Connections- A Kny story of uppermoons 2 and 3

Shifting of the ranks

Douma didn't even know what had happened. One minute he was struggling in the higher ranks grip, and the next he was flying through the air. The entire room was freezing cold and he was seeing through an angry red tinted vision, his body moving on instinct as he summoned wall after wall of ice, moving as if he had been doing this all his life. Now it was Kunari's turn to play defense as she swerved and cursed as the sharp ice shards cut the skin on her arms and legs to ribbons as she attempted to get through the unrelenting ice attacks. 

The spectators had fallen silent in shock a few minutes ago, and all that could be heard was the sounds of both of the fighting demons and their laboured breathing  as they fought for their lives. 

Kunari launched a desperate attack, the final wind trick she had pulled on Akaza the night before. The sharp wind tore through his defenses, and acting on impulse, Douma placed his hands on the floor and channeled all of his remaining strength into a massive icy wall that shot out of the ground and met with the wind in midair. Now it was all endurance as the two demons strained against each other, pushing past their limits and urging their own attack forwards, neither moving more than a few centimeters closer to their target. Ice against wind. 

It was clear too see how much the two were struggling in this final moment. Kunari's hair was turning from white to black as it had done yesterday, and her legs were shaking like crazy as she fought to stay on her feet. Douma had his eyes shut tight, a thick flow of blood running from his nose and the veins on his forehead that had popped from the effort.

With one final push he yelled out loud as the ice wall pushed forwards, ripping through the windy force field and pinning the older demon to the wall in an icy cage, where she slumped, head down, barely conscious. It was clear she wouldn't be moving anytime soon.

Douma swallowed a wave of nausea as he kneeled on the floor, panting heavily. He felt like he had just ran a marathon or something. Just as he felt himself slipping into unconsciousness from exhaustion he heard a familiar voice screaming at him. "DOUMA! DON'T YOU DARE PASS OUT YET" Akaza yelled from the sidelines. "GET UP AND GRAB HER EYE!".

He looked up blearily and felt his heart sink at the thought. It would be a miracle if he could even get to his feet at this point, not to mention having to walk over to the other side of the arena and climb a massive ice wall. He cursed himself for not grabbing it earlier when he was high on adrenaline. 

Suddenly, he felt something wet dropping into his outstretched hand as a small blue face popped up in front of his own. As his eyes focused a bit more clearly, he recognized his own face in front of him, which was a bit of a weird experience. Taking a closer look, he realized it was a mini him, seemingly made of ice. How strange. The ice figure kicked at his hand and jumped up and down, dragging his attention down to the soaking sphere in his hand. It was a silver eye. 

Getting to his feet with an immense effort, Douma wobbled for a minute, than held the eye up for the other demons to see. A huge gasp rang out through the onlookers as the demon king rose from his seat, his expression unreadable as he made his way across the arena to where the blonde was standing. 

"The battle has been won" he announced, in his usual monotone voice as he passed his hand over the younger demons half closed eyes. Instantly, a wave of pain shot through his eye sockets as Douma fought the urge to cry out in pain as the sensation faded. The eye in his hand dissolved into dust as he released his hold on his blood demon art, sending his opponent crashing to the floor where she lay, defeated and out of breath, a thin layer of frost covering her like a blanket. 

Douma turned around just to be knocked off his feet by an enthusiastic Daki, smiling slightly as she babbled on about how the fight had looked from her point of view, and adding loud sound affects to go with it. Gyutaro sat next to him, attempting to pull his sister away in order to let the blonde catch his breath, to which she pouted but agreed to after much complaining. 

Everything blended into background noise as he was swarmed with demons, each congratulating him on his victory or asking questions about his blood demon art and tactics. He smiled at them all but craned his neck in every direction to try locate where his friend was so he could give him a much needed hug.

 But Akaza had vanished out of the room without a word.