Chapter 33 - Evan Versus Blyke

A burst of lightning streamed forward, only to be met by a sheet of pink light that was conjured by Evan.

Upon seeing his attack fail to do any considerable damage, Blyke then blitzed forward and around the barrier to strike from behind as the red sparks of electricity continued to flash all over his body.

Though, unfortunately for him, Evan reacted quickly and in an instant, a sphere appeared around the small man that completely protected him from all sides.

And while Blyke struck with all the might that his lightning possessed, he found himself not being able to make a single dent in Evan's shield.

Evan laughed as he watched Blyke continue to shoot bolts of lightning in vain. "Give it up." He said. "You're not going to be able to do anything. Even for a Stronghold, breaking a Regelia barrier would take a great deal of raw strength."

"Shut up!" Blyke retorted as he concentrated as much lightning as he could into one central sphere that he rammed against the pink wall.

The lightning and shield met once more as Blyke strained himself to break a limit he had never passed. He recalled their journey through hell, he recalled being unable to defeat the mass of blackness and most of all, he recalled his weakness against the Demon Lords.

For him to become a man like Raiden Regelia, he would have to be stronger than he was now. So he funneled as much power as he could and let it all loose in a gigantic flash of red.

And when it was all over, Blyke was panting with his hands dangling in front of him. And when he regained his vision (after having been blinding by his own light), he saw that the front of Evan's barrier, had been shattered and fragmented. But alas, it was not broken.

Blyke clenched his fist as a spark of lightning zapped along it. He walked forward and made to land another punch against the barrier but unexpected to him, a pink cubical mass appeared over his head and soon fell on to him, pinning him to the ground.

And at that, Evan released the sphere that surrounded himself and walked forward to Blyke that was squished under the pink cube.

"You scared me there." The small man said as he wiped the sweat that had formed on his forehead.

"Hey, get this thing off of me!" Blyke shouted as he swept a whip of lightning at Evan's feet, who only blocked it quite easily using a shield.

"I don't know about that…" Evan placed a finger to his cheek. "I mean this is a match and all, so I can't just help you. Though if you were to surrender…" Evan tilted his head with a devious smile.

"Not a chance!" Blyke yelled as he continued to swipe slashes of red lightning towards Evan, who now backed way with a barrier in front of him.

"Fine then, stay there and die from blood constriction." Evan taunted.

Blyke continued to struggle but to his dismay, he could not squirm his way from under the pink cube. And if he were honest, he would say that the weight was quite great and that he had begun to feel its effect since his legs were beginning to feel numb. So he decided he had no choice and with a downed head to the concrete floor, he said quietly "I surrender."

"Hmmmm." Evan placed a hand over his ear as he leaned lower to the ground and nearer to Blyke. "I didn't quite hear that. Mind saying it again, maybe a little louder this time?"

"I give up, alright!" Blyke shouted to which Evan laughed and with a simple thought, the cube disappeared into nothing, freeing the once trapped Blyke.

"You know, I could get used to this Regelia ability. It's much heavier than my clouds and while that does mean it's strenuous to keep it floating, it also gives me a stronger defence and more impactful attacks." Evan said to himself as she smiled at his well-deserved victory. He then reached a hand out to Blyke who was still on the ground and the red haired boy grabbed it, pulling himself upright.

"I won't lose next time." Blyke said as he now towered over the small Evan.

"We'll see about that." Evan smiled. "But for now, let's go do something else."

And at that, the two rejoined Teya, who was overjoyed to have their company again, and soon left the arena with Evan emerging as the victor.

~

Meanwhile, turning back time to the previous night, near the mountains to the North of the Kingdom, Rosal, Elliot and Antos had regrouped with the villagers. And Rosal, after having seen a doctor (who more or less didn't do anything else but replace the torn cloth that was wrapped around Rosal's wound with some bandages), now made his way down to the forest with his companions in tow. He, for one, had grown tired of the disgusted looks that the villagers gave him after having seen his face. And to think, it was only recently had they had called him a hero.

But that aside, Rosal also wanted to check on their captive. And as expected, that man had been killed. So now, they were left without any leads on the Rifts that had opened about a week prior.

"What do we do now?" Elliot asked with folded arms.

"I suppose that we should head back to the capital." Rosal replied as he rose from where he had been crouching next to the bloodied corpse of their former captive.

"And what about the villagers, do we just leave them like that? The two of you did quite a reckoning on their houses and roads." the golden hair man asked with contempt burning in his eyes.

"If you care about it that much, then why don't you just stay here." Rosal replied to which Elliot said "I suppose I will. Make sure to tell the King that the people here need assistance. He, for one, will actually care and do something about it." And then the self-righteous man walked away to the direction where the village was to be found.

"And what will you do?" Rosal asked to the towering Antos who stood beside him.

With his hands braced behind his neck, the man yawned with sleepy eyes and said with no energy whatsoever. "I guess I'll just come with you. After breaking so many houses, the villagers don't want me here as much as you." The tall man then turned around and also began walking back up to the mountain. "But first, I need some damn sleep. All this fighting through the night was just detrimental to my good night's rest."

Rosal, too, also began to walk back to the villager after staring at the corpse for quite some time. While he eagerly wanted to know what was happening, he also needed rest himself. So for the time being, he would return to the inn and get some sleep until morning came. Then he would begin his march back to the capital.

~

Emma and Skull continued to the end of the tunnel and to their dismay, while they were a set of stairs that lead upwards, the end of those stairs had been blocked up by some sort of door

And as it were now, they could not seemingly find any way to open said door from the inside. So they could only assume that it would only be possible to open it from the other side.

With that thought in their head, the two supposed that the only way to leave would be to destroy the stone door.

But while Emma possessed an innate strength that was technically higher than a demon lord status, she was still merely a child and her strength was nowhere near where it would be in the foreseeable future. So she for one, could not hope to break the stone so she looked the tall skeleton beside her with questioning eyes "Can you do it?"

At that, Skull Jones walked forward and pulled back his fist. He let loose his power with a mighty swing. And to no one's surprise, nothing happened. Only a small thud of bone and stone colliding was heard and that sound then echoed along the secret chamber.

As you might have guessed, Skull Jones, while undead, was still more or less an ordinary human and as such, he did not possess any overwhelming strength.

Though Sally, on the other hand, most certainly did possess supernatural traits. And the horse soon raced down the stairs to leave the two in darkness. And when Skull and Emma saw her returning, it was in a blazing heat of glory and speed that then rammed into the stone hatch and shattered it on contact as a blazing horse of red flame along with an enigmatic skeleton and mysterious girl appeared into the throne room.

And now, several guards looked to the strange beings that came forward with pointed spheres.

Sally and Skull looked to each other and as they swallowed bile down their throats, they placed their hands into the air, surrendering themselves to the mercy of the castle guards.