Battle in the Sands

Story by SkyWing on SoFurry

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#8 of Black Death

Well, after a having been distracted by school and other part of daily life, I finally got this finish. Here we have the start up for Fenrir's fight battle on the island. I hope you all can forgive any lower than average parts in the chapter, I did it in an "on-again-off-again" sorta pattern so it was very sporatic being written out and everything. Hopefully I can have the next chapter of my other series up in a much faster manner.


~~~~~Daniel's POV~~~~~

"Are you sure about this sir?" my secretary asked, the deer standing up from her desk as she finished the announcement to stare at me, unsure of my reasoning for the selections.

Her questioning made me chuckle to myself softly as I look over at her, grinning like only a lion could as I reply. "I am, do you think it's wrong to want to test the boy?" I ask her in return.

"Well sir," she started, blushing as she leaned back on her desk. "he's only just gotten here. I just don't think he'll do well. I mean, yes, he was quite intimidating when he came in here to talk with you, but he's still an Omega." She said, pointing at Fenrir's status as the lowest class ranking.

"Hehe, that is true, but I can tell there's something special about him. Something only Supers like me could notice, no offense meant to you of course, my dear." I say, smiling to her.

"None taken sir, but what do you mean by that?" she asks, tilting her head to the side.

At that, I push back my chair and stand up, walking around it to stare out the window to watch the students shuffling down below. "Potential, I guess you could say." I answer, smiling to myself as I my tail swishes behind me. "I've got the feeling that that canine will go on to do some pretty great things."

"So your feeling is saying he'll win tonight too sir?" she asks as she gets back up and walks over to stand next to me.

"Heh, that's what I'd like to believe." I start, looking over to her with a smile before gazing back out at the large coliseum. "I really do believe he'll beat our jackal friend in there."

~~~~~Cecil's POV~~~~~

"WHAT THE HECK ARE THEY THINKING?!" I yelled, slamming my paws on the table and growl sharply in annoyance. "How can they choose him to fight on his first day?" I asked out loud.

"Hey hey, calm down Cecil. I don't know what they're doing, but the Head Master must have a reason for allowing something like that." Silnis said, putting a paw on my shoulder to try and calm me down.

I sighed heavily, knowing he was right. "Even if they all do, why does Fenrir have to fight so soon?" I asked, looking over to the friendly wolf.

"A fight huh? Hmm, I do recall reading about that in the handbook I received. Daniel must wanna see what I'm capable of. Heh, roundabout way of doing it though." Fenrir said, chuckling a little with a smirk on his muzzle.

"What? So you already know about this too?" I asked. Why does he not take this seriously?

"Somewhat, I just know that two people are selected and they spar in the coliseum that's equipped with artificial environment technology. Simple enough right?" he said, shrugging at the whole issue.

"So then why aren't you taking this seriously? The Pharaoh is a Gamma-class Super. You may have taken that tiger before but this jackal is much stronger." I said, trying to convince Fenrir to stop all this.

"Well, I guess my timing could have been better." The voice makes us all turn and we see the fox from before smiling down at up pushing a big tray full of food next to us. "Looks like this food'll have to wait until after the fight." He continued, letting out a friendly chuckle.

"I wouldn't say that. In fact, it's perfect timing foxy. I can fill up before this fight and have plenty of fuel to make it a good showing. Just help me lay everything out." Fenrir said, his eyes and grin showing he was hungry.

"Are you sure? You might cramp up if you eat too much before something like that." Xander said, his face showing uncertainty just like mine was.

"I am, so don't hurry up before you make me late for my first fight. Don't want that do we." Fenrir said with a chuckle. Then he started to pull some of the food off the tray, Xander relenting with an unsure sigh and helping set everything out.

We all were just sitting there, watching as all the food was lied out on the table, thinking how bad of an idea this would turn out to be. He's so not gonna do well if he packs all that in. I think to myself.

"Well, being a wolf I can guess how big your appetite might be, so I'll let you have your way this time around. Cecil, Snow, come on. Let's let him do what he thinks is best, I'm sure he knows his body better than we do after all. And besides, I wanna get a good seat for this." Silnis says, looking excited and happy as usual. He stood up and grabbed at me and Snow, pulling us up and trotting off.

"H-hey! Come on Sil." Snow starts, and then I add in, "You can't be serious about this."

"I am, we wolves have a good-sized appetite, and I'm sure he will too by the looks of him. You don't have to worry about him I don't think." he says, dragging us out of the food court. I look back before we turn the corner and can see Fenrir already digging into several pieces of his meal with a glint in his eye and Xander sitting down opposite him.

~~~~~Silnis' POV~~~~~

This place is filling up fast. I was right to leave the food court quickly after the announcement. I watched as people continued to file in through the towels and took seats here and there. Cecil and Snow were sitting down on my right and we were at one of the better places to view the field, not too high and not to close either.

"Do you really think Fenrir will be alright?" Snow asked, his floppy ears drooping behind him as he worried look down below.

"He should be fine; most of us wolves like to have big meals too, although his was quite large even in that regard. But hopefully he gets here soon." I said absentmindedly, also staring at the field.

The Pharaoh, or rather, Reshef Nassor was already standing at one end of the field. He stood proud and strong, his eyes closed, and paws folded atop the staff in front of him, modeled to compliment his Egyptian clothing. He'd arrived a good fifteen minutes ago, and he hadn't moved from that spot. Fenrir, on the other paw is still absent, and only several more minutes are left for the scheduled fight.

"What's taking him? He's gonna get disqualified if he doesn't hurry." I say aloud, looking around absentmindedly.

"Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to let him eat all that food." Snow said, looking a little worried, his right leg tapping rhythmically against the stand floor. He might have a point there.

But before I could voice my thoughts, the intercom above crackled to life. The crowd quieted down from its typical pre-fight rumbling to listen carefully, likely excited about the interesting match-up. "Good evening students and faculty, the fight is scheduled to begin shortly. We hope that you will enjoy this rather unusual selection for tonight." the Head Master said.

In response, most of the crowd gave an excited and loud roar, with cheers for Reshef ringing out as well. It would seem he's got more of a fan-base then I first thought. The Head Master let the cheering continue for a bit before clearing his throat in an attempt to get everyone's attention again. "Well, I'll take that as a resounding yes." He started, giving a little chuckle at the obvious statement.

"There are still a few more minutes before the match begins and we are waiting for our new student to appear, so fill free to continue conversing until things get under way. And thank you for coming out tonight to watch." the lion concluded and the speaker crackled out.

"Well... now we're pretty much screwed." I say aloud without thinking. This only served to restart Snow's earlier freaking out.

Cecil leaned over and wrapped his arms around his mate and hugged him closer, rubbing the back of his head as he tried to console the rabbit while staring daggers at me. To avoid any more mess-ups I just kept my muzzle shut, staring up into the late evening sky.

A sudden glint caught my eye and I felt a breeze start to pick up around me. I raised my eyebrow in curiosity and started to voice my thoughts, "What in the wo-"

I was cut off by the sudden oncoming wind as a spiraling twister appeared. The strong gusts of wind ripped around the coliseum and turning up dust and debris. I could hear a couple people screaming but I wasn't able to see anything was all the stuff in the air. I try reach over and try to grab for both Cecil and Snow, pushing them down and covering them from whatever is going on.

Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared the twister vanished and everything went quiet. The dust and debris still swirled around and obscured everything, but as it was settling everyone started to get back up. I heaved myself off my two friends and wiped the dirt off my face before taking a look around.

I could see that there were some others sitting back up after taking cover themselves, many looking down at the field below. I followed their lead and looked down as well. The dust down there was still settling, but I could make out Reshef still standing exactly where he was before. He withstood that whole thing without moving.

Then I looked more to the right, where it seemed all the dust was circling around. I cranked my head forward and I gazed into the cloud, barely making out two more shadows in the middle of it. Right when I caught sight of them, another gust shot out through the air, four currents of wind blasting outwards to disperse the dust cloud.

I held up my arm to block the oncoming air so I could still look at who the new arrivals were that started all this uproar and racket. Down below on the field stood a figure two familiar people. My jaw dropped as I gazed at Fenrir, facing right at his opponent, eyes closed and arms folded across his chest. And then I saw Xander squatting down directly behind him, smirking to himself as he stands up and takes a look around.

"Ha-ha, now that's how you make a cool entrance." I barely could hear the fox as he chuckled at Fenrir.

"Yeah, sure I guess." he replied, opening his eyes to look over towards Reshef.

"Hey, least I got us here. I mean come on, I even told you which way to go and you still end up lost." Xander starts, and then the two of them continue to talk as I just sit back and shake my head.

"Well, at least he's here now." I think out loud, wondering just how this match will turn out.

~~~~~Third Person POV~~~~~

Once the ruckus was all sorted out and everyone settled back into their seats the match was ready to begin. Xander quickly used his tempest powers to shoot himself out of the field to land next to Silnis and taking the seat beside him with a cheeky grin on his muzzle. Just as he was finishing up a brief reflection of why it took them so long to arrival, the speakers crackled back to life.

Activating platform conversion process. Retracting walkways now.

Upon the command, a soft rattling sound echoed through the coliseum as the two opposing walkways connecting to the circular platform began to retract backwards. The field Fenrir stood on shook slightly as it was disconnected with, and he turned to look at the interesting spectacle, watching as the thin structure retreated into a little section under what he could only right now as one of the field entrances.

Projection rings activated. Beginning field rotation.

Fenrir turned again to look as three large concentric metal bands rose to line up with the surface of the platform. He watched as the silver rings started to rotate in turn, one right after another. They each rotated in a differing direction from the other two, a slight humming being produced around him as they accelerated around him.

Environment selected. Desert realm generating.

The inner sides of the rings started to give off a rainbow-colored glow as they continued to speed up their rotations. Thin strands of white light started to project off of the rings, aimed towards the center of the field as they each one collided with one another. The strands began to coalesce at the epicenter and expanded outwards with each passing second.

Fenrir continued to watch over the process, intrigued by it all and taking occasional glances at the jackal also in front of him before he lost view of him by the expanding light. The orb spread out all the way back to the rings before the coloring changed the large orb slowed to a stop. Now surrounding the two combatants was a sandy brown sphere and the field had been changed to resemble the sands and dunes of a natural desert.

Erecting defensive walls.

Another series of rumblings shook through the ground as thick ring rose up from below and stopped just below the edge of the stands, the gray stony ring encircled around the entire lower field and even blocked off the lower entrances. Fenrir looked back to try and see what had happened next, but the new desert-like climate around him blocked off the stands from view with all the sand floating around in the air. So instead, he turned back to face his opponent, who had finally tilted his head straight forward and revealed his impartial gold eyes.

Countdown to battle commenced. In three... two... one... Begin!

Reshef made the first move, almost immediately raising his staff from the ground and slamming the butt of it back down. "Fir?awn Jays" (??? ?????) he said calmly, just as a light golden ring of light spread out over the ground. Fenrir watched as the light came and passed him as it crossed over the entire desert field, and he raised a brow in interest as he started to notice different points lighting up over the ground.

Fenrir quick bend down and spread his wings out, beating them down as he jumped up to fly off when he noticed that one of the lights appeared directly below him. He hovered up above the ground, flapping his wings to keep him afloat as he watched as more spots lit up. He counted roughly a hundred separate points across the entire field. Hmm, this is a set up for something I'm sure.

Master, Obelisk started, speaking directly into my mind. your opponent is an Egyptian, so I translated what he said before from Arabic. His technique it seems means Pharaoh's Army in his native language.

"Army huh? Then I guess we should consider each of those spots of light as a location for a soldier of this army." Fenrir said aloud to himself, maintaining his distance in the air to watch his opponent and only reaching into his haori to withdraw a pair of sunglasses to block out the whirling sand in the air.

He continue to overlook as the field was dotted by the many spots, each point a bright location that could be seen even with the sand flying around in the air. Once the field had been covered by the light spots, Reshef again raised and slammed down his staff, his only over movement being his head lifting up to maintain his sight of his opponent. The slam this time around cause each of the points to switch their color into a blacker color and form almost perfect circles over the sandy plain.

Fenrir leaned a little more forward as he saw some of the circles start to bubble up and spew into the air. _Heh, looks like I was right before._he thought to himself as he watched the black masses expand upwards and start to coalesce into a more humanoid form. He looked around and saw every other point had darkened and was forming into the shape of a person across the entire field. He then turned his attention forward again to see the first soldier solidify into its place.

The soldiers had an entirely black body, with little definition across their somewhat lean appearance. The most interesting part to each of the soldiers was that they all wore a large white mask, resembling the shape of Reshef's own head and giving all of them similar jackal appearances.

"I would like to finish this quickly, hybrid. So please, don't resist and let this insulting farce come to its predictable end." Reshef announced out as the last of the soldiers had formed, all one hundred of them armed with a differing array of weapons and poised for battle.

"Oh, so you wanna end things quick huh? Well, I'm sorry to say I won't let it be so easy for you. And I'll also point out, this fight's conclusion may be very different than what you have in mind." Fenrir replied, tugging on his gloves before clenching his fists out in front of him.

"Prepare for a fight you won't soon forget jackal!" he shouted as he tilted forward and dived down into the masses below.