Realm of Monsters

Beatrix stared at Stryg strangely and finally broke into a smile, “You’re serious, aren’t you? Here I thought the scope of the Ebon Aspirant’s influence was so great that you already knew everything about me. But the truth is, you don’t know what I am, do you?”

Stryg furrowed his brow and squinted in her direction, “Your eyes…”

Small blue flecks of light floated in her amber irises like firelights on summer nights.

“Why is there blue in your eyes?” Stryg called out.

Beatrix looked up, slightly startled, “You can see that from all the way over there?”

“Is this some sort of trick?” Stryg growled.

“I have no need for tricks,” Beatrix chuckled. “House Morrigan would never tarnish our honor by using something so low as tricks and deception in a duel.” She straightened her back and looked him down, “I’ll defeat you with my own power, nothing more.”

“And yet you still haven’t said what that power is,” Stryg said and began to pace around her in a wide circle.

“You really want to know, hm?” Beatrix smiled bemusedly and followed him with her eyes. “I don’t mind explaining it to the Ebon Aspirant himself. I never planned to keep my abilities from you anyway.” It will not change the outcome of this match, in fact, I’m quite certain it will seal it, she thought. “I am a chromatic true blue.”

“A true blue mage? That was clarity magic?” Stryg muttered in disbelief.

“You know of blue’s true spell-form, but you don’t really seem to know anything about it, do you?” she guessed.

“You can see mana or something, right?” Stryg said curiously.

Beatrix shook her head and pointed a finger at her eyes, “I see so much more. I see the ethereal energies of the world. I see the particles of elemental and chromatic mana floating in the air around us. I see how a mage’s body naturally absorbs that mana.”

Her lips curled into a small smile, “I even see how that mana resides in one’s heart and flows through their body. It’s what scholars call a mage’s ‘mana flow.’ The stronger and more consistent that stream of mana is within a mage, the more power they can properly channel into their spells.”

“So you can see what we all already knew existed? Doesn’t explain how you stopped my flame spell,” Stryg said with a guarded expression.

Beatrix couldn’t help but chuckle, “I thought the Ebon Aspirant would be different, but you really are just like the others.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“In the past, while most mages were so confident in their own powers and the world around them, true blues were far more reserved by their observations; they eventually noticed something mages like you hadn’t before. Mana flow was only one side of the coin.”

“One side of a coin?” Stryg cocked his head to the side.

Beatrix put out her hand, “Mana flow is only half of it, the half that you can grasp.” She raised her other hand, “I see the other half; every single mage’s flow has its own unique equilibrium, each chromatic color within them vying for superiority, threatening to throw that equilibrium off balance. Mages innately balance their own chromatic colors without realizing it. Not everyone does it well, but some do. That’s what we call a talented manifold mage.”

Beatrix pointed a finger at Stryg, “The more chromatic colors a mage has, the harder it is for their body to regulate their flow’s equilibrium. It’s the main reason why most prime mages can’t even cast a simple spell, let alone reach the rank of adept.”

“What are you saying?” Stryg blinked.

“What makes someone like you remarkable isn’t your range of chromatic colors. It’s your ability to regulate those colors enough to actually be able to cast a spell.” She smirked, “You think your abilities are far above your peers, but the reality is your equilibrium is far less stable than anyone else in this tournament.”

“But you only have one color…” Stryg mumbled.

“And so I have a perfect equilibrium. Compared to someone like me it’s a wonder how you can even cast at all.” 

“I can cast just fine,” Stryg glared and summoned a whirlwind above her.

“Can you?” she looked up with a smirk. “I can see how a mage’s mana changes and forms a tapestry of threads in what you all just call a ‘spell.’ Even when casting, Aspirant, your body is still trying to regulate the balance of your mana flow. Your spell’s threads end up coming out disjointed with no true interwoven stability.”

Beatrix raised her hand and pointed her outstretched fingers to the whirlwind crashing down on her. The air shimmered with faint blue particles and the roaring wind was abruptly silenced. 

She lowered her arm and smiled, “All I have to do is pull on those threads at the seams and your whole spell falls apart just like that. ”

“...Is that right?” Stryg muttered grimly.

Beatrix frowned pitifully, a slight curl to her lips, and a glint of mirth in her eyes, “Oh Aspirant, you really are unlucky to fight me.”

“Yeah… yeah, I guess I am…” Stryg mumbled with a downcast glance. He suddenly looked up and grinned maliciously, “But I’ve been a bad omen my whole life. Misfortune isn’t going to stop me now!”

He spread his arms apart and channeled mana into his hands. An orb of flame formed over his right palm and rays of white light coalesced around his left palm. He slammed his food into the ground, shards of stone ripped out from the arena floor and floated around him in a flying arsenal of stone daggers.

“T-triple cast!?” Beatrix’s eyes widened. Her lips broke into a shaky smile, “You really are something else.”

Stryg roared and flung his hands forward. The slews of spells flew past him and straight at his opponent. Beatrix yelled a war cry and spread her legs apart in a wide stance. Her hands moved in a blur as they met each incoming spell. Blue sparks splashed in the air as each of the spells fell apart and dissipated. Even the stone daggers exploded and fell apart around her.

Beatrix panted quietly and wiped her mouth with her sleeve. She resumed her defensive stance and stared down her opponent, “Is that the best you’ve got?”

“So she can stop multiple spells at once,” Stryg nodded quietly to himself. Wasting loads of mana trying to break through her defenses doesn’t seem practical… in which case…

“Well, what are you waiting for? Where did all that fighting spirit go?” Beatrix scoffed.

“I could ask you the same thing. Why aren’t you stopping me?” Stryg slowly raised his arm, dark veins pulsed beneath his skin. 

Beatrix narrowed her eyes, “That’s…”

“You can’t, can you?” Stryg pointed at his arm. “You’ve stopped every spell I’ve cast, but here I am with a simple agility spell and you can’t do anything. Your range is quite limited isn’t it?”

So you finally noticed, good, Beatrix’s lips formed a small smile. “You act as if you’ve already won. But what can agility magic do if you can’t even get close to me?”

One of the arena’s pools began to quiver. Funnels of water rose out from the pool and formed a 10 ft wall in front of Beatrix.

Stryg glanced at the longsword hanging from her back and the short sword strapped to her hip. He drew Nameless from its sheath and aimed it at her, “And you call yourself a swordsman?”

“I call myself a warrior,” she said calmly.

Stryg channeled orange mana into his legs and casted a master-ranked agility spell, “Let’s find out.” 

Without hesitation he dashed forward, his figure flitting through the arena like an arrow. Beatrix gasped in surprise as he closed the distance between them in a mere few seconds. She poured blue mana into the wall and strengthened the torrent spell, but Stryg’s figure blurred and skipped past the wall and landed behind her.

Beatrix flung her hands frantically back, the water followed her movements and formed a shield behind her as Nameless swung down. The sword landed on the aquatic wall with a large spray of water, the wall rippling back from the force.

Beatrix didn’t dare imagine what would’ve happened if the strike had landed. Instead, she quickly split her focus and channeled more blue mana into the torrent spell. Aquatic tendrils sprouted out from the wall and lashed out at the goblin. But Stryg had scuttled away and sprinted to the opposite side. Without even turning, Beatrix immediately threw her arms apart and forced the aquatic wall to form a dome around her.

She didn’t have a chance to look before she heard a series of strikes slam into the dome from behind her. She spun around but Stryg was already gone. A loud splash of water resounded to the right of her, then suddenly to the left. Beatrix glanced about, but Stryg’s figure kept dashing around the dome striking at all different points. The dome shook and echoed loudly from the countless attacks.

He’s too fast, I can’t catch him! Beatrix realized with mounting frustration. She had never seen a master mage move so quickly. What sort of agility magic is this?

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. Getting him close and constraining his movements should have been simple. But it was taking all her focus just to replenish the dome’s mana supply without it falling apart. At this rate, she’d run out of mana in a matter of minutes.

Her enemy abruptly stopped his assault and jumped back two dozen paces. Beatrix breathed a small sigh of relief though she made sure not to show it. She was glad for the reprieve and took the moment to recollect her flow.

“Exhausted already?” she taunted with a bluff of a smile.

Stryg didn’t respond immediately, he simply stared at the water dome swirling around her. “…You really are a strong blue mage. I wonder if your tribe ever told you that…”

“What…? What are you talking about?” Beatrix asked cautiously.

While keeping his eyes on the dome, Stryg stabbed Nameless into the ground next to him, and casually began to take off his boots and socks. He placed his feet onto the arena floor and wriggled his clawed toes into the sand and the hard bedrock beneath.

“...That dome is as tough as Nora’s… it has no weak spots… This will be more difficult than I thought,” Stryg crouched forward and placed his fingertips lightly on the sand in front of him.

Beatrix narrowed her eyes, “What are you doing…?” 

“Breaking through,” he said boldly. A bronze sheen swirled around his blue skin, though his darkened veins did not disappear.

“Multiple enhancement spells?!” Beatrix cried out in disbelief. This wasn’t possible. His body should break. Why isn’t he already writhing on the ground in agony? Something was off... This is dangerous!

Waves of blue mana surged through Beatrix’s veins and poured into the aquatic dome around her, strengthening its durability severalfold. She just needed to slow him down long enough to touch him. If she could do that then she would win.

Stryg’s figure suddenly disappeared. The world around Beatrix spun. Water splashed down on her. She was on the ground. Stryg was on top of her, his clawed fingers wrapped around her throat. 

A giant hole had been left in the dome where Stryg had punctured through. The last remnants of the aquatic spell began to fall apart, unable to hold its form.

“Try stopping my spells now,” Stryg squeezed her neck, “It won’t stop my claws from tearing your throat.”

Beatrix smiled painfully, “I… can… see… it…”

“What?” Stryg muttered and loosened his grip on her neck.

She gasped a precious breath of air and looked at him with a proud smirk, “I don’t need to stop your spells. I can finally see your mana flow.”

Stryg’s head swayed. He suddenly felt dizzy. He groaned and fell to the floor next to her. Beatrix jumped on top and straddled him, and placed her hands on his slim shoulders.

She smiled triumphantly, “I ‘forgot’ to tell you about Clarity Magic’s other ability. So long as I can see a mage’s mana flow and I’m close enough, I can disrupt their flow like chaos mana, though I think you’ll find mine to be a bit more disruptive.”

With a weak groan, Stryg tried to push her off him, but his body felt sluggish and weak.

“Oooh, are you feeling okay, Aspirant?” Beatrix cooed. “To tell you the truth, I couldn’t see your flow at all, not until just now, when I finally got to touch you. If it hadn't been for you so eagerly wanting to close the gap between us I’d never get to see your flow and I have to say…” she smiled appreciatively, “It really is breathtaking.”

Beatrix stared down at him with eyes of clarity. She watched in wonder as swarms of colors swirled through his body, each of the chromatics fighting against each other yet somehow coexisting in harmony. Some chromatics were stronger than others in certain areas of his body, but they all pooled together in a nexus of colors at the center of his… heart?

Beatrix narrowed her eyes, What is that?

Below his heart, she saw something else, something she hadn’t noticed before. A second nexus, but where the first was full of bright colors, this one was full of dark ethereal energy with an almost oil-like appearance. It swirled in a strange pattern that she had never seen before, almost as if it was pulsating.

What is this? Beatrix thought anxiously. The second nexus seemed similar to other energies she had seen yet something about it seemed entirely unique.

She slowly brought her hands over the Aspirant’s chest and traced her fingers over the strange nexus.

The dark energy rattled at her touch and exploded outward in a flower of indigo spikes. A spike shot out into her hand with a painful icy grip. Beatrix cried in agony and fell back. She rolled on the floor as her body seized up. Her mana flow fell into complete disarray as the freezing sensation spread across her body.

Stryg slowly sat up and pushed himself to his feet. He walked over to the wheezing Beatrix and stared down at her, his lilac eyes alight in a soft glow.

Beatrix looked up in sheer terror. “W-what… a-are y-you…!?” she gasped with chattering teeth. Her lungs felt as if they were about to freeze over.

Stryg bared his small fangs and smiled wide. There was no warmth in his eyes.