Rise of the Devourer
Book 4: Chapter 18 — Tournament Pt. 5

As Noah and his pals walked to the colosseum for day two of the tournament, the morning air felt different. The crowd seemed even bigger than it did yesterday, if that was even possible with how full the place already was. More seating areas had been opened up to make room for the extra people who had come from all across the kingdom overnight.

As they settled into the viewing box, the announcer's voice roared throughout the arena, "First match of day two!" "Erwest Ivan, the Paladin of Hellion, vs. Neal Harth , the Unpredictable!"

As Noah saw Erwest walk toward the entrance to the arena, he felt a knot of worry tighten in his stomach. Noah had never seen the paladin look so focused and nervous before a fight.

"Nervous about the fight?" Vion asked, although she didn't seem sure.

Noah shook his head. "Something else. He's been working harder than usual in training. Did you see how long he stayed in the chambers last night?"

Seraphina looked up from the notes she had been going over. "I think it was after midnight."

Neal came in from the other side of the arena with his usual calm confidence. He waved happily at the throng and spun his wooden staff like it was a toy instead of a weapon. The morning light hit his dark hair, and that old smile was still there.

But Noah had never seen that look in his eyes before—a calculating intelligence that didn't fit with how relaxed he seemed. It was small and only apparent when Neal believed no one was watching, but it made Noah's instincts tingle with worry.

"Combatants, come forward for the traditional greeting!"

Erwest thought that the trek to the center of the arena was like a march to judgment. He was highly disciplined, counting every step and controlling every breath, yet below that discipline, he felt anger, like acid in his veins.

He was getting behind. He had been thinking about it for weeks, but the matches yesterday made it clear. Noah's, Seraphina's, and even Aurelia were all getting better at a rate that made it hard for him to stay up.

His divine magic stayed the same, dependable, but not moving. He was failing in his duty as a paladin, and he did not know how he was supposed to make his way ahead. All he had were the same things he had mastered years ago. The same prayers, the same blessings, and the same limits.

He let out a breath, before looking up to regard his opponent.

"An honor to meet you properly. I've heard good things about you,” Neal said with real sincerity as they halted in front of each other,

Erwest grunted in reply, nodding to the man. “Likewise.”

Neal's smile got bigger. "A quiet one huh? Well, that’s alright! I like the silence, adds to the unpredictability. I’m a fan of unpredictability, you know? I don't even know what's going to happen until it happens."

Erwest ignored the man’s banter, as they split off and went to their starting places, where Erwest began to pray before the battle. He called on Hellion's blessing, asking for strength, protection, and the knowledge to serve faithfully. Golden light gathered around his sword and shield.

But even while holy energy filled him with a familiar warmth, doubt ate away at his confidence. How do you fight someone who doesn't play by the rules? How do you get ready for the unexpected?

Hellion gave no answers, and the battle began.

As the contest started, Noah leaned forward in his seat and looked closely at both competitors. Erwest began with his usual opening: a slow advance with his shield up and divine light surrounding him for protection.

In contrast, Neal just stood there and smiled. "Interesting choice. Most people try to hit me by now."

Erwest didn't answer and kept going at the same pace. When he got to the middle of the range, he hit with a controlled thrust of his blessed sword. It was a probing attempt meant to see how strong Neal's defenses were without going too far.

Neal effortlessly avoided the strike, but something unusual happened as he moved. For a second, it looked like there were two of him, one going left and the other going right. Then the two pictures came together again to become one figure.

"Did you see that?" Noah asked,

"What do you mean?" Aurelia asked.

“The way he split into two?” Noah asked.

“No? He just dodged, didn’t he?” Aurelia asked, looking at the battle again.

Noah looked once more, wondering if he’d hallucinated it, but Abyssal Awareness was tingling with the feeling that Neal's movements weren't quite correct.

Erwest kept attacking in the arena, and heavenly light flared as he put more power into his strikes. His swordplay was perfect; every cut and thrust flowed into the next with mechanical accuracy. But none of them appeared to fit together.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Neal dodged with fluid elegance, and his staff spun lazily in his hands as he escaped each attack by what seemed like inconceivable margins. He seemed to know exactly what Erwest was going to do next.

Neal ducked under a horizontal slash. "You're very predictable.” He said, with a smile. "Divine magic follows very familiar patterns. Afterall, it’s borrowed power from a god, imbued with their very nature in it."

"Divine magic is reliable," Erwest said, his voice tense with anger that he was trying to contain. "It doesn't have to be unpredictable to work."

"Doesn't it?" Neal asked, and all of a sudden he was behind Erwest instead of in front of him.

The crowd gasped when Neal seemed to just step across space, but Noah didn't think it was teleportation. There was no flash of light or movement of air, Neal had been in two places at once for a moment, and then he was only in the second location.

Erwest turned around just in time to stop Neal's staff strike with his shield. But the wooden sword hit with a lot more force than its size and composition should have allowed, making the paladin wobble.

"How—" Erwest started.

"Chaos magic," Neal replied with a smile. "Sometimes my staff hits like a feather, and other times it hits like a mountain. Sometimes I'm fast, and other times I'm slow, and sometimes I'm both at the same time. I don't even know which it will be until it happens."

Noah watched the fight from the viewing box, getting more and more worried as it went on. Everytime he did something, multiple versions of him would appear for a moment, before settling on one final version. It reminded him of the quantum physics stuff one of a guy he knew had once tried to explain to him. Superpositions and what not. But he had barely been paying attention and did not ever truly understand what it meant.

Neal’s movements didn't follow any set pattern, his assaults changed a lot in speed and strength, and sometimes it looked like he was doing things that shouldn't have been possible.

"What kind of magic is that?" Vion asked, her voice was tight with confusion.

"I've never seen anything like it," Seraphina said, and her eyes sparkling with curiosity but also concern. "It goes against the basic rules of magic theory."

But Noah was starting to see something more in Neal's seemingly random skills. There was a pattern, but it didn't follow the usual principles of magic. Neal seemed to be altering reality across multiple possibilities, breaking the rules just enough to always get ahead.

For some reason, it reminded him of how Zax fought, which made a shiver run up his spine.

Erwest was getting more and more angry with each discussion. It seemed like all of the techniques and tactics he had practiced to perfection were meaningless against an opponent that didn't obey any rules. His divine magic was strong, but it needed to be organized, consistent, and predictable. Neal didn't give any of those things.

A thrust that should have been easy to block suddenly sped up in the middle of the strike, prompting Erwest to spin to the side in a panic. A swing of a staff that appeared like it would barely hit him hit with enough force to damage his armor. A strike came from his left side, but it somehow connected with his right.

"You're getting angry," Neal said, as he danced away from Erwest's increasingly violent blows. "Divine magic works better when you're calm, doesn't it? All that righteous anger just makes it harder to channel the blessing."

He was right, but that only served to make him angrier. Erwest roared as he rushed towards the man, swinging his sword in a broad ark. Neal vanished in a puff of sparkles that grew into glowing butterflies before fading into dust.

Erwest felt his link to Hellion's strength began to fade. The golden light that surrounded his weapons wavered and went out.

"This is the problem with lawful magic,” Neal went on to say in a casual tone, His staff was now somehow in both hands and spinning in different directions at the same time. "It needs order, discipline, and predictability. But chaos?" He grinned. "All you need for chaos is imagination."

Erwest tried to settle down and focus. He took a breath, as divine power flowed through him again, but doubt was making his prayers sick. Every trick Neal used to get around Erwest's power and every impossible thing he did made the same painful point.

He was weak.

The end came all of a sudden. Erwest promised to make a strong overhead stroke, with divine force burning along the edge of his blade. It was a strategy that had always worked for him before: pure, focused strength that could cut through stone.

Neal caught the lucky sword with two fingers.

The crowd stopped talking when they realized how impossible it was. A chaos mage with a wooden staff had just stopped a sword attack sanctified by a god with his bare hand.

"Probability manipulation," Neal said calmly, still holding the sword steady. "There's always a small chance that the right amount of force at the right angle could stop any attack. I just made that small chance into a sure thing."

Neal's staff swept Erwest's legs before he could do anything, bringing him flying to the ground. The chaos mage's next attack almost hit Erwest's throat.

"Yield?" Neal asked with a pleasant smile.

Erwest gazed up at the wooden staff that was hovering near his neck and then at Neal's face. The smile was still there, but there was something cold and calculating behind it. Something that had been bothering him from the start.

"I yield," Erwest murmured softly, his voice full of defeat.

People in the crowd had conflicting reactions. Some were impressed by Neal's remarkable skills, but others were confused by magic that seemed to contradict basic norms. Noah felt a shiver in the viewing box that had nothing to do with the morning air.

Neal's performance had been really disturbing in some way. Not just the chaotic magic itself, but also how he had utilized it. The calm assurance, the methodical analysis of Erwest's skills, and the smart thinking behind the happy face.

Seraphina whispered softly, "That was... troubling. I… am not sure I can beat him. Nothing he did made any sense.”

"It's not supposed to," Noah said, feeling more and more uneasy. "Magic that is predictable isn't really chaos."

When Erwest came back to the viewing box, it was clear that he was upset. He sat firmly in his chair, not looking anyone in the eye, and his jaw was set tightly.

Aurelia glanced at Noah with concern, but both of them decided to give the Paladin some space.

Valeria walked up to the man. “It’s not a lack of faith that did it you know? Our gods have limits too.”

Erwest nodded, letting out a breath as he settled down a bit.

"His magic is really strange,” Aurelia said. "That doesn't say anything about your skills."

“I know,” Erwest replied at last. “Yet… he made it look easy.”

Nobody could say anything to that.

Noah continued thinking about Neal, who was happily waving goodbye to the crowd as he departed the arena. For some reason, Noah had a feeling that the guy had more to him than met the eye.

As the thought came, Neal looked up to meet Noah’s eyes, and gave him a wink.