Defying Destiny Read online

  In that close, a sword typically had an advantage, but Cassidy flipped the back of the spear upward and slammed it into Aiden’s helmet. While he stumbled backward, she stepped in closer and kicked the back of his leg.

  He didn’t fall like she’d obviously hoped, though. Both impacts did damage to his shield, but she lacked the force to topple him. He smacked Cassidy with his shield, then took a swing with his sword. She managed to get the spear up in time to block, then dropped it entirely.

  While Aiden raised the sword to swing again, Cassidy slipped past him and kicked him in the back. He stumbled forward — and tripped over the stone spikes he’d created, falling right on top of them.

  Numerous cracks appeared in his barrier when he landed.

  “Winner, Cassidy Ventra!” The Sytiran paladin announced.

  The first series of cheers came from the stands.

  Cassidy helped Aiden to his feet, then he saluted her and exited the arena.

  Cassidy looked absolutely thrilled. She waved to the crowd, then looked around, clearly searching to see if someone specific had been watching.

  Lydia leaned over to the paladin on her left. “Who’s the announcer?”

  “That’s Durias Moss. One of the latest batch of graduates.”

  Lydia nodded her thanks, then reached into her bag for a notepad and wrote down “Durias Moss”.

  Durias announced the next fighter a few moments later. “Now entering from the blue side, Paladin Terras!”

  The new contestant was an orange-eyed rethri woman that Lydia had seen during Taelien’s paladin trials. From what she could recall, Terras was skilled at Heat sorcery, as well as...

  Terras pointed a hand at Cassidy and a blast of lightning crossed the arena, crashing into the squire’s shields and leaving a tremendous crack.

  Cassidy staggered, but righted herself quickly and began to charge.

  Terras remained right near the entrance, casually calling down more bolts of lightning. Cassidy dodged and wove as she ran, managing to avoid one blast simply by throwing off Terras’ aim, but she couldn’t close the distance fast enough.

  A second lightning bolt smashed into Cassidy, then a third. Her barrier crumpled.

  “That’s enough,” came Durias’ voice. “Winner, Paladin Terras!”

  Another cheer from the crowd, but more muted this time. Everyone could see that it hadn’t been a fair exchange.

  But battle was rarely fair.

  Lydia wrote “Terras” on her list. She wasn’t sure Sterling could absorb lightning sorcery quickly enough to prevent it from harming him, and even if he could, it would be a significant distraction.

  “Entering, from the red side, Paladin Gladio Gath!”

  A human swordsman with dark brown hair entered the arena, resting a sheathed greatsword against his arm like a polearm.

  He pointed his free hand toward the ground, then began to charge.

  Terras pointed her hand toward the newcomer and called another blast of lightning. It flashed toward him, crossing the battlefield in a moment, then veered off to his side.

  The electrical charge moved too fast for Lydia’s eyes to follow completely, but as Gladio pointed toward another spot on the ground, Lydia began to understand.

  Terras called another blast of lightning; again, it veered off as it approached. This time, Lydia managed to see the electrical charge strike something small on the ground, then flicker, and then dissipate.

  He’s a metal caller, she realized. And he’s making lightning rods.

  Gladio continued to close the distance, now half-way across the arena.

  Terras must have realized that her strategy wasn’t working. She waved a hand and the air in front of her rippled, expanding forward like a wave across the arena. When the distortion hit Gladio, he winced, but didn’t slow.

  Heat sorcery. And the barrier didn’t activate to help block it. Whatever type of defensive spell they’re using, it doesn’t treat a change in temperature as attack sorcery. Meaning that Paladin is cooking in his armor, and the barrier isn’t going to help.

  The heat extended from Terras’ position all the way to the midpoint of the arena. It wasn’t just a momentary attack; the spell was persisting in that area. Gladio would have to continue moving through it to reach her, or find another way around.

  Gladio’s face visibly reddened, but he continued to close the distance.

  Terras took an uncertain step back, conjuring a handful of balls of lightning that swirled around her in a circular pattern. She pointed, shooting one of the spheres forward.

  Gladio countered with another lightning rod, but with noticeable difficulty. He slowed his charge, taking a breath, and then moved his hand in front of him, extending two fingers upward.

  A glowing blue aura appeared across his body, then gradually pushed outward into a spherical shape.

  The sphere appeared to push back the heated air around him, giving him a protected bubble of ordinary air. From the way he slowed his steps after casting it, however, it was clearly taking a lot out of him.

  A Sphere of Exclusion spell. High-end protection sorcery designed for inhospitable areas. From the looks of it, he maintains the spell with a gesture using his left hand. That could be trouble if he’s using a two-handed weapon.

  Gladio continued to march slowly toward his opponent, looking more comfortable now that the heat had been pushed away, but sweat was still flowing down his face. His hand trembled with the effort of maintaining the barrier.

  He was close to reaching Terras when she bolted right past him, hurling a pair of lightning spheres as she ran.

  Lydia anticipated that he’d continue to block using the same pattern as before. His opponent must have counted on that, too.

  Instead, Gladio pointed his right hand at the ground in front of Terras herself.

  The two spheres of lightning crashed into Gladio’s Sphere of Exclusion, breaking through it and cracking the barrier beneath. He was back in the heat now.

  Terras, however, failed to avoid the metal block that appeared in front of her. The moment she collided with it, her remaining lightning sphere jumped to the metal and electrocuted her.

  She fell backward at the jolt, her shield cracking, and began to push herself to her feet.

  Gladio unsheathed his sword, swaying on his feet. He looked like he could barely stand in the heat.

  When she pointed to call another blast of lightning, Gladio threw his sword at her.

  That sword...

  Lydia’s eyes narrowed as she recognized the black blade with gleaming runes on the surface. Arcane Hold. It’s a teleportation anchor, preventing any use of travel sorcery in the area near it. Not applicable in this fight, but potentially useful.

  Apparently, Gladio didn’t quite have Taelien’s talent at sword throwing. The sword missed badly, but it did attract the lightning from Terras’ latest attack.

  Terras stumbled backward and shivered, clearly feeling the toll of all her attack spells.

  Before she could cast another spell, Gladio pulled a dagger off his belt and hurled it at her. It flipped around and hit her pommel-first, but that still cracked her barrier.

  She fell backward, groaned, and raised both hands. “I give up.”

  “Winner! Paladin, Gladio Gath!”

  Gladio marched forward drunkenly, clearly barely able to stand, and offered his opponent a hand.

  Terras grinned and accepted, and he dragged her to her feet.

  The crowd cheered.

  Terras snapped her fingers, ending the heat spell on the arena, and began to make her way out.

  Gladio found his sword, wiped his face, and sat down.

  For a few moments, no challengers approached.

  Lydia wrote the name, “Gladio Gath” on her list with a plus sign next to it.

  A man in a black and white suit with no obvious weapons and a ludicrously tall hat entered the arena.

  Durias began to announce him with a clear note of exasperation in his
tone. “Now announcing...Paladin...Bob—”

  The newcomer clapped his hands, making a thunderous noise, and birds appeared around him, flapping toward the skies. “Behold! I am Bobax, sorcerer extraordinaire! Witness now, my latest performance!”

  Gladio covered his eyes for a moment, although it wasn’t clear if that was some sort of strategy or merely out of embarrassment.

  A vast whirlwind of colors appeared around “Bobax”, the newcomer. The rainbow of lights shot upward, then curved downward, landing near Gladio and impacting with what looked like a liquid splash.

  From the pool of lights emerged a second version of Gladio himself, resplendent in golden armor and carrying a bright blue sword.

  “The knight has shown his might, but how shall he fare against his own reflection?” Bobax clapped his hands again and vanished.

  Gladio sighed, taking the handle of his sword and then pushing himself back to his feet.

  This glowing duplicate lunged forward, swinging its glowing sword at his midsection.

  Gladio stepped back, avoiding the swing, and then turned and swung his own sword at the seemingly empty air behind him.

  “Hah!” The voice came from somewhere to Gladio’s right side. “You didn’t think I’d be that close by, did you? Why would I bother appearing so close to—”

  Gladio punched to his left.

  Bobax appeared, stumbling backward and holding his nose. Cracks were visible in his shield. A crossbow clattered to the ground at his feet.

  Gladio spun toward Bobax, taking a hit from his golden duplicate in the process. His shield cracked further, but didn’t break.

  Bobax recovered and swung a hand downward. A shadowy duplicate of Bobax stepped forward and mirrored the swing, but Gladio side-stepped it and shoved the golden copy of himself in the way.

  The shadows and light met. Both vanished.

  Then Gladio closed the distance and smashed Bobax with the flat of his sword.

  Bobax’s shield cracked, not quite breaking. Bobax stepped back, raising both hands. “Bah. This is why I never fight in arenas.” He bowed at the waist. “The match is yours, sir.”

  A cheer went up from the crowd as Bobax’s form turned to shadows, then to birds that flew out of the arena.

  “Winner, Paladin Gladio Gath!”

  Gladio raised a hand to his chest and lowered his sword, breathing heavily.

  That Bobax was a showoff, but a spectacularly talented one. We don’t usually recruit people with that type of personality...but perhaps there’s more to him than what I see on the surface. I should investigate him further. Invisibility is always useful.

  Lydia wrote the name, “Bobax?” on her list.

  The next to enter was a short, stout woman in heavy armor. Only her head was left exposed. She carried no weapons, but her bracers glowed with blue-white light.

  “Now entering from the blue side, Paladin Finn Pine.”

  The woman waved to Gladio amiably. “Hey, ‘dio. You look overheated. Figured maybe I’d give you a hand with that.”

  She clasped her hands together briefly, and a second suit of armor formed around her body — this one made entirely of ice.

  Gladio straightened himself, then concentrated. The cracks in his barrier began to mend themselves. “Nice of you to offer, Finn, but I’m just getting warmed up.”

  Finn slowly advanced across the arena, fists raised.

  Gladio assumed a defensive stance, waiting patiently, taking deep breaths. He’d successfully repaired a lot of the damage to his shield, but he was clearly in bad shape.

  Under ordinary circumstances, the right answer when someone swings a greatsword at you is “don’t be in the way.”

  When Gladio swung at Finn, however, she opted for a different route.

  She charged straight into the swing, which chipped her ice armor and sent Gladio’s arm wide.

  Then she crashed right into him, shoulder first, and punched him with her other hand when he fell backward.

  To his credit, Gladio maintained his footing, simply sliding back from the impact of the attacks.

  He raised his hand to begin repairing the damage to his shield again.

  “Sorry about the cold shoulder,” Finn said with a grin.

  Gladio sighed. “Did you plan your entire attack around making that terrible joke?”

  “It was worth it. I have simple needs.” She flicked her wrist forward, firing a spike of ice. Gladio was too distracted — either by the joke or his attempts to recharge his shield — to dodge it properly. It glanced across his side, making another crack in his shield.

  Finn took advantage of the opening, stepping forward and swinging again.

  Gladio backed off, pointing at the ground. Finn stumbled as metallic wires rose from the ground at her ankles, then ducked and jumped forward faster than seemed natural, slamming a punch into Gladio’s chest.

  With that, his shield finally cracked apart.

  “Winner, Paladin Finn Pine!”

  Gladio stepped forward, giving Finn a slap on the shoulder. “Luck to you.”

  “And you, brother.” Finn gave him a wink. “Good fight.” She leaned close to him and whispered something, then he laughed and walked out of the ring.

  More cheering from the crowd.

  The next opponent entered. “From the red side of the arena, Paladin Keldyn Andys!”

  Finn cracked her neck, turning toward the other entrance.

  Keldyn strode forward, casting an arm out to the left, then the other to the right, with obvious flourish.

  As he did, four glowing golden swords appeared on each side of him, hovering in mid-air.

  That’s...considerably more than I remembered him being able to make, Lydia remembered. He’s clearly been practicing.

  With no further discussion, Keldyn pointed his right hand and those four swords flew forward, leaving a gleaming trail in their wake.

  Finn dropped and punched the ground. A wall of ice shot up in front of her. The three swords embedded into it, but Keldyn moved his hand at the last moment and one of the four diverged from the path, flying around it.

  Finn blocked the first swing of the remaining sword with her bracers, sending white and gold sparks into the air, then jumped on top of it.

  Lydia blinked. That was...not how she would have approached the situation.

  Finn dragged the glowing sword to the ground, punching it repeatedly, until the sword cracked and vanished.

  She stood back up just in time for the next wave of four swords to approach. At that point, she fell back on the defensive, with her glowing bracers as best she could.

  At first, the four swords came at the same trajectories, allowing Finn to side-step and parry the group with moderate difficulty. As Keldyn came closer, however, he folded his arms and the swords flew apart.

  Then he closed his eyes — and each of the four swords floated to a different side of Finn, slightly changing their positions and elevation.

  They still struck at the same time, but from four different locations.

  Finn blocked the two closest to the front of her, but took two glancing hits from behind. Her ice armor stopped most of the damage, but began to break apart.

  Her barrier didn’t seem to have taken any damage yet; apparently, the ice armor was the outer layer of her defenses, and damaging it didn’t trigger the protection spell. That was good for Finn, especially if she was capable of renewing it.

  Unfortunately, she didn’t seem to have the time.

  The four swords attacked relentlessly, and Finn had few opportunities to counter. She tried to freeze one of them with a blast of ice, but it flew right through the attack before the ice could take hold.

  When she tried to grapple another sword to the ground, it flew back out of range, breaking from the attack formation the other three were using. That was particularly interesting, because Lydia had not been aware that Keldyn had sufficient control for that kind of maneuvering of the weapons.

  Her ice armor
continued to chip and break. Finally, she waved a hand across the ground, creating any icy path leading straight to her opponent. Then she broke into a run, the ice appearing to accelerate her travel, without any signs that the slippery surface impeded her.

  She might have made it if the three swords embedded in the ice wall hadn’t broken free.

  They flew straight in front of her, slashing simultaneously, and caught her straight in the chest.

  The attacks didn’t just break her armor — they broke her momentum. She slipped and fell backward off the path. She recovered quickly, but then the other four swords had caught up behind her.

  The seven remaining swords began to circle her.

  Finn glanced from side-to-side, then threw a blast of ice straight at Keldyn.

  Two more swords appeared in front of him seemingly instantly, blocking the attack.

  Then Finn was struck seven times, breaking her armor and barrier in a moment.

  “Winner, Keldyn Andys!”

  Finn took a breath as the swords flew away to circle around their caster. Then she smiled, walked over, and gave him a light punch in a shoulder. “Hell of a trick you’ve got there, Andys. Maybe teach it to the rest of us sometime?”

  “Would if I could,” Keldyn replied. “But only a pair of us are blessed with Aendaryn’s gifts.”

  “Now entering from the blue side, Kestrel Makar!”

  Keldyn nodded to Finn, then turned toward his new opponent. “And there’s the other one.”

  “I’d better get to the stands so I can watch this. Luck to ya, Andys.” Finn rushed out of the arena to the sound of cheers.

  Lydia made a mental note to write her down as well, but she didn’t want to miss a moment of what happened next.

  Kestrel was a tall, athletic blonde, much like Andys himself. The hair color and their light complexion was common for Valeria, where they’d both originally come from.

  And the center of power for House Haven, which Kestrel was born into, Lydia recalled. I wonder what happened there that made her join the paladins and change her name.

  Kestrel gazed out at the crowd briefly, showing a combination of nervousness and excitement, before she refocused on her opponent.

  “This is a poor match for you, Kestrel. You would have been wiser to wait for others to wear me down, then taken the victory over the tournament as a whole.” Keldyn walked forward, his conjured swords spinning around him in a circular pattern.