“I don’t know why you are even trying to fight me,” she taunted as she wiped the blood from her lip, her voice the same acidic tone I had always heard from her. “There is no way you can defeat me.”
I said nothing, I only glared into her, a small smile playing on my lips as I panted, waiting for my fear and anger to settle into something I hoped I could manage.
Ovailia’s hands fanned out, her fingers stretching as sparks of fire spread between them, the rainbow of colors flashing violently. Her eyes flared with a wicked gleam before she brought her hands together, the colors and magic colliding in a bang that echoed through the forest.
I cringed at the sound, my anxiety sparking as a wall of fire and smoke erupted from her hands. It stretched across the entire length of the clearing, the height of it kissing the top of the lightning strewn sky. My teeth clenched as I watched it grow, watched the flames flow and swim through the barrier that was now sneaking toward me.
The fire Ovailia had sent at me deepened to a blood red as the earth rumbled and lightning sliced through the air on either side of me, the two giant forks framing me as I faced Ovailia, who stood hidden behind the attack that would devour me.
The jolt of electricity sped through the earth, and pressed against my body, seeping into me as it electrified the frantic energy that pulsed through me. I felt my magic bubble in reaction; I felt it crush against me as it tried to race out of me. I pressed my hands forward, letting the earth’s magic swell through me and out of my fingers. The stream of crackling power collided with Ovailia’s wall in an explosion of air and fire before it melted to the ground, leaving her hard, hatred-lined face glaring into me.
I dropped my hands as the last of the liquid fire seeped into the ground around me, the useless attack turning to little more that ash. I was unable to stop the fiendish smile that spread over my face, the gleam now a stark contrast to the fear that was seeping through Ovailia’s eyes. I said nothing as I stared into her, knowing full well that she had just sent her best weapon my way, and I had demolished it.
“I am going to destroy you!” Ovailia screamed as she rushed me, her intent clear. If magic didn’t work, she would do her best to rip me apart with her bare hands. Good thing I didn’t mind playing dirty.
My heart thudded with adrenaline lined fear as I ran at her. Ready to meet her head on, ready to finish this.
We met in the middle of the clearing, our magical pulses colliding in sparks of black and grey as fists met skin. Ovailia threw frantic punches as she screamed, my own retaliation serving more as a block while I tried to claw and scrape at her in any way I could. I reached forward blindly, winding my fingers around her long hair before I took two wide steps forward, pulling her by the long strands as I whipped her around behind me. My hand slammed into the small of her back as my muscles pulsed with a maniacal energy. I threw her through the air, sending her hurdling away from me.
“You are not who I am meant to fight,” I screamed in frustration, hating the way my voice deepened, how my sight fueled the words and told me they were true. Even if they were true, I didn’t want them to be; I didn’t want the words to escape me.
My muscles tensed and flexed as I faced her, the strength that I did not know I had engulfing me. Ilyan’s magic surged as I screamed, my magic stretching toward him, pressing into him, his pride for me surging as Ovailia ran back to me, a long snake of an attack dripping like tar from her fingers before she sent it through the air at me.
“Do you really think you can fight Edmund? That you can defeat him?”
My heart thudded at her words, at the meaning behind them. Everything in me tightened as she rushed me, my anger rippling over me as I pressed my hand toward her attempted attack, one pulse of my magic turning it into smoke.
“I know I can!”
“And stay alive?” she taunted, her tactic changing as she tried to pull out the madness that they had implanted in me.
I swallowed as I tried to control my panic and narrowed my eyes, fighting the fear that tried to pull into me, desperately fighting against her games.
My magic moved, unbidden, to Ilyan as I focused on her, the spaces of each Trpaslík laid out as Ilyan twisted and turned in his fight with them. As soon as he felled one, another one would stream through the trees toward him. One after another I could feel them as they ran toward him. I could feel them cut him, feel his blood drip over his skin. He needed help. I needed to get over there, but with Ovailia breathing down my neck, I knew there was no way.
I didn’t pull my scowl off Ovailia as I let my magic surge into Ilyan, pulsing through him as his attacks grew in strength and exploded out of him as he wielded my power, taking down several with one simple attack.
That’s my girl, Ilyan’s voice filled my head, and I fought the smile that wanted to seep over me.