Chapter 29: The Trickster Got Tricked

After the sandstorm subsided, they were now in a circular arena.

"What place is this?"

"This place is where the real fight will begin. For round three, since it is a tie, is a fight 'til death."

"What? Why didn’t you fight me during the first round? Why now?"

"You really are a simpleton are you? The first two rounds were tests for me to determine your strength and accuracy. Since you have no weapons, you will rely on your strength and you must be accurate enough to hit targets with your fireballs."

"You...you really are a trickster."

"That's what I am, I can't change that. Besides, I like tricking people. Now shall we begin? This round will have no rules whatsoever. The game will end if one of us give up or die."

"What will happen if one of us gives up?"

"Well, since giving up is like losing, the winner will have to kill the loser isn't it?"

"Don't worry, I never give up."

"That's what they all say."

"The round will begin when the buzzer sounds."

Raffy didn't know what to do. He thought that he had somehow outsmarted Somnus but he ended up being fooled. After a few seconds, the buzzer sounded and their fight begins.

"Are you just going to stand there? Very well then, I will be the one to go first!"

Somnus flew up into the air and sprinkled the whole arena with golden sand.

"What are you up to?"

"You’ll see."

After a few seconds, the whole arena is sparkling like gold.

"Now, you'll see my true power."

Somnus smiled then suddenly; there were copies of him surrounding Raffy.

"Maybe you're forgetting that we are in the dream world. This is my territory, you can't win against me."

"That's what you think."

Raffy exploded blue fire that burned the copies of Somnus around him. After doing so, he lashed his arm towards Somnus. Doing so, he created fire that flew from the ground that headed directly for Somnus.

"Impressive, maybe I've underestimated you."

Somnus easily evaded Raffy's fire by sidestepping to his right and he quickly returned fire by returning Raffy's fire to him.

"Do you really think that fire could hurt me? My element is fire and that came from me. There's no way you could hurt me."

"Oh really?"

Somnus raised his hand and the fire grew golden bright. It also grew five times its size. Raffy quickly reacted by creating a fire wall. But this wall was not enough to stop the fire and it was broken, throwing Raffy many yards away from where he was.

"You used my attack against me."

"Why? Is there something wrong with that? I did say from the beginning that there would be no rules didn't I?"

Raffy still didn't know what to do, he was too weak from the two tests Somnus did on him and his injury from the attack was taking effect on him. He was running out of time when he heard a voice in his head.

"Raffy, this is Cassandra. Don't be frightened. All Somnus can do to you is manipulate your attacks. This is the dream world and unfortunately, once you launch and attack, it becomes part of the dream. You, on the other hand, are not part of the dream and so am I because we didn't enter the dream realm by sleeping."

"What now? Are you just going to stand there staring blankly into space? Or do you want your friends to die?"

"Listen carefully, he doesn't know that I'm a telepath, and so did I until a few minutes ago. You have nothing to worry. The people that Somnus got in his hourglass aren't your real friends. They're just illusions he made to trick you. Fortunately for me, the bubble I'm contained in cannot block psychic waves so I can talk to you. Here's what you're going to do to beat him..."

"It's that simple? How come I didn't think of it before?"

"What's simple?"

"This!"

Raffy again lashed his hand toward Somnus to create another towering inferno.

"That trick wouldn't work on me twice. It didn't even work the first time you did it."

Unexpectedly, Raffy's towering inferno started to grow golden bright like before when Somnus did it.

"What are you doing?"

"A taste of your own medicine."

After the fire grew golden, it left the ground and it was shot above.

"Ha ha ha, you can't even control your own fire."

Raffy just smiled and Somnus felt a bit awkward. He looked above to where the fire is shooting at. The fire that shoots from the ground is creating a large fireball above them. After the fire on the ground was consumed by the fireball, the fireball above began to shake.

"Sorry to do this to you. But I have to destroy that beautiful face of yours."

The fireball became white hot and shot a thin but very powerful line of laser toward Somnus. But he evaded Raffy's attack once more by sidestepping to his right.

"Is that all you've got?"

"Unfortunately for you, no."

"What? Why you...why...why can't I move?"

Raffy placed his aphonic lava to Somnus' right while he was looking at the accumulating fireball before. Raffy noticed that Somnus sidestepped to his right before and thought that he would do it again.

"Now, where were we? Oh, right, I was just about to kill you."

"He he he, kill me and your friends will die."

"I doubt it. See, it turns out that they were just illusions and my real friends are still out there in the dream world. So, if you don't mind..."

"How did you..."

Before Somnus could finish his sentence, Raffy shot another laser at Somnus. This time, all of the fireball is consumed to make sure that Somnus is dead.

After the fireball is gone, every inch of Somnus is destroyed. What was left of him was a pile of golden sand that was blown by the wind. After which, Raffy was returned back to Joed's dream, so was Cassandra.

"So how are you? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. That was a great job you did."

"Well, I couldn't have done it if you didn't clear things for me."

They saw the gates of the cemetery open that revealed a new cutoff point.

"Guess that's where we're headed then."

Raffy and Cassandra walked side by side towards the cutoff point, yet to find out whose dream they will be heading next.