Faction Showdown XVII

Faction Showdown XVII

It was night. The entire Lumisonian team forged a makeshift party for their quest over to the Locked Arena, so that they could have a meet with the magicians from the Wildcard team. Drake knew that the battlefield was in the hands of Jay Slatford in those minutes in which they trekked to the other side. Jay represented the darkness, in the opinion of Drake. He was the danger that lurked in the shadows, even more so than Harold Alle could have ever hoped to achieve. The one known as the ‘Unknown’ paled in comparison to the one who called himself the ‘Twilight,’ despite his best efforts to be the most threatening individual in Malevolence City. If Jay were to ever encourage himself to overtake noble houses or cities, he could potentially be on-par with the professors and gang lords of the Hells capitol city.
And Drake expected some form of resistance as the seven of them made their way. Tracy, Nak, Drake, Lloyd, Bill, Dash, and Jake were slightly less than halfway down their trail when they heard a bit of a rustle in a nearby tree. Their formation kept Drake in the middle, and when he stopped everyone else stopped. Instantly, Lloyd brought out his dual medium-swords and got into a battle stance. Unwilling to call out his opponent, Lloyd and the others could only stand in wait. Underneath his robes, Nak drew his wand. Bill began to focus his attention on the tree as Jake and Dash drew their respective wands. Even Drake kept his attention on the tree, despite knowing that the threat probably didn’t come from there.
From around the tree, a small shadow appeared on the ground. A cloaked, dark shadow, and a singular one at that. It couldn’t have been Jay, for it was too small of a shadow. The singular entity turned the corner as several other shadows blotted out his, and therefore his identity. The darkness cast over him by the other beings kept his identity intact, but his voice revealed who he was.
“Well, aint this all them Central Lumis spell casters?”
It was Oliver Cain. Drake and Lloyd could recognize his butchered language anywhere.
“This isn’t a place for you, Cain.” Lloyd called out as he stood confidently at that point in time. “All of us have our weapons aimed and ready to kick your ass if you move any closer.”
He had to set the boundaries, and so he set them at movement. If Cain made a move, someone would cast a spell. It appeared that Cain was willing to abide by that rule, even though he continued to speak.
“Now you know I aint just able t’ let ya go on there down to the other side, now.” Cain’s body wasn’t truly visible, and it kept Lloyd on-edge about what he could potentially be doing. He slowly pieced together that those keeping him company were probably dead beings, whether they were the skeletons he’d fought in previous duels or the undead veteran soldiers he’d heard so much about. “Y’all gotta give me somethin’ or I’ll just take what I can get.”
“You all fight with the same strange code of chivalry?” Drake finally asked. “It seems like any duel you enter, your main concern is with fighting someone one-on-one. Why is that?”
Cain chuckled.
“Chiva’ry? I don’t reckon I know what that means.” Another chuckle. “Y’all think I’m tryin’ t’ grab someone in some one-on-one fight? Naw. Just lookin’ t’ throw down a little. Have sum fun.”
“You’re pressing me, Cain.” Lloyd was getting frustrated with Oliver’s constant verbal advances. At any time, he could attack. “You know I hate these stupid games.”
“A’ right. I’ll leave y’all now. Have a good night.”
The Central force continued to have their eyes fixed on the wall of darkness, but didn’t recognize any movement in it. They couldn’t originally distinguish Oliver Cain from the others, and they couldn’t see anybody moving to leave.
Then, one of the shadows pulled out a weapon and the others began to do the same. Drake flicked one of his fingers down and a gust of wind swept them all down, roughly. Having made the first move, Drake pointed for the attack to commence.
“Cain may still be in the vicinity! If he is, remain in this radius and attack!”
One by one, the undead soldiers were picked apart by different spells. Jake burned one with a rage of pure heat while Bill ripped one to pieces with blades of air. Tracy froze one on the spot and Nak brought down a bolt of lightning on another. Lloyd advanced while these spells were cast, paying less attention to any undead body being knocked down and much more attention on whether any of them looked like Oliver Cain. Then, across the quad to the Elemental Arena, Lloyd could see a robed individual rushing to retreat. He wasn’t far. Lloyd began to rush outside of the designated radius of attack and flicked one of his sword arms to cast basic spells. A fireball rushed out, then a gust of wind, but none of them seemed to have any lasting effect. The gust appeared to knock Cain down, but only long enough for him to rise and keep rushing away. Lloyd heard Drake calling him back and stopped as Cain appeared to retreat into the Elemental Arena doors. Frustrated, he sheathed his swords and walked briskly back in the direction of the piled up corpses.
Upon his return, the others were still scouring their surroundings for other magicians.
“I almost had him.” Lloyd said, rather angrily. “If you were there, you would have seen how damn close I was. Now, if we lose, I’ll know I had the chance and blew it.”
“Chance is better than nothing, though, man.” Bill placed his wand away in his inner coat pocket. “Don’t kick your own ass because you lost him. I mean he ran before anybody knew he moved.”
“Bill’s right, Lloyd.” It was Nak’s turn to console. “Cowards run and hide, but we can’t deny that they’re good at what they do.”
“I’m supposed to be good at what I do.” Lloyd waved a hand in frustration and began a pace on the original path they were intending to take. “Whatever, let’s just keep going.”
And they would have kept going, but all the members of the Central team stopped and drew their wands when they saw their original path was impeded on once more, only directly instead of off to the side. In front of the road was a black-haired mage cloaked in grayish dueling robes, though in the darkness it might have been black. He swept off his outer robe to reveal a small gray cape underneath, light armor, and what appeared to be a light sword at his waist. The other side of his waist sported a sheath for a wand. Only nobles bothered with sheathes for their wands; this was a mage of supreme magic: Edgar Mercosso of the metal.
“Any one of you willing to engage in a formal duel?”
Bill was first to react.
“Where do you get off, thinking we’ll play by your rules?” Bill even took a step forward, to the front of Drake, and alongside Lloyd. “All of you nobles think you’re so strong that you can force us to just do what you want.”
Edgar frowned.
“I’m not prideful enough to think that you would all abide by our rules. But all of us nobles believe in honor before the high magic lords, and so we either fight many to the death or one to the victory.” Edgar waved one of his hands in an elegant fashion and around him came the other four magicians of supreme magic: Vyre, Leo, Amy, and Hest, the magicians of electricity, fire, water, and wind. Each of the Central magicians began selecting their respective targets, as each of the magical lords threw off their outer robes as Edgar had, revealing each their different dueling ensembles.
The ensembles didn’t deviate too greatly from each other, though there were slight deviations. Instead of a cape, Amy simply wore a long scarf and carried a vial of water at her side. Leo decided against wearing any kind of armor and substituted his armor for a sash, which sported his knife, and a single medallion, which was probably anti-magic and warded lesser spells aimed at him. Hest appeared to have worn smaller robes underneath the larger set of robes, further obscuring what he could have been wearing underneath. The smaller robes also had a hood, which he flipped over his head as soon as he abandoned the larger, cape-like set. As for Vyre, he wore what appeared to be a vest made of cotton underneath his robes, goldenrod in color, and had a sheath for a sickle sword instead of a long sword as most of the others held. None of these magicians had drawn their wands yet.
“There are seven of you,” Edgar counted. “There are five of us. We magicians are willing to take these odds. The question is: are you willing to take these odds without first being willing to accept a one-on-one duel against one of us?”
Lloyd took a step back to Drake and began to whisper in his ear.
“I thought the Wildcards were gonna come out if this sort of thing happened, to even the odds on the spot.”
Drake frowned, then whispered back.
“They probably would have, but nobody could sense their magic signatures. There’s no way they know yet. We have to get into a duel with all of them and hope to survive if we want it to happen that way. And if we do, it may be too late.”
Hest took a few steps towards Edgar and began to whisper in his ear. Drake’s attention was averted as this occurred and Edgar nodded.
“So that’s your plan,” Edgar began. “You believe that if you can outlast all five of us, you can wait out the Locked Arena team and sandwich us between Lance and all of you.”
Drake swallowed.
“That was the idea.”
“Hest is a master of wind magic.” Edgar grinned. “It was simple for him to route some of the sound through the wind. Carry it, if you will. Now, please make your choice. You may still have us engage you in a five against seven duel to the death, but remember who you’re dealing with. The other option is to take us on, one of us, in an honorable single duel to the defeat.”
“Remember that if you take the five against seven odds, some of you get defeated while nothing happens to the Wildcards,” Leo pointed out. “You wanna try and sandwich us, go for it, but you’ll leave them with no casualties. Then you’ll be in trouble, and more than us.”
Drake frowned and took a step forward.
“If it’s a one on one duel you want, then I’m willing to oblige any one of you, so long as it is one.”
The supreme magic lords at once seemed surprised and turned to speak quietly to one another. Drake swallowed as the other Central magicians slightly crowded around him.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Lloyd began. “You don’t have to do this.”
“Evening the odds is the goal, and if that’s how it has to be done, that’s how it has to be done.”
“Can you beat them?” Bill sounded only slightly concerned. “I mean, I’ve never seen them duel, so…”
“They duel like any other magician would, but with more confidence and more bravado.” Drake raised an eyebrow. “If that’s the case, then this is a good opportunity to prove to them that confidence alone does not win a battle.”
Edgar turned to them and pointed to Drake.
“Anybody but you.”
“What?” Drake raised his hands in confusion. “You wanted a noble duel, I obliged, what seems to be the problem, here?”
“Consider it for a moment, Headmaster.” Edgar explained with eloquent hand gestures. “What would you do if you had planned an assault on an unknown number of Hells individuals, came across their group, challenged one to a single duel only to find that Jay Slatford were willing to oblige. Would you take up the duel or say exactly what I just said?”
“If my ethics were based on honor, I’d have one of us duel Jay Slatford.”
“Now that’s just hot-headed!” Leo shouted as he took several steps towards the group, which converged in a makeshift wall around Drake. “You talk like you know it all, but greenback, yellow-headed bastards like you don’t know the half of what it is to challenge someone to an honorable duel. You throw it back on us like you expect us to accept some kind of lopsided battle that we’re meant to lose.” Leo was practically inches away from Lloyd, the first one in front of Drake. “Well I think that’s a coward’s way of dueling. How about one of you step up and show me that you’re not a coward and can fight for your captain instead of making him do all the dirty work for you?”
“Leo, that’s enough.” Edgar called, and the fire magician took measured steps back. “Look, we’re getting nowhere with all of this useless babble. I’ll say it once again, one of you duel one of us, not your captain, and the loser retreats from the field. If not, and we have an all-out duel right here, and you risk your casualties. You have five minutes before I allow Leo to cast a spell.”
Drake sighed and looked down.
“I can’t fix this the easy way. They’re not willing to take that challenge.”
The Central magicians formed a semi-circle around Drake and began to throw ideas into the open.
“Look, man.” Bill frowned. “I don’t know who I’ll have to duel, but I’m willing to try my hand against any of those guys. You’ve got to send someone slightly expendable out there who might be able to win. If you ask me, that’s probably myself, Dash, or Jake.”
“It’s a logical decision to put it that way,” Drake said. “It’s quite another to say that we put someone out there who has the highest chance of victory, regardless of expendability. If we were to do that, we have the highest chance of evening these odds. I would send Nak, Tracy, or Lloyd.”
“But what do we know about the enemy?” Lloyd clapped a fist into his opposite hand. “We can’t duel any one of them without knowing what we’re up against. It’s suicide; Drake, we’re going to have to wait out the five minutes and outlast them. They’re not mentioning how badly they’d be crushed if they were to cast a single spell out here.”
“That’s true.” Drake nodded, once. “Then here’s what we’ll do.” He drew his wand, the view of it shielded from the supreme magic houses that may have been watching or listening. He looked up at the rest of them and winked. “I’m going to have to disagree with Lloyd on this one, and send out Nak to duel whichever one of them wants to battle. We don’t want to risk losing any more people because of a tactic William would have thought of. We need strength in numbers.” He swished his wand once; a sign that the others should draw as well. Each of them did, and subtly; most underneath their robes. Drake raised his head and looked over to the Hells magicians.
“Did you get all of that, Hest?”
“Indeed.” Hest relayed the information to Edgar.
“So your intention is to send out…Nak, is it?” Edgar nodded. “Very well, then, he shall duel me.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Drake outstretched his left hand and began counting down from six with his fingers. “Hold on while we get prepared.”
Five, four, three, two, one, and the semi-circle spun out and cast widely different spells at the group of Hells demons. A fireball collided with Edgar, a gust knocked Leo down, a shower of hail hit Hest, and a metal orb struck Vyre in the chest. All of them drew their wands as Amy was the only one readily available to retaliate with an orb made of ice, but all the Central mages retreated as the orb smashed against an invisible barrier in front of Drake. Only Drake stood in front of all five magicians of supreme magic, all with their wands drawn, while the other Central mages hid behind trees and small pillars, wands drawn. At once, Leo stood up and began to engage in single combat with Drake. A wave of heat dispersed off of Drake’s left hand while the Headmaster’s wand shot off a bolt of electricity at Amy, which was absorbed by Vyre. Hest rose and shot a blade of air at Drake, but he dispersed it with a wave of his wand hand and threw down a finger on his left hand to inflict downward force on Leo, who was crushed by wind magic and struggled to stand on bent legs. Edgar rose, drew his sword, and rushed at Drake. The Headmaster deflected another blade of air and called out an indistinct sound. Tracy turned around a tree and shot Edgar down with an orb of ice. Leo finally shrugged off the power of the wind and raised his hands dramatically as a cyclone of flames rose underneath Drake and enveloped the magician in fire. Nak turned the corner and clapped his hands together to cause a cyclone of water to put out the magical flames nearly instantly. Drake, having been burned severely within the first few moments, began to take a few steps in retreat, though Leo and the others continued to cast spells. Tracy kept Edgar pinned with a volley of ice orbs and various water spells, while Bill began to keep Leo pinned by dispersing his fire spells through aimed wind spells. Nak began to copy Bill’s wind spells and dispersed most of Amy Hydrosso’s water spells. All of the Central mages were practically invisible during the course of the exchange, having hid randomly behind trees and pillars. The only individual they were unable to keep down was Vyre, who sporadically cast lightning spells, nearly issuing severe damage to Drake or any others who were still visible. Luckily, Jake and Dash were keen enough to distract him with barrages of fireballs or gusts. Soon enough, Drake had taken enough steps back to ensure his safety and began to heal himself with lesser light magic.
The lords of magic, having been pinned by a seven-on-five duel, recognized the powers of the Central team and began a hasty retreat from their positions. Being very good at defensive magic as well as offensive magic, any spells aimed at them were dispersed by one of several deflection spells or absorption spells. Jake’s fire spells were redirected by Leo, Tracy’s water spells deflected by Amy, Bill’s wind spells deflected by Hest, and so on. As the Hells magicians retreated, Hest was knocked down by an intense beam of light magic shot from behind a tree. He appeared to continue to crawl as Vyre looked back down at him and helped him back up to keep running. Another ray of light shot across the quad, but it was oddly absorbed by what looked like a small black hole. The Hells magicians retreated as the Central magicians regrouped.
From the Locked Arena, Xavier Paltho came upon the scene with his hands raised. The Lumisonians revealed themselves and sheathed their wands.
“It appears you’ve survived. Now, quickly, come with me.”
Xavier put his hands in his pockets and began a brisk walk for the Locked Arena. Lloyd aided Drake in his walk and the other magicians resumed their defensive spots around their captain.
During the walk, very little was said. Tracy forced herself to help Drake walk as well, if only to be close enough to try and soothe the burn wounds with her ice magic. He wasn’t terribly burned, as the cloak he wore deflected some magic, but Leo’s fire was nothing to scoff at.
Tracy leaned up a bit to whisper into Drake’s ear.
“That was brave.”
A smile came to Drake’s face. Meanwhile, Lloyd shook his head on the other side, having no idea what Tracy just said, and chuckled.
“Man, that was stupid.”
An even bigger smile came to Drake’s face as they walked, and a rigid laugh escaped him.