Hello all! Welcome to chapter 21 of 'LoD'. This chapter is finally the battle between Xander and Elsa! I hope you all enjoy it! It was fun to write. It's mostly the battle then I wrote a cute ending to it. Hehe. This will be a short AN so you can read this chapter. Read and enjoy!

Chapter 21

Xander paws at the dirt ground on the inside arena that is part of the training room. It seems yielding not packed on the ground so that it makes it like cement. If somebody hit it hard it won't hurt as much. His ears go to the side in thought. Better to make sure. Elphaba chuckles softly as she watches him start to bounce around the arena with a determined look on his face. He is really taking this seriously.

"Shouldn't you check it out too?" Elphaba asks as she looks to her right. Elsa is standing close to her with her arms crossed tightly across her chest but a fire in her icy blue eyes. She and Xander finally figured out the day they would do their magical duel. They agreed the two would only use their elemental powers to keep in an even playing field. If anyone draws blood the duel is automatically over and the victory is declared to the person who drew the first drop. The green woman is the official watching and making sure it doesn't get out of hand.

"I've worked on this field before." Her daughter murmurs softly. She stumbles forward when her mother nudges her in her back. Elsa looks to her with a raised eyebrow.

"Don't get too cocky here. He has been doing this just as long as you've have. Home field advantage will do you no good." Elphaba points out. The ice witch twitches her nose as she doesn't say anything but silently thanks her mom for the advice. She remembers how proficient Xander was at his magic at a young age. This is a battle that won't be so easily won. Xander purrs as he turns his head around to look at his friend with sparkling, green eyes. He dream is about to come true. He got his feel of the battleground now he is ready for the fight.

"I'm ready."

Elsa gives a smile as she looks to her mother, who gives her an encouraging wink, before she gets her bare feet onto the cool dirt. She preferred it that way so she can easily change the magic through her feet. It can leave her vulnerable to get shocked on her exposed feet with nothing covering them but it's a risk she is taking.

"So am I."

All the joy and merriment disappears from his face as a deadly determination makes its appearance on it. Sparks start to shoot out indiscriminately out of his body as his eyes never leave Elsa. He will be giving it all and hope she will too.

"I should have brought popcorn." Kira says to Balian. The two of them are sitting on the far side of the room. They heard what was going to happen and neither one wanted to miss a sure to be spectacular fight. Next to her is a nervous looking Glinda, who is biting her thumbnail. She knows Elphaba will be watching the fight like a hawk, making sure things will not get out of hand but it's still nerve wracking to see those two fight and potentially get hurt. There was no way to talk either one out of it because it just fell on deaf ears. Both have been waiting a long time to do this.

"Why am I watching this? I'm just going to be a bundle of nerves." Glinda murmurs as she starts to wring her hands. Thought a part of her really wants to see this intense battle. Next to her, Nessa is biting her bottom lip as she looks back and forth between the pacing figures. Rain kneads the ground with her tail flicking back and forth. She has a boulder sitting in her stomach. Her son and niece are about to fight. She is praying nobody will get hurt. Fiyero and Ares are sitting next to each other, their eyes shining at how far their loved ones have come along.

"First one to concede loses. If blood is drawn in any manor, minor cuts included, this magical duel will end immediately and the winner declared. Is this understood?" Elphaba asks in a loud, clear voice she wants to make sure the rules are understood. She waits to see the visual confirmation from both parties. Elsa and Xander nod their heads while never letting their eyes waver from one another.

"Begin!"

Xander gives a snarl as he twists around while whipping around with his tail with a charge of electricity. An arc of lighting comes screaming towards a waiting Elsa. With a blink, she steps forward with her left foot. The bottom of her foot glows and an ice wall shoots up in front of her. The arc of lightening connects within seconds of her erecting it. Glinda gives a gasp when a blast of ice dust covers over her daughter. She knows she should have just gone to the meeting that would have been about agriculture. Her hands are starting to go numb because she is sitting on them to prevent herself from protecting her daughter from anything Xander sends at her. Her eyes sparkle when Elsa rushes out of the ice dust with an ice beam shooting out of her hand. The Wolger reacts with cat like reflexes and leaps to the side. He eyes the spot where ice spikes are sticking out of the ground. That would have suck if that actually hit him.

"Gah!" He squawked when he realizes there is another ice beam heading towards him. He flattens himself against the ground. A deep chill goes down his spine as he feels it ruffle his fur when it blows over him. Xander's ears are flat against his head with a silent curse. He should have known better than to get distracted especially with somebody on par with him on the magical ability. He rolls to his right when another beam shoots at him.

"Grrr…" Xander growls as he needs to stop this before he gets cornered. He wipes his tail around and a lightning bolt heads towards her, to distract her enough to recover. The ice witch twists to the side as she watches the white bolt zoom past away. She feels the intense heat on her face. She can imagine the damage it would cause if it actually connected to flesh. She feels her hair start to stick up and a static charge surround her body. The Wolger is sending another attack to her. She puts one of her arms up while a thick layer of ice encases her entire arm, giving her an icy layer of armor. Everybody in the room squinted when a bright light is shone when the lightning bolt connects with the ice shield. The ice witch digs her feet into the dirt with grit of the teeth. A bead of sweat trickles down her face as Xander starts to slowly walk towards her with the lightening still hitting her armored arm. She needs to deflect this to a different angle otherwise she will eventually wear herself out and lose by magical exhaustion. With each slow step towards her the lightening gets more intense. Her breathing gets heavier with Glinda, now, biting her nails with wide eyes. She can't almost bear this. She is hoping that her daughter won't get hurt in this. She is praying Elsa will come up with something quick.

"Argh!" Elsa yells as she swings her iced arm to the left with the lightning bolt hits the wall, breaking off some brick along with a huge burn mark. She is puffing hard as the ice disappears off her arm. She can feel her heart racing in her chest. That drained her more then she liked. Xander hesitates slightly when he sees how that affected his friend. He is hoping his lightening attack didn't do anything internal that the ice witch isn't telling.

"El-"

"I'm fine." She interrupts as she straightens her back. He does a back flip to avoid an ice ball being thrown at him. He lands back on his paws with a twitch of an ear. He will take her word for it and push past the hesitancy to hold back. She'd be mad if he stopped giving it all because he is afraid he would overwhelm her and potentially hurt her.

"Let's go!" Elsa yells as she runs towards him. He gives a smirk before running towards her to begin the fight anew. Many eyes watch on with awe as the two powerhouses go back and forth, dodging attacks while sending back to their opponent. Glinda has finally stopped looking through her fingers and is now watching with her eyes focused on the intense battle. She has leaned forward with her bottom lip bitten as she is silently trying to predict what will happen next. Nobody knows how long this match has been going on. It feels like only minutes when in reality it could be hours. Elphaba hasn't moved from her spot as judge. She is in a crouching position with her hand under her chin. Her eyes honed in on the two fighting. She could tell the both of them are starting to tire out from all the magic used. Their aim is not as accurate and their reaction time has slowed to where there are a lot more near misses that could have ended the fight. It's going to end very soon. Those two will need a nice rest and a lot of food to replenish their nutrients along with filling their stomach. They are burning a shit ton of calories.

Elsa is puffing heavily through her mouth as its taking everything in her to keep standing tall. She doesn't remember the last time she uses this much magic. Her head feels foggy and her limbs feel like lead. She won't be able to last much longer. Across from her, Xander is starting to wheeze. His muscles feel like they are on fire. Even with the training he does daily he is coming to an end. He has thoroughly enjoyed this battle and will tell his children all time until they can mouth it along with him. He shakes his head slightly before looking towards the equally exhausted ice witch. He silently conveys the message with his eyes. He gives a slight smirk when she smirks and nods her head to his idea. One big hurrah to end this match. He crouches down as he starts to concentrate. Everybody can feel the hair on their arms stand up when the Wolger concentrates on gathering as much electricity as he can. Nessa begins to shiver first when the temperature in the room sharply drops to a bitter cold. Everybody can tell that this is the last attack for Elsa and Xander. Elsa has a light blue ball forming between her hands as she brings forth all her energy into one, last powerful attack to overwhelm Xander. Elphaba bites her bottom lip nervously as this is a lot of powerful magic being built up. When they connect it could break off and hit anybody in its path. She looks to her wife to tell her to put up a barrier around everybody for extra protection. The good witch winks at her before there is a very brief flash of a dull light going around the group of spectators. Once she knows they are safe does the green woman put one up around herself.

Within a few seconds both Xander and Elsa release their built up magic. An ice beam and a lightening bold scream towards each other before they meet in the middle with a thunderous crash. A bright light engulfs the room, forcing everybody to look away as random bolts and ice shoot out in different angles. Thankfully, none went near the bystanders. Finally the bright light eventually fades away does everybody turn their heads back towards the field to see both Elsa and Xander still standing in their respective spots. Their chests heaving but they never look away from each other waiting to see who will fall first. It didn't take long. The ice witch falls down to her knees and falls forward with a loud thump as her body finally shuts down from overextension and exhaustion. Not a split second later the Wolger collapses to the ground. Elphaba is the first one onto the grounds to assess the health of them both to make sure there is nothing seriously going on that neither Elsa nor Xander would speak of during the battle. Hopefully it's just exhaustion.

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Elsa gives a soft inhale of breath as she blinks her eyes but that feels like moving bricks up and down. The heavy fog in her mind is still hanging over her. She just wants to close her eyes and go back to sleep for a couple more days. She was going to do that when she hears a loud snore next to her. Elsa slowly moves her head to the right to see who is making the noise. Her hear warms greatly when she sees Xander's head resting on the edge of her bed. His jaw flaps with each exhale of breath. She moves her hand to tickle the top of his snout to wake him.

"Hey." She whispers as his snout starts to scrunch up from her constantly moving fingers. His dull, silvery, sleepy eyes eventually reveal themselves to her. Xander gives a big yawn before slightly nudging her hand in greeting.

"Hey." He murmurs gravely. She can faintly hear his tail swishing on the floor but it sounds like its moving back and forth every five seconds. He licks her hand while keeping his head on the bead. He has no strength to move it.

"What are you doing over here?" Elsa asks. Xander blinks his eyes sleepily as he tries to keep himself awake for this conversation.

"Wanted to be there when you woke up and make sure you're all right." He mumbles while giving another big yawn. He woke up about an hour ago to which it took another half hour to crawl over to his friend's bed to watch over her sleeping form. His head hit the bed and within seconds he fell back asleep.

The ice witch gives a faint smile as she has no strength to move more than two facial muscles to show the apperception she has for the Wolger for attempting to watch over her. She starts to move in her bed to make some room for him. She doesn't want him to make the long journey back to his own bed to rest.

"Come here."

He gives a sigh of relief when he sees the silvery blonde do this. He didn't think he could make it back. He would most likely have passed out mid journey.

"We can talk about the fight later." She says as she watches him get onto the bed. She sees his forelegs tremble greatly as he attempts to get on the bed. He makes the bed creak greatly and Elsa bounces when he just flops onto the bed.

"Graceful." The ice witch says with a chuckle. A faint blush appears on her face when his front legs go around her and gently pulls her close to his warm, soft fur. She can feel his head being placed above hers in a protective way.
"That's me." He rumbles as he closes his eyes. Elsa snuggles deeper into his body with her arm draped over his broad neck. As sleep begins to claim the both them she hears the faint rumbling of his purring and the smile on her face grows. As the two fall back asleep the door to their recovery room opens and Nessa starts to walk in. She stops just past the door frame when she sees how the two of them arm.

"Aww" The dark haired woman coos while Glinda is trying to desperately to peek over her shoulder to see what Nessa is awwwing about. She gives a squeak when an arm pushes her backwards. She pouts when she sees the door closing then Nessa turns on her heels with sparkling eyes.

"They are sleeping. We'll come back later." She replies before she starts shooing the blonde away to let the two sleep uninterrupted.

I hope you all enjoyed that chapter! I hope I did the fight scene justice for you all. I do see Xander edging out Elsa in the magical fight because he's just a bit more adept then she is plus he has more skills to utilize if it was a true fight of magic and not just elemental skills. Anyways. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas day and got what you wanted! I'll see you all next week! Until then!

DWK