Mortal Magic: Broken

I kept watching him as the realization hit him hard in the head. The somewhat cocky and fascinated attitude he had up until now was gone from his face, and terror and agony had taken their place. The smile had left his lips and I could see him trembling, not from fear but out of need. Every fiber of his existence needed a way to survive this whole thing, but he could find no way out of this mess, and that had him terrified. “If you want to live stop holding back. The moment they see that you are useless you are gone, just like that. Give them their entertainment; it is the only way in here”. He clenched his jaw and fists after I finished talking and then nodded, the fire in his eyes burning brighter than before. He lifted his right hand and opened his palm just as a small flame was lit out of nothing above his palm. The muscles in his arm were bulging and flexing as the flame in his hand pulsed with life, glowing every time it seemed to breathe and growing in size until above his palm stood a fire as big as my head. Then he closed his hand and the ball of fire exploded outwards and upwards like fireworks before the now stream of flames turned to my direction like a perfectly directed projectile spell. That was his plan? To attack from a distance he thought safe and hope to tire or overpower me? I could easily just cover any distance in this place and cut him before he summons another projectile.

I dodged the fast approaching flame salvo like it was just a pebble aiming for my head and shook my head sighing. If this was really all he had then it was no use prolonging this fight. I saw him stretching his arm to the side and felt the magical orb of flame coming back to me. I raised my sword and stroke the orb to send it to the ground where it exploded. Turning to the man still standing with his arm outstretched I looked into his eyes and turned sideways to him. “My turn”. With blinding speed I threw the short sword at him, missing his head by just an inch and stabbing the wall a few meters behind him before the sword turned to thin air. I pulled on my mana once again and this time I projected a two-handed broadsword that really felt like a normal sword to me and raising it to his height with one hand. “You have to know, I am a perfect shot, so the blade missed you on purpose. And distance is futile with my speed. I could cut your head off in a heartbeat if I wanted to. So stop fucking around and fight for real”. The smile returned on his lips and he clenched and relaxed his fist in front of his face looking at me. “That was just an appetizer to show you my control. The real fight is just beginning”.

I readied my sword and took a fighting stance as he summoned more fire that spread throughout the arena crating a fiery cage. After that he clenched both his fists and they were shrouded in fire that I could feel all the way here and I realized he was proficient in both long and close range. He came running towards me and we got into a frenzy of him punching and kicking me and me slashing at him. I blocked his fists with my sword and he punched my sword before it cut him. Of course after a while he started using more complex moves that were hard for me to read and I got hit more times than I would like, and I could take in the long run if he kept at it. I used more of my mana to enhance my speed many levels above what it was now for only a moment, and used the blunt side of the sword to strike his hands and then switched to the edge to cut his shirt and give him a minor cut. He took several steps back and brought his right hand to his chest looking at me with surprise while connecting the dots. “You are using mana to boost your abilities. You are making projections and directing them to your body, thus making yourself a living enchantment”. He figured out my technique by simply taking a blow faster than any other, and yet the wound in his chest was closing under his touch. No he was cauterizing the skin using his magic, I could smell it, and he wasn’t even wincing. That man was surely capable if not dangerous.

“Don’t show them skills like that. It won’t end well. They will put you against people that you can’t defeat just to make you fall into despair. Close only deep wounds but leave them open enough to give the impression of an injury. Otherwise it’s a fatal fault in here”. I closed the gap between us and the moment he pulled his hand off his chest I cut the same space again to make something that looks like a wound but is actually only a scratch. After that I turned my body to give it momentum and kicked him on the left shoulder using mana to power up my leg and give more speed and strength to the blow. He flew across the fiery cage he created but he would only have a serious bruise if he survived here for now.

Yuto clumsily got up and conjured more flames that shrouded his arms, burning the sleeves of his shirt and for a brief moment I thought I saw golden lines decorating his skin under the flames. I kept searching for the lines I saw but since they were gone I decided to stop fooling around so much. That was when I heard his voice. “Burning Arms”. There was not a doubt in my mind about what he did; he was using high tier magic artes, the kind that required the user to voice the exact name of the spell. A spell so much powerful from what he used until now. He was more skilled than I gave him credit for, but so was I for that matter. “You want to play with fire so be it. But don’t cry when you get burned, fire bender”. I gripped the sword firmly and hunched forward bringing my free hand in front of my chest and I concentrated at my mana. Tapping in my reserves I pulled enough mana to fill my whole body while making sure that my supplies would not be depleted much and then I voiced the spell that was unique to me. “Mana Burst”. The words were no more than a whisper but that was more than enough to activate my magical arte. The moment the words left my mouth I felt my body being infused with all the mana I wanted and the sensation was just like I remembered it from all these times. It felt like I was in some kind of high that kept fuelling my body with so much power that I could not be called entirely human anymore. I was faster than any human empowered with speed enchants and stronger than the man standing before me, many times combined.

I felt the tiny amount of mana that was needed to maintain this status being fused with my body every second and knew that standing still was not efficient for this arte. So without any thinking I dashed for Yuto, faster than he was able to see me, almost faster than he was able to sense me coming, and I swinged my sword at him. He used his fist to repel my projection and surprisingly so make a crack on it that I was sure he heard for himself before I patched the opening. Using more speed than before I swinged again and again but I never caused him serious damage, I just gave him many surface wounds that tired him and eventually wore him out. Gradually he slowed down and his reactions were slower than what was needed to stand up to me at my state of enhancement and I severed the connection that fuelled my body with the mana needed to maintain my abilities. He kept trying to use his magic to throw small balls of fire at me from afar even though he knew that it was a useless straggle. I could either close the gap fast or agonizingly slow, or just throw my sword at him and kill him outright. But instead of that I got closer to him while deflecting all the fireballs and the moment I got right in front of him; I used the grip of the sword to hit him in his stomach that I knew was empty. He got on his knees and started coughing before I pushed him to the ground on his back with my foot.

Right then the crowd I had forgotten about started cheering and screaming in delight. All those pigs that got off to watching people slaughter each other when they have never been in the position themselves made me sick. Soon enough the annotator raised his hand in the air and the whole commotion stopped. “It is time my fellow magi to decide whether this man lives or dies. Although I doubt there will be more than one kind of vote here”. With a smile on his face that I so wanted to punch off he waited as the spectators started screaming one simple word that I hated. “Kill”. Over and over again they said like in a trance as I watched Yuto finally finding his breath and looking at me. His gaze was relentless. There was not an ounce of anger or hatred in it, just regret that his end was near. I knew he wanted to live but… The annotator lowered his eyes to me and with his smile widening he gave his order. “Kill him”.

I turned my eyes towards Yuto again and realized that his never stopped staring at me. “You are stronger than I thought you would be son. It’s a shame your magic is wasted in this place, you are capable of reaching such heights”. I raised my sword and prepared to lower it to his chest, stab him directly at his heart while those chestnut eyes pierced holes right through my scull, and then made a decision that I was sure I would never forget, but I might regret taking. I swirled the broadsword in my hand and threw it at the annotator making the crowd gasp in fear and awe when the sword barely missed the victims head and flew to the sky where it turned to air at my command. “I don’t take orders from you. His life is not in your hand to take but mine right now. If you want to decide his fate pit him against someone he has a chance of killing”. With that I crouched and punched him on the head making him lose consciousness and then turned to the wall with the door that leads to my “private quarters”. I knew my decision to spare the magus was one with consequences but they were nothing that I couldn’t handle. They were just going to let me starve for a few days while I fought more than usual hoping to die from the exhaustion. But I was not going to let give them that pleasure. I was not going to die here, not until I do what I want all these years. After that they can kill me ten times over for all I care.