Astelion POV
The air in the courtyard tightened until it felt like suffocating and thick with the metallic scent. Aheem spat a mouthful of dark blood onto the stone and pushed himself entirely back to his feet, rolling his neck once with a loud, sickening pop as if the brutal blow to his jaw had done nothing but wake him up. The confident grin returned to his face.
"Alright," he muttered, his voice dropping. "Now I'm awake."
Across, I stood perfectly still, my breathing deep and even despite the exhaustion racking my limbs. My purple spear glowed faintly, its light sync with my racing heart.
Near the floating bench, the red threads of Castel's blood magic coiled lazily around his pale wrist, his glowing eyes tracking my every microscopic movement like a hawk watching a field mouse. Kiono still said absolutely nothing, his face an unreadable block of stone, but his intense, electric-blue attention never left me.
Aheem planted his heavy leather boot firmly against the stone floor. Then, the ground exploded.
Deep, cracks tore wildly across the courtyard pavement as thick, green vines erupted from the stone like giant serpents waking from a centuries-long sleep. Thorned, heavy branches lashed wildly through the air, their razor-sharp points curling toward my body with terrifying, unnatural speed.
Loud gasps rippled through the watching guards. "A nature gift," one whispered in awe.
The massive vines struck forward, aiming to bind my limbs and tear my skin. But I didn't move an inch. My eyes sharpened.
The air around my body instantly compressed with massive telekinetic pressure. The rushing vines froze dead in mid-strike, suspended in the empty air just inches from my face. Every twisting branch, every thorn, was held completely paralyzed by the invisible weight of my mind.
The guards leaned forward in sheer disbelief. Aheem's confident grin visibly twitched, his eyes widening. "Telekinesis,".
He snapped his fingers with a loud crack. The frozen vines surged with a sudden, injection of magic, rapidly multiplying and bursting through every single crack in the courtyard floor like a wild, untamed forest trying to reclaim the palace from its masters.
I moved. My spear spun once in my right hand, a purple blur of light and then I stepped directly forward into the chaos.
The massive vines were ripped from the earth, torn upward into the air by an immense, invisible force. Deep roots shattered into splinters, green leaves scattered like confetti, and entire lengths of twisting, thorned plants spun wildly through the air like broken whips. Aheem barely managed to dodge the first flying root, but the second slammed heavily into his left shoulder.
THUD.
He staggered backward, his guard completely blown open. I didn't slow down for a fraction of a second. I lunged through the debris, my spear sweeping low
CRACK.
The heavy shaft slammed ruthlessly into his ribs. Aheem let out a panted grunt, stumbling backward over. He tried to desperately retaliate another massive wave of thick vines bursting upward from the foundation, thicker this time, stronger, the stone completely splitting under their immense weight.
But I simply lifted my left hand, my fingers curling into a tight fist.
The rushing vines twisted in midair, their trajectory bending as I seized control of their kinetic momentum. I turned them directly back onto their master. Aheem's eyes widened into circles of pure panic as his own conjured plants wrapped tightly around his arms and legs, dragging his body forward across the stone floor toward me.
"What the—"
WHAM.
The heavy brass butt of my spear struck his stomach with the force of a battering ram. The remaining air blasted from his lungs in a gasp. Before he could even begin to recover his balance
BAM.
A massive wave of focused telekinetic force slammed directly into his chest, throwing his body entirely across the length of the courtyard. He crashed against the hard pavers with a thud, the impact violent enough to fracture the solid stone beneath his spine.
The watching guards completely erupted into frantic, terrified whispers. Above the devastation, Castel's smile grew into a twisted mask of delight. I wasn't just fighting anymore, I was hunting.
Aheem forced his battered body up once more, his breath a ragged, wheezing sound as a steady stream of blood ran down the side of his bruised face. "Okay," he coughed, spitting more blood onto the floor. "No more warm-up."
He slammed his clenched fist heavily against the ground. This time, the entire palace courtyard answered his call.
Massive, roots exploded upward from the deep foundations like wooden spears, thicker than tree trunks, twisting and snapping toward my position from every single direction at once, cutting off any avenue of escape. But I didn't retreat. I didn't blink. My power surged outward like a tidal wave, filling the empty spaces.
The colossally thick roots stopped instantly. Every single one of them hung frozen in the air.
Then—
They violently shattered.
Massive splinters of wood, dirt, and shredded leaves exploded outward in a deafening detonation, as if the entire forest had been instantly crushed into dust by an immense, shift in gravity. Aheem stared at the empty air, his jaw dropping in pure horror. "Impossible—"
I was already there, bursting through the cloud of dust.
WHAM.
My clenched fist slammed brutally into his jaw, spinning his head around. He stumbled sideways, his legs shaking.
CRACK.
My elbow struck his fractured ribs, the distinct sound of bone cracking echoing through the quiet. Aheem tried to desperately swing his sword in a final, blind effort but the heavy weapon was ripped out of his hand mid-strike, torn away by my telekinesis and hurled across the courtyard where it embedded itself deep into a distant wall.
The purple spear spun fluidly in my grip once more.
THUD.
The heavy shaft slammed ruthlessly into his right knee. Aheem's leg gave out completely, and he collapsed heavily onto the stones. I didn't stop. Two more fast, brutal strikes drove his body flat onto the broken stone floor, pinning him into the dirt.
An absolute, deafening silence settled over the courtyard.
Aheem lay there beneath my shadow, bleeding profusely, his chest heaving up and down in desperate, shallow gasps. Then, slowly, with what little strength he had left, he lifted both of his hands in the air. "Okay," he said breathlessly, his voice a broken whisper. "I surrender."
I stood directly over his broken form, the sharp, glowing blade of my purple spear pointed directly at his exposed throat. My chest rose and fell slowly, the physical exhaustion making my limbs tremble, but my eyes were not on the man beneath me.
They were locked onto Castel. Across the ruined courtyard. Unblinking. Defiant. Challenging the king himself.
The entire courtyard of guards slowly turned their heads to look at Castel, holding their breath. Castel sat silently on his floating bench for a long, agonizing moment, his expression unreadable.
Then, he laughed.
It was a slow, deep, and terrifying sound that echoed off the broken pillars.
"Well..."
His glowing, mismatched eyes burned brighter than the morning sun, locking onto my hidden power with a terrifying curiosity.
"Now that... was entertaining."