Elemental Clash

“Wait, it’s just them now?” Dominic asked.

“Seems like it, man.” Lainey replied, sitting by the boat and taking out her electronic cigarette. “Who you rooting for?”

“Ulrich, duh. Classic underdog story.”

“Whatever you say, man. Sapphire’s got this in the bag.”

“I have twenty pounds on me. Wanna bet?”

“I have fifteen dollars on me. So I’ll take you up on that.”

With their bet secured, they watched as Ulrich awkwardly put his fists up in a fighting stance. He tried to steady his breathing while looking at Sapphire. She was casually moving like a spring breeze. She looked completely defenceless but was probably ready to fight him at a moments notice.

“Tell you what, solar? “She asked. “Let’s make this a full fight. First to cry out or get knocked out loses. Sound good?”

"S-sure." Ulrich replied. When they left England, it was fairly grey and cloudy. But now the sun was starting to make its appearance, and Ulrich found that his gloves seemed to be recharging faster. And if he could go all out, then he could understand his powers better.

Or get absolutely demolished. Whichever happened first.

And as soon as the uneasy 'sure' came out, Sapphire closed the gap between them in a single movement, following it up with a kick to the stomach, which sent him tumbling over the edge of the boat, only to be stopped by a gust of wind blowing him back face-first. Ulrich got up, raising his left hand and igniting his individual fingers. He threw the small streams of fire all around the boat, then fully ignited his right hand.

When Sapphire noticed Ulrich setting her living space on fire, she quickly tried to put them all out with small wind blasts, and Ulrich ran up to her, arm blazing, and landed a solid punch to her back, hearing the explosion.

And then the sound of Sapphire's elbow in his stomach.

"Nice plan, solar. Shame about the wind energy I coated my back in." Sapphire rapidly yelled out, before taking one of the deepest inhales he ever heard. Ulrich jumped back, right hand limp and noodle-like, with Sapphire breathing heavily.

"Gotta say, that little stunt was actually pretty cool, solar. But you seem almost dead."

Ulrich wiped some of the cold sweat from his forehead. "I feel as though I could say the same about you."

"Valid." Sapphire shrugged. "But hey, this was a chance to test out a few techniques. So, one more for the road, how about it?"

Ulrich felt the wind blow behind him and noticed Sapphire's hair blowing towards him.

"Wind tunnel trap?" Ulrich asked.

"Pretty much." Sapphire responded, running towards him.

Ulrich ran towards her, ducking underneath her overhead punch, and sure enough, there was another wind tunnel on the other side. Ulrich faced Sapphire once again and ran towards her.

When he was finished, his left hand was slightly sore, so he definitely got a hit in. Sapphire didn't seem to feel too fazed by it, however.

The two seemed stuck in the tunnel for a while, running past and exchanging short blows. Any fire Ulrich made was instantly snubbed out.

Ulrich, however, noticed Sapphire was sweating, barely able to breath. She ran towards him one last time, and Ulrich landed a single, fire-free blow to her stomach. She wheezed out a strained cough, and the tunnel disappeared.

"Damn, Solar. You did pretty good there." Sapphire said between gasps for breath.

"Thanks, I guess." Ulrich replied, trying his best to remain calm, and hold in the vomit building up inside him. He failed in this, throwing up over the boat. Dominic tried to console him while it happened.

"So, you, uh, did really well." Dominic started.

"Shut up and let me do this." Ulrich interrupted, continuing to heave into the now vibrant ocean.

Following his orders, he moved to Lainey, and stretched his hand out to collect his money. Lainey flipped him off but obliged.

"So, it appears we won, correct?"

"You have, yes." Sapphire sighed. "Congratulations, I guess."

"So, what's the prize?" Dominic asked.

"Prize?" Sapphire asked.

"Oh, please don't tell me you put us through that without a prize." Ulrich yelled from the side of the boat, before throwing up some more.

"Okay, okay. I do think a prize is in order. Give me a second, and I'll go find something." She left into the inside of the boat, and Ulrich walked to join the other two, but not before finding a random sheet of paper hung over on the side of the boat, which he quickly picked up and stuffed in his pocket.

After a few minutes, Sapphire came out again, her hands behind her back, where she excitedly revealed what was behind her, to the stunned silence of the other three.

"It can't be…" Ulrich whispered, stunned.

"You…HAVE one of those?" Dominic asked.

"No way…" Lainey mumbled.

It seemed obvious to them what Sapphire had. From what little they saw of it in Buckingham, it looked the exact same, only instead of being black, it was golden, reflecting from the sunlight directly into Dominic's right eye.

"Sapphire?" Lainey asked. "You know what this is, right?"

Sapphire paused for a moment. "Nice looking?"

"You are aware of the four gemstones we're looking for, right?" Ulrich asked.

"Two belong to God, and two belong to the demons, and we're collecting them to stop the demons from retaking them, right? That's the basic summary?"

"Yeah, pretty much. But...this definitely seems like one of them." Ulrich explained.

"Huh. Whaddaya know? "Sapphire said, seemingly indifferent to owning one of the most important artefacts in history. "Eh, explains the energy I get off this thing."

"Energy?" Lainey asked.

"You don't feel it? Some kind of curse, or something? Honestly, now I just have motivation to kill the demons so I can get rid of this damn thing."

"So, we can just…have it?" Dominic asked.

"I mean, two of you are fighting terrors from another dimension without powers. Clearly, one of you needs it." Sapphire responded. "Now, is anyone a vegetarian? I'm making fish."

"I don't think any of us are." Lainey answered.

"Cool, cool." Sapphire smiled, heading to the inside of the boat to make preparations, handing the gemstone to Lainey beforehand.

"Well, wanna see what it does?" Dominic asked.

"How would we even figure that out?" Ulrich asked.

"I don't know, man." Dominic answered aggressively. "I just gotta leave something in my room." He stuck his hand in his pocket and went pale.

"Uh guys? You wouldn't happen to have seen a sheet of paper fly out of my pocket, would you?"

"Oh, this one?" Ulrich took the sheet he found out of the pocket, and opened it up.

"Wait, don't open it!" Dominic screamed. But it was too late. Ulrich got a good look at what was on the sheet of paper.

And oh God, it was glorious.