This guy is like a cockroach!
Just when we were about to escape, there he is,
Aurelian stood right outside the last wall, blocking the chilly night air. Even the phoenix couldn't wipe that annoying smirk off his face!
"What do we do, brat?" Arxia asked, looking at me.
"Aren't you the older one here?" I said, looking genuinely hopeless.
"You were just spouting shit like a professor! Come on, think!" he prodded.
"Yeah, yeah, break time is over, let's go back now." Aurelian came closer, gathering aura in his arms. The purple aura passed through his veins and enveloped his fingers. the air around us started to feel heavy.
THINK!
I instinctively pushed Arxia away and shot my last freeze towards Aurelian. Arxia transformed and flew towards me to help me.
Aurelian blocked my freeze easily, with a simple flick of his hand. This was the last shot, so it was weaker than the rest.
"Mystic Arts: Threads of fate." Whips of aura flew towards us, trying to wrap around us. Arxia and I ran and tried to dodge it.
Arxia could not escape much longer and got caught in the threads. He stopped moving. It was like something went off in his brain. He was completely paralyzed.
There is no other way. I have to do it again!
I have to freeze time! I need time to think. Everything is happening too fast.
I can do this just once. I don't think I will have any aura left after this.
I concentrated all my aura and stretched out my palm, and tried to recreate the output that froze time the first time around.
"Ice Arts: Fast Freeze," I let out everything I had left. Everything froze, but I knew it wouldn't last for long. I have to move quickly.
I have to set Arxia free. He is stronger and is in more danger than I am. I will be kept here, but he will be cursed permanently or sold off.
I rushed to Arxia, trying to remove the threads as fast as I could. The threads lost their aura and didn't have any effect on me.
I ripped them apart, tore them to shreds with a small blade I had in my pocket.
TSHHHH
The time freeze stopped. Aurelian was shaken back to reality, and Arxia was almost free. He seemed to have regained consciousness and started fighting against the threads, pulling himself free.
"There is something weird about you!" Aurelian had an irritated look on his face.
"Arxia, leave!" I told with a serious look on my face.
"I know you don't make sense often, but now you are plain stupid!" he shot back, completely refusing me.
"They will chain me, but will sell you. Leave!" I tried to reason.
"If you have time for yapping, I'd rather you use your head!" he did not relent.
FUCK IT!
"You know what, let's go all out! I am not planning to give up, even if I have a drop of blood left in me!"
Wait, why don't we try a combination attack? Valeria can do that because she has been trained to match Arxia 's output. I can do that theoretically! I can do the calculations on my head and hope for the best!
It might work! If it's me, it can!
"Mystic Arts: Needle Burial" Aurelian lost his patience listening to my little monologue and sent a rain of needles towards us.
I moved closer to Arxia and touched his forehead with my aura. He looked genuinely shocked, and our aura overlapped, and I mentally calibrated my aura output to match his.
"We are not trying to win, let's pull something crazy and dip!" I transmitted my thoughts to him.
"Like I expected a win, we have to leave before more people jump in," Arxia agreed.
"Sacred Arts: Aura Connect!" We matched our aura outputs and evened them out.
Aurelian snapped his fingers, the needles were enveloped in his purple cursed aura, and started to spin like mini drills.
"Aurora Decipher: Wall of Invincibility" Aurelian put up a defense wall, as he launched his attack to deflect the counterattack, if there was any.
"He is smart!" I gritted my teeth.
"What we need now is not a counterattack but camouflage!" I told Arxia by aura transmission.
He nodded, conveying a 'message received'.
"Sacred Arts: Ultimate Veil" We yelled, throwing out, bit of aura we have left along with the scrappy impromptu name.
I did not regulate just my air and water elements, I let my time element free too. I don't know how it's going to end, but all of my elements combined with Arxia 's fire to form a meteor of elements crashing on the ground to form a veil of aura.
I started wobbling, my legs gave out. I could hear my heart hammering, blood rushing to my face, flowing out of my mouth and nose. A shiver ran down my spine. Arxia quickly grabbed me to fly away before the veil wore out.
"You okay, brat?" Arxia asked as we soared through the clouds, away from the prison.
I was NOT okay, but the chilly night wind and the smell of blood and freedom gave me all the comfort I wanted.
"Hey Arxia, what are we fighting for?" I let out something I wanted to ask for a long time.
"Getting philosophical, huh? I guess you are alright!" Arxia let out a tired laugh.
"Sometimes I feel like there is no purpose, and I can give up. But, what if there was something more to life than what I can see?" I continued.
I am getting philosophical. Am I dying AGAIN!?
"More than anything, we all fight our fears, kid," Arxia replied, switching to his wise-dragon mode.
For some reason, the things he said made more sense. We all fight the fear that drives our souls, maybe, when we win, we can take control of our souls.
I closed my eyes to get some well-deserved rest and peace.