Air whipped at Clay’s face as he emerged on the other end of the teleport. Looking down he saw the city lights and street far below him, his momentum picking up as he plummeted to the ground. The teleport had dropped him into the city sky.
Thinking quickly, Clay whipped his head around, he was falling between a pair of skyscrapers. Focusing his spiritual energy into his feet, he kicked up, specter leaping towards the roof of the closest building, he grabbed the ledge as he neared it. Pulling himself to safety, his mind flashed back to the battle at the warehouse. He wanted to go back, to help Rika and the others, but he had no idea where they actually were. Worse still, he had lost his guns.
The distant sound of explosions and gunfire broke him from his thought. Looking back down on the city, he watched as mages and NDSA agents fought… something. Smoke rose from various locations in the distance, most obstructed by the taller buildings around him, and the few he could see had fires raging uncontrolled.
“The city is under attack?”
Yeah no shit.
“Shutup, I’m more concerned about who is doing the attacking. It can’t be the orcs already, they should be dozens of miles away…”
Something blurred by in Clay’s peripheral vision, and he turned just in time to see a fireball hurled in his direction. Specter stepping out of its way, he looked up to see the familiar face of the elf that had killed him three times now.
“That fucking Lich, dropping me into the sky like that. I’ll kill him” Luriel grumbled as he threw another spell at Clay.
Clay easily dodged the second attack, kicking the door to the roof open and sprinting into the building below.
What are you going to do? You don’t even have a gun. You should just let him kill you.
“Actually I have an idea, but it’s a bit of a longshot.”
Glass shattered as the elf blew an entrance into the side of the building, firing a mixture of flame, wind, and, and rock spells at Clay. It was all Clay could do to dodge and specter step between walls and pillars as he made his way to the stairwell. The elf didn’t just attack fast, he flew fast too, giving Clay little time to catch his breath between volleys. If it wasn’t for his specter step ability, he would’ve reached the limits of his stamina long ago, but with it, he could keep moving a lot longer.
And so Clay and Luriel played a game of cat and mouse, Clay would dodge and weave through each floor, the elf pursuing, growing increasingly frustrated and destructive in his attacks as they descended the building. Once Clay was just a few floors from the ground, he slapped the button to the elevator as he passed it by.
Even with his specter step ability, crossing the full length of each of the several dozen floors was taking a lot out of him, and he was left panting as he began descending to the ground floor. But his plan had succeeded so far, the fire alarms of the building had been ringing since the top floor, with most of the floors above now a burning inferno.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Dashing towards the elevator, Clay grabbed a knife from his pocket, jabbing it between the doors and summoning all his strength to pry it open. The building groaned and shuttered as he looked down into the elevator shaft, confirming nothing would obstruct his descent to the basement.
Luriel blew the door to the ground floor clean off its hinges, annoyed at how persistent Clay had been. At first, he was confused by the kid's strange tactic of running the length of each floor, but as the building became increasingly unstable it became obvious.
He smirked as he eyed the open elevator hatch. Did this human think he was stupid enough to chase him into the basement of a building on the verge of collapse? He would just seal off all the entrances to the basement and leave the kid to die.
A portion of the floor above Luriels head collapsed, burning debris falling towards him. He easily put up a barrier above his head, deflecting the debris and pushing it far away from him. Raising his hand to seal the elevator shaft with a spell, a force suddenly slammed into him from behind, sending him tumbling into the shaft. Instinctually he activated his flying spell, turning to see his assailant.
Feeling their downward momentum begin to slow, Clay gritted his teeth as he focused his spiritual energy once again, specter kicking him and the elf towards the bottom of the shaft. He yelled in pain as he felt the elf strike him in his back, but he kept pushing, also taking the opportunity to drain Luriels mana as he kicked over and over, fighting the elf’s attempt to push them back to the first floor.
After what felt like an agonizingly long few seconds Clay felt the elf impact the ground below, his specter kick finally pushing them to the bottom. As soon as his feet made contact with the floor, he specter stepped deeper into the basement, dragging the elf with him as long as he could.
He only got a few steps in when a sharp pain pierced his arm, Luriel using a powerful and precise wind spell to cut through Clay's forearm. Clay yelled in pain as the elf followed it up with a kick that sent Clay slamming into the wall on the opposite end of the room. He heard the cracking and snapping of his ribs and arm that took the brunt of the impact, but he pushed it out of his mind.
Ignoring the pain as best he could, he got himself to his feet, barely stepping out of the way of an incoming fireball. The elf launched spell after spell at Clay as he slowly retreated back towards the elevator shaft, the shuddering and sounds of falling debris from the building becoming more intense by the moment. There wasn’t much time left.
After a few seconds the elf abandoned his assault, turning to make a run for the exit. Instead, he came face to face with Clay, his remaining hand pulling back into a fist, swinging forward and connecting with the side of Luriel's face. Luriel stumbled back, more surprised by the sudden attack than any damage the punch did. But he recovered quickly, firing a lightning spell at Clay that stunned him. Luriel followed it up with a fireball spell from point blank range, setting Clay aflame.
He didn’t have time to survey the extent of the damage he dealt though, turning quickly to continue his retreat. He only got a few good steps in when a powerful tremor rocked through the building. A second later, the sound of an immense roar filled his ears as the floors above him came crashing back to earth.
Thinking quickly, he threw up a barrier on the ceiling, catching and stopping the building from collapsing down on his head. The weight was incredible, it took a ton of mana and concentration to keep the barrier up, but it was holding. It would take a lot of work to sift through the debris above him, but he would survive.
Suddenly something clasped his ankle. Luriel looked down to see the burnt fingers of someone's hand wrapped around his leg. His mana begin to drain out of him, his barrier becoming weaker. Looking behind him, he locked eyes with Clay, a smile clearly visible despite the burns on his face. Anger flashed through the elf as he threw a wind spell back at Clay, landing between his eyes and splitting his face in two. The mana stopped draining away from Luriel, but it was too late.
The elf gritted his teeth as he refocused on the barrier, pouring all of his mana into it. But slowly, the barrier weakened, inching back towards him. Cracks began to form, splintering across the barrier before it finally shattered. Clay’s smiling face was the last thing to pass through Luriel’s head before thousands of pounds of burning debris crashed down onto him.