Chapter 59:
Out of the dense smoke appeared a grotesque figure of unparalleled hideousness. Its elongated body, which stood at the height of ten men, reminded one of a snake but a deeply deformed one if so, as parts of its body were solid and scaly while others were more reminiscent of a viscous liquid barely being kept in place. Every now and then, the snake-like thing would issue a miserable cry, though it might have just been hissing in aggression. From its fangs flowed liquid lava so hot it burned the earth beneath it; the sight would have been intimidating if not for the fact that the beast seemed incapable of controlling the flow as many times, it would burn itself with the lava.
On this affront to nature was a viciously laughing Rine who stood proudly on the thing’s head.
“{FlameFangs}!” He said, staring into the well-dressed man’s eyes.
The latter stood in shock for a good while before coming to his senses. A contemplative look dawned on his face before he uttered “My name’s Cale”.
The self-introduction seemed to catch Rine off-guard, but soon he recovered and began sneering in derision. “Well fuck you, Cale,” He roared while his snake coiled around itself as if to strike. “Come at me if you dare!”
“Fine then!” Cale replied as his beast adopted a similar position.
The surrounding warriors and magicians stood slack-jawed at the sight of two massive beasts facing off. Some had looks of respect on their faces while others shot them eyes filled with envy.
Bladeless began to grow worried as she realized that her cage did not deteriorate in any way. Once again Rine’s skill shocked her, to be able to control two fairly difficult spells after just breaking through to Core Formation was unheard of.
Now with a serious expression on her face, she condensed even more Aura into her blade which began to crack apart as it could no longer contain the force within.
The boom which resulted from her attack served as a starting bell for the two snakes and they lunged at each other with full force, each wrestling for superiority.
After the initial scuffle, it was immediately evident that Cale’s snake was faster as it quickly wrapped around Rine’s and began to crush it while also sending out bite after bite.
Rine’s snake screeched in pain while flailing about as a child would, but Cale refused to let go, even commanding his snake to tighten its hold.
The captured snake started crumbling under the pressure with pieces of its body sloughing off, but Rine himself was still relatively calm as if the entire affair did not concern him. Suddenly the red-haired boy opened his eyes wide at the sight of a massive head approaching him with its fangs bared.
Cale stood atop the head with a sneer plastered across his face, clearly he intended to end the fight.
Rine replied with a sneer of his own before calling out the name of yet another spell. “{Dragon’s Breath}!”.
Immediately after, his snake unhinged its deformed jaws and spewed out a blazing beam of flames.
The highly concentrated heat startled Cale who immediately moved his beast to dodge the blow. Unfortunately, he was not fast enough as his snake had half its face blown off by the attack.
Taking advantage of its opponent's weakness, Rine’s snake wriggled out of the former’s grasp before unhinging its jaw once more.
“{Dragon’s Breath}!”
Faced with no other option, Cale dispelled his beast and began casting another spell; however, this move was a risk as well as it left him utterly defenseless and effectively falling to his death all while being targeted by a fire-breathing monstrosity.
As he was falling, Cale remained calm and merely continued his chanting as if knowing he would be fine. And soon enough, he was proven right as seconds before Rine’s snake issued another attack, Cale was caught by Bladeless mid-air.
“Took you long enough,” he said, unashamed of being a princess-carried.
“...” Silent, as usual, Bladeless showed him her sword.
“Going all out I see...Well, I guess I’ll do the same. We picked one hell of a fight this time.”
“...” Bladeless replied before abruptly tossing him to the ground. Her lithe body turned mid-air as she pointed toward Rine’s snake with her sword hilt that was now without a blade. Instantly, the inscriptions that covered every inch of the hilt began glowing, and copious amounts of Origin began gathering toward it. After enough was accumulated, the blade began glowing red before a geyser of flames erupted from its center.
Armed with a sword made completely of ripping flames, Bladeless swung heavily against Rine’s attack.
The result was staggering as just after the two spells met, Rine’s was cut into two immediately. It didn’t stop there as after dissecting his spell in half, Bladeless’s Aura slash then barreled toward the head of Rine’s snake.
The pitiful creature cried one last miserable shriek before being decapitated. But bladeless didn’t stop there; heavily landing on the ground, she then sent slash after slash toward the snake, severing it into countless pieces.
By this point, Rine had already deployed his shield and roughly blocked several of Bladeless’s attacks. However, just as Rine was about to retaliate, he was blindsided by another attack.
“{Pyre’s Edge}!” Cale’s voice sounded as he raised his hand up, palm facing the sky. A flicker of flame appeared above it before blazing into a rapidly spinning disk of fire.
Cale then tossed the attack toward Rine and it was so sharp that it split the winds apart as it sped toward him.
Meanwhile, Bladeless, having been satisfied with how well she reduced the snake to chunks, also directed another attack toward him.
A sense of peril bloomed within Rine’s heart, but he shrugged it off with a maniacal laugh before heavily saying: “{FireWall}!” and “{Dragon’s Breath}!” Simultaneously.
Immediately after a raging wall of fire materialized around Rine and, though it did little against the two attacks before immediately crumbling apart, it did weaken them enough for his shield to handle them.
Bladeless and Cale did not follow through as they were busy dealing with another problem.
The two gathered together and Cale summoned a shield as on the other side, a horrific sight was taking place. The chunks of Rine’s snake were wriggling and writhing about as if reforming themselves. And sure enough not moments later, dozens of smaller-sized snakes made of fire appeared, and when Rine cast {Dragon’s Breath} the little snakes then unhinged their jaws and unleashed concentrated beams of fire all over their surroundings.
Worse of all was the fact that the attack had no specific target, the snakes just faffed about randomly, spewing flames here and there incinerating the dead while burning the living, the damage was immense and widespread. Blood-curdling screams could be heard from every direction and by now the effect was so wide that the entire war was ground to a halt.
Looking over the scene with a savage smile, Rine’s eyes gleamed and he reveled in his strength, now no one dared to stand against him. Even as blood drizzled down his mouth, he merely wiped it away before refocusing on his magnificent might.
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Within the stagnant world where Rine first met his dark-haired counterpart, a staggering change occurred.
In the once barren night sky, a blazing sun now shone with pretentious brilliance and under it, dark-haired Rine stood panting and with a tired look on his face.
He had definitely pushed Rine’s body as far as he could and now the core was close to crumbling. The sun above him was not at all stable as every now and then it would release a wave of angry heat that scorched the earth and set the grass on fire.
On the other hand, red-haired Rine was still in his cage, sitting in one of the corners with a dazed look on his pale face. Blood was running down the corners of his mouth but he did not care, his eyes were glued onto the battlefield. Though he wasn’t in control, he could still see the things his body was doing, and its actions horrified him.
His hands gripped the bars of his cage so hard, his knuckles whitened.
He was coming to an understanding now.
He had an inkling beforehand, and that coupled with Carson’s words had planted the seed of doubt in his mind. But now he knew for sure.
“It wasn’t me…” He whispered as he thought of his more deadly battles. William, the wolves, the bear, the sparring match. In every one of those instances, it wasn’t him who purposefully sought to hurt people. Come to think of it, he couldn’t even remember those fights properly.
“It was you…” He said as he looked toward the black-haired Rine. “Yes, it was you. I’m not like you. I’m different,” He thought back to the talk he had with Cort. 'I'm different from both of them. That isn't me.'
Outside, various magicians began trying to put his snakes down.
“I don’t want this,” Rine’s hold over the bar tightened and a crunching sound began emanating.
But even though it seemed like the magicians were cooperating, the hostile looks they shot each other made it evident that they were nowhere near trusting of each other yet.
Finally, Rine’s eyes stopped upon a familiar figure. A sturdy young man was standing guard over another youth, by their side was a girl who kept looking toward Rine’s direction with a distressed look on her face.
“Calvin, Amelia, Roe…”
Suddenly Rine was reminded of the sight of Roe being hit by a magician’s spell.
Guilt made him want to avert his gaze from the trio, but he couldn’t.
Facing them was a comparatively small snake which swayed back and forth menacingly; every now and then it would unhinge its jaw, but every time it did, it would be met with a wind blade.
This didn’t last for long as soon enough, another snake appeared. Calvin snarled at it before striking it with his sword.
Rine’s eyes shook when a third appeared, and his heart seized at the fourth.
“Let me out!” He bellowed in rage while slamming against the cage.
(Stop making a scene, I’m trying to focus here,) The dark-haired Rine said seriously as a sword slash mysteriously appeared on his shoulder. Looking at the outside world, Rine could see that his body was once again going against the two from before.
Searing pain radiating from his shoulder, Rine looked down to see a similar wound on his body, yet he was unfazed by this. “Stop! Please, we have to save Calvin and Amelia! Please!”
Dark-haired Rine paid him no mind and simply began to chant another spell. Above them, their core began gathering Origin once more.
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“{Pyre’s Edge}! Rine’s shout could be heard saying in the distance.
Clint’s eyes, long since having been narrowed, shifted toward Borris; coincidentally the latter had just done the same.
“Shall we begin?” Clint asked after a long bout of measured silence.
“Yes, let’s. I want him,” He said pointing at a warrior on Clint’s side who had performed relatively well during the war. It was clear that he had killed his fair share as his badge number was in the top twenty.
“Then I’ll have her,”
The two men continued trading while their palace soldiers behind them began trades of their own. The top twenty highest badge numbers were always traded through the two high-commanders while the rest went through the soldiers.
Strangely neither side brought up Rine, despite both high-commanders sneaking in glances every now and then.
Borris licked his lips while dancing around the subject of Rine. He knew he was at a disadvantage since the youth came from Clint’s side, but then again the fact that the kid was a fire magician did give him a leg up.
Clint on the other hand was calmer for he knew that the cards were his to play.
As the two high-commanders and their men argued over the drafts, none of them seemed to notice a masked figure stealthily dashing through the battlefield.
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