Axel stood before me with a relaxed grin. It was the same scene I had witnessed every time we sparred at the IMA. I had done everything I could to stack the odds in my favour, and yet I still had no guarantee this was not going to pan out the same way as every other time.
33 goblins would be surrounding us and remaining hidden until I gave the signal to attack. Soot and Tiara were both here to assist me, and I had so many enchanted items on my person right now that my tactical options had practically tripled.
But why was I trying so hard to win here? In the grand scheme of things, why does this little contest between teenagers mean anything to me? I carried the soul of a Primordial being within me and had sworn to challenge the gods and remove their divinity. With such a grandiose goal, why does beating Axel matter?
It’s because in the eyes of the public, I’m a fairly average person. I have no influence, prestige, or accomplishments to my name. Performing well here is crucial for my future in the Black Crown Empire. Said Empire needed to survive and thrive for my own needs. After all, it was the greatest nation in the world, and promoted self-sufficiency instead of over-reliance on divinity. When the world changes and people can no longer rely on gods, the empire will remain largely unaffected, becoming a beacon of stability. Then, if I have some level of influence within that empire, I can help guide humanity down a better path.
And, if I’m being honest with myself, I just really hated losing.
“Not going to make the first move, Rex?”
Axel stretched his arms above his head, leaving himself open. Obviously, I wouldn’t fall for such bait.
I jumped off Soot and immediately fused with Tiara.
“Oh? You’re really going straight for your ultimate move?”
Axel chuckled, but looked happy. He always pestered me to fight like this in our sparring sessions, but I had refused every time.
Fighting him strength versus strength was suicide. I needed Tiara’s speed for the opening round.
“Leap.”
I had multiple pieces of cloth wrapped around my ankles. One of them dissolved at my command, and I flew through the air towards Axel.
He braced his body for impact and moved his hand to catch my knee, aimed right for his face.
But Phase Step took me to his back, and my attack pushed him off balance ever so slightly.
He responded with inhuman speed, and an elbow caught my side.
“Ironskin.”
My wristband hardened, and I deflected the follow-up punch Axel delivered as he spun to face me again.
“Impact. Longstride. Impact”
My enchanted glove lent my fist greater power, launching him back into a tree that splintered under the weight. I closed the distance before he had time to hit the ground and attacked with my claws this time, tearing through his needlessly dense muscles and leaving a gash on his thigh.
“Hahaha! Nice!”
He roared with laughter, and I felt his hands grip my head. The world spun not once or twice, but three times as he pulled my face down to his knee.
I felt the blood rushing from my nose and struggled to reorient myself before the onslaught could continue.
“Signal.”
I pulled out a stick—or I suppose it was a wand now—and aimed it at Axel’s face.
My wand exploded into red and yellow light.
Signal. When used this way, a spell designed to act similarly to a flare gun can double as a flashbang.
“Ack!”
Axel covered his eyes and halted his advance. Relying on Tiara’s keen senses, I had kept my eyes closed and countered.
I dashed past, swiping my claws just once across his body. As expected, he reacted instinctively and nearly caught me again, his fingers just barely grazing my fur.
Unable to commit to anything more, I repeated this attack five more times before Axel finally had enough.
The air around him crackled with electricity as he activated Lightning Armour.
This time, he launched towards me. The majority of my attacks had been aimed at his legs, and the intended effect appeared to be working as he had slowed down enough for me to outpace him.
Or so I thought.
Indeed, I could outrun him, but when he delivered a straight and met only air, I understood my miscalculation.
The force of his fist, reinforced with mana, was far beyond what it was before; the air pressure that blew me back was unbelievable. And with it came a burst of electricity with the same power behind it as a true Lightning Bolt spell.
I had to Phase Step over it and plant both feet into Axel’s face. His armour prevented any damage, but the force still pushed him back.
“Flame Burst.”
This was the most important moment of the fight. I had to confirm whether everything I was betting on wasn’t for nothing.
A point-blank shot from my next wand caused Axel to back off. My eyes didn't miss a thing. There, beneath his armour, I could see a burn.
“...Hey.”
Axel’s voice turns serious.
“This isn’t all you have, right? I really hope not…”
Axel’s Lightning Armour suddenly turned red, Tiara’s mana sensitivity told me there had been a shift in its function.
“I haven’t had a fight this fun in a long time, come at me with everything, Rex!”
I caught on immediately. Lightning Armour is made with mana, but in that moment, it was being sustained with aura instead. What this meant, I was not entirely sure of.
But considering the design of the armour itself went from fairly basic to now sporting an intimidating set of horns and spikes, I decided to refer to this as ‘offence mode’.
Axel leapt at me; his speed hadn't improved, but random bursts of lightning were tearing branches apart with his every movement. I had no interest in taking that head on.
A giant blur barrelled into Axel from the side, and I immediately ran to join the offender.
Soot never left the fight; he had just been waiting for the right time to strike.
I disengaged my fusion with Tiara; her mana pool was still at half capacity, but she could no longer offer anything for this fight. Instead, I needed more raw power to lock Axel down.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
A fusion with Soot was possible, but it wouldn't be as refined as it could be. Soot and I had trust in each other, yes, but we lacked perfect harmony. Normally, a Druid would never do what I was about to do. And considering I was using two fusions in one day, the strain on my body was going to be immense regardless.
I entwined my soul with Soot’s. I felt a little resistance at first, but he allowed it to happen when I refused to back off. We mixed, our thoughts and bodies became one, and I felt the battle-lust that was so typical of his species wash over me.
I accepted the radical changes to my body, something which drove most men to panic and prevented the fusion from completing. I accepted that another mind could now influence this body along with me, something that drove most men to madness.
I became one with Soot, though I immediately noticed the difference between fusing with him and Tiara. My emotional state had been coloured by the boar.
***
Axel picked himself up from the floor in time to see Rex turn back into a human, then immediately grab the huge boar and become engulfed in thick black smoke.
So far, the fight had been passable in terms of entertainment. Rex kept firing off basic spells with crazy speed, and he had zero hesitation trying to tear off Axel’s leg. That was how things should be, a real battle with no nonsense knight’s code getting in the way. Still, he didn’t expect to be pushed so far back that he had to use his Gift.
Omni-source Switch. A Gift that lets the user convert any magical energy into a different type that they have access to. Mana and aura were interchangeable for Axel, and since both recharged independently, he could effectively cycle between them forever without running out of fuel.
When was fueled by aura, it traded defence for explosive power. To that end, Axel was going to catch his slippery opponent and force him to trade blows.
It was a good plan, but when the smoke cleared and the bloodshot eyes of a real wild beast greeted him, he felt…
…Ecstatic. A good fight shouldn’t end so easily, right? He had transformed, so the best thing his foe could do was transform as well, keeping the blood rushing in both their veins and the tension alive with ever-escalating techniques.
Axel took in Rex’s form. They were the same height now, though the horns from Axel’s armour couldn’t really be counted, making him the short one for once. He had the brown and orange striped fur unique to Soot, and two huge tusks, the ends of which were aflame. The wood axe, which had not been drawn until now, had somehow changed as well and turned into a two-handed war axe that Rex gripped tightly.
But it was the eyes that entranced Axel so. Before, Rex always looked calm no matter what, whether he was fused with Tiara or not. But now, his eyes emitted unrestrained bloodlust, like a maddened beast that was barely holding itself back.
Axel had seen them before. Reflected back at him in the eyes of those he fought to the death in the past.
A shiver ran down his spine, and he secretly reassessed his classmate’s worth.
Let’s confirm it.
With that thought, Axel engaged the beast.
***
Soot’s temperament had coloured my own, but so what?
My axe cleaved through a tree, the splintered wood acting as a smoke screen as I lunged and charged into Axel, interupting his own attempt to initiate.
My heart was racing, my body felt hot, and the pain from Axel’s attacks now felt like fuel for the fire I was about to start.
We locked arms and smashed our heads together. Even then, I could not break that damn armour of his, and the horns of his aura-fuelled cut into my thick hide. How dare he try to meet a boar’s charge?
Slam! Slam! Slam!
I bashed my head against his over and over, but I still failed to crack his ‘helmet’. I did ruin his balance and prevent him from striking back, however. I would have to be satisfied with this small victory.
I tossed Axel, but he landed perfectly and came running right back at me.
Another head-on collision wouldn't accomplish anything. I should—
Charge!
I charged him, my tusks blazing with an even more intense fire than before. Axel didn't try to lock arms this time, though. He instead weaved like a boxer under my massive hand and delivered an uppercut to my jaw.
Despite my weight, my feet left the ground, and my body was pummeled repeatedly with such force that I stayed in the air, unable to retaliate. My skull rattled and my vision doubled from the first strike alone, yet the successive blows came without mercy.
Each hit made me angrier, each hit raised my body heat, and it reached the breaking point.
"UuurrrrooAAAARRRGH!"
A monstrous bellow reverberated in the forest, but I was too furious to realise it came from my own mouth.
The orange parts of my fur exploded into flames, my tusks began dribbling lava, and the sudden burst of heat blew Axel back again. I saw the annoying human laughing and running to meet me once again.
My mind was hazy, and I felt lost in Soot’s rampage, in my rampage. This is what Poggy always warned me about, but we thought my unique soul could handle the consequences.
My axe adapted to the shift in my soul again, and carried with it the same flames as my body produced. I swung it down, cleaving the earth and disturbing Axel’s footing. Then I charged him again.
I pushed him through one tree, then another, and finally into a boulder sturdy enough to stand its ground. I raised my hoof and stomped his chest over and over; the stone cracked more with each attack, but Axel wouldn't stop grinning.
He caught my hoof in one arm, then brought his other elbow down like a hammer, breaking my leg before he pushed me back and swung me away. I rolled into an old goblin trap. Luckily, the wooden stakes below couldn't pierce my hide.
But before I could pull myself out, Axel came flying down to join me. Using my helpless body as a platform, he rained down attacks and pummelled me, cracks of thunder accompanied each strike, and lightning bolts exploded out from the ever-deepening pit. My flames had been extinguished under the onslaught.
I laughed inwardly. Ironically, it was thanks to Axel breaking my leg that my mind was able to snap back into place and subdue Soot’s blind rage.
And we were in such a perfect position. Yeah, I was primed to finish the fight.
Axel wouldn’t know, but the closer to death Soot got, the less pain he felt. His attacks may look brutal right now, but all I felt was a faint pressure.
I pulled Axel into a bear hug with one arm.
“Fire Resist.”
I slapped an old, tattered cloak onto Axel and applied the spell. I wanted to win, but not at the cost of killing Axel.
“Signal.”
I fired straight out of the hole, and almost immediately, both Axel and I were drenched in oil—the Blood Thunderers were quick to act, and eager to see the promised inferno.
“Impact.”
Using another piece of cloth, I applied this last spell to my tusk as I broke it off with my free hand. Axel had been struggling to break free, but my grip was absolute.
The torso area of Axel’s Lightning Armour had sustained some damage from my earlier stomping, and that damage carried through to his back as well. It was this spot I drove my tusk into; the added strength of Impact hammered the tusk in and broke through.
I could see the armour turning blue again, probably in an attempt to close that gap by adding more mana. But that was a bad move.
I released all the heat in my body again, reigniting myself. Flames engulfed us, and the oil did its job; the fire erupted from the hole like a tornado, rising high above the canopy.
With our faces so close, I could watch Axel’s changing expression.
Excitement. Pain. Realisation. Recognition. Acceptance.
Breaking the Lightning Armour was never a necessity. That was something Soot had become obsessed with. All we needed to win this was heat. A lot of heat.
I noticed it in the fight against Leon. Faint burn marks on Axel’s clothing served as proof that his armour did not protect against temperature changes. From my time in the library, I had read up on this spell and found that it was originally designed for mages to protect against archers. In other words, it was only meant to block physical trauma.
I was proud that I broke it in the end, but the only function that served right now was to allow even more fire to pour through the gap and ignite Axel’s body.
He went limp in my arm, and after confirming he had lost consciousness, I pulled us both out of the burning pit.
His torso and arms had been badly burned, but he would survive thanks to the Fire Resist I used on him.
The goblins were making a racket as they dropped out of their hiding spots and danced around the forest fire I caused, but quickly turned to outrage when a water spirit suddenly extinguished it.
Fleur had rejoined me, and Guy was meekly following from behind. Both of them looked shocked at the scene before them and raised their weapons at me.
“A monster! Guy, can you still fight?”
“Of course, but look! That thing killed Axel!”
They looked horrified, and I could only sigh and disengage the fusion.
They relaxed, but then looked at Axel once again in horror.
“He’s not dead.”
I cut the misunderstanding down before it could fester and fell onto my back.
When I separated Soot’s soul from mine, I chose to take all the wounds we suffered with me. I could heal up faster than him anyway. But goddamn…
…My body was killing me.
Rex/Soot fusion