59: Talent vs Orb (Patreon)

Welcome to the penultimate chapter of arc 2! Note: Maiya's lines/thoughts have been updated to be less whiney in the prev chapter :-)

The moment had finally arrived. The first and final full power duel that Vir and Maiya would ever have. Their first official duel, at least. The moment Maiya had gained a sliver of proficiency in magic, she’d challenged Vir to a fight. And she continued to challenge him as she got better and better, making duels between them rather commonplace.

But while the duel was exciting, it was what came after that put Vir on edge.

Tomorrow, in the dead of night, Vir and Maiya would finally make their escape. Over the past months, they’d both pleaded with Riyan—even begged him—to give them a hint about what he expected of them. Anything. But the man said nothing every time.

To say that they owed him a debt was an understatement. He had saved their lives and developed them into the warriors they were today. They both wanted to do right by him. They wanted to help. But what if the man asked something unreasonable? What if he asked them to become criminals? To kill someone innocent?

The final straw was the man's silence on the hunters in the Godshollow. Ever since then, neither Vir nor Maiya had slept well at night. Were they being monitored by some unseen force?

After many arguments and emotional turmoil, they’d decided to leave. They'd go into hiding where no one could find them. There, they could take their time to hone their skills. Once they'd grown strong enough, they’d contact Riyan and honor his favor if it was a reasonable one.

Riyan might have guessed their intentions, but Vir felt it unlikely the man knew of their timing. They'd taken extra precaution to pretend like nothing was amiss.

They had contemplated leaving earlier, but Maiya found the duel too tempting to resist. She’d never managed to sneak out Tanya’s B grade orbs for their mock duels, so this duel was of special interest for her.

Preparations had been made. Food, water, food for Bumpy, various odds and ends. All kept at their secret stash within the cave network to the south. The plan was a simple one. Maiya would leave for the 'spot' with Neel first. Vir would then scrape up every last morsel of prana for one final Dance activation.

He'd use the shadows to sneak out to Bumpy. This way, Riyan wouldn't suspect him of having left his room. He'd then pick up Maiya and Neel, and they'd head for Saran where Vir would pawn off his Life orb to raise funds for ocean passage to the Rani Queendom.

Maiya had considered stealing Tanya’s orbs—they would each fetch a small fortune—but decided against it. Riyan would no doubt pursue them. They didn’t want to give Tanya any reason to, as well. Maiya had even written up a note for her, hoping she’d understand their plight and not pursue them. Even then, there were no guarantees, but they’d done everything they could. The rest was up to Badrak’s whims.

Vir faced off against Maiya in a valley of large dunes near the oasis—at the same spot they’d dueled each other repeatedly. Which meant that the prana here was all but exhausted. Barely enough for a single invocation of Dance of the Shadow Demon.

While Vir’s prana efficiency had more than tripled, there was only so much he could do with such a limited amount of prana.

It was a concession he’d made to Maiya. She got to pick the location of the duel, and she could precharge her orbs. She was smart to choose this place.

In return, Vir could use the full might of all of his Talents. Except the ones he didn’t want Riyan knowing about, of course. He had to have something up his sleeve if he ended up having to fight the man. Though even with Maiya’s magic, their chances of beating the Ghost of Godshollow were nearly nonexistent. They had to escape without a confrontation.

He tried not to dwell on the matter as he faced off against Maiya under a partially cloudy sky. Fate seemed to conspire against him today—the shadows weren’t nearly strong enough to use the Dance, a fact Maiya was no doubt gloating about as she stared him down thirty paces away.

Their starting distance was also a compromise—distance favored Maiya, while Vir was far more lethal at close range. She wanted fifty paces. He wanted ten. They met in the middle.

Riyan walked into the center and eyed each of the combatants. “The rules for this duel are simple. You will fight to first blood or to surrender. If you do not fight at your best, I will know. If I am unsatisfied, you will continue dueling until that changes. Precharged orbs are allowed. All Talents are allowed. Questions?”

They each shook their heads, keeping their eyes on each other. Maiya wore a mejai aiming bracer on her right arm, while her left was free, hovering over a medley of orbs holstered on her belt. Like himself, she wore no armor.

Vir finalized his battle plan. Foremost on his mind was which Talents to use—Leap, or Dance. Using one barred him from using the other, owing to the dearth of prana in this area.

Looking up at the sky, he realized that the cloud they were under would pass, and soon. Which meant that Dance could be viable. On the other hand, the winds may shift and the cloud might sit on them.

Dance was a little unique. As he’d done in the training dome, he could make it look like Blink to Riyan and Tanya. Crucially, he could access the Shadow Realm while revealing nothing about the ability. That gave him an enormous edge.

He decided he’d hold off on Talents for now. If the clouds didn’t break, he could always use Leap. While potent, it’d take several invocations to close the distance. It put him at greater risk against her magic. Dance, however, would allow him to pop up right inside her shadow. There was little she could do against that.

And she knew that. Once she’d become proficient with magic, Vir had no reason to withhold the details of Dance from her, so he’d confided everything. He almost wish he hadn’t.

She’d no doubt seek to end things quickly. The tables had turned—stamina was no longer Vir’s weakness. Against a mejai, time was on his side. Range was his enemy now.

“Begin!” Riyan announced, Blinking away.

Vir sprinted forth to close the distance. He readied a chakram, but Maiya beat him to the punch.

She activated her precharged B grade orb, casting Ice Barrier. Prana rushed out of her orb and coalesced in front of her, cracking as it froze into a solid block of magic ice large enough to shield her entire body.

“Tch.” Vir holstered his chakram around his neck. He knew from experience that the wall was all but impervious to his rusty iron disks.

Luckily, Vir knew everything about her magic. It took her an entire minute to charge a single B grade orb, and that too, only if she devoted her full concentration to the task. In the middle of a battle? Impossible.

Which meant he’d be dealing primarily with C grade magic. She could charge those in just a few seconds.

Vir intended to press his charge, but Maiya had other plans. A C grade Ember arced through the air, bound for him.

He couldn’t suppress a laugh and risked a glance at Tanya on the sidelines, who had her head buried in her hands. He could almost hear the woman groaning about why Maiya insisted on using Fire Affinity magic.

How many weeks did she spend charging that thing?

Maiya had no affinity for fire magic. Which meant she must have spent a hundred hours or more, diligently charging the C grade orb. All for this moment. Just so she could show off. No wonder she was looking forward to this.

The miniature fireball—while slow and cumbersome—had been aimed at Vir’s feet, forcing him to break off his charge. He’d been hit with magical fire before. He had no intention of experiencing that torture ever again.

The spell hit the sand and erupted into a blaze, creating a wall of fire that prevented Vir from charging through.

The effect only lasted a couple of seconds, but that was plenty of time for Maiya to unleash her next spell. And this one, Vir did have to worry about.

A Grade B Hail Burst shot out from behind the flames. No doubt an attempt on Maiya’s part to conceal her magic. Too bad for her, Prana Vision saw the attack coming.

Vir was already diving to the ground when the attack manifested, trying to flatten himself against the earth.

There really was no good way to protect against Hail Burst other than armor. The attack sent dozens of tiny ice balls in a spray, hitting everything in the area. The best Vir could do was minimize his profile and hope Badrak’s luck was with him.

It wasn’t.

Five ice balls slammed into his back, freezing chunks of his flesh. Vir gritted his teeth against the pain. As he learned, fire and ice from magical spells were far more potent than their non-magical counterparts. A few balls of ice shouldn’t have hurt nearly this badly, and yet Vir was writhing on the ground, desperately trying not to scream.

Move! I need to move!

Through the pain, Vir somehow rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a C Grade Icicle.

Gods, she’s trying to kill me!

Vir took control of the blood near the injured areas on his back and manually accelerated his blood flow. It did little against the pain, but it’d help his body’s systems fight back, and hopefully prevent his flesh in those areas from dying.

Of course, Maiya knew he could do all of this, so she knew he’d be alright. It still irked him.

Pushing through his pain, he sought to close more distance while Maiya swapped out orbs in her mejai bracer. This was a weakness of all long range magic—to be aimed, they needed the bracer. But replacing them with another orb took a few seconds, which left the mejai vulnerable.

Vir closed to forty paces. Thirty-five. Thirty. If he could spook Maiya into abandoning her position behind the Ice Barrier, he could take her out with his chakrams.

He sensed Wind affinity prana flare the instant before Wind Blade ripped through the air like a razor blade. It was the same attack the soldiers had used on him in the Godshollow after fighting the Clutch Rachna.

Prana Vision gave him just enough forewarning to twist away, narrowly avoiding death.

She really is trying to kill me!

What concerned him the most was that she hadn’t precharged the wind orb. No doubt a ploy to get Vir to lower his guard against her Wind magic.

Which means she’s learned how to charge orbs of multiple affinities in parallel. She’d been holding out on him.

After that, she subjected Vir to a nearly unending barrage of icicles, popping out from behind her wall to fire Icicles and Wind Blades from both hands before ducking back under cover. Too quickly for Vir to threaten her with chakrams.

Entirely on the defensive, Vir wasn’t able to gain a single pace. In fact, he lost ground every time she forced him to jump back to avoid her spells.

Finally, her aim flew true. Vir shielded his face and activated Toughen, pushing prana and blood to his forearm just before an Icicle embedded itself into it.

“Gah!” Vir cried out in pain. Even with his hardened flesh, the ice shard embedded itself into his left bicep, freezing the flesh around it.

Vir holstered his katar, dove into a roll, and yanked the projectile free, all in one smooth motion. He gripped the prana around the wound, preventing blood from leaking out of his body. Doing so would damage his arm in the long term, but for now, it stopped his blood from leaking out of the wound.

I can’t take much more of this, Vir thought as his reactions slowed from the sheer number of wounds he’d sustained.

With a prayer to Janak, Vir looked to the sky… and found his opportunity.

He sprinted at Maiya, recklessly hurling chakrams and chakris at her, forcing her to hide behind her wall.

Twenty-Five paces. It’ll have to be enough.

The moment Vir’s disk barrage ended, Maiya popped back out, ready to unleash her spells.

Instead, she found only empty dunes.

Panicking, she whirled around—a moment too late—to see Vir, his katar pressed against her throat. He’d ditched the chakrams to fit within her shadow.

But he wasn’t done. Vir viciously slapped the orb out of her left hand and tackled her, sending them both down onto the sand.

If this was the Maiya of before, she’d have given up. But not this Maiya. Without panicking, she used his momentum to flip Vir, straddling him, dagger already in hand.

Not gonna let you!

Vir sent power into his legs and micro Leaped, juking Maiya, throwing her off of him.

He then straddled her, pinning her under his superior weight. He pinned her arms, preventing her from wrapping her fingers around the Ice orb in her mejai bracer.

And then he pressed down on her chest, forcing her to writhe in fear of being crushed.

Only then did he bring his katar right up to her eye. “Yield,” he commanded.

Maiya continued to struggle, trying to reposition her dagger to stab him. Vir increased his pressure on her chest. “Yield!” He repeated.

With one last glare, she acquiesced. “I… yield.”

Vir immediately let off his pressure and offered her a hand up. Instead, she brought her knees to her face and began rocking back and forth.

“Maiya?”

“I thought I could beat you, Vir. I really did. Every waking moment I had, I spent it either on magic or sparring with you. I even hid some of my powers so I’d have an upper hand!”

“Are you kidding me?” Vir said, plopped down beside her, doing his best to ignore the throbbing pain from his left arm. Slowly, he let blood circulate back to the wound to allow the clotting process to begin.

“I barely got away from your attacks,” he said. “If you’d changed your spells even a tiny bit faster, I’d have been done for. That was incredibly close. It used to be that I could steamroll you, but now? You were really trying to kill me, weren’t you?”

Maiya looked at him. “Only because I knew you were good enough to take them. I had to. If I went easy on you, how could I possibly win?”

Her strength was honestly monstrous. Not only could she sling C Grade wind and ice magic in rapid succession, her dagger mastery spooked Vir at times. Only accomplished mejai or highly trained Talent wielders would pose her any threat at all.

Vir used to worry for her safety. Now, it was the opposite; he worried for the safety of the poor chals dumb enough to cross her.

“I’m proud of you, Maiya,” Vir said, patting her back. “I truly mean it.”

He’d worked tirelessly to get to where he was, and so had she. She’d progressed so much, taking only months to do what most mejai took years to accomplish. Of course, Vir had jumpstarted the process and helped guide her growth, but she was the one who put in all the hard work.

Once she’d found the key, all it took was practice, slowly honing her prana control until she could channel more and more prana into her orbs, diligently sitting near wind and water prana sources. From there, she’d worked on distancing herself from those sources until she could channel prana anywhere.

After that, it was a matter of more efficiently controlling her blood flow—a task she’d continue working on for years to come.

“T-thanks. Well, it was close. Just wait until I can charge B grade orbs in combat. You aren’t gonna stand a chance!”

“Uh, huh. Guess we’ll see, won’t we?” he said, hoping that day never came. Maiya was scary already. What kind of a monster would she be with B grade magic?

Maiya’s eyes bulged. “Vir! Your arm! Why didn’t you say anything earlier! You’re injured so badly, we need to get help!” she shouted, standing up and desperately hailing Riyan.

You’re the one who did that to me, y’know?

— —

“They are ready,” Riyan said, observing the end of the duel.

Tanya remained silent.

“You disagree?” he asked, cocking a brow.

“No. She is ready. But… you have spent half a year training these two. So much time and effort spent crafting them. And yet…”

“And yet?” Riyan prompted.

“You would send them away to their deaths?” Tanya asked, a trickle of compassion showing through her voice.

“I am not running a charity, Tanya. I took them in because I felt they would be of use to me. They understood the terms, and they agreed to them.”

“What you are asking is suicide. They will not understand what they are up against until it is too late!”

“When did you start caring about their wellbeing?” Riyan said. “This isn’t like you.”

“They are both special. The boy is a prodigy, and Maiya… She—I was wrong. She possesses talent. Exceptional talent. Riyan, she can become powerful! It would be a loss to Hiranya to lose her.”

Riyan went silent. “She will survive.”

“Truly? Can you think of a single traitor who has ever been spared the death sentence?”

Riyan heaved a great sigh. “A leader knows better than to develop ties with their subordinates. Tanya Harak, you know this. You have seen it time and time again on the battlefield. Isn’t that right, Commander?”

Tanya fell silent.

Riyan looked across the dunes at Maiya, who was currently stomping their way, no doubt demanding medical help for her friend.

“Are you aware? The boy and the girl intend to flee soon.”

Tanya’s eyes grew wide. “How do you know?”

“Vir has been frequenting his cave cache to the south far more often lately. The two often sneak out to hold private counsels. They think they are being discrete, but I frequently tail them. They still have a long way to go if they think they can hide from me.”

“I—I see,” Tanya replied.

“Ensure that they fail.”

“Yes, sir,” Tanya said, her voice devoid of life. “It will be done.”