"Lady Omerta, we need to land. The wyverns are tired."

That annoying hobgoblin shouted. The wind blew away most of his voice, so I ignored him as long as possible, but flying was difficult.

"We're almost there." I sent my answer with telepathy, sparing the effort of yelling over all the noise. I left the channel open for him to respond to. "We are near the old capital, the pass is already in sight."

"We shouldn't go into battle exhausted, we've been flying all day." I heard his thoughts. Annoying as they were, he had a point, but I hated the idea of stopping right here. "Please, we already lost the vanguard."

I wouldn't say we lost them rather I put them to the test. The leader should have been able to survive the harsh conditions and if he couldn't, it was time for a new one. They sent all the Twelve Champions to deal with only three humans so I worried not about our numbers.

But men and mounts were both tired so I had to compromise.

"Fine, we'll land on that clearing." I broadcasted to all still flying with me. "Don't fly over the capital itself, it would disturb our beasts."

While magical beasts were indeed easily startled by sudden changes in mana, I was much more worried about going near the city myself. I was in places almost devoid of magicules before and it was unsettling. From what I heard, the old capital was a literal black hole.

We landed about a mile from its edge, and the men eagerly jumped off their saddles to rest since we barely stopped, flying constantly in the last few days. It took a toll on the wyverns and their riders, but I needed to prove myself. This was my big opportunity.

"Eat, drink, relieve yourselves, and we continue in about an hour." I gave the order, before doing the same. The undead warrior remained on guard duty since he did not need to do either.

Most of the champions were strange, some of them eccentric or simply weak, and I couldn't figure out why they were selected. The Demon Lord must have had his reasons, but probably even my brother could beat most of them in a one-on-one combat. They were meant to be an unstoppable force and while they were yet to be defeated, they weren't in any serious fights since I joined either.

I wanted more.

I wouldn't have thought my wish would be granted so soon.

"You're late." I heard the unfamiliar voice coming from the treeline to the north. A moment later an old woman stepped out behind the cover, wearing simple gray clothes, and had long white hair. "Your commander already seized the Princess, your plan to get ahead of him failed."

"That's impossible," I answered without thinking. The champions stopped wherever they were, reaching for their weapons. "They were lost far beyond the Gates of Hell. They couldn't get to the Princess before me."

The old woman laughed. It was an eerie cackle.

"Oh, but they did." She claimed, casually walking towards me. The others curiously waited to see, what happens next. "I would love to show you, your face would look amusing, but I'm afraid I cannot let you regroup with your captain Dioneras."

"Hoh? And what can an old hag like yourself do about it?" I asked, irritated by her strange confidence. The strike came out of nowhere.

Just a single flash of black light. Shadowy tentacles reached out of her body towards me, and the closest champions, and it didn't take a second for them to reach us. Immense pain passed through my entire body.

As if all my joints and bones got suddenly old. Countering it was easy but I didn’t expect a necromancer to attack, and nothing could be done by the time I realized what happened.

I had to corner the panic out of my brain and think up all the necessary formulas to sever this connection. I built a wall in a second, but she aged me at least a decade.

Had the pain not slowed me down, I could have extended this wall to protect my flanks, but by the time I regained focus, the two closest champions withered away in front of my eyes.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

My immediate reaction was to picture the air around her, I manipulated the combination of the gasses until they were all flammable, then changed the electric charges in the molecules, and generated just the tiniest breeze to trigger a static discharge. The fireball engulfed her entire body, but I knew this would not be enough to beat her.

Before the flames completely disappeared, I anticipated what her defense could have been. The logical choice was to harvest the moisture from her immediate surroundings and form a protective layer over her skin. This lent itself to some electric attacks. I rearranged all the currents in the air and amplified them until they spontaneously discharged.

This sent a huge lightning bolt crackling her way. She redirected it with an improvised lightning rod, momentarily reshaping the sword of the hobgoblin champion closest to her and the bolt hit him instead. I was quick enough to ground him, minimizing the damage.

This was enough time for her to strike back though, and she thinned the air around me until I suffocated. This way I couldn't even give my orders to the champions to attack her.

My telepathic message did the trick instead, but it also robbed me of a second's worth of concentration. I could have spent that casting.

Things happened so fast, the smoke from the fire and lightning still enveloped the strange woman. By the time they dissipated, she was an old hag no more. She rejuvenated herself into a young woman from the life force she drained out of me and the two withered champions.

Her skin was no longer wrinkled, her hair regained its shine and became blonde, and her face was oddly beautiful. I had no time to think about who she was, I needed to get rid of the vacuum around me, then strike her repeatedly, while she fought the champions.

Since I needed air anyway, forming a whirlwind seemed the best course of action. Once I imagined how the gas molecules would move and interact in my mind, they followed the same pattern on the battlefield. As long as I understood a process, and imagined it in detail, I could make it a reality by channeling the magicules of my body.

First I took a deep breath, then launched the stormy winds. They reached her simultaneously with the champions, but she not only dispelled them but sent the first wave of attackers flying. I was about to order the wyverns to attack too, but was a second late.

A monster flew over me at a shallow angle, smashing its body directly into our beasts. Like a rock launched from a mangonel, it thrashed at least three of them. It was made of stone, half the size of my wyverns, but must have weighed ten times as much.

Gods, I hated gargoyles.

"What, you thought you were the only one with air support?" She asked in the sudden lull, confidently walking towards me. "I'm sorry. You might have stood a chance if you didn't ditch your entire vanguard and captain. But I'm already bored of you, I have places to be."

With that, she launched another draining attack, but this time I was prepared. After blocking the shadowy tentacles, I ordered the men to withdraw. They had better chances against the gargoyle.

I used the remaining wyverns as decoys and had them feign attacks from a safe distance. I could cast my magic faster if she had to split her attention. As long as I had any magical reserves left, I could win.

Spells and counterspells flew back and forth for the next few minutes. From heat waves to lightning, ice, and fire, I couldn't find a gap in her defenses even with all my tricks and numbers advantage.

She didn't get tired either. The gargoyle was at least contained by the champions, even if they couldn't destroy it without my help. But I was too busy elsewhere.

The distance between us and the others grew so fast, that by the time I realized it, they were only faint noises at the edge of my perception. She launched attack after attack, using my counters against me. The moment when I could no longer imagine winning came suddenly.

It is generally accepted as the end of a duel since you can only cast a spell if you can imagine it. My last act of defiance was a telepathic call to retreat, sending back the wyverns to evacuate. This came at the cost of being hit by lightning, square on my torso. I could ground myself only a second too late, and my whole lower body became paralyzed.

The battle was over, and I lost.

My ambitions were crushed together with me by a stranger. She stopped to laugh, mocking me with that eerie cackle, but I wasn't ready to give up just yet. My legs numb, I crawled towards the edge of the clearing, as far away from her as possible. It might have seemed pointless, but I convinced myself, that I couldn't die here.

Maybe she was right. If Dioneras was here, he could have won. I overestimated myself but kept dragging my body on the ground. This side of the clearing was sloped a little, obscuring the view further south. If I reached that small ridge... I could find a cover on the other side.

The cackle got closer and closer, but I focused on crawling instead. I told myself I could still make it, and wasn’t doomed from the start. I could no longer cast any offensive spells, almost out of power. Maybe I was always powerless, and my brother was right when he didn't want to join the Twelve Champions. What if they weren't even strong?

This old woman... Well, she was no longer old-looking and wiped the floor with us. No, only with me. My brother could have beaten her too. I wondered where he was now, and I did not stop crawling.

I heard her footsteps up close, but I finally reached the ridge. Did it even matter? She was right beside me, enjoying my agony.

But I made it here and saw people on the other side. They weren't the champions, those evacuated already. I could have been dead and only dreaming. They were orcs. What would they even do here?

Especially that big one in their midst. If it was a dream, it was rather ironic... Or this might have been my life flashing in front of my eyes already. But looking at that familiar face, I could only say one thing.

"Save me... Hank!"