Grian

Chapter 5

Xelqua was now flying into the air, his purple wings spread out large behind him, his robes covering him as well and a mask covering his eyes. He had switched to using his watcher vision, he was trying to avoid looking at the expressions of the hermits around him, not knowing what they were thinking and not wanting to think about how they were probably thinking about how they couldn't trust him anymore. He faced the watcher in front of him, and the watcher was facing him back. "Well, well, well when he said that you were a watcher on what was it called again? The council? Stupid. I didn't actually believe Mirinn when he said that, let alone when he said that you were keeping it hidden from your little admin and player friends here. I guess I was wrong," the watcher said, the amusement coming back to their voice, "I suppose this is more interesting than I thought, but do you really think you can go toe to toe with someone who was in the fourth generation of watchers,"

No, Xelqua wasn't sure at all. He didn't think he could do this but it was the other option, but he still summoned his sword to his hand, and with his other quickly typed a message into the council group chat about the situation that had occurred.

"Let's see how you younger generation handles someone many generations your senior," the watcher said, a smirk growing on their face, "How about this, we'll start off with a battle of swords, maybe something you have a chance in since that is more a skill rather than a natural ability. Then maybe if you don't immediately fall to my blade, which wouldn't be as fun, we can switch to some magic and just see how much more powerful I am,"

Xelqua didn't say anything, he was trying to make sure he focused. This wasn't a fight that he was sure that he was going to win, he hadn't been sure he would win the other ones as well, but for this fight, it was more than his life on the line. When it was just him fighting his opponent he didn't mind the banter that came with it, but the hermits' lives were on the line, his family's life was on the line, and for the time being there wasn't a council member who would be able to provide help if he didn't win this fight. He was decent with a blade, he didn't have Zyrex's skills, but he knew that he had a better chance of defeating his opponent with a blade than with magic.

Xelqua went in for the first attack, going straight for his chest. He knew that that watcher in front of him was going to block it but he hoped that they wouldn't be expecting him to aim directly at it. The blade hit the watcher's blade as they brought it up to counter the attack coming for them, the blade seemed to be there before Xelqua had started to make his attack. He wondered if the watcher in front of him was able to see what was going to happen. 'Unknown sight' was what he guessed the other watcher had as he made another attempt to hit his target, this time aiming for his left side, the other side to which hand was holding his sword. Last time he wasn't able to do anything against Aris, the general who had 'unknown sight'. The High Leader, or well Xelqua supposed he was meant to call her Astaria, was the one who had managed to get the upper hand. He never actually figured out how she did that, after all, Aris should have seen it coming. He couldn't focus on that right now, not when he was already struggling.

He went in for another attack, but instead of just defending, this time the watcher came forward with his own attack. Using his blade to send Xelqua's sword flying, in a normal duel he would be prepared for an attack like that but since the watcher hadn't made any offensive moves, even though he should have been expecting it, he didn't think he was going to go on the offensive. "Guess we can't play with swords anymore," the watcher said, their blade disappearing from their hand, "I suppose we'll just need to let the sparks fly,"

The watcher had their hands open facing Xelqua and in his hands, sparks danced around his fingertips, this battle would be for Xelqua to play on the defensive so he pulled up a shield. It was a good thing he did as well because the sparks were soon sent towards the council members. The shield was holding up, barely, but Xelqua rather than casting a really strong shield with both hands was using one hand. So when the lightning that was soon coming towards him started to make cracks appear in his shield he had his other hand making another to replace within a second. The watcher kept sending attack after attack and Xelqua was starting to get tired of having to continuously create new shields.

The attacks then stopped, and then rather than being relieved Xelqua just felt more nervous since he knew that meant that something was going to happen. Maybe if he was able to attack at all he might have thought that he had hit a lucky shot, but he hadn't, he hadn't sent anything towards the watcher. He looked over the shield as the smoke from the last attack flew further up, he could see the watcher just floating there. "Xelqua," the watcher said, with annoyance lacing their tone, not the annoyance that one would use when arguing with their sibling, but the annoyance of someone who has been pissed off.

"I wanted a fun fight, not one where you're hiding behind a shield. I know that you're getting tired but that would mean that I don't get the fight I wanted," a laugh escaped the watcher's lips, "What if I aim for your little friends instead,"

Their hand now pointing out to the left of them, the same purple sparks dancing around their fingers and Xelqua froze.

The world seemed to slow. Xelqua didn't know what to think, then in his head, he heard a familiar voice, "Let it free,". He recognised the voice as Astaria's, but he didn't know how her voice was in his head, maybe it was that same spell she used during one of their last battles, but he didn't realise it worked across worlds. The words at first didn't make any sense, but then Xelqua suddenly knew what she meant. He closed his eyes, he thought back to when he first went into his watcher form, and he found the core inside of him. It was pulsing with power, he could feel it wanting to be set free. So, he let it free. A bright violet light burst out from inside of him, the magic swirling around him until from the outside no one could see him inside. The hermits were worried that this was an attack from the attacking watcher, the watcher guessed what was happening and for the first time, a spike of fear went down their spine. The glowing purple cocoon then burst open. Xelqua now had four wings bursting from his back and a halo hovering about his head. His eyes were glowing purple, but also full of rage. 

WC~ 1250

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this week's chapter!