Ancash had wasted no time in quickly separating from the advisor who was making a futile attempt to keep track of their group. Those mages were weak anyways. Just because they had power over the excavation site didn't mean they actually had power. The kind that can make someone bow at your feet.
Ancash slid down the long slanted 'floor' of the interior of an old tower. He finally reached the edge of the stone tower where he could stand along its interior wall. The entire tower was dimly lit. The only light that showed in was the bright sky that was visible from a collapsed piece of the wall that, now, acted as a ceiling with a natural skylight. The rest of the tower was half-buried in stone and ice making the entire tower's interior ice-cold.
He had to admit, walking within an old stone tower tilted at nearly a 90 degree angle was a bit disorienting.
Unfortunately, he didn't find anything interesting along the ruined furniture that now lay upon the tower's wall.
"Wow Ancash, didn't expect someone like you to enjoy the stone-cold silence of some random tower." Called a voice from the edge of the natural skylight.
Ancash grunted and turned his head to the figure. He saw an elf staring down at him. They were bathed in royal blue robes with white lining the edge of their robes. Beneath that their tunic was silver with many stitchings of eyes all over it, along with one large in the center.
His eyes were piercing gold as they glared down to meet Ancash. His hair was even more extravagant, nearly glowing nearly white in the bright blue sky. He looked no older than many students at the academy.
Ancash smirked his sharp dragonoid teeth as embers and smoke flared from his nostrils. "This guy..." He mumbled. "Wanna' come a bit closer, Taeral? Couldn't quite hear you from up there." He shouted.
The elf scoffed and took a step forward, only to step on the air and begin to gently hover down to Ancash's level. "You really seem to be in a fighting mood today, Ancash." Taeral stated as he landed down onto the stone floor.
The two students glared at each other as smiles grew on their faces. Then in unison they threw their heads back and laughed.
"For a second I thought you really wanted to fight me just then." Ancash snarled out through his cackling.
Taeral waved his hand as he attempted to muddle down a chuckle. "No no. I know better than that. In terms of firepower, you're far above me."
Ancash cackled even louder, walking forward and, rather roughly, slamming his hand onto the back of his friend, making him stumble forward a few steps. "So, did you get tired of your divination class already?"
Taeral rolled his eyes and groaned at the question. "Not them but the advisors. They are so incompetent. There wasn't a single pure-blood elf there. It's like the country of magic doesn't understand the innate magical prowess of the elven species. All I saw were a bunch of humans and a tabaxi. Oh, and guess who else those imbeciles let into the advisory position?" He angrily crossed his arms and looked at Ancash with an incredibly annoyed look.
The crimson dragonborn raised a brow as a grin tugged at his lips. "What dumbass have they let into there this time?"
"They let in an Orc." No sooner did the words leave the elves' lips did Ancash let out another snarling cackle as embers flowed from his throat.
"Oh, you're serious?" He looked at the elf with widened eyes as he laughed. "They let one of those green-skins into the advisory position? Lemme' guess; next they're going to let a Hill Giant do their paperwork."
The two friends laughed even harder at the comment.
"Anyways," The dragonborn stifled another chuckle. "Let's get out of this stupid tower. I expected to find something here but all it is is ice and stone." He mumbled.
"Oh, I saw that Tiefling earlier walking to a half-crumbled building." Taeral mentioned.
The smile on Ancash's lips widened. "Oh yeah. He'll be fun to beat around. Can't have some half-demon getting too high and mighty. Don't want someone like him making another event like that apocalypse in Sige." He said with a smirk.
Ancash moved aside his cloak as a pair of red draconic wings sprouted from his back. He flapped them once, sending snow flying up around them. "Better keep him humble."
Taeral smirked as wind began to gather under him, making him hover slightly above the ground. "Better keep him fearful of the power of any proper mage." He added with a smirk.
***
Bloom wandered around, what he soon discovered, to be a dilapidated library. Either every book within it's tipped over and broken shelves had been completely destroyed to the point of illegibility, or all the ones that could be deciphered had already been taken by the excavators.
Nonetheless, Bloom still wandered around the shelves to occasionally pick up a book that had been partially decomposed only for it to, quite literally, turn to dust in his hand.
He held a faint orb of glowing light that hovered above his hand. Every now and again he would nearly trip on a broken shelf of chunk of tiled stone that jutted from the ground and suddenly lose his concentration on the lightsource. By which he then had to re-cast the simple spell. Most mages could focus on multiple of the undulating floating bulbs of light and even control them independently. But Bloom could only control one as long as it stayed close to his body.
Bloom glanced up to a book that suddenly was swept from the ground by a gust of wind that caused it to get tossed into the air, partially tear apart, and fall to the stoney floor like a pile of sand.
Bloom glanced at the red-beaded bracelet on his arm that nearly blended with his dark red skin. A light smile fell on his face as he began to fiddle with the beads.
Each bead had a small rune on it written in what his mother referred to as 'gentle infernal'. A category of the infernal language that relied more on the melding together of words than the guttural grunts and snarls of the traditional infernal language.
He knew this type of language more than real infernal due to the fact his mother had always taught him the language in his youth. She'd called it "our own secret language".
Bloom turned the beads in his hands, mentally reading the small runes that layered each bead into a phrase. "Bloom like a brilliant flower, and make even the coldest nights feel of the warmest spring; Love, Mom."
Bloom smiled solemnly at the sentence. It was the reason for his virtue-name after all. In reality, his name was Malron, but, as is tradition for tieflings upon coming-of-age, he was free to choose a virtue-name that was of utmost importance to any tiefling.
Suddenly, he heard a pair of footsteps behind him, along with the loud creek of wood as a piece of a shelf flew past his horns. He turned around quickly to see both Ancash and Taeral walking toward him. The elf, of which, had a large chunk of broken wood hovering above his raised hand.
Bloom cursed under his breath as the orb of light blinked away into nothing. "We aren't doing this today alright." He shouted to them, taking a step back.
Ancash just shrugged as the smile grew evermore on his face. "I don't know what you mean. We're just wandering around and just-so-happened to run into you." He chuckled.
"Doesn't rectify why Taeral just tried to hit me with a shelf." Bloom gestured his head to the elf.
Ancash threw back his head and laughed. "Oh don't be more of an idiot then you are. If he wanted to give you a concussion with a piece of wood he wouldn't've missed." He threatened.
Bloom turned and hastily began to walk toward the exit. "I am not dealing with this today. The advisors would catch either of you two anyways. Plus, I came here to discover things, not deal with you two." He said as he sped up his pace.
Suddenly, Ancash erupted into embers only to reappear in the same cloud of embers in front of Bloom's path. "Where do you think you're off to? We're here to discover things too, y'know?" He started as burning sparks began to slight in his hands.
Bloom took a step back only to feel a sharp point at his back, making his skin shiver. He turned his head to see a floating rapier pointed at his back. He glanced over to see Taeral, hand outstretched, manipulating the blade to prod deeper into Bloom's back. Bloom looked back ahead as the dragonborn began to speak again.
"How much heat can your hellish skin take before it begins to shrivel?" He asked as he raised his sparking hand to Bloom's face.
Quickly, Bloom reached out a hand towards a window that had long been broken away. In an instant his body faded into wisps of smoke as he reappeared on the floor halfway between the dragonborn and the window just as flames erupted from Ancash's fingertips where he'd just been standing.
Wasting no time, Bloom dashed toward the window. He felt the quick stomps of footsteps closing in behind him as he reached the window. He was about to jump through the windowsill when a clawed hand grasped the back of his robes. Nonetheless, Bloom gritted his teeth and pushed off from the ground.
His robes tore away from the force as he was launched through the window. Bloom's view opened to the sprawling ruins of the old Icaryians. He was nearly three stories up from the ground.
Bloom glanced down to see the roof of a building below him. Part of it had crumbled away, making several gaping holes in the roofing. Bloom glanced behind him as his body hovered in a second of zero-gravity.
His eyes widened as he saw Ancash glaring at him from the window. He opened his maw wide, his razor teeth beginning to spark. From the depth of his throat a bright orange glow began to emanate from his mouth. A second later, a wave of flames erupted from the dragonborn's maw.
In a futile attempt to guard himself, Bloom held up his arms as his body became engulfed in flames and his clothes began to cinder and burn.
His infernal skin resisted the brunt of the flames, however his skin still began to scar and burn as he began to fall.
Bloom tried to reorganize himself as he descended. He attempted to trace a sigil onto himself to slow his momentum, but the searing pain around his body kept him from concentrating.
Bloom tensed up his body as he neared the stoney roof and crashed into it's snow-covered surface. The wintery powder cushioned his fall, although he still felt pain surge through his body upon impact.
Bloom began to stumble to his feet, his body steaming as the flames finally extinguished themselves; being smothered by the snow.
Then he heard the flapping of wings followed by a pulse of magic.
Bloom looked up to see Ancash and Taeral standing in front of him. The dragonborn's mouth flowed with burning smoke that curled up his face and into the sky; while Taeral's flying rapier hovered idly by him. Although Bloom didn't expect that to last too much longer.
"I'm surprised you survived that." Ancash snarled; more smog bursting from his mouth as he spoke. "A dragon's breath is one of the most powerful natural weapon's any creature on this plane can have, y'know that?" He said as he stepped forward and kicked Bloom in the chest.
Bloom stepped back and tried to raise his arms to block the attack, but Ancash's clawed foot slammed into Bloom's stomach, sending him tumbling back into the stone.
Bloom clutched his chest and groaned. As he stumbled to his feet, he quickly waved a hand as a ray of frost shot from his hand at Ancash who began to menacingly step forward.
As the thin frozen beam shot toward the dragonborn, he raised a hand as a thin barrier of magic materialized in front of him. The beam impacted the barrier only to disperse into ice shards and fade away.
Ancash smiled as he walked forward, the arcane shield fading to nothing. "You think you could've gotten a shot in? So much for always being the wise-ass of the class." He said, slamming his foot into Bloom again, making him tumble backwards once more.
"Do you think you're meant for greatness just cause you know history?" The dragonborn stomped forward and kicked the tiefling again just as he rose to his feet.
Once again, Bloom was forced back by the kick, drawing himself ever closer to the edge of the crumbled roof that overlooked a large kasem that delved into the earth.
"Do you think you can stand as an equal to any mage here just cause you know a few magic sigils?" Ancash shouted, kicking Bloom again. "Do you think you belong here?"
As Ancash walked over to kick Bloom again, the Tiefling quickly turned around and pulled back a fist that now lay shrouded in cold mist. He threw the punch forward with all his might, aiming directly for Ancash's smug smile.
However, Ancash simply grabbed Bloom's fist half-way through its swing. The frozen mist quickly dissipated as Bloom's angered grimace faded to stare, horrified at Ancash who had his clawed hand tightly clenched around his fist. In one forceful motion, Ancash pulled his hand back, tearing his claws into Bloom's wrist and hand.
Bloom stumbled back and clutched his hand as blood began to pour from the many wounds across his knuckles. His face then contorted in anger again as he noticed something missing. He glared at Ancash to see a red-beaded bracelet hanging from one of his fingers.
Ancash raised his hand to look closer at the bracelet. "What do we have here?" He asked himself as he looked closely at the runes upon the beads. Ancash's face warped from a smug smile to an interested sneer. "Infernal?"
"Give that back!" Bloom muttered through gritted teeth. His teeth shown through his grimacing face. His teeth were sharp, showing his fiendish heritage.
Instead, Ancash ignored him and began fiddling with the bracelet, then proceeding to grip it and break it in two, glaring at Bloom as he did.
Bloom watched as the many red beads began to fall to the floor and spread about the stone.
Gritting his teeth, Bloom roared out and reared his fist back as it began to crackle with lightning. "I said, give it back!" he shouted again as a thin spear of golden lightning appeared in his hands. With a shout he threw the spear forward.
Ancash looked back up just in time to see the spear of lightning strike him. He roared out as golden lightning coursed across his body.
A slight smile crept across Bloom's face as he watched Ancash's pain. Not a second later Ancash roared out once more. This time, not in pain, but in rage. With a single beat of his wings, Ancash soared forward; nothing more then a smoking blurr.
Bloom's triumphed expression quickly turned to pain as Ancash slammed a burning fist into the tiefling's chest. Ancash's jaw was clenched in silent anger as an explosion burst into his enemy's torso.
Bloom heard many deep cracks echo through his body as he was launched back from the explosion. Bloom waved his feet, looking for any form of a foot-hold. Then he noticed there was none. He felt his body begin to fall; the wind whirling past his ears as gravity pulled him into the earth. He saw Ancash and Taeral standing at the building's ledge, neither making any attempt to stop him. They simply stared at him with disgust as he plummeted into the dark chasm below.