Eight Intertwined

107 - Victors

When the battle began, Gustav adjusted his black helm where it sat atop his head. Around him, the rest of his men raised their shields, and Olberic quickly figured out what their strategy in battle was. They fought on the defensive, outlasting their opponents and draining their energy before dealing the finishing blow after their foes grew exhausted. Physical weapons wouldn't do much to pierce the armor of both the shielded fighters and Gustav himself, so magic was going to have to do until they could get in close enough to deal the finishing blows. The use of magic would poke enough holes in Gustav's defenses to allow a physical weapon to finish the fight, at least if they played their cards right. 

Silently, Olberic thanked the gods for giving the travelers so many blessings of magic, and he watched as Primrose snapped her fingers to create a massive vortex of darkness. Gustav reacted quickly, throwing his shield up to try and deflect the attack. He had reacted to try and get away from the reach of the magic, and Olberic knew that had to be one of Gustav's greatest weaknesses. He wouldn't have reacted so quickly if he didn't know the darkness had the power to undo him if wielded in the right way. Olberic tucked that bit of information into the back of his mind for the time being and focused on the shield bearers. 

Ophilia raised her staff high above her head, creating a column of light magic that slammed into the center of the battlefield. Cyrus flicked through the Tome of Tundras beside her, and he flicked his wrist toward the five shield bearers standing in front of Gustav. Ice spread across the ground as part of an attempt to trip up the shield bearers, but they were quick to react before the surface could be turned against them. They raised their shields and slammed the base of the barriers down on the ice, sending small icicles scattering jaggedly throughout the area. 

Olberic and H'aanit reacted quickly with the former creating a barricade of earth to knock the ice askew while H'aanit snapped her fingers to create a bird made of thunder to swoop in and melt the ice. Meanwhile, Cyrus changed the spell he was casting, and two waves of ice converged on the shield bearers. While they had been distracted with keeping the ice from sinking in beneath their feet, more ice had come after them, and it was enough to knock them out of their previous formation. 

Tressa twirled her spear and pointed it forward, and the wind around her howled before slamming into one of the shield bearers. His shield fell out of his hand along the way, and Tressa kicked it behind herself where Therion grabbed it. Tressa hit the man with wind magic once again, sending him straight into Olberic's range. From there, the swordsman slashed at his chest, and the hit was enough to send his target skidding across the arena floor. The man tried to rise to his feet once again, but he realized along the way that he was finished, so he simply sighed and held up his hands in surrender. After the fact, he retreated to the outer edge of the arena to watch the remainder of the battle. 

The crowd was continuing to rave and yell, especially at the sight of the first person being knocked out of the final battle. Alfyn looked up at the rest of the arena before he smirked to himself. There was another shield bearer coming up behind him, trying to take advantage of what appeared to be a moment of distraction. The shield bearer had already suffered one major hit from Cyrus' previous blast of ice, and he wanted to try and target someone else rather than going after the scholar once again, choosing Alfyn as his target in the end. 

Alfyn, however, was nowhere near as distracted as he seemed. As soon as the shield bearer was within range, Alfyn twisted his axe around so the blades were embedded in the ground. Plants sprouted from the arena floor and wrapped around the man's feet, rooting him to the spot immediately. Alfyn followed up with a blast of ice magic that left his shield locked to his arm in a frozen vice. He sent a lopsided smile in the direction of the shield bearer as the other man reached for his sword.