<b>Vandor and the Black Assassin:</b> Ch. 22 - A Clash of Minds (revised)

*IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not read this unless you have read the first 21 chapters of Vandor and the Black Assassin. Once you read those, read this, and then read the original last chapter, and then read the Vandor 2 that I'm going to start soon.*

22-A Clash of Minds

One of the tips Vandor had learned for fighting in a sorcerer’s duel was never to make the first move. He and Skorpian circled around the chunk of lava rock, never breaking eye contact, each always watching the other for any sign of attack.
Out of frustration Vandor summoned the Water Force and sent a water blast toward Skorpian. Skorpian effortlessly deflected the magic spell and it crashed into the wall behind Vandor.
“My powers are aided by the Dark Force. You cannot defeat me, human,” said growled Skorpian. He suddenly hurled a blast of dark energy at Vandor. Vandor leaped to the right, stumbling to the ground and cutting his arm on the jagged edges of the volcanic rock.
“You can’t even deflect attack spells. Pathetic,” laughed Skorpian. He started laughing, but this was only a distraction. He abruptly fired three dark blasts at Vandor. He dodged two, but was too slow for the third. It skimmed his left arm and he felt a searing pain where it had struck.
He looked at the wound and saw that it was jet black. He wrinkled his face up in disgust. All this time he was summoning the Fire Force, preparing to strike unexpectedly. Suddenly Vandor turned and released a giant wave of orange flames. The blast of heat caught Skorpian and flung him against the wall of the room. For a split second his spider-like legs scrabbled the vertical wall, and then he launched himself across the lava and landed back where he had been before.
Skorpian truly did have dark powers, as well as agility. Vandor would have a hard time winning with brute force. He used the Air Force to raise pebbles from the ground, and used the Fire Force to heat them so they glowed red-hot. He moved his hand in a swiping motion and the burning stones flew at Skorpian, raining down on him, burning through his natural hard shell and burrowing into his flesh.
“Is that all you have?” asked Skorpian. He didn’t even seem to be hurt. Those burning stones were actually just a distraction, and behind him a giant chunk of rock from the wall was hovering an inch off the ground.
“No,” said Vandor. He used the Air Force to fling the giant stone at Skorpian. The chunk of volcanic rock seemed to hit him. Vandor saw a pincer sticking out from under the boulder.
He walked closer, cautiously moving so as not to walk into a trap. “Ah! I give up! You win,” came a muffled voice from under the rock. This had to be a bluff. There’s no way Skorpian would give up that easy. Then the giant scorpion’s head appeared.
“Just kidding.” Vandor was blasted across the room with more force than he could image it was possible to blast something. He skidded across the floor, and stopped just before he tumbled into the lava. The craggy, sharp edges of the lava rock tore at his skin. Blood seeped onto the ground and pain jolted through Vandor’s body. He let out a cry of pain. Blood covered his whole body.
“See?” said Skorpian, laughing evilly. “Your power is nothing compared to mine.”
“You will not win,” whispered Vandor. Rage filled him as he remembered what Skorpian had done. He had killed Vandor’s parents. He felt rage that burned in him like fire, tore at his insides and drenched him in sweat. “You will not kill me. I will have revenge.”
A beam of white light shot from his hand. It was not an attack spell. He didn’t even know what it was. It was like a stiff rope made of light, lengthening and rushing toward Skorpian. The same thing erupted from one of Skorpian’s pincers, but it was jet black.
The two beams collided in the center of the battlefield. Skorpian’s pushed Vandor’s back towards him. If he didn’t do something he’d be hit by both beams and surely die. He concentrated harder than he had ever concentrated before. He willed his white beam of light to move forward, to push both beams into Skorpian. It was a battle of wills. Whoever’s will was stronger would win this duel.
Skorpian’s beam pushed slower now. And now even slower, and soon it stopped. Vandor was breathing hard and covered in sweat. The point where the beams collided was just a few feet away from him. Opposite him he could see Skorpian’s face scrunched up with concentration, too.
Slowly, more slowly than even the slowest snail, his beam began to inch toward Skorpian, pushing the black beam with it. Skorpian was fighting back, though. The beams stopped again.
Vandor concentrated harder, blocking out everything else from his mind, and then the whole world became him, Skorpian, and the two beams. His beam crept toward Skorpian. Skorpian was losing concentration, and his beam began to push hard, move faster. The collision point was in the center of the battlefield again, crawling toward Skorpian ever so slowly.
“You won’t win,” said Skorpian. Saying it, though, was a huge mistake. He lost concentration on the beam, and Vandor’s rushed forward, now just a few feet away from Skorpian.
“You are wrong,” said Vandor, smiling. He was able to keep his beam from shooting back towards him. He had to focus. He had to win. He had to kill Skorpian.
He had to get his revenge.
Vandor punched the air with the hand shooting the white beam. It shot forward, ripping through Skorpian’s black beam, and wrapped itself around the giant scorpion. For a moment Skorpian had disappeared, engulfed in pure white. But then there was a thunderous booming sound and the shell of light exploded, shaking the entire volcano.
Skorpian stood there, still completely alive, with an evil grin on his face and dark energy swirling about his dark body. What was that energy? And how did was I able use it?
“You delude yourself, weakling,” said Skorpian. “You try to use powers that you don’t even know about.” The shadows around Skorpian surged towards Vandor, roaring with the force of a thousand angry lions. It was as if the energy was alive, a part of Skorpian—the part that dearly wanted Vandor wiped from the face of Thelasia, so that he could use the Dark Force to take over everything.
There was no time for Vandor to move, to dodge out of the way. The blast hit him and he fell to the hard, jagged ground again. Pain was all he felt other than the groundless rage and determination to defeat Skorpian. Blood seeped from him like water from a fountain. Suddenly Skorpian was upon him, his huge, evil eyes connecting with Vandor’s.
“See? You have lost. My mere flesh is filled with evil. I am unstoppable!” Skorpian raised a needle-sharp pincer and pressed it against Vandor’s cheek.
The pain was like fire times infinity raging throughout Vandor’s body. Nothing he had ever felt had ever come close to this. His scream echoed over and over off the craggy walls of the volcanic cave. The only thing he could see was Skorpian’s giant eyes. Everything else was a blur of red and black. He had to do something before the pain drove him insane. Skorpian removed his pincer and the burning immediately left as suddenly as it had come, leaving Vandor breathless and completely drenched in hot sweat.
“Good bye, Vandor,” whispered Skorpian. He started to laugh coldy, and Vandor saw, with growing fear, the Black Assassin’s deadly stinger raising up like the hand of death. “It is time for you to join your parents!”
“NOOO!” he screamed, and kicked upward with all his might. Skorpian flew across the battlefield and landed almost ten yards away. Vandor was amazed at his strength. He jumped up, ran over to Skorpian, and kicked him into the lava, where he sank slowly. The Black Assassin was dead.
And Vandor had his revenge.
“Vandor…Vandor,” came a voice so soft that Vandor almost didn’t hear it. It was Delgon. He was still lying on the floor on the side of the chunk of volcanic rock, green liquid still oozing from his wound.
“I won’t last much longer,” he said. Vandor kneeled next to him, listening intently to his mentor’s words. “Find Sera, if she still lives, and discharge the Dark Force. Although the Black Assassin is dead, the Empowerment has not been stopped.”
“Delgon…” said Vandor. “You won’t die. You’ll live. I know you will.”
“The Black Assassin’s poison is deadly,” said Delgon. “No one has ever survived a…sting…” it seemed he it was becoming harder to speak for the old man. He shuddered as if it had suddenly turned cold, even though he was lying near a river of molten lava.
“No…,” whispered Vandor. “Delgon…”
Delgon had been – no, still was – his mentor and teacher. Without Delgon he never would have learned magic, and without magic he never would have defeated Skorpian. The friendship between them was strong. So strong that Delgon had risked his own life to save Vandor’s when Skorpian had attacked.
The old man was taking deep, shuddering breaths now. “Go, Vandor. Find Sera.”
“No, I won’t leave you…master,” said Vandor. It had been so long since he had called Delgon that.
“You can’t stay here,” said Delgon. “The Zavrans will arrive any moment.”
“I don’t care,” whispered Vandor. He muttered the words for the healing spell, but nothing happened.
“The wound was inflicted by the Dark Force. It is in Skorpian’s blood. It cannot be healed.”
“There must be some way!” cried Vandor.
“No,” said Delgon in a very faint whisper. “I will die, but I will not have died in vain. I will have died protecting you, the One. I would have died anyway, in Skorpian’s reign, if you had been killed. He would have hunted me down, and Sera, too. At least I know…that…we have won.”
The wizard’s eyes closed, and he died.