From the start, Edana knew that if she wanted a chance of defeating Thorgoth, there would be no holding back. It was all out from the start, everything she and Poker had against the Demon King and the blessings that empowered him.
What only a few people knew about Edana’s fire magic was that she often set it up long in advance. After all, fire needed the right conditions to blaze and take hold.
That was why she’d started humming. She was slowly gathering the winds around her, whipping them into a vortex above the king and feeding fresh oxygen into the area. For her tinder, she was grabbing every little bit of unburnt black powder floating in the air, every ember as far as her magic could grab and guiding it along with the winds to her.
So when she took a deep breath and screamed to charge her spell, the torrent of fire that slammed into Thorgoth made all look away. She could see a flash of purple from Thorgoth’s shield, but instead of trying a new attack, she just made things hotter.
Walls of white magic shot up around the king. The wind howled. Poker glowed sunfire-orange as the Firehand stoked the bellows that she’d entrapped Alavari’s king in. Sure he could shield the fire, but not for long.
True to expectation, she felt a hard thud against her shields. Thorgoth slammed through them, brute forcing them with a fist-shaped blow of magic. The king, sweat leaking slightly from the cracks in his armor, seized some of her flames with his magic and whipped it toward her. The whip of magic cracked toward her, a vicious serpent rearing its head to bite.
It was a pity because with anybody else that might have been a problem, but Edana knew how to smother flames.
She tapped Poker on the ground and with a puff, the serpent fizzled and hissed out as she sucked the oxygen fueling it. In the same motion, she cried out a note, sending crackling spears of earth slamming into Thorgoth. His armor deflected the strikes, but he had to step over the obstacles as he advanced on her, firing bolts of magic.
While Edan had gotten older during the war and had never been as limber as her daughter, she knew how to conserve her movement. She dodged, leaning and side-stepping his attacks with precise movements. All the while she fired spells back:a bolt of forcethat looped high and came down like an artillery shell, a spell that would explode to ring his ears, and many many bolts of fire. Singing without pause, continuing to cast and prepare spells, she continued to hit the Demon King with everything and anything she had at her disposal.
Yet, Thorgoth waded through the attacks, waving his wand, reciting Words of Power to rapidly adjust his violet shields. He was gaining ground, but there were times he nearly tripped as Edana’s attacks almost had him unbalanced.
“Playing little tricks on me Firehand? Where is that rumored fire? Or does the dragon have one roar?”
Edana ignored Thorgoth. Blazes needed time, space and plenty of fuel to take hold and burn.
Thorgoth was now shifting tactics. Instead of just pure magic, he now tried to break Edana’s footing. The ground heaved, ripples of earth tearing toward Edana, which forced the mage to dodge and move. Spikes of earth erupted from the ground, flying through the air to smash into her shields. That made Thorgoth tear a cart-sized boulder of earth which he threw at Edana.
Seeing his vision obscured, Edana teleported. She didn’t go far, just to Thorgoth’s right. Whirling Poker, she sang out a chord, firing a searing jet of fire. This was not the tongue-licking orange flames that she’d used earlier. This was a white-hot beam that sizzled the air.
Even as Thorgoth blocked, he grunted and had to look away as the sheer heat and light of the beam could be felt through his magic.
All of that was a distraction, for Edana suddenly sung another note, shifting down a scale, to smite Thorgoth with a fist of magic directly behind him. She wasn’t able to get enough focus to break through his armor, but the blow staggered the king and he whirled, firing a wild fusillade of bolts that she blocked or dodged.
“You are sneaky. Did you learn that from that bitch Star?”
Edana smirked. Yes, she had but there was no way she was going to waste breath letting Thorgoth know that.
Deflecting, blocking, continuing to sing, Edana continued to fight Thorgoth. A whirling tornado of flames lapped at the Demon King’s shields, while unpredictable, incalculable blasts of magic, and other elemental attacks hit from all sides.
Thorgoth was never hit directly, but he was tripped, knocked back and at one point had to go to one knee as an explosion over his head pushed him to the ground.
The king got to his feet. Whips of magic shot out, which Edana countered by rapid pinpoint bolts that threw them aside.
“Firehand, you wicked woman. What are you up to? You know you can’t beat me. Your daughter, who is far more powerful than you are, fought with all her might several years ago and she only gave me a bruise. She fought me now and all she could do was retreat. Give up all hope and beg for my mercy. Maybe then I’ll spare your daughter.”
Thorgoth no longer sounded smug. There was a deep growl to his voice, an undercurrent of fury intended to twist and tear the will and confidence of his foes.
Edana merely shrugged and hit him harder. Bolts of fire corkscrewed toward Thorgoth, before slamming into last-minute shields. Bouncing rays of light were followed up with rocks and clods of dirt that blasted up from the trampled ground.
Thorgoth countered by throwing up a wall of earth. A moment later it exploded, sending a shotgun-like blast of debris and flying detritus scything through the air. These hit a number of Alavaria and Allied soldiers, but where Edana stood, there was just gunsmoke.
The Demon King cocked his head and looked around, but his opponent was nowhere to be seen. A whooshing sound made Thorgoth look up. Edana, winged flames sprouting from her back, barrelled towards him, feet first.
Before Thorgoth could register what was going on, Edana slammed her armoured boots into Thorgoth’s head and screamed a wild piercing note. A jet of flame barely constrained by Thorgoth’s hasty shield propelled the Dragon of Erisdale back up into the air and threw the Demon King onto his back.
Thorgoth was no longer talking now. With surprising limberness, he leapt back onto his feet, dodging, shielding and only briefly counter attacking against the onslaught of the Erisdalian mage.
He stepped back, and continued to step back. The momentum of the fight having completely shifted as Edana’s rapid, mischievous spellcasting and forced him to hold onto his wand even more tightly lest she tear it from his grasp.
If he had the chance to talk, Thorgoth would have asked “What the hell was going on?”
Edana the Firehand was reputed to be the most skilled mage on the continent. She was not, however, an Otherworlder. She was not her daughter, Frances the Stormcaller. Frances was a threat to be sure but she was a manageable threat whose power, nasty lightning spell and wand could be countered by the sheer power difference between them.
So how was Edana fighting him to a standstill? How was she currently forcing him to give ground and think about how to bring out every last spell and tactic he had ever been taught?
The Firehand, figuratively silent, continued to sing her deadly song and weave the tapestry of destruction that now, before the eyes of all forced Thorgoth back.
***
Frances had just started to ride again after taking a brief pause to hit the enemy dragons. Her heart had sank a little after seeing the winged beasts fell, but she had to focus.
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Continuing to ride between the checkerboard formation of regiments, Frances heard her mirror ring again.
“Frances here.”
“Hey kid! You still on your way?” Ginger stammered. The queen had dismounted. The maelstrom of magic fury had forced many in the area to just seek cover or create it. She, Lord Tarquin, Jessica and Leila were hunkering down behind an earthen barrier they’d conjured to watch the fight, whilst also trying to oversee the rest of the battle.
Thorgoth’s guards and groups of Alavari cavalry were circling on the edges of the battle. They were going to try to break through if there was a lull. That of course meant that the Erisdalians had to watch them and respond if they did.
“Ginger! Yes! Are you alright? That is Thorgoth you are fighting right?” Frances asked.
“Yes, but you have some time. Your mother’s driving him back! He’s on the defensive! If you can get here maybe we can put him down!” Ginger exclaimed.
The queen of Erisdale was smiling, eager to share the news with her friend and to encourage her to get here.
Yet, she was met with only silence from the other end.
“Frances? What’s wrong?” Ginger asked.
“That shouldn’t be possible,” said Frances.
Ginger frowned. “Why not? Your mother’s stronger than you right?”
Frances shook her head. “It’s complicated. Technically in raw magical power I may actually be stronger than mother. She’s just the better mage because of her experience, and the nature of the fighting she had. She’s much better fighting other mages than I am, while I’m better at fighting in armies. Still, I’m a bit surprised that she’s overpowering Thorgoth. The blessings he has means that he has the power of three mages.”
Ginger chanced a glance over the barrier and immediately had to duck down as a bolt of magic nearly took her head off. “Hm, I’ll leave you to it then. I’ll try to get her some support but this battle is too damn freaking insane for us to intervene.”
“That’s fine, expected really. Just make sure nobody else tries to intervene on Thorgoth’s side. I’ll call on Ayax to come over.”
“Good point. Jessica, Leila!” Ginger ended the call then as Frances narrowed her eyes at the inferno.
Whatever was going on she had to get there soon. Even if her mother was successful, even if her mother wasn’t. Her archenemy was there and even if she was not the one to stop him, she was one of the few people who had a chance.
Frances didn’t know, but she felt she was going in the right direction. Win or lose, she had to try to stop Thorgoth and there was no turning back. So whatever fear she had was outweighed by an overwhelming feeling of acceptance. Be it fate or destiny, the Frances Windwhistler rode to her final duel of the Great War.
***
Edana hadn’t been saying anything in response to Thorgoth for two reasons.
One, she just wasn’t much of a talker in battle. Battle was all business and talking took valuable breath she could be using for singing
The second reason was that she’d confirmed to herself something she’d suspected since Frances’s first duel with Thorgoth. The Demon King was an incredibly powerful mage, that much was true.
He was, however, not a master mage.
Oh, his power was the real thing and it took all of the Grandmaster’s ability and skill to dodge Thorgoth’s attacks. More importantly, she had to keep him off balance and that meant being so unpredictable and varied in her attacks that he would have to resort to constantly shielding them as quickly as possible. This was not only incredibly magic-intensive, but not guaranteed to succeed. Edana sometimes broke Thorgoth’s shields, managing to score glancing blows or throw him around. Had he not been armored, her spells would have seriously hurt him.
The fact of the matter was that Thorgoth was incredibly similar to her Frances. Both had an overwhelming amount of sheer magical power and were able to employ it to great effect to overpower their opponents. Both however, were not particularly great duelists. Oh, Frances’s good instincts, casting speed and creativity gave her an edge, but she tended to fall into patterns over time.
Thorgoth didn’t have a pattern because he generally just threw everything he had at an opponent as forcefully and quickly as possible. She heard that in the past he was a great duellist, but it was clear that over the years, he’d lost that prowess.
Whereas Edana, who had regularly trained with Frances, and seen active combat for much of her life, was perfectly suited to dealing with powerful mages. She could deflect or dodge much of his attacks because she could see them coming and that allowed her to conserve her power.
Moreover, she suspected an element of intimidation had likely unbalanced the king’s previous opponents. Yes, Thorgoth was intimidating, but Edana had gone into the battle, resolved to do her best and at peace with herself for whatever the result may be. Now, as she fought and continued to beat the Demon King back, she felt her own confidence grow.
All that being said, there was just no beating the Demon King. It was all she could do to continue this careful dance and stay alive. However, until her daughter arrived, Edana could hold on for some time so long as nothing changed.
So of course someone tried to interfere.
Someone tried to shout out a warning to Edana. She saw magic being exchanged. As she glanced to the side, she felt her jaw clench.
Alavari Royal Guard and cavalry charged. She bellowed a note to send a scorching wave of heat that made the mounted cavalry horses scream and blasted the interlopers into ash.
Thorgoth seized on this and unleashed a hailstorm of spells. Immediately hunkering behind a white magic barrier, Edana gave ground. Sweat stung her eyes and she couldn’t help but hiss, “Shit.”
***
“We’re breaking through them,” said Elizabeth, eyes wide
When the remaining dragons had turned on the Alavari, the momentum of the battle had slowly and inexorably shifted. The already faltering flank facing the Erlenberg and Lapanterian armies was giving ground. Now the centre facing the Lightning Battalion was starting to break. Already Elizabeth could see units routing and their officers trying and failing to keep them in formation.
It only encouraged the Lightning Battalion’s vanguard, led by Aloudin to yell further encouragement and spur his troops on.
Turning to her girlfriend, Elizabeth pointed to the magical battle in the distance. “Ayax, go help Frances with Thorgoth. I’m committing my division to exploit the breakthrough.”
“Alright. Just—look out!”
Ayax threw several cards into the air and raised a black tinged shield to block a salvo of magical bolts from above.
A great wind of harpies now soared over Thorgoth’s army and plunged down towards the Lightning Battalion. At their head was a harpy wearing a crown and wielding a sword and a wand.
Ayax sent the cards she’d thrown whirling toward the harpies with a wave of her staff. They exploded among them, bright flashes and bangs disrupting the formation slightly but not enough.
Touching her communicator, Elizabeth growled. “Frances, we are going to be delayed.”
***
Edana going on the defensive gave the Alavari the opportunity to try to join in on the fight against the mage. Ginger was not having any of that and ordered her mages and troops into the fray.
Erisdalian soldiers and Alavari slammed into one another. Meanwhile, two pairs of mages now flanked Edana, attempting to assist her against Thorgoth. On Edana’s left, Nicole and Jim, and on Edana’s right, Jessica and Leila.
The group checked Thorgoth’s barrage of spells, just in time for Frances to make her entrance.
The flash of lightning almost passed Thorgoth’s shield, but the king’s split-second reaction meant he managed to block it. It did however halt him in his tracks, but only for a moment. The king counterattacked immediately.
Frances leapt off the horse she’d borrowed, cushioning her landing as best she could with her magic. Somehow she’d managed to escape the hammerblow of force that flattened her mount and left naught but flecks of blood where it’d stood.
“Stormcaller! You have finally arrived to die!”
Frances pushed herself to her feet, trying her best to still the trembling hand that held Ivy’s Sting. “You’ve lost Thorgoth! No matter what you do, you cannot win this war!”
Bright violet flared, and a garishly glowing beam tore toward Frances. She managed to sing up a shield grunting as the blow drove her back a step.
“We shall see!” the Demon King declared. Frances continued to back away, blocking and attempting to fire back with her lightning spell, but Thorgoth’s power continued to put her on the defensive. Forced to weather blow after blow, rays of power and sweeping elements, Frances felt her heart pound in her chest faster and faster.
She was here, trying to help, only to find herself in need of it.
Could they actually defeat Thorgoth? Was it a fool’s errand? Was her fate to be defeated by her enemy?
Desperately firing back, Frances summoned multiple arcs of lighting sending them blasting at the king from several angles. He had to shield himself, wrapping himself in violet power to grant herself a brief reprieve, but she hadn’t hurt him at all.
A wail cut over the sounds of battle. An explosion of flames sent the king’s sphere flying. Frances let out a sigh of relief as Edana, reengaged, having extricated herself from a fight with Thorgoth’s guards.
“Together, Frances!” Edana declared.
Smiling, Frances centered herself, feeling the tension in her shoulders lessen. “Yes mom!”
Stormcaller and Firehand advanced on the Demon King. Sky blue lightning and flickering crimson flame intermingled.
The mother and daughter team, bound by love and with technique honed by years of joint practice, immediately halted the Demon King in his tracks.
Rocks thrown at Frances were retaliated with red spears of pure magic that hit Thorgoth’s shields so hard that they rang like a gong. Flashes of lightning crossed over, or even joined with whips of flame to lash at the Demon King and keep him dodging.
Meanwhile, the Alavari Royal Guard were being pushed back. A flood of Erisdalian troops from the second division now flooded into the battle, plugging the breaches, and stopping withdrawing regiments. The battle’s tempo was now shifting again. The Alavari were once again being put on the defensive.
Ginger glanced at the highly dangerous lightshow that was Frances and Edana’s duel with the Demon King.
“Nicole, Jessica, James and Leila, go help Frances and Edana. We need to bring Thorgoth down!”
Nicole saluted, whilst Jim gave a short bow. “Yes, Your Majesty,” he said, before the pair ran to join the fight.
Jessica and Leila merely smirked before exchanging elbows.
“We’ll get him good,” said Leila.
“You better,” said Ginger, with very little humor. After all, their lives depended on it.