EA Chapter 29 - End of the Match

The prince’s screams echoed around the arena, and he staggered away from Luna with his arm dangling limp at his side. It was a clean dislocation, the Clerics could easily mend it. But it would hurt something fierce.

Luna sighed, settling her hands on his hips. “I gave you an easy out. You chose this path,” she said, a dull look on her face. The placid expression, mixed with the dried blood flaking off around her mouth, made her look like some storybook monster. “Now. The other arm. And then.... Oh I haven’t decided if I’ll go for your legs, or just kick you out of the arena.”

Aryn sucked in air through his teeth, the following exhale tinged with faint laughter. “You think... you’re funny, huh?” he asked.

“I think I’m hilarious,” Luna said flatly. She could feel the eyes on her, the stunned silence of the crowd near-deafening.

“Then I’ve got... something you’ll really get a kick out of.”

His eyes fixed onto Luna, his pupils suddenly flashing golden. A great tremor rocked the arena, and in an instant his near-exhausted qi began to skyrocket. Luna felt her own eyes widen, and she stiffly lowered herself into a fighting stance as the tremors grew stronger and stronger.

And then, slowly, something began to rise around Aryn’s feet. Plumes of golden flame that glittered brilliantly. The skies overhead began to darken, the clouds growing dark and sodden with rain.

“Aryn Oathsworn!” Master Yifang’s roaring voice cut through the rumbling thunder overhead. “Cease, this instant!”

Aryn didn’t seem to hear. His face darkened, wreathed in shadow, save for his luminous eyes. The arena fractured around his feet, portions of the tiles breaking apart and floating around him as if in a bubble of inverted gravity. He raised his functioning arm, and Luna saw something gradually take shape from the periphery of her vision.

It was... a creature of some kind, unlike anything Luna was familiar with, a silhouette of flaming scales. And the more defined it became, the more she understood that this upsurge in qi was not from the princess. It’s an invocation, she realised with grim certainty. He’s getting power from another source.

In her homeland, it had not been uncommon for wizards to beseech aid from demons and patron deities. Luna had always abstained. He knew full well that the likes of Thoth, Amon, Dagon, and Hastur had built up a vast collection of souls from wizards who failed to read the fine print in whatever contract they signed.

Still, Luna had thought there were no gods to invoke in this land.

The power surged in a great pulse, making the barrier around the stands shriek and groan in protest of the pressure. Luna brace herself, wincing for what was to come. That much power, she knew, would kill her.

So she’d simply have to kill him first. Prince or otherwise, she’d defend herself. Though it seemed Kane hadn’t been lying about his brother’s violent tendencies.

She took aim, preparing a shot of Null to cleave him in twain.

And then, before either cadet could move, something zoomed directly behind Aryn. Even Luna’s enhanced senses struggled to perceive Yifang in motion. In one quick move he chopped the back of the prince’s neck, knocking him to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

“This match is ended,” he said, anger rich in his voice. The clouds overhead steadily parted, and the strange light around Aryn vanished entirely. But she knew the royal pain was still alive, just knocked out cold.

For a moment, and it was only brief a moment at that, she glimpsed how strong the head of the faculty potentially was. She had a long way to go if she was to topple the upper echelons of this society.

The light around the stands slowly flickered out, the pressure of Aryn’s qi gradually lessening until the barrier had fully mended itself. The prince had come within a hair’s breadth of putting every other cadet at risk, and that sense of unease was felt by everyone in the stands.

“And you, Cadet Alcett,” Yifang said, giving her an icy stare. “Will join me in my office. Now.”

“As you say, sir,” Luna said, managing a pleasant (if bloody) smile.