[Book 2] Chapter 3: Twister

There were still a few meters between them and the enemy fairy, so it was a given that Moira wouldn’t pull an explosive card. Most likely she had a high-value spade. She hadn’t primed the card yet. The glow would give away the game, after all.

“What’re you waiting for? Throw it over,” said Blackbog.

Moira complied and flicked the card upwards in a lazy arc. Not threatening from any angle, but that was a mere illusion. For one, Moira herself could boost its speed all of a sudden if it was a spade. If she primed and unleashed it, a spade card would always get a speed boost corresponding to the number. Even if it was another card, Emilia could lend a hand and easily alter the trajectory with her telekinesis.

The few seconds the card spun through the air felt like entire minutes. Parth pumped mana through his body and readied himself for the inevitable.

Right on time, the card glowed blue and shot out of its lazy arc, and dove at Blackbog, intent on slicing through him.

At the visible signal, they all followed through with their attacks.

Parth let loose a wide wave of flame that blocked all escape routes. At the same time, Andrea’s icicles arced up, vaulting over the flames and raining on the target. Emilia was using her preternatural senses, guiding the icicles to home in on the target. Parth figured that she’d also try to hold him in place. Surprisingly, Kwame had also attacked. Parth did not expect that from the teen. The Knuckleball punched through the wall of fire and disappeared from view.

Stefan was the only one who had not attacked yet, but he held a couple of throwing knives at the ready, as he seemed to be intent on finishing the fairy.

But before any of their attacks could connect, a twister bloomed into existence.

“Ah shucks, you got me.” Blackbog’s voice echoed over everything else, and he followed that sentence with a deranged chuckle. The wind carried his voice and made it much creepier.

Parth realized what Blackbog was doing, and immediately pushed more mana into his fire, increasing the temperature. He saw his fire getting sucked up in the growing twister, but he did not let up on his output. The fire wouldn’t be extinguished; his mana was the primary fuel.

The twister made it easier for him to corral all his wayward flames toward his target. As the fire got swept up into the twister and made it a burning tornado of flames, Parth began attempting to wrest control over the thing.

A sizzling noise indicated that Andrea’s icicles had melted as well. It did not matter. As long as the fairy was trapped inside the gyrating flames, he would be cooked.

The twister began to move towards them, but Parth spent considerable mana and concentration to keep it rooted in its spot. It was more fire than wind at this point. In fact, the heat exuded by his flames would have pushed the air upwards. He was in control now. Since there was only one escape route available, Parth began working on closing it.

As if laughing at him, Blackbog popped out of the top of the tornado, only to be met with two airborne knives, courtesy of Stefan.

He dodged one and parried the other effortlessly.

But he did not escape unscathed. There was a new gash on his torso, most likely carved by Moira’s spade. His armor was singed in places, and his exposed skin was littered with burns.

Without giving him time to breathe, Parth willed the whirlwind of fire to move like a snake. The top portion lunged at the flying fairy. It twisted and turned as it tried to entrap him. A part of his mind noted that his earlier guess had been correct. The wings were indeed like a black butterfly’s, just smokier in appearance.

Switching course midair, the fairy dove at Parth’s teammates. It was a maneuver designed to taunt him. To see if he was foolish enough to let all that fire near his buddies.

He didn’t want to waste so much fire and mana. So, with a flex of his will, he commandeered all the fire to return to him, compressing it during its journey.

Within a second, all that remained of the funnel of fire was a bright fireball. All that fire, all that heat, compressed into a basketball-sized sphere. It looked like a miniature sun.

Meanwhile, his teammates hadn’t been idle. Andrea was attempting to encase the fairy in a block of ice, but with little luck. He swung his pinwheel around, creating monstrous winds that swept things off course.

Too bad for him, Emilia was there to pick up the slack. She took control of the deflected ice and hurled it back at him.

The problem was that the spinning winds around him grabbed whatever was thrown at him and held them in its confines. The wind itself glowed an eerie blue, highlighting what portion of it was controlled by mana.

Most elemental users didn’t need to have entire masses of their element controlled by mana. If a good quantity of it moved a certain way, it would influence the rest of the existing matter. This made manipulating broad swaths of elements far easier. Especially elements like fire and wind, which just propagated and expanded.

Parth looked at Moira and saw that she had a card ready in hand. If she was trying to hang back and stay out of his range, her decision was correct. Her cards could easily be swept away by the wind. In this situation, her best course of action was to heal and support the team with her barriers.

Stefan had a collapsible javelin in hand, ready to throw, but Parth didn’t know how effective it would be. Given that Stefan could predict the flow of the battle, it wouldn’t surprise Parth if the synthire threw the javelin in a different direction, then watched it curve due to the wind and impale their target regardless.

What still surprised him were the potshots Kwame was taking at the fairy. It looked like whatever Stefan had told him had motivated him to some extent. Of course, he wasn’t going for kill shots. But he still had the blades of his artifact extended. That alone was a step up from before. The Knuckleball could not be easily swept away, as it had speed and weight on its side.

“Enough.” The fairy’s voice carried over as wind burst out of him in all directions.

Parth reinforced his body with his mana, standing his ground against the burst as he observed his teammates do the same.

There was a short lull for a moment, before the fairy spoke again.

“What gave me away? Consider this my last wish. Just answer this for me,” he said as a cocoon of wind formed around him, the gusts growing thicker and thicker with each second. He was still airborne, so that was another advantage for him.

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Nonetheless, he was in trouble, with many injuries across his body. It was a tricky fight, but Parth knew that they would finish him. If only he knew why they were fighting in the first place. But it seemed like that would be answered shortly.

“You are good. Very good. But there were some discrepancies,” Stefan said as they all readied themselves for another salvo.

“How so?” Blsckbog asked, his head tilted in curiosity, totally ignoring his own wounds.

“Well, you lied about the sabretooth cats. The footprints gave it away. And when you said your team was killed by some monsters, you were technically right. There was just one small lie. They were killed by a monster. Not some monsters,” Stefan explained as he twirled his javelin.

Everyone began positioning themselves for better attack vectors.

“Bravo. And you think that monster is me? You would be right, of course. I knew that the Inspectacle was a tricky artifact. I didn’t realize that it was this good. I wonder what I would have been able to do with it,” he replied with an unhinged grin.

“Probably not what I can do,” Stefan replied. “My nature plays a major role in it. As I said, you were good. There were no outward clues to your lies at first. I only caught you because your subtle reactions were all wrong. Too muted, too in control. You were happy to see us. There was not a shred of relief or fear. Just happiness. People don’t feel that under such circumstances.”

“Of course. I was happy that I got more targets for my hunt. In my current state, I can’t do it. But that just makes it all the more fun for later. Those triplets were fun enough. Imagine—”

He was cut off as Andrea launched a large claw of ice at him. It seemed like she wanted to ensconce him within it, effectively rendering his wind useless.

The next moment, Stefan threw his javelin without hesitation.

Parth’s blood boiled with what he had heard. Now he understood why Stefan had been so cagey. But he still didn’t get why they were doing things this way. He pumped more mana into his fireball, ensuring that it would be lethal.

The fairy flew out of the way of the ice construct, only for it to swerve at the last moment. At that same instant, his entire body froze up, as if held by an invisible grip. Despite all this, the cocoon of air did not disappear. Instead, it kept growing.

Just then, the cocoon was hit with the large claw of ice. For a moment, it looked like both the elements were struggling against each other. Right on cue, the javelin hit the sphere of wind. It was sucked into the spinning wind and bent at a ridiculous angle. For a second, Parth thought that Stefan’s attack was a dud. Then the collapsible javelin had enough of its abuse and broke. The individual pieces launched themselves in random directions. The tip, on the other hand, proved Parth wrong and shot at Blackbog unimpeded. After all, it was already inside the cocoon. Blackbog was too busy fighting against Emilia’s invisible hold, and he failed to dodge the tip of the spear as it pierced his stomach.

Parth’s previous belief about Stefan’s artifact was vindicated with that maneuver.

The windy shell popped at that moment as two spherical objects reached their targets as well.

Kwame’s Knuckleball crashed into the knee of Blackbog’s injured leg. Simultaneously, the fireball that Parth had been nurturing entered the fold. It exploded with tremendous force, almost blinding everyone.

Emilia groaned and pressed her temples as her mana spiked wildly for a moment. It looked like what just happened ended her hold over him.

The clash of forces overhead was colossal. The cocoon had popped, so all the wind had simply begun to unravel. The explosion went off, combining it all into a thunderous spectacle.

They once more braced themselves as the force of the explosion threatened to bowl them over, even though it was a good distance away.

Parth ensured that none of the fire came down on them. Most of it was gone anyway, due to the sheer force of the blast.

Bits and pieces of ice rained from above, but before any of it could reach the earth, it melted and fell as sizzling droplets of water.

With a thud, a charred arm fell on the ground, but there was no sign of the fairy. Parth could not bring himself to feel bad for the bastard. Things made sense now. The mention of getting into a scuffle with three monsters. The footprints. It all added up. The triplets must have deployed the full constructs of their artifacts.

He reiterated to himself that they were alive. Stefan previously mentioned that there had been a retreating party. Blackbog also said that he’d been unable to kill his foes. It still didn’t completely soothe him, though. There was a lot of blood in this place, after all.

“Stefan, what the fuck?” Parth shouted.

Everyone’s eyes were still peeled to the sky, and they now spotted a small shape flying away, shrinking by the second.

Andrea gaped in disbelief. “The fuck? How is he so fast? Why was he even playing around, then? Couldn’t he have bolted the moment we attacked?”

Although, if they had Joe with them, then that specific fairy would have won the aerial battle due to superior speed.

“Because he’s a lunatic. You heard him. He sees this as a game,” said Moira.

“He used the force of the explosion and his control over the wind to escape,” Stefan explained. “He most likely used his mana-infused wind to shield himself somewhat. Not to mention his wings…” The synthire trailed off, but everyone had other questions in their minds.

“I tried to hold him,” Emilia said. “But in that single moment, the collective amount of force overpowered my ability. Maybe if not for the explosion, I could have done it.”

The entire fight must have been frustrating for her. Whenever she tried holding him, he managed to counter her using his wind.

“The explosion was meant to kill him. As you can see, it did more damage than anything else. Man’s a fairy, his body is not as strong,” said Parth, still looking at Stefan for answers.

Blackbog had lost a hand, and going by how charred it looked, that was not the only injury he came out with. Even if the asshole managed to escape, his spawn point would still be nearby. If he didn’t die within the next hour, he’d be pulled out. With mana in play, injuries could be held at bay somewhat. Parth knew that from experience. But even if he did survive, he was down a hand, and hopefully some organs.

Parth was of half a mind to give chase, but other things took priority.

“Why did you handle it this way? We could have killed him for sure if we approached the situation differently, couldn’t we?” asked Emilia, raising her voice in a rare show of aggravation.

“I needed to make sure. Now, let’s go.” Stefan motioned for Andrea to repair the platform. It was a bit melted at the edges due to the heat being thrown around, but it had never been attacked and was far enough away to have stayed in one piece.

“What do you mean?” asked Parth.

Andrea quickly repaired the platform, and they all boarded it at once.

“The data I was getting was inconclusive because the place was so messed up,” Stefan explained as they floated up. “The sand was all over the place and the footprints were muddled. It being a beach made it worse. I needed to make sure of three things. First, I needed to know if he had fought the triplets. Second, I needed to know if he had killed them. Third, I needed to know if he had allies who were going after the kids too.”

He pointed and Andrea immediately gunned the platform in that direction.

“You got answers to all that, then?” asked Emilia.

“Yes. Also, I didn’t want to attack him without being sure. Furthermore, if he had killed them, then we could have lured him into a sense of security and shanked him by surprise. But the more I listened to him, the more it didn’t seem possible. Heck, he felt us coming but only reacted once we landed. He was deranged. He was itching to attack us. We just didn’t have time. He just got out of a fight with the kids. We needed to finish him off quickly and go to them. They’ll need a healer for sure. All that blood couldn’t be his alone. That took priority.”

“It could have gone better,” grumbled Parth. Until now, he hadn’t let his enemies go. He had taken out all the monsters he’d faced. He had taken out the voyagers that had ambushed him too. This didn’t sit well with him. Even though Blackbog had been damaged beyond belief, a kill would have sealed it quite well.

In hindsight, he had to accept that a surprise attack wouldn’t have worked. Blackbog was like Emilia in that way. The Bauble gave him command over winds, which would have alerted him to their attacks.

He put it out of his mind for now. The triplets took priority.

Parth could now see distinct footprints of only one creature. Which meant that only one of the triplets was on the run. Most likely, she was carrying the others. That did not bode well. But soon enough, the footprints disappeared.

“Take me above the trees, it looks like they abandoned the constructs and took to the air. Must have happened when we were fighting him,” said Stefan.

“Why hadn’t they done that from the start?” asked Kwame.

“Because their opponent could control the wind. Once they were sure that he didn’t follow them, they must have decided to fly,” said Emilia.

“It hadn’t been long since their fight ended,” Parth said. “They couldn’t have gone far. We’ll find them. Moira, please get healing cards ready.”

Moira nodded and began going through her deck.

“That way,” declared Stefan as Andrea and Emilia banked hard and turned toward where Stefan was pointing.

Parth hoped that they found the kids quickly. The first trial was about to end, and he couldn’t wait to be safely back in Tava with his teammates.