Elsewhere: Aesir

Showdown!

It's quiet. Quiet and still, no one's making a sound and there are only 2 people in this field. About 100 meters behind me are the soldiers, armed guards and the citizens of Aesir, doing nothing, saying nothing...just watching. Behind the Cameron is nothing but the vast field. He's alone.

"It's just you and me now." I tell Cameron in a calm tone, but I can't keep the rage that's bubbling inside me out of my voice.

"So emotional, so foolish" Cameron says as his fangs protrude out of his mouth. He calmly removes his necklace. It looks like a silver blade with short spikes jutting out from one end, he stabs...himself with it?!?

As he starts to bleed he grabs it and the chain wraps around his arm while the blade grows bigger until it's a sword.

"So why the spikes?" I ask.

"Blood magic, this is a weapon only a noble vampire can wield. It feeds on the blood of the vampire and as it does it grows stronger."

The blade stops growing at around 2 feet long. I can see little droplets of blood surfacing as the spikes dig into his skin.

I form an ice sword this time, using my magic to drop the temperature of water molecules around me and condense them into one area. But he's got a vampire weapon that uses blood magic...I don't have anything like that...and I don't know if this ice sword will be enough to fight it.

He smirks and disappears.

Is this what he did a year ago. It can't be since it's daytime right? How does a vampire blend into the day? Something hits me...hard. A blow to the face that sends me flying back at least 20 yards.

I don't know what to think, I just know that hurt...bad. Everything is spinning a little bit, I try to stand and it gets worse. I feel like I'm gonna throw up. How can I fight something moving so fast I can't see?!

Damn it! Maybe if I make a wall with the wind and I'll able to feel him move through the air. I press my magic into the air like a feeler. And yes! I can feel something but it's moving so fast that I can only tell the general area.

I take a deep breath and still the wind in a 3-foot radius, compressing it around me like a bubble. As I'm doing that I also slow down the water molecules in a 6-foot radius. I've only got one shot at this.

He's visible again out of thin air and stands still about 10 yards ahead of me...I need to learn how to do that.

"It's funny, you never cared about class or nobility. You never thought that it dictated power. But it does. It's all in the blood. It's what makes us who we are."

He looks solemn as he speaks. Maybe somewhere deep down he does realize how messed up this is. As soon as I think that he's gone again.

I feel the wind being disturbed 5 yards to the right, then behind, then to the left, 3 yards to the front, and closing in. Shit. I push my air bubble outward 10 feet.

It makes him slow down enough to become visible...visibly angry. He tries to charge through but it's too late. I can see him now. I quickly condense the cooled water in the air to the slowest gas state possible, he's fast...but I can see. In less than a second he's 7 feet. All at once I cool and condense the gas to a solid spear of ice measuring 6 feet.

His reaction is even faster. He manages to sidestep the spear before he runs into it. Fortunately, for me, I had a plan b.

As he completes his sidestep the earth around his feet comes up and over them and while that's happening I charge at full speed, break 6 inches off the end of the ice spear and hurl it at him with all my strength at his chest. He blocks it with his sword and with wide eyes is pierced through the chest.

"How?" He gasps.

As I approach him I reveal, "Trying to get you to run yourself through on the ice spear would have been nice but I wasn't 100% sure that would work. So I used the wind to slow you down and make you angrier. That did work. I was also counting on you to avoid the ice spear.

You're faster than me, so I had to stop your movement. That's where the earth came in, and of course you still had your sword. Which means you could block another ice spear. But what about something you couldn't see? Would you notice in your rage at the low class hybrid was putting up a fight?

I continue as I release the earth around his feet making him fall to his knees.

There were two spears thrown. One ice and one-"

"Wind!" He cuts me off with a face of shocked realization while he's bleeding out.

His sword retracts rapidly down to its pendant size. A sword that feeds on vampire blood probably isn't the best thing to have around when you have a gaping hole in your chest.

"What are waiting for? You...won." He manages to cough out. I notice that his wound is beginning to heal a lot slower than I expected.

"I'm not going to kill you. That was never my goal or desire. But there was no way I wasn't going to fight. Plus you're an alpha vampire. A wound like that won't kill you.

But if you ever come back and threaten innocent people I will finish you. On some level, I understand your hatred toward me. But I DON'T understand how you could threaten the very people you once protected.

This had nothing to do with them. This was me and you."