Blackout Ascension: Return of Primordial Heir-Chapter 16: Sky and Sea

The rage in the Infernal Colosseum settled calmly. The damaged, molten tiles slowly cooled down to ash grey bed rocks. The devastating firestorm of Karl Wade Vedaryan’s legendary battle faded deep into the burnt scent and grey soot.

HISSSS!!

Steam from the deep cracks of cooled magma screamed out. The ground reshaped and shifted with the command of the arena mages. The jagged volcanic rocks changed into pristine white stone with grey shade. Around the outer edges of the arena, radiance flickered in the air. The twelve Infernal Guardians - Eid Pyres were changed into stupendous blades of enchanted wind. The Infernal Colosseum became pleasant, but everyone knows there is a reason behind the change.

The grand announcer’s magically enchanted voice echoed through the swirling air in the arena.

"The arena resets! Prepare for the Second Match of the Infernal Bracket: Aqualithos Nymor versus Darth Clover!"

The spectators in the arena responded with thunderous screams and applause that shook the bleachers.

The iron bars of the East Gate cranked open.

From the Zephyros gate walked Aqualithos Nymor, a man widely known across the continent as the "Trident of Poseidon." It was a strange sight, because he represented the Kingdom of Wind, but his element was the mighty ocean itself. His armor was a magnum opus of forged coral, with pale strokes of white and dusky color. In his right hand, he carried a stalwart trident that shimmered with fluid, dense blue mana. The air surrounding his body felt heavy with moisture. He walked onto the white stone with calm posture, and a faint, peaceful smile carved on his face.

Across the vast pristine platform, the West Gate opened.

From the Pyrosend gate stepped Darth Clover, a fatal rogue feared as the "Wind Executioner." He was a professional paid mercenary fighting under the banner of the Fire Kingdom, but his element was the raging storm. He wore lightweight aerodynamic black leather armor made to reduce pull, when he was in battle. He wielded twin linoleum blades strapped to his forearms, those are lethal weapons made for disarming and quick throat slitting. He was a man of pure masculinity.

The two warriors walked forward and met in the dead center of the rugged arena platform.

Aqualithos nodded his head in a soft, respectful greeting. He gently flicked the trident tip onto the stone floor, a clink sound echoed across the arena.

"You are a warrior of pure speed, mercenary," Aqualithos stated, his voice resonant like the changing of ocean tectonic plates. "But the fastest wind never cuts the deep ocean. It only manages to ripple the surface."

Darth Clover simpered and smoothly slid his left blade loose with a metallic click sound.

CLICK!!

"The wind does not need to cut the ocean, Nymor," Darth replied coldly, his grey eyes sharp and precise like the eyes of a hunting hawk. "It simply needs to cut the one who stands upon it."

High above, the bronze bell rang out.

GONG!!

Aqualithos moved first. He unleashed a disastrous phenomena right at the very start of the match. "Tidal Rupture!"

He slammed his trident into the ground. A roaring, rising wave of dark blue water erupted from the white floor, at the end of the trident tip. It surged upward, sky-scraping thirty feet high, carrying the consummate sheer force which can crush a large mountain instantly.

Darth slowly lifted his unhooked blade and tracing the edge of that blade, moved flashily forward into the flood.

The massive crowd gasped in collective shock. "He’s running straight into the treacherous wave! Is he crazy?!"

Darth sprinted toward the wave. He sheathed the left blade while accelerating towards the wave and...

The audience became S I L E N T for a second.

"He was sprinting on water? Ridiculous!", an old retired guard in spectators mumbled.

He didn’t jump above the wave. He literally ran on the water wave, creating a miracle in the arena. He ran straight up the curvy face of the wave.

Aqualithos’s calm blue eyes widened in shock and disbelief. "What?"

Darth defied the laws of gravity. The soles of his leather boots were glowing with hyper-compressed wind mana that acted like climbing cleats, giving him perfect physical grip on the roaring liquid surface. In the speed of Darth, the maintenance and placing position of cleats needs absolute perfection.He reached the very crest of the massive wave and jumped back.

"Tempest Guillotine!" Darth roared from the sky.

A screeching hurricane spiral instantly formed around his entire body. He turned himself into a perilous, spinning human blade. He dropped with an intense speed, from the crest of the wave looking like a falling, grey comet, aiming his twin linoleum blades straight for Aqualithos’s defenseless neck.

Aqualithos reacted instantly, his survival instincts warned him. He raised his trident above his head with both hands. "Coral Shield."

He instantly pulled the water from the wave and formed a dense sphere of highly compressed, hardened water completely around himself.

BOOM!!

The collision impact blasted a shaking shock wave throughout the arena.

Darth’s spinning wind blades viciously sliced the hardened water apart, shredding the shield and sending millions of water droplets raining across the battlefield like a torrential shower. But the thickness of the water dome decreased the momentum of Darth, it’s enough for Aqualithos to save his life from lethal attack. Darth bounced off from the shattered water dome, flipping backward in the air, and landed perfectly in an equipoised crouch. Aqualithos also staggered backward a few feet away, the coral armor on his shoulders dented from the concussive impact.

Aqualithos smiled a calm smile, wiping a splash of water from his face. "You literally used my own rising tide as a staircase. Very clever, Wind Walker."

Darth casually swiveled his sharp blades, the wind howling loudly around the curved blades. "You command the heavy water, Nymor. I command pure movement, and you absolutely cannot hit what isn’t there."

Aqualithos snuffed. His calm blue aura suddenly turned into a dark, terrifying navy color. "Then I will simply make sure there is nowhere left for you to move."

He raised both of his hands high into the air. The entire white stone arena trembled, sensing the danger. "Wavestorm Cathedral!"

Water erupted from every crack in the floor. A raging sea was summoned up, from beneath the platform. The rugged white stones quickly became sinking islands trapped in a swirling ocean. Monolithic, trepidatious whirlpools swirling, rumbled in the deep water, and lofty tidal walls rose and fell in a steady rhythm, sounding like a groan of ancient water beasts.

Darth leaped abruptly from stone to stone. Murmurs in the crowd spread. He was fast. He was incredibly fast.. far too fast for the rushing water to catch his legs.

But Aqualithos instantly thrust the tip of his mighty trident deep into the flooded ocean floor. The gurgitating water around them alacritously changed from calm ocean blue to pitch-black navy color.

"Abyss Pressure," Aqualithos commanded.

The high-tier spell hit the arena abruptly.

The air inside the stadium vigorously thickened until it felt exactly like breathing in thick soup. The gravitational anomaly on the platform seemed to triple in weight.

Spectators sitting safely in the front rows leaned forward, gasping for breath as the thin air was sucked out of their lungs, leaving suffocation. Even the seasoned water mages in the royal pavilions looked down in awe.

"He’s actually crushing the air itself using deep-sea pressure," an old general muttered in awe.

Down on the floor, Darth tripped. His blur of motion was forcefully stopped. His legs shook under the sudden, immense atmospheric pressure crushing him down. His explosive speed and greatest weapon on the battlefield was entirely gone. He could barely lift his boots off the stone.

Aqualithos walked slowly toward him with insouciant confidence. He moved through the pressure with calm and steady.

"The vast ocean cannot ever be outrun by anything," Aqualithos said calmly, slowly raising his trident to deliver the final blow. "The ocean is inevitable. It eventually swallows everything. Surrender now, Wind Walker."

The entire arena thought the match was over. Darth was telluricly shackled to the ground by sheer pressure.

But Darth Clover smiled. He actually smiled, even under the bone-breaking weight of the abyss. Ponderous beads of sweat fell expeditiously from his nose, but his teeth receded into predatory snarl.

"You’re totally right," Darth said in a wheezy breath. "The ocean is incredibly heavy."

He crouched low to the stone, placing his hands near the ground to feel and command the shifting currents of air.

"But the wind..." Darth whispered softly, slamming both of his linoleum blades into the white floor, he roared from the very bottom of his breath, a piercing sound commanded the air. "FREEDOM PULSE!"

FWOOOM!!

The wind erupted in primordial fury. An invisible shockwave of hyper-compressed air burst, rushing outward from his mana core. It compelled the dark water mana away with a groan. The sheer vibrancy of his mana core caused the condensed atmosphere to rupture, disintegrating into a cacophony.

The whirlpools collapsed abruptly. The rushing water dropped back into a normal, calm state. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Aqualithos blinked, and stunned in shock. The sharp tip of his coral trident flickered in the air. "You... you actually freed yourself from deep-sea gravity? That’s physically impossible!"

Darth let his knees relieve, unfurling through his muscles as the weight melted away. "The wind chooses absolutely no master, Nymor!" Darth said with absolute confidence.

And then in a blink, he vanished completely. A small gust of swirling wind howled at the place Darth stood a second ago.

He spasmodically appeared behind Aqualithos’ back. "Gale Cut."

SLASHHH!!

The first strike hit the coral armor on the back.

Slash! Slash!

A second and third strikes hit abruptly.

A relentless barrage of invisible wind slashes tore across Aqualithos’s armored defense. Before Aqualithos could even raise his trident or re-enhance his broken shield, the sheer speed of the mercenary prolly overwhelmed him.

The coral armor shattered. Aqualithos collapsed to one knee, groaning in pain. His trident slipped limply from his trembling fingers and clattered loudly onto the wet stone.

Darth precipitously stopped his assault. He stood steady behind the kneeling Aqualithos, placing the sharp inside edge of his linoleum blades gently on the water mage’s neck.

Silence took over the murmurs of the entire arena. Darth’s voice was calm, stripped off from aggression.

"Water always suffers because it stubbornly tries to hold onto everything even if it hurts," Darth whispered softly into his opponent’s ear, "you tried to carry the mighty sea all by yourself, and that is exactly why you were too slow to catch me."

Aqualithos suspirated, a ponderous fatigue evaporating from his back. He looked down at the sharp blade against his skin. The fight was over.

"I... I understand!" Aqualithos conceded.

Darth stepped back and smoothly sheathed his twin linoleum blades with a clank sound.

The heavy bronze bell rang out.

GONG!!

"The match is concluded! Darth Clover is the winner!"

The arena cheered with deafening applause and screams.

Aqualithos took the trident with his trembling hands and slowly stood up, using the shaft of his trident for support. He was bleeding, and his chest heaving, but he gave a respectful smile.

"You were entirely right," Aqualithos admitted, bowing his head, "the sea must constantly move, or it drowns in its own weight."

Darth bowed lightly in mutual respect. "And the free wind must eventually learn exactly when not to run," Darth replied softly. "That was a truly good fight."

High above, the golden scoreboard shifted shimmering to display the final result:

Winner: Darth Clover: Pyrosend Kingdom.

****

The noble stands wavered from the thunderous applause. But in the Royal Competition Section, the reactions to the intense fight were mixed.

Luna Zephyros watching Darth walk off the field with a grin in his narrowed eyes. He was looking at the mercenary with intense curiosity.

"That absolutely wasn’t standard wind magic," Luna muttered quietly to himself, folding his arms. "He forced the air to compress inside his own lungs to break the mana core lock from the inside out. He’s an absolute combat genius."

A few seats away, Velanor Banner cracked his knuckles loudly, grinning wildly like a madman. "Finally! Someone actually fast! I want to fight him in the ring."

****

In the few seats away, Kairos sat, his eyes darting, studying the intense battle.

Darth relies almost on explosive burst speed, Kairos analyzed, his brilliant mind dissecting Darth’s style. He’s untouchable while moving. But if you can manage to catch him in the exact fraction of a second between his breaths... he is completely vulnerable. Aqualithos hesitated for just one second too long.

****

And Princess Seyana...

She slowly turned her beautiful head slightly, looking far down at the competitor’s box. She was watching Kairos, her emerald eyes shimmering with adorable love.

Brandon Sylphyros noticed immediately.

He clearly saw the direction of her gaze. He saw the genuine, glowing softness in her beautiful expression.

Stop looking at him, Brandon thought, his brilliant, arrogant mind twisting into ugly knots of pure hatred. He is a filthy and poor peasant. I am a Royal Prince. Why do you constantly look down at him exactly as if he is the only one in the world?

Brandon’s hands shook with murderous rage.

****

Down below, the Infernal Colosseum began to shift and rumble once again. The water quickly drained into the abyss. The cutting wind barriers completely faded into nothingness.

The ground rumbled loudly, eagerly preparing the stage for the next intensive clash.

The grand war of the tournament champions continued to rage on the sands. But the silent war also dangerously started in the stands.