Fire really shouldn't take so long to get going, should it? His opponent had been tending the valuable pile for around five minutes now, and his anxiousness to be on with the duel had begun to get to Danath. Or his anxiousness to see if his opponent could do as the rumours said.
Focussing on calming his nerves, Danath glanced around the small, roughly circular, plateau. Barely fifty paces wide, most sides were nearly sheer, and the side they'd ascended had been an awkward climb from sea level, around forty feet below.
A cool breeze wafted through his loose hair, and he turned to squint at the sun, making a rare appearance in this showery season, letting it wash over his dark skin. Just short of six foot, his lean, muscled form hid behind the loose-fitting green shirt and black trousers. Rain may have given him more of an advantage here, but potentially less of a challenge, so he was happy it had dried out.
Never losing track of his opponent's movements, he scanned the horizon, which presented a small number of similar peaks jutting from the sea, of varying shapes. And, of course, Melmyrn, his home city, floating nearby, its path diverted for this duel, so that Thortus could watch it from afar. Considering his opponent's weapon, they hadn't wanted it taking place in one of the city's duelling arenas.
With the fire finally reaching a decent size, his opponent stood, looking his way defiantly. The man had arrived only a day ago, from the distant flaming islands of Tloth, and immediately challenged Danath. Apparently he'd killed a friend of the man in an earlier duel. Not that he'd recognized the name, or even remembered it now. Come to think of it, he couldn't recall his opponent's name. Tezal? Terzar? He felt sure it had a 't' and a 'z' in there somewhere. Never mind, it was what the man could allegedly fight with that had drawn his interest. Not that he'd have turned down a duel, anyway.
The inhabitants of the Tloth region had supposedly learned which stone, and which word, would allow them to control fire. They were understandably secretive with this knowledge, but now an opportunity to learn it had fallen into his lap, and he didn't intend to lose it.
The man, Danath decided to think of him as Tezal, pulled a stone from inside his shirt. It shone a translucent reddish orange, and looked a bit like a tade, a stone he'd only seem pictures of. He couldn't quite recall its history, but it was possibly only found in the Tloth region. Tossing the stone into the fire, Tezal said something which didn't reach Danath's ears, and the fire shifted, slowly at first, erratically, as though controlling it took effort, which was understandable. It was far more erratic than the stone and metal Danath usually used.
It stood, now in a vaguely human shape, flickering and flinching with a disconcerting irregularity as it slowly grew, rapidly consuming all the fuel used to start it. Tezal stood behind it, waiting with a glare.
So he wouldn't be wearing it. Unsurprising, really, but Danath had held out the hope it could be controlled enough to direct its heat away from the controller.
Turning away he drew the dark red stone, a dett, and lay it on a nearby outcropping of stone. "Luxthor", he commanded, and felt an awareness of that portion of ground flood his mind. It contained a few flecks of metal, but not enough to matter, and responded easily to his thoughts.
Normally he'd have used his favoured block of iron for duels, but against fire stone seemed a wiser choice. Also, it was considered poor manners to animate your weapon before the duel, so he'd have had to lug it up this height, which sounded too much like real work.
The stone animated into a human shape, and he turned as it approached, stepping into the hollow he formed within it, which sealed up behind him with a thought. Only a couple of slits remained for him to see out, and to let air in. He flexed, aligning the thoughts he sent to his muscles with those going to his armour.
Satisfied, he nodded to Tezal, whose fiery avatar advanced with an erratic grace.
Danath moved towards it, still uncertain how to deal with it. The only solid matter he could see within it was the stone powering it, so it apparently didn't need any other fuel. Did it still require air? Trying to smother it may be an option, probably his initial one. The tade seemed relatively unprotected within the flames, but he didn't want to risk destroying it, and removing it, even if he knew the word and could touch it with his hand, would be illegal in a duel.
As they closed in, the thing leapt, engulfing his armour in flames, and he barely closed the eyeholes in time, still feeling a wave of heat crashing on his eyes.
He felt the thing grappling his carapace, just holding on. He knew it was hot, but felt it more as a concept than a burning sensation, and felt slight cracks beginning to greet it along his shell. Not enough to cause him a problem for a while, certainly not before the lack of air getting in would be an issue.
Grabbing the evasive form, he fell forward, unable to avoid a certain jolt from falling onto stone, no matter how well he controlled it. His opponent's avatar, tried slipping out from beneath him. He rolled around, always fighting to keep it pinned, trying to grind it into the ground. But eventually it slipped free, to his left.
Rolling to the right, Danath scrambled to his feet, risking a quick opening of his eye slits, as much for air as to spot his enemy. It charged from his left, and, taking a deep breath, he sealed himself in before it hit, the force of the impact a strong gust of wind rather than a solid collision.
Rolling with the blow, he dragging it to the ground again, but again it slipped through his grasp, clambering on top of him this time. He rolled again, but it always managed to stay on top, and he realised he wasn't sure how near the edge he'd gone. They'd been near the middle of the peak when they first clashed, and the last glimpse showed more than half its width in front of him, but they'd turned away from there. He'd better not risk moving much further. The fall probably wouldn't kill him, but he couldn't know how far under water he'd go before the thing would be extinguished, and he may not have enough air left.
Twisting to his feet, the shell matching his fluid grace, he flung his encumbrance aside, expelling the surface layer of stone after it, and opening the slits as he did. The fiery creature was stumbling around ten strides away, both of them around ten strides from the edge of the peak. A quick glance found Tezal over to the left, around twenty strides away.
Launching himself into a charge at his true opponent, Danath caught a moment's panic in his eyes before his concentration deepened, and knew the fiery avatar would be closing in to intercept, Tezal scrambling around to use it as cover.
Turning his head to locate the avatar while he maintained his charge, Danath found it closing faster than he'd have liked. No matter how well he managed to merge with it, he was still running in stone, and the exertion, both physical and mental, had begun to take its toll. No doubt Elgren would put it down to not enough practice. Nevertheless, the avatar would catch him before he reached Tezal at this rate. Time to see how well Tezal handled multiple fights, then.
Opening the front of the shell as he ran, Danath sprang from it as he directed it to change course directly at Tezal's avatar. He slowed to a walk as his mind adjusted to the two of them no longer moving in synch, and he had to keep both the avatars in the corner of his eye so he could direct the fight.
Tezal looked flustered, still backing away as he glanced between Danath and the clashing avatars. The flaming avatar tried slipping around, but found its path always blocked, its stony opponent flowing more as it tried to grapple and smother the flames. Danath began running towards Tezal to keep the pressure on.
Both had short blades drawn, Danath's iron, and Tezal's appeared to be a copper colour. Tezal's attention was focussed entirely on Danath's approach now, as he tensed to meet him. His eyes adopted a puzzled look as Danath slowed merely steps away, and his eyes barely flickered to the side as he dove away from the pair of avatars, Danath's charging through with the fiery one in its grasp, the pair going over the edge. He didn't like to risk losing the tade like this, but had no idea how good a swordsman Tezal was, so taking out his avatar would be the fastest way to end this.
Tezal spun, back to his feet, dancing away from where his enemy had been, but not fast enough, as Danath caught his sword hand in a firm grip, holding it in place as his own blade found Tezal's throat. They remained like that, Danath's attention splitting back to their avatars.
They'd reached the water, the faint pressure pushing all around his stone surrogate, merging with flailing streams of heat from the other one's dying struggles. He had his avatar stretch its arms into a scoop beneath the fading thing, and relief washed over him as something drifted onto it. The stone secured within it, he began its ascent from the water.
Tezal's face showed his defeat, and he didn't struggle as Danath took his weapon, and directed him towards the edge of the plateau, where he could see and direct the ascent of his avatar as it cleared the water.
His attention split, Danath faced Tezal. "What's the base word?"
With obvious reluctance, Tezal replied. "Thir."
"Thir," Danath repeated, as he held Tezal's eyes.
He could see the certainty of a doomed man in there. Which changed to confusion as Danath slid his blade into its scabbard, walking away from his defeated opponent, to meet his avatar when it finally arrived.
Obviously he hadn't expected to survive losing a fight. But Danath had no reason to kill him now. Why did people always expect that of him? He killed when paid to. If he went killing anyone at any time, people may get the idea they didn't have to bother paying him all that much, and then he may actually have to get a proper job. No way did he intend to let that happen.