I swung my hands back down and cast my spell towards the Ikon. The Ikon fluttered their robes before swishing to the side, just as my beam of concentrated light had gathered enough energy to begin heating up the water, sending a massive cloud of steam bursting into the air behind the Ikon.

Against the backdrop of hot steam, the Ikon rushed forward on top of the water. The Ikon raised one of their hands for the first time, and my eyes widened. I had a feeling this was it. I was about to find out what terrifying spell had evaporated swathes of fairies across the country without disturbing a simple inanimate object or destroying any houses or fields.

However, all that spewed out of the Ikon’s hands was a ball of blazing hot fire. The fire was powerful—I could feel the heat from where I was standing which was several miles from the Ikon’s position—yet, it was a very mundane spell. But it wasn’t surprising. We had long since deduced that the settlements had been destroyed with fire after the inhabitants had vanished. Now, we could be sure the Ikon had used fire magic to burn the settlements, and not just some sort of torch.

Two jets of water shot out of the moat, crisscrossing in front of the Ikon’s fireball. The sizzling sound of steam filled my ears, as the fireball was extinguished and the Ikon was hidden by steam from the front and the back. I increased the intensity of the jets of water, until they were powerful enough to be considered water cannons. The water cannons smashed into the cloud of steam, dispersing it enough for me to realize that the Ikon had vanished. I summoned a burst of air to completely blow away the steam, but there was no trace of the Ikon anywhere.

I frowned. A couple of fireballs crashed into the water again. The humans were so far away they still couldn’t see the Ikon. They were probably firing indiscriminately, but now Kelser must have made them stop. The fresh steam from their fireballs obscured the surface of the water again, but it also dug a small momentary hole in the water. For a moment, I saw something strange in the water. My eyes widened, I collected some energy, and made water spout out from the moat. Five fountains of water appeared, spewing water into the air. Despite the overcast, cloudy day, what little sunlight peeked through made rainbows appear all over the surface of the moat.

The fountains did not reduce the water levels of the moat, but their sudden appearance made impressions on the surface of the water, making it easier to see just a little bit deeper into the water. Some river fish also fell into the air, splashing back into the water while flailing about. One of these fish happened to make a strange sound when they hit the water, which made me turn and create a new fountain where it had fell.

The Ikon was pushed to the surface by my spell, their robes somehow completely dry and their face still obscured by the hood. The Ikon jumped out of the fountain and rushed forward a few more steps. I sent out one last ray of concentrated light, but all it did was send up yet another plume of steam, which the Ikon rushed right past before finally stepping onto dry land.

The distance between us had been shortened considerably. The humans resumed their magical bombardment, a few of their spells actually making contact with the Ikon’s body, but being deflected by the silver glow. I would have told them to stop attacking if not for the possibility that their attacks were reducing whatever energy the Ikon was using to sustain the silver glow.

The Ikon started running straight at me, ignoring the humans’ spells and sometimes bracing for Kelser’s. The Ikon wasn’t even trying to dodge most of their spells anymore, apparently concentrating on only dodging mine. Fine, they were close enough. I could switch it up to more powerful spells.

I used magic hands to grab a large iron ball that had been placed on the top of the city walls. The iron ball fell to my position, which was right in front of the walls, and began hovering in the air. What nobody could see, however, was the way two magic hands had joined together while digging themselves into the ground. The magic hands and the iron ball fell back a little. I put up two fingers and pursed my lips. The Ikon was still barreling towards me in a straight line, ignoring all the other spells, although it was clear they would jump out of the way of my next spell.

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I released the slingshot.

The iron ball shot through the air. It whistled over my head, whizzing towards the Ikon like a bullet. It was moving so quickly, I could barely see it even with my light magic enhanced elfin eyes. The Ikon didn’t react even as the ball was halfway to their position. The Ikon seemed startled, based on their body language, when the iron ball appeared right in front of them, ready to pummel through their protective barrier and make a massive hole in their body.

The Ikon sidestepped the iron ball.

I frowned. I hadn’t seen the Ikon’s movements at all. One moment, they were in the line of fire, the next, they had moved just enough to let the iron ball pass by their robes, making them flutter. I stared at the Ikon. The silver glow was brighter. The Ikon was breathing heavily. They also weren’t moving forward as quickly as before.

I smiled. It didn’t matter what magic the Ikon had used to dodge the iron ball. I grabbed another iron ball from the top of the city walls, brought it down to my magic hands slingshot, and brought two fingers up in front of my eyes again. Seeing the pose I was making, the Ikon hesitated.

I fired the slingshot again, feeling the iron ball whizzing over head. This time, the Ikon tried to jump out of the way as soon as I released the slingshot, but the iron ball still brushed right past their robes. I grabbed another iron ball and let it fall back on my slingshot. The Ikon collected themselves quickly, and stood still, both legs braced as if to jump to either side. I smiled, letting the slingshot go just a tad, which faked out the Ikon and made them jump to the side. Then, I released the iron ball for real, aiming at the spot where the Ikon had jumped to.

I felt like I could almost see the fear on the Ikon’s face as the iron ball whizzed right in front of their face. Both of their arms and legs were in the air, so there was no way to change directions. The speed of the iron ball was so great, they couldn’t even shield their face with their hands or brace for impact in that way.

The ball whizzed past the Ikon’s body.

Somehow, the Ikon appeared just a few inches from where the iron ball had been aimed. The silver glow flared brightly before settling down again. The Ikon fell face first into the ground, their robes getting dirty for the first time in this encounter. The dirt disappeared as the Ikon picked themselves back up again, chest heaving up and down. They had no time to rest because another iron ball was shooting right towards the Ikon’s face.

The Ikon used their strange magic to dodge several iron slingshots, before the Ikon finally settled into a pattern of dodging and weaving preemptively. It took them a surprisingly long time to figure out the slingshot only fired in a straight line, and that if they refused to walk in a straight line or a regular pattern, it would be essentially impossible for me to aim at them. Still, judging by how hard they were breathing, and how they were actively trying to dodge Kelser’s attacks as well as mine, I was fairly certain the Ikon had spent more energy trying to approach me than they had originally planned to use. And the speed of the approach had slowed down by a lot.

However, the Ikon was still approaching, despite my slingshots and the bombardment coming from the top of the city walls. In a few minutes, the Ikon and I would be in range of each other’s more powerful magic. Or at least, I assumed the reason the Ikon was trying to approach me instead of firing magic from a distance was because whatever strange magic they had used to eliminate the settlements across the Republic required less distance between the target and caster.

I heard a clink behind me. I smiled. I aimed another iron ball at the Ikon, who didn’t seem particularly worried about another predictable attack. The slingshot released the projectile, which whizzed overhead, just as another object appeared right behind it. The Ikon continued their motion to the side, getting out of the line of my slingshot but stepping right into the trajectory of an arrow. The Ikon brought both hands in front of their chest, their silver glow intensifying, as the arrow slammed into the glow and an orange explosion covered the Ikon’s body from head to toe.