Ansel
I remember watching a hurricane hit Florida on TV a few years back, but nothing could compare to what I watch now. The pond, which Enzo flew above, exploded upward. Then, as if gravity itself forgot how to work, the water stayed upward until it swallowed Enzo whole. Minutes or maybe seconds passed, and all we heard were the violet crashes underwater and the violent ripples above the water. I was grateful for the time to catch my breath. Looking down at myself, I winced, noticing the pieces of my shirt ripped to shreds. Beneath those shreds was far worse; burnt marks covered my body like freckles. Despite using my demiaura as a shield, I haven't mastered the skill enough to prevent certain areas from cracking.
It was a miracle that I could even stand, let alone move around. Looking towards the entrance from where we entered, I noticed the rest of Enzo and my cohort. Were they all eliminated, I wondered. Glancing around, I noticed that the once beautiful oasis was gone. Craters, sword marks, ruined grass, and debris polluted the arena.
Standing between the passageway of the two ponds, I carefully made my way over to the right pond, where the water ripples were beginning to go still. I looked over the pond's edge, hoping to catch a glimpse. Just as I did, the water grew eerie quiet. A veil of quiet silence covered the arena. Until that veil was broken by the rushing of winds and the rumbling of the storm clouds above. The wind grew stronger and wilder until Enzo flew upward, breaking free of the water. The once wild wind began to take shape as Enzo pulled the wind towards him.
I gasped at the sight of lightning and wind mixing together like a shake. Enzo floated in the middle of this mixture. I backed away at the sight of the tornado-infused lighting. The tornado's funnel was not thin but probably thicker than a house. Instead of being sucked into the tornado by the wind, lighting seemed to shoot out of the tornado. But the tornado itself was, until, simply standing on the pond's edge. Maybe it couldn't move on the water, but I was wrong.
The reason wasn't because it couldn't; it was because it was waiting for something. That something was Amira. The pond began to spin around like a whirlpool. Looking over, I could see Amira standing in the middle of the pond, glaring upward at Enzo. I should have been taken aback by the mass of power, but I was taken aback by Amira's eyes. They were glowing a sea green color. I didn't get to see them long as Amira suddenly began to levitate. She moved upward but did not use wind like Enzo; the spinning water began to flow back downward, lifting Amira up. A hurricane, I thought in bewilderment. A hurricane about the same size as Enzo's tornado formed. This was too much. Two natural disasters colliding was simply too much.
The wind that each of these natural disasters gave off made it hard to even approach them. I was helpless at the bottom of these two storms. I was pushed back by the strong winds when Amira and her hurricane charged at Enzo. The collision of these two natural disasters sent earth-shattering earthquakes around the arena. Lighting and water clashed with one another like the sea, and the sky was waging war.
Occasionally, water would fall and fill with electricity like some odd form of rain. I used my demiaura to shield myself the best I could, but I couldn't do anything as long as I was stuck on the ground. I moved, trying to put distance between myself and the storms. But even that was difficult with all the earthquakes happening. I would catch glimpses of Enzo and Amira clashing swords. I need to do something, I thought. I saw Peter waving towards me from the corner of my eye. With no other choice, I made my way towards him.
Arriving near him, I focused on the shield he was holding. Could that help me? Besides Peter, the rest of the cohort were being shielded by Enzo's cohort, who had used their demiaura as some kind of shield. I wanted to ask them if they were okay, but Peter pushed the shield into my arms.
"See that piece of rubble being held up by water. There's a shield on that piece of rubble casting a shadow. When I say now, let all your demiaura out and cover your body with it like we practiced. Then, run into the shadow of the black fire and constantly think about the shadow of the shield on top of the floating ruble. Don't think about anything else but that. Got it."
I had so many questions, but Peter was already looking at Enzo and Amira's fight. His face hardened like when he was really concentrating. Throwing out all other thoughts, I did as Peter said. I thought of nothing but the shadow of that shield.
"Now!"
I dashed towards the shadow of the black fire. As I was getting closer and closer, an indescribable feeling of relief, strength, and comfort washed over me. The shadow seemed to expand as I grew nearer, almost as if welcoming me. I could feel the shadows feeling as if they were my own. It longed for and cherished me; most of all, it wanted to serve me. I should have been wary and stopped, but I didn't.
I trusted the shadow, and more importantly, I trusted Peter. Just as I stepped foot on the shadow, I immediately fell in like falling into a large pile of snow. I kept my eyes closed, but my mind solely focused on the shield's shadow. I didn't dare open my eyes until a bright light hit me. Slowly, I began to open my eyes; all around me were grey storm clouds. I blinked, unsure of what I was seeing. I was surrounded by the sky but wasn't I just on the ground a moment ago. I tried standing but was too disoriented. That's when I noticed another shield behind me. Memories of what Peter had said rushed to my mind.
Crawling, I looked over the edge to see Enzo directly under where I was. The piece of ruble, I thought. Somehow, I had teleported from the ground to the piece of rubble. I didn't understand how, nor did I want to right now. I looked over the edge again, taking note of Enzo's movement. The shield Peter had given me was about the same size as a basketball backboard. I looked between the shield and where Enzo was; a smile appeared on my face.
I placed my sword in between the shield strapped. Then I walked over to the edge, feeling my heart beat faster. I covered my hand in demiaura and lifted the shield with the sword. With one hand on the sword handle and the other with demiaura on the blade, I raised the shield to my chest. Finally, like a diver, I fell over head first. I placed the shield in front of me as gravity pushed me down.
"Don't forget about me!"
I yelled loud enough for both Amira and Enzo to look up from their fight. A second later, I felt the shield smash into something or someone. I swung my sword free from the shield handle and got ready to attack. Except I didn't have to; that was something that the shield smashed into, Enzo. I watched Enzo fall downwards at great speeds, not showing any signs of stopping. I expected the tornado to cushion his fall, but the moment Enzo fell, the tornado and storm clouds disappeared.
My victory was short-lived as I remembered that I couldn't fly or use water to cushion my fall. I was planning to use my demiaura to soften the fall, but just as I was about to land, a wave caught me. Like sliding down a slide, I slid down the wave until my feet were on solid ground. My entire right side was wet, but considering I was falling from the sky, I felt it could have been worse.
"How?…why…what did you do," Amira asked.
Her voice was a mixture of anger, sadness, and confusion bottled together. Her tone shifted like her emotions were battling to be recognized. When I stood to face her, her eyes widened, and she took a step back, almost in fear.
"You," she pointed with a haunting expression, "why is your eye glowing like that!" She was becoming more and more distressed. Why was she looking at me with fear? And what about my eye?
I cleared my throat, "Peter just told me I had to run into the shadow of the black flames. And what's with my eye? More importantly, why are your eyes glowing?"
She snapped her head back to our entrance where Peter was because we were close enough that I could make out Peter's painful expression. Did something go wrong, I wondered. Looking at Peter, I noticed the expressions of my friends and of Enzo's. Each of them had the same look of pain as Amira. Don't look at me like that. Enzo's friends then pierced me with a look of guilt; some even took a step forward but stopped giving me that same look of guilt and pain.
Stop it.
My friends didn't look away from me; their pained expressions slowly changed to sadness. The strong, stoic Levi had tears running down his face. Charlie looked ready to run away. Unlike the others, Alea was the only one who remained expressionless, but for some reason, her expressionless face looked more hollow than before.
Stop.
Suddenly, I noticed the silence from the audience and looked around them. When I turned to look at them, some averted their gazes, and others seemed too shocked to look away. When my gaze landed on Chiron, the old centaur closed his eyes. He exhaled as if he was making peace with something, then looked at me with a reassuring nod. But it did little to calm my emotions. Disgust, hatred, heck, and even humiliation were all things I had grown used to people giving me. I was fine with those looks; it didn't bother me, but sadness, pain, and guilt…those were emotions I hated. So then, why were they looking at me like that. I looked away from their gazes and turned towards the crater that Enzo made. The anger I felt from those looks was all the fuel I needed to continue. Next to me, Amira placed a hand on my shoulder. I looked at her with a questioning look.
"My eyes glowed because I was tapping into my father's domain. This trait is usually reserved for"
She stiffed and froze like a statue. All around me, people were beginning to kneel, except for Chiron and Enzo's cohort. They were the only ones standing and able to move, unlike Amira, who stood frozen. The people kneeling kept their heads down, not daring to look up. It was almost like they were in the presence of…a king.
I looked towards the crater, where an immense aura was shooting out like bolts of lighting. It was immense, almost immeasurable, and heavy, so very heavy. That was when I noticed the strangest thing I could see: the color of the aura. Alea had said that no one but the user could see the color of the aura. Yet here I was, seeing a gentle blue aura come from the crater. It was like the aura was trying to press everyone down. No, I thought, not the aura but the man releasing the aura. Despite being able to feel and see the aura's heaviness, I could still move with ease. I was going to ask Amira about this, but that's when Enzo flew out of the crater and landed a couple of feet in front of me. He looked surprised at me, and a grin began forming on his face.
Looking at him, I could tell something changed. He was releasing more power, almost as if he was releasing a small percentage of his power. I raised my sword and smiled when I noticed the blood dripping from his forehead.
"Honestly, I hit you straight in the head, and you flew to the ground 50 meters from it. And all I managed to give you was a small drip of blood. What kind of monster are you," I said.
Although my voice was teasing, I knew I couldn't hold out much longer. Enzo seemed to notice and took his time to dust himself off.
"If I'm a monster, then what are you? Being able to fight like this, using demiaura the way you are, and most of all, being able to move when I release my godly aura. No, you might just be far worse than a monster. Then there's that eye of yours. One eye a pale gold color and the other a black obsidian color that's glowing."
Black obsidian? I raised my sword higher to the side of my body. A black glow reflected on the steel blade. It could be a demigod thing; Enzo and Amira were the same. I focused on Enzo.
"Who knows, maybe I'm a demon, if there are any," I answered.
Enzo grinned mischievously.
"Oh, you have no idea. Even if you are, you must still be at your limits. So let's end this."
He moved as he finished talking. Our swords clash violently, sending shivers up my arms. I gripped my sword tighter and matched him. Although it looked like we were equally matched, I knew it would only last a while. The experience we had with a sword was clear the longer we fought. When I thought of striking his side, Enzo would pivot to the other side and block with the flat part of his sword. I moved to the left and ducked under Enzo's sword swing.
Using the opportunity, I thrust my sword towards Enzo's leg but failed as Enzo swung his sword in a circle to block me. I tried to use the same move on Levi, but Enzo was quicker. Enzo dropped his sword and used his hand to block my knee attack when my knee was about to make contact with his face.
With no other choice, I used his block to push me off and distance us. That's when I noticed Enzo's sword floating in midair. The wind being used to keep the sword afloat near his waist also caused something else to wave in the air as if waving at me. With an idea in mind, I dashed forward towards Enzo. This time, when our swords clashed, things were very different. Instead of being face to face like other times, our swords clashed, and my body was parallel to his. The only thing before him was my sword, which I held out for the clash.
It was no surprise that my sword was being pushed to the ground. Like trying to curl a thirty-pound weight with one hand, I continued to push my sword up. A little more, I thought. Before I could start showing signs of losing strength, I let go of my sword. Due to Enzo pushing so much force into crushing my sword, he began to fall forward. Using his loss of balance, I outstretched my hand and spun around him. Probably guessing I would strike him from the back, Enzo quickly regained his balance and turned to kick my feet under me. I landed on the ground hard; as I tried to stand, I felt Enzo's shoe press down on me and his sword's tip hovering over my neck.
"It's your loss, Ansel," Enzo said.
I could see Enzo's heavy aura lighten and then fade. I didn't force myself to get up; instead, I lifted my fist.
"No," I said. "It's your lost Enzo." I opened my fist to reveal Enzo's flag. The flag waved in the air proudly.
From the commentator box, Chiron's voice was heard throughout the arena.
"Due to Enzo losing his flag before he cornered Ansel. The one that is eliminated is Enzo, son of Zeus. However, the winners of this match are the King's cohort because they have more members available than Cohort 2 at the end of the time limit."
Cheers and applause went up for Enzo's squad. Enzo helped me up. He looked like he wanted to say something, but his teammates took him away. I looked for Amira, but she had rushed towards Peter.
The fugitive, pain, and tiredness began to settle into me.
No longer needing to fight, I could feel just how weak I was. Maybe it was the demiaura that covered my body or the adrenaline that had let me continue to fight. Limping towards the entrance, I could feel my eyes growing heavy. Before I fell over, a familiar warm embrace helped me. Alea had caught me in her arms. Weirdly, this didn't feel like the first time. Placing me against the wall for the entrance, I looked up at her, wondering why she had put me there. I couldn't see her face as her hands emitting a green glow blocked my view. The green light spread around my body like a blanket. Slowly, the fugitive pain and tiredness lessened until they completely disappeared. Looking down at my body, I saw that the burnt marks left by the lighting bolts had disappeared, leaving only a fresh skin patch. I was healed, I realized. I looked at Alea, who was panting and sweating.
"Daughter of the healing god. Anything you can't do," I said.
A small smile took over her tired expression. I could see that healing me had drained a lot of her demiaura. I was going to help her up when the black fire began to increase beside us. The flames shot upwards into the sky like someone had added new fuel. The black fire waved in the sky like a snake slithering on the ground. The black fire then spun around like a tornado, and something was spit out from it. It had looked like spit, but when it landed, it was anything but spit.
It was a snake, except it was made up of black fire. The serpent raised its head made out of black fire, and I noticed the snake's pale gold eyes. It seemed to search for something until its eyes landed on me. It slithered my way with great speed. It lunged forward, just as it was close enough, at me. I pushed Alea to the side, hoping it didn't decide to attack her. When the snake's body curled around me, I expected it to be hot or to burn me, but instead, it felt both hot and cold. These two contradicting temperatures didn't happen one after the other; instead, I could feel them simultaneously.
I should have tried to remove the snake, but I could feel that this snake meant no harm. It curled around my shoulder until its head was resting against my heart. It stayed like that long enough for Alea to call out for help. Enzo and the rest of this cohort arrived. They stared at the snake with surprise. Before anyone could do anything, the snake had exploded into black fire. The black flames engulfed my entire body.
My demiaura reacted to the black fire like a chain reaction. Demiaura began to leak out of me like a broken pipe. Except my demiaura was changing. It was almost like my demiaura was breaking out of its shell. Cracks appeared in my demiaura, revealing a new lighter lavender color. The dark lavender my demiaura once had cracked into pieces, leaving only the new brighter and more beautiful lavender color.
Unlike before, my demiaura felt more refined, pure,…divine. Little sparkles of lavender tinted my vision; around me, I could feel the shadows of every living and nonliving thing calling me. Every corner of darkness was stretching as if they wanted to greet me. Down below, I felt something or someone cheering me on. The black fire retrieved upwards, and it took the form of a helmet on top of my head.
Around me, people began to kneel at me like they had done with Enzo. The ones still standing were Amira, Enzo, and Chiron. The centaur had arrived at the arena as he strode his way forward. He stood beside me and spoke to the kneeling demigods.
"It has been decided. God of the Underworld, Souls, Riches, and Darkness. We welcome Ansel Nephus, son of Hades, heir to death, souls, riches, and darkness."