Character Event: Wild Wind

Chapter 4: Wild Wind

William emerged from the portal to find himself on a grassy field. The hooded figure from the Academic Collective stood at the center of the battlefield, along with a female figure with black hair and grey-green skin. When William approached closer, he could see from the woman’s slight fangs and pointed ears that she was a half-orc. Before the representative from the Academic Collective could introduce the fighters, the half-orc ran up to William.

 

“Hi- Hi, my name is Aprika Trom or just Aprika,” she introduced herself excitedly. William blinked a couple of times, taken off guard by his opponent’s enthusiasm. After the folf’s last opponent, someone friendly was a nice change.

 

“William of Clan Wintersong-Drackonas,” he introduced himself as he held out his hand, “but William is fine.” Aprika grabbed William’s hand with an impressive grip eagerly. A frown spread across the half-orc girl’s face when William stopped her from pulling him in for a hug. Her frown disappeared as she let go of her grip and glanced around, confused.

 

“Weren’t you the one with the raven in the first round,” Aprika asked, disappointed not to see William’s familiar, Viggo, anywhere.

 

“He has declared himself to be a wind god and thinks the tournament is beneath himself now,” William informed the disappointed half-orc. He added with a whisper, “Really regretting using him as the base for my elemental.” 

 

“If you two are quite acquainted, we need to begin this round,” the hooded representative yelled at the two contestants. William nodded at Aprika and turned to walk to his side of the field. There he found three plush versions of himself placed on the ground, which caused him to roll his one good eye. These plushes had to be someone’s idea of a joke. A squeal of joy from the other side of the field informed William his opponent had found a similar surprise on her side of the arena. “Use whatever means necessary to destroy your opponent’s plushes while you keep yours from being destroyed,” the Academic Collective member instructed, “you may begin now.”

 

The arctic folf grabbed his talisman dagger and began to whistle a short series of notes from the Winter Song. As he whistled, the folf carved a quick rune into the ground. William spilled blood on the rune with a quick finger slice across his seax’s blade. The sanguine liquid caused the rune to glow with an icy blood glow. Moments later, a tornado sprang up around the plushes. A strange orb object that whistled hellish notes as it flew across the sky deflected off the tornado. William closed his one eye and reached out his senses across the air to feel for disturbances. Whatever the flying object was, it moved at high speed through the air. Aprika was flying through the air at him from his right side. She must've assumed he was blind on that side because of the eye patch. The half-orc was about to discover he wasn’t as blind as she thought.

 

A quick side step found Aprika sprawled across the ground as her flying attack missed its target. With a few whistled notes, William threw his witch knife through the air on a trajectory to intercept whatever the mysterious whistling object was. Since she seemed to have a simple, straightforward plan, he wondered f the half-orc would fall for a little ruse. There was enough magic in the talisman dagger to keep its course to chase down Aprika’s weapon, but William started to whistle a set of fake notes. His half-orc opponent recovered and charged at him through the air with a flurry of punches. Each attack was blocked or dodged as the folf used his cut finger to trace runes inside his cloak secretly. Aprika aimed the punches at William’s face, which meant the half-orc had fallen for his ruse. All he had to do was keep this up for a couple more minutes then he would be ready. A clang of metal on metal rang across the sky as William’s seax struck Aprika’s whistling weapon out of the sky.

 

“If you are quite finished, you can surrender now,” William offered as he stopped his false song. He leaned in just enough to expose his face and leave it unguarded. Aprika took the bait and, with a mighty punch, split the folf’s lip.

 

“Surrender,” the female half-orc asked with a taunt. “I’ve just won. You can’t cast any more spells if you can’t whistle.” William smirked as he wiped the blood from his lip and stepped back. His tornado still surrounded his plushies while Aprika’s sat unguarded. William started to wonder what her actual plan beyond busting his lip was. 

 

“See, that's the thing about Winter Song witches,” William laughed as he unfurled his cloak in front of the shorter half-orc, “our coven is ancient, mysterious, and still practices the old ways of magic.” Aprika, enraged by being taunted, punched the rune-covered cloak to hit her folf opponent through it. Unfortunately for the female half-orc, her attack caused the runes to glow. At the same time, the rune that sustained the localized tornado that protected William’s plushies disappeared with the tornado. Before Aprika could react, the tornado blasted out of the cloak and carried the half-orc away. Her angry, confused screams filled the air as William quickly jogged across the battlefield to retrieve his talisman dagger and then to where his opponent’s unguarded plush versions of herself lay on the ground. A quick blood rune on each toy and some arcane motions with the seax caused them to fill with air until they all exploded. Scraps of cloth and fluff flew across the battlefield.

 

“William of Clan Wintersong-Drackonas is the winner of this round,” the Academic Collective representative announced in a loud voice that boomed across the battle arena. With a snap of his fingers, William released the magic that held his tornado together and freed Aprika from the whirlwind’s entrapment. As she made her way back to the field, the folf carved a circle of runes in the ground around the largest pieces of the ruined plushes with his witch knife. This task would’ve been easier if Aprika didn’t bust William’s lip, but he had to take that hit to throw his opponent off. Once the runes William carved into the dirt, he smeared a few drops of his blood on the ground. Each rune in the circle lit up with an icy blue light until the whole circle was alight. A burst of magical light subsided to reveal the formerly ruined plushes restored to their former glory.

 

“You fixed them,” Aprika happily shouted as she ran up and hugged all the plush copies of herself. “Do you want to trade one of yours for mine?”

 

“Sure,” William said as they walked across to his side of the field. “I’m sure my kids will love it.” After they traded plushes and said farewell, they departed as friends instead of enemies.

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  • Mar 15, 2023, 11:49:28 PM UTC
    Aww, such a sweet ending <3 A cherry on top for a wonderful piece!

    Seeing William's strategies and elaborately planned ruses are so cool, especially with all the glowy magic effects ^-^ Hopefully his lip gets better soon, so he's back in whistling shape again. Until then, maybe he can use a... kazoo?