Chapter 23 - The Duel.

The banging of spear ends and staffs, echoes throughout the fighting pit, the stone walls bouncing them off as the tribe flood in to get ready to watch the duel. Most were silent while others were ready and anticipated this fight from the very beginning.

Endar remains in the pits weapon room, placing his old dueling piece on his arms legs and torso, the fabric floating around his body before slamming against him, the sleek outfit was mostly black; with the arms being the only thing that was blood red.

It was worn and torn but it still fit like a glove on him, he scoffs in amusement, straightening himself when someone walks in, his head tilting to see who it was.

Watching as his mother walks in with the clinking of her heels on the cobble stone floor. Her shadow cast over him as she enters, her taller size just barely making him shudder before sighing.

"What do you want?" He says in a cold, dismissive way.

"Well, you are my only son, if you are to die today then at least let me show that i care...it may help you"

"It may also destroy me? I know you better than you think I do, dont think I forgot your last stint when Oman told you the prophecy..."

The awkward silence between mother and son was deafening. Almost screaming, just to wake up and not hate each other for once. But the damage was done a long time ago.

"...well...just don't perish my son, I do still care for you..."

She places a hand on his shoulder, he finally looks up at her with a hatred in his eyes that he hasn't let up since he got home. Tears threatening to spill.

"When did you care for me? I have a hard time remembering"

Her brows furrow, getting ready to bite back but he escapes her grasp and grabs a nearby bottle of glowing liquid, it was silver with a shimmering blue hue.

Her expression turning from resentment to curiosity in a matter of seconds.

"Why would you need that? I thought you were too noble for Tears of the Gods..."

"I am...but recently I've been feeling...weak" he admits to her, the word grinds on her nerves but she gives up on her response and smirks towards her son.

"The pool...it didn't work?"

"Don't play dumb, its because of what's inside...what you hid"

"Ah...you mean your previous body?"

"What else could it be...you cant replace flesh...neither can you remove the metal keeping my body intact, even now...as we speak I can still feel the gears and bolts grinding on each other...and it hurts..." he shudders, placing both hands on the table nearby, both hands covering his face in pain.

She observes him. Then sighs.

"Mother..." he begs her as she waves her hand with a fierce flick, and the skin around his arm shrinks to the metal bone, but with her expertise it was relatively painless.

The pressure around his arm was loose and free and his metal arm and hand steam from the release of under his skin, the remaining flesh peeling away from his new bones. He sighs with relief, gazing upon his arm again, feeling a sense of normality once more.

Although his eye was still an issue, he didn't need his mother for that. Turning away from her and heading towards the door leading to the inside of the dueling pit.

But before entering, he tilts his head to the side, muttering two words quietly.

"Thank you..."

Opening the wooden door, Cyren steps through into a dark chamber where he see's very little, but instead he takes time to breath in and out slowly.

His heartbeat thumping contently, completely calm and focus, on the other side however, Zeroth enters the opposite space.

Her breathing was ragged and full of rage, she was red in the face for how prepared she was. All those years under his wing she thought. And it was all for nothing.

Magic flaring in her hands, her nostrils crinkle as hard exhales release causing the magic in her palms to grow larger and agitated. Using her anger as a firewood to her magic and with each ragged breath the fire pulses lung the swelling air in her lungs. A pitch black abyss cradles her eyes.

Then once the chanting stops, Matron approaches the seat at the very top of the pit where she had a front row seat to the show, while Camilla, Maren, Alstroe and Torra sit on the outskirts of the arena with worried and anxious feelings swelling in their minds, but they were interrupted by Enya sitting on the edge of the seat, the entire gang turn their heads in her directions.

"Is there any logic in this mountain or is Endarryne just an idiot" she hissed in frustration as he and Zeroth walk into the middle and meeting, waiting for Matrons signal to begin.

"Cut 'im some slack, would you stand down to a duel if she'd bad mouthed you to everyone?" Torra speaks up in his defense as Camilla eyes Enya wearily, but when she catches her staring she simply looks away with a guilty look. but her nose was still flared as if she was angry she was doing this.

"Listen, about before...I was more angry at him than you...you were just...in the way...sorry..." She shy's away at her attempt at an apology as Camilla chuckles.

"You don't do this often do you?" she reply's, making the fire in Enya's eyes grow large.

"Ugh, forget it Priss"

Camilla retreats with a smirk, continuing her focus on the incoming fight as Matron finally speaks to the room.

"We are gathered here for the witches duel...albeit the first one we've had in years it will be a pleasure to watch such a fine pair of witches prevail in the ancient ways of combat...their given magic is all they may use...nothing else!" she warns he two as they stare each other down in an intense waiting game.

"Blood...Against Blood" she mutters as the crowd riles up, beginning to get antsy with the wait as Zeroth smirks at Endar with a devilish thought in her mind.

"You've got nothing on me...you're nothing but a disgusting metal half blood!" she shouts with the loudest voice she could muster, antagonizing him to a point where he just wanted to hurt her...to punish her for everything he did for her...and this is all he got in return.

So he did, without Matrons signal, he lunged forward with red blood racing off of his fingers, shooting at her with tiny razors of red, she barely dodges the attack while the crowd begins to egg the two on with cheers and chants. Endar's eyes were dead with focus as she forms a pair of sai in her hands out of rusted blood.

"Oooo so angry, struck a nerve?"

"Too many" he growls, forming his signature blood scythe to clash against her weapons, her sai scrapes with sparks and erupts in an ear piercing sound, like nails on a chalkboard as she drags the sharp point of it along the wall. Pouncing with great agility over and around him, slashing at his back and shoulders.

But he rebounds with a wide swing of his scythe in a circle around him, catching her off balance and slamming her into the cobbled ground. Stone and grit crunch under both their steps, each passing minute, the arenas walls flash with bright and beautiful shades of red, coating the entire audience in a gruesome display of skill and talent from both sides.

Most of them were speechless during, but Endars friends cant help but wonder if he was lagging under her petite and swift form, he was panting and out of breath facing her, but after awhile they were both cut up and bruised from the fight and heavily exhausted.

Endars eyes lock with Camilla in their stand still, a worried gaze in his features, shaking them off to deflect a slicing wave sent from the apprentice. Her sais' cut down from above with a harrowing cry, lodging the middle of the scythe in her hooks, a smirk clenching in her mouth and with great exasperation she crosses her arms, breaking his magic in half, shattering his only weapon.

She giggles maniacally and points her weapon at him menacingly, his stoic expression groundbreaking and formidable.

"What are you going to do now...Master?~"

Without hesitation, he lifts up his hands in a fighting position, blowing a long strand of white from his eye.

"I'm waiting" he sneers back as her smile fades, lunging at him with her weapons bared like fangs, but without his large scythe he was must faster, perfectly gliding through her advances like a cherry blossom in the wind, landing small but hard hits each time she leaves an opening in her defense.

With an unbalanced and unfocused play, she sloppily attacks once more as he takes the advantage grabbing her arm in a slick motion and flipping her on her back, twisting the arm in his grasp. Her cries of pain were silenced by the deafening applause and celebration of the crowd, chanting the same word over and over again.

"BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD!"

Their cheers distracted Endar as he gazes upon the many faces of his tribe, not shocked by their thirst for violence, but their willingness for it, seeing no other option than to break her arm, snapping it quickly then letting go. Defeating her without magic is a bigger dishonor than killing her.

As the cheers around him slowly silence, everyone gazes up at Matron with expecting glances, awaiting her final verdict, her hands clasp together tightly, a pleased smile on her face as she sees her son approaching the befallen witch in front of him, a raging ball of blood in his hand and eyes.

A burning stare locks on him from the defeated apprentice before tears well up in her eyes, angry, red hot emotion pouring from her in a desperate attempt to carry on.

"NO, THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE MY MOMENT! ME!!" she screams in the face of death with a cunning smile.

"Stay...down, I don't want to kill you if I don't have to" he warns her as she stands again, her arm was shattered and disjointed. Clutching it with a beaded forehead covered in sweat, chuckling in disbelief.

"But i didn't get to show you..."

"Show me what?"

Her smile fades, lifting up her arm as he snaps and cracks back into place on its open, the blood and life returning to her arm fully healed. a crackling sound comes from behind her as sharp and pointed spider legs arise from her spine, standing on the ground and lifting her from the ground by a few feet.

She was much taller than him now, with a threatening stance as her spider legs walk slowly to him.

"This~"

Within an instant she starts advancing on him with added speed, crashing him into the wall, people gasp and watch in awe at her magic, Endars friends all watch on with different reactions, Enya curses under her breath while Alstroe and Camilla watch with their delicate hands clasping around their gaping mouths.

Torra is silent and stoic but she was deeply worried on the inside, while Maren was conjuring a plan in his head. But the same thing was raising from their minds.

How will he beat her?

Endar struggles to his feet, choking back the pain in his throat, looking up at her new form with an appraising look.

"I'm almost impressed, Anatamorphia is a very high level spell..."

"You'd be amazed what you can learn from me~"

"Trust me, there's plenty more you could've learned from me!" he shouts at her with all his might, he faces his palms to the ceiling and licks it as tiny balls off blood rip from his flesh and clustering in his hand, squeezing it onto the floor, it prickles slightly before raising into a fully formed clone of himself, then another, and another until 7 clones surround her towering form.

She growls with frustration as they begin jumping at her from all sides, losing the real one in the process, with the added limbs, she begins spiking them in the stomach and head, killing them instantly, but as each one dies more start appearing from the fallen.

She starts to break a sweat under the added pressure he conjured, furiously hacking away at the many Endars that ripped and teared away at her body.

"COWARD!" she screams with a pulsing rage like a heart beating on a sprint.

During the intense battle, a figure walks in unnoticed and sits quietly next to Camilla as she intently watches on, worried for the only family she has left. The man mutters apologize after nudging her. She turns and reassures it was ok, but she catches a glance at his eyes under the robed hood.

A familiar shade of scarlet behind a face she'd never met before, but she swore she knew his eyes. Looking away with a confused glare in the battles direction, but she'd missed the part where Zeroth was on her knees, her spider legs were bent and broken, her form now weak and weary, fear in her eyes bright and readable to the entire room.

"Please don't kill me! I should never have dueled with you, im weak!"

"Yes...you are..."

He conjures his scythe again, swiping at her crumpled form without hesitation, beheading her in an instant as the crowd cheers for the victory thy just witnessed, but Endars face remained stone cold. Camilla's jaw hangs slightly, watching him kill her without warning,

"Should've stayed down" he mutters, walking away from the pit and disappearing into the back of the training barracks.

She tries to get better sight of him but with all the fuss of his victory in the stands, his friends however watch on relieved and happy. But Camilla couldn't get past the inhumanity of it all, the disregard for her life.

But a hand clenches around her shoulder, it was the man from before who sat next to her, his voice gaining close to her ear.

"Follow me...hurry" he says with urgency.

Leading her away from the crowd who celebrated their first duel in years, she followed wearily with him, feeling trust settling in her stomach for someone she doesn't know.

"In here...where its private"

Red flags set off alarms in her head but she enters regardless, the small room flickering in candlelight. When the door closes behind her, he removed his robe, showing his face, his features were pudgy and hairy on the face, while his hair balding and receded fully.

"Who are you and what do you want?!" she questions him cautiously.

"Calm down Camilla...its me"

she looks closer, noticing the eyes she recognized, slowly over time, the feature start to stretch and fit into their proper place, as the more pieces fit, a smile slowly creeps onto her face.

"Oh my...Endar...why do you look like that...and how were you in the stands and fighting at the same time?!"

"Simple blood spell, changes your appearance to the opposite of what you look like...and that clone spell wasn't a joke, its a useful and underused spell i made a long time ago"

"Yes but...why?"

He takes a moment, the features of his face fully forming as he speaks.

"I knew that if i entered that pit as I am I wouldn't have stopped...so I made a clone to fight in my place so she wouldn't have to die"

"But she did die! I watched it cleave off that girls head!"

"You watched what I wanted you to watch, there was never any danger to anyone but herself, so in the last moment when the clones attacked, I took a sample of her living blood in the fray...she may be dead now, but her blood is still alive...I can bring her back"

"This is insane"

"Of course it is...but what choice do I have, i couldn't kill her Camilla and this is the best i can do for her"

"Fine, what do we have to do?"

"We need to be outside, she can never return here after i do this...and neither can I"

Camilla's face contorts with confusion and sadness.

"Leave? why must everything you do be dramatic"

He pauses at the thought raising hell in his mind, the crowd cheering for Zeroth's "death" sent him over the edge, seeing his home for what it is and what it always will be.

"This place isn't my home...the only home I know is lost, and until i find him and my father, I cant stop running"

He looks at her before sighing, exhausted from the amount of magic he used.

"Come on, lets go resurrect a witch"

The two venture off down a secret passageway into a spiral staircase on stone burrowing deep into the mountain, Camilla huffs against the wall.

"H-how long is this tower again?"

"For the third time Camilla, its name is the Ha'elaer Torim...eleven for the hopeless hollow, we named it after the elves for their sacrifices, they go as deep as this tower and more"

"I'm not familiar with the tale, but my mother used to whisper of fallen elves and world eating gods"

"Your mother was knowledgeable in all things elven, she used to think they were superior beings, even amongst witches"

"Why?"

"Back in the days when life first started blooming, and humans were nothing but animals rolling in mud, the elves had been there from the very beginning, some believe they created the realm as a safe space for all magical creatures, others believe they were sent to protect us from the gods who wish to break free of their binds"

"And what keeps them at bay?"

He stops speaking, but continues to walk down the steps.

"Endar?..."

"There's a tome in the mountains long forgotten and hidden behind traps and enchantments, it was put there by the first founding Matron of the tribe, he made this our home and we've lived here for centuries...he took a spell from it as vowed to protect the world from that evil"

"What happened?"

"His intentions were good...but the spell had consequences, as all spells do, he climbed to the top of the mountain where the Capitals Tower once sat and read from the tome, attempting to seal the sky in a protective cage, keeping the astral beings at bay...but he saw his body disintegrate in front of him and leap into the sky with a vigorous intent..."

"Intent to do what?"

"Intent to seal the spell he started, he didn't read the inscription properly...he needed a soul to bind the cage and he never prepared a sacrifice, it sat in the sky for decades until...a soul was chosen by the spell itself at random..."

"Who did it choose?"

"Nobody knows, it's said the person would be powerful and a magic user, so it could be anyone at this point...but the gate will have to choose, or the gods wont have mercy on us"

Camilla processes the information before they finally reach the exit at the very bottom, entering out into a side cave that shows pretty trees and a distant waterfall from the inside of its maw. Endar sets up his ritual, tracing a rune in the dry ground with his fingers, Camilla watches him with great interest.

He takes a vial of blood from his robes and levitates the fluid out gently, the blood lays itself in the trenches of the rune, the blood filling it up to the brim.

"Whats going to happen?" she asks him, not taking her eyes off the spell for a second.

"You'll see"

"Can I help?"

"No, just sit there and watch"

The blood begins circling like a miniature oceans, rippling in waves, until it sets as still as death.

"Whats-"

"Hush now!"

Finally after a settled start, the blood begins rising and forming a shape above it, tendrils and veins before muscle and bone, Endars eyes were whited out and his lips speak in mutterings and tongues, the more he speaks the more her body grows in real time.

Until her skin plasters down, her eyes flashing open and her mouth opens to take a heavy breath of fresh air, her naked body lay in the dew dropped grass, she looks up at Camilla and Endar with a shocked and raspy tone.

"What...how...did I..."

"I brought you back, even after you so rudely tried to kill me, so as an offer of good faith i resurrected you using the Spell of Divality...but this is no longer your home, consider this a mercy"

"You...read it?!" she asks.

He doesn't answer, instead he throws his cloak at her and menacingly looks down at her with a deadly cold gaze.

"If I ever see you again, I wont bring you back a second time"

Turning to Camilla, he sighs and hugs her gently, Zeroth taking her cloak and running away into the woods, her shameful defeat weighing down upon her heavily, a gut wrenching feeling consumed her...Revenge.

"Its time"

"When will I see you again?"

"One day, but right now we all have our own paths to fulfill, and yours is to remain here with my friends"

"And you?"

"Ill look for my father...find something, anything that links me to anywhere but here...goodbye my friend"

"Be safe"

He chuckles as they share a tender goodbye, he walks away without another word, heading in the direction opposite of Zeroth and into the treeline...where his hooded figure faded into the darkness.