A couple of bruises and broken bones couldn't stop the young rune master's drive to defeat the eldest Aethelmaer son. He stood up, wobbly and way paler than before.
"Do you think your spells can really work on me? How pathetic!" Ahrin mocked him, avoiding the icicles Alaric conjured. "You're more talkative now than you used to be." Alaric smirked, keeping his cool. Ahrin charged at him once again. He was extremely fast and powerful that even though Alaric managed to block it, his black aura sword pierced through his aura barrier, stabbing the side of his stomach. Alaric coughed blood.
"Dammit!" Alaric rolled to his left, holding his bleeding side. He's been fighting Ahrin for quite some time now, and he couldn't even land a single scratch on him.
Alaric knows he's on the verge of defeat.
Clasping his gaping wound, he looked yet again, at the doors in front of him, where Freyja and Kirin ran through. He's hoping for the two of them to burst through that door again, Freyja with a worried look on her face, and Kirin mocking him. He's waiting. He's waiting.
It has always been like that. They faced dangers here and there, many times he almost lost his life, but they pulled through. Deep inside, he was hoping it would continue. But this time, Alaric has already accepted those will only be memories that he will treasure and bring with him in the next life.
Tears fell from his deep blue eyes. It pained him, shifting his eyes away from that door.
Gathering every last bit of his strength and courage left, Alaric closed his eyes and summoned a huge bubble-like wall around Ahrin. Soon after, he summoned his most powerful lightning bolt.
The air cracked and roared, the ground shook, and even the illuminating crystals on the walls shattered.
Not finished yet, Alaric summoned the biggest and strongest fire pillar he has ever made in his life. For a while, the room looked like a pandemonium. The room was filled with thick, black smoke, no one could see anything.
"Don't stand up..." he begged, but most unfortunately, Ahrin emerged from the smoke, barely injured.
Alaric felt his morale crumble. He's drained. He fell onto his knees. He lost. Ahrin walked to him, held his chin up and with a surprisingly sincere expression, he asked, "Why are you going such great lengths for this?"
"That's right. Why am I even doing this?" He asked himself, with a self-deprecating laugh. Ahrin raised an eyebrow.
Alaric lived the first seventeen years of his life inside the Runerich tower, believing it to be the best rune sanctuary in the world. Everything he needed to know about being an excellent runemaster was already there. Everything he needed in life was there. He thought, the outside world was nothing but a bunch of unworthy, inferior beings who aren't skilled enough to be where he is.
His mother, was his one and only trusted friend and companion. She is his idol, and the leader of all Runerich. But, one day, she fell mysteriously ill. The archives he once believed to contain all the knowledge in the world, was useless.
She died, little Alaric couldn't find a single spell to bring her back.
The only thing left to him was his favorite fairy tale, tales of a princess with white wings who travelled the world. His one and only comfort, and from there suddenly, he wanted to see the world.
"I want to know. I want to see." He began yearning for the outside world, for an adventure, to witness things he has never seen before. But he couldn't. Leaving the tower equates to impurity, making him automatically ineligible to inherit the highest position, the seat his mother once held.
Until, he saw this girl, desperately trying to break into the tower without a single trace of aura manipulation gift in her. He was amused. But a part of him hated her. Alaric was frustrated, looking at her. Why is she doing something she obviously can't? It's unfair. And then there's this young man, called a demon, a monster, who idiotically challenged an enemy he can't beat so that he can live his own life.
Alaric couldn't get his eyes off them since then. He wanted to run after them. He wanted to overtake Freyja! He has always been jealous of her. She was born with a special power, this girl was always getting her way. Why? Why? Why!? Alaric hated it so much, he ran after her.
But running together with her, with Kirin, soon he realized that they are no different. She may look happy, but deep inside, she's carrying a weight he is unsure if he can carry in her place. Kirin, despite being strong and arrogant, is actually fighting a desperate battle as well.
Alaric wanted to run with them. Because the moment he did, he learned many things he never thought he would. He never imagined he can beg, he can walk hungry for days, he can go out and be his own person. Before he knew it, he was having so much fun. Before he knew it, he started living and loving his life.
Following those two, is the best, stupid decision he has ever made. And if that decision will lead to his end like this, he will die without regrets.
"Freyja, Kirin..." He mumbled, "I'm not going to lose to you."
Alaric grabbed Ahrin's hand all of a sudden. He looked at him with eyes that scared even Ahrin. He looked so certain, so confident. Alaric smiled. "I win."
All of a sudden, Ahrin was paralyzed. Thick vines crept up from his feet to his torso. He can't move.
Alaric quickly grabbed Ahrin's throat and started chanting a spell Ahrin never heard of before. Ahrin struggled, but much to his surprise, the vines are much stronger that he is. "Why!?" He looked around, saw a number of vines surrounding the room, and it made sense. Alaric has been running around, carefully planting the trap all over the room. It was his plan all along, from the moment he decided he'd be left alone with him.
Alaric used an elite sealing spell that takes so much time, conditions and preparation, it's almost never used in battle. And most of all, it's a spell that requires one's own flesh and aura as sacrifice. A double-edged spell no one but the best rune masters in the world can do. Ahrin gravely underestimated the young rune master, causing him to miserably fall into this trap.
The vines started wrapping Ahrin's body, tighter and tighter. The vines piled up, covering his limbs, his face, his whole body. Not for long, Ahrin's blood dripped onto the floor below him.
For the last time, Alaric grinned. He can't feel his limbs anymore, he collapsed.
"Let's meet again." Alaric gazed at the doors, where Freyja and Kirin ran through. Imagining they're back, imagining her worried face and Kirin mocking him. He smiled, seeing vines creep to him in his peripheral vision. The vines he summoned to defeat Ahrin, started crawling all over his body, covering his limbs, his torso, and, everything went dark.
~ o 0 o ~