“Alright, I’ll be back in probably a few days.” I told Celestia and Luna as I prepared to leave.
“I still don’t understand why you’re leaving.” Luna said.
“Is this because I beat you yesterday?” Celestia asked.
“Kind of. Well bye.” I went out the door before becoming a dragon and flying off.
There it is. I walked to the two large horns sticking out of the ground.
So what are you planning to do?
This monument holds a large amount of Bolas’ magic. Maybe I can make use of it.
This doesn’t seem like a good idea.
Nonsense.
Who said that?
Nothing bad can come from ambition and the pursuit of power.
What are you talking about?
You seek power. This will give you it. Just get to the gem and you will be ready.
Don’t do it.
Silence.
Meh, it can’t hurt to try it. I walked to the horns and climbed them until I reached the gem floating between them.
Now simply touch and drain.
Don’t.
I reached out and touched the gem. Then I tried to drain the magic. Suddenly there was a large surge of pain. I screamed before falling off the horns. I blacked out before I hit the ground.
“Ugh.” I opened my eyes, I got up and looked around. I was in some kind of arena. It was large and reminded me of a coliseum, though it was like some kind of island in empty darkness, I was able to see through one of the holes in a wall, the place looked like it was crumbling. Near the top there were two large curved horns. “Where am I?”
Bob?
“You’re little friend will not be present for a while.” I heard a voice. Then two glowing green eyes appeared above me. They weren’t attached to anything.
“What did you do with Bob?” I glared at the eyes.
“Not much. I just don’t want him ruining the tournament.”
“Tournament?”
“Yes. You shall participate in a tournament. Should you prove yourself to be a duelist of measure I shall give you what you seek.”
“Fine, I’ll play along. So what is this tournament?”
“Here is your first opponent.” I heard a door open. I looked in front of me in time to see a large minotaur with a sword walk into the arena.
“So this is just a fight? Easy enough.”
“Don’t get too confident. I’ve made it more interesting by suppressing your healing factor.”
“What!? How?”
“That is for me to know.” The eyes faded out of sight. “I’d recommend you look out.”
“What?” Then a large sword flew past my face. I jumped back as the minotaur recovered from the swing. "Alright, if beating you is the only way to get what I came here for I will get this out of the way.” The minotaur didn’t say anything. All it did was growl and charge at me. I jumped over it, as it ran by I shot a fire ball at it. The minotaur roared in pain as he was slammed in the back. He fell to the ground dead with a large burn that went through most of his skin. “That’s it?”
“I see, you’re the test tube child.” The voice spoke again.
“How do you know about that?”
“Prepare yourself boy. There are many more foes for you to face.”
“Are we done yet?” I asked as the hydra fell backwards dead. “I’ve already fought a minotaur, griffin, cockatrice, ursa major and minor, and now a hydra. What is left to throw at me?”
“Soon. We are entering the final stretch.” The detached voice said.
“Fine, bring on the next.” I stretched. Whoever this guy was had the decency to let my healing activate between fights. I heard the voice laugh.
“Very well.” Then I heard a roar. I looked above me to see a dragon flying down towards me. I jumped back as it slammed into the ground where I had been standing. I watched as two red eyes glowed through the dust and there was a growl. As the dust cleared more two black wings became visible, slowly the entire dragon became visible.
The dragon was black, it was probably forty feet long, and the dragon stood on four legs though the front two looked like they could function like simple hands. The body was somewhat segmented looking, with a body that seemed pretty solid. The wings were strange, they didn’t look like they would actually be able to fold, and there were no joints anywhere along them. The head was somewhat round, the mouth like the wings looked like it couldn’t close entirely so the mouth was slightly open showing off several pointed teeth, two horn-like shapes came out of the sides of its head, the red eyes watched me as the tail slightly moved from side to side.
“Crosis? You’re pitting me against a god?” I looked to the sky. “That seems fair.” Then the eyes appeared.
“Giving up? I will be honest, I expected more.”
“I’m not quitting, I meant it doesn’t seem fair for Crosis. Only one god?”
“Interesting. Very well.” The eyes faded. “Attack.” I looked back as Crosis roared and lunged at me. I jumped over him and landed behind him.
“Ok, what do I know about Crosis?” I ducked as Crosis shot a blast of fire. “Ok, he can use all the same breaths as me, he’s fast, aggressive.” I rolled as he pounced at me. “What am I forgetting?” Crosis then managed to hit me as he rammed into me. I went flying, I was able to turn my hands into dragon heads and shoot fire to avoid hitting the wall before growing wings and flying into the air. I looked below me to see Crosis opening his mouth wider. “Oh Bolas. The word of death.” I then made my ears disappear as Crosis let out his death roar. When he saw I was still alive he jumped off the ground getting momentum and flying at me. He was surprisingly fast managing to hit me before I could react. As I went flying into the air I turned and shot a breath of fire at him. He in return shot ice. The two breaths canceled each other leaving nothing but some steam. After a second Crosis came flying out of the steam right towards me. I was able to dodge this time, as he flew by I shot a breath of acid at him. It managed to hit one of his wings. Crosis didn’t seem to flinch as he quickly turned and shot fire at me. The shot was able to catch my left wing and I lost control and had to crash land into the ground. I groaned as I picked myself up, wincing as I felt some ribs were broken then Crosis swooped down and grabbed me with his front legs. We went flying higher and higher into the air, I wasn’t able to grow another wing so I was in trouble.
Think Sean. He’s going to likely drop you soon. Then I felt Crosis’s grip vanish from my arms, I watched as the ground quickly got closer and closer. Then I got an idea, I concentrated and was able to teleport, I ended up teleporting so that I ended up flying horizontally across the ground. I screamed in pain as I skidded, by the time I stopped several bones were broken and parts of my body were actually filed down. I groaned as I tried to get up, but one of my arms was broken and it hurt too much to try and move. The ground shook as Crosis landed in front of me, I looked up to see him looming over me.
Bolas, well it was a good run. Wait a minute, that death word of his requires magic. Idea! I summoned all of my strength and shot my good arm out to grab one of Crosis’s horns, then I began to drain his magic. As I felt some strength returning Crosis roared and shot up into the air with me still gripping his horn draining. To my surprise he slowly began to shrink until he completely vanished. Now that he was gone I began to fall towards the ground, I wasn’t able to react quite in time and slammed into the ground. I groaned and got up. Then I noticed there was something in my hand. I opened it to see some kind of charm. There was a large smooth blue gem almost like glass, then a short small silver cylinder came down one of the sides, at the end and on both sides of the cylinder there were round red gems resembling the blue gem but quite a bit smaller. There was a slight purple aura coming from the large blue gem.
“Cool.” I gripped the charm again before putting it in my pocket.
“Excellent work.” I looked up to see the eyes.
“Thanks, so are we done yet?”
“Only one more battle. Beat this opponent with skill and you shall get what you have come for.”
“Great, bring on the last sucker.” I clapped my hands smiling.
“You may not be so eager in a moment.” Then the door opened and I saw the silhouette of what looked like a pony.
“That’s it? A pony?” I smiled looking at the sky. “What’s the matter? Run out of monsters.”
“Not just any pony.” The voice said before laughing and becoming silent.
“What?” I looked back to my opponent. “What!?” The pony in front of me was Twilight. She had purple armor and had a scimitar with a purple handle and a star at the bottom. “What kind of joke is this?” There was no answer, then a sword flew past my face. I jumped back.
“Enough talking to the sky.” Twilight raised the sword using her magic. “Let’s fight.”
“What are you talking about? Is this guy using mind control? More importantly how did you get here?”
“I said fight.” She charged at me and swung the sword. I turned my right hand into a blade and blocked. She jumped back spinning her sword.
“What is your problem?” She jumped at me again bringing the sword down. I blocked again. “Cut it out.”
“Do you want my power or not?” Twilight’s voice had changed. Now it sounded like the other voice.
“So you’re the cause. How about you come out of the pony and we fight.”
“Where would the fun be?” Twilight laughed, her voice changing back. “Now then, let us begin.” She charged at me attempting to cut off my legs. I jumped over the blade and kicked her sending her flying back.
“Quit it!” I glared as Twilight got back up. She didn’t say anything and just threw her sword. I ducked as it flew past my head. Then she tackled me, I kicked her off jumping back up. Then I noticed that part of her leg was broken off, looking like some kind of broken off piece of clay. “Wait a minute. You’re not actually her.”
“Look who figured it out.” Twilight got back up. “Took you long enough, how would I have summoned the real one?”
“Well now that I know that, this will be easy.” I raised my blade arm. “Let’s go.”
“Very well.” She eyed me. After a second she teleported. I heard her appear behind me and kicked backwards knocking her down. I turned and gripped her by the throat raising her up. I raised my other hand. I prepared to cut her head off. But I couldn’t.
“Do it.” She said. “Kill me.”
She’s not the real one. This is a trick, I use it all the time. My hand still didn’t move.
“Shame. I would have hoped for more from a creature using my own DNA.” Then something stabbed through my stomach. I dropped Twilight, looking down I saw her sword sticking out of my stomach. I reached down and pulled the sword out.
“Wait, your DNA?” I looked at Twilight.
“So you’re weak and slow. Clearly you did not get my better qualities.” I watched as Twilight began to crack before shattering like glass. A large winged figure then appeared in front of me. I watched as it loomed over me. A small gem glowing in the light between to large curved horns.
“Nicol Bolas?”
“Good job.” The dragon said condescendingly. “I must say I’m surprised my little creations were able to create something remotely competent and stable. I expected you to be some kind of disgusting mesh of creatures as the humans attempted to preserve their sad existence.”
“What do you mean? You warned the humans to help preserve them yet you call them sad.”
“Your people were nothing more than a test of my powers. The creation of an entire race is a good way to practice. That’s all you were, some practice.”
“Then why did you help them?”
“There is no reason to ignore a race that worships you.” He laughed. “It was quite amusing seeing them scramble for my approval.”
“Alright. Well thanks.”
“For what?”
“Now that you’ve ditched Twilight’s form I can finish the tournament.”
“You dare face me?” He chuckled.
“Yeah, I’ve always wanted to do something with my father.”
“Very well, destroying you shall be my pleasure.” He spread his wings.
“Let’s go scaly.”