Chapter 20
The Scourge
Terrill’s shoulder bled, the droplets of blood dripping on the white stone of the buildings. He grimaced from the aftereffects of it, but didn’t allow the pain to distract him. Already, Winifred’s new wings had helped her turn around in midair, and with a simple flap of them, she was aiming for him. A maddening grin was upon her lips, her eyes alight with the thrill of this battle. Terrill could muster nothing but pity for her.
“Twin Twister!” Terrill only found he had a couple seconds to turn around and prepare himself for the incoming attack. The cyclones formed in both of her hands, like tunnels of devastating, rotating wind. They melded and combined, snaking around each other but aiming for their solitary target. Terrill raised his sword, and the twisters barreled into him.
He screamed, each cut slicing through his shirt and skin, more blood staining the top of the roof. Putting his foot further down, Terrill tried to lock himself down with stone, but the force of Winifred’s gales was too much for even him to combat. He was ripped off his feet, sent flying back towards another rooftop. Winifred was still flying at him, that wicked grin back on her face.
With a grunt, Terrill stabbed the top of the next roof, altering the properties of its stone to help stabilize his body and land on his feet. Winifred closed the gap, and Terrill yanked his hand upwards. A large stone raised with it, slamming the Fiend in the stomach and sending her tumbling through the air. He drew his blade close, ready for the next attack when she used her wings to stabilize herself. They faced forward, enveloping her body.
“Feathers!” Terrill watched as the small feathers, each razor thin, separated from her body and homed in upon Terrill like a storm. He slashed his blade horizontally, creating a line of stones in midair. The bursting rocks prevented most of the feathers, each breaking into dust and wind upon collision, but some made it through, slicing at Terrill’s skin. He bore the pain, ready for Winifred to come flying through the dust, all four claws extended.
“Terrill!” she screamed, flipping around to bring her feet crashing down. Terrill countered, the two sending sparks flying. Winifred kicked up, sending Terrill stumbling back, but he recovered with a jab forward at her face. She batted it aside with her claws, which he ducked under. He slashed upwards, and they met each other head-on, further sparks produced. Their faces got close, each straining to push the other over the edge of the roof. A crash resounded in the distance of the city, but Terrill paid it no mind. “More, Terrill! Give me more!”
“I think you’ve had enough!” Terrill spun his sword, twisting it free of Winifred. He rolled along the ground, slapping it as he went. Stone steps emerged, enough for him to bound up them and gain height over the flying Fiend. She looked up right before he came sailing down, his sword in one hand, and stones covering the other. Terrill formed a fist and punched Winifred across the face, leaving a welt that expelled wind from the new wound. Her crazed, embattled eyes shined at the pain, and she flicked her finger upwards.
“Crescent Gale!”
“Stone Shield!” Terrill’s swift spell wasn’t strong enough. The arc of wind cleaved the stone in two, and before Terrill could block, it struck his chest. More blood spilled forth, but the wound was shallow. The greater situation was that he was sent flying back for the edge of the roof they were fighting upon. He bounced along, and could not find his balance before he was sent over. Terrill’s hand flailed wildly before finding the edge of the roof, grabbing it and digging his fingers in so as to not fall to the street far below.
“Come on, Terrill! Give me more of a fight! Prove to me you’re the hero I pegged you as!” Winifred’s taunts made Terrill scoff, and he attempted to haul his body upwards, but found it difficult. The woman approached the edge.
“I’m not a hero…” Terrill grunted out. He attempted to lift himself, but Winifred sent another crescent slash that severed his hold from the building. He dropped, but called another plinth of stone to him that he was able to grab, his body banging against the building. “I’m just a Guardian…”
“As if that’s worth something.”
“Maybe it’s not anymore. Or maybe I’ll make it worth something. That’s my choice, either way.” Terrill held fast to his sword, pooling his magic to the very ground beneath him. He would only have one chance to get back up without sustaining damage. “I’ll start making it mean something, by saving you! Pillar!”
The earth rumbled and the stone emerged, just enough to push at Terrill’s feet. The force allowed him to flip upwards, spinning around the air. Winifred fired a shot of wind at him, but it missed him in his movements. He came falling back down, gravity taking over and putting weight behind his blade that he used to slash across Winifred’s chest. She screamed, stumbling back as she bled air.
“You-” So overcome with apoplexy, Winifred’s claw shot out, grabbing Terrill’s head, ripping at the hair and skin that sat upon it. “You have no idea what it takes to even save a person. Stop trying to be a damn hero!”
With her rage growing, Winifred spun around and threw Terrill with all her might, the wind pushing at his body, forcing it to accelerate beyond his control. Breath left his lungs, and Terrill could see he was about to impact with the stone. His sword pointed behind himself, Terrill imbued it with magic. The second the tip made contact with the buildings, it turned the earth brittle, allowing him to fall and crash his way through the abandoned city until he hit the ground far from his starting point. Blood dripped down his face, some of it getting into his eyes as he blinked and wiped it away.
The red didn’t appear to go away at first, and Terrill worried he was losing more blood than he thought. That wasn’t helped by the sight of a shooting Winifred, her wings tucked in and coming at Terrill with great velocity. It was only when he realized he was seeing her clearly that he noticed it was the city itself being bathed in red.
He was fine. And he could attack.
Terrill thrust his sword forward, lifting pieces of the earth around him to all come together. Some were taken from the ruined houses, others from the very ground he stood upon to reveal a layer of what looked like crystal beneath. None of that mattered to Terrill as the stones created a great wrecking ball. Meanwhile, Winifred was coming at him with her own orb of compressed air. She flung it forward and Terrill stabbed, sending his spell to meet it head-on.
The two spells, just as they had during their last battle at Fort Tierial, met in midair. Terrill braced himself, earth meeting wind. No matter that they were opposing elements, the two burst upon each other with great force. Terrill was lifted off his feet, driven back into a tree that was soon ripped off of its roots. Winifred, too, was blown about. Whatever houses stood in their vicinity were leveled, the cobblestone streets ripped apart, and all of the dust and rubble was strewn about. Some of it landed on the street with a crash, while others splashed into the river, the water washing over the pair.
Terrill acted. He bent low and touched the ground, his hand moving up to pull his next spell from within the earth, itself. “Stone Dragon!”
With a mighty roar, the earthen creature emerged, and Terrill’s feet were planted upon it. He ascended to the air atop the stone monument, pouring his magic into it and aiming right for Winifred as she recovered. She scowled up at him, and leapt back to gain distance, her wings and feathers shooting forward.
“Feather Funnel!” Unlike the razors she had produced before, these didn’t travel in a straight line, but instead formed a cyclone, not unlike the ones Terrill had battled many times in the past. This one came out faster, with far sharper force. In seconds, the dragon he was on began to be whittled away, eroding into mere pebbles. Terrill crossed his arms to absorb the blow of the feathers that were cutting at his skin, drawing further blood from him.
“Oh, come on, Winifred, did you really think I’d fall for the same trick twice?!” Terrill roared. He kicked away from his defeated mount, using it to plunge straight for the earth. His descent happened at full speed, and when Terrill reached the ground, he plunged his sword deep inside it. “Gaian Field!”
From where his sword struck, spikes and spires of earth emerged, taller than him and some of the buildings. The drain on his energy was palpable, but Terrill remained determined. These stones were stronger than his shield, and with one mighty force, they broke through the cyclone, scattering the feathers on the wind. The field grew so large, Winifred was caught up in it, one of the spikes impaling her in the abdomen. With a guttural scream, she slashed, the wind cutting apart his counter. Her claws crumbled his spires, and she ran for him, each swipe of her frenzied claws destroying more of Terrill’s field until she reached him. He met her with a slash that cut above her shoulder, but she got the better of him when her claws ripped across his sword-arm.
Terrill pushed through the pain, his body crying out, all to send his uninjured arm out to grab at hers. He held her there, and brought his sword forward to stab her through the thigh. She gasped and her palm flew out to his chest. His folly was realized too late, and the wind pushed Terrill off, sending him flying through the air for the river.
He landed near its banks, the stone scraping his knees, but there was no room to rest; not with Winifred flapping up into the air and spinning with her sharp claws. Terrill pulled the earth up in a spire, one that arced through the air to impale her where she flew. Her fury would not be denied, and when she dived, her claws ripped straight through the spire and straight for him, slashing across his cheek. The gashes pulsed with pain, the warm, sticky sensation on his cheek soon dripping down his neck.
“Look at you, bleeding all over. It’s no different than every other time! You haven’t learned a thing! You’re still fighting me! Alone!” Winifred’s wings whirled around, and Terrill felt himself struck by them, flung towards the river. He feared to hit its surface and sink beneath it, only to find the waters receding, just the same as the red glow, restoring the city to white and blue. His feet hint sand and he looked to a great bridge in the distance.
They were fighting there. He knew it. It drew a laugh from him.
“Stop laughing!” Winifred screeched, cutting through the air for him. Terrill was ready, swinging his fist in a great haymaker that socked Winifred in the stomach. She gasped, and he pushed her off, tumbling through the air. It didn’t last long.
“I’m laughing ‘cause you’re wrong, Winifred. I’m not the same Terrill. The old me would have been determined to take you down, even if it meant dying. I would have refused help from anyone. But now…I plan to walk away from this fight and rejoin them. That’s what it means to be part of a team!”
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“Then you’re all fools!” The drafts and breeze over Priscus increased to gales, surrounding Winifred’s body in a twister tinged with a deep blue color, as if it was absorbing the color of the river beneath them. “You want to save people, but you don’t even know how! There’s no saving a Fiend! You don’t want to die? Then you shouldn’t have come here! Azure Cyclone!”
Whether it remained around Winifred’s body or not, Terrill could never know, but it didn’t matter to him. His foot traced through the sand and dirt where the river once was, its waters threatening to come back down. “We’ll save people by moving forward, one step at a time. Learning. Growing. Something you Fiends never managed.”
“But you haven’t learned a thing!”
“I have! Even just by watching you, even if it’s just a little, I learned to control the wind, too! Sandstorm!”
Controlling every particle took all the effort Terrill could master, every facet of his concentration pulling his magic power and orienting it towards the wind. His exhaustion was mitigated by the replete resources of sand around him, but his foot dared to slip more than a few times. Still, the sands rose, blanketing the river in the offending material, obscuring Winifred from view, and he from hers. It became a powerful storm, only aided by that which his opponent had cast, and in that, Terrill made his move.
Once again, he created a stony dragon that carried him to the air, its jaws snapping as it approached Winifred. Through the sand and winds, she didn’t see or hear him coming, and the dragon’s jaws closed upon one of her legs. Terrill’s sword traveled upwards, inflicting a new wound upon the Fiend.
She retaliated.
Her winds dropped for all of a moment, the sand falling with them, no longer necessary. Then she thrust her palm forward, and a new cyclone ripped out, preventing the waters from flowing back inward. Being right at the center of it all, the cyclone hit Terrill with full force. The steel of his sword could not cut through it. Being in the air, he had no time to create more earth to protect himself.
The funnel expanded around him, and Terrill had no choice but to let the cutting winds drag his body all the way up to the top, where it spat him out, flying across the river to the buildings on the other side. He had no way to cushion his fall this time and he landed on them, his full body rolling with every new bump, bruise and broken bone. He was lucky his legs and arms were still intact, if still bleeding. Winifred landed on the roof, her wings stirring up a hurricane. Terrill pulled himself up.
“What do you think you’re gaining from this, Terrill?” Her eyes were narrowed to slits, and with one hand on the earth, Terrill knew he didn’t need some special magic to feel her emotions. Heedless to the explosions and shudders elsewhere, Terrill only cared for Winifred’s rage. Her pain. No matter the strange flickers of the island he vaguely remembered visiting, only the woman before him had any meaning. “Do you think you can change something? Or are you seeking some kind of glory? What’s in it for you to save things that can’t be saved?”
Terrill groaned, holding his sword out, only to realize how shaky that hold was. Winifred didn’t look much better, even if she hid it well, the cuts on her body wearing her down. Still, he forced his legs and arms to stop quivering as he spoke. “Nothing. I don’t want to get anything out of it. I just want to make sure no one dies. Human. Fiend. It doesn’t matter to me. I just want people to go home, and that includes you! Fangs of Earth!”
Where Terrill’s sword struck the ground, three chasms formed on the roof, jagged stones emerging from them in their lines. As they approached Winifred, her claws tore through them, flinging rubble towards the air. Terrill leapt over his own attack, bringing his sword down on her claws. He spun, not keeping himself locked in one place for too long as he aimed for her side, her other claw blocking it. The speed of wind around her picked up, her hair fluttering like her feathers. She clawed for him, but he ducked under, scraping his blade along her side. Winifred gasped, whirling her kick around to strike at his back.
Terrill stumbled forward, but turned just in time for his sword-arm to fly up and block the next claw. They rattled against one another, their bodies heading towards empty, but neither allowing a show of weakness. Terrill gathered more magical energy towards his free arm, and Winifred was doing the same.
“Going home? There’s no such thing for a Fiend. My home is gone.”
“Then I want to give you the chance to walk your own path! Make your own choices! Live your own life!” Terrill’s knee bent, putting further strength behind his sword. His cheeks puffed with the exertion, but he could feel Winifred moving back, even just a little. “You asked me to free you, so that’s what I’m going to do! I’ll save your soul, Winifred!”
“There’s nothing left to save!”
Both threw their punches out, each striking the other across their face. Terrill’s already open wound was split further, leaving his cheek a bloody mess, but Winifred was no better, her face hemorrhaging wind. With what balance he could find, Terrill stomped the ground before raising his leg in a kick. A new pointed spire appeared, both foot and earth striking Winifred in the leg. She dropped, though only for a second.
“I won’t believe that…” Terrill huffed out. The blood of his cheek was mixing with his wounded shoulder, his entire left side drenched red. Any further, and he was sure to lose the use of his arm entirely. “Everyone can be saved. I don’t care what Clay said. I don’t care what you think. I don’t even care about your pain or what made you become this way. I want everyone to have that chance of a happy ending, something not dictated by you!”
“Happy ending?” Winifred’s uppercut was so fierce, Terrill didn’t see it coming. It jabbed straight into his stomach, the rotations of wind around it cutting at his core before the uppercut finished and sent him flying. She was on him before he even landed, and his sword’s deflection of her strike was so weak that his muscles temporarily turned to jelly. There was barely enough time for Terrill to land and bring both hands to his hilt before Winifred struck once again, her eyes alight with a furious frenzy. “There’s no such thing as a happy ending, Terrill! No such thing as a bright future!”
“I can help make one!” Terrill put all his strength behind his slash, the two bouncing off each other. Winifred refused to relent. The claws on her legs were cutting into the stone underfoot, while her hands slashed at him, each blow successively heavier than the last. He could feel his strength slipping, his agility decreasing.
“When will you get it through your head that you can’t?! No matter if you’re a hero or a Guardian, people don’t get happy endings! There’s only suffering without end, and all we can do is live with that pain!”
“Then I’ll take your pain and everything else, but stop acting like you need to make the world what you want it to be. Choose to move beyond suffering instead of consigning yourself to fate!” Terrill skidded back from Winifred’s latest blow, his knee dipping low while between her claws she created a new, whirling orb. When she fired it, the orb turned to a tunnel of wind that began to pull him away, cutting at his skin and clothing, tearing every open would further and causing Terrill to scream. He bit at his tongue, taking a step forward in defiance. “I’ll free you from that pain and give you your happy ending!”
He almost regretted those words. No sooner had he spoken them, than Winifred had blitzed through him. His eyes widened as his abdomen was torn wide open, the blood staining the white rooftop. The sword left his hand, clattering as he dropped to his knees, and Terrill felt for the new wound. He coughed, finding the wound had done more damage than expected, small speckles of blood coming out. Terrill was slipping, his ears picking up on Winifred’s cold and unfeeling words.
“You don’t have the strength for it. Just like every other human, you’re weak. You can’t save your friend. You can’t save me. No one can, just like he couldn’t. Weakness is all that’s left to humanity’s feeble disposition. There’s no choice left but to put an end to that!”
Come on, Terrill, move! he screamed to his body. His sword was too far away to grab, and Winifred’s claw was coming for him, prepared to rip him to shreds. He was fumbling for any sort of tool he could use, but his vision was swimming, the blood mixing with the stone. Stone… Earth…
With his right arm, he grabbed at the stone underneath him, drawing it until it became a new blade that he threw behind himself. Sturdier than most of his spells, but his abilities starting to fail him, Terrill felt Winifred’s claws descend and strike against it. The attack didn’t break through. He heaved in what he could, the thrill of his magic providing him a new offense taking over. Adrenaline coursed through his veins and pulsed at his nerves. He grimaced, but pushed up and flipped around, swiping his sword from the ground and holding both on the Fiend. Winifred shook her claw, wind escaping from a cut.
“You don’t believe that, Winifred. I know you don’t.” His voice made his words ragged and raspy, but still produced the result of Winifred’s eyes widening. “You still see the good in humanity, and their strength. Because you loved him.”
“Loving him was pointless!” Winifred’s wings expanded, sending a new hurricane that eroded the tops of the buildings. Terrill stood firm, pounding his foot on the roof to send ever taller spires her way. She beat her wings and went flying through, her claws slashing at the outcroppings of rock. “He gave up everything to protect people that started wars! Left me alone!”
“Yeah, then why did you work with Clay?!” Terrill could feel his wound making him stagger, but before Winifred could reach him, he ascended, the stone dragon carrying him into the air. She missed, but flapped upwards to dive at him. Exerting what control he could, Terrill turned the dragon for her. He kicked off, the creature roaring for her. Winifred’s wings covered her body, but it wasn’t enough, the dragon ramming into her and breaking her defense apart. She fell towards another roof, closer to the tower. Terrill gave chase. “Why did you help me? It’s because all you wanted was to be free! To have that choice! It’s the reason you’re fighting me now! Not because of Golbrucht, or the Fiends, but because you want to! That’s why I know that I can save you!”
The buildings vanished for a moment, and Terrill wondered if he’d land, seeing only a grassy island beneath him. Winifred paid no mind, springing from her crouch to claw at his face. The buildings reappeared, and Terrill ignored the pain tearing at his side to snap his knee into her chin. She was slowing, flying back from the hit. Her wings flapped rapidly to right herself, summoning all manner of winds to her body for a strike she hoped would end it.
Terrill mimicked her. His foot kicked at some of the rubble around him, pitching it into the air. With the grip of his fist, more stones gathered to it until it was the size of a smaller building. Winifred finished gathering power, and when Terrill put all of his strength into kicking the rock, she fired her own attack. The effort made Terrill bleed out more, but he beat at his side to bring him back to attention. The magical spells met, and the devastation that resulted in their wake was even greater than before.
The collision exploded across the street, shaving away buildings, and sending Terrill flying through the air. Winifred refused to let him rest, her whole body now whipping up a cyclone that sped for him. It caused all of his rubble to float about, streaming through the air, within Terrill’s range. He knew there was no time to act, and instead braced himself for the cyclone and the debris contained within.
It consumed him in seconds, funneling Terrill upwards. His body screamed in agony, but Terrill focused wherever he could, finding a larger piece of stone lost in the whirlwind and pulling it to him. His foot landed on it, finding the flow of the wind, and he looked up to more stones falling into his vision. With the magical power left to him, leaving just a little in reserve, Terrill tightened his hold on them, and using the wind as a buoy, leapt upwards. The little plinths of stone catapulted him, and soon, Terrill emerged atop the cyclone, bounding off high above Winifred and beginning to sail back down for her, the woman’s body backed by the great white tower and the building connected to it.
She prepared her wings one more time as a shield, her feathers shooting off akin to arrows. They cut away at Terrill, but with his power waning, he took his one last shot, gravity and winds pulling him towards the Fiend he had long battled with.
Now, he would end it.
Winifred still had words for him, her rattled rage peaking as she saw him streaking like a comet for her. “You won’t be able to, Terrill! That chance slipped you by years ago! You lack the strength to do it now!”
“Then I’ll get stronger!” Terrill screamed. His sword was held tight, his fingers puncturing his palms and his body crying out with pain. Still, what was left of his power pulled all of the rubble from his previous attack together. Winifred prepared to intercept it, only for her eyes to widen when she realized he was not creating another giant stone, but a pointed drill that spun, pulling all of the loose stone to it. It continued forth in front of Terrill, right for Winifred as he screamed and roared. “I told you, Winifred! I’ll get stronger, and smash you out of the sky!
“STONE DRILL!”
“No…”
Terrill reached her, the drill preceding him, and it pierced straight through her feathers and wings, the last defense available to her. She hacked and screamed, the drill piercing her stomach and causing her to vomit wind as they fell. Her wings broke off into a breeze, her claws wisping away into hands, and they fell together, straight through the roof of the library and into the ground, where she lay wheezing.
Terrill Jacobs stood victorious over the broken Winifred Lyten, defeated at last.