XXXII: Shocking Conclusion

Emil froze, his expression going blank. It was as if saying the word “mother” pressed pause on a remote that controlled him. Slowly, though, his features began to twist into unmistakable fury.

“Did you think I didn’t know about your mother?” I taunted him. “I bet the fact that you haven’t been able to beat me by now disappoints her.”

“Shut up…” he growled, but I ignored him.

“You keep trying to sound real macho when you talk about what you’ll do with Cynthia, but in truth, you’re just an insecure little boy, fighting to convince mommy that you’re a man. Too bad you’ll never be anything more than a little pig~”

“I said shut up!” he screamed before rushing me.

Just a little closer!

Emil reached me and I allowed him to score a few strikes to trick him into keeping his barrier down. I ended his assault shortly, however, with a throat jab, followed by a haymaker to down him. He burst into a coughing fit on the ground while I caught my own breath from the hits I allowed myself to take.

“I don’t know how you found out about my mother,” he struggled to say as he clumsily pulled himself up. His barrier reformed over him again. “But you’ve just made a big mistake bringing her up here…”

Damn it, not again. I need to keep pushing him further.

“Actually, it sounds to me like your mom thinks you’re the mistake, LeClair.”

“I don’t care what that wretched woman thinks!” he fired back.

“No one here believes that, least of all you. Deep down, you know everything you do is because of her.”

The prince grabbed his head, releasing an enraged cry that unsettled me a bit. “For the last time, shut up! I’m going to tear you apart for this!”

I scoffed. “You know, if you’re just going to keep hiding behind that barrier, you should stop trying to sound intimidating.”

“You won’t bait me into recklessness again. It’s about to be over for you, scum!”

“So what? Even if you win this fight, I’ve ruined you.”

“Is that what you think?” he muttered through gritted teeth.

“It’s what I know. Look at what I’ve done to you, LeClair. You wanted to prove that you’re the greatest man, right? But every time you drop that barrier, I kick your ass. Me, the ‘worthless nobody’ you spat on last night. Most of these people watching probably bet that I wouldn’t even touch you, yet you’re gushing blood because of me.”

“So, you think I need the barrier to beat you?”

“Am I wrong?”

“Dead wrong.” The barrier around him dissipated and he glared at me, his gaze laced with malice.

He fell for it!

“Don’t get your hopes up. I know this is what you wanted, but when I said you wouldn’t bait me into recklessness, I meant it. You think this is your trap, but it’s mine.”

“And how do you figure that?”

“You think you’re the only one that notices things?” he asked. “I played into your hand every time you taunted me, I admit that shamefully. But all the while, I’ve noticed the way you haven’t cast a single spell. Even when my barrier fell, you attacked me physically, but never with magic.” He grinned. “That’s because you can’t.”

Damn it, he sees through everything now!

“When you shot me in the face with that pathetic spell last night, it was uncoordinated—sloppy. You’ve been covering up your inability to cast spells with hand-to-hand combat. But it ends now.” A ball of light energy began to form in his right palm, slowly.

What the hell is that?!

“Before, all I wanted was to humiliate you and move on to my prophesized future. But now…I think I just want to kill you.”

The ball in his hand finished forming, and the second it did, he hurled it at me. I dove out of the way with milliseconds to spare, but it still grazed me, slicing up my left arm and drawing a ton of blood. The ball continued past me and collapsed multiple trees in the distance.

Holy hell. If that hits me, I really am dead.

I winced and clutched my bloody arm in pain. Emil growled and began to form another ball of light in his hand.

I need to move. Now!

I jumped to my feet and bolted towards Emil. I had no other choice.

I knew it was either the barrier or the ball of light, he couldn’t cast both spells at once. Since he was charging up that ball, he was open to attack. I had to take advantage, because merely being grazed by that ball had rendered my left arm useless from the excruciating pain. The destruction it caused behind me had also made it obvious that ducking for cover was pointless.

He was aiming to end the fight immediately, and it was clearly taking a lot out of him to cast such a strong spell. There would be no greater moment to go for it all. I had one plan left, but there were no guarantees it would work. This was it.

“Stay back!” he roared.

I closed the distance between me and the prince and spun beneath the swipe he attempted with the half-charged ball of light. I delivered another roundhouse kick to his midsection, sending him flying into the pond.

Now I just need to—

Suddenly, he shot up from the water and tossed the half-charged ball of light at me, and it connected perfectly with my stomach. I was launched right into a tree directly behind me, hitting the back of my head hard.

“I got you!” he hollered.

My vision began to blur and blacken. My eyes were trying to shut on their own and my body wasn’t responding to my commands. My consciousness was fading fast.

No…please not yet. I just need one more second…!

“All I do is hide behind barriers, huh?” I heard him say. I could hear his legs trudging through the pond as he drew nearer. “You seem to have a lot of thoughts, Shinsuke. Thoughts on my mother, thoughts on my ambitions…I wonder what you think of the pain ravaging your insides right now.”

Pain was putting it mildly. I was in agony, and I was positive the only reason I hadn’t died or passed out then and there was the fact that he never finished charging the spell. However, that same agony was preventing me from falling into the darkness tugging at me. I wouldn’t be able to strike him again. All I had left was my hand.

I laughed through the searing pain in my stomach and lifted my head and right hand. I shaped my fingers into a pistol and said, “you want to know what I think? You said it best: ‘You think this is your trap, but it’s mine’.”

“What?”

I pointed my shaky finger pistol at the pond beneath the prince and let my mind go blank. A rough, magic circle appeared in the blackness, and in my head, two words echoed.

Lightning bolt!

An erratic, blue flash shot from the tip of my finger, starting woefully small but magnifying greatly as it hit the water. Emil’s body began to quake uncontrollably, and he cried out in debilitating pain.

My last resort, the only spell I chose to study the night before, had fried him.

His body hit the water, twitching.

The referee sprinted towards us; his pace greatly hastened by a spell. He reached us in seconds and analyzed us. I was sucking air like a fish out of water, while Emil was still out cold.

With a shocked expression, the referee gestured to someone off the field that I couldn’t see, and the bell rang. He mumbled something into his earpiece, and the booming voice of the announcer spoke, disbelief in his tone, over the speakers.

“L-Ladies and gentlemen, your winner, by knockout, Shinsuke Watanabe!”