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CHAPTER START---
"You've heard of me?" Bluenote asks. "Unexpected."
Oberon frowns, glancing about to see the other opponents retreating from the two Gravity Magic users. "The Magic Council doesn't like to talk about you, but I got access to some files about your Gravity Magic."
Bluenote narrows his eyes at the boy. "Was it useful?"
"They only had the basics, so nope. But you should come back. The Magic Council thinks you're dead, they searched for you for months."
Bluenote folds his arms across his chest. "The Magic Council is no longer useful to me. I've outgrown them, and they've found a new dog with Gravity Magic to obey their commands."
Oberon frowns. "Our interests are the same, for now. But my loyalty is to Fairy Tail, everything else is just extra."
"That no longer matters. I am here to test my Gravity Magic against yours. A true contest that I've been longing for," Bluenote takes a combat stance. "Gravity Magic is rare, but people at our level, even more so. Show me your fabled strength, prove to me those tales and songs I've heard across the continent aren't just Magic Council propaganda, King of the Fairies."
"If you insist. I'll start with just Gravity Magic, if you can make me use more than that, then I'll show you what I can really do."
Oberon deactivates his Cosmic Barrier and mirrors Bluenote's stance, his smaller stature and shorter height making an almost comedic comparison for those watching on the sidelines. But at a glance they could see the intensity in Bluenote's gaze.
Even after Oberon's arrogant statement about only using one of his famous Magics, the man was taking this fight seriously.
'Bluenote, don't get too carried away,' Kawazu -the chicken man- thinks. 'Master Hades ideally wants to convert this boy to our side…'
Bluenote casts aside the telepathic message and rushes forward.
The ground and grass around them are flattened into a large circle, compressed inches into the earth by immense gravity, but Oberon ignores it and charges the man. "Too straightforward! Be creative!"
Oberon smiles as he floats into the air and spins, launching a kick that Bluenote matches with his fists. "You said only Gravity Magic." Bluenote easily overpowers the boys kick, sending him tumbling back through the air.
Oberon easily stabilizes himself, seeing Bluenote standing in place, a mix of annoyance and disappointment on his face. "What? This is Gravity Magic."
Bluenote looks genuinely bewildered. "Gravity Magic…to fly?" He narrows his eyes at Oberon, seeing that the boy is so casually floating about without much thought.
It takes Oberon a moment, never having given it much thought before, but he quickly realizes what Bluenote is confused about.
The precise application of Gravity Magic was nothing more than a theory, before Oberon made it into reality. Gravity Magic is not like Flight or Telekinesis Magics, one does not choose an object and make it float.
You isolate a set space and manipulate gravity along vectors of the space. Achieving comfortable flight demands hundreds of those vectors be calculated and adjusted with each passing second, using this on a lighting thing is almost sure to rip it apart, thus rarely ever attempted.
But due to his divine affinity for Gravity Magic, Oberon Alkwan is able to subconsciously make these calculations and adjustments. On the other hand, Bluenote only has a basic affinity for Gravity Magic, therefore, each move he makes must be manually calculated.
This is reflected in his more direct but heavy-hitting combat style. Oberon shrugs and lands on the flattened ground, smiling at his opponent. "Alright, I'll fight like you. I want to see what I can learn from your combat style."
Bluenote furrows his brows at the boy, but after a moment he relaxes and retakes his combat stance, ready to rush in. For a moment he thought Oberon was looking down on him, but at a glance he could see the boy was so blinded by Magics that he became oblivious to social cues.
Bluenote dashes forward, moving like a blur and tearing up the ground along the way, no longer holding back against the boy.
'Crap!' Oberon barely has time to leap to the side while making the area around him lighter, avoiding the attack.
Bluenote's fist slams into his previous location, releasing a shockwave that sunders the ground, and the man instantly turns to him for another strike.
'He's only using Gravity Magic at the last moment to enhance his strikes, he can't do it all the way through like me…' Oberon realizes as another flurry of blows races toward him.
He grits his teeth and rushes forward, ready to match the man's fists with his own, but upon first contact, fist against fist, Oberon feels his fingers fracture. He winces and lightens himself, allowing Bluenote's strike to push him away, and the man relentlessly chases after him.
"Fall!" Bluenote yells, waving his hand forward and increasing gravity around Oberon, but the boy is still unaffected, annoying the man.
Oberon takes this moment to widely swing his healthy hand, ripping a boulder from the ground and launching it at Bluenote from the side, causing the man to raise a fist and shatter it while sprinting forward.
In the dust and debris of the boulder, Bluenote loses track of Oberon, but before he can fight the boy, there is a slight pain on his left side.
Oberon snuck up on him and kicked him in the side, launching him up and into the cavern wall, slamming into one of the ascending streams along it.
Bluenote pulls himself out of the wall in time to avoid Oberon stomping on his chest, rolling to the side and standing on the vertical wall across from the boy. In most cases, either of these men would have an advantage while fighting at a 90-degree angle, but here, this was just familiar territory to them.
Bluenote rushes forward and launches a kick at Oberon, releasing a wave of horizontal Gravity Magic with it, but the boy's Gravity Magic instinctively counters it, allowing him to remain unaffected.
Oberon takes this moment to grab Bluenote's ankle and raise him over his head, slamming him back down into the wall and kicking him in the arm.
Bluenote's body carves a horizontal trench in the wall before he rolls into a tumble and stops in a crouch, still standing on the wall.
Oberon feels a stinging pain in his foot, focusing on healing it while considering his options. 'This guy hits harder than Gildarts thanks to that Gravity Magic. I can't beat him hand-to-hand. He's too strong and too tough for that, at least in this situation. Maybe I can—'
His thoughts are cut off as Bluenote waves his hand, unearthing house-sized chunks of earth from the oasis below and launching them up at Oberon's position.
The boy reacts instantly, dashing toward the man, forcing him to divert the rock to avoid hitting himself. They land loudly on the ground below as Oberon launches a dropkick at Bluenote, but the man blocks with his forearms.
He feels massive strain in blocking the attack, but grits his teeth and redoubles his efforts, opening his arms to push Oberon back before palm striking him in the gut.
Oberon is sent tumbling through the wall with broken ribs, having the wind knocked out of him as he rolls along the circular wall to the other side of the bottom floor and lands on the grassy ground.
"Gah!" He takes a deep and painful breath, struggling to stand, wiping blood from his mouth. Before he can fully recover, a loud impact pulls his attention toward the middle of the floor, and walking from the impact crater is Bluenote Stinger.
Bluenote looks down at the boy, giving him a moment to breathe while considering his next actions. 'He limited his use of Gravity Magic to match mine. His hits aren't as heavy as mine, but if he used his Gravity Magic the way he normally would, the gap would be much smaller. His flight is also a problem in itself. Such a bothersome person, I should end this immediately…'
"You are still a child. You cannot hope to match me physically in this way. I came here for a contest of Gravity Magic, prepare yourself!"
Bluenote immediately thrusts both hands forward, releasing a wave of Gravity Magic so dense it dyes the air with purple Magic Energy, blasting it directly at Oberon.
The boy responds in a panic, raising his Gravity Barrier against the attack, stonewalling it as the entire three-layered oasis shakes apart around them.
The clash is blinding, releasing immense purple light and constant hurricane-force winds, drowning out all sounds in the area and stirring up dust.
Within the contest, Oberon's Magic Energy connects to Bluenotes for just a moment, allowing the man to sense the depth of Oberon's vast reserves, and quickly realize that in this situation, his defeat was guaranteed.
His Gravity Maelstrom Beam was a powerful attack, but Oberon's Gravity Barrier was now matching it, and the boy had more Magic Energy than he could have imagined.
Bluenote grits his teeth and makes up his mind. 'I need to end this in one attack he can't match!'
He removes one hand from the Gravity Maelstrom Beam and splits his focus, creating a small pea-sized black sphere in front of him. On the other side of the beam, Oberon is oblivious to this, unable to sense or see it, perfectly content with allowing Bluenote to exhaust himself in the clash.
Which is why he's all the more confused when the attack suddenly stops, and from the dust Bluenote dashes forward with his right hand raised. Hovering above his hand is the most dangerous of all Gravity Magic Spells.
"Black Hole!" Bluenote thrusts his hand forward and launches the black hole forward, sinking more Magic Energy into it, expanding it to the size of a basketball.
Oberon has less than a moment to consider all of his options. The most optimal of which was also the easiest, which is to dodge the attack and fly away right now. But this Spell is famous for being unstable, for running wild and crushing entire cities.
At a glance, he could see Bluenote's Black Hole was likely stable, but if it's not, everyone here would die. The oasis would be destroyed, all the animals and villages depending on its revival would be wiped out, and he would have to live with the fact that he chose to run instead of helping.
So he rushes forward, allowing the Black Hole to pull him in, moving to grab it with both hands.
Everyone is both amazed and horrified at this, even more so when the boy releases immense Magic Energy in a black and white column.
His Boundless Cosmos instantly swallows up the black hole, appearing like the night sky manifested in a pillar, with his silhouette within holding a void black sphere in his hands.
Bluenote leaps back, standing on the other side of the opening in the middle of the oasis floor and staring at Oberon. 'What kind of Spell is this? Such power!'
"It really was stable," Oberon's voice reverberates and echoes through the oasis, causing everyone to stiffen. "You learned the Black Hole Spell to such a level, impressive…"
White cracks appear on the Black Hole before Oberon shatters it between his hands, laughing frantically and shaking the entire oasis with his Magic Energy.
"This is great! Finally! Someone who can really take a hit!" His frantic cackling devolves into a full belly laugh as he floats about in the boundless cosmos. "Now let's fight for real!"
Bluenote's stomach drops as Oberon instantly lands on the ground, gravity around him compressing the earth as the Boundless Cosmos instantly ceases. He takes a deep breath and looks across at Bluenote with a maniacal smile on his face, like a child who finally got a toy that wouldn't break when he played with it.
Because in this moment, that's exactly what Oberon was, and before Bluenote could fully comprehend the dangerous situation, he was in…
Immense pain wrecks his entire boy, his vision goes white for a few seconds before a cold sensation flows through him.
And when he finally blinks away the dizziness, he opens his eyes to see the oasis, a single green circle amongst the vast sand dunes of Minstrel's southern deserts, shrinking in the distance below him…
CHAPTER END---
Discord: discord .gg /eHuxNeZfyS [Come chat with me]
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene [Read ahead & support me]
You.tube: @KeanuEugene [Giving away all my writing knowledge]