Tales Of Vesperia: Cask of Moonlight

Disclaimer: I do not own Tales of Vesperia, and therefore claim not legal affinity over the property.

Chapter 3: Contest and Conflict

Yuri sprung backward, dodging the slash of light, landing on his hands and throwing himself further backward, avoinding the forwards slash. Landing on one foot, he pivoted, bring to flat of his sword up and catching the downward slash. Using the shock of the impact he spun that way, bring his whole body around in a spiral and slashing out, only to be met and halted on his opponents shield.

"I said a good show, not a dance number." Flynn huffed under his shield, so that only Yuri can. Using Flynn's shield as a park for his blade, he spun vertically again, catching the hilt in his other hand and spinning another uppercut, which Flynn dodged close by falling backward, his sword hand hitting the ground. Using it as a balance he swept out Yuri's legs, and righted himself; bring the shield face crushing downward to meet Yuri's blocking blade. Yuri grunted back, in the same stage whisper.

"I'm surprised you're able to keep up. I wouldn't have thought the missus would let you fight your own battles anymore. I would have thought you'd be too busy to get any good exercise in." That got his goat, and as Flynn relented to give another slam, Yuri rolled out and was up.

"Pyre Havoc!" He shouted, driving a blow to Flynn's unguarded stomach, lifting him up and sending him flying with a blazing slash. Flynn was up and on him before he had even landed.

"Beast!" The spectral lion's head caught him and hurled him head over heels, and he had to dig his blade into the floor of contest area to keep from being hurled into the audience.

Their duel was one of the eight that was currently going on in the large, partitioned center area between the risers. It was still drizzling, and the rain did not seem likely to end. There had been a shock of outrage among the Nobility when a commoner from a guild had challenged the Commandant of the Knights to personal combat, but those that had were enjoying the beating their champion was bestowing to the rabble. Estelle was not happy, however, because she did not enjoy watching the two friends fight. She was so worked up, thinking that it was more than just a display, and that they were intending to do serious harm to one another, that Repede, who was following her at all time, was even letting her stroke his head nervously. He bore it with a extremely convicting look of patience for the nearly unbearable. He saw it for what it was, two friends saying hello after a long time apart.

The message Judith had delivered during her visit the previous night, had a detail of an encounter of a Knight outpost in the north which was releasing monsters into nehboring farmland as an excuse to snatch the land for their own interests. Rather than handle the situation himself, and bring bad press and problems down upon the Guild, he had voiced the matter in this letter, and offered Flynn the chance to fight over it in this arena. He would allow Flynn to win, he would clean out the corruption, bolster his administration, and Yuri would have helped out a bunch of small farmers just trying to live their way.

Yuri was practicing using the system to solve problems, rather than taking in the consequences to bare all by himself. He did not realize that this was part influence from Estelle, who depeneded on her friends to be everything she believed they could be, and numerous threats from Karol. Karol had really shaped up to a capable leader over the past couple years, and knew how to put the stick and the carrot to the best use available.

Yuri rose slowly to his feet.

"Okay, that almost hurt." He brushed at his clothes to remove dirt, and Flynn moved closer slowly until… "Destruction field!" He whipped over and delivered the punishing blow, sending Flynn jumping backward before closing the gap again, where they pushed upon each other's guard. "Trying to impress your girlfriend, then?" Yuri was one of the only two people who knew why Sodia had approached Flynn the year prior, as he had used the fact that she had stabbed him and tossed him off the top of Zaude to force her to act upon her attraction to the starchy Knight the previous year. She seemed to have been good for him, as he was in top form. His taunt did not work this time.

"What about you," he replied; they were back to the stage whisper. "You seem to be acting awfully flashy, trying to catch someone's eye?" His eyes flicked away toward a certain part of the stands for a second, and it worked, as Yuri gave an angry shove and Flynn slipped under his guard, nailing Yuri good before the resumed the shoving match. "Oh ho, and here I thought I was bluffing. Really, Yuri, her?" Yuri's renewed offensive failure and subsequent injury answered and put a knowing smirk on Flynn's face. "Well, I can't say I disapprove. From what I can see, she's been a good influence on you. Ready for the tip off?" Yuri hid a nod with a head butt and they broke apart, before slashing at each other in a frenzy of flashing steel.

Flynn feignted a slash, and followed up with a shield bash. Yuri let his guard drift upward a little more than it should have gone to give Flynn his opening. With a backward step followed bay a jab continuing into a jumping slash, Flynn executed a fatal strike and sent Yuri sprawling, unconscious away. He was revived by the appointed healer, shook hands with his opponent, and whispered, "See you at the party?" Flynn nodded slightly, and they returned to their places, eagerly awaiting the start of Rita's duel.

…

Rita stood, arms crossed and eyes closed, upset that it was taking this long for her to be allowed to blast this little upstart. The price was that if she won, the little kid would tell her how he cast those flash spells in sync with the female. Her own theory was that he had used her as a conductor to boost his own available surplus of Aer, allowing him to cast two separate spells at once. He had insisted at first that he was simply casting his spell. He kept insisting upon the fallacy that that woman was "Summoning" spirits. It was ridiculous for many reasons, and easily proved wrong by the fact that Estelle could not summon spirits herself, and she was bound and held in balance by them. He had finally agreed after much, much reiteration of her points. If he won, unthinkable as it was, she would introduce him and his party to the Royals. She knew he had stepped up onto the platform because the noise of the crowd began fading. She opened her eyes.

He was smaller than she had guess, now that she saw him up close. On par to Karol even. He said he was 19, but save for the long grey hair, could have easily passed for somewhere between 12 and 15. He was… unlike any other mage she had encountered, but she could not say why. Something about his features. The curve of his nose, the size of his eyes, the shape of his ears. He own perceptive background allowed her to pick these oddities out. She doubted anyone else would have noticed. Anyone else would have just seen a kind of cute kid in blue grey robes and… He thoughts looped back and she felt a small burn in her cheeks at the thought. She caught a raised eyebrow from the boy, and the burn spread as her face reddened from both embarrassment an anger. She looked away, shaking slightly in fury, and wished she blast him already. Behind him, a tall and very pretty woman stood in for his healer, as Estelle stood for her. She had the same hair, but larger, slightly more catlike eyes, and was again, beautiful on a level to match Judith, but in a completely different direction. She felt no shame at these thoughts, as to her mind it was just a comparison of features and build, completely objective of her own biology. While Judith was sleek and lithe, and stood tensed like a spring waiting to expand, this woman, probably his mother, had a … more refined look to her. She couldn't put it into words exactly, she just seemed… mature.

She became aware that the announcer had been speaking, and there was a slight gong as the match began. She spread her arms, here cloth unwinding ans billowing as if caught by the wind. She brought her arms diagnaly down in front of her.

"Fireball!" She spat, and five orbs of fire materialized and flew at her opponent. He lifted his kendama, and matched her spell, blocking each of her orbs with one of his own, before uppercutting the toy and crying out.

"Stone Blast!" Rita dove sideways, cartwheeling clear of the shifting ground and casting a matching spell while she was still upside down. He was clear before she had landed, and she lashed out before he could focus.

"Spread Zero!" A ball of darkness grew in front of him, an swinging the kendama, he batted it upward, where it exploded harmlessly. He cast on the down swing.

"Aqua Edge!" Three blades of water slashed forward, and Rita threw a Champaign at him before dodging, and got caught by one and thrown to the ground. She bounced up, angry, and hurled another spell at him without noticing that her last had connected.

"Demons Lance!"

"Flame Lance" Neither were playing now, and were hurling spells and dodging as fast and visiiously as they could.

"Gold Cat"

"Lightning!"

"Ivy Rush!"

"Grave!"

"Thunder Blade!"

"Air Blade!"

"Flame Dragon!"

"Ground Dasher!"

"Crimson Flare!"

"Earth Bite!" Rita, tired now, was caught staggering as the ground bucked beneath her. Without warning it cracked, jagged edges appearing in concentric circles around her, and closed, crashing into her body and sending charges of electricity coursing through her. She managed to throw up her magic guard, but still took the brunt of it. With a pulse of pure rage she threw a Bloddy Howling directly beneath her own feet, and blasted the electrified cocoon of rock away in a flash of scarlet and ebony and the triggered her mystic art.

"O' power that lies in the root of all creation, O' memory inscribed in ages past, here my call and arise before me…" Giant inscribed orbs of blue, red, green and brown materialized and circled slowly around Rita, as Genis sensed the power behind this spell, and hastily cased his own spell, whose chant was lost under Rita's own roar. "ANCIENT CATASTRAPHE!" Beams of gold light lanced out and impacted Rita, from four sides, combining into a silver blast that shattered the ground and drove debris to be pulverized against the barrier that kept the collateral damage from hitting the spectators. As the brilliant light faded, she clicked shut her book as she saw the boys motionless body laying on the ground.

"That, id the fruit of my…" She drifted off as she noticed the glyph glowing under her feet and the cone of Aer hazing the air. Her eyes had time to wide as the air exploded as a bolt of lightning, lager around then herself smacked down and blasted her off her feet into darkness.

…

End 3