Cyrus Solaris
Bogdan stepped onto the ring, running his hand through his black hair, winking at girls, wearing golden jewelry around his neck and fingers, and not paying any attention to me, his opponent.
I was sick of these heirs.
To my left, Mira and Stravos were stepping onto their ring as well.
"Look, it's the denounced branch family member. How does it feel to be the only one left?" one of Stravos's friends from the first day of school said.
The ground beneath Mira cracked. Her fist clenched, and her short hair lifted as cosmic energy surged from her.
"Say one more thing about my family, and I'll bury you."
"Your father was a sorry excuse of a warrior," the kid said. Before I knew it, Mira was at his throat, unleashing several strikes. I understood her rage.
I'm protective of my family, too. I watched as she pummeled the kid, and I couldn't help but laugh at the sight.
He's getting what he deserves.
It took a couple of teachers to pull her off the kid and get her back onto the ring to face Stravos. I thought she would get kicked out of the competition, but the teachers had a habit of letting students handle their own conflicts.
"Peasants really are interesting," Bogdan said, sitting on the ground with his head propped on one hand.
"Get up and lets this get this over with," I said to Bogdan.
"Yeah, I agree, I have a score to settle with the Vortaris."
I looked to the ref, waiting for his approval. He nodded toward both of us and gave the signal. Bogdan took slow steps toward me.
"Tell me, have you ever seen a dragon?"
Ignoring the question, I focused on perceiving the ripples in space.
"So you don't want to speak. Fine." Then his eyes changed. No longer cold blue and the shape of a sphere, but red, taking on the characteristics of a reptile.
He tilted his head, "You only have two objects of worth in your possession. That won't be enough." Then he exploded with cosmic energy.
Much more than what he displayed earlier. Each step he took cracked the ring beneath him. There was no way he had this much cosmic energy. It felt like it dwarfed mine.
He took a step, the distortions in gravity told me he was making a beeline for me.
But he was faster than Sora, and I was just able to rotate my torso before he landed his strike.
The strike grazed me, yet I could still feel the air leave my lungs. I saw the smirk spread across his face.
"Fighting a man of little wealth is below me," Bogdan said, pivoting into a spin kick. I dropped to the ground and rolled away, but he was persistent. Each stomp of his feet carries the weight of an elephant. I couldn't believe I was in this position. Running from an opponent.
"Get up," Bogdan yelled, stopping the advance.
"Show me how you won the totem games." I popped up off the ground. I saw that Mira and Stravos were having a heated exchange in the center of their ring.
No one evading or blocking, just a straight-up slug fest. It was brutal.
I looked to the crowd, I saw the disappointment, the worried look of Professor Rhondall, all of it slowly dwindling my confidence.
I had to go back to what I knew. I released more of my cosmic energy. My muscles were twitching as the cosmic veins released the floodgates
"There goes that impressive strength I've heard much about," Bogdan yelled out.
"But it's still not enough."
"And why is that?"
"You'll never own more than me. My family is connected to The Hoard King, the dragon of treasure Constellation. The more we possess, the more cosmic energy we gain. My dimensional storage alone holds hundreds of items, and I find more every day."
"I don't care about wealth; it was never a priority for my family," I said, dashing toward him. I threw two faints before I rotated and slammed a spin kick to his abdomen.
He stumbled only a bit. He didn't put much thought into defending his body; he only focused on offense.
Something only a cocky little guy would do. But I knew that if I didn't let up, he would eventually falter. I just had to make sure I executed, because I was losing cosmic energy at a faster rate than he was.
"That's where everyone makes a mistake. Wealth provides power, and is the ultimate equalizer in this world," he said, propelling himself toward me.
We each threw a barrage of kicks, elbows, knees, fists, and chops. I imagined the display looked like two whirlwinds dancing side by side, each vying for more space. His strikes rained hard, making it harder to focus on the ripples in space and harder to perceive his next attacks.
I could only last just a bit longer before the barrier of cosmic energy I had wrapped myself in was destroyed. Once that happened, one strike would end this fight for me.
I pushed forward through the pain and finally connected with an uppercut to his chin. The strike was clean and flush. His eyes flickered back to blue. His cosmic energy dropped drastically.
"The way you speak of wealth makes me laugh. Because I have seen the greed you speak of, I know it leads down one path. A path an heir of a great family should know."
Bogdan recovered fast, his eyes shifting back to those of a dragon, and took hold of my head.
His grip was like a vise.
I desperately tried chopping down on his arms, but I couldn't break free. He drove knees into my stomach too many to count, and broke my barrier of cosmic energy.
Blood pooled in my mouth, and I spat it in his face. I felt his grip slip a bit, and so I gave one last chop to his arms, rolled away, and dashed to the far end of the ring. As he whipped the blood from his face, I noticed that Mira just been kicked out of the ring.
Bogdan dashed towards me, donning the look of a madman. "How could you ever know what an heir should know?" he said, his speed too great for me to counter, his fist crashing into my chest.
I wanted to respond, but the forced heaves of air I took stopped me. I wanted to announce to the entire academy who I was.
But I had to keep my father safe.
The beating persisted. A kick to the head rang my skull. I didn't know where I was anymore.
All I knew was the pain I felt. "Your house puts their hope in you, and you are about to fail them. I'm going to enjoy the rec room very much."
He was right. I was failing them. It wouldn't feel right to sit in class after this, knowing I couldn't come through with the win.
I struggled to stand. Bogdan walked slowly over to me. If he wanted to end the fight, he could. I only had a small amount of cosmic energy left. I ran through the options.
None of them would get me past his deep reserves and secure the win. I looked at the crowd.
My house watched, their eyes wide with anticipation.
Bogdan lifted me by my hair off the ground. He turned to the crowd, boasting about his victory that was soon to come.
He was greedy.
I hated it.
I looked at Professor Rhondall and gave him a half-hearted thumbs-up. He had a confused look on his face.
I funneled the remaining cosmic energy to my astral tattoo and flipped my thumb upside down.
Our bodies crashed to the ground. I didn't control the radius, so everyone was affected. I heard the students' groans as they struggled against my ability.
I broke the rules, but I didn't care anymore.
Proving a message meant more to me than winning the joint event for my house.
Then everything went black.