Magic Bracket: Final: Zephiros VS. Aegon

Aegon entered the arena. His black robes dragged slightly in the sand, his bracelet sparkled in the light. He was pleased to hear about his opponent in the finals. Someone he had met before the match began. He had told the man he was only here for the melee but the tournament officials asked him if he would like to participate in the magical bracket as well. Who knew it would be Zephiros and Aegon in the finale.

Aegon looked across the sand of the arena at the opposite entryway, waiting for his opponent to enter.

Aegon had crossed his arms and hid his hands in his robe's sleeves. He smirked, "Indeed, I did not think I would be fighting in this branch of the tournament. Yet her we meet again... Shall we see who is the more skilled magician?" He removed his hands from his sleeves and activated the shield he carried with him. A long oval of crystalline materials formed from the bracelet, an occasional burst of magical energy pulsed through it and slammed the bottom end into the ground. "Who ever wins buys drinks?"

His other piece of a equipment he had kept hidden behind its own magic through out the tournament. It was time to reveal its presence, Zephiros knew of their existence but not their purpose; one of Aegon's golden orbs shone in the light of the sun and floated from a place above Aegon's right shoulder to his right hand, floating gently just outside the touch of his palm. Its surfaced was etched with gold geometric patterns of diamonds, rhombuses, and octagons; some of the patterns coalesced to almost look like snowflakes. Pale milky blue gems dotted the orb's surface, a pattern in their placement similar to the ones etched into its surface.

Aegon was ready for the fight to begin, his equipment prepared, his challenge and greeting made.

At long last, the final of the Magic Bracket is to begin. The crowd, though their enthusiasm has waned over the course of the day, still has enough left to roar loudly. As the final match of the magic bracket, this fight ought to be the greatest spectacle yet. 

Once more, for the final time today, Marceline takes to the field. Her overalls are in something of a state, having been soiled rather thoroughly by the dust kicked up in the fights. Magic duels are somewhat messy, after all. Similarly, her hair is a bit matted, a bit sandy, and a tad signed on the top. However, her grin has only widened, to a point that might come off as almost insane. 

However, that doesn't seem to stop her. Crossing from one competitor to the next, she ensures that the tournament enchantments to prevent lasting harm are properly in place. They are. Moving back, she doesn't bother telling the competitors how this works. They know. Instead, she simply stands, and shortly thereafter, the sound of a gong rings out across the arena, signaling the start of the match. 

As the sound of the gong can be heard Zephiros takes in the crowd that roared around him, smiling softly. It seemed Aegon would charge his magic for now instead of charging in, so Zephiros figured he should do that as well. However, he had another thing in mind as well as he brought his flute which he brought into the arena with him to his lips, and began softly at first blowing into the instrument a soothing melody. Magic would wreathe his form, growing in intensity as the song continued.

Soon the sands of the arena would begin dancing about in the soft winds that seemed to spawn from the notes he played as he amassed more magical energy. The song could be heard by the entire arena as if he was sitting right next to them playing it. At some point during the song Zephiros had closed his eyes, carried away by the melodious song. However he could still tell where Aegon was as his magical song that floated in the gentle winds told him where his opponent was.

As the song continued and the winds grew stronger, the tone of the piece would seem to change to something stronger, more forceful. The winds would pick up in speed to keep up with the new tempo that was played. Zephiros would open his eyes at this point as well, revealing the wells of energy he had gathered by the glowing magic that seemed to radiate from his eyes. The wind immediately surrounding him would also seem to be infused with streams of mana that originated from the flute he played. 

The wind would pick up enough to send sand flying all about the arena, creating conditions of low visibility as a sandstorm began to brew.

It would be somewhat difficult for Zephiros to see within the sandstorm, indeed, at least up until his next move, which was to lace the winds of the sandstorm with his own magic, letting it flow on the winds and grant him a sixth sense of sorts which let him detect where the flow of air was hindered. 

It was quite easy to determine the location of Aegon in the arena in this way as he could tell easily where the walls and floors of the arena were located. It was only a mater of pinpointing any other solid presence that was within the arena that broke the bounds of the walls and sandy floors and hindered he flow of air.

With Zephiros' newly acquired senses in the sandstorm, he was able to more accurately determine his current situation in the fight, and once he realized what Aegon had been up to with putting up a protective ice barrier, well...

"I think its time I tried one of my new tricks!" Zephiros called out gleefully, his voice echoing from all directions from where Aegon stood. Zephiros was careful to manipulate the sound of his voice through the wind to keep his position unknown. 

After a couple of ticks, an intense vortex of air began forming near Aegon's ice barrier, compressing and growing faster by the moment. After a couple of seconds the sheer friction of the air would cause what appeared to be flames to appear out of thin air as the heat levels rose. This firey wind vortex would continue to grow in heat and size as it approached the ice barrier, seeking to melt it.

The fire storm that Zephiros had started used up most of his remaining magical energy and thus the sandstorm would also dissipate and visibility would increase.The cold would get to Zephiros pretty quickly, and he would zip up his windbreak for now, though he figured soon that would not be enough. It was getting cold pretty quickly.

As the winds settled Zephiros would put away his wooden flute for now, having finished his song. He would frown slightly when he saw Aegon still standing, growing slightly more worried at that point, "Well that didn't seem to work as well as I hoped..." he mused, more to himself than anyone else. Though Aegon would hear it. 

Gathering mana once again Zephiros would prepare himself now for more of a head on battle with Aegon, with the cover of his sandstorm now gone, and his flames dissipated.

Standing across the arena, Zephiros could see the glowing eyes in the midst of the swirling blizzard. The storm grew ever stronger by the moment, the pull of magic from the local ley-lines palpable as pulled on them hungrily. The crowd that surrounded Zephiros was still audible even through the heavy winds that had formed inside the arena, the sound of thousands of people all roaring in anticipation for the climax of this so far spectacular fight, the sheer volume of the crowd nearly overwhelming.

He wouldn't go out without a fight, and he would make damn sure the match would at least be entertaining. His own pride as a performer demanded it, craved it. No audience would be left disappointed after his performance, "Time for the final act!"

Zephiros gritted his teeth and began to draw mana, visible sparks of energy dancing around him as it was violently pulled from the local pool. Adrenaline was plenty in supply as well at this point as the magic grew in intensity, and soon the swirling winds around Zephiros would pick up considerably in speed, circling ever more tightly to begin forming a tornado. The winds of the tornado would begin to glow with the occasional streak of intense white light as Zephiros poured magic directly into the whirlwind to increase its speed beyond any natural levels in short time.

The streaks of white light that swirled within the growing cyclone seemed to streamed directly from Zephiros' palms, held upwards towards the mighty tornado that began to form before him. The amount of magic being channeled at once would also cause Zephiros' eyes to glow in an intense white light much like Aegon’s had, along with some other effects due to drawing energy at such a rapid rate.

All along Zephiros’ arms the mana gathered and became energized flowing across the outstretched limbs in twisting streams of magic towards his palms where they would coalesce into two separate flows of magical energy. The energy was quite potent and would cause singeing all along his arms and the clothing worn over them as it passed closely over them. This would definitely be Zephiros’ last spell of the fight, as he was completely overloading all of his internal leylines to draw the magic needed to complete the attack.

However, when the tornado was finally completed, its winds would have grown to such a speed that it would tear apart anything it came into contact with, much like a tornado of blades. This effect would be helped by the sands that got caught up in the winds, adding actual substance to the deadly vortex.

As Zephiros strained to complete the spell he would let out a roar of exertion, forcing the last bit of energy needed into the tornado. The sound was drowned out by the tornado, which had grown to such a volume as to even overshadow the roaring of the crowd.

Zephiros would be lost briefly in those few chaotic moments immediately following his completion of the spell, and Aegon would find the tornado tearing through the arena towards him now, a seemingly unstoppable force of wind and magical energy.