Chapter 2 - Two is Company, Three’s a Crowd

Skyle cursed at his rotten luck as he eyed the magical prowess of the mad noble youth rushing toward him with bloody murder plainly written across his features.

The power of the elements could be channeled by warriors in order to augment their own bodies in countless ways. Elemental warriors could open their spirit vision and attune their spirit veins to become living channels for their dominant element. For instance, fire warriors could absorb the raging energy of their flames in order to increase their resistance to pain, boost their strength, and even channel a tendril of elemental power into their source weapons in order to imbue them with the power of their element. In battle, an elemental warrior could become an unstoppable avatar of destruction that could absorb the very elemental essence of the world around them to fuel their rampage.

A whole level above that, however, stood the elemental mage. Mages were granted the same spirit vision as warriors. However, they were also granted the Blessing of Avaria, Goddess of the Elements. Such a blessing took the shape of a unique and precious gift: the Voice of the Elements. The Voice would allow an individual to speak to the elements using ancient words of power and arcane rituals, summoning forth elemental essence to create powerful spells - like the fiery shield that had blown his best shot away without so much as a ripple.

Of course, Skyle was not facing a fire mage at this moment. If only he were that fortunate. Once again he cursed under his breath as he scrambed off the tree he was perched upon, desperately grabbing hold of a branch from another nearby tree. The dizzing height was nothing compared to the disturbingly bright glow of the fiery ball of death roaring on its way to blast him apart.

The fist-sized red-hot ball of fire roaring through the air on its way towards the tree Skyle had smartly vacated not a second ago had required none of the odd gestures and strange words mages needed. Instead his young would-be murderer had simply raised his blazing sword high in the air with a wordless roar of fury, and the fire element had answered with glowing streaks of red that had swiftly converged upon the tip of his sword. After that, an imperious wave of the blade had propelled a deadly ball of fire towards Skyle at astonishing speeds.

Skyle had always dreamed of seeing a summoner with his own eyes, but he could have never imagined that he would finally make the acquaintance of one such genius under these circumstances.

“I need to create some space, just a moment to explain the situation,” Skyle cursed in his own mind as he nimbly climbed on top of the branch he had grabbed hold of and caught his balance before wincing as he heard a loud explosion erupt from the tree he had just leapt from. “Before he burns down the entire forest, that is.”

“There’s a troll behind-” Skyle managed, before nearly biting his tongue off as he launched himself towards another tree a bare moment before the branch he had been standing on also exploded into fiery sparks as another fireball struck it.

“He’s not going to listen to reason, and he’s almost on top of me!” Skyle noted in his mind as his arms reflexively spread around the trunk of the tree he’d crashed against, arresting his momentum with a bone-rattling impact and nearly punching all the breath from his lungs. If that deadly pyromaniac closed the distance any further, it would be impossible to avoid those deadly fireballs without some more effective cover than a couple flimsy - and very combustible - branches.

“And that horse must be an Asarian purebreed. Still, how is it moving so fast through the trees? Agh, damn filthy rich nobles..”

Out of time and any better ideas, grim determination flashed in Skyle’s eyes as he swiftly grabbed hold of a vine hanging nearby and violently twisted it around his waist and leg. Skyle hardly needed to look up in order to know that another fireball would soon be roaring its way toward him. Whether it was a trick of his mind or not, he could swear he could almost feel the heat of it on his skin.

With a snarl of defiance, Skyle pumped his legs furiously as he clung onto the vine, dashing around the tree trunk and launching himself off into the air as soon as he picked up some momentum. Another violent explosion rumbled in the air and the tree shook violently as a brilliant shower of red sparks rained all around the deepening gloom of dusk.

Skyle did not truly mind the explosion so much this time, as he had already used the swinging motion of the vine to fling himself to the other side of the tree. Fortunately, this tree was massive enough that it could withstand the devastating missile. However, it wouldn’t take his enemy long to track his movement and launch another flaming projectile by the time Skyle swung back around.

This seemed to be the very same thought crossing through the young nobleman’s mind as Skyle’s motion finally brought him back around the burning tree. Indeed, thick streams of fiery elemental essence could be seen pouring into the upraised sword of the nobleman as a grim, victorious smile stretched his lips. However, his expression quickly turned to one of shock as his eyes finally caught sight of Skyle’s figure.

As the vine swung him around from the other side of the tree, Skyle was hanging upside down from it, suspended by his waist and leg, while in his free arms lay a fully drawn bow stretched as far as it could go, and his steel grey eyes smoldered with a resolute, indomitable will.

The nobleman’s eyes bulged in astonishment as he waved his hand in front of him, banishing the fireball and instead hastily summoning a semi-transparent sphere that glittered with a faint reddish hue.

True, if the fire summoner closed the distance, Skyle would find it much more difficult to avoid his ranged attacks. However, the opposite held true as well.

Swiftly sighting his target and compensating for his swinging motion, Skyle released his arrow with a loud TWANG.

The semi-transparent sphere was incredibly swift, and had already completely covered the nobleman in that impenetrable barrier of fire energy. However, the same could not be said for his mount and the arrow struck true, burying itself deeply in his mount’s front leg, causing the poor beast to whiny in pain as the limb collapsed under its weight. The horse fell on the ground with an earth-shaking crash, and its rider was violently flung forward at a bone-breaking speed.

Skyle didn’t have time to glory in the beautiful shot, however, as the fires from the tree licked at the vine he was swinging from and snapped it at that exact moment, sending him tumbling helplessly through the air.

A single crash resounded through the forest and twin cries of pain followed, then there was no sound except for the distant cries of riders approaching, and the panting breath of two figures that lay in a tangled mess of intertwined limbs and blood.

“Stupid.. Moron..” Skyle wheezed past trembling lips as soon as he recovered enough breath to speak, though his limbs didn’t seem to be responding quite yet.

Skyle’s venomous glare met the bewildered stare of a pair of fire-tinged eyes that stood barely two inches away, and though fury still swelled the irises, the reddish, fiery glow slowly faded out and was replaced by a light amber hue that quivered in anger. “You.. an idiotic child? Where.. assassin?”

“What.. assassin.. blind fool..” Skyle replied caustically before running out of what little air he’d managed to gather back in his lungs.

“All this.. You imbecile serf,” the nobleman growled, or tried to, though all he could manage at the time was a hoarse whisper. He twitched momentarily, but was forced to give up with a grunt of pain as his body seemed to be as unresponsive as Skyle’s was.

That didn't still their tongues, however.

“Spoiled brat..”

“Upstart bumpkin..”

“Lumbering halfwit..”

“Malodorous peasant..”

“.. Troll..”

“Foul peon..”

“Troll,” Skyle repeated, this time more insisntently, while his skin finally began to tingle as feeling slowly leaked back into his limbs.

“Already said that.. You country buffoon..”

“TROLL!” Skyle finally snarled right against the other youth’s face, sending flecks of spittle flying as his widening eyes tracked movement on the trees at the far range of his vision.

The nobleman seemed to finally catch on the urgency of Skyle’s call, and painfully turned his head around just as a thick branch parted in the distance for a brief moment. That brief instant, however, had been enough to glimpse a terrifyingly large set of fangs protruding from a cruel mouth drooling with a green, viscous liquid.

“What in Avaria’s sweet mercy..” the shocked nobleman murmured, staring at the branches that had once again obscured his vision, perhaps mercifully so, and Skyle couldn’t tell whether it was him or the nobleman who shuddered first.

“.. Troll..” Skyle couldn’t resist repeating somewhat smugly, and receiving a baleful stare from the other boy. “I was trying to warn you off. You were headed straight for it, you fool!”

“Some warning. You shot an arrow at me!” the nobleman grumbled.

“If you hadn’t been such a blind, deaf fool chasing some stupid game for your moronic noble's hunt,” Skyle acidly pointed out, but was interrupted by the other youth as an arm nearly as thick as his own legs firmly shoved him away, sending him tumbling backward.

“I was chasing an assassin we had been pursuing for the entire day,” the nobleman replied, then hissed in pain as he rolled on his back to gather his legs under himself. “Now what in Avaria’s sweet mercy was that thing?”

“A troll that has apparently picked up your scent,” Skyle exhaled, as feeling slowly bled back into his limbs and he woozily tried to stand, only to cry out involuntarily as a ferocious wave of pain drew his attention to the oddly twisted angle of his left leg.

“Oh by the bloody..” Skyle groaned, staring in dismay at his broken limb.

“Hells..” the nobleman hissed out, examining his own right arm which was bent at an unnatural angle below the elbow.

Both youths couldn’t help but smirk in grim satisfaction as they glanced at the other’s injury, but the loud, rumbling sounds of very heavy footsteps at their backs immediately wiped their smug grins from their faces, only to be replaced by equal parts of dismay and surprisingly, anger.

“Your fault..” they both burst out, at the same time and in identical tones of injured self-righteousness.

“Stupid gorilla..”

“Moronic imp..”

Abruptly, a third voice joined the discussion as a great, savage roar echoed in the air, and the violent sounds of branches being snapped and the rhythmic rumbling of the earth below announced the troll had finally caught sight of its prey.