The Crimson Prince： Awakening

At the end, Maya changed back into her leather armor and carried out the clothes in a few bags. Will looked questioningly at her.

"I"m not going to wear anything else besides my black dress until you make good on your promise." She gave him a half smile.

Will thought back to what he had told her a year ago. The promise of showing her the world he grew up in rang clearly in his mind. Looking at her now, he could see just how patient she was being with him. It was almost as if she was saying "life doesn"t start until you show me what yours was like."

"We will go set up our new home," Will said as he grabbed the bags from her hand. He then took the now empty hand in his own. "Then we will go explore where I was raised."

They walked silently down the road and looked at the various other shops.

Will looked through a window of a shop and noticed it was a grocery store. He saw the fresh produce lining the walls just like he would see in his own world. Though on earth, the produce would have a machine that would spray a fine mist on the vegetables every hour like clockwork to keep them fresh. The produce in the shop however, had a blue Crystal over each stall which would spray a mist when needed. "These Crystals take away any use oil or gas back home ever had. Everything here is so clean." He said to Maya as they pa.s.sed the shop.

"Oil?" Maya had never heard Will bring up oil before.

"People in my world have to drill in the ground for oil. The oil is what makes out cars, lights and anything like the lights in the shop we just came from work."

"What if you run out of this oil?" Maya had unknowingly voiced an age old problem.

Will smiled and shook his head. "We have been asking ourselves that for years."

For a few minutes the two of them walked in silence, observing the every day life of the city. Will saw children running freely in the streets and smiled to himself. "This is why I"m here." He thought as he watched them play.

"Clang, clang!" Will heard the sounds of metal clashing against metal coming from a crowded street in front of them. "What could this be?" Will looked at Maya who just shrugged.

Captivated by the sounds of battle, Will turned the corner to see a large cage in the center of a ma.s.sive square. Within the cage were two men in a heated battle. Will could see from a distance that the two had an affinity.

A man that was large in stature held a battle axe in a defensive position. Will could see the man"s muscles bulging with effort to fend off the attacks of the other opponent. Cuts were shown all over his body from where the other man must have landed hits.

Will looked at his opponent and was surprised to see a young man, a few years younger than him by the look. Will saw his hands were covered in rings, one per finger. One of the hands held a pure silver sword with no affinity gem or embroidery. On his bare chest he held three pendants which jingled together every time he sidestepped the axe which slashed towards him in powerful blows. His red hair was held in a ponytail which flew crazily with every move he made. If Will didn"t know it was a battle, he would have mistakened the young man"s movements for dancing.

It seemed like every movement the young man made was calculated. Almost as if he had already seen through the larger man"s fighting style.

"You"re dead, little man!" The large axe wielder bellowed as he swung the axe at the young man"s legs. "You can"t jump around if I chop off your legs!"

Before the axe hit him, Will saw the young man"s hand glow slightly as an explosion thrust him upward and he held onto a bar on the ceiling. He swung his leg up for support as he hung there.

"Fire affinity?" Will"s eyebrow twitched as he leaned over to Maya. "Have you ever seen him before?" But she only shook her head. She was just as confused.

If they were confused before, the young man"s next move made Will speechless. He released control of the sword, returning it to a pendant around his neck. Will noticed a faint glow around the man"s hand as another pendant sprung into action. Shocked, Will observed wide eyed as the young man produced a bow and arrow, the familiar gust of the wind aura surrounding it.

The young man hung from the bar by both of his feet and stragtened himself out, taking a shot with his new weapon. The arrow struck true as it hit the man between the toes on his left foot. "I think it"s time for you to call it quits." He said as he notched another arrow. "The next one will not be a warning shot."

"d.a.m.n aura wielder." The larger man spat as he dropped the axe. "Fine, I give up." He said as he headed for the door to the cage.

The silent square gave way to cheering as the man left the cage. "There you have it folks! The jack of all trades has done it again!" An old announced as he pointed to the cage. "The Crimson Dawn has taken another victim!"

The courtyard roared in applause as the young man dropped from the ceiling and bowed.

"Is there anyone brave enough to step into the ring with this nightmare?" He dared anyone in the crowd to step forth.

"I"ll be right back." Will whispered into Maya"s ear and gave her a wink. Maya only shook her head and watched him walk off.

Will jumped past the crowd and landed at a platform which led to the cage entrance.

"It looks like we have another challenger! A brave one too, by the looks of it. He is only wearing a white shirt and blue pants, he doesn"t even have any shoes!" The announcer declared as he inspected Will. "Does this brave soul have a name?"

"I prefer to remain anonymous." Will simply said.

Nods of understanding spread amongst the crowd. "He probably doesn"t want to share his name so that after he loses, he will not suffer embarra.s.sment." Maya heard an onlooker say to the person next to him. She could only smile and shake her head as she saw will place her bags on the platform before heading in the cage.

"h.e.l.lo." Will waved at The Crimson Dawn. "Let"s have a good match." He said awkwardly as he smiled and scratched the back of his head.

The young man was at a loss when he saw such an awkward carefree guy enter the cage. "You know this is a fight, right?" He asked I"m certainly. This man could have just walked up and not known what he had gotten himself into.

"Yes." Will smiled at the young man and started stretching. The carefree att.i.tude was starting to get on he young man"s nerves.

"You know, if you die in this cage, no matter how important you are its still considered a fare win, right?"

"Really?" Will looked up, wide eyed with a dazzling smile. If one wouldn"t know better, they"d think he won the lottery. "How about I make it a little more interesting?" Will accessed the storage stone he had gotten from Leo and pulled out the large sack that was gifted along with the crystals. He opened it up and pulled out a gold coin for the young man to see. "If you win against me, you can have all the gold in this bag. If you kill me, you can have anything on me." He put the gold away in front of the young man whose eyes grew wide. "But if I win," he continued with a smile. "You will follow me and possibly learn something."

Will raised his hand to the young man. "Deal?"

The young man raised an eyebrow. "All I have to do is defeat you, and you"ll give me all that gold?" Will could see the gears turning in the kids mind. There was a hunger in his eyes that Will understood all too well.

"Then if you don"t mind," he replaced his bow and arrow with a sword. "Let"s get this fight started!"

As soon as the announcer locked the gate, the young man"s hand glowed a deep crimson as he shot out a ball of fire towards Will who dodged it without so much as taking a step.

The split second it took Will to dodge was more than enough time for the young man to summon his sword and charge him.

Will instinctively summoned up his own sword and in a split second, parried the young man"s sword thrust. "You"ve got good reaction time." He said with a smile. He thrust his blade forward, sending the duelist back a few paces. The young man looked surprised at the strength Will showed. "This won"t be as easy as I thought." He said to himself as he readied himself for another charge.

The young man had a guarded appearance. Every inch of him was on high alert, expecting anything Will might try.

Will on the other hand had a carefree look about him. His muscles were relaxed and it seemed as if he were not paying attention to the fight. His eyes lazily rested on the young man. A steady breeze lifted the hem of his white t-shirt.

Knowing he couldn"t catch Will off guard, the young man charged forward for another a.s.sault. His blade turned crimson red as he charged the blade from a stone that rested on one of his rings.

Will brought his blade to match his opponents. A gale of wind surrounding his own. The two blades collided resulting in an explosion that pushed them back.

"So, you are a wind user." The young man said as he raised another ring to his sword. Wind replaced the fire as he once more met Will for another blow.

The two swords met once again in the center of the cage and a dance had started. The young man"s speed with the sword was impressive. The moment Will parried an attack, he w would try striking a place that was completely defenseless, only to be met once again by his opponents blade.

The young man thrust his blade straight towards Will"s center, only to be pushed away by the swift sword he held. He then spun to slash at Will"s side, only to be stopped once more.

The young man held a hand to the ground, using the aura within his ring to propel himself upward, falling once again in a dive thrust towards Will"s head.

Will used his own aura to burst backward, narrowly missing the thrust. "Your understanding of the wind aura is impressive for a borrowed power." He said as he stopped at the other side of the cage. "Did someone teach you?" He held his sword up once more as the young man created a whirlwind at his feet, thrusting him forward to meet his opponents blade.

Will parried a low slash to his legs and side stepped a lunge. The sword of his opponents swept from all angles resulting in a mad dance.

After a few minutes of trying to break down Will"s defences, the young man propelled himself backward. A sheen of sweat covered his skin. "You aren"t bad." He said with a smile. His breathing started to even out. "You might push me to my full power."

The young man dropped the sword in his right hand to his side as he brought his left to his neck. "You seem to be quite knowledgeable with the sword," he grabbed another cross from his collection. "Let"s see what you can do against two."

The cross transformed into a plain silver sword with a crimson inferno engulfing it. He then raised his wind sword to the ready. It looked as though a storm had set in place of his swords as the gale of wind and blazing fire met.

"This is getting interesting!" Will brought both hands to his sword. He then imagined them splitting into two. In a moment he was holding his usual gold and silver sword with the ruby pommel in one hand, and the identical sword with an opal in the other. He allowed his twin auras to rage as the inferno of fire collided with the storm of wind. His face showed nothing but delight as he rushed forward to meet his opponent.

"Two weapons from one pendant!" The young man sucked in a breath of surprise as Will rushed him.

A gust of humid air rushed from the arena as the four blades collided one after another. A storm brewed as they twisted around each other, both searching for an opening. "How did you do it?" The young man cried from the center of the storm. "How did you split the weapon?"

His pace quickened as he ducked under one of Will"s blades, then met the other with his own at his side. The two danced within the center of an inferno. To the outside of the cage, one would only be able to see sparks from swords within a crimson tornado.

"I"ll show you after this fight!" Will yelled delightedly as he pushed himself upward, flipping over the young man"s head. Their blades collided while over his head.

Though very small, the young man saw a crack within Will"s defenses as he landed. He took the chance and swung his sword with all his might to the small of Will"s back. The speed of the blow was so fast, he could barely keep up with it.

Everything stopped for a breath of time. The cyclone of raw energy dissipated, and the crowd gasped at the sight they were privileged to see. "This can"t be possible." The young man gasped as he looked at his sword.

His sword had indeed connected with his opponents back, yet it met resistance that he wasn"t expecting. A flowing pure black cloak waved from behind Will. It was embroidered with gold around the edges, and a crown bathed in golden fire right where the sword had hit.

"Sorry for not introducing myself sooner." Will said calmly as he turned around. "My name is Will."