FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

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CHAPTER 18

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Xavier

The sudden appearance of a cloaked figure leaping from the stands surprised me just as it did my comrades. I knew immediately that this was meant to be our opponent. Stern had already drawn one of his axes, just as my paws were resting on the hilts of my still sheathed knives. Their identity was completely hidden beneath the black, hooded travel cloak that they were wearing.

I felt my eyes widen as the mysterious figure discarded their cloak in dramatic fashion, using their wings to propel the cloak from their person.. I felt my eyes widen further as I recognised the individual that had been hidden beneath the cloak at the same moment Lord Anaris announced his name.

"Malakye?!" I muttered. Barely able to believe the sight that stood before me like a ghost.

"It's really him!" I heard Kassius say.

"It can't be!" Malnark declared! "He died!"

"We never found his body." I said, trying to make sense of this situation for myself as much as it was for my comrades.

The silence that had fallen over the spectators disappeared as claps and cheers sounded out through the arena. .

"Then where has he been for all this time!?" Malnark snorted. His question nearly lost over the noise of the cheering.

"That doesn't matter now." Stern said bluntly.

"Remember where we are." Kassius declared. "This is an official Mal'dov. Questions can wait till later."

"Fine. But I don't care if he is really Lord Anaris's son, or a demon! I'm going to give him a beating that he won't forget any time soon!" Malnark snarled. "Challenging four Master benders?! What a joke!"

"A demon?" I muttered as a realisation of possibility washed over me. Could it have been him? "Stern..." Stern and I looked at one another thinking the same possibility. We both turned our attention back to Malakye who was still standing a fair distance away, but radiated nothing but confidence.

"It's not a joke." Malakye stated calmly, turning his gaze to Malnark. "I requested this fight, and I'm serious about it. I don't care about becoming a Master however! I just wanted to see how strong I had become!"

"Why?!" I asked. The question referring to more than just his last statement. There were so many questions running through my mind right now. As I'm sure everyone else was.

"You don't need to know the reason." He said coldly. "But I will say one thing."

"What is it?" I asked.

"If you're not willing to try to kill me.... you won't stand a chance in this fight!"

I felt my entire body go numb at the statement. And there was no denying that he meant it. That cold gaze, his serious tone. There was no denying or getting round the fact that the drake that stood before us was definitely Malakye Anaris... but he was not the same Malakye that we all remembered.

There was no sign of the warmth or kindness in his eyes anymore. They were not the eyes of the same drake who I had spent all those months training. Those were the eyes of a killer.

"Just who do you think you are!?" Malnark snarled, his nen flaring up already as he uncharacteristically lost his temper.

"Calm yourself!" Kassius snapped. "Don't take him lightly! If he truly was able to defeat Kamir by himself then I think it is we who are the challengers in this fight."

A grunt from Malnark was all the reply we got. But it was all we needed to know that Malnark had heeded Kassius's words. I drew on my own nen and fingered the hilts of my daggers that were strapped to each hip. He wanted us to try and kill him, which could mean that he himself would not hold back. I would show him just how serious I could be!

As I felt Kassius's nen flare I knew that the fight would begin in a matter of moments. But strangely Malakye didn't draw on his nen. He just stood there. Staring. Measuring each of us with his scrutinising gaze.

"Kassius! You distract him with your fire bending. He will be able to counter your flames but he won't be able to counter our elements! Stern and I will flank him, and attempt to capture him. Xavier you back us up." Malnark barked orders, taking charge of the situation as was right as he was not only the most seasoned fighter here but also the highest ranked out of all of us.

Standard tactics when bending in a team. Use the elements that your opponent couldn't counter to strike, while the others created an opening for them to strike. That's when it struck me... the others didn't know!

"There's something you all need to know!"

"Huh?"

"Malakye is a wind bender!"

"What are you talking about!" Malnark snapped.

I sighed.

"Malakye's primary affinity is for wind. Not fire! I trained him in secret. He didn't want anyone to know."

"And you tell us this now!?" Malnark snapped at me.

"It only just occurred to me!" I growled.

"Arguing about it changes nothing." Kassius interjected, acting as the voice of reason.

"You're right... I'm sorry." Malnark apologised.

"Don't worry about it." I assured him. We were all on edge. The surprise of Malakye's return was enough to throw anyone off.

"Are you quite done?" Malakye asked coldly.

"Draw on your nen and we'll show you!" Stern countered.

"I'll give you some time to prepare." Malakye said calmly. "The moment I draw on my nen the fight will begin."

"You shouldn't take us so lightly!" Malnark warned him.

Malakye just grinned. He wasn't nervous at all. In fact I would say he was revelling in the anticipation of the coming fight. That thought sent an unnerving chill down my spine. He had been strong back before his disappearance, and had shown considerable growth over the time I had spent training him, then it stood to reason that his ability to fight had grown over the time I had thought him dead. On top of that he entered this fight wearing little more than a loin cloth. No armour, no weapons beyond a knife I could see strapped to his right thigh. He may be underestimating us, but I would not underestimate him.

"If he's going to give us time then I'm going to make use of it!" Kassius declared, his nen immediately reached out towards the brazier that stood a few yards away.

He drew out a long stream of fire, the flames encircled him as it floated in the air and I watched as he fed his nen into it. The fire grew in size considerably, and with a wave of his paw a dozen fire spirits floated out towards Malakye.

So he was going to use that?

This was Kassius's own technique. The one he was famous for. He could create a barrier of fire spirits, more than any other fire bender alive today, to be used as both a shield and a weapon at a moments notice. What gave this technique of his the ferocity it was known for, was his range of control. Only Malnark had a longer range of control, and both of them had a much larger range that either Grand-master Anaris or Grand-master Valelor.

I had only seen this technique in our practice sessions, the training Lord Valelor had ordered all Masters to participate in working on team-work. Originally this was in preparation of fighting Zaraki Kamir again. The team training had fallen by the wayside until the last wolven attack when all master benders began to practice with one another again.

Kassius and I had found each other to work well as a team even though our bending was not compatible. Malnark and Stern on the other paw were a whole different story. They were considered the strongest pairing of all the Master ranked benders, their affinities meshing perfectly, and they seemingly compensated for each others strengths and weaknesses.

As Kassius set up his fire spirits, which numbered over two dozen now. Malnark was busy pouring his nen into the stream of water that flowed through an channel carved a foot deep into the arena floor. There were several steel grates position strategically through the arena, much like the braziers were, that allowed water benders to extract water during battle. One such grate was positioned a few yards behind Malakye.

Malnark was an accomplished bender, even by Master benders standards. The only thing holding him back from a grand-master title was the strength of his own nen. It was superior to mine in strength, and while his technique and skill were practically flawless it took someone of considerable strength of nen to achieve the rank of grand-master.

One of the techniques that Malnark was known for was the distance he could project his nen through water. Using the liquid to extend his nens reach and could reach distances far greater than that of any other Master or grand-master.

His nen had was already flowing through every stream of water in the arena within fifty yards of us. And he could bend any of the water laced with his nen instantly, regardless of the distance. The water was literally an extension of himself. I knew that Malakye would be able to sense his nen, he had always been particularly sharp in sensing the nen of others. His ability was far greater than my own and my own skill was not far off that of my fellow masters. But I suspect that even Malakye will struggle to predict Malnark's attacks due to the distance that his nen covered.

Stern was the most powerful Master bender in terms of nen. Kassius was not that much weaker but you could feel the difference in power. Stern lacked the control and finesse of either Kassius or Malnark, but he made up for it with large powerful attacks, and like me preferred close up combat. And it was obvious he wasn't going to shy away from it here as he was gripping the axe he had drawn at Malakye's sudden appearance eagerly. His remaining axe remained at his hip; he was undoubtedly keeping one paw free for bending.

I on the other paw felt outmatched by not only my partners, but my opponent as well. I knew full well that Malakye's nen was superior to mine. Greater than all of ours. He was one gifted with the nen capable of becoming a grand-master.

The best I could hope for was to negate his wind bending long enough to allow the others a chance to strike. Kassius may be able to overwhelm him with his fire, since fire was not Malakye's primary element, but I would not be able to over power Malakye with wind bending.

A few moments later I felt Malakye draw on his nen.

Malnark didn't waste a second. The exact moment I felt Malakye's nen was the exact moment that he struck. He summoned up some water from the stream next to him, the water froze into icy spears and a moment later were flying at Malakye.

Malakye slipped past the attack, he stepped to the side and twisted his body slightly so the spears of ice simply flew past him. Kassius was quick to follow Malnark however. By the time Malakye had dodged Malnark's attack he had half a dozen fireballs hurtling towards him.

I held my ground and watched as Malakye reached out his right paw, his nen gathered in his palm and formed a nen shield which the fireballs struck and simply evaporated in small bursts of embers and smoke as they struck it.

Stern was currently summoning up a large amount of water from the source near him, it was big! I was distracted by Stern's attack for a moment and so the next attack came caught me by surprise. The stream of water that flowed behind Malakye sprang to life. Five jets of water shot upwards from the grate and arced towards Malakye's back. Before they could reach Malakye spun round and with a wave of his paw he released his nen in a wide arc. The nen wave cut across the jets source a few feet above the ground and cut them, the jets of water fell apart and rained down upon the ground as Malnark's control over them was lost.

While Malnark was able to control water at great distances, he could only maintain control if he remained in contact with it. Malakye had severed that connection. With the element of surprise now gone it would be pointless for Malnark to attempt that move again.

Before Malakye turned back round to face us Stern unleashed his own attack, sending two huge quantities of water towards Malakye in the form of giant water spirits. The two large rippling spheres of water moved towards their target with surprising speed. Malakye sensed them coming and side stepped the first one and then rolled out of the path of the second.

Watching Malakye I could see how much he had grown since I had last seen him. His nen no longer formed a bubble round him like it used to. Now it simply flowed through his body and along his scales. He had gained full control over his nen, and not only that it felt... fiercer. It felt like the uneasy calm before a mighty storm.

As the water attacks passed Malakye they were caught by Malnark, who used the jets of water to connect with them. At that point the water was now under his control and before Malakye could realise what was going on the water began to form a ten foot tall, curved ice wall. Which began to extend around on either side of Malakye.

"Kassius! Now!" Malnark yelled and immediately Kassius went on the attack, gathering several fire spirits together to form a large fireball and quickly firing it straight at Malakye. They were trying to trap him but Malnark would need several moments to finish the trap. I drew my blades and sprinted after the fireball, using it to hide my approach.

I didn't think I that I would be able to beat Malakye in paw-to-paw combat, even using my knives he was an opponent I knew I couldn't underestimate! But I should be able to give Malnark the time he needed!

The air was hot and stung my eyes as I chased after the fireball. I could feel the intense heat of the fire against my scales as I ran in its wake. The air around me almost burning my scales. But it was nothing I couldn't handle. I held my blades ready and charged after it. Malakye could not avoid this attack with the walls of ice that surrounded him.

The surge of nen from Malakye told me I was right. He was now forced to stop the fireball using his nen. I watched as the fireball ahead of me suddenly halted in mid-air for a second, it's momentum stopped as it struck against Malakye's nen, and then erupted in a huge cloud of embers. I focused my nen into my legs and leapt forwards, my knives drawn and ready to strike.

Blinded partly by the embers as I leapt I could just make out Malakye and aimed for him. He weaved to the right and managed to avoid my attack, the blade of my knife missing him by mere inches. I quickly caught myself and continued my attack, determined to prove my resolve to fight him to both him and myself.

Our exchange lasted only a few seconds, Malakye backed up to avoid my knives as I swung them at him relentlessly, but he didn't have much space as I pushed him back towards the ice wall. I thrust the blade in my left paw towards his chest and he weaved to his right to avoid it. I already knew that I had made a mistake the split second before I sensed him begin to gather his nen in his right paw as it swung upwards towards me. I turned to face it and crossed my arms defensively in front of me, gathering as much nen as I could muster to buffer his attack.

He struck my forearms and I felt myself blown off my foot-paws from the force. I expected to feel myself strike an icy wall but was surprised as I fell through a wall of water. I fell backwards onto the ground, the momentum of my fall causing my to roll a couple of times before I could catch myself. My arms throbbed in pain. If I hadn't focused so muck nen to block his last attack he probably would have shattered my bones with the force.

Once I'd managed to gather my wits I looked back towards Malakye, the wall of ice now completely surrounded him as Stern helped to feed it with a supply of water. The wall I had passed through quickly changed from translucent water to bluish ice. They had managed to trap him!

I watched in silence as the walls extended to create a dome which sealed Malakye in completely. I breathed a sigh of relief and stared at his silhouette through the ice. I stood up as I saw him lift a small flame from the ground, a flame that had survived from the destruction of Kassius's fireball attack.

"Relax Xavier." Stern smiled smugly before tapping the wall of ice that now trapped Malakye. "These walls are a foot thick. By the time he uses that flame to melt through the ice he'll have fallen unconscious from using all the oxygen left in there to feed the flames!"

I glanced at both Kassius and Malnark who seemed to agree with Stern's assessment of the situation. It made sense. But why did I feel uneasy about it. If this fight was truly over then shouldn't someone call for the fight to end? I looked up to the balcony where Lord Anaris and Lord Valelor sat. Both of them looking on, but making no move to call for the end of the fight. Which meant that they didn't think it was over.

My heart thumped a little harder in my chest as my eyes raced over the structure of ice that supposedly imprisoned Malakye. I saw the light from the flame within grow brighter, signalling that Malakye would be making his move any second now!

"The walls are over a foot thick..." I said aloud as I tried to put myself in Malakye's position. "But what about the roof?"

The others heard my words and I saw a brief moment of worry wash over their expression when almost in time to prove my theory right, the roof of the ice dome blew apart with such force I staggered backwards.

Before I could recover Malakye leapt over the top of the wall and landed in a crouch on the ground. Before anyone could react Malakye turned to Stern and thrust his paw at him and struck the drake with a powerful wave of wind which knocked him off his foot-paws and onto his back on the ground next to me.

I drew on my nen and projected a shield just in time to block his next wind burst which was aimed at me. Most of the force was blocked by my shield, which meant I felt little more than a light breeze wash over me. I went on the attack again, hoping to buy time for the others prepare another attack.

He was faster than I remember. I sent a number of wind attacks his way and he didn't even try to block them, he evaded them effortlessly. He was anticipating my every move perfectly and dodging it while simultaneously dodging or blocking the ranged attacks from Kassius. When I realised that he was anticipating my every more like he was I backed away. He could have shut me down at any point he'd wanted to, but he hadn't.

Once I'd made some distance between us I realised why he hadn't taken me down. With me now out of range Malnark and Kassius bombarded him with ranged attacks. He had been using me as a shield. My teammates hadn't been able to attack all out with the fear of hitting me.

But even without me they were struggling to hit him. Malakye ducked, weaved and rolled out of the path of every fire ball, water spirit and ice spear thrown his way. Frustrated at our lack of success Stern roared in frustration and ran towards the giant ice prison which had failed to hold Malakye at bay and slammed his paws against it and forced a large amount of nen into the ice.

The ice melted in seconds and Stern focused the torrent of water in Malakye's direction like a giant wave. Malakye saw it coming but there was nothing he could do, the attack just covered too wide an area to be dodged. It washed over him and was caught in the raging torrent as it washed him several yards over the dirt floor. He was now trapped in between the four of us; we had him surrounded.

We all readied ourselves as he quickly got up, water dripping from him, his back and legs caked it wet dirt. He looked around and saw his predicament. I expected to see him tense, to see a glimmer of concern flash over his expression which had so far remain stoic and expressionless during the whole fight so far.

But no. He smiled. That unnerved me. Not only that he began to laugh, more of an amused giggle than maniacal laughter but it was unnerving all the same.

"What's so funny punk?" Stern growled, his nen flaring with his annoyance.

Malakye stopped laughing but didn't respond. His smile remained however and I felt his nen flicker as it shifted within his body. A second later it rushed out of his body and formed the familiar bubble around him. His nen felt much stronger now. He had been holding back, but now he was taking this fight seriously.

"Laugh at this!" Stern growled and all at once the four of us threw our attacks at him.

Kassius fired at least a dozen fireballs at him, Malnark half a dozen ice spears and Stern fired a large volume of water at him as he had before. I also fired a burst of wind towards him. There was no way for him to avoid all of these attacks, they came at him from every direction. Only what surprised me is that he didn't even move a muscle.

My attack dissipated the second it touched his bubble, nullified by his much stronger nen, Kassius's fireballs, Malnark's ice spears and Sterns water attack never reached him. All of them shifted direction the moment they came in touch with Malakye's bubble, moving off course to the left to they missed him entirely. Malnark's spears came the closest to hitting him, but even though they came within inches of him Malakye didn't move. He just stood there smiling at us.

I heard the watching crowd gasp in as much surprise as we had. Had Malakye just used three different elements in order to deflect our attacks like that? We were all standing open mawed. I snapped out of my stupor and focused all my attention of Malakye who was still projecting his bubble.

I could sense movement, but it was so subtle it took me a few moments to distinguish it. It was so hard to distinguish because of the amount of movement of nen within his bubble. I was amazed at what he had done. Within the bubble his nen was rotating around and around. He hadn't used three elements at all! He just used one! He was making a strong current of the air within the bubble, it was so obvious now looking at how his head fur and loin cloth shifted in reaction to the air current, strong enough that it caused all of our attacks to veer off target.

"It's his bubble!" I say. I don't have time to explain further but my message seems to have been enough to snap the others out of their surprise.

Before any of us could try and attack him again Malakye's bubble suddenly shifted, it became much smaller as he drew it back, only to suddenly release it's power and fire it in my direction. A huge wave of wind washed over Stern and myself. I managed to block the worst of it but it was so powerful it forced me to my knees or I'd have been blown onto my back like Stern, who once again had been knocked down.

With two of us reeling from his attack it created an opening that allowed Malakye to turn his attention onto one of the others. He charged at Malnark. Malnark was fast to respond and three six foot long ropes of water sprung up from the water source at Malnark's foot-paws and whipped through the air towards Malakye. He stopped his approach and rolled away to avoid being struck by the attack. The ropes of water hung completely suspended in the air, rippling as the pair faced off.

The water whip is a classic water technique, with which masters of the technique can literally rend scales from flesh with a single stroke. Advanced users can use three just as Malnark was doing now. However Malnark is famous for his nen control and with that taking techniques to a whole new level. A moment later two more water whips rose from the water and hung in the air.

Five whips which he could wield simultaneously. No other water bender has ever been able to do use it effectively in battle, not even grand-master Valelor who we know had attempted it after Malnark first demonstrated the skill several winters ago.

Malakye charged forward, his charge quickly stopped as Malnark's whips began to move. Malakye still had his bubble around him. I was aware from my time training him that while using it he was aware of the presence of anything within his bubble as if he had perfect 360 degree vision.

That ability must have been the reason he was somehow managing to avoid the almost chaotic attack pattern of all five water whips swinging at him from nearly every direction. I remained where I was, there was no way I could approach without getting caught up in those potentially damaging strikes of those whips.

Malnark's paws were a blur of movement. He had explained to me once before that he controlled the water whips with his fingers, as most water benders did. However all benders needed a minimum of two fingers for each whip, and since we only have three fingers and a thumb was what made this technique of his so impressive. No one could replicate the technique and control all five whips effectively in battle.

Normally if you were patient enough you could read the movements of someone using water whips and predict when an opening would come. However with the addition of the two whips no one had ever been able to find an opening within his attacks, or perhaps no one had ever lasted long to find it.

Suddenly Malakye leapt forward towards the center of the whips, somersaulting through the air, and rolled over the ground towards Malnark and struck him in the stomach. Malnark reeled from the sudden blow, but managed to keep his composure. Malakye rolled away to avoid the two whips which struck the ground where he had stood a moment before.

He had managed to break through Malnark's whips! An impressive feat. Both Stern and I had recovered from Malakye's last attack, and I could tell Stern was itching to get some pay back. I too wanted to join and help Malnark against Malakye's assault, however his water whip technique made it impossible as we would not be able to predict and opening in order to safely join the fight. Just as he had done with me he was using Malnark as a shield against the rest of us. We could use ranged attacks, but with the way the water whips surrounded Malakye we would risk disrupting Malnark's technique, and that in turn could spell disaster for our team mate. But at the very least it seemed like Malnark was holding his own. I had seen several of the whips strike Malakye during their exchange.

Malakye's ability to dodge and weave round those attacks was almost awe inspiring. He weaved left, stepped forward and spun to the right. A second later he ducked, one of the whips slicing through the air where his head had been a moment before, and with one long sliding stride was once again within striking distance of Malnark. Malakye struck him in the gut once again but followed up with a right cross to his muzzle.

Malnark's head snapped to the side and he lost control of his whips. All five of them broke apart and the water that formed them rained down on the ground. Malakye followed up his previous attacks with a spinning kick to Malnark's chest which sent the drake crashing to the ground; I could hear the choked, rasping breath of Malnark as the air was forced from his lungs.

Stern was already on the attack before I realised and I dashed forward to back him up. Malakye spun to the left as Stern's axe arced through the air towards him and then back flipped, his foot-paw catching Sterns arm which held his axe, moments later the axe clattered against the ground, Stern quickly grabbed his one remaining axe and readied himself.. The back flip had made it so that Stern was standing between us and before I could move round Stern to go on the attack a massive burst of nen blew Stern off his foot-paws and on top of me.

We were quick to get back up. The attack hadn't hurt Stern or I more than it had damaged our pride. Stern was radiating anger. That was the third time Malakye had blown him to the ground. Even Malnark was starting to get back up, but it was obvious he still hadn't fully caught his breath.

"Is that all you've got?" Malakye taunted, not with amusement but with disappointment.

His words stung but there was truth to them. We, four master ranked benders, had yet to land a single decisive blow on him. Looking at him there were a couple of pink lash marks on his arms and chest from where Malnark's whips had struck him, peeling scales from his arm but the wounds weren't even bleeding which meant they were superficial at best.

But the truth was we weren't functioning as a team and he kept throwing us off balance and using us against one another. He had used me as a shield from Kassius and Malnark's ranged attacks. None of us could approach while Malnark was using his water whips. Stern was letting his temper get the best of him and wasn't thinking clearly.

The truth was that while we had practised together we were still primarily lun'nath; solo fighters. But at this point I'd say that individually Malakye was stronger than us. If we wanted to have a chance of beating him then we would need to work together as a team!

"I guess it's time to bring this fight to an end!" He announced, standing straight and extending his wings.

All of us flinched at the motion, unsure of what to expect. I felt his nen surge and then a moment later a roaring gale blew through the arena. I could hear a cry of surprise from the crowd, no doubt being buffeted by the strong gale just as we were which had no where to escape within the confines of the arena. After a few moments the gale seemed to subside and Malakye began to rise from the ground. I blinked it surprise and there was a collective gasp from the crowd as he rose higher and higher above the ground. He was flying!