Part 10 - Razan vs The Golem - Part Two

Once again Tetsuo and I stood face to face, except this time it was different. I’m ready. I felt a new foreign power flow through me, as if the very essence of the world around me was at my command.

“So what if you have my powers?” Tetsuo glared. “You don’t know how to use them. It would be like giving a toddler a cannon.”

He was right, I didn’t know exactly how to use them. Even with this incredibly powerful ability of mine, I had no idea as to its limits, nor how to make proper use of Tetsuo’s abilities that I managed to copy.

The fight was far from over.

“Perhaps, that just means I’ll have to figure it out right here and now.” I readied my sword and shield, I felt more stronger than ever before, though hardly felt any faster. I decided to test the waters. Magic required concentration, so if concentrated hard enough on per se, making the ground move.

“Times up, sensei!” Tetsuo began to charge.

However the ground wasn’t moving, that must not be how it works.

“I gotcha!” Tetsuo was right in front of me and sent a punch my way, I didn’t have time to dodge, I was so focused on trying to get the ground to move like he did. I needed to get out of the way.

Just then, I felt the ground underneath me move, and I was sent flying to the right, almost into a nearby building if I didn’t want the ground to stop.

“I see…” I realized now just how it worked. I needed the ground to help me, and it did.

“So you made the ground move, so what?” Tetsuo growled. “Magic also requires plenty of endurance to use as well, if you keep moving yourself. You’re gonna tire and you’ll be done for.”

He was right about that again. Still, just figuring out how Tetsuo triggers the spell is a huge leap in progress. Something tells me he wasn’t too pleased with me figuring out the basics like that.

Unfortunately for him, I’m pretty good at thinking on my feet.

“I’ll just have to defeat you Tetsuo before I pass out from exhaustion.” I mentioned. Though I could already feel the effects from my use of sword mode before and that spell, I wasn’t all too accustomed to training my magic durability. A mistake that seems to have bit me in the ass.

I needed to find a way in order to put Tetsuo down, preferably without killing him. I needed him to calm down and get to him, maybe even rescue Grace and get the hell out of here before Simon interrupts.

I looked over at Elowyn, she seemed to be studying me carefully. Though she didn’t look too surprised or particularly impressed at my new discovery. That ticked me off a little.

I then looked over at Grace, she was watching with a rather fearful look in her eyes. I’m sure if she could she would be cheering and praying to the Goddess for my victory. I felt a particularly cold chill as well. I wouldn’t be surprised if Simon was nearby and ready to jump in if needed.

“Look at it this way, sensei. You can’t win this. You’re already exhausted from our ongoing fight, not to mention you took quite a bang up even with your shield absorbing most of the damage.”

I hated how right he was.

“Let’s not add up how much magic you must have already used in not only copying me, but your abuse of sword mode and moving yourself out of the way. I, on the other hand, spend every day like this. I eat and sleep while using magic. I barely feel the burn.”

He grimaced.

“I can be like this for a week straight.”

I looked over at Elowyn, I’m sure she could tell I was getting exhausted. “Razan, it’s probably best if you leave here and now. I completely underestimated how sloppy you would be with training your endurance.”

I decided there and then.

“No Elowyn, I’ll stay here and finish this. Even if it kills me, I won’t back down Tetsuo!” I shouted, I felt like my limbs were slowly turning to jelly, my heart raced, and my eyes felt heavy.

But I would never back down.

“You want me to use my magic! Take as much as you want!” I used up as much as I could, piling stones, metal, wood. Both from the woods and nearby buildings and gathered them all in one place, Tetsuo himself.

I only had to do one thing, and that was stop him. If I knocked him down, I could win. Perhaps I was not strong enough at the moment to destroy him.

“If I can’t beat ya! Let’s test the limits of your strength!” I used as much as I could. I felt my limbs burn with exhaustion, my legs wobbling. I even fell to one knee at a certain point. But I did not pass out.

Tetsuo seemed confused. “All you’re doing sensei is making me stronger, and weakening yourself. Just what is the point of this?”

“You’ll see!” I promised.

Tetsuo didn’t stop me, he allowed it to happen. However, he noticed something. His body was maintaining this much mass, he was going to have to supply this on his own.

“You see, here’s a bit of a lesson for ya! The larger you are, the stronger, the more energy you consume.” I grinned.

“Are you kidding me? I can just move all this off!” Tetsuo shouted as he made a move to shed the unnecessary baggage, finally realizing just what my plan was. However that was when I moved onto the next phase of my plan.

“Good luck getting it off, I’ll just keep adding more and more of the world around you.” I grunted. The pain of overexertion was unbearable, I was killing myself slowly but surely. But I was winning.

Sure, I was burning a lot of energy and had less to work with than Tetsuo, however due to managing the size of his armor, and maintaining his balance alongside his magic. It was getting far more costly to keep running.

In other words, Tetsuo was burning far more energy than I was.

Elowyn seemed genuinely surprised. It brought an untold joy to see her shocked and even impressed. I proved her wrong.

“Hrraaaaaah!” Tetsuo shouted as he expelled a ton of power at once to launch every bit of armor he had on him. He knew damn well he needed to get all of this off of him or he would lose.

I decided then and there to stop and let him do it. We were both now exhausted and on the border of collapse. Neither of us had the strength to use magic.

I dropped my sword and shield, and me and Tetsuo both hobbled over to each other. Slowly but surely every trudge brought an untold tension as we both prepared for our final blow.

I brought my arm back.

“Why don’t you think about this!” I shouted.

“This is it! I’ll stop you here and now!” Tetsuo shouted at the same time as me.

We then sent our fists forward, making contact with each other's faces. It should have killed me, but neither of us had the strength to put much oomph into a single swing. We both stood still as the impact of our blows rang through the hollow shells we called our bodies. After what felt like a moment of awkward silence.

We both fell. However, I momentarily kept my balance just a little longer. Causing me to fall more or less on top of Tetsuo.

It was a close match, but I won.

Elowyn looked on, shocked. “Well, you actually did it. You’re unbelievably stupid for doing that, you know.”

“I know, but. It worked, didn’t it?” I managed to get out. “Say, can you. Free Grace for me, will ya? I don’t even have the strength to stand up anymore.”

Elowyn finally came to her senses. She nodded her head making her way to the pole which Grace was tied up at. “Here, consider yourself lucky you have such a good friend.” She removed the cloth from Grace’s mouth.

“Thank you.” Grace bowed gracefully to Elowyn. Before suddenly making a beeline for me.

“Razan!” She ran before finally catching up to me, she spotted the unconscious Tetsuo underneath me. She dragged me off of him so she could hopefully heal me as much as she could.

“Well, I suppose we should finish this one off now. Since he’s defenseless and no longer posing any threat to us.” She pointed her staff right at Tetsuo, who was now awake and slowly looking up at her.

“Elowyn, no!” I shouted. “Let him live, he can’t do anything to us anymore.”

She gave me a look like I had said something stupid. “Are you kidding me? He’s an enemy, he tried to kill you. In fact he DID kill you. Everything bad happening to you right now, is because of him!”

I thought about what she said, she was right.

“I know he’s not all bad. Tetsuo. I want you to think about what I offered you earlier. Sit on it, you don’t need to make a decision right away. But just know, even if what you did was terrible. You can still atone with the life you have now.”

Tetsuo didn’t say a word, likely too exhausted to even speak. But simply nodded, he slowly but surely pulled himself up. On his belt was a series of vials. He drank one of them and began to trudge away.

“Why did you let me live? I don’t know. Hell, I could probably kill all of you right now. But I don’t want to, I need to think. Maybe sensei. I’ll take you up on your offer, but not now.”

With that, no words were spoken. Tetsuo walked away.

“Better stick to his word.” Elowyn grumbled. “Otherwise, I’m killing YOU first.” She glared at me. “Anyways, we better get out of here before…”

She looked up, I looked up, even Grace looked up. On top of a ruined, desolate building stood a very pissed off Simon. His magician's robes and cape fluttered in the wind.

“You did quite the work killing Lorelei and putting a stop to Tetsuo, but now that you all are weakened. I will be your final opponent.” His eyes narrowed like a hawk. Observing us as his prey.

“Oh crap.” I muttered.

To be continued.