Spaceships and Magic, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Chapter 101: The Quarter Finals: Jacob Vs The Urstnir of Nadpid

<I wasn't with you at the time, but I have access to your memories. That's it, isn't it? That's the Chasm,> BB said, sounding more fearful than I had ever heard him sound in my life. 

But yes, there was no mistaking that inky black, and no mistaking those motes of light. Somehow, the holo-grid had chosen the Chasm from the memories of the Urstnir of Nadpid to be the place that the gaseous alien would be most comfortable. 

I pushed BB down into the depths of my manna, we were going to need to come at this fight with our full strength if we wanted any hope of coming out victorious. 

"Let the final Quarter Final match begin in three... two one Fight!" Belana's voice rang out, echoing through the deserted streets of my recreated patch of London. 

The Urstnir of Nadpid went on the offensive almost immediately. Huge lightning bolts, magnified even further by concentric rings of runes hanging in the air, arced through the void toward me. The alien clearly wanted to be done with me before I could get up close and personal. Whether that meant I had something in my repertoire that could damage him, or if it was simply a matter of not wanting to talk to me I didn't know. 

With my anti-gravity fields applied to my feet, I shot off with a burst of propulsion. I'd need to keep moving, darting through the various streets, to avoid the lightning while trying to get closer to my opponent. 

I also allowed three orbs of manna to build up around me. If my plan of dodging lightning and allowing it to smash into the buildings around me didn't work out, I was going to have to hope that my power was enough to equal theirs to cancel the lightning blast out. But that was a backup plan, hopefully, I wouldn't have to use it at all. 

I pushed my propulsion as far as it would go, the streets blurring together as I belted it around a corner, narrowly missing a lightning blast that carved a massive hole through the simulated Earth. Another carved straight through the Houses of Parliament, ripping the tower that housed Big Ben to shreds. As I tore away from the impact site, I heard the mournful clang of the ancient bell as it crashed into the ground. 

The third streak of lightning did exactly what I didn't want it to do. Somehow the Urstnir of Nadpid had taken direct control of the bolt and had curved it around the corner to follow me. I had no more extra speed to pour on, and as I zigged and zagged through the streets of central London the lightning was steadily gaining on me. 

I turned while moving, the anti-gravity fields conserving my momentum, and shot off one of my overcharged energy beams. My beam lanced out and met the lightning dead on. 

My backup plan worked. 

Both beams, pure manna and electrical, were annihilated on impact, both completely erased. The shockwave knocked me off balance for a moment, but I just used that to turn myself back around and speed back off. 

Each corner was getting me closer to my target, closer to the Urstnir of Nadpid. 

I rounded another, bringing me back out to the Thames, and cancelled my gravity fields so I could skid to a stop. London just sort of ended and became the Chasm. It wasn't like what had happened with Yr'Arl's fight. There weren't some craggy cliffs for me to go flying off of. London just stopped and became an infinite void, with The Urstnir of Nadpid floating in its centre. 

I leapt off the edge and into the void, my body instantly became weightless. I activated my propulsion and blasted forward. It was the closest thing I'd experienced to flight since gaining my abilities, and I couldn't keep the grin off my face as I hurtled toward the alien. 

Clearly, they weren't feeling as happy about it as I was.  Three more colossal beams of lightning shot toward me. I took two of them out with my energy beams and flew harmlessly through the resultant shockwaves. For the last one, I ripped my sword out of its back holster and swung it, hard, through the lightning. It parted around me like the red sea, and I was able to fly straight up to the Urstnir through the blast. 

My propulsion stopped me before I could fly into the cloud, but now we were close enough to talk. 

"You said if I ever mentioned the Chasm again you'd kill me, but here we both are, fighting in it," I said. "You know, that raises some pretty interesting questions. Why would someone feel the most comfortable and effective in what is essentially the land of the dead?" 

The Urstnir of Nadpid visibly bristled, the edges of their cloud flickered angrily.

"Were you born here, I wonder?" I asked, "Or did you do something to escape death?"

Part of the cloud whipped forward, forcing me to parry it away with my sword. But just before the manna absorbing blade could touch the cloud it drew back, unwilling to come into contact with it. Now that was interesting. 

"You will get no answers out of me," The Urstnir of Nadpid seethed, before shouting out loud, "I hereby officially surrender this match!"

I let my sword fall, completely in shock at what the Urstnir had just done. They had thrown away everything, just to avoid my questioning. Just to stop me from figuring out part of what was going on. 

"I'm not going to let you get away with this," I snarled, letting some of my anger out. "I'm going to figure out what the hell you are, and why the hell you're here." 

"No," The Urstnir of Nadpid said, "You aren't going to figure out anything. 

And then we were both whisked away in a blaze of white light, them to wherever the losers were taken, and me back to the medical bay of the Initiate room.