Chapter 49 The Battle Over Dunthir Nayali Northstar trembled with excitement at the challenge before her. To fight, battle, and not kill the opponent before her. This meant she would have to hold back, or so she thought. The goal was never to kill, at least not kill the golden male. That was his nickname, the golden male. At least as far as Ajimal and his faction were concerned. That was the only way to describe the male who slew dragons and could never be seen until the aftermath of his passing in time was clear. She knew she had to also be careful, in many of the futures she too died, and the golden bubble moved on. This revelation that in some of the futures she outright perished caused her to question the readings. She was powerful. She was so much more powerful now, after her merging with the divine stone. just as her brother had. Still, she knew she had a long way to go with fully understanding the powers granted by the stone, even now her body sometimes struck out too hard. Or she couldn’t fully contain the force of a strike. A second ago was a prime example of her strikes being too powerful. She had only meant to incapacitate the warrior, but her blast had been so powerful that she took down every ship but the man she was sent to seduce over to her brother’s side. She had understood her lot in life from an early age. She had always been beautiful, always been placed on a pedestal. She had also always been told that one day she would be married off to form stronger alliances for her brother. Originally that was to be the second prince of the Belkins, her brother even managed to find someone willing to capture the first betrothed wife and have her taken as a prisoner. Yet, fate had conspired against him. Fate in the form of a golden bubble. Not only did the first woman return unharmed, but she returned to be even more powerful of an Oracle than when she left. That was the first warning of the golden bubble, the one that could not be predicted. The golden bubble that only left change in its wake. Nayali herself had the talent, to view into the future. While she was never as powerful or skilled with the gift as her mother, she could still see the changes being brought about on the winds of destiny. She could still see the future. With this course of action, guaranteeing two years truce she managed to live through every possible outcome. In one version of the future she won, she won so handedly that the golden bubble died, and she saw the corpse of the man who was before her. That one future was also the darkest, she wasn’t quite sure of what happened only that within seven years of the golden one dying, the world fell into darkness. With that she promised to never let that fate happen. She remembered the look on the boy’s face, he had a handsome face. Even now, his face was calm and handsome. Looking at him, caused a shiver to run down her spine as it felt like she was doing something inappropriate. For so long looking at this man while he lived had been denied to her, and now she got to see him. It was like finally being able to see a secret that had been hidden from view for so long. Overall she wasn’t too impressed. The boy was handsome, but there were others who were more handsome in the Azani kingdom. He was tall and lean, like he was still growing into his body. The signs of muscles were there and one day he would fill out to be a very strong man whose muscular frame alone could intimidate others from daring to fight him. But there at his heart, there was something that beat with pure power and determination. Staring at him, she saw flecks of gold shining behind his eyes. Gold that seemed to eat away at the normal brown hue of his eyes and light up the morning sky like two micro-suns being set ablaze before her. Micro-suns for eyes that themselves looked to be a minor version of the golden god’s eye he had called forth to witness their duel. She knew that she couldn’t glance at the golden god’s eye as to be distracted at this point would invite folly. It was clear form all the reports that he was a skilled warrior, though she wondered just how effective he would be now that his spirit sword had shattered. She heard the tales of how the high wood elf warriors were shells of their former selves after suffering such defeat. Still the man before her looked resolute in his actions. She stared at him; his sword pulled out as he got into a ready stance while floating in the air. Nayali too pulled out her sword ready to counter any strike that came her way. They were a dozen meters away at most by now. With the wave of her hand, she could call forth a torrent of energy to obliterate the man before her. Yet, she knew from her visions that this never worked, though she knew not how. Instead, she saw that using the sword was the best course of action. Nayali rolled her blade in her hand slightly. This seemed to be a sign that the duel had officially begun as Lykan began to charge forward. He was fast, faster that even Ajimal was before the merger with the dark pillar. Still, she herself was a skilled swordswoman, one who had bested many would-be suitors. She herself was an expert level wielder of the advanced sword form Sword Mastery. She was confident in her ability to wield a sword. She also knew that after the benefits of the dark pillar her attributes had gone well past the normal human maximum. While she knew she should be stronger, something in her gut told her that she needed to be cautious. She adjusted her blade to the left, as it seemed that Lykan was trying to strike from her left side, her off-hand side. This was a foolish tactic, as she was ambidextrous and capable of striking from either side with ease. Still, she let him have his sense of confidence as he drew closer. As he got closer the muscles in her body began tightening, readying to strike out from any form of attack that could happen from her left. He was moving so fast that he was almost a blur, but Nayali’s enhanced senses tracked him, if barely. Then he disappeared. What? She scanned the sky left and right, but he was gone. Slice. A sharp pain erupted from her right arm. She turned just in time to see that Lykan had somehow appeared over and behind her. Rather than moving left or right, he seemed to be aware of the Flying Sword Style, or at least its distract and attack from different angles. Nayali turned to counter, their swords clinking in air. Almost as soon as the wound appeared, her newfound energy began to heal the wound almost instantly. Seeing this Lykan nodded as if he had expected such a reaction and struck again. He was quick, far quicker than Nayali had given him credit for. Worse, he was good. Every form Nayali tried was quickly countered, deflected, and redirected back at her. Cuts. Hundreds of cuts appeared over her body, ripping her uniform in places. Fortunately, the wounds all healed almost instantly. Still, it was apparent that when it came to the sword Lykan was unmatched. Panting. She was panting from exertion. Not only was she being batted about, but her strikes were all ultimately ineffective. Just as she thought she would land a strike he would disappear again, only to appear above, below, or a foot away from where he had just been and strike from a different angle. After a point she realized that he had been drawing her up higher into the air. At first it had been subtle, switching positions so he was over top of her at an angle causing all her strikes and lunges to shoot her forward. At first, she thought he was doing it for gravity, or to add power to his strikes but if anything, his strikes became lighter. He was clearly holding back in their exchanges. While it was clear from their earlier exchanges that he could strike harder, he didn’t. Instead, he hit only enough to deflect her blade out of the way to give a sweeping cut. Death by a thousand cuts. Nayali mused. In the past such an attack would have been devastatingly effective, bleeding out slowly was one way she had scarred off many would-be suitors. Still with this, with her newfound power healing instantly from such wounds was easy. With each cut and heal Lykan would retreat. As if giving Nayali a chance to recover. At first, she felt enraged about him staring at her. It was only she realized he was watching her wounds heal that she began to realize he might not be a full creep. He floated there, his back facing towards the heavens all while looking down on her. After one such exchange, she looked to see that there were dozens of tiny slashes all over her body. “You see that this is pointless?” Nayali asked. Lykan just smiled a slight smirk that didn’t reach his eyes and shook his head. “You can quit at any time. Just declare it before the gods and everyone.” Lykan said, with a gesture to the golden eye that had risen with their duel. Nayali looked over to see that the golden eye was indeed floating with them, even though they had gone a good hundred meters up in the air from where they first started this duel. The air was getting thinner and colder. Occasionally, a sudden gust would come, and grab hold of her and threaten to throw her if she didn’t focus. Every slip, or lapse in concentration was quickly acted upon by Lykan. Each time she was jostled by the winds Lykan would strike with a deep cut, a subtle reminder that he was there. Realizing he had gotten the better quip she shook her head and once again rose up to exchange sword strikes. This was frustrating, never had she met someone so skilled with the blade. Also, his attributes were clearly close to, if not exactly mirroring her. The only real difference that she could notice was skill proficiency. But she was an Expert level Master Swordswoman, how could this be? Panting. Even with her heightened Attributes she found the air tough to breath and process. That and the exertion of trying to keep up with the flurry of blows reigning down upon her. While she could instantly heal each strike, each strike was still painful to feel. Each cut a reminder of how far away she was from perfection. Each slice a reminder of why her brother wanted, no needed this man to join his cause. There was a tale of how the first Azani king had subdued a wilder man to his cause. That wilder man soon became the most trusted general of the first Azani king. That man was also allowed to leave the King’s side once he had established his reign in the lands that are now known for his name. That man went on to then form his own kingdom after being granted his freedom by his longtime friend. That man’s name was Sidhertha, who like Azani went on to form a kingdom in his own namesake. Or so the legend goes. That was why Ajimal wanted to recruit Lykan so desperately to his cause. This man was to be his Sidhertha. Still frustration began to bite at Nayali, this was tougher and far harder than she had expected. With each cut she received it was another reminder of how she was not good enough for her beloved brother. So much rested upon her shoulders, she knew that with this man by her brother’s side he would be able to conquer the world. Yet even with all her blessings from the dark pillar she was nothing compared to his skills. That left, but one alternative. “I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this.” Nayali said, as she began to call forth the torrents of black energy that raged inside her. She had used but a small portion of the offered energy to heal her wounds thus far. Hearing this Lykan just nodded his head. Had he known? Had he anticipated this very course of events? The thought went through Nayali’s mind as she realized just how high up, they were. They were hundreds of meters over the destroyed town of Dunthir. Hundreds of meters away from any reinforcements that might be able to come to Lykan’s aid. A surge of energy began to billow up and out of her body surging straight for Lykan. Only now did she realize she could release the full force of her attack as it wouldn’t hurt any innocent bystanders. Then another thought hit her, was that why he led me away? The thought was too late, and it was inconsequential. She would strike with a blow that she knew would not kill the man. ZAP! Dark lightning flowed from her hand and went straight towards Lykan. Rather than trying to dodge the strike, Lykan only nodded slightly to himself a sign that he had been prepared all along. Then he sliced forward with his sword and split the bolt of arcing lightning. “Wha..” Was all Nayali managed to say, before the now two bolts of lightning circled back and struck her. Worse, the torrent of energy kept flowing from her own body. It was as if her own energy was being forced to fuel a never-ending stream of energy that came out and struck her from two different sides. PAIN! Unyielding pain struck her, filled her bones as her own body was being forced to strike out against itself to fuel this pained attack. Particles of her hair began rising, the odd sight momentarily distracting her. It took her a second to realize that she was falling. Worse as she fell, the figure of the man above her fell with her. Watching the boy with his sword still in hand, a sword that had caused so much pain, something snapped within her. “Bastard!” Nayali screamed as she fought to gain control of the power within her body. She managed to do so, but only over a portion, the darker portion of her power. The power that was not fully hers, at least not yet. This was the power that was provided by the dark pillar. This was the power that had turned the weaker men that went before her to ash and salt. This was the power she called forth and fired in one angry bolt at the man. Then with horror she realized this was the same attack she had used the time when she killed Lykan. The one that eventually lead to a dark future within seven years. Desperately she tried to call back the spell, but her mind couldn’t focus. At least not as well as she needed it to for such an action. She was falling and being struck with her own empowered lightning attack. An attack that stopped. Nayali gasped for a second, relieved by the fact that the seemingly endless flows of corrupted electricity finally relented from being ripped out of her own core and forced to fuel a devastating attack against herself. She looked up, to see the boy slice at the corrupted bolt. Half split off going wildly into space, but the other half hit him square in the chest. She watched as the glowing golden light in his eyes instantly faded as he began falling in an uncontrolled mass towards the ground. Seeing him in such a state, all the rage that had filled her a moment ago faded as she tried desperately to go to him. But the power she had been using to fly a moment ago was gone. She too was falling dangerously to the ground. Thud. Her body crashed into the ground, bounced once, then twice. And finally came to a rest with a slow rattle on the ground. Just when she could take stock of her own injuries, she heard something that caused her heart to flutter with fear. Thud. In a moment she knew the second thud was the body of Lykan landing on the ground. A sea of pain filled her mind as she realized she had failed in her goal. He was dead. She had used the attack she swore she wouldn’t, but she held back. At least she tried to. She tried to move her head to the right, to see the body that landed so close to her. But she couldn’t, the energy she had been using was gone. Her entire body felt broken, but she was alive at least for now. Then a dark thought hit her, as she wondered what the world would be like without the golden one. She had failed. She closed her eyes and let the endless darkness filled with pain overtake her overtaxed mind. Darkness.