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I heard a few Advenians from the crowd on the screen shout, “Hail, King Lunder,” as he confidently closed the gap across the arena to stand before Sie. Sie bowed low in front of the King, receiving an upward tilt of the King’s head in return.
Both males stared at each other as Effin went into a long speech regarding the tournament’s significance. Once he finished, he animated, “Let it be known. There are no rules in this final round, except that the challenger, being Sie, may not kill the current King. The winner will be announced when one male can no longer fight. That can happen in many ways; if one is knocked to the ground and cannot get back up, if one becomes unconscious, surrenders, or the challenger dies. Abilities are encouraged. That is all. Best of luck, and let the fight begin!”
As his last words rang across the arena, an air user from Lux, who was stationed to work in Tennebris, generated a force shield, engulfing around the arena’s doom. It separated King Lunder and Sie from the onlookers observing them, creating a faint silvery glow where it shimmered.
“It’s to protect the crowd from any abilities they might use during the match,” Miles remarked, noting one of the girl’s confusion.
King Lunder’s markings immediately took shape on his skin as large, golden circles materialized over his arms and hands. Three King Lunders stood before Sie. It happened in the blink of an eye. I couldn’t make out which one was the real King and which were his projection clones.
Without a second of hesitation, all three Lunders lunged forward to attack. Before they reached Sie, his body flared up in golden swirls, spiraling up his extremities. His markings reached and circled around his entire neck. One moment Sie was standing before the clones, about to get pummeled. The next, he was gone. He teleported to appear behind the King. He threw a punch to the back of one of the Lunders’ heads, causing it to vanish back into the real King.
The announcer chimed in, “It looks like a hit to one of Lunder’s clones makes them disappear! Sie used his teleportation to his advantage. The real question is, who has more stamina? Who will drain their abilities’ reserve first? Rank fives are known to have the highest ability reserve on record. And according to Sie’s ranking Trials from when he graduated, his is off the charts. However, teleportation is taxing to one’s reserve and can deplete it quickly.”
As the announcer continued speaking about strategies and advantages, King Lunder created five more clones before Sie. Amid the fight, the King and his clones started producing daggers out of thin air.
“Oh, would you look at that,” Effin exclaimed. “As you know, weapons aren’t allowed into the arena, but abilities are, and King Lunder’s ability can produce any weapon that he has previously held. This will surely make it more challenging for Sie to land a hit.”
Sie kept his distance, dodging the daggers, axes, and knives thrown his way. He was the only one who could die during this battle, and with Lunder using weapons, it just got more complicated for him. The current King didn’t falter in creating clones to go with each deadly weapon. More and more of them kept appearing out of thin air, all attacking Sie immediately.
“Truly amazing,” Effin cheered as all seven of the clones in the arena held a dagger in their hand, “that the King’s energy weaponry ability is transferred to his clones as well.”
Sie tumbled into a forward roll to avoid being penetrated by the current daggers all seven of the Lunders were throwing at him. He came to a halt before a fallen blade. He bent to pick the knife up, but it disappeared before he could reach it.
“Well, well,” Effin dictated, seeming to find the need to narrate every minute detail of the fight. “It looks like Sie won’t be able to use one of Lunder’s blades against him. This is exactly what makes our current King so powerful, and the reason he has won the last three King’s Tournaments. Just as freely as he can produce a weapon, he can make them disappear.”
The fight continued on. King Lunder seemed to have the advantage of using both of his abilities, while Sie could only use his teleportation to get out of the way and physical strength to counterattack. Lunder stayed out of Sie’s range as he fought against all the weapons and clones he continued to pour upon him.
The clock by Effin flashed that twenty minutes had passed. King Lunder’s reserve seemed to be diminishing as his clone creation started to slow. He went from making dozens of clones at a time to only one or two. His markings faded from his skin, then completely disappeared.
Then began the brutal combat style of fighting. In physical strength, Sie seemed to have the advantage. The two only fought for minutes before Sie had King Lunder lying on the ground. Was this what Sie was waiting for? Was he just toying with Lunder, letting him tire by using up all his reserve so he could no longer use his ability? Sie really only used his teleportation to dodge attacks. He hadn’t made a move on the King until now.
Sie was towering over him, ready to land another hit, when the King’s hand frantically flew up in the air, as if surrendering. Sie immediately teleported off of him, his chest rising and falling rapidly as he watched King Lunder continue to lie on the ground, defeated.
Moments passed as the buzzer ticked by. Sie waited as Lunder was sprawled on the ground with his arms raised for the official amount of time to surrender. The announcer’s voice boasted through the arena, “And our winner is Sie Axel Noren!”
Sie’s golden markings disappeared as he turned his back to Lunder and started to walk out of the arena. Lunder took this opportunity to attack. His markings reappeared as he used energyweaponry to produce a short sword. A clone was instantly behind Sie.
Sie attempted to dodge once he realized what was happening. His own markings flared to life, maybe to teleport away, but it was too late. The clone took the sharp-bladed sword and threw it forward, executing its mark with precision, directly into the right side of Sie’s back.
A grunt escaped Sie’s lips as the sword glided further in, the tip piercing out the other side. Lunder finally stood. The camera panned over the audience, taking the attention away from the King and Sie for a second. Everyone in the stands shared the same shocked expression. Most of them clasped their hands over their mouths, eyes widened at what just happened. The fight should have been over. Effin was just announcing Sie as the winner.
A few audible gasps and murmurs were heard before the camera circled and flicked back to the two males in the arena. One with a pool of blood now forming under his feet, the other with a smirk plastered on his face.
The clone disappeared, but Lunder kept the sword in Sie’s back as he sneered at him, “Never turn your back to the enemy, and never assume a fight is over.”
Lunder sauntered toward Sie, closing the distance between them like a predator stalking a wounded prey, ready to pounce. He now held another short sword in his hand, twin to the one still in Sie’s back. The King twirled the blade readying to wield it again, to finish Sie off. A groan escaped Sie’s lips as he spat blood on the ground. Vallie clasped her twin’s hands so tight that her knuckles turned white as she murmured, “No, no, no,” over and over.
Sie, coming to his senses, whipped around to face Lunder. The sword was still lodged through his flank, staining his shirt red. His skin began to shape into intricate, golden spirals again. Only this time, there were more.
The spirals started at his fingertips, looping around the palms of his hands and up his arms. They formed broad double bands around his biceps that circled up to his neck. A thick golden coil bobbed in rhythm with his Adam’s apple. The golden markings stopped just short of his face.
Through the rip in his shirt, I could glimpse the delicate markings expanding over his bloody abdomen. They were everywhere, covering him entirely until the mix of skin and gold meshed together. I couldn’t tell where one started and the other stopped. He glowed as he began using his mind ability for the first time. His hand, now raised in the air, stopped Lunder in his tracks. The King stood frozen in place, his eyes fixed on Sie.
“Is this Sie’s total mind control?” Vallie barely breathed, still clutching hands with Miles.
“I don’t know,” Miles replied as he tried to shrug Vallie off of him. “I think this is just compulsion. But it doesn’t make sense.”
“I… I thought he couldn’t use compulsion,” Vallie said, her eyes glued to the screen. “On someone that was ranked from Tennebris, I mean. I thought he could only compel someone like Scottie.”
