Prince Rail'ak's rage was palpable as he retracted his wings, now useless within the confines of a space where wind was forbidden. Fear milled through the demihumans watching as their very breaths felt harder to draw within the confines of Storm Void.

The prince stood with a grimace and dusted himself off before shooting for the green-eyed human. The ground at his feet broke, and the arena trembled from the power of his explosive steps. His blade hissed through the air, moving faster than anything a Wood Rank could dream of.

He'd tried to listen to his father's warning and end this battle quickly, but the boy had not come unprepared. This was not the time to hold back. Even crippled, the guardian emperor was dangerous.

Alaric knew how bad the situation was, and yet a grin split his face, and his body moved out of the way, placing him behind the rushing prince in a smooth, short step. It was a guess, and one he'd made on instinct as his eyes had not managed to keep up with Rail'ak's speed. The prince swung the blade in a horizontal cut, at the same time that Alaric danced around him, bending back so low that he watched the blade pass over his eyes.

Rail'ak's blade came down on the boy's body only to strike a spinning bo staff while the boy danced about his now-thrashing form, mirroring his fighting style with ominous accuracy.

It didn't matter where he tried to cut or how fast he managed to cut. The boy was always a step ahead, weaving an insidious counter with a bo staff. It took everything for the prince to keep up with a dance that he'd started.

"Stop. That." The prince yelled out, slashing with the might of a Steel Rank. His sword slid right past the nimble boy and would have to return in time to stop the travelling bo staff.

The arena shook from the shockwaves of the missed attacks. They'd been fighting for a short time now, and yet, Alaric had analysed his entire battle style, and the panic showed on the prince's face as each attack he attempted caught Alaric already evading.

Through his deep knowledge of the Dance of the Sword, Alaric had seen through the demihuman's entire battle style. The man's habits were… rudimentary.

His blade came down, sideways, up and kept repeating the same pattern with next to no elegance. When parried, he started the pattern again, and again, and again… like someone hoping to get lucky.

'He's the kind of person to discover a powerful move and believe it to be his lucky charm,' Alaric thought to himself as he drove the demihuman's blade into the ground with a well-timed misdirection. Not waiting for Alaric's counterattack, Rail'ak jumped back.

Alaric held his bo staff over his head, and with his free hand framing the prince between his thumb and index finger, he thrust it forward with all his might, letting the weapon sail like an arrow straight into the demihuman's shoulder.

It broke the skin and shot him into the wall with a heavy shudder.

Alaric put his hand out, and the golden staff yanked itself out of the man's shoulder, sailing back into his hand.

"How?" Rail'ak was panting.

So Alaric showed him the shaft of his bo staff on which several runes were inscribed, empowering the weapon with an enchantment.

"That's metal," Rail'ak yelled, "Enchantments are made in cloth."

Alaric wasn't surprised to see that his bo staff's blade had only barely dug into his skin. Steel Rank bodies were tough. The man was probably tougher than the weapons they were holding. The thought gave Alaric an idea.

"Is that so?" he answered nonchalantly, "I had no idea you had an interest in spinning. I should introduce you to a few Spinmasters."

It was obvious the prince had never given the skill the light of day in all the centuries he'd been alive. The look of shock in his eyes as he realised just how ignorant he was about the skill was satisfying to see.

Panic on his face, Rail'ak turned to the unconscious boy at Alia's feet, "Get up, you fool. We can take on the…"

Alaric was in the prince's face in the blink of an eye, the bo staff coming down with a silent hiss. The prince didn't notice the tentacles of aether shooting from Alaric's fingertips and diving into the metal of the bowstaff, etching even more enchantments into it, little by little.

Rail'ak jumped out of the way in time to dodge the staff, and yet in the next second, a blade cut past his shoulder. A thin line appeared on the prince's shoulder, casting an irritated frown on Alaric's face. He switched gears, chaining the miss into the next attack. Rail'ak had barely moved, and yet the bo staff descended upon his frame again, from a different side—the one Alaric now knew to be his blind spot.

Fear flashed through the prince's eyes before he shot away from the bo staff. The staff missed, and yet Alaric's legs bunched up, propelling him forward in pursuit, chaining that attack into the next. This one glanced off the prince's back, cutting a slit into the leather armour.

During the next half minute, Alaric's bo staff struck the prince several times, cutting through the prince's defences at least five times, and each time, his blade glanced off the prince's skin, leaving small, inconsequential nicks and cuts.

Alaric's offence was laughable, and yet Rail'ak kept running, fear and anger written on his face.

The prince's partner stirred, rising to his knees next to the knight behind him. The chains covering the knight's body shattered at her right leg, which swung out in a wide arc, connecting with the side of the demihuman's head.

He was out, the chains returning to the guardian's leg.

A few minutes later, Rail'ak began to notice how shallow and feeble Alaric's attacks were and stepped into one. Like before, the attack glanced off his skin and left a small cut, but it was a small price to pay as he went for the boy, fist balled up with a ton of aether.

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The boy vanished, appearing behind him with his bo staff, going for the back of his head. There was a loud clang and a small shockwave shook the arena, but Rail'ak remained unfazed. If anything, the man looked pissed.

Alaric backed away, a small grin on his face.

Rail'ak regarded him with a raised brow, "You have the strength of an ant, yet you smile as though you've won."

The prince blurred and appeared before Alaric, his blade hissing, but once more, Alaric's head was nowhere near his blade's trajectory, having crouched in time and with his bo staff going for the prince's torso. It tore through the leather and broke the skin, but went no further than a quarter of an inch.

The battle continued, with Rail'ak lumbering around aimlessly. Alaric was getting more and more precise with each time he dodged, including the times when Rail'ak tried to break his own patterns.

[ How? ]

[ He has a ton of tell-tale signs. ] The boy yawned mentally.

[ You'll run out of strength before he does. ]

[ Not if he expends too much of it. ] Alaric answered. He'd already noticed how much Rail'ak wanted to end this. Nearly every attack travelled with the speed and strength of a mountain, aiming to end him in one fell swoop, but Alaric grew elusive, and he learned to break the prince's skin even more, aiming for his tendons and muscles.

It was a stalemate, and they both felt it. Alaric could tell from the lack of aether in the air that he'd just rendered all the demihuman's magical attacks useless inside the spell 'Storm Void.'

"Were Wind attacks all you could do with that aether?" he mused.

The crowd had gone silent, and murmurs could be heard milling through them. Alaric wasn't focused on the murmurs, but he couldn't help but smirk as a few landed on his ears.

'How's this possible?' 'Prince Rail'ak is the most powerful Stormrunner, right?' 'That human's cheating somehow.' 'What's the prince doing?' 'Oh, I know! He's letting the boy get cocky and saving the best for last when he's utterly spent.'

'When I'm utterly spent, huh…' Alaric mentally chuckled, keeping an eye on Rail'ak's uneven breathing, 'Those with talent often neglect training.'

……………

It was four hours before Rail'ak's knee hit the ground. Not because Alaric had hit him too hard or that his body was riddled with tiny cuts that had stopped healing about an hour ago, but because the muscle in his leg wouldn't listen to him anymore.

He was panting badly, and sweat covered his whole body. They were now deep into the night, and exhaustion had eaten at their bodies, and yet the human brought his bo staff down on him with explosive vigour.

The prince's blade went up to block, and the two met with a shower of sparks. The force of the bo staff sent ripples through his body and ripped the blade from his hands, sending it clattering to the side.

The look of shock was unprecedented, but there was no time to dwell on this outcome.

The bo staff descended again, this time striking his raised arms. The sound of metal rang through the amphitheatre as the staff struck the prince's gauntlets. Without a sword to protect him, Rail'ak was exposed to the full force of Alaric's bow staff.

But Rail'ak was Steel Rank, and he knew it, so disregarding the ant reeling back for another hit, he attempted to stand and meet the bow staff. The staff struck, and the resulting shockwave sent him crashing into the ground with a loud boom.

Rail'ak's scream filled the amphitheatre. He was injured and struggling to get up to his feet. His gauntlet had dented, and he favoured the other hand that hadn't been hit, "I'm Steel Rank, brat!"

"And I just enchanted my blade. Care to guess the enchantment I added?" Alaric responded coldly.

"Parlour tricks."

"An honour to be acknowledged by the prince of parlour tricks," Alaric answered. The arm he'd hit had turned red and was showing signs of breakage, yet the prince's eyes still shone with defiance.

He shot from his spot on the ground, breaching the space between himself and Alaric with a single leap, and missed. Alaric had vanished using Aslan's power. He appeared at the prince's side a fraction of a second later, the bo staff once more hissing through the air and straight into the prince's back.

Unlike before, when Alaric's attacks had done nothing, the prince flew across the arena, landing with a painful grunt.

Rail'ak wasn't done, and Alaric didn't expect him to be. He stood, much to his aching body, and attacked, disregarding his blade entirely.

The battle turned savage as the prince abandoned all his training and fought like a street brawler, with no manner of decorum, topped off with a bunch of battle cries. It was brute strength, uncontrolled speed and sheer desperation.

His fists flew, and the efficiency of what Alaric could only assume were kicks went down by more than half what they should have been. Alaric's bo staff continued to wreak havoc, sending the prince flying with each failed attack, and this time with much more dire injuries.

The tension in the audience was palpable as even those who had fallen asleep woke up to the screams of their prince, getting a one-sided beating from a crippled Wood-rank human.

It was another half hour before Rail'ak crashed onto the ground and failed to get up, his arms failing to support his weight. His body was covered in red blotches, and he had a black eye and bloody nose. The boy was still moving, coming up to him with his bo staff casually on his shoulders.

"You seem incapacitated to me," Alaric mused, "Do you yield?"

"Never," Rail'ak growled through gritted teeth. With all his might, he managed to roll himself over, pain shooting through his limbs. He had at least seven fractures and a litany of bruises that weren't healing any more.

"Oh?" Alaric smirked. This is what he'd been hoping for, but he wasn't about to tell the prince that, "Should we find something more permanent to break? Surely, it wouldn't hurt as much as death by an exploding cauldron."

Rail'ak's defiance only grew, "I don't know what you're talking about. Do your worst, human."

The boy's smirk faltered for a second. For just a second, the rage boiling within him had transformed his face into an ugly visage of anger, but he contained himself. Alaric hadn't planned on forgiving the man for his actions, but perhaps this one act of denying his own actions had tipped him off the ledge. Any chance of forgiveness the man had before was now gone.

Grinning, he left and returned, dragging the unconscious body of Rail'ak's partner. The seven-foot-tall demihuman had been beaten so badly his face was swollen all over, making him nearly unrecognisable. Alaric dropped the man in front of Rail'ak, a look of confusion crossing the prince's face.

"Why don't we make this interesting? We'll play a game. I will ask you questions regarding the demiplane, and for each question you fail, I'll hit you for each question you pass, I'll hit him. Since you're both on the same team, it makes no difference who I hit, does it?"

"That's messed up," Rail'ak growled, "I'm not playing."

Alaric's eyes flashed brightly, then he proceeded to ask, "I have come to notice a certain dialect among the Heaven-Crested Eagles that exists in all their names, causing them to end in either 'ak, 'am or 'al. A beautiful dialect, if I say so myself, but one that makes remembering the names of many difficult.

I have endeavoured to remember those that mean the most to me and struggle with those I might never see again, so my question is. 'What is this man's name?' The man who so willingly joined you in your duel, and clearly paid for it." There was silence, prompting Alaric to speak again, "Silence will be counted as failure to answer, which means I'll hit you."

Rail'ak's eyes darted about. His pupils dilated, and for a brief moment, Alaric was almost sure he'd refuse to answer, but then the man's face lit up and he said, "Varn'ak."

Alaric looked down at the man on the ground. His less-beaten eye cracked open, and his torn lips moved. In a hoarse tone, he spoke, "Tor'ak. My name… is Tor'ak, named after my grandfather. He was larger than me, but I was still named after him."

Alaric clicked his tongue with disappointment, "My my! This can't be good. He's a Stormrunner like you. One could only wonder how much your Stormrunners are worth to you. To not even allow them the honour of knowing their names as you sacrifice them for your ambitions. Such a cruel leader you are."

"This is bullsh—"

WHACK!!! Went the sound of the bo staff, and a bone in the prince's leg cracked before he let loose a massive wail of pain.

[ Alaric. That's too harsh. ]

[ I'm just getting started. ] Alaric fumed.

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