47. Thunderflame (part 1)

Character : Nathan Fiore, Thunderflame

-----

It's public knowledge that certain origins can counter other certain origins. 

There are seven origins in Avenor, such as Fire, Water, Earth, Lightning, Wind, Light, and Darkness. Each of these origins can be so much more powerful and effective when faced against certain origins, but they are also weaker if faced against other ones.

For example, light origin is effective for defeating earth origin, proven by the death of the holy knight to a light origin golden knight. However, light origin's weakness is the darkness origin, because light only exists within the absence of darkness.

Wind origin is powerful against lightning origin, but ineffective when facing earth origin. Earth origin is the best when facing wind origin, but weak against light origin. Lightning origin is the strongest against water origin, but ineffective against wind. And so on, and so on.

My origin, fire, has been known to be able to light up the world from the darkness. It may be weak to water origin because fire can be put out by water, but a fire's purpose is still to light up the dark. Ever since the dawn of time, fire has been used for that purpose.

Fire origin beats darkness origin. That's public knowledge.

And yet, I'm having the worst battle I've ever fought.

"HAHAHA!!! Where did all that confidence go, little boy!?" Zero shouted as he created hundreds of shadow spikes on the ground where I previously stood, and the best I could do was to just leap away.

As I keep on jumping around, Zero is endlessly conjuring deadly sharp needles all around the area. His entire combat style is about creating sharp needles that can wiggle and move around very quickly, so fast that I just can't afford to blink.

Fortunately, Eric is doing fine dodging the needles. His lightning origin allows him to move very quickly by enhancing his body with lightning. And thanks to the Limit Break, he will have no issues dodging. Me, on the other hand, will have to rely on the super difficult MicroExplosionMovementsTM to bounce around, because I can't enhance my body in flames.

Fire is supposed to beat darkness! And yet, my large flame wave can only destroy fifty of his needles. He can just make another hundred very easily in half a second.

This is a similar case to what I experienced when I fought the dark blue knight from the dark republic. The dark blue knight was a water origin, and water was meant to beat fire. And yet, I still beat the knight with no problem.

That's because my skills and techniques are much stronger and more refined. In the world where the strong survives, not even elemental disparity can save him.

And now, I'm in the same position as the knight. I'm just far weaker than Zero, now that he has unleashed his full strength. And against him?

Well… there may be a way.

"Oi, Prince!!" Eric called from across the room where he had moved to, and I turned my attention to him for a second. "Just light everything up!!" 

Eric suggested from very far away, and I noticed what he meant right away. He did not run that far to avoid Zero's attacks, since he could've easily approached Zero if he tried his best. But, he only did it so he won't get caught up in my actions.

"You think that will work!?" Zero shouted while moving fifty shadow tails at me to make holes in my body, and I just closed my eyes as I focused.

Right… Fire beats darkness. That's all that matters.

If he has more darkness than me, then for sure he can overpower me.

But, no one in this world has more fire than me.

VWOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With just a light tap to the ground, a powerful all around fire wave was released to the world around me. The fire wave was massive and quick, and it completely lit the sandy ground in flame.

Seeing the fire wave coming, Zero quickly lifted his shadow shield to protect himself, but the shield melted because of my flames. Zero ended up jumping away and landed above the sarcophagus, watching as I burned down everything around me.

"That was reckless! You're only tiring yourself!" Zero said while moving a single powerful shadow needle towards me from afar, but the shadow needle melted before it could even touch me.

"What!?" Zero angrily muttered, because the shadow needle disappeared before it even reached halfway across the hell world I've created.

"What's wrong, Zero? Don't you get the principles of origins? Fire beats darkness." I said with a big smile on my face, and Zero looked like he wanted to explode like what I did as well.

"You overconfident brat!!---"

BZZZTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From behind, Eric arrived and landed his blade onto Zero's back. The sword pierced through Zero's shadow armor, and it threw him forward to the hellfire world that I've created.

"You shouldn't turn away your focus when facing two people." Eric only said coldly after his blade grazed Zero's back.

"Damn backstabber!!" Zero angrily shouted as he landed his two feet on the fiery ground. Now that he has landed inside my fire territory, I will immediately abuse this chance.

"Nice, Eric!" I shouted at Eric, and I started charging a powerful fireball on my hand.

"No, you don't!!" Zero casted hundreds of darkness needles towards me, but I only stayed calm as I made the fireball. Instead, I just placed my full faith in that guy.

BLAARRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From behind again, the ground right where Zero stood suddenly exploded powerfully. A thunderous roar was heard when the blast occurred, and Zero got thrown up to the ceilings before crashing back down.

"You seriously need to learn to watch your back." Eric mumbled while charging up another lightning strike on his sword, and Zero finally turned his full attention at him.

"Then, I'll deal with you first!!"

"No, can do. Your opponent was originally that guy. Remember?" Eric asked with a taunt, and Zero turned around because he noticed the underground cave had gotten much brighter.

Now, I'm holding a powerful and bright golden fireball in my hands. This is the most powerful explosive technique that I've ever created to date, and it contains basically all of my energy that I've managed to gather in this short period of time.

"You… might want to move away from there, Eric." I said while still trying to keep myself focused with the fireball, and Eric only chuckled before he zapped away.

Meanwhile, Zero is looking quite panicking. I know that he has an ability that allows him to blend with the shadows, so he can definitely dodge this massive fireball explosion that is about to come. Or, he can also create the portal, just like what the headmaster did at his office. 

He can definitely avoid the explosion, and yet he made such a worried expression?

"You… do you even realize what the hell you're doing?" Zero asked with such an unbelieving face, and I noticed he hates this situation very much.

"I don't know. Why don't you tell me what's wrong with this? Surely, you can dodge this easily. Right?" I asked him while still maintaining focus, and Zero is gritting his teeth.

"This damn child!!! Put away that fireball--"

"Good bye!" I said plainly, and I fired the fireball forward.

As the fireball traversed forward, it grew bigger by the second. By the time it reaches Zero's position, it was already five times bigger than a Steelbird. After hitting the sarcophagus, it finally exploded.

BOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The explosion was large and powerful, and it pushed everything on top of us up high. The triangle tower was punched upwards and collapsed to the underground, burying everything that was inside the large room under it.

The destruction caused all of the sand and building debris to fly all over the place, turning the entire area into a wide and massive smokescreen. Thanks to such a situation occurring so suddenly, everything that was happening outside was halted.

Far away on the collapsed pyramid south of the triangle tower, the academy headmaster watched with widened eyes as the tower fell. What is happening is completely outside of his expectation, and there is nothing he can do now that the tower has fallen.

"No…" The headmaster mumbled as he kept an eye on the fallen tower, and the people behind him only grinned.

"Told you that you've made a mistake." The voice behind him spoke aloud, and the headmaster turned his cold glare to his students.

At the very front is Jonah with his golden sword enhanced with darkness origin energy. Supporting right behind him is Lily holding a long thin rapier covered in sharp water. Flying behind them is Nyssa, who has proven that she can be deadlier than the headmaster imagined.

And further beyond where they are standing is the entire military army that Frisena has gathered. Fifty Steelbirds that were equipped with advanced weaponries are flying and will always be ready to rain down upon the headmaster. On the ground, hundreds of soldiers with advanced weaponries that are especially equipped to face light origin are ready to face off the headmaster once more.

"Had you just been a good headmaster, none of this wouldn't have happened." Jonah spoke again with such confidence, and the headmaster only giggled.

"Jonah Calfman. When I first saw you, you were a large lump of meat. Incapable of getting anything done." The headmaster said to Jonah so coldly, and Jonah knew from how tense the air had become.

The headmaster is turning serious.

"Seems like that chaotic child has influenced you to be like this. I'm disappointed that you were so willing to listen to him." The headmaster said while turning away to face the collapsed tower, and Jonah knew that this chance is not something they should miss.

They have to keep the headmaster here. They need to make sure the headmaster doesn't go anywhere near Nathan and Eric.

"Your disappointment is nothing to ours." From one of the Steelbirds, Frisena spoke again through the loudspeakers. "How devastating it was for us to find our own headmaster was such a slaughterer."

"You're talking about the situation with the dark republic? The dark republic is a lost cause, anyway." The headmaster said how he truly feels, and Frisena only laughs from behind the speaker device.

"As if that has anything to do with starting a war. Once a murderer is always a murderer, huh?"

"You're just repeating words, now." The headmaster let out a sigh before finally opening the book, and everyone realized that he might be able to do something with that book.

Jonah, Lily, and Nyssa get themselves ready for what seemed to be the toughest battle they will ever fight. The army behind them as well, began heating up their long range weaponries to fire onto the singular individual that is the headmaster.

However, the headmaster is not just a regular human.

"It's a pity, my dear students. But, I cannot afford to lose this chance!"

Meanwhile, a massive crater has formed at the center of the ancient buildings. The massive and tall triangle tower has now disappeared, replaced by a thick cloud of smoke and a crater at the bottom.

A lightning zap can be found at the ledge of the crater, and two pairs of eyes are staring at the destroyed tower that has now filled the entire crater.

"Damn. You didn't hold back at all." Eric commented as he kept an eye on the destroyed tower under the crater, and I chuckled while being carried on his back.

"Yeah… I'm really tired now."

"The battle isn't even over yet. The hell are you tired of?" Eric pointed out, and I turned my gaze towards the center of the crater, where a shadow of a person can be found.

So, he survived… honestly, that was expected.

"Stand up on your own, dumbass." Eric said as he tried throwing me away from his back, and I got off voluntarily.

"Yeah, yeah… I got it. Do you think I managed to destroy the thingy?"

"The sarcophagus couldn't be destroyed that easily. Otherwise, that guy wouldn't be so calm about it." Eric said while pointing his finger at the man walking at the center of the crater, and I prepared myself for what is about to come.

A single black knight is now walking towards us very calmly. With a long black sword in his right hand and a large black aura around his body, I can tell that he is going to fight all out starting from this point on.

However, I still can't tell what his goal really was. If it was to summon whatever was in that sarcophagus, then shouldn't he be doing something to do it? And yet, he is only here to fight us.

Or perhaps… that is his goal. He is just here to fight us, while the headmaster will be somewhere else trying to do the summoning.

In that case… Let's figure out how we can abuse this guy's ego.