Aetherios System: Whirlwind

Chapter 40: Finish what we started

“You’re damned trick was all for naught, though,” the Prince continued, his tone telling Alex had a sneer forming behind his mask even if Alex couldn’t see it. “After your… rebellion, the Terraxum defenses were in shambles. Now, Aerileth’s Banners stand outside their capital gates awaiting to seige even as we speak.”

Rebellion? Alex thought to himself.

“You stormed the royal palace, slaughtered dozens of guards, and then threatened the life of the king and the entire royal family before walking out.” Obby reminded him. “Most would characterize that with words other than ‘loyalty’.”

Oh, yeah. For Alex, that had felt like so long ago. Thought he summit explosion felt so near. So many events had happened since then, it was just hard for Alex to keep them together. Maybe he could have Allie craft him a reserve-basilisk potion, something to help him retain memories, rather than lose them.

So the war went on, and without Prince Kailin’s leadership. So the warfront failed, and Aerileth’s force are now near taking the city?

“Looks like it.”

The city will hard pressed to be taken. We’ve seen the inside, its almost as well defended as Athrastas. Plus, they still have access to the leyline below the city, who knows how many more volunteers have had their refinement tattoos altered like Kailin had… Alex still hadn’t moved as he thought. But as he realized that last point, his brows rose and looked back to to the Aerileth prince.

“You have nothing to say? To ashamed of your actions?” The prince chided.

“While I know you won’t believe me, I will say that I am not responsible for what happened at the summit that day,” Alex said. He shrugged helplessly. “You think I was capable of something like that back then, and yet was beaten in combat by you, twice?”

The princes’ sword dipped a fraction, his head lilting ever so slightly to the side.

Alex continued. “I was just as shocked as you about what happened. And even more so when I realized it was the Terraxum Royal family and the combined nobles houses who were behind it. I had considered Prince Kailin a friend, and he had lied and manipulated me.” His aether began to cycle through his channels, azure wisps floating off from his arms and shoulders.

“I have seen what you can do with your [Glyphcraft]. Wilth enough time… no perhaps… perhaps not even then.” His eyes turned downward as if he was in thought. “But who else could it have been? Even the Terraxum Kingdom made a statement condemning you. You call them a liar, they call you a liar, who am I to believe? A royal house? Or a worldstrider who has the moniker of Demon?”

Alex lowered himself into a fighting stance and sighed heavily, the wisps of azure suddenly turning a dark reddish color as he finally activated his martial style in the tournament, entering the [Demon Asura Style]’s second stance.

He knew the Prince was powerful. And while Alex would be able to handily serve a beat down on the Prince he had met on the warfront as he was now, the Prince had also markedly improved in the time since. Alex’s [Aether Sight] told him he was about to fight a Peak Adept, a mage who had reached the very limits of the tier and on the cusp of Magus.

He couldn’t hold back any longer.

“Believe who you want, it makes no difference to me. I washed my hands of Terraxum and its corruption long ago,” Alex waved a hand as if knocking over an object from a table.

“Then I will get my revenge today. Come, Demon.”

The announcer’s voice boomed overhead, but Alex barely heard it. His world had narrowed to those golden eyes behind the mask, and memory of butter defeat he had already suffered by the man’s hands.

Today would be different, Alex would make sure of it.

The prince made the first move of the fight.

Wind exploded beneath his feet and he blurred forward in a streak of pale green, his sword whipping out from the right side toward Alex’s neck.

Aether rushed into Alex’s hand where he was already grasping the hilt of his multi-weapon, extending it into a curved blade with a crackle of forming energy. Steel met construct-conjured Aether and Alex’s boots screeched across the metal platform as he twisted the prince’s weapon to the outside, blocking the first strike.

The prince’s eyes shone brighter.

“You have gotten better,” he said.

Before Alex could respond, a cyclone of slashes was sent his way and forced him backward. The prince’s movements were, as Alex remembered, polished and dignified. The Prince’s fighting style was like that of a dancer’s movement combined with a predator’s ferocity. His sword carved gusts of slicing air that released a ringing tone wherever they landed.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Alex countered by having his weapon shift between forms with every block, sword to hammer to spear, each shape flickering into existence faster than the last as he kept up with the onslaught. Mixed in with the attacks were casts of [Projection Shield] and [Aether Burst], limited to the barest amount of energy Alex could manage.

Their weapons clashed again and again. Shields shattered under force, wind crescents and Aether bursts detonating in the air between them, shockwaves rattling the platform under their feet.

Alex grinned through it all. He was stronger, faster than in their fights before. He could keep up now.

But the prince hadn’t even activated a spell yet.

And Alex had noticed it, causing him to eventually scowl.

The prince saw his change, and Alex could hear a faint chuckle from the man. “You have grown, Worldstrider. I acknowledge that.”

His sword spun once, wind spiraling around it in a miniature vortex.

“Now let me show you the difference between personal growth… and the lineage of true royal talent.”

A pillar of emerald light erupted behind him, feathers of compressed wind spun about it like blades. A strong aura washed across the arena.

Alex forced his face back into a smile. He raised his weapon, swordblade igniting into shimmering azure even as the dark red of the [Demon Asura] rippled down his arms.

“Come then,” he taunted back. “Let’s finish what we started.”

And they collided again.

While he couldn’t infect the prince with his [Burning Strike] without actually landing a hit, that wasn’t the case with his [Wrath Siphon] skill. Every time their weapons clashed, Alex felt the leech of his martial skill, feeding off of the prince’s bloodlust and anger, and in turn feeding Alex a trickle-stream of stolen aether.

Given how small Alex’s aether pool was, every bit helped. Especially if he didn’t want to dip into the energy stored in his gems, which he didn’t want to do yet.

Even with the blistering fast pace in which the two fought, they were both only getting started. Each had a full deck of cards hidden in their sleeves, and neither wanted to show their hand too soon. So Alex waited for his opening.

The prince leapt upward and sent down a near crisscross net of slashes at him.

With one hand, Alex erected a fully powered [Projection Shield], taking the hits. At the same time his flicked forward his opposite hand, releasing four glyph-crafted crystals, sending them tumbling into the space right where the prince was about to land.

The crystals glowed brightly for only a mere second before releasing a cascade of aether streams that arced and moved like lightning made of pure energy.

It took the prince less time than Alex would like to react, surrounding his body with a compressed tornado of aether-infused air that gathered the discharge energy and funneled upward where it was released harmlessly.

But it had taken a couple of seconds for that to happen, which was time that Alex capitalized on.

Show me his expected retreat trajectory. He sent to Obby in his mind as he dashed forward.

“Already on it,” Obby responded, projecting the requested information into his sight.

The churning air around the prince died away just as Alex reached melee range, his weapon transforming into a spear and thrust at chest-level.

As expected, the prince parried the attack with his sword and started to backpedal toward the right-hand side in the exact same instant that Alex released an [Aether Burst] behind himself.

Alex rocketed back into range, his spear now in the form of a shortsword, before the prince could regain a stable footing. His blade caught the prince’s thigh, spilling the first blood of the fight and injecting him with the surge of [Burning Strike].

“Damned worm!” The prince yelled out as he shot his hand forward and released a beam of green aether at Alex’s face.

Switching his martial style stance to the seventh path of [Demon Asura]. While Alex almost always fought in the second path designed for one-handed weapons or the first path for unarmed fighting, the seventh path was about extreme fast-paced movements and disrupting an opponent’s attacks.

Concentrated air aether rushed at Alex, and he twisted to the side at the last instant, causing the attack to go wide.

The prince swung his sword at Alex’s left side, but Alex suddenly changed directions and closed the distance between them, catching his opponent’s arm with an open palm and halting the attack altogether.

A kick came his way next, and Alex brought his weapon up, its point facing out. The prince impaled his one shin on Alex’s blade and [Burning Strike] continued its angry consumption.

Three more attacks were sent at Alex in rapid succession, and each time Alex blocked or countered, earning two more cuts on the prince’s body.

Realizing he wasn’t winning the melee fight as things were right then, the Prince released a blast of air aether that covered Alex’s entire body and sent him spinning over the ground to land on his feet a half dozen meters away.

Alex had kept up his smile during the entire exchange, and he could see that the prince’s anger was increasing. He felt it through the [Demon Asura Style], the wrath, the fury, the overwhelming urge to destroy and conquer that always tried to fill him when he fought; Alex could sense it from the prince.

Aether rushed from the prince’s soul gate, filling his body and suffusing his tissues as he activated an augmentor spell. Right after, Alex felt a pulse from the prince and the spell redoubled, growing in potency.

“He’s activating some sort of meridian imprint, increasing the power of his spell. It looks like it will have some detriment to his body, but for now he’s reaching physical capabilities beyond even the Primal Chimera Queen,” Obby swiftly gave him a summary.

You think he can match me with [Vita-Surge Cloak]?

“He will.”

Does he have a technique?

“Unknown, though I would say the likelyhood that he does, to be about one in three.”

Alex shifted his stance once more as he vanished his weapon hilt, leaving both hands bare. It was a stance he had only used a handful times before, and was always needed for his finishing martial skill.

I don’t want to be forced into using the Wyrm-heart boost. We will end this here and now. Obby, guide me in for a final blow.

Obby only gave a mental nudge in response as Alex activated [Vita-Surge Cloak], the light blue of his pure aether mixing into his martial style's dark aura.

“We should stop wasting time, huh?” Alex said. “This is something you’ve seen before, but as you said, I’m different now.”

“In this world, nothing changes in the realm of power between peasants and true mages,” The prince said back, though now his words were slightly changed, his voice sounded pained from some strain. Whatever he was doing to boost his spell, it looked like he couldn’t handle it for long.

They both moved in at the same time, the prince raising his sword as green air aether swirled about its tip, and Alex readied a punch as a dark projection of a demonic arm overlapped his own.

It was a collision they had had in previous fight, though Alex was confident in a different outcome this time.

The two met, and the protective bubble of the platform was filled with the clash of green, red, and blue.