AN: Hi guys here the newest chapter of Shunned One up. We can once again thank Cassidy the Water Sage for beta reading this chapter. Could not have gotten this one out with out her help.
Would also like to thanks the following people for reviewing the last chapter: Sakura is number 1, Nelo Akuma, DayDreamer9, lost prince, shocklance, yellow 14, Starwin, Darev, The Crazy Talk Kid, Philip Gipson, Sergio Dumbledore.
BIG NOTICE: Nelo Akuma has started a fic called 'Child of twisted Destiny' that was inspired by this story. Please check it out in the M rated section of the W.I.T.C.H. category.
Now of with the fic!
000
Arc 2: Return of the Exiled Prince
Chapter 5: The Labyrinth: Part 2
The next morning, after Will and Alchemy ate the bread their armbands created for them, they went back to searching for the center of the Labyrinth.
During this time, Alchemy explained a little about Swordsages to Will. They were a type of warrior that combined ki with the weapons training, to create special fighting techniques that seemed almost mystical in nature.
Alchemy had demonstrated some of those during the battle yesterday, when she had shadows swirling around her and even when she threw Will into the wall. The Swordsage arts broke down into two basic categories, stances and maneuvers, which were broken down further into different fighting styles.
Each of these styles would give a Swordsage a wide assortment of different moves to use and could easily choose the one that suited the situation.
Stances were self-explanatory, where the user would get into a stance that channeled their ki to create a certain effect.
Maneuvers, on the other hand, were the special attacks a Swordsage would use to attack their foes.
Alchemy practiced stances and maneuvers from three of these fighting styles. Setting Sun, which was a styled that focused around countering attacks, and Shadow Hand, which used attacks that used shadows and even the cold to fight almost like a Rouge would. The final style was one that uses high speed and leaps to strike like a wild beast and bring an enemy down.
Will was surprised that such fight styles were virtually unknown to pretty much everyone, but Alchemy explained that Swordsages originated in the lands to the east, past even the Dark Lands. Because of the distance and the fact Alchemy's mother is the only Swordsage to ever travel to Meridian, not many would know of them.
Will wondered if Yan Lin knew of these Swordsages then, since she was from the lands to the east. The redhead made mental note to ask the old woman about it, after she got out of the Labyrinth.
The two had yet to encounter any of the other competitors, but the day had only just begun and anything could happen at a moments notice. The two girls knew they had to be on guard, especially for more trap doors or sliding walls. The last thing Will and Alchemy wanted was to risk getting separated.
'I wonder how the others are doing? I hope none of them have been sent out of the Labyrinth,' Will silently prayed, not knowing some of them were not having as quite a time as her right now.
000
Irma was on the run, after being separated from Aldarn, during a series of walls shifts. In her attempt to find her way through this maze one her own, Irma ran into Kurt and Clubber and it had kept the Arcane Hunter on the run ever since.
Fighting both boys at once was suicide, but it seems Irma was not going to have much choice in the matter. The two boys were able to keep right on Irma's tail, despite wearing such heavy armor.
'Got to lose those creeps, but how? They stick to me more than glue!' Irma screamed in her mind and she went around a corner. As Irma ran down the new corridor, she heard the familiar clicking down of a trap being triggered and jumped just in time to avoid what would taken her out of the contest.
Steams of fire shot out of holes in the wall, which reminded Irma of the in the Goblin infested ruins. Too bad for Irma, she did not have much time to figure out which spots trigger the firetraps to activate, not with Kurt and Clubber now coming around the corner as well.
Knowing it was choice between an unfair fight and being burnt to a crisp, Irma chose to take her chances with the flames that shot out of the walls.
It was only thanks to her Rouge skills that Irma made it through the barrage of fire blasts, thanks to her evasion training. She was able to duck, dodge or flip of the streams of fire that came her way, as she ran through deadly gauntlet.
Kurt and Clubber, on the other hand, just glaring at Irma in annoyance. They were not the smartest people around, but they knew they would not be as lucky if they tried to get to the other side of the trap.
"Ha! Try and get me now, you morons! I dare you!" Irma called over to the two boys, thinking she was safe, until another familiar voice spoke up from behind Irma.
"How about I take that dare!" Irma heard the voice say, leaving barely enough time to used her double-bladed sword to block the blade of the newcomer.
Irma then pushed the blade away and spun around to see it was none other the Uriah, who looked like he was getting ready face off against the Arcane Hunter, while his two lackeys cheered Uriah on from the far side of the trap filled hallway.
Irma knew she was at disadvantage right now, but not because her skills were weaker then Uriah's. In any other location, Irma would be on fairly even ground against the orange haired boy, but right now she caught between him and the traps behind her.
'Not much I can do about it, though. Might as well try and force Uriah back and try and push around the corner. If I can do that, I can have more room to move,' Irma thought, as she started working on plan to even the odd and prayed Uriah did not try to use magic anytime soon.
After Irma was in her stance, Uriah struck first, hoping to force the humorous tomboy to take a step back and set of the traps again, but Irma block the swing and started to push Uriah back.
"Oh no you don't! I'm not letting you get away that easily!" Uriah growled, as he dug in his heals and started pushing back. He was going make sure the friend of the girl who had caused him so much trouble was burnt to a crisp.
Both Uriah and Irma kept their weapons locked, as one tried to push the other back. Irma seemed to hold the advantage still, because of her greater focus, physical conditioning, and being much more stubborn then Uriah. It also helped she hated Uriah Dunn for he had done to make Will's life as miserable as possible.
"Alright, Uriah…let's see how…you like…playing with fire!" Irma managed to grunt out, before she managed to relent just enough to Uriah's pushes, to throw him off balance and slipped past him. This also caused him to fall forwards and land ground, his chin hitting one of the triggers that activated the firetraps.
One of the streams of fire hit Uriah's hair and lit it on fire, making him quickly get back to his feet and dance around like an idiot while trying to put it out.
Irma took advantage of this situation to slip away and go back to searching the Labyrinth, while Uriah continued doing his fire dance.
000
Meanwhile, Taranee, Hay Lin and Elyon had met up, but not in a way anyone would have liked. The trio had come across each other in large room, along with about twelve other contestants. This meant of course, a free-for-all began and spells and weapons clashed to see who would walk out of this chamber in one piece.
To make matters worse, the noise attracted others to the chamber and added even more fuel to the fire. The three friends were watching each other's back, but large number of targets to fight was putting a strain on the three magic users' reserves.
Taranee had been throwing fireballs left and right, Elyon using every spell she knew from both her classes to both attack the enemies and heal her friends and Hay Lin did what she could with own spells and Rouge skills, but it was not looking good for the trio.
"Not the way I wanted to be taken out of the contest, but at least we can try to take as many of them as possible before we go," Elyon said and got a nodded of agreement from her two friends and then they continued to fight with what left of their strength.
Since those present realized the three girls were the ones causing the most damage at the moment, so they started converge on the trio. Elyon, Taranee and Hay Lin thought was it, when arrows and fireballs rained down the group getting ready to rush the three spell casters.
"All of you picking on three girls? That must take real courage!" everyone heard Caleb's voice call out and made those in the room see both Caleb and Aldarn standing in one of the doorways to the chamber.
"Don't be hard them, Caleb. Weaklings only act honorably when they are winning, not when three 'measly' girls are destroying them all with ease," Aldarn added to Caleb's comment. This angered the mob and all began charging the two boys, not realizing they fell into the trap Caleb and Aldarn had set.
Even with though there were a lot of them, and that Elyon Taranee and Hay Lin were worn out, it was easy for the five to catch the remaining opponents in a pincer attack. The girls opened fire on the mob from behind with low level spells, while Caleb and Aldarn with more fireballs and arrows.
By the time it was all over, the mob was quickly defeat and now there were less people to probably challenge later in the contest, but also left Caleb low on magic and rest of the group who could use it, out of magic entirely.
"At times like this, I envy you, Aldarn. You are the only one here who does rely on magic," Elyon said while trying to catch her breath from the exhausting battle. Of course, she was confused by Caleb and Aldarn's chuckling after she said that.
"Oh, he can use magic, just not lots of it. After I found him in his search to find Irma, he told me about his training for the games. It seems he has not only learned to access his ranger spells at last, he also took a basic Warmage training course. He decided to join the Arcane Archer ranks and needed basic arcane magic training to qualify," Caleb explained, making the three girls stare at Aldarn.
'He is already dangerous with a bow, and he plans augment that skill to be even more powerful!' all three girls screamed in their minds at the same time. They knew Arcane Archers were the elite of the Elvin race's archers. The skill of these deadly marksmen was what made the elves skill with the bow legendary!
While the trio gawked at Aldarn, both he and Caleb just laughed and the signaled them to follow. The two boys knew their friends needed a safe place to rest until their magic reserves replenished themselves.
000
Back with Cornelia, she had left Matt and Nigel after dealing with Bess. She wanted to be able to deal fight Will without Matt interfering, but the blonde did not tell Matt that of course.
Cornelia knew if the Bard found out she was hunting the redheaded half-elf, Matt would try to stop and that was something she did not Matt Olsen doing.
'If I'm lucky, Nigel will get tempted to eliminate Matt from the contest altogether. I did not like how he was fighting with MY Caleb in the melee tournament. I would have done it myself, but I cannot risk getting defeated before I find Will,' Cornelia thought as she headed down a set of stone steps, with Snowflake following close behind.
As she reached the bottom of the steps ran into none other then Uriah, who had somehow managed to put out his hair from when Irma pushed him into the firetrap.
The second Uriah realized he was face to face with yet another of Will Vandom's friends, Uriah let out an angry growl and drew his sword.
"If can't make country girl pay for what she did, I'll just settle for you, Hale!" Uriah roared and slashed at Cornelia, but the blonde Druid blocked the blade with one end of her staff, while drawing her scimitar with her other hand.
"I assume Irma is the reason for your new look then, Dunn," Cornelia asked with big grin on her face, noticing the badly burnt remains of his once spiky orange hair.
Uriah did not respond and instead continued his attack, but Cornelia's newly gained Sword and Staff fighting style was proving very affective against Uriah. With the staff to defend and her scimitar to attack, Uriah was being beaten badly. It did not help that Cornelia would often make use of her feet as well, kicking at Uriah when Cornelia saw an opening.
Snowflake was not going to sit back and watch its mistress fight though and let out furious roar, before charging at Uriah. This made the formally orange-headed boy run, while Cornelia called out for her partner to come back.
The tiger did not listen though, as both it and Uriah triggered another trap. A pit filled with spikes opened up beneath them and Cornelia watched as both Uriah and Snowflake get teleported back to the surface, just before they hit the spikes.
Cornelia was distraught her animal companion was gone, but after a few minutes the blonde shook it off and took comfort Snowflake was just back above ground and probably would be getting a nice steak once the rest of her family found out the big white cat had returned.
000
Nigel and Matt also had a run with old 'friends' when they came across Kurt and Clubber. The two buffoons were in search of a way around the trap so they could team up with their 'boss' but found the Bard and Barbarian instead.
Kurt was quick to try and get even with Matt for beating him in the melee tournament, but Matt managed to dodge the warrior's massive axe in time, as it struck the ground where the Bard once stood.
"Get back here, Olsen! I'll destroy you this time!" Kurt roared as he chased after Matt, who had no intentions of doing as the larger boy said. Matt knew he needed to get some distance and use his magic on Kurt. Either that or wait for an opening to strike his own weapon.
Nigel, on the other hand, was going head to head with Clubber. As they were both a pure warrior types, neither boy would have it any other way.
It was hard to tell which boy was the stronger one though, since both classes had a different discipline. It was the pure instinct and self-taught fighting art of a Barbarian VS the constant instruction of the Fighter.
Clubber swung his large hammer at Nigel, aiming for his opponent's ribs, but the young Barbarian stepped back the blow struck the wall. The blow was so strong it made good size indent in the wall's stony surface.
"Not bad power behind that swing, just one problem. I can do better!" Nigel said with a smirk at first, but then went deadly serious, as he called on his rage to enhance his strength and stamina.
This kept Clubber on the defensive, doing his best to try and block or dodge the incoming blows, but it was not working out so well. Nigel's Orc Double Axe was hammering away at Clubber's armor, which was taking heavy damage.
If Clubber had been wearing anything less the full plate right now, he would have been defeated and sent back to the surface long ago. It was only a matter of time before Nigel won, unless Clubber managed to get back on the attack, but that was looking very unlikely.
000
Back with Matt, he was still trying to get some distance from Kurt, but the larger boy was sticking to him like glue. Fortunately, Matt knew all he needed was a few seconds to do his spell, but the only trick was to get those much-needed seconds.
'I've got only one choice. Just hope I'm fast enough to pull it off,' Matt thought just as Kurt swung his great axe in a downward arc, giving Matt his opening to try his plan.
Matt first did a back flip to avoid the blow, then when the large axe hit the ground, Matt charged forward and flipped over Kurt and the quickly reached for the lute on his back and plays a few tunes. Kurt was turning around to try and strike again, but then found himself unable to move for some reason.
"Don't you just love Hold Person spells? They're perfect for holding big idiots still while I finish them off!" Matt said as place his lute down and then drew his sword. With Kurt unable to move, Matt could take careful aim to land a finishing blow and now worrying about Kurt's armor getting in the way.
Second later, Kurt disappeared in a flash of light and Matt sheathed his sword and picked up his lute again. Just as he did, Matt saw another flash of light out of the corner of his eye and Matt looked over to Clubber was gone and Nigel ending his rage.
"Well, that was easy. Guess we better get…" Nigel started to say, when a wall shot straight up between the two boys. The maze had once gain shifted cut the two off form on another, making both boys wonder if this bloody place was alive and shifted only when it made someone's life much harder.
000
Over the next three days, Will and Alchemy had run into a few people, but the two girls made short work of them. With Will's half-elf hearing and eyesight, it gave the two a key advantage in seeing or hearing people before those people saw them. This allowed Will and Alchemy time to find a location ideal to gain an early advantage in a fight.
Alchemy had also contributed her share in these fights as well. With her special fighting moves, Alchemy was able to take down opponents as quickly as Will could, if not faster.
The two girls had grown to be good friends during this time as well. Alchemy had been still making sure Will had yet to found out whom her grandfather was. It did help matters that Will had yet to ask, but the young Swordsage knew she could not keep it a secret forever.
'I have to tell Will before we have our fight. If I wait until we are back on the surface, someone else might tell her and Will might think I was only using her,' Alchemy mentally told herself, while the two approached a strange stonewall with the symbol of Kord, the god of athletes on it.
"What do you think this is?" Will asked, trying to figure out why the symbol for the god of strength was on the wall. Alchemy shrugged her shoulder and started to try and think of theory as well, until an idea came to her.
"Will…I think we are finally here! The next time the labyrinth shifts, this stone wall will move out of the way and lead to the medal chamber!" Alchemy exclaimed excitedly, which shocked the redheaded half-elf for moment.
"You mean…we made it? I don't believe it! My first time in the Youth Games, and I can at least see the end of this maze!" Will said happily, which confused her new friend.
"What do you mean by 'at least see the end of the maze'? We got to be the first here if…oh…I forgot. We are supposed to…" Alchemy started to ask, then remembered that even if people helped one another in this contest, they would have to fight each other eventually if they wanted to be the one to claim one of the medals.
After moment of silence between them, Alchemy decided she needed to confess to Will about who she was related to, but was stopped by the sound of shifting stone. Both girls looked to see the stonewall lowing into the ground reveal a massive circular chamber, with a pillar in the middle of the room.
A spiral staircase led up to the top of the pillar, where the two girls assumed where the three medals would be located.
"Why don't we go look at what we are fighting for before we have our battle?" Will suggested, wanting putting the coming fight for as long as possible.
Alchemy nodded her head in agreement, knowing it gave her further time to gather the courage to tell Will the truth and so the two made the long walk of the spiral staircase.
It took a good ten minutes for Will and Alchemy to reach the top the stairs and see the three medal of the contest. Each was on a small stand, the gold medal having the middle stand, the silver being to the gold's right and the bronze being to the gold's left.
After another long silence went on between the girls, before Will slowly drew her sword and said in a sad tone, "Well, let's get this over with."
"Wait, Will, there is something I need to tell you about my grandfather…" Alchemy started to say, when a stone brick hit the ground and made the two jump back in surprise. They thought it might have been a trap or another competitor wait to attack, but then saw a rope drop down from the ceiling and watch a Passling slide down.
"Blunk finally find it! Pretty medals make good trade!" the Passling exclaimed and jumped on the gold medal's stand, not noticing the two girls.
'Blunk? Why does that that name sound so…what! The Passling me and the others saved at the ruins!' Will thought, while Alchemy shouted out, "Get away from those medals, you little thief!"
Blunk fell off the stand when he heard the shout, the gold medal in his hand. Had Blunk been wearing one of the armbands for the contest, he would have teleported back to surface. But it was clear the Passling was not apart of the contest if he was still here, while holding one of the medals.
The Passling looked nervously at the two girls, until he recognized Will and said, "Warlock! You here to trade for pretty medal? Blunk give good deal, since you help save Blunk from mean creatures."
The innocent way the Passling talked clearly indicated he did not think he was doing anything wrong by taking the medal, something Will could understand from her past dealing with many other Passlings, but Alchemy was another matter entirely.
"We don't trade for those medals, we fight for them! Now put it back before I skin you alive, you little troll!" Alchemy screamed and then dove at Blunk, with her two short swords raised to strike.
Blunk let out a terrified scream and ran for his life, which really was in jeopardy since the protective spells in the labyrinth did not apply to those without an armband.
"Looks like we don't have to fight each other after all, Alchemy. We just chase after Blunk until one of gets the medal from him instead of trying to kill each other!" Will said and started chasing after the Passling, with Alchemy in hot pursuit.
'I got to stop Will! If she gets the medal before I tell her the truth, she might find out who I am when she gets back to the surface!' Alchemy screamed in her mind, while she tried to catch up with both Will and Blunk.
000
"I swear, if I have to have one more meal of bread and water, I'm going to go insane!" Irma grumbled, while kept looking for the medal chamber. Good thing for the young Arcane Hunter, she was actually just about to enter it, as Blunk and Will were about to exit it.
"Ah!" Irma yelped, as jumped straight up to avoid the Passling and then just barely managed to avoid be run over by Will.
"Hi Irma! Bye Irma! See you back on the surface after I get the medal from Blunk!" Will called back as she ran past, leaving the now confused Irma behind.
'Did she say what I thought she said?' Irma mentally asked herself, when someone tried to shove past her, but Irma grabbed the person through flung it back into the chamber.
"Watch it, buddy or I'll…YOU!" Irma started to say, then Irma realized it was Alchemy she tried to push past her.
Unlike Will, the young Arcane Hunter knew whom Alchemy was related to. To Irma, this meant the granddaughter of the Irvine McDohl was just a mini female clone of the well known half-elf hater and Irma was going to take care of the girl here and now.
"Trying to attack my friend while her back is turned, huh? Not on my watch!" Irma roared out as she drew her double bladed sword and launched herself at Alchemy.
The young Swordsage barely drew her two short swords in time to block the blow, but she somehow managed was now trying hold the angry girl off.
"You don't understand, I…" Alchemy started to say, but Irma started a series of rapid thrust of her sword, making the Swordsage need to focus in avoid or deflect the attacks.
"Oh, I understand perfectly well. You wanted to attack Will!" Irma screamed out, and then tried a side slash aimed at Alchemy's chest.
The other girl was able to dodge it by doing a back flip, but as Alchemy landed, Irma stepped forward slashed downward at Alchemy's head. This made Alchemy bring her two short swords up in a scissor like shape and block the blow, but the blow was very strong and forced the young Swordsage to her knees.
'Not good, can't use my stances or maneuvers in the position,' Alchemy thought, while she struggled to against Irma's brute strength.
000
Back with Will, she continued pursue Blunk. She even fired a couple of eldritch blasts at Blunk in hopes of slowing him down. Will made sure to pull the blasts, since Blunk would be killed by a normal one…assuming one of theme could actually shot him!
The small green creature lacked in size and overall land speed, but he made up with incredible agility and an instinct to avoid things he could not see. This helped Blunk avoid several pitfall traps in the hallway they were currently in, along with Will's attacks.
Normally these traps would have kept the Passling's pursuer at bay while he escaped, but Will's Spider Walk invocation allowed her run along the wall and avoid these traps and stay on Blunk's tail.
"Blunk, just give up the medal and I'll stop chasing you!" Will called out, hoping the Passling would drop said object, but it seemed Blunk was too scared out of mind to hear anything right now.
After another ten minutes of chasing the Passling through the maze and Will chasing said Passling into another one of the many large chambers in the Labyrinth, Blunk was suddenly captured by several small vines that grew out of the stony floor.
This reminded Will of what Cornelia did back in the ruins and made the redhead draw her sword and scan around the room. Will was quickly rewarded with the sight of the blond entering the room from another entrance, her own weapons drawn as well.
"So, looks like I'm going to have to fight for gold medal after all," Will said in a friendly tone, thinking this would be nothing more then a simple match between friends. What Will had yet to realize, was that Cornelia was seeing this as a way to prove her superiority and get Caleb to see her as a better match than Will.
'Sorry, Will, but all's fair in love and war!' Cornelia roared in her mind and charged forward at the redhead. Just as she got close, Cornelia jumped into the air and performed a tornado kick that connected with Will's face and knocked her to the ground.
As Cornelia set foot back on the stone floor and readying to deliver a finishing blow, Will reacted out of instinct and cast the Magic Missile spell.
Because of Will's great advancing skills in magic and having her mother teaching her the little tricks to a spell, Will could create three pure energy projectiles while only casting the spell once.
Will hand shot upward and three small balls of energy shot of out of her palm and struck the blond druid. The first hit Cornelia in the chin, the second on the right side of her face, and the final one hit her on the forehead.
Cornelia dropped both her scimitar and staff and covered her face with her hands, giving Will time to recover and get back to her feat. It was not long break though, since while Will was using sword for support to get up, when Cornelia also recovered and kicked at the blade.
The blond Druid's foot hit the flat side the blade and knocked it away from Will's grasp. As the sword skidded several feet away, Will wobbled around a bit, but kept her balance nonetheless.
"How dare you shoot my face!" Cornelia screamed out in fury. She was always very self-conscious about her appearance and jeopardizing that appearance was bad idea, even when you are not already on her hit list.
Will was getting very scared of her friend right now, since the blond was abnormally aggressive. Of course, at the moment Will assumed this was out desire to get the gold medal from the tied up Passling. Had the redhead known this about Caleb, the same drive win might very well rise up in the half-elf as well.
But this was not the case, since right now Will was running away from an enraged Cornelia, who had created scimitar of pure flame and used it to attack the redhead.
'Mom told me the competition could get intense bit I did not think it was as bad as she said until now!' Will mentally screamed, as she quickly cast the Lighting Sword spell and gave herself a weapon to fend off Cornelia's Flame Scimitar.
As the two elemental blades clashed, Will asked in a concerned tone, "What wrong, Cornelia? I know winning this contest is important. And I did accidentally hit you in the face with my spell, but don't you think you are over reacting a little bit?!"
Cornelia did not respond and just continued to brutally swing at Will with fiery weapon. This made Will focus on defense, trying to find off these attacks, but Will was still shaken by the unusual fighting style on her friend's part.
Eventually, Cornelia brought the fight to the next level and cast spell called Ice Lance, which fired large icicles at Will, which would impaled the redhead had she not barely got out of the way in time.
The fact that said icicle punched a hole right through the wall the wall only made Will even more scared of the spell.
'I really hope the protections spells work against that if Cornelia get one of those to hit me,' Will thought, just before Cornelia casts more spells, Will was all too familiar with a Flaming Sphere spell.
"This day just keeps getting better and better," Will grumbled, while did the same as she against Uriah's Flaming Sphere during their spell dual, run for her life!
Meanwhile, Cornelia was feeling almost completely satisfied on how things were going. She had Will on the run, but the blond haired Druid was wishing Caleb was here to see how much more powerful she was compared to Will.
'Well, I'll just have to settle for just claiming the gold medal as proof that I'm stronger. Sorry, Will, but I won't let you have him!' Cornelia thought, as she guided her rolling ball of burning death after Will.
Of course, Cornelia was so confident that she was going to win this battle, she did not take into account of what new abilities Will may have gained over the last few months. This made the blond Druid very shocked to see Will run towards a near by wall and use her Spider Walk invocation run up its smooth surface, until she was out of reach of Cornelia's Flaming Sphere.
"That was too close," Will said under her breath, once she was out of reach of the spell, then looked down Cornelia, thinking now would be good time figure out why her friend was fighting like she was possessed by demon.
"Hey, Cornelia! I know winning the contest is big deal, but don't you think you are going a bit overboard?!" Will called down, think the two could have short heart to heart before going back to their battle, but Cornelia had other ideas.
The noble blooded Druid's response was to cast the Produce Flame spell and start taking shots at Will, who was now deciding that talking was not going to work until after this fight was settled.
"If that how you want to play, Corny, then let's play!" Will shouted out and let end her Lighting blade spell.
Will then powered of an eldritch blast in each hand, while Cornelia growled at Will's use of Irma's favorite nickname to use on the blond.
Both then let's loose their attacks, Will's pinkish red eldritch blasts VS Cornelia's stream of fire made by her Produce Flame spell.
Will would run along the wall, firing her attacks, while Cornelia would duck or dodge the beams and fire back her spell. This left scorches marks all over the chamber and kept going until Will's advantage of having virtually limitless Warlock power to draw upon, while Cornelia slowly ran out of magic.
As both her hands stopped producing fire blasts and her Flame Scimitar disappeared from lack of further mystic energy to keep it going, Cornelia cursed her foolishness at firing of spells carelessly.
'I let her trick me into using up all my power! Now she can just keep shooting at me with her eldritch blasts or even her normal spells until she wins!' the young Druid screamed in her mind, but then realized something and looked towards Blunk.
'But Will is all the way is up there and the smelly little creature with the medal is tied up over there. If I grab it, I'll win and be declared winner of the Youth Games and Caleb will see me as the better choice!' Cornelia silently schemed and was about make run for where Blunk was, when she a loud 'thump' behind her.
Cornelia spun around to see Will had actually jumped all the way back down to the chamber floor and was now clutching her arm for some strange reason.
At first, Cornelia thought Will had somehow hurt her during the fight, but that did not make sense to the noble blooded Druid, but when Cornelia saw spark of lighting starting to crackle in one of Will's hand, Cornelia quickly realized what was going on.
"Let's end this with a bang, Cornelia! With my mom's own creation, the Lighting Blade!" Will said with a triumphant smirk on her face, while Cornelia shook with fear.
"When did you get strong enough to use that spell?!" Cornelia asked in a terrified tone, wondering what kind of training Will had gone through to be able to be able to cast a third level spell so soon.
"After a small…incident that made my mom a 'little' upset with me, she used my training for the games as punishment. Let me tell you, Mom can be a real slave driver when she wants to be!" Will responded, wishing she could tell Cornelia that her mini adventure to find Kor was the reason she had become so strong.
Of course, Will had decided to be very careful the next time she was tempted to go off on her own and that reason was a darn good one. Another month of training like hers had been, and Will knew she would probably die from exhaustion!
'Can't argue with the results though. Now I can use both the Lighting Blade and the Eldritch Blade attacks and if I ever decided to learn the Eldritch Lighting Blade, I can,' Will thought, just before she finally charged forward.
Cornelia did not have time to even realize what was happening, when she was saved by the Labyrinth's protective spells and cent back to the surface before Will's attack struck.
"Finally, that fight's over" Will said with a happy sigh and then looked over to where Blunk was still hogged tined by vines. The Passling was still trying to break free as Will picked up her sword and suggested, "How about I help you get freed, Blunk, and you give me the medal?"
The Passling was quickly to agree to the 'Trade' and Will cut him loose. Then as Will took the medal, she was just lifting it to eyes level, when she was teleported out the Labyrinth and into a large room that looked like bottom floor of an inn.
The whole room looked on in shock at the sight the Champion of the Labyrinth, or at least most did. One particular occupant of the room and swiftly ran over to Will and pulled the young redhead into a hug.
"M-Mom?" a confused Will asked in a small stutter, still bit surprised at where she ended up after claiming her prize.
"Will…I can't believe it. You actually won!" Will heard her mother say proudly, making the realization hit Will. Even when taking the medal from Blunk, Will had not realized she had won the hardest contest in all the games. The fact it was her first time made the feat all the much more overwhelming.
This caused to just faint her mother's embrace, scaring Susan a bit since she thought Will might be hurt.
It took Sade, Serenity and Will's old friends from Trader's Central to calm the woman down. Once they succeeded, Susan took Will up to one of the inns spare rooms and allowed Will to rest until the last two winners of the Labyrinth showed up.
000
Back with Irma and Alchemy, the two were still in a deadlock, when their armbands started glowing with golden light. This was supposed to be a sign to all remaining contestants that one medal had claimed and now only two more remained.
'I need to get away from this girl and grab the silver fast! I don't get back the surface soon, someone might tell Will who I am before I can tell her myself!' Alchemy thought and then drew on all her strength to push Irma away.
The young Swordsage did this with such force, that Irma stumbled backwards and allowed Alchemy to make a run for the spiral staircase that led to the remaining two medals.
Irma had not given up though and was chasing after her opponent. She chased Alchemy all the way to the top of the stone steps and then jumped into the air. Irma flipped over other girl and blocked Alchemy path to the medals.
"Oh no, you don't! The only way you are leaving this place is by me cutting you down!" Irma growled out and started a series of slashes that were meant to drive Alchemy back towards the stairs. Irma wanted to keep the other girl as far away from the medals as possible, in case the young Swordsage made another attempts to claim one.
Alchemy was too stubborn though and refused to be driven back by the Arcane Hunter. If Alchemy had to beat this girl to get back to above ground, then she would, even if it was one of Will's friends.
This led to a deadly dance between the two combatants. It was hard fighting on such limited space, since the top of this tower was at best, a twenty-five foot circle with nothing to stop a person who was pushed over the edge to falling all the way back to the floor below.
Seeing how this tower about three stories tall, it probably take the one who fell of, out of the contest, so this was defiantly a dangerous spot to have a swordfight. Not that either warrior cared at the moment.
The battle grew even more intense when Alchemy finally brought out the big guns, her specials stances and maneuvers. The Alchemy used the stance she used against Will when they first met, which created swirling shadows around her.
This stance was actually called Child of Shadow and it required Alchemy to keep moving for it to stay active, which was hard in such a limited fighting space, but the young Swordsage was confident she could manage to avoid being cornered or slowed down too much.
With this stance it made it hard for Irma to land a blow, now that the shadows kept blocking her sword strikes.
'What the heck is going on?!' Irma roared in her mind, being as ignorant of what Alchemy's abilities were, like Will had been before the young Swordsage explained it.
With her Child of Shadow stance, Alchemy began to gain complete control the fight. Irma was too confused and angry to even think of strategy or to try and find the weakness in Alchemy's technique.
After dragging the fight out long enough to exhaust Irma, both physically and mentally, Alchemy moved in for the kill. The young Swordsage forced Irma back with a powerful push, then used a used a maneuver called Rapid Wolf Strike to charge forward and strike her opponent down.
Since Irma was dangerously close the edge of the small fighting space they were on, it left Irma unable to defend against Alchemy's fast and furious attack and was sent back to the surface before her opponent's attack landed.
Too bad for Alchemy, she had moved to fast with her charge and fell over the edge and onto a portion of the stone staircase below. The young girl's bad luck did not end there, since she lost her grip on her two short swords, which fell even further down the tower, all the way to bottom.
While Alchemy let out a groan of pain, from her fall she thought to herself, 'Glad no one else is here or I would be in trouble.'
Too bad for the young Swordsage, she had jinx herself upon thinking these words and heard a furious voice cry out, "I'll make you pay for that!"
Alchemy looked up to see to see it was Hay Lin who screamed out those words and that was with a good portion of her friends. Caleb, Aldarn, Taranee and Elyon were still with the petite girl and were looking equally furious.
"Whose up for extending the truce until we pay her back for taking out Irma? We can settle who gets the last two medals after words," Caleb suggested coldly, getting nods of agreement from all those present, while Alchemy gulped nervously.
'What god or gods did I offended to have this much bad luck in such a short amount of time?' a very worried/annoyed Alchemy though, just before was forced to back flip off the stairs to avoid Hay Lin's twin daggers.
Alchemy then used a special trick that she knew from her Swordsage training, which allowed her to stick to walls like Will's Spider Walk invocation. Unfortunately Taranee and Elyon knew the spell version of the same trick, and quickly followed after Alchemy, while the others ran down the stone steps to catch her as well.
The only thing that was saving Alchemy right now was the fact she was very quick and a skilled dodger of attacks. This allowed her to avoid spells and arrows fired at her, but the young Swordsage knew she could not hold out for long against such number. Not with out her weapons and a lot of luck.
By the time Alchemy reached the bottom of the tower, she had taken a Scorching Ray to the back of her right shoulder and a few magic missile hits all over her back.
'Great, it just my luck the ones trying 'avenge' Irma had to be mostly magic users!' Alchemy thought sarcastically, while she dove her weapons.
The gang of friends in hot pursuit of her though, were not going to let her retrieve them so easily. They continued to fire what ever that had at Alchemy, hoping to take her out before she could rearm herself.
Lighting bolts, fireballs and other such spells rained down at Alchemy's location and if not for the fact that Swordsages were just could at evading wide area effect spells as rouges were, the young Swordsage would have been a goner by now.
Just as Alchemy was finally able picked up her two swords, she was attacked by Hay Lin. Since Hay Lin was using daggers though, it gave Alchemy a small advantage in reach. Her short swords were not that long of course, but it still helped the Swordsage hold the Rouge/Wizard off.
But this advantage was quickly ended when Caleb jumped into the fray. With Hay Lin on one side and Caleb on the other, it was becoming difficult for Alchemy to do anything but defend at the moment. The only good news was that as long as these two were fighting her, Alchemy was sure she was safe from further magic attacks since the magic users would not want to hit their friends.
This was true for Elyon and Taranee, but not for another newcomer that was entering the room.
Matt came running when he head all the noise of battle up ahead and was now seeing the one person he wanted to fight was in this very room.
'Lets see how you like this Caleb!' Matt thought, as he readied his lute and then quickly strummed the cords. This created a sound wave spell called Sound Burst, to hit not just Caleb, but Hay Lin and Alchemy as well!
"Ah!" all three combatants scream as the got blasted, while Elyon and Taranee looked shocked at Matt's reckless attack. Aldarn on the other hand was furious, since Caleb was his best friend and Hay Lin was a friend of the whole group.
"Olsen, you will pay for that!" Aldarn roared out and grabbed three arrows from quiver. He fired all three arrows at the same time; all heading straight for Matt, but the Bard was ready for them.
Matt unleashed a second Sound Burst towards Aldarn, which not only blasted the elvin Ranger, but destroyed the three arrows as well. But unlike when Caleb, Hay Lin and Alchemy got hit by the Sound Burst, Aldarn was hurt even more because of the stronger sense of hearing elves possessed.
Aldarn fell to his knees and clutch his now bleeding ears, while Elyon quickly ran to his side. Taranee was unsure what to do, since Matt was someone she would normally see as a friend, but a now recovered Caleb did know what to do.
After seeing Aldarn get blasted by Matt's spell, Caleb charged at the other boy and swung his sword downward at the Bard.
Matt stepped back enough to avoid the swing, but the sword still cut right through Matt's lute, rendering it useless. Matt quickly drew his own sword and the two boys began round two of their battle.
Taranee knew that if Caleb has recovered from Matt's first attack, then Alchemy must have as well, so the dark skinned Wizard turned to the Swordsage and fired a bolt of lightning at her.
Unfortunately, Alchemy saw it coming, dove out of the way, and to make matters worse, Hay Lin had been right behind Alchemy getting ready to strike, so the lighting bolt struck her instead.
This caused Hay Lin to be sent to the surface, since the Taranee's spell was just that powerful. This also left Taranee wide open to a counter attack, since she was too shocked at realizing that she took out her friend instead of Alchemy.
Said girl was now charging towards the defenseless wizard, hoping to taker her down before Taranee started casting more spells. Unfortunately, Elyon had healed Aldarn and he was now diving at Alchemy with his long sword ready for battle.
Normally Aldarn preferred range combat, but he did not want to risk hitting allies right now and so opted to use his other weapon to deal the Swordsage. Elyon also dove into melee combat range as well.
Alchemy quickly entered her Child of the Shadows stance and used the shadow defense to help fend of the attacks. Unfortunately, with two people attacks and Elyon using the True Strike spell to help negate Alchemy's defense, the Swordsage was getting hit a few times by Elyon's staff.
To make matters worse, Taranee finally recovered from the shock of blasting Hay Lin and was joining Aldarn and Elyon in their assault.
Taranee needed to rely even more on the True Strike spell than Elyon did, since Elyon was better in close range combat then the dark skinned Wizard, but the trio were slowly wearing down Alchemy.
'No choice, better trying a different stance and go on the attack!' Alchemy concluded and entered what was called the, 'Leaping Dragon Stance'. In this stance, Alchemy could jump much higher than normal and thus could jump over her attacks and get out the partially surrounded situation she was in.
Alchemy landed right behind Aldarn and entered yet another stance called Assassin's Stance, which allowed her to strike with deadly accuracy. The ranger disappeared with a flash of light, just as the young Swordsage thrust both her blades forward, taking him out the battle and leaving only Elyon and Taranee to deal with.
"Okay, now how about we stop with the team ups and have one on ones now like we are supposed to be having? This is the Labyrinth event, not the gang up on the Swordsage event!" Alchemy exclaimed in an annoyed tone, since she had to deal with wave after wave of 'avengers'.
"How about we just blast your butt through the wall!" Taranee shot back and then both she and Elyon started firing lighting bolts at Alchemy.
The young warrior did what she could to dodge them, but the fight was badly uneven. Eventually a bolt hit Alchemy in the chest and sent her flying into a nearby wall. The two spellcasters moved to finish the other girl off, but Alchemy still had a few tricks up her sleeve.
Alchemy used a technique called Shadow Garrote to cover her blades in black energy and then in a whipping motion, send the black energy out like a rope towards Elyon and Taranee.
The energy wrapped their necks, but before it could start to choke the two magic users like the move was meant to do, they disappeared in the same way Aldarn had.
"Finally! Maybe now I can get a medal and see Will before her friend tell her about me," Alchemy exclaimed and slowly made her way back towards the staircase that would take her to what she was looking for.
000
Back with Caleb and Matt, it was getting to be difficult battle for the Bard. Caleb was now able to use his vast number of combat spells, unlike when they fought in the melee tournament, which made it hard for Matt to fight on equal ground now.
Of course Matt was still able to make things very difficult for Caleb as well. By casting a Slow spell on Caleb and a Haste spell on himself, Matt gained an advantage that kept him in the fight since he was able to move out of the way of lighting bolts and fireballs in time.
Both boys were running out of magic though and knew they could not keep this up for long. Just as Matt's speed altering spells wore off on both boys, Caleb looked up to so Alchemy was making her way of the spiral staircase that led to the where the silver and bronze medals were.
Matt's gaze followed Caleb's and both boys' minds came to the same conclusion, they had to beat Alchemy to the silver medal.
Both started running at the same time, but Matt used the last of his magic to recast a Haste spell on himself, so he could catch up with Alchemy and leave Caleb in the dust.
"See you at the winner stand, Caleb!" Matt called back, sounding little cocky with his newly gained advantage, not knowing the Warmage had some tricks to pull as well.
Caleb took out a potion his mother gave him before he entered the contest. It was a potion that would allow him to fly for a short amount of time, but that would be all he needed, since he could just fly strait to the top of the tower.
As Caleb took off though, he did not see Nigel now entering the large chamber and see all three the other competitors head for the top of the tower.
"Looks like I made it just in time. Wonder if Taranee was the one to get the gold medal?" Nigel wondered aloud, before taking off for the staircase with as much speed as he could muster. This was actually pretty fast, since Barbadians had a knack for cover a large amount of ground in a short amount of time.
000
Caleb and Alchemy were the first to the top, but Alchemy was the first to attack. She entered her Leaping Dragon Stance and dove at Caleb, both weapons ready to strike, but Caleb blocked them with his sword.
Just the two broke apart from their weapons lock, Matt came up the stairs, looking shocked at Caleb being here and wide open to the kick Alchemy sent at him, The kick hit Matt square on the chin and sent rolling down the stair and heading towards Nigel.
Nigel jumped over Matt's tumbling body and charged forward to push past Caleb and Alchemy so he could grab a medal before the other two could.
Both warriors prevent this by both attacking Nigel at the same time and made the Barbarian enter his raging state and raised his Orc Double Axe to block the incoming swords.
Nigel then tried to push both Caleb and Alchemy over the edge of the tower, but the two pushed back and were somehow able to keep the match even. This was when Matt finally returned and decided to help push Caleb and Alchemy over the edge.
Caleb and Alchemy saw this though and with one last push, threw Nigel off balance enough for them to move out of the way and allowed Matt to push Nigel of the tower instead.
"Oh crud!" Nigel called out as went flying off the tower and was sent back to the surface just before his hit the ground floor of the large room.
Matt was soon to follow, since Alchemy kicked him off the tower again, while the noble blooded Bard was off balance, leaving only her and Caleb to claim the medals. This was of course; one of them did not defeat the other before claiming the silver medal.
Both were too worn out to actually fight one another though and so both just dove for the medals. What shocked Caleb during this was that Alchemy just went after the closer medal, which was the bronze, instead of the silver. They both grabbed their medal at the same time and were teleported away to the same inn as Will was sent to.
The crowd gathered in the tavern of the inm clapped in celebration of the two's achievement and Sade approached them and said, "Well done, you two, especially you Caleb. I'm certain Will will be glad to hear one of her friends won as well and beside her during tomorrow official announcement of the winners."
This made Alchemy quickly look up and ask, "Your highness, where is Will? There was something important I was trying to tell her before we got separated."
Sade was a bit surprised by the genuine concern in the young McDohl's voice, but only because she was used to dealing with her grandfather. Sade had to remind herself that unlike the current head the McDohl family, the apples that were his son and his granddaughter fell very far from the tree.
"She is resting right now, Alchemy. I'll be sure to tell her you want to speak with…" Sade started to reply, when said grandfather of Alchemy step out for amongst the crowed of the tavern and interrupted the Queen.
"What ever it is you which to say, you will stay away from that filth, Alchemy! She will only use her dark power on you if you get close to her!" Lord McDohl stated firmly, but then started to cower when Queen Sade turned her gaze on him.
"Be silent, Lord McDohl or there will be consequences," Sade commanded and then turned back to face the two young champions.
"Now, both of you of find your parents. I'm certain they will be eager to hear about your achievement. I would suggest the medical tent, since parents know that will be where their children will most likely end up during the final event," Sade instructed.
Both Caleb and Alchemy did as they were told, though Alchemy was nervous to go to said place. A lot of people she sent there just a few moments ago and they were not going to be happy to see her probably.
'Hopefully I can work things out with Will's friends. It would make it easier if they did not think I was a threat to Will, before I actually tell her who my grandfather is.'
000
AN: There you got guys, hope you liked it. Not sure when the next chapter will be up, since I'm planning on working Trials of a mother Guardian for a while (been too long since I updated it)