Spaceships and Magic, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Chapter 94: The Quarter Finals - Kathura Vs Ke'Zuc Part 1

Akash disembarked from the floating anti-gravity field that was serving as his hospital bed and walked back over to where Yr'Arl and I were waiting.

Nonchalant, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened at all.

He sat down and stretched out, whatever he used for internal bones popping and clicking in a way that I could only imagine was intensely satisfying. 

"So you literally aren't going to mention what just happened in there?" I asked, leaning over to get a look at his now regenerated normal form. 

"I have no idea what you mean," He replied haughtily, though the sly edge to his tone let me know he knew exactly what I meant. 

"I believe Jacob Lyre is referring to the enhanced speed form that you displayed while in battle with Vadton," Yr'Arl cut in. "I must admit, I too am curious to know more about this tertiary form. I had previously thought that you only had two forms." 

Akash regarded the both of us for a moment, leaning forward as if he were debating revealing a great secret, before finally leaning back into his beanbag. 

"The answer is rather simple. It is a fact of Eldrani biology. We have the ability to morph our forms in near-limitless ways, as long as we have enough wood to facilitate the transformations," He explained. "The two forms that you have seen so far are two of the five that I have perfected so far. I had not expected to have to utilise my speed form at this stage in the tournament but Vadton was a difficult opponent."

It was unusual to hear Akash speak in such high regard for any fighter. The most I'd gotten from him was a subtle congratulations, and he'd never managed to defeat me. But then, he'd also never had the chance to break out any of the forms that weren't his battle form against me. Perhaps in the future, if I gave him the opportunity, he'd be able to put up more of a fight against me. 

Nevertheless, I wasn't surprised that Akash had needed to try something new against Vadton. He may have not expected the heavily armoured knight to have been much of a threat, but to me, the alien had exuded a primal strength and danger. I was sure that if Akash had let the spear hit him even once, it would have been a game over instantly. Moving to a speedier form to keep that from happening was the only choice the tree-like alien would have had. 

"With Vadton eliminated and Akash going through to the Semi Finals, we'll now be moving on to the next match!" Squadron leader Belana called out, as two more flashes of light teleported two more aliens away from the room. 

"This time we've got the horrifying, the mystifying, Ke'Zuc, battling off against the master of water manipulation themself Kathura!"

Once again the battlefield began to warp and shift, changing its form completely. 

On Ke'Zuc's side, the twisting ball of eldritch tentacles, the ground had become barren and rocky, with a crackling storm rumbling overhead. I couldn't see how a normal piece of barren land could lend any sort of advantage to the lovecraftian alien, but then I could barely understand how such a creature could even exist. 

On the side of the bat-like water dweller, Kathura, the obvious had occurred. The barren land slowly transformed into a beach, with a calm looking patch of water at the furthest end, that Kathura happily sank down into. 

On the one hand, we had a creature that was used to incredibly barren environments, on the other we had a being who lived seemingly on ocean worlds. They couldn't be two more different types of aliens. 

Kathura launched their attack first. A high powered jet of water, bigger than any of the attacks that they had launched in their previous fight now that it was being backed up by the water that they were in instead of what they could generate themselves, lanced across the battlefield. 

But before it could get anywhere close to Ke'Zuc, the ball of tentacles had dug two of its appendages into the ground and, with a subtle orange glow, ripped a massive column of the ground up into the air. The water jet bored slightly into the material, but was unable to penetrate the entire way. 

The attack had been unsuccessful, but if Kathura was anywhere near as battle smart as anyone else in the room, they would have at least received some very important information from the interaction. 

While they hadn't managed to make their attack hit, Ke'Zuc had chosen to block the ranged attack instead of absorbing it as they had done with the energy attacks from the previous fight that they had been in. That meant that, if they managed to make a water-based attack hit their enemy, Kathura would likely be in with a solid chance at victory. 

But Ke'Zuc clearly wasn't going to just sit back and allow Kathura to try without launching some attacks of their own. 

With their tentacles raised to the sky, Ke'Zuc opened the strange aperture that led to its glowing core, and the thunder above began to rumble and quake even harder than before. Until, all of a sudden, a massive bolt of green lightning shattered the sky above and rocketed toward the ground. 

I had been expecting an electrically-based attack, but I'd been expecting it to get redirected towards Kathura. After all, electricity and water don't mix, so if they had been hit by a massive bolt of lightning like the one that had just been summoned then I was sure that the match would have been over in an instant. But that's not what happened. 

Instead, the lightning bolt plummeted straight into Ke'Zuc's open maw, pouring more and more straight into the being. It was just like in the previous match Ke'Zuc had been a part of. The Lovecraftian entity was absorbing energy, but this time they were getting it straight from the heavens. 

Who knew how powerful that was going to make them.