Kingdom Fallen

Volume 1 Part 15: Power Shot

"Are you sure it's a good idea to have her go alone?" Lucien asked

"She'll be fine," I said

"You sound sure," he smirked.

Honestly, I was, because even though she had long left the typical line of sight, I could still see her. It was not just her; my sight had been increased to even greater than before. It felt like nothing could escape my sight. It was almost like a full 360 vision. Even things previously hidden were revealed as now I had noticed that we weren't alone in the forest. My eyes were seeing in a way I had never done before allowing me to notice the two observers watching our fight

"What if there are more kidnappers," Lucien asked

"She'll be fine," I said as I had managed to recognize one of the observers

"Anyway how does it feel?" Lucien asked. It didn't take long to figure out what he was referring to so I smiled at him

"It's honestly amazing. I had never felt this powerful in my life. What did you say it was called again?"

"Aura," Lucien said

"Yeah aura. It's amazing," I said

"Yeah for a long time, I've been looking forward to day that I would awaken aura. I have been disappointed multiple times in that pursuit," Lucien said, looking up at the night sky

"Is it everything you were looking for?" I inquired

"I don't know. It's funny, I tried so hard to get it, but now that I did there's only one thing on my mind right now," Lucien said, dropping his head to look at me with a confident smirk

"Okay same here. One last time" I said as I prepared to fight

"Hey, before we begin. I have a question," Lucien said

"What's that?" I asked

"Your eye. I am guessing it gives you the ability to copy any move you've seen before," Lucien asked

"What gives you that idea?" I chuckled, surprised that he had figured it out

"It's the only way to explain how a novice like you can match me in a fight so suddenly," Lucien said

"Okay, I'd rather you not tell anyone," I sighed

"That's fine. But it does make fighting you really difficult. The way I see it, the longer the fight goes on the harder it becomes to fight you," Lucien groaned

"So what are you going to do about it," I playfully jeered

"Simple, I'm just going to knock you out before you get the chance to copy me," he smirked

"Let me see you do that," I said

"I hope you can keep a secret too," Lucien said stretching out his hand to the air

"Secret," I said before suddenly I could see a strange movement in the air as a substance started to gather above his hand. It was a unique form of energy, but it wasn't aura. Unlike the fiery nature of aura, this energy flowed fluidly and smoothly as if it was stream. It gathered in a small ball above his hand

"What is that?"

"What?" He smirked

"What's that energy?" I asked

"I'm not sure how you can see it, but it's called mana," he said

"What does that do?" I asked

"Just look closely, you'll see," Lucien said with a smirk. This was a trap; however, curiosity had gotten the better of me, so I stared at the ball and then it had exploded into a blinging white light.

"What the hell!" I cried out in pain. Though I had already expected it to be a trap. I truly had no way of knowing that it would be a blinding light. The light had caused a stinging pain in my left eye. It was obviously he was trying to temporarily blind me, fortunately that wouldn't work....not entirely at least. Though my left eye was out of commission for the moment, my right eye had remained unaffected by the blinding light so I could still clearly see Lucien as he dashed towards me. He was even faster than before, if I hadn't gotten aura myself, I don't think I would have been able to see him even with the golden eye.

He attacked me with a punch swinging for my head showing just how serious he was about attempting to knock me unconscious. I moved back so that I could make some distance. I could see a look of shock spread across Lucien's face as I grabbed his hand and did a quick spin to throw him away.

But always one to impress he spun his body in the air and landed safely on to the grass

"Okay, what the hell was that? How can you still see?" he asked as I gripped off a piece of my sleeve

"Am not telling you," I chuckled, still wincing as I wrapped my still aching left eye with cloth off my sleeve

"That's not fair," he huffed

"So what? I'll tell you after I beat you up," I said charging towards him. Having just copied his movements I could now throw a proper straight punch, but as expected he dodged it with ease by shifting his body to the side before delivering an uppercut to my chin. I stumbled back for a bit but managed to remain standing. Lucien continued his assault with a punch of his own, though I was able to dodge it and tried to deliver a similar uppercut to him. Unfortunately, it appeared that he was expecting that he blocked my uppercut with his palm before gripping my hand.

"Oh no," was all I managed to say before he swept my feet and began swinging me around before he threw me. Using his similar style, I spun my body in the air and landed on the grass. But I didn't have the time to even catch my breath as Lucien was already in front of me. I could see the punch coming my way, I couldn't dodge it in time, so I lifted my hands and braced for impact.

Despite my preparations, I was still sent backwards with my arms aching. I was quickly put on the defense as he kept up his flurry of attacks; all of which I was just barely able to block or dodge. Enduring through the flurries of assaults, I bided my time and waited until my chance and luckily it came.

During one of his straight jabs, I dodged and swiftly delivered a flawless upcut, which he dodged and that's when it happened. In the long-awaited moment, I grabbed on his shirt and pulled in and planted my head into his with a loud THUD.

Everything went dark as we landed on the ground. It took a moment before I cracked my eyes open to see a gleam of pale blue light. I had landed flat on back, so my gaze laid on to the full moon that hung above the forest. Another moment had passed before I could begin to move. I barely got my head off the grass and wobbled to my feet. After wobbling to-and-fro, I finally caught my balance. The lingering effects of my attack caused the forest to spin and a ringing sound to fill my ears, but still I had to focus. I could guess that it wouldn't take long for Lucien to get back up so I had to ignore the ringing, ignore the fact that I could barely stand and even ignore the blood that was running down my head. But still it was hard for me to even stay upright. The thought that I needed to end the fight crossed my mind, in fact that was the only thought in my mind. Luckily while I was looking out to the distance, I saw the bow that I had discarded. I reached to where I stashed my arrow, and it was surprisingly still intact

The thought crossed my mind. This was how I was going to win. I went over to the bow as quickly as I could which in all honesty wasn't every fast. However, I had managed to make it just as Lucien had begun awakening. Bending over to pick up the bow was torture, yet I did it then I struggled to get back into the position. I aimed it at Lucien who had just managed to get to his feet.

Lucien was dazed and it was clear that his head was still spinning. Using the little time I had left I took a deep breath as I remembered Mister. Again, I copied everything, even down to the way he breathed in the moment. This was my second time attempting this attack and I could tell it was different. The burning sensation of the aura had intensified as it rushed towards through my hands and into my bow. Then it happened the bow cracked.

Hearing the sound Lucien managed to turn towards me. He didn't say anything, infect I thought he could even move his mouth to as I was certain that I wouldn't be able to. However there was no need to say anything Lucien knew what would happen. I was giving him a chance to surrender. I had no idea how to control the force that I was going to fire with, and he certainly had no way of dodging it. I mean this was just a simple spar and we were both certain that a hit from this bow would kill him, however he didn't do anything, except for a smile. I knew what it meant so I released the strong of the bow with all the strength I had left.

With a loud explosion of noise, the bow shattering into pieces and tore through the wind as it raced towards Lucien. I was too weak to even keep my eyes open, so I began falling backwards. Just as I was about to hit the ground, I felt my entire body get scooped up. In my last moments of consciousness, I saw Ms. Mary holding onto me. I smiled at her before turning to the Lucien.

He had also managed to be saved. The arrow was stopped midair with multiple strings wrapped around it. These strings were attached to an elderly man in a fancy suit. There was no way for me to get a good glimpse at him as the left energy I had left faded causing everything to go black