Summoning Woes

Ch 2 - Poison

A massive red circle of magic materialized at where Shida stood. Pillars of black flames surrounded the entire lab, distorting the environment outside the assumed arena into an otherworldly open space where the tainted purple clouds swirled in the air. Eroded figures of a formally holy ground sat at seemingly random points of the place, infested with countless piles of dead bodies.

Shida swung his staff across, sending a wave of black fire blazing towards Klavier. He bounced away from the point of contact, spinning so fast that he momentarily appeared like a spinning top as he touched down. Shida raised his staff, drowning the heavy strike effortlessly with a simple swing that sent Klavier flying. Shida swiped his hand upwards, conjuring a massive black clenched fist from the ground, smashing Klavier with one fell swoop.

“How’s that for a start?” Shida taunted. “Ready for some more?”

“You talk too much, you know that?” Klavier wiped the blood off his mouth.

Klavier focused on Shida, breaking into a sprint. But it appeared he wasn’t about to be given an easy target - Shida unleashed a flurry of animating spells, spawning forth armies of the dead in an attempt to stop the unrelenting man before him. Klavier slashed across, unloading a part of his energy in the form of a silver-blue crescent moon that disintegrated the army into unrecognizable bits.

Klavier threw a punch forward so fast that Shida didn’t even have the time to react to it, striking square on his torso that threw him off. The impact was so hard that he was smashed to wall. But it wasn’t like his reflexes were dampened at all; he swerved to the side just as Klavier’s sword slammed right down at him.

“Wrong move,” Klavier said. “Bellow, Sirkius.”

At his command, the sword flared with blue flames before exploding into a colourful mix of destruction. Klavier tumbled backwards, his face partially burnt from the relentless power of his own weapon. But Shida had it worse; His armor was corroded to the point that it was useless, bleeding from a deep cut caused by Sirkius.

Now was the time to counterattack. Shida mumbled a set of incantations under his breath, filling the environment around Klavier with black balls of matter. It would be impossible to evade it at all; it covered enough space to fit an entire house around him. At the snap of a finger, the balls planted blew up, destroying practically everything as it consumed Klavier whole. The tips of his lips lifted. Victory was finally his. The thought played and replayed in his mind to the point that he was driven mad by it.

“Such a waste,” Shida said. “It would’ve been able to use you as my experiment had it not been for your resistance. You make a good specimen, Klavier.”

“No one said that I was defeated,” Klavier’s voice trailed from behind.

The words throbbed in Shida’s head. Impossible, no one could ever survive such a devastating attack. He turned around, staring right back at him, his top completely blown up into shreds of cloth that stubbornly stuck on his body. On his left hand was the black sword glowing in a strange golden aura.

“Bellow, Sirkius,” he said, unleashing yet another powerful burst of aura that ripped through Shida’s body.

Shida staggered back, touching his ripped chest as the blood flowed uncontrollably from the wound. He wasn’t about to be defeated just yet. He pointed his staff towards Klavier when his eyes caught sight of the black blade’s edge shining right back at him.

“Move an inch and that throat is gone,” Klavier said. “Release her now.”

“Why should I? It’s not your specimen in the first place.”