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A Forbidden Power

  Ren stood frozen in place, to him it felt like hours but in reality, it probably wasn’t even a minute. In an instant Rita eliminated her three remaining allies leaving them with serious injuries, ‘Why?’ he thought to himself, ‘Why would she do that to her own teammates?’ “This is a fight only for us who are special. The trash would’ve got in the way.”, said Rita. Ren immediately broke out of his shock turning around to deliver a punch but before it could make contact roots sprung up from the ground and stopping his punch causing only a gust of wind to reach her. Ren tried to break free, but his arm wouldn’t budge. Suddenly Ren’s arm was freed as a cluster of roots hit him straight in the gut with such force that it sent him flying. Rita couldn’t help but smile at how strong she’s become as more of the black ooze crept up her arms, “The archduke was right, this stuff is the stuff of legends.”

  Five hours before the exam started Rita met with the archduke in his study. The room was littered with strange contraptions who's purpose Rita couldn't begin to comprehend and the shelves were filled jars holding rare and bizarre items. Dragon scales, phoenix feathers, and troll skin were the only ones Rita recognized the rest were things she and she was certain most of the kingdom had never seen before. “Have you made the necessary preparations for the exam.”, archduke spoke causing her to quickly stand at attention. “Yes sir! I put together a team of 8 people all highly capable who would do anything for you, and we have a plan for how to deal with your target.” The archduke smirked before holding up a vial of poison, “I assume the plan is poisoning him with this, then chipping away at him until he concedes.” Rita was shocked that vial was kept locked in her satchel, yet the somehow archduke has it now. The archduke handed the poison back to her, “I assume you made this yourself correct.” “Yes of course sir if not I would be disqualified instantly when the trial started.”

  The archduke smirked before walking over to a locked cabinet, “No matter how good a team you assembled and how well thought out your plan is, it’s always good to have an ace up your sleeve just in case.", out of his pocket he pulled out a key, "Remember your target is able to use five kinds of magic and was trained by Claire one of the kingdom's greatest knights. He is truly special. So naturally the only way to fight him is to become special yourself.” With a clicking of the lock the archduke swung open cabinet immediately Rita and her fairy could fell an intense malicious energy pouring out. Rita and her fairy were left frozen in fear, 'Whatever was in that cabinet was pure evil.', she thought. As the door to the cabinet closed they felt the dark energy emanating disappear as quickly as it arrived and their fear quickly went away. The archduke returned with a different vile in his hands, the contents of this one were completely black and were constantly shifting. “What is this stuff?”, Rita asked. “Let’s just say it’s the stuff of legends. If you find that your plan has failed and your about to lose, take the contents of this vial and you’ll be able to turn the tables on him.” Rita looked at it with intense curiosity, but her fairy only felt fear, “I don’t think we should take this Rita it's...” “Shut up!”, Rita snapped. “Won’t I get disqualified if I have this?” “They look for any magic signature different from you and your fairy’s, this stuff however isn’t magic so you'll be fine.” With a deep breath Rita took the vial. "Oh and by the way.", the archduke continued, "Do not disappoint me out there. You know what happens when I'm disappointed."

  Ren was flying through the forest through branches until he crashes into one of the trial grounds mountains forcing his momentum to stop. “Ren can you move?”, Noir asked. “Yeah, I just need to heal my wounds.”, Ren’s stomach had a large imprint on it from where she hit him, his stomach started to glow as the injury vanished. “Ren, we need to get out of here now!”, fear was present in Noir’s voice, “Whatever she did to herself it was pure evil.” Suddenly a tree several meters away from them started to rot and a hole through the tree opened up. Out of the hole Rita walked towards them with ooze on her arms just growing and growing. “Ren come on we have to run!” Ren didn’t respond he just stood his gaze fixed on Rita. “Noir if I said I wanted to stop her right here and now would you trust me enough to stick with me.” Noir was shocked by what Ren said, “What are you talking about?!” Ren let out a deep breath, “Where are we gonna go? She'll just keep following us until one of us loses or the trial ends. So I'll ask you one more time, if I fought her now will you help me?” Noir couldn’t believe what he was hearing but at the same time he knew that Ren was right, nowhere in this trial was safe as long as she was still her. Taking a deep breath Noir responded as he started to glow, “Yes!”

  Immediately Ren charged straight at Rita with a powerful punch ready, like before Rita blocked it with several roots. Acting fast ren froze the ground trapping her feet, he readied another punch with his hand full of electricity he landed a clean punch electrifying her. He then readied a blast of fire in his other hand straight at her. Enveloped in fire she grabbed Ren by his shirt then with her other arm wrapped in roots delivered a strong punch. Ren jumped back clutching his hands together, as two hills formed with her in between them, the hills quickly collided. In an instant she cut off her own feet in order to jump above the hills just as they collided. She landed in a sitting position on the hills as two new feet grew for her. She then jumped right at Ren pinning him to the ground. “You know you’re pretty strong you know that. It’s a shame but I have my orders and I can’t disobey them.”, she said coldly. With one free arm Ren grabbed a rock turning it into a knife, he plunged the knife deep into her side. Rita’s face instead of expressing pain became one of annoyance as she formed several pillars of rock behind her. “You know what just die.” Every pillar came down towards Ren at once but just before they hit him a slash of dark energy came out of nowhere destroying the pillars. Rita, Ren, and Noir all looked in the direction it came from and out of the trees came a guy around Ren’s age with yellow hair that had hints of purple. “This doesn’t concern you leave now, and I promise I won’t come after you.” The guy didn’t say a word as he readied his hands for a fight. She let out a sigh, “Alright I’ll deal with you next.” Suddenly she felt something around her stomach looking down she saw a bunch of vines wrapped around her she was instantly sent flying of into the distance.

  The guy ran over to Ren and stretched out a hand to him, “You good to move?”, he asked. Ren accepted his hand and got to his feet, “Who are you?” “The name’s Xander, you?” “Ren” Ren took a moment to catch his breath then continued, “Why’d you help me back there?” “I saw you guys fighting from a tree line I saw the way she fights, the way she moves it’s inhuman. Our best bet is to take her out as a team or else we're both doomed.” A loud boom could be heard from where Rita was sent flying Ren and Xander got ready for another encounter. She charged straight towards Ren delivering a punch. Ren quickly blocked standing his ground refusing to move an inch. Xander wasted no time firing a blast of darkness at her, knocking her back. Ren wasted no time as he charged at her gave a strong swing of her right fist knocking her into a nearby tree. Rita then put her hand to the tree it started to move as dozens of large branches formed and stretched out before aiming down at both of them. Ren dodged the branches that came down at him as Xander created a dark cocoon around him blasting them away. Suddenly the branches withered and rotted away and soon the tree followed.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  "Stupid tree.", Rita groaned. Just then the ground beneath her started to shift and then violently roots sprung out carrying with fast speeds at the two of them. Quickly Xander concentrated darkness into his hands. Just then a black ball appeared in front of Rita giving her no time to react as she collided with it causing an explosion sending her flying. Rita took action as she stuck her hand out causing more roots to spring out of the ground catching her before she hit the ground. As she got back to her more black spheres started to form around her. They quickly surrounded her giving her no route of escape. Suddenly one of the balls collided with another ball causing a chain reaction of explosions around Rita. As the smoke cleared Rita was kneeling on the ground in pain. Ren and Xander both knew this was her chance to finish her. Ren charged in delivering a barrage of punches as Xander stayed blast her with darkness over and over.

  Through the barrages of punches all Rita could think of was that she was about to fail, that she was about to be eliminated. The archduke who counted on her does not take kindly to failures, her family, her status, her future she was about to lose it all. In this feeling of hopelessness something inside her took over. She let out a demonic-like screech forcing Ren and Xander to back up. She felt a splitting headache as the black ooze crept up more and more of her body until it completely enveloped her. Without saying a word or acknowledging Ren or Xander she pressed her hand to the ground trees tall and mighty started to grow old and wither, fresh grass started to dry before becoming dust, and the flowers that bloomed beautifully turned to ash. She suddenly got to her feet as plants started to grow out of her arms, they started to grow bigger and bigger blooming in the process. The flowers began to glow and in an instant beams of pure energy came shooting straight at Ren. Ren barely dodged as the beam pierced through a nearby rock.

  Ren and Xander looked in shock at the power she suddenly had. Xander readied another attack but in an instant Rita was right in front of him a wicked smile present on her face. She grabbed him by his shirt then slammed him into the ground creating a crater. She let out another shriek before punching him repeatedly over and over each punch making the crater deeper and deeper. Ren had to stop her reaching the edge of the crater he quickly blasted with a barrage of icicles. A dozen icicles hit her back and while she stopped punching Xander, Ren could tell that his attack did nothing to her. Slowly reached around grabbing each icicle and yanked it out, not even flinching. Slowly she turned her head looking directly at Ren.

  Her gave shock Noir and Ren to their cores. Whatever they were looking at now it was no longer Rita who they were fighting before. "Ren.", Noir said his voice filled with fear, "We don't stand a chance against her we have to..." Before Noir could tell him to run Rita's hand was already around Ren's throat. Ren struggled with all his might to free himself Rita wouldn't budge. It began to move and in an instant Ren found himself getting slammed into the mountain side. Ren cried out in pain as she slammed over and over going deeper and deeper into the mountain, until an opening was made revealing a pool of lava. Using the distraction Ren gave a quick kick to Rita as he was released falling towards the lava. Quickly before Ren hit the lava a small floor of rocks jetted out catching him.

  The heat of the lava was intense, and the pain Ren felt from Rita's relentless attacks became unbearable. Ren knew full well that this fight would have to end so for better or worse. Out of her back black vines emerged clinging to the mountain's walls. With fire in his hands shot off several blasts of fire at Rita only for them to be blocked by her vines. The vines then switched offense resembling a spear as they struck down at him. Quickly the floor underneath him moved Ren out of the way. The vines struck lava but as they were pulled out showed no sign of burn damage. Ren moved along the stone walls hitting Rita with everything he had stones, plants, ice, knives only for each attack to be deflected by her vines before they came down on him lick a whip each time Ren narrowly avoided getting struck. "Come on she has to have a weakness!" Ren said.

  As Ren continued his fruitless assault, he noticed that Rita's arm began to glow again. Slowly it glowed brighter and brighter until a beam shot out Ren dodged by a hair. "That was close.", Ren said. But when he tried to move, he saw that the stone surface beneath him had frozen in place. "What?! NO!", Ren exclaimed. As several vines came out wrapping around him. Ren struggled as the vines dragged him closer and closer to Rita who's arm was glowing once more. No matter what he did Ren couldn't break free. 'This is it I've failed.', Ren thought as he shut his eyes waiting for the end.

  One second, two second, three seconds passed and the end never came. Ren slowly opened his eyes and saw Rita gagging as she clutched her stomach. Suddenly she started to vomit. Her vomit was black and as she continued the black ooze that enveloped her body began to recede until she was back to normal although her skin seemed noticeably paler. Her body fell limp as she swung from side to side by her vines. Slowly they came loose until she began to fall along with Ren. Ren made a stone floor to catch them but though he landed safely before Rita could reach the floor the familiar white light glowed around her causing to vanish.

  Ren was left stunned his heart was beating faster than ever and his breath was ragged. 'What happened? I lost.', Ren thought, 'She completely overpowered me and yet somehow I'm still standing.' He then heard groans of pain, then remembered Xander. He slowly limped over to Xander who was still on the ground, “H-hey you alright?” “Yeah, I just need to learn how to not feel pain.” They both chuckled at this. “You know you could eliminate me right now, have one less issue to worry about later.” Noir chimed in, “Heh after that beating you took, I don’t think you’ll be an issue to anyone for a while.” Xander's coat pocket started to rustle and out of it came a purple glowing fairy, “Oh please like you two are one to talk one second later and you two would’ve been done for.” Xander chuckled, “Don’t be like that Luna we’re no better.” Xander then noticed Ren focusing magic into his hands and applied it to Xander’s injuries. “What are you doing?” “I’m repaying my debt you should be able to move in a minute.” Xander’s injuries started to fade and before long he was able to move again. “Thanks.” Ren collapsed to the ground as he slowly worked on his own injuries, "Hey I've been thinking why don't we team...", before Ren finished his sentence he looked up and saw that Xander had vanished. "The nerve of some people!", Noir said. "It's alright. Let's just hope he and I make it to the end."

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