Chapter 44: Too late for that

The larger figure charged at me, his huge sword dragging a line of sparks across the stones.

I raised my blade, but before he reached me, the front of the inn burst apart.

CRASH!

Mira exploded out of the wreckage, wrapped in crackling lightning. She hit the larger figure from the side at full speed, her shoulder driving into his ribs. The impact threw him across the street, and he slammed into a stone wall hard enough to crack it.

She landed on all fours like a cat, one hand and both feet planted on the ground, her head already turned toward him. Blue sparks crawled along her arms and faded.

I pushed myself up and let out a breath. "Thanks, Mira."

She opened her mouth to answer.

The smaller figure raised her hand.

A ball of flame began to form above her palm, bright and tightly packed, and the air around it bent from the heat. It was growing fast. I looked at it, then at Mira, who was still crouched in its line.

"Mira!" I shouted, and launched myself forward.

I stepped between her and the attack and thrust both hands out. A stream of flames roared from them and crashed into the fireball in the middle of the street. For a second, the two held each other, and the heat made the stones crackle.

Then the fireball began to bore through.

It tunneled into my flames, slow at first, then steady, pushing toward my hands inch by inch. I gritted my teeth and poured more into it. My arms shook. It kept coming. I tried to pull back, but it was too late.

BOOM!

It exploded a hand’s width from my fingers. The blast hurled me backward, and I hit the ground and rolled several times before skidding to a stop on my side.

I lay there for a second, coughing smoke. My hands were scorched and stinging.

I got to my feet. Mira stood a few steps to my left with her stance low, and the old man, bloodied and breathing hard, stood beside us, his cleavers in his hands. Across the street, the larger figure peeled himself out of the cracked wall, shook the dust from his shoulders, and walked back to stand beside the smaller one with the massive sword in his hand, ready to go again.

The old man did not look at me.

"This is not your fight, boy," he said. "You shouldn’t be involved."

I wiped soot from my cheek and gave a short laugh.

"You’re a bit late for that. I’m in it now, whether you like it or not." I raised my sword. "So stop trying to shield me and don’t hold anything back. We take them down together."

The old man glanced at me, and for the first time, the corner of his mouth moved.

The smaller figure spoke then, her voice flat and calm.

"We do not want to make a scene. All we want is the elf. Hand her over, and we will be gone from here." She paused. "If the three of you refuse, we will be forced to use harsher means."

I chuckled. "Harsher than this? What exactly could be harsher than this?"

She did not answer. She lifted both hands into the air.

Magic circles flickered into being, one after another, spreading across the sky above the street. Ten, then twenty, then more, glowing and layered, filling the air all around us. Light poured down from them, and the temperature climbed.

My eyes went wide.

"Oh shit."

I turned to Mira. "Grab him fast and run! We have to get out of range, now!" I yelled

Mira did not argue. She nodded once, seized the old man by the arm, and pulled him back, ignoring his grunt of protest. I stepped forward alone.

I swept both arms through the air in a wide circle, and flames burst up around me in a massive dome, thick and roaring, covering the street behind me. The magic circles fired.

Fire poured out of every one of them at once and slammed into the dome from all sides. The dome shuddered. I dug my heels into the ground and held it with everything I had, sweat running down my face, my arms trembling. Cracks of white light spread across the surface of the flames.

’Hold. Just a few more seconds.’

Behind me, Mira dragged the old man down the street, out of range, and the barrage broke over the dome in waves. When I felt them reach safety, I let the flames collapse and backed away myself, retreating fast as the last of the fire guttered out in the street. The cobblestones were blackened for yards around.

The old man shook off Mira’s grip. He looked at his cleavers, then lifted them in both hands and rolled his shoulders.

"Stand back," he said.

"Wait, old man..."

He was already gone.

White aura wrapped around his body, and he shot forward faster than I could track, closing the distance across the street in a heartbeat. He leaped. At the top of the jump, he swung both cleavers down together in a single crushing stroke.

The larger figure raised his sword to block.

CLANG!

The collision sent a shockwave across the street that shattered windows on both sides. The huge blade held, but a chip flew off the edge of it and spun away into the dark.

The old man’s eyes lit up. ’It could be damaged. A hint of excitement crossed his face, and he started to pull back.

He never got the chance.

CRACK!

Both cleavers shattered in his hands. Shards of steel flew in every direction, and I stared at the stubs of the handles in disbelief.

The larger figure moved. His left fist drove forward and slammed into the old man’s gut.

THUD!

The old man’s eyes bulged. He was flung backward several feet, and he hit the stones hard and rolled to a stop, not moving.

The larger figure did not wait for Mira and me to understand what had happened. He lunged at us.

I was already moving. I rushed in with my sword drawn, and lightning crawled up the blade as I came. The huge sword swung at my head in a flat arc. I ducked, went under it, felt the wind of the blade pass over my hair, and came up inside the big man’s guard.

’Now.’

I cut for the exposed side.

A stream of flames hit me from the left.

The smaller figure had stepped up, her hand out, fire pouring from her palm. I threw my sword across my body and caught the blaze on the flat of the blade, and the lightning fought the flame with a screech. I could not follow through. By the time I turned back, the larger figure had stepped away and set his feet again.

’She’s covering him. I can’t get a clean cut while she’s there.’

From the corner of my eye, I saw a streak of blue.

Mira had circled wide while they were busy, keeping low, moving along the edge of the street, watching the smaller one. She was waiting for a gap. When I drew the flames, she found it. She went in fast, lightning flaring around her fists, closing the gap in two bounds. The smaller figure’s attention was on me. Mira’s fist drew back, aimed at the masked face.

A clear chance

A wall of flames shot up in front of her.

It rose from the ground in an instant, tall and wide, between her fist and the target. Mira’s punch slammed into it, and the lightning cracked against the fire with a hiss. She pushed. The flames did not give. Heat poured over her arm, and she snatched it back before it burned.

She could not pass. She pulled back and landed on the ground. She did not stop. She immediately channeled her lightning, and it covered her entire body until she could barely be seen under it.

She blasted off the ground and moved around faster than the eye could follow. She bounced off the walls fast and became faster with every bounce until the smaller figure couldn’t see her again.

Then she launched at her and landed a kick right into the side of her face, completely sending the smaller figure to the ground hard.