Forge Versus Phantom

Scales covered Ed's body as he cautiously watched for any attacks. Flames blasted from his feet as he flew upwards to escape the maze. Unfortunately, regardless of whether he flew up or down, the maze continued to follow him.

'Damn!' He ground his teeth in frustration as a large ball of flames appeared in his hands. He hurled it towards the maze, but it went straight through the wall and vanished from his sight. He tried following behind it through the wall but was immediately blocked as it turned solid. 'I knew Phantom was going to be a pain.' He sighed to himself. 'It'll take a while to wear down his mana. That's the main prerequisite to my victory.'

He cautiously made his way through the maze. Each hallway was exactly the same. A dark void for the ceiling and floor, animal head ornaments lit with green flames, and blood-red walls on each side. After walking for what felt like a quarter of an hour, he arrived at a large dome-shaped room. The ceiling was replaced by a brilliant blue sky, and the floor became a lush grassland. White birds soared in the skies as gentle winds brushed past Ed's body.

Suddenly, a middle-aged man appeared within the room. He was dressed like a fisherman, wearing bright red clothing while wielding a fishing rod. The ground around him transformed into a small sea, leaving only a small chunk of land in the center where he stood. He sat down cross-legged on the tiny island as he leisurely cast his fishing hook into the water. He glanced towards Ed and waved. "Yo! I'll be your first opponent."

Ed frowned. "Is Phantom playing some kind of game?"

"He likes to do stuff like this." The fisherman shrugged. "Something about it reminding him of his childhood. Video games I think he called them?"

'Video games?' Ed thought for a moment before remembering what he had read about them. They were basically interactive books or something. One of man's favorite hobbies before the apocalypses. 'So the old man played video games when he was a child and uses that as part of his fighting methodology?' He shook his head. "It doesn't matter what he uses. I'll just crush any obstacle he throws in my path."

"You're a confident one." The fisherman smiled. "We'll see how long that lasts." He flicked his rod, sending the hook out from the water towards Ed. A silver glow covered the fishing hook and line as crackling lightning covered it.

"Humph!" Ed snorted in disdain as he released a strong blast of flames towards the fishing line, incinerating it to ash. Suddenly, a blast of water slammed into Ed. "Ugh!" He groaned and took several steps back as a hole appeared in his shoulder, blood pouring out from within it. Flames released from his feet as he immediately took to the sky. He used wind from his hands to form a weak defensive barrier. "That was a high-pressure water attack." He said towards the fisherman. "The lightning fishing hook was an illusion? Or maybe you're an illusion too and the real esper is elsewhere within the room?"

"Yup." The fisherman replied nonchalantly. "Not much point in using illusions if we were to be upfront about the fighting, right?"

Ed frowned as he cautiously examined his surroundings. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary. Suddenly, he felt the surrounding winds change slightly. He hurriedly dodged to the side as another stream of high-pressure water shot past him. "Tsk." He clicked his tongue. 'Best to just brute force it.' The winds surrounding him disappeared as he changed tactics. A mixture of fire and light formed invisible flames within his left hand. A mixture of water and dark formed corrosive water within his right hand. He slowly pushed the two opposing forces together.

BANG! The two opposing forces reacted violently to each other, sending a strong shock wave of hot and cold energies throughout the entire room. The explosion of mana seemed to interfere with the illusion, causing it to flicker several times. The fisherman disappeared as it was replaced by a pretty young woman hiding within the waters surrounding the island.

"There you are." Ed grinned as he aimed towards her. Two blasts of plasma shot from his arms and slammed into the water. A high-pitched scream rang out as blood rose to the surface of the water.

'Did I win?' He wondered as he waited for something to happen. Slowly, the room began to fade away. Once again, he was within the tedious maze. "Do you really think I'll keep playing your games?" He said aloud. Invisible flames and corrosive water appeared in his hands as he repeated his earlier attack. The maze trembled as it started fading away. It took several tries before the maze vanished entirely. Once again, he was flying in the night sky in the middle of nowhere.

"You're making things quite boring." An aged voice said as Phantom appeared from nowhere. "To kill such a pretty young woman. No manners in the younger generations these days. Have you never been taught chivalry?"

"I'm more of an equal opportunity kind of guy." Ed replied. "You know, I run the whole Harmony show and such? Equality is kind of our thing."

"Oh?" Phantom rubbed his beard as he nodded. "That does make sense. Well, it matters not." He grinned. "We still have plenty of games to play. I've brought dozens of espers along after all."

Suddenly, a chorus of screams echoed through the skies.

"MORDY?!" A high-pitched voice screamed.

"What are you doing? WHY?!" A man's voice trembled.

"TRAITOR! TRAITOROUS FILTH! DIE!" A deep voice boomed.

"Hmm?" Phantom frowned as he looked to his left.

Ed also looked in that direction but saw nothing. He frowned as he released another strong shock wave of opposing elements in that direction. The sky in that area destabilized, revealing the scene of carnage within.

The ground in that area had turned into a swamp of dark acid. White skeletons floated within it, most in the process of melting further. A sludge monster sat within the middle of the acid swamp. It was over 10 meters tall. Several espers were lobbing elemental attacks towards it from the banks of the swamp.

"Looks like you miscalculated?" Ed grinned as he looked towards Phantom.

"Indeed." The old man sighed while shaking his head. "It would seem Mordy really pulled one over on me. A shame really. I rather liked that boy. Espers with nearly invulnerable forms such as him are quite rare, and he showed a good temperament for picking things up quickly. I had planned on making him my right-hand man in the future."

"You should meet Dupe then." He replied. "Bastard has the most ridiculous power I've ever seen. If he wasn't so interested in being an observer or background character, then every major power in the world would be in for a major headache."

"True." Phantom agreed. "I've seen his files. Quite the power that one has."

"You aren't going to go help your men?" Ed questioned.

"They're outside my range I'm afraid." He shook his head.

'Hmm?' Ed thought the statement over for a moment before smiling. "In other words, it's not that you don't want to help them but that you can't, meaning your real body is somewhere nearby. All powers have drawbacks. Maybe you can't move while using your power too much? Or you locked yourself up in a secure underground compound for the duration of the fight?"

"And how would I fight you in the city if either of those were true?" He questioned.

"Right..." Ed nodded. "You managed to follow me here almost immediately." He rubbed his chin as he eyed his surroundings. "You made me wait for a few minutes while your espers arrived. Assuming your power did have some kind of limitation, you'd be safest with your comrades during that time..." He grinned as he aimed towards something on the ground, flames appearing within his hands. It was the carriage that the espers had arrived in.

"Bastard!" Phantom yelled as he dived in front of Ed. The flames blasted straight through him towards the carriage. A figure dashed out from the carriage, avoiding the attack in the nick of time.

As Phantom's real body appeared, the surroundings changed once again. The night sky grew bright as the sun appeared. The swampy lands shifted as it was revealed they were still just outside of Orlando. Mordy's 10-meter-tall body vanished, revealing his true form collapsed on the ground. He was surrounded by his former comrades' corpses, but three espers still stood proudly.

'What the hell?!' Ed's eyes widened in shock as he took in his surroundings. It only took a moment for him to realize the truth. "You had me in an illusion the entire time? You were never trying to beat me. If you were, then you would have sent all your espers in at once. Instead, you were just buying time. You made me feel as if only a couple hours passed despite it already being morning?"

Phantom slowly clapped his hands while smiling. "Mostly correct. It was actually morning already when I first attacked you. I do love when people understand things without my explanations being necessary. You see, I had no desire to waste the lives of my men on killing you. It'd be much easier to just wait for the president to arrive and kill you himself. It would give him greater satisfaction and the end-result for me would be the same." He frowned as he glanced towards Mordy. "Though it seems I failed miserably in some areas."

"To maintain so many illusions at once. You should be pretty exhausted by now." Ed grinned as he replied. "Looks like it's almost time for my victory."

"Phantom's body slowly faded away. "Indeed. I've used up far too much mana. But it's almost time. The President should arrive by noon. In the meantime, my three precious espers will take care of you." His body vanished, leaving no trace behind.

Ed glanced at the sun in the sky. 'Noon? About an hour then. It's going to be a major pain in the ass tricking Phantom to come out with his real body.' He landed on the ground as he waited for the enemy.

The three enemy espers flapped their golden wings as they headed towards Ed. The one on the left was dressed as an odd-looking knight, as if he was headed towards a renaissance fair. The one on the right was a stunningly beautiful woman, with long golden hair and blue eyes. In the center was a handsome young man, with brown hair and blue eyes. Together, they looked like a prince and princess being accompanied by a young knight.

"You shall pay for your misdeeds!" The knight's deep voice boomed as he stepped forward, pointing a large halberd towards Ed.

The blond woman pointed towards the knight, releasing a white light from her finger tip. The light covered the knight completely, seeming to grant him more strength.

"DIE!" The knight screamed as he swung the halberd downwards. The earth exploded as Ed jumped backwards to dodge.

"Is that it?" Ed frowned. 'There's no way the knight and the blond could take out Mordy with just this much.' He glanced towards the brown-haired man. 'Meaning he's the real threat.' Flames blasted from all four limbs as he shot forward. His body spun in midair as he released a strong roundhouse flame kick towards the man's head.

"Humph!" The young man snorted as he caught Ed's leg in midair. He casually threw Ed backwards, causing Ed to tumble against the ground.

'The hell?!' Ed stared in shock as he stood up and brushed the dirt off his body. 'To withstand my chimera strength? Not to mention the momentum of the strong wind and flames?' Thoughts rapidly fluttered past his mind as he came to a hypothesis. 'Only older espers should have bodies that strong from all the mana they've absorbed over time. Therefore, there are only three possibilities. One, he has some type of body cultivation technique. Extremely unlikely considering that Nexus didn't even have such a thing for sale, and the other espers in Phantom's group aren't this strong. Two, his power is directly related to body strength. Also unlikely, as those types almost always have physical deformities like Stone from Blood-Lust. Three, this young man is actually Phantom in disguise. That's gotta be it!' His eyes slowly narrowed as he regained his tranquility.

Flames blasted from Ed's hands and feet as he shot backwards, heading towards the woman from before. Her eyes widened in shock, as she hadn't expected Ed to switch targets so soon. The knight immediately dived in front of her, taking up a defensive position with his halberd.

"Too easy." Ed sighed as he released a blast of flames toward the ground, sending him hurling through the air over the knight. A blast of high-pressure water followed, leaving a hole in the woman's head and killing her.

"Bastard!" The knight yelled as he swung his halberd repeatedly, blasts of earth firing from the ground beneath it.

Ed pretended to struggle deflecting the attacks, though he allowed no injuries to his body. It would be too much for him to fake struggling that much. Meanwhile, he pulled out a mini mana-radio and whispered some orders into it. "Gunther. I couldn't make it to the original location I planned on for the ambush. Head back towards the south side of Orlando. I'll buy time for 30 minutes."

The fight continued as Ed bought time. He glanced towards the young man who was watching the fight without any intention of stepping in. 'Doesn't look like he's falling for it. He probably doesn't care since his goal is buying time until the President arrives. It's going to be a close fight.' He occasionally fired some light attacks towards the spectating young man, forcing him to defend himself. 'Can't allow the bastard to recover mana during the fight.'

"I'm here." Gunther's voice rang from the mana-radio.

"Good." Ed replied with a smile. He held back no longer as a blade of high-pressure water blasted through the knight's stomach, tearing out a large hole within it. The knight collapsed to the ground, completely dead.

Ed walked confidently towards the young man that had been watching. "Are you ready to finish this, Phantom? You don't have enough mana remaining for any significant illusions, so what will you do now?"

The man grinned as his form changed to that of an old man. "Indeed." He nodded. "But you forgot one thing." He rolled his shoulders, preparing to fight. "I'm stronger than you."

Ed glanced at Mordy, who was lying unconscious nearby. "Why didn't you finish him off?" He questioned.

"He may still be useful once I kill you." Phantom replied. "He easily took out all the espers on my side. The other two only survived because I interfered. If I can tame him, then he'll be worth saving. Maybe I'll purchase some mana-collars while I'm at it."

"Is that so?" Ed nodded. "I'd prefer to get this over with before the President arrives, so let's finish this."