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They flashed and landed in the coliseum, surrounding the beast and Ajali with swords drawn.
***
Awareness surged to life inside of Ajali. He flashed to his feet and looked at the carnage that lay before him. Dead littered the ground. Blood soaked the earth, and its acrid stench burned his nostrils. He pressed a palm to his torso. Blood only trickled from his stomach. What should have been death blows had somehow been healed. Had his blades managed to feed him the healing elixir?
Flames in the shape of tigers walked in the air, cackling and roaring. Quinn fought. That was his power. Ajali coated the chains coiled around his elbows in flames as he looked for what they fought. He remembered killing one of the beasts but another roamed the coliseum. Many of the civilians were absent, but those with chakra strength and taijiu skill remained, ready to lend their prowess to the battle if needed. Many contestants perched along the walls, waiting for an opportunity.
Ajali nodded grimly, satisfied at the solidarity. He flashed with speed through the wildfire of flames to enter the middle of the coliseum. His blades fought. Molten lava spewed from Cadmus to land in the air as a blow that Ajali could not see took him down. Blood flew from the perfect slice that opened his carotid.
Ajali flashed and caught him before he hit the ground, trusting his blades to keep them covered from the enemy.
“Fuck!” It was a death blow. Ajali pressed his hands to the wound as blood gurgled from his friend’s throat. Rage licked, stirring heat in his blood as his friend’s life leaked away in his hands. Cadmus gripped his hands tight trying to communicate. Ajali leaned in close to hear.
“What about Tehdra?” he demanded. Was she hurt? He’d not seen her when he scanned the balcony. Fear settled in his gut.
He turned as Uriah landed beside him.
“I have the elixir. Xian and I have been administering it to each blade that falls. They cannot contain it, Ajali.” Coldness settled inside of him at the fear in his brother’s voice. Before he could respond, a roar exploded in the air, trembling the earth under his feet. He felt the intent, the malevolence in the chakra that surged his way. The evil that pulsed from the chakra was dark and overpowering, more vicious and crueler than what had bled from the wolyve that he’d fought. Yet he sensed it was directed at Uriah and his fallen comrade.
“Form the barrier!” he snapped
“Ajali…”
“Do it, Uriah, what is coming is far more dangerous than the wolyves. I want my people and kingdom protected from my flames. Go!” Ajali roared and swung chains of fiery sword in the direction of the Darkan. The shriek that came from it as his sword found flesh grated and called to the rage he had inside. Fire washed from Ajali, and it seemed as if he burst into flames as his power pulsed.
Chains of flames swung around the dark blur that came at him. Darkness unlike anything Ajali had ever known crashed into his senses, pulling him under. It sunk in his mind and owned him, trapping him in a pitiless void.
***
Acheron’s breath labored. They fought with determined ruthlessness. Several walls of the coli
seum were shattered and lay in crumbled ruins. Their blood spattered the ground as they fought Tehdra’s beast. He flinched as the memory of her claws piercing his heart swept through him. Xian had administered the elixir, revitalizing him in seconds, refueling his strength.
Never had he battled anything so dangerous. It had been his witchcraft ability that had saved him, not his flames that the darkness seemed to relish. He incanted for the darkness to retreat, and she wavered, fleeing from him when he tried to push the demon at bay and bring Tehdra to the forefront of the thing’s consciousness. Acheron had felt Tehdra briefly, and he tried to hold onto her essence.
He hesitated at Uriah’s signal to form the protective barrier to contain the flames of Ajali’s Phoenyx. It was Tehdra Ajali fought, and with his power unleashed he could turn her to ash in mere minutes.
“No!” The roar that came from Julius had Acheron rushing to intercept her and Ajali coming together.
“Form the barrier!” Acheron yelled.
Energy pulsed from them as they created the binding signal with their hands and erected created the barrier over the coliseum. Acheron incanted, strengthening it, preventing all energy leakage. He flared out his senses and wrapped everyone inside in another protective coating. They were trapped inside with Ajali and Tehdra. She was a power that Acheron had never contended with before, and for Ajali to tame her, he would need to unleash his abilities. Something Acheron doubted any of them would survive, even with the protective barriers.
Darkness eclipsed all the lights briefly and when it cleared neither Ajali nor Tehdra were in the coliseum. Acheron flared out his senses, and he could sense the malevolence from her, as well as the rage of Ajali’s Phoenyx.
What in the hell!
“They have disappeared!” Gavyn snapped.
“They are here. In the shadows cast by our flames. I feel them but cannot see them,” Acheron replied.
“Shadows!”
“Her kingdom is of darkness and shadows. Their elements to wield as we manipulate fire with our chakra,” Quinn said as they watched the shadows intently.
“How do we pierce the shadows of darkness?” Triton mused. “Are you sure they are here, Acheron? I see no unusual darkness.
“They are here.”
