Sprirt Born in a Storm
The jungle buzzed with pressure, the battlefield still charged from their last exchange.
Clipso skidded across the dirt, boots dragging a trail through the scarred earth. Dust swirled. His breath came sharp, but his eyes—clear. Focused. Calculating.
He had begun to adapt.
Alec's permeating dust storm swirled around him in unpredictable flashes, but Clipso had started recognizing the patterns—the flow, the timing, the faint flickers of re-solidification.
"You're not untouchable," Clipso muttered under his breath.
He flared his mana outward—a burst of wind pressure and storm pulses—pushing the dust back just enough to give him a breath. The jungle air cracked with static.
Then—
Clipso charged.
He sprinted forward with explosive speed, sword raised high. As Alec's form flickered in and out of view, Clipso swung a wide arc of wind, forcing Alec's dust to shift backward, recoiling from the sudden pressure.
Alec tried to retreat, but Clipso was already there.
With a burst of electricity at his feet, Clipso vaulted forward, grabbed Alec's ankle mid-transition, and unleashed a bolt of lightning directly into his leg.
CRACK—!
Alec's form spasmed—his body solidifying mid-air from the surge.
Clipso spun, using the force of his grab to slam Alec into the ground with a thunderous impact.
BOOM!
Alec hit the dirt hard, but a sly grin still curled on his lips as his body began to flicker—dust dispersing again.
"Not this time," Clipso muttered, eyes locked in.
He raised his blade to the sky, mana roaring from his core.
"First Form: Shattering Storm!"
The sword pulsed, and from its tip, a cyclone of lightning and slicing wind burst forward, converging into a single, focused impact.
The attack smashed down into Alec's forming dust—
BOOM!
Dust exploded outward—but didn't rise again.
Alec's body hit the ground fully solid—the permeation broken, the illusion shattered.
He groaned, his limbs twitching from the overload.
The crowd erupted.
Cheers rang out like thunder across the stadium as Clipso stood tall, his storm magic crackling at his feet. For the first time, Alec was grounded—his dust form broken, his body visible and vulnerable.
But that moment of triumph didn't last long.
Alec rose.
Slowly. Calmly.
His smile was gone.
"Oh… you want to play?" he muttered, voice low, deadly.
From his core, a dark grey mana began to ooze outward—dense, cold, almost suffocating. The wind shifted, swirling unnaturally around him. A soft rumble echoed as particles began to rise, spinning faster and faster.
Clipso's eyes narrowed.
"…He's not done."
Alec extended his hand to the sky.
"First Form—Dust Cloud."
In an instant, the air exploded into motion.
A massive, ever-expanding cloud of thick smoke and dust surged out from Alec's body—spiraling up and out like a storm turned inside out. The battlefield vanished behind the shroud, and within seconds, Clipso was surrounded—vision blocked, mana static thick in the air.
He didn't hesitate.
Clipso slashed his sword across the air—
"Wind Sever!"
A violent gust burst forward, cutting through the smoke and pushing it back in waves—but it wasn't enough. The dust twisted, resisting, multiplying. Like it was alive.
And then—
A shadow loomed in the swirling cloud.
Massive.
Twisted.
A giant limb—shaped like Alec's own leg—descended from the smoke, crashing toward Clipso like a summoned colossus.
Clipso's instincts kicked in—he threw up both arms and caught the impact, boots dragging across the earth as the weight slammed into him.
THOOM!
Stone cracked beneath him.
He grunted, arms trembling under the force, lightning sparking around his frame as he pushed back, muscles straining to hold the monstrous blow at bay.
Alec persevered, pressing down harder—
Clipso vanished beneath the weight.
From the crowd's view, it looked like he had been completely crushed, buried under the massive dust-formed leg.
But Alec wasn't finished.
BOOM—!
Two enormous dust-forged fists slammed into the earth where Clipso lay, the ground buckling with the force.
Then another leg.
Then another.
One after the other, they crashed down in a rhythmic onslaught—each strike heavier, louder, shaking the entire terrain like a war drum.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The earth quaked.
Alec stood in the center of the storm, dark mana swirling around him, dust coiling like a living beast.
And then—he laughed.
A deep, menacing laugh.
"What's the matter, Valden?" he sneered, his voice booming through the projection crystal.
"You can't keep up?"
The crowd sat in stunned silence. Even the commentators were speechless.
High in the stands, Geno stood between Lily and Gena, all three frozen as they watched the projection crystal tremble from Alec's relentless assault.
Lily's hands balled into fists, her eyes wide with horror.
"Noooo!" she screamed, the sound cracking through the rising cheers.
"That's enough! Clipso will—"
She choked on the rest of the sentence.
Gena said nothing. Her eyes shimmered with tears. Slowly, she turned, burying her face against Geno's chest.
Geno's jaw clenched.
Dust rose. The battlefield shook.
And beneath it all…
No one knew if Clipso Valden was still standing.
Then the moment shifted.
Beneath the crushing weight of Alec's dust-forged assault, Clipso lay broken, armor chipped, smeared with grit and ash. His breathing was shallow. His fingers twitched against the shattered earth.
He coughed.
A trickle of blood slipped from the corner of his mouth.
His eyes stung—not from pain—but from despair.
"This can't be it…" he thought.
A single tear fell across his cheek, mixing with the dust.
"I came too far… too close… to lose now."
He grit his teeth.
But the silence in his heart was louder than any cheer.
"Vetra Tempest…"
He spoke the name inside, ashamed.
"I'm sorry. I was too weak to ever deserve a spirit like you. I wasted your potential…"
But then—
A voice. Gentle. Strong. Familiar.
"Clipso."
It was Vetra.
"You are stronger than you realize. We've come this far together… and I will not let it end here."
Clipso's heart trembled.
"You made it this far using only our first form."
"But now… you will awaken our true bond."
"Spirit Skill: Tempest Overload."
CRRRRACK!
A sharp bolt of lightning shattered the silence, splitting the sky with light.
The battlefield trembled.
Clipso's body lifted. Not by force—but by magic. Wind and lightning curled around him, forming a glowing sphere that blew Alec's dust cloud outward in a sudden burst.
The crowd gasped.
Gena, Geno, and Lily leaned forward—
Their breath caught in their throats.
Even Vlad's eyes widened from his booth.
In the center of the jungle clearing, Clipso stood tall, floating slightly as a vortex of wind spiraled around him.
His eyes—glowing silver-blue with stormlight.
His sword—drawn into his hand by force alone, humming with power.
He whispered it aloud:
"Spirit Skill… Tempest Overload."
Electricity coiled along the edge of his blade. The wind howled around it, concentrating, folding inward.
The jungle trembled.
He wasn't just conjuring a storm. He was becoming one.
From the stands, Geno's voice echoed with awe:
"He's… he's condensing wind and lightning into a single point… he's charging his sword like a conductor!"
Clipso's fingers wrapped tight around the hilt.
The energy crackled violently—unstable, magnificent, pure.
He closed his eyes, listening once more to Vetra's voice.
"Thank you," he said silently. "For always staying with me."
Vetra Tempest responded gently.
"Now let's show them, Clipso… what we're truly capable of."
"Tempest Overload isn't just power. It's control. You'll compress storm magic into one point—lightning and wind amplified to their limits…"
"And then—release."
The crowd leaned in.
The wind rose.
Alec panicked.
He raised his hands to conjure more dust—his last line of defense. But it was no use.
The air around him had changed.
Wind surged like a living force, purifying the battlefield. Lightning cracked through the sky, each bolt tearing apart his dust before it could form. His power was unraveling—dismantled by something greater.
He was exposed.
Wide open.
And then—
FWOOOSH!
Clipso shot forward like a thunderclap, his blade charged with condensed storm magic—lightning spiraling, wind screaming.
His eyes burned with focus.
"Here's some payback."
One clean motion.
He swung.
CRAAAAAAACK!
The sword sliced through the air just inches from Alec's chest. It missed—but not by accident.
The real target was everything else.
The moment the blade passed, a deafening explosion of wind and lightning erupted outward in all directions. The ground fractured violently, quartering beneath them as raw elemental power tore through the terrain like judgment itself.
Alec froze.
Eyes wide.
He hadn't been struck—but it didn't matter.
The force, the pressure, the sheer presence of it—
It broke him.
His body hit the ground, not from pain, but from realization.
He looked up at Clipso, still hovering above the shattered arena, blade glowing with the final flickers of stormlight.
"He could've ended me…"
Alec's limbs trembled.
His mana was gone.
His will was gone.
And as the storm quieted, Alec let his head fall back, defeated not by damage—but by the undeniable truth of who the stronger fighter was.
He didn't move again.
The projection crystals zoomed in as silence swept across the stadium.
Then—
Cheers. Thunderous, rising cheers.
Clipso had done it.
He had turned the tide.
He had won.
The Hyper Beams descended.
A radiant light enveloped both Alec and Clipso, lifting them from the shattered jungle battlefield and carrying them skyward.
In a flash—they reappeared on the stadium platform.
Clipso stumbled.
His legs gave out, and he dropped to one knee, his sword still sparking faintly with residual stormlight. Dust clung to his armor, streaks of lightning still crackling softly from his boots.
Then—
The crowd erupted.
Not just in polite applause.
They stood.
All of them.
Clapping.
Cheering.
Roaring his name.
Even in the royal booth, Vlad Valden—his father—rose slowly to his feet. He didn't speak. He didn't smile.
But he clapped.
And for Clipso… that was everything.
His heart swelled.
In that moment, all the exhaustion, all the pain, faded into warmth.
Then—
Lily, Gena, and Geno rushed the stage, breaking through the sideline with wide eyes and full hearts.
Geno slung an arm over Clipso's shoulder, grinning.
Gena, still limping slightly, moved to his other side and helped steady him.
And Lily?
She ran straight into him.
A tight hug.
"I thought you were going to be hurt…" she whispered, her voice thick with relief.
Clipso exhaled softly, a tired smile curling on his lips.
"Thank you," he said, eyes drifting between them. "All of you."
Geno and Lily exchanged a glance—soft, proud, but tinged with sadness.
"We lost our battles…" Lily said, her voice small but steady.
"…but you won," Geno finished.
He squeezed Clipso's shoulder.
"We're proud of you."
Clipso's smile faltered for just a second.
"But I'm sorry… I wish you had—"
Gena interrupted, her voice firmer now.
"No."
She looked him dead in the eye.
"We're living through you now, Clipso."
Lily nodded, her hand tightening slightly on his.
Geno gave a single, slow nod.
"We fight together. Even if we fall apart… one of us still stands."
Clipso looked at them all, eyes shimmering with quiet resolve.
And in that moment—there was no doubt.
He wasn't fighting alone.
Not anymore.
The crowd's cheers slowly faded as the projection crystal zoomed in—
to the shattered mountain.
Golden light coiled through the air.
Silver armor gleamed like a wall of fate.
Helion vs. Draven.
The last battle.
⸻
Team Crimson stood silent at their platform.
Liena's eyes didn't leave the screen. She clutched her cloak tightly, lips pressed in a trembling line.
"He's still standing…" she whispered.
Zezzy crossed her arms, her voice low but steady.
"He better be. That idiot's got something to prove."
Yuri adjusted his glasses, scanning every flicker of mana.
"He's pushing past his limits. But so is Draven…"
⸻
A few tiers below, Team Pearl stood gathered.
Gena and Lily were quiet, their gazes firm—bruised, bandaged, but watching with deep focus.
Geno leaned on the railing, jaw clenched.
"Finish this, Helion."
Beside them, Clipso said nothing.
He just stared forward.
Not with worry.
But with something else.
Hope.
I want to face him again… someday.
⸻
The air thickened as light and steel met one final time.
And the mountain… began to tremble.