Axel grunted as he was slammed violently against the ground by a gust of wind. He got back up slowly, carefully analyzing his opponent's strategies. Dracoa's attacks cover such a wide area. I don't think I can dodge them. He gritted his teeth.
"Do you really intend to fight me with just a sword?" his opponent asked.
Axel clicked his tongue in annoyance as he changed up his strategy.
White flame erupted from his right hand and engulfed the broadsword he was holding. The simplistic sword was made of a strange dark metal that was laced with a vast amount of magic. Axel swung his sword, and a sheet of white fire burst forwards, racing across the dry, cracked earth towards his opponent. The dim gray spherical jewel hanging around Dracoa's neck glowed brightly as she drew the winds together to form a barrier that the fire crashed against.
Axel took this chance to close his eyes and focus his energy, removing all thoughts from his mind. A sudden tranquility washed through his mind, sharpening his senses. He opened his eyes again and watched the flame burst against the wall of wind. He dashed forwards. Time slowed around him. He could see the fire slowly dissipate and the shield unravel. He quickly stepped around the shield and slashed at Dracoa. She dodged smoothly and turned around in surprise. A wispy gray blade formed out of the air, but time around Axel had already slowed too much. He easily ducked and slashed again. Dracoa's reaction time is insane, but it won't work forever. Dracoa dodged that attack as well, moving smoothly across the field. Axel followed closely, speeding up the frequency of his slashes. Dracoa managed to dodge every one, although her movements were slowing further. Axel paused in confusion. In that instant, a whirlwind sprung up around Dracoa. Axel quickly retreated, watching the whirling winds slowly spread and expand around the dip in the ground they were in. Dracoa flew upwards inside the tornado. Axel sighed. As a wyvern - a winged snake with a dragon-like head and a two-sided bladelike spearhead on her tail - Dracoa had a distinct advantage in mobility. Axel's only chance had been to attack her before she could lift off, and now that chance was gone.
Axel gathered more flames around him and started running at a tangent to Dracoa's whirlwind. He swung his sword repeatedly, letting the bursts of flame extend outwards through the wind. Dracoa put up more shields to block them, and began to generate numerous wispy blades around her. Axel thrust his hand out and let the flame gathered around him channel into a powerful beam. The beam scorched through Dracoa's shields, breaking them, but didn't connect. Dracoa somehow dodged out of the way every time. The blades around Dracoa burst outwards in many directions, curving around to rush at Axel. Axel grinned. Too slow. In a smooth sweep of his sword, flames engulfed him and his surroundings, consuming the blades.
Axel's side abruptly exploded in pain, breaking Axel's concentration and extinguishing his flames, covering his lungs and insides with thorns. He gritted his teeth to stop from crying out in pain and fell to his knees. Time sped back up to normal speed. He grunted, reignited the flames on his sword, and turned back to face his enemy. Suddenly, there was an enormous weight on Axel's mind, a strange pressure that commanded him to stop. Axel's body stopped moving on its own. Dracoa was suddenly in front of him, pointing another wispy blade at his throat. The pain in Axel's side throbbed and slowly dissipated. Axel grunted in frustration.
"Hey, I thought you said you wouldn't use that power," someone to Axel's left yelled. The weight suddenly disappeared. Axel thrust his sword into his belt and turned his head. A small, round, flat-faced golden-furred creature with almost no neck and six stubby legs was talking. Around his neck was a small red jewel similar to Dracoa's.
"I panicked," Dracoa complained. "You can't blame me, Cyil. He suddenly got super fast."
Cyil flapped his wings. "Yeah! I could barely see him. I can't believe you managed to dodge him when he went behind you."
"That's no reason to cheat," another small creature next to Cyil said. "If you lose, you lose. That's that." This creature looked pretty much identical to Cyil, but had a pure white jewel around his neck. Axel couldn't tell them apart without the jewels.
"I'll have to agree with Aavern," a deep voice grumbled. It belonged to a massive panther-like creature with black fur and bony armor plates, carrying a small group of bushes and grass on a close-fitting segmented shell on its back. He had a green gem hidden underneath the bone plates around his neck.
"See? Riselus agrees with me! Your mind powers are super strong. I don't think any of us can win against you if you use them," Aavern continued.
"Well if I can't use my mind powers, Qassot can't use her swords," Dracoa said stubbornly.
"I agree with that!" Cyil announced as he rolled over in the dirt. "Those things are annoying!"
"Hey, that's not fair!" Qassot said from her position sitting nearby on a rock. She was a thin dragon whose light green-blue scales curved beautifully as her muscular yet lean body moved slightly, running a bright silver gauntlet down the edge of a hiltless curved single-edged sword made of the same material as the gauntlet. The gem around her neck had a blue hue to it.
"I don't think flying, duplicating swords is fair," Dracoa said. "You just need to sit there and make a load of them and they just attack on their own."
"This is the only way I can fight, other than sucking the water out of your bodies. Are you telling me to do that instead?" Qassot continued. She sheathed the sword in the sheath between her wings. The gauntlet disappeared, fading out of existence like a ghost.
"No, but it's still not fair!" Cyil complained.
Axel sat down against a rock and crossed his arms. "I can't believe you all are complaining about having so much power. I don't get why we're even doing this."
"We wanted to see how strong you were," Aavern said.
"Well, I'm definitely no match for any of you," Axel replied.
The Gem Keepers (as Axel liked to call them, for the elemental gems they each wielded) had rather random and improvised fighting styles (except Qassot's and Dracoa's), which made it easy for Axel to strategize against them, but their power more than made up for their inexperience.
"You can definitely match us," Dracoa said. "Your magic doesn't come from a gem, either. You must be a wizard."
Axel rolled his eyes. The creatures of Falnear called humans wizards thanks to their powerful magic, but this didn't change the fact that Axel was still just a human.
Wait, what's a human? Where'd that word come from?
"Where did you learn that stuff anyways? You move so fast and that fire is pretty powerful," Aavern asked.
Axel shrugged. "I don't know."
"C'mon, you can tell us," Cyil pressed.
"I don't remember."
Cyil flew over and landed on Axel's head. Axel almost toppled over at the sudden weight. "Yes you do," Cyil said.
Dracoa blew Cyil off with a gust of wind. "Stop annoying him." Cyil tumbled over and rolled a few meters through the dirt. Wait, meters? Don't I mean gyts? That's how you measure distance here, right? Cyil told me about them. Three gyts make two meters, right? What's a meter?
"I really don't remember," Axel said.
"Do you know where you come from?"
"I only remember suddenly being on that island that Riselus found me on."
"It was to the north," Riselus stated. "He fell out of a portal."
"That explains everything!" Cyil exclaimed, but then stopped and scratched his head with a wing. "Wait, no it doesn't."
Dracoa whacked Cyil with her tail. He rolled a few gyts through the dirt again.
"We're getting off track here," Axel said. "The point is that I can't beat any of you in a duel."
"You don't know that for sure," Qassot said.
"Besides, you only fought me and Riselus so far, so your skills might be better suited to fighting someone like Cyil," Dracoa pointed out.
Axel sighed. Riselus didn't even move during their duel. Axel had just been thrown around like a ragdoll with giant chunks of earth. He had been barely able to keep up by jumping from one to the other before getting clocked in the head. "Fine. Who's next?"
"Me," Qassot said. Her silver gauntlet shimmered into existence on her left foreleg. She stood up on her hind legs and drew a silver katana from a sheath on her back. With a few quick slices and a beautiful flourish, the katana duplicated into six more, which floated behind Qassot like a second pair of wings. "Ready when you are."
What's a katana supposed to be? I need to figure out where these strange words that pop up in my head come from.
Axel sighed again and closed his eyes. The ground around him ignited into white flame as a wave of calm flowed through his mind. He opened his eyes and rushed forwards to attack.