The Three Dark Angels

Azreal smiled. "Graduate Aegis."

'Huh?' Angelus' mind asked as he turned to Azreal, slightly confused. Angelus was convinced that Azreal would choose to fight the easier fight first, against himself. He didn't think Azreal would go for Aegis first.

Aegis was much quicker on the uptake than Angelus, and gave Azreal the credit he deserved. Azreal had made the smart move.

"The Element of Chaos has chosen to fight Graduate Aegis! You two may proceed. Graduate Angelus, you are dismissed until the finals." The Grand Dragoon announced.

Angelus gave a confused glanced as Aegis and Azreal proceeded to the field, where Master Rubadron had been waiting.

"The rules here in the field are slightly different, the fence is the edge of the ring, which shouldn't be that much of a concern to you if you have the slightest awareness. Now, for the use of magic, it can be used for defensive purposes only, and only defensive elements. Wind, water, and earth. You may use ice blocks, but not icicles. Fire is out of the question, not even for defense, do not use fire. And most importantly, safety is paramount, just as it was in the rings. Just because you have a large field to fight in does not mean you fight to the end. You may start at any distance, but only at the signal. Good luck, Graduates." Master Rubadron waved to Aegis and Azreal as he walked away.

"Thank you, Master Rubadron!" Both Aegis and Azreal responded with a bow, showing just how well trained they were.

Azreal and Aegis then faced one another, with Azreal wearing a grin.

"Before we start, I'd like to know why. I may be giving you too much credit." Aegis asked.

"Well, you are going to be the more difficult fight, and if that's the case, then I'd rather fight you in top form than after being battered by Angelus, and that's assuming I can get by him. However...I will admit that it's a little more personal than that. Angelus isn't the only one who is looking to beat you between the three of us." Azreal admitted, still wearing his grin.

"I look forward to the challenge, and I give you credit for making the smart move." Aegis answered with a small grin of his own forming.

"Appreciated." Azreal replied.

That would be the last spoken word between the two of them as they waited for the signal to begin.

Azreal smiled as he formulated a plan in his mind just in time to see the trails of the fireworks launching into the night sky. And it was especially exciting that now he could use magic and is able to fight in open space.

A true Magi fight could not be fought properly being confined to such a tiny place as a ring.

The flashes were Azreal's signal, and he quickly bent to the ground and place both palms flat on the earth at his feet, keeping an eye on Aegis who had not moved and was playing defensively.

Exactly as Azreal expected.

Azreal began pouring his magic into the ground, and several small walls of earth began to rise from the ground in a full circle around Aegis. Each wall wasn't much taller than Aegis, topping out at eight feet at best, were six inches wide, and only about an inch thick.

The walls were numerous and randomly scattered about in a very dense fashion, turning the area around Aegis into what could almost be considered a maze. What made the situation worse for Aegis was how close the walls were to him, and, how many different exit points Azreal gave himself. Six exits were scattered around Aegis in a 360 degree manner, with all of them a yard or less away.

Azreal darted into the maze without hesitation, trying to navigate to the center before Aegis oriented himself and formed some sort of counter strategy. That didn't turn out to be an issue once Azreal emerged at the center and threw a perfect right hook on the right side of Aegis' face, blindsiding him completely and forcing him against a nearby wall.

Excited, Azreal raised his fist and prepped himself for what might be the knockout blow on Aegis but had taken too long to do so, and Aegis was able to both avoid Azreal's 'final' blow as well as get a quick jab on Azreal's nose. This was quickly followed by Aegis kicking Azreal away from him, knocking Azreal up against a wall, and Aegis quickly poured his magic into his feet and jumped out of Azreal's 'maze' in a single jump, clearing it and landing back in the open field.

Azreal rubbed his nose in pain once again. 'That's fucking twice! What, do I have a fucking sign on it that says 'Hit Me'!?' Azreal thought to himself as he navigated back outside his little maze by foot as he continuously wiped the blood which was slowly dripping out of his nose.

Azreal also took a moment to ponder the reason on why Aegis backed out when he had an opening. Cowardice is not Aegis' style...no, he wasn't running away, he's dictating the terms of the fight by forcibly changing it's location.

Azreal emerged from his maze and saw Aegis not too far off ahead, watching Azreal very carefully. After a few moments, Azreal came up with his second strategy, hoping that Aegis could still be caught off guard one more time. If not, it was going to have to be a head to head fight, exactly what Azreal is hoping to avoid at all costs.

Azreal readied a strong gust of wind in his closed right fist, which he then thrusted, not at Aegis, but at the ground in front of Aegis. Aegis was forced to avert and shield his eyes as he realized what Azreal had planned as the gust of wind punched the ground in front of Aegis, kicking up a small cloud of dirt, dust, and even mud which engulfed Aegis.

Although the cloud of debris only lasted for a second or two at best, it was time enough for Azreal to get in close, only for Azreal to fall for his own trick as Aegis repeated what Azreal had just done, since he had guessed correctly that Azreal was going to run straight at him and therefore didn't need his eyes to see his target.

Aegis followed this with raising a wall directly in front of himself, to give him a few moments to clear his eyes and jump over the wall, only to find that Azreal was gone. Aegis' eyes darted left and right, but Azreal was nowhere to be found. What was to be found was running footsteps behind him. Aegis turned just in time for Azreal to ram him full force with a boom that nearly everyone felt, which was followed by a right uppercut into Aegis' right cheek, knocking him to the ground.

Aegis raised his hands to protect his head as Azreal fell on top of Aegis, going for the finish as Azreal tried to punch through Aegis' arms. Unfortunately, Azreal had forgotten just how athletic Aegis was, and hadn't considered the possibility of Aegis kicking him in the back of the head, which is exactly what Aegis did.

With Azreal disoriented from the strike, Aegis had enough time to place on open palm on Azreal's stomach, and blast Azreal off of him with a strong gust of wind, with Azreal landing a few yards away.

Although most of Azreal's punches had hit Aegis' arms, quite a few had grazed his head hard, but he didn't really appreciate just how hard those hits were until he tried to stand and found that he had a little trouble doing so. A few yards away, Azreal was having an even harder time trying to stand, collapsing to his knees on his first attempt at standing, with one hand clutching his stomach and gasping for air as he did so.

Azreal's eyes shot to Aegis, followed by an irritated express on Azreal's face then without warning, Azreal charged Aegis, switching to a full out offense. Aegis threw his open palms to the ground, creating a new wall directly in front of him and cutting Azreal off, who had stopped short in front of the wall.

'Damn that's a tall fucking wall.' Azreal thought to himself as he looked up...

BOOM!

It was a clean open shot on the right side of Azreal's head by Aegis, who had dashed around the wall, saw that Azreal had fallen for the hasty trap, and showed no mercy.

Azreal fell unconscious even before he hit the ground, and hadn't felt a single thing.



"Uh...wow...uh...wha...wha..."

"Azreal." Azreal barely heard his name and tried to look up and see who had spoken his name. The voice wasn't familiar at the moment. The world was blurry and still moving as he tried to look up. But there was something in front of him, something that was starting to come into focus.

"Azreal." Azreal heard his name more clearly this time, and looked up to see a blurry Aegis in front of him, which was coming into focus.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Aegis' voice was now clear, and Azreal's eyes lowed to the object that had been in front of him, which had been two of Aegis' fingers.

"Two." Azreal answered.

"Which fingers?" Aegis asked next.

"Huh?"

"Which two fingers am I holding up?" Aegis asked again.

"Oh, uh, the pointer finger, and the middle finger."

Aegis nodded. "Good, what's your name?"

"Huh, what the fuck is this?" Azreal asked back.

"Checking to make sure your memory isn't damaged, deal with it. What is your full name?"

Azreal sighed. "Azreal NoName, no, wait, Graduate Azreal. Sorry, I'm still not quite used to that yet."

Aegis nodded. "What's our birthday?"

"New Years day, Martius the first, 2008."

"How far away is that?"

"Tonight, when the finals begin. Wait, oh shit what the fuck am I doing!?"

Aegis stood and offered a hand. "Sorry Azreal, but the fight's over after that. The official declaration was made while I was bringing you back. You did well."

Azreal then noticed that he wasn't alone with Aegis, for they were surrounded by several of their fellow classmates.

"Fuck." Azreal sighed as he accepted Aegis' hand and his defeat. Aegis pulled Azreal to his feet, and the crowd began to cheer upon seeing Azreal stand with his own power.

"You were awesome Azreal, you really had Aegis on the ropes, I thought for sure you had gotten him when you had him trapped." Fortuna said, who was at Azreal's side.

Azreal sighed. "I did, but I took too long to execute. I got too excited about the fact that I had caught him."

Fortuna smirked. "Hmm..."

Azreal grumbled. "Please don't say it, I already have a big enough headache as it is."

"Nah, I won't be mean. I'll save it for when I need it."

"Gee thanks. That's not mean at all." Azreal responded with heavy sarcasm.

The other Graduates began applauding Azreal for his performance and Aegis for his win, and when the initial crowd broke up, Angelus joined them. Shortly afterward, the fireworks were launched, signaling that both the finals, as well as the start of the new year, began in one hour.

But, the finale began at the half hour mark.

The system of timed fireworks that surrounded the arena made their true presence known once the finale had begun. It was a steady stream of brilliant lights, that formed a complete circle that completely surrounded the entire area, and it was here that Angelus and Aegis made their way to the fields for the final round.

A lot of speculation had taken place over the past thirty minutes to an hour of who would win. Surprisingly, quite a few had faith in Angelus' abilities, considering that Azreal had given Aegis a tougher time than what had been expected.

Angelus had also proven himself along the way, topping out Zaeco and beating Scorpia in a competition of endurance, making Angelus only a slight underdog in the eyes of most rather than hardly even given a chance.

Angelus stared at Aegis, not caring about the lights in the sky. This was his chance, his chance to finally be number one, after all of these years. Finally, Angelus might be able to break through Aegis' shadow, and it was an opportunity he would not miss.

Aegis watched the fireworks with a calm expression, enjoying the moment before the finals began. Aegis understood that when it came to Angelus, he was going to have to toss any sort of planning to the wind. Angelus had a knack for overcoming plans and/or handicaps.

Angelus thought the same thing, and expected this fight to be a long one. As long as he didn't make a big mistake, then all he would have to do essentially is outlast Aegis, and not necessarily outfight him. The strategy annoyed Angelus, but Aegis was simply too good to fight head on.

Five minutes before the New Year, the number of fireworks in the sky increased exponentially, as did the thunderous claps that came with them. This greatly tensed the atmosphere between Aegis and Angelus as both of them focused on each other, waiting for the final bang that would begin the new year.

One minute before the New Year, the fireworks abruptly stopped, and silence filled the air. This was it, the final minute of the year which was about to come to a close. A large drumbeat echoed next, signaling that thirty seconds were left. The drumbeat came again at the fifteen second mark, and the countdown became vocal, the chants of all present easily echoing through the fields.

"Fifteen."

"Fourteen."

"Thirteen."

"Twelve."

"Eleven."

"Ten!" At this mark, the chanting became more powerful.

"Nine!"

"Eight!"

"Seven!"

"Six!"

"FIVE!" It was here that a single, almost perfect circle of fireworks was launched into the air all at once, the single line easy to follow from any vantage point.

"FOUR!" Angelus took a breath, suddenly nervous. How the fuck could seconds feel so fucking long!?

"THREE!" Aegis simply watched Angelus carefully. Recklessly charging in would be a mistake, a mistake that Aegis will allow Angelus to make.

"TWO!"

"ONE!"

"GOOOOO!!!!!!" Everything happened at all once. The fireworks, with almost perfect timing, all exploded on the crowd's mark, the thunderous boom echoing through all present, and out of a reaction to both the fireworks and the crowd's booming chant.

The power of the sound generated was too much for both Angelus and even Aegis to deny, and the two of them ran at each other right on cue. Angelus threw the first few punches without hesitation, gauging Aegis' reactions with Aegis returning some of his own, and it was painfully obvious that this was off to a very slow start.

Neither of them even used magic at all, the complete opposite of the flashy display that Azreal had staged, and those who knew Hothead personally couldn't believe it. Hothead, fight on the big stage with an absolute calm demeanor that matched Aegis!?

Yet that was what it was for the first several minutes as Aegis and Angelus simply traded punches and kicks back and forth. At first, there was no gap between the two to be found, but slowly, as the fight progressed, a crack began to form.

Angelus growled as he tried to breach Aegis' stance and defenses, but it was no good. Aegis was keeping his arms very close and was simply doing little more than throwing jabs and playing defense. Angelus' efforts were rewarded with yet another jab into his sides by Aegis, and Angelus knew for sure that he would be pissing blood for weeks after this as he jumped back and fell to a knee, with Aegis patiently watching.

It was just no fucking use! No matter what, nothing will go through. It was one thing if he only had to outlast Aegis, but by the Creators he needed to get in a shot or two. Angelus glared at Aegis as Aegis' eyes remained on him.

It was frustrating, seeing Aegis (looking down) on him like that, Mr. Perfect-Know-It-All-Aegis, the same way he always was.

Angelus then let out a big sigh and stood. He couldn't let Aegis eat away at his patience otherwise he will make things worse. Blindly attacking Aegis in aggravation would be even worse than what is happening right now, Aegis would make that certain.

The problem was, what the fuck was he supposed to do? After a few moments of aggravated planning in which nothing came, Angelus simply figured 'fuck it' and ran straight at Aegis, intending to go all out and not rest until one of them goes down.

In response, Aegis played even more defensively and threw fewer punches at Angelus, to Angelus' continuously growing frustration.

"Fucking fight me already!" Angelus finally shouted in mid fight.

"I am." Was the response. This was enough for Angelus to stop the fight for a moment by backing away.

"No you aren't! You're just fucking standing there with your arms up like 'Hey look at me, my face is so precious that I'm going to sit here and guard it the entire time'. It's fucking annoying!" Angelus shouted with both a frustrated and mocking voice has he held his fists to his face in a similar fashion to Aegis.

"You're honestly going to sit there and complain about someone's style of fighting-"

"I'm not saying that! What I'm saying is that you're fucking holding out on me!" Angelus shouted back.

"Same difference. It's a fight, it's not up to you to dictate your opponent's style of fighting. More importantly, what's gotten into you?"

"I want to win! But it won't count if you keep holding back on me!" Angelus shouted as he ran at Aegis once more.

Aegis watched Angelus' expressions carefully, suspicious. It hadn't really been considered or thought of, since this particular side of them hadn't shown itself in years, not since the time Sabrina came around. (There was when Benjamin had come as well, though only Aegis and Benjamin were the only living witnesses of that event, which would turn out to be the last time.) But, Aegis realized, this was a good time for that element to try and surface. And it might have already started in Angelus' case. Like it or not, he was going to have to meet Angelus with his own (aggression) and try to end this before it gets out of hand.

And just like that, the pace of the fight changed face. It started when Aegis threw two closed fists together out in front of him, creating a strong gust of wind. Angelus instinctively reacted as he threw his arms up and tried to jump over it, but got caught just as he began to jump and was thrown backward in the air at a pretty good speed. Fast enough that he had to jump off the ground as soon as he touched it in order to keep his footing, and still had to force himself to stop when he landed the second time.

A rumbling directly in front of him did not allow Angelus to admire his nice landing as his eyes rose and watched as large rows of walls began rising directly in front of one another as though they were multiple sets of protective gates, and those gates were closing in on him fast.

Angelus jumped back several times to avoid being caught in between walls when he realized to look behind him to see that he was approaching both the edge of the ring, and the crowds that were behind the rather flimsy old stone wall. Angelus turned back to the incoming walls and quickly considered his options.

He couldn't destroy them with any sort of offensive magic, since that was forbidden for this fight. (Though a part of him really wanted to break that rule at this particular moment.) They were too wide and too fast to try and move to the side now. But, it wasn't impossible to jump over, for Aegis wasn't raising the walls very high.

Why didn't he think of that in the first place?

Angelus jumped at an angle to the incoming walls, clearing them and avoiding being caught in them. Aegis was already on his way, though he was still a good distance away, but Angelus saw him thrust another fist out. Angelus rolled out of the way, but Aegis, who had been mindful of the crowd behind Angelus, had aimed low and the gust of wind struck the ground a short distance past where Angelus had been standing.

Angelus, careful to keep his eye on the incoming Aegis, saw that another blast was following. This time, Angelus place his hands on the ground, and a protective wall rose in front of him which took Aegis' attack, shattering as it did so.

'NOW!' Angelus' mind shouted as he saw an opening through the debris and ran into the cloud without hesitation, keeping his eyes closed and arms raised in front of his face as he ran straight through the rubble.