.
The sky was a nice clear blue and the wind was relatively gentle. It was already the fourth week of the Month of Early Flowers, but this was up in the mountains, and well north of relatively southern Relador. There was still a serious bite of chill in the air.
On the sidelines, Ceria stood and raised a [Wind Wall] around the group. I heard surprised questions from the rest, and Ceria simply answering, “Trust me.”
Meanwhile, Allia and I were staring at each other and circulating mana. Chanting under my breath, I used [Fortification] on the practice sword and [Body Fortification] on myself, then pulled more Earth mana from the ground to replenish my pathways. I had been carefully drawing mana from around me, keeping my core fully charged.
A stupid thought crossed my mind– the two of us were just like two samurai staring at each other with swords ready, or two gunfighters standing with their fingers poised to draw their guns– so I purged that thought. I needed to concentrate.
Allia’s lip curled slightly. “I’ve got quite a bit of anger to vent concerning you, you know. I still haven’t forgiven you for what you did to my daughter.”
“If you intend to use deadly force, I will respond likewise, My Lady,” I told her. “Your daughters are my friends, so I would rather you didn’t. I might not be able to save your life afterwards.”
She let out a hmph, and I saw several magics fire off at once, around her body. They were stored spells from talismans that she had somehow triggered. A whole range of mana manifestations fired off at once, like a series of firecrackers, too fast for me to analyze. Her foot kicked the ground and her body moved…
A pair of images came at me at impossible speed, one preparing to pass me on the left, the other on the right. One was clear, and the other was faint and transparent… but traces of Light mana in the clear one gave her away. I ignored that illusion and parried the ghost image.
Wind collided with the Earth in my sword as the weapons met, creating a backlash that should have thrown a human backward, but the motion magic in her legs that had propelled her at such high speed kept her from rebounding. While the shockwave struck Ceria’s [Wind Wall] and blasted plumes of dirt off the berm surrounding the field, the weight pressing my practice sword was as heavy as if her weapon were wielded by a fairy or a troll. Clearly, one of those talismans had been a [Body Enhancement] spell. That’s level three magic…
She clicked her tongue and moved away. We exchanged multiple blows as I pressed in, preparing my counterattack. Then I felt Water mana manifesting in the air behind me. I had seen no magic from her, so it was a delayed spell she had cast at the beginning, part of the series I had seen at the outset.
I commanded “[Wall],” and Durandal raised the whirlwind [Wall of Eurybia] around us both so that he didn’t interfere with the heavy dose of Earth he could see me preparing to deliver with the sword.
Just before our weapons met again, the [Water Lance] she had fired impacted Durandal’s shield behind me. He instantly dropped the magic so that the shockwave from my Earth strike hitting her Wind-laden blade didn’t rebound off the inside, back at us. This shockwave was harder then the last one, creating a wave in the ground to match the one in the air, evidence that both of us had ramped up the mana in our weapons, seeking to overwhelm the other.
I was finding the amount of mana she was handling unbelievable, but I had the sense from the look in her eyes that she was feeling the same about me.
Then, another talisman mysteriously fired off…
If not for my fairy sense, I could never have seen the Earth manifesting right under me and moved out of the way. Even with the forewarning, I could only twist partly out of the way of the [Earth Bullet] firing up at me from out of the ground.
It struck my thigh and hurt like Hades, and it ripped my skirt, but my [Body Fortification] was more than enough to repel it, causing it to ricochet as if it had struck solid rock. By sheer luck, Allia was in the way of the careening ‘bullet’, although it had already shattered back into soil by the time it impacted her armor.
The surprise from that threw off her next swing, which I parried lightly, while I took the opportunity to bring around the Starfire Jade Writing Brush and triggered one of its functions with mana.
The way the brush end’s special functions worked was that it took a particular combination of mana that it received and converted it into a corresponding level two spell. I could only use a couple combinations, because the rest were either too deadly, or not offensive magic. I loaded it now with the normally incompatible Fire and Water, and the result was…
Allia let out a shriek as a stream of scalding water struck her. She sprang backward, again propelled by motion magic, to escape the boiling water spray. I had kept it light; the brush was capable of a steam jet if I fed it enough mana.
Her counter was a raw Wind blast that deflected the stream and saved her from further pain.
I’m sorry, but that [Earth Bullet] that fired real soil from the ground at point blank range had seriously pissed me off. I wasn’t feeling very charitable at the moment. She was lucky I hadn’t used the steam jet.
“That’s a nasty weapon you’re using,” she griped. Her arm was red in the areas that her armor didn’t cover.
“Right back at you, My Lady,” I answered. “Where exactly were you targeting that [Earth Bullet] before I moved?”
I mean, I was pretty sure it was pointed straight up under my skirt before I dodged.
She gave an evil grin, then more talismans fired off and she came at me again, at inhuman speed…
I grew my wings while leaping into the air, propelling myself over her head in an arc designed to come down behind her. She countered it by using her movement magic to send herself in a long leap, headed straight at where I would land.
Wind and Earth flooding into the writing brush became a whip of manifested mana as it streamed outward while I swept it across. It struck the woman in mid-leap like a gigantic bat, the result being to deflect both of us to sideways, out of one another’s paths. I had caught her in the ribs, so she let out an ‘oof’ sound as it struck.
My fairy sight was able to detect that her motion magic was using Wind in almost the same fashion as how I propel myself when flying. I couldn’t think of a good way to interfere with it. I dropped back close to the ground, but kept myself aloft. As long as I was using my flight instincts, I had the same magic at hand.
She had already fired off more talismans by this time, and two more [Water Lances] were incoming, one from each side. Durandal raised the [Wall of Eurybia] on his own. He pretty much had to; they had been at point blank range like the Earth Bullet. I would never have been able to respond in time.
I couldn’t hear what she chanted as she rushed at me, but a magic circle formed in Light mana around her weapon as she came, and an abominable amount of Aether suddenly bloomed, coating her weapon. She swung, and cut right into Durandal’s shield. I pushed extra Earth into my sword as I met it, fearing that it wouldn’t be enough. I had never seen the density of Aether her practice sword was carrying.
I was right. Just like it had cut the [Wall of Eurybia], it passed right through my weapon like paper, causing the Earth mana to explode as the [Fortification] shattered. Her weakened swing was still powerful enough to carry into my forearm, cutting deep. If it weren’t for [Body Fortification] on top of my fairy physiology, she would have sliced half of my forearm right off.
Some tendons were cut, causing my hand to release the ruined practice sword. The strike had bitten into the bones. I gave an adrenaline-powered wing beat to drive myself backward, landing five paces away. She could see I was incapable of holding my sword, even if I could draw it, but she was preparing some type of Water attack anyway, judging from the mana she was concentrating.
I’d had enough of this. I would already be dead or incapacitated if she had been trying to kill me, but her goal wasn’t practice, either. She had already gone beyond that. This woman just wanted to beat me up, the more horribly the better.
She was not nearly as strong as Mára, but she clearly had a lot more tricks hidden up her sleeve. If she had beaten a fairy knight before, her tricks were certainly how she had done it. Allowing her to pull out any more of them was too dangerous.
There was no way for me to close in long enough to use [Sleep], but I had used another overwhelming attack recently. I flipped the Starfire Jade Writing Brush around to point the handle end at her while filling it with as much Wind as it would accept, then intoned, “[Wind Bullet].”
Just as I had done to Lâsin, I blasted a bullet the size of a beachball at her. From farther away, she could easily have cut it, but at this range, she had no time to parry, and she had been using her silverwood sword as a focus at that moment. The mana struck her before her spell could complete, blasting her backward.
I expected it to knock her out, but the shield she was projecting was different than a [Wind Wall] or Durandal’s [Wall of Eurybia]. Rather than blocking my strike, it eroded it. An average [Wind Bullet] would have dissipated in its field before reaching her, but mine penetrated it with about half the strength that I had struck Lâsin. He had been blasted into a mountain. She was propelled a mere five paces back, ending up sprawling on the ground, but that was a heavy impact for a mortal.
I didn’t know if she was out, but she was down. I had breathing room to deal with my rather serious injury. Dumping stored Healing out of my core, I pushed it to blazing hot levels to get it done as fast as possible, before shock destroyed my ability to function or the woman returned to her feet. Even though it was fiery hot, even though I knew I was making of a spectacle of myself, I let my wings glow white in front of everyone and pushed the Healing has hard as I could.
Just like me, she’d been using [Body Fortification], and had not been knocked out. In my fairy sense, I could feel her already concentrating Water mana as she struggled to reach her sword.
I filled the brush with Healing mana while pointing it at my half-severed arm and chanted, “[Heal].”
The sword cut had almost cleaved the radius in two and cut partway into the ulna as well. I watched that damage reverse, the bones growing whole again, then the muscles merge and the tendons sew themselves together. The whole thing was done in about ten seconds. Once the skin had regrown, I could return my full attention to my opponent.
I decided to keep the Healing at full level in my body, even though my whole body was glowing, to protect myself in case she had any more magic capable of overwhelming Durandal’s defenses. The woman was definitely not done, after all. I had slowed her down, but she wasn’t stopped. I could hear her chanting under her breath as she stood.
Not caring to find out what she had in store for me, I simply dumped another heavy charge of Wind straight out of my core into the brush while again intoning, “[Wind Bullet].”
It was volleyball-sized instead of beachball-sized, this time. It was a good thing I rushed it, because that shield was now gone. A magic circle had just begun appearing around her feet as the shot hit her and blew her backward again.
An alarm was going off somewhere in my head. I had lost too much mortal mana with the sudden blood loss. I was now in a state of blood hunger.
