//------------------------------// // CH 64 (the duel) // Story: Accepting Change // by drFraud //------------------------------// Patchwork   ‘No idea what time it is…’ I blinked twice, all but studying Velvet’s sleeping face, or at least the left side of her face since a pillow obstructed her right. She didn’t bring a clock with her, but I left instructions for someone to ‘wake me’ shortly after nine in the morning. No idea how long she will sleep this time around since our last round of vertical tango left her exhausted… wish it did the same for me. Watching as her forehooves twitched slightly as she dreamt, I closed my eyes, hoping for sleep, but instead, I started going over the duel tomorrow in my head. My resin stomach churned twice, but otherwise, I was relaxed. Though slightly revolting on the second swallow, the resin piece caused zero problems other than occasionally twisting around like a snake. I wanted to study that thing in more detail, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a trump card that I couldn’t waste (or wouldn’t). Poking around with my magic now did yield a few interesting titbits of info, even if I did confirm it back during the fight with Husk. Namely, the thing does its best to maintain its mass, behaving almost like organic tissue and slowly, sluggishly, regenerating back, unless I undo what I did; in that, case it immediately returns to its original mass. Only now did I notice though that it seems to be drawing a miniscule amount of my mana into it during the regeneration process, I am guessing to maintain the energy needed. I couldn’t do much with it, as any flash of light would likely bother Velvet, but at the very least, I made sure that THAT part of my understanding made sense. I’ll be able to fight tomorrow with at least some measure of security, knowing that I won’t just immediately run out of resin. Sure, I could use magic as a substitute for most of it, but that is a last-ditch measure at this point. I felt my thoughts drift towards what I know of Spirit, from what Celestia and Shield managed to tell me. He isn’t secretive about his equipment, but according to the alicorn mare, she NEVER saw him fight. That part, he likes to keep to himself, for some reason. ‘I’ll be hilarious if he’s all bark and no bite,’ I snickered to myself, only to flinch when Velvet stirred for a second. Since I was lying on my left, I reached over with my free right arm and pulled her closer. The adorable sigh and a sleepy nuzzle made me smile. Returning my thoughts to the King, his equipment, though extensive, is preferably a maul, a war hammer, a knife (which, according to Shield, may as well be a sword based on its size), a pre-drawn crossbow on his back, and a set of heavy war armour. I was, however, assured by Celestia that I should expect anything from him as he, supposedly, knows how to wield a fair number of weapons. A lot of iffy information, but I can at least say that I was warned to be cautious and ready for anything. It’s something that I was already assuming, but it’s good to have it confirmed. Feeling a slight tingle in my eyes, I blinked twice before letting sleep take over. I’ll probably sleep for an hour, but it beats waiting for tomorrow. … “Would you believe me if I told you that I’m here on Princess’s request?” Night Light’s voice came from slightly behind me. Considering the weird resin in my stomach, I wasn’t feeling hungry at all, so I went for a short walk while Velvet went for breakfast with the other equestrians. I was then found by Night who wanted to explore the castle some more since he ate much earlier than the rest. He spotted me at the main castle entrance, and my first question after the morning pleasantries was the reason for his arrival. “Why’d Celestia ask you for something like this? Don’t get me wrong, my friend, I’m glad that you are here…” I told Velvet that I would be here so she could find me after her meal. “But I'm an unexpected arrival, I get it,” He finished my sentence instead of me, and I nodded in agreement. “Honestly, not sure. I’m guessing that she only brought me with her so I could see my friend again, which I'm always happy to do.” The short, companionable, silence that followed was interrupted when I turned my head to look at Night and ask him about his training only to spot an irate-looking Chrysalis approaching us from one of the side corridors. “Patchwork…” given the fair bit of distance between us, her raising her voice before even reaching me certainly made some alarm bells go off in my head, “I was told that you decided to leave-“ She made a glance at Night Light; seemingly only now noticing that he was here. Light, who fully turned to face Chrysalis, seemed to know that something was off, “I’ll be over there, Patch.” He pointed at a small alcove in a side wall where Keratin usually liked to go if he had to wait for someone near the exit. Nodding my head in confirmation, I turned and sat down, waiting for the Queen to come closer. Hopefully, whatever I did isn’t so bad. “I will not be long, Mr. Light, thank you,” The moment she got a nod of confirmation, followed by a short bow, she turned to me, frowning, and I suddenly wanted to leave. She sat down within an arm’s reach of me, making her height suddenly very noticeable. I felt like a child about to be scolded, and the silence that she let fester as her continued frown barely wavered only made the feeling worse. “Son…” She immediately paused, and her features softened, “please remember, next time, that you are a prince and that you should not let yourself be ‘convinced’ that others know better. Especially regarding the security of our guests and our lings.” “This is about the Abyssinian security, isn’t it?” At her nod, I continued, “I assumed (‘wrongly, apparently’) that it’s more of a cultural issue,” not knowing what else to do with myself, I shrugged. “I assumed the same but have ordered the situation be remedied regardless. The changeling guards are there for more than just security, you know that. “Interestingly enough, Princess Celestia told me later that, while trustworthy and honourable, the Abyssinians tend to try their best to ‘maintain’ their ways when visiting other countries. I’m guessing they worry about what the scary changelings would do to them here though,” she muttered that last part mostly to herself. “Well… that explains that I suppose,” this time I frowned as I looked down. “I would still prefer you stay more vigilant;” She continued, “I know that you wish to spend some time with your marefriend and have a family life, but please keep in mind that even then, you have a title and responsibilities that will follow you.” “Yes ma’am, I’ll be sure to remember it,” Smiling at me, she ran a gentle claw down the side of my face. “Please do,” she pulled her arm back, “I’ll leave you two colts to continue catching up. And… Patch, I’m again sorry that you have to take part in the duel, nonetheless. I’ll make sure that you don’t have to deal with the results of my failures anymore.” “Just don’t get yourself in new troubles in the process, ye?” Smirking at me, she shook her head and left. “Well, seems that if you can’t find trouble, you make it,” Night Light's voice came from my right and I did the only sensible thing by lightly shoving him. He took it in stride, and I only lightly flinched when he tried to push me. Noon would be soon upon us, and I wished to relax as much as possible before that. … The meeting between all of us will be held early in the evening, to give the Minotaur king some time to recover from the duel we were heading to. I would not be taking part in the meeting directly, but I would be there in an advisory position to Chrysalis as she manages her best. We reasoned that she, more so than myself, needs to convince the others that our kind is trustworthy. Especially since I will, hopefully, spend most of my time in Equestria; at least until Velvet and I have our fill or… she passes away, which is something I’d rather not think about yet. Now though… Walking through the castle corridors, we (Chrysalis, the representatives, some of their entourage, and myself)  are heading to an area behind the castle that has been completely cleared for the duel between me and Truehorn. It isn’t far, and it was cleared by a group of lings and overseen by one of the Minotaur king’s people. Walking next to me (on my right), his heavily armoured hoof steps making the ground under me tremble, is King Spirit. In front of us is Chrysalis, with the rest of the representatives (serving as witnesses) following behind us. Thus far, the only way I could describe Truehorn’s golden armour is: titanic; making the already large Minotaur look mountainous. Reminding me eerily of a medieval version of a Space Marine armour, the whole setup looked far too simple for a King and at the same time there was enough detail to show that it is, indeed, something no ordinary citizen (or soldier) could acquire. Because of the large, rounded shoulder armour (that reached almost to his elbows, very much like a Space Marine), I couldn’t see his helm presently, but when I saw it the first time, it looked like a thick bull-skull (with holes on the side to allow horns to slip through), and three small extensions above the ‘brow’ that looked like a crown. The shoulder armour, while just as massive as the one on the Astartes, still had its differences, with the top of the plates having indentations that would allow for the king to raise his arms without the armour hitting his horns or head… but not by much. He certainly wouldn’t be able to scratch his back. Aside from its size, and blue coloured strips on the bottom edges of the armour, there was no decoration on the shoulder plates. The only two things that I managed to spot are a blue image of a glyph in the shape of the letter ‘Y’ on the right shoulder and an image of a blue heavy maul on his left shoulder. The solid chest piece, while slightly more intricate, still looked fairly plain and extended forward in a smooth curve covering his entire chest and most of his abdomen with several smaller, interlocking, plates underneath it protecting the rest of his stomach and ribs but allowing enough give for the wearer to bend. Hopefully, there is something underneath that armour, because if one of those plates broke… ‘Now there is an additional strategy I can employ.’ The only addition to the plate is a relief of two golden, small (naked?) Minotaurs in a heated battle, crossing their twohanded swords in front of them and standing sideways placed at the very centre of the chest plate, right between the shoulder plates. Other than a pristine blue loincloth, the rest of the armour seemed to be solid segments protecting his forearms, thighs, shins (With two segmented flats that protected the very front of his hooves), and with two armoured gloves. Between the plates, I could just barely see glimpses of chain mail links, so I'm guessing the entirety of his body under the armour is covered in the stuff. The very last two, and most interesting things, are a quiet hum following his every step as well as a strange, bumpy texture of his armour. Tilting my head so that I could examine the armour but still see where I was going, I tried to see in better detail while pushing as much magic into my eyes without causing pain. What I managed to discern worried me greatly, as the entirety of his armour was covered in minuscule etchings of runes/glyphs. Not a single piece of metal was spared, not even the Minotaur decorations on the chest plate. Straightening myself back up, I tried to get a better sense of the surrounding magic only to immediately stop what I was doing. The amount of magic in that armour would probably be enough to shrug off anything Celestia could throw at it, barring being dipped into the sun itself. Why he would bring something this valuable and powerful for a simple duel is beyond me. ‘Such a waste of materials. No cape though… Can’t exploit that bit of weakness, eh, Edna?’ I wanted to look behind me at the large Minotaur guard (the same one that was guarding the door to the king’s room) that carried a massive, two-handed battle hammer wrapped in a blue cloth. Same as his armour, the hammer simply radiated magic. I knew Celestia felt it as well because last I saw her eyes kept darting towards it. I was just glad he would only use the hammer and not everything else I was told he could. Finally leaving the castle ground, the open sky greeted us, and from what little I’d seen it was noon. “Can’t believe I’m doing this,” I sigh, mostly to myself. A deep rumble made me tilt my ears to the right. “Even in my kingdom these kinds of duels are rare, I admit,” The king grumbled, making me frown. “Then why are we doing this? Seems like needless violence.” “Somecreature needs to take responsibility-“ He started explaining, but I interrupted… feeling rather heated. “Shouldn’t that someone be Husk?” I tried to keep my emotions in check, but I still couldn’t contain a small growl that escaped me. “A creature that you have handed to Celestia, who she then locked away in her vault?” I felt his emotions start rolling, and some of his deep storm of anger started bubbling up, “The same being that no creature knows anything about? For all everycreature knows, your Queen is the very same one that got all her bells rang until she saw reason and gave up one name for the other.” After a short silence, he took a deep breath and continued, “The political situation we found ourselves in is far more complicated than you understand. This duel is quite literally the simplest, and fastest way for our laws, the Minotaur laws, to be upheld, and that some justice can be served. My people will accept it. As for Husk… I can assure you; she will get hers.” I let his words sink in, feeling a sudden urge to ask all sorts of questions and get some insight into what was happening behind the scenes, but I kept it to myself. There was one question that I needed to give voice to. “That is you, then… what about others?” Twitching my head slightly to the side, I tried to indicate the people behind us without being too obvious. He seems to have understood or is merely guessing. “The ponies have Celestia, and she is too much of an optimist far as I’m concerned, the equestrians will follow her. The other though? That is up to Chrysalis and how she plays her cards. You will have to forgive me, but I do not care what they decided upon.” The silence that followed felt heavy, and as his words bounced around my head without stopping, I started to feel my anger bubble up along with a decent helping of helplessness. All the games, stories, and movies I watched made the whole job of being a hero look so easy; go in, beat the bad guy, fix the city and that’s it. This was worse than going through my first job, where I had to prove to both others and myself that all the education I got, along with goodwill, wasn’t misplaced. Except now, there was so much more to it, and I had no idea how much more was even involved. Fixing a city (basically the only thing I was doing the majority of the time, along with paperwork) made me now feel like a child playing with blocks while my parents did taxes. Shaking my head to dislodge as much as I could, I decided to lean on a tried-and-true method of taking things as they come. I’m here, that’s it. “We are here, everyone,” Chrysalis announced and I suddenly felt every nerve in my body light up in anxiousness making me feel like running. With Husk, there were plenty of nerves, but now I managed to thoroughly work myself up into an anxious mess. It also didn’t help that I was, essentially, forced into this duel to improve our relations with Minotaurs, even if the reasons seemed sound. “If you would step with me, Prince Patchwork,” King Spirit spoke up and I followed him with my eyes, only taking a step when I was certain where he was headed. The area that was cleared for the duel became an open field of dirt and cracked ground, that I couldn’t even guess the size of. From one end of the field to the other, or from the first rock I saw to the closest opposite one, I’m guessing that it could at least fit a football field. I have no idea why such a large space was necessary, but if nothing else, I have plenty of material that I can use if the living resin in my stomach ends up lacking. Following Spirit until about the centre of our arena, I sat down when he stopped and tried to settle my nerves. There were about three meters between us, which gave me some measure of time to react to him. Turning around to face me, the armoured bull lifted his right arm to his neck, and with two sharp clicks, I assumed the helmet was set free as he gently lifted it off his head and held it under his right arm. Twisting around halfway to his left, he extended his left arm behind him, and only then did I notice the bull guard that stood behind him. It took only a moment for his guard to unwrap the blue cloth, releasing the hammer from its binds. The massive, golden war hammer was a sight to behold. Looking like something that actually came out of a video game, the handle was something that my eyes immediately went to, telling me that there was a considerable advantage in length that I would have to deal with. With a glossy finish, the brown, wooden handle was, by my guess, at least a meter and a half long, maybe even longer, ending in a small golden sphere the size of a tennis ball with a ring of the same colour keeping it attached to the handle. Along the rest of the shaft, at four separate places, are thin strips of golden metal, spaced out evenly and from what I was able to see, each of the strips had a line of runes. Unlike the pristine, unblemished handle and its attachments, the head of the hammer showed clear signs of use. With smears, scratches, cuts, and grooves, but no chips or cracks. The golden hammerhead, clearly made of metal, had a flat, unadorned, backside, and a front embellished with something that looked like a furious minotaur head, with horns curving along the side just barely touching the end. The eyes of the hammerhead, however, were something that drew my attention next, as they shone with blue light that looked like it was coming out from inside the hammer itself serving as further proof of the magic within it. I couldn’t even see if there was anything inlaid within the eyes from the glow. A sharp, metal snap, followed by another got my attention and I had to stop distracting myself with, admittedly, fantastic-looking gear. If this were a game, Spirit would definitely have end-game gear. “Before we begin,” he rotated his hammer, placing it down on its head, “I need to explain the rules of the duel. “The duel will follow several rules; number one,” he raised one finger, “we fight until one of us gives up, loses consciousness or one hour is up…” ‘One fucking hour!’ I felt my eye ridges hike up in surprise. “Number two,” he continued, “we use whatever means necessary, whatever strengths we have to fight to our fullest. And lastly, number three, we shall not maim or attempt to take the other’s life.” Raising my right claw like a schoolboy I waited until he nodded his head but with a raised eyebrow. He couldn’t hide a small smirk though, and I did not need to sense his emotion to guess his amusement. “What if there is an accident?” I asked only to flinch when his anger surged. “I suggest you do not make an ‘accident’.” He rumbled like a thundercloud, his voice loud like a thundercrack without raising it. ‘Point taken.’ “Now, lastly, since you did not do so before, do you wish to challenge any of the points written in your summons?” He continued, more calmly. Surprised at his question, I chewed through my thoughts for a moment, “Not… really? Should I?” Raising both his eyebrows in surprise, he nodded his head, “Yes, you technically should. By tradition in our country, every summons will have at least one point that will allow for the challenged party to, well, challenge said point. It usually amounts to nothing, the duel will still go on, but sometimes (in very rare occasions mind you), the challenged points, even a minor one, can stop the duel altogether.” “So can I-?” I started, some measure of hope rising, only to be cut off by an angry snort and another flare of anger. “No!” Deftly snapping the helmet back on his head he hefted the large hammer (the hammerhead was larger than my head) and pointed it at me, “You may challenge a point, but this duel WILL go through. If for no other reason, but as punishment for not doing something about your wretched ruler earlier.” It took a second for me to realise what he meant by it, ‘Oh fuck! He doesn’t know… Celestia never told him!’ “Fine then…” Standing up and widening my stance I readied myself, “Nothing I say will change anything then anyway.” “Very well.” Switching up so that the hammer is held in both hands parallel to him, he relaxed his arms, “Begin when ready.” I suddenly found myself unable to move. Not because of a spell of any kind, but because (even with my perfect memory), I simply couldn’t remember any tips that I was given. Far as my brain is concerned, I was suddenly thrown in front of a massive minotaur warrior and I had to fight him. I lifted my left claw to steady myself better and I may as well have fired a starting gun because Spirit grunted and sprinted towards me. My only other warning was the hum of his armour getting closer, the three meters being crossed in less than a blink, and my instincts screamed at me to duck. Obeying, I lowered my head and bent in the knees which allowed me to just barely feel the breeze when his hammer ‘whooshed’ above me. I wanted to jump back and get some semblance of plan or readiness, but I had just enough time to see him twirl around, and by the time I lifted myself from my prone position his left leg exploded kicking me in the chest with enough force to lift me off my legs. Flipping backwards I opened my wings and quickly glanced at my chest, but other than a dull throb I found no visible damage. The distance I got from his kick and my short glide gave me about a second to shake my head and focus on what was happening which also served to jostle the marbles in my head. By the time Spirit reached me, I was halfway through my transformation which means that his hammer felt like a mosquito bite when he hit the massive moose-like antlers of a Banbaro. I unfortunately haven’t had a lot of time to play Monster Hunter, but this was one of the few monsters that stayed in my head as the coolest looking. Shoving the hammer to the side with the flick of my head, I swept my large horns from left to right, striking the minotaur king with its flat side and launching him backwards. Feeling myself getting back into the right mental state I immediately started sprinting on my powerful legs towards my opponent. The heavy fur certainly made the Badlands noon sun feel like a furnace, but it would do for a few moments. By the time I reached him the king was already on his legs and hopping to his left. The new position left my right side exposed and I had to think fast. Using the gained momentum I transformed myself into a falcon and I banked hard to the left, making him completely miss by a wide margin and allowing me a few precious seconds to gain some distance and land transforming into myself and facing my recovering enemy. Quickly checking my resin levels (as I have used a large chunk of it for Banbaro), I settled my nerves when I re-re-reconfirmed the magical properties of the living resin I made. Spirit roared, clearly displeased, “Is this your best?”, his emotions showed a clear and slow rise of the buried fury he had a tight leash on. “In my defence, I was busy for a couple of months,” I joked while starting to slowly move to my right, circling him. I had a good ten meters between us, no way he would manage to catch me by surprise again. “Excuses!” He spat out, “A warrior should always keep his skills sharp.” “What’s the point of fighting for the people if I were to abandon them for ‘practice’!” I shouted back, before dashing forward at him, full tilt. The triceratops transformation served me well in the past and I hoped that now it would do the same, and it didn’t take me long before changed and pounded dirt while aiming my right horn at him. “Again, excuses and mindset of a calf!” Unphased by the rush of another massive creature, Truehorn charged me as well, which surprised me enough not to be able to react to the incoming hammer swing from the left and I braced for impact. Surprising me again, Spirit twisted his hammer mid-swing, going from a hook to an uppercut with the force of the impact hitting me like a freight train and I felt my forelegs being lifted of the ground cleanly stopping me in my tracks. Gritting through the pain I forced myself to twist to the right before I landed, allowing for my tail (which I quickly changed into that of an ankylosaur) to score a good hit with a wide swing. Hearing him grunt in pain, and still feeling the slight numbness in my jaw, I continued twisting and going through the motions with a plan to chase him down, but I had to make a quick transition into a smaller transformation of a nimble tiger, followed by a dive to the left when he swung his hammer at me. I did not expect him to recover this quickly, but with his hammer missing me I suddenly found myself in a nice position for an attack and I decided to make the most of it. Trying not to think too much about the rules of the engagement, I transformed while swinging my right tiger paw. The Pokémon Hitmonchan, with the right modifications, could throw a straight punch that can go through rocks (tested and approved by myself) so a good overhand punch from a crouch, aimed at the thinner metal of his abdomen, got Spirit to double over and wheeze out, but I had to immediately jump away from a feeble, still dangerous, one-handed swing with his hammer. Not giving him much time to recover, I jumped forward again while transforming into a Hell Knight and I started raining blow after blow while pushing some extra magic into my fists and spiking them for more damage. Trying to defend himself with one arm proved futile and I saw him drop his hammer, but boxing was something I had experience in, along with the bipedal movement. With no throne that I had to focus on, and no people that I needed to protect I let myself cut loose full and I started shoving as much magic and resin I could into reinforcing my punches and soon enough I went from grunting to roaring. The ringing of metal being struck drowned almost any other noise, and the dents started showing, even if my fists hurt from hitting the armour. Pushing the bull king down with my larger bulk I started tearing at the right shoulder pad, twisting it, and pulling it until it hung loosely from his back. Taking a second to catch my breath gave the king all the time to move away from me and pick up his hammer. I then watched in completely stunned silence as his armour first rippled and then started fixing itself. “You-“ he panted and I continued staring at his healing armour, “you still have much… much to learn… calf. You had your victory… now… Yet you decided to stop,” twisting his head around as much as his helmet allowed him, he fixed me with a furious stare. I noticed with some trepidation that his eyes started glowing blue, “I will not give you the same chance a second time!” I had a brief moment to remember that minotaurs tend to grow stronger with adrenaline much like humans, before his armour started glowing the same blue light as his eyes shone brightly and an enraged roar shook the ground around me. Hearing a shout of surprise from the onlookers got me to move and I just barely managed to dodge a diagonal swipe from the right that came much faster than expected. Transforming back into myself I did my best to keep my distance, but his hammer may as well be weighing nothing with the speed he kept swinging. There was barely any wasted movement though, the strikes flowing from one attack to another and retreating soon proved the only option. Jumping to the air when one of his attacks missed, I opened my elytra and buzzed backwards as fast as I could getting a good ten-meter distance between us. Only then did I notice that several places of my body felt bruised like I wasn’t able to avoid most of the swings. Since underestimating my opponents seemed to be a usual thing, I was, once again, shocked when Spirit aimed his hammer at me in the same way one would a Gatling gun in movies, and a crack of lightning knocked me out of the sky. The ‘hit’ itself didn’t hurt, but it may as well have fried every nerve in my body, making me spasm and flail when I landed for a good few seconds. With clenched teeth, I couldn’t shout in pain, but I sure as Tartarus could growl. I was also getting pissed. “I suggest you start taking this seriously, calf,” he admonished me as I tried to get my feet under me again. “I am giving you this one singular warning out of, the surprising respect and hospitality, that you and Chrysalis have thus far shown us. But I will not have my duty, status, and strength, be mocked like this over some misplaced feelings of guilt or responsibility,” I managed to get some control of my limbs and turning my head I saw him point his hammer at me while holding it only with his left hand. The glow around him persisted, “This is a shameful showing of one who has bested an ascendant. Show me the warrior who marched to his death for the sake of his people!” “Fine,” I muttered while spitting out some saliva mixed with green blood. ‘Yeah… no more kids gloves. I’m sorry Velvet, sorry, Night Light…’ Thanks to the living resin my magic reserves were still plentiful, even with all the buffing I did. I can do this. Still a bit shaky I managed to stand up relatively steady, and with a nod (mostly for myself) I started stripping away whatever mental barriers I placed on myself. I couldn’t take long though, not only was I in the middle of a duel, but I doubted that Truehorn would just let me get the lot off of my mind. ‘Time to see if using the whole living resin ruins it.’ Straightening I physically shook myself, to limber up and nodded at Spirit, wasting only a couple of seconds. He didn’t immediately acknowledge it, but he did crouch down slightly hefting the hammer and readying himself. Unfortunately for him, I wasn’t messing around anymore. Anjanath, another powerful monster from Monster Hunter that stayed in my head due to its interesting look was one of the very few creatures outside of the dragon that I could make my plan work due to its large bulk. If I remember, this creature could reach over four meters in height and with my abilities and training I can push that even further. With a massive flash of fire, I used almost all of the resin in my stomach but I managed to get Spirit to flinch when he looked at me. The shouts of surprise coming from the sidelines also didn’t go unnoticed. By my estimate, now six meters tall, the vulture-looking t-rex (slight difference in the form of a longer snout, a nasal crest and two dorsal fins that would expand when agitated and covered with quill-like fur up to his bald head, I stomped my legs, extended my frills, and roared at the top of my lungs as I pushed my magic in the monster’s throat. Spirit had about two seconds to move, and he did, dashing at me when he got himself under control, but I was ready. Normally, Anjanath can spit fire, but with the large, unfurled sails on my back and my modifications I can safely do something much better: fire an equivalent of a fire beam. I was improvising mostly, so when I fired (practically deafening myself with depressurisation), and Spirit tried to dodge I was completely surprised when I hit the bulky left shoulder armour, piercing it at the point of impact and throwing the bull off his course. Completely tearing the lower part of the armour, near the elbow, the beam continued, piercing, and blasting through several rocks behind the minotaur king and I had to shut it off when my head started veering upwards from the recoil. Still focused on the fight (and seeing that Spirit was getting back to his hooves), I quickly changed back to myself (and the resin level returned as well) and, using the form of a cheetah I sprinted at him, using even more magic to enhance even that speed. Since I reached melee range in less than a second I had just enough time to shapeshift again into Hellboy (albeit naked), since his stature and a larger right hand allowed me to be both nimble and strike in close range without causing severe damage (‘I’ll consider my earlier miss a lucky accident’). Dodging a flimsy hammer thrust by twisting my body to the right, I put myself in the best position to fully drive my right, enhanced, stone fist into his chest. I had to twist the punch a bit to not get stuck around the haft of the hammer, but the strike did land cracking his armour and launching him backwards. I wasn’t able to get unscathed though, as Spirit grunted, pulling his left arm back and managing to catch my right shoulder with his weapon, which made me tumble forward, but with a quick flash, I turned into myself and rolled with the fall. Wanting to continue with my advantage, I pounced at the king the moment I got my legs under me, shapeshifting into a Tyranid warrior with a blade fused to my right arm which I swung downwards. I aimed at the handle of Truehorn’s hammer hoping to get an important advantage but he surprised me yet again. I had just enough time to register his twisting of the middle golden strip on the handle and a thick, blue aura surrounded him hugging his armour like a second skin. Not knowing what it was, and assuming that it was a shield of sort, I tried to slow my blade down but I still hit it hard enough to crack the sword. It made my teeth itch as the blade was still a part of me, even if there was almost no actual part of me in it. Capitalising on my moment of weakness, Spirit twisted the strip again, shutting the field off, and thrust his hammer forward, shoving me and making me stumble. I had just enough time to flash into myself and put up a shield around me when a follow-up heavy hammer swing hit me from my left, breaking my shield and launching me to the side. Bouncing twice off the ground and skidding to a halt, I tried to ignore the ache in my side and the throb of pain in my horn but the distance I gained from his attack gave me time to shakily stand up and see a bulldozer sprinting towards me. His ruined shoulder armour protested the whole way with loud metallic squeaks. ‘His armour didn’t heal…’ Feeling several cracks on my plate I considered using my magic to fix it, but the drain would be too severe and I needed everything I had. ‘But the resin… I can’t…’ Perhaps foolishly I ended up using my magic to fix the damage, draining my reserves. Trying to stand up I wobbled slightly, which proved to be a blessing in disguise as my slight swaying allowed me to dodge a wide diagonal, upward swing that Spirit aimed at my left weakened side. However, even though he fully exposed his right side to me, if I didn’t do something all he had to do was pull the hammer down and crush me, which didn’t give me too much time. Focusing I ignited my horn and teleported forward a couple of meters forward and up, allowing me to catch myself with my wings. I didn’t want to telefrag myself into the ground on accident. The crash that sounded off behind me made me flinch and turn around and by the time he pulled his hammer out of the ground, I was already transforming into one of my two trump cards: the Swarmlord… with no visible reaction from the king. Velvet’s scream of fear when she spotted me did tear at my soul though, but I had to focus, even if my heart was no longer in this battle. It only made me angrier though. ‘Fucking didn’t want any of this! Again!’ I needed to stun the king before I did anything though, and the magically amplified scream seemed like an obvious choice since I did not know if his armour could withstand my lightning, and getting close would put me at risk in my weakened state. Taking a deep lungful of air, I laced my entire throat and lungs with magic and let it all loose. I forgot to protect my ears though so I made my ears ring as well. Truehorn tried to shield himself again, but the amplified scream tore through the air, cracking the ground and easily ripping the shielding skin off of him and making the bull king fall to his knees, shouting in pain. It also seemed to have done something to the runes on the armour as well, as the whole thing started glitching and sparking like it was running on electricity. The shouts of shock and surprise from the sidelines got me to turn my head, to quickly glance at them, but since I didn’t see anything that required my attention (other than making me feel like a villain) I took a few steps forward to cut down his hammer to size and end this duel. I must have also done more damage to the armour than I thought as pieces started to fall off at the weaker areas around the abdomen. The left damaged shoulder plate also completely detached and slid off showing that it was held on with nothing but magic. Apparently, the fire beam did more than just damage it. King Truehorn must have been pissed though as, with a bloodcurdling roar, he stood up and charged me. I managed to notice that his eyes weren’t just glowing but were blazing with power, and his weakened armour started glowing as well. I did manage to dodge his first swing, and he dodged my swings with my two left arms to the right aimed at his axe again, but he hit me on his second attempt. Hard! The overhead swing that came from his left crashed into my left shoulder, breaking it, making me shout in pain and driving me to the ground. I didn’t even have the time to register the fall properly when another golf swing hit my side and actually lifted my whole bulk off the ground. The pain made it hard to focus, and I had no idea where I was since the world was spinning. But my head became crystal clear when I landed on the ground right on the broken shoulder. I wanted to scream from the pain, but I only managed to grunt and grit my teeth, completely livid. “Surrender!” The howl of fury made my eyes snap to the enraged king, but other than another grunt of pain I said nothing. I could be just as stubborn as he is, and the word ‘surrender’ sounded like the worst kind of offence. ‘I didn’t want to fucking do this in the FIRST fucking place!’ Screaming in my head I changed back into myself, using a lot of magic and living resin to fix the damage of the deeper tissue in the shoulder. “Fuck you!” I shouted back at him, lying on my side. It came out hoarse which made me wonder if I missed something during the last minute. “Fury is a good motivator, calf, but it will not win you this battle. YIELD!” He roared jabbing the hammer in my direction. He was panting heavily, eyes glowing, but still rearing to go. “I said FUCK! YOU!” Seeing red I started standing up and I could hear some shouts from the back, but it was just white noise at this point. Absorbing the entirety of the resin and pushing my magic to my absolute limit, I saturated the area around me. I couldn’t kill him, I wasn’t that far gone, but I’d at least break that hammer and a few bones. I didn’t want any fancy transformation, just myself, so when the fire erupted around me I may as well have been shoved in a tunnel from rage.   Celestia “…FUCK YOU!” Patch roared and I pinned my ears back. He sounded so desperate. I had to extend my wing to stop Shield from forcing herself onto the battlefield as it would cause us more trouble than necessary for the changelings. Though rare, duels like this were still held in high regard and interfering in them carries political ramifications that can easily reach the throne. “I want to be there as much as you Strike, but Spirit-” “Do I look like I bucking care!?” She growled, interrupting me, and shoving my wing back roughly, but with still enough care not to hurt it. She took a step forward, but a large shadow stepped in front of us in the form of a minotaur guard. “Outta my way!” “You will not interfere, Captain,” The surprisingly soft voice from the bull got Shield to stop for a moment but that was about it. Her eyes started glowing and she craned her head to look him in the eyes before she growled. “I’m telling you only once Iron; out. Of. MY. WAY!” Interposing myself between my wife and the bull I was about to try to calm her down more directly but I started to feel… something. I could feel magic stir behind me in Patchwork’s direction. Deep, powerful magic that he had no way of reaching normally. Magic, that felt strangely familiar. “Celestia…” The panicked whisper from Queen Chrysalis got me to turn around just in time to see a massive column of fire erupt from Patch. The fire wasn’t blue, but golden and green… a strange combination of colours that revealed a monstrosity in its place once it dispersed. Feeling a strange pull from my magic reserves I instantly knew what happened, ‘The old piece of my core! I thought there was no connection!’ I was transfixed by the creature Patchwork became, that I did not care about my magic. Not as tall as some of the other horrors that he used he still towered over Spirit, but the changes in his physical form more than made up for it. His sleek armoured plates turned into thick, heavy-looking plates, which reminded me of his old ‘patchy’ form, with the plates themselves looking coarse and scaly. There were ridges here and there, almost like whatever he wanted to create couldn’t manifest properly. If someone got caught up in those it would hurt. The elytra also got some changes, closing off completely and becoming a singular protective shield that reached his dock, covering it slightly. It just barely allowed his tail to furiously lash around. There wasn’t much change to his hind legs, but his arms were certainly bigger, easily reaching the width of tree trunks. His claws though… I watched on multiple occasions as those claws tenderly combed through Twilight Velvet’s mane, or even my own on occasion. Poking at balloons and bubbles if he spotted some in the street without popping them… The long, serrated blades he created now would not be able to handle anything with any level of tenderness and care. I could see them twitch and curl in the large hole he made, easily leaving gashes in the cracked, dry dirt. I’m convinced, just by looking, that any creature within his grasp would simply fall apart in mangled pieces. Lastly, I couldn’t see his face since he was facing away from us, and the long, tangled mess that became his mane covered it entirely. But based on the growling that came from it, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to see his face either, which only made me feel bad. A glance at Velvet’s face showed only abject horror and Night Light did not do any better, even if his face looked stoic. The hackles on his neck were visibly raised and his tail was firmly pinned under him. Suddenly a roar shook the air around us and I turned to watch as Patch charged his opponent.   Patchwork I noticed that even after the transformation my magic still saturated the surrounding area, and even though I felt drained I was still pulling magic from somewhere. Did not care much though. Flexing to settle into the transformation and using the time of stupefied silence to get a feel for the improved limbs I considered for a moment that this transformation shocked them more than anything I’ve shown them in this duel. Still furious, but starting to feel faint, I scraped the bottom of my mana pool and roared my challenge, shaking the king out of his stunned stupor. And then I pounced. Either I was slow, or he moved faster than I did, either case I missed, crashing into the ground when my legs gave out, and I had to scramble to stand before he attacked me. I wasn’t fast enough though. I was halfway up when I spotted a hammer head coming at me from my right but I was starting to feel too dizzy to move fast enough. I did manage to flick my head to the left side when the hammer struck my right cheek reducing the damage slightly. The cheek plate did crack though, but the pain from it allowed me to shake off the dizziness long enough to take a swipe at the bull king, hitting and launching him backwards, and finally making him drop the hammer, along with several plates of metal that looked like it belonged to gloves. Grumbling to myself, I slowly stood up, still feeling rather angry. It did cross my mind for a moment that I foolishly let myself get angry enough to drain myself. Surrender was an option… Sitting, I put my new, heavy, and unnecessarily dangerous claws on the hammer, and looked around for Spirit. His helmet was off, and his eyes were wide; he was also shouting something at me. Snorting, I pressed down on the hammer and pulled on anything that was left in my magic tank to destroy it. I saw some electricity arc around my snout when a crack reached my ears.   Chrysalis I sprinted as fast as I could to stop Patch before he severely hurt himself. Draining magic from both myself and Celestia wasn’t much of a problem until his draining reached depths that I, nor apparently her, liked to use. Celestia easily kept the pace right next to me when the hammer cracked sending a blue shockwave in all directions. Opening my wings and jumping I tried to brace myself, but a golden shield sprung in front of us that barely absorbed the impact. I reinforced the shield using my magic before it fully cracked and I quickly glanced backwards to make sure everyone was safe. “Oh, my goodness…” Celestia’s shocked whisper got me to immediately snap my head and look in Patch’s direction. He was lying on his side, and in his normal shape, but the area around him… about twenty barrels and up to our shield was grass. Blue… green… turquoise grass. It wasn’t tall, nor did it cover the whole area, with brown patches here and there, but when I landed it felt like the same grass that I ran through yesterday. “It’s his magic,” Celestia whispered, her shield flickering out. I quickly made my way to Patch after turning my shield off. I can figure out how he did this grass thing later. I also noticed Truehorn running towards my son and worry settled in my stomach that he might attack him, making me hurry. Reaching him before myself I saw the bull completely ignore his shattered hammer, lift my son’s head, and put it next to his ear, gently put it down after a second of listening, and then placing his massive head on my son’s barrel. He had to twist his head and ear around so he didn’t hurt Patch with his horns. “He’s breathing,” He spoke up when I ground to a halt next to them. Letting out a breath I didn’t know I held I heard him continue, “I cannot tell much else, but I hear a heartbeat, so I'm guessing he’s alright. Igniting my horn I checked on his core and by the time Celestia joined us, I confirmed that it was undamaged. “He’s alright?” The pony princess asked and I nodded. “The idiot is probably completely drained,” I groused, still relieved though, “but he’s alive.” I saw and felt the relief wash over Celestia, but another more interesting feeling of excitement and joy came from the bull king making me raise an eye ridge in his direction. He was still kneeling in front of Patch so he probably didn’t see it. I did notice that his hands were shaking though. I also noticed the shattered remains of the hammer not far from us. “I apologise for the destruction of your relic-“ “Nonsense,” He immediately snorted, interrupting me. He rose when a golden glow covered Patch, lifting him and depositing him on Celestia's back. “I can see the Hearth gem is still intact, the rest can be easily reforged. Besides,” he let out a booming laugh, “I enjoyed myself immensely in this duel. A challenge like this is hard to come by nowadays!” Shaking my head in wonder, I looked around one more time. Celestia was already on her way back to the castle (I could see young Velvet gallop towards her), and King Spirit dug out the bright, blue gem from the hammer remains while that guard of his collected the remains into the cloth the hammer was wrapped in. A quick scan of the area confirmed that the magic still saturating it was Patch’s, but I had no idea what to do about it. I’ll have to ask a few of my lings to look into it.