It would be the twins fighting, finally. After the eventful second day of the festival, the finale was up. The Twelve had taken their seats and the audience were in place. The arena was filled up to the brim with curious and excited spectators. Although the restoration was not complete, majority of the biggest damages were fixed.

Keelan and Brindon had insisted on coming to see the fight so they were present and occupied the chairs reserved for them. The eleventh was munching on a sandwich with his good arm as the other had a cast while Brindon was looking forward, frozen. His poker-face made it worse. He looked comical, almost like a statue.

Well, he could not move, after all. Not without hurting himself.

"Genevieve and Zevlin are up, finally. I hope everything goes alright between the two of them." Aneeka said, her purplish-blue eyes riddled with worry and uncertainty.

"They've already resolved their issues." Elfre said. "So there's really nothing to fear."

"But being siblings may prove to be an obstacle to see a genuine fight. Zevlin will undoubtedly hold back because he is not one to hurt his younger sister." Rowe said. "It might end up one-sided."

"There's not a more dangerous kind of battle than a one-sided one." Raziel quipped. "So has everyone's day been beautiful?"

They all scowled at him at the mere mention of a beautiful day when it had been nothing but working on boring matters. Tamara was the angriest so far, but her mouth was unusually sewn shut. Even so, her glower was fierce and her face was was wrinkled with the emotion. Corvan quirked a brow at her rare behavior when he noticed, but everyone else had been too vexed to do the same. They did notice something missing. After Raziel's statement, it was quiet.

"I'm getting a feeling something's not quite right." Valeriana trailed off, tapping her chin as she racked her brain. "Something's off."

"I can't help feeling that way too." Aneeka said.

"I know!" Keelan exclaimed. "Tamara should be saying something like, 'You call this day beautiful?' by now."

With that matter called attention to, they all looked to the person being described with questioning stares, causing her to cross her arms and proudly lift her chin with a huff. Still, she did not talk. The unusuality made them all raise their brows. The third was usually loud and boisterous. What bid her to keep quiet now? Of all times?

"I am guessing . . ." Charles began. "You no longer have any voice?"

"Ooohh!" Valeriana snapped her fingers as the realization dawned on her. "I see now. That makes sense."

"No." Tamara croaked out. Her voice was hoarse, barely even heard.

They started laughing at her misery, as much as she did when the others were in various dilemmas. As they said, do not do unto others what you do not want done unto you. As of now, she looked beyond irked like she could punch everyone in the Twelve and bury them six feet under. Charles and Corvan were smirking. Rowe was laughing lightly. The rest were loud and nerve-grating. Brindon was . . . well, as usual, Brindon. Need his reaction be described?

"I know what we have to do now when she won't stop! Let her talk all day and she won't speak the next!" Elfre exclaimed.

"You people." Tamara seethed, her voice failing her.

"Haha." The twelfth-ranker robotically added, making them laugh harder.

"You should recover in time for tomorrow." The fourth told her.

She answered with a glare.

"May I have a moment of silence?" The announcer called out, his voice all too familiar that the Twelve's attention recognized him the moment his first word was spoken.

"Is that the Headmaster?" Asked Aneeka.

"Sounds like him." Keelan answered.

The arena fell quiet in accordance to his request, the excessive noise from chatters fading until only mild whispers could be heard.

"I thank you all for coming to the second day of our celebration of the Ember Festival. We have the Celestial Twelve to be grateful for for the organization of this event and the assistance from the Development Department and the rest of the Knights' Wing! In an everyday finale, we shall sport a fight between a preordained pair among the circle of top students to help you see what you can become if you join this academy. We offer membership in two departments, one specializing in knightly works and the other specializing in modifications of gears and conceptualizing possible new instruments for future use. Though I was not able to give my speech yesterday due to some minor circumstances, I shall remind you that everything you see around you--the students themselves are responsible for it. This arena has been modified to suit the fights held and the gears the duelist wear to their own battles were custom made to suit them. This is an example of limitless possibilities! As you know, we are putting up different campuses in the capital of each continent to help expand our cover and be able to accomodate more students. We would be honored if you join the program! I won't hold you any longer, do continue enjoying what we have in store!"

A round of applause accompanied by cheers and whistles erupted, and Seraphina, in the absence of Lord Aeron who usually did the honor, came forward to initiate the duel. With her bright blue flag, long and eye-catching, she held it against her shoulder sophisticatedly. Her face was stern and her manner of movement had been absolutely military-like. She did not swipe it forward yet.

Valeriana was reminded of the Court Leader. As busy as the days had been, he had yet to show himself. What exactly was he busy with that he refused to show?

"Thank you for listening, folks! Calling both duelists! Zevlin Sabian and Genevieve Sabian!" The regular announcer got back to his post and took over, his words followed by the rooting of the crowd. ""Eighth and ninth-ranker!"

Zevlin came out from Keelan's corner the day before and Genevieve went out from Brindon's. As the traditions went, both would meet in the center of the arena to be introduced. They will greet each other as a sign of respect and bid each other to do their best. It would allow the most civilized communication before the start of another deadly battle. It was expected to be as much as Keelan's and Brindon's fight, if not more. They surely would not allow those two to best them, after all.

Zevlin was not covered in any hard armor. In fact, the design of his get-up was absolutely amazing--skin-tight that emphasized the muscles he had built over the training done. The hard plates that covered his chest, his shoulders, legs, knees, and every other vulnerable parts of his body had seemingly been sewn into the suit itself. It did not take too much space, as though it had only been some light protection. Stripes of sky-blue lined the clothing to give it more character and appear eye-catching.

It did make sense since Genevieve did not have any harmful elements to control. Her only Power Control had been healing, which put her in a slightly disadvantageous position. Zevlin, on the other, had the upper-hand when looking at the statistics of each duelist. He was able to wield fire.

Genevieve came out prepared, though. Like Valeriana, she should be given some sort of fireproof protection to counter Zevlin's element. She wore something bluish-violet in color, nothing too girly that would make the observer puke but it did let her give off the feminine vibes. Her skin was protected by a light cloth of the stated color which continued to extend until her fingers, but her finger tips had been showing. Her armor was silver, lining her shoulders, her chest, hips, legs, knees, until her ankles.

She looked stunning, the fierce look in her eyes and the new hairstyle was a must for fashion. No wonder Valeriana's team insisted on her putting up her hair. It gave her a different aura.

Seraphina took a step forward and let the flag slice through the air in one swift motion.

"Let the second duel begin!"

Zevlin and Genevieve made no move to attack each other just yet. It was evident--how the older of the two's eyes shone with hesitance at the sight of his sister. Even so, he pulled out his specialty weapon, his scimitar, and positioned it before him. In return, Genevieve brought out her sabre and readied herself as well.

Majority of the members in the Circle specialized in swordfighting, though their preferences in the type of sword used generally differed. Most of the time they were not picky with what they have, which was the advantage of preferring swords as a specialty weapon, but they worked best with specific types. Each had their own perks and weakpoints, but the diversity was, nevertheless, manageable. Valeriana's preferences inclined to long swords, the Bastard one whatever that was called.

"I never really thought I would have to fight you." The eighth told his sister, afterwards, he smiled. "Just remember I love you, okay?"

"You're really cheesy, Zev." Genevieve huffed. "The feeling's mutual. If you don't step up your game though, people are going to think you have a sister complex."

"I'll let them think what they think, but I'm going to do what I want to do. Like we always do when we were younger, why don't you try landing the first strike?" He waved his weapon to his right, letting the smooth whistle kiss his ears.

"For goodness's sake, this is not a game, alright? Can you take this more seriously?" She said to him.

Her brother shrugged. "If I'm gonna do it, I might as well enjoy it."

"If you really feel that way . . ." Genevieve brought up her weapon into her trademark fighting stance, a hand behind her back and her sword's tip aimed at her brother. She advanced forward warily, her eyes narrowed at him. His form was slack and he seemed to have no plans of retaliating.

Taking her chance, she gave him a strong strike from the right targeting his side. He jumped back to evade the attack, angling his body with his right foot a step back from where his left was. His smirk was evident, which made Genevieve feel irked.

"Didn't I tell you?" He started. "When you're given the chance to strike first, you might as well give the best shot. The thing about you is that you hesitate a lot and you think too much."

His younger sister made no move to reply. Instead she attempted to catch him off guard with another move, this time, jabbing her sabre forward to wound his lower abdomen. Zevlin merely weaved to the side to avoid this attack. She gave him no room to breathe as she immediately followed up with an attack from her left, a move which he evaded by bending backwards at the waist, letting it pass by him. Genevieve continued the motion and twirled before bringing down her weapon from a tough angle as her feet were kicked up in the air, attempting to strike him down from above. Her brother saw this coming as he had somersaulted like a spring thrown down a staircase.

They both paused.

Genevieve grunted, eyeing him. "Are you playing tag?!"

He smiled at her. "What if I am?"

"You . . ." She seethed. "You're so mean!"

Gen hopped nearer to him, shifting her foot to accomodate her movements and balance herself properly. Zevlin retorted by moving farther, his smile widening at the crossness his sister was showing. He stuck his tongue out at her tauntingly before speedily coming at her with his scimitar held out from his side. The younger twin readied herself to intercept his what seemed to be a coming attack when he suddenly flipped backward, his foot shooting out in the air. He jumped so high his head barely even touched hers, and along the way, he even knocked his knuckles against the top of her forehead playfully.

"Tag! You're it!" He exclaimed.

Genevieve growled. "Urgh!"

He landed safely on the other side. "If you act so grumpy, you won't be able to win the game." He winked at her, grinning at her frustrated expression. "Don't be such a child."

"You're calling me a child?! Just because you're the guy and the older one here, that does not mean you should be looking down on me!" Her obviously childish fit threw him into laughter.

"Oh, come on." He approached her within arm's length, his strides casual as he let the hand which held his weapon fall to his side in a relaxed manner intentionally. "You should know by now that I'm not underestimating you. I know full well what you are capable of. You should be as much aware of that as I am."

"I am quite aware of what I'm capable of!" She answered back haughtily, bringing up her fighting instrument with its sharp side aimed to strike his side without losing eye contact.

His expression did not as much as change from his sister's surprise, only a resounding clang was heard. The smile never faded from his lips. He had his scimitar up in time, the blade blocking the sabre from scathing him. It was uncomfortable to hold a sword that way. Naturally, one would be able to focus their strength on a weapon if the blade was facing the same direction as the thumb. Zevlin had it totally reversed.

Genevieve eyed him with contempt as she stepped back, only dive right in for the second time for another swing. Zevlin parried the blow expertly, sparks flying between their blades as metal clashed against metal. The clangs echoed several times, until Zevlin decided to go on offense at last. Though it was confusing at first to know which of the two was on defense or offense, it could be seen that the attacker would shuffle or lean forward to accomodate the movements and the defender would move backwards as a retaliation.

"I must say that watching a swordfight between two weapons of the same class but of different types is quite entertaining." Charles leaned on his fist as he watched their duel intently, his ankle perched on his knee.

"They seem to be going at it nicely, even so." Rowe added.

"I actually find it more interesting when two fundamentally different weapons go up against each other." Raziel said. "Like yesterday? A bow and spear."

"It's just beginning. They aren't even using good moves. This is something akin to foreplay." Elfre defended, rolling her eyes at the sixth.

"It hasn't even been past twenty minutes. The fight has only begun." Aneeka interjected.

"Begun." Brindon agreed.

Keelan gave him a thumbs up, his mouth stuffed with food. The eleventh swallowed heavily, breathing out loudly as it traveled down his throat with a bob of his adam's apple. "Our fight lasted an hour and a half of the half, right?" He fingered the bowl on his lap only to find it empty, turning his happy mood upside down.

Aneeka, being the person right next to him, gave the boy the eyebrow raise and sighed. "You could've just said an hour and fifteen minutes." She corrected. "You make things so complicated."

Her words seemed to enter one ear and out of the other as Keelan was more preoccupied reaching for something under his chair. Unforfunately, the pain that came with his movements made him stop short. He could not risk opening the stitches he had and straining the screaming muscles he overworked yesterday. This was because he had slacked off from training numerous times.

"Neeka, a little help please?" He called out, sulking as he leaned back on his chair.

Aneeka lashed out at the nickname. "Don't call me that, alright?!"

"Sorry. But just a little help."

"What are you looking for, anyway? Did you drop something?"

She doubled over to check what he had been looking for, only to find a dozen or more sandwich bowls and cups of juices stacked up against one another. It was insane how much food he had stocked in there. If this went on and he continued resting without training, he would seriously blow up. And by blow up, that meant he would go huge.

"Did something happen?" Keelan asked.

The tenth-ranker hesitantly reached for a bowl and handed it to him, eyeing his belly if any fat build up started. Hopefully, he was burning them well through his metabolism, but his arms--were they starting to look flabby?

"Sandwich." Brindon emotionlessly called out.

"Oh, you want some?" Keelan enthusiastically said. "Here!" He shoved a whole between his lips before reclining on his chair to continue watching.

Aneeka watched him with incredulity. The eleventh could be cruel without him knowing. How would Brindon be able to eat that when he could not even move an inch due to his pain tolerance?

The poor twelfth was stuck frozen with a poker-face and a sandwich halfway into his mouth.

"Oh, goodness." She sighed, moving to help. "He can't move."

Keelan fussed at the reminder. "Oh! I'm so sorry, Brindon! Here let me take care of this for you! I apologize! I was insensitive! Do you want juice to go with that?"

"Wuice . . ." He mumbled.

(A/N: So pardon this occasional me going between the story but the cousin wanted a new trend. She said "BAErindon" cause Brindon's everyone's bae, lol.)

Ignoring the two, the focus diverted back to the current fight. Genevieve and Zevlin had apparently decided to take it to another level, the cadence of their fight increasing as it lasted. The strikes were fiercer and stronger just then.

Genevieve brought up her sabre from above and Zevlin caught it by holding up his own weapon to meet hers. The older of the two forcefully pushed her off before jabbing his sword forward and his sister retaliated by moving her shoulder out of the way. The boy pulled back as Genevieve repositioned her sabre to strike when her opponent all so suddenly struck from the side, the impact sending her weapon flying out of her hand.

The ninth wasted no time and made a jump for her brother, a dive for his waist to push him off. The result had them rolling on the dirt, Genevieve enforcing dominance by pushing herself on top and hammering the wrist of the hand which held his weapon. This coerced him to let go and, just as it hit the ground, he quickly moved to reach for it despite the pain that shot up. The younger of the twins kicked it off to a farther ground, leaving them both with nothing.

"You know I'm no good at wrestling." Zevlin grunted.

"That's precisely the reason why you shouldn't have knocked off my weapon!" She growled in reply, pressing her arm against his throat to cut off his oxygen supply.

She then made a move to punch him but he retaliated by forcing the both of them to roll once again with him on top. He forced her hand under his iron grip with a swift but strong motion before flipping the girl on her stomach, twisting her arm on her back.

"Agh!" Genevieve was seriously starting to feel irked, her expression twisted to anger and frustration.

Zevlin leaned in to whisper. "Looks like I beat you in your game."

"Mom said you were so hardheaded." She began. "And I knew that was true, but what she didn't know? Is that I was too." The girl then banged her head against his, the back of her skull coming in contact with his left eye.

Zevlin literally saw the stars at that one, making him loosen his grip a bit that allowed the girl to break free. She scampered to her feet, running straight for her sabre when fingers held onto her ankles that made her trip her over.

"I may be hardheaded but you were clumsy." He called out to her.

Gen kicked him on the face, chewing on her bottom lip from the pent-up rage she was holding against her brother. After he let go, she moved stand, ran as fast as she could, and eyed the glint she had in her sight since a while ago. When she got to where the weapon was, it took her aback to see that it hadn't been hers all along. It was Zevlin's.

Who cared anyway?

She bent down to pick up the weapon but was surprised when sheer hotness greeted her fingers, burning her skin that made her drop it back down.

"Shoot." She gasped, feeling the uncomfortable reddening of the hurt tissues starting to appear. Her hand throbbed painfullly, making her wince. "Zevlin! Bastard!"

She tried to look for her weapon for the second time but found that her brother had stood back up and was holding it, even twirling it. His left eye was starting to swell and the footprint was still clear on his face. He gave her a smirk.

"Guess what?" He mouthed to her before spinning around and throwing off her sabre to some faraway place.

Genevieve gave him a blunt look of disapproval before returning his smile. "Guess what?" She mouthed to him, reaching into her back to pull out a spare, much to his chagrin.

All the taunting vanished the next second as she dashed forward, headed right at him. Zevlin waited in place for her until she reached him, her sword whistling as it cut through the air right for his shoulder. He evaded this by hopping backwards and sharply navigating to her right, bringing up his long feet to strike her. He was clearly saying that even if he had no weapon, that did not mean he could not attack.

She stopped. "You make me feel ashamed of myself all of the time." Her sigh was loud. "I feel bad for revealing my spare. Fine. No weapons for either of us."

Genevieve planted the sabre blade first into the ground and approached him, falling to her stance.

"I'm glad you got the message." He said. "I wanted to fight one-on-one without any of those things."

"You just like being beaten up."

"Oh, yes? Who do you think taught you to beat up someone?"

"A student can surpass her teacher."

"But a master might not have taught his student everything." He held out his fists, bent at the knees and shifted his foot to balance himself out. "You're a hundred years too early."

"Yet we were born on the same day." She threw her right foot straight out in a roundhouse kick, targeting his face.

"But not born at the same time." He caught her foot and twisted it.

The girl did not resist the movement, knowing it would only hurt her more. She went with the direction of the twist instead. Since he twisted it towards his left, it enabled Genevieve to bring her other foot out to attack. He caught it once again, forcing her to hang upside down. Even so, she did not give up and pulled her whole body to the direction of the ground by grabbing his legs to help enforce the movement. This made Zevlin flip forward as a result since he had been holding firmly onto Genevieve's ankles. He crashed onto the ground with a thump.

They both rolled off each other and got back up in a split second, back into their stances. Warily, they started circling one another.

Genevieve made a shift to her right and Zevlin followed her movements like a hawk, moving to his left to block any possible moves. His sister made a jump for the other way and he mirrored this on his own.

"Are you playing tag with me?"

He wiggled his brows. "Are you ready? I'm it."

Her mouth curved to a dangerous smile as she made a sharp leap for a tall rock, scaling it fiercely and making a jump for the other side. Zevlin was hot on her tails, doing the same but faster. She made haste for the forest that was set up and ran between the trees, straight through like a bullet in the wind with its current on her face. Her brother chose to swing on the trees, jumping on branch to branch as though paying a close watch on her movements. The moment they both broke through and got to a clearing, the wall of the arena was all but meters away and a lake had greeted them. There were stones peeking up on the surface of the water and small ripples making soft plopping sounds occasionally kissing their ears. They stopped short, both settling on equally far rocks.

Quietness rules overall.

"I don't have an element." Said Genevieve.

"But you can heal." Countered her brother.

"I'll fight you here. So bring it on."

"You really want my fire?"

She did not answer.

"I'll make it extra hot for you then." He sent a fist forward and put a foot in front before bringing out his other fist to attack. Hot, yellow flames spewing out of his hands in a straight, but wild stream.

Genevieve did not make any move to avoid, but merely held an arm out to shield herself. As the fire reached her place, it stopped short with a bang as though hitting a wall, the fire eating its way around her but never even able to touch a hair on her head. Its flames made an invisible sphere appear visible to the eyes.

The audience gasped.

"Amazing!" Keelan exclaimed. "What's that?"

"It's her protective suit." Said Charles. "Probably made from a combination of fire-resistant materials."

"Cool." Valeriana was awed. If this was 'fire-resistant' then what would her suit, Amaranthine, be doing? They said they would have it ready and although she helped them test it, she was quite sure the effects of it did not resemble this one.

Genevieve speedily brought her feet up and kicked a splash of water Zevlin's way. Of course, droplets hit the fire in a sizzle and was generally ineffective in exception for the time when a big bunch of water hit his bare hands, making the entire thing stop.

"Put out the fire at the source." She said. "Although fire-wielders are very efficient when dry I wonder how they are when a little wet."

"Did you forget? I have clothes and they happen to be hydrophobic."

He shot another stream, this time short, with his feet. Genevieve blocked his attacks efficiently. She then speared forward, skipping on the rocks towards him before splashing the water on his face. He shielded himself with a wall of fire, steam rising around them as a result. The activity continued in such manner, the splashing of water and walls of fire until fog settled all over the place and nothing could be seen.

"That is a good way of maximizing the space around you, not to mention the available resources." Said Corvan.

"I might do that." Valeriana said next.

"The same trick won't work twice, especially on me." He replied.

"Well, thanks for ruining a dream, jerk." She told him.

After the small spat, their focus were redirected back onto the fight. The steam had cleared, revealing the twins' fighting zone from before abandoned. They were no longer anywhere on sight, causing confusion to rise among the crowd.

Where did they go?

Fire erupted from the within the forest, the flames latching onto the leaves of the trees and crackling as it fed on its branches. Smoke trailed and eyes were drawn to the direction of the small light it emitted. True to that fact, two figures were fighting one-on-one between the trees, the strength of which knocked on trunks and reverberated with bangs. It was unknown what exactly had been going on from the outside eyes, but clues were given.

Zevlin was very careful not to use his fire within the forest but this seemed to be what Genevieve had been after. As his flames fed on the tree, it grew in size and crawled to the neighboring plants. A branch fell carrying a bunch of flames. The dried leaves serving as a foliage immediately burned, helping spread the fire faster.

He gave a small chuckle. "You really grew."

"You did help raise the both of us well." She shrugged, before leaping for him in a manner that made him jump into action in reply.

The fire used by wielders was not ordinary. It was a gift from Arland, the god of the element, which meant it was a lot wilder and aggressive. It burned faster and was harder to put out unless the source itself had been extinguished.

"This is bad." Charles spoke. "If this continues, it will burn down the entire arena."

"I don't think this is a good idea." Corvan said. "It might replicate a certain incident concerning the twins in their past."

"What incident?" Valeriana asked, and everyone else voiced out their own questions afterwards.

Corvan did not speak but merely kept his mouth shut. It would be impersonal if he spoke of a story that did not concern him at all.

The fire raged and burned. Fumes were emitted and the thick smell settled heavily. The nostalgic scent hit Zevlin's nose, making him pause momentarily. This action itself made Genevieve land a punch square on his nose, forcing him back.

"Zevlin." His sister panted.

He looked up with his bleeding nose and put up an arm to wipe it off, gazing at his younger twin as she looked down at him in a similar manner he did several years ago. The flames were wild behind her back and soot marred her face, the heat scorching the skin exposed and sweat lined as a thin sheet.

"Genevieve."

His memory flashed and he forced it back, unwilling to recall the events that made them lose the two other most important people in their lives.

"It was in a forest too, wasn't it?" His sister called out.

"No." He firmly told her. "No."

"You were so excited when you knew what element you could control."

"Stop." He gritted, standing up. "You know that's forbidden to speak about."

"It's a part of my memory too!" She exclaimed. "Why do you keep running away, Zev? It wasn't--"

"Shut it!" He bellowed. "No matter how many times you say that to me, you know you're only trying to make it sound better. But anyway, even if you turn the world upside down, I'm the reason why we're in this sort of situation!"

The sound of trees bending over as a result of the growing fire echoed around them. The barks groaning as they gave into the force and fell off in large heap made the nearby ground rattle.

"Why are you doing this?" Zevlin exclaimed, his hands shooting out dramatically. "I agree to fight you and this is what you do?"

"I had more intentions than just show you I'm more than capable of protecting myself."

He gritted his teeth.

"It's to show you that you can rely on me too."

-*-

KNIGHT was FEATURED on #FridayReads yesterday on Wattpad's FB page so claps and cheers! We've been getting a lot of success lately so CELEBRATE! This chapter was a good 5200+ words long!

Cliffhanger! Next one will be an interesting one so keep a look out for:

Chapter Forty-Two ۞ The Great Fire