Jess stood at the lip of the Inuvik Academy quarry, looking down at the gray landscape. Below, the last of the slaves filed into the openings of the mines, preparing to rest for the night in the bunkhouses just inside the entrance to the underground. Despite the last bits of light fading from the sky, a few acolytes and battlemages stood vigilant within the torchlight at the bottom of the quarry, standing around the small tower that didn’t provide nearly enough accommodation for the dozen or so guards. The quantity and quality had been increased following Levin’s and Kirima’s failed raid on the place, but the protective central rune array and the concealing tree cover meant none looked out beyond the quarry.

“Apparently they’ve even stashed one of their lieutenants, a late-stage Wisp rank, in the tower. It’s my job to take care of him,” Jess thought, gripping the hilt of the sword at her waist as she turned and glanced at the people assembled behind her.

Spread out in a wide arc just beneath the upper lip of the quarry, forty men and women tightly gripped their weapons in anxious silence. Their position on the downhill side of the quarry blocked the line of sight to the acolyte guards within, keeping them hidden. But as the night began to darken further, Jess worried that the light given off by the runes engraved into her squads’ weapons may give them away, and considered issuing a command to retreat downhill somewhat.

Before she could make her decision, a burning streak of light arced through the sky above them, a flare fired from the summit of Mount Inuvik, clearly visible against the twilight sky.

The signal.

“Go!” Jess shouted, throwing out any thoughts of backing up.

Her four squads, each composed of ten people, all charged forward, quickly coming level with Jess at the lip of the pit in the ground. Below, a few of the mages noticed the sudden appearance of a ring of people stretching along a full half of the perimeter, and they shouted in surprise, alerting the entire site.

However, their window of notice was too small – Jess’s contingent swung their weapons at the same time they rushed forward, and the half-ring of Mage Hunters disappeared behind a multi-colored cloud of flying magic. As Levin had promised, no shields sprang up to block their attack.

A few of the guards managed to summon their own Force in defense, throwing out spells as fast as possible, but the valiant attempt vanished like smoke in the wind against the sheer numbers of forty pseudo-Wisp rank attacks. The hail of magic, each blast stronger than an acolyte level spell but weaker than a Wisp rank one, turned the crowd into mincemeat within moments. Scattered towards the sides, the unharmed slaves gaped in shock, too stunned to move.

“Okay, on to phase two! Remember, you only have two charges in your artifacts left!” Jess shouted, and the squads around her began to move.

Three of Jess’s four squads broke off to the side, going down and around the edge of the quarry to circle back up around the side of the mountain. Only the nine members of Jess’s handpicked personal squad remained around her, looking down into the pit expectantly. Jess briefly surveyed her team, then turned and charged down the sloping switchbacks down into the ground.

“We have to get down fast, or we’ll be too exposed on this cliff face!” Jess thought as she sped forward, leaping down the path recklessly.

Looking out, she came eye-level with the topmost level of the small mage’s tower, and a window in the side showed Jess her main opponent, just barely visible in the dim light. The mage, a man named Vulle according to Levin’s intel, cursed as he saw Jess’s headlong charge and the corpses of his guard detail.

“Why didn’t the central rune array activate!?” he shouted, though Jess and her militia couldn’t hear him say that.

But the charging Mage Hunters could definitely hear the screaming siren as Vulle set off the central rune array’s alarm.

***

Captain Kodan barely had time to pull out his transmission tablet, its runic lines glowing from the received message, before the dreadful wail of the Academy’s alarm sounded out. He was in his room, settling in for the night, but the sharp noise startled all drowsiness from his body. Kodan rushed out of his personal quarters, stumbling over the steps out onto the campus as he focused on the messages in his transmission tablet.

“Three dozen mages attacked the mine, and now have Lieutenant Vulle under siege!? He might be at the late stage of Wisp rank, but he won’t be able to hold out against that!” Kodan thought to himself.

He picked up his pace, running towards the gated entrance of the Academy campus. Gathered around the large wooden gates, open wide as per usual, a crowd of over two dozen of Inuvik's battlemages quickly formed themselves into ranks, with more streaming out of the barracks tower just inside the walls.

Stable hands rushed about on the other side of the walls, saddling up every available horse. They had a head start on the mages, since many of them had yet to turn in for the night, but the battlemages could rush into their ranks much faster than the servants could work. In a few more minutes, three full mage battalions would be assembled and ready to counterattack.

Behind Kodan, a crowd of Inuvik’s regular mages was gathering, drawn by the commotion. Even further back was a group of nearly a hundred acolytes, huddled together in dozens of small groups, trying to stay far enough to not interfere but close enough to hear what was happening. Though both groups may have fallen outside of Inuvik’s military structure, they would all follow Kodan’s orders in an emergency.

Kodan took a position in the center of everyone, continuing to send messages through his tablet to several different people, focusing on his multiple tablet conversations while the mages continued to assemble. The biggest crowd was the acolytes, but Kodan didn’t factor them into his combat calculations despite having nearly three hundred on campus. Acolytes simply possessed too little Source, too little combat experience; better to send them to channel their Force into the central rune array’s Force Distribution System.

But the forty ordinary Wisp ranks, almost all at the early stage, were a different story in Kodan’s estimation. Though weaker than the battlemages, no Trurok mage could achieve Wisp rank without learning how to fight, and Kodan fully intended to throw them into the battle if necessary. Putting aside his transmission tablet, Kodan mentally finalized his plan of response.

“Lieutenant Poa! Mount up and take yours and Lieutenant Vulle’s battalion down to reinforce the mines!” he shouted.

Transmission tablets are useful for messaging individuals, but Kodan wanted to ensure everyone around him knew what was going on.

“Magus Atuat! Gather the runesmiths and meet Lord Hann at the central rune array!” he continued, as the battlemages behind him promptly moved out. “As for the pillwrights, I want all of you to – ”

Kodan cut himself off as the sky suddenly lit up for the second time since the starting flare a mere few minutes ago. But this light was a far cry from the gentle orange light of a flare high in the sky, one that caused the shadows to shift slowly as it arced leisurely through the air.

No, this light was far more intense, blasting out all the darkness except for the faint shadows left underfoot. Kodan craned his neck upwards, as did the mages all around, but before his eyes could register the sight, his own Source felt the light above him.

It sent a chill up his spine. Above him, over a hundred points of light – each at pseudo-Wisp rank, according to his senses – filled the sky as though the distant stars had been pulled in close to the night sky, unleashing a brilliant, blinding glow.

Kodan’s shock turned to a deep dread as he realized exactly what glowed so brightly, rapidly approaching from on high. Magic takes the form of existing matter, but most objects do not glow, and so most magic does not glow either. However, all runes, regardless of element, give off light, especially when active.

What dazzled and frightened the assembly of almost every Wisp rank mage currently on Mount Inuvik was a rain of over a hundred arrows glowing with the energy of runes about to detonate!

There was no time to think. By the time Kodan and the others noticed the attack, the projectiles were fractions of a second away from impact. Many of the mages responded on instinct, instant-casting acolyte level spells, the strongest most Wisp ranks could summon without preparation. An acolyte level spell bolstered by Wisp rank Force was equivalent in power to the pseudo-Wisp rank runes, but it would only be enough to block one.

Most of the eighty-ish mages – only about fifty-five of which stood in the danger zone – failed to cast a spell in time, the sudden appearance of the arrow rain leaving only the tiniest window to react. The barrage fell like a murderous swarm into the grouped mages, and screams filled the air alongside the sounds of protective artifacts shattering as the hundred runes all detonated within the crowd.

Kodan, one of the lucky few who both instant-cast a defensive spell and possessed a powerful protective artifact, stumbled to the ground as several arrows pummeled into him, leaving him bruised but not bloodied, witness to the carnage all around.

“The central rune array didn’t automatically defend! How did they bypass the intruder detection!?” Kodan thought frantically as he recovered his footing.

Over half of the mages had remained standing through the assault, and some now turned to flee as others bent to help the injured and fallen. But to everyone’s dismay, before they could act, another wave of light appeared in the sky, racing towards them once more.

Kodan saw the archers fire this time, standing abreast near the peak of the mountain high above the Academy, silhouetted against the starry sky. But this time, he was ready.

Kodan made several seals in a row with both hands, calling upon the central rune array to a depth that only a mage of his status was allowed to. Casting his palms skyward, a barrier formed of tightly interlocked runic lines appeared above him, spreading outward to cover the entire crowd.

The central rune array may have recognized the intruders as members of the Academy for some reason, but the defenses could still be summoned manually. The surprise attack had been devastatingly effective, but now their assailants would have to deal with the mounted charge of several dozen angered battlemages.

“Lieutenant Poa, belay your orders! Bring your battalion with me instead! We’re going to take care of those archers! Lieutenant Vulle’s battalion, head down and rescue your superior!”

***

“Fall back!” Nano shouted as he saw Kodan activate the Academy’s rune array in defense.

Over a hundred archers, a full third of the Mage Hunter’s recruited forces, began to peel back into the woods and away from the campus they had just fired upon. They had packed densely together into a relatively flat clearing near the peak, and their retreat slowed as a result, the archers farther up waiting for those behind them to clear out.

Nano, standing front and center, gripped his bow tight enough that his knuckles turned white while he waited on the men and women under his command to make their way out. But it was dark, and their pace was slower than Nano would have liked. Their only source of light was the engraved arrows carried by each archer, which gave off a small amount of light, but far less than they did after the twitch of a bowstring activated them.

Instead of using the weak lighting to find their way, the archers relied on senses and instincts honed through wilderness hunts to find food, of dawns and dusks spent clambering through wooded mountains far more treacherous than the gentle Mount Inuvik. But though these predatory instincts made the hastily-trained army well-suited to the forested combat, the sheer numbers still made the group’s movement very clunky.

Nano looked away from the retreating archers and back towards the gates of Inuvik Academy, where the lights of the mages clearly illuminated the area for him. To his dismay, he saw the battlemages in their flaming red robes already mounting horses, the archers’ attack having done nothing to slow the stablehands on the other side of the wall. Not that he would have wanted to shoot non-mage civilians anyway, even if they worked for Inuvik.

Nano’s battalion had only halfway evacuated before four dozen battlemages streamed out on horseback, the majority circling towards a trail that led up the mountain to Nano. The remaining third swept down the mountain, away from Nano but towards the quarry near the base.

Nano trembled as he finally began to move, taking up the rear guard. The path from the entrance up to their location was not a long one; the battlemage troop would be upon him before he could get far. But even as fear and excitement gripped him in equal measure, he couldn’t help but let out a smile.

“I just have to trust in my teammates, and Uki’s planning. Same as always.”

***

“Halt, evildoers!”

A figure leaped out into the path of the charging battlemages, billowing cloak silhouetted against the moon- and star-light that shone down in the cloudless night. The path, barely wide enough for two horses riding abreast, suddenly darkened as the large piece of cloth cast its shadow down the slope, the man within invisible against the black. All the mages could see clearly was a spear and pair of boots, decorated with runic lines.

The battlemages slowed their horseback charge, allowing those at the head of the column time to investigate the sudden foe before running him down. But these added seconds worked for both sides, and Miki, standing tall in the shadow of his cloak, smiled as he saw who led the charge directly towards him.

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“Kodan! Poa!” Miki shouted, recognizing the two at the front of the horse column. “It’s only fitting the strongest should meet in battle!”

Miki hefted his spear, energized as the thrill of bringing this long war to an end filled him with determination. The two mages following behind Captain Kodan and Lieutenant Poa formed seals with their hands, summoning a shield from the central rune array in front of both leaders.

Miki could see Kodan and Poa had cast aside thoughts of defense themselves, evidenced through the unfocused gaze in their eyes, the stiffened muscle movements made obvious as they bounced in the saddle – the telltale signs of a mage forming a spell in their mind.

“Imperium!” “Effervescent Flame!”

The dark suddenly vanished as the light from surging fire filled the woods, searing the path where Miki stood and far beyond, catching much of the surrounding woods as collateral damage. However, Miki vanished just before the flames could reach him.

The startled mages didn't get the opportunity to search for Miki. On both sides of the paths, deep in the trees and blackness, dozens of points of light appeared, rapidly growing in intensity.

"Shields up!" Kodan roared, channeling power from the central rune array to create a domed barrier in front of him.

Behind him, the other battlemages similarly directed energy provided by the array, manually erecting a defensive barrier formed of numerous personal shields. The barrage of pseudo-Wisp rank magic collided impotently with the runic shields, letting out a cacophony of glass-like ringing.

Shouts imbued with Force echoed out in the night as the battlemages chanted from behind their cover, still galloping forward while returning fire out at the guerrilla fighters surrounding them. Though they could not be seen clearly through the shadowy tree cover, Miki could hear the men and women under his command collapsing in pain, the first of many to fall.

Miki gritted his teeth, trying to ignore the stabs of pain he felt at the deaths of his comrades. It would only distract him. A streak of emerald green trailed him as he showed himself to the mages again, reappearing within their midst. He stuck low to the ground, ducking under the runic barriers and diving amongst stomping legs of horses, one hand to the ground, the other keeping firm grip of his spear.

The battlemages cried out in alarm at Miki’s speed, fast enough to be nothing more than a green blur as he weaved through them. They reacted with trained reflexes, swiveling floating shields into Miki’s path. Even Silla had been unable to break Inuvik Academy’s runic defenses; Miki’s spear certainly wouldn’t either, no matter how finely enchanted.

But Miki wasn’t aiming for the mages.

As he swung his spear out, he kept it as low to the ground as he was, passing under the runic shields once again. His sweeping slash cleaved equine ankles and legs, toppling horses and sending their mages plummeting to the ground. In the next instant, he disappeared again in another flash of green as a wave of fire lit up the spot he had just been standing.

The felled horses collapsed down into the path, blocking the way forward for the remaining battlemages. The charging column scattered, diving into the surrounding woods haphazardly to get around the blockade.

But these battlemages had skill and experience riding, and they quickly reformed themselves onto the path behind Kodan and Poa, leaving the mages without horses behind. Even surrounded, outnumbered, and unmounted, an Inuvik battlemage wouldn’t be in any danger with their shields from the rune array.

Miki understood his opponents’ goal: get one mage into that crowd of archers. It was his job to prevent that. It would still be a while until the archers could fully scatter and safely regroup to their preassigned locations for the next stage of the plan, and just one of the battlemages here could kill dozens of their fighters in moments.

"I won't let that happen," Miki thought, furiously accelerating to bring himself back into the group of mages.

He ran up along the side of the path, bringing down two more horses before his foes could react. But they responded accurately to Miki's enhanced speed, lowering their shields to the ground to deflect his follow-up as they all concentrated fire onto the green blur.

The attacks spread wide, clipping Miki on the shoulder even as he dodged from his original location. A tongue of flame singed fully through his clothing, lapping down his back and burning through the expansive fabric of his cloak. But as the fire stripped his clothing away, Miki took great glee in the expressions of shock he saw in the faces of his opponents.

Glittering brilliantly beneath shining stars and twin moons, Miki's undershirt was far more eye-catching than his black cloak. Hundreds of silver dragon scales linked together, each catching the light slightly differently as Miki dashed between moonlight and shadow. The dazzling dragonscale armor made his movements bring all attention to him as he circled around ahead of his foes.

“Fire!” Miki shouted, taking advantage of the shift in the mages’ focus.

A second wave of pseudo-Wisp rank magic came crashing through the tree cover from afar, though the count had been whittled down from the battlemages’ counterattacks. The glittering magic barrage, releasing a rainbow of light from its mish-mash composition of elements, hurtled towards the mages as they focused on tracking Miki’s movements.

“Protect the horses!” Kodan commanded, jerking the reins of his horse to come to a skidding halt for the first time.

The remaining battlemages of Poa’s and Kodan’s battallions came to a sudden stop behind them. Kodan chose to defend this time, forming a double-handed seal and erecting a curved shield all around them, sheltering the mages within from the pelter of attacks. At the same time, Poa and his subordinates remained concentrated on blocking Miki’s coming advance.

“My unit only has one round of magic left in their artifacts! I can’t afford to get nothing out of this one!” Miki thought, steeling himself at the tight defensive formation the mages had suddenly assumed.

Miki pivoted, changing his direction to charge directly towards the ready-and-waiting mages as their cylindrical runic shield lit up in defense. Both the top and the bottom were open, but Miki felt he had exploited their feet enough – the battlemages would be expecting that.

Instead, he leaped, hurtling over the top of Kodan’s shield, soaring over Kodan and Poa and towards the mages behind them. Kodan and Poa were too close to the front of the shield for Miki to get a good angle on with his spear, but the man right behind those two fell under his gaze.

The mage couldn’t get his shield into position in time, but managed to instant-cast a flame attack to counter. Miki twisted in midair to move his dragonscale armor to absorb the brunt of the damage while he stabbed out with his spear, catching his target in their neck and ending the mage’s life. A pity he hadn’t had a protective artifact.

The remaining mages spun in their saddles amidst the flashing lights of the barrage Miki had called down. Eyes wide at the sudden death, they centered their shields on Miki, tracking him as he fell back to the ground. But on Miki’s right hand, a simple green rune control rune lit up – it had been alight the whole battle, but now doubled in intensity – and Miki hurtled to the ground in response, propelled downwards by force of wind far faster than gravity would have carried him.

The battlemages lost track of Miki as his speed suddenly doubled, and they tumbled to the ground as their horses gave out from underneath them. Six mages suddenly went down in a tumble, and Miki was gone a moment later.

Kodan frowned, but spurred his horse on regardless now that Miki had launched himself far past him. Poa followed close behind, and the two raced their horses across the remaining path, finally coming upon the wide and flat clearing that Nano had fired from.

Nano stood resolutely in the center, bow in hand. Behind him, the last of the archers under his command retreated into the woods, but they would still be packed tight and vulnerable for several minutes while repositioning for the next part of Uki’s plan.

Kodan and Poa slowed, wary, but approached Nano. Failing to stop them here would give these powerful Wisp ranks direct access to their most concentrated and vulnerable unit, and that couldn’t be allowed to happen. Nano stiffened, preparing to fire, but he was not fighting alone.

A streak of green and a trail of refracted moonlight raced up behind them, arcing over their heads and landing in front, next to Nano. Miki straightened up, relaxing his rune-engraved spear against his shoulder as he regarded the approaching mages with a smile on his face.

From downhill, beyond any of these four’s line of sight, the shouts of battle rang out as Miki’s squads engaged the downed mages, rushing forward to fight them without magic. Each of them only had a single usage in their artifacts left, and it was now up to them to decide when best to use. They just needed to stall – the lynchpin of Uki’s plan would guarantee their victory as long as they remained fighting.

Miki had only just landed when the clearing dimmed; the green light that had followed along at Miki’s feet winked out of existence. He had pushed the speed rune too hard to bring down all of the horses, and would now need to stop Poa and Kodan without its help. It would be enough just to stall these two, but as Miki hefted his spear, he decided he didn’t want to just do that.

Miki would always fight to win.

***

"There's a mean chill in the air tonight, lads," Yotti said as he dropped into the midst of a large group of battlemages.

These fifteen battlemages were charging at top speed atop their steeds down the main path of Inuvik Academy to support their lieutenant at the quarry. Yotti, awash in a green glow, seemed to be casually walking alongside the horses.

"You stay out here," he continued, "and you'll catch a cold! But I know this great place over there in the trees where you can get out of the wind."

The group of mages all turned to look at him, mouths agape, and Yotti met their stares with confidence as he scanned the group.

"Uki was wrong – she thought Kodan and Poa would split up. I guess there's not much for me to do here anymore," Yotti thought to himself.

"Oh!" he suddenly exclaimed after a moment of jogging alongside the riders. "You must be wondering how I can keep up."

He lifted one foot off the ground, showing off his boot to the Inuvik mages as he hopped along on one foot to keep pace with the galloping horses. Engraved upon both leather boots, two wind-element runes had been placed to endow the wearer with greater speed, identical in function to those upon Cho the bird. Even moving with just one leg, the flowing wind provided plentiful support.

Yotti decided he'd overstayed his welcome. Before the mages could figure out a way to attack him without causing collateral damage in the packed group, Yotti jumped out and landed upon an overhanging tree branch above.

"I'm going to go kill the wounded inside the Academy! If you want to save them, follow me!" Yotti called out as the battlemages passed underneath him.

Before they could levy any attacks at his perched position, Yotti fled into the forest, back in the direction his squads lay in wait. He looked over his shoulder as he ran, checking to see if he had been followed. If they had taken the bait.

But the battlemages pressed on to the quarry, heedless of the distraction. These soldiers were too disciplined for that, apparently. Yotti's ploy had failed.

"Uki's plan was for Kana to deal with them anyways. We have another task to do," he thought to himself.

Yotti regrouped with his group of warriors, and they hurried along into the night, undetected.

***

"Hey! There are some horses left!" Mei said, brandishing a burly finger in the direction of the Inuvik Academy stables.

Her voice carried, and the mages gathered at the gates to Inuvik Academy all took notice of the monstrous woman lumbering out of the dark towards them. None had seen her in person before, but they all recognized Mei's distinct form. A few began trembling.

"The battlemages each have their own horse. But the regular mages won't want to ride into combat on an unfamiliar horse. Although it appears that all the horses, regardless of owner, have been prepared for battle," Takt said, calmly analyzing the scene before him as he and Mei strolled up to the gates.

"That might be good for us. Levin's horse is probably in there," she commented.

She and Takt came to the gates of Inuvik Academy, nearly forty Wisp rank mages arranged before them – the battlemages had only just departed, and the rest of the Academy's fighting force was still regrouping after Nano's barrage. Half lay sprawled out on the ground before the duo in various states of injury, and a few had even died outright from the arrows.

Magus Atuat, the Academy's premier runesmith after Lord Hann, directed the relief effort, overseeing the construction of several healing runes. Most of the remaining Wisp ranks that could still stand had gathered in front of the runesmiths, forming a barrier for Mei and Takt. They all wore miserable expressions.

"Well, this isn’t a very fair fight," Mei said as she examined the dozens laid out before her.

"It wouldn't be enough to lure out the Smoke ranks otherwise," Takt commented.

Mei grinned at the mention of the Smoke ranks. Her relaxed demeanor seemed to unnerve the opposing mages, sweat glistening on their faces in the moonlight even on this chilly night.

They attacked first.

A storm of shouted chants preceded a storm of magic, a barrage made up mostly of fire that hurtled towards Takt and Mei.

“Overdrive!”

Takt’s voice cut through the commotion, his chant a thunderbolt that seemed to make all other magic stand still. His speed rose, even higher than Miki or Yotti had been, disappearing from the view of his enemies completely.

The mages had already prepared defenses, holding out shields from the rune array, though they were smaller than the ones battlemages could wield. Takt ignored these entirely, appearing on the opposite side of the mages amidst a spray of blood from his drawn blade.

Mei took a more direct approach. Singling out a target, she dashed straight towards them, brushing aside any magic along the way like a bull charging through sparks. She put her weight behind the blow, heedless of the runic lines hovering between her and her target.

A crisp crack like glass shattering rang out as she crashed straight through the central rune array’s shield, and the mage relying on it suffered the same fate as the runes. The ordinary Wisp rank mages of Inuvik were limited in the level of power they could draw from the central rune array, and it wasn’t nearly enough to stop Mei.

Even this large assembly of mages could do nothing to the duo. Takt was simply too fast; the mages couldn’t hit him no matter what they did. And Mei was too experienced a fighter, even without magic experience, and knew instinctively when she could dive headlong through an attack and when she needed to dodge.

“Flame Hegemony!”

A ring of blazing flame sprang into life around Mei and Takt, forming a barrier between them and the Wisp ranks. Mei and Takt both froze – they had been waiting for this.

“I won’t let you kill any more of my loyal students,” came a wizened voice from across the crackling fire.

The wall of fire parted, and two figures stepped in amidst cries of exultation that the leaders of Inuvik Academy had not abandoned these pitiable mages to their fate. Eliya and Hann, early-stage Smoke rank, had arrived.

Mei frowned. “We’re missing one.”

“What are you going to do about it, then?” Takt asked with a small smirk.

“He’ll show if we kill these two, right?” Mei said.

“How arrogant!” Hann exclaimed. “Childish warrior, you dare–”

Mei leaped forward, and Hann yelped in surprise as she closed the gap between them in an instant. He may have held the power of a hundred Wisp ranks, but still only had the reaction time of one regular man, and Mei grabbed Hann by the hem of his robes before he could act.

She saw a reddish haze around Hann similar to the protective barrier Azaadi had worn, and she knew it would be a strenuous effort to harm him through it. So instead she grabbed him tight, twisting up through her entire body, lifting Hann into the air and hurling him with all her might.

Hann wore an expression of extreme shock as he flew into the night sky, up and above the cylindrical flame barrier and towards the Academy wall. Mei crouched down low to the ground and pushed off, soaring into the air after him and leaving a dumbfounded Eliya behind.

The cold night air felt good on Mei’s face as she flew through the air, landing deftly upon the top of the stone wall. Hann’s trajectory would overshoot her position, sending him crashing into the forest, but Hann had only been surprised and not robbed of his senses.

As Mei watched, he silently created a whip of molten lava, lashing it down into the wall and pulling himself from the air to the ground. The lava whip collapsed as Hann stood up straight and adjusted his wind-ruffled robes, but Mei’s gaze lingered on the molten stone that flowed out of the places his magic had touched.

“Hey, old man. You gonna have to die for me.”