Wrath's Virtue

Emil stared in disbelief, first at the blackened, smoking ruin of his shoulder, then at the smirk plastered across Aurelion's face.

"How?" his mind screamed, trying to reconcile the image of the panting, exhausted elf from moments ago with the confident terror standing before him.

"He doesn't look tired at all."

He scanned the distance between them. "I was charging, and he just... threw lightning at me? From this far? There are at least fifteen meters between us. And why didn't he use this in his last fight? He was about to be burned alive."

Then, a horrifying realization dawned, and Emil's eyes widened in shock. It had all been an act?

"Come on, no daydreaming now," a calm voice cut through his panicked thoughts.

He snapped his focus back just in time to see a flicker of blue light blossom in Aurelion's palm.

He threw himself into a desperate forward roll, the crackling bolt of lightning searing the air where his head had just been.

He scrambled to his feet only to see another blue spark forming. He broke into a sprint, zig zagging wildly as another bolt sizzled past him.

As Emil dodged and weaved, Aurelion remained perfectly still, calmly launching bolt after bolt of controlled lightning.

"He's keeping his distance to avoid a close quarters fight," Aurelion analyzed, "but if he doesn't force me to engage, he'll eventually get hit. What will you do, Emil of the Giant Bone clan?"

While running, Emil gripped his unique bone spear and pulled it back, assuming a throwing stance.

Aurelion raised a single eyebrow. "Really?"

Emil thrust the spear forward, but he didn't release the handle. In a stunning display, the segmented bone spear shot apart, held together by some internal mechanism, its tip lancing through the air and extending across the entire distance to Aurelion in an instant.

Aurelion simply took a step to the side. The bone tip slammed into the stone floor where he had stood.

As the spear recoiled, Aurelion noted the flexible, sinewy material connecting the bone fragments before Emil retracted it and the weapon seamlessly reassembled.

He looked back at Emil, a hint of genuine interest on his face. "Nice spear you got there."

Emil didn't reply. He swung the spear back and then whipped it forward again.

This time, as it extended, he snapped his wrist, turning the rigid weapon into a terrifying, segmented bone whip that slashed horizontally through the air towards Aurelion.

Aurelion watched the arc of bone segments hurtle towards him.

Instead of dodging back, he slammed the butt of his own spear vertically into the ground and used it as a pivot, launching himself into the air. With a sound like a whistling snake, Emil's whip like spear coiled around the shaft of Aurelion's embedded weapon.

As he landed softly on the ground, Aurelion let go of his anchored spear. "It's my spear now,".

Emil yanked the handle. "That is a spear of my clan! Take your hand off it!"

As Emil's spear began to retract, pulling Aurelion's with it, a cascade of blue gold sparks erupted from Aurelion's palm and danced down the length of his spear.

Seeing the shimmering energy surge through the bone segments towards him, Emil's eyes widened in panic. He released the handle.

Handle shortens towards the Aurelion and bone spear snapped back to its original length, dragging Aurelion's spear with it until it came to a rest on the ground.

"No!" Emil cried out in despair.

Aurelion calmly walked over, bent down, and picked up the bone spear.He held it up, turning it over in his hands, examining its intricate construction with a curiosity.

He looked back at the now unarmed Emil, his smirk returning, cold and cruel.

"How do you make it extend and retract, Emil?" he asked, his voice was deceptively gentle.

"I think... I'll test it on you."

In the stands, the veins on Merric's temples bulged with barely contained fury.

"That fool," he hissed through clenched teeth. "That utter fool actually lost his spear."

A low, rumbling chuckle sounded from beside him.

He turned his head and found himself looking up at a blond, broad shouldered Northern boy who stood a full head taller than him.

"Get lost, Lars," Merric snapped. "I'm not in the mood to deal with you right now."

The big Northerner, Lars, showed a grin. "No need to be so tense, Merric. It's just a fight, isn't it? It's just that your boy... well, if he hadn't lost his spear, he might have been able to do something interesting with it."

Merric shot Lars a venomous glare but Lars's grin only widened. "Don't take it so hard. I'm sure he'll find a way to get it back. Otherwise, one of your clan's precious weapons will end up in the hands of a stranger."

"Even if he's a fool, at least he's still fighting, Lars," Merric shot back, his voice dripping with scorn.

"We've seen far worse. We may have lost a weapon, but at least we haven't lost our honor. What was the name of that pig of yours? Erik?"

Lars's smile flickered for a fraction of a second, but he maintained his composure, his gaze returning to the arena. "Don't speak so soon, Merric. You could lose your honor at any moment too. Your boy, Emil, looks like he's on the verge of breaking."

Merric turned his focus back to the fight, a silent curse forming in his mind. "That bastard is right. At least have the decency to lose properly, Emil."

In the arena, Aurelion was still examining the bone spear, entering a state of Void Focusing.

He gave it a few experimental swung, testing its weight and flexibility.

Emil, meanwhile, glanced at Aurelion's own spear, still standing embedded in the ground two meters away from him.

A desperate thought ignited in his mind. "If I can just get that one, I might have a chance. I could create an opening, maybe even get my own weapon back. There are still things I can do."

He crouched low. Tiny slits opened in the palms of his hands, and a few drops of dark blood dripped onto the stone as he launched himself into a desperate sprint.

Aurelion turned his head toward Emil.

"Wait a moment, I'm just about to figure this out," he said, and flicked a crackling bolt of lightning from his left hand.

As the sparks flew towards him, Emil thrust his bleeding palms forward. A shower of sharp, hardened bone fragments erupted from his hands, intercepting the lightning bolts in a series of sharp cracks. He continued his run.

"I told you to wait, so wait" Aurelion said, a note of genuine annoyance in his voice. But Emil only pushed himself faster.

Aurelion grumbled and launched another volley of sparks.

This time, Emil tucked into a roll. He felt a searing pain in his back as one of the bolts grazed him.

"I can't dodge them from this distance, but it doesn't matter. I made it!" he thought, changing direction and reaching for the spear on the ground.

Just as his fingers were about to wrap around the shaft, he heard a voice from behind him, calm enlightened. "So that's how it works."

And then, pain.

He grunted, his body seizing, and looked back over his shoulder. He saw his own bone spear, fully extended, its tip buried deep in the flesh of his calf.

He turned back, ignoring the agony, and pushed himself forward with his elbow, his fingers finally closing around the handle of Aurelion's spear.

"I did it," he gasped, a wave of triumphant relief washing over him.

"I got the spear." Then he turned to face Aurelion.

And found the elf standing right beside him.

Aurelion looked down, his single eye blazing with a cold fury that Emil had not seen before.

"Get your worthless hand off my spear, insect."

Before the words had even fully registered, Aurelion's boot came down, crushing Emil's hand against the spear's shaft. He twisted the heel of his boot, grinding the bones.

Emil cried out, a guttural sound of agony, and reflexively drew back his other hand, clenching it into a fist.

Bone protrusions erupted from his knuckles as he swung a punch towards Aurelion's leg.

The punch never landed. A web of crackling lightning intercepted it mid air, a current surging through his arm, making it tremble uncontrollably.

Aurelion's face was a mask of pure rage. He raised his own fist, now wreathed in a crackling glove of lightning, and slammed it into Emil's back.

Emil's body convulsed from the shock, and blood sprayed from his mouth.

Aurelion raised his fist again.

"Did you really think you could take my spear, insect? Did you really think I was as weak as you, to lose my weapon?"

His voice rose to a furious roar. "Know your fucking place!"

He brought his fist down again.

But just as the lightning wreathed blow was about to connect, a shell of hard packed earth erupted from the stone floor, covering Emil's back.

Aurelion's punch shattered the earthen shield, but its momentum was broken. At the same time, a voice thundered across the arena.

"That is Enough!"