Legend of the Spellthief

As their discussion ended, the spikes began to shake and crack all over, crumbling to the floor in a heaped pile of rubble. The arena was a mess, but Logan was lithe. Darting to his foe, Logan made wide strides and moved side to side as he circumvented the terrain.

Garentaeous brought up his shield to block a blow but reorientated as Logan warped to his centre. Turning to his back, Garentaeous had to crank his neck back as Logan Air Blasted upwards, and then to the side, the Spellthief circled the Knight at dangerous speeds to disorientate his foe.

Landing solidly, Logan blasted from his sole and aimed a piercing blow with his dagger. It bashed into Garentaeous’s shield and stuck in the air as Logan warped behind the Knight and landed a solid grasp on his back.

Abyssal claws pierced the armour of the Knight as Logan silentcast Necromantic 2nd Grasp, blood from his foe dripping to the floor and his health absorbed into the Spellthief.

Garentaeous had his body blur before he spun around violently, his sword creating a whirlwind of magical slashes in the air, causing Logan to jump far away.

Yanking a few vials from his coat, Logan downed them to recover some of his slots as he looked over his foe as he stopped his spinning attack.

The Knight then warped just like Logan, bashing his massive shield into the Spellthief’s face. Blood flowed into the air as Logan recoiled, Garentaeous then had his shield dissipate to reveal his gauntleted hand, grabbed Logan’s shirt and brought him into a discombobulating headbutt into steel.

Logan’s head started to ring as he stumbled back. Garentaeous began to drive his sword forward, aimed at Logan’s heart. Clenching a fist, Logan punched the flat side of the sword heavily, misaligning his foe’s blade as it merely grazed Logan’s arm.

Making a claw with his other hand, Logan heaved it upwards with a mass of glaciers, contacting with the Knight’s face it froze over the partings of his helmet, freezing his face and locking up his neck movement. A silentcast Frost 2nd.

Bringing back both hands, Logan thrust them at Garentaeous’s chest, “Necromantic Grasp”, he chanted, both hands exploding out with black energies, but they shattered against the Knight. “He is immune to first-levels? He was tricking me into wasting so much against his skills”, Logan thought quickly as he retracted his hands.

Garentaeous flailed with his sword in one hand as he formed his shield back in the other. The attacks failed to connect with Logan as the Knight could only see his foe in his peripheral vision.

Forming a smaller Barrier in one hand, Logan stepped forward and met the sword in a thin line of hexagons. With his other hand, Logan grappled Garentaeous’s wrist and chanted, “Gaia 2nd Grasp”, producing sandstone spikes that cut apart the Knight’s flesh.

Logan began to chant again but was interrupted by Garentaeous shouting, “Dome of Protection!” causing a massive wave of energy to erupt from his centre, pushing Logan away as a green dome encapsulated the Knight.

“Not this again”, Logan thought to himself.

Garentaeous cleared his throat as he stabbed his shield and sword into the ground, grabbed onto the ice around his head, and snapped the magic away. Tilting the face plate of his helmet up, the man revealed blue eyes with black sclera, a vampire’s telltale sign.

“Wasn’t expecting any vampires in this tournament”, Logan acknowledged.

“Hah. I hope you won’t hold it against me”, Garentaeous teased as he pulled out his own vials to drink.

Logan aimed both hands at the dome, letting loose several Force micks, but they hardly did a thing to the protective barricade. “Oh, of course not. It’s just a bit sunny, is all.”

“The armour helps”, Garentaeous replied as he poked his helmet, “But I have other magic to help against the sun’s rays”, he continued as he pulled out more vials.

“So, is this going to be our ‘round 2’ or is it ‘3’?”

“I suppose so, though not as explosive as the first, I am sure you’ll understand”, Garentaeous answered as he drank a thicker red liquid, most likely replenishing his blood supplies.

Logan copied his foe as he began to drink from potions, “So, was the plan to run me out with that intimidation skill?”

“Good summation. Yes. It’s a useful tactic against casters as they typically reach fatigue faster than melee classes.”

“Sorry to say, but I won’t be feeling fatigued for a bit.”

“Oho, no doubts here. You’ve reached the penultimate match, I am certain you’re beyond any other caster I’ve faced and won against.”

“Any plans for the prize money, if you win?”

“I got the last dregs of debt to pay for my vampirification.”

“Expensive?”

Garentaeous tilted his head, “I’ve got a few more gold to pay.”

“I guess you’ll have to do some more adventuring work then”, Logan teased.

The dome started to shimmer, causing Garentaeous to finish up, “It is refreshing to find confidence with enough backing behind it.”

“I won’t disappoint.”

The dome shattered, the Knight picked up his arms while the Spellthief drew out two daggers.

Logan flung dagger after dagger at Garentaeous, the minuscule attacks still doing work against the bastion of metal. Clangs and clinks permeated the battlefield as the crowd grew energetic with the resuming battle.

Twenty daggers littered the floor, as did the rubble of previous attacks, the crowd cheered endlessly but it was not enough to take any attention away from Garentaeous. Logan’s form whirred out of existence as he used Invisibility, Garentaeous’s skin coated in red as he used Hard Skin in response.

Logan recognised the ability and merely waited out the timer as he jumped around the battlefield, Garentaeous’s skin returning to normal fifteen seconds later.

“What mastery Logan displays with his Invisibility spell”, Rebrin narrated.

“Now, now. He has only been invisible for fifteen seconds. At his rank he has at least twenty-one to go through”, Strolbem informed.

Logan darted close to Garentaeous’s side, waving a hand over the floor he chanted, “Frost Wall”, causing a massive obstruction of frozen water to block one avenue for his foe.

Garentaeous turned away from the ice to eye other directions for attack, instead, he was blasted at his back. Logan’s Frost 2nd split the wall in two as it speared Garentaeous in his back and out his right shoulder.

The Knight faltered as the power from the spell pushed him forward. Logan dropped empty vials on the floor as he made another wall of ice at Garentaeous’s flank. Garentaeous stared at the wall and his sides but was pierced again from above as Logan appeared, another Frost 2nd having hit from the top of the Knight’s left shoulder and erupting at his right hip.

Garentaeous drew his blade back far and javelined it skyward to Logan, but the Spellthief blasted air from his palm to retreat to the floor. The Knight’s sword reappeared in his hand quickly as another large visage of a yellow lion appeared all over him, charging down on Logan.

Logan blasted again, going high to avoid the General’s Charge, but Garentaeous followed, launching himself at Logan as the ground beneath his feet was crushed. The lion left Garentaeous and followed after Logan, another Air Blast allowed Logan to avoid the attack and leave it to batter the upper extent of the arena’s barrier.

“That was close. I was almost a Logan sandwich”, Logan thought to himself as he fell back to the floor.

As Logan’s feet hit the floor, he darted towards Garentaeous yet again. As the Knight brought up his shield to defend, Logan did a football slide under the bar of iron and stopped behind his foe.

Clawing at the ground, Logan chanted, “Earthern Eruption”, forming countless spikes that hailed his opponent.

While Garentaeous swung around to destroy the rocks, Logan manoeuvred around and aimed at the weapon, chanting, “Aqua 2nd Grasp”, spouting high-pressure water to cut across the metal.

Gripping tighter onto the blade, Logan chanted again, “Gaia 2nd Grasp”, causing the blade to warp and bend as stone curved around the weapon in an attempt to snap it.

Garentaeous broke free of the stony cage as he battered away his foe with a mighty shield slam. Logan retreated somewhat as he drew up magic in both hands. The Knight threw away his sword to form a new one, running through a somewhat shorter supply when compared to Logan’s knives.

“Flame 2nd Shot, Necromantic 2nd Shot”, Logan chanted, coalescing flames with shadows, a stark contrast of light and darkness in twin palms. The enflamed abyss battered Garentaeous’s shield with magical forces that even his body couldn’t ignore.

The Knight took the attack in stride, his legs forcing their way ahead as Garentaeous charged towards Logan. The Spellthief continue to chant, releasing three more volleys of blazing umbra at the defence ahead of him. Logan’s MP dwindled to 5.

This next-to-last clash came with a deafening roar. Garentaeous ran through the pain as some licks of fire caressed his armour while the gloom invaded the cracks. The magical assault went wider and taller as the two became closer and closer. Garentaeous primed his sword for a forward strike, but as he began the dozen-feet lunge he noticed the barrage halt.

Sliding across a glassy floor, the fires having cooked the crushed sandstone, Garentaeous whipped around to spy Logan once more.

“Lightning Cascade!” Logan shouted as he apparated up high and behind Garentaeous. Sparks darted for the enemy, pinpricking his armour and seeping through.

Warping again, Logan landed low and at Garentaeous’s front, making a quick jab into the chinks of the armour with his dagger, before disappearing once more.

The Knight had become slower as the fight had dragged on for too long, Logan’s ability to teleport surpassing any retaliation. As Logan appeared at his foe’s side he made another jab, another teleport, jabbed again, then warped just as before.

Appearing on both flanks, Logan chanted, “Necromantic Wall”, forming ramparts of shade. Slicing through the walls of blocked vision and on the sides that weren’t, Logan made a messy shower of ice on steel that would cause almost anyone to become disorientated with such fatigue.

Teleporting two more times in a desperate assault, Logan chanted two more times to cast Lightning Cascade, dual diagonals of electricity zapped Garentaeous to his core.

Logan landed in a slide away from his foe, sweat dripping to the floor as veins popped across his forehead. Garentaeous stood still in the spot where he had been blasted, steam rising from his frame.

The silence was deafening, everyone hugged the edge of their seats like lifelines out at sea. The silence was only broken by the heavy breathing of the two combatants who seemingly waited with baited breath for the next action, and again as Garentaeous fell to a knee, his armour clanking around as parts fell off.

A tired hand propped the Knight up from the floor, blood and sweat pouring from his helmet as slightly glowing eyes blinked away the pain. With his back to Logan, the Knight couldn’t predict what was coming next.

Logan drew up two more blades and began to charge at his foe again, his footsteps almost like giants against the quiet of the coliseum. With a haggard and phlegm-filled shout, Garentaeous halted Logan’s charge, “I surrender!”

Dust and rubble kicked up from Logan’s feet as he stumbled to a halt, breathing heavily in a hunched-over position still a good twenty feet from Garentaeous.

The crowd defeated the silence as a waving round of applause and cheers deigned to escape into the city.

“Logan Hall is the victor!” Rebrin shouted needlessly against his Boom Voice mick stone.

“As close an encounter as I’ve ever seen”, Strolbem added.

“Down to the wire. Fatigue resistance and resource management truly saw Logan to victory here”, Bref informed.

“A single MP left and barely any slots to go with it”, Logan conveyed in his mind, calculating what little resources he had left to offer the fight.

The portcullis gates began to rise in opposite directions of the arena, following the commentator’s call for the two to leave the arena. However, Garentaeous wasn’t moving. The steam from his body continued to rise in a concerning manner.

“Garentaeous, do you need assistance leaving the battleground?” Rebrin asked over the coliseum’s cries.

The Knight’s body convulsed weakly as the vampire couldn’t move.

“Vampire!” Logan thought, alarmed. Running towards his previous opponent, Logan let out a blast of wind from his palm, rocketing towards the hulk of metal.

Sliding on the floor, Logan grappled Garentaeous and blasted air from the soles of his feet, careening the pair towards the Knight’s exit. Sliding their sides on the sandstone floors that left the arena, Garentaeous’s body slowly stopped its steamy release, the two breathing even heavier from a surge of dangerous adrenaline.

As Logan began to look over the vampiric Knight several staff members of the tournament came running towards them, two wearing the telltale robes of Devouts.

“Sir, do you need medical attention or blood?” one of the men asked.

The female Devout picked out a healing potion and one filled with blood, only identifiable by its viscous makeup and temporary glass staining.

Garentaeous took both and downed them at the same time, coughing a bit as he swallowed two liquids of varying thickness.

“I’m glad to have met several other vampires”, Logan admitted, knowing his opponent’s protections against the sun probably had failed due to the fight.

The staff helped the Knight to his feet, allowing Garentaeous to pull on Logan’s arm before leaving, “Thanks for the aid, Boss.”

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