Virtuality: Magic Island

Chapter 4: Aggression

Axel watched as Lontari braced himself to fight Declan. Of course, his first instincts were to step in, since Lontari is still rather new to this, and he could tell he doesn't rely as much on physical fighting moves thanks to his powers. He walked over to Lontari, and gave Declan a brief nasty look.

"Well you know what they say," said Axel. "Like father, like son."

Declan felt so bad about himself, Axel's weird look and shaming growling at him. A part of him wanted to call it quits, but then his father would be mad.

"You and your dad aren't going to succeed, you can count on that!" Lontari declared. He looked at Axel and pleaded, "Hey, Mr. Winddragon. Let me fight him on my own. You can go deal with the others. They're headed for the next borough, Skotadi."

"But, Lontari..." Axel protested. "Are you sure you can fight him? Because remember, his armor's magic proof!

"I know, you don't have to tell me twice."

"And not every knight is going to go down so easily like the ones you just fou-"

"For God's sake, Mr. Winddragon..." laughed Lontari. "I don't even see myself as a student of yours. Go, Skotadi isn't going to save itself."

"Okay... Take care," said Axel. He placed his thumb and index finger in his mouth and released a whistle, and it was only seconds before the friendly orange dragon came. He hopped onto its back and waved at Lontari, right before it flew off.

Finally, now he could fight. Lontari turned all of his attention to Declan. Both of their hair swayed in the mild wind. They had their swords positioned in one hand as to decapitate with just one swing.

"I'm not going to go down so easily like the other explorers," explained Declan. "My father has trained me in physical combat, including fighting using the mind as much as I do my fists."

Lontari squinted his eyes. "That's funny. I don't remember giving a shit."

"You will when I pulverize you," Declan replied. He could barely believe the words launching themselves off his tongue. Yesterday, he was an amateur artist, and today... this.

Without further ado, the two positioned themselves as if to run in a race, and suddenly they were off. They dashed toward one another and locked their swords together. Declan urgently sought to knock Lontari off his feet. Instead, the two simply stepped back and swung their swords at each other, occasionally smashing the two weapons against each other. They deflected one other's attacks as though their lives were begging for it.

When Lontari ducked his head when he swung his sword in his face, Declan tossed his weapon stupidly high into the air, and then slammed his foot against Lontari's face. The teen went flying a bunch of steps away before falling on his back. Declan then jumped into the air and caught his sword, doing multiple front flips as he flew towards Lontari.

Lontari sat up only to see Declan descending from the sky positioned to stab him. However, the boy acted fast and rolled over, and so Declan ended up stabbing the ground instead. But he soon pulled it out, and looked at Lontari, only to have to dodge a barrage of ice-fire magic spheres that the boy was launching at him. Thanks to his magic proof armor, though, he caught one of them and tossed it back a baseball. It exploded on contact with Lontari's face, but all the boy did was stumble backwards a couple steps.

"Father already told you that my armor is magic proof, so why use magic?!" Declan asked. He opened his mouth to say something more, but then Lontari tossed another frostfire ball at him, and it burst like a bomb when it touched his face. He fell on his back.

"But your face isn't magic proof, now isn't it?" Lontari said, flexing his steaming fist. "Now come on, let's keep it going!"

Declan, angered by what to him felt like an insult, raced towards him and swayed his sword with mighty force. Luckily, Lontari blocked his attack. The two swung their swords at each other, constantly colliding them against each other hard enough to launch sparks into the air. They unknowingly were moving towards a tall abandoned skyscraper.