In the thick of her heated rage, Indena managed to draw upon a dark power, one she was very clear to warn me about if I ever encountered it. That power was cursed flames. Fires that were coal black with a white aura around them. They'd been the only thing strong enough to invoke lethal damage to me so far.

  “How long have you been holding onto that trick?” I asked her in as serious a voice as I could draw out, as if this were a betrayal.

  “Just learned I could do it this morning,” She claimed. “I was doing some magic conditioning and suddenly my flames turned black for a second. It wasn’t hard to make it happen again.”

  As a demonstration of her claim, she lit a fire in hand and brushed it through the air, turning it dark. It was like she was tapping into an atmosphere of some strange gas that reacted with the fire.

  Yamin clenched close to her backpack, turning to her mother, who seemed somewhat informed on the subject of cursed fire based on her response.

  “Mom, what’s going on? I thought only demons could use that.”

  Her mother had a bothered expression, keeping her eyes on the arena.

  “Anyone can tap into darkness if the circumstances are right,” her mother said. “Elemental powers are easy to corrupt when you use them.”

  “So, you're saying that Indena’s tapped into darkness, no?” Marek asked. “Does that mean she is against us now?”

  “I'll wait for her explanation before I draw any conclusions,” she smirked at Marek, then turned back toward us with a livid frown. “Care to explain to the class what sort of mess you've gotten yourself into today, Indena?”

  She sounded like a teacher just then. Indena tensed up greatly at her authoritative tone.

  “I already told you. It just suddenly happened this morning, and I was able to use it. Don't go thinking I'm working with a demon or anything, because I'm not.”

  “That’s cursed fire,” I reminded her. “You shouldn’t use it at all, even if it makes for a good party trick. Who knows how it's going to mess with you?”

  “Calm down,” she retorted. “I’m not letting it flow through my body. There’s something about the air that makes this possible, but I can’t figure out what.”

  Cursed fire existed because of darkness corruption, but I wasn’t detecting any darkness in the air, not even a little bit. That was odd, considering Little Conburg wasn’t far and there was plenty to pick up on there for one reason or another.

  “Whatever’s causing it, It couldn't have come at a better time,” she took on her dragon stance again, letting the black flames grow across her aura. “I figure it’ll make a good challenge for you.”

  With shock, I almost decided to call off the fight and rebuke her use of those flames. Instead I clenched my fists, knowing she wasn’t going to listen to my reasoning. There was another way to get through to her, and that was action.

  “You’re playing roulette with a fully loaded gun, Indena!” Yamin shouted.

  “Too bad,” she fired back, letting the black flames tauntingly dance around her body without touching her. “Yalda’s gonna’ have to deal with people ten times worse than me. Ones who are going to use every dirty trick in the book! We better make her ready for them.”

  “So feisty,” Miss Adalyn playfully bit her lip with a smirk. “I like her.”

  “I’m more worried about you!” Yamin shouted to Indena. “Yalda can handle herself. But you’ll lose yourself if you use that, I just know it!”

  “You know why cursed fire is so dangerous? It doesn't hurt you physically. Actually, it doesn't burn things very well at all.”

  I did notice that the evil book wasn’t burning up at all when the fires spawned out of it, but I distinctly remembered it burning me real bad in that dream reality.

  “So it's not a great oxidizer,” I replied. “What’s your point?”

  “This stuff hurts the soul. That’s what curses do. They go deep in and damage a person from the inside out. That’s why there’s so few things that protect against them.”

  That did make a lot of sense. I’d been dealing with curses for a little bit now, and they seemed to simply affect people without warning from within. So the cursed flames I was hit by before bypassed my armour and attacked from the inside out.

  What dark energy was hidden in the air that she could tap into though? That was the part that had me stumped. Regardless, I couldn't let her keep using it… And it seemed like the only way to stop her was to beat her.

  The best counter I had was to use my stardust aura spell. That would protect me plenty from the black flames and also potentially snuff them out on her.

  Realizing I accepted her challenge, her eyes locked on to me like a predator stalking her prey.

  “Bronze Dragon Style! Dark Fire Element!”

  Her aura exploded with power, filling the inner part of the barrier with a suffocating mist of black energy. Red sparks crackled around wildly.

  As a counter, I shouted “Stardust Aura!” Then allowed glimmering light to build around my body, fighting back against the dark mist that she’d brought about.

  “Does Yalda stand a chance against this?” Marek asked.

  “This is what she was made for,” Miss Lauri said. “Defeating the darkness within us.”

  The lul in the combat came to an end when Indena took initiative and flew forward. Her speed was bolstered by the black flames apparently drawing more power to her.

  Within my stardust aura I created a shield of pure solar crystal.

  Her black flaming left fist struck the crystal surface, reacting very negatively with the stardust and sending out a shockwave of energy back at Indena.

  Indena wasn’t the least bit detoured, as she blasted back in and immediately found a counter by dispelling the dark energy and kicking away the shield from my hand. With her momentum she spun forward in a summer salt and kicked me in the face, hitting me with more cursed energy.

  -Armour integrity = (99.4%)-

  Acidic like pain coursed through my face, once again leaving me with terrible pain unlike anything I ever wanted to deal with.

  But my combat mode was engaged and at its best, so that pain wasn’t going to draw out a whimper.

  While she was close, I struck a twinkling fist at her to counter, but it was too slow and she dodged. I anticipated her evasion and sent another attack, but she was even faster that time. Though I predicted her movements several times more, I could never match the incredible swiftness she had achieved.

  When I showed a hint of slack in my motions, she was quick to punish me with another punch. It looked like it was going straight for my crystal heart, but she quickly diverted her strike to my arm.

  -Armour integrity = (99.2%)-

  “Bronze Dragon Style!” I shouted, striking the proper position. “Fire element!”

  She sent out a few more hits toward me, mostly body shots, but now in the Dragon stance I had more leverage to dodge, but it took all my focus to achieve. Elemental fire was pushing me around as if I had RCS thrusters flicking me just enough to keep out of harm's way.

  There just wasn’t an opening I could exploit. Indena was too heavy on the offence, and had plenty of stamina and swiftness to back it up.

  I tried to bring up the Stardust Aura, but that instantly ended my Flame Aura spell and significantly limited my movement options in the Dragon style. I had to inefficiently dispel the stardust and reignite the flame, draining my power resource pool.

  “Yalda is on the backfoot, no?” Marek said, a bead of sweat dripping down his face.

  “The Dragon style is fast, but Yalda can’t fight against the black flames without stardust,” Yamin brought up. “And it seems like her using the Stardust Aura turns off the Flame Aura, which nullifies the benefits of the Dragon style.”

  “In other words, the Bronze Dragon was specifically made to use Flame Aura,” Miss Lauri said. “For beginners, that spell is a necessity, as it makes it easier to summon fire around their bodies without straining their spirit.”

  “Why can’t she use both stardust and fire in her aura at the same time?” Marek asked.

  “It’s too taxing on her body,” Miss Lauri said. “Yalda’s incredible and able to match Indena’s ten years of experience in just a few minutes, but even she has her limits.”

  She was right. Trying to use both at once just wasn’t happening. I figured it wasn’t impossible, but seeing as this was the first time I’d ever tried, it wasn’t a simple task.

  But that didn’t stop me from trying. With all my focus I spawned a small wick like flame at my core, then floated it toward my hands, which were cradling its sensitive burn.

  In my palms I allowed a twinkly haze to weave itself through the dancing ember. Their mingling produced something interesting, a tiny white flame.

  I tried to fan the flame to grow, but Indena didn’t give me any time and flew in for another series of attacks. Pressure filled me as my evasive motion killed the tiny white fire.

  “Is that all you’ve got?!” she shouted at me, getting distance and losing her tightly posed stance. Red lines danced across her eyes… Part of her skin turned crisp and black being claimed further by the darkness she was dancing with.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  She sent waves of dark energy at me that I had to slap away with stardust.

  Between the waves, she herself dove in, forcing me to block her attack. My arms took the brunt of her attack and stung with tremendous pain.

  Now she took a page out of my playbook and grabbed both my forearms, throwing me to the ground, followed by a string of combos to my head. The longer I laid still, the more I submitted to my fate.

  “You’ll die, you weakling!” Indena screamed. “Fight! Fight with everything you have!”

  These punches weren’t just fatal from the cursed fire, they were incredibly strong and caused massive shockwaves to send me deeper into the crumbling floor.

  “She’s taking this too far!” Yamin yelled.

  “Yeah!” Marek shouted. “End the match!”

  The ref, who’d exited the arena long ago for safety, turned to Miss Adalyn, awaiting her orders. She didn’t seem happy, but nodded along with the others.

  It looked like everyone up there was in agreement that this match needed to be ended. But I wholeheartedly disagreed.

  “No!” I shouted through the assault, finally sending out an explosive wave of stardust that blasted Indena off me. “We can’t end it now!”

  “Indena can kill you,” Miss Lauri said. “That’s more than enough reason to cork this bottle.”

  “She’s been corrupted by darkness!” I shouted. “She needs me now more than ever!”

  This wasn’t a sparring match anymore. I was on the clock now and needed to rescue her from her demon corruption.

  “So, it finally makes sense to you how real this is,” Indena said in a reverberated tone, much like the demons had. Most of her body was swallowed with wafting shadows, keeping only small portions revealed, like her bright red eyes. “Took you long enough to catch up.”

  “Why let yourself be corrupted?” I asked.

  “Didn’t you hear me the first time?” she growled. “You need to get stronger. And if you can’t save me, who the hell ‘can’ you save? Besides, this power is really something. I see why people want to use it now. It’s like a drug that makes you so much stronger.”

  Within a blink she was over me, slamming a black flaming shadow down on my head. I caught it with my hands, holding it from crushing me completely.

  Fire bloomed around me, rising up and challenging the dark, but unable to dispel it.

  The tiny silver flame returned, but it was too frail to prevail.

  Come on… Stardust Flame Aura…

  No amount of stardust or mana was causing the tiny silver flame to grow.

  “Pathetic,” Indena spit, powering up her dark flame aura and fully crushing me down into the ground, creating a large crater. “You can’t even use something you stole from me right. What a joke of an imitation fire mage you are. What a joke of a fake angel!”

  I growled when I heard her ridiculing words, using my anger to push the solid wall of shadow off my body. For an impulsive second the fire burned brighter, glowing with silver twinkles in it, but dimmed once again.

  The combination of searing inner pain and her trash talking was causing me to lose my mind. I couldn’t deal with spiritual, physical, and emotional damage all at once.

  “I have to save her…” I growled to myself, gritting my teeth as if biting away the pain.

  “Oh, sorry… Do you want me to demonstrate how to beat myself, you pathetic little daddy’s angel? Then you can copy me!”

  “Shut up!” I shouted. “I don’t need your advice!”

  “But you need to steal power, right? That’s how you learn,” she laughed maniacally. “You know how many people died because of how weak you were? How many of them could we have saved if you’d been stronger? Daddy isn’t going to bail you out of that one!”

  A spiritual arrow of words darted through my heart, leaving an angry residue of nothing but impure intent and hatred.

  I hate her! I hate her! I hate her!

  “Indena!” Yamin rose up and shouted, just as frustrated as I was. “How dare you!?”

  Indena didn’t speak a word, just turned back to Yamin with an evil red and orange stare in her eyes, challenging her to come down and stop her.

  Yamin slowly sat back down as Miss Lauri reeled her in with a hand on her shoulder.

  Once the audience went back to quietly observing, Indena turned back to me, carrying over the stare she’d shared with Yamin.

  My rage was boiling strong. Flames were crackling around me, hot like a silver volcano spitting up bubbles of white hot magma. The wick of flame fluctuated in size, evolving for moments at a time to dire scales.

  So many lives were lost because I couldn’t stop those demons. Each one was a tally on the wall of my heart. I saw their coffins, I was there for their funerals, all of them! Every darn last one! They were all souls who put faith in me that I could keep the world they lived in normal. But I failed. I failed because I wasn’t willing to push myself.

  This whole time I’ve been searching for my dad, expecting him to have the solution. I didn’t have time for that! I needed to be the solution.

  My friend was in danger! Why couldn’t I save her? Was I going to lose her to the darkness too!?

  “Oh, did I piss off the little angel?” she chuckled with a condescending grin. “Think your God will forgive me if I ask, deula? Maybe he’s too busy sending fake angels to actually come down here and save us himself!”

  Her words finally broke me. All I could do was scream with ferocious might.

  *BOOOM!*

  Silver Fire burst around me and swallowed me in its all consuming rage. Tears coming out of me evaporated the moment they left my glowing blue eyes.

  I was back on my feet, still screaming. Power of such immensity swirled around me and altered my body in drastic ways.

  My hair grew longer and shined silver with veins of blue. My aura was like white fire, raising twinkling energy all around me. There was a dim halo behind my head, similar in design to the one I’d seen last year.

  -Theta…?...D…-

  -Theta Drive systems failed to activate-

  -Entering False Theta transformation-

  “Woah…” Indena uttered, covering her face and peeking out from behind her arm.

  “I know how useless I am!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “I know I’m a daddy’s girl! I know I’m pathetic! I can’t save anyone… Call me whatever you want, because it's all true! But don’t you dare mock my God!”

  The silver fire around me burst with a powerful twinkle, sending a blinding light out to all the stadium.

  “What is that power up?!” Yamin shouted.

  “She’s brighter!” Marek commented.

  Miss Lauri sat forward in her seat, watching even more closely than the others.

  “Ivan, what have you made here?” she mumbled to herself. “It’s not a power up, it’s a transformation. But something isn’t right about it. I can feel too much rage…”

  “M-mom?” Yamin’s brow raised. “What are you talking about?” But there was no answer.

  “So that’s her trigger…” Miss Adalyn smirked and waved a fan in her face. “The poor little outfit I gave her didn’t survive. I’ll have to make something a bit more durable,” she snickered to herself.

  My heart and eyes were as white as my hair once the flame condensed closer to my body. I re-entered the Bronze Dragon Style form and launched forward with a blast of powerful silver fire, my wings twinkling behind me and leaving a sparkling contrail in their wake.

  I hit her right in the face, bypassing her aura completely. As she was flung back, I grabbed her and threw her head into my knee, discarding her with a toss.

  The black flame aura wasn’t hurting anymore. Even the damage it’d caused my body earlier had been negated completely. I had all the freedom to attack her as I pleased, no longer afraid of being cursed by its unforgiving inner pain.

  “That’s it!” Indena grinned and blasted back into the fight, growing her black fire aura to match mine in scale. “Give me everything you’ve got!”

  We both collided and sent out heavy waves of powerful magic energy that slammed into the protective barrier, nearly cracking through it like glass.

  “Oh my!” Miss Cynthia raised up her wand and it brightened, instantly repairing the damage.

  Indena and I were trading punches and kicks, so fast that normal humans wouldn’t have been able to keep up with it, but to us it felt like time was going slowly. I kept up perfectly with all her vanishing and quick movements, even performing them myself, but better!

  Both of us finally decided to lock hands together in an epic push of power. My wings blasting me forward, and her black fire jetting her.

  “I want you to look at me like you look at those demons,” She said.

  “You got it!” I glared at her as I pushed twice as hard.

  My crystal heart began to brighten even more as mana energy pooled over it.

  Once Indena realized that my mana cannon was priming to fire, she let go of our struggle and jetted back to her side of the stadium.

  Over my heart was a white ball of twinkling power, growing in scale by the second and sending out rays of light all around the stadium.

  Indena cupped her hands and grew a black looking fireball between them. The flaming orb hovered out in front of her and she motioned her hands behind it.

  “Oh God, what are they doing?” Yamin uttered.

  “We might want to clear out for this one,” Marek stood and began evacuating the stands.

  “No!” both Lauri and Adalyn shouted together.

  Indena’s fire orb was growing more powerful by the second, pulling in incredible amounts of corrupted energy to fuel its heat.

  “Look at that, I’m copying you this time!” she shouted over the thunderous crackles of mana energy.

  “I’ll defeat you!” I shouted.

  “Mana cannon firing in…!”

  “3…”

  “2…”

  “1…”

  “Firing cannon!”

  *BWOOOV!*

  A brilliant energy beam of white blasted out of my heart, warping the air with a lensing effect and bending the light as if pulling reality along with it.

  “Black Dragon Breath!” Indena’s fire orb exploded and shot forward a violent flaming energy beam.

  Our beam attacks collided mid air, fighting each other in a powerful tug of war. Both of us were fueling them with all the mana our spirits could produce.

  A bubble of energy was forming at the point of collision, blasting away the ground and creating a crater. The barrier protecting the stands was turning too hot to see through.

  “Oh dear…” Miss Adalyn turned to Cynthia. “Darling lil’ Cynthia, mind handling this now?”

  “Of course, Lady Adalyn,” Cynthia bowed.

  Indena and I were both still pouring everything we had into our beams, not holding back an ounce of strength. I began to push her beam back slightly, overpowering it.

  “I’ll end this!” she shouted, her fire aura growing stronger and feeding her beam to begin overtaking mine.

  “I can’t lose!” I screamed, fueling my cannon more. “I won’t lose! Everyone’s counting on me!”

  Hexagons on my armour skin lifted up and vented incredible amounts of heat from my body, creating billows of smoke. Indena’s tattoos vented a similar smoke, but orange, like the colour of her normal magic.

  Warnings were flashing all over my vision, telling me to call off the attack or I’d push my body way too far. But this fight meant more to me than that. I couldn’t give up like this, not until I saved her.

  The bubble of energy began growing bigger and bigger until becoming five times its original size. It became unstable and throbbed around like it was ready to burst.

  “That’s enough!” called a woman’s voice from above.

  Suddenly both our bodies became heavy. The beams we’d been firing dyed down until disappearing. The bubble of energy instantly collapsed down into a fraction of its original size and lifted up into the air.

  We both saw a woman in a frilly yellow outfit floating mid air, stretching her wand outward and lifting the condensed energy up, shooting it toward the clouds at light speed.

  It burst open and pushed with a powerful blast, quickly being lost in the sunlight that had been hidden by overcast.

  “You two need to learn to control your tempers.”

  “Miss… Cynthia…?” I could barely say her name before collapsing to the ground. She looked so beautiful then, exactly like a real magical girl.

  “Hah!” Indena reverted back to normal. “I win…” Moments later she fell flat on the ground.

  -False Theta Form-

  Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed, please support me, Taylor The Writer, here on Royal Road! :)

  -Taylor

  Ps. You guys like the gif? Made it myself with 3d model software! ??