The Azra-El Series Ch. 19

Elyssa smiled at them, but Blaze felt the tension in her hands. He stepped in and wrapped his arms around her.

"But, it's fine if you happen to lose. I will willingly throw my first YAMAT to Siofra. Three YAMAT titles is as good as four," he whispered into her ear.

Elyssa's body relaxed under his hug, and she held him for a few moments, while her heartbeat steadied against his chest.

"Alright!" she said, pushing away and bringing out her spear. "Who is the best?" she asked him.

"You are!"

She turned around and Blaze sent her off with a friendly slap on the back. "Big win, Ely! Big Win! You're da best!" he and Siofra shouted at her back.

Support for Elyssa and Brija at the tournament was mostly split. Elyssa had always been the favorite of the Aranyans, but Brija, as the underdog, gained support from some of the Caledonians.

The duelers met each other in the sky, and a reinvigorated Blazing Band began to play music. A bit drunk on apple cider, Blaze began to sing as his friends went wild on the instruments.

~Ellie, you'll be okay! You'll be okay! You'll be okay Ellie!

She's been struck by, she's been hit by, a smooth criminal!

Sky had been left at the Xian Embassy because Blaze wasn't sure if he was ready to be in front of so many people, but Splash rode on Blaze's shoulder, and chirped into the mike along with him.

The duel started off seemingly in Elyssa's favor. In a serious fight, Elyssa was the type of duelist who went hard from the start, and loved to build up momentum, to slowly overwhelm her opponent.

However, Brija was no pushover, and had three tournaments-worth of experience. She was defensive and prudent at the start, allowing Elyssa to tire herself out. When Elyssa's initial burst waned, she counterattacked.

Despite his new drunken-singing career, Blaze paid attention to the match, and was awestruck. He had never seen anyone fight at that level. It wasn't just that Brija and Elyssa were faster and stronger than Blaze's peers in the USMAT, there was a qualitative difference in the way they fought. The fact that the two angels were of similar strengths made it all the more interesting.

And then, there were the special moves. His opponents in the USMAT had used special moves, but they could only use one or two, and only a few times in a match. However, every chain of attacks in Brija's and Elyssa's duel ended with a special ability of some sort. The two angels had at least five or six moves in their arsenal, and the way they used them was not only creative, but impeccably timed; especially Brija's.

Both angels used spears, but they used them very differently. Brija utilized her longer reach to ward off Elyssa's incessant attacks, and waited for opportune moments to send in sharp, powerful thrusts. Elyssa combined her high-level movement technique with her indomitable energy, to rapidly move around the older angel, constantly probing for a weakness. It made Blaze wonder if the fight between Lynn and Siofra had been similar.

Fifteen minutes quickly elapsed without any indication of a clear winner. The two opponents looked tired, but neither of them were done. They could easily go on for another fifteen minutes, but the umpire called an end to the match.

"Brija Dhara, 20 points," she announced, but it didn't mean a thing.

"Elyssa Marigold, 22 points. Victor: Elyssa Marigold!"

Blaze chucked the VP aside and rushed into the arena to give Elyssa a mighty hug, as tremendous applause went around the stadium. There were very few who were dissatisfied with the quality of the match.

***

That evening, the HU and the Caledonians arranged an awards ceremony for the tournaments. There was also a party afterwards, but both events were too boring to be written about, as the Caledonians had to do everything in a prim and proper manner. That day, Blaze was introduced to the true snobbiness of the Caledonian nobles.

So, the next day, he arranged for a real party to celebrate Elyssa's victory. In reality, it was Azalea's idea, and Aahna had done all the arranging part, but he still had the audacity to call it his party.

All the partygoers were supposed to meet at a private water park in the East Cloud District. The owner of the water park owed Azalea's mother a favor, so they essentially had the entire water park for the day.

Every angel, Undine, pixie, or any other race was welcome to their party, and there was no dress code or etiquette. The only etiquette was to have fun. The other rule was that no one had to talk to anyone, unless they really wanted to.

The party started out early in the afternoon and went on with no end in sight. Jie Er and Rebecca stayed a couple of hours before sneaking away together. Anastasia Marigold and a few other older angels made short appearances, but they quickly left, to leave the revelries to the young.

Blaze and Elyssa celebrated like it was the last party they would go to. They had both been under tremendous pressure, Blaze because of Sky and Elyssa because of the expectations, and the sudden release from it made them let go.

They rode the rides and slides, crashed into the water pads, chucked their friends through water sprays, and bombed the Undine into the depths. They had good food and played every single game that the merry merangels could come up with.

Finally, as the sun began to set, they joined Siofra in an artificial hot spring swimming pool. They leaned against the stone walls of the pool, and watched Sky paddle after a perpetually energetic otter, who dived in and out of the water. Splash had been having a blast at D'Warka. There was water everywhere and plenty of fish to hunt.

"Blazey," Siofra said, tiredly. She had spent most of her time with Ragna and Tonya, and recently gone down the sea-serpent ride fifteen times in a row. Thus, her stomach felt a little queasy.

Ragna and Tonya were currently having an arm-wrestling match on a nearby boulder, and Blaze had no idea where his minion army was. The last time he had seen them, they were involved in a massive game of Ships and Captains, consisting of two opposing armies of fifty ships.

"What?" Blaze asked Siofra, expecting her to throw up and need his help. She had once again indulged in a little too much of the mead, which Blaze had smuggled in with Ragna's help.

Contrary to his expectations, Siofra suddenly pulled out the Tixiki needle from her ring, and offered it to him.

Blaze shook his head. "It's yours now, bird brain. If displaying a Righteous Fury doesn't make you worthy of it, I don't know what will. You even defeated Nikolett with it. Just keep it."

"It is useless to me now. I will not use it anymore."

"What do you mean? Are you planning on changing your weapon?"

"Yeah, something like that. The only point of keeping it would be to admire it."

"Then just do that. If I ever need it, I will just borrow it from you."

Siofra looked at the needle in her hand. Blaze could clearly see that she adored the weapon, a little too much, in his opinion, and couldn't understand why she didn't want to use it anymore. He noted to ask her more about it later.

Finally, she let out a sigh and put it back in her space ring.

"If you are planning on switching weapons, may I suggest a zweihander?" Blaze said, trying to hide his grin.

"Why?"

"Just imagine you wielding a seven-foot long heavy sword. It will be too heavy for you, and when you swing it, you will start spinning in the air like a top. Pixie-nado shall be the name of your new move," he said, suddenly wondering if he had come up with something cool while trying to be funny.

"I am just a joke to you, am I not?" Siofra rolled her eyes.

"Nope," Blaze said, suddenly pouncing on her and hugging her. "You are my sweet little sister, who I love to make fun of," he said, rubbing his cheek against her wet, curly, orange hair.

Siofra was too tired to push him away. "Who's your little sister? The Pixie Princess tells me that your nirn do not feel the age you claim to be," she said, instead.

Elyssa perked up in the water. Blaze was initially surprised, but he quickly recovered. "That's right! I am actually a thousand years old, or was it a million? Time becomes irrelevant when you are as old as I," he said, putting on airs.

"As if. It would make more sense if you are like, ten, and that is me being considerate."

"Oi!"

"What is his real age, Elyssa?" she asked in a whisper. Ragna and Tonya were in their own world, and no one else was around to hear their conversation.

Elyssa waded closer and whispered, "He turned one, this Bloom."

"Elyssa!" Blaze griped, "Also, I turned twenty!"

"Your time in your imaginary world does not count," Elyssa shook her head.

"Hey!"

"Is this true?" Siofra glanced between the two.

"Yep. I met him when he was a month old... My mum fixed his age."

Instead of surprise, Siofra turned to him with narrowed eyes. "And, you claim you are the older sister? You are not even a freaking brat! You are-"

Suddenly, a loud clash of steel rang through the air, and Blaze caught the sight of an angel shooting down from the skies and crashing into the water with a massive splash.

Res Kal surfaced with a huge gasp, and before she could get back into the air, she was pounced upon by multiple Undine. She struggled, but inside water, she was no match against the Undine.

The trio in the spring stood up as cries of surprise and alarm went up through the water park. They watched in shock as the angels were grappled and confined by the Undine and around two dozen angels in black carnival masks, one by one.

Azalea walked towards Blaze, followed by Bayou and a couple of the older merangels. "I am sorry about this, Blaze, but the two of you will be coming with us," she said, pointing at Blaze and Elyssa.

"Az. What is going on?" Blaze asked, unable to fathom what was unfolding.

"You need to come with us. We are taking you and Elyssa hostage. No harm will befall you, as long as you comply. This is only a demonstration of sorts. We only wish to hold you until our voices are heard."

Blaze and Elyssa's eyes darted towards an opening in the sky, wondering if they could manifest their wings and break out.

"You won't be able to escape," said one of the two older merangels. "The two of us are archnymphs, and there are four archangels up there. All of us have real combat experience. So, we can do this the hard way or the easy way."

Blaze felt a hand over his shoulder. "Do not do anything stupid," Elyssa muttered, shaking her head.

For once, Blaze did not plan on doing anything drastic. He didn't believe Azalea would hurt him. "Why?" he asked the Mami Wata.

"Long have our kind suffered the indignity of being 'lesser folk'. Angels talk about respect, kindness, and dignity, but we don't have any of those. You've seen it yourself.

"We need a chance to be heard. The angels of the HU watch, but they don't see. Taking the Blazing Fury and the champion of the tournament will force them to finally pay attention," Azalea spoke, as the two older mers pulled out a couple of black, leathery corsets, and approached Blaze and Elyssa. It was easy to see that they were meant to confine the materialization of their wings. The stronger angels like Res Kal were already confined.

"But there are better ways to get attention," Elyssa said. "This can be construed as a violent revolt."

"That's the thing, Ms. Marigold. Many of us have tried the 'better ways', and all of them failed so badly that you are not even aware of them. We don't even know what has happened to those that tried.

"You see all these merangels around you? They were not even aware of this plan until this morning, yet they offered their help at the mere mention of it. That is how unhappy we are. This is the only option we can see," Azalea explained, as the older merangels fastened the corsets around Blaze and Elyssa.

"However, this is not a violent revolt," Azalea continued. "The Undine will only defend until we can get you to a place where the angels can't reach. Then, we are going to attempt a dialogue with the HU."

"How do you expect this to work, Azalea? The Caledonians won't let you take us so easily in their territory. And, it's not like you are doing this quietly. There will be casualties, Az," Blaze told her earnestly. "Please, stop this. I will try to find a way to help you and your people."

"If there are any casualties, they will only be from our side, Blaze. We've been planning this for months."

Blaze did not know how he could convince Azalea. He looked around and realized that he and Elyssa could only go along with the merangels, for now. The party was filled with his friends and younger angels, and he didn't wish for any of them to get hurt. He didn't even want the merangels to get hurt. He glanced at Elyssa, and they came to an unspoken consensus. "We will go with you," they said to Azalea.

"Good. Bayou, carry Ms. Marigold? I will take Blaze. Diploria, Orbicella, you two will have to carve a path for us in the water," Azalea ordered the older merangels. "Please provide us with timely scouting," she said, to the two masked angels who hovered down from above.

Diploria, the curly, green-haired archnymph, pulled out a couple of breathing masks and handed them to Blaze and Elyssa.

"I trust you two will behave yourselves," she said, "We'd rather not use force."

Blaze and Elyssa nodded compliantly. As the merangels seemed sincere in not wanting to hurt them, they did not wish to escalate things, unless they found an easy way to escape.

The mers jumped into the water, and Blaze and Elyssa climbed onto Azalea's and Bayou's backs. Sky made a ruckus to try and get to Blaze, but Siofra and Tonya held him and the otter from going after him.

"What about us?" Siofra asked.

"Just stay here and try to get in touch with my mom and Anastasia Marigold. Make sure everyone else is alright. Don't do anything I would," Blaze said.

The two angels took to the skies and the mers dove into the water. The sun had set, and the waters were dark beneath the surface. However, the mers had better low-light vision than the angels.

Azalea pulled out a VP and held it in her hand, as she zipped through the waterways. The two older merangels led from the front.

The first signs of fighting reached their ears in the form of low-pitched booms that reverberated through the water.

"Head south-west," the VP in Azalea's hand spoke, in a voice whose pitch was lowered by the water. "A troop of soldiers is heading your way from the east."

Azalea took a sharp turn into the very next left channel, and the other mers followed.

Blaze watched the Undine in the waterways make way for Azalea's group. Were all of the Undine involved? How was no one aware of this?

Suddenly, thin beams of light shot through the water around them, quickly dissipating and overheating the water into a fizzle of bubbles.

Azalea dove deeper, and Blaze looked over his back to see the other mers dodging the heated zones that formed wherever the energy shots hit. They couldn't hear anything that was happening above water, but the sound of everything that happened underneath was magnified.

Boom!

Blaze heard a muted explosion towards his right and a building began to crumble. Rubble tumbled into the water and Azalea swam wide of the collapsing building.

Thwump

A large black cannonball crashed into the water in front of them. Blaze expected it to explode but it didn't. However, it sent turbulent waves of sound and water towards the fleeing mers, slowing them a little.

Blaze was almost thrown off Azalea, but she held his hands and leapt, sailing over the area of impact like a dolphin, and landing on the other side. Now, the waves pushed them forward.

She glanced back to quickly make sure that Bayou and Elyssa had kept up with her before darting forward. Excluding the archnymphs, who were swimming ahead, the rest of Azalea's group were slowed, but they didn't wait for them.

Soon, they were out of the East Cloud District, making their way across the stadium district.

"We've been spotted! Oh, havoc! It's Princess Yingjie. We will try to hold her off for as long as we can. Head south. I think the path to the east has been cut off. Good luck!" the VP spoke, followed by a loud clash of metal.

Auntie Jie Er! She got here fast! Swift Wing Dash?

When they reached a junction in the waterways, Azalea turned to Bayou. "Now?"

Bayou nodded, and the two mers surfaced for a moment, before Bayou took out a flare gun and fired into the sky. A ball of bright energy reached a thousand feet before exploding into a shower of orange that lit up the evening sky.

Undine began converging towards their location from all directions. Azalea's other friends finally caught up with them.

"We will scout ahead," said Ariel, and the three young Undine split up in three directions, leaving them to wait for the Undine that were flooding in on their location.

Around a hundred Undine of all ages and sizes congregated around the group. The younger ones climbed onto the backs of the older ones.

"Keep them guessing for as long as you can!" Azalea implored the mers.

She then removed a couple of diving masks from her space ring before handing them to Blaze and Elyssa.

"Az," Blaze beseeched her. "Is this not enough? It is not too late to stop this. I am sure you've already made a point."

"No," she shook her head and dived underwater along with him. "We need to show them how serious we are." Her voice inside the water had a deep resonance to it.

The Undine split up into groups of four that vaguely resembled Azalea and Bayou carrying Blaze and Elyssa, before heading off into random directions. Though the Undine couldn't fly, no angel could keep up with them underwater. The water also provided cover. Under the dim glow of the moonlight and the lampposts, it was hard to clearly make them out.

Azalea and Bayou headed south-west, away from the ocean, and through the commercial district, briefly passing the Opera House on their left, playing some soulful music.

As they made their way around the western edge of the east commercial district, the VP rang once more.

"Blaze, Elyssa, are you two alright?"

Blaze could not mistake Jie Er's voice, even when it sounded a little different underwater.

"Aun- Mother. We are fine! I don't believe that the Undine intend to harm us. Do not kill anyone, please!"

There was a slight pause before Jie Er spoke. "I will try, but I cannot vouch for what Anastasia may do. She is not pleased.

"Blaze, the archangel I just defeated looks to be from Xian. It makes me think that this whole thing may have been orchestrated by Baozhai Rong. Is Ms. Azalea with you?"

"Yes," Blaze breathed through his mask.

He felt Azalea's shoulders tense.

"Ms. Azalea," Jie Er spoke to Az. "I can understand why you may be doing this, but I am not sure how much you can trust your foster mother. She may have her own agenda for doing this, and it is unlikely that she is supporting you merely out of the softness of her heart... I do not suppose you will tell me where you are or where you are headed, will you?" Jie Er asked softly.

"No. I am sorry, Min Lokra," Azalea replied, before cutting the connection.

Azalea turned east again at the northern edge of the commercial district. Groups of Undine swam all around them, almost haphazardly, confusing any angels that looked from above.

Azalea kept notifying her friends of her position as she swam, and they kept updating her about the movement of the troops who flew around in droves, trying their best to find them.