Legend of the Spellthief

The arena continued to erupt in shards of ice and rock, Logan the Spellthief and Marcus the Devout, friends of over three months, clashing for the longest time. The crowd was biting their nails with each attack, worried their bets were misplaced and the other side was going to land a devastating injury on their chosen winner.

“Pondress, guide my hands!” Marcus called out, rotating his arms to symbolise the two-circle symbol of his goddess. Drawing his hands close, he made the same two-finger stance as before, unleashing a barrage of slugs at Logan.

Dipping his head to the side, picking up a leg, and persuading his opponent's arms to miss him with daggers, Logan tried feverishly to stop any attack landing. Finding a gap in the onslaught, Logan brought down both icy blades towards Marcus’s shoulders.

The Devout retaliated by moving his fists inwards and batting back Logan’s inner wrists with his outer wrists.

Logan let go of his daggers, wincing in pain, but as part of his plan. Quickly retrieving his empty hands, Logan chanted, “Force”, letting loose a duo blast of grey energy at Marcus’s chest, sending him back slightly from the power of the blows.

Continuing his momentum, Logan kicked off the floor, returned his daggers to his grasp in reverse grip, and spun at Marcus. Attacking with a diagonal spinning top style, Logan clashed his daggers on his foe’s gauntlets. Dirt kicked up from Marcus’s heels as he slid back with each strike, while sparks of static emitted from the steel on steel, with a cold hue.

As the technique ended, Logan landed with two solid feet, drew his daggers close in a cross-hold over his hips, and then threw them harshly at Marcus. The Devout crossed his arms over his face to block the attack, however, the daggers merely sang in the air and sliced at the sides of his arms. As blood dripped from his clothing, Marcus attempted to return his guard and attention to Logan.

The Devout couldn’t keep up, though. Logan’s lips had just ended the muttering of, “Haste Sustained”, Logan’s speed increased to two times as the spell had left him some time ago. Getting inside his foe’s guard, Logan placed two palms on Marcus and ignited his friend in a squall of frosty darkness, a silentcast round of Frost 2nd and Necromantic 2nd.

Marcus coughed up blood as his body was flung back by the intense power of Logan’s spells. The Devout was lucky to survive the offensive, but it was most likely due to his Enhance spells increasing his HP beyond what Logan had.

Logan’s form warped out of existence and appeared far behind Marcus, the Spellthief collecting his daggers out of the air, spinning them around in his grasp, and slashing again at Marcus’s back.

Marcus’s body glowed yellow as he healed himself quickly in the air, with whatever might he had in the air he crashed his heels into the floor as he flew backwards. Kicking off the ground, Marcus made a sloppy backflip over Logan as the daggers narrowly missed his rear. There wasn’t much room behind them, however, and Marcus landed his feet on the arena wall.

“Now we’re seeing some heavy hits!” Rebrin narrated.

“Just like his matches before this one, Marcus will draw this fight out with his speedy healing capabilities”, Strolbem added.

Logan spun on the spot, aiming a wide slash at Marcus who punched into the inner-elbow of Logan, causing the attack to falter.

Pushing off the wall, Marcus spun upwards and quickly kicked Logan’s chin, sending his body sliding back slightly, granting the Devout some breathing room.

“C’mon!” Marcus taunted as he landed back on his feet.

“I’m already here!” Logan teased as he reared his upper body forward to realign his stance. “Skin of Ice, Flame Cloak”, Logan chanted, his skin coated in hard ice while wreathed in flames.

As a misted foe formed in front of Marcus, the Devout drew back his fists and began to thump through the fog. Circular parts erupted within the misted aura around Logan, his own body dodging side to side to avoid anything landing.

Moving to make an underhand slash with his dagger, Logan dropped the blade as soon as it connected with a parrying fist. Opening his palm, the dagger flying off behind him, Logan ignited his hand and patted it into Marcus’s chest, “Flame 2nd Grasp”, he chanted, Marcus burning horrendously from the feint.

Logan’s other hand, at the same time, merely dropped his dagger and pulled inwards, causing another round of Flame 2nd Skystrike to batter into Marcus’s back, Logan’s Multicast skill doing wonders for sneaky tactics.

Retreating his first hand, Logan let off an Air Blast to propel himself backwards. With his off-hand, he clutched onto his falling blade, spun in the air, and caught his main-hand frozen lord edge as it lost its momentum away from him.

Logan landed in a spinning slide, two rotations completed before he faced down Marcus again. The Devout’s body continued to let off a yellow glow as he maintained healing himself.

“Aqua Branch”, Marcus incanted, a jet of water appearing within his right sole. Landing a massive slam into the floor with his fist, the jet of water pushed him upwards and above Logan. With a quick kick, Marcus barely missed his opponent as the pillar of water shot off his foot into the floor, halting Logan’s move back to his previous position.

“Gaia Branch”, Marcus continued, a column of earth forming in his other hand that spun him around in the air. Aiming a backhand at Logan, the Spellthief blasted away to dodge it. Marcus merely opened his hand toward where Logan moved to, the earthen pillar following the Spellthief before it collided with the far wall as he swerved.

“Blest Skystrike”, Marcus chanted, a beam of light appearing above Logan and narrowly missing his head as the Spellthief ducked down. Warping in front of his foe, Marcus then landed a solid uppercut into Logan’s chin, sending his foe blasting into the barrier above.

As blood flowed from his clenched teeth, Logan wiped his face and aimed a hand at Marcus who had jumped after him, mentally commanding his spell to activate, Logan had the blood blacken and wire out towards the Devout. The Warping Censure spell wrapped around Marcus and tugged tight on his body, removing his ability to use Dimensional Jaunt.

This tactic cost 8 MP from Logan to conduct as a silentcast, but its power was certain. Marcus’s body whirred a bit as he attempted to teleport away from the effect, but was too slow during his tunnel-vision follow-through.

Logan then showed his free movement and teleported behind Marcus, facing the ground. Reaching around, Logan grabbed onto the shoulder sections of Marcus’s coat and threw him down with blasts of air shooting from Logan’s soles. A massive, somewhat piledriver-esque, crash had Marcus planted a good three feet underground as the arena shattered.

Letting the momentum push him upward, Logan landed on his feet as he pushed off Marcus. Sliding his feet on the rough terrain, Logan landed two palms onto Marcus’s back as he chanted, “Aqua 2nd Grasp”, piercing his friend with two large swords of red water that exploded across the battleground.

The power of the spells loosened Marcus’s prison in the floor, his yellow glowing body bending before rocketing out as he punched the ground. Flying to the far end of the arena, Marcus landed in a haphazard slide, blood pouring to the floor from wounds that had quickly closed over from his healing spells.

“That’s it! Show me it all!” Marcus spoke under his breath as he drew back both hands, slapped them onto his hips, and had his gauntlets fall off to the ground. Flicking his wrists, Marcus had two fresh gauntlets appear over his hands, clenching a few times to make sure they were snug.

The pair then kicked off the ground to launch themselves at one another. Logan drew up two Bowen daggers while Marcus aimed a severe right straight punch at his foe. Before they met, Logan dropped both of his daggers and used an Air Blast to launch himself over Marcus who had already swung his fist.

“Gaia 2nd Grasp”, Logan chanted, rocks forming around his fingers as he grabbed out at Marcus’s neck.

Marcus opened his palm and chanted, “Gaia Branch”, forming a pillar that shot to the floor, pushed his arm back, and arced into a spin to backhand Logan’s palm away.

Earth collided with stone as the branch pinned the spell from Logan into the ground to their side. Logan landed a foot on the branch and kicked off of it, backflipping to the floor.

Marcus ducked under his column and followed after Logan. Another straight jab flew towards Logan who parried it with an open palm and a chant of, “Barrier”, causing the fist to collide with blue hexagons.

An offensive quickly followed the defensive as Logan swung his other hand towards Marcus, “Earthern Eruption”, Logan chanted, causing spikes of sandstone to dart for their prey.

Minor tips poked Marcus as he jumped back, the sound of blasting air ever-present and almost drowned out by the sounds of the crowd in awe. The soundscape had added to it, static, as Logan apparated in the air above Marcus and lined up his arm, chanting, “Lightning Cascade”, the pricks of blue stabbing at the Devout’s back.

Using two more jets of water, Marcus shot through the lighting at his back, spun, and attempted a spinning kick at Logan. The boot was met with the same Barrier as before as Logan moved slightly in the air from the velocity.

Another jet appeared in Marcus’s sole, allowing his rebounded kick to try again as it battered the hexagonal defence. Another kick was primed to attack the shield, however, Logan used his offhand to blast back down to the ground and prepare a Gaia Shot at Marcus.

Marcus used his trio of jets to twist in the air, dodging the spell barrage from Logan. Rocks, lightning, and scythes of shadow missed the Devout as he reached the floor to continue jabbing at Logan. A total of 8 hits from Marcus saw the Barrier shatter from his onslaught.

The rains above finally let up, allowing the pair a dryer conflict, if still cold from the chilly air. Logan saw fit to take up the opportunity and waved his hand over the floor, “Necromantic Wall”, he called out, a wide and tall wall of shadows blocking Marcus’s sight.

Marcus darted around the abyss to follow Logan but was unable to find his opponent, he did, however, find vials appearing on the floor as Logan downed potions while unseen.

“Below!” Marcus cursed as he darted his head around. Relenting, Marcus jumped up high, enough so that his back rubbed the upper height of the arena’s barrier. With his arms spread wide, Marcus gritted his teeth as he moved more of his innate spellforce into his arms and then his palms.

With immense strength, Marcus clapped his hands together, creating a massive soundblast, as if he had gone supersonic. The pressure wave enveloped the arena fully, pushing aside dust, water, and smaller debris, destroying many of his own branches, almost cleaning the field of its destruction. One section, though, did not clear, revealing where Logan was in his invisible state.

Marcus extended his fingers, golden chains forming from the ground and grappling with an invisible Logan. Placing his hands on the barrier, Marcus then created two more jets of water to propel himself at the chains wrapping his presented foe.

Sadly, Chain Guard wasn’t that high of a spell, a second-level. As Logan had come to understand with many of his tactics getting beaten by same or higher-level spells, he knew this one in particular had a weakness. It stopped movement, but not enough to stop dialogue or casting if you were proficient.

Marcus landed a double slam into the ground, cracking the ground even further as shards of sandstone hit the nearby walls and the arena barrier. The golden chains fell to the floor around the Devout, no sign of an invisible foe, and no sensation of hitting one.

A blast of wind signalled that Logan had teleported to the far end of the battlefield, a clinking of glass onto stone continued to show his recovery tactics at play.

“Logan!” Marcus shouted, standing tall and viewing the coliseum grounds. “Do you remember what we said before?!”

Logan looked over to Marcus, recalling their conversations about this very fight.

“Don’t hold back whatsoever, use all you’ve got against me. I know you have more than this!”

He didn’t mean the Spellthief powers, they both agreed that Logan wouldn’t show those off unless necessary or when Logan had changed his mind.

Marcus tightened his fists and he took a few steps towards where Logan had teleported, “Show me what you think of me! Truly! If my power isn’t enough to withstand it, fine!” he spoke with teary eyes, “Just let me know I’m not holding you back!”

Logan’s form returned into view as if a cloud disappeared from his body. “I’m sorry, Marcus. I’ve not been fair.”

“What?”

“I just don’t want to hurt you that badly. But I know I’m hurting you more by not doing so.”

“Hurt me? I’m not weak anymore.”

“I don’t think you’re weak! You’re my friend and the thought is something so alien I don’t want to picture it.”

“I’m no longer the fuel, Logan”, Marcus admitted as a tear rolled down his face.

“You’re not. I’m sorry”, Logan replied as he flourished his coattails behind him and entered a clawed stance, “I’ll show you that we’re budding furnaces.”

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