บท 9: Grudge Match [Pt 4]
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Arnik opened his eyes and found himself in a dark empty place, as he strained his eyes all he could see far and beyond was this dark empty abyss." Hello, is anyone here, can anybody hear me " he called out but was only met with silence. He tried to remember the events leading up to him passing out," I was in a fight with Gerdi, and then I got trapped in a ball of earth, so where am I now? am I still in the ball? " these were the questions in Arnik's mind.
Just then he noticed a light shining in the distance, " Hello, is anybody there" he called out as he took a step forward, he was only greeted with more silence, he began walking towards the light, he could feel something pulling him towards it, an almost nostalgic feeling, the closer he got to the light, the brighter it shone, a bright shade of blue, just as he was about to touch it, he heard a voice, it was neither masculine nor feminine but it was loud and asked a simple question,
" HUMAN, ARE YOU WORTHY OF ME",
Arnik took a few steps back obviously shaken, he gathered some courage and asked in a loud voice " Who are you", there was silence for a bit before the loud voice responded
" I AM THAT WHICH SOARED FREELY IN THE SKIES, I AM THAT WHICH STOOD ABOVE THE REST OF MY KIND AND BATHED BOTH THE LAND AND THE SKIES WITH THE BEAUTIFUL HUE OF FLAMES THAT OTHERS COULD NOT COMPREHEND, I AM THAT WHOSE FLAMES CONSUME ALL OTHERS.SO I ASK AGAIN HUMAN, ARE YOU WORTHY OF ME, DOES YOUR PASSION BURN AS FERVENTLY AS MY FLAMES?"
Arnik stood still pondering, " soaring, blue, flames" it took but a second for everything to click, " The Blue Basan, it must be the blue basan, or at least the manifestation of its spirit," he thought to himself, it was asking if he was worthy, did that mean it wanted to bond with him. Spirit bonding, he'd read about it, a process that involved mythic creatures with elemental attributes bonding with mages of the same elemental affinity, this resulted in massive power boosts. The Basan species as a whole were A-ranked fire creatures, but a Blue Basan with its rarity had to be at least S ranked or higher, bonding with such a high-tier creature at this stage of his life would be no doubt dangerous, this is because mages with Spirit bonds had been bound to their spirits from a very early age, for some as soon as they awoke their magic-circuits, for others as soon as their elemental affinity was discovered.
"No use thinking about it too much, I'm not like other mages anyways " Arnik thought to himself, he raised his face and looked at the bright blue flame in front of him, " I am worthy," he said in a loud voice, a few moments of silence and he heard the voice again,
"I COMMEND YOUR BRAVERY, SHOW ME YOUR FLAME ",
With this Arnik stretched out his right hand a small flame appeared on his palm, the blue flame came closer until it was just beside the other flame, and the blue flame began absorbing the flame until there was nothing left, it then slowly settled in Arnik's palm and dissolved into it. Just then Arnik felt a terrible pain in his head, he collapsed to his knees, he felt hot, very hot, it felt like a fire was burning in him and was threatening to consume him whole, Arnik began to scream in pain, the feeling was unbearable, he looked at his palm and saw that it had been covered in a blue flame, the flame rapidly began to other parts of his body, he continued screaming and trying to put out the flame.
"Is this how I die? "he thought to himself, images of his early life in the Frost mansion, how he had awoken his magic circuit, his first day of school, his friend Rowan, his father. "His father, no, there was no way he would die now, he had to restore his honor, he clenched his fist and began absorbing all the flames in just as he had done with the mana when he had broken through, his crest began glowing very brightly, very very brightly, he closed his eyes but he could still see the light, just as he felt himself slipping away, he heard a familiar voice,
"YOU ARE WORTHY".
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In the arena, a minute had passed since Gerdi had trapped Arnik within the Earth seal, and the entire facility had gone quiet, the students anxiously waited for something to happen, just then Gerdi began laughing loudly, " I'm amazing, not only did I best one but two Elite students within a short period, I'm sure to have made an impression on everyone " he thought to himself. He began walking towards the huge ball of earth at the center of the arena, he got beside it and placed his hands on the it confidently, "Anyone else " he asked loudly.
Just then the ball began to shake, Gerdi quickly removed his hand in pain, just know the ball of earth had burnt him,"What the hell " he muttered angrily, a small crack formed on the ball, then another one and another one, a blue light began emanating from the ball, " Oh shit " muttered Gerdi as he tried to get away, but it was too late the ball exploded into a million pieces and out of it came Arnik covered in blue flames from head to toe, two huge blue flamed wings behind him. The entire school seemed to hold it's breath, before someone screamed from the crowd, " Blue flames, they're blue flames", Werner was rooted to the spot " they're real, the legendary blue flames". In the arena Arnik hovered above the ground and appeared to be lifeless until suddenly he looked at straight at Gerdi, lifeless eyes, with blue flames burning within them.
" What, you still wanna fight? Bring it" Gerdi yelled, two huge chunks of earth were sent flying at Arnik, who simply avoided them mid air, a small fireball formed in his hand which he threw in Gerdi's direction, a fireball of that size would normally not be a cause of concern to any mage but Gerdi instinctively blocked with an earth wall, that decision turned out to be a good one because at the moment of impact the fireball produced an explosion so large that it Werner and those closest to the ring felt it.
The smoke cleared to reveal several metal pellets which Gerdi fired at Arnik, managed to evade most but the attack downed him. Once on the ground, Gerdi, whose hands and feet were now plated in metal, quickly closed the distance between him and Arnik attempting to turn it into a close combat battle which he thought would be disadvantageous to Arnik, Arnik however rather than back away also launched himself at Gerdi, the collision of both created a shock wave. Gerdi was much better at close combat than Arnik, but the other had such overwhelming power that the battle kept going. Gerdi was receiving considerable damage, his magic armor having felt the brunt of both Rowan and Arnik had began to crack and lost its effectiveness, " I have to end this as soon as possible" he thought to himself.
Landing a quick combination of punches, Gerdi moved fast and managed to land a huge blow which he expected to knock Arnik out, the latter simply responded with a supercharged uppercut which sent Gerdi tumbling some distance.
" That's it" Gerdi shouted as he spat blood out, he began chanting something similar to when he created the earth cage, any sane mage would try to disrupt him immediately but that was what GerdI wanted, he planned to use this as bait you lure Arnik closer so he could use his ultimate trump card more effectively, but unlike his expectations, Arnik casually walked towards him seemingly unbothered, this angered Gerdi even more, slamming both fists into the ground as before he yelled " Litho Style: Metal seal", this time several metal pillars suddenly shot out of the ground towards Arnik, the latter continued to walk towards Gerdi casually. The pillars began attaching themselves to Arnik's hands and feet, " Ha, you're finished now" Gerdi said smiling, but then he noticed something, the metal pillars began to melt as if under severe heat, the blue flames engulfing Arnik burnt even more ferociously and his blue wings appeared. Gerdi sank back in fear, falling on his butt , " You're , you're , you're a monster he stuttered " , Arnik now hovering in mid air, gave a slight smirk before raising one hand and creating a large blue fireball, still focused on Gerdi "DIE " he said and launched the attack, Gerdi paralyzed by fear stayed rooted to the sport and began screaming instead, tears running down his face.
Just before impact, someone came crashing down from above, taking a quick glance at his surroundings, he clasped both hands together," Nimpo" he simply said and the entire ring became covered in black, the fireball dissipated and Arnik fell to the ground, every ounce of mana in the ring had been dispersed at once, just before Arnik went unconscious, he looked at the strangers face and saw that it was none other than Instructor Sykes.
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