Gatekeepers Book 2: Galeforce

“I must say, I don’t believe we’ve ever had an aerial battle like this before,” Theravor commented as he and the other dragons in the top box of the coliseum watched the fight as it continued to ascend into the sky above. There was no need to worry about the possibility of them escaping; the barrier the Managuards were generating rose up as high as necessary. Even so, the height at which Draycos and Balara were fighting at was unprecedented.

“Poseidon, can you tell us exactly how Draycos is able to control so many conjurations?” Boreta asked without taking her eyes off the fight. “I’ve never seen a Conjurer other than Theravor who’s capable of controlling so many before.”

Poseidon nodded. “Very well, I’ll tell you what I know,” he replied, giving a slight bow. “Draycos is capable of manipulating and controlling the longswords he conjured without touching them by directing them with his mind. However, commanding this many blades at the same time is mentally taxing for him, and his ability to give complex orders to a large number is non-existent. Having perfect control over three or four blades is no problem for Draycos. But with this many, he could only give each blade a simple command as his mental capacity is stretched to the limit.”

“So that explains why he hasn’t attempted to conjure anything else, huh?” Vinzgar muttered, half to himself.

“Correct. He’s already fighting close to his limit.”

This fight is going to be much harder than I originally thought.

A vein visibly pulsed on Draycos’s forehead as he continued his mid-air fight with Balara, blocking and dodging the occasional fireball or tail swipe. He was starting to feel a server headache coming on as the seconds dragged on.

Another dark red fireball flew his way. Raising his right hand, Draycos directed six swords to break off from formation and rotate in a circle before him at high speed. The heat stung a little, but the fireball was successfully dispersed. Draycos lowered his hand, panting slightly as the swords returned to their original position in the serpentine formation Draycos rode on.

“Bastard!” he heard Balara roar. “Get down here now! I will not stand for a human flying higher than me!”

Draycos glanced down at Balara, who was flying about ten feet or so below where Draycos floated in the air on one of his conjured longswords. Balara was glaring daggers at Draycos.

Looking down at Balara, Draycos realized just how high they had flown from the arena floor. The coliseum was the size of an anthill, and the spectators were nothing more than mere specks filling up the stands. He guessed they must be at least around two thousand feet or so up in the air from the coliseum. They had been climbing pretty much non-stop for the last few minutes of the fight.

“Alright, then,” Draycos replied. “You asked for it.” Conjuring a black scimitar in his right, Draycos hopped off the blade he stood on, much to Balara’s shock.

Back in the coliseum’s top box, Zero squinted up at the fight far above, shielding his eyes from the sun. The Vizard family were dragons who did not possess a second eyelid to prevent sunlight from bothering them, so he couldn’t see what was going on.

“I can’t see what’s going on up there,” he growled. “Can anyone fill me in on what’s happening?”

Vinzgar snorted. “The stupid brat just jumped off his foothold after being enticed by Balara’s words.”

“Your hearing is sharp as always, Vinzgar," Boreta interjected, ignoring Zero’s sudden flustering about Draycos possibly falling. “But I don't think Draycos was baited by Balara's words. It looks like he meant to do that.”

“If you three would be quiet and watch, you’ll see what he’s about to do,” Poseidon told them, cutting off the noises the three royal family heads were producing.

“Ah, I’d almost forgotten,” Theravor commented, turning to look over his shoulder at Poseidon. “It must be nice to know what Draycos’s skills are.”

Poseidon bowed deeply. “One of the privileges of listening to his ideas last night,” he responded. “The boy definitely has an active imagination to have thought of all these ideas he had. Every day that passes, he resembles you even more and more.”

Theravor looked up at the fight above, a distant look in his eyes. “Resembles me, huh....”

Meanwhile, Draycos continued to fall towards Balara, who could only look on in shock at Draycos’s unpredictable response to the situation.

“Blade Charge!”

Sticking his right hand under his left armpit with the scimitar blade pointing behind him, Draycos began converging all the swords he’d conjured onto the scimitar in his hand. The scimitar absorbed them, growing to a ridiculous size that was at least as tall as Balara. Draycos twisted the weapon so the blade was laying flat to the ground, lightly placing the fingers of his left hand on top of the blade.

“Quick-Draw Strike!”

That’s the sword technique that the other human used! Balara instantly recognized the style and stance Draycos was using. Realizing the danger, Balara immediately crossed his thick arms in front of his body to protect himself just as Draycos's sword flashed out. As Draycos fell past Balara, the oversized blade broke apart and returned to the serpentine-like formation made up of around one hundred longswords. Draycos landed on the blade of one weapon and looked up at Balara to see how much damage he did. The scales on Balara’s forearms had cracked from Draycos’s attack, but hardly any damage had actually been dealt. A couple of steaming drops of blood slowly seeped out of the wound. As Draycos watched, the wound gradually closed itself up and disappeared.

He healed himself? Draycos dodged Balara’s attempt to dive bomb him and put some distance between them, observing his opponent for a few moments as he circled around Balara. Balara started laughing at him.

“Did my regenerative abilities catch you off guard?” he queried. “I guess you didn’t know this, but I’m part of the Stormfang family! In addition to the high physical and magical prowess we possess, our blood also gives us the ability to instantly heal small wounds!”

Draycos stopped circling around and floated in one position, glaring at the dragon. “Are you really part of the Stormfang house?” he asked in a low voice.

Balara cracked a sinister smile and nodded. “What? Are you too scared to fight after hearing that, human?”

Draycos shook his head, annoyance clearly evident in his expression. He held up the black scimitar before him. “No, quite the opposite. It’s insulting to hear you’re part of Theravor’s family. So I’m going to make you shut up so you can’t say that anymore.”

Balara’s expression soured and he glared at Draycos, infuriated. He suddenly smiled and began chuckling.

“What’s so funny?” Draycos snapped.

“You think you can shut me up?” Balara laughed harder, covering his mouth with one hand. “Do you honestly think you’re capable of that when it’s obvious that you’re already at your limit?”

Damn it, it looks like he caught on.

“I already know that you’re almost out of magic!” Balara exclaimed, pointing a talon at Draycos. “Do you think I wouldn’t have noticed you’ve only conjured one more weapon after that first attack of yours? You wasted almost all your magic on that first attack, and you’re only fighting now by using the leftovers from that attack, combining and separating the weapons as you attack and defend.”

Shit, he’s observant! Draycos raised his scimitar up in the air above his head and began converging his blades again, excluding the one he stood on. Gotta act now before he figures anything else out!

“I don’t think so!” Balara growled. He pointed his right index talon at where the blades were converging, and a large explosion rocked the air right above Draycos’s head, almost knocking him off his foothold. A sound similar to glass shattering filled the air as all the swords broke into pieces and faded away. Looking away from the spectacle above him, Draycos looked down and realized Balara had disappeared.

“Here goes the last one! Have a fun fall!”

A tail came swinging from out of nowhere and slammed into the sword Draycos stood on, destroying it. Panicking for an instant, Draycos reached out and tried to grab Balara’s tail, but Balara simply flew up out of his reach before he could. Balara smiled savagely as he watched Draycos begin to fall.

Shit, shit, shit! This is not good! Not good at all! The wind began whistling in Draycos’s ears as he flipped himself over to watch the coliseum grow larger as he fell. I’m almost out of magic! Even if I did conjure another sword, I doubt I could control it in this situation! What am I going to do?!

“Theravor,” Zero said in a low growl as they watched Draycos fall. “Shouldn’t we step in this time? I realize that we haven’t stepped in before since there’s always been a chance of Draycos overcoming his battles, but I don’t see how he’ll survive this one if we don’t intervene.”

Theravor said nothing and continued to watch Draycos in silence.

“Theravor!” Zero growled, giving the king a half angry, half worried look. Theravor finally sighed and looked Zero straight in the eyes.

“I will personally go out there and catch the boy if he is unable to save himself,” he said. “Until it’s absolutely certain that I need to do so, I will not allow anyone to step in. Remember what’s riding on this victory; we can not make assumptions and give the win to Balara so easily.”

Zero made a few uncomfortable sounds before eventually nodding, returning his gaze to the falling young man that everyone in the coliseum had their eyes on.

Meanwhile, Draycos was still racking his brain for a solution to get himself out of danger with little success. The same idea came to mind several times, but he dismissed it quickly as even he realized how ludicrous it was. But as he continued to fall closer to the ground, he gave up trying to come up with a different solution.

It’s all or nothing on this! Draycos took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he fell head-first to the ground. This is the only option I’ve got right now if I still want a chance at winning this. If it doesn’t work, I’ll either die or spend the rest of my life rotting in a prison for a crime I didn’t do. The sound of the wind blowing past his ears gradually faded away as Draycos focused.

Above him, Balara sensed a sudden change in his opponent’s mana, and he glanced down at him. “What is he trying to do...?” he muttered.

The dragons in the top box below also noticed the same thing. Vinzgar looked up at Draycos, his mouth hanging open in shock as what Draycos was attempting to do dawned on him.

“Is that brat for real?!” he hissed loudly. “There’s no way he could pull that off while falling to his death!”

Theravor remained silent as the dragons around him raised a commotion, his eyes fixed intently on Draycos.

Focus. Focus. Focus. Focus. Focus....

Draycos suddenly felt a surge of power flow up from within his body, and his eyes snapped open, brown and white in color as the black coloring of his hair peeled away and dispersed in the wind.

Now! Draycos fully extended his right arm at shoulder height, and a bluish-white aura enveloped his arm before a bright flash engulfed him as he almost touched the ground. A dust cloud swirled up from the ground, but something quickly shot out of it as soon as it appeared.

It was Draycos, flying just above ground level with a transparent wing wrapped around his right arm.