Chapter 56: Rivalling Strength

Disclaimer:

It's time for another 5-day update schedule for you guys! I will be uploading a chapter every day from Monday to Friday to finish off the Forgotten Forest arc! This is Day 1 and I hope you enjoy this limited-time format and I'll see you tomorrow! (Well, not 'see' you, but you get what I mean ;) )


The scene was set for the battle between the Druids from the Forgotten Forest and Rhya from the Eye of the Midnight Sun's Third Eye. Rhya had just gotten up from Cathbad's quick strike on him which had sent him flying into one of the thrones at the back of the room and was going to face off against his obstacles.

The decision to trick the Golden Dawn, through imitating Letoile, was not a successful one but the Magic Stone is still needed.

The humans were not allowed to participate in this fight with Cathbad refusing their input, but whether or not the decision to do this was the right one remains to be seen.

"Valmoira, let's go", Cathbad jumped forwards. He bent his knees and propelled himself towards the enemy that embodied disloyalty, leaving a crater in the ground where he stood.

Valmoira sighed. "This would be done in a flash if the humans could help but… we are Druids", she raised her head. "We can show what we are about with this battle!" She followed Cathbad, rearing around to the side to attack from a different direction.

"Disaster Magic: Torrential Burnout!" The Chief of the Druids unleashed a dark cloud of smoke which surrounded Rhya as well as Valmoira. Quickly, rain started to fall from the shadowy mist.

"Woodland Magic: Oblivion's Grasp!" Valmoira followed up with her green and brown aura transferring outside her body, turning into arms made out of wood, to grab Rhya.

The Golden Dawn were watching the battle from the sidelines, without wanting to but through Cathbad's orders. Their faces were painted with frustration knowing they could help but also not knowing what the Druid Chief is capable of.

"What is their play here, Captain?" David asked, his eyes glued to what was in front of him.

William, also annoyed, replied and gave his thoughts on what was happening. "Cathbad's spell can be used to impair the opponent's view with the smoke cloud and I guess that Valmoira's idea is to grab the enemy whilst he's preoccupied with Cathbad's frontal attack.

Just as the Golden Dawn Captain had theorised, that was the Druids' plan. However, one thing that both parties didn't seem to account for was the flexibility of Rhya's abilities.

"Boring…", Rhya yawned.

The two Druids flinched as they heard what the Copy mage said and when they focused once more, the mage was gone in a flash of a bright, yellow light.

"L-Light Magic?!" Valmoira gasped.

Rhya teleported away from the smoky rain cloud and was standing safely outside its area. He stretched his arms out and yawned once more.

"My second fight and I'm against two people again. Yet, I'm still yawning like this?" He shook his head. "That was close but I'm just too fast for them…".

"Chief, we have seen him use three different magical attributes since he has appeared", Valmoira spoke with a bit of confusion. She furrowed her brow and shook her head as she tried to make sense of things.

"You are right. Compass Magic, Spatial Magic, and now Light Magic", Cathbad responded.

Rhya was amused at their confusion so he giggled a bit. "Are you wondering why I can use multiple types of magic?"

"We have heard about the Diamond Kingdom and their engineered mages. There is also the case with that Lucas human, which is a bit different, but this person…", Valmoira thought to herself.

The Copy mage yawned once more. It seemed like every time he was feeling bored, he would yawn to reinforce how tiring this was. "Look, guys, I can use any attribute in the world. Lets see how you fare against it!" Rhya shouted as he phased forwards through his Light Magic.

Cathbad clenched his fists and Valmoira cracked her fingers, both showing they were ready no matter what. Both Druids lunged at Rhya and continued their attacks without paying heed to Rhya's taunts.

"Copy Dark Magic: Dark Cloaked Lightless Slash!" Rhya brought out a steel blade that was covered in darkness, then slashed it in front of him which shot out a surge of the eerie magic.

"Dark Magic too?" Cathbad noticed. He met the slash head on and used his own magic to retaliate. "Disaster Magic: Lightning-Wrapped Judgement!"

Powerful blasts of thunder sounded out around the entire room as both of Cathbad's arms started glowing a bright blue colour. His arms looked to be reinforced by a thick layer of electricity and he used them to hit the incoming ray of darkness, completely destroying it. With another motion, he punched towards Rhya and his arms gave off their own blast and rays of electricity targeted the Copy mage.

Due to the nature of lightning and thus electricity, their course was very violent and random. The rays would bounce off the floor, the walls, and the ceiling, making it unpredicatble. Rhya couldn't ascertain where they would go.

"Disaster Magic? I'd love to be able to use that", Rhya thought to himself as he tried to dodge.

Whilst Rhya was busy with Cathbad's attacks, Valmoira had her own idea. She was watching the battle thinking where to strike and she finally had her answer.

"I will leave the actual attacking to the Chief, but I will help him out the way I can. I had the right idea the first time so I will just repeat it!" She was determined.

The Woodland Magic user's grimoire flicked through its pages and landed on what she needed. Her green eyes lit up and she summoned; "Woodland Magic: Pollen Burst!" Flowers spread across the room's floor in a circular shape and immediately burst into black spores.

"Good job, Valmoira. You are cutting off his escape options with that. The black spores are poisonous as well which adds to it", Cathbad nodded.

Rhya turned around and was about to move away from Cathbad's incoming spell but when he did, he saw his vision turn hazy with the pollen from the flowers that Valmoira had summoned. He couldn't escape and it was due to the Druids' teamwork.

"This isn't good…", Rhya braced for the attack to hit.

It hit. Lightning-Wrapped Judgement hit the Disloyal Third Eye and he lost his footing, leaving him standing on one leg but kneeling on the other. His body was slightly wounded and that was only because at the last second, he managed to use a bit of his copied Beast Magic to reinforce himself.

"Damn, you guys are good", Rhya praised as he got up again.

Cathbad wasn't going to waste any time in listening what he was saying. Instead of him using a spell to finish him off, he went to smash Rhya's face with his fists again. It seemed like he almost teleported with how quick he was going but, just like before, he was face-to-face with his opponent instantly.

"Copy Kinetic Magic: Energy Reversal!" Rhya expended some of his energy outwards, making Cathbad stumble in the process.

"Kinetic Magic? Did he use the damage he sustained as power for that spell just now?" Valmoira gasped.

This attack gave a bit of breathing room for the Copy mage and he used it well.

"Copy Light Recovery Magic: Healing Light Particles". Rhya surrounded his body in a yellow light to heal his injuries.

However, just as the pattern of this battle was showing, the Druid Chief wasn't going to give him any time at all. Cathbad swung for Rhya but the enemy managed to dodge with his Light Magic. Instead of retreating, Rhya swung to retaliate.

"Copy Beast Magic: Bear Claw!" He quickly enveloped his right arm in an orange aura and swiped at Cathbad.

Cathbad was already anticipating the attack so he also dodged. The Chief turned his head to the right and Bear Claw missed by the tiniest of margins.

"Wow, you're good, Chief", he smiled. Suddenly, Rhya repeated the same attack with his copied Beast Magic but now he had rolled his right hand into a fist and was aiming for the Druid's face.

"Better than you, enemy", Cathbad responded with no emotion. He met Rhya's fist with his right fist as well, creating a little shockwave from their impact.

Alecdora was in awe as he saw two strong people in front of him duke it out. "That Third Eye guy… he's rivalling the Chief of Druids like this?"

The contact of both fists lasted a few seconds but before Rhya could make his next move, Valmoira appeared from behind him and was already in the middle of using her magic. The antlers on her head were glowing green and brown as thorns made out of bark shot out and towards Rhya.

The thorns were on course to hit but, of course, Rhya had noticed the incoming attack and was about to teleport away. However, he couldn't use his Light Magic at this moment, due to him already using Beast Magic, and the attack dug into his body, sending him towards the floor.

"Hm? I see what the trick is now", Cathbad realised.

Rhya tried to get up but Cathbad was already on the move. He was in the air and both of his arms were reeled back above his head and he was going to attack Rhya with the power in both of his arms. Valmoira wasn't one to shy away either as she was coming from the other side with her Woodland Magic activated.

The enemy waited for both Cathbad and Valmoira to enter his field of view and that was when he unleashed more of his Kinetic Magic outwards with full force. The magic that was copied from Draien worked very well in this scenario since the blast of energy sent both Druids hurling away from him, leaving them on the floor for a few moments.

"Yeah, I'm not dealing with this anymore", Rhya was about to teleport away but then caught something from the corner of his eye.

During this time, William was completely silent. Though, internally, it was a different matter as he was caught in two minds. He was clenching his fists and his head was dropped down.

"I… I have to do something. Cathbad told us not to interfere but as a Magic Knight Captain, I have to fight! There is also the problem with…", he shook his head. William turned to the path where Rhya, who was disguised as Letoile at the time, had entered from and thought about something. "I… can go to help Klaus and Letoile who were defeated by Rhya. If I can't fight then I will go and save!"

William ushered Alecdora to follow behind him. One look at the masked mage's eyes showed how concerned he was for his squad members and so the Sand mage followed suit.

Though, Rhya also noticed this movement from the corner of his eye and used his Light Magic to stand in front of the two Golden Dawns.

"Now where… do you think you're going, Shiny?" He said to William. "You of all people should be a bit more cooperative, don't you think?"

William hesitated and didn't reply. The others however were concerned about what this meant.

"Is he threatening the Captain?" Hamon wondered, stepping forwards.

Rhya used his copied Kinetic Magic to blast a hole down from the roof which covered the exit away to where Klaus and Letoile were. The debris was deep and it went back for a while so no one was getting through it without taking a lot of time up.

"My squad members were on the other side!" William shouted, breaking character.

"This guy… I get why he's like this but come on…", Rhya thought. "You know what? Licht sure will get angry about this, but I'll make sure to apologise... Copy Flame Spirit Magic: Salamander's Rest!"

A red and pink flowing silhouette of the Flame Spirit appeared around Rhya's neck. The dragon-like entity growled and spat a little flame out which hit William square in the head, leaving a warm, yet painless feeling around his temple. William slowly fell to the floor and his eyes closed as his consciousness went to sleep.

This was when Alecdora stepped in front of the masked captain and stared at the Copy mage. His facial expression was that of anger and annoyance and it looked like he was ready for a fight. "How dare you?! You are quick, I'll give you that, but no one attacks Master Vangeance!"

"Attacks? He's not injured, bu-", he shook his head. "I swear… you are constantly ruining something, you stupid noble". Rhya said in disapproval.

"Yeah? Well, don't get all up in Master Vangeance's fa-!" Alecdora began but was swiftly cut off by an uppercut that met the bottom of his chin which came from the Copy mage.

"What was that?" Rhya cupped his ears and leaned towards Alecdora who had fallen to the floor. "That was for being a cocky bitch. Big noble and you can't do anything meaningful other than act like a loyal dog".

After he was done taunting, Rhya knelt down and was about to grab the Magic Stone and then make his escape. He knew how to use Spatial Magic so it was just the task of acquiring the object. Though, he was interrupted yet again…

"Glass Magic: Mur de Verre!" Hamon shouted and a large glass wall surrounded Alecdora in all four directions. "Sorry, buddy, but you're not getting that Magic Stone. We'll also make you pay for what you did to the Captain!".

The mage that represented disloyalty was, ironically, annoyed at the Glass mage's loyalty towards his teammates. "Okay, I guess I'll have to do this again...". A flash of orange light appeared and Rhya smashed his way out of the glass cage. His copied Kinetic Magic did the job and he was face-to-face with the Glass mage.

"Copy Flame Spirit Magic: Salamander's Rest". Rhya quickly went up to Hamon, touched him lightly on the head and he passed out almost immediately. The red and pink flames of the Salamander Spirit surrounded Hamon's temple and he fell to the floor as the warm sensation around his head stayed.

"Dice Magic: Gambler's Falla-!" David started to roll his dice to attack but he met the same fate as his squad mate beside him. The Dice mage fell to the floor immediately, passing out.

All of the Golden Dawn had been rendered useless. Captain Vangeance was the first to pass out and then Alecdora had been knocked out. David and Hamon were put to sleep.

"Thank you, Captain… and sorry for my actions", Rhya walked towards him. He went to reach for the Magic Stone once more and managed to finally obtain it. He looked at the green stone and twirled in around his fingers before stopping.

"Woodland Magic: Oblivion's Grasp!" Valmoira shouted out of nowhere.

Rhya quickly turned around to the source of the sound but she was nowhere to be seen. However, when he looked above him, he saw the green-eyed mage falling down towards him with her woodland arms outstretching from her body and grabbing the stone from him in the process.

One second, Rhya had what he had come for in his hand, and the next second, it was gone again.

"You Druids really are getting on my nerves. I really had no bone to pick with you but I think I'll end this now!" He shouted at the female soldier.

She landed in the middle where Cathbad was. Both of them had recovered enough to resume fighting and that is exactly what they were about to do.

"Good job, Valmoira. I think it is time we end this now". The Chief stretched his arms and clicked his fingers. "Time to get serious…".

The Copy mage had a poker face hearing what Cathbad said. "Wait, hang on a second. You weren't serious this whole time?" He saw the two stand in front of him and recollected the limited knowledge he knew about this race.

"The Druids… in general, their race has three different factions to them. One faction for the one who becomes the Chief, and the other two factions support him in every other matter. Each faction have their own histories that have been passed down but they all culminate together when they become adults, but the little differences are still there. That's about the extent of my knowledge since we never interfered with them too much. But… I guess I don't need to worry about that due to Sally's help…". A smile grew on his face as he knew what was going to happen.

"Ah!" Cathbad and Valmoira suddenly shouted in unison. All eyes turned to the two Druids who were next to each other and they both fell to their knees all of a sudden.

"Wh-what is… happening?" Cathbad shouted, sweat dropping from his head.

"My body… it feels like it is being torn up from the inside…!" The soldier screamed. She lost strength in the leg that was keeping he up and she completely fell to the floor with the front of her body against the bottom of the rocky, hard ground.

"My mana! It is slowly being drained or something…", Cathbad added. He was also about to fall to the floor just like Valmoira but his strength refused it.

Rhya took a few steps towards the two struggling Druids and wiped his forehead from his sweat. "Phew, I was wondering when that would kick in!"

There was silence. None of the two Druids knew what he was going on about.

"Really? You forgot? Fine, let me remind you…", Rhya mocked, shrugging his shoulders. "Remember those two guys with the hoods and robes who threw a pink liquid at you?" The Copy mage saw Cathbad's eyes widen so he clapped his hands in joy. "See? You do remember! Well, that particular incident is the reason for your current predicament. The Dark Magic Item from Sally worked a treat, and what was the variation this time? Oh, that's right 'Gamma'!"

Cathbad looked over at his comrade and she was already unconscious. "You will pay for doing this to us… to me! Just what…?"

Rhya sighed. "I don't know the in-depths of it but I'll give you the gist. Basically, it targets your mana and essentially freezes it. Sally said something about getting the idea from Anti-Magic and wanted to use it in practice, but obviously we can't replicate something like that so add a bit of science here and there and voila. Oh, and she added a poison to it!"

The Chief of Druids slammed his right arm into the ground, leaving a little crater beneath it. The veins in his forearm were popping out with the amount of strength he was using to prop himself back up. Slowly, he lifted his trailing leg and stamped on the ground with it which helped him stand up properly once again.

"You were saying…? A predicament, was it?" Cathbad spoke down to the Copy mage.

"Hey, hey… this guy is a monster!" Rhya widened his eyes. With a slightly awkward smile, he shook his head and lit his arms up with an orange aura.

Cathbad slowly bent down and picked up Valmoira who had nothing more left to give. She was passed out and to keep her safe, the only place where she could be was on the sidelines and that was where the Druid moved her to.

"Thank you for allowing me to move my comrade", Cathbad spoke.

"Ah, don't mention it", Rhya replied, sarcastically.

"Disaster Magic: Northern Impact!" An icy, blue colour burst out from the Disaster mage's grimoire, leaving a chilly feeling in the air. However, nothing else really happened apart from that and the two others, William and Rhya, were wondering what actually happened.

"A dud? Nah, probably not. I need to be careful…", Rhya said to himself. He charged forwards and became the aggressor in this particular move, trying to rival the large Druid.

"Copy Beast Magic: Predator Strike!" The orange aura that he was emanating transferred down to his arms and legs, creating armour plates on his limbs. He ran forwards and used the magic spell to slam into Cathbad, making him slide backwards.

"Ah, that was good…", the Druid held his side. "However, I now have an opening!"

He quickly rushed as the Beast Magic subsided and used both of his arms to punch different parts of Rhya's body. His right arm targeted his upper chest, whilst his left arm targeted his side.

As each strike hit, a blue colour transferred out from his fists and was absorbed by the Third Eye's body, freezing, and damaging him simultaneously.

"So… th-that's what it does…", Rhya said, shivering.

"Disaster Magic…", Cathbad paused as he felt something stop in his body. He looked concerned and he felt his heart. "No… is what he did to us really effecting me this much? I can feel my mana flow come to a halt and my physical abilities weakening… No. I felt this the second it activated earlier with Valmoira, but I shook it off initially… my time is running out".

Rhya tried to shake off the Northern Impact spell and was struggling to do so. Though, after noticing Cathbad pause, it gave him a boost in confidence.

"What is wrong, Cathy? Feeling a bit ill?" Rhya tormented. The little pause from the Chief was enough for Rhya to land a clean strike to his large chest.

"Dark Magic: Dark Cloaked Lightless Slash!" He shouted and a slash of darkness cut into his skin. The shape of a crown that was etched into his chest had a large cut through it, drawing blood.

When the damage happened, it seemed like a fire was lit into Cathbad's eyes. He felt the cut with his hand and when he looked up at Rhya, it seemed like he was angered beyond belief. Even more than he perhaps should have been.

"The symbol I gave myself… you have soiled it with your attacks. For that… I will kill you!" He shouted. His words were slowing down and he began to slur them as the Dark Magic Item's effect was in play.

"Disaster Magic: Lightning-Wrapped Judgement!" Electric rays surged out from the Druid's arms and chased the Copy mage around the room. With Rhya busy with evading that attack, Cathbad quickly ran up to him and body slammed him into the ground.

"Oh, come on! It's always that attack that gets me!" Rhya internally voiced his frustrations. He tried to get out of his hold and was about to use Light Magic to teleport away when Cathbad added to his problems.

"Disaster Magic: Northern Impact!" Unlike previously when Cathbad had to target his opponent, he could attack Rhya anywhere since he had him in his grasp and used his magic all over his body. The icy colour spread all over and Rhya had stopped moving.

"You idiot…! You got me now but that other attack you fired out is going to hit the both of us!" Rhya shouted at the Druid. He brought out the blade of darkness to hit Cathbad's body to try and loosen his grip before the other spell hit him. He kept hacking and slashing but nothing was going his way. Without thinking, he tried to teleport away but didnt retract his darkened, steel blade, making his attempt with Light Magic fail.

"You cannot use two spells at the same time, right? I noticed... it earlier and I made you... fail once more", the Druid Chief laughed. "I can… at least have the pleasure in knowing that I was the… one that defeated y-you…", his consciousness faded away completely and his grip loosened ever so slightly.

The Lightning-Wrapped Judgement was a millimetre away from hitting both Cathbad and Rhya and the Copy mage didn't have enough reaction time to do much about it. After retracting the sword, all he could muster was a bit of Spatial Magic which his body started to phase through but a little bit of Cathbad's attack still struck him as he teleported away from the now-unconscious Druid.

Rhya breathed heavily as his injured body stumbled across after he had escaped. "That guy… is strong, I'll give him that. But, unfortunately for him…", he stood up.

"Light Recovery Magic: Healing Light Particles…".

Rhya was healing his injuries up and after a while, he had almost fully recovered. It seemed like some kind of cheat code with his Copy Magic but that was the Third Eye. They were different to humans, and now were different to Druids with how much they could do and how unfair it was that they had so much power.

He had almost recovered when the sound of three distinct voices echoed out from across the room.

The area where Rhya had blocked William from meeting up with Klaus and Letoile exploded outwards. The debris that had settled was no more as a tornado and bits of Light Magic emerged from within.

Rhya face-palmed as he realised what this meant. The ones who came out from the ruckus was Lucas, Yuno, and the Druid who accompanied them, Dike.

"Guys, we're here!" Lucas shouted. The dust started to settle and just what was going on was made clearer for the newly-arrived trio.

They saw multiple unconscious bodies on the floor. Three of the Golden Dawn, as well as their Captain. Two others were towards the middle where Rhya was standing. Though, that was not the only thing they saw. There were multiple dead and burned bodies of other Druids that were on the side of the room.

"It is you… Rhya, from the Third Eye!" Lucas shouted. "Did you do all of this?!"

"That's him?" Yuno asked. "He certainly does fit the description, and I guess he definitely has the strength for it with what's happened". He focused on the dead bodies and shook his head, closed his eyes, and bit his lip.

"Again, with the murder accusations? I did NOT kill those guys… but at this point I might as well say it was me since I cannot be bothered with explaining myself", Rhya replied. He was annoyed at what was being said but more annoyed that there were more people to interfere.

The two immediately went towards William and the others to confirm if they were okay or not. Fortunately, they were and they were just in a state of sleep.

Dike was the last to move from where the three had come out from. His gaze was only fixated on his Chief, Cathbad, and his comrade, Valmoira. His eyes widened with shock to see the people he knew, be defeated by just one person. He didn't even want to focus on the ones that were dead because if he did, he might go out of control.

"Rhya, was it?" He asked, not paying attention to any of the humans either and what they had to say.

"Yeah, yeah, that's me", Rhya replied nonchalantly.

Immediately, and with great speed, Dike pounced at Rhya. He used the strength in his legs to go forwards quickly and he was already fighting with the enemy.

"Nature-Force Creation Magic: Sword of the Elements!"

Dike summoned his elemental sword from scratch and clashed against Rhya, cutting into his body, and drawing blood. "That is the first of many that I will inflict on you!"

"This speed…? He's even faster than that Chief and the other one!" The Copy mage gasped. This was not making sense to him and this little sense of uncertainty allowed him to be pushed back.

Dike seemed like another person in this exchange. Perhaps it was the injuries he had already sustained prior or perhaps it was what he saw as he entered the room that made him like this. Either way, he was different and this looked to be bad news for Rhya since this particular Druid hadn't been hit with the Dark Magic Item.

"Chief, and Valmoira… how could this happen? The soldiers we came to save… burnt like coal and dead in a pile? This… this was not what should have happened… The vow us three made to each other a few years ago…

broken".


NOTES:

The final big battle of this arc is underway! I'm excited to show you this. Lore will be revealed and SOME questions will be answered ;).

What did you think about Cathbad and Valmoira vs Rhya? I know the Chief of the Druids had a quick fight but perhaps more can come from him in the future… I also didn't want to go too crazy with the attributes that Rhya can use so I was limiting it to a few for this fight. Maybe we'll see others in the next four chapters?

I feel bad for William but I mean… what can you do? Everyone knows what his deal is but I do promise something is coming from him. He is a captain after all.

Now, Lucas, Yuno, and Dike are here to fight. Will the same fate fall on these three or will things be different. And just what was this vow?