The Patron Quadrilogy: The Legend Begins

Chapter 34

Monday, October 16th, 4:45 p.m.
Outside the Tree of Beginning (Brendan)
Brendan and Bogdan were locked in a close quarters melee. Brendan's hands were cloaked in fire up to his elbows, the hope being that it would make it harder for Bogdan to grab his arms.

"I've just gotta keep close," Brendan thought, blocking punches and kicks while simultaneously returning them. "While I don't know what the abilities of a Patron of Genesect are exactly, I know that I have the advantage in close quarters combat."

He deflected a punch from Bogdan and slammed his entire right forearm into Bogdan's abdomen. He followed up by trying to give Bogdan an uppercut with his left fire-coated fist, but Bogdan bent his head back just enough to avoid the worst of the attack. He kicked Brendan away and managed to get a few feet of distance between the two. He looked up at Brendan, and Brendan saw that half of his face was pinkish red, almost like a brush-burn.

"Guess he still got a heat rash from the attack after all."

Bogdan felt his face and sneered at Brendan.

"My turn."

He threw himself towards Brendan, and he raised one of his hands into the air as he lunged at the Patron of Groudon. Brendan leapt back just in time to see Bogdan leave a deep score in the solid stone they were both standing on. He also saw that Bogdan's hands had become coated in steel, and the fingertips were sharpened to jagged points.

"Metal Claw," Brendan thought.

"You probably shouldn't get hit by that," Groudon noted.

"Yeah, no shit." He retorted as the Patron of Genesect leapt into the air to try to slash him with Metal Claw. Brendan used his quickly spun around, coating himself in flames, and making Bogdan's Metal Claws begin to deform, and Bogdan flinched from the heat of Brendan's Fire Spin. As soon as he flinched, Brendan quickly gathered his flames into an orb in front of him. "Let's introduce him to a custom move."

"Fire Whirl Eruption!" Suddenly the orb sent out three fireballs, each leaving a trail of fire in their wake, and forming a cone around Bogdan. Bogdan looked around in confusion, before paling at the sight of Brendan's hands. A massive gout of fire was whirling around in his hands, spinning faster and faster. As they spun and as their speed increased, the heat intensified, until the orb gave out and broke, sending the speeding blaze barreling straight towards Bogdan. Bogdan braced himself as the flames engulfed him. After the flames subsided, Brendan saw a brightly glowing object falling towards the ground.

"And just like that, this fight is over."

Brendan sighed and landed on the ground. The stones around their fight had long since melted, leaving streaks of magma coating the battlefield. He let out a breath as he walked over to the mass of smoke that indicated where Bogdan had landed. Suddenly Brendan paused.

"So he used that, did he?" He thought as the smoke began to clear. Before him, in a kneeled down position, was Bogdan. His body shone with a white light.

"I almost didn't activate Protect in time," he coughed as he stood up. Brendan just looked at him with his eyes narrowed. Bogdan's face was completely , and severely, burned, and only a few strands of his hair remained and Brendan noticed that he couldn't open his left eye. "Your only extinguish themselves if you allow it, right? Well then I guess it's a good thing I managed to channel my Aura for that Protect then, even if it was a bit late." He ripped off his shirt, which was basically a charred bunch of rags by that point. His entire torso and arms were horrifically scarred from past events. "But it's just a few more scars for my collection."