Yelena

She stared at him through the field of mirrors – every reflection showing her his malformed, deviant face, wearing a smile that was devoid of pleasure, pain, or any emotion at all.

“Leave,” she told the others. “He’s nothing but a distraction.”

They looked towards her, seeing the sweat that flooded her face.

“You sure you can take him?” Amara asked.

A single swipe of her blade through the air punctuated her response.

“This is my fight,” she said. “You, no doubt, have your own.”

Amara nodded at that, accepting. She then tossed a philter of Arcanist Elixyr to the Argent.

“You need it more than I do.”

Yelena nodded back with a dull smirk, but Marius hesitated, his eyes trained on Yelena’s shaking pupils.

“Look,” he said as the Glancer descended to the tip of a gilded mirror. “I’m not doubting you. Never have. But…don’t die, alright?”

She smeared a sarcastic grin across her face.

“Same to you, thief.”

“Come!” Antethra shouted. “We go towards the Blackbird!”

Yelena watched them go, barging through the door the Glancer stood above. He did nothing as they looked to him for any response. It seemed, just as Yelena thought, he had ‘eyes’ only for her.

“Happy to see your pet back?” Yelena shouted up at him. “Looks like your wounds have stuck with you longer than those you gave me.”

She saw the tongue of the Glancer flick out and lick his dried lips.

“You enjoy killing, don’t you?” she asked him, truly not knowing what kept her talking to his unmoving form. “You’re like a child, tearing legs off insects.”

Her sword itched in her hand. But the Glancer was cool. Calm. Stoic. This time, he was in no hurry to stop her.

“This time,” she told him. “I’ll take your head.”

[Searing Strike]

Her light tore through the body of the Glancer and dispelled it entirely from existence. She blinked, seeing through the transparent Spector for what it was

Aerial Mimic (SEEKER Lvl)

“You like that little trick, don’t you?”

She turned in time to block his attack – a curve of weaponized air that shook her blade as it impacted it. She spun once, letting another Searing Strike fly against the form of the Glancer staring at her from the mirror directly across from her.

Her power did nothing but smash the object to pieces, and she then looked up to see his face looking down at her from every mirrored surface in the room.

She clutched her blade, waiting, and watching. Watching his unblinking face and following every twitch of his hands for the slightest indication of an attack.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

She smiled.

“You’re patient,” she said. “Up on Averix you would’ve probably killed me by now. But this is the Everloft, and the rules have changed.”

[Battlecry: Activated]

Her roar tore through the mirrors surrounding her and forced an attack from her rear. Spinning to meet it she deflected and sprinted at his shimmering form, expecting to slice through the arm that was still hovering just above her head, ready to send another wave her way.

Her blade instead met the reflective surface of a mirror, and she coughed up blood as she felt a dozen shards of energized air puncture her back.

She dropped to a roll that smashed through more of the mirror maze. And when she rose to one knee she saw his patient face once again staring her down.

HP: 30/40

She felt the tendrils of his pain twist up her back, so much so that her hand reflexively flew to grab what she assumed must be a flurry of needles. Of course, she touched nothing but air, and the still-pooling blood from the holes he’d just cut into her. Right through her armor.

“You’ve got some new tricks, then,” she whispered as she looked into five replicas of his face around her. “I do, too.”

She felt him fly towards her out the corner of her eye, this time. Like a predator ready to exploit his prey before it turns against him. She closed her eyes, listened, and felt a gust of air emanate from her left-hand side.

[Searing Strike]

She sent her blast whirring to her left, smashing more mirrors to pieces and sending his gust of air trailing back.

And, wasting no time, she turned to bring her shield to bare on her left flank.

[Shield Bash: Activated]

She felt him fly from her, his lithe, robed form tumbling through the mirrors to her left as she cracked her buckler on his skull. She wasted no time in pressing her advantage.

Her feet pummeled the field of glass beneath her as she surged forwards, sword raised, ready to deliver her final strike.

His blind eyes opened, and she looked deep into their clouded surface as her sword came down, and – try as she might – she couldn’t drive it through his heart.

The tip wavered just above his chest.

Wh-what…

She felt her gauntlets waver in the face of invisible restraints, and through her gritted teeth her appraisal told her what trap she’d just fallen into.

Glance: WIND

Incantation: Seerchain (Reactive)

Effect: Stun (60 secs)

Reactive…a counter-incantation.

He’d held this card close to his chest in the event she’d manage to pin him like this. He’d known that her prowess lay in quick, decisive strikes – in closing the distance between her and her foes quickly.

And from the sly smile playing across his slitted lips right now, she could see that she’d given him exactly what he’d wanted. Like a spider calling a fly to its web.

He stands slowly, continuing his incantation while savoring her fury. He takes her face in his hand, caressing the bottom of her chin with a crooked nail that draws blood. Her mouth – the only part of her that’s still responsible, tries biting back to no avail.

With a single flick of his hands he tears her blade and buckler from her. She feels the pain of his invisible knives crawling up her body, her blood dripping from her wrists as he hovers her above the destroyed mirror-maze.

Her eyes dart for solutions. All she sees is his barely restrained satisfaction. If he could sing, she bet he would have.

She sees him, and yet behind her eyes she starts to feel something else worming its way to the very forefront of her bleeding skull.

You need me.

She blocks it out, struggling against her invisible restraints.

Stop, the voice says. I don’t want to die like this, and neither do you.

She pierces her gums in irritation, her teeth grinding agains the bleeding palette of her mouth as the spectral chains of the Glancer dig into her wrists.

He’s only got a minute at best, she thinks. I can take it. I’ve been through worse. Besides, he’s running out of Glance. I know it. He’s bleeding dry and pretty soon will have nothing left to work with.

The voice inside her sighs – heavy and deep – as she watches the vicious Windcaller raise both his robed arms slowly, twisting his dark fingers in a silent incantation that shook the very floor of the palace.

Nothing left to work with? the demon scoffs. You’ve just given him all the ammunition he needs.

Yelena watched in mute horror as every shard of broken glass – down to the tiniest, serrated pieces from every ruined mirror – began to shake and stand up at the Glancer’s command. Then the slowly rose into the air, thinning themselves to deadly points and dancing just above the Windcaller’s blind eyes – a cloud of glass ready to strike. A thousand blade tips aimed right for her throat.

And before she could even close her eyes to the sight, the haze of daggers came flying right for her.