Master Simon zips out of the way of the kick and my foot collides with the closed door. Half turning, I begin to tell Katherine to run for it, but my eyes catch sight of Master Simon. He’s standing directly behind Katherine with his left arm wrapped around her. Leaning in closer to her, he takes a deep sniff of her lavender-scented hair. “Such a sweet smell,” he says. “It’s fitting for a comely maiden. Or perhaps not a maiden, eh boy? Most certainly not after I finish with her tonight!”

Anger instantly overwhelms all of my senses. I scream loudly and ignite my entire body in flames. Before I know what I’m doing, I charge at Master Simon intending to rip his head off. With a shove of his right arm, he throws Katherine off to the left side of the room. As soon as I’m within range of him, I punch at his mouth hoping to wipe the grin off of his face. To my great surprise, he blocks with his left arm, and counters with a right cross to my nose. My head jerks back, but I’m not hurt. I try to follow up with a front kick, but Master Simon kicks me in the shin preventing my leg from rising. I blink in surprise and catch an uppercut under my chin that lifts me into the air. As I float Master Simon leaps up and sends me darting to the ground with a powerful left chop.

I crash down hard and let out a moan from the impact. Katherine, thinking I’m hurt, immediately runs towards me. “No! Stay back!” I try to warn her.

It’s too late. Master Simon cuts right in front of her. “I want to taste you,” he tells Katherine.

“Eww!” she quips.

Suddenly, Master Simon’s mouth opens unnaturally wide, much alike a snake detaching its jaw. He repeatedly motions with his hand for Katherine to come forward, but rather than her whole body, it’s only her red vital energy that comes forward. It looks like a mist of blood flowing through the air directly into Master Simon’s mouth. After a few seconds, he stops and Katherine falls to the floor. Master Simon then turns his attention to me and says, “She tastes delectable. No wonder you keep her as your servant.”

Once more I scream in rage and spring up to my feet. I then jump through the air at Master Simon bringing my staff up over my head. I swipe it down trying to cave in his head, but he moves out of the way. My staff impacts with the floor and punctures straight through the wooden board beneath it. Without missing a beat, I kick off of the floor at Master Simon. The moment that I’m close enough to hit him, I wildly swing my staff as hard as I can for his head. He quickly ducks leaving me spinning off balance. As soon as I complete a 360º, he sprays a black bolt of mana energy at my chest. I’m able to block it, but it rages against my staff like a charging bull, thus forcing me towards the back wall. I fight against its force by creating a shell of pure mana in front of me. Then using all of my physical strength, I parry the bolt into the ground with the left side of my staff just before I hit the wall. Pieces of wood spray up everywhere, forcing me to close my eyes to avoid splinters.

When I open them, Master Simon is standing to my left side. I turn to face him, but immediately I get slapped with the backside of his hand so hard that I sail through the air, landing in the center of the room. Master Simon zips over in front of me. I quickly stand up and point my staff at him. In response, he touches the tip of my staff and says the word, “Backfire.”

I ignore him and try to cast the Comet spell, but something doesn’t feel right. I lose control of the spell and fiery mana energy explodes right in my face. My failed spell leaves me burned all over and covering my face. When I uncover it to look at Master Simon, he leisurely waves his hand through the air saying, “Death Wave.”

From in front of him a black tidal wave of dark energy gushes out and carries me straight back into the far side right wall. The moment that I collide with the wall, the black energy explodes leaving me burned anew. I slink to the ground with my back pressed against the wall. I’m still conscious but I’m dazed and in great pain. Then like a true comic villain, Master Simon can’t help but start boasting while he has me down.

“I bet you’re wondering what this great power is, aren’t you boy? This is Death Magic. That little twit Sidney only learned it to fit in with the group. She hated using it, and I bet that she didn’t even use it when you confronted her at her mansion. I, however, have mastered Death Magic in order to dominate. I have no qualms about using it readily.”

While he talks, I discreetly withdraw a magic remedy from my medical supplies bag. Using the remedy, I remove the effects of whatever “Backfire” is. Then before Master Simon can finish his monologue, I shoot up to my feet and triple cast the Comet spell at him. Seeing my three large fireballs scorching through the air towards him shuts him up. Yet calmly he walks towards me while simultaneously taking a little sideways step. “One,” he says as the first fireball passes him. “Two,” he says with the next. “And three,” he says as the last one whizzes by him.

“Triple casting. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised that you learned it. Your problem was never that you lacked talent. You simply lack the initiative to finish your lessons. A real mage would have used a super technique in your desperate situation, but as you never completed your training, you don’t even know one. Triple casting a regular spell is a sorry imitation of a super technique. I mean seriously, three Comets all go straight boy. All anyone has to do is step to the side and they all miss.”

Master Simon breaks into his cackling, which is more than grating on my nerves at this point. I adjust my aim and cast the Lightning Strike spell. He blocks it with a combination of his palm and a shield of black mana energy. “Since you don’t know your own super technique boy. I’ll let you see mine. It’s called ‘The Impaler.’”

He closes his eyes and begins threading his right hand through the air in concentration. I brace myself. I don’t know what to expect, so I have to be ready for anything. He finishes the preparation for his technique. Shouting loudly he calls out, “The Impaler!”

Suddenly, the ground beneath my feet turns dark and thin black spikes expel out of the darkness impaling themselves through my legs. I wail in excruciating pain and fall flat on my face. Several dark lances remain gouged through both my left and right leg. The debilitating pain is so extreme that not only are my legs affected, but also my entire body is left paralyzed in agony. I squeeze my fist and grit my teeth trying not to bite my tongue off. Master Simon cackles as he watches me squirm.

“Did that hurt? That was a greatly reduced form of my attack. I could have easily killed you if I had wanted.”

Master Simon approaches me and steps on my left hand causing me even more pain.

“Look at you. You were always such an arrogant child. You turned your nose up at Curse Magic, refusing to learn it in favor of Elemental Magic. Now your entire life revolves around a curse. You’ve insulted my magic skills and refused my lessons, but I am a kind master and I will give you another chance. Join me and I will teach you the power of Death Magic just as I taught it to Sidney and all of the other Vampires of Âme Kingdom.”

I force myself to stop gritting my teeth long enough to answer him. “Never!”

He shakes his head disapprovingly. “You really are slow to learn boy. You can’t even see your weakness while you’re lying in a puddle of your own blood. Or maybe it’s my fault as a teacher. Maybe I’m just not communicating in terms that you understand. So let me put it this way. Your refusal to understand the power of curses cost one girl her life. Your refusal to understand the power of death is about to cost another girl her life.”

Master Simon moves over to Katherine and grabs her by the leg. “What are you doing? Leave her alone!” I yell.

He doesn’t listen to me. He drags her by the leg and positions her against the far left wall directly opposite of me. I try to crawl towards him but moving even a half-inch applies pressure to one of the spikes in my left leg causing intense pain to circulate through my veins. I grind my teeth hard to keep from screaming out. I don’t want him to know how hurt I am so that maybe I can scare him off with a mean grimace. Yet my pain is apparent and he never had any reason to fear me in the first place. I’ll have to think of something better to save Katherine.

I channel my mana into my left hand and try to cast the Ruby Red Dragon summoning spell. It doesn’t work. Due to my critical injuries, my nervous system is overriding my intentions and committing what mana I have left to keeping me from bleeding out to death.

Master Simon grins at the frustration written on my face. Speaking pompously he states, “I’m going to kill this girl now. If you don’t like it, then stop me.”

He loosens his detachable jaw and begins to suck in more of Katherine’s vital energy. Through sheer strength of will, I ignore my horrendous pain and crawl towards him. Unfortunately, it would take me an hour to reach him at the rate I’m going. Suddenly, he stops breathing in her energy. “Let’s try your mana,” he says.

He starts again, but this time a blue mist arises from Katherine’s body. Once he gets a taste of it he starts coughing violently. “Too pure” he wheezes. “It’s like sucking in a mouthful of cinnamon. I’ll just stick to your vital energy girlie.”

Again he starts sucking in her life force.

I cry out, “Nooooo! Don’t kill her. Please, I beg of you!”

Master Simon bursts into a wild cackle. “Hilarious! Little Lord Rosengarden begging for the life of his servant. You really are pathetic through and through aren’t you boy? Fine. I’ll just leave her like this. Unless she gets a life potion, she’ll be dead within the next ten minutes anyway. If you’re so arrogant that you still think you can reject the power of death, then save this girl’s life. Once you fail and finally see things my way, come and find me and your new training will begin.”

Master Simon emits one final cackle and transforms into a bat. Next, he flies out of the window off into the gray sky. His bat familiar swoops down from the ceiling rafters and chases after him.

With Master Simon gone, I’m free to go to Katherine. No matter what, I have to reach her in time and give her a life potion.

I inch forward on my elbows and try to come up to my knees, but the spikes in my legs make the pain too intense. If I pull them out, I’ll die from blood loss long before I reach Katherine. My only option is to crawl to her using my arms only.

Thus, I crawl. After gaining only a tiny advancement, I have to take a break. I’m doing my best to ignore the agony rippling through every cell in my body, but the concept of mind over matter only takes one so far. I feel faint and dizzy and my eyelids are anvils. My body is trying to shut down on me, but I won’t let it. I dig my fingernails into the wooden floor and literally claw on.

I expend three precious minutes without making any significant progress. At the rate that I’m going, Katherine is as good as dead. Battling with my body’s instincts, I squeeze out enough mana to expand my medical supply bag. A life potion won’t do me any good while I’m bleeding out from my legs, but if I chug a mana potion, then it might be just enough to help me reach Katherine. I consume a superior-grade potion to recover some power. Fortunately, it’s exactly what I needed to carry out my plan.

I lay my hands on the floor in front of me and cast the Ground Freeze spell. A bridge of ice forms connecting me to Katherine. Now I can use my arms to slide instead of crawl.

Once I’m properly settled onto the ice bridge, I find that it’s more like swimming than crawling really. Not that it makes moving easy, but at least I’m getting somewhere. I struggle on and on as fast as I can, but I’m running out of time. “Katherine!” I shout. She doesn’t respond.

I keep swimming towards her, but ten minutes have already passed and I’m still about five minutes away. “Katherine!” I repeat desperately. My condition is growing worse and I can barely keep my eyes open. Under normal circumstances, I would have been out cold a long time ago.

As feelings of giving up start to creep into my mind, I remember the time that Katherine and I first hugged. It was when we had just left the magic store Cornucopia. I was worried that she was upset with me and then out of the blue, she hugged me. I hadn’t been hugged in so long that I had forgotten what a hug felt like. Then there was the time that she kept me from beating the inquisitor to death and taught me about mercy. After that, she was tough on me and made me promise not to drink my problems away. More recently, when I was discouraged that I’d never find a cure for the petrification curse, she tried to comfort me and exhorted me to not give up. I’ve only known Katherine for a short time, merely a week, but somehow I can no longer imagine my life without her. I can’t give up on her. I can’t let her go. I love her.

I press my palms into the floor hard and lift my upper body off of the ground. Then I throw my left arm forward as far as I can and crash down. Then I repeat the process with my other arm. It’s a careless technique and it hurts like the dickens, but it will get me to Katherine quicker. I continue thrusting myself across the icy floor until I reach Katherine. As fast as I can, I whip out my most powerful life potion and start to pour it into her mouth. She’s been down for thirteen or fourteen minutes, but I still have to try to save her. I finish pouring the potion into her mouth and wait.

“Katherine!” I shout.

She doesn’t respond.

“Katherine, wake up!”

I start shaking Katherine as if to wake her from sleeping. She doesn’t move. I shake her some more. When she still doesn’t respond, I run my hand along her arm to check her temperature. Her skin is pale and cold: frigid cold. I place my face over her mouth. I can’t feel her breath either. I think she’s…

My strength falters and I fall on top of Katherine’s body. I then reposition myself so that my head can rest on her chest. Then finally, I wrap my arms around her and begin to cry brokenheartedly. I’ve failed Katherine. I failed her like I failed Nadine. I can’t continue like this. I can’t go on without Katherine. “Katherine I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I never wanted you to get hurt. I...I…”

Even now I can’t bring myself to tell her how I really feel about her. Master Simon was right about me the whole time. I’m nothing more than a pathetic disappointment. I let down the girl whom I loved and admired most. Overwhelmed with grief, I succumb to my misery and weep uncontrollably while squeezing Katherine in my arms.

Unexpectedly, I hear, “Soul, I’m okay.”

Hearing the quiet sound of Katherine’s voice doesn’t comfort me the least bit. I’m happy that she’s alive, but my weakness is what allowed this to happen to her in the first place. Instead of rejoicing, I hold her all the more tightly and continue to weep inconsolably.