The fire mage launched his attack, for it to even fit in the cave he had to lower the amount of magic produced substantially. The loss of power meant a decrease in heat. The clone was able to dodge almost all incoming attacks by just standing to the side or allowing the dampness of the cave to extinguish the shot. Her goal was a simple one, pressure. If he had to focus on her Rinae would have less to deal with as she would have only to fight the water mage.

The fire mage shot another small fireball and jumped in front of the water mage to fire another. Rinae who had been dodging the tentacles was in the air effortlessly evading every shot. By the fifth time, he did his switch routine his face was pouring with sweat, and his breathing was sharp.

He dropped to his knees and breathed heavy. “Kenth, I’m sorry I…” He paused to breathe. “I want you to run. As far as you can. I’m going to burn the whole forest down with the magic I have left.”

“No,” Kenth replied. “Even if I wanted to they would catch up to me, you idiot.” He gave a sad chuckle. Rinae came close to him only to be swatted away with the nearby tentacle. Rinae’s offshoot was nearly upon them.

“Raaaaaah” He yelled, digging deep into his magic reserves creating a wall of water keeping the female from exiting. She banged on the water wall, the ability to consume magic wasn’t in her repertoire of skills and only existed for Rinae.

The fire mage, still breathing heavy, he aimed at Rinae, His palm swayed left and right, he wouldn’t have been able to hit her even if she decided to move. “I’m sorry Kenth,” The flame that was on his palm dissipated and he fell face forward into the ground. At the same time, Rinae landed, She planned never to attack them. But to keep them striking, since the start of the fight, she could see that every attack drained them a bit, an exhausted enemy that can no longer fight is much more straightforward kill.

But that only was true for the fire mage, and his attacks sent out balls of combusted magical energy. Which took up a more significant quantity of magic then the water mage used.

Now the fight was two on one. Rinae walked forward, Kenth tried to whip her with a tentacle, failing as she caught it and drained the magic from it making it evaporate at the point of contact. Mages who excel in capture tactics typically finished their fights with submission tactics before they were found out and punished.

He slammed a tentacle down in an attempt to strike her into the ground; she stepped to the side navigating past the attack. He sprouted another from the ground, slapping it in the area she was standing. She remained in the middle ground with both tentacles on either side of her. Kenth began to sweat; he was starting to feel the effects of magical exhaustion. And she could see it.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The more he tried to control the water the less continuously he could keep their form. He eventually wasn’t able to control the shapes anymore, the water soaked into the ground, the wall he had been holding fell, releasing the ravenous creature out of its cage.

Kenth looked to his unconscious comrade and softly spoke. “We tried our best.” he smiled.

The female behind him ripped into his back, tearing his spine in half. She dug into his body with the gusto of a feral beast. She broke bones reaching for his organ that contained his magic. Her lack of physical sight probably had something to do with her ravaging.

“You.” Rinae paused looking at the bloodied mess and dripping claws and face. “...Are Hera.”

“Hera?” She dangled a tiny bleeding piece of meat over the top of her mouth, dropping it in. “Sister, that sounds familiar.”

“It does, but when I look at you...I feel like calling you that.” Rinae couldn’t explain the feeling. There was a sort of inherent need for her to be called something, but Hera was right. There was a deeper meaning to it, although the answer for it was lost. This decision wasn’t based solely on that reasoning. Back when she was much smaller, she didn’t see the point in having individual names since she was the only one of her race, that wasn’t the case anymore. Using names would make it much easier to communicate.

It looked like Hera found the magic organ, she tore it to shreds the moment her tongue made contact with it.

The other mage shuffled, the two nearly forget he went unconscious. With the lack of magical aura being produced by him, he was invisible to Hera and not even alive by Rinae. Hera crawled over to him; she was about to deliver a crushing blow to his body when Rinae stopped her fist.

“I want to try something.” She said.

Hera responded with a lick to the side of her lips and nodded. Rinae grabbed the mage’s foot leading him deep into the cave. Hera followed close with deep hunger staring at his body. If it weren’t for her sister, she’d had paid him back for those nasty burns she received, after that then maybe she’d eat his magic organ...if it wasn’t too severely damaged.

Rinae brought him over towards the hole where the magic resided; she spun his body around with his head hanging over the side. She put one knee on top of his back and pulled his hair, raising his head into the air. The action managed to waken him. He began to scream; he found that he couldn’t as only blood exited his mouth. Rinae sliced his jugular, from an unattuned eye there was only blood, on a deeper level the magic was traveling with the blood into the pit. This satisfied Rinae’s curiosity, magic could be harvested from humans perhaps she could continuously drain them like a spile to a tree.

Of Course, the little magic that did remain in his system drained quite fast, leaving the body to pour a heavy mixture of blood. The pit began to mix slowly. The magical aura of the pure magic turned a deep red; the consistency turned into a thick goop. This probably wasn’t bad.