Blackout Ascension: Return of Primordial Heir-Chapter 12: Rise

The crowd looked arena, standing with their skin horripilated due to the electrified mist in the arena. The air of the Luminary Colosseum was rigidly heavy, charged with static electricity, and created sparks shimmering in the arena.

The whole arena was anxious for the Second Phase.

Marin Valcoran stood with an unknown look on a rising platform. She was surrounded by spirals of water that floated alluringly around her body, shimmering in the sunlight like diamonds. Her lightweight sea-green armor was badly damaged with small boulder-sized dents, and a line of red blood slid down from her chin.

On the opposite side, Danerys Light stood with the wind howling through his hair, drifting away. Bolt arcs of untamed yellow lightning crawled across his bare, muscular arms and broad shoulders like glowing veins. Sizzling, flickering sparks continuously jerked onto the ground beneath his boots, leaving permanent black ash marks on the pristine marble platform with a feral and hungry grin on his face. It was the exact angry look of a man who had found a power that he might not be able to break with ease.

High up, the Grand Chancellor raised his golden staff.

CLANG!!

The bronze bell echoed across the water.

Water and Lightning moved at the fraction of a second after the bell rang. Marin rushed forward instantly. The water spirals propelled her up to attain the speed of a devastating ocean wave. Her silver trident glowed with a cozy, piercing sapphire aura.

Danerys exploded like a flash, forward in warp speed. Every single footstep he took released a violent shockwave of roaring electricity, cracking the stone beneath him.

BOOM!!

When they collided exhaustively in the center of the arena, the entire stadium shuddered in a second. Lighting expeditiously wrapped around the metal shaft of Marin’s trident in her hands, trying to shock her for dropping it.

Bludgeoning water surged violently around Danerys’ glowing fists, enraged, trying to crush his bones and devour his current.

They pressed rigidly against each other, with mana and strength overflowing in their bodies; the weapon pressed hard against the bare gauntlet. Neither strength could overpower the other.

"You’re shaking, Captain", Danerys laughed loudly, the sound undulating with static current.

"I’m vibrating, Striker," Marin corrected him, clenched tightly, gritting her teeth.

She tempestuously twisted her trident shaft. The water obeyed her gesture, swirling apace around Danerys’s thick wrist like a python, attempting to permanently restrict his arm movement.

He snapped the watery swirl with a thundering burst of high-voltage mana.

CRACKKK!!

He jerked back his trapped arm and immediately propelled a lightning-infused, sweeping kick toward Marin’s ribs.

She momentarily caught his incoming leg with her left hand, enchanting her bare palm with a robust layer of compressed water.

ZZZT!

The electricity surged with a rush into her body through the physical contact. Her muscles twitched and trembled sharply as the intense pain rushed all the way up into her shoulder.

He didn’t waste the split-second opening. While her body was temporarily numbed from the painful shock, he trenchantly drove his open palm directly in front of her armored chest and released a roaring lightning burst.

BANGGG!!

Marin went slewing backward across the wet stone. The soles of her boots carved smoking debris strokes into the marble. She finally stopped sliding. One more inch backward, and she would have fallen into a void.

The massive audience held their gasping breath in sheer terror. Kairos leaned forward against the railing, glowing eyes watching Marin’s internal mana flow. She deliberately took the hit to measure his output, he realized, his eyes narrowing in respect. Incredibly risky... Lady Marin.

****

A few feet away, Ignis’s fists, clenched tightly in nervous anticipation. "Hold the damn line, Marin!" he muttered.

Up in the Royal Pavilion, Princess Seyana silently squeezed the golden railing, her heart pounding frantically, seeing Marin.

****

Danerys walked to Marin slowly, rolling his shoulders with a rattling sound.

"You’re truly incredible," he said loudly, yellow light flickering from his pupils around his pale eyes, "the kingdom of Solaris really does breed absolute monsters."

He stopped ten steps away from her.

"That’s exactly why I want to beat you so badly," Danerys said, gripping his fists tightly. "I want to beat you while you’re giving me absolutely everything you have. Don’t you dare hold back on me, Captain."

Marin stood up perfectly still again. She calmly spun her silver trident in a circle, shaking off the lingering numbness in her left arm. Her voice remained soft, yet it carried exhaustive breath.

"I do not fight simply to win glory for myself, Danerys..." she said. Raging water began to rise around her ankles. It was gathering, and it was compressing.

"I fight so that Solaris can remain standing," she whispered, her sapphire eyes glowing brighter with light-blue mana, "and because this broken world needs its healers to be strong, too. We must protect the rising flames."

She tediously slammed the edge of her trident into the wet ground. A rigid, roaring cyclone of water rose along with the trident, waving and utterly terrifying.

Danerys inhaled an exhaustive breath. He felt the shift in the air pressure and realised the final was incoming. The electricity jerks around his body. It turned from a bright yellow to a lethal blue-white.

Danerys held his right arm straight up toward the sky. All the lightning in the arena gathered into a singular point of energy hovering just above his open hand. "Thorstrike Surge."

The spell name itself roared across the stadium. Marin pointed the sharp tip of her trident downward at the stone. She slowly closed her eyes. She whispered to the body of water surrounding her, speaking with it like a most trusted friend. Rise.

The water politely answered her call.

It rose roaring upward, completely defying the laws of gravity, pulled by powerful mana in her soul.

"Aquaria Heart:" Marin commanded, opening her glowing eyes. "Maelstrom Grace."

She leapt high into the air and immaculately rode the water vortex upward into the sky like a dragon.

Dany roared with pure adrenaline rush and struck straight toward her through the air, leaving a trail of blue maisma back.

Sturdy Electricity and crushing Waves spiraled around them both, gyrating the entire center of the arena into a blinding chaotic storm of blue and white light.

Two Ultimate Forms. Two terrifying Forces of Nature collided head-on at the highest point of the arena. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

FLASH!!!!!

A massive glittering sphere of mixed energy burst from the point of impact. It was completely silent for a fraction of a split second. It was a terrifying vacuum of sound where high-tier magic consumed the reality.

Then....

ROAR!!

The impact of water pressure from lightning shattered the remaining floating platforms below into frantic dust.

The entire crowd stood up, hands on their eyes due to the glaze of impact, waiting in agonizing suspense.

Both warriors fell from the sky. They crashed hastily onto the ruined stones of the battlefield on opposite ends of the arena.

Thud...!!

Thud...!!

Silence took over. Painful seconds passed.

O N E. T W O. T H R E E.

"Is it a double knockout?" someone in the stands whispered. Then, a small sound broke the absolute silence. Danerys groaned in agonizing pain and slowly pushed up onto his bruised elbows. He was coughing frenziedly, thick black smoke rising from his damaged, scorched leather armor.

"Get up..." he wheezed angrily to himself through gritted teeth.

He desperately tried, managed to get up onto one shaking knee. But they failed to support him, and he fell. He desperately collapsed back onto the stone, paralyzed, staring with a hollow expression up at the bright sky.

Marin moved next. She was lying, her face down in a shallow pool of water. She unconsciously reached out and gripped the shaft of her silver trident, which was lying beside her. She assertively struck the sharp tip deep into a crack in the stone floor. Her bruised arms shook with pain. Her body trembled from the agonizing aftershock of the high-tier lightning magic that had just crawled through her veins.

But she slowly tried to drag her bruised body up to her knees. She used the sturdy trident as a supportive crutch. She grinned in her mind, and she stood up.

Her shaky knees nearly gave up, but she managed to stand still. Danerys slowly turned his head towards Marin’s direction. He watched her stand with shock and disbelief, and slowly turned into profound, genuine respect.

"Still standing... huh?" he wheezed, a bloody smile crawling on his lips.

Marin’s voice was faint, sounding like nearly a whisper of calm breeze. "A rising tide doesn’t ever stop, Danerys," she said, leaning on her trident, "not until it finally reaches the shore."

The bronze bell rang out loudly.

"The match is concluded! Marin Valcoran is the winner!"

The audience erupted with respect. It was a rumbling standing ovation. Danerys lay his head back on the wet ground, closing his tired eyes. He started laughing, breathless, genuine and happy laugh. He tiredly raised a hand and wiped a thin line of blood from his jawline.

"Damn," he chuckled softly, "for someone whose entire job is to heal wounds... You sure know how to break bones nicely, Captain."

Teams of royal medical mages rushed onto the ruined field from both sides. Marin finally let go of her trident and sat down, allowing the healers to quickly check her vitals. She looked over at where Danerys was being treated.

"Next time we meet," she smiled weakly across the distance, "I promise I’ll heal you first, and then I’ll fight you again."

Danerys blinked with surprise. Then he laughed again, ignoring the medical prodding of his ribs. "Deal."

Marin raised her hand and waved once to the roaring crowd. It was a humble wave.

The magical scoreboard floating in the sky updated in bright golden light:

Winner: Marin Valcoran: Solaris Kingdom.

****

Up in the Royal Pavilion, Seyana cheered loudly through her happy tears, clapping her hands together until her palms hurt. "She did it! She actually did it!"

Nearby, Ignis and Teravauros stood up and clapped proudly for their kingdom’s finest captain. Even Daemon Sylphyros, still sitting completely alone in the dark shadows of the waiting area, nodded once with genuine respect for the Solaris woman.

Down on the floor, Kairos... Kairos watched the aftermath with deep admiration. He was looking closely at Marin’s legs and her effort to force her body to stand. That is the real lesson here, Kairos thought, committing the image to his perfect memory. It’s not just about how hard you can hit. It’s about refusing to stay down.

Meanwhile, just a few seats away from the cheering Princess, Brandon Sylphyros sat with a cunning look. He saw the golden scoreboard. It was another humiliating loss for House Sylphyros. Another glorious win for the Solaris Kingdom. But mostly, he saw Seyana. He saw her beautiful, glowing face and her immense pride in someone else.

****

The ruined arena floor began shifting rigidly once again. The water magically drained away into nothingness.

The electrified mist evaporated completely. A brand-new, different battlefield was slowly rising from the depths. "GRRRRHHHHH...."