Swallowing back her sudden nausea, Alex gave a curt nod, figuring she might as well get it over with before she threw up all over their shadowed feet.
“Then by all means, let’s do this.”
Alex felt like she was dying.
The heat, the sound, the acrid smell of the purple fire—her eyes watered, her ears rang, her skin burned. And all that while she was standing squarely in the large hexagonal centre of the fiery star, nowhere near the triangular lines of the flames.
She wondered if part of winning required the patience to endure the torturous environment before anything actually began. But her current lack of action was more likely because her combatants—and the rest of the gathered Shadow Walkers—were arguing about her, a human, taking part in their vatali targo.
As the flames rose and fell at irregular intervals, Alex could see through the purple to the crowd assembled on the ground, all of them in an uproar. The same was true for those watching from their balconies affixed to the towering walls of the cathedral.
Clearly, no one was pleased with this development. And Alex didn’t blame them. She certainly didn’t want to be where she was—especially after learning that she would have to remain unarmed, since apparently weapons were only permitted in the final round of combat. But if this was the only way for her to earn the ears of the elders, then so be it. She had trained in unarmed combat with Niyx. It was time to test her skills.
A hush fell over the crowd until all Alex could hear was the whooshing of the flames as they rose and fell in waves of lines. She tensed at the sudden lack of ambient sound, her body alert with skin-tingling awareness as a sense of anticipation saturated the air.
And then came an explosion of purple as the flames rose higher than ever, blazing enough that Alex had to raise a hand to shield her eyes—a mistake, she knew a fraction of a second later, when she recognised the abrupt inferno for the distraction it was.
A flash of inky blackness in her peripheral vision was all the warning she received to tell her the match had begun. She hadn’t expected trumpets, but it would have been nice to have some kind of announcement. A countdown, a bell, a whistle—anything but the flying fist to the face that knocked her back so hard that she fell and skidded along the floor.
Her training kicked in immediately and she pushed past the pain to leap back up to her feet with lightning-fast reflexes. She raised her hands defensively as she looked at the two shadow-covered figures in front of her—one male, one female.
Just as she hadn’t expected trumpets, she also didn’t expect dialogue, so this time at least she was prepared when they rushed towards her again.
The female lunged directly forward while the male disappeared in a swirl of shadows. With Alex’s attention divided, she focused on the threat she could see and deflected the female’s attack with her forearm. Despite still blinking back stars from the initial strike to her cheekbone, it was an easy block on Alex’s part, something that helped boost her confidence.
Knowing her best shot against them was to follow the same method as when she’d sparred with Kyia and Zain—using the element of surprise to take them down quickly—Alex turned on the offensive, attacking the female with a speed that startled the Shadow Walker.
But Alex was only able to land a handful of solid hits before she was blinded by shadows and violently yanked from her position in the centre of the star. She suddenly found herself in one of the outer triangles, the male Shadow Walker having reappeared only to transport her with him.
Unprepared for the instant travel, Alex struggled with the repositioning. She was tweaked, everything about her on high alert, and that was the only reason she was able to recover fast enough to jump over the sweep of his legs and then duck when the female appeared beside them and went for Alex’s face.
Before she could return their attack, shadows surrounded her once more and she was relocated to another triangle. Not allowing her the chance to stabilise from the move, she was instantly transported again… and again… and again.
Head dizzy from being leapfrogged around the purple star, Alex was too slow to react when the female caught her in the chest with a powerful forward kick. Somehow she was able to remain upright, but she still staggered back a few steps, her arms cartwheeling for balance.
It was as she was trying to keep her feet under her that she stumbled over one of the currently dormant fire lines—right as the flames rose up again.
Most of her body had cleared the line in time, but one of her wheeling arms was caught in the blaze of purple, and agony—such blinding agony—seared along the fleshy underside of her forearm.
Aeylia!
She heard Niyx’s alarmed cry when he felt her pain, but she couldn’t respond because both of her opponents reappeared from within shadows and continued their unrelenting assault.
Adrenaline pumping, Alex forced herself to compartmentalise the shooting torture of her wounded arm, keeping her focus on resisting their continued attacks and giving back as best she could. But not even her Meyarin abilities could stand up against their appearing-and-disappearing tricks. Half her hits never landed, since her opponents would simply vanish into empty air. It was like trying to fight a ghost—a merciless ghost who was capable of fighting back.
Only as she began to realise that she had no chance at winning did Alex find an opening. Remembering how she’d fought the cursed Sir Camden as a headless suit of armour, the next time she was yanked through the shadows against her will, Alex pushed past the dizziness and, with a burst of Meyarin speed, spun behind her attacker. It was the male, and she didn’t hesitate to jump straight onto his back, wrapping her legs around his torso and latching onto him for dear life.
Startled, he grunted and tried to throw her off, but she was stuck to him like glue. As she knew he would, he carried them through the shadows, trying to loosen her grip through the disorienting swirls of darkness. But she refused to let go.
Ruthlessly, he scored his nails along the raw flesh of her burned arm and she cried out—as did Niyx, with palpable concern—and the male took the opportunity to reach back, grip her waist, and haul her over his head like a sack of grain.
The air was forced from her lungs as she landed hard on the ground. Even with her immortal reflexes, she barely managed to roll out of the way when he attempted a body slam on top of her.
A sickening crack sounded when his elbow shattered against the floor, right where her stomach had been a fraction of a second earlier.
Leaping up to her feet and wheezing air into her winded lungs, Alex listened to his pained moans while considering her next move, but in doing so, she realised—much too late—that she hadn’t been keeping track of the female.