Spar beamed with light. It streamed from his horn and lanced to Felix, strengthening the spell. The light bounced back and forth, multiplying and redoubling.
Felix’s lips moved, silently reciting the words of the spell. Light condensed into a halo around him, slowly gathering, shimmering brighter and brighter.
Mouse leaned away, wincing against the light. A warm sensation suffused him. Black marks paled on his skin, growing lighter as the light magic grew more powerful. His eyes widened. Even being close to Felix before he casts the spell is enough to purify? I’ve never seen light magic that intense before.
A huge wave of spiders rose out of the Arena floor, larger than ever before. Spar reared and wheeled again, afraid to crash into them. They surged at Spar, and he retreated.
“Spar!” Mouse shouted.
“I can’t! They’re in the way!”
Mouse gritted his teeth. He glanced at Felix, already in the throes of the spell. He’s busy. If we disturb him now, he might lose the entire spell.
Overhead, the dragon princess fought turbulent blight, the darkness almost physical as it twisted and shaped the air around her. She bobbed up and down, thrown left and right, at the mercy of the air currents. Up at the princess’ box, Eleda desperately held down another of the princesses, while the others backed away, helping to restrain or scurrying to the edges of their protective bubble.
Everyone’s busy. No help is coming. Mouse took a deep breath. “Spar, if I turn, I’m trusting you to kill me.”
“Huh?” Spar asked.
Mouse jumped off his back and charged toward the wave of spiders.
Blight rushed through his veins, hot and jagged, biting into his flesh. Black marks coiled over his hands and arms, big blotches of black against his gray skin. He narrowed his eyes and focused, through the pain, through the corrosive blight, and reached out to the moon high above.
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Light swirled around him. Compared to the blazing halo around Felix, the thin motes of silvery light faded in and out, barely visible at all. He drew it into him, coiling it tight. One more time!
The blight fought him. Darkness ate at the light. It twined and thrashed, fighting the coil of magic in Mouse’s chest. He grit his teeth and pulled more, more moonlight. Power burned his insides, blight raging hotter to fight the moonlight, moonlight scintillating with rays that fought the blight in return.
Spiders rose over him. Dense, the wave appeared as one solid mass, glittering with tiny eyes, shivering with thin legs. Mouse narrowed his eyes and leaped into the wave.
Legs, crawling. Biting. Twisting over him. Venom ached in his veins, his body’s natural resistance weakened by the blight and the moonlight, fighting inside him. Spiders coated him, enveloped him, carried him along. Caught up in the wave, Mouse tumbled helplessly, limbs tangled, bumping against the sandy floor at random. He held his breath, closed his eyes, pinched his nose. Spiders crawled in his clothes, in his hair, stepped over his face. Little feet pressed against his eyelids. Long legs shivered down his back.
The ball of light inside him throbbed, bursting with power.
“Get out of our way!” Mouse shouted, and stopped trying to cage the magic inside him. Blight rushed in, hurrying to snuff out the moonlight. Evading the blight, the moonlight escaped in one great surge. Light blasted out of him, illuminating every pore of his body. Spiders fell away, curled up. A hole opened up in the middle of the wave, and the wave collapsed around Mouse, spiders pouring down on his head.
“Spar! Now!” Mouse shouted.
Spar rushed at him, horn lowered. Atop his back, Felix shone, a pillar of light that ascended high into the sky. Mouse dropped to the ground. Spar leaped over him and galloped to the Arena’s heart.
With no moonlight to stave it off, blight rushed through Mouse. He clutched his chest and toppled into the remaining spiders, fighting it desperately. Rage ached in his heart. Blight spiked at his veins, ate at his flesh. The black marks grew darker. He lifted shaking hands. A fresh scrape on his arm oozed dark blood, the red blackening with every passing moment.
Past his hands, Felix sat up tall on Spar’s back. The two merged into one pillar of light, too bright to look at. Mouse turned away, folding his ears down against the onslaught. Black eclipsed his vision. His head throbbed. Distantly, something almost like a voice whispered horrible things to him, words he didn’t understand but knew were vicious.
He blocked it all out. All he could see were Felix and Spar. All he could hear was the hum of the mounting spell.
We made it.
A smile on his face, Mouse collapsed.