Leo cracks his knuckles and neck, shaking his arms and shoulders to loosen up. “Don’t worry about that. You’ve got your silver card on you, right? You’ll be fine.” Leo bounces up and down a few times, swinging his arms around him. He takes a deep breath and then prepares to fight. “I’ll go easy on you.” He gives Victor a wink.
Victor walks over to his spot in the circle, nervously thinking,I’m not sure if I should do this.Victor looks over at Karl, standing at the circle’s edge with his arms crossed. Karl stands tall, with his muscular chest puffed out. Karl gives Victor an assuring nod. Victor takes a deep breath and looks at Leo, waiting for the signal to start.
Karl opens his arms wide, his palms facing outward. Using Air Magic, he creates a dome. The clouds swirl around in the barrier like little hurricanes. Victor watches as the dome traces the circle on the floor and connects to the top. As soon as the dome is completed, Karl swings his hands into a loud clap, creating an air pulse from his hands as the signal to . . .
“FIGHT!” Karl’s shout echoes around the warehouse.
“Why all the fanfare?” Leo comments to Karl.
Karl shrugs his shoulders and smiles brightly, amused by Leo’s annoyance.
Leo turns his attention back to Victor and gives him a devilish smirk as he prepares for his first move. His hands start to glow yellow and orange, engulfed in flames. He throws an arm as if tossing a frisbee, and a fireball is flung toward Victor. Victor throws a palm outward and sends an air pulse to block the fireball, but it doesn’t stop it.
Victor becomes worried, flings his hands out in front of him, and turns his face, anticipating being hit with a fireball. Heslowly opens one eye and sees that he has captured the fireball in an air bubble. Before he could react, Leo throws another fireball, making contact, and Victor went flying back.
Victor coughs while laying on his back. “Ugh, Fuck! What the hell, man?” Victor groans as he struggles to get back onto his feet.
Leo flings another fireball, which Victor blocks perfectly. “I told you I’m not going easy on you, young empath.”
Victor gets back on his feet and starts throwing air punches. Leo uses his forearms to block and knock them around. Leo then spins around and uses both palms to throw a green flame. Victor twirls his wrists together, creating a white tornado from his cupped palms. The tornado revolves around the flame.
Karl nods, his face very impressed. “Well, looks like I don’t need to show him that move tomorrow,” he says aloud.
The tornado sucks the flame in, causing the tornado to become the flame. It spins around between Leo and Victor. Victor pulls his arms back a little, then pushes his palms forward, tossing the spell back at Leo.
Leo flies back and gets knocked into the barrier.
Victor is shocked as he still holds the green-flamed tornado, “Holy Crap! I’m so sorry, Le–”
Before Victor can finish, Leo rolls a large red fireball like a bowling ball. The impact causes Victor to lose the green twister as he falls forward. As the green flame scatters throughout the dome, Karl quickly waves his hand across the air, conjuring his Water Magic to eliminate the flame before it causes any damage. Leo gets back on his feet and sees Victor face down on the floor, trying to get up.
“You let your guard down. You need to stop doing that if you plan to win,” Leo shouts from across the circle. “And what did I say about fire tornadoes?”
Victor becomes upset with himself. He picks himself up as Leo gets ready to throw another attack. As Victor returns to his feet, he makes fists with his hands, and air swirls around them. He starts tossing air bubbles the size of basketballs and just as solid. Leo counterattacks and blasts the bubbles into smoke. He looks over at Victor and starts to get nervous. Victor’s eyes are glowing.
“Um, Victor,” Leo swallows a dry gulp, “your eyes.”
Victor stops and stands straight. “Are you just saying that to declare me the winner?”
“Victor! Are you in there?” Karl shouts.
Victor looks confused at Karl. “Of course, I am. What’s wrong with both of you?”
Leo takes a chance and starts throwing fireballs at a rapid pace. Victor snaps back into the fight and defends himself from Leo’s attacks. He dodges the rain of fireballs and starts jumping and stepping on air-made steps under his feet, allowing him to move around the circle. When Victor gets a chance, he creates an air rope and lassos Leo’s wrists together.
Leo looks down at his wrists and then at Victor, suddenly shocked. Before Leo can counteract the spell, Victor pulls Leo off his feet. When Leo is a couple of feet away, Victor throws his palm out and pushes Leo, slamming him to the ground.
When Victor lands on his feet, he looks over at Leo. Leo is not moving. The glow in Victor’s eyes disappears, and he rushes over to Leo in fear.
“Fuck! Leo!” He runs over and drops down to Leo’s side. “Leo! Leo, are you okay?”
Victor didn’t see it coming.
Leo smacks a flame into Victor’s face, causing him to fly back. Victor rolls around when he lands and finishes on his back.
Karl ends the fight. “Winner! Warlock Oliveira!”
Victor groans as he lies on the ground. As he opens his eyes, he sees the top of the dome starting to disappear. Leo looks down at him with his hands on his hips. Leo clicks his tongue against his teeth as though he is disappointed.
