Chapter 32: Duel [4]
The water hit from every direction at once.
Inside the whirlpool, Aries couldn’t see anything past the spinning walls. The noise was a constant. The pressure pushed in from all sides and didn’t let up.
He stood in the middle of it with his jaw tight and his hands shaking.
’There’s no way out. Not through that current. Not with what I have left.’
Julian’s voice came through the storm from above, all smug and easy. "You danced well, kid. But that’s the end of your show."
Aries looked up.
Julian stood at the top of the whirlpool. Between his palms, a sphere of compressed water grew larger by the second, glowing blue.
Aqua Nova.
Aries looked down at his own hand. Water running down his knuckles. Fingers shaking.
He curled them into a fist.
’I have to put everything in my new technique without a mistake... though I didn’t completely mastered it.’
A spark started from his shoulder. Then another. Then a dozen, spreading fast down his arm, threading through his skin.
Wrapped around his forearm in a tight coil.
He pulled in a long slow breath and raised his arm.
The fire followed, coiled down from his shoulder and wrapped his fist, the heat building so fast that the water closest to him turned to steam before it could touch him.
The inside of the whirlpool filled with red light.
Outside the arena, that glow bled through the gaps.
"Huh—?" Valea’s hands dropped from her mouth. "That light. What is that?"
"What the—?" Eren shielded his eyes.
Above, Julian laughed louder. "You’re still going?! You really don’t know when to stop!" His Aqua Nova swelled even bigger. "Doesn’t matter — IT’S OVER!!"
He threw it straight down.
The whirlpool screamed as the orb tore through it, dropping fast, everything Julian had left packed into one hit.
Aries shot upward.
Straight up through the spinning water, flames trailing behind his fist like a comet going the wrong way.
"What the—?!" Julian’s eyes went wide.
Aries closed the distance in a fraction of a second, appeared right behind the Aqua Nova.
Julian staggered back as the air grew scalding hot almost instantly. From the corner of his eye, through the glowing sphere, he caught sight of Aries’s fist.
There was something coating it, something Aries had never used before, something Julian hadn’t seen this entire time.
"FLAME EMPEROR!!"
The punch hit the Aqua Nova dead center.
The whole thing blew apart. Water scattered everywhere, and Aries’s fist kept going straight through the wreckage and drove into Julian’s chest.
"Gh — AAGH—!!"
Julian crossed the arena through the air, hit the floor hard on the other side, and slid until friction decided enough was enough.
The whirlpool crashed down without Julian’s mana holding it up. Water flooded out across the whole ground. The shockwave from the punch kept going past Julian — and the tree standing at the arena’s edge behind him was now on fire.
The whole arena went quiet.
Then Aries’s knees hit the ground.
He caught himself on one hand, head down, breathing in short hard pulls. His vision was blurred at the edges. That one move had taken everything left. There was nothing on the other side of it.
"He..." Nico’s voice came from somewhere far away. "He did it."
"He actually did it." Valea clapped, with a relieved expression on her face.
"THAT’S OUR ARIES!!" Eren’s shout carried across the whole arena. "I KNEW IT! I ALWAYS KNEW IT!"
"HEY!" Cedric’s bark cut straight through everything. "THE TREE IS ON FIRE! SOMEONE PUT IT OUT BEFORE WE LOSE THE WHOLE ESTATE!"
Every head turned to the burning tree.
"YES SIR!"
Nico’s water magic streamed in wide arcs, crashing down over the tree and the ground around it. The fire died section by section and then all at once, leaving a scorched but standing tree in a cloud of white steam.
Valea, Eren, and Adrian reached Aries at the same time.
Valea got her arm under his. "That last move," she said, pulling him up. "What was that? How did you pull that off with nothing left?"
"That’s my new technique, Flame Emperor. Though, it really took everything out of me." Aries said.
"Truly amazing!!" Adrian looked like his whole world had just expanded by several sizes.
Eren crossed his arms, smile small but real. "You did good."
Alaric stepped forward. "I’ll say it straight — I underestimated you, Aries. That final move, under those conditions, with that little mana left." He shook his head. "Never mind, you did great."
Cedric stood just behind him and said nothing.
He just smiled.
A few feet away, Julian was on one knee in the wet sand. Head down. One hand pressed to his chest.
"I... lost?"
Nico walked over slowly, stopped in front of him, looked down with a grin that was somewhere between honest and annoying. "Well, well. Turns out royal blood doesn’t just automatically win things."
Julian’s hands shook. "Damn you—" He pushed to his feet. "We’re leaving, Master." He walked straight past Alaric without looking at him.
"Julian—"
Julian didn’t slow down.
Alaric sighed long and deep. He turned to Cedric with the tired look.
"He’s still like this. Every single time." He rubbed his face. "I really hope he changes his attitude one day."
"He will," Cedric said. "You worry too much."
Alaric then reached out and shook Cedric’s hand. "See you again."
"Probably sooner than either of us expects," Cedric said.
Alaric followed his student out. "Julian! At least slow down!"
They watched until both were gone.
Cedric turned back, looked across the group, and let his eyes land on Aries.
He raised his fist with a smile.
Aries bumped it. "Thanks, Gramps."
"HEY!!" Nico appeared from nowhere, practically in Aries’s face. "WHAT WAS THAT ATTACK?! You didn’t use it when we fought! Were you holding back on me?!"
"No, calm down—" Aries put both hands up. "I literally just figured it out! During the fight! Just now!"
"...That was your first time." Nico went completely still.
"In an actual fight, yeah."
"You made up a technique that strong," Nico said slowly, "inside a whirlpool, with no mana left, for the first time."
"When you say it like that it sounds—"
Nico turned and walked away without another word.
"He’s fine," Eren told Aries. "He just needs a minute."
Cedric shook his head. "That move burned every last drop you had. Don’t try to walk it off."
Before he could finish, Aries already tried to take a step his legs gave up.
Valea caught his arm. "Sit down."
"Yeah okay."
____
Night settled over Ashton quietly.
Aries sat on the front steps of the mansion, elbows on his knees, looking up at a sky full of stars.
"Drelan," he said softly. "Althea."
’They’re not my real parents. I know that. This body isn’t mine. None of this belongs to me.’
He looked at one star that didn’t move.
’So why can’t I stop thinking about them.’
He dragged a hand through his hair. "Damn this body. Can’t even remember the road back."
He slapped his own cheek.
"OWW—" He pressed his hand to his face immediately. "Why did I do that. Why did I just do that."
"Still awake?"
He turned fast.
Valea stood a few steps back, moonlight sitting on the edges of her hair.
"Oh." He let his shoulders drop. "It’s you."
"Who else — a ghost?"
"Tch. Nothing like that."
She sat beside him on the step without asking, stretched her legs out.
Then: "You’re thinking about your parents, aren’t you."
He blinked. "How did you—"
"It wasn’t hard." She looked up at the same sky. "Being away from family. Not knowing when you’ll see them again." A short pause.
"They’re out there somewhere worrying about you right now. I’d bet on it."
Aries didn’t say anything.
Valea stood up and turned to face him, the night sky behind her.
"You’ll get back to them." She said it like a fact, not comfort. "We’ll take you home. So stop sitting out here like you’ve already decided how this ends."
He looked up at her.
A small smile came out before he could catch it. "Sure, Valea."
She nodded twice. "Good. Come on."
She held out her hand. He took it and let her pull him up, and they walked back through the garden toward the lit doors of the mansion while the stars above them burned quietly.
