The legend of the dragon kings, scales bond

Chapter 2

Liam touched his head, where the gauntlet had hit him. There was no blood, that was good, but obviously the Preisodou had been completely consumed to avoid most of the damage. He surveyed the arena. The rest, with the exception of a frightened young woman, were ready to continue, he didn't have time to go back and prepare another defensive Centemin. The young man with the axe backed slowly towards the girl to reassure her. The rest, for the moment, seemed to be weighing their options

(Allan)- "Meryth, you need to calm down, we've been training for this."

(Meryth)- "They use Energy, Allan. This is much scarier than hunting bears."

(Allan)- "But that doesn't mean we're going to give up. Even if we lose we have to give it our all."

After a brief pause, Meryth bent down to pick up her crossbow and took a deep breath to calm herself. Her legs were still shaking, but she felt a little more confident.

The first to move was Yagi, who quickly loaded an arrow into her bow and prepared to shoot it, to which Sonia and Mark reacted by running towards her. From Yagi's fingertips came thin lines of Energy that snaked along the shaft to the tip, decorated with almost imperceptible gold threads.

(Yagi)- "Ublotu Lax."

The arrow shot towards a central point between all the combatants, passing between Sonia and Mark. The tip began to glow so brightly that it blinded both the spectators and the participants. The projectile burned and turned to ash before it even hit anything. Mark could still see blurry silhouettes. His eyes had become accustomed to powerful lights from working in his parents' forge. He managed to differentiate four targets.

(Mark)- 'Where is the archer?'

He heard footsteps, stealthy and careful, but they could not escape his keen sense of hearing.

(Mark)- 'A Centemin of.... camouflage? I didn't hear the chant. How did she use it? ... The tattoos... She must have Energy writings all over her body. Very useful in combat, I should try it sometime.'

Strands of Energy sizzled almost imperceptibly on the edge of his blades. He launched a slash into the air. The tiny sparks turned into gentle currents of wind that covertly kicked up a layer of dust. The footprint was impossible to see unless you were looking intently for it in the soft clouds of grit. But they were moving away from him and Sonia, he wasn't expecting that.

Yagi was silently walking towards Liam when Mark cut through the air just a few centimeters from her legs. She waited a couple of seconds to make sure it had been a fluke and continued walking. Sonia's vision was slowly clearing but she didn't really need her eyes to spot the rookie leaping up to hit her from above with the axe. She made a quick slash with the greatsword, but didn't feel the strike or resistance of any kind. Blood trickled lightly from the graze left by Meryth's bolt.

(Sonia)- 'They have good teamwork, but it won't be enough.'

Meryth loaded the next bolt with alacrity as she watched Sonia smile still teary-eyed. Allan had covered her eyes at the last moment, now it was his job to be hers. Meryth pointed him in the direction where Sonia was and the boy tried an attack that missed again as his vision was still too blurred, but he held the axe tightly and trusted his friend's aim. When she aimed the crossbow again something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. One of Mark's swords was flying in the direction of her neck. She turned her body in an attempt to dodge it, but the light engulfed her as the tip of the weapon hit her carotid artery.

(Mark)- 'I missed, that wasn't the one with the greatsword. Shit, I'll have to let her and the one with the axe entertain each other while I take care of the zanhia.'

He left behind Sonia and Allan still somewhat disoriented but alert of their vicinity and followed Yagi's almost invisible trail. Liam felt the wood of the bow tighten around his neck and gripped it with all his might in order to catch his breath, but released it when he saw Mark running in his direction. He threw himself to the ground with great effort, worsening his breathing situation, but reached for his staff. He uttered the Centemin in a whisper.

(Liam)- "Dossaltu Vintas."

The air around the three of them began to blow upward hard, throwing each one in a different direction. Liam coughed and took a defensive stance. Mark rolled across the sand to dodge Sonia's waiting greatsword as soon as he hit the ground. Allan had lost in the end. Liam opted for an offensive in the face of the turn of events.

(Liam)- "Mascalas Stringthongi."

Liam's body began to increase in size until he was almost twice as tall and his muscles swelled to more than twice their original shape. Yagi stepped back to pick up her daggers which, unlike her bow, had no Energy engravings to make them invisible with her. She ran towards Liam's back, who didn't even notice the floating dagger that cut into his side as he advanced. The cut regenerated immediately, bloodless.

(Yagi)- 'Fake muscles. What have he used? There are no materials nearby to...' She looked at her dagger after noticing the fine grains of sand stuck to the blade. 'He's using sand from the ground. That's problematic, it'll hold a lot if he' able to handle a lot of Energy.'

Mark deflected Sonia's attack to thrust the sword right after into Liam's abdomen with no effect other than to slow him down momentarily.

(Mark)- 'I've never seen a body-strengthening Centemin in person before. I don't know if it scares or creeps me out more. It's as rare as it is dangerous.' He again deflected another attack from Sonia, who took advantage of the change in direction to perform a slash at Liam that regenerated as the greatsword passed by. 'Eighteen. That greatsword is proving to be a problem, this sword isn't going to keep taking those hits.'

(Sonia)- "I would be very grateful if you would stop blocking my attacks."

(Mark)- "And I'd be a lot calmer if you didn't try to cut me off every two seconds."

Mark rolled on the ground to avoid Liam's punch, which collided in the spot where the boy was standing a moment ago. Sonia sliced through the sand in one fluid motion, undoing the arm, forcing Liam to jump back in an attempt to buy time and regenerate, but Yagi climbed on his back and began slashing her daggers through the sand to destabilize the fake body. Liam tried to grab it with his left hand, which was now sticking out of the sand at the cut on the fake one.

(Yagi)- " Come on kid, make it easy for me, don't drag this out."

Suddenly she felt the pain in her back, near her waist. Sonia had cut in the area where Yagi was when she realized the situation. Thanks to the fact that she was still invisible and Mark had prevented the girl from attacking accurately by forcing her to defend herself, Yagi only had a shallow cut. Yagi's arms began to shake and lose strength. Knowing she wasn't going to last long, she let go of the daggers and reached for her bow and arrow that were lying at Liam's feet. At the same time she loaded the arrow, she leapt into the air as high as possible using Liam's back as a support. He aimed at the ground and lines of Energy shot out of the tattoos on his fingers towards the tip. Mark stepped with all his strength on the edge of Sonia's greatsword, which slightly lost its grip on the handle, to propel himself in the direction of the arrow surrounded by Energy floating in the air, supported by the invisible bow.

(Yagi)- "Ompitas Timpistetos."

The arrow began its journey with the tip glowing a greenish hue. Liam tried to move away from the impact zone, but Sonia turned her greatsword slightly to attack taking advantage of Mark's weight who, in turn, gave more strength to the attack by pushing with his legs. Both momentarily coincided to prevent Liam from escaping. The blade cut cleanly into his popliteus, leaving his right knee completely useless, forcing him to fall to the ground. In the next instant, with all four participants within centimeters of each other, the arrow hit the ground.