Chapter 25: Battle of the Aces
Geon Leventen: Left, right, right, up.
My eyes worked rapidly to track the blazing Savian as he raced across the arena floor. He delivered a series of strikes which sent Lila flying backwards. In less than a second he darted towards Aurora and gave her a swift strike and a throw—so fast that it looked like Aurora just launched herself into the air. The blue haired girl ran after Aurora. I flew down and Savian ran towards me.I shot out my hand and willed the ground to move in front of me. I concentrated and a huge mountain of marble spikes shot out at the running Savian. The crowd gasped in panic as a tower of marble came towards them—even up to the highest seats in the stadium. He stopped and swiftly ran around the massive wall of spikes, but I flew out of his reach and created an explosion which I aimed at his back.
He ran back towards me and I saw him face me for the first time. He looked me in the eyes with a concentrated glare but I stood my ground. He looked confused as I raised my hand and snapped my fingers. He tried to run but I had enclosed his feet in the marble floors, and a giant explosion went off. I flew upwards to track Savian amongst the smoke. My explosions were created with nitroglycerin but what Savian couldn’t see was the nitroglycerin gas that was in the air. This entire arena was covered with it and everyone was at my mercy.
I landed on the ground and saw that the marble mountain had created a barrier in the middle of the arena. Me and Savian were separated from the others—it was one on one.
The crowd whispered in excited tones as they focused on the two of us. Savian ran out of the smoke and stopped on a dime. The ground tore up at his feet as he stood tall and faced me head on. He was still looking fine—no real damage had been done to his clothes or body. I had always noticed that he was tall since he was the only person in our school that I couldn’t see over. He definitely used his long legs and strides to go even faster on top of his speed. He looked at me with a smile and laughed a little. “One versus one.” I looked at him with a cold stare and he put his hands in his pockets. “I’ve never seen you smile once, did you know that?” He walked towards me and kept talking. “You’ve always been so serious, at least around me. You’ve never let your guard down and you’ve never stopped your attacks for even a moment.” He came face to face with me and we stared each other down. “On the outside you're just like everyone says you are. Cold, violent, rough, and troubled. But for some reason, I don’t believe that. I need to know more about you, show me who you are.” I looked at him for a short while and spoke.
“You want me to act buddy-buddy with you? Buy me an ice cream or something–if I don’t fuck you up too much.” Savian looked at me and he dropped his smile.
“You’re a threat. I’ve gone to the junior championships, I’ve won medals that grown men never won when I was nine, I’ve traveled the world, fought all kinds of warriors, and yet I’ve never met someone like you. I don’t like you, I hate you. Fuck you–you know what I mean?” He took his hands out of his pockets and prepared to move. I readied myself and looked into Savian’s eyes—which resembled deadly orange flames.
“You see Savian, that’s the difference between me and you.” He threw a fast punch which I met with a punch of my own. I added a blast which accelerated my speed and force. The collision sent a massive shockwave throughout the arena—which caused surprised shouts to go up in the stands.
“No matter who I face, my mind thinks I’m the best..I don’t care if I fight a peasant, a warrior, a politician, a noble, I couldn’t care less if I fought the emperor himself.” We both raced away from each other and faced each other on opposite sides of the floor.
“Because I don’t think about how strong my opponent is–I know that I will win.” Savian glared at me with anger. I prepared to attack. “You’re named after Savitar, right? The god of speed. Well Savian you are not a god, you are just a man.”
“And I don’t kneel to men.”
Savian exploded toward me and a huge sound barrier shockwave destroyed my ears. I flew upwards and added a blast to my feet—causing me to explode upward faster. Dark fire and smoke bloomed under me and I scanned the battlefield from the air. I flew around the stadium and released a column of fire out of my hands. The blazing hot red turned to blue, and finally to white. The blazing laser burned into the smoke filled field and it decimated the floor. I flew down and finally saw Savian. He raced towards me and I erected a marble wall. He raced around it and I blasted two spikes out of the floor. He smashed through it and grabbed a hold of my body. I willed clouds of liquid nitrogen to come out of my hands.
Savian raced me around the arena and my eyes saw a blur of color. My head felt like it was spinning and my stomach started to turn. Savian’s face suddenly filled with shock as he looked at his legs—which were starting to freeze off. He stopped and escaped out of my grasp. I kicked off his chest with both legs and flipped backwards onto my feet. I put out my arm and the floor of marble shot out in the shape of a giant stone hand. The huge hand grasped the still partially frozen Savian and I flew towards him. I flipped over him and summoned a cloud of chlorine gas around his face. Savian started to panic as his lungs failed him. I landed and squeezed my hands together. Inside the hand large spikes of marble jutted out of the side. He closed his eyes quickly in pain. I squeezed harder and heard the crack of his ribs and Savian spit blood out of his mouth in pain.
I stared coldly and flew up towards the sky. I hovered above him and held out my hand. He looked at me with a neutral expression as his mouth was still covered in blood. I stretched out my arms even more as I felt heat and lighting dance along my finger tips. I summoned all the power that I could and gave Savian one last cold hearted look.
I let the rush of fire and lightning race along my arms in a column of death as the beam of carnage hit my target.
I looked on as the stadium was left in rubble.
Nothing but ash left to see.
Savian Yelenta: I really loved being a kid.
It was a time when I could be who I truly wanted to be. I always thought that that was what growing up was. I didn't really get more mature, I just became more of the person everyone else wanted me to become. The real me was the kid me and the me I wanted to be. I remembered the things that would drive me to live day to day.
The things I knew, the things I had to do made me feel….strange–they made me less human…
I guess I was kind of hoping to kick the bucket….I’m bound to if I fight all the time….It would be a nice way to end a long, dead chapter of a human life….my life.I saw the brilliant flames of white come towards me, the heat singed my face, and the power sucked the breath out of my lungs. I put my head down and relaxed my crushed arms and ribs. This is nice….My arms began to move by themselves…my lungs started to work again, and my eyes started to unwillingly open. I tried my hardest to go back, to stop, to surrender, but I couldn’t. My body forcibly started to move.
I opened my eyes and red electricity burst out of my body. The marble that grasped me was torn to shreds and I escaped the marble death-prison in an instant. Geon’s face didn’t change as he adjusted and flew towards me. He summoned a pillar of marble and flung it at me. The giant spear practically froze in time as I jumped up on the airborne object. I ran along it and leapt off tackling Geon to the floor. He grabbed a piece of the floor and wrapped it around himself like an armored blanket, but I punched through it. He suddenly slammed his hands together and a huge explosion went off. The smoke and fire slowly expanded in my vision as I rammed into Geon and gave him a high-speed punch to the torso. He was blown back but I noticed that I hadn’t hit him. He stood up and I immediately saw what was happening. He flew by generating wind currents around himself. If those winds were strong enough, they could push back attacks too. He didn’t just have excellent mobility, he had an invisible shield.
I breathed deeply and stretched my arms and legs. Red lighting started to bounce off me as my gaze turned against Geon. A surge of red electricity enveloped my body and I felt myself rip through space and time. Not a single sound was made as I saw Geon’s shocked face turn around to look at me. My eyes turned red and my fingers danced as they turned into electric blade-like weapons.
“I’m getting really sick of you, Geon, sick of you after five minutes.”
Geon smiled, “me too, prettyboy, me too.”