Victor was quick to blind Luke. He launched one of the pellets he had taken from the armory and it created a smoke screen that enshrouded Luke.
Luke was freaking out. Not knowing where Victor could attack from made him paranoid, and he swung his shield around all corners.
Then Luke heard a fwoosh sound as if something large and heavy was traveling towards him. Something in his gut told him to duck ASAP. Lucky Luke listened to it because soaring over his head was a rock the size of a baby carriage. He heard it crack against a wall behind him.
I need to get out of this smoke, Luke thought. He started moving forward with his shield up. He heard another fwoosh coming from his left and he rolled forward to avoid it.
How did he get around to my left already? Luke thought. Then he tried remembering what house Victor belonged to. The anvil and the forge symbol on Victor's armor didn't give him any hints.
But since the next rock came soaring from his right, he thought this guy was from House Gabriel and could teleport objects short distances like Jordan can.
After rolling out of the way of this rock, he emerged out of the cloud and into full view of the stadium. It was like emerging from a cave. Hundreds of fingers pointed at him as if they were playing I spy a dead body, but were disappointed when it was moving.
Victor was still standing where he had started and didn't move at all. He stomped his foot in the ground and lifted his hands up as if he were carrying a heavy package. He thrust his hands forward and Luke heard another fwoosh from behind. He ducked just in time from suffering permanent brain damage.
The stone that soared over his head lost momentum mid-way as Victor stopped it in its tracks and pushed it forward again. Like a pendulum, the rock swung right back towards Luke.
Luke rolled aside to dodge it and was starting to get annoyed. Each time he rolled, he risked stabbing himself with his own sword, as it wasn't already difficult enough to tumble around with a heavy sword and shield. This time he had nicked a piece of hair. Next time it might be a piece of his ear.
The rock swung around and started chasing after Luke.
That's when Luke thought, why not lead the rock to Victor, whom he has already figured out was controlling this stone. That means he was a member of House Raguel, elemental angel of earth.
Luke rushed towards Victor and eventually he'd have to let down his manipulation of the stone to defend himself.
But Luke seriously underestimated Victor's skills.
With his left food, he stomped and split the sand beneath him, and a stone wall rose from the ground. Victor had shielded himself from attack, and Luke had no option but to duck again and wait for the boulder to shatter against the rock wall ahead.
As both the rock and wall crumbled, it revealed Victor's sweaty face. "Little snot, you should be bug juice already." The way Victor spoke there, the anger in his voice, it was as if he spoke with a German accent.
At this time, all the eyes in the arena were on the fight. Great—Luke had a captivated audience to watch him fail.
"All I need is one hit," Victor said. "One hit and the fight will be over. No more running, no more cowering." Then he whispered something that only Luke was able to catch. "No more prophecy."
Red flags went off. This guy is trying to kill me.
"Uh, timeout," Luke said trying to call timeout with his hands.
Victor laughed, back with his normal American accent. "You think you can call timeout in combat?"
"Look Victor you need to chill."
"And you need to learn some respect. This color here means I'm top dog. Black equals master. White equals slave. You get that? You do what I say. And when I say stay down..."
Pebbles started to amass into a sharp spire above him. "You stay down." Victor swung his arms down and the spire darted towards him. Luke tried to roll over, but the spire pinned him down over his right shoulder.
Good news, he didn't get a lobotomy and the sharp pointed rock wasn't massive. Bad news, it was long enough to pin Luke to the ground like a thumbtack fixing a poster to a surface. He lost all feeling and movement in his entire right arm.
Victor sucked his teeth and it sounded like a woodpecker searching for food. "You never learn. But now that you can't move—I won't miss." More pebbles started to amass two stories above Luke. He started to get nervous and his left hand was twitching. Even it knew Luke was going to die.
Meanwhile the referee was counting down from ten the moment Luke had been pinned down. The spire had formed overhead. Luke was in too much pain to let out anything but inaudible cries of pain. He was hoping the ref would see that he couldn't move and then call the fight.
The countdown was at three, two, one.
Gongs went off. Luke thought he had escaped the worst.
But the spire dropped like a massive pin from heaven. overhead.
"The fight is over!" the ref said. "Cease your attack Tempest."
Victor shrugged as if the spire was now out of his control. Gravity will do the rest.
Luke thought he was a goner. He'd become a shish kabob and the prophecy would expire, just as Victor had wanted. He'd never see Nellie again. He'd never learn about his true parents. He'll die having accomplished nothing in life.
Maybe it was the blood lost that was causing him to hallucinate, but he could've sworn he saw an angel with electric purple wings standing over him with a red sizzling sword on his side. He seemed to stick out the point of his finger, sending an arc that connected with Luke's body.
Luke's body suddenly reacted. His left hand that had been twitching charged up with electricity. With only his left hand free to protect himself, his instincts forced him to cover his face from the falling spire.
A bolt of white electricity shot forth from his hand like a chaotic bullet, coursing through the rock and splitting it in half. It touched down to the right and left of Luke barely missing his head by an eyelash. It came so close, it nicked his ear and blood dripped onto the floor.
Just as quickly as the bolt shot forth from his hands like lightning, it had returned and started to course through his body. It ran up the rock that pinned him down and shattered it into the sand that it was formed from.
With his right arm in searing pan, Luke pushed himself off the ground, his body coated in a sphere of electricity.
Luke's head was bowed. The crowd was silently watching. "You tried to kill me," he mumbled at Victor. Victor's face went pale. In Luke's left eye, sparks of pearl-white lightning thrashed about and in his right eye roared a snow-white flame.
He made a fist and pushed his left hand forward, flickering with electricity.
"The fight is over!" the ref repeated. "Cease your attack now Dove. That's an order."
Luke disobeyed that order.
He uncurled his hand and unleashed a flare of lightning that shot forth from the palm of his hand. Victor was not able to dodge such incredible speeds that lightning possessed. He only managed to put up a stone wall in front of him, and even though the flare burst through the wall with an explosion, it weakened the flare enough to save Victor's life.
Once the flare destroyed the wall, parts of its sphere of electricity made contact with Victor's body and it clawed through it like a thousand tiny moles. Victor seized and sizzled. His body flopped like a fish out of water on the ground until the dosage died out and his body was left twitching on the ground.
Luke walked over to Victor, who laid on the ground unconscious. He curled his hands again. The ref stood in between Luke and Victor. Luke swiped his hand and a bolt of lightning exploded from his hand and struck the ground at the ref's feet sending him flying towards his left.
Luke's mind was focused on one thing—teaching Victor a lesson, the same lesson Victor wanted him to learn: respect.
Even if he must learn that lesson in the afterlife.
And using Victor's own words against him, Luke scolded the unconscious body below him. "Now that you can't move—I won't miss."
Suddenly, Luke felt something prick his neck like a bee sting. His eyesight started to go hazy. He left hand went unbalanced and shot the lightning flare at the wall behind Victor. The lightning coursing through his body died out and the pain in his right arm returned.
He reached and felt a small dart sticking out from his neck. He collapsed to the ground and the last thing he saw darting towards him with weapons were snow-camouflaged clothed soldiers, Tempest students dressed in black, medics, and the Dean who looked so angry he could melt all the snow on the Rocky Mountains.