True Essence
The tension in the cavern is thick like black tar; both Griffin and Kline are ready to strike each other down. The silky-smooth mist emanating from his magic softly caresses Kline’s skin like a wet feather. At the opposite end of the cavern, the intense infernal heat from Griffin’s flames nearly burns his skin like searing iron.
Kline has an expression likened to the calmness of a morning lake, as Griffin intensely contemplates what happened to his chosen warriors, his forehead and eyebrows wrinkled like a mountain range. Griffin stares intensely at Kline with bloodshot eyes, Kline’s eyes like serene pools of water in contrast.
Kline suddenly let’s go of his water whip and shield, the water splashing onto the rocky floor. In that same instant, Griffin blasts himself towards Kline with intense murderous resolve. Griffin’s sword whistles through the air, fire roaring towards Kline’s head. Kline moves ever so slightly, the blade whizzing past his tranquil ocean-like eyes. Griffin, now at arms reach and mid swing, is left completely open.
In the blink of an eye, 13-year-old Kline uses his right hand to blast Griffin with a never-before-seen shockwave of water; a blast as powerful, or even more powerful as the magic of the Royal Wizard Conrad Snowden, smashing Griffin against a boulder that shatters from the impact.
Griffin’s fire, momentarily quenched, bursts back aflame as he stumbles back up. A blast like that from one arm… This kid…. He must be as powerful as the Royal Wizard…
Before Griffin even has time to get into a stance, Kline has already materialized another ball of water above his head, spinning faster than anything Griffin has seen from the other Lumare Captains. This kid…
Griffin lunges towards Kline, holding his sword in two hands. Each running step sending flames flying from his feet. Kline responds to his advance by chucking the ball of water straight towards him. As the ball of water breaks the sound barrier, a thunderous sound echoes through the cavern.
Griffin attempts to cut the hurling ball of destruction with his ultimate move – the Slayer Slash. Griffin pours a massive amount of magic into his adamantite blade, almost making the adamantite blade glow red from the extraordinary power and heat. Griffin plants both of his feet firmly on the ground, and by gripping his sword tightly with both hands, he executes a perfect ascending diagonal slash, roaring with scorching power.
Griffin’s blade cuts clean through the supersonic ball of water, the halves crashing behind him as it impacts the cave wall, shaking the whole cavern from the collision. As the cavern shakes violently, a sharp two-meter-long stalactite cracks and falls off the cave ceiling, heading straight towards Emery.
Kline turns his head and sends a shockwave of water towards the stalactite just before it would’ve impaled Emery. The stalactite is blasted off into dust from the force of Kline’s magic. As Kline looks back where Griffin was standing, he sees that he has disappeared.
“Behind you!!” Emery shouts desperately.
Griffin’s adamantite blade roars through the air towards Kline’s head.
“Think you can hide your presence?” Kline says, ducking below Griffin’s blade at imperceptible speed.
Kline rotates his body, sending another shockwave towards Griffin, who is again sent flying backwards. He manages to break his fall by rolling on the ground, quickly getting back into position.
Hmmm, why don’t I try that one move, Kline thinks to himself, harnessing a vast amount of magical potential from within his body, cumulating into a glowing ball of hypersonically rotating water. Kline puts in a little more spin, a little more power into the ball of water, and it begins to glow brighter.
Seriously!? That magical potential, it’s even stronger than Commander Kouga’s! Griffin reflects to himself, dumbfounded at the sheer power behind Kline’s magic. This kid, could he be… Threat Scale Demon!?
The sheer power behind Kline’s magic lights up the whole cavern a faint pastel-blue color. Let’s try it out then, shall we; the true capacity of my magic… Kline thinks to himself, releasing his ultimate blast towards Griffin.
The whole cavern is filled with light; the cavern shakes violently like the roar of one of the ancient dragons. The sheer power of the blast disintegrates the entirety of the cavern in front of Kline and Emery, destroying everything in its path with torrential fury, ripping straight through stone, straight through the whole cavern. The cavern rumbles and shakes, the ceiling partially collapses, rubble comes crashing down onto the stone floor with thunderous applause.
Once the blast clears and the dust settles, a huge hole with a diameter of over ten meters, length of who knows how far, is left in front of Kline and Emery. Kline still has a calm expression on his face despite the magnitude of power far exceeding his expectations. Emery on the other hand… he sits on the cave floor in shock, mouth agape at what he just witnessed; this power, it’s something only ever seen in a handful of individuals.
“K-Kline?…” Emery says, shocked, even a bit frightened.
Kline doesn’t respond, but as he looks at Emery, it’s as if he was looking straight at his soul; something’s different behind those eyes, something changed in you? Kline has an aura of humility to him, an aura that the cocky prodigy didn’t possess before; what changed?…
“The Commander, where is he?” Emery asks, with an anxious tension still in his voice.
“I doubt he survived the blast; I think we’re safe…” Kline says softly.
“Well… w-why don’t we start making our way out of here then?” Emery asks, barely able to stand up on his own.
“Yes, let’s get out of here.” Kline says, helping his cousin get keep upright.
The World Stones 