The Tournament (2)

POV Corentine

Ever since I could remember I have never been one for conversation, what is the point really when all my intentions seem to get through to my family so easily. Any time I think that I need to say anything Apollonia or brother already seem to understand what I want, but maybe that is just sibling privilege.

Being the youngest I always feel like I am playing catch up with my two siblings, always watching them grow and gain achievements while I seem to be just following in their footsteps. Well I guess its not that bad, to have two siblings who are always pushing themselves to grow and improve themselves.

I guess another perspective would be that I have family that makes me want to improve myself so that I wont get left behind. I will never forget that day in the cave when brother had to fight the human invaders alone because sister and I were to weak to be of any help. I vowed to never be put in that situation again, after all I told brother that I always wanted to be by his side.

When he left after learning of our fathers fate I felt like he was saying that he didn't need us, I know that wasn't his intention and that he needed to vent his anger alone. But it still hurt to have him leave us, my role model and brother. I need to get stronger so that if that ever happens again instead of leaving alone he feels like he can have me by his side.

I briefly looked up at the observation area to see that my siblings were looking down at me, brother gave me a nod of encouragement. After seeing this I refocused my attention on my opponent, Janara the frost dragon.

Like grandfather she eluded mana that gave off her domain elements giving her a chilly aura, just from watching her performance in the first test this would not be an easy fight.

With this on my mind I heard the booming voice of the still nameless elder, "If you are both ready, then begin!"

Upon hearing the last word leave his mouth I leapt into the air, ever since learning how to fly it seemed that the sky was to me like a fish in water. I have always felt that it was my mark and storm mana that made me feel this way.

As I took off of the ground I suddenly felt a prickly sensation on my underbelly, I quickly adjusted my course narrowly missing a earth spike aimed at my heart.

'it seems that she isn't going to play nice.'

I quickly looked over at the still stationary Janara whose spell that had summoned the spike was now fading away. I narrowed my eyes and started to prepare my counterattack, what could be more perfect for a frost dragon than a massive ball of fire I thought. Over my months of practice with Grandfather I had managed to created countless runes for spell creation.

I summoned the correct runes weaving them into place just like I had practiced before releasing a fireball about three feet in diameter. It rushed towards my opponent forcing her to finally take action and move.

She side stepped the fireball, and could see the mana fluctuations in the air signalling that she was already preparing another spell.

Using my dominion over storm from my mark I summoned dark clouds all around me to obscure her vision, lightning crackled within making it seem like a downpour was about to start. Just as the clouds finished forming three more spikes of earth were launched at me at startling speeds, giving me almost no time to react.

Janara didn't give me any time to prepare a counter attack as I felt the temperature of the arena drop tens of degrees leaving me shivering. A once warm summer day now felt like the peak of winter, through this cold I could see that she was no longer preparing another spell but started to coalesces the rain that I had provided into several ice spikes.

I immediately summoned lighting from the storm clouds to interrupt her, once bolt hitting her square on the arm. With a roar of pain she leapt into my domain, as she approach I continued my assault using the storm clouds to send more lightning bolt at her but it seemed she could somewhat anticipate their targets, when I would guide a bolt to her chest she would fly backwards or fly right when I aimed for her left side.

Seeing her dodging all of my attacks frustrated me to be honest so as I continued to through lightning at her I formed a spell circuit out of her view and launched countless earth needles at her. I knew they would not do much damage but that wasn't the point of this attack. I wanted to take her attention away from my real attack for only just a moment.

Janara was quickly approaching me even though my assault never stopped, then out of nowhere countless needles emerged from the clouds forcing her attention to shift.

'I have you now!'

just when I saw her eyes dart to the needles I launched my largest lightning bolt yet aimed straight for her neck.

At the last possible second when both the earth spell and my lightning were about to connect she summoned a glimmering wall of ice all around her stopping the spell, unfortunately for her it was not quite strong enough to bear the full weight of two different attacks at the same time. As the earth spell shattered against her shield the lightning briefly was held back by it as well but then broke through making a direct hit.

Having hit her neck with such a strong attack even though it had been slightly weakened she immediately started to fall from the sky. Obviously I pursued aiming to end this bout, as I approached about to end the fight with one last spell aimed to knock her unconscious I saw a slight smirk appear on her face.

'I've been had!'

Unable to change my trajectory due to the speed of my decent, I was hit head on with a large spike of ice that I somehow failed to see form. Luckily for me I moved my body ever so slightly as to make the attack go from aimed straight for my heart to impacting my shoulder.

I felt as it ripped through my scales and buried itself into my flesh, making my forelimb unusable. Although I had taken a large amount of damage I was not done yet and quickly summoned my sub element of air launching several wind blades at her wings to prevent her from slowing her decent.

It seemed that my attack earlier had achieved its goal in paralyzing her as she couldn't dodge the wind blades as the tore into her wings.

Shortly thereafter she slammed into the arena floor, I quickly landed then as I tried to approach her I realized that the ice spike was still embedded in my shoulder. Having been left for this long it seemed she had manipulated it to spread frost throughout my body. Quickly it began to be extremely hard to move my body as the frost seeped into every part of my body.

With my left arm out of action all I could muster was a not so elegant collapse to the arena floor. As the dust cleared from her impact I looked at were I had seen her fall only to not see an unconscious dragon like I had hoped but her standing shakily preparing another spell.

'It seems I lost this time.'

Just as she was about to finish me off I heard a commotion from up above on the observation platform. Still being weak I couldn't look up to see what was happening, but I soon felt a dull thud before Janara launched her last spell. About twelve ice spears shot towards me aiming to turn me into a living pincushion. But a few feet before they hit me black tendrils sprang up from the ground and devoured them all turning them into a ash like substance.

Once I saw that I was out of immediate danger I collapsed into the cold embrace of sleep.