Wincing from the burning that the attack had left on him, Shining casted another healing spell on himself, healing his wounds and restoring his health gauge once again back to full.
"You've picked a hay of a time to challenge me, Dark," Shining told him, using his magic to remove a bracelet attached to his horn. Once he slid it off, his light-blue magical aura returned to its natural pink color. "I should be out there searching the frozen tundra with the others right now, not here fighting you."
"Well how was I suppose to know that you were the champion?" Dark returned. "You didn't show any signs of who the champion really was, and you sure as hay didn't say anything the last time we were here at the Coliseum or afterwards."
"Because I didn't want to. Now, I will tell you one more time. Either you fight me at your full power, or surrender."
Lighting his horn, Dark conjured nine Fire Orbs that began orbiting his body.
"Sorry, but that's not my call to make," Dark told him.
Snorting, Shining created a barrier around himself and began charging Dark. However, after he took a few steps, he teleported himself directly in front of Dark and used his barrier to tackle him.
As he was being pushed back on his hooves, Dark pulled his orbs inward until they began to repeatedly strike Shining's barrier. With each hit of his Fire Orbs, Dark watched as the barrier weakened. When the seventh one struck, the barrier finally cracked. Raising his battle-axe, Dark went to strike the barrier, but found himself blocked by a magical shield, hitting and destroying that instead.
Flying up into the air, Dark used his unicorn magic to cover himself in his own fire. As he flew off to the opposite side of the arena, Dark pointed both of his weapons up in front of him and began rotating his body clockwise until he started to look like a flaming drill. With his rotation down, Dark turned and dove directly at Shining's barrier. Once he made contact with it, he continued to spin, causing the enchantments on his weapons to go off once every rotation.
Almost immediately, Shining's barrier was destroyed with Dark continuing towards him. But before he could get hit, Shining teleported away from his path, causing Dark to begin drilling into the wall before turning away and leaving a scar in the side of the wall. With Dark's direction changed, Shining began creating and throwing magical spears at Dark, only for them to be deflected by the rotation speed. Teleporting again, Shining created several barriers around Dark himself, but once again, his flaming rotation and weapon enchantments were tearing his barriers to pieces.
Waiting for Dark to get close enough, Shining teleported away from him and began to channel his horn. Another seven seconds later of charging, Shining fired a spell directly at Dark. And while the spell didn't seem to do anything to him, the purpose if it was already done.
Creating a five-layered barrier, Shining stood his ground and waited for Dark to attack. When Dark did, Shining watched as his barriers weren't being shredded to pieces and chuckled.
"You'd better not try to rely on those weapon enchantments anymore," he told Dark through his flaming spiral. "That spell I hit you with removed whatever spells you put on your weapons."
Even though Dark heard Shining's words, he didn't bother with them as he instead increased his rotation speed. Another ten seconds of drilling later, Dark began cracking through Shining's first layer on his barrier. Seeing this, Dark sent his nine Fire Orbs outside of his Flame Drill and started to rotate them counterclockwise. Once they picked up enough speed, Dark sent them all down towards where the tip of his Flame Drill was on Shining's barrier, causing the first layer to break from the added pressure and begin working on the second layer.
As Shining stood in the barrier watching Dark breaking through his barriers one at a time, he started throwing more magic spears at Dark. But, like the others before, they all glanced off of the rotating flames. Even his magical beams from his horn were being deflected. Getting an idea in his head, Shining suddenly dispelled his remaining barriers and teleported out, leaving Dark to lurch forward and down into the base of the arena wall where he continued to drill into it. Reappearing a few dozen feet behind him, Shining waited until Dark ceased his rotations. When he did and was standing on his hooves, Shining began creating and firing off magical spears at Dark while making more to replace them.
After the first one hit Dark, he turned around to see more incoming and used his Fire Orbs to intercept them. While the magic spears dissipated upon the contact, his orbs lingered. Arranging them in front of him like a shield and spinning them, Dark began firing his Explosive Fire Needles from each of the spinning orbs, forcing Shining to erect a barrier around him as he continued to fire off his spears. However, the number of Dark's projectiles were far greater than Shining's and quickly overtook him before they began striking and blowing up against his barrier.
Quickly, Shining teleported out of there and reappeared off to the side just in time to see his barrier explode. Getting another idea, Shining quickly created seven magical spears. But, instead of them appearing alongside him, they had instead materialized above Dark. With a flick of his horn, Shining sent all seven downward, each impaling Dark through his stomach at different angles and embedding themselves deep into the ground.
"GAAAAAHHHH!" Dark cried in pain and surprise. "Damn it! Not again!"
Taking advantage of this moment of distraction, Shining created seven barriers across the middle of the arena and tinted them with his magic before teleporting into the center one. Safe and having some time to breathe, Shining took a moment to recuperate after the many spells that he'd casted. The best part, though, was that with the barriers all being tinted, no one could see which barrier Shining had hid while he could see everything from the inside if it.
While Shining was recuperating in one of his barriers, and Dark casted his Healing Flame and tried pulling the spears out of his back with his magic, Twilight had covered Soul's eyes and looked away from the fight while the Crusaders' sisters did the same to them.
"I can't believe that he did that to Dark again," she softly said, her voice sounding like it could break.
"Is this what happened to Dark when he and Shining Armor first fought?" Luna asked.
"Yes, but Shiny used his guards' spears instead of those magic ones."
"But they looked like they were getting along pretty well during Hearth's Warming," Spike commented.
"They were," Twilight answered, "but I don't know why Shiny would resort to this tactic again."
"If I may, Twilight," Celestia spoke, gaining her attention, "I believe that your brother may have been forced to do it."
"She's right," Pyre nodded in agreement. "Dark's put Shining on the defensive during almost the entire fight. And I don't mean that like how Dark and Shining specialize in offensive and defensive spells respectively, but that your brother's attacks haven't done squat to Dark, while he's been almost relentless in his assault."
"Pyre is correct," Celestia agreed. "While Shining Armor does specialize in defensive spells, he hasn't gotten anywhere with Dark until now."
"That still doesn't mean that I like it," Twilight mumbled.
"Is Dark going to be alright?" Soul worryingly asked beneath Twilight's wings.
"Y-Yes, Soul. Dark's going to be okay."
"I'm more surprised that Dark isn't reeling in pain right now," Night said. "I know that I would just with one of those."
"That's because Dark's training with me and Nocturne has increased his pain threshold," Pyre told him. "We didn't only train him with his magic, but also to endure pain. Although, there are still some that he's quite vulnerable to, but most cries of pain are more out of surprise."
Seconds later, their heads snapped up upon hearing a loud, draconic roar. Looking at Dark, they all watched as he adjusted his legs around the seven spears that were still impaled through his stomach. Once he got himself situated, he took his battle-axe and swung down at them, cutting through the first two before taking another swing. By the fifth one, he'd chopped through the magical spears and stood up straight with another roar.
While he continued to roar out loud, his pitch increased as he lit his horn and bathed his body in fire. As the flames danced all over him, they began burning away the magical spears that were still stuck through him. Half a minute later, the flames died down and the spears were gone, leaving the sight of Dark's stomach and back quickly regenerating between his natural regeneration, and the affects of his Healing Flame.
"You got out of that faster than I thought you would," Shining said, his voice echoing from each of the seven barriers. "Too bad for you that you won't be able to beat me that at the rate you're going."
"Hah! Say's the guy who's been teleporting away most of the fight," Dark shot back. "By the way, when did you learn how to teleport anyway?"
"After our last fight in the Coliseum. Even since then, I've been training myself to become stronger. Didn't you ever wonder how I managed to get to Twilight and put up a barrier around her during Blueblood's trial so quickly?"
Dark blinked a few times before he chuckled. "I actually didn't put that much thought into it at the time. But now that you mention it, yes, that does explain it."
Snorting, Shining lit up his horn, causing each of his barriers to begin sprouting spears out from one side of them, which just so happened to be the direction that Dark was standing at. Flicking his horn again, Shining launched all of them at Dark simultaneously. As they neared closer to Dark, Shining watched as Dark lit his own horn and created a wall of fire that destroyed each of his spears with a sizzle. He then watched as Dark sent the wall if fire towards him and his barriers, but wasn't concerned as Dark didn't know which he was hiding in, not to mention that the flames wouldn't penetrate the barriers. Just before the fires began to wash over the barriers, though, Shining was surprised when he saw what looked like a flaming spear flying through the fires and towards one of the barriers off to his right. And while it didn't penetrate the barrier, it did cause it to crack a little bit before the flaming spear extinguishing.
Once the wall of fire washed over Shining's barriers, he saw Dark with six flaming spears floating alongside him. The next second, he watched as Dark threw the rest of them at the six other barriers one at a time. As they each hit their target, Dark closed his eyes as though he were focusing on something. When the last of his spears struck the side of the barrier, Dark opened his eyes and smirked.
"I found you~" he sang eerily.
Gather power in his horn, Dark began to charge it with more and more magic. After ten seconds had passed, Dark unleashed all of the charged magic into a large beam and fired it at the center barrier.
When it hit, Shining grunted from the force of the power put into it, causing him to light his horn to maintain the barrier. After half a minute of this had passed, the attack ended with both Shining and Dark panting a for breath a little. Still safe in his barrier, Shining looked up at the scoreboard to see that while they were both a little winded, both of them were still at full health from healing themselves.
"This is getting ridiculous," Shining muttered to himself. "Over ten minutes of this and neither of us are getting any-"
Shining cut himself off when he saw that Dark had lit his horn and began casting a spell on his battle-axe before moving onto his greatsword. Retaliating, Shining began firing magical spears at Dark, but was too late as he completed the enchantments and flew directly towards the center barrier that he was hiding in. Once Dark was close enough, Shining was curious as to why he was leading with his greatsword first, but quickly found out when his greatsword struck the barrier and exploded, followed-up by his battle-axe with the same result. With another strike from both weapons, the barrier shattered, revealing Shining as he fired another beam of magic at Dark and hit his weapons.
Conjuring a pair of magical longswords, Shining charged at Dark and met his weapons with his own. However, this time, neither of Dark's weapons exploded upon the clash.
"Did you think that I would let you keep those enchantments a second time?" Shining asked in annoyance, disengaging before taking a few swings at Dark.
"No," Dark answered, blocking Shining's two magical swords with his greatsword while swinging his battle-axe, causing Shining to disengage again, "I just wanted you out of that barrier of yours, and that was the quickest way."
Shining engaged Dark again, continuing their banter as they continued to fight.
"And how'd you know which one I was even in?"
"By the sound from my spells hitting your barrier. When they struck, each of your barriers gave off the same sound except for one."
Shining mentally facehoofed. "Thanks for telling me. I'll be sure to fix that right now."
In a flash of light, Shining teleported himself back into one of his barriers and fixed his barriers so they couldn't resonate sound through them when struck.
Getting annoyed by Shining's actions, Dark roared in fury while breathing fire out across the arena. With him concealed within the flames, Dark sheathed his weapons and began to cast another Explosion enchantment. But this time, instead of placing them on his weapons, he casted it on his claws and tail.
Clenching his claws into fists, Dark charged the barrier closest to him and began pummeling it, each rapid strike causing an explosion to accompany it. Within seconds, the first barrier shattered, revealing itself to be empty and causing Dark to move onto the next one.
Hearing the rapid explosions, Shining huffed, figuring that Dark applied that enchantment again, but was still curious as to why they were going off so quickly. However, despite wanting to find out, the flames from Dark's fire breath were obscuring his vision, only allowing for him to see through the top of his barrier.
Moments later, after hearing another of his barriers shatter, Shining felt the barrier that he'd been in starting to shake and crack. After a few seconds, the barrier shattered with Dark walking out of the fires and into the clear area with a look of fury on his face.
"There you are!" Dark shouted, clenching his fists tighter.
Using his wings to propel himself, Dark lunged at Shining. As he closed the gap, Shining created a magical shield and used it to block Dark's punch. But it did little to stop him, though, as Dark's enchanted claws caused an explosion upon punching the shield and shatter it.
Realizing what Dark had done, Shining immediately teleported himself off to Dark's side and fired a blast of magic at his head. When he it him, Dark turned to punch him, but Shining just teleported again to his other side blasted him again. He repeated this process two more times before Dark swung at him with his tail. But this time, when Shining teleported out of the way of Dark's tail, his face was met with a backfist to the face from Dark, sending Shining flying back into the barrier next to him.
When Shining was sent flying towards the barrier, Dark flew straight to him and pinned him up against it with a claw before he could escape. With Shining in his clutch, Dark reeled his fist back and punched Shining in his armored chest. Once the explosion from his enchanted fists went off, Dark followed it up with another from his other fist and continued a barrage of punches to Shining's chest and stomach. Spinning around to slam Shining back against the barrier with his enchanted tail, Dark then breathed a torrent of fire down at Shining. After a few seconds of fire-breathing, Dark looked at the spot to see that Shining had one again teleported away.
Hiding in his barrier again, Shining looked up at his health gauge to see that his health bar was in the red zone. Groaning, he began casting another healing spell on himself as he heard Dark's roar accompanied by the sound of more explosions. By the time he heard the first barrier shatter, Shining saw that his health gauge had gotten up to half. Wanting to get as much out of this time as he could, Shining continued to heal himself until he heard Dark growling as his claws scraped against the barrier, which also happened to be the last of the seven that he'd created.
After the seeing Dark throw his first few punches, Shining fired another beam at Dark, disabling his enchantment again. However, this time, Shining followed it up with another spell to ensure that Dark wouldn't be casting it again. When Dark did try to recast it and failed, Shining breathed a sigh of relief and stood back up. It was tough for him, though, as Dark's barrage of punches and explosions had dented his armor pretty good, hindering his mobility.
Safe in his barrier for the time being, Shining removed his breastplate and began using his magic to push out the dents as much as he could. And while he was able to get most of them, it would still need to be taken in to get a proper repair after this. With his armor somewhat fixed, Shining began to sweat a little. Figuring that this was Dark's doing, he looked outside of his barrier to see Dark's horn was alight with magic and had caused the fires around them to start rotating. As the speed of the fires' rotations continued to increase, so did the temperature inside of the barrier.
If I stay in here, I'm going to be cooked, Shining mused as he looked around. And I doubt that any heat resistant spells will prevent this for too long.
With a huff of annoyance, Shining teleported himself out of the barrier and over to one of the areas where one of his barriers had been. Scanning the area briefly for any signs of Dark and not seeing him, Shining used his magic to create a gust of wind to put out the fires. When he did, he could see Dark standing over by the barrier with a dome of rotating flames covering it. However, it didn't last much longer as the lack of flames around him caused Dark to spin around towards Shining.
Finally finding him, Dark used his magic and redirected the fires towards Shining. When he did, Shining created a magical shockwave, putting out the flames while Dark skidded back, leaving claw trails in the dirt as he tried to anchor himself before coming to a stop.
Together again with a clear arena and no spells in effect, both Dark and Shining began to circle each other on all fours like a pair of predators waiting for the other to make the first move. After a few moments of this had passed, Shining stopped in place, causing Dark to mirror him.
"This has been quite the fight, but I think that it's time that I ended it," Shining said, using his magic and pulling out what looked like a small piece of brown candy from a pouch on his belt.
"What's that?" Dark asked skeptically.
"This is my trump card," he explained, showing off the little orb to Dark. "What I have here is called a 'Rage Pellet'. Courtesy of the Crystal Empire Research Division, this little beauty allows for anypony who eats it to go into a Rage Shift for the next ten minutes."
... oh crap, Dark mentally cursed. "Is that really such a good idea?"
Shining smirked. "What's this? Is Dark Flame afraid to fight me?"
"What about everyone watching?" Dark questioned. "I doubt that the shield protecting them from us will hold."
"You're right," Shining said, nodding before looking up. "Hey guys! Set the barrier to maximum!"
"Uhh, are you sure about that?" the announcer questioned.
"Yes. You'll need it if you want it to remain functional."
"You heard him, boys! Increase the power!"
Seconds later, there was a loud humming sound that echoed across the Coliseum. As the sound became louder, the barrier around the arena shimmered brighter for a few seconds before the shimmering and sounds stopped.
"There we go," Shining said, looking back to Dark. "Now we have nothing to worry about."
Plopping the pellet into his mouth, Shining chewed on it for a few seconds before swallowing it. When he did, his body exploded in a bright flash of light. When the light died down, Dark saw Shining standing there, his main and tail as though it were on fire, his eyes red, and raw power passively flowing off of him in visible waves.
Standing back up on his hooves, Dark reached back for his weapons, but within that brief moment, he found Shining standing right in front of him. With no time to react, Dark was suddenly sent flying back from a beam of magic from Shining and continued until he was embedded into the side of the arena. As he tried to pry himself out, Dark suddenly felt a barrage of magical beams fired at him. And while he did manage to shield himself with his wings, they were starting to hurt after a while.
Finally getting himself unstuck from the wall, Dark drew his weapons and landed on the ground before creating a barrier of his own. It didn't last long, though, as it shattered after only three blasts from Shining. Flying up, Dark tired to evade him from the air and block those that he couldn't. And while he was agile enough to dodge most of them with the distance between him and Shining, those that he did block with his battle-axe and greatsword where strong enough to knock him back and break his guard.
Seeing that Dark was wide open, Shining teleported in front of him in mid-air and conjured a pair of magical longswords before plunging them through Dark's stomach. Sure that both had gone through him, Shining saw Dark raise his weapons and bring them both down upon him. Before they struck, though, he created a pair of magical shields to block them both before bashing them against Dark's face.
Feeling satisfied with that, Shining began to teleport out until he felt something wrapping around his hind legs. Looking down, he saw that it was Dark's tail that had wrapped him. Creating another magical longsword, Shining sliced at the tail, but found the hide too tough to cut through. Another second later, he felt Dark shift around to whip him down to the ground again. Once he was released, though, Shining teleported himself safely to the ground.
Back on solid ground, Shining used the added power from his Rage Shift to create another barrier. However, unlike the others, this on was far stronger and was created with fifteen layers on it.
Heh, I'd like to see him break through this one, Shining thought with a smirk.
Landing on the ground on the other side of the arena, Dark pulled out the two magical swords and recasted his Healing Flame on himself. As he did, he conjured five Fire Orbs that began to orbit around him. Pulling two of them off to float along either side of him, Dark began to fire the Explosive Fire Needles out at Shining's barrier. Upon firing them, however, Dark saw Shining counter by launching magical spears out from within his barrier, meeting with Dark's attack and piercing through them.
Seconds later, Dark found himself dodging magical spears left and right. Even the Fire Orbs didn't do too much to block them as they were extinguished after blocking three magical spears each. Powering his horn, Dark created another wall of fire to try and help protect himself. And while it did work for a while, the spears began to penetrate even that.
Coming up with another idea, Dark fired several fireballs in an arch at the incoming spears. However, when these ones collided, they each exploded into several dozen smaller ones which began to rain down upon the other incoming spears and Shining's barrier while covering that part of the arena in fire. Using those flames, Dark manipulated them towards him and began to rotate them in a sphere around himself. And even though Shining's magical spears were able to pierce it at first, once Dark began to pick up speed, the rotation began to effectively block them, even if only barely.
So, he's able to stop them after all, Shining mused, a grin forming on his lips. In that case, let's see how well it can hold up.
Lighting his horn, Shining channeled a large amount of magic into it and continued until the magical aura around his horn was almost blinding. Moments later, feeling his horn reaching its limit, Shining unleashed it all into a single beam of magic the size of a house.
Seeing the massive beam fired at him through the fires, Dark, with no time to get out of the way, lowered himself to all fours and crouched down to the ground. With him almost laying down now, Dark covered his front half with his wings, overlapping them into a cone shape to try and shield him. Keeping himself small and as low to the ground as he could, Dark poured more magic into his flames to reinforce it and waited for the inevitable.
Within seconds, the massive beam impacted Dark's rotating flames, meeting resistance against it. A few seconds after the two spells collided, Shining's beam began to push into the rotating flames, creating an indent before finally breaking through. With his spell now gone, Dark braced for impact a split second before the beam washed over him. Even with his wings' durability, it still hurt as the powerful spell assaulted him. If it wasn't for the Healing Flame spell that he'd casted earlier, Dark was sure that he'd have succumbed to Shining's beam by now, either from the pain or sheer power. As the spell continued, Dark slowly felt himself skidding back from the force of the blast until he felt himself up against the wall.
After what felt like minutes had passed, the spell finally ended. When it did, Dark found himself panting from exertion while both of his wings began sizzling. Moving them off to his sides, Dark looked around from his spot to see that the area around him had been turned black with a large divot where the beam's path was. Turning his attention up, Dark saw that his health gauge was in the red after that, but was now being restored by his healing spell while Shining's was at full again.
A little shakily, Dark got back up from his laying position and looked over to see Shining looking at him in triumph.
"I can't keep up like this," Dark muttered to himself, knowing that Shining had him beat at this point. "Not that I should be surprised. After all, he was in his Rage Shift when he wiped out all of those-"
Dark?! Are you alright?!
Recognizing the voice in his head, Dark looked over to see it's owner. Twilight? Are you doing the telepathy thing again?
Yes, but that's not important right now. Are you okay?
I'm a bit sore from that last attack, but I'll be alright. I don't think that I can last much longer against Shining if he keeps this up, though. Even if I somehow last until the ten minute timer on that pellet is up.
Then don't wait it out, Twilight told him. Fight him back.
Dark was about to reply when he saw Shining firing beams of magic at him again. Using the small trench in the ground for cover, Dark took cover and began firing fireballs up in an arch at him.
I'm sorry, Twilight, Dark began, but I don't think that I can effectively fight him back right now.
What if you were to use your magic?
I have been using my magic, Twilight.
Not that! The other kind.
Repositioning himself in the trench, Dark arched an eyebrow. You mean my death and shadow magics?
Yes.
But you said-
I know what I said, Dark, Twilight interrupted, her voice unusually soft and caring for a situation like this. While I love you and Shiny, I also don't like seeing you getting hurt like this. I know that you've been holding back because I asked you to, and I'm very grateful and happy that you're trying to honor my wish despite all that's happened so far, but I don't want to see you in any more pain.
Are you sure, Twilight? Dark questioned, being forced to leap out from his cover by a wave of magical spears dropping from above.
I am. Just promise me that you'll end this as quickly as you can, and try not to hurt Shiny too much.
I'll do my best, Twilight.
Thank you. Now fight back with everything that you have!
Seeing Dark standing in place and looking down at the dirt before him, Shining surrounded him with magical spears from every angle. With nowhere for Dark to run, Shining flicked his horn and sent all of them at him simultaneously. However, before any of them got close, shadowy tendrils shot out from within Dark's shadow and deflected each of Shining's spears. Surprised, Shining watched as Dark slowly raised his head and glared at him with glowing red eyes.
"As you wish, My Princess," Dark growled.
Letting out a loud roar, Dark shrouded his claws in shadowy mists and slammed them onto the ground, spreading his shadows across the arena. Reaching his maximum for being in the sunlight, Dark tapped into his Shadow Storage and began emptying it of all of his weapons until he had several hundred weapons floating all around him. Raising a claw above his head, Dark then pointed it forward, launching all of his weapons at Shining's barrier.
Though initially surprised by this, Shining countered by launching and replacing more of his magic spears. Each that was sent flying connected with a weapon of some kind, but there were too many of them for Shining to keep up with. Soon enough, Dark's weapons began slamming into the side of his barrier, causing Shining to wince slightly at the numerous impacts and feeling the first of his fifteen barriers crack and break under the assault.
"I thought you said that you weren't allowed to use that kind of magic?!" Shining shouted at Dark.
"I was," he answered, shrouding his body in shadows, "but I was just told that I could."
"But I didn't hear anything!"
"Telepathy."
Knowing what he meant, Shining snorted and began conjuring magical spears all around Dark again. He didn't fire them all right away, but instead continued to build up the numbers. Once he'd reached over a hundred of them, he launched them all at Dark, figuring that he wouldn't be able to stop all of them.
Seeing himself surrounded, Dark smirked and Shadow Melded into the shadows spread beneath him, avoiding all of the spears and emerging off towards the center of the arena. Having a moment, Dark stood on his hooves, raised his claws, and poured more of his magic into them. Seconds later, a pair of massive black portal appeared above Dark with a monstrous, right draconic claw and arm emerging from the right portal, and a left from the left portal, both of which being big enough to crush a house beneath them. Moving his arms to get a feel for them, Dark looked up and smirked as he saw the two shadowy, draconic limbs mimicking his arms' movements.
Turning his attention back to Shining, Dark brought his claws together and brought them down. As he did, the two massive claws mimicked Dark's and the intertwined fists came crashing down upon Shining's barrier, forcing him to a knee from the impact. Repeating this, Dark continued to pummel Shining's barrier with the two claws, causing two more layers of Shining's barrier to break.
As Dark continued his assault, Shining conjured another seven magical spears behind Dark before launching them at him. Without seeing them coming, Dark quickly felt several spikes of pain shooting through his gut again and looked down to see that he'd once again been impaled. Roaring in pain and fury, the two portals closed, causing the massive limbs to vanish with them.
"That's it!" Dark shouted, his voice full of rage and fury. "This has gone on long enough!"
Infuriated by having this happen to him twice in one fight, Dark manipulated the shadows, causing them to crawl up his body. When every inch of him was covered in shadows, they began to pull him down into the shadows at his hooves, leaving the magical spears behind lying on the ground.
Seeing Dark sinking into the shadows again, Shining began scanning the area for where he might emerge at. After a few silent moments of not seeing anything, Shining sighed, thinking that he'd won. However, when he looked up to see Dark's health gauge, he cocked an eyebrow in confusion at seeing that his health gauge was full again.
What? But how?! Shining mentally asked himself. His health gauge should be much lower than this, even with that healing spell of his. Is it the shadows or-
His thoughts died down as he saw the scattered weapons sinking back into the shadows. Moments later, the shadows that were covering the area began to spin around in a circle like a maelstrom of darkness. As the shadows continued to spin, Shining began to pick up a powerful magic source from within the center of the black maelstrom.
Huh. I guess that Dark isn't done yet, he smirked. Not that it really matters at this point. With my Rage Shift, I have him beat. Not to mention that if he destroys too many of my barriers, I'll just replace them with more and-
"I. AM DEATH. INCARNAAAAAAAATE!!!"
Snapping his attention back to the center of the maelstrom, Shining watched as a monstrous, draconic claw like before shot up out of it and slammed into the ground. Seconds later, it was followed up by another as it too slammed into the ground and anchored itself. Then, to the surprise of Shining and everyone watching, a draconic muzzle began poking out from the maelstrom, followed by a neck, torso, and wings to match.
The dragon continued to rise up out of the shadowy maelstrom until he was up to his waist, his head almost touching the very top of the barrier around the arena near the top of the Coliseum itself. Opening his blood-red eyes, the dragon spread his wings as much as he could within the confined space and let loose a deafening roar that echoed throughout all of Canterlot. After several seconds of roaring, he barred his fangs and growled, the inside of his throat glowing with fire as he glared down at Shining.
I am so bucked, Shining mentally cursed, looking wide-eyed at his opponent.
While the dragon was staring Shining down inside the arena, the audience watched in silence. Some of them had even slowly began to back away towards the exits. That was, until a few ponies began to cheer, believing that it was an illusion spell that they were seeing. Quickly, the crowd began to cheer in excitement for this turn of events. As the crowd was cheering for them, Celestia and Luna watched the two in the arena, while Twilight and the others tried to regain their senses from the overwhelming roar. That was, except for Pyre, who was laughing out loud in joy.
"HAHAHAHA! It's good to hear the sound of Nocturne's roar again!" Pyre boomed mirthfully.
"What was that?" Twilight asked, regaining her hearing. "Did I hear you say that that's Nocturne?"
"Yes! I'd recognize his body anywhere!"
Focusing on the giant dragon before her, Twilight saw that the substance covering him weren't shadows, but flesh and fur.
"But how?! Dark said that he couldn't transform into him!"
"He said that he couldn't transform completely into him," Pyre corrected. "He is able to do this much, though. Even if this transformation does make Nocturne look a bit diminished."
"Hold on a second, lad," Anvil spoke, "are ye saying that this isn't his full size?"
"I am. While Dark's has done alright so far with his transformation, at his full height, Nocturne's body is at least twice the size of what we're all seeing... and this is only his upper-half."
Rarity shivered. "That is a rather fearful thing to consider."
"Yeah," Rainbow agreed. "Geeze. I'm glad that he's on our side."
"How long can Dark maintain that form?" Celestia asked, her voice a mix of curiosity and concern.
"Longest he can maintain it for is about three minutes," Pyre answered.
"So then..." Twilight brought a hoof up to her chin in thought. After a brief moment of doing some calculations, she looked back to Pyre and Celestia. "That means that both Dark and Shining will return to normal at the same time, give or take a few seconds."
Any further talking between them was interrupted when Dark roared again and brought both of his claws down upon Shining's barrier. However, this time, instead of balling his claws into a pair of fists, he dove his claws as deep into the barrier as he could before he began to try prying them apart. Putting his weight behind them, Dark's claws slowly sank deeper into the layers of Shining's barrier and continued to tear them apart.
Feeling the barriers beginning to spread, Dark took in a deep breath, his inhalation acting as a vacuum as it began sucking in loose dirt and debris into his gaping maw. Once he felt enough air gathered in his lungs, Dark unleashed a torrent of fire that not only covered Shining's barrier in fire, but also the entire arena.
Inside the barrier, Shining was sweating profusely from the heat of the raging inferno. While he did feel that Dark's fire breath had broken through a few more of his barriers, he still had eight layers left, but wasn't liking his chances at the moment. Thinking quickly, Shining conjured a dozen magical spears around him and placed a fire resistant spell on them before launching them all up towards where the fires were coming from. Seconds later, Shining watched as the fires ceased their flow. When they cleared for him to see, he noticed that Dark had stopped breathing fire and caught Shining's spears in his fangs.
Giving Shining a fanged smirk, Dark clenched his jaw, snapping the magical spears in half before spitting them back at Shining's barrier. When he did, he watched as Shining conjured another dozen of them. But, instead of blocking them, Dark let them hit him and watched as they harmlessly bounced off of his thick hide. Chuckling and using his powers over the shadows, Dark manipulated Shining's shadow by turning it into a claw and pulling him down to the ground. It didn't last long, though, as Dark's spell ended with Shining covering his body with his magical aura, the light bright enough to ward off any shadows within his barrier.
With a low, rumbly chuckle, Dark began manipulating the shadows whirling around the ground at his waist, causing shadowy tendrils the width of a pony to sprout out from the black maelstrom. Once they'd grew to be a few stories tall, Dark sent them all forward, striking Shining's barrier by trying to either piercing it, or slamming against it, all the while breathing another round of searing flames over the barrier.
Pouring more magic into reinforcing the barrier and creating new layers beneath them, after fifteen seconds of this, Shining winced as one of his layers shattered, followed soon by another. Trying a different tactic, he changed the barriers slightly, changing them from being smooth domes to spiked domes. And even though the tendrils would get stuck on some of them, once they'd wriggled off, the gaping holes that were left behind became filled with more shadows before continuing their assault.
This is ridiculous! Shining mentally shouted. I can't teleport out of here or else I'll be exposed, my spears can't do anything, my barriers are being destroyed one after the other, and worst of all, the time limit on my Rage Shift is almost up!
As Shining continued to try to think of something to do to counter Dark, he began to notice that the rate at which the tendrils were attacking his barrier had drastically decreased. Looking up at them Shining watched as they began to slowly recede back into the shadowy maelstrom that they sprang from. Looking up even higher, he saw that Dark looked tired all of a sudden as his body slowly began to sink back down into the maelstrom too.
Once Dark's body had sank back down with only his head remaining, the shadowy maelstrom disappeared, leaving the head as it began to dissolve. As it faded away, it began to reveal Dark standing wobbly on his hooves and claws, keeping himself upright by using his wings to help brace himself.
With Dark exposed and barely standing, Shining smirked and prepared to finish Dark off and end this match. However, he suddenly stumbled forward, his strength suddenly leaving him. Immediately afterwards, Shining's multi-layered barrier collapsed all around him as his body reverted back to his normal pony form.
What I wouldn't give for some of Cadence's love right now, Shining mused, watching Dark as he too panted heavily for breath. Shaking his head, Shining stood up straight and gained control over his breathing. Okay, both of us are low on magic right now, so this fight won't last much longer. But, even with my low magic, I still have enough to end this... but first, I think that it's time I tried something different.
Looking at the roaring flames all around him from Dark's fire-breathing, Shining got an idea. It wouldn't use much of his magic, but Shining could take control of the fires and use them against Dark. Spreading his magic over the fires, Shining pulled them over above his head into a massive fireball. Not wanting to make any mistakes, once he'd collected all of the fires spread out in the arena, he began to pour his own magic into it, making the fires his own. With everything prepared, Shining hurled the massive fireball at Dark. As it flew across the arena, it began to lose its mass, becoming smaller the farther it traveled. By the time it hit Dark, who was too tired to dodge it, it'd decreased by half, but was still enough to knock Dark down from the force behind it while the fires splashed all around him.
Laying on the ground, Dark groaned as he looked around to see fire surrounding him. While him being half-dragon didn't allow for him to be hurt by them or the attack, the impact from that giant fireball was still enough to knock the wind out of him. As he continued to lay in the flames, he felt incredibly tired. What's worse was that he could feel that his magic was nearly depleted while Shining still had some left in him.
Well this sucks, Dark thought, laying sprawled out on his back. I was so close too. If only I had a little more magic, I could-
Dark cut himself off as he actually felt the flames surrounding him. Reaching his sense out to them, Dark could tell that while these flames were once his, Shining poured enough of his magic into them to make them his own. With this revelation, Dark's tiredness faded as he felt another wave overtake him.
He doesn't know, he thought to himself with a grin. If he did, he wouldn't have thrown fire at me.
"Come on out, Dark!" Shining shouted. "I know that you're in there!"
Slowly, Dark stood up from his spot in the center of the fires. "Yeah, I'm here."
As Shining approached Dark, he conjured a pair of magical longswords, one floating alongside either side of him.
"Glad to see that you're at least going to take it as a stallion," Shining said, raising his twin swords.
"With a pair of swords?" Dark questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"With how low my magic is right now, it's the most efficient spell for me to use. That, and I don't need anything else with how weak and exhausted you are."
"Oh, but that's where you're wrong," Dark told him, the flames surrounding him beginning to dance around.
Taking in a clearing breath, Dark began to draw in the surrounding flames into his mane. Within seconds, Dark's Amplify ability had absorbed all of the nearby fires and set his mane ablaze.
"What did you do?!" Shining demanded, taking a few steps back.
"It's just a unique ability of mine that lets me absorb any nearby fires that aren't mine," Dark explained, flapping his wings until he was hovering in the air. "And thanks to you pouring your magic into that fireball before launching it, I was able to absorb enough the leftover flames for one final attack!"
Channeling his shadow magic, Dark created a ball of darkness in the palm of each of his claws. After that, he brought the two orbs together and merged them before lifting it above his head, sending ribbons of shadows out all around them until the surrounding area and ground were all pitch-black in darkness. With them now both trapped within a shadowy dome several dozen yards wide, Dark used his Amplified unicorn magic to create hundreds of fire spears all around the edge of the inside of the dome, each fire spear pointed directly at Shining, who stood in the very center.
"This is it!" Dark proclaimed. "After this, one of us will fall!"
Floating just outside of the fire spears, Dark brought his arms forward and flicked his horn, sending the fire spears at Shining. It started out with just one every half-second, but as the second ticked by, they started firing off faster and faster. While they were flying at him, Shining began spinning his magical swords around like a pair of bladed fans, deflecting the attacks as they fired off at him from random directions. Before he knew it, there was a fire spear being fired at him every split-second, forcing him to move his twin swords faster until they became a blur.
As the two continued, both Shining and Dark found their noses bleeding. For Shining, it was because he was running on fumes and was pouring more magic into his swords' speed while also trying to maintain a thin layer of magical shielding over his body. As for Dark, it was because of how hard he'd pushed his body with this spell, and like Shining, he too was running on magical fumes. But, while both of them were pushing themselves dangerously over their limits, neither was willing to lose. After thirty seconds of this had passed, the shadowy dome began to crack, letting in light from the outside. A few seconds later, the last of the fire spears fired off and the shadowy dome began to fade from all around them.
With the darkness gone and light showing in on them, Dark and Shining looked blankly at one another, the former having landed back on the ground sometime during that last attack. However, neither could actually see the other with how glazed over both of their eyes were. Both of them were wobbling from side-to-side with blood leaking from their nostrils, eyes, and from the corners of their mouths, staining their faces, necks, and chests red with their own blood.
After a few seconds of deafening silence, the sound of two magical blades shattering on the ground echoed throughout the Coliseum. Seconds later, there was the sound of a solid thud hitting the ground, which was soon followed by second.
"That's it!" the announcer shouted, breaking the silence. "At long last, the match is finally over! Mares and gentecolts! After over forty minutes of nonstop fighting, we have our victor! Now, due to Coliseum regulations, when both competitors are KO'd, the winner is then decided on the last one to remain standing. And with that, mares and gentlecolts, I present to you our new Coliseum Champion, Dark Flame!"
Loud enough to be heard throughout all of Canterlot, everyone in the audience began cheering and stomping their hooves for the fight they'd witnessed. That is, all but a small group of eighteen, who were too shocked by what they'd watched to join them. And while a few of them were doing alright with how badly Dark and Shining had ended up, the rest were shedding tears of worry and fear for their conditions.
With a worried expression on her face, Celestia turned to Luna, who had sat her winning betting ticket down to the side and returned her look.
"We need to get them both to the castle's medical wing," Celestia told her.
"Agreed," Luna nodded in agreement. "No question that they will both be needing a magic transfusion after this."
With the match over and the arena's barrier down, Celestia and Luna teleported down into the arena. With Dark gently placed over Luna's back, and Shining over Celestia's, they left the Coliseum to see to Dark's and Shining's injuries with Twilight and the others following after them.