Burns & Blisters

Barriers were spherical in nature and consisted of a single, unbroken plane. Wards were flat and made up of hundreds of hexagonal cells, not unlike a beehive. Barriers and wards functioned quite similarly to each other in that both were great at stopping both physical and magical threats. The main reason everyone used barriers over wards was that barriers were very magic efficient: wards were not.

My ward activated with a roar. A hexagonal mirror began to materialize in front of me, its glossy surface brimming with energy. I bent its edges around me so that it would envelop me on all sides. When the ward set, I noticed that there was a small opening directly behind me, but it couldn’t be helped.

The Bell of Annihilation’s final peal sounded. The entire world seemed to be tearing itself apart. Both the sky above and the lake beneath shook as with a great earthquake. My barrier melted away like ice before an open flame.

Esther lost no time firing her final javelin at me. The moment my barrier was gone, she sent the javelin rocketing my way.

I remember staring at the weapon mere inches from my face. It lingered in the air for what seemed to be an eternity, almost as if it was suspended in time. I could see every detail on the weapon. Its spearhead was long and narrow, essentially a two-foot spike filled with dozens of nicks and grooves. The rest of the javelin was made of a crystal-like material that pulsated with an ominous red light. The material shimmered as if it was having trouble holding itself together. It was truly an evil-looking weapon.

Then it exploded.

My ward held firm. I knew this because I heard the actual explosion instead of a certain feline friend berating me for losing two duels back to back and a disappointed Host lamenting that she had spent her Divine Favor in vain.

Once the initial burst of light faded, I lowered my hand to drop my ward. Already, the ward had burned through a third of the free magic I had carefully gathered over the course of our fight.

But, when I saw a flash of purple light flicker through the thick steam that surrounded me once again, I held the ward firm.

Dragonsbane.

The wicked purple flame clung to the exterior of my ward like a parasite seeking to devour its next prey. The flame was ravenous, eager to consume anything that wasn’t fireproof. Had I dropped the ward, the flame would likely have landed on me, and that would have been the end of our fight.

This needs to be gone, I thought.

I waved my right hand.

My ward moved forward and away from me. When it was a safe distance from me, I detonated it. The force from the blast sent the purple flames to the other side of the lake, close to where Esther stood. She stood as still as a statue even as the purple flames landed on the lake close to her feet. The flames continued to burn all around her like an oil spill lit ablaze.

Good grief, I thought. She really has no fear when she’s the Night Terror.

I checked Kairos to see if I had subconsciously activated a time dilation.

All three sapphires on its hilt were still lit.

No dilations had been used.

I nodded curtly.

The Night Terror began to walk toward me from the other side of the lake. The flames caught the edge of her dress. Within moments, the dark garment was set completely ablaze. She now wore a blazing dress adorned with the hottest of flames. Yet the fire did not seem to bother her at all.

Clutched in her right hand was a crumpled bell, the very one she had used to destroy my barrier. She dropped the bell into the lake. It sank into the gentle waves below, its purpose now fulfilled. I was glad to see the accursed bell go.

Esther came to a stop in the center of the lake. In front of her stood the swordspear she planted at the beginning of our fight. She reached out her hand and placed it on the weapon. The swordspear stopped turning the moment she made contact. The metallic lullaby that had been playing on repeat for the last five minutes cut off on a final, dissonant chord, like a piano being smashed in half.

The lake was now silent as a tomb, broken only by my labored breathing.

Esther pulled the swordspear out of the lake.

A sharp ring pierced the air.

A shockwave shot across the lake. A powerful wind began to blow, agitating the calm lake beneath our feet.

The Night Terror slammed the tip of the swordspear into the lake, plunging it deep into the water. When she raised the swordspear again, its entire blade was now covered in a deep purple flame.

“I see you have a fire theme going here,” I breathed.

The lake we stood upon began to rumble.

What now?

I glanced to the side, still keeping an eye on Esther. I noticed that the edges of the lake began to fall into the abyss beneath us. In the span of a few seconds, the places I could stand were reduced in half.

No, no, no, no, no, no.

I reluctantly marched toward Esther trying to keep as much distance between me and the edge while trying to keep as much distance between me and her. I wouldn’t be able to do both for long. Then I remembered what Gordon had said about all the empty space surrounding me.

“You’ll float like debris on the surface of an autumn lake,” he had said.

An idea came to mind.

Esther, upon seeing my frantic attempts to stay alive, marched toward me with the same steady gait. After a few steps, she began dragg the tip of her 7-foot weapon through the surface of the lake. The blazing blade left behind a trail of smoke and steam, not quite obscuring her but making for quite the spectacle.

She’s trying to intimidate me! I thought, mildly impressed she would do something so outlandish at a time like this.

And it was working. My heartbeat beat wildly like a war drum. Goosebumps covered my arms from shoulder to fingertip because I knew that my next major decision would determine how this fight ended. I held Kairos at the ready. I looked at the three kinetic strikes on the blade. I would have made several more if I knew I would be fighting without my barrier.

Perhaps that is the lesson Iris wishes to teach me, I thought wryly. That I can’t just rely on my barrier anymore.

When only a fourth of the lake remained, Esther plunged her swordspear into the lake. A geyser of steam jumped into the air as water hissed and crackled like a dragon. She vanished completely from sight.

I immediately threw up another ward. I didn’t trust myself to react in time to whatever she was planning to do next. Once the ward was in place, I sent out a sonar wave in every direction around me. I found her rushing toward me at an alarming speed from a completely different direction than where I had last seen her. She was on the hunt now, moving about three times faster than I had ever seen her move before.

I activated the first of my three time dilation. Esther didn’t slow down in the slightest. Just as I suspected, her copy of Kairos from our previous duel allowed her to remain immune to my time dilation. The rule with time magic was that anyone also possessing a blade of time would remain unaffected by another dilation when activated. This made me even more curious about the mirror Remnant Esther possessed since this was the first time I had heard of a copycat Remnant being able to imitate another Remnant’s effects as well.

I pivoted to my left and prepped one of three kinetic strikes I had prepared on Kairos. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it, since I doubted it would be able to break through the Night Terror’s defense. But I had to try something.

I spun around as I heard the sound of shattering glass right beside my ear. Something grazed the top side of my right shoulder, but the force of the attack was enough to send me flying backward.

I threw out my leg backward to catch myself, but there was no ground to brace myself against. In a panic, I activated a kinetic strike and swung my weapon back at where I thought Esther was. As soon as the blade caught nothing but empty air, I knew my attack had whiffed entirely. Still, the shockwave could very well hit my opponent since it had a wide area of impact and an effective range of about 30 meters. The magically empowered strike raced away from me like a tsunami, destroying everything in its path.

Silence.

If Esther had been hit, she didn’t make a sound.

As I fell, I thought about creating a temporary kinetic platform to catch my footing. It would have been fairly simple to do. But the last thing I wanted to do was be stuck on an increasingly shrinking platform with the Night Terror.

I let myself fall.

As the wind rushed past my ears, I knew I had to come up with a new plan.

And fast.