as he landed Maryams arms was pulled behind her, and then, out of it’s socket. Even with a dislocated arm, all she did was grit her teeth and grunt as she turned to face her opponent, her one good arm swinging before she could even see him. Arlom ducked beneath the swing, and then weaved between the two conjured fists, before kicking the side of Maryams knee, causing her to stumble. The monk took that chance to grab her shirt and pull her down the rest of the way, and the moment her head hit the floor, he punched it into the ground. Maryam was still conscious but dazed even in her draconic form, and her spells had finally disappeared. She had lost.

*

Xorvos was a bit surprised at the brutality that Arlom showed in the fight. He was graceful and precise, but held nothing back.

Then again, would Maryam stop if he held back? I thought the fight was over when he dislocated her arm, but she continued like it wasn’t even a problem. I don’t know if I could do that.

The quanso watched as Maryam sat on the ground, drinking a healing potion with purple blood flowing out of her broken nose. Arlom had already fixed her arm and now they were just waiting for her to finish healing to start round three. Or at least, that was what Maryam was doing. Arlom on the other hand was walking towards Xorvos.

“Xorvos, it has been a while since we last met. It is good to see Validus has yet to catch you. Are you enjoying the show?”

“Err, it’s a bit… violent.”

“Is not all combat violent? But yes, Maryam does bring a sort of wild energy with her that I could not help but reciprocate.”

It’s hardly reciprocating if she never even touches you with her ‘wild energy.’ I guess he does have a point though, he’s not doing anything worse than what she would do to him. Doesn’t make it any better watching it though.

“So,” Arlom continued “did you manage to learn to circulate your ki?”

“I did. I have a question about that though.”

“Feel free to ask, I will answer as best I can.”

“Did… did you leave something out when you were teaching me how to do it?”

“Yes I did.”

There was no guilt in the monk's face, he simply stated a fact, not worried at all about the implications of it.

“Why?” Xorvos asked. “It was so frustrating near the end, doing everything perfectly and having it not work. What if I didn’t figure it out on my own and got into a fight? I would be at a disadvantage because of your poor instruction.”

“If it was a fight important enough for defeat to matter, then you would have learned to circulate your ki in that moment. Ki reacts to emotions and desires, but what you feel the first time you activate it is very important. If I simply told you you needed to be in a heightened emotional state for it to work, you would have attempted to create that emotional state artificially. At best your ki wouldn't have reacted to such emotions, but at worst your ki would have been locked behind non-genuine emotions, and you would be unable to use it naturally, only unnaturally. It is possible to manipulate your genuine emotions in such a way that ki won’t recognise as fake, but it requires training you do not have. Deceiving to you was the better option for your development.”

Deception is never the better option. He could have told me about the risks and warned me not to force it. But then would I really be content to wait if I felt like Shuka was in danger? If I got into a fight then I would know that would be the time to activate my ki. Unless I would be too worried about messing it up with non-genuine emotions. Would that worry then be the emotion my ki would latch on to? No, everything might have worked out the way he did it, I’m sure it would have been fine if he just told me everything as well.

“I appreciate the help you have given me Arlom, but I would have preferred it if you did not hide anything from me.”

“I know, but tell me this Xorvos. If you could do something good for one of your close friends, say Shuka or Maryam, but only in a way they wouldn’t like, would you?”

“…That scenario is too vague. I don’t know how good the good thing is or how much they would dislike the bad thing.”

“Fair enough. Lets see then… how about if Maryam was enjoying a fight, one with low stakes not anything life or death. It is a fight she wishes to fight alone, however. But her draconic transformation, it goes too far and she is in danger of turning a friendly brawl into a not so friendly one. She could get seriously injured, or perhaps seriously injure another who has done you or her no wrong. Perhaps the law could even get involved and she could be arrested. Do you stop the fight? She would greatly dislike that, but it would be in her best interest.”

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“That… I would stop the fight, her safety comes first.”

Maryam, who had long since recovered and was pacing impatiently nearby, heard his answer and was not happy.

“Like hell you would! I don’t care about getting hurt, and I can always bribe guards, just let me fight. Pain is just the price I pay for a good time.”

“Now before things get too heated,” Arlom interjected. “I did approach you for a reason Xorvos. I would like to invite you to fight in the third round. On Maryam's side.”

Xorvos didn’t know what to say.

“I’m… not exactly saying no, but why would I join? I have no reason to fight you and two versus one is a dishonourable way to fight.”

“It is not so dishonourable when the odds are so stacked against you. After all, are those not the odds you would often fight Validus with? You and Shuka versus him alone.”

As much as he hated to admit it, Xorvos had to accept that was true. From what he saw in the first two rounds, even both him and Maryam would have little chance of victory against him.

“As for a reason to fight, well you saw what it took for Maryam to accept defeat in the last round. Her transformation will only get worse in the third round, I will need to go that far or farther to get her to concede in round three. But if either of you land one solid hit on me then I will concede myself. Maryam alone won’t be able to achieve that, but the two of you together might.”

Xorvos thought back to the sound of Maryam’s arm popping out of its socket, the image of her face smashing into the floor. It wasn’t pleasant, even if he knew she didn’t mind. He looked to her now and saw a burning intensity in her eyes that told him she would not stop for anything.

“Maryam, are you okay with this? Didn’t you want to fight him alone?”

“I just want to fight him. With you, without you, I don’t care, just decide already so we can get started. I’m going crazy waiting here.”

“In that case… fine, I accept.”

“Excellent, then I will allow you two a moment to strategize before we start.”

Xorvos was glad to take any sort of advantage he could, but Maryam just looked annoyed she had to wait even longer. Still, she approached her friend and once Arlom was out of earshot, gave Xorvos her plan.

“Alright, so here's the plan. I’m going to go up and fight him and you can distract him or whatever.”

“…Maryam, that’s not a plan.”

“Well, why do we even need a plan anyway? He’s too smart to get tricked and too good to get outmanoeuvred. Let’s just go in and fight, and if we win we win, and if we lose we lose.”

Xorvos knew, and he knew Maryam knew as well, that more likely than not, they would lose. He also knew a plan could only help so much, but it would help. He just needed to figure out how to convince Maryam to try to win instead of just have a good fight.

“Maryam, the more effort we put into a plan to actually win, the better we will do, and the better we do the longer we will last.”

Maryam grumbled, and then growled, making a primal sound that Xorvos wasn’t sure a human body could naturally make, before finally barking her agreement.

“Fine. But if we’re going through all the trouble then we better win.”

*

It took a few minutes of arguing, but a plan did form. Xorvos wasn't confident in its success, but he wouldn’t have been confident in any plan's success with who they were up against. Arlom was a fair ways away, with his hands over his ears to prevent himself from overhearing their conversation. However, he quickly got up when he saw they were done. Xorvos would have thought he was far enough away that he wouldn’t have been able to hear anything even without any extra precautions, but perhaps he was just being careful. Regardless, once he got into position, he started the countdown without delay.

“Three… two… one… begin!”

As planned, as soon as he started counting down Maryam started to conjure purple orbs of magic floating above her head. In the three seconds she was given, she managed to create six. When the match officially began, she shot two of them towards the monk, one curving around to the right, the other, the left. She called them force bolts, but she couldn't use them properly in close range and Arlom was sure to close the distance quickly. That was where Xorvos came in. Activating his boots, Xorvos dashed across the room, reaching his target even before the first two bolts did. Knowing his opponent would be fast enough to react to even his magically enhanced speed, Xorvos defended his face with his arms. His torso was armoured, and the rest of his body didn’t need to be defended as much. Arlom decided to go through the armour sending a punch into the quanso’s gut so hard it felt like he wasn’t wearing armour at all. Then, without missing a beat, he maneuvered himself behind Xorvos in an almost dance-like movement, dodging the force bolts in the process. The manoeuvre ended in a spinning kick that landed square on his back causing Xorvos to lurch forward a step. He almost got hit by the force bolts that was meant for Arlom, but Maryam had enough control over it to make them swerve out of the way before they hit him.

Maryam! Crap, he got behind me, I need to stop him from chasing after Maryam.

Turning around Xorvos saw that Arlom was already on his way towards the draconist shooting magic at him, dodging another one of her bolts in the process. Xorvos chased after him, but he knew he was too slow to catch up on his own. Luckily, he and Maryam accounted for that in their planning session. After shooting one more bolt, the Draconist inhaled, and unleashed her dragon breath at the man who was fast approaching her. This one was extra powerful and pushed the monk back several feet when he got hit by it, although it still wasn’t powerful enough to do any damage. Xorvos was affected as well, but between his armour and his size, he was heavy enough to not get pushed around so easily, especially since he saw it coming. Arlom, annoyingly, managed to stay on his feet, even if he was pushed back, but it was still enough for Xorvos to catch up. Reaching out to grab the monk, Xorvos felt nothing but air as Arlom deftly slipped out of the way, planting an elbow into the quanso’s stomach as he did. Xorvos took it, and then made sure to position himself between Arlom and Maryam, blocking his path to her. He quickly hopped to the side, looking to bypass Xorvos’ barricade, but then was forced to stop for a moment to dodge another force bolt from Maryam. That was all the opportunity Xorvos needed to intercept him again. Seeing the quanso was going to be a persistent problem, Arlom decided to go on the offensive. Xorvos was expecting an attack, so he managed to block the first punch, and he weaved out of the way of the second. It was the knee the monk buried in his gut that he didn’t manage to avoid, nor could he stop himself from getting grabbed and pulled into the path of the last of Maryams force bolts. The bolt hit him square in the back of the head and it hurt in a way he had never felt before. Like a blunt impact filled with needles. It stunned him long enough for Arlom to kick out his legs and drag him to the ground. When Xorvos finally oriented himself enough to figure out what was happening all he saw was the heel of a foot raised high in the air above him. It was an axe kick less than a second away from driving his face into the floor.

“Get the Fuck away fucker!”

Maryam leapt at the monk from all fours, screaming through inhuman vocal chords. Her voice was unnatural and distorted, like she was some beast simply imitating speech. Arlom pivoted his kick, turning it away from Xovos’ face, and into Maryams. It knocked her out of the air, but she landed nimbly on her hands and feet like a cat with her newly grown tail whipping from side to side in agitation. Maryam didn’t wait for him to start attacking again, so she charged in while Xorvos slowly started to stand up. Maryam was going wild trying to hit Arlom even once, but she wasn’t doing so well. At the very least, her ferocity wasn’t giving Arlom many opportunities to counterattack. Still, the monk dodged, blocked, or redirected all of her attacks with ease, and it didn’t look like he was going to slip up any time soon.

The plan, we need to follow the plan. Well, plan A is out now, so I guess it’s time for plan B. We just need to make him jump somehow.

Xorvos was feeling rough, but the adrenaline and ki pumping through his veins was keeping him up. He took a moment to catch his breath, and then went to join the fray. As he ran, he shouted.

“Strike his legs!”

Xorvos looked to Maryam and, to his relief, saw the glimmer of understanding in her eyes. He was worried she was too beastly to understand what he really meant. She was already crouched on the ground, as her more draconic form preferred, and at his order she tensed up, ready to pounce. When Xorvos reached the monk, he went low and attempted to grab the monk at his waist. At the same time Maryam launched herself at Arloms ankles, flying through the air mere inches above the ground. Both Maryam and Xorvos were coming in from different directions, but the answer, to Arlom at least, was simple. Jump. High enough that both attacks would pass below him. So he did so, and even had the luxury of kicking Xorvos in the face as he did. It hurt, but Xorvos smiled anyway. The plan worked. Maryam twisted her body mid air and let out the dragon breath she had subtly prepared before leaping, directly at the monk. The wide wave of force hit Arlom, and pushed him higher in the air and he was, for once, not in control of the situation. Maryam slid along the ground on her back, but was already working on the next part of the plan. A lot of force bolts.

Is this going to work? His mobility is reduced in the air, but what if he can block them, or destroy them pre-emptively? We need just one more thing to attack him with. Maryam is already giving it her all, it has to be me who does it.

With barely more of a plan than run forward and hope for the best, Xorvos charged in the direction it seemed Arlom was going to land. When Maryam hit him with her dragon breath, it wasn’t perfectly timed, and she hit him at an angle, causing him to fly off away from them. Now, Xorvos was struggling to catch up before he landed. Maryam made as many force bolts as she could, four, and sent them all to Arlom at once. They streaked past Xorvos towards their target, but the quanso knew they wouldn’t land. Arlom had righted himself in the air and looked calm, even as he fell to the ground. Xorvos wouldn’t make it in time, but he ran anyway, desiring speed. Wishing he didn’t use his greaves at the start of the fight. His body was filled with pain, his unarmored head especially, but he focused on something else. The ki that flowed through every inch of his flesh. What use was it in his face, or even his arms right now? He didn’t need it in his chest, or neck, or fingers. He needed it in his legs. Xorvos circulated his ki straight down, and immediately regretted his decision. The pain from the repeated blows he had taken during the fight nearly doubled in severity, and his body groaned in protest. Not only that, but he overshot his target, and all his gathered ki went not to his legs, but his feet. And then, it was all sucked up by his greaves. And then, they activated. Xorvos flew through the air with the power of his enchanted greaves, and reached Arlom just after the bolts. As expected, not a one landed a solid hit, they were all either punched, or kicked into harmless motes of magic. But he had used every limb in defense of himself, and he had not expected the quanso’s rapid approach. Still, he almost managed to twist out of the way, but just barely, Xorvos grabbed him. He caught him on the hem of his monkly robes, which wasn’t much, but it was enough. Xorvos didn’t have a plan for landing, and probably wouldn’t be able to land safely even if he did, so he put all of his effort into making sure Arlom didn’t land safely either. He tensed his arm, used all of his strength, even without the ki, and pulled the monk down, into the ground. They both landed with a thud, and Xorvos almost fell unconscious right then and there, but he held on just long enough to hear two words.

“I concede.”