My
Calling
Author: Cornell Valentine Gainsborough
"Speech"
'Thoughts'
MAKAI! Seperates Paragraphs
Chapter 16: Rise and fall
Having chosen to take the red pillar to the next area, Nelius noticed that the temperature of the area seemed to be fairly high. The place resembled some type of colosseum or battle arena, except that the outer edges were engulfed by lava so pure and reflective.
"So, you've managed to defeat my younger brother." Nelius turned around to face a floating suit of armor which had a blade in its right hand, a flame where the head should be. "Then again, Rudra was never one who would face the enemy directly."
"And who might you be?"
"I am Agni, direct descendant of Serpent Lord Malenzio and elder brother to Rudra." He placed the business end of the blade into the ground. "The time of awakening is upon us. I'm quite certain you realize such a thing."
MAKAI!
"She's still not back yet?!" Laharl's voice thundered through the hall.
"Well, ever since the news that Seraph Lamington fell ill, she's been quite distraught, Lord Laharl." The Dimensional Gatekeeper told him.
"IT's been a damn month, for Magog's sake! If he's gonna kick the bucket, he should've done so already!!"
"Ohh, what's the matter, Prince? Upset that your girlfriend isn't back yet?" Three guesses who this is..
"Can it, Etna."
"Hey, Prince, where'd you find that?"
"Dunno. Ghoss found it. You know whose this is?"
"Yeah, but the owner disappeared some time after I went to wake you up. He might come back for it, though. I'll be more than happy to take that off your hands."
"HEY!"
MAKAI!
Sword clashed against gauntlet as the second bout inside the Shatter Gauntlet was underway. The two seemed to be evenly matched, as neither one had managed to land a blow upon each other. Agni's bulky armor frame gave him an edge in defense, whereas Nelius' unarmored lithe body gave him the speed necessary to dodge and weave through Agni's offense.
"Time to raise the stakes." Raising his blade upward, two tendrils of lava began rising from the arena boundaries, and the temperature began rising again, creating a painful sensation in Nelius' gauntlet.
'Damn it! Using the temperature to heat up the metal in my weapon. No wonder my father... whoever the hell he is... chose him to be part of the team.' Nelius quickly waved his left arm about, trying to cool it off. Inadvertently, a blast of wind shot out from his waving path, cleanly slicing through two stone pillars on the edge of the area. "Whoa... never knew I could do that." He didn't have too much time to dwell on his newfound power, as Agni was already bearing down on him.
'He learns quite fast...' Agni slammed his blade downward as Nelius moved out of the way again. 'Unfortunately, not quick enough in this situation. I'll have to coerce him.' Holding his blade to his right side, the Armor Knight summoned another two pillars of lava, and by switching the blade's position to his left side, commanded the pillars to crash into himself.
"What the hell?!" Nelius watched as the lava seemed to take a solid body to hold the armor, and the flame atop the head began roaring, almost as if it lived. The blade glowed a red color and burst into flames. "Into the oven..." He felt himself fighting for a cooling breath as the area temperature just refused to lower.
"Consider yourself honored to see my blaze body form. I haven't had a battle like this in a long time. Get ready!" He rushed forward, his blade poised for an overhead strike. Nelius barely managed to get out of harm's way, but a piece scattering debris from the blade's strike flew outward, searing the young man along his side.
"Agh, damn it all!" Forced to hold his burned side with his right hand, he saw Agni getting ready to strike again. "Shit... there has to be a way... to cool the air around him.. agh, but what can wind do?" Seeing the blade coming from his right side, Nelius broke away... revealing his answer. Finding himself on the other side of the arena in a flash, he saw the flame on Agni's head flickering dangerously. 'Of course! Fire requires a steady air supply to thrive... I just need to cut the air off from around him... it's risky, but it's worth a try.'
"Running will do you no good, Nelius." Agni was already on his way to attack.
"Actually, it'll do me a world of good!" Feeling the wind element channel into his legs, he dashed past Agni, and began to run circles around the Armor Knight.
"What in blazes?!" Agni could feel the air around him beginning to cool down, and as it did, the flames infused within his body began dying out. "No! Are you..."
"Fire can't survive in an airtight place, so all I had to do was create a vacuum space, and what better way to do so than with a cyclone?" (1) Quickly breaking off, he infused more wind energy into his left hand, and, using a quick 464 K/ph burst of wind, launched himself toward the cooled remains of the fire infused Armor Knight, and shattered him with one well-placed punch.
"V-victory is yours..." Nelius found himself back in the central arena again, and a red node lit up on his gauntlet. "The fire element is yours to command."
"Two down, two left... man, what I wouldn't give for something to munch on right now.. ah, well. Blue, or ye.. what the?" The pillar that had been a yellow color had changed to a light purple, almost pink color. "Weird.. well, choices don't make themselves."
MAKAI!
"You really know how to get yourself into a mess, don't you?" The one who appeared to be a humanoid version of Brad just sighed.
Brad, to say the least, was a mess. He had two black eyes, several patches of fur forcibly ripped off, half of his right ear bitten off, a few bones bending in directions previously thought impossible... and his spleen was still unaccounted for.
"Geez, who'd he piss off this time?" Gee, HellStar, take a guess.
"Sometimes, I feel more like your babysitter than your employer. What am I to do with you?"
MAKAI!
"Brrr! Outta the frying pan and into the deep freeze!" Upon choosing the blue light, Nelius was transported to a snowy area. "I'f I'd known winter was coming early, I'd've packed warmer clothing."
"With that kind of attitude, I'm surprised that you've defeated the Brothers of Fire and Wind." A female's voice, cold and biting as the very area, resounded. Nelius looked up ahead to see a blue-clad Kunoichi staring in his general direction. "For someone who has the remains of the Seal on his body, you've certainly shown much progress."
"Seal? You mean you know of that weird inked seal that was on my hand?"
"A fairly obvious attempt at hiding your latent powers. To a degree, it worked, but once outside of the focusing point, its own power began to diminish."
"So, my former boss was keeping me cooped up in there just to suppress me? That bitch!"
"There's more to it... if you manage to defeat me." She prepared a handful of thick, icy throwing knives. "I am Setsuka, second general of Ice Queen Miss Snow."
MAKAI!
(1): I read about this in a Sonic the Hedgehog comic. Sonic defeats Blaze, the pyrokinetic, by running around incredibly fast, creating a vacuum that extinguishes her flames.
Until Next Chapter,
Cornell Valentine Gainsborough