Gray Stormy Skies Part 2

-Gray-

I don’t know why I expected the combat arena inside the tree castle. With how these demigods fight, they’d need as much space as possible, and they wouldn’t want to risk damaging the tree.

So the sizable stone arena was located behind the tree castle, somewhat protected from the rain by the branches and leaves, and separated from the castle and the rest of the city by a stone wall surrounding the place. A balcony on the tree allowed royals to view the fight, and it was clear Boranus and his wife were there, along with a younger man, who I assumed to be one of their sons.

I was doing some simple stretches, though I was really just imitating Fulgora’s stretches. Not that I didn’t know how to stretch, I was capable of running around once as a kid, slinging spells and swinging sticks. My family made sure I knew everything I needed about preparing for battle.

“You sure you’re ready for this, toothpick?” Fulgora called out from the other side of the arena. She was fighting with the tree to her back, and was a fair distance away from me. The field was pretty big. It would take my usual spells a few seconds just to cross it.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” I called back, grinning as I finished stretching my arms. The princess was behind me, hands resting nervously on the battlefield as she stood on the wet grass, her helmet back on her head.

“You can quit anytime, Gray! Remember that! I’ll save you!” She called out, but I just gave her a wave, and charged up a spell in my hands when I saw that Fulgora was ready too.

But I held the spell, waiting for Fulgora to… finish whatever she was doing. She pulled out her fulgurite necklace, and brought it up to her lips, closing her eyes as she… prayed? It was a mostly silent affair, the rain muffling her voice.

A glance at the princess and she was ready to give me some explanation for that. With a sigh, she crossed her arms. “Every god has their own preferred method of worship. The goddess of light prefers loud prayers channeled through our staffs pointed up at the sky. But the god of thunder values a smaller, quieter prayer through a tiny catalyst. Because what comes after does all the speaking for the one praying.”

Hrmm… so a soft, modest prayer, followed by loud showy magic?

As soon as Fulgora’s eyes opened, even from here I could tell they were sparking with electricity. Four halos, made up of crackling sparks, appeared around her limbs. One around each wrist, and one around each ankle. The electricity seemed to gather into the studs on the knuckles of her fingerless gloves.

With the magic activated, Fulgora grinned brightly, and took a lower stance, legs far apart, left one forward and right one back. Same with her hands, her left hand was ahead of her palm open and facing me. Her right hand was by her side, clenched into a fist.

“Ready when you are!” She called out, almost mockingly.

I matched her grin, and took my own stance, right leg forward, right hand raised to the height of my throat, left arm across my gut, facing right.

For a moment, I was silent as I stared at Fulgora, calculating her next moves. She used lightning, so she was likely going to be fast and flashy.

Images of how she could move from the position she was in came to my mind unbidden. And since I knew next to nothing about her fighting style, it was impossible to fully narrow down how she’ll move.

Best I could guess, is that she would rely on her strong legs, so focusing on them would give me a clue.

But I was never one to let someone else dictate the flow of a fight, so I would force her to move to my advantage. Hence, the swirling winds in my hands. One of my favorites for drawing out more favorable movements.

One arc of wind to cover the battlefield, forcing her to either block it or jump over it. Then, the second arc of wind would come into play.

“Let’s do this!” Plan set, I yelled, and poured the last bit of magic needed to cast the spell into my hands as I pulled my right hand back.

Only for Fulgora to appear before me in a loud boom of thunder, her fist already dug into the space beneath my lungs. I felt my body recoil from the impact, my concentration barely hanging on as writhing electricity began to move through her arm to my chest.

And then the lightning struck, zapping me through her body, making me yell out. The force of the punch finally sent me flying, as my concentration broke, and my spells popped in my hands, catching me in a flurry of strong sharp winds that I thankfully wasn’t in for long as I crashed into the stone wall far behind me.

“Gray!” The princess screamed out for me as she rushed to my side, already in the process of healing me with her light. But I slapped her hand away, and healed myself with a flash of green.

“I’m not done yet!” I cried out, pulling my body up. My clothes were torn, either from the punch, the lightning, or my wind. A trail of blood was leaking from my lip, and I licked it back up, as I forced myself to stand. The green wisps of my magic were fading, leaving my body feeling less achey.

I was drenched, the rain splashing on me through the tree cover, though I didn’t bother drying myself, as I liked the feeling of the cold water splashing against my skin.

As I made my way back onto the field, I went over what just happened in my head.

So, she’s actually a rather patient fighter, a monk even! She waits for the perfect opening, and then strikes in that moment. And her attacks hit twice, no, thrice. Once when the fist collides, once when the lightning discharges into your body, and once when your body gets flung into whatever is behind you.

In that case, I had the perfect plan in mind.

My grin grew sharper as I took my position, and Fulgora was already back on her side, getting back into her pose. “Don’t think I’ll go down that easily!”

She grinned back, her tail wagging. “That’s what I’m hoping for!”

This time, I charged a different spell in my hands. I kept my forearms crossed in front of me, both palms facing Fulgora while also protecting my face.

But instead of just standing there, preparing to fire, I decided to run to the right. I noticed Fulgora adjusted her angle accordingly, meaning she probably can only strike in a straight line.

And as soon as she was in the right position, she struck right when I was in the middle of moving, one foot off the ground.

Just like before, the first strike hit below my lungs, expelling all the air from me.

Then the lightning struck, zapping me without even a scream leaving my gritted teeth.

And then my spells went off, right as I was getting launched.

A dark purple field popped up, a few feet in diameter. Fulgora collapsed to her knees and fists, struggling to stand up in the higher gravity.

Five times normal gravity would be hard to deal with, but only for a normal human, so I chose ten times, which was exactly as strong as this spell goes. And as a bonus, the force of her punch launched me out of the field, and the gravity slowed me down enough that I slid to a stop on the wet grass.

Powerful spell, powerful downside, being that I am not immune to gravitational anomalies.

“Whew, good thing you hit me, otherwise I would have been crushed like a pancake!” I laughed as I hopped back onto the field, watching Fulgora struggle against the gravity. She actually was putting up a great fight, managing to slowly begin to lift herself up. Lightning slowly sparkled around her. “Even the speed of light has to obey the laws of gravity.”

But I didn’t have much longer before the spell stopped, so I acted quickly, while she was stuck in place.

Shame I only had a few spells that could endure the higher gravity without killing her.

Using magic to rip a chunk of stone out of the ground, one larger than the sphere of gravity I created, I slammed it down on her like a hammer.

The gravity bubble popped right after my attack, and a bolt of lightning from the sky struck the boulder, splitting it in half, and exposing Fulgora with a manic grin. “Now this is what I’m talking about! You can’t get a fight like this anywhere else!” She cackled out, and jumped backwards, landing near her starting area. “If my old one-two won’t work, then let’s see how you handle my other attacks!”

She bent down lower, left hand on the ground, as she began to build up electricity in her body, lightning arcing off of her and scorching the ground where it struck. The rain seemed to get stronger, painting the air gray as steam began to appear around her.

Okay, so if she’s done striking like that, then I’ll have the time to fire a spell of my choice. But there was still a lot I didn’t know about her fighting style. How would she attack? Throw lightning? Or perhaps another charge, one that I can actually prepare for?

Either way, she would either stay in place for a moment, or move in a predictable way.

Which meant, I had the perfect spell.

This time, I charged up the spell only in one hand, putting all my focus into making it just right. Even if it meant I needed to get hit, this spell would have to go off perfectly.

As I held the growing red light in my right hand, Fulgora’s lightning reached an apex, and she bounced into the air, staying in the air for only a moment.

“Now!” I shouted, forcing my palm forward right as Fulgora came down at me like a bolt of lightning from the sky.

Lightning was fast, but it wasn’t lightspeed.

Lasers were.

My laser struck first, piercing straight through her gut and going further, cutting into a branch of the tree castle, through the clouds in the sky, and off into space.

Time felt slow. I could see Fulgora’s eyes widen at the devastating wound. But her toothy grin only widened.

And I realized my mistake.

I forgot about Newton’s first law.

An object in motion stays in motion.

Before I realized it, her fist struck me square in the face, her lightning wracked my body, her body tumbled into mine, and we both got sent flying back.

My vision was white, my senses shattered, I could barely process the golden wing angel that caught us before we made a crater in the grass.

Fulgora was pushed off of me, with a sound of coughing blood and laughter. I felt a soft hand touch my jaw, relieving the sudden ache I felt. I wanted to speak, but my mouth didn’t feel right.

At least the fluid in my throat felt uncomfortably familiar.

The white of my vision was fading into familiar black, but I leaned into the hand on my head.

I passed out, believing I was in my mother’s arms again.