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Chapter 45: Let the Magic Fly!


Minutes later, the chosen three stared each other down. The wind suddenly kicked up a bit. I looked up at the sky to see black storm clouds rolling towards us. “Finish this up quick Ashley!” I called. She looked back at me and nodded with a smile.

“Just keep calm Nathan! Don’t rush it!” Curstan advised. Were there any words of encouragement from Tyler to Melissa? Not a word. Their fate seemed to be sealed as the losers. They simply looked at each other and nodded.

Sara stepped into the middle of the triangle and began to announce the rules as always. “This is a 3-way, every-man-for-himself match! Winner is determined by two knock-outs, two give-ins, or authority’s call! There is no restriction to weapons! If must do so, choose them now!”

At that time, Melissa stepped away from her two opponents and over to her partner. Finally, they spoke to each other as Tyler handed over his short swords. “I hope you know you’re doing,” he whispered as he fastened the belt the swords hung on around her waist.

“As do I, Tyler,” Melissa sighed. She gave him one last look which he did not return, so she rejoined her opponents. Nathan unhooked his chain and took a deep breath, the chain beginning to glow. Ashley prepared by putting on her ace in the hole. Torch’s bracelets! Torch had four. The other two were being worn by Star. Upon sliding them on her wrists, Ashley felt the power surging through her! No wonder Torch was so full of himself! On top of that, you had to remember that just two of the bracelets were only a small portion of his power.

Sara looked to Ashley, to Nathan, to Melissa. “Are you ready?” she asked. With three simultaneous nods, Sara backed away and stood with the rest of us. She looked at us and nodded, raising her hand. The wind kicked up again. A moment of utter silence between all of us came about. As long as her hand was up, time seemed to be at a standstill. “Set!” The Mages shined brighter. Melissa unsheathed the double-edged swords and tried to look like she knew what she was doing with them, but she wasn’t fooling anyone.

“Fight!!” was the signal to begin and the dropping of Sara’s hand reinforced that. Melissa immediately brought up the swords and froze. Waiting seemed to be her thing, yet it never seemed to work in her favor here. At that time, the two Mages looked at each other, and then both looked at Melissa, taking a step towards her.

The girl was pretty much screwed. This was not her battle. No place for her to be. As an Earthling would say, ‘like a knife in a gunfight’. She dropped the swords and raised her hands in submission, as if the cops were about to take her down. “I give-up!” she blurted before anything else could happen.

“Step out of the area, young Lamian!” Sara instructed. The girl picked up the swords and jogged back over to Tyler. The morose look on both their faces was almost heartbreaking. They knew that they’d lost the winning streak they’d worked so hard for.

“I’m sorry Tyler…” she apologized giving him his things back.

“Don’t be. There was nothing either one of us could’ve done in that situation. Giving in was the best choice, I think,” Tyler responded. Suddenly, he did something totally unprecedented by our standards. He wrapped his arms around Melissa in a warm embrace. We all stared at the sight with mixed feelings among us. One thing was certain though. This entire experienced had changed Tyler. Made him stronger, and softened his heart a bit.

Back on the battlefield, Nathan and Ashley had resumed the fight. Nathan was finding it difficult to counter Ashley’s fire attacks. The bracelets coupled with her rings more than doubled her fire power. No pun intended.

Nathan rolled out of the way of a lightning attack and retorted with a low aimed ice spell. Ashley retaliated by boosting herself into the air using her fire and engulfed her hands in the fire. Ashley began to spin, using the ice Nathan used to make a disk which she landed on and spun like a top.

“The ******** is trying to do?!” Nathan thought. He scrambled to his feet and desperately searched for a way to counter his opponent, but was failing to at the moment.

Ashley was deadly top spinning toward him and advancing quickly! He dove to safety a few times, Ashley swinging around and coming at him again. Nathan had finally come up with at least a block for the time being. He took his chain and spun in front of him, all of his fire rings lighting up and creating a fiery shield! A split second after it came up, there was impact. It stopped Ashley dead in her tracks, so she tried to overpower him. Most of the flames created by Ashley were absorbed by Nathan and he gained enough power to push her back. There was no struggle. They were simply waiting on the other to make a move. Ashley came at Nathan on the disk of ice again, but he spun low to the ground, sending a wave of fire speeding across the ground and melting the ice.

Ashley fell on her back pretty hard. She was struggling to get up. Nathan stooped and waited on his opponent to stand.