FARHAYVEN: VENGEANCE (129 page)

     Clover gasps in horror. Lance leans forward in fear and concern. Master Calnen looks away in sadness. Spirit growls in anger. The Wind Elementhars in the crowd cheer and clap their hands in celebration. Realising the precarious situation that he is in at the moment, Ray hastily conjures flames at Master Shay’s face to distract him while he slides backwards out of range of his rapier and dagger. Master Shay turns his face sideways while simultaneously stepping back a few steps to avoid the flames, and finds the tip of his rapier too far away from Ray to do any harm. Ray curses himself for getting cut at both wrists. Master Shay congratulates himself for disarming Ray. The cocky smile on the Grand Elementhar’s face is a total contrast to Ray’s worrisome frown.

     Warm crimson liquid drips steadily from the tips of Ray’s fingers. Ray backs away slowly. Master Shay advances confidently. Perhaps the fight will not be as drawn out as he had thought earlier. Placing a finger over the wound on the back of his left wrist, Ray exerts his soul energy to produce heat to cauterize the wound and stop the bleeding. Then he does the same for his right wrist. With a flick of his wrist, Master Shay sends out a gust of strong wind that lifts Ray’s staff into the air and sends it flying out of the stadium itself. This action consumes a significant amount of soul energy, but Master Shay feels that he can afford it, seeing that Ray has only the gemstones on his headband and his very own soul left to use as an energy source; as opposed to himself who has the gemstones in his rapier, dagger, headband and forearm guards as his energy source, in addition to his own soul as well. Ray’s heart sinks. There is now no way for him to regain his staff. He pulls out his knife, but unfortunately, it is just a common knife. He had not sorcerised it. He curses himself again. Why had he not thought of sorcerising his knife
?

     Focussing his thoughts and drawing upon his soul energy, Master Shay crosses his arms, thereby executing a Shearing Gale Spell. Immediately a strong gust of wind blows at Ray from his right to left at the lower legs and another equally powerful gust blows from his left to right at the shoulders, flipping him to the ground. Master Shay charges in and tries to stab the fallen Ray with his rapier. Ray rolls backwards to avoid the attack. Master Shay tries to stab Ray again. Again he fails as Ray manages to roll away. Ray, realising that he is in an extremely precarious situation, touches a palm to the ground and executes a Flaming Wall Spell. Immediately, a thick wall of condense flames erupts between him and Master Shay. The intense heat knocks Master Shay back a few steps, thus buying time for Ray to get back on his feet. Seizing the opportunity to harness his opponent’s temporary loss of mental balance, Ray follows up with a series of Heat Bursts, sending them through the Flaming Wall straight at the Grand Elementhar. Master Shay slices at the Heat Bursts as he steps backward in retreat. Ray jumps through the weakening Flaming Wall and throws a Heat Spear at the Grand Elementhar. As Master Shay slices the Heat Spear with his rapier, Ray manages to move in, close the gap between them and slices the Grand Elementhar’s wrist with his knife. Master Shay screams out in pain and drops his rapier. He retreats back a few steps to avoid giving Ray the opportunity to follow up.

     Clover and Lance simultaneously shout out in joy. The crowd gasp in astonishment. Spirit lets out a howl of excitement. Master Calnen can only shake his head in sadness.

     The Grand Elementhar uses his element manipulation skills to stop his bleeding, since he was also trained in the water element, and blood is of this element. Meanwhile, Ray bends down to pick up the rapier with his left hand. Immediately, his hand begins to freeze. The pain is excruciating. He yells out in agony and has no choice but to drop the sword.

     “Ha
!
Ha
!
Ha
!
Safeguards _ I have cast of these upon my rapier, Ray; so enjoy the stinging chill of the wind element
!
” says the Grand Elementhar sarcastically.

     Ray tries to move his left fingers, but to not avail. They feel numb. The pain is still consuming his mind. Finally, he decides to momentarily engulf his left hand with fire generated by his right fingers, thus using up more of his stored soul energy. The pain dies down as his left hand warms up. He looks at Master Shay with renewed anger. He kicks away the rapier, ensuring that the Grand Elementhar cannot regain his sword.

     “Betray _ tell me, why did you do of this to us
?
” asks Ray.

     “Betray _ I did not do of this to you, Ray; so do not be delusional,” responds Master Shay.

     “Liar
!
” yells Ray as he sends a Heat Spear towards the Grand Elementhar.

     The Grand Elementhar absorbs the attack with his sorcerised dagger and immediately counter-attacks with a Horizontal Tornado, to which Ray is forced to dive sideways to avoid.

     “Massacred _ you had done of this to my order so that you can become Grand Elementhar
!
” accuses Ray.

      “Massacred _ I have not done of this to your order and I did not need to do so to become Grand Elementhar; for Master Santlyn was ill and dying anyway and I would have achieved this title upon his death,” refutes Master Shay.

     “Reason _ what is it of this then did you massacre them
!?
” questions Ray.

     “Reason _ there is none of this at all
!
” denies the Grand Elementhar.

     “Liar
!
” accuses Ray again as he charges in.

     Ray steps his right leg forward and stabs at Grand Elementhar Shay, who steps sideway to his left to try to cut Ray’s wrist. But Ray stops his charge half way as he was only feinting and pulls his right hand backwards to avoid the cut. He then executes a Reverse Alligator Kick with his left leg, and slams his left heel into the Grand Elementhar’s jaw which sends him spiralling to the ground. Ray touches a palm to the ground and executes a Volcano Strike. The resulting eruption flings Master Shay through the air. The Grand Elementhar engulfs his entire body in a protective gust of wind to prevent the hot, molten lava from killing him. But the heat and the force of the eruption are so intense that some of his flesh gets singed and the extremities of his robes get burnt.

     “Mistake _ you have made of this in assuming that I would charge, for I was just feinting
!
” says Ray.

     Master Shay gets back on his feet. He is lightly injured, but his pride is mortally wounded. He is angry. He is furious. He decides that ‘play time’ is over. The time has come for him to teach Ray a lesson in humility. He executes a Vacuum Choke Spell, which is an Advanced Wind Element Spell. Suddenly, all the air around Ray is sucked away. He cannot draw in his breath. He feels like his chest is being squeezed by a large and powerful python. Ray begins to suffocate. He begins to feel dizzy and disorientated. He drops his knife and falls to his knees. His chest is extremely heavy and his head spins like a tornado. He is dying. He utters silent curses in his mind. This is not how things are supposed to turn out.

     Master Shay walks casually over to Ray, kicks away Ray’s knife and pulls off Ray’s headband. Examining the jewel encrusted headpiece with mock interest, he then throws it far away out of the stadium.

      “Feinting _ you were of this, but I am not
!
” says the Grand Elementhar.

     Ray writhes on the ground like an over-active worm. Bright spots begin to clutter his vision. Ray tries to execute a Heat Burst at Master Shay, but without success. He just cannot focus his mind enough to draw out a sufficient amount of soul energy to make it work. The flames keep fading out before they can be condensed into a flaming sphere. In an act of frustration, Ray slams his fist to the ground along with whatever residual soul energy that he has left. A small Volcano Strike occurs, barely the strength and loudness of a firecracker. The resultant dust gets thrown in all directions and into Master Shay’s eyes. The sudden irritation breaks his concentration and also breaks the Vacuum Choke Spell that he is casting. The rush of cooling, refreshing, life-sustaining air into Ray’s lungs is relief beyond any description. He cannot help but to cough as he greedily draws in the many breaths of air. And before the Grand Elementhar can recover his composure, Ray hastily executes a Heat Burst at him, grabs his knife and rolls away. Master Shay absorbs the spell easily enough with his sorcerised dagger, but gets pushed backwards a step from the impact.

     Ray gets back on his feet. Master Shay exhales a breath of frustration.

     “Mistake _ you have made another of this, Shay, for when you caught me in your spell, you have failed to build a shield as a precaution against my reaction and now a simple, power-deprived and incomplete Volcano Strike has defeated your powerful Vacuum Choke,” comments Ray.

     “Powerful _ of this, I am more than you, so I can afford these mistakes but you cannot, Ray
!
” retorts an arrogant Master Shay.

    “Betray _ of this, why did you do to my order, Shay
!?
Why
!?
” asks Ray again.

     “Enough
!
” shouts Master Shay as he sends out a hail of Frozen Darts at Ray.

     Ray raises a Flaming Wall, the most intense one that he can conjure. The Frozen Darts melt and evaporate as they pass through the wall. Another barrage of Frozen Darts hit the wall, and these too melt. But Ray’s wall starts to weaken. With a final burst of energy, Master Shay sends a Horizontal Tornado at Ray, and as it hits the wall, it punches through and blasts Ray with a burst of his own flames. Ray gets knocked off his feet from the blast and loses his knife.

     Ray’s head spins. His body feels numb. He feels around for his knife, but cannot seem to find it. Master Shay steps towards Ray. An evil grin is painted on his face. Ray tries to execute a Heat Burst. The flaming sphere travels but a few paces before fading out. He shakes his head hard, trying his best to clear it. He executes another Heat Burst. This time the fireball shoots towards the Grand Elementhar, who cuts it down with his sorcerised dagger, the evil grin no longer reflected on his face. In its place is worn a stern, angry look instead. Ray gets to his feet. He is desperate now. He is without a weapon and he has only a limited amount of soul energy left. With no other choice left to him, he decides to make an all out attack. He shoots off a series of Heat Bursts at the Grand Elementhar while running at him. As the Grand Elementhar gets busy blocking the Heat Bursts, Ray side-steps at the last moment and then charges in with a fully formed Heat Spear in his hand. With all his might, Ray stabs the Grand Elementhar in his right shoulder with the Heat Spear. The resultant explosion knocks Ray back slightly but sends Master Shay flying backwards.

     Master Shay lies semi-conscious on the ground. Ray seizes the opportunity to look for his knife and manages to retrieve it. Meanwhile, the Grand Elementhar gets back up on his feet after he has managed to heal his wound. The look on his face can only be mirrored by the look on Ray’s face. The anger, resentment and even desperation on both their faces say it all. Both men are equally desperate now, more so when they realised that the other person is just as good, or if not, slightly better than themselves; and defeating the other person may well mean losing one’s own life in the process. It is the case of ‘to kill means to die’. And at this point, both men are willing to make this sacrifice.

     Master Shay still has plenty of soul energy left. But not so, it seems, with Ray. To the Grand Elementhar, what his next move should be is as clear a day. Summoning up his soul energy, he executes a Disintegration Hurricane Spell. The air around Ray begins to spin. A cloud of dirt begins to form around him, spinning around him like a merry-go-round and forming a funnel from the ground to the sky above.

     The spinning air picks up in velocity. The ‘whooshing’ sound becomes deafening. Ray begins to feel pain in his eardrums. His nose starts bleeding. He feels his limbs being pulled apart. His knife slips out of his hands. The air rushes out of his lungs. Ray is at a lost. He does not know how to counter this spell. He falls to his knees. He is suffocating. He is in pain. He is dying. In desperation, he tries to execute a Heat Burst at the Grand Elementhar, hoping to break his concentration and thus, ending the spell which he is casting. But the flaming sphere just gets absorbed into the rotating chaos that surrounds him.

     Then an idea occurs to Ray. He fires off a series of Heat Bursts at the rotating wind around him, in the opposite direct of the rotation. The Heat Bursts disintegrates upon contact with the wall of the funnel and gets absorbed, but manages to slow down its rotation a bit. Seizing his opportunity, Ray dives through the funnel wall.

     It feels to Ray like as though he had jumped into a pool of water from fifty paces high. His body gets badly battered. His clothes are ripped in the extremities and he sustains massive cuts from the flying debris. He gets spun around and is finally flung out of the funnel. He lands hard on the ground and suffers more cuts and gashes. He feels like a rag doll. Every part of him is battered and bruised.