Alkalians (45 page)

The Whale curves himself around
swiftly back at Matt, and when he tries to get out of the way he
finds with horror that his air balance is greatly slowed from the
water submerging him. Realizing he can’t move quickly enough, he
draws his large sword from his right hand and prepares to strike
Nicholas. Before contact, Nicholas glides past him, and Matt’s
blade cuts only through clear water. With great surprise, Matt
tries to counteract the maneuver, but Nicholas, despite his size,
is too fast. He circles around Matt, causing a funnel of water to
form that immobilizes Matt in its spinning.

As the funnel starts fading, a
disoriented Matt discovers Nicholas coming back at him. He goes
below him this time, and Matt then feels the sensation of being
launched upward. He breaks out of the water, nearly impaled by
another geyser spray, and plummets back to the pool’s surface, his
wounds threaded as a yellow aura. In the moment before hitting the
water, Matt sees an arc of water carried by a whale’s fluke coming
at him, to which he can only grimace, before it slams into him and
a huge splash from the impact swallows him from view.

Every time Nicholas outmatched Matt,
Rose and Sean cringed. Matt, if he wasn’t still in morph, looks
unconscious as he sinks in the pool, the dark orange wounds
radiating off him. Meanwhile, Nicholas swims to the far opposite
end of the pool, reverses directions with a sharp turn, and propels
back at his failing foe.

In his mind, detached from time, Matt
concludes this is the hardest battle he has ever had at the
college, and he reflects to other conflicts with fellow students.
Dante, Cain, Rose, and Buster. All four, important in their own
way. And now, in what may be his most needed victory yet, he is
being slaughtered.

As he meditates with the little time
he has left, something enters his subconscious thought without
warning. Matt realizes that, in his matches against Dante and Cain,
he had used his resolve, his will honed by anger and wisdom, to
unleash fury upon them. But, in his matches against Rose and
Buster, he lost due to his doubts and fears clouding his judgment
and hindering his focus. Matt then understands he can’t let those
emotions drag him down, and through his confidence and will could
rise to overcome any foe.

Matt’s eyes snap open, full of rage
and determination, and he begins the Countdown to
Destruction.

As Nicholas races towards him, Matt
summons a legion of his black clones, many with rifles aimed at
him, that fill his entire side of the pool. Nicholas ascends when
the clones shoot at him, and he breaches into the air over the pool
and wall of bullets below. Coming back down, he dive bombs into the
cluster of clones under the water, and while the shockwave of his
splash scatters the most of them he swims in a circle past the
rest, an aura of possessed water around him lashing out and
shattering each clone.

His assault concluded as he floats in
place, Nicholas darts his eyes about, looking for the real Matt.
Suddenly, he flinches when thrusts pierce his underbelly, as a few
clones that escaped his attacks by sinking below him then spring
back up and ram their swords into him. Nicholas does a barrel roll,
and the spinning water repels and scraps the clones. The Whale
stops to scan all about him again, and instead of finding Matt, he
spots something odd.

Outside the pool barrier, Sean and
Rose are still watching, but now they have paling expressions of
awe, eyes or mouth gaping wide open. A few seconds later, he then
realizes they have their attention on something below
him.

As Nicholas guesses what they are
looking at, it’s too late to avoid it. A giant, violet-and-white
laser fires up through the water at him, drilling into his wounds
and out his back, obliterating his dorsal fin, with devastating
force. The laser bursts out of the water, through the air, and into
the ceiling of the pool, sending ripples of impact through it and
the walls, while the wounds from Nicholas being impaled rapidly
flare into the red zone, his body bending in convulsion. In the
numbing agony of that moment he releases a cry of anger and immense
pain.

***

Split seconds after Matt fired his
ultimate weapon, a red demorph flash blurs the ravaging beam, the
court’s barrier shuts off, and the pool water spills out on all
sides as a flashflood. Rose and Sean brace themselves before the
water runs through them. Rose stays upright, only having her lower
body drenched, while Sean falls over, crying, “Spirits why!?” and
becomes drenched.

Back upon the cleared court floor,
Nicholas lays face-up, soaked by water and sweat with his hair in a
mangled mess, looking like a drowned man. He isn’t unconscious,
though, when he twitches in reacting to someone walking across the
puddles, and looks up. Still in his morph, Matt fixes a cold glare
down upon Nicholas, his black armor streaked with red wounds giving
him a more ominous, superior appearance. When Nicholas only locks
eyes with his to return the glare, Matt then demorphs and, with
hand extended, says, “That was a good duel, Nicholas.”

Confused temper and curiosity flicker
from Nicholas while he gets up without Matt’s help before he asks,
“What are you doing?”

Matt tries to explain, “Well, I won,
but you fought well enough that you almost defeated me. So, I’m
being a good sportsman and giving you due credit for…”

“
I deserve no credit from
you,” Nicholas snaps back. “You, a mere freshman with rare powers,
defeated me, a supreme senior with more experience and honed
skills. Such a feat should be impossible, but it happened. That
only means that I have failed in my duties as the better man, and I
deserve no pity. You shouldn’t be honoring someone weaker than
you.”

Matt, at first baffled, replies, “But,
what I’m trying to say is, oh, how would I put it? You are a great
fighter, and I want to respect you for that. You see, I’ve been
taught it’s wrong to make the loser feel bad, or make someone look
weaker than you. If you are cruel and heartless toward everyone you
best, no one’s going to like or care for your
accomplishments.”

Nicholas ignores everything Matt says
until that last sentence. An upset attitude crossing him, he stomps
off, leaving Matt and his two friends at the stone court without a
word, heading back towards the campus.

Matt is left puzzled, wondering what
to make of Nicholas, when Rose and Sean come up to him. Sean,
dripping water from head to toe, tells him, “Oh, don’t fret about
him. Let Nicholas sulk, while you rejoice! It’s official, Matt,
you’re now the strongest student on campus!”

“
Whoa, Sean, we can’t go
boasting that,” Rose objects. “Remember, Buster’s already beat Matt
in a fight.”

Matt reminds himself how Rose has also
defeated him. After a reflecting moment, he notices Rose’s wet
pants and Sean completely soaked. “Hey, are you two
alright?”

“
Oh, I’m sure our thorny
Rose here is alright, and I’ll be fine, as soon as we get back to
our cabin,” assures Sean, ignoring the scowl Rose gives him. By the
way he replies, he doesn’t seem to care he was soaked in cold water
during mid-autumn. He glances back to her, stating, “Anyway, you
listen to me, Rose, and I’ll tell you just how Matt’s the new best
of the best!”

“
Hah, oh really? I can’t
wait to hear your reasons, no matter how ridiculous they
are!”

As the three of them leave the ancient
court, with Sean and Rose getting into an argument about Matt’s
standings, Matt can’t help feeling proud of himself on the inside.
He defeated one of the most powerful and feared students at the
college. What could he accomplish next?

***

Later into the night that day, as the
moon dares to peek from behind a cloudy sky, students are yet
brawling each other for points in the Royale Project. On one of the
open plains surrounding the campus, the scene is a battle royale.
Numerous Alkalians in their battle morphs are fighting
left-and-right across the field, either focused in one-on-one
confrontations or randomly launching attacks at the opponents
closest to them. Once a student demorphs, he-or-she would
instinctively stay low to the ground in whatever defeated posture
they are left in, knowing it would be very dangerous to try getting
up and running through the chaos of the battles around
them.

Amidst the carnage of the melee, there
are a few characters of importance showing themselves as the
champions of the battlefield. Cain, without a scratch of damage on
him, is wild with pleasure as he strikes down every foe unfortunate
to be within range of his sword and magic. Buster, his four guns
each a different make and blazing, rains his fire power upon
students in every direction, either close or afar, also in a jolly
mood with minimal damage on his large frame. And James, in his twin
Reaper morphs, portrays Death itself as he swoops down upon and
barrages anyone with orange or red wounds to finish them off by
scythe, talons, or magic.

The madness of the battle soon begins
to wane as there are only a few students still in morph, including
Cain, James, and Buster. With the action becoming easier to
predict, those already demorphed take their chances to stand up and
hurry to safer distances, if they are able to move or are yet
conscious. Cain, James, and Buster, each caught up in taking down a
final foe before him, are realizing the combat is about to become
only between them when an unexpected event happens.

Without warning, out of the darkness
of the night, a single morphing flash is followed by a tall wall of
water rushing across the field towards them. The wave is so sudden
and fast that only the black James has time to fly up and out of
its way, and the rest of the fighters, including the white James,
Cain, and Buster, are ran over and crushed by the freak wave, all
of them except for the boss students instantaneously
demorphing.

Being the one closest to it when the
flood appeared, the white James finds himself now flailing in the
water, his vision disoriented and his battle morph fractured from
yellow wounds and his wings snapped. The black James, meanwhile, is
powerless to help his counterpart as he can’t see anything clearly
in the black water below. Something big and fast then crashes into
the white one, sharp teeth sinking into both of his legs, and pulls
him under the waves.

When the black James realizes who must
be behind this surprise flood, and now has his white self in his
jaws, an arrow of water is shot at him, taking out his wings and
knocking him off air balance, letting him fall to the angry waters.
Before he lands in them, a drilling jet stream carrying the white
James sprays up and hits him, sending both of them high into the
air. With orange or red wounds shared between them, they both know
they are about to have a near-drowning experience as one last gush
of water, wide in diameter and spinning like a twister, catches
them, grinds into their wounds and bashes them against each other,
and spits them out in opposite directions, each one demorphing at
the same time before splashing into the sea.

After the James’ disappear beneath the
waves, two cannons stick out of the water before Buster emerges on
his side of the sea. With his torso and legs glowing from green
wounds, he has been struggling to swim up to the water’s surface
due to the high density and weight of his battle morph’s body. As
he is about to work at lifting himself into mid-air with air
balance, steam spouts several yards ahead of him, followed by a
tall dorsal fin breaking the surface and racing towards him.
Cursing his misfortune, all Buster can do is brace himself as the
Whale slams into him, his wounds bursting into yellow beside the
splash of water from the impact.

The next thing Buster knows, the Whale
chomps into his left thigh and dives, dragging him underwater in
his descent. Reacting as quickly as he can, Buster aims both of his
cannons at the great mass of flesh between him and the dorsal fin,
but his cannons are then bent and disabled by some great pressure
squeezing them. His green eyes blinking, he notices the blue aura
of magically charged water containing both him and the Whale, the
cause of the pressure that continues constricting him.

Once his wrists, ankles, elbows,
knees, shoulders, and neck are all mangled into spots of dark
orange wounds, Buster feels the jaws release him and the rest of
the Whale swim pass him, leaving behind the blue aura that carries
him back to the surface. The aura dispenses when he breaks through
the water again, lamely floating in the tossing waves with his
wounds near red, and he thinks bitterly of why Nicholas Narqailein
had to jump into this battle as the Whale appears above him,
leaping out of the water, and body slams into him with a huge
splash.

In the time after the tsunami engulfed
him, Cain has been lost and immobile in the underwater currents
juggling him about, his battle morph still without any damage on
him. He gets a break when he finds himself in calmer water, and he
takes the opportunity to survey the black water around him. He
spots a demorph flash in the distance, and focuses in on it to see
a lone, human figure floundering in the water, dwarfed by the Whale
swimming away from him. His worst fears confirmed, Cain recognizes
the new foe as Nicholas, whose black eye with the three gold
stripes bordering it glistens upon seeing him.