Max flashed a subtle smirk at his opponent’s remark as he shifted his stance almost dismissively, now facing Aaron off-center. He gave a little wave of his hand, as if shooing Aaron away, accompanied by two of his levitating orbs rocketing forward.
“I’m sure you’ll find your way back to him regardless of my interference. You’re a good little… what are you now? A bargaining chip from Ryner? A defective piece of cattle sold off to the Sinnenodels?” He taunted as his projectiles made their way forward on a deceptively simple trajectory. At the last second, the two orbs broke off-course, shifting their paths in an erratic dance around Aaron to obscure their true angle of attack. After a bit of showmanship, one orb shot for his right shoulder from above while the other dipped low, aiming for the light mage’s left knee.
Aaron lowered himself cautiously as the orbs came near, but didn’t move quite yet, following them with his eyes as they shot straight for him. As it turned out, his patience was rewarded when they veered off at the last second, branching out around him in no discernable pattern. He didn’t bother trying to reply to Max’s classless attempt at trash talk, head whipping around as he tried vainly to keep track of both orbs at once. Finally, one dipped, heading for his left knee; as he spun to get his knee out of the way, he caught sight of the second one coming down on him, and was barely able to get Dawn up in time to deflect it into the nearby ground.
Shit.Those things were the size of his head, and Aaron had no doubt they’d break something if they landed a hit. He couldn’t keep up with this for long if that was how Max wanted to play it; more importantly, he had even
less of a chance at this distance. Max’s insults were the
last thing on his mind, and he offered no reply, instead moving to close the gap between them.
Max lifted his hand lazily, as if he were specifically choosing every movement to make it known he didn’t take Aaron seriously as a threat. The two orbs he’d flung earlier floated upward in turn, taking a stationary position in the air as they began to rotate in place like a basketball on someone’s finger. They didn’t seem to be doing anything - yet - but Aaron ignoring them completely could prove fatal if he wasn’t careful.
In the meantime, the remaining five orbs in Max’s possession took up a defensive orbit around their master, picking up speed in an obvious attempt at keeping Aaron from getting closer.
“You’re a lot less wordy now. Where’d that confidence go? Or was it never there to begin with because you’re a prideless dog that lives only for scraps off your master’s table?”A single orb was flung from the series toward Aaron’s center mass, travelling much faster than the previous two after it had been given time to gain momentum. It had a bit of a horizontal curve to its path this time, but it kept true to its trajectory instead of employing any misdirection like the last ones.
Max seemed strangely content to let Aaron approach, albeit only to a point if that hula-hoop of orbs he was developing was any indication. Aaron was suspicious of that gesture - mainly because it didn’t do anything - and checked behind him, noting the orbs that rose out of the ground. Ominous. Unable to close the remaining distance between them, Aaron stopped several feet away, moving into a defensive stance that allowed him to keep an eye on both Max and the orbs behind him.
More mockery; it wasn’t unexpected, but certainly wordier than he was used to. It made Aaron bristle a bit in the back of his mind, but nowadays, what didn’t? He was sure his grandfather had been called much worse.
The next projectile came in much faster, but fortunately, Aaron was positioned better to deal with it, turning his trunk and deflecting this orb much more cleanly than the last.
“I suppose I’m not used to you spending so much energy on lap dogs like me,” he finally retorted, holding his ground.
Max snorted derisively as the orb he’d thrown levitated upward to join the other two in their ominous spinning.
“Oh please, I’ve only just started, how ‘bout you?”Two more orbs shot out, weaving back and forth in a spiral about each other as they flew toward Aaron. The orbs swooped at him one at a time in repetitive ‘cutting’ motions, each one cycling around to ready for another swing as the other was making its attack. They weren’t aimed in a particularly tricky way to deflect or evade, but the ceaseless onslaught seemed intent on hounding Aaron into backing up further from Max.
Aaron eyed the newly levitating orb for only a second, shifting again to keep all three in view, and hardly had a chance to reply before two more came at him. Their movements, thankfully, were predictable and easily countered, but Aaron knew their persistence would prove troublesome after too long. That made three floating and two fighting him; by his count that meant only two remained orbiting Max. But why was he so intent on simply keeping his distance? Was that strange liquid-looking armour not as strong as Aaron thought? Surely Max could deal with a close encounter as easily as a ranged one with the ease he threw those orbs around.
But Aaron wasn’t sure he could. Not for very long, at least. Unless Max only had one charge each in those orbs before they got rooted in place and started spinning, he could probably keep flinging them around all day; Aaron, meanwhile, had no doubt that if he didn’t finish this soon, it was only a matter of time before he’d miss. Max was using magic years more advanced than his; there was simply no way he could win. Surely whoever designed this scenario knew that, so there must be some other way to pass without defeating Max in a straight fight. If Varis’ reflection’s warning was anything to go by, it was that coin around Max’s neck that was the real objective. Maybe just touching or grabbing the thing would be sufficient to end the challenge, even if Max wasn’t defeated? That’d explain why he was so reluctant to let Aaron get close.
“Last time we fought you asked if you could just deck me,” he probed between deflections,
“where’d that confidence go?”The two orbs going at Aaron stopped their assault, floating up to join the rest. Max’s face darkened at the retort, then shifted into a very unsettling grin of condescension. Hell, Max grinning at all was unsettling.
“Because this time, I don’t have to be the weakling. Not like you. That’s why they don’t respect you. That’s why the Noilas threw you away. I could melt that precious toothpick in your hand down into a mercury rope and hang you with it if I wanted to, and you couldn’t do a thing except whine for your uncaring owner to save you!”Max gave a grunt of exertion at last, dropping his previous nonchalance. The hovering orbs shot downward in unison, smashing into the ground hard enough to leave a small crater. But they didn’t stop there; the orbs rotated faster and faster, boring deeper and deeper into the earth like massive drills.
The remaining two orbs in Max’s possession shot out to the side, giving their master a wide berth. His armor writhed and slithered around his form until it solidified into a concrete shell, save for a tendril extending from his right forearm like a whip.
“But if you think you have a chance, by all means. I’ll just have to prove it to you.”Aaron’s eyebrows rose as Max’s uncaring mask finally slipped off, though his first concern was the orbs burrowing into the ground. His feet started moving almost on their own, traversing a large, slow circle around Max. Whatever those orbs were up to, he wasn’t fond of the idea of them flying up underneath him when he least expected it; at the very least, a little movement would buy him some time.
He watched with interest as Max’s armour formed, but he didn’t change his course.
“So you can smash those orbs into my head as soon as I step into range? No thank you,” he retorted. Although, he wasn’t sure what his other options were. He doubted he’d even be able to lay a finger on that coin with those two orbs still hanging around; maybe if he circled long enough, Max would lose patience and either charge him or throw his last two orbs? Then he might have an opening to get the coin. If those orbs in the ground didn’t do whatever they were doing first.
Frustratingly, Aaron wasn’t sure what more he could do, outside of biding his time. Damn, he was
not a fan of waiting games. Searching his mind for any other clue as to how he could beat Max, he remembered the voice that rang out when the skull swallowed the reflections. Something about there being an “easier way” to complete the challenge. He’d originally thought that grabbing the coin without defeating Max
was the easier way, but in truth, it really wasn’t any easier than landing a proper hit on the man would be. Which was to say, it wouldn’t be.
Damn, what else was there? He didn’t think there was anything notable in the clearing, no levers to drop a tonne of bricks on his opponent or anything similarly miraculous, and he certainly couldn’t check now. Honestly, the only thing out of the ordinary was Max’s attitude. Aaron was no stranger to the jabs and general rudeness, but he’d never seen the man so angry; sure, he lived in a perpetual state of pissed off but if Aaron didn’t know any better he’d say this was
personal. Especially all that talk about him being a “weakling” - it just didn’t quite seem right.
“Besides, you’re not really one to talk,” he said, still circling at the same pace as before.
“I might have been thrown away, but I hear your first master got rid of you for profit. Who would have thought you’d fetch a higher price than me? Frankly, I’m almost insulted.”“And I’ve gotta say, the arrangement’s worked out swimmingly. Eric’s a pushover. Can’t say the same about Cinnamon though, can you?” Max taunted in return, though his expression had yet to fully shift into his patented mask of ‘I don’t give a fuck even if I kinda do’.
“Though I don’t appreciate being talked down to by a tool.”Without any advancing on Aaron’s part, Max took up the offensive again. His two remaining orbs rocketed up into the air, with the first immediately shooting down on Aaron like a metal comet with the second following close behind.
“So go ahead, have your hollow victory. Some newly-turned wimp handed me off to an overrated actor. I’m sure that’s far more damaging for me than you causing your new liege to torture your poor aunt for funsies.”Without giving the mage a chance to rest, Max charged at his target, metallic whip swinging recklessly like a flailing snake. Though it maintained its mercurial form for the most part, the edges solidified into blades just before impact.
The low stance Aaron had been keeping worked to his advantage when the orbs finally fell, dancing out of their way as they pounded into the ground mere inches from him. Confirmation, then. As much as Max tried (though apparently without much success) to put up a tough facade, he’d definitely struck a nerve. And it seemed to make him reckless. In another situation, Aaron might have laughed; he’d always been encouraged to use any method available to him to gain the upper hand, but he had to admit, this would be his first attempt at winning a fight via vicious mockery.
At least he had a good role model for
that.Aaron sank low when Max charged him, raising his blade in hopes of negating as much of that whip’s impact as he could. But while he expected the whip to fetch up and wrap around Dawn, it did nothing of the sort; instead, he fairly sliced the thing in half, with the detached portion sailing away. Dawn, meanwhile, was splattered with silvery drops - apparently the whip was liquid.
He almost counter-attacked on muscle memory, but it would be no use; that armour was like a second skin, and he was sure he’d find no purchase if he tried to strike it. So, instead, he backed out of the whip’s range once more, doing his best to keep track of the craters.
“I’d beg to differ,” he replied.
“At least me and my family are used to it. Coping is literally in our DNA. You’d probably shudder to hear what I put up with on a nightly basis, but even with a pushover of a master you still look like you struggle to get through the night without screaming.”He had to goad Max further; maybe then he’d be aggravated enough to charge at him even more sloppily than before, or finally unveil whatever trick he was developing with those orbs underground.
“Although I suppose I can’t blame you. I have no great love for the Sinnenodels, but I sincerely doubt I hate them as much as you hate vampires. How do you cope with being the fancy show dog in some overrated leech’s purse?”“I don’t cope,” Max snarled back at him,
“That’s the difference between me and you. Not everyone just lays down and dies for their bloodsucking masters. Don’t act like accepting your fate is some noble trait, you’re rolling over like a damn dog! And what does it get you?!” The flecks of flowing metal still stuck to Dawn began to vibrate and sizzle, causing the blade itself to start melting away in Aaron’s hands,
“Nothing! You sit there and watch everything you care about disappear in some little game those leeches play to forget they’re little more than animals!”Max curled his fingers inward as he raised trembling arms, looking as though he were fighting to lift some unseen weight.
“You don’t win anything by giving up, and does this look like a loser to you?!” The ground shuddered underneath their feet, with only faint cracks in the dirt serving as Aaron’s warning to move as a brilliant torrent of fire erupted beneath him like a miniature volcano.
If he looked back in an attempt to fathom how that was in any way fair that this test allowed Max to supposedly break his affinity, he’d be greeted with the answer rather quickly. One of the metal mage’s orbs from earlier floated above the site of eruption, apparently having tunneled there during the discussion. But rather than the prior chromatic metal, it was now a flaming ball of molten lead; the previously-inert rune on its surface now blazing with an active enchantment that wreathed it in magical fire.
The now enraged Max didn’t seem to be giving Aaron any time to breathe, however; the splattered remains of his whip on the ground had slithered into a mound of razor-sharp shrapnel, which followed up the chaos of the explosion in a furious rain.
Having dropped Dawn when it started melting, Aaron’s attention snapped to his feet as soon as the ground shuddered, giving him precious little time to unceremoniously throw himself to the side before the ground beneath him exploded. He landed on his side, looking disbelievingly around at the spectacle until the whip joined the fray. In response to that, there was little more he could do than shield his head from the molten rain with his arms.
Hot shrapnel cut into his arms and legs; he’d have time to count the pieces later. At that moment, he was more concerned with a unique, searing pain like he’d never felt before, and extinguishing the small fire that had started on his coat sleeve as a result.
“Are you really going to these lengths just to feel like you’re winning?!” Aaron shouted his retort, newly incensed by the pain.
“I’m afraid you have a long way to go my friend. In here you might be conjuring volcanoes, but out there in the real world you’re nothing but a scrawny little human who waves around designer gauntlets that his master bought him and can hardly swing a sword. Even Varis could probably kill you out there with a flick of his wrist and you think your insolent pouting is any more noble than my obedience? Is that your little act of rebellion? You know damn well you can’t break your leash, all you’re doing is amusing them by pulling on it!”Max broke out into an uncomfortable half-sob-half-laugh. Any trace of composure was out the window, though his eyes still burned with their usual fiery petulance.
“You think I’m doing this to win? You’re not that special,” He muttered in a poor imitation of what would normally pass for condescension from the mage. He lifted the coin from his neck, holding it up for Aaron to clearly see as the metal started melting just like Dawn before it.
“This is what victory looks like. It’s knowing you’ll crawl back to Cinnamon with your tail between your legs, knowing he’ll punish you even further for a failure he barely has any stake in, just to see you squirm.”“I’m doing this to prove a point! That I can kill you, and Eric, and Ryner, and any other fucking leech that thinks we-- fuck it, I should bow!” The other six orbs stirred with a seismic warning, bursting out of the ground beneath Aaron one after the other to keep him on the move - lest he end up immolated.
Aaron scrambled to his feet at the next shudder, and this time, he had to keep going. The new volcanoes burst up at his heels, another few pieces of shrapnel slicing into Aaron’s back as a reminder. He ran until he’d felt all six burst up behind him, and finally stopped a good distance from the last one, having created something like a crescent of volcanoes around Max.
He leveled Max with a dark look as the coin began to melt.
“Vampires kill each other every night,” he replied, his voice more even than before.
“It’s like a twisted game for them. I’m pretty sure Lady Sinnenodel sics different branches of her House on each other just to watch them destroy themselves. What chaos can one pathetic mage like you rend on them that they wouldn’t just initiate themselves? Hell, my grandfather killed dozens of them and he built the system we have today. You killing one will just do another a favour, and then you’ll be bowing very low when they chop off your head for it anyway.” “So try it!” he finally shouted,
“Kill me, kill Eris, kill Ryner if my mother doesn’t incinerate you first, and die under a guillotine knowing you were little more than a mosquito in their ear because nothing, nothing you can do has any hope of changing anything.”Max dropped his arms defeatedly, all of his previous anger melting away with the tension in his frame. The flaming orbs circling over Aaron like predatory vultures simply stopped in place and began to lose their integrity, dripping scalding metal onto the ground uselessly. He looked over at Aaron with an empty, tired gaze; probably the most genuine expression the clone had put on so far.
Once all the orbs had been reduced to cooling puddles on the ground, Max spoke again as he raised his arm, the remnant of his whip forming into a mocking replica of Dawn in his hand.
“So that’s your choice?” His voice was bitter and weary, without any of its usual bite.
“You’re taking your own advice and laying down to die in the face of defeat?” He stomped on the liquified remnants of the coin at his feet for good measure, then snorted in uncharacteristic amusement.
“You know, I like you when you’re being real. Well, not like, but I can at least respect it. Must be nice to do it once in a while instead of hiding secrets with Flower Boy.” Max kept the weapon raised aggressively, but he hadn’t stepped into a proper stance yet, nor did he advance to end things yet.
Aaron watched in muted awe as Max finally - literally - let his guard down, a twinge of bitterness colouring the pity he felt for the clearly broken mage in front of him as he watched the last of the coin drip formlessly to the ground. He eyed the blade forming in Max’s hand warily, but didn’t move just yet; Max surrounded with magic metal orbs was something to worry about, but Max with a blade he was pretty sure he had a handle on.
His eyebrows raised when Max laughed, though. Of all things, he certainly wouldn’t have expected
friendliness, or whatever the equivalent was, coming from him. Was it nice to be ‘real’ once in a while? He’d probably usually say no. Most of the time he wished he could crawl behind his court manner and stay there, but he supposed he couldn’t deny the bit of tension he felt finally loosen in his chest.
“Once in a while,” he murmured absently. At least this replica got that one right; all his pointless espionage was
exhausting, and he was sure he was keeping secrets on three sides by now. This fight, at least, was open; that alone was a welcome change. But watching Max, Aaron crossed his arms, shaking his head.
“You’re not a swordsman, and I have no weapon,” he commented.
“It’s an exercise in futility. But with that coin,” he gestured to the puddle of gold on the ground,
“at least I could finally leave you alone.”The various puddles of metal around them started literally bristling at Aaron’s words, coagulating into spikes and blades and other nasty implements of death. Even Max’s armor was starting to peel off into the beginnings of weaponry. There was a slight pinprick on Aaron’s chest beneath his coat, likely where his earring had gotten the same idea.
“You’ll shut up if I skewer you too,” He responded coldly,
“Like you said, what’s the point?”“There is none,” Aaron conceded, resisting the urge to adjust the newly-pointy earring in his pocket.
“This whole exercise is just entertainment. I wouldn’t be surprised if Princess Ryner designed it just so she could get a kick out of watching the nobles stumble around blind.” While he was appealing to what he figured Max was thinking himself, Aaron wouldn’t be surprised if that was indeed the case. It seemed like something she’d like.
“Even you were created for that purpose. I bet this has been quite the spectator sport,” he gestured around at the decimated clearing around them.
“Why give her a grand finale?”Max dropped the sword at last, the rest of his veritable iron maiden following suit and returning to useless puddles on the ground.
“You’re a fucking idiot, you know that?” He sneered bitterly with a disappointed shake of his head. The defeated mage raised a hand in a lethargic motion, causing the golden puddle to rise up and shoot toward Aaron. By the time it reached him, it was an intact coin half again, with not a single engraving out of place.
“Crawl back to your master and be lucky you still have a head.” With that, the Max replica turned away to sulk, staring up at the sunlit sky in silence. That, or he was trying to burn his eyes out to punish himself for losing.
Aaron barely had time to watch him go; as soon as he caught the coin in hand, everything disappeared.
~ /// ~
The dead clearing reappeared, and Aaron was standing next to the skull, precisely where he had been when he touched it. Thankfully, though, the coin came out with him, though his earring and belt had both returned to their proper places. Mercifully, it seemed he came out exactly as he’d gone in; whatever injuries he’d gotten in there didn’t follow him out here, and the pain of searing hot shrapnel (not to mention the charred holes in his coat) was no more than a memory.
Varis was nearby - he must have come closer to examine the skull - so Aaron resisted his urge to sigh in relief lest he get a repeat of what happened before. Instead, he simply offered the Count a curt bow and held out the coin for him to take if he so desired.
Afterward, he looked around at the others.
“It put me in a clearing and had me fight Max’s reflection, albeit much more advanced in magic than the real one. He was wearing this coin around his neck, and touching it was what got me out,” he explained before he could be chastised for hesitating.
“Luckily, it looks like whatever damage you suffer in there doesn't follow you out, so you shouldn't need to worry about that. Was I gone very long, roughly speaking?” 
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