Levin settled back in his chair, nursing a small stomach-ache as he processed the conversation with Uki while Cho flew high in the sky back towards Inuvik Academy.
Master Pilip still wasn’t in the lab with Levin, though the morning had already begun to drag on. Not that it mattered much to Levin, seeing as Pilip was busy with the preparations for Bolt, which Levin couldn’t help with. The main difference between Master Pilip being in or out of his lab was that Levin could work on carving more counterfeit tokens when he wasn’t here.
But he wasn’t to be left alone much longer. The door to the lab swung open, and Levin reflexively hopped to his feet.
“Greetings, Master Pil…” Levin began, but trailed off as he saw just who stood before him.
“Hello, Levin.” The voice was one he had been unable to get out of his head, and Levin shuddered.
“Magus Amaq!” Levin exclaimed, his heart freezing in his chest. He still managed a basic bow.
“Levin, on my authority as the Academy’s chief of security, you are under arrest.”
Amaq pressed both his hands together in a seal pointed towards Levin. Black manifestations of the central rune array sprang to life all around Levin, encircling his arms and pulling them out in front of him. Levin yelped as his wrists were squeezed together, and he stumbled forward but was held up by the runic lines.
“What’s going on!” Levin exclaimed, panic rising in his chest.
“You’re lucky Silla attacked when he did. All the extra work for me bought you an extra day of freedom. Unfortunately, that time is now over,” Amaq said.
He turned on his heel and began to head back out of Pilip’s lab, and the central rune array dragged Levin along with him.
"No! I can't let myself be arrested right now!" Levin thought as he tried to catch his footing.
“I haven’t done anything!”
“Save it,” Amaq said. He jerked his hand and the runic seal around Levin responded, yanking him harder. “You’re going to tell us all about how you betrayed the Academy.”
Levin shuddered, and his breathing quickened. “Do they know for sure it was me? Do they have some kind of way to tell? Did I overlook something?” he thought frantically.
“No. It’s too late to think about that.” Levin forced his breathing to stay normal even as his heart thundered away in his chest. “Instead I should be asking myself what I can still do now.”
Could he let himself be arrested, and rely on Mei to rescue him? It would mean giving up his position at the Academy for sure. But worse, if they found the counterfeit identity tokens in his pocket, or the control runes on his arm… if they determined he was a traitor and decided to execute him, Mei might not make it in time. And there was also far too much damning evidence in his room.
“Shit! My room!” Levin realized. If he was being arrested now, there might already be others searching his room. Most of the Lethridge supplies were not being kept there, due to a simple lack of space, but there was plenty of incriminating evidence otherwise.
Levin activated Cho’s wind rune, the green control rune lighting up underneath his robes. The bird would normally have taken another hour or so to arrive, but that was far too slow. It might already be too late.
“I’ll use up the entire rune,” Levin thought. If there was even a chance that burning through all of Cho’s ink would let the bird arrive in time to save him, he would do it. If he was lucky, they wouldn’t even bother searching his room anyways.
Levin took a deep breath as he stepped out behind Amaq into the daylight. He pushed his room from his thoughts – there was nothing more he could do about that now. Cho would carry everything out through the window. Instead, Levin focused on the mage standing before him. He couldn’t allow this man to take him away right now.
“Magus Amaq…” Levin said hesitantly. Amaq looked back at him, and Levin gulped.
“I think I know what you want.”
“Oh?” Amaq paused.
“If they know for a fact I’m the culprit, this won’t work. But I have to try,” Levin thought, steeling himself.
“The location of the stolen Lethridge supplies.”
“And how would you know that?” Amaq said, narrowing his eyes.
“I don’t, not for sure…” Levin paused, trying to appear hesitant. “But it’s a place Master Pilip has shown me. I think he might be the person you’re looking for.”
Amaq stayed still and silent, examining Levin. “Please, please let this work,” Levin thought to himself.
“Ah, I get it now,” Amaq said with a chuckle. “You want to trick me into leaving the Academy, right into a trap of the Mage Hunters. Am I wrong?”
“It’s inside the central rune array. I could take you right now,” Levin blurted out, speaking quickly. Was that too obvious?
“Inside…?” Levin wished he could see Amaq’s thoughts as the mage stood there examining him again. Hopefully this would be enough to convince Amaq that Levin’s trap wasn’t a trap.
“Very well,” Amaq said after a long moment. “But you’re coming with me to see this place. Where on the mountain is it?”
“About halfway down on the backside. I can take you there.”
***
Levin’s anxiety only grew as the two headed down Mount Inuvik together. Amaq had grabbed a horse from the stables, but he had left Levin on foot and restrained by the rune array. Levin led the way, trudging through the shady forest as Amaq followed at a distance, weaving his horse through the trees with ease.
It was like there were lead blocks on Levin’s feet. He was on a death march, being walked down to the gallows by his captor. The noose had closed in on him before he realized it, and now there was only one road forward. He walked it solemnly.
At least his room had not been searched. Cho had managed to clear it out and stash everything out in the wilds. But it had cost Levin one of his only runes, a precious possible tool for victory.
“I’m not ready!” Levin thought to himself. “Cho only has a single acolyte level rune left! I haven’t had enough time or practice to make the powerful Wisp-tier inks I planned to! And I don’t even have Bolt yet!”
Levin was trembling as he marched forward. He tried to suppress it, but it washed over him in waves, and he found himself shaking more and more with each step. As he followed the path he had once guided Kirima down, it felt like the weight of the world was pressing down on him.
And then, water. A mountain spring unfurled before Levin’s eye, tumbling down a rock face into a pool of water, with a bare patch of dirt near the water’s edge. Levin’s preparations were not complete, but it was too late for that – they had arrived. He was almost glad for the restraints on his hands, as they stopped the worst of his shaking.
Levin walked forward and stood by the small mound of dirt.
“Are they buried there?” Amaq asked.
“If my road is to end here, at least I will die by your side,” Levin thought, hands shivering in their runic restraints.
Levin knelt down, resting on both knees by the grave. He reached his hands out, laying them on the bare patch of dirt.
His trembling stilled.
Levin spun around and sprang to his feet, flipping a single finger to the sky.
“Field!”
The topsoil all around them was blown off, revealing a tangled mess of deep crimson runic lines stretching all around the mountain spring. At the same time, the rune itself erupted outwards, a deep red light rising up to form a dome all around, encasing an area over a hundred yards in diameter, filling the entire area with swirling red Chaos energy.
The horse Amaq rode on bucked, rearing up with a pained neigh and throwing the mage off. Amaq hit the ground hard on his back as the horse bolted, and he crumpled in a heap of billowing red robes. At the same time, the red mist whipping all around them ate away at the runic shackles, and Levin’s hands sprang free as his restraints crumbled back to nothing.
“Blade!”
Levin charged, a red and black sword springing from his right wrist over the top of his hand. Amaq thrashed on the ground, flailing before finding his feet and springing up, but Levin was already upon him.
He slashed, bringing his arm blade down onto Amaq’s head. Amaq threw a hand up, his fingers curled into a seal – the symbol to call the central rune array’s shields.
No response came. Levin had succeeded in isolating the two of them from the central rune array. Amaq’s eyes went wide, and Levin could see up close the fear in his eyes.
“I can win right here!” flashed through Levin’s mind. His strike connected, dead on with Amaq’s forehead, but went no further – a deep azure glow sprang up around Amaq’s body, a runic shield. Levin’s Chaos blade dimmed and shortened, and his lethal strike fell short.
As the artifact absorbed his attack, the sound of metal shattering rang out, as a burst of light illuminated a bracer on Amaq’s upper arm, hidden under the robes. The shards of metal tore through the fabric, and a bang echoed out as a shockwave lifted Levin from his feet and hurled him backwards.
Levin tumbled head over heels, hitting a tree and sinking to the ground, dazed. He tried to focus his vision and stand, but only managed to slump to a sitting position as his whole world spun. Blade released, the thick, immaterial sword disappearing from his arm.
Amaq fared little better. Blood stained his robes and dripped down to the ground where his bracer had shattered, but he had been protected from the explosion. He clutched at his head regardless, gasping for breath as he leaned against a tree, the Chaos energy swirling all around and through Amaq in thick, goopy strands.
“Is this… Chaos?” he gasped.
Levin climbed to his feet, recovering from the stun. As long as Field burned, the Chaos energy it was producing would erode Amaq’s Source, killing him with Chaos Sickness. Levin would only have to wait. They were far enough away from campus no one should notice the red dome.
So he decided to stall. “That’s right. A new Chaos rune, called Field.”
“Impossible,” Amaq growled back. “Chaos was a magic designed by a long-lost civilization, far more powerful than even Silla. It is a branch of magic that has been dead for over a thousand years!”
“Have you read the Book of Reeds, Magus Amaq?” Levin asked.
Amaq stood up straight, his breathing growing steadier. “I have.”
“Then you should be able to see with your own eyes the innovation that this is.”
Amaq scowled, but didn’t repudiate him. “You should introduce me to the runesmith who made this. Perhaps I might even spare your life.”
“You’ve already met that runesmith, Amaq,” Levin said. “And as you suspect, he was the one who broke Lethridge. And he was the one at the mines, with Kirima on the night you murdered her.”
Levin glared at Amaq. His fear and anxiety was gone, replaced with hate and anger.
“It was me!” he roared, charging at Amaq once again.
“Whitecap!”
Amaq suddenly threw his arms wide, his Force coalescing into a frothing wave that raced out from beneath his feet. The swirling Chaos energy all around immediately began eroding the water, slowly eating away at the magic, but the spell was dense enough to come crashing towards Levin mostly intact.
“Wave!”
His own Chaos power was concentrated, unlike Field, and blew away Amaq’s Wisp rank spell with ease. Amaq began to run, turning around and heading away from the mountain spring on shaky legs. Levin pursued, gaining time on the older man but wishing he had Andrew’s physical enhancements. If only Wave was long range, he could hit Amaq from here – if only he had Bolt.
But all he had was Field. The dome was large enough that Amaq could not escape immediately, but if Levin didn’t stop him from reaching the edge it would all be over. He sprinted as hard as he could, lungs heaving and leaves whipping by his face. Levin closed the distance, but Amaq spun and faced Levin, sliding to a stop.
“Let me show you the problem with Chaos magic!” he shouted.
An instant later, Levin arrived within a few feet of Amaq, close enough for Wave to reach. Amaq held his ground, tossing out bolt of water after bolt of water instantly and silently.
“Wave!”
Levin sent the blast of Chaos energy straight towards Amaq, intending to annihilate his spells along with the mage. But instead, Amaq’s magic flew out to the sides, avoiding the pulse of Chaos entirely, then circled back in on Levin. They traded blows, the wave of Chaos washing over Amaq at the same time that the bolts of water struck Levin from both sides.
Field weakened the magic before it reached Levin, but did not destroy it – Field’s purpose was to isolate them from the central rune array, not aid in the battle. Levin found himself once again wishing he had finished Cho’s runes as he was launched backwards once more, bleeding from a dozen small cuts where the acolyte-tier magic had landed.
Amaq coughed violently and stumbled backwards as Levin’s dense Chaos energy washed over him, but ultimately remained standing. He turned and began to flee once more, racing off as Levin recovered to his feet.
Stolen story; please report.
Pain wracked Levin’s body as he forced himself to move, pushing to catch back up as Amaq quickly approached the border of Field, a shimmering red wall. Levin was too far away, unable to catch up in time even as he tried, but he still had one more card to play.
“This is my only shot! If I mess this up, I won’t have any way to stop him from leaving the array anymore!” Levin thought to himself as an orange control rune lit up on his arm.
However, as soon as the control rune activated, the Chaos energy wiped it away, and Levin lost all control of the rune he had just activated. But still, the signal reached, up to the rune on a bird hovering above the battlefield.
Just as Amaq reached the border, half a dozen blazing fireballs arced through the sky, passing the border into the Chaos dome before Amaq could make it out. He gaped in surprise, throwing his arms up and summoning a barrier of water directly in the path of the fire. The water and fire collided in an equal match, bringing Amaq to a stop though he was unharmed.
“If I had finished a Wisp rank rune, Amaq would have died just then!” Levin thought in frustration.
But the collision bought Levin a few precious moments, enough for him to close the distance, entering the range once again where his magic could connect.
“Wave!”
The Chaos energy passed over Amaq and he lurched, almost losing his footing. But he scrambled forward a moment later as Levin bore down on him at top speed. Levin was dismayed to see how little effect it seemed to have on him. He had never actually used Chaos against another person, and had little clue how much it would take for Amaq to succumb to Chaos Sickness.
Amaq reached the edge of the dome, stretching his fist out to reach beyond the Chaos barrier. A moment later, Levin arrived in striking distance. Wave was clearly not sufficient – he needed a strike of far more concentrated power.
“Blade!”
Amaq’s outstretched fist pierced the red veil at the same moment that Levin arrived within striking distance, bringing down the densest surge of Chaos he had at his disposal towards the exposed back of his foe. His strike connected with the shoulder of Amaq’s outstretched arm at the same moment the water mage pushed his fist out of the dome Levin had created.
The blade of energy passed right through Amaq, without leaving behind noticeable damage. But Amaq cried out in pain as the afflicted arm spasmed out of control, and his outstretched fist released, dropping something to the ground outside of Field’s border. Levin’s full focus immediately concentrated on the object, and he was horrified to see a thin piece of wood tumbling through the air.
“A transmission tablet!” Levin thought. “Shit! Did he get a message off!?”
Levin’s momentum carried him out of the area of his rune and past the faltering Amaq, who stumbled to the side. Levin swiftly stomped down at the dropped transmission tablet, crushing it underfoot as he borrowed the power to pivot back to face Amaq, swinging down his Blade once again.
Amaq yelped as he scrambled backwards, forced to retreat further back into the dome of Chaos energy. Levin immediately rushed in after him, keeping Blade active and ready, even though he knew it would rapidly drain his Chaos Source.
“Even if he got a message off, I have no choice but to keep fighting!” Levin determined as he charged, lungs burning.
“Streaming Swords!”
Amaq summoned four floating swords that hovered around him, radiating a majestic azure light. Levin stopped, wary of another spell that could attack from multiple angles, and the two stared each other down in a moment of quiet.
“If I use Wave and miss, those swords will skewer me. It’s not like the acolyte magic he hit me with before!” Levin thought, body aching from the previous impact.
As they stood facing each other, the swirling Chaos energy slowly ate into Amaq’s water blades, gradually disintegrating them while they squared off. As each agonizing second ticked by, Amaq’s prepared counterattack continued to diminish in value, and he himself sunk deeper and deeper into Chaos Sickness. The arm Levin had struck with Blade was visibly trembling.
Amaq clicked his tongue, breaking the silence at the same time as he broke the standoff. Stepping forward, Amaq stretched his good arm out, sending each of the four blades out in differing directions before they all quickly circled back on Levin.
“Wave!”
Levin could only hit a single one of the scattered blades with the blast, destroying it in an instant. A moment later, he perfectly timed a swing of Blade to intercept and annihilate another of the swords racing towards him, while diving to the side to dodge the other two, which slammed into the earth and left behind deep gashes. Levin’s leap carried him crashing into tangled underbrush, where the sounds of Amaq running away once again reached his ears.
“Should I run?” Levin thought. “If I flee now, I might make it away before any reinforcements arrive!”
He hauled himself back to his feet, but he had no time to consider his options. The sight of Amaq, back turned and fleeing, jolted Levin to a decision.
“Kirima never wanted to run!” Levin thought, charging forward on exhausted legs.
Amaq glanced behind him, scowling as his eyes locked onto the pursuing Levin. He reached into his robes, yanking out a silver hand bell.
Levin’s eyes went wide as soon as the bell entered his vision, genuine astonishment mixing with fear as he laid eyes on the runic lines adorning the artifact. They traced the bell in a dense pattern, every inch of the object fully covered in a dim blue glow, the original silver base barely visible anymore.
Ding
With a flick of his wrist Amaq rang the bell and the runes adorning it lit up, releasing the magic contained within even as the Chaos energy from Levin’s dome immediately began to eat away at the now-activated rune.
The energy of the rune washed over Levin in a blinding flash of light, carrying with it a strange sensation that left him reeling. His vision went black as he suddenly felt the ground disappear beneath his feet, replaced by an intense pressure on all sides that threatened to collapse him into nothing.
In an instant, Mount Inuvik, the Academy, the Chaos dome, Kirima’s grave, Amaq – everything – disappeared. Levin found himself alone, drifting in an endless, pitch-black ocean, the weight of the water on all sides crushing down onto him.
Levin’s senses failed him, and all he could feel was himself choking as he breathed water into lungs. He engaged his Y-Link in a panic, seeking the hard data of the sensors in the toolbelt around his waist.
However, to his shock and horror, Levin found himself entirely unable to connect to his Y-Link at all. He mentally engaged it again, but once more there was no response. His most trusted tool, a true part of himself, had been cut off, instantly destroying all that was left of Levin’s sense of control over his situation.
Levin immediately panicked, thrashing about wildly in the depths of the water, unable to see, hear, or breathe, filled with a deep, instinctual dread as he felt himself sinking further and further into the abyss. His wild, unrestrained movements only sent surges of pain through his body where Amaq had struck him earlier, and Levin felt doomed to slowly sink until he either suffocated or the intense pressure snuffed out his life.
Suddenly, the tiniest speck of light appeared within Levin’s vision, a tiny ember far in the distance across endless miles of water. Yet, that one speck shocked Levin back to his senses, bringing awareness and understanding as the light glowed a crimson red, slowly increasing in intensity.
“This is illusion magic!” he realized.
Before him, the light grew larger and stronger, spreading all around to surround Levin and the water around him in a sphere of deep red light. A moment later, the same light began to seep out of Levin’s own body, boiling away the water all around him and relieving the unbearable pressure.
Field ate away at the spell from the outside, and the Chaos Source within Levin ate away from the inside. The watery prison collapsed and the light of reality once more flooded Levin’s eyes, as he felt the cold dirt beneath him and a stream of comforting environmental data from his Y-Link. Levin noticed Blade had been released as he scrambled back to his feet.
Levin tried to push forward once more, but a surge of pain through his entire body nearly knocked him back down. He caught himself, and the pain died down into a dull and distracting ache, but he forced himself to focus on finding Amaq.
He had lost sight of the mage but realized he could still hear him, snapping twigs and crushing leaves on his way to get out of the Chaos dome and into safety. He had been close to the edge before, and surely could have made it out while Levin was incapacitated – but he hadn’t. Levin realized why very quickly.
“He’s not going very fast,” Levin thought, pushing himself as quickly as his aching body would allow. Amaq had given Levin a wide berth in his attempt to get out, but it allowed Levin to cut him off now by running along the perimeter. They were both slower than before, but Amaq much more so than Levin.
“Amaq!” Levin shouted as he moved between Amaq and the wall of the dome, forcing Amaq to retreat further back into Field. “How far along is your Chaos Sickness?”
“Damn you!” Amaq shouted back.
“The Book of Reeds says that it begins with an ache in the gut!” Levin shouted. “That’s the sensation of your Source being eroded from within! The more Source you lose, the more the pain spreads, and eventually your body itself begins to wither and rot as your lifespan comes to an end. Tell me, does the arm I hit look a few decades older than the rest of your body? It received the biggest dose, so it will wither away first!”
Amaq didn’t respond, but Levin could hear him quicken his pace. He ran forward as well, closing the distance and laying eyes on Amaq once more. Indeed, Amaq’s right arm was deeply wrinkled and atrophied, and the rest of his body pale and gaunt.
“Blade!”
Levin gave the chant as he charged, but nothing happened. No sword of Chaos extended from his arm.
“Shit! I’m out of Force already!? The illusion must have wiped out all that I had left!” Levin thought, slowing down and keeping his distance from Amaq. Field would have to get the rest done, and Levin would just have to stall.
“If you had to use that bell, are you out of Force?” he called out. “If the Chaos has already wiped it all out, this is my win!”
Amaq slowed down, coming to a stop. He turned around to face Levin, and Levin stopped as well.
“You’ll regret pushing me this far, Levin. I didn’t want to use this, but you’ve left me no choice,” Amaq said, reaching into a breast pocket in his robe and pulling out a glass vial with a small blue orb inside.
“That’s a pill!” Levin thought, completely unprepared for his first encounter with runesmithing’s counterpart. Amaq uncorked his vial, and a Pulse of Force shot out in all directions, pushing aside leaves and shrubbery in a gust of wind that rustled Levin’s hair and robes.
“If you were a mage, you would be able to tell that you can’t win anymore!” Amaq roared.
Levin began to retreat away from Amaq, walking backwards as quickly as he could without looking away from whatever Amaq may do. And as Amaq shouted, he slumped over, falling down onto one knee and placing his left hand on the ground to stabilize himself.
A moment later, the spell erupted violently from his back in a spray of water, forming into four distinct tentacles of water that raced out of Amaq’s back, each about half the width of a person’s wrist. They snaked up into the air, and Amaq shakily raised his hand before waving his arm back down.
Following the command, the four thin streams of water crashed down from above the treeline, long enough to reach Levin across the distance. A boom erupted as the mass of water slammed into the ground, but they met only branches and dirt on their way down as Levin leaped out of the way, a fresh surge of adrenaline pumping through his body.
But the arms of water pursued, changing trajectory to follow Levin instantly. He had no time to dodge, and the four tentacles wrapped themselves all around Levin, lifting him into the air and squeezing hard.
Levin cried out in pain as his ribs cracked slightly from the pressure. Amaq waved his arm, pulling the tentacles back in with Levin held tightly in their grasp, slowly reeling him in as they crushed down hard and harder.
“Wave!”
Levin summoned the last scraps of Chaos Force left in his body, mere dregs that couldn’t even form a full Wave. However, they were enough to push back the water that gripped him, freeing a few inches of space that let Levin drop back to the ground.
Without waiting for Amaq to ready another attack, Levin took off into the woods, adrenaline and pain spurring him to move even faster than before as he turned his back on Amaq.
“I don’t have anything left to fight that with!” Levin thought frantically.
The swirling red mist all around them barely ate away at Amaq’s water arms – this magic was clearly much denser in Force than his previous spells. They shot out again behind Levin, crashing through the forest towards him. He ducked to the side, taking cover behind a tree as Amaq’s attack pierced the space he had just occupied.
Once more, the snake-like appendages whipped around to track Levin again, slamming into the tree he used as cover. Each of the four streams of water gouged deep cuts into the tree, cutting through it in an instant and collapsing it down into the forest. Levin took off once more, desperate to put distance between them as the tree slammed into the ground behind him.
Amaq wrapped the fallen tree up with his arms of water, hefting it into the air in the grip of all four.
“Grahhh!” Amaq roared, the cry of a man exerting all his strength.
The streams of water hesitated to move, but like a river breaking through its dam they suddenly burst into motion, launching the tree like a missile through the forest and towards Levin.
“Holy shit!” Levin shouted as he looked back in response to Amaq’s shout.
The tree crashed into the ground near Levin, shaking the earth all around them and knocking Levin off his feet amidst a cloud of dirt and rock kicked up by the impact. Levin rolled on the ground with a pained grunt as all his wounds flared to life.
Amaq attacked again, stabbing towards Levin and giving him no time to recover. Levin scrambled to the side, trying desperately to dodge, but his body responded sluggishly and one of the tentacles pierced straight through his right shoulder.
Levin cried out in pain as he slumped over, swiping down with his hand at the stream of water piercing his body, but his body alone was far too weak to break the magic. It would take someone like Mei or Takt to break through with raw power, so instead Levin was held in place as another of the water tentacles wrapped around him, lifting him up off the ground and towards Amaq once more.
Amaq laughed maniacally as he held Levin aloft, preparing a final blow with the two remaining free water streams. But they moved erratically and slowly into position as Amaq’s entire body shook violently, deep wrinkles crossing all his skin as the Chaos chiseled away at him. Levin struggled desperately in Amaq’s grip, seeing how close he was to victory, but it was to no avail.
The water tentacles raised overhead, falling still as Amaq moved them into position. He took a deep breath in, arm shaking in the air. Amaq brought it down, and the tentacles whipped out towards the immobilized Levin.
“Now!” he thought, engaging his Y-Link.
Just as Amaq began his attack, a metallic bird came soaring down out of the sky, talons at the ready and heading straight for Amaq’s head.
“So you finally reveal it!” Amaq shouted with more crazed laughter, and Levin’s heart fell as one of the two tentacles suddenly switched direction, moving to deflect Cho as the other continued on to end Levin’s life.
Cho slammed into the water just below the treeline, and the powerful magic deformed one of Cho’s wings and sent it careening towards the side, away from the battle. His final ploy had failed, and now death closed in on Levin, a mere fraction of a second away.
However, as death closed in on Levin, he refused to accept such a limp ending for Cho. He engaged his Y-Link to its full potential, triggering multiple processes on his supercomputer in parallel, the data so much that his mind could not keep up. But his mind didn’t need to keep up, not with a supercomputer down his spine that he trusted more than anything.
First, he started an analysis of Cho’s wing damage, generating a new mental model of the shape that Cho’s wing had been deformed into. Without even waiting for it to finish, Levin began a calculation of Cho’s trajectory through the air, simulating all the aerodynamic forces about to be exerted on the bird.
The next step was to map through the data, finding every possible moment that could be exploited for lift without wasting any energy or movement correcting Cho’s flipping tumble through the air. The physics simulations were all done in an instant, and with them Levin generated a pre-programmed route for Cho, a set of commands for how the bird was to position itself at every microsecond.
Levin did all this by pure reflex, born of years spent with the Y-Link he had designed himself. Cho received the new inputs a mere tenth of a second after Amaq struck it, every joint of the creature locking into position. Cho seemed to defy physics as it flipped and tumbled wildly through the air yet curved back around in an arc, rapidly changing its trajectory back towards Amaq and Levin.
Instead of launching into the distance like Amaq intended, Cho careened directly into the path between Amaq and Levin, crashing into the two water tentacles that snared Levin. Cho had enough momentum to blast right through the Field-weakened streams of water, disconnecting the part holding Levin up and causing it to collapse.
Levin fell as Amaq’s attack came crashing down, giving him just enough time to hit the ground and roll out of the way as the water slammed into the ground like a hammer. As he came back to his feet, body screaming in pain, Levin saw a clear path painted between him and Amaq.
Amaq gasped as he made eye contact with Levin, desperately trying to reform his magic as the water sloshed about. He had struggled a moment before to move them into position, as the Chaos energy continued to decay the magic and worsen Amaq’s state. And now, the tentacles moved in sluggish, stuttering motions.
But Levin’s body wouldn’t move either. He staggered forward, barely staying upright as he took a step toward Amaq, while the mage wrestled with his magic amidst all the swirling Chaos. Blood poured from the hole in Levin’s shoulder, his body ached from being thrown all over the place, and his stomach burned so badly he could barely stand straight.
His vision swam. Amaq was right there, but Levin couldn’t reach him. It was a struggle to even keep his head pointed in the right direction, and suddenly Levin’s eyes locked onto something off to the side. Blinking, his vision grew steady as he suddenly realized the battle had wound all the way back to the beginning.
Back to Kirima’s grave.
Levin found the strength to push through the pain and set off on one final charge toward Amaq, pain flashing through his body but momentum carrying him forward. He threw a wild, untrained punch out and connected, slamming directly into Amaq’s slackened jaw with a sickening crunch.
Amaq slumped to the ground.
Levin’s momentum carried him forward, his shaky body unable to stop as he crashed down onto the ground behind Amaq. Levin shouted in pain as he clutched his pierced shoulder, curling up on the ground as agonizing waves pulsed through him.
He forced himself to look back, trying desperately to move his body and avoid Amaq’s follow up. But the mage lay limply on the ground, unmoving save for a few spasms that wracked his body. The four tentacles of water had collapsed into puddles, and Amaq’s withered, wrinkled body grew still.
Levin had won. Amaq was dead.