Chapter 9 - Good Enough

Each and every last one of the icicles shattered into a million sparkling pieces just as they were about to impale Marius's head. They dropped to the floor with the tinkling sound of broken glass. Undeterred, Kai flipped two of his fingers in the air. A final icicle he'd held back soared through the air and slashed Marius's left cheek, leaving a bloody gash. It would have impaled the white-haired witch standing behind Marius if he didn't dodge it in the last possible second. 

Ever so slowly, Marius raised a hand to his face and touched his bleeding wound, then closely inspected the blood on his fingertips. If Kai didn't know better, he'd think that Marius had never seen the sight of his own blood before, which was simply absurd. 

Wasn't it? 

Focus. 

"How clever," Marius drawled, and it felt more like an insult than anything else. He wiped the blood across his chest, leaving a bloody trail on his breastplate, and then said, "Shall we begin, then?" 

Marius disappeared in the blink of an eye. Kai's hackles rose, the hairs on his nape standing on edge. A thousand sirens went off in his head. 

He raised his sword just as Marius materialized before him and nearly cleaved his head right off. A resounding metallic sound echoed in the cave. 

Fuck, that was close. 

Kai held his ground as Marius pushed against his sword with his own, taking advantage of his bigger build to attempt to break Kai's stance and make him lose his footing. Blood pumping in his ears, Kai felt the surge of adrenaline firing up every single one of his nerve endings. 

The Black King's face was mere inches away; it had been months since they'd stood this close to each other. Marius's breath fanned his eyelashes. His dark aura bathed him like heat from a burning furnace. They were so close that he could see the black, devastating rage swirling in Marius's eyes like twin pools of doom. His laser gaze would have shriveled a lesser man. 

Kai glared right back even as he shivered, making sure his own rage and hatred were just as visible. After all, it was his own rage fueling him now. That and a nagging sense of desperation that he was running out of time to save his friend -that he was already too late. 

Erasmus confirmed daily that Hakan was still alive via a locator spell using a strand of his hair he'd somehow acquired. Kai never asked how his mentor got his hands on it, but he suspected he'd had to go to Hakan's house up in the mountains to retrieve it. 

As they glared at each other, Kai wanted to demand the location of his best friend, but he knew that that would be a big mistake. 

"Never let the enemy know what you fear, or they will use it to bring you to your knees." That was one of the pieces of advice Erasmus constantly liked to drop during training sessions. One could easily see the wisdom in it. Marius was the type of bastard to do just as Erasmus warned; use Hakan to force him to surrender. 

But Marius was astute, if nothing else. He undoubtedly already knew what stakes Kai was fighting for. Did he come here planning to use his friend against him? 

Sensing that his strength was failing, Kai quickly pulled back the moment he could, putting distance between them again. He tried not to dwell on how the Nostrazian King's closeness affected him. 

Grip tight around the hilt, he raised his sword again. 

Focus. 

"Your skills as a warrior have much improved since last we sparred." Marius mildly commented, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

"Keep your compliments to yourself." He didn't need Marius to tell him he'd gotten better at the sword. He'd spent the last few months making sure he did; he never forgot his resounding defeat at the hands of Marius the day he abducted him from his house's very threshold. 

Marius had moved with such speed and agility, wielding his sword with such precision and power as if it were an extension of him. And then he'd delivered a punch to Kai's gut with such strength, he'd understood the real meaning of the words 'gut-wrenching' then. 

The question now was: Was he good enough? 

Well, no time like the present to find out. 

"Are you going to stand there and chitchat or are you going to fight?" 

The next swing came from behind him, aimed at his back. Sensing the incoming hit, he whirled around with his sword extended, deflecting Marius's sword. Sparks flew as the blades collided. 

If Marius wanted to teleport around, two could play at this game. 

In a heartbeat, Kai teleported behind Marius with his sword raised high. 

The Black King sidestepped his sword as he swung it downward like he had eyes at the back of his head. 

Shit! His right side had been left momentarily open. 

And who was King Marius if not someone who knew how to exploit an opening? 

"Fuck!" Kai teleported away to the other side of the cave, but not before the edge of the sword nicked him in the side.

Pain erupted across his hip and climbed up his side, but he ignored it. 

"I'm going to make you pay for that," he promised darkly. His rage threatened to boil over the surface. It was all he could do to keep himself calm and collected. 

Keep to the plan. 

"Then come here and make me pay. Or are you going to run away again?" Marius raised his sword just below eye level to inspect Kai's blood dripping from the edge. 

"Is that your sorry attempt at trying to make me lose my temper? Sorry, but I'm not that kind of guy."

Marius smiled and surprised Kai by sheathing his sword at his back, his blue eyes glowing sinisterly in the semi-darkness of the cave. Kai had dreamed of those predatory shark eyes too many a night, haunting him ceaselessly.

When Marius disappeared, he teleported too. And so began a magical game of chase. 

They teleported to all four corners of the cave, Kai narrowly escaping and Marius giving chase. 

Keep going. He's on your tail. Erasmus's voice echoed in his mind. 

He waited for the right moment. 

When it came, some twenty teleports later, he slowed down, pretending that he was running out of juice aka magical energy. 

Marius, never too far behind, caught him by the shoulder.

"Gotcha." Kai looked over his shoulder at Marius and grinned from ear to ear. 

And then the cave disappeared.