Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Life or death

Azura groaned, hazy vision starting to clear. Once his vision cleared His breath left him as the sight before him registered. He was in a wide grassy field, rivers flowed throughout the field rushing away from the giant waterfalls coming down from the giant floating islands that littered the skies. But despite all the majesty he could only see what was right in front of him.

Katy lay in a pool of blood, eyes completely devoid of life. His father stood over her as if nothing was wrong. “I had always told you commoners are weak, and can’t be trusted.” The cruel man’s gaze shifted from her downed form to look at him. “If only you had listened to me, this wouldn’t have happened.”

He saw red. His blade and shield extended as silver symbols began to spread from his heart outward until his whole body was covered in silver patterns. A silver light spread out from him making 2 perfect copies of himself. His eyes filled with hate. “I’ll kill you!!!” He charged at the monster before him.

“So you choose the same fate as her.” The monster, dressed as a man, dodged the lunge Azura made with contemptuous ease. He pointed his palm towards Azura and a raging inferno rushed towards him forming a dragon’s jaws, set to swallow him whole.

Azura barely managed to get his shield covered in deep blue symbols the color of a brilliant lake, up in time to meet the inferno. Steam rushed from the point of connection and Azura was thrown back. He dug his sword into the ground to slow his momentum, upturning grass and dirt as he went. His 2 copies had used the distraction to get on the enemies' sides.

All 3 of him rushed the enemy as fast as they could, pumping mana through the runes enhancing his physical abilities. The man didn’t so much as flinch. A dragon made of rock appeared around him stopping all 3 attacks at once even as all 3 tore chunks of the dragon. Too bad it exploded forcing all 3 to block with their shields being repelled once more.

He grit his teeth. He knew how strong the man was, but he couldn’t let him get away with killing her. He reached for his journal, when he froze. “Wait this isn’t right, when did I get here, where is here, I can’t remember.” He panicked, Why was his memory so off? No wait this didn’t make any sense, his father hadn’t moved to attack him even once. Even now he stood there calmly watching him.

“Are you not going to avenge your friend? Did you already give up? How pathetic, to think you would be even more of a failure than your brother.”

His blood boiled, but he forced himself to remain calm. He mentally commanded his copies to regroup with him. As soon as they got close enough, they dissolved into silver light. The light made its way back into him. His father made no move to attack. “You aren’t my father, well honestly I’d say that to the real one too, so it’s better to say you aren’t the real Tiamat Silver.”

The man raised an eyebrow at him. “Oh then who am I then?”

Azura smirked, he finally realized, even if his memory was fuzzy, no because of that he knew. “You are my worst fears aren’t you? Failure, the death of my friends, my father. You are just a bundle of my worst fears, but how and why?” His smirk dropped, turning to a frown.

The imposter laughed, it was a dark chuckle that made a cold chill go down his spine. “Well you got one thing right in all that.” The laughing stopped. “I am your nightmares.” with that several shadow dragons began to emerge, as for the first time in the fight the imposter took the initiative.

Azura panicked,the imposter clearly intent on not giving him time to think. The shadow dragons, unlike the spells thrown around so far, were not just the head, but were in fact whole creatures. Their long bodies coiling behind them. They had no wings and only small claws. They looked more like flying basilisks than dragons but the horns made it clear what they were.

He narrowly dodged as one of them came at him much faster than he anticipated. What followed was a barrage so intense that he couldn’t keep up. He moved as fast as he could shield and sword flashing as fast as he could make them, but despite his best efforts injuries began piling up. Bruised up and with cuts littering his body, he released a large burst of ice mana from his shield making a thick wall that managed to block off the hundreds of dragons.

“Ok ok breathe. I need to think. My memories are fuzzy but this is obviously some kind of test. Is it a trial from the academy? Wait, that might be it, some kind of trial to overcome your fears, maybe.” The ice began to crack loudly. He didn’t have time. “I’m already facing my fears aren’t I? I’m fighting him, what more does it want.” The ice shattered. Times up.

He was panting heavily, his mana was running dangerously low, he was barely surviving the onslaught of the shadows. The imposter, maybe he had to make it back to the imposter. One final push then. The silver markings on his body began to glow bright blue as electricity crackled all around him. He rushed towards the imposter even faster than before. He ignored the dragons tearing at him despite the blood flowing all around him freely. The dark red eyes stared at him with disappointment. He grit his teeth, what else is new. He made it to the wraith that took the form of his father.

He looked down. a sword had pierced his chest. His dulling eyes slowly followed the blade to look his father in the eyes. He spit blood into the man’s face. “Guess I'll head to hell first.” Black overtook his vision.

***

Azura’s eyes opened with a short scream. Katy rushed over to him from behind the bushes and steadied him before he fell. “What happened?!” He put his hand over his chest. “I’m not dead?” His eyes widened as his memories came flooding back. Anger quickly overtaking confusion. “Wait, what kind of trial was that?!” He yelled at the wolf spirit.

The wolf’s piercing gaze locked onto him, but he didn’t back down. “I will allow you to leave with your lives, since your effort in the trial was commendable. You failed because you failed to truly face your fears. You might have passed if you hadn’t figured out it was a test.” The rumbling shook him to his core.

“What do you mean? I fought to the death, how is that me not facing my fears?” He heatedly responded. Katy looked on in worry prepared to make a run for it, even if she had to drag him with her.

“So you fear death then?”

He faltered. Did he? Not really but he did fear his father, and the deaths of his friends, the failure to save them. “No but I faced other things I feared.” He was calming his rage, leaving him empty, and tired.

The spirit returned to the cave and started lying back down. “When you can admit to yourself what you truly fear. Come back I’ll allow you to take the trial once more, but if you fail again, you won’t get a 3’rd chance.” The spirit had returned to its sleeping position.

Azura stood there frozen. Katy tugged on his arm, trying to get him to move. He looked towards the sky, eyes blank. “What I truly fear huh.” He turned away from the spirit and started walking away. “Are you coming or what? We have a water spirit to find a way through.” He turned back towards her. His eyes had steeled, determination overwhelming the emptiness they had held, but a second before.

She smiled. “Yeah, let’s go.” She walked quickly to catch up to him.

***

The detour had slowed them down a bit, so they didn’t reach the river before nightfall. They made a camp much like they did the previous day. They were awake as soon as the sun rose, and began their journey not long after.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to just try to rush past the water spirit?” Katy asked Azura nervously.

He laughed. “Nope, but it’s pretty much all we’re left with at this point.” His tone didn’t match the words at all. He was in fact oddly cheerful. “Besides, once we cross the river, we no longer have any reason to fight. All we have to do is make it to the other side.”

“You didn’t seem confident we could do it before. You even said we would need the help of the guardian spirit, but suddenly we can do it on our own.” She was nervous. Not that he could blame her.

“Correction. Suddenly we have to do it on our own.” They had no other options unless he could figure out what it was he was afraid of if not failure or his father. So they had no other options for now.

She winced, the meaning not lost on her. “So do or die then? What are our odds?”

“Honestly not very good. That last resort I’ve mentioned a few times requires me to stand still. So if we get forced into a corner where I have to use it, the goal changes from evade to defeating the spirit. As powerful as it is whether it can defeat a water spirit or not, well those aren’t odds I would typically gamble on.”

She laughed, easing up slightly. “Not that it matters, the second you leave something up to chance, failure is guaranteed.”

He laughed to, all the tension leaving them. “Got me there, luck has definitely never been my strong suit.” It didn’t matter in this case his final gambit was either enough or it wasn’t. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that, but he doubted they would be able to get past it.

“We’ll make it.” She sounded so confident, despite how worried she seemed earlier.

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He raised an eyebrow as he glanced at her. “What suddenly has you so sure?” He wished he could be that confident in this scenario.

“I just remembered something, that’s all.” She smirked at him.

He bit the bullet, unable to figure out what she was referring to. “And that is?”

“You don’t leave things to chance.” Her smile turned more genuine at his taken aback look. “You’ll figure something out, you always do.”

***

It was a little past noon when they made it to the river. The river went on as far as the eye could see in both directions, and was the only landmark for several miles in the empty plains they were in now. “You ready?” Azura turned to see Katy next to him. She was already tense but somehow managed to tense up even further.

“Yeah I’m ready.” She steeled herself and got in a running position. They weren't far from the river, maybe 10 ft. If the water spirit was there then the second they were over the water it would notice them.

He would have had them use magic to just jump over the river, but they wouldn’t be able to maneuver in the air, so they ran the risk of it grabbing them when they couldn’t do much to stop it. “Ok you know the drill. On my signal run as fast as you can.” She nodded at him. He held his fist in front of his face letting his sword extend, icy blue symbols covering its surface.

He ran forward thrusting his sword, a bridge of ice covered the remaining 5 ft of land and 50 ft of river in almost an instant. The 2 of them sprinting onto the ice bridge. A roar echoed through the air a split second after the ice formed. They made it halfway before everything went wrong. They both jumped backwards as a giant mass of water burst through the center of the bridge.

The water took on a rough approximation of a person. “Well, that’s unfortunate.” His sword retracted and he pulled out his bow. The same icy blue symbols on it. His sword wouldn’t be as effective in this scenario.

“What was our plan, if we couldn't make it across?” She looked around gauging how much space they had to work with. The ice bridge was probably 15 ft wide or so. He had wanted to have some space to work with, for when the worst case scenario happened.

“Don’t die!” The water spirit launched a huge wave at them, but a quick shot from his bow, after condensing a considerable amount of mana into an icy blue arrow, froze the wave solid. Hopefully the wall would buy them some time.

“Great plan! On the other hand, was making that big of an obstacle a good idea?!” She had her daggers out, but they both knew her skillset didn’t help here in the slightest.

“Yup it can’t see us at the moment.” He grabbed her arm. “Get help.” She looked at him confused. His vambrace glowing a pale green color. He tossed her over the wall and towards the other side of the river. He jumped onto the wall of ice ignoring her screams. More likely rage than fear anyway.

He shot down any attacks the spirit sent towards her and froze the arm of the spirit. The spirit focused on him. He sighed in relief. Good she landed safely on the other side. Despite how angry she looked after a brief moment of hesitation she turned and ran. In the brief moment that he took his eyes off the spirit a tendril of water had shot at him. He barely managed to get his shield up in time being blasted off the ice wall.

Huge cracks began to spread throughout the ice wall. He really had a bad matchup against this enemy. Though admittedly Katy’s was even worse. The wall exploded sending shards of ice at him. Glowing silver mana condensed to make some solid additions to his shield to cover his entire body. He quickly recovered the mana that remained once the ice shards stopped and dove sideways as a vertical blade of water tore through where he was.

“This is going to be a long day isn’t it.” He didn’t have to beat it but getting past it seemed just as unlikely. Silver markings spread across his body. He could feel himself getting stronger and faster. He knew it wouldn’t be enough. He had to dodge more water attacks; one knocked him off the bridge but icy blue symbols spread throughout his boots creating circles of ice wherever he stepped on the water.

He continued intercepting what he could with his bow, but it was taking him seriously after he had managed to get Katy past it. A copy would be a waste of mana here having 2 of him with less spell casting ability would only be a disadvantage. Too bad it wouldn't fall for the same trick twice.

He barely managed to dodge as a drill of water shattered the ice pad he had been standing on another forming a few feet away. He put his hand to his journal. Not yet, that was an absolute last resort. There was still a chance he might be able to get past the creature without it. He prepared for the fight of his life as he put his bow away and let his sword extend. Offense was pointless now anyway and he needed to conserve mana.

***

He had been at this for over an hour. He dodged another drill, but it left him ill prepared for the blade of water, his blade tore through it bursting it with a pale green whirlwind. He panted, he didn’t think he could last much longer. He had almost made it to the other side, but the creature sent a wave big enough to blot out the sun and forced him all the way back to the start.

The bridge was torn up and in shreds but still mostly there, but he didn’t know how much longer it would stand his weight. It was hot outside so the ice had to be melting by now. His shield came up to meet the bullets of water the spirit was sending at him. He was being pushed back, his mana starting to waver and thus his enchantments weakened.

He tilted his shield using the force of the bullets to push himself to the side. Desperation started to kick in. He grabbed his journal and prepared to open it. His last resort was the only option he had left, and then the water spirit exploded, flying everywhere. He blinked several times unsure what just happened.

“Wow you held that thing off for a whole hour, at your age. That’s pretty impressive.” A behemoth of a man spoke. He looked like he could bench press a mountain. His light brown hair was matted to his forehead. Probably because he was soaking wet. Azura’s eyes were drawn to the club he had hit the water spirit with, it was as big as the man who wielded it.

“Thank you?” What just happened? He was totally lost.

“Sorry it took so long to get help. There weren’t a lot of strong mages out here in the middle of nowhere.”Katy spoke up from behind the big man. She was standing next to a tall woman with brown rabbit ears sticking out of her matching hair.

He slowly lowered his book, finally processing that the battle was over.

“Guess I owe you an apology then little girl, your friend really did pull through.” The woman gave him an impressed smile. Her dark purple eyes judging him.

Finally catching up to what was going on he allowed himself to fall backwards onto the ice and breath. It must have looked pretty weird, a young man lying on an icy floor laughing while blood leaked out of him from small wounds all over his body. After laughing for a few minutes. “I can’t believe you actually managed to find help out here.”

“Guess I’m luckier than you are.” He couldn’t see it, but he was sure she had a soft smile on her face.

“Not much of a contest there.” His voice resigned, but chipper nonetheless. A hand made its way into his line of sight, he followed it back to its owner. The giant of a man had a kind smile on his face, and warm brown eyes.

The giant laughed, “Come on then, you better get up, your friend has been frantic with worry since she found us.” Azura grabbed the man's hand, and was yanked to his feet. He thought his arm popped out of its socket for a second.

Katy flushed but didn’t refute it. “Not that we helped any with that worry since we told her, you were probably dead by now. Most kids your age would be.” The women spoke once again. She put her hand on Katy’s head. Katy moved back indignant. “She was stubborn though, kept insisting you were fine. Guess she was right.”

“I don’t know about fine, but thankfully I'm still in one piece.” He began walking toward the other side now unguarded. He could barely move, and he hadn’t managed to steady his breathing yet but slowly but surely he made his way across.

Katy ran up to him and put his arm around her shoulder to help him walk. “Geez you always over do it, don’t you?” Despite her chastising words, her smile was bright.

He smiled back. “Maybe, but we both lived through it so I’ll call it a win.” Guess sometimes even he could get lucky. He looked towards the 2 older mages that had come to help him out on Katy’s request. They had grouped up after Katy ran over to help him. “Thanks for helping me. I owe you one”

The man waved him off, a frown on his lips. “Actually if anything we owe the 2 of you an apology.” He had a guilty expression on his face. Azura gave him a confused glance. The woman saw his look and stepped forward.

She coughed into her hand. “My name is Sylvia Meadows, we are teachers at the Grand Forge Academy.” She gestured to the much bigger man. “It’s our responsibility to make sure that no monsters applicants shouldn’t be able to beat wander into the area. Somehow that water spirit slipped past our perimeter.” She winced, clearly feeling guilty.

That was odd. They clearly weren’t incompetent or they wouldn’t have been able to beat it like that. Oh wait, he almost forgot, she gave a noble introduction. “I am Azura Silver, and I owe you thanks. You did save me. Besides nature elemental spirits are pretty hard to see if you don’t know they’re there.”

She seemed taken aback for a second. The big man too. “You’re a noble? What are you doing out here? Couldn’t you have just gotten a transport?” Her confusion was understandable. Nobles that didn’t take advantage of their status were few and far inbetween.

“Because it felt like cheating to do that.” He was sincere. He knew it was probably stupid, but if he had done that, it would in his mind be the same as saying he only made it because he was a noble.

She laughed incredulously while the big man gave a much more honest laugh. His laugh held so much force it actually shook the ground. “That’s a good face. Nice determination. The name’s Coal. Nice to meet a young noble with some actual resolve.”

Sylvia shot him a quick glare. “Well I guess you made it one way or another.” She gave a resigned sigh. “We have to get back to patrolling, do you think you guys can make it to the academy on your own.”

He nodded. “But I have 1 question, before you go.” They turned to look at him. Brown eyes and vibrant purple locked onto him. They nodded giving him permission to ask. “How did you beat the spirit with a physical attack?” It didn’t make sense the water should have just reformed.

“Ah.” Coal nodded in understanding. “I can see how it might have looked like that’s what happened, to the untrained.” Azura had to hold back his anger at the accidental insult. “Well I don’t know the mechanics well, it was actually a combo spell.”

Sylvia stepped forward. “It’s a pretty complicated spell. I could explain it to you but you won’t have the foundation to understand it yet, so the simplified version is that I converted his raw physical force into spiritual damage.”

His eyes widened. “Seriously?! But to do that wouldn’t your mana control have to be ridiculously high? There are so many ways to fail at a spell like that. The margin for error would be almost 0.” To say he was impressed would be an understatement.

She raised an eyebrow. “Hmm smart too huh? You’ll do fine in the academy, but we really have to get going now.”

He nodded. “Alright thanks for all your help.” They waved him off as they left.

“I know they were on our side but that pressure was making me nervous.” Katy said when they started walking again with the 2 out of sight.

“I know. Their mana was insane, but I guess that means they are actually weaker than father. Either that or they wanted to let their pressure be felt for some reason.” He doubted it though. No smart monsters would go anywhere near them with mana like that.