Chapter 17- Lucarus and Aarushi

Lucarus and I stand in the middle of the arena ten paces from each other. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses perfectly. We can both bend fire. Each of us is fast and agile. I am stronger and have more abilities with fire such as explosions. He has unhuman hearing and reflexes from all the many pranks I pulled on him over the years. Each of us are determined to beat the other and prove our strength.

He is my best friend. I love him as such. He is one of the driving forces in this life time that keeps me motivated and happy. He would be the first person that I can truly call friend. When we were younger his naive innocence changed me in to who I am now. Because of my great respect for him I can’t go easy. I must fight with my all.

The female announcer riles the crowd. “Today we will see the members of Eternal Flame fight. Each member is an amazing warrior. They have fought side by side for over six months. Each one has saved the other countless times but now their swords will be aimed at each other. Lucarus vs Deadra, who will become the victory?” The brass bell rings out as she lowers her hand to start the fight.

The instant the bell rings out I reach for an explosive dagger and fill it with power. Lucarus sends a whirl of flames around himself onto the ground. Smoke rises in the air and I lose sight of him. Hoping I may get lucky I throw the dagger enriched with power into the center of the smoke as I prepare another. Earlier in the tournament I took a person out with a single dagger at the start of the match. As the dagger hits the ground it explodes with a diameter of three feet and clears the smoke near the ground. Lucarus is no longer in the smoke.

He emerges from ten feet in the air out of the smoke diving at me with his blade. I throw the second charged dagger. He shoots flames to his side barely dodging the blade and completely avoiding the explosion. Since he has seen my skills so often, he knows not to block my daggers. He lands next to me due to being forced off course. As he lands he tucks and rolls behind me. I slash in his direction wile spinning around and begin to charge an explosion into my open hand. He blocks the attack with his blade and pushes it back slightly. Not wanting to hurt him directly I release the bomb from my hand not at him but into our colliding swords.

Grunting as he flies back several feet he lands on his back. I charge at him while he is undefended. As if he is break dancing he spins his legs in the air and helicopters back into a standing position. As he lands down onto the ground from his acrobatic move while I thrust my blade toward his stomach. He slices at my blade forcing it to slide past him. The blade nicks the side of his stomach. His leather armor splits open and red drips down from his side.

With a roar he ignites his blade with fire to try and repulse my own. I feel strength build in my blade as the fire in his own shrinks. Lucarus says “What is this? Your dam sword is stealing my fire!” he pushes my sword away while back stepping. “Damn! I didn’t think I would need to pull my trump card so early.” He puts his sword back into its holster.

“Oh you have a trump card? What move could you pull that I haven’t already seen?”

He ignites his hands and arms, something him and I have been able to do for a long time. He replies “This one!” The fire ignited over his arms grows and pulls off of his body forming a second pair of arms. Continually compressing they become solid. A blazing red set of arms with claws the size of my midsection erect from Lucarus’s shoulders. Flame spreads over his body making him look like a four armed demon.

With his face shrouded with flame Lucarus announces “I call this my unleashed form. It’s something I hid from you hoping to one day use it to beat you in a fight. Hehe your not the only one with secrets. Now if you’re a man stop cheating and using that over powered sword, I put mine away.” The feeling of an excited smile resonates from behind the fires.

It is true that this blade gives me a large advantage. It can make my flame power ignite thirty two times stronger. And as we just learned it can absorb my opponent’s flames as well. Respecting Lucarus’s wishes I toss the blade into the ground. Cracking my neck from side to side the blood boils inside me. I shouldn’t hold back any more either. If I don’t give it my all I will lose. Guess I better use my secret technique as well.

“Lucarus, you are my best friend, I will not insult you by holding back. This will end with the next attack.”

The heat from my body dissipates and I become cold. My eyes glaze over and my vision blurs. I gather microscopic pockets of energy all over my body. Each one takes less than a moment to develop and almost zero energy. However all the pockets combined take a large toll on my body. It drains any remaining energy I have but can also be used when I have little to no energy. This technique was developed when my power was almost completely drained. I discovered it when I killed the rock golem but didn’t realize it at the time. At the time my body should not have been able to move, for I had drained every spec of energy I had into the blade, but somehow I pushed forward. By draining the heat from my body and using it to propel my muscles forward I explode each muscle into reacting beyond their limits. Over the past six months I further developed it to allow myself to move faster and hit harder. I gained strength beyond that of a human, but I lose all my pyromancer abilities while I use it. Eventually I improved it to heighten my reaction time at the cost of my eyesight. I can barely see the world around me but what I do see moves at the pace of a snail. This skill takes every ounce of concentration, and can only be done by someone who has mastered every type of control, both fluid motion like Lucarus and explosive power like Aarushi. If I make a small mistake I will tear my body apart. This is the first time I will use this technique over my entire body and senses all at once. I have no idea what the outcome will be.

Lucarus pushes off the ground toward me like a bullet being released from a gun. All four of his arms come to grab at me. To the crowd it ends in a flash, however not for me. Lucarus inches at me midair like molasses slowly moving downhill. I can’t make out the details of his body and only see red blurs. I run past him while wrenching my foot into his side. The moment my foot makes contact intense heat and pain envelop it. I can feel his side collapse bellow the force along with my own foot breaking. The fire covering his body burns me even though I only touched him for a split second. I use the spot my foot hit as a step to propel myself upward. Using the momentum I land a second kick to the back of his head. In a fluid motion I drop a knee on the spine of his back as I land on top of him. Kicking off his back I land behind him. My body explodes in pain. Using this skill for almost a full second drains me of energy and strength. My most powerful skill, but at what cost?

Through sheer will power I force myself to continue to stand as I hear Lucarus hit the ground. Both my feet are broken and my legs have minor burns. If I fall down I will not be able to get back up. I can’t move an inch from this spot.

To someone watching from the outside they would have only seen Lucarus jump at me and then nothing. I would have simply vanished. Lucarus would suddenly slam into the ground completely unconscious. His ribs broken, his back bruised, and a giant lump on the back of his head would have come from no were. And in the same instant of me vanishing and Lucarus taking damage I would appear standing completely motionless behind him.

The arena is silent. Everyone stares in aww at what just happened. The fight that was displayed is not of beginners, yet this is the beginner’s tournament. No one in the audience can understand what happened. For several seconds not a soul moves.

Breaking the silence and slowly picking up her enthusiasm the Announcer says “I uh I think Deadra is the winner! In a flash he somehow destroyed Lucarus who is now down for the count. Deadra is the winner!” The crowd cheers uncontrollably.

After being realized as the winner I allow myself to give into my pain and drop to the ground. Everything goes black as I become unconscious.

As the world comes back to me I slowly open my eyes and sit up in place. I am in a room similar to the one my friends and I have been waiting in. A man in a black and white suit similar to a referee stands by the door. The man says “You’re finally awake! It’s been fifteen minutes since the match. We have you all healed so you can now fight in the finally. Are you ready to fight?”

I still have no energy in my body. Sitting up is a struggle. I know that it would take several hours and a good nights sleep to restore my energy fully. In this world magic comes from every part of your body. As you use magic it equally wears down every part of your body. It physically exhausts you. Right now I am in no condition to fight, but Aarushi would be very mad at me if she won by forfeit so I must push myself for her.

I nod my head silently. The man guides me from the room back to the arena. I walk out of the gate to see Aarushi standing in the middle of the arena with her arms crossed and a sour look on her face.

As I approach her she says “You idiot! You really put a number on Lucarus and yourself what were you thinking?”

I bow my head slightly. “He was taking the fight seriously so I didn’t want to insult him by going easy. I also might have lost if I didn’t push myself that hard.”

She flips her hair and scoffs. “Humph, well whatever just don’t use this as an excuse when I kick your butt! And don’t forget what happens when I win!” As she thinks about winning she struggles to hide a smile on her face.

“Oh and what will you have me do if you win?”

Aarushi blushes slightly and throws her arms at her sides. “This is not the right place to talk about that!”

Knowing she is thinking something perverted I smile slightly. Before I can tease her further the bell rings out and the match begins.

I think I love Aarushi. She is always making me smile and laugh. She is always there for me. Her silly and cute mannerisms fill me with joy. She is honest with everything she does. Sometimes too honest that she becomes blunt. She loves fighting more than anything else. Her face always is filled with joy and bliss as her fists collide with her target. If I want to connect with her more I clash in combat with her.

Aarushi is a straightforward aggressive tank when it comes to fighting. She is stronger and more relentless than me. She is amazing at fighting monsters or people who do not expect her to charge in without mercy. But her strength is also her weakness. She never needs to defend because her opponents usually get decimated with her literal explosive punches. This means her defense should be completely worthless. Even though I am in a weakened state I should be able to juke her attack and spin around behind her. Then I can hit her in the back of the head with my sword and nock her out.

Just as I though Aarushi charges directly at me without any thought. She throws a punch toward my face and I weave to the left. A rush of heat and air hit the side of my head as an explosion emits from Aarushi’s fist. I side step to the left as a second aims for my stomach.

I am standing next to her now and she throws another punch but I push it to the right and spin myself to the left slowly moving behind her. As I finish the spin I slash with the blunt end of my sword at the back of her head. This is it. This is where I will win since Aarushi has no defense.

Without even looking she dodges the strike by squatting down two feet. Surprised by her dodging my attack my sword swings over her head and pulls me forward leaving me open to be counter-attacked. In her squatted position she turns toward me while rising. She launches a fast and strong uppercut at my chin. Unable to avoid the attack with normal means I force my muscles with explosions. Using my secret technique on only a few muscles does not take as large of a toll on me and can be used with little to no power. I barely miss her punch and have the tip of my nose clipped by her fist. The explosion from her fist sends my head reeling back and forces me to the ground.

A large grunt escapes me as my head and back impact the ground. The shock to my head rattles my brain and leaves me unable to think. When I come back to my senses Aarushi’s fist is approaching my head. Not having time to move my whole body I strain my neck as far to the side as I can. The explosion shatters the ground and my ear drum alike.

Aarushi falls on top of me pinning my arms to my sides with her legs. Her fist rests in a hole to the right of my head. A bead of sweat drips off her button nose landing on my ear. Her chest rises up and down as she breathes heavily. Her crimson hair tied back hangs over her shoulder. Her green eyes meet my crimson ones. Her lips move to say something but I can’t hear her due to the ringing in my ear.

“What? I can’t hear out of my right ear.”

With the hand not stuck in the ground she shifts her hair behind her. Leaning over she puts her lips to my ear. “Are you ok? You’re being slower than usual.”

I hadn’t realized that I slowed down so much. My secret technique must only be used as a last resort. I reply “I don’t have any energy left from Lucarus’s fight. The move I used to finish him off ripped all my remaining power from me.”

“You should give up, I don’t want to needlessly hurt you.” Aarushi kisses my cheek before she sits back up. She places a hand above my head and leans forward for support while ripping her fist from the ground. As she stands up she claps her hands together rubbing off the dust. “So what’s your choice?” she asks.

“I give up, you win!” honestly I don’t know if I have the strength to even stand right now.

Aarushi pumps her fist in the air and screams “Yessss! I win!” She spins while pumping her fists in the air. After a few moments of celebrating she comes back over to me and reaches out a hand. The announcer begins to announce the results and the crowd goes wild.

I grab her hand and she pulls me up. I wrap my arm around her and let her support my weight. “Thanks Aarushi, you’re really amazing.”

“No don’t thank me, you’re going to have to make this up to me.” She turns her head at me and sticks her tongue out and pulls down on one of her eyes.

“Haha you really make the cutest faces don’t you?”

Aarushi stops with her face and instead tilts her head. Although I was being sarcastic about her previous face this one is very cute. Her green eyes become slightly doey-eyed. Her small lips open slightly in confusion. “You think that face is cute? Wait that means you think I’m cute!” As she says this a feel a slight skip in her step.

“Of course I think you cute, especially when you get that look of confusion!”

She tilts her head and gives me the very look I mentioned. “What look of confusion?”

“The one you just gave, you know when you tilt your head and think for a second before talking.”

Tilting her head again she thinks about what to say. “I don’t tilt my head nor give off a weird face, what are you talking about?”

Raising my eyebrows in confusion I ask “Really?”

She nods her head and with a chipper voice says “Yup!”

She really is an air head, but she is my air head. Not really sure how to respond to her stupidity I ask “So when will you tell us what we have to do?”

“Well since you gave up you owe me so I’m making you do two things! The first one I’ll tell everyone when we get back to the others.”

After that we stay silent tell we get back to Lucarus and Rhea in our small waiting room. Rhea heals me but I am still exhausted. Before we are able to get our money for winning Lucarus has a match with the person Aarushi beat to decide who gets third. He wins easily once again. Aarushi received five hundred gold pieces I receive two hundred and fifty and Lucarus got one hundred. After we receive our gold we all go out to a nice restaurant.

While eating the dinner Aarushi orders four large mugs of mead. She places each one in front of us and raises her own mug in the air. “Since I won I declare that everyone must drink and celebrate with me tonight! No holding back I’ll pay so everyone bottoms up!”

I grab my mug and clash it against hers sloshing foam from the mug. “To our first tournament!” everyone raises their glasses. We haven’t drunk like this since we were in our home village. I wonder what tonight will have to bring?