Was that… it.

I stood in the shadows, arm held against a wall for support, my mouth agape, and disbelief filling my heart.

They beat her?

A drop of water fell on my face. I looked up at the sky. The clouds roiled, thunder rumbled, and the heavens began to weep. The winds kicked up, sending chills down my back. The rain fell on the battlefield, creating puddles on the ground. The rain pelted the stone slab, as if the sky was tapping or knocking on it as if checking if Noel had survived.

Kelser stumbled to the ground. His face landed in a puddle, and I thought I saw a little blood coming out of his nose before he fell. His chest rose slowly.

Elder Kezler winced. He took a step with a limp, and ended up grabbing onto a rock for support. He knelt down, clenching his teeth as he took a shaking hand and ran it over his face. The rain poured through his hair and making it stick to his scalp.

Elder Brol was breathing quickly. His muscles were less taut, which made his skin look baggy and finally made him look his age. The old man kept staring at the stone slab, as if it was a tombstone and he was expecting a zombie to rise out of it. Rain doused his body and when the wind blew, Brol shivered. He looked away for something to cover his body with. His eyes drifted to my position. He looked surprised. He also looked a little guilty, with his gaze darting back to the stone slab for a moment. He opened his mouth to call out to me.

The ground collapsed under his feet and the burly elder vanished underground.

Elder Kezler picked himself up in a hurry, but winced as he stood up. He stepped away just as the ground gave way from beneath him, but he still fell on his back and let out a loud cry. Kezler managed to let out a spell just as he disappeared underground. That earth spell made the ground under Kelser firm up and push the red headed young man into the air.

The ground under Kelser collapsed, but he was in the air. From this angle I couldn’t tell if he was conscious, but I had a feeling the sudden spell had woken him up. Sure enough, Kelser wiggled around in the air, before quickly casting a spell and righting himself before landing on the ground. He quickly stepped back as the ground beneath him crumbled once again. Thankfully, Kelser was close to the stone stairs leading up to the Senate building, so he simply hopped off the fragile ground and jumped onto the firmer stone.

The battlefield stilled. Eventually, the ground cracked right next to the large stone slab, and a slender but callused hand shot out. The hand sent a fireball towards Kelser, which he had to sidestep. His foot got caught on something and the poor kid fell on his side. The hand in the ground was joined by another. Both hands grabbed the sides of the hole and Noel pulled her body out of the earth. She spat out some gravel, with dirt cascading off her head, and a layer of dust caking her body.

Kelser picked himself back up again, although I could tell by his ragged breathing, unsteady stance, and the dried blood under his nose, that the kid wouldn’t last much longer. With both Elder Kezler and Elder Brol out of the way, Kelser couldn’t have taken Noel on for long even if he wasn’t so incredibly tired and injured.

Noel didn’t look in great shape either. She’d fought me right before fighting the three humans. I’d left her tired and battered, but Kelser’s trick with the stone slab had thoroughly shaken her confidence. I could tell she was still expecting something. I could see the angry glare in her eye, the frustration on her face, and the careful way her eyes examined Kelser and his surroundings.

Kelser and Noel stared at each other in the rain. They didn’t flinch, didn’t break their gaze, and neither of them moved an inch. When a chilly wind blew past, Kelser shivered. Noel flinched. Kelser recovered. Noel grit her teeth.

Noel stepped forward, holding a hand out to help her cast a spell immediately. Kelser took a step back as she approached, but he didn’t cast anything. He watched her slosh through the mud and approach him without saying anything. Kelser began breathing quicker. His face was tired and his eyes unfocused. He was definitely running on fumes, and for the first time, Noel seemed to have realized that as well. She knew there were no other tricks. No final, daring plan would come from the red haired human she had first met when he was just a kid. A presumptuous, annoying brat, who’d grown up to almost crush her under a mass of cold stone.

Noel cast a spell. Kelser braced himself. The air blew against him gently but firmly, as if it wasn’t a spell but the storm that was pushing him away. Kelser couldn’t resist the gentle push, and he fell to the side with a thud. He landed on a stone step, and let out a strange groan as his hand was pressed under the weight of the rest of his body. He rolled a little to the side, staring at Noel as she climbed onto the stairs once again.

Noel stared straight ahead, not sparing a glance for Kelser anymore. Kelser blinked his eyes, unable to turn his neck to keep following Noel as she climbed the stairs and approached the base of the pillars. Instead, his gaze fell straight ahead, to the shadows of the buildings right before the Senate. As he lost consciousness, he met my eyes. I gave him a thankful and reassuring look, and he smiled as he closed his eyes and let himself rest.

Noel stood right in front of the door to the Senate chamber. She reached out, preparing to open the door and fulfill her mission.

The rain stalled. The wind stilled. A whistle rang through the air. Noel jerked her head back suddenly, but it was too late. I had had enough time. Enough time to recover my energy, steadying my breath and scrounging for every ounce of power I could muster for one more spell. Taoc stood to the side, watching me with bated breath.

A metal rod floated in the air in front of me, with a mass of magnetic energy and a shiny, metal bullet placed into position. I had aligned the rail gun with the door to the Senate, and had watched Noel step literally into the line of fire. The corners of my lips stretched upward. I poured forth a bunch of magnetic energy and used magic hands to steady the rail gun.

When Noel jerked her head back and met my gaze, surprise plastered on her face, I fired.

The bullet left an afterimage in the air, water droplets splitting apart as the bullet crashed into them. A whistle rang through the battlefield, high pitched and terrifying. Noel saw the weapon that had almost taken her out in our first battle, except this time, she was even more badly battered than she had been then. The bullet shot through the air, approaching her body, but Noel managed to react with inhuman speed.

A silver bubble appeared in front of her body and in the bullet’s predictable trajectory. The bubble would do what it had done in our first fight, it would kill the bullet’s momentum and leave it suspended inside it. Except, it wouldn’t because I had already seen this trick before. A trick that Noel had only pulled out at the last moment, probably because it was a sort of trump card. That didn’t surprise me. It was very similar to my trump card ‘still life’ magic. It was convenient, being able to stop things in their track like this.

That was why I smiled as a tiny insect appeared next to the bubble and collided with it, popping it in front of Noel’s horrified face. The bullet passed a moment later, and Noel scrambled to raise her hand in front of her body. It sucked that this spell didn’t shoot the bullet at modern gun-like speeds, but I knew this would be enough. Even if Noel blocked it with her hands, she would be badly injured. The shock and trauma might render her unconscious, too.

I waited. The bullet seemed to travel in slow motion, Noel’s arms raising at lightning speed. She had used magic on them, for sure.

The bullet shot into her hands.

Blood dripped on the floor.