Alkalians (44 page)

“
Matthew Calamos,” says a
deep, quiet voice that runs down their backs like cold water. The
three turn to a tall, intimidating man, casting a sharp stare from
his black-glinted eyes at them. He wears clothing more primitive
than they have ever seen before. A vest made of tethered, animal
hide, painted with runes, withered-brown pants held to fit his legs
by ties, and moccasins covered with thick gray wool. He barely has
visible hair upon his face, and his long black hair is styled into
a tall, spiny shape which almost looks like a dorsal fin. His skin
is heavily tanned to a bronze shade, his bare chest and arms are
thick with muscle, and black face paint forms small stripes along
his cheeks.

Matt, blinking in wonder, asks the
imposing man in strange costume, “Yes, and who would you
be?”

“
Who I am does not
matter,” the man replies. “I hear you are a Dark Warrior
Alkalian.”

“
Uh, that’s
right.”

“
Then listen to my words.
Your special powers mean nothing.” He stares down Matt while Rose
and Sean find themselves stepping back, and he goes on, “I have
seen too many examples of specially gifted Alkalians having their
lives wasted due to the hubris they have that relies on their
abnormal enhancements. They may think that such powers make them
invincible, but in the long run it only assures them failure and
disgrace. If you think being a Dark Warrior makes you any better
than other Alkalians around you, then you are sorely
mistaken.”

“
Um,” Matt stammers,
“okay, I know what you mean, but…”

“
People like you are a
tragedy waiting to happen. No matter what the advantage is, someone
always finds a way to counter it. In this case, I’ll be the one to
prove that to you.”

Matt then notices the badge upon his
vest was green, and has some relief to know this guy is a student.
“Oh, if you’re challenging me to a duel, you could just say it.
I’ll accept your challenge. Would you like to meet me at the
casino, tonight?”

The man stiffly replies, to his
surprise, “No. We will not fight where others watch only for
entertainment. Our battlefield will be a more appropriate setting.
Head to the far, northeast corner of the campus grounds. There we
shall have our contest, and you will learn just how weak you are.”
Without another word, the man turns and leaves at a brisk march,
and other students clear a path before him like calves before a
bull.

Matt turns back to his friends. Rose
is as astonished as him while Sean is deep in thought. “Anyone know
who that guy was?” Matt asks.

“
I’ve never seen him
before,” admits Rose, and she passes the question to Sean. “Do you
know who that guy is?”

As if reacting to Rose
asking him, Sean’s face pales with shock and dread. He sets his
terrified eyes on Matt and says in a gasping voice, “What have you
done, man? You’ve just agreed to your own
execution
!”

Matt is both confused and worried by
Sean’s exclamation. “What do you mean?”

“
That man was,” Sean
hisses with fear, “Nicholas Narqailein! He’s the baddest of the bad
among the senior students. He’s so bad, even Cain’s scared of him!
I’m not just talking about reputation, either, almost everyone,
even most of the professors, believe he’s the strongest Alkalian
student of us all! And now you have to fight him!!”

Matt and Rose glance at
each other, both wondering if Sean isn’t exaggerating like usual,
and Rose asks, “Are you sure, Sean? Is this guy, Nicholas,
really
that
powerful?”

“
Oh yeah, I’m sure!
Dammit, why didn’t I warn you two about him before now? Oh, that’s
right, he was supposed to be continuing his studies at the military
academy in Corrasin!” He sighs to calm down and tells more about
this new foe. “Nicholas is, or was, the most unique and revered
student in our community. He’s a senior this year, but, unlike
Matt, Cain, or other high-leveled students, he’s
not
a boss student. It’s
mostly because of his own morality, if no one’s as strong as or
stronger than him, he won’t respect or accommodate them. Ever since
his first year as an intermediate, no other college student has
defeated him in battle, and his few equals have gone and graduated.
Oh, and he’s earned himself a few nicknames. The Wrecking Wave, the
Drowning Dread, the Predator, and, of course, four-time Alkalian
College Champion. Are you sorry for your decision to accept his
challenge, yet?”

A shiver ran down Matt’s back halfway
through Sean’s explanations of Nicholas Narqailein. Rose must have
had the same sensation when she asks him, “What are you going to do
now? Do you still want to fight this guy?”

As much as he doesn’t want to, Matt
knows he has to stay true to meeting Nicholas in combat, or his own
honor, and campaign, could suffer for it. “I’ve got no choice,
really,” he says, “but to fight, and try beating, him.”

***

Later that evening, Matt and his two
roommates head-off for the designated area Nicholas told them of.
As they get farther from the campus buildings while moving in the
northeast direction, they find themselves approaching a wall of
trees, the beginning of a forest. Upon coming closer to the line of
woods, they notice something at the northern end of it, a large
pillar of stone, the same height as the tallest trees near it. They
head toward it, having the sense that it is where Nicholas
indicated them to meet.

The pillar, a solid tan with different
colors of patterns all over it, is one of four in a court-like
space of around one-hundred-and-fifty yards long, and each pillar
is a corner of the rectangular surface. The ground area between the
pillars is made of stone as well, but the only patterns carved into
it are the irregular scars of ground breaking. In contrast, the
ground outside the perimeter formed by the pillars looks untouched.
At the far end of the ancient-looking field stands Nicholas, a dark
figure blending into the faded background around him.

While Sean and Rose stay on the grass,
Matt steps onto the rocky floor of the court and walks to become
linear with Nicholas in the middle of the field, about fifty yards
between them. The senior calls out to him, “So you came. At least
you have the courage to face your failure.”

Matt gulps before calling back to him,
“Any rules to go over, before we begin?”

“
There are a few. We will
fight until one of us surrenders by demorph. Through the duration
of this battle, we will not say anything to the other, so we can
remain concentrated on fighting and not on distracting words. And,
as soon we both morph, the corner pillars will form a barrier of
translucent energies, which prevents Alkalians and their powers,
even those of Dark Warriors, from crossing the court’s perimeter.
That means you won’t escape this battle until you demorph and the
barrier shuts down. Do you understand?”

“
Yes,” Matt
answers.

Nicholas growls, “Good. I am Nicholas
Narqailein, one of the proud Alkalians from the state of Corrasin.
I have worked hard, through sweat, tears, and blood, to be the most
powerful and non-faltered warrior I can be. But when I hear someone
like you is trying to put yourself on my same level of expertise,
all because of your special power, I won’t let you continue lying
to yourself. Now prepare yourself for your bitter taste of
reality!”

While Matt does so, steeling his nerve
and waiting for his opponent to morph, Sean muses from the
sidelines off the courtyard, “Well, he sounds confident. But hey, I
suppose I would be, too, if I can beat any student around
here!”

“
Uh huh, but, I’m
confused,” Rose admits. “What does he mean that, once they both
morph, the pillars will form a barrier?”

“
Hmm? Oh, that’s simple.
Look closely at this pillar here. Don’t these fancy, colored
patterns look familiar to you?”

“
Um, not really, they look
really complex, and…wait. Are those, runes?”

“
That’s correct, doll!
Sure enough, these are runes specifically drawn to create a barrier
between the objects they are present on, in this case four pillars,
to keep Alkalians in morph within their perimeter. It can also work
both ways, for as long as at least two guys are in morph within the
barrier, outside forces can’t reach them.” Rose gives him a puzzled
look before he explains, “Hey, I’ve studied runes for almost two
years now, so you can believe what I say on the
subject!”

Matt watches as Nicholas morphs in a
flash of purple, and is amazed by the type he becomes, it being one
he never would have guessed nor recognized if he hadn’t been
studying biology. In Nicholas’ place hovers an animal with an
elongated body and head, two limb fins near the body’s front, a
tall dorsal fin atop its back, and a fluke-like tail. The colossal
body is colored navy blue with large black spots behind the front
fins, around the dorsal fin, and before the tail fin, the eyes look
like black pearls, and a single hole in the creature’s forehead,
the blowhole nostril, is embedded in the thick skin. Gold yellow
stripes, forming a three-pointed shuriken around each eye, show
bright like war paint to make the face of the Beast look more
majestic and fearsome.

While Matt stares at Nicholas’ morph,
Rose is awestruck, as well. She gets out, “Whoa, wait. His morph
is, a Whale?”

“
Yep, that’s right,” Sean
nods. “The Killer Whale, to be exact.”

“
Ah, but, I don’t get it.
How could he be such a threat? I mean, sure, he’s using air balance
well enough there, but his morph is an aquatic type. They only
perform well underwater!”

“
Hah, as to that, just
wait for it.” Rose, not sure what he means, stands by and
watches.

Nicholas hovers in mid-air from his
air balance a few feet off the ground, and once Matt morphs two
things simultaneously happen. The runes on the pillars activate,
causing an aurora of shimmering lights to connect the pillars on
the court’s borders and become walls as high as the pillars’ tops,
a ceiling also forming between them, and blue fissures of magic web
over him before water rushes out of Nicholas in all directions as a
torrential flood. Reacting to the incoming water, Matt jumps high
into the air, letting the flood crash into the court barriers below
him while he floats on air balance. The court transforms into a
giant pool as the flood is contained, the water very deep with its
surface half way up the court walls’ height.

On the other side of the barrier wall,
Sean and Rose are now looking into blue water, so they have to step
back several yards to get a full view of the battlefield. Turning
to him in stunned confusion, Rose asks, “What did Nicholas just
do?”

“
Well, Rose,
that’s
precisely why
nobody has defeated him yet,” Sean explains. “Not only is he a big
Beast, but he also has quite the arsenal of water spells, including
the one that summons a huge volume of water instantaneously, which
puts the battlefield underwater. Normally, he would also have to
maintain mind control over the waters, so that it all doesn’t wash
away, but here, the barrier is doing that job for him. Anyway, as
you have learned in gym, most Alkalians don’t perform so well
underwater. All except the aquatic types.”

“
Yeah. So, as long as he
has all that water, Nicholas is unstoppable?”

“
Pretty much, yeah. The
only chance Matt has is if he stays out of the water. If he gets
pulled under, however, he will be, how do you say,
chum
?”

Understanding what he means, Rose
bites her bottom lip in worry while they both look back to watch
the battle unfold.

Looking across the pool, Matt sees
Nicholas emerge and charge toward him at great speed, his dorsal
fin protruding up from the water’s surface, and he forms his left
arm into a rifle and fires bursts at him. Nicholas dives underwater
to avoid the bullets, and Matt follows his descent, figuring he
would try attacking from the cover of the deep and planning how to
counter him. In the corner of his vision, however, something
catches Matt’s attention, and he sees an immense wave, starting
from where Nicholas dove, surging up and forward to engulf him.
With quick air balance Matt leaps over the wave and hovers in the
middle of the field, high above the water, glancing at the wave
smashing into the barrier while looking for a sign of Nicholas in
the water.

Suddenly, he hears the splash and
spray of rushing water, and turns to meet an upward jet stream
flipping him over. Falling downward, Matt stops himself before
smacking into the water, wondering how Nicholas launched the attack
without giving away his position. He doesn’t have time to think
about it when more jet streams spike up at him, which he thrusts
away from, before another, bigger splash happens to his left, and
he looks to find a mouth of sharp teeth flying toward
him.

Nicholas clamping onto him with his
jaws coincides with the mid-air tackle into Matt, and they both
dive beneath the water’s surface. The battle continues underwater
as Nicholas shakes his head, his teeth tearing through armor to
leave more wounds into Matt. After a few seconds of thrashing,
Nicholas tosses Matt out of his mouth and swims past him. Matt,
dazed and glowing with green wounds on his left arm and side, cocks
his head to follow his opponent’s movement through the
water.