Post by schrodinger on Sept 12, 2009 3:52:29 GMT 8
"You ready for this, bookworm? Don't come begging for mercy while I burn you to a crisp, 'cause you sure ain't getting any!"
"Of course. There will be no quarter given. But allow me to remind you that I thus far have a flawless record against you, so your posturing only makes your inevitable defeat all the more ironic."
The 7-year-old, clad in a well-cut white shirt and matching black pants, waved his hand dismissively, as if to say that anything his opponent claimed was inconsequential. She didn't take well to the barely-disguised snub, naturally.
"Well...that may be, but that doesn't mean you're going to win this time! Just because you've been winning all this time doesn't mean it's a law of nature or anything, and if you think so, then you're falling into the problem of indo - of indi -"
Her crimson-orange hair flaring, the girl pointed a condemnatory finger at him, but her faltering rather threw off the impact of the pose.
"Induction. Yes, well, who knows? You just might surprise me now. Maybe break the trend a little. After all, this is the last time..."
The remark trailed off, and they both fell silent for a moment, turning sombre at the thought that it would be the last duel that they'd be having for a while. A long while.
She broke the tension first, smirking as she spoke.
"You got that right! Doesn't matter where you're running off to after this, because I'm going to be laughing at you all the way!"
He smiled back, setting aside the notion of his departure. There was no way he'd be content to leave with the taste of defeat in his mouth, not when he'd done so well so far.
"Indeed. Let's get to it, then."
"Ready when you are."
A mild breeze blew past them as they stood on opposite sides of the grassy knoll, gently pulling at the untucked hem of her tank top. Venser undid the top button of his shirt, predicting that the situation would be heating up greatly in the near future.
"Three."
Exoushia's eyes were fixed solely on him, in preparation for a relentless flurry of attacks that would prevent him from doing anything in retaliation or even self-defense. She'd been doing everything to beat him down ever since they'd started dueling, and yet he always managed to come out on top, even if it was just by a little bit - it just wasn't fair!
She tightened her grip on her sword, unsheathed and at the ready. This time she wasn't going to give him a chance.
"Two."
Mentally reviewing every spell he knew that could possibly be of use to him in the fight, Venser prepared himself for the series of attacks that he already knew she was going to start out with - a fireball straight on while she charged him from the side, then a point-blank blast of flame when she managed to close the distance with him. Beyond that, her thought process degraded into visions of herself gloating over a blackened and charred figure, probably him. She hadn't really thought it out, had she?
"One."
They locked eyes, and the duel was on.
She shouted something - a rushed incantation - and just as predicted, a ball of flame materialized before her, hurtling towards him as she began running alongside it, intending to cut him off if he attempted to dodge the projectile. But contrary to her expectations, he just stood there, letting it hit him and explode in a spectacular burst of flame.
"You snooze, you lose, pal!"
Had she caught him unawares? Perfect! Her plan had worked exactly as she'd thought it would, and a swift strike from her blade would ensure that he paid dearly for underestimating her. As the smoke cleared from the fireball, she brought her sword down in a diagonal slash, intending to stop just short of his throat, and savor the look in his eyes when he realised just how quickly he'd been defeated.
Something wasn't right. Looking up at him, she realised that her sword hadn't cut him - it was just IN him.
"I don't think so."
He spoke, but though the lips of the Venser in front of her moved, his voice came from behind her. She turned to look, but the Venser whom she'd stabbed laid a hand over her eyes, she heard him whisper something from somewhere else, and suddenly her world was blanked out. Even though her eyes were wide open, there was nothing before her but a white expanse, completely different from the grassy hill that she'd just been on.
"What is this!? Don't give me any more of your tricks, you...!"
In her blind fury, words failed her, but her rage manifested itself in a blistering wave of flame that radiated outward from her, and almost immediately her vision cleared.
Venser had had to dismiss his illusion in her mind hurriedly in order to create a wall of force between him and the nova of flames she'd sent out. A spell like that, which projected an illusion straight into the mind of the target, required both a direct magical probe - which he'd managed, using an image of himself as bait - and continual focus on channeling the spell. The glamer was shot now that he'd ceased channeling, but she hadn't completely regained her sight yet, and that was his chance.
Blinking a few times to make sure that she could see straight, Exoushia found that her opponent was nowhere to be seen.
"Aw, did the little coward run away when his sneaky spell got interrupted? What's the matter, you scared of a little flame? Just so you know, if you run away now, that's even worse than just losing to me fair and square."
She didn't think he'd actually run - he was probably too proud for that - but maybe she'd really scared him off this time.
"Who's running?"
Wheeling around to face him, sword in one hand, flame in another, she only realised after making a full revolution that he had been speaking right behind her. Too late she felt the impact of his palm in the small of her back - and too soon she was hitting the ground a good 6 meters away, thrown back by his evocation of force.
His subterfuge had paid off. She hadn't suspected a thing until he actually made his move, and now he had a precious few seconds while she was still disoriented to give himself even more of an advantage... and he had just the spell for it.
"...come to me!"
Struggling to pick herself up, Exoushia heard Venser call something to his side. Maybe he was trying to call for some support, but it didn't matter. She was going to burn straight through it - straight through him, too. That would teach him to sneak up on her like that.
When she saw what he'd summoned, however, her plan to burn straight through it seemed a little more unfeasible all of a sudden. Looming above them was a swirling air elemental, almost as large as the hill they were on, and bound together by little other than magic. Putting on a brave front, she sneered in his direction.
"You call that a monster? I call it toast!"
While he was still finishing the final words of the summoning spell, she sprinted towards him and his flying friend, sheathing her sword. With her hands free, she reached out to them, thinking of fire, of flaming explosions, of volcanic eruptions -
And a great gout of flame issued forth from between her outstretched hands, enveloping everything in front of her in a burgeoning inferno. Her heart pumping double-time, she wondered if this was it - if she could crown herself the victor in the end, if he would finally concede defeat after this.
-
"...!"
The summoning nearly complete, Venser had just been about to give his elemental the command to attack when an unexpected burst of fire disrupted his concentration and singed his forearms and the side of his face. Luckily, his elemental had placed itself between him and fiery doom, but it as it was mostly air, it wasn't much of a barrier. The burns that he had sustained weren't life-threatening, but damned if they didn't sting. It wasn't looking good for him; what with his energy being mostly depleted from summoning a fairly powerful elemental, which was now nothing more than a wisp of smoke, and his adversary being only a few meters away. He needed more time to replenish his mana, and he needed to get out of her reach immediately, lest she take advantage of his temporary setback. Then again, she too would have had expended most of her energy in that attack, so maybe...
Exoushia was indeed drained of mana at that point, but she was happy to see that burning straight through stuff still worked. And she didn't necessarily need magic to put the hurt on her opponent, not when she had her grandfather's sword with her. Pulling it out, she burst into a headlong sprint towards him, poised to slam him to the ground with her momentum and keep him there with the tip of her blade.
Crap, she was going to charge him now. That was bad, and he didn't like the look of her sword, either. It was best to nip moves like that in the bud, and as soon as she got a good running start, he hit her with a simple disorientment charm, causing her to temporarily lose her sense of balance. A dizzy spell, as it were.
She had just taken a few steps on the path to victory when Venser whipped a hand in her direction, and the world swam before her eyes, the ground felt like it was slipping away beneath her feet, and her feet found themselves inexplicably tangled with each other. Stumbling, she fell face-first into the grass and rolled downhill, aided by the insidious grasp of gravity and the deceptive slope of the knoll, hidden well by a verdant cover of grass. The trip downwards wasn't incredibly injuring, owing in large to the soft grass, but taking a spill like that didn't exactly leave one in full fighting form, either.
Of course, she had ways and means of dealing with wounds, even if she hadn't actually studied any healing magic. As an elf, she had a natural affinity with ...well, nature, and her parents had been insistent on having her learn how to heal her wounds by tapping into the lifeforce of the earth ever since she started dabbling in pyromancy. It was this primal energy that she tapped into now, focusing it into a curative spell that could use to -
"I'm afraid that I'll have to take that."
In her haste to heal herself, Exoushia had completely forgotten about Venser, watching her from the top of the hill, and she turned to face him at the sound of his voice. He was reaching towards her with one hand, glowing with magic, and as he closed it into a fist, the ball of energy that she'd been about to absorb into herself appeared in his other hand, which took hold of it. Immediately, the burns along his arms and face vanished, leaving unmarked skin in their place.
She snarled at him, him and his composure, inwardly seething with anger. Anger was good. She could use anger.
"You think you're so smart, with your fancy tricks and your stupid spells -"
"Oh, I don't know. Everyone else certainly does."
Glaring at him, she let her inner fury hit fever pitch, building it into a roiling pulse of power. Her magic could feed off of it, allowing her to blow off some steam while giving him what he deserved. Let him taunt her some more - she was going to show him what was what.
"You're not the only one who can call up helpers, you know. Say hello to my little friends!"
Several small, feisty, flaming critters - spark elementals - coalesced out of the air around her, and sped up the slope towards him, leaving little patches of burnt grass in their wake. She scoffed contentedly as he scrambled away from them, relishing the feeling of being in charge for once.
"There's plenty more where that came from! Let's see you dance, smartypants."
He didn't doubt that she'd make good on her threat. It might have been possible to get an advantage if she had attempted to summon one big creature, but if she was calling on smaller, faster ones, there was no way that he'd be able to keep up. No time to mount a proper defense now, and if they got to him, he had the sneaking suspicion that 'well done' would be an apt description of his eventual fate.
There had to be a way out - there was always a way out, even in the worst situations. He just needed to think. The creatures were fire-based, they were meant for quick attacks, they were short-lived, dissipating rapidly after summoning... he just needed to keep them away from him long enough for them to vanish. He pinpointed the positions of the elementals closing in on him, and visualised chains binding them to the ground, holding them back... and nearly instantaneously, shining leashes entwined themselves around the elementals, firmly halting their advances - except for one particular specimen, which managed to escape its confines and leap up onto him, pawing at his body.
"Argh!"
He turned aside, trying to minimize his exposure to it, but the little thing was tenacious, and he could already feel his shirt - and skin - beginning to char, no matter how much he struggled to push it away.
Then, as suddenly as it had started, the creature vanished, and he gasped for breath, wiping rivulets of sweat off his forehead. Hot stuff indeed.
The crimson glow radiating from down the hill caught his attention, and he rushed over just in time to see Exoushia summon another elemental.
A large one.
"I'm going to need a bigger spell."
A three-meter tall, vaguely humanoid elemental stood in front of her. Its skin resembled polished igneous rock, glowing red-hot from its flaming hair, its flaming eyes, its flaming - hell, it was hard to name a body part on it that wasn't aflame. And whatever it was, it was angry. Probably. He knew that he might be jumping to conclusions based on the evil eye that it was giving him, or the fist raised to pound him into ashy oblivion, but this was a leap of logic he felt pretty sure about. That wasn't reassuring, though.
Leaping backwards to avoid the fiery reckoning, he was still knocked to the ground by the impact that the elemental's punch made on the hill.
"Not so confident now, are you, punk?"
She sauntered up the slope, her elemental lumbering alongside her. At the sight of him lying on the ground, she was barely able to hold back a vindictive smile.
"Oh, nice. The 'helpless' look really suits you. Hold on, I have the perfect accessory to complete it! How about... my chaser's fist around you? Don't worry, it won't hurt. Much."
"I must gracefully decline... it's just a passing fad, anyway."
He began to get up, preparing to cast a magnified version of the restraining order that he'd pressed into service against her previous minions. Judging from the elemental's current unsteady gait, it wasn't especially nimble, and if he acted fast, it just might be possible to -
"Oh no you don't!"
Exoushia snapped her fingers and a bolt of energy flitted from between them to the elemental, causing its flames to momentarily flare white-hot, and giving it a eerie burst of speed, which was put to good use in tackling Venser. Pinned to the grass, which was slowly beginning to dry up and kindle, he had to convert the binding spell into a shield between him and the blazing avatar above him.
"You can't hold out forever. That barrier's going down eventually, and you're going down with it. Smash it!"
Taking its mistress' orders to heart (if it had one), the elemental brought a crushing fist to bear against his shimmering barrier, which began to fade slightly, a sign of the enchantment holding it together weakening. A very, very bad sign, as it was the only thing holding a hundred kilogrammes of angry elemental at bay.
He couldn't let it end this way. Absolutely not. Estimating that he would be safe for at least another devastating punch, he fixed his sights on the tower of stone and flames directly above him, and rapidly recited a complex incantation, a precursor to a spell that, if resolved properly, would let him turn the tables on her. Hidden from her view by the enveloping limbs of the elemental, he laid both hands on his shield in anticipation of the next blow.
Come on. One more time.
It swung a clenched, burning fist down at him from high above, a haymaker that would almost certainly disperse his shield and leave him exposed. One second to impact, and he narrowed his eyes in concentration, carefully preparing to unleash his spell. The moment its fist made contact with the shield, a mere millimeter away from his outstretched palms, he released the sorcery that he'd been holding in check, relaying it over the shield and then inverting the shield, turning it into a veneer of spellcraft that blanketed the elemental.
Stopping mid-swing, it froze momentarily, then slowly rose to its feet and turned around.
"Have a taste of your own medicine then, if you like doling it out so much."
He stood and faced her, keeping himself safely behind the elemental. It was under his control now, and he intended to make full use of it. It would be remiss of him not to reciprocate her sanguine intentions, really. As his breathing slowed to a normal pace, he silently issued the command to attack, and his newly-recruited minion obeyed with unthinking earnest.
Exoushia was beginning to come off the rush of anger that she'd been drawing on to summon the nova chaser, and though her efforts had been well worth it to see her opponent humiliated thusly, she was on the receiving end now, and things weren't so rosy with the elemental heading for her. Too bad - she'd just have to get rid of it. Forcefully, if need be. Actually, forcefully even if it wasn't necessary. That was just how she rolled.
Putting her palms together at her side, she charged them with enough power to create a satisfying crackle, and then ripped them apart suddenly while thrusting towards the elemental, sending a bolt of lightning snaking through the air, straight towards it. It was going down, no questions asked.
"That's your answer to everything, isn't it? What happens when I raise a direct counterpoint?"
With a wave of his hand, Venser intercepted the bolt and disrupted its flow of energy with a simple counterspell. Thusly dealt with, the red-tinted bolt of energy fractured, diffusing into errant shards of æther, which drifted away on the wind, a seeming cloud of purple-pink rose petals. Exoushia didn't have time to appreciate the subtleties of hue or shade, however - she was too busy getting pounded into the side of the hill by the elemental's sideways swipe. It closed in on her further, looking to seal the deal with a few well-placed blows. She had to kill it. Fast. But he was surely observing her from close by, even if he was hidden by the elemental, and if she tried to cast anything, he'd surely stop the spell dead in its tracks before she could so much as scratch the elemental. That was how it always went - she brought out her best, most powerful expressions of rage, of force, and he didn't so much as bat an eyelid as he disregarded it with a single gesture. If only he'd let her spells resolve, even once, he wouldn't stand a chance at winning.
Enough was enough. She wasn't going to stand for it any more - if he was going to mess with her spells, she was going to mess with his face. With her sword. He couldn't do anything about that.
Drawing it out from within its sheath, she swung wildly at the elemental's approaching fist, sending bits and pieces of rock flying. For something made out of rock, it was surprisingly brittle, and a single strike was enough to chip away nearly half of its hand. The remaining half, however, continued towards her, and she had to bring her sword back to parry its scarily jagged remnants, spikes of stone that would very likely skewer her if they got close enough. Good. She knew how to take it down, now - smashing things always worked.
As it continued its singleminded assault on her, now leading with its other hand, she leapt up and onto it, bringing her sword down into its chest, then using it as a pivot to swing herself onto its shoulder. Dislodging her sword from the middle of its torso, she switched her grip on it and went straight for the neck, aiming to hack it off in a single blow. But as she raised the blade over her right shoulder, she was rudely interrupted by the elemental's hand, swatting her off and back onto the ground, as if she were nothing more but a bothersome fly. Shrugging off the impact of the fall, she redoubled her attack, slashing at the elemental's left leg in an attempt to cripple its movement.
It worked. A little too effectively, in fact. Without the support of one of its limbs, it teetered forwards - right where she was standing - and collapsed onto her, pinning her down in an embrace of crumbling stone and smoking ashes. Luckily, she already knew how to fend off untoward advances like this one - with the tip of a blade. Using her sword to keep a gap between her and the elemental's bulk, she was still forced downwards by its weight, bearing down on her. Not that she was any stranger to heat, but she preferred it when she was on top. Time to break out.
Placing the hilt of her sword firmly on the ground next to her, to stop the elemental from crushing her, she laid her hands on the part of it above her, ignoring the searing heat that it was still giving off. She only needed a moment for this, anyway, a single, intense thought of destruction -
The elemental's body exploded outwards in a blast of flame, ash, and shards of rock. Coughing from the smoke, she got to her feet, sword in hand, and bounded up the slope, ready to finish the fight. She was all pumped up - blowing stuff up did that to her - and eager for a repeat performance of the explosion she'd just managed. Where was he!?
Where was he?
A quick look around the top of the hill revealed that he was nowhere to be seen. Was he hiding, waiting to strike? But where? There wasn't an obstacle to hide behind anywhere on the hill, and if he was going to attack her, he'd have done it while she was still making her way up. No, that couldn't be it.
Turning around slowly, she made sure that she hadn't missed any blind spots around her on the hill. This was getting frustrating - the urge to burn, to destroy, to do something was uncontrollable, but the object of her rage, that smarmy pest, just wasn't -
"RRRGGH!"
A devastating roil of flames erupted from beneath her feet, and began to spread outwards slowly, leaving a trail of charred destruction in its wake. Ok. That was better. He still wasn't there.
A possibility occurred to her - was he was invisible like before, trying to sneak up on her? Well, he wouldn't be able to try anything like that if the ground was on fire, but he might still be standing by, watching her lose control, as if he was so much better, so much more -
She felt her fury flaring within herself, and reminded herself to find a target for it, make it work for her instead of the other way round. Let him hide out of sight. He'd be singing a different tune when her flames caught up to him. Channeling more power into controlling the fire around her, she spread it in a wide swath all around her, making sure to cover everything.
"You can't hide forever! It'll be less embarrassing if I just toast your face than if you keep playing hide and seek and your pants burn off! Okay, not really, but come out anyway!"
The top of the hill was scorched earth, and still no sign of him. Had he retreated downwards? That was cowardly, but it meant she had him on the run - she had control. Good. She could ease off the fire a little to save mana, as she was getting rather drained from all the pyrotechnics.
Pausing to catch her breath for a moment, she took a second glance around her and still saw nothing. So he really was on the run.
"Think again."
She'd scarcely turned her head to look at him when an incredible force slammed her to the ground, sending her rolling.
He'd been waiting high above, levitating above her, right in a perfect blind spot, waiting for the exact moment to strike. When she let her guard down, he dived, using a shield below him as a means of cushioning his fall... with her as a proxy, of course. And it had been undoubtedly effective, too. She was still reeling from the blow when his bindings lashed her firmly to the ground, a maximally optimized build of the restraining spell he'd been using earlier. It rendered any form of struggle futile, wicking away potential wisps of mana that could be used to cast a spell from the victim.
"What a mess. Did you really think you could smoke an invisible target out like this?"
With a simple gesture at the burning ground around them, he extinguished the flames, leaving only ashy remains.
"You're still not thinking enough. If you're not thinking, you're not going to win."
Exoushia glared at him spitefully, tears of frustration building in her eyes. It was the only thing she could do, since the rest of her body was out of commission. Her sword was lying out of reach, having been knocked off her from the impact, and she couldn't make a grab for it. Even wiping her tears away, hiding her disappointment from him wasn't possible, not with her hands bound at her sides.
"Why? Why do you always have to do this? Why can't you even give me a chance at winning?"
His expression shifted from one of cool satisfaction to cold disdain.
"...Give you a chance? Do you think I despise you enough to do that? If you want to win against me, you'll have to defeat me at my peak, or else you're just kidding yourself. I thought maybe you'd take things seriously now, since it's our last time - "
He paused, refusing to meet her eyes. She looked away, too, uncomfortable in the shared knowledge of how much it meant to both of them.
" - but apparently I was wrong. You let yourself down. You let me down. There's nothing more that I can say.
...Goodbye."
Turning from her, Venser walked away, down the hill and into the distance, returning home to prepare for his departure. As he left, the bindings around her faded gradually, leaving her free to pick herself up.
She waited for him to leave her sight.
She waited for ever.
"Of course. There will be no quarter given. But allow me to remind you that I thus far have a flawless record against you, so your posturing only makes your inevitable defeat all the more ironic."
The 7-year-old, clad in a well-cut white shirt and matching black pants, waved his hand dismissively, as if to say that anything his opponent claimed was inconsequential. She didn't take well to the barely-disguised snub, naturally.
"Well...that may be, but that doesn't mean you're going to win this time! Just because you've been winning all this time doesn't mean it's a law of nature or anything, and if you think so, then you're falling into the problem of indo - of indi -"
Her crimson-orange hair flaring, the girl pointed a condemnatory finger at him, but her faltering rather threw off the impact of the pose.
"Induction. Yes, well, who knows? You just might surprise me now. Maybe break the trend a little. After all, this is the last time..."
The remark trailed off, and they both fell silent for a moment, turning sombre at the thought that it would be the last duel that they'd be having for a while. A long while.
She broke the tension first, smirking as she spoke.
"You got that right! Doesn't matter where you're running off to after this, because I'm going to be laughing at you all the way!"
He smiled back, setting aside the notion of his departure. There was no way he'd be content to leave with the taste of defeat in his mouth, not when he'd done so well so far.
"Indeed. Let's get to it, then."
"Ready when you are."
A mild breeze blew past them as they stood on opposite sides of the grassy knoll, gently pulling at the untucked hem of her tank top. Venser undid the top button of his shirt, predicting that the situation would be heating up greatly in the near future.
"Three."
Exoushia's eyes were fixed solely on him, in preparation for a relentless flurry of attacks that would prevent him from doing anything in retaliation or even self-defense. She'd been doing everything to beat him down ever since they'd started dueling, and yet he always managed to come out on top, even if it was just by a little bit - it just wasn't fair!
She tightened her grip on her sword, unsheathed and at the ready. This time she wasn't going to give him a chance.
"Two."
Mentally reviewing every spell he knew that could possibly be of use to him in the fight, Venser prepared himself for the series of attacks that he already knew she was going to start out with - a fireball straight on while she charged him from the side, then a point-blank blast of flame when she managed to close the distance with him. Beyond that, her thought process degraded into visions of herself gloating over a blackened and charred figure, probably him. She hadn't really thought it out, had she?
"One."
They locked eyes, and the duel was on.
She shouted something - a rushed incantation - and just as predicted, a ball of flame materialized before her, hurtling towards him as she began running alongside it, intending to cut him off if he attempted to dodge the projectile. But contrary to her expectations, he just stood there, letting it hit him and explode in a spectacular burst of flame.
"You snooze, you lose, pal!"
Had she caught him unawares? Perfect! Her plan had worked exactly as she'd thought it would, and a swift strike from her blade would ensure that he paid dearly for underestimating her. As the smoke cleared from the fireball, she brought her sword down in a diagonal slash, intending to stop just short of his throat, and savor the look in his eyes when he realised just how quickly he'd been defeated.
Something wasn't right. Looking up at him, she realised that her sword hadn't cut him - it was just IN him.
"I don't think so."
He spoke, but though the lips of the Venser in front of her moved, his voice came from behind her. She turned to look, but the Venser whom she'd stabbed laid a hand over her eyes, she heard him whisper something from somewhere else, and suddenly her world was blanked out. Even though her eyes were wide open, there was nothing before her but a white expanse, completely different from the grassy hill that she'd just been on.
"What is this!? Don't give me any more of your tricks, you...!"
In her blind fury, words failed her, but her rage manifested itself in a blistering wave of flame that radiated outward from her, and almost immediately her vision cleared.
Venser had had to dismiss his illusion in her mind hurriedly in order to create a wall of force between him and the nova of flames she'd sent out. A spell like that, which projected an illusion straight into the mind of the target, required both a direct magical probe - which he'd managed, using an image of himself as bait - and continual focus on channeling the spell. The glamer was shot now that he'd ceased channeling, but she hadn't completely regained her sight yet, and that was his chance.
Blinking a few times to make sure that she could see straight, Exoushia found that her opponent was nowhere to be seen.
"Aw, did the little coward run away when his sneaky spell got interrupted? What's the matter, you scared of a little flame? Just so you know, if you run away now, that's even worse than just losing to me fair and square."
She didn't think he'd actually run - he was probably too proud for that - but maybe she'd really scared him off this time.
"Who's running?"
Wheeling around to face him, sword in one hand, flame in another, she only realised after making a full revolution that he had been speaking right behind her. Too late she felt the impact of his palm in the small of her back - and too soon she was hitting the ground a good 6 meters away, thrown back by his evocation of force.
His subterfuge had paid off. She hadn't suspected a thing until he actually made his move, and now he had a precious few seconds while she was still disoriented to give himself even more of an advantage... and he had just the spell for it.
"...come to me!"
Struggling to pick herself up, Exoushia heard Venser call something to his side. Maybe he was trying to call for some support, but it didn't matter. She was going to burn straight through it - straight through him, too. That would teach him to sneak up on her like that.
When she saw what he'd summoned, however, her plan to burn straight through it seemed a little more unfeasible all of a sudden. Looming above them was a swirling air elemental, almost as large as the hill they were on, and bound together by little other than magic. Putting on a brave front, she sneered in his direction.
"You call that a monster? I call it toast!"
While he was still finishing the final words of the summoning spell, she sprinted towards him and his flying friend, sheathing her sword. With her hands free, she reached out to them, thinking of fire, of flaming explosions, of volcanic eruptions -
And a great gout of flame issued forth from between her outstretched hands, enveloping everything in front of her in a burgeoning inferno. Her heart pumping double-time, she wondered if this was it - if she could crown herself the victor in the end, if he would finally concede defeat after this.
-
"...!"
The summoning nearly complete, Venser had just been about to give his elemental the command to attack when an unexpected burst of fire disrupted his concentration and singed his forearms and the side of his face. Luckily, his elemental had placed itself between him and fiery doom, but it as it was mostly air, it wasn't much of a barrier. The burns that he had sustained weren't life-threatening, but damned if they didn't sting. It wasn't looking good for him; what with his energy being mostly depleted from summoning a fairly powerful elemental, which was now nothing more than a wisp of smoke, and his adversary being only a few meters away. He needed more time to replenish his mana, and he needed to get out of her reach immediately, lest she take advantage of his temporary setback. Then again, she too would have had expended most of her energy in that attack, so maybe...
Exoushia was indeed drained of mana at that point, but she was happy to see that burning straight through stuff still worked. And she didn't necessarily need magic to put the hurt on her opponent, not when she had her grandfather's sword with her. Pulling it out, she burst into a headlong sprint towards him, poised to slam him to the ground with her momentum and keep him there with the tip of her blade.
Crap, she was going to charge him now. That was bad, and he didn't like the look of her sword, either. It was best to nip moves like that in the bud, and as soon as she got a good running start, he hit her with a simple disorientment charm, causing her to temporarily lose her sense of balance. A dizzy spell, as it were.
She had just taken a few steps on the path to victory when Venser whipped a hand in her direction, and the world swam before her eyes, the ground felt like it was slipping away beneath her feet, and her feet found themselves inexplicably tangled with each other. Stumbling, she fell face-first into the grass and rolled downhill, aided by the insidious grasp of gravity and the deceptive slope of the knoll, hidden well by a verdant cover of grass. The trip downwards wasn't incredibly injuring, owing in large to the soft grass, but taking a spill like that didn't exactly leave one in full fighting form, either.
Of course, she had ways and means of dealing with wounds, even if she hadn't actually studied any healing magic. As an elf, she had a natural affinity with ...well, nature, and her parents had been insistent on having her learn how to heal her wounds by tapping into the lifeforce of the earth ever since she started dabbling in pyromancy. It was this primal energy that she tapped into now, focusing it into a curative spell that could use to -
"I'm afraid that I'll have to take that."
In her haste to heal herself, Exoushia had completely forgotten about Venser, watching her from the top of the hill, and she turned to face him at the sound of his voice. He was reaching towards her with one hand, glowing with magic, and as he closed it into a fist, the ball of energy that she'd been about to absorb into herself appeared in his other hand, which took hold of it. Immediately, the burns along his arms and face vanished, leaving unmarked skin in their place.
She snarled at him, him and his composure, inwardly seething with anger. Anger was good. She could use anger.
"You think you're so smart, with your fancy tricks and your stupid spells -"
"Oh, I don't know. Everyone else certainly does."
Glaring at him, she let her inner fury hit fever pitch, building it into a roiling pulse of power. Her magic could feed off of it, allowing her to blow off some steam while giving him what he deserved. Let him taunt her some more - she was going to show him what was what.
"You're not the only one who can call up helpers, you know. Say hello to my little friends!"
Several small, feisty, flaming critters - spark elementals - coalesced out of the air around her, and sped up the slope towards him, leaving little patches of burnt grass in their wake. She scoffed contentedly as he scrambled away from them, relishing the feeling of being in charge for once.
"There's plenty more where that came from! Let's see you dance, smartypants."
He didn't doubt that she'd make good on her threat. It might have been possible to get an advantage if she had attempted to summon one big creature, but if she was calling on smaller, faster ones, there was no way that he'd be able to keep up. No time to mount a proper defense now, and if they got to him, he had the sneaking suspicion that 'well done' would be an apt description of his eventual fate.
There had to be a way out - there was always a way out, even in the worst situations. He just needed to think. The creatures were fire-based, they were meant for quick attacks, they were short-lived, dissipating rapidly after summoning... he just needed to keep them away from him long enough for them to vanish. He pinpointed the positions of the elementals closing in on him, and visualised chains binding them to the ground, holding them back... and nearly instantaneously, shining leashes entwined themselves around the elementals, firmly halting their advances - except for one particular specimen, which managed to escape its confines and leap up onto him, pawing at his body.
"Argh!"
He turned aside, trying to minimize his exposure to it, but the little thing was tenacious, and he could already feel his shirt - and skin - beginning to char, no matter how much he struggled to push it away.
Then, as suddenly as it had started, the creature vanished, and he gasped for breath, wiping rivulets of sweat off his forehead. Hot stuff indeed.
The crimson glow radiating from down the hill caught his attention, and he rushed over just in time to see Exoushia summon another elemental.
A large one.
"I'm going to need a bigger spell."
A three-meter tall, vaguely humanoid elemental stood in front of her. Its skin resembled polished igneous rock, glowing red-hot from its flaming hair, its flaming eyes, its flaming - hell, it was hard to name a body part on it that wasn't aflame. And whatever it was, it was angry. Probably. He knew that he might be jumping to conclusions based on the evil eye that it was giving him, or the fist raised to pound him into ashy oblivion, but this was a leap of logic he felt pretty sure about. That wasn't reassuring, though.
Leaping backwards to avoid the fiery reckoning, he was still knocked to the ground by the impact that the elemental's punch made on the hill.
"Not so confident now, are you, punk?"
She sauntered up the slope, her elemental lumbering alongside her. At the sight of him lying on the ground, she was barely able to hold back a vindictive smile.
"Oh, nice. The 'helpless' look really suits you. Hold on, I have the perfect accessory to complete it! How about... my chaser's fist around you? Don't worry, it won't hurt. Much."
"I must gracefully decline... it's just a passing fad, anyway."
He began to get up, preparing to cast a magnified version of the restraining order that he'd pressed into service against her previous minions. Judging from the elemental's current unsteady gait, it wasn't especially nimble, and if he acted fast, it just might be possible to -
"Oh no you don't!"
Exoushia snapped her fingers and a bolt of energy flitted from between them to the elemental, causing its flames to momentarily flare white-hot, and giving it a eerie burst of speed, which was put to good use in tackling Venser. Pinned to the grass, which was slowly beginning to dry up and kindle, he had to convert the binding spell into a shield between him and the blazing avatar above him.
"You can't hold out forever. That barrier's going down eventually, and you're going down with it. Smash it!"
Taking its mistress' orders to heart (if it had one), the elemental brought a crushing fist to bear against his shimmering barrier, which began to fade slightly, a sign of the enchantment holding it together weakening. A very, very bad sign, as it was the only thing holding a hundred kilogrammes of angry elemental at bay.
He couldn't let it end this way. Absolutely not. Estimating that he would be safe for at least another devastating punch, he fixed his sights on the tower of stone and flames directly above him, and rapidly recited a complex incantation, a precursor to a spell that, if resolved properly, would let him turn the tables on her. Hidden from her view by the enveloping limbs of the elemental, he laid both hands on his shield in anticipation of the next blow.
Come on. One more time.
It swung a clenched, burning fist down at him from high above, a haymaker that would almost certainly disperse his shield and leave him exposed. One second to impact, and he narrowed his eyes in concentration, carefully preparing to unleash his spell. The moment its fist made contact with the shield, a mere millimeter away from his outstretched palms, he released the sorcery that he'd been holding in check, relaying it over the shield and then inverting the shield, turning it into a veneer of spellcraft that blanketed the elemental.
Stopping mid-swing, it froze momentarily, then slowly rose to its feet and turned around.
"Have a taste of your own medicine then, if you like doling it out so much."
He stood and faced her, keeping himself safely behind the elemental. It was under his control now, and he intended to make full use of it. It would be remiss of him not to reciprocate her sanguine intentions, really. As his breathing slowed to a normal pace, he silently issued the command to attack, and his newly-recruited minion obeyed with unthinking earnest.
Exoushia was beginning to come off the rush of anger that she'd been drawing on to summon the nova chaser, and though her efforts had been well worth it to see her opponent humiliated thusly, she was on the receiving end now, and things weren't so rosy with the elemental heading for her. Too bad - she'd just have to get rid of it. Forcefully, if need be. Actually, forcefully even if it wasn't necessary. That was just how she rolled.
Putting her palms together at her side, she charged them with enough power to create a satisfying crackle, and then ripped them apart suddenly while thrusting towards the elemental, sending a bolt of lightning snaking through the air, straight towards it. It was going down, no questions asked.
"That's your answer to everything, isn't it? What happens when I raise a direct counterpoint?"
With a wave of his hand, Venser intercepted the bolt and disrupted its flow of energy with a simple counterspell. Thusly dealt with, the red-tinted bolt of energy fractured, diffusing into errant shards of æther, which drifted away on the wind, a seeming cloud of purple-pink rose petals. Exoushia didn't have time to appreciate the subtleties of hue or shade, however - she was too busy getting pounded into the side of the hill by the elemental's sideways swipe. It closed in on her further, looking to seal the deal with a few well-placed blows. She had to kill it. Fast. But he was surely observing her from close by, even if he was hidden by the elemental, and if she tried to cast anything, he'd surely stop the spell dead in its tracks before she could so much as scratch the elemental. That was how it always went - she brought out her best, most powerful expressions of rage, of force, and he didn't so much as bat an eyelid as he disregarded it with a single gesture. If only he'd let her spells resolve, even once, he wouldn't stand a chance at winning.
Enough was enough. She wasn't going to stand for it any more - if he was going to mess with her spells, she was going to mess with his face. With her sword. He couldn't do anything about that.
Drawing it out from within its sheath, she swung wildly at the elemental's approaching fist, sending bits and pieces of rock flying. For something made out of rock, it was surprisingly brittle, and a single strike was enough to chip away nearly half of its hand. The remaining half, however, continued towards her, and she had to bring her sword back to parry its scarily jagged remnants, spikes of stone that would very likely skewer her if they got close enough. Good. She knew how to take it down, now - smashing things always worked.
As it continued its singleminded assault on her, now leading with its other hand, she leapt up and onto it, bringing her sword down into its chest, then using it as a pivot to swing herself onto its shoulder. Dislodging her sword from the middle of its torso, she switched her grip on it and went straight for the neck, aiming to hack it off in a single blow. But as she raised the blade over her right shoulder, she was rudely interrupted by the elemental's hand, swatting her off and back onto the ground, as if she were nothing more but a bothersome fly. Shrugging off the impact of the fall, she redoubled her attack, slashing at the elemental's left leg in an attempt to cripple its movement.
It worked. A little too effectively, in fact. Without the support of one of its limbs, it teetered forwards - right where she was standing - and collapsed onto her, pinning her down in an embrace of crumbling stone and smoking ashes. Luckily, she already knew how to fend off untoward advances like this one - with the tip of a blade. Using her sword to keep a gap between her and the elemental's bulk, she was still forced downwards by its weight, bearing down on her. Not that she was any stranger to heat, but she preferred it when she was on top. Time to break out.
Placing the hilt of her sword firmly on the ground next to her, to stop the elemental from crushing her, she laid her hands on the part of it above her, ignoring the searing heat that it was still giving off. She only needed a moment for this, anyway, a single, intense thought of destruction -
The elemental's body exploded outwards in a blast of flame, ash, and shards of rock. Coughing from the smoke, she got to her feet, sword in hand, and bounded up the slope, ready to finish the fight. She was all pumped up - blowing stuff up did that to her - and eager for a repeat performance of the explosion she'd just managed. Where was he!?
Where was he?
A quick look around the top of the hill revealed that he was nowhere to be seen. Was he hiding, waiting to strike? But where? There wasn't an obstacle to hide behind anywhere on the hill, and if he was going to attack her, he'd have done it while she was still making her way up. No, that couldn't be it.
Turning around slowly, she made sure that she hadn't missed any blind spots around her on the hill. This was getting frustrating - the urge to burn, to destroy, to do something was uncontrollable, but the object of her rage, that smarmy pest, just wasn't -
"RRRGGH!"
A devastating roil of flames erupted from beneath her feet, and began to spread outwards slowly, leaving a trail of charred destruction in its wake. Ok. That was better. He still wasn't there.
A possibility occurred to her - was he was invisible like before, trying to sneak up on her? Well, he wouldn't be able to try anything like that if the ground was on fire, but he might still be standing by, watching her lose control, as if he was so much better, so much more -
She felt her fury flaring within herself, and reminded herself to find a target for it, make it work for her instead of the other way round. Let him hide out of sight. He'd be singing a different tune when her flames caught up to him. Channeling more power into controlling the fire around her, she spread it in a wide swath all around her, making sure to cover everything.
"You can't hide forever! It'll be less embarrassing if I just toast your face than if you keep playing hide and seek and your pants burn off! Okay, not really, but come out anyway!"
The top of the hill was scorched earth, and still no sign of him. Had he retreated downwards? That was cowardly, but it meant she had him on the run - she had control. Good. She could ease off the fire a little to save mana, as she was getting rather drained from all the pyrotechnics.
Pausing to catch her breath for a moment, she took a second glance around her and still saw nothing. So he really was on the run.
"Think again."
She'd scarcely turned her head to look at him when an incredible force slammed her to the ground, sending her rolling.
He'd been waiting high above, levitating above her, right in a perfect blind spot, waiting for the exact moment to strike. When she let her guard down, he dived, using a shield below him as a means of cushioning his fall... with her as a proxy, of course. And it had been undoubtedly effective, too. She was still reeling from the blow when his bindings lashed her firmly to the ground, a maximally optimized build of the restraining spell he'd been using earlier. It rendered any form of struggle futile, wicking away potential wisps of mana that could be used to cast a spell from the victim.
"What a mess. Did you really think you could smoke an invisible target out like this?"
With a simple gesture at the burning ground around them, he extinguished the flames, leaving only ashy remains.
"You're still not thinking enough. If you're not thinking, you're not going to win."
Exoushia glared at him spitefully, tears of frustration building in her eyes. It was the only thing she could do, since the rest of her body was out of commission. Her sword was lying out of reach, having been knocked off her from the impact, and she couldn't make a grab for it. Even wiping her tears away, hiding her disappointment from him wasn't possible, not with her hands bound at her sides.
"Why? Why do you always have to do this? Why can't you even give me a chance at winning?"
His expression shifted from one of cool satisfaction to cold disdain.
"...Give you a chance? Do you think I despise you enough to do that? If you want to win against me, you'll have to defeat me at my peak, or else you're just kidding yourself. I thought maybe you'd take things seriously now, since it's our last time - "
He paused, refusing to meet her eyes. She looked away, too, uncomfortable in the shared knowledge of how much it meant to both of them.
" - but apparently I was wrong. You let yourself down. You let me down. There's nothing more that I can say.
...Goodbye."
Turning from her, Venser walked away, down the hill and into the distance, returning home to prepare for his departure. As he left, the bindings around her faded gradually, leaving her free to pick herself up.
She waited for him to leave her sight.
She waited for ever.
