Blackout Ascension: Return of Primordial Heir-Chapter 23: Untamable Beast

The Crystal Colosseum began to reshape and gain its shimmering glory again. But this time, the change also eventuated in the sky. The crystal mist resting on the ground suddenly hovered up, spiraling into the air to form a glowing, vortex ring in the sky. The Nexus Crystal, which acted as the magical heartbeat of the arena, started pulsing much faster.

The grand announcer’s voice roared loudly around the massive stadium.

"Second Match of the Crystal Bracket: Aeryth Dracortis versus Aelora Brian!"

The fifty thousand spectators leaned back in their stone seats, looking straight up.

The heavy East Gate cranked opened. From the Drakhalmere entrance, Aeryth Dracortis descended. He hovered in the thin air above the ground. He had messy, wild dark hair. His sharp eyes glittering with energy and laziness. On his bare, muscular arms, blue dragon markings waved and drifted like a flowing wind. They were the ancient birthmarks of the legendary Dragon Bloodline, every Dracortis has the markings. Every single step he took in the empty air sounded with a low, howling vibration.

Across the arena, the West Gate opened wide. From the Xynoria gate emerged Aelora Brian. She was a Wind Element Sorcerer of the mages in highest order. She proudly wore a beautiful cloak made of enchanted griffin feathers. Ancient magical runes glittered in a soft, bright green color at her wrists. Her gaze was sharp and entirely confident. She was a woman who truly owned the air she breathed.

She stopped in the center of the arena, looking up at the hovering Dragon boy.

She raised her right hand respectfully.

"I do not ever underestimate the power of dragon blood," Aelora said, her voice echoing clear and loud. "But the vast sky truly belongs to all who dare to fly."

Aeryth smiled. It was a charming, but eminently dangerous smile.

"You are deeply mistaken," Aeryth replied calmly, "the sky always does not belong to those who simply fly."

He pointed a single finger upward. "It belongs unadulteratedly to those who own the wind."

The bronze bell rang out signalling the beginning of the battle.

GONG!!

Both warriors ascended immediately. The howling wind grabbed their bodies and elevated them trenchantly into the sky, completely ignoring the crystal arena floor below. In mere seconds, they were hovering fifty feet in the air, near the shimmering crystal rings. Now, the entire eyes of the colosseum stared upward, shielding their eyes from the bright sun.

Aelora moved first. She abruptly hoisted her hand. "Zephyr Lances!"

Hundreds of sharp wind spears materialized, unveiling in the empty air. They glowed brightly with coalesced green mana. They pierced with truculent force through the air with precision, aiming steadily for Aeryth’s arms and legs. She wanted to make him immobilized.

Aeryth swung his body mid-air. He looked lazy, like he was just waking up from a nap. He opened both of his arms wide. "Absorb."

The lethal spears hit his chest, but they did not pierce his skin; they were absorbed. The sharp wind mana composing the hundreds of spears clinked, and broke apart the moment they touched his bare skin. The green wind wrapped gently around his shoulders. He inhaled gently through his nose, as if he was smelling a very pleasant, sweet perfume.

Aelora’s green eyes widened in shock. "You... you can actually control foreign wind without casting any spells?"

Aeryth looked at her and smiled, then, he simply vanished.

POP!

He reappeared just behind her in a split second. The wild, howling wind drifted his body exactly like it was obeying its true master.

He unleashed a devastating kick. Aelora barely reacted in time. Her combat instincts flared warning her, and she frantically created a Cyclone barrier behind her back.

BANG!!

The physical impact was a cacophony of rumble. Aeryth’s powerful kick hit the spinning barrier, sending her flying upward into the sky.

She tried to stabilize herself with a forced calmness, hovering high above him now. Her breathing was uneven and exhaustive. That single kick carried the weight of a falling boulder.

Aeryth decided to stay below her. He raised both of his arms gently, keeping his palms facing down toward the ground.

"Come down," he whispered softly to the sky. "Atmospheric Crush!!"

The air snapped. An immense column of pressure hammered downward, a blunt force of pure gravity that savagely caught Aelora. Her figure buckled as the sky itself seemed to collapse onto her.

She fell fast, dropping exactly like a falling meteor. The crowd screamed in terror as she plummeted toward the hard crystal floor.

"Spiral Updraft!" Aelora let out a shattering scream, it was a guttural release of pain being crushed by gravity.

She desperately summoned a thick cushion of swirling air beneath her boots at the last possible second. She stopped trembling exactly ten feet from the hard ground, her leather boots hovering shakily on the thick air cushion. Her breath was shaking vigorously in her chest.

Aeryth flew backward, descending very slowly. He looked completely relaxed, unbothered by the fight.

"You’re actually very good," Aeryth acknowledged her. "But the wind is absolutely not a living weapon to you, Aelora. It is just a tool; you use the wind exactly like a blacksmith uses a heavy hammer."

Aelora gritted her teeth in frustration, flying back up, traversing to meet his altitude. "And what exactly is the wind to you, Dragon?"

Aeryth’s lazy smile turned calm, and his blue eyes brightened with emotion. "Memory."

His wild aura ignited, incandescently. A pure, blinding blue cyclone materialized around his entire body. He vanished once again.

Zippppp! Zippppp!

This time, Aelora was ready, seeing him move. She tracked his mana signature through the air currents. "Wind Wall: Shredder!"

The chant raised a towering wall of slicing, razor-sharp wind to her left side. But Aeryth unbelievably appeared inside the lethal barrier.

He completely knew every single angle, every blind side and every shifting pattern of the air as if he was the air itself. Their mid-air collision abruptly converted into a vehement maelstrom of wild frenzy.

Cyclopean shockwaves erupted in a cacophonous display of aerial upheaval. Deafening sonic booms vibrated, echoing over the stadium’s magical barrier walls.

BOOM!! CRASH!! WHOOSH!!

Every single time Aelora ragefully attacked, Aeryth was already standing right there. Every single time she desperately tried to make distance, he was patiently waiting at her exact destination.

She was running out of air. Genuine desperation darted in her green eyes. She knew she couldn’t win a battle of pure stamina against a dragon. "I have to end this right now!" she whispered to herself.

She lunged malevolently to the center of the arena. She closed her eyes and compulsively consolidated every ounce of mana into her wrists. The green runes glowing on her wrists turned red. "Heaven’s Typhoon!"

The air rumbling, screamed in agony. A towering tornado erupted, unbelievably full of destructive mana. Even the drifting Nexus Crystal high above began to tremble violently. The vortex exerted a profound gravitational pull, sucking everything inward exactly like a hungry black hole.

The crowd screamed, panicking with the gravitational pull. "The safety barrier won’t hold that!" a man yelled.

But Aeryth remained still, hovering like petrified in the center of the raging vortex. His messy dark hair lingered on his face wildly.

He whispered softly to the wind gale. "Wind Dragons do not ever dodge storms," Aeryth said, smiling, "we just eat them."

He opened his mouth and inhaled deeply, sucking the massive, destructive vortex of wind warped. The raging, howling winds strenuously compressed, accelerating, spiraling into the depths of his gorged throat.

In the next three seconds, the arena froze. The tornado was completely gone.

Aeryth swallowed loudly, and patted his chest with his hand groaning a loud burp.

"Spicy!" he said. He looked incredibly happy.

The crowd packed stadium froze in pure shock. Even Princess Seyana wavered, flickering her eyes in disbelief. Down in the pit, Kairos leaned forward, his dark eyes wide.

He didn’t just dispel the magic, Kairos quickly realized, his heart racing. He literally consumed it, and his own body is a limitless vessel.

High up in the sky, Aelora hovered tired, feeling emptiness in her soul. Her tired arms were trembling violently, and her eyes filled with disbelief.

"That was... my absolute strongest... spell..." she whispered, her voice cracking. "You just... you just ate it?"

Aeryth gently tilted his head, and spoke his tone with genuine respect.

"You are an incredible fighter, Aelora," he said honestly, "but you treat the wind exactly like a simple spell to cast. You treat it like a calculation."

He pin-pointed the two fingers forward. The unbelievable amount of wind he had just consumed gathered, becoming two sharp compressed blade spears of nihilistic wind aether.

"I treat the wind exactly like kin," Aeryth said softly. "I treat it like my family."

He loudly snapped his fingers with thumb.

SNAP!!

One of the blade spears thrust forward, striking Aelora directly in her vulnerable abdomen. The attack was a ripple of crushing air pressure.

WHROOMMM!!

All the air expelled from her tired lungs. She plummeted from the sky and crashed into the hard arena floor below.

CRASHHHHH!!

The beautiful crystal tiles were destroyed under the heavy impact of her body. She lay there on the ground in agony, but she was fully conscious and desperately trying to rise back up to her feet.

"I... I won’t... fall..." she grinned, spitting out a drop of blood.

Aeryth descended and landed gently before her.

"Then stand up..." he said quietly, offering a challenge.

Aelora struggled fiercely. She pushed hard against the broken crystal, her body trembling violently and legs refusing her commands.

Her head finally lowered in defeat. Tears of pure frustration came out of her eyes. "I... yield."

The bronze bell echoed with a victory roar.

GONG!!

"AERYTH DRACORTIS IS THE WINNER!"

The entire colosseum erupted loudly, some people applauded wildly, but many spectators were still stunned in disbelief. They just watched a young boy literally eat a devastating tornado.

Aeryth walked slowly over to her. He knelt down on the broken floor and lifted Aelora gently by her bruised shoulders. He dusted the white crystal powder off her beautiful feather cloak carefully.

"Don’t ever stop flying..." Aeryth said warmly, looking into her eyes. "One day, you will absolutely soar much higher than me. You definitely have the talent for it."

Aelora laughed very weakly through her shimmering tears.

"If you are the legendary Wind Dragon..." she murmured softly, leaning on him for support, "Then I will simply become the raging storm that rides you."

Aeryth threw his head back and laughed a loud, genuine laugh.

"Then I will be eagerly waiting for you." He turned around and walked toward the Drakhalmere gate.

As he slowly left the ruined arena, the crowd suddenly realized something terrifying. They looked at the glowing golden scoreboard, then back at the empty iron gate.

Veldra Dracortis was an absolutely unstoppable, crushing ocean.

Aeryth Dracortis was a completely untamable, raging storm.

They fought completely differently in the stone ring. They clearly had distinct personalities. But both of them were utterly invincible in their own unique ways. The raw, devastating power of their ancient bloodline was definitely not a silly children’s myth. It was a harsh, undeniable reality standing right in front of the entire terrified world.

And sitting quietly in the competitor’s box, Brandon Sylphyros suddenly felt a bead of cold sweat slide slowly down the back of his neck. His pale blue eyes were wide with genuine, creeping dread as he swallowed hard.

There are exactly five of them, Brandon realized in sheer panic, staring blankly at the Drakhalmere gate. Two have already shown their terrifying, world-ending power. And three more ancient, hungry Dragons are still waiting to ascend to the stage. This is bad.