The switch had been done so Alia had to begin her own fighting journey. Perhaps because Curtis had given an unexpected fight, no one dared underestimate the girl that was standing there elegantly with her Cape floating in the wind.
Someone stood up from the bleachers and came to stand at the ring. He swung the Flail in his hand around his head and dropped it to the ground. A deep dent instantly appeared on the sandy floor. Alia stood there looking at him, her expression remained the same. Empty. Unperturbed by the man's obvious show of strength.
Her hand withdrew to the front of her chest, taking a mystical posture, two fingers extended out from the rest which were folded together. On her index finger, the silver ring shined a golden light, showing the unusual marking carved on it. Her lips parted, she mouthed something no one had heard and struck her palm out. As if doing a ritual, her hands moved round in the air in some kind of strange pattern. As it did, clear streak of energy visible to the eyes began to appear. The golden spark grew brighter and brighter and began to twirl, following the pattern her hands had moved. As it twirled, a rune like pattern slowly engraved itself to the air in front of her. Pieces and sections of the runes coming together as the the energy moved endlessly. By the time it stopped, a golden circle stood before her. The ancient rouns and mythical encryptions written on it confirmed the identity of what she had opened.
A Rune!
The process of rune casting was something only mages knew. No doubt the girl was a mage. Perhaps the last of her kind. The knowledge that she was a mage was a total upgrade to her image.
The crowd watched with high curiousity what the girl was to do next. Under the watchful eyes of the audience, she thrust her hand into the rune. Half her arm disappeared into the rune, like it was some spacial space and as she pulled out, a chain followed after her arm. Wrapped tightly around her hand like an extension of her fist. The rune disappeared and the girl was left standing with her new weapon.
"This should suffice" She twirled her hand above her head. The chain danced beautiful around her body before it slammed into the ground like a whip. The whizzling sound echoed like a song of birds. Dust and sand rose from the ground from its hit.
"Let's begin" the battle bell rang.
"Arrgh!" Her opponent made a battle cry as he charged towards her. The Flail in his hand twirling in the air above his head waiting to attack. The round metal ball attached on the Flail weighed twice more than a thousand hammer. A direct hit on its prey would inadvertently leave its prey battered with broken bones. Not to talk of the spikes attached to the head of the iron ball. This was a perfect choice for a knock out blow. The analysis of the weapon both sides wielded destroyed the hopes they held for this round. On one end was a tough looking Flail and the other end was a weak looking chain. The winner was already decided upon. Even if she was a mage, it would make no difference, she was bound to fail in a close combat with the man, especially with nothing but a rusted looking chain as a defence weapon.
If only they knew what this chain was then they would dread to be the man in the ring.
A few more steps and when the Flail man was about ten feets away from her, the chain shot out to attack him. Confidently, the man shifted his body to the side and avoided the chain. The chain whizzled past him and just when he thought he had completely avoided it, it turned around. As if it had a mind of his own, the chain turned around and wrapped itself around the man. Tightly bounding him like a package.
He could barely move. The chain bound up his hands and legs completely, still he swung his palm and attacked the chain with the Flail in his hand. Instead of seeing it break under his attack, his Flail was shot across the yard from the impact. Left with no choice, the man began to struggle yet with every of his struggling, the chain tightened around his body even more, squeezing him to the point he could barely breath. He let out a grunt in pain.
Alia flicked her wrist and the chain shot up into the sky. The man tied in it was thrown to the air like a weightless piece of paper and was slammed back down mercilessly on the sandy ground. Pain shut up his body akin to him being struck by a mountain. The ground was padded with sand, still it wasn't enough to reduce the impact. Before he could get over the first hit, the chain repeated the same action, sending him into the air and slamming him back the next second.
—BOOM!
—BOOM!
The ring was filled with the sound of the man's body slamming into the ground ceaselessly. Dust covered the ring obscuring the audience sight, all they could see was the man up in the sky one second and the sound of him smashing into the ground echoed with even more dust rising to the air.
The mixture of the mans excruciating shrieks and the whizzling sound of the chain became a horror to people's ears. Once they heard the whizzle, they closed their eyes cause they knew what followed next was the man floating in the air like a kite then falling to the ground like a meteor on fire. Blood oozing from his nose as he laid in the dust he was groveled into. The sorry state he was in was starting to plague their minds. The fear of being this man in their dreams gave them no will to watch further.
Eventually the chain stopped and let go of the man. The dust settled and the man appeared on the floor. Motionless but conscious by a slight thread. Blood dyed his jaws, more oozing out from the corner of his lips. His face was swollen, eyes closed from blood gathering in the lid and a couple of teeth lost from the collection in his mouth. He could not move his body. Every inch of his body ached like his bone were broken yet they were not, he could still feel them. But what use was feeling them when he couldn't even move a finger. He had really been dealt a heavy blow. But it was nothing compared to the ache he felt in his heart.
His pride was hurt, none of the injuries on his body compared to being thrashed by a little girl in public. He wasn't going to accept it. He struggle to get up, trying hard to push his body up from the ground.
"Stay down" the chain whizzled one last time and landed on his body. A final blow that slapped him unconscious instantly. The girl flicked her hand an the chain returned to her grip.
The emergency team rushed in to check on the man. He was carried out of the ring in a stretcher like his predecessors. Alia had obviously won this round. Not only had she won gallantly but she had set a record breaker of beating her opponent to a pulp without actually doing anything. It was a thing of admiration that all through the fight, the girl had not moved from her position. She hadn't even moved a limb. Apart from occasionally flicking her wrist, she had remained still as a stick. The man had solely been defeated by the chain alone, whereas the girl stayed without a single hurt.
Of course standing in her spot, she had looked invisible but the girl was far from invisible as they thought. If only they had looked closely then, they would have seen the burn marks around her hand where the chain curled like a second skin. Her face had lost a bit of its colour too. If only they could see what she had risked in order to wield the chain.
Everything good had its disadvantage. Even more so for the legendary Soul Chain. Myths had it that this chain was forged from the same material the souls of the gods were made. In order words, one could say it was formed from the souls of the gods.
The chain is ten feet long and weighs about twenty pounds quite a heavyweight for a girl like her. It is also said to be able to connect with one's soul. Once you made a connection, it winds itself up your arms and can be controlled by the will of your mind. It was such a powerful tool that listened mindlessly to its wielders biddings, so the gods had it locked up in an astral plane. In order to use it, Alia had summoned it from the Astral plane it had been kept. Even though this was only an astral form of it, doing that had used a boundless amount of her strength. Attuning to this weapon was an excruciating process, one that none of them could ever imagine.
They would never have imagined the chain was cursed.