The Great

Geon Leventen: I exploded off the ground with all my might and flew into the air. Aurora let out a burst of electricity which scattered the Mevilime kids, and Lila dove out of trouble. Evay put on his barrier and he rushed the red haired girl, Crimson. She smiled and threw her arsenal of fireworks at him. A huge explosion of pretty bright red went off and Evay darted out of the ensuing smoke in a head to head battle with Crimson while Aurora charged towards Oden in a flash of electricity. I tried to turn around and look at her fight but I saw two people approach me out of the corner of my eye. One of them had long hair tied into a ponytail and he wore a turquoise battle vest which had scale patterns all over it. He was well built and looked similar to a sailor—or a sailor killed people for a living. Next to him was a boy that looked more like a scholar than a warrior. He had beige colored hair that was neatly trimmed and well styled and he wore glasses, a white battle vest, and always looked like he was about to tell me that I had forgotten another assignment for class.

“Hi,” I gave them a smile. The mini professor stared daggers into my soul.

“Shut up,” he threw a small dagger at me and I pushed it back with a gust of wind. Before the dagger reached him he dove out of the way and I instinctively dove left. He shouted, “Aqua! Left!” The blue vest boy summoned a trident out of his hand and hurled it at me. My eyes went wide and I forced the winds to push me into the sky. The trident narrowly missed my feet and I flipped in the air as I rotated my body mid-flight and darted towards the two boys. I concentrated and the marble floors began to grasp at their feet. Huge marble hands slammed into each other as both the boys tried to dodge them. So they’re Jem and Aqua. Jem ran along the floors and he slid and bounced off of a marble arm as it swiped at his feet. He landed and flipped off of a finger and somersaulted into a roll and dove through a pair of hands. Aqua smashed through the hands with his trident as if they were clay and he turned around and threw the trident at me. It passed through the marble like butter and suddenly began to fly left as it narrowly shot past my face. Marble hands continued to assault them as I finally isolated Aqua. A pair of marble hands blocked off his escape route and I aimed a well timed blast at him. He turned around and held out his hands–seemingly pulling something towards me. I felt something pierce my back as the crowd gasped. I looked down at my body and saw a huge trident coming out of my chest. Aqua drew me in and he smiled.

“So, are you disappointed with our strength? The pain was somehow numbing, cold, hot, and really bad at the same time. I could manage though–the trident had missed my lungs, heart, and other vital organs so it hadn’t killed me instantly. I was still very much alive and kicking….

I smiled from ear to ear. “Nah, not at all.”

I aimed a giant explosion at Aqua’s face and the sky quickly filled with smoke from the ensuing blast. I kicked off the air and crouched down to hide amongst all of the smoke and took a look down at my bleeding chest. The pain was excruciating, even with all of the adrenaline flowing through my body. I had slowed down the speed of the trident with my air currents right before it hit my body and I had time to plate my back in a thin sheet of metal before impact. That didn’t do much though, considering it cleanly pierced my body… But if it wasn’t for all of that, the trident probably would have gone right through me… I heard two footsteps on my right and shot a column of fire into the dark smoke. Jem dove out of the smoke and he quickly charged at me. I kicked the ground and a wall of spikes shot up at him but he ducked out of the way before the spikes even fully manifested. He rolled towards me and he swung his dagger at me in a long, high arc. I pulled back and grabbed his hand. I swung him over my head and I slammed him into the ground as his eyes went white and his mouth opened in pain. I swung his body around like a very human-shaped, angry, deadly fan before delving into my thoughts. There’s no way they sent this guy to take me on one on one…It’s a setup for something… They might be trying to isolate me but I can still beat them in a two on one…. What are they trying to do?

Ice began to form under my feet as I commanded it to spread through the arena. In an instant, the entire ground was covered and I surfed along a high wall of moving ice as I rose into the sky. They knew I would use an explosion, they’re using the smoke to divide us. That’s how we almost lost last time… My ice bridge took me farther until I hit a wall of debris that blocked me from going further. I turned around and a huge trident came flying my way. I leapt backwards off my ice ramp and flew into the direction of the trident. The smoke still limited my vision but I knew just the way to find Jem. I flew at rapid speeds to the spot where the trident was thrown and—as I had suspected—the trident shot towards my back and continued to follow me. I flew around and around until the trident finally started to fly backwards into the smoke. All I had to do now was follow it back towards its owner…. I turned around and grabbed the trident as it shot towards the vast, thick, toxic clouds of smoke and hung on for dear life as I darted towards Aqua. Then I finally saw it…I was carried out of the smoke and an extremely surprised Aqua was the first thing that met my gaze. I quickly let go of the trident and shot a column of fire at him but he grabbed his trident and he deflected the fire away. I flew straight into him at blinding speeds and rammed him with my shoulder. He flew backwards and a pair of marble hands caught him in their grasp.

The hands held him in place as I filled my fist with blazing hot, white fire as I chucked a miniature sun at him. He swung his trident and the marble hands vaporized instantly. He caught the fire-bolt with his trident and spun it back at me as a column of white hot death began to sear itself into my eyes. I instantly waved away the flames and flipped off of the ground–dodging the heat of the slowly disappearing flames. Aqua swung his trident and I summoned a marble pillar to block it. I immediately threw a high kick which he ducked and he tried to sweep my leg.

I flew up and kicked down into his body with both of my legs. He used his trident to block my kick and he got up off his back– swinging his trident rapidly as I ducked out of the way. I leaned back to avoid a swing, immediately flipped backwards to get my ground, and flicked two sharp metal spears at Aqua. He dodged them and he thrusted the trident into my chest. I grabbed the prongs and jammed them into the ground—encasing them in marble. Aqua’s face filled with panic as I leapt off the ground and landed a clean punch to the chin. He flew towards the barriers and I turned my attention to Jem. I dashed towards him and his face dawned a look of surprise. I knelt all the way down and threw a vicious uppercut to his chin, which flipped his entire body around in the air. I flew up and rammed his head into my knee, and a marble fist shot up out of the ground and punched him into the sky. I blasted off the ground and kneed him in the back which sent him even farther up. He flew into the sky and I soared even higher into the sky to get above Jem’s suspended body. I lifted my leg up and kicked him straight in the chest. His body was struck downwards as I lifted up my hands and shot a white hot column of fire and electricity towards him. The pillar of fire-lightning connected with Jem and a huge explosion sounded down on the stadium floor. I surveyed the area and tried to see through the smoke. I can’t see the others… I slowly descended back down to the ground and waved my hand to clear the smoke. I felt my feet touch the floor and saw Jem, bloodied and nearly dead, sprawled on the floor. His hair was blackened and his skin was scarred in several areas. I walked up to him and stared down at his body. “You ok?” He gave a curt laugh.

“No…thanks to you.” I smiled.

“It was a good try. Your friend speared me through the chest, which didn’t feel too good.” He spoke in a raspy voice.

“Aqua’s trident is a specialized weapon. It’s military grade…you were supposed to be down with one hit.” I clenched my fist and got ready to deliver the final blow.

“Well, people say I’m annoying because I manage to not die, a lot. Running in without any plan to kill me isn’t going to work.” Jem suddenly began to chuckle.

“Kill you? Ha, please. I’m not sure anyone can do that. You see, we watched your team’s matches. All of us had counters to each of your fighting styles and abilities. We had the matchups settled and the battle plans drawn. But the one oddity and annoyance in our plan was you. No one could counter you….” My eyes went wide and my brain started to turn.

From the start something was wrong with Jem. He seemed like he could predict my movements and it was like he could read my mind….But he couldn’t. It made sense. The timing of his movements and the speed of his attacks were weird because of him, they were weird because most of them weren’t real…. “Your powers…they’re illusions. Each time you read my movements that was just an illusion. An imaginary warrior that was made up in my head. The real you was actually doing something completely different. That’s how you could dodge those hands…That’s how you could get your attacks in.” He smiled.

“Me and Aqua weren’t meant to beat you, we were meant to stall you. Separate you from the others, and make opportunities for our teammates to win their battles.”

My eyes went to the wall of debris blocking me from my team. “That’s….that’s not a real barrier…” Jem started to laugh. His laugh became louder and louder and louder as his maniacal smile grew even wider.

“Or is it? Is it! Is it real? Is it not? It’s so funny isn’t it! That’s the hard part about fighting me, Geon Leventen. Even the strongest will bend when their mind turns against them, and do you want to know the funniest part?” he smiled at me with crazed eyes, “the crazy part is that the strongest warriors have the most trauma to exploit.” I smashed Jem’s body into the ground but he vanished instantly. I turned around to see him next to Aqua, perfectly fine and all healed up. It was all an illusion–from the beginning I wasn’t fighting the real Jem. But at least when I beat him just now I felt a physical body. So if it wasn’t Jem….who was I beating? My heart grew numb.

“Who was I fighting?” Jem smiled as the injured Aqua tossed a body from behind a rock.

Evay stood before me, beaten, battered, and burned. He looked lifeless, but he was somehow still in the match. I did it….I almost killed my own teammate. My own friend… Jem let out a laugh–a small laugh that grew louder and louder until it rang throughout the stadium. “You did this to your own teammate! How heartless! Your mind must secretly hate him! Right? Maybe you don’t actually like him! How cruel of you, Geon Leventen!” I felt a hatred spur deep inside me. A feeling of anger and deep violence surged into my veins as I stared into Jem’s eyes. He stopped smiling, and Aqua immediately raised his trident. Liquid nitrogen started to billow out from beneath my feet, my hands cracked with lighting, and flames danced along my fingers. The earth began to rumble and the smell of thunder hung in the air. Words from the deepest depths of my hatred arose out of my mouth as I looked upon Jem and Aqua. “You two, I’ll fucking kill you.”