Two massive corpses occupied most of the landscape, one swathed in blood, the other striated with black ash and red, burned flesh. Much of the sandy ground had been turned to rough black glass by the heat of the dragons’ attacks. In the distance, Maiz could hear the sounds of yells and screams, most likely from the monsters which had escaped into the rest of the camp. But the loudest noise was that of a woman’s crazed laughter.

“Take your friends and leave.” The voice was a familiar whisper in his ears. Maiz started, looking around for the source of the noise. In moments, he spotted the billowing red robes of Hakim as he hung in the air, suspended by his magic. He’d used a spell to speak to Maiz.

My friends. In a moment, Maiz spotted Hugan and Lila, running towards him. Idiots. Maiz broke into a sprint, keeping his body low to the ground, as he approached his friends. Hugan was dripping blood onto the sand as he ran, but his face was a mask of determination. Lila seemed to be slowing her pace to stay with the Novice Warden. Maiz was only meters away now--they could escape and leave Hakim to finish off this strange mage. As Maiz took another step, there was a flash of something dark purple, and a bolt of magic impacted the ground in front of him, splashing like water on the sand. Maiz skidded to a halt just in time to avoid the attack, realizing he still had Fast Feet activated. Hells.

“Oh no, no sweetie! You should stay and watch! It’ll be fu-un!” This last was said in a musical voice, and Maiz turned to the white skull-like face of the black robed mage grinning at him. The sight sent shivers down Maiz’s spine, the hairs on the back of his neck rising. He felt cold even in the heat of the desert sun, the wind hitting his sweaty body and cooling itiinstantly. The wind? Hakim was hovering between Maiz and the mage, and as she laughed he made a gesture and Maiz felt the wind rushing over him intensify. Hugan and Lila looked at Maiz in confusion as their hair and clothes began to flutter as well.

The wind grew to a gale, and Maiz felt himself being pulled, as though something was tearing him apart at the smallest level. His eyes teared up from the force of the wind, but as the first drops of moisture were whipped away, the feeling stopped abruptly, and the black robed mage’s laughter got louder.

“Uh-uh! Don’t you want the little one to see?”

Maiz opened his eyes. Hugan and Lila were gone, vanished. But Maiz was still there. What was going on? Idiot. You’ve been blinding yourself this entire time. Mana Sense. The world was drenched in color. Brilliant gold, concentrated in a pool near the bodies of the dragons, shone like the sun. Much of the field was awash in sky blue, Hakim’s power. It seemed to be forming a swirling formation around Maiz, but there was something blocking it. Purple, like an ugly bruise, formed a thin cloud around Maiz. When the blue magic mingled with the purple, it faded almost immediately. What?

The purple magic spread out like smoke about the field. It was thick about Maiz, but it soon covered the ground like some sort of posion, and appeared to be rising. Maiz looked up, and winced in phantom pain. Hakim’s figure shone with an intense blue radiance that, if he had been using his true eyes, would have hurt to look upon. The magic was so dense that it seemed more real than the actual surroundings, forming a star at the base of the mage’s skull. But it had also gathered a thick coating about the mage’s body, and when the purple cloud rose to meet the mage, his magic did not recede.

A bolt of magic flew at Hakim, and his body flickered to the side, dodging with ease. Hakim’s hand slashed lazily towards the woman, and another rent appeared in the earth, sand billowing up and wind howling. Even though his physical sight was obscured by the sand, Maiz could see.

The magic was like the wind itself--though it flew straight as an arrow, with the focused beam of mana Maiz could see the chaos of storms contained. When the wild energy reached the black robed mage, Maiz laid his magical sight on her for the first time. Like Hakim, her magic formed a thick layer around her, a miasma of dark light, and her mana pool shone like a counterpart to Hakim's own. The spell impacted the dark purple aura, and simply… faded, the raw power and energy degrading away into nothing. What? Before Maiz could even process what had happened, there was a ripple in the landscape of magic, and suddenly the blue star was directly behind the purple one. An intense balloon of power expanded out of nowhere, swirling upon itself in a whirlwind, and the air howled in response. Through squinted eyes, Maiz saw the magic fall away as it entered the purple aura.

Then dark purple energy shot out like an arrow, leaving behind it a streak of empty air devoid of magic, and the blue star vanished, reappearing a moment later in the sky, like a second sun. That sun exploded outwards, blue overtaking purple and becoming denser and denser. Suddenly, the air in Maiz’s lungs seemed heavier, and he lost track of the conflict as he gasped for air. He fell to his knees, unable to draw breath, and he saw the purple star drop slightly, as if the black robed mage had done the same. A moment later, the feeling was gone, replaced by the swirling of wind, pulling at him like it had before. A cackle sounded out, somehow louder than the howling of the magic.

“Oh, no you don’t!”

The pulling feeling vanished. Maiz simply sat on the bare ground for a moment, breathing heavily. When he looked up, the the two mages had apparently gotten serious.

Spikes of purple magic flew out in a hundred directions, everywhere but at Maiz. The air seemed to hiss as the magic streaked through it, leaving voids in the otherwise saturated landscape. The spikes hit nothing, the blue star appearing and disappearing in instants all over the field. A column of pure blue magic engulfed the purple star, burying it completely for a moment. The magic faded quickly, but in that moment the very earth screamed as rock shattered and a massive pit, at least twenty meters deep, was hollowed out by the wind magic. Maiz was thrown back from the force of it, though his Shield Stance prevented any real damage.

For a moment, Maiz thought that Hakim had done it, as he rubbed his side and looked in sheer amazement at the destruction the Aeromancer had wrought. Then the purple star reappeared, bursting explosively from the hole and landing at the edge. How did she survive that? But the strange mage was already forming a new spell. The same energy that powered the bolts of magic began to ooze out of the sand of the field, the purple star blazing coldly as the land was covered in dark magic.

Maiz felt something strange at his feet, and yelped involuntary as he noticed the smoking of his leather boots. He hopped back, realizing that he’d been standing just at the edge of the mage’s spell. Both combatants threw spells at the other, blue and purple flashing too quickly to follow, though booms continuosly sounded as the ground was rent asunder. The blue star was flickering all around the field at an incredible rate. How does he have so much mana? The spells Hakim threw in the instants between his teleportations sliced through the air, stirring the sand into a whirlwind that cut at Maiz's face. He'd heard of things like this, from the mad traders who ventured into the desert. Sandstorm.

The magical fury continued for less than a minute, but the sheer amount of power the mages threw at each other was mindboggling. Both appeared to use the same spells most of the time, though occasionally the purple mana formed into snares that sought to trap Hakim, or the wind created voids in space around the other mage. None of the attacks hurt the other. But as the battle continued, the bolts of blue began to slow. The blue star appeared to be dimming somewhat, though the purple one continue to blaze without interruption. Hakim stopped teleporting.

But Maiz barely had a moment to realize what was happening, because as the Aeromancer's attacks slowed, a strange feeling came over him for the third time. Even as a bolt hit home on Hakim’s stomach, a tsunami of blue mana stripped away the purple surrounding Maiz. Something warm touched his wrist, and suddenly he was wind itself.