The following week went by as a long and restless one. Aegar spent most of each day following classes and training sessions in sword fighting, hand-to-hand combat, advanced dark magic and basic earth, fire, water and air magic. He had no prior experience in using any other type of magic than dark, but he was a quick learner and was soon capable of casting a variety of the most basic spells. To his surprise, fire magic came to him easiest. Despite being closely related to light, it also shared certain characteristics with darkness. Fire too was a living thing, a gluttonous force that will swallow everything around it if you let it. It was even more destructive though, and harder to control. Water and air followed close behind in terms of difficulty, though he had absolutely no talent for the healing aspect of either. Earth magic was his weakest point out of the four. Earth was such a solid and stubborn element; he had trouble getting a grasp on it.
And then there was light of course. As a sign of keeping an open mind, Aegar had initially joined the light magic classes as well, but they were a disaster more than anything. Even something as simple as a basic light-generation spell ended up backfiring and doing the opposite of what it was supposed to do. At that point it was pretty clear that light magic wasn’t going to happen for him.
Few of Aegar’s classes were shared with any of the other Sages, since they were all proficient enough in their own element to move on to the advanced classes right away, all except Summer, who had to climb up all the way from zero. Despite that, during the classes they shared, air magic noticeably came more naturally to her than it did to Aegar, or to a lot of the other students for that matter. He also shared the sword fighting classes with Calixta, due to their similar choice of weaponry, but had so far refrained from sparring with her due to the tension between them.
But he wasn’t just busy during the day. Wanting to get the most out of his stay here while it lasted, he would regularly leave the residence tower at night just to get some extra practice in the training arena in the peace and quiet of the night, as he preferred it. Being brought here had pulled him away from his business of chasing the Brotherhood, so the least he could do was fill up that lost time by improving his skills. He wasn’t the only one of the demons who preferred to roam the school at night rather than day, but apart from that handful, the halls were always empty at night.
This time was different though. At he was making his way through the dimly-lit hallways with his hood drawn over his head, largely concealing his face, he could already hear the faint sounds of fighting coming from the direction of the training arena. He slowed down when he neared the door and slowly pushed it open, curious to see who was inside. In the past week, he hadn’t seen anyone else come out to train at this hour. As he peaked through the crack in the door, he saw a single person, one whose mere presence seemed to make the gloomy environment slightly brighter, swinging his war hammer at a training dummy. It didn’t take long to guess who it was.
Aegar slowly stepped through the doorframe into the arena, relying on the sounds of battle to drown out the sound of his footsteps until he got a little closer. At about twelve feet distance from the man, he came to a stop and folded his arms. “What’s the Sage of Light doing out here at night? Aren’t humans afraid of the dark?” he said in a mocking tone.
The human responded by bringing his ancient warhammer down like a comet upon the training dummy, sending bits and small splinters across the training area. From there, Aegar noticed the Sage of light take a composed breath before standing up again, but with his back still turned to the demon, “There is no reason to fear the darkness. Not if the light is strong within one’s soul.” The human seemingly mused this to himself rather than answering Aegar’s taunt.
Aegar watched stoically as half of the wooden dummy was splintered to pieces by the heavy jeweled war hammer. “Ah, yes.” he said while he pulled down his hood. “The light will protect you for a while. Until it fades. And when the light is extinguished, the humans find themselves naked and unprotected. It is a fleeting thing to rely upon. Darkness however, darkness is eternal, and loyal to those who embrace it.” As he spoke, he slowly padded around the Sage of Light in a half circle, until they were facing each other with the broken dummy between them. “What brings you here at this unhumanly hour? I’ve seen no other humans daring to enter the halls at night. Did living with the man of stone get too heavy for you?” He nonchalantly pulled his right-hand sword from his sheath and playfully twirled it around in his hand a few times.
In response the human finally met Aegar’s gaze, but oddly enough a smile was etched across his face, but not a sincere one by the looks of it, “Ahh, the talented tongue of Demons. I see you are gifted in the famed skill of taunting and mockery. Truly none can match your race in that field.” Ostel then rested the head of his warhammer on the ground, with the ancient weapon glowing a bit more than it was a moment ago.
The Sage of Light then placed both his hands on the base of the hilt of his weapon, but kept his stance and gaze fixed on the demon “And well that your kind masters that craft, as it seems that it is their only strength, okay that and having the fondness for dominating others. Fun fact though, did you know that Demons really do not like prey that fights back? Or in fact, those who wield the power of the Light? I found this out as while training to kill your kin actually.” The Sage of Light said with his full smiling fading back to a half-smile, but the light emitted from the human not just persisted, but appeared to slowly become brighter.
Aegar’s previous half smirk turned back to his seemingly stoic expression. “A human trained by humans. Tell me, how can they prepare you for something they hardly understand?” He twirled his sword around a few times again and as he did, the blade seemed to slice through the dim lighting of the room, leaving behind a trail of thin black vapor. The sword seemed to grow even darker in color than before as it was enveloped by a thin layer of the dark smoke. “I think you’ll find my kind less predictable than you deem them. You are a knight of summer, Ostel, and winter is coming. Perhaps you need a demonstration.” With that, he jabbed his blade forward, sending a gust of black smoke pouring out of the tip, quickly enveloping first the Sage of Light and then himself in the cloud of blackness. “Can you fight what you can’t see, Lucerna boy?” he said while he commenced a forward sprint. When he reached the dummy, he jumped, placed his right hand on its relatively intact left shoulder and pushed his feet forward mid-jump, about to collide them right into the human’s chest if he didn’t move.
But the demon's feet did come into contact with something; it just grabbed his feet and swung him to the far side of the room. Thankfully Aegar's years of experience prevented him from being thrown off balance, and the smoke that trailed from his blade went further on to darken the entire room. Before the sage of darkness could react however a bright light seemingly exploded from Ostel's direction, a sphere of light that surrounding the human. Aegar summoned a sphere of darkness to match the light. The Demon Saw through the bright light that Ostel was holding his warhammer high over his head, his eyes fixed on the demon.
The human then spoke with a determined look in his eyes, "I expected we would come to blows Aegar. But If you had expected this 'Knight of Summer' to simply be all talk, then you have made a grave a mistake" The spheres of light and darkness met in the middle of the room, causing the room to shake a bit as the power from the two sages clashed. Either uncaring of the storm in the middle of the room, or indeed more powerful than Aegar had assumed, Ostel had somehow found the will to start advancing toward Aegar. As the sage of light came forward, so to did the sphere of light, pressing against the dark sphere, pushing it back.
Not one to be beaten so easily the sage of darkness gritted his teeth and summoned the strength necessary to do the same. Just like Ostel, as Aegar came forward, so too did the dark sphere, and as the two warriors came closer though, the powers between them became more volatile and tumultuous. The results of their struggle of wills began to cause the shaking of the room to increase, even sending deep tremors throughout the surroundings rooms, possibly to the entire university.
“Good. I wouldn’t want it to be too easy.” The border where the light and dark spheres met was a continuous battle of both forces trying to devour each other, like two rivers violently clashing, neither of them gaining or losing any ground. Aegar sheathed his sword and spread his arms wide, with balled fists. “Light and dark are bound to clash sooner or later.” Black, tar-like tendrils had begun materializing from thin air and curling around Aegar’s arms. “We might as well establish the dominance between us right away.” Without any further warning, he thrust his hands forward, sending the black tentacles charging forward like a group of snakes about to devour a rodent.
Ostel abruptly brought down his previously raised warhammer, smashing some of the inky tendrils to pieces, only to have the remaining ones quickly adapt to the situation and curl themselves around the head and shaft of the hammer. The two opponents eyes were still locked as the tentacles tightened their grip on Ostel’s hammer, threatening to disarm him, when a bright light, even brighter than Ostel’s already present aura, came shining through the chaotic tangle of tentacles, withering them like old dried-out vines. The runes and jewels embedded on Dawnbringer’s surface were brightening by the second, scorching away the black tendrils with its magical light.
Ostel waited no longer and charged forward into the wall of darkness, going for a shoulder bash, but Aegar had already stepped aside. The demon’s curved blade once again came free from its sheath and struck out towards the human, but Ostel was quick to react and it accomplished nothing more than a small tear in the fabric of his clothing. The two of them halted once more as their elemental aura’s continued battling. “You’re faster than you look, I’ll give you that, human.” Aegar said as he pulled his second blade from its sheath and threateningly twirled them around in his hands.
However the human sage kept to his sacred warhammer, and then the two warriors paced around each other in a circle, their paths drawing lines in the sand. The sage of light then spoke again as his hands gripped his sacred weapon, "You'll find that I'm full of surprises Aegar." The battle of light and darkness between the two spheres seemed to of dimmed slightly. Also, though the tremors did not stop shaking the room, it did lessen a bit, as if preparing for the next rumble between the two Sages.
And then Aegar lunged, using the trailing wisps of darkness from his blades to cloak his movements. The conflicting spheres erupted into a bright conflagration as the two sages engaged, with the tremors returning even fiercer than before. Ostel kept up his defenses though, skillfully and mightily parrying each strike, feint, and counterblow that was laid against him. After one such deflected attempt, Aegar was surprised at the ferocity of Ostel's counterattack, so much so that he had to put some distance and re-evaluate his foe.
The demon sage now knew that Ostel's relic weapon was faster in the Sage of Light's hands than most wielders of that weapon type. While users of the warhammer favored power over speed but it seemed that Ostel enjoyed both advantages.
The weapon, that's the key.
Aegar had to find a way to separate the user from his weapon.
Ostel stood defiantly with his gaze as grim as his last name implied, "Second guessing yourself, Aegar? If you want to back down now, you can." As the human said this, Ostel's sphere seemed to glow even stronger and even press against the darkness in the room.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Aegar answered while he tightly balled his hands around the hilts of his swords. “This isn’t over quite yet.” With that, he slammed his fists together, causing a black cloud, even darker than the dark globe surrounding him, to erupt from the impact, completely shrouding him from sight for a short moment. It didn’t take long for the smoke to dissipate due to the light of Ostel’s aura, but a second was all he needed. Before the smoke had even dissipated, two Aegars, seemingly identical in the twilight of his own aura, darted out to both sides, one left and one right.
Ostel was surprised for a moment by this trick, but quickly got his thoughts together when one of the demons came towards him from the left for a flanking attack. He reacted swiftly and butted the attacker with the pommel of his hammer, only to have the demon in question dissipate into black vapor upon contact.
It didn’t take long for him to understand how he’d been fooled, but it took just long enough. An unanticipated cluster of black tendrils dove in and curled themselves around his right forearm. With a firm pull from the tentacles, his hand was forcibly dislodged from the shaft of his hammer and his whole body was spun around 90 degrees to face his opponent. Before he knew it, several other tendrils had come forth and latched onto his warhammer. The tentacles made a sizzling sound as they touched the silvery steel, but remain intact long enough to spin it around 360 degrees, forcing Ostel to let go of the shaft not to break his wrist and sending the heavy hammerhead falling into the sand with a heavy thud.
With a single powerful pull, Ostel tore off the black tendrils that were curled around his forearm and slowly attempting to creep upwards, before turning to pick up his hammer, only to find that Aegar had been faster and positioned himself between Ostel and Dawnbringer, which was still shining brightly in its position in the sand. “So what now, oh Sage of Light?” Aegar spoke mockingly.
In response the human pulled out another set of hand weapons, one of which seemed to be a throwing axe and the other a short hunting knife, "I'm thinking you better shut your mouth Demon." With that Ostel charged the demon headfirst, offering no sense of defense as he did before with his warhammer.
Adding to Aegar's discomfort was the fact that Ostel's Sphere had lessened, but only so he could augment his figure in a blinding light that made the human had to focus on. The demon's tendrils offered no support right now as he had to focus on Ostel, and with the frenzy of movement the human displayed the demon could no longer pin the sage of light down. To his credit, the Sage of Light was able to keep Aegar on his toes with this unexpected dual weapon approach.
However, Ostel's moves had now become undisciplined, without any sense of coordination with his attacks. All Aegar had to do was try to keep his cool and recognize a pattern in the human's advances. It hurt his eyes to look on Ostel for too long, but the demon did notice that Ostel tended to go for a torso attack followed by a feint to the legs. Thus Aegar adapted and counter- feinted when the sage of light struck his legs, throwing Ostel off balance and again Aegar unleashed his tendrils to great effect and tore away both weapons.
Before Aegar could taunt the human again however, Ostel drew out his bastard sword. At the continued defiance Aegar rolled his eyes and said in a mildly annoyed tone, "You just do not accept defeat do you?"
The Sage of Light wiped a bit of sweat off his brow and flexed his broad shoulders before he answered between his labored breathing, "If you tire off this fight Aegar, you can always surrender." The Demon laughed a bit at that, and even Ostel chuckled a bit. Both of them knew the human had lost at this point, but it seemed that the human was determined to resist until he had no way to fight back.
So Aegar fought him again, this time having to adapt to Ostel's approach with this new weapon. However, unlike the warhammer, and the axe and dagger, it seemed like the sword in Ostel's hands fit him better than any of his other equipment. The twin blades of Aegar fought hard to gain any kind of opening into Ostel's pattern, but the human was keeping up with him. Alternating between a series of kicks, tendril grabs and flurry of slashes, Aegar tried it all to force Ostel to break under his onslaught.
But the Sage of Light held, even as his sphere lessened and lost ground to the demon's attacks. When Aegar sensed a weakness, he sent both of his blades into a hammer motion to break Ostel's guard, but Ostel was waiting for that. The human dove under the attack, striking Aegar's midsection with the pommel of his blade, kicking in his kneecap and then upon spinning behind, sending the back of his blade into the Demon's back.
Aegar's mind flared with rage, and he unleashed all of his power, with dark tendril's again jetting out of the ground, grabbing Ostel's form and forcing the human to struggle with the dark magic. It was then that Aegar then coldly and forcefully hammered away at Ostel, until with both the aid of the tendrils and the force of his blows, the human’s last weapon was cast aside.
The Demon then swiftly brought both of his blades forward to Ostel's neck before a split second had passed. And there Aegar stopped and eyed the Sage fo Light threateningly, as if daring him to make a move. With the tendrils holding him down and Aegar's blades to his neck, Ostel ceased his struggling. He shoke his head, hung his head low, and the light from the human dimmed.
After a few seconds had passed and the heavy breathing subsided, the Sage of Light nodded his head in acceptance of his defeat, "You win, Aegar. Well fought. I guess if there is a good way to die, may as well of been to a better fighter. So what happens now?" Ostel asked as he looked to the X pattern of the blades around his neck.
Aegar remained silent for a few seconds, looking down at the human with unmoving grey eyes that gave away little of his intentions. Then his expression softened up ever so slightly, as far as you could call it that, and the aura of darkness that surrounded him became a little less intense.
As the anger that clouded his mind slowly began ebbing away, his awareness of their general surroundings returned to him and he soon noticed from the corner of his eye that the two of them were not alone in here anymore. He raised his gaze and looked around, keeping his blades still in their current position, to see a surprising amount of students that had crowded up in the arena entrance and along the far wall and were watching them in surprising silence.
At the front of the herd of students, standing out from the grey mass, were the four remaining sages. Both girls had a distraught expression on their face visible even from a distance, with especially Calixta looking like she could start screaming bloody murder at any moment. Damien was standing between them with a hand on each girl’s shoulder, as if to hold them back from intervening, and Jade Fist looked as stoic and unreadable as always.
Aegar brought his gaze back down to Ostel, still showing barely any emotion, before slowly lowering his swords away from the human’s neck and eventually sheathing them. “I’ll give you this.” he said, while the grip of the inky black tendrils began loosening. “You fight surprisingly well for a noble.” As if commanded to, the black tentacles let go completely and let themselves fall to the ground to begin dissolving. “From now on I’ll call you a knight of autumn.” Aegar stuck out his hand to the crouched Sage of Light. “Get up, you can’t let the girls see you like this.” he said with the slightest hint of a joking tone.
Ostel hesitated very briefly, but then grabbed onto the demon’s hand and pulled himself onto his feet. They both turned towards the group of students that had amassed near the entrance, who all looked to be dumbfounded by the course of events. Summer, Calixta and Damien had visibly calmed down now, though a grumpy expression was still visible on Calla’s face. Jade Fist still looked like Jade Fist.
Aegar wasted little more time on words as he walked towards the entrance, acting towards their audience as if what they just saw was an everyday thing. “What, never seen a sparring match?” he said sarcastically as he made his way through the mass of students and out of the practice arena, leaving the spectators looking even more surprised than before.
