ULTRAMagic Interlude - Chapter 16

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    Voidborne flew through the air, going straight to Blood-Wraith’s hand. He focused and summoned the crystalline blade, shimmering with an intense glow that calmly faded. Wanting to see what her opponent could do, Dunja started out by only activating one of her whip blades. Facing off with someone who had a major role in defeating The Lich of Old made her cautious. She needed to scope out what he could do and not rush into a particular strategy right out of the gate. Dunja expected the boy to attack first, but he did not, to her surprise. It was a good move, showing that he was taking the duel seriously. Five steps of circling each other prompted Dunja to attack first, winding up and slamming her blade’s whip on the ground with a massive thud.

    The dust cleared quickly, revealing nothing. Dunja then glanced upwards only to see Blood-Wraith right above her, ready to bring Voidborne down upon her. It was impressive how quick and nimble he was. The queen responded by unsheathing her unactivated blade, using it to parry the attack. This knocked him away and caused Blood-Wraith to fall to the ground. He then quickly transformed into Indigo Wolf, which created a shockwave that knocked Dunja back. It was unorthodox yet smart. The maneuver afforded him some breathing room so he could regroup.

    After a series of failed strikes, Blood-Wraith quickly realized that Dunja could easily counter him with her weapons. The crucial factor was that they only had so much range though. Thinking of which form would be ideal to give him some more space, he decided Azure Spider was the way to go. It could get up into the air with ease if he needed to quickly escape. Golden Dragon could also get into the air, but the form was large and cumbersome. He knew Dunja could easily beat on it and prevent him from getting into the air. What he needed was speed and agility, not strength and endurance. Plus Azure Spider was less of a strain on his body.

    Dunja was met by a barrage of fireballs from an opponent that was hard to keep up with. The minute she approached, Blood-Wraith would just leap to the other side of the arena. Dunja noticed that Blood-Wraith was using the fact that the audience was protected by a magic barrier to his advantage. He could freely fire off attacks, keeping the queen on her toes. She assumed he would eventually corner her, but something different happened. A lasso of silk tightened around her waist, binding her arms to it. A very sneaky and well done move.

    Blood-Wraith flung Dunja up into the air and shot several, massive fireballs at her. Naturally she was not going to take this lying down. “AHK, AR, VEY!” She shouted from her throat as the web broke and a protective barrier formed around her. The audience was on the edge of their seats.

    Over at the royal court box, Dragoslava and Desislav were amazed by what they just saw. “What was that!?” Dragoslava demanded to know.

    “I don’t think I’ve ever seen magic like that,” Desislav remarked.

    “Void magic, children,” Englehart answered.

    “Dunja is naturally proficient in it,” Radovan elaborated. “Akin to necromancy, it is a rare type of magic that calls upon the gods of the Cosmos itself to enact the caster’s will. Not many void callers are known to exist, however.”

    Aureolus was also amazed. “Awesome… but why does she speak her magic? I don’t have to do that…”

    Dragoslava and Desislav looked at Aureolus, but Barna spoke up. “Well if I remember correctly, she was working on that before Milosh happened…”

    “Indeed, brother,” Englehart replied. “It’s a shame so many endeavors were interrupted by that awful man.”

    Back at the fight, Blood-Wraith was having trouble countering the void spells. “Dunja, is that void magic?” he called out.

    She smiled. “Right you are, kid. First time?”

    “Kind of. Aureolus can do similar, but it never crossed my mind to spar with him over it…”

    Dunja swung her whip at him, forcing him to dodge. “Well then maybe I should train you a bit after this is all said and done.”

    After a few more evasions, it was Blood-Wraith’s turn to smile. “What was that you said about cards, coffins, and fate yesterday?”

    She threw her hands up. “Alright, fine, I was a bit doom and gloom last night…”

    This distraction gave Blood-Wraith an idea. Still in the form of Azure Spider, he leapt high into the air. Next he switched over to Ochre Serpent and began spitting water blasts. He wanted to try this to mix up his strategy, but there were no bodies of water around, forcing him to get creative. Dunja liked everything about it. The planning, the sneakiness, the ridiculousness of it all… No wonder The Lich lost to him. Using one of her void spells, she flew into the air herself. Water blasts were destroyed effortlessly with both whip blades as she ran across pieces of earth that manifested below her feet. The audience could only guess what was going to happen next as Dunja rapidly approached her target.

    With a swift flick of her wrist, Dunja had one of whips coiled firmly around the serpent. She summoned a great deal of strength and flung him down to the ground with a massive crash. The audience gasped in shock while Blood-Wraith’s entire family nearly had a heart attack. Dunja landed on the ground near the dust cloud, waiting for a sign of activity. A green and black hand grasped the edge of the small crater, hefting itself out into the open. It was Verdant Might.

    “Oh no, I’m not done yet… argh, that hurt” he said with a chuckle.

    Curious to see more of his hand to hand skill with Voidborne, Dunja deactivated both of her whip blades and used them as normal swords. Verdant Might’s namesake was no joke; Dunja was on the ropes as she did her best to respond to each attack. The long reaching swipes, stabs, and swings from the angelic sword staff were definitely a massive challenge to handle. And Blood-Wraith focusing on hitting on her made things even trickier. Now it was her turn to gamble: Dunja took her left blade and hit Voidborne at the right angle, knocking it out of Blood-Wraith’s hands. Seeing this made Valentina silently panic.

    Blood-Wraith also panicked, giving in to his instincts. This involved him ramming right into Dunja. He knocked her blades out of her hands and caused her to fall on her back. She rolled out of the way before he could elbow drop her. Seeing an opening, Dunja took him and suplexed him. That stunned him for a moment, but Blood-Wraith recovered and tried to sweep her legs. The queen jumped, but the battered combatant got up and caught her, slamming her into the ground.

    No one had expected this turn of events. What had started out as an honest duel devolved into a wrestling match. The two were slamming into and throwing each other around with reckless abandon. The audience was eating it up, but everyone in the royal court box was nearly having a collective aneurysm. They shouted at the two to stop, or to go easy on each other at the very least. They were not mad, just gravely concerned over what the two were going to do to each other. Englehart was sweating bullets over all of this and Barna could see it as plain as day… he shared the feeling.

    The duke was getting quite excited, however. “RIGHT, LEFT, UPPERCUT… GOOD, NOW DISCOMBOBULATE HER… SHOOT, WATCH OUT FOR THE HAYMAKER! RIGHT, RIGHT… I SAID RIGHT…!” Radovan should have been also telling the two to stop, but instead he was shouting instructions at Blood-Wraith. This caused Rose to give him some of the most incredulous, concerned looks ever.

    The audience roared in excitement as the two clashed. Their brawn and attrition was being pushed to its limits. Eventually they both came to a stand still as they locked arms and pushed up against each other. “Jeez, what is it with boys and wrestling?” Dunja sassed as she struggled.

    “I’M NOT GIVING UP!” Blood-Wraith growled. Fire was surging through his veins.

    “Welp, sorry for what I’m about to do, Blood, but… AHK!” A shockwave knocked him prone, allowing Dunja to grab him by the legs. She swung him around multiple times before letting go, sending him rocketing into the wall. The crash rendered everyone speechless. Dunja looked utterly horrified once the rush of adrenaline had worn off, however. “Uh-oh, I may have put too much into that… BLOOD! ARE YOU OKAY?”

    Before she could go over to him, Englehart leapt down to the arena and went to check on Blood-Wraith. He laid there on his back, returned to his original form of fire and metal. “Blood, how many fingers am I holding up?” the king asked

    “Uh… er 5… 4, 5, 3… 4, 2… 1… 6?”

    “No, boy. That was just an illusion…”

    “I was about to say…” Blood-Wraith remarked as he tried to get up. “Since when do you have six fingers?”

    Englehart laughed and turned to the audience. “Don’t worry, everyone, he’s alright!” With that, the crowd erupted into cheers and applause. Several medic mages rushed over and promptly helped Blood-Wraith onto a stretcher.

    “Are-are you sure he’s going to be alright?” Dunja stuttered as she had trouble maintaining her footing.

    Englehart nodded. “He’ll be fine. The lad is hardy in both mind and body. Besides, I’ve heard this isn’t his first rodeo in regards to hand to hand combat. I trust our match won’t be as rough?”

    Dunja shook her head. “No no, absolutely not. That was completely unexpected.”

    “Excellent. I’d prefer not to strike a lady, especially my own wife. Regardless, you both fought well. Go rest up and get ready for our duel.”

    “Sure thing… ooh, ow ow…ow…”

    As the other medic mages assisted Dunja, Englehart turned back to the audience. “Did we expect anything less from our former queen and one of the heroes of The Iron City?”

    While Englehart commented on the fight to the excited audience, Blood-Wraith had visitors in the medical wing. “Jeez, who taught her how to fight like that?”

    “That would be me, son,” Radovan answered. “I uh… have a past of getting into brawls when I was a youth.”

    Rose shot him a disapproving look. “A past best not to pass on to our newest family member, dear” She chided, then calmed herself. “Although I must say that it’s interesting that he fights with the same grit you had despite his origin. Now Blood, what got into your head that caused you to fight hand to hand like that?”

    “I’m not sure…er, uh… um…” He was still a little dazed from the fight.

    “I presume that earlier had something to do with that?” Radovan put forth. “That drive to prove yourself?”

    Blood-Wraith nodded. “Uh, yeah. That.”

    Dragoslava leaned on the bed frame. “Well at least this time it ain’t for the sake of the Cosmos…”

    Desislav nodded. “Debatably. If that was the Lich, we would have been screwed.”

    Aureolus could not hold back his excitement anymore. “Blood? THAT WAS SO FREAKING COOL” he energetically complimented.

    Blood-Wraith smiled. “Thanks… definitely hurt though…”

    “I noticed you were having trouble when Dunja started using her void magic” Aureolus commented. “Do you want me to teach you Void magic? Or at least what I know at the moment?”

    “Thanks, Aureolus. Sure.”

    “And speaking of that stuff, Desislav! Can I have your soul fragment?”

    “Wait, right now?” He was taken a little off guard.

    Aureolus nodded. “Yup, right now. I’ve made up my mind: I want to be as awesome as Blood and I think you’re my last fragment.”

    Desislav turned to the others, who were nodding in approval. He shrugged. “Um, alright then…” He produced an Indigo flame in his hand that flew right into Aureolus.

    The transformation went off without a hitch… except, not much happened. Two wings like the void of space gently sprouted from his back and condensed into a nifty cape. Furthermore, what appeared to be seven crystal shards began calmly orbiting him. Aureolus was a bit confused to say the least. “That’s it?”

    “Was it supposed to be more grandiose?” Radovan inquired. “How do you feel?”

    “I feel… different. It’s like I’m actually something now… oh hey, look at my body!” It was more solid and visible now.

    “Maybe it’s because you were nothing beforehand…” Blood-Wraith slowly got off the bed. “...so the transformation wouldn’t be as flashy as mine was…”

    Aureolus nodded again. “Yeah, I suppose that makes sense…”

    Rose got up to support Blood-Wraith in case he fell over. “Whoa, easy, sweetie. Are you sure you’re ready to get up?”

    “Yes… ow. Let’s head up to see the next match.”

    The group was greeted by Barna, Corentin, Kresimira, Vexation, and Valentina back at the royal court box. The council was sitting further up in the back. Everyone was relieved to see that Blood-Wraith was alright… then Kresimira got up to scold him. “BLOOD-WRAITH ANDREW RAYNOT-what was that!? That was… it was… How uncouth of you!”

    “Wait, my middle name is Andrew?” This caused the rest of the group to chuckle and giggle.

    “Er, yes!” Kresimira replied. “Honestly I thought I taught you better than that…” She chided as she crossed her arms. “...but I must say that that was some impressive ingenuity on your part. So maybe I did teach you some of that as that quick thinking is to be expected of an alchemist and a Raynot. Well done, Blood… never do that again.”

    “No promises, but I’ll do my best” he stated as he sat down.

    Corentin chuckled. “Now see, If I had been fighting Dunja…”

    “... if you had been fighting Dunja, I’d have to spend the next week fixing you up” Barna interjected. The whole box laughed while Corentin groaned.

    Kresimira gently nudged her future husband. “As much as I worry, let’s leave the fighting to the others, dear.”

    “Alright, fair enough.”

    “It’s starting, everyone!” Vexation pointed out. “I’m curious to see what the king brings to the table.”

    Barna smiled. “If I know my brother, he’s going to turn this into straight up art, rather than a typical bout. A battle of magic rather than might that’s going to be something to remember.”

    “Agreed,” Radovan replied. “Many people don’t realize it, but Englehart has spent years perfecting his alchemy and magic for this day. We’ll see how Dunja handles this.”


Next: Chapter 17

ULTRAMagic Alternate © 2022 William Ford II (ChaoticTempleKnight)

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