jmclarke
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Chapter 578: Khalik's First Match
🕑 Added 2023-05-03 22:42:45 +0000 UTCKhalik stood on his side of the arena with Najyah perched on his arm. As he’d done the previous year, he stood confident, waving to the crowd like he was on his way to a coronation. Najyah looked poised today, like a symbol atop a kingdom’s banner with all traces of her usual mischievousness gone.
She looked at King Aksuma as Khalik looked at Sinope and his mother.
He blew his partner a kiss before turning to his opponent.
Once again, he faced the second year wizard, Leia, and her falcon familiar, Solo. The pair had been his final opponents in first year and they looked resolved, determined, and with every intention of unseating him and Najyah to claim an early victory.
And a measure of vengeance.
By the hard look on Leia’s face, Alex could see she’d come prepared to do both.
Solo was swift last year, but now she moved through the air with more grace. She was also faster on the wing, turned quicker and flew with more confidence than before.
It was clear the falcon had gained a fair amount of experience since the last Games, as her master had, from the look of it.
‘Doesn’t matter how much experience you have now,’ Alex thought. ‘You’d better lose! I’ve got a lot of coin riding on my friend!’
The announcer raised his hand. “Who will come out on top? Let’s find out! Ready? Set! Begin!”
Leia immediately cast haste magic on Solo, the bird shot forward like an arrow in flight. The falcon’s speed was monstrous.
Khalik merely smiled.
Najyah shrieked, soaring upward, her wings spread.
The prince whispered a single spell.
A wave of sand blasted from the eagle's chest in a wide cone, spraying the air, lashing solo mid-flight. With another quick spell, Khalik transformed the flaying grit, congealing it into stone shackles around Solo’s wings and ankles.
She shrieked and plummeted.
Najyah didn’t waste an instant.
One beat of her wings sent her forward, talons grabbing Solo mid-fall.
Leia began uttering an ice spell, but Khalik spoke his incantation with greater speed and precision. A wave of sand erupted from Najyah’s chest, battering the falcon she had in her grip, and—with another spell—Khalik transformed the sand to clay. It hardened on the raptor’s body.
Najyah shrieked, releasing her.
The smaller bird hit the ground—only saved from disaster by the magics cloaking the arena—struggling against her bonds. But, she was going nowhere.
Najyah pounced, posing victoriously on her back for the pin.
Leia bit her lip as the announcer called pin after pin while Najyah kept the weighted familiar in place. Covered in stone, clay, and grit, there was no way for Solo to continue.
The second year wizard’s face reddened. “I…yield,” she said, between clenched teeth.
Cheers erupted.
“And the winner by way of submission, Khalik Behr-Medr and his Harpax eagle familiar, Najyah!” the announcer’s voice boomed across the stadium.
“Yeah! Go Khalik! Go Najyah!” Selina shouted, as his other friends cheered.
Alex let out an immense sigh of relief.
‘This is way too stressful,’ he thought. ‘I don’t know how people gamble for fun. But, after these Games, I’m never gambling again.”
Sitting in the VIP box, Aksuma and Ishtar clapped politely, smiling, pleased at their son's victory.
Sinope looked at them for a moment, raised an eyebrow, then leapt from her seat.
“Goooo Khalik!” she shouted, “you were wonderful, my mighty oak blossom!”
Alex froze: he could never imagine calling his partner ‘mighty oak blossom’ in front of her parents, but the dryad showed no hint of embarrassment. Others in the VIP box reacted; some smiled, some cheered, some did both, while some raised their eyebrows, giving her measured looks as she applauded enthusiastically. She didn’t seem to care, and just celebrated her partner’s triumph.
Her cheering only grew louder as the competition went on.
After duelling Leia and Solo, Khalik and Najyah devastated the rest of their opponents.
Najyah covered Yo-boo in rock until Stan surrendered, cursing and muttering to himself. They shifted the soil beneath a small golem’s feet, burying it in the arena’s packed, dry earth. Against a summoned demon, the prince had Najyah pour sand and rock down, before finally encasing the monster in a clay and stone shell.
Their opponents fought hard, determined to win, but Khalik’s swift spellcasting and tactics—honed to an edge against demons in the hells—combined with steady coordination with his familiar, demolished all competition.
As the final round approached, Alex began cheering as loudly as Sinope…which he told himself wasn’t because of all the coin Khalik was about to win him.
That certainly couldn’t have anything to do with it.
When Sinope showed enthusiastic support for her partner though, some in the box eyed her, looking more and more scandalised as if they found her enthusiasm unseemly.
Khalik’s parents, however, seemed not to care either way.
His father continued clapping and politely cheering his son and Najyah, as did his wife. The queen, however, seemed to be dividing her attention between watching the competition and her son’s partner.
‘Looks like she’s forming her own opinion,’ Alex thought. ‘Makes sense, seems the king’s more focused on Najyah…huh.’
It was then that he noticed something about Khalik’s father.
King Aksuma continued clapping, appearing to be only focused on the beasts below. He was chattering on and on about what sort of creatures they were, seemingly fascinated by every last one.
But, his body language told a different story.
A very subtle story.
Alex noticed the slight tilt of his shoulders and how he held his head at an angle. His eyes—which looked to be scanning the arena—were actually centred slightly to his left.
Which allowed him to watch Sinope, and Alex’s group from the corner of his eye. For all the world, he looked to be a simple man who had a great preoccupation with beasts and monsters. But, all the while, he was observing his son’s partner and friends in the same way Alex read body language when he was studying people.
‘Huh’…he smiled to himself. ‘It seems the king’s a far shrewder man than he lets on.’
Alex decided to watch him in turn, subtly reading his body language as the final match of the Duel by Proxy: Lightweight Division was announced.
“And now we have a couple of familiar faces stepping into the final match in the light-weight division!” the announcer boomed. “We welcome them back! Khalik Behr-Medr and his Harpax eagle, Najyah, have shown incredible experience in combat, fantastic coordination, and power! The wizard and his familiar have been vanquishing their competition all day, showing no sign of slowing down! But, will their reign…reign supreme?” He belly-laughed at his own joke. “It might be that their tyranny ends here!”
“Tyranny, pfeh.” King Aksuma frowned.
The announcer continued. “Their opponents have also had a devastating winning streak that brings them here to the finals! Let’s hear it for…a talented third year student—Jasmine—represented by her familiar, the firestorm pseudo-drake, Terris! One pair of these competitors will walk away with a prize today, and the other will reach the epilogue of their journey! Who will come out on top?”
“Gooo Khalik!” Sinope cried. “I believe in you!”
Alex shouted too. “Yeaaaah, Khalik! You got this!”
The others—including Claygon who’d shifted his voice, now sounding like the announcer—screamed their support.
“Ready?” the announcer called, raising an eyebrow at Claygon. “Begin!”
The contest was vicious.
Terris was a powerful familiar, having his own innate magics of fire and lightning. Jasmine was a fierce opponent with a lot of power to throw around, who wasn’t afraid to use it.
They began with a blistering assault, blazing with lightning and flame spells, trying to utterly overwhelm their opponents. But what they had in power, they lacked in experience. The instant the match began, Najyah shot away, flying in complex patterns, making herself an elusive target.
While Terris and Jasmine focused on power, Khalik focused on protecting Najyah and increasing her speed. He conjured sand storms that sprayed from her wings as she flew, laying down a screen of grit that threw their opponents’ aim off.
Najyah had dodged crimson lightning from hell-beasts and demons; avoiding magic from inexperienced challengers was no contest.
Alex watched the contest, remembering a particular bar fight at the Lu family inn.
Back then, a traveller had come through town and found himself in an argument with a group of local farm hands. They were big, young men with fists the size of blacksmiths’ hammers, and the temperaments of bulls in mating season.
He was half their size and twice their age, but was meaner, more experienced and—most importantly—had hit first. After he sucker punched the first man, Alex watched in awe as he ducked and weaved, avoiding the farm hands’ brutish, clumsy swings.
Using a bottle like a cudgel, he’d battered down two more with grace…right up until the fourth came in from the side and hit him so hard that the floor ended up with more of his teeth than his mouth did.
The kicking they’d given him had been so awful, that Mr. Lu booted everyone from the inn and called the guards—when Alex last saw the man—he was hobbling away from town on crutches with more bandages covering him than skin showing.
Still, in those earlier moments of the fight, his experience had truly shown its worth.
Mr. Lu had told him—in no uncertain terms—that he was never to fight like that when he grew up.
‘How time makes fools of us all,’ he thought, watching Khalik and Najyah take apart their opponents.
As the arena floor swirled with floating sand, the prince abruptly transformed it to stone, turning the grit into solid images of bloodthirsty demons. One could almost hear soul-tearing growls coming from them, and they looked so life-like that Terris and Jasmine flinched away.
Najyah vanished in the dust.
Alex smiled, remembering Ikarrash’s three demonic, jackal-headed sons.
The element of surprise and his team’s trickery had brought their terror to an end.
This was no different.
Terris snapped at the false demons, neither he nor his master saw the stone shards Khalik had sent cascading from Najyah’s beak.
They streaked through the sand, pummelling the drake—driving him to the ground. He tumbled along the stadium floor like a ball. Najyah was already claiming victory, soaring overhead, spraying the drake with clay that quickly coated him.
Sand hardened, forming stone shackles, trapping Terris; clay smothered his flame and the stone grounded his lightning. Jasmine needed a quick and decisive response, instead, she showed her inexperience: in past matches, Terris had easily destroyed their competition with his superior power.
He’d never been pinned, not once.
Now, they were in danger of losing, and the third year student panicked.
“Terris, try—” She started. “No wait—” She stammered an incantation, but changed her mind and cancelled it, giving Khalik all the time he needed to take the match.
Najyah dropped a barrage of earth magic, burying Terris in so much clay and stone, the drake could barely move.
Jasmine hung her head. “I…yield.” Was all she said.
The announcer beamed. “Gentlefolk, the winner of the Duel By Proxy Lightweight Division for the second year, is Khalik Behr-Medr and his Harpax eagle familiar, Najyah!”
As the audience cheered, Alex and his companions jumped up and down and cheered with them—though no one cheered louder than Sinope.
Khalik and Najyah were awarded the golden medallion and the purse of 350 gold in the ceremony following the match. Alex and Thundar were dancing in the stands and laughing hysterically as the prince took his first place prize while also securing some nice winnings for everyone from the bets they’d placed. They’d won far more gold than the prize for winning the contest had been…by a wide margin.
Theresa grabbed Alex’s arm, kissing his cheek. “We’re rich!”
He smiled, kissing her twice. “We’re richer.”
“That’s true,” she giggled. “By the Traveller, I can’t wait to buy my parents the most amazing birthday gifts they’ve ever had. And for Claygon and Selina too…plus, I’ll be able to spoil you plenty for your birthday.”
“Yeah,” Alex said. “And I can spoil you too.”
Again, the proposal bloomed in his mind, he shook away a surge of nerves.
His eyes fell on Brutus, the cerberus was whimpering with excitement.
The young wizard’s project was progressing nicely, and would be finished soon.
The results were going to be life-changing.
###
Author's Note
Hello TWENTY-THREE cool fools, almighty chosen, wise sages, and mighty champions! Thank you for your support!
You're all so supprotive, it makes me SO happy. :) And now we're in Roal proper. And yeah Leia and Solo.
No I don't have shame, why do you ask?
Cya tomorrow!
Comments
mant06
If J.M.Clarke ever wants to make an obscure refference then a character named Kun would be refference to Exar Kun from Star Wars lore, and to a character from Brian Lumley's Primal Lands series.
JKincaid
The original games have been so long, Leia was the person he faced off in the final then? Cause as I recall she wasn’t much of a challenge the first time either.
mant06
Not that I remember. By the way is she also refference? The only Jasmine I can remember is from Aladin cartoons and movies.
mant06
Theresa's life enforcement might go over to Brutus directly. Though even if it doesn't I believe Theresa is unlikely to allow the use a procedure that is pretty much still in develepement on Brutus, after it has been refined it's a different matter, but currently unlikely. Though would be interesting to see what that might look like.
Did Jasmine already appear at some point or was this her first time appearing?
Code Reed
Pretty sure he's also gonna do that body strengthening thing with Brutus along with the familar bond.
BelligerentGnu
Man, when are we going to get *anything* on Khalilk's parents' reaction to Sinope? Fun chapter, but I'm just waiting for that.
Justus Saucedo
We need Yogi and boo boo from mad stan or maybe a ranger smith with a normal bear hehehe
mhaj58
There better be a Luke and Rey
