Realm of Monsters

It didn’t make sense. None of it made sense…

Calex Thorn stared at the impossible unfolding in front of his very eyes. The dire girl had been cut by Nightshade. The sword’s exceedingly potent poison had filled her veins. He had seen her collapse and succumb to the poison. And yet there she stood, cloaked in golden flames that burned bright. The air itself warped around her from the sheer searing heat, yet her skin was unburnt. Even from twenty paces away, Calex could feel the heat of the flames, it was as if he was in an oven.

He didn’t understand.

He had never seen flames of gold before. And the poison… Was the poison insufficient? Did her dire constitution weaken the poison’s effects? Or was it perhaps a hybrid mutation? 

Calex shook his head and called out to his opponent, “Are you… Are you an elemental mage? Is this some kind of elemental fire magic? Or is this even elemental magic…?”

Belle glared at him and growled, a deep guttural sound.

Right… She’s quite angry with me… understandable… Calex swallowed, his throat felt dry in the back of his mouth.

Calex shrugged and threw his arms up into the air, “I must admit, I have spent most of my days studying the art of magic, though I cannot recall learning anything regarding this strange magic of yours. Quite fascinating really…”

As he spoke his mind raced through possible ways to deal with the dire vampiress. Perhaps several more cuts, deeper cuts, with Nightshade would put an end to her. But the golden fire was a severe problem. It was impossible to get close.

Black’s shadow tendrils, Green’s vine entanglement, Purple’s mind chains… most of his advanced spells would simply burn before they reached the vampiress.

Flame and bright spells also seemed futile on a being who did not burn. Which left him with only a few options. Besides Nightshade, storm magic was his greatest weapon. But it would take time to create a lightning bolt powerful enough to pierce her aegis. He needed to make some distance, he needed a distraction…

“Are those golden flames some sort of archaic orange spell?” Calex asked as he slowly channeled green mana in the sands around him. “Chromatic flames are usually orange, but House Noir has proven that they can be blue as well. Is that what this is? A secret spell—?”

“—Stop… talking,” Belle said through clenched teeth.

Calex sighed, “As you… wish!” He abruptly slammed his foot on the ground. 

A 2-meter tall jagged rock exploded from the sand and hurled straight at Belle. She did not yell in surprise, nor try to evade. Her hands shot out and gripped the rock with newly-formed claws, stopping the gigantic boulder in its tracks.

Calex stared in disbelief, “H-how did y—?”

“—I said stop TALKING!” Belle screamed and flung the boulder at him.

“Shit!” Calex channeled orange mana into his muscles and jumped to the side.

The boulder flew past him and slammed into the arena’s wall, cracking the reinforced wall and shaking the seats in the stands directly above. The crowd yelled, some in anger, most in fear.

Calex stared in numb shock at the giant crater left in the wall, then slowly turned towards the one who had so easily tossed the boulder.

Belle growled and bared her teeth. Her lower canines had grown as sharp and large as her fangs.

Calex laughed shakily and smiled wryly, “And here I thought I could take it easy.”

Belle looked down on him with disgust, “Have you been going easy on me, little drow? Good. I was beginning to think this fight would be as disappointing as your pathetic excuse for teammates.”

Calex narrowed his eyes, “Don’t speak about them like that.”

“Or what?”

Belle stretched out her arm and pointed her fingers towards what little remained of her hammer. The wooden shaft wrapped around a steel rod had burned to ash from the heat of her flames. Suddenly, the bare metal hammer began to tremble and glow with scorching heat as it warped into a metal ball before it elongated into the shape of a longsword.

The blade’s steel glowed red hot and burned with black smoke. Belle wrapped her hand around the burning hilt and swung the sword around in a rhythmic pattern, testing its weight. 

“This will do,” she muttered.

“What are you…?” he whispered in alarm.

“My mother’s daughter,” she snarled.

Belle dashed towards him in the blink of an eye. Calex gasped in surprise and leaped back, his agility magic surging into his muscles at full might. With blurred steps, he darted behind her unguarded back and thrust Nightshade right between her shoulders. As the purple blade neared her skin, Belle’s molten sword spun around and clashed with Nightshade in an explosion of sparks.

Belle turned her neck and looked back at him, “Is that the best you can do?”

Calex frowned, “How did y—?”

The world spun, the sky was upside down, and the ground flew past him. His body crashed into the ground and skipped across the sand half a dozen times before slowing to a painful halt.

Calex wheezed heavily. It felt as if a hammer had struck his ribs. He held his broken ribs gingerly and tried to stand. A sharp pain shot up his foot. He cried softly and fell to one knee. He had twisted the ankle during the fall.

He panted in quick painful breaths and tried to assess the full extent of the injury. If he cast a White healing spell perhaps it might be enough to help him stand.

“You can’t even stand, can you?” Belle shook her head in disappointment. 

Calex stared at her warily. She was over twenty paces away, but he knew she could close that gap in an instant. She had sent him flying with a kick and he hadn’t even been able to react.

She’s faster than me… Even with my agility spells, she’s actually faster than me… 

A cold sickly feeling crept over his back. Calex glanced around for Nightshade anxiously. The purple blade had landed somewhere in the sand, but he could not see where.

Belle walked towards him, one slow step at a time, “I was told — everyone was told— that you were the strongest mage of our generation. Perhaps in terms of raw magical skill. I admit, there is no one in this tourney with your technical skill.” Belle gripped her molten sword tightly, “But you are not the strongest, Thorn.”

“I have to admit, no one’s told me that before,” Calex grinned painfully. “Let’s put that theory to the test.”

Blue mana poured into his veins. The twin pools at the edges of the arena shook violently. The two bodies of water flowed out in enormous waves and crashed against one another at the center of the arena, burying Belle under a hill of water.

The water boiled instantly and erupted outwards in an explosion of steam, covering the whole arena. 

That won’t hold her for long, it’s now or never!

Calex summoned forth every last drop of blue mana left in his heart and channeled it through his body. His instructors had warned him countless times about casting high-master spells and they were right…

He had never been able to manage a stable Javelin Bolt spell, but the time for holding back was long gone.

Electricity crackled over Calex’s hands and grew until it formed a small javelin. His arms burned from the exertion of mana. He could hear his own heartbeat thrumming in his ears, threatening to give out over the excessive magic. The spell wasn’t stable, but it just had to last long enough to find his target.

Calex ignored the pain creeping up his arm and stared intently at the steam cloud, a mad glint in his eyes. A faint golden silhouette slowly formed in the cloud. It grew larger and brighter as it neared. The steam dissipated around Belle as she stepped out, forming a strange halo around her golden flames.

Calex chuckled in disappointment. Some small part of him had hoped the water would have been enough to put out her fire, but if anything it seemed as if her flames had grown larger, angrier.

Belle glared at him, “Is this how you die? On your knees?” 

Golden flames condensed over her sword until they formed a faint outline of a wolf’s head.

Calex could feel the sweat evaporating off his skin and the air drying around him. He could hardly breathe from the sheer heat. He leaned on his knees to steady himself and looked straight into Belle’s eyes, “I can’t aim on one foot.”

He pulled his arm back and hurled the Javelin Bolt. The blue pillar of energy screeched through the steam in a whirlwind of electricity. Belle’s wrist snapped up, her molten sword rose in a flash and met the azure bolt in an explosion of mana. The crowds gasped with shock as the cloud of steam blew back from the blue and gold shockwave. 

As the steam and smoke settled, the crowds spotted Belle standing amidst the wreckage, unharmed, golden flames burning bright.

A stone wall, four meters high and almost twice as thick stood between Belle and Calex. Belle’s flames had burned a molten hole so deep into the stone wall it had almost perforated the other end. Calex lay on the ground, unconscious and covered in soot, but he was otherwise unharmed.

Ophelia stood over him, a mixture of worry and anger washing over her face. She crouched down and gently picked up her son in her arms.

“You intervened!” Belle called out angrily. “The match isn’t over yet!”

“This match is over,” Ophelia spoke in a cold, commanding tone.

“You hypocrite!” Belle screamed. “You tried to have Freya killed even after she had surrendered, but now you step in to save your son when neither side has surrendered!”

“If you don’t like it, you can try and stop me,” Ophelia narrowed her blue eyes, “But I will not hold back.”

“You think I’m scared of you?” Belle growled as her flames grew larger.

“No, I think you’re just a battle-crazed imbecile,” she said evenly.

Belle snarled, “We’ll see.” 

“Stop already, Sylvie! You’ve won, let it end!” Ismene shouted and stepped out from the arena’s western gate. 

“I win when that little Thorn bastard is dead!” Belle roared.

“If you kill him war will break out between our cities!” Ismene shouted.

“I don’t care!”

Ismene stared at Belle and sighed dispassionately, “...So be it.” She raised her hands high and summoned forth a tornado of water over the arena.

Before Belle had a chance to evade, the tornado slammed down on her. Yet the golden flames burned bright through the water. Steam erupted all around, but the tornado simply grew and its gyration quickened as Ismene poured more blue mana into her spell. The golden flames burned brighter for a few seconds more, then slowly they started to grow dimmer and dimmer until the golden light disappeared altogether.

Ismene lowered her arms and released the torrent spell. The tornado collapsed and the water flowed out over the sand. Belle stood amidst a small crater of water, hands on her knees. Her clothes were soaked and her breathing was hard. The molten sword had turned a cool mottled grey. Steam evaporated off her body, but there were no flames. The claws on her fingers were gone and her fangs had returned to normal.

“It’s done, Sylvie, let it go,” Ismene said calmly.

Belle glared at the arch mage. She slowly exhaled through her nose and tossed her sword aside.

Ismene smiled, relieved, “Well done, Sylv—”

Belle turned her back to the old woman and walked away with an angry gait.

Ismene sighed under her breath, “I’m too old for this.”