Azura was impressed, Katy had grown quite a bit. Both in skill, and tactics. She used to be the kind of person that would just rush ahead and think with her daggers, but she had thought several steps ahead for this fight⦠too bad she was so outclassed that no advantage she could eke out would matter. Her dagger impacted right with his neck, and bounced off of the scales that had formed there. Katy recovered quickly jumping back, but the damage had been done, her confidence was shattered. Her exploding poison was a good idea, but it was the kind of thing that only worked once, he knew about it now so he could counteract it to prevent the explosion.
He dispelled the copy that was slowly reforming its leg. The fact Katy had disappeared from his senses again, was a little bothersome, but he was going on the offense now, so he didnât mind it too much. A magic circle spread across the whole field stopping at the borders they had set. He heard Katy yelp as the gravity increased several times. He rushed towards the sound, and made a slash, Katy managed to dodge most of the blow, but he felt the blade meet resistance, and though she had dodged with the increased gravity she wasnât fast enough to get back out of sensory range before he could press the attack.
She desperately defended herself, but with him unaffected by the gravity the speed difference was just too much, and she quickly found herself littered with cuts. He wasnât even using his body enchantments this time. He didnât need to. He knocked her daggers aside, and grabbed her shoulder before unleashing a powerful shock. She screamed and fell to her knees, before vanishing?
He turned halfway around and blocked Katyâs next slash with his shield and a raised eyebrow. âWow physical illusions that are that durable? That is a big step up from anything youâve shown off with my copies.â It was impressive to be sure, but he bet he already knew the weakness of it. Like her normal illusions she no doubt had to focus on making, but these ones actually required constant focus since they had to be able to react to what he did.
âHad to leave some surprises for when this fight inevitably happened.â He chuckled. Well she had definitely gotten more licks in thanks to the element of surprise, and her apparently not making any noise when he used his gravity spell, honestly more than anything else he was impressed that she was still probably hanging on somewhere on the ceiling despite the enhanced gravity.
âFair enough, but if you can only do 1 physical illusion at a time you donât have a chance. He formed 3 copies around him.â The illusion of Katy smirked at him as a ton of her appeared taking up the whole arena. He smirked as impressive as that was, it had 2 glaring weaknesses, but heâd lecture Katy after the fight.
âWell color me surprised. Well let's see what these illusions have got.â He and his copies got in a circle so they could cover every direction, and it wasnât long before they were swarmed by the illusions rocks in a storm, they held back the wave.
***
âSheâs putting on a good show, but the fightâs already over.â Lily said, watching intensely. Roran had to agree with her unfortunately. Azura was clearly taking advantage of the differences between his copies and her illusions, the biggest of which being her illusions had no consciousness of their own, and could not act independently. Katy had forgotten about the 2nd copy he had summoned during her initial assault, and her own illusions were keeping it out of her line of sight as it snuck towards her.
âYeah, though honestly despite him saying he wasnât going to hold back I get the feeling he held back quite a bit.â Well at least in terms of skills and magic, he supposed that Azura had probably meant more along the lines that he wouldnât hesitate to injure them anymore. Not like that even really mattered in this fight. She would either run out of mana or the copy would take her by surprise either way, there was no real reason to injure her, and he didnât think cutting up that illusion was really the same thing.
âThatâs kind of always been true though. His whole skill set is geared to preparing things beforehand, but that also means he has a limited number of resources, and he tries to save them when he can.â Luna had a point. He didnât think he had ever actually seen Azura go all out. The only one who had was probably Lily, and she didnât even seem to remember it.
âYeah, the finite resources and the fact he can hand us all our asses without them. The only ones he didnât beat every time were you 2, and he kicked Lilyâs butt last time.â Siara said, pointing at him and Lily. That was fair. Him and Lily were roughly even, and Azura had been slightly weaker than them, not counting his extra resources before, so heâd often lose despite his intricate strategies, overwhelmed by the sheer difference in destructive power, but that wasnât the case anymore.
âUgh donât remind me, that was humiliating. He could have at least let me burn him a little.â He chuckled a little. Despite the near guarantee of his loss, he was actually quite eager to fight Azura now. He still probably had Azura beat in terms of offensive power, but their friend had taken his biggest advantage of having a lot of tricks, and multiplied it to the point where trying to predict him was a fruitless exercise.
âLooks like the copy found her.â Roran refocused on the fight. To see the group of Azuras fending off the illusions still, and the copy crawling across the ceiling on little purple magic circles was Azura who did seem to have figured out where Katy was somehow. Even if Azura hadnât he had the feeling that Katyâs magic wouldnât last for more than a second or 2 more at this rate. Which was plenty of time in a fight between mages, but Azura wasnât going to be overwhelmed that quickly.
Sure enough, Katy had caught on to the copyâs presence too late, and was knocked off the ceiling, causing her concentration on the illusions to drop. Azura caught her before she hit the ground, but he had his dagger at her throat to signal the end of the match. Katy was panting in exhaustion, but Azura seemed fine. Not too surprising considering how little he actually did in that fight. They all ran down the setting area to greet their friends. Cynthia was pouting, probably because neither of them had any injuries to heal.
âUgh I really thought I had you after I blew off your copyâs leg.â Katy grumbled as Azura set her down. Azura just smirked, and didnât say a word. In other words he was purposely aggravating her. It would drive her nuts not knowing whether it was actually a close thing or if he pretended it was a close thing to show off his ability to form only a few scales over where he needed to protect.
He cut off Katyâs attempt to talk knowing that if she started it would be a while before her rant ended. âIâll say, there was a lot in that spar neither have you have shown off before, Iâm rather hurt you wouldnât use those skills against me.â He pouted childishly. His eternal youth did have some uses at least.
Katy rolled her eyes. âSure, and you're going to tell me you donât have spells you keep hidden away?â Guilty as charged.
He smiled innocently âIâm sure I have no idea what you mean.â She shook her head in exasperation. He was about to tease her some more, but Cynthia brought up the subject they were all interested in.
âSo are you ready to tell us whatâs up? My mom told me a little bit about your father when he came here, but she was super vague.â He got the feeling the vagueness was more for Azuraâs sake then because she didnât know. That woman always seemed to know what was going on. She had hired him without a 2nd thought despite him looking like a 12 year old after all. As security no less.
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âYeah sure, but some place a bit more private than this ideally. Iâm more willing to share than before, but that doesnât mean I want random strangers hearing about it. Come on, my room should have more than enough security.â He winced. They had all found that out first hand. Azuraâs was the only room you couldnât just walk into, and their friend definitely didnât mess around when it came to security. Just the thought made his shin ache.
***
Luna didnât know what to think. Azuraâs story was awful, her first instinct was to say he didnât have any choice, but she honestly wasnât so sure. His brother attacked him first, and she could easily rationalize that as young as he was, subduing the older opponent safely wouldnât really be feasible. Although how easily Azura came to that conclusion even as a child scared her a bit.
On top of that, the tasks his father assigned him were horrible, he had to hunt down friends, and find out how terrible the world was first hand.
He had lied, and cheated, and stolen, and killed, all while his father and other nobles praised him for it. She understood him though. Doing everything you can just so you can be free. If he hadnât had his sister to worry about heâd probably have just ran away, but that wasnât the case so he stayed. And he endured. She didnât know how she would have handled that situation, honestly she wasnât sure she could handle it at all, she probably would have broken down.
Still, she also knew why he always said he wasnât a good person, and if she was honest sheâd have to agree, but it wasnât because he didnât want to be. He cared about people, and even more than that he cared about the people close to him. Right and wrong would always come 3rd, and while that maybe made him a not good person, it also made him a good friend.
âWell, there you have it, thatâs my life in a nutshell. Not what many would call a happy story, but it's getting there.â She didnât know what to say. It was a miracle he could even make friends at this point. Everyone he trusted when he was young ended up being just as awful as his father if not much worse. His father didnât really care about people, but he didnât kidnap and experiment on them, which unbelievably made him not the worst role model in Azuraâs life.
âThat spell your mom stopped you from doing, what exactly was that? A spell so dangerous she risked her life to stop you from performing it, not to mention strong enough to apparently kill a dragon.â Surprisingly it was Lily that asked the first question, and she winced. Lily jumped right into the most traumatizing parts huh? Lily had told all of them about what had happened to her own mother, so itâs not like she didnât understand zooming in on that part, but he could probably use a bit of a break after telling them all that.
âThe pinnacle of magic that Iâve ever reached. A spell to rewrite the very rules of reality. So for some context most theory on time magic says you can only go back a few seconds if you try to rewind, and only in an enclosed area. So most commonly when discussing time travel with magic the running theory is that you would jump to an area outside time and space and then re enter somewhere further back in the timestream. The problem with that, is that researchers think that will just create a branching timeline.â He shook his head with a grin laced with self-loathing. âThat wasnât good enough for me, because that would mean there was still a world where I had killed my brother because I was too arrogant to treat him like a real human being. So instead I planned to push time to move backwards across the entire world. 2 whole weeks backwards by that point. Iâll never know what would have happened. Itâs funny I kind of hope it wouldnât have worked, just so my mom didnât have to die for nothing.
She was speechless. Going by the silence, so was everyone else. Even if the spell wouldnât have worked, she knew there was no way Azura would have attempted a spell like that without thorough research and study, and if he thought it was going to work, and had a way to supply enough power to do that, then that spell must have been monstrous. Maybe not even just the pinnacle of magic for Azura, but of anyone ever. The sheer scope of a spell like that was beyond her.
âThatâs amazing?! Do you still have the⦠Iâm sorry, now is not the time for me to be me huh?.â Roran started like normal before realizing how insensitive he was being. Azura surprisingly smiled a little, and seemed pleased with the outburst.
âI can show you the spell work, but only if you promise me that any talk or usage will remain purely theoretical, Iâm not looking to relive my greatest mistakes.â He really was amazing. All that terrible stuff, and yet he moved forward carrying the unbelievable weight of his past, yet he never stopped, never even slowed down. The force of his will was so beyond anything she had ever encountered, and as terrifying as that was, it was also comforting. She knew that nothing really bad would happen to them while he was around, even with their luck being what it was.
âSo not like I donât understand the interest in the personal stuff, but donât you think this otherworldly entity thatâs trying to pull his strings might be the more important thing to focus on.â She winced. She had completely forgotten that part. Azura had started with the stuff he had been hiding from them recently to give them some context for his past.
âNot really much we can do on that point Iâm afraid. Whatever is up with that, itâs well out of our league right now, but it seems to have some kind of plan for me, so at least we know it wonât do anything that will get me killed.â Honestly she kind of felt like even if Azura did die, he wouldnât. He would find some crazy way to come back.
Azura had relaxed now, he was obviously tense with worry about their reactions, but no one had reacted negatively, or at least not that he could see. She had almost had an outburst at the things he had done, but she understood them, and she couldnât honestly say she would have been able to do better in his situation.
âAre you all really ok with all this? I wonât be mad if youâre not you know. I know what Iâve done.â That had to be the part about all of this that hit her the most. She couldnât reconcile who he was with what heâd done. This was the guy who had risked his life to seal her curse, the one who somehow stopped Lilyâs rampage without hurting her, had saved Cynthia from being eaten by a monster, and had been helping them all keep their heads above water at this crazy school.
She had looked up to him, more than she cared to admit. Perhaps she had been too unfair, she had just thought he could do no wrong, that he always knew the answer, and now that she knew it wasnât true, that he was just as fallible as all of them, a part of her still couldnât believe it. âI think we all know you well enough to know you arenât defined by the things your father made you do. You did what you had to do, and youâre doing what you have to to escape all that anyway.â
Was it her? Was she just too judgemental? All the others seemed so quick to forgive and forget, and if she was honest with herself had it been anyone else she would be too, but for some reason she just couldnât accept it âHow can you all be so calm about this?! He lied to us!â It wasnât her that had said it. Katy turned to Azura. âAll this time you told me the secrets were for my own good, but they werenât were they? They were all for you, everything was all about you. Do you know how much it agonized your sister not to know?! She beat herself up for not knowing what happened to your brother for years, and you knew the whole time! She would have forgiven you, I know you know that. So why? Why did you hide all this from us?â
It was kind of funny in a sad way. Her and Katy had issues with the story for 2 very different reasons. She had thought Azura was perfect, and couldnât handle finding out he was as flawed as anyone else. Katy though, Katy had known he wasnât perfect, but she trusted him, trusted that he was doing things in her best interest, but was faced with the realization that Azura was simply afraid of how sheâd react.
âBecause I didnât want to have to kill you too. If I told her, sheâd have told you, and if you found out it would slip that you knew. If my father found out a mere servant knew something that could topple the status he had worked so hard for, what do you think heâd have done? There is a lot you can accuse me of, a lot of things Iâve done, but I have always looked out for you and Selena, donât you dare accuse me of doing otherwise.â Her eyes widened. She had never seen Azura actually angry before, or visually angry anyway, it was always in the eyes, but not this time, this time he looked furious. She wished she could say something to diffuse the tension, but she couldnât bring herself to speak.