Lost Fragments - The Traverse Town Cup Battle Series

Part 2 - Lilka vs. Reverend

Lilka Eleniak watched as Kydran and Mei returned from the arena, the both of them walking solemnly back into the waiting area with the other fighters. She felt concerned, having seen the battle take place, and was veyr curious as to how the battle had actually taken place. All anybody knew was that the black-haired boy was victorious.

What bothered the Crest Sorceress the most about the girl was how distant her eyes were. Lilka hadn't paid much attention to her previous to the fight, so she wouldn't know if her eyes had been glazed-over and foggy to begin with, but she felt as though Mei had retreated into her own little world.

Lilka's gaze moved down to her cupped hands, which lay in her lap. In her hands lay a small glittering gem, purple in hue, which pulsed softly. It was one of few things that Lilka had brought with her from Fargaia, and it afforded her a little peace of mind.

As the Crest Sorceress looked back up to see Mei go out the door, she froze. Her jaw fell open. The little girl was no longer a little girl; a monster, thin and white and vaguely humanoid, contorted and spasmed just before the doorway. Its fingers were elongated, hands stretching out like knives, all the fingers bound to each other with blue leather and rivets. Lilka could only see the back of the monster's body, and while it seemed like the head was covered in some sort of white hood, she couldn't tell.

Lilka blinked. Mei stood on the threshold of the doorway.

The flute-player left the Coliseum in defeat.

The brown-haired girl got to her feet and looked for Kydran. He had returned to the seat he had occupied previous to his fight. Lilka meandered over and sat down next to him, doing so while slipping the purple gem back into a pocket of her robe.

"So, uh... you won your first fight, huh? Happy to be moving to the second round?" initiated Lilka, a little shyly. "You, um... how did you do it? What happened?"

The boy leaned back, placing his back against the marble walls. He had his crystal sword standing up beside the stone bench, and his other weapon (Lilka had no idea what it was) was not there, either. The young man took a deep breath, and watched Mei's figure disappear through the doorway.

"I think... I think that she drew me into another world. After that, it's all just a blank. I hear shattering glass, wake up, and... I've won."

"Wow. So you know about as much as the rest of us, huh?"

"That's about right."

"Oh..."

Lilka, left with only an awkward silence, was grateful that the next match was announced. Her fight would take place in the large arena also, primarily because it would be a battle of two mages. Her opponent, Reverend, as far as she knew, was some kind of mage, though she didn't know just what kind.

The Crest Sorceress lifted herself up, gave Kydran a wink (which he returned with a half-hearted smile) and made way toward the waiting area.

His boots sank into the dust of the arena, sending the fine grains into the air with each step he took. The man's opponent awaited him on the other end of the Arena, watching him like a rabbit watches an approaching predator. The sun shone brightly over the Arena, a noon-time sun, though all the heat had left the pit as soon as he had entered. He stopped about ten paces outside of the gate, as the girl had.

Reverend smiled.

The dementist knew the girl had no idea what to think of him. He was imposing to say the least, standing over six feet tall. He wore a black pair of pants, a black coat with a white band in the front of the collar, a pair of sunglasses and a wide-brimmed black hat that kept his entire body protected from the noon-day sun. In one of his hands rested a small book, a book that was very important to him.

He stood there.

The girl sank into a defensive casting stance.

The horn blew, signifying the beginning of the match.

Reverend lifted his little book up, opened it, flipped through the pages, and began reading. His world began to shift as the words fell into place, as the letters and characters in the book shifted, roiled, molded and juxtaposed with each other.

Neither of them moved for a long time. He stood there, reading, but doing so much more than that. Yes, the more time she wasted trying to study him with whatever feeble little faculties she had, the more time he had to enter his trance. Behind the sunglasses, his eyes turned from their normal blue color to an abyssal black. The black spread from his irises, creeping out like ink until both of his eyes were mere voids in his eyesockets.

She knew something was wrong. It didn't matter, she had wasted too much time. Her fingers danced through the air as her arm extended forward. He saw the arcane energies pulled, like so much wire, into the shape of a magical crest. She aimed at him.

His lips parted into a grin.

The girl released the power built into the crest. A column of fire erupted toward him.

There was a burst of dark smoke.

Lilka was in the process of drawing another spell into then air before she realized that despite the force of the flame she had blasted at the man, he was still standing.

And the smoke was grinning at her.

The gigantic maw leapt from the depths of the black haze. It was set within a gigantic, malformed head, which was vaguely equine in form. The head was attached to what seemed to be the torso of a hairless cave bat, wings sprouting from its back. The torso terminated into a long, vicious-looking scorpion tail, the stinger of which was already pointed straight at the Crest Sorceress.

The strands of blue energy that the girl had brought into a spell wavered as the shock of having a terrifying abomination some out of nothing and attacking her as though its entire existence was bent on her destruction. Still, her nerve remained intact, and the spell solidified and was completed only in time to be released.

The from the circle surrounding the sigil she had weaved into the air leapt a spray of jagged lightning, each bolt forking outward like raptors' claws and seizing the monster. It froze in mid-flight, struggling against the bolts that held it. Leaving the crest magic to do its work, Lilka turned her focus on the man who had somehow pulled the monster out of nowhere.

She felt a tug on the inside of her mind, distracting her from drawing the magic into the protective spell she had planned on casting. Was it the monster? She turned and saw the abomination struggling against the crest, nearly having broken free, but knew that couldn't have been it. She looked back to where her foe had once been standing.

He wasn't there.

The crowd, the entirety of which was riveted to their seats, gasped. The man was no longer in the Arena. Lilka decided to take the opportunity to create her protective spell. Her hands whipped through the air as she practically crocheted a spell into existence.

Then he was there.

And he wasn't alone.

The Crest Sorceress's spell broke apart instantly and she stumbled back as though struck, the breath catching in her chest. Her feet lost their traction on the ground and she fell back, eyes wide, heart pounding.

A monster that she knew couldn't exist loomed over her. Its shape seemed to be constantly shifting, although within moments it solidified somehow, for some reason. The beast looked exactly like what she was most afraid of. Tears began to stream down her cheeks.

She never really ever saw the monster, not since she was younger, at least, but it had always been there, hidden beneath layers of time and thought. It was the monster that she had always imagined had taken her sister away when she was little, the monster that had somehow been able to overcome Lilka's best friend and idol and take her away forever.

The beast descended on her.