Fur & Magic

Chapter 18: Spar With Fire&Ice

         Once I'm done looking over the different teams and such I stand up. "Alright Austin we got some training to do. We got weapons and hand to hand down, now all we have to do is incorporate our magical capabilities." He nods to me before standing up, "and how would you suppose we do that?" I smile at him then drop into my combat stance. "The best way possible, during a sparring session." I smirk as he gets into his position, "alright then, with or without weapons?" I continued to smirk at him as I answered, "Whatever you got on you is the only thing we are allowed to use, pickups are not allowed either." He nods, "alright old school style, I like it."

We pace around one another for a moment, staring down one another. Once he steps forwards I do the same, while I already know what his first move will be. He always swings with his left fist to gauge what the opponent will do. Since I know that I can take advantage of that. I step to the left narrowly dodging his attack while simultaneously grabbing his thrown fist. I pull it, making him stumble forward which I take advantage of. I place my hand on the ground, "Freezing," I whisper, forming ice over the battlefield. His stumble turned to him slipping on the ice and falling face first on the icy ground.

I stand on the ice with a smirk as I stare at him on the ground, slowly getting up. When he eventually gets on his feet he wipes the little trickle of blood from the corner of his lip. "Oh you cheeky little bastard." I laughed at him, "what did you think was gonna happen? You open with the same move in a sparring match. I've already told you that you really need to work on that ever since I noticed it." He nods, "true but now it's my turn to have a little fun." I smirk at him, "oh yeah, bring it big boy." 

Austin holds both hands out and whispers, "Pyro Sphere." In the palm of his hands he is now holding a ball made of flames. I looked at it scared for a moment, shocked at the intensity of the flames he produced. He flings them towards me and for a moment I hesitate, but I quickly shake out of it and pull my magic dagger from its sheath. I then say, "Shield," and my dagger grows and changes form in front of me. It shapes itself just as I've practiced with it. Its form is now identical to a shield and the resilience is just the same as one to. I deflect the fire then say, "thank you and the shield changes back to my dagger. 

As I hold my dagger I'm shocked to see Austin has disappeared. It doesn't take too long to find him in the air approaching me with a fist. It makes direct contact with my shoulder as I try to dodge once again but fail. I grit my teeth in pain then lunge at him with my fists. I make a direct strike to his side as I fake him out with one punch. I smirk then hold out my hand, "oh your not the only one with long range spells." I hold out my hand, "Ice Spike," and an ice sickle quickly appears and fires from my hand towards Austin. He manages to dodge it but I repeatedly fire them at him. 

As I continue to fire ice sickles at him he runs a circle around me. I start to get frustrated at not landing one shot on him, as he continues to run. He then holds his hands towards the ground as he says, "I really didn't want to do this to you Darius but, Inferno." All of the sudden the field is surrounded by flames and the heat is intense. I try to fire more Ice Spikes at him but they melt as soon as I conjure them. The heat is starting to wear me down as I begin to collapse to my knees. I watch as Austin begins to walk towards me with a smirk. "Another plus side to being a fire magic user is I'm unaffected by heat." I look to the ground and run through possibilities I could counter this move. The one thing I've discovered over the past weeks is that Ice magic users are more susceptible to heat. 

I grit my teeth in frustration. If this is what is coming my way during the competition I might not be able to win. I continue to think as a thought hits me. I smirk then start to stand in front of Austin. He prepares a punch as I sweep his leg. He falls and as he does I hold both hands up, "Blizzard," the sky above the arena is now covered in white clouds and they begin to drop a harsh blizzard. Once the snow flurries get in range of the battlefield they turn to rain, cooling down the flames Austin conjured. I smirk at him as I pull my hood up from my uniform, "now I can do this." He grits his fangs, "damn I thought that would get you?" I shake my head then pull out my dagger, as he does the same. The number one thing I know is that I need to avoid it at all costs.

I then nod to him, "I guess it's time to get serious?" He nods as look at my dagger, "double dagger." It glows then two daggers appear in its place. I hold both of them in a reverse grip then lower myself into my combat stance. He holds his dagger in a reverse grip as well as he lowers himself into a combat stance. "Now let's get this show on the road," I say as I take the first step towards him. He nods before we both charge at one another.

He swung his blade first and I was barely able to dodge as I swung my blade at his chest. He steps back to dodge it then brings his blade back in a wide sweep as I barely duck under it. I try to plunge one of my daggers into him as he turns and grabs my wrist. While holding my wrist he places his blade at my throat. I grit my teeth as he says, "I win Darius," but then I smirk as I say, "oh have you now?" He looks at me confused then says, "how do you figure?" I nod my head towards him and he looks down. He looks at me in terror as he notices the tip of one of my daggers resting on his bulge. 

"You wouldn't dare?" I snicker, "I'll do what I have to do, Austin'' He lowers his blade and lets go of my wrist, "man to man I have to say that's low." I pull my blades back then say, "true but you do what you can to survive." He nods to me, "true." I nod as we both disengage our spells. "So how do you think we're gonna fair?" I nod to Austin with a smile, "I think we're gonna be just fine and now that we have a better understanding of one another spells it will help out so much." He smiles, "nice," he then places a hand on the back of his neck. 

"So Darius you wanna head back and watch a movie or something?" I shake my head, "I don't think I'll last for a full movie but I can watch until I fall asleep." He looks down, "oh, well I could always bring my laptop and stuff into your area?" I shake my head, "na, I don't want you to have to set up everything from scratch. But I could come to your area where I assume you have everything set up already." He smiles, "that sounds great to me." I nod then say, "but don't get any ideas mister." He blushes madly, "oh I wasn't thinking anything at all...... unless you want me....... then maybe?" I snicker and he immediately looks at me, "why do you have to tease me? I already told you that I have a crush on you." A bright smile covers my face, "maybe I think it's cute to see you all flustered." He looks at me shocked but I turn back around while grabbing my stuff and start walking off before he says anything.