"Kill them all!" Jennifer screamed as the mages of the Hand of Reality charged while the Oik horde charged against them. They all wore the same war paint as Uri, albeit with different details and colors but the same form. It was always written in the prophecy, Uri thought of what his great grandmother had told him, that an Oik man would lead the Oik name out from the depths it had fallen to and into immortality. Maybe he was that man, maybe he was destined to raise the Oik name from out of the abyss but only time could tell that.
"Hold them off," Uri called out, "I am going after Avedis!"
"You got it, little Geldic," His grandfather replied, "We will hold them!" A fissure opened in the rocky ground of the plane as a large winged beast climbed out and Uri climbed on quickly. The two groups got into range of one another before the magical barrage began, with the Hand of Reality grunts and their 4 remaining leaders using all forms of magic while the Geldic horde used physical weapons and their beast forms to empower themselves to fight through magic. The young mage was unimpeded by the other mages of the Hand of Reality, it was most likely what they wanted, Uri against Avedis, the two centerpieces of their respective groups, the best both had to offer.
Sand pelted Uri as he pierced the wall of the sandstorms and heeded in the same way Avedis had gone. The winds were violent and powerful as it endlessly whipped up sand and blocked out most of the light from the plane's shining sky. The winged beast continued to power through the winds of the sandstorm as Uri shielded his eyes from the sand while it continued to sting at his skin.
He broke into a clearing, similar to what he had entered on his arrival in Krono-Pontis. Avedis was looking at him as he landed and stepped off of the winged beast, "To think you hold the magic that I want so," Avedis began, "Your family will be slaughtered again, no matter what you do your end is already written."
"My magic will die with me," Uri replied.
"We will not kill you, Uri'ost, you will be torn to bits but kept alive, those around you will be slaughtered and butchered and murdered until you break, nothing will save you," Several auras mixed as they appeared on Uri's body, "You really intend to fight me, Avedis Kovko, the middle finger of the Hand of Reality," The young mage put his fist forwards and then grinned before flipping the taller man off. With a simple movement of his hand, Avedis was lifted into the air and began to hover, "Reality is mine to bend and in this world even more so than usual."
"Reality Anchor," Uri mumbled as he awaited Avedis's attack. He knew that if he could take out the Hand of Reality's leader or at least their plot leader, he could rejoin his family and aid take down the rest of the Hand of Reality but as soon as he ended his thought, the ground moved from under him and a stone hand attempted to grab him. Avedis must've recognized that Uri was using a reality anchor spell and the traditional magic he was employing would be able to bypass it.
The slender mage remained hovering in the air as his hands moved and the ground moved with them, pillars lifting out of the ground like massive worms and attempting to ram into Uri or wrap and trap him. The Oik mage used his own magic in order to be able to take to the air as a four winged angel was summoned and held him to allow him to avoid the stone creatures being controlled by Avedis. With each dodge, Uri was slowly understanding the reality mage's strategy, making him use his energy with relentless magical attacks and then finish the job once the opportunity came. Uri needed to get closer and avoid falling into a loop that would push him back and forth from advancing and retreating to avoid spells, "What's wrong, boy? Unable to attack me?" Avedis grinned as he taunted Uri, "I am sure if you had more power like I do this wouldn't be an issue," The Oik man dodged another pillar but felt his angel get taken out by the attack. It hadn't been going for him, it was trying to slow him down, "Keep squirming, this was the plan all along," Uri dived out of the way of another stone fist while Avedis slowly hovered to be able to face him while launching his stone creatures to attack. Like Vertigo, he was using both reality magic and nature magic in order to create a powerful combination that could probably beat out most other forms of magic.
"Mother!" Kelly called as she saw Damia looking around in the fire school's dorms. The head of school walked towards her daughter, "Where is Uri?"
"I can't really tell you, Kelly, but we are doing everything we can to make sure he is safe."
"He isn't here," A shake of her head made Kelly begin to cry, "What if something happens to him?"
"Please," She grabbed her daughter's shoulders, "We are doing everything we can, try to calm down," Kelly sniffled as she nodded before two other students joined her side and began talking to her, trying to comfort her as her mother turned to the rest of the students and teacher in order to continue her work. Kelly sat down and continued to cry, the world around her began to fade as she thought of Uri, was he in danger? Was he hurt? Where was he? She couldn't bring herself to stop crying despite the best efforts of the students around her.
Uri caught Avedis by surprise as a beam of flames left his hand and melted one of his pillars into a puddle of molten rock, "The academy teaches more than one magic now? How surprising," He rolled his eyes as another pillar emerged soon after and joined the first in order to make Uri focus on two pillars as well as the other attacks, "This can all end if you use your magic, Uri'ost."
"You would die if I do," He replied before a burst of flames exploded from around him and caused the stone creatures to shatter, "There will only be your four sidekicks to pick up your ashes."
"Yes, maybe that will be so, but more than enough to get my name immortalized and get them to dominate all of magic for the rest of time," Uri'ost laughed, "What are you laughing at?!" The stone stopped as Uri continued to laugh, "Answer me!"
"This is all you want? To remake magic to take over the planes? That's it?"
"Is that not already a lot?" Avedis asked with a concerned look on his face, "I was always convinced that it was already a lot."
"Sure, sure, but you could aspire for more," Uri replied as he stopped laughing, "No matter how much you scar or hurt me, you can't get me to break because you and your hand of Reality are nothing more than a joke to me, too funny to be able to win anything against me," Avedis glared at him, rage filling his eyes, "There you go, now you are angry," Uri began gesture casting the strongest spell he had been able to master. Call the beast was a spell that his great grandfather had allowed him to perfect, pulling from the spirit in order to amplify a certain characteristic of his body or soul. His warpaint began to glow in a similar way to the tattoos on Vertigo's body before several symbols drew themselves on his skin, "And now, I get to be angry as well," The pair of pillars crashed onto Uri before causing dust and sand to kick up as a huge amount of stones were launched at where Uri had been standing. Avedis was taken by his rage and continued to pile on more and more stone as if he wanted to expend all of his magic in that singular attack.
He stopped his attack, breathing heavily from his frustration and anger, "Is that all you have?" The Hand of Reality mage froze as he saw a figure standing still where Uri had been when the attack had been launched.
"How could someone survive that attack?" He shouted as the stone pillars formed once more, "You should've died!" Uri smiled as four angels seemed to phase into reality around him in defensive positions, "How could such small angels resist my onslaught?" Avedis demanded to know as he held back his attacks.
"I am Uri'ost Geldic, the 6th chief of the Geldic tribe," Uri repeated, "I am the host to the Dominator's magic and a perfect vessel for magic," He replied as his angels moved out of a defensive position and revealed shields and maces, "These angels are not simply angels that a young mage could summon, they are empowered by my presence and my magic," The pillars moved to hit Uri before two angels used their weapons to shatter them, leaving the mage's attacks as nothing more than a pile of rubble on the floor.
More stones were launched at the Oik mage as his summoned angels continued to protect him from the minor nature spells that the angered Avedis was sending his way. Uri's taunting had bought him much needed moments of reprieve in order to formulate a plan of attack to finish off the powerful mage. A wrong move could mean the end of his efforts against the middle finger of the Hand of Reality despite the incompetence he displayed while letting his frustration and annoyance show.
Avedis finally ceased his relentless attacks and seemed to regain his composure, "You have irritated me enough, Uri'ost, I will now kill you," Uri had been expected the change back to him taking the lead of the fight and his plan was already complete, "Die," The two stone pillars were joined by the a third as Avedis grinned. Uri looked around and let his angels disappear, "Accepting your death?"
"I assume you would've accepted yours by now," A black armor began forming around him before a helmet appeared in his hands. It had been nearly two years since he had been in the suit of armor that the Dominator's magic created and a chill ran down his spine as he placed the helmet over his head, "Prepare to meet your end," Unlike before, he was in control of his magic, he was the Dominator. Avedis had a mix of fear and joy in his expression, he had drawn Uri out of his resistance and had made him use the Dominator's magic, he was one step closer to getting the spell.
A flash of light was followed by intense pain in the middle finger's right shoulder. He looked in horror as there was a hole that went from the front and out of the back of his shoulder. Avedis lost focus once more and the pillars collapsed before he spotted the black armor of the Dominator wielding two spears in one hand and the other had just recovered from a throw, "I am going to die?" He mumbled before a second spear was hurled at incredible speed and travelled right through his stomach. The magic that was holding him up dissipated and he fell weakly to the floor, coughing blood.
"You fought well, you got me to resort to this form," A demonic sounding voice came from the armor, "But this is the end of the line," Avedis had no words and nothing but fear in his mind. Uri placed his hand on the fallen mage's chest, "Ulkos," A burst of light came. It blinded the Oik man before dissipating and revealing a still, lifeless corpse under his hand. Avedis was dead, his magic destroyed and his ambitions of taking over the planar system were nothing but a fantasy. With one of the fingers of the Hand of Reality having been cut off, now there were four left. Uri turned away from Avedis as the three spears flew back to his left hand before he braved the sandstorms of Krono-Pontis and returned to the battlefield as the battle still raged. His family was slowly winning as they were able to match up against the four remaining fingers with one or two members while the grunts were being cut down by the old fashion battle strategies the Geldic tribe used. The black armor caught the attention of some of the grunts before they pointed him out.