THE DRAGON KING'S SOUTHERN CONSORT

CHAPTER 20 THE CHALLENGE PART 2

Darren POV

I'm currently at Daniels palace, pacing furiously, how dare Roderick Gemson do this?! I'll wring his neck!!
"The fact that the council members are supporting this crap is disgusting!" I hiss out, "I've actually just spoken to the council and according to them Roderick and his wife came to the council and convinced them that there was never a fair way to determine if Tina or Daniel would be good empresses, and that Darren and Tyron were impartial in their decisions, I tried to argue about what Roderick and his family did to Daniel but they said even then this match would be the only fai way, it'll be a fight between the two and whoever wins gets the title of empress and all the perks the title holds." Alice spoke,

She's been a great help these days and she was even angrier than I was when she found out about this challenge, "When does she want this challenge to take place?" Daniel asks, "Tomorrow morning and the council members are to be the judges, all except Tyrone, because he's your uncle so they're afraid he'll be biased." I answer, this challenge is complete and total crap, but there is nothing I can do about it, the council has just as much power, prestige and influence as me so they won't listen to me or Alice,

But don't worry, we'll figure something out, there has to be some way to stop this and if there is well find it, me and Alice will look through all of the imperial laws to find it." I tell Daniel, then me and Alice leave to get to work,

Daniel POV

I'm honestly not surprised that this is happening, but the fact that I'm set to give birth in the next month or so will really be slowing me down, as Darren and Alice left I prepared for the fight, even though it would be in a few hours I was incredibly nervous, and the kids were scared that I would get hurt, but I told them I'd be fine.

Although inside I was extremely worried, I'd never actually seen Tina fight so I have no idea what to expect, since she's a shadow dragon she'll be very strong but other than that I have no clue.

It's finally time for the duel, we get to the area, it's secluded and deep in the woods, the council has erected a sound proof and inescapable barrier around the whole forest, it'll keep out anyone who isn't a dragon, my parents and sister are glaring at me, the kids huddle close to me, especially when Jason and Vicky tried to come closer to them, Vicky was angry that her kids were afraid of her but she was even angrier that they ran to me for comfort, and even if I lose the kids will still live with me, which in all honesty is the only thing I truly care about.

"This match will determine which candidate will be most suitable for the position of the fourth empress, Daniel Gemson or Tina Gemson, this match shall be magic and elemental powers only, no dragon forms, ready and begin!" The female council member said, and instantly Tina was in front of me in seconds, she's faster than I thought,

She moves to punch my stomach but I put a powerful barrier around my stomach area to protect my babies, she punches the barrier and it causes her to bounce back, she moves her hand around and flexes her fingers, she glares at me and I watch her carefully, then suddenly she smirks at me and I frown at her in confusion, then suddenly she falls backwards and instead of hitting the ground she disappeared, we all gasped in shock,

Where'd she go? I thought, then suddenly I feel something behind me and as I turn around I see it's my sister who then punches me in my face, I fall backwards but stay on my feet, I slammed my hands on the ground and ice spikes head straight towards her, and hit sending her flying and she hits the tree behind her, and has the wind knocked out of her,

She gets up on shaky legs, but steadies herself, she punches the ground but it looks like she made some kind of black hole, I open my mouth to speak but get punched in the chest, I slump to the ground and as I look at Tina she pulls her arm out of the black hole and that's when I realized what was going on, she's a shadow dragon, they have the power to manipulate shadows, but I've never seen a shadow dragon do what she's done before, she can somehow disappear and reappear in shadows itself, but now that I know her little trick I can find a counter,

I create a sapphire shield and when she uses her shadow power she stops, then smiles at me, "Do you really think I'm that stupid? I know gem dragons can absorb any dragons powers once it's used against their gem power, I know that the second I use my shadow power on that sapphire shield of yours you'll absorb my ability and be able to use shadow magic too, well I don't think so," she smirks, the fact that she knows about that and realized what I was about to do, I'm actually impressed Tina can think this far ahead, but I can't hide behind my shields forever and she knows it, I have to think of something fast or else.