Thunder cracked as lightning split the air and hurtled for Emily’s head, only to slam into a shimmering square of translucent light just inches away from her. Crackles of electricity arced into the air and buzzed against her skin.
“Thanks, James,” Emily said, throwing herself into a roll as acid scorched across the ground where she’d been standing and burnt a thick streak into it. She shot to her feet and took aim, drawing her focus into the arrow forming in her bow.
A bolt of lightning made itself known right beside her head, deflected by James’ magic once more. Emily gritted her teeth and released the arrow in the direction of one of the mages.
The spell scraped across his shoulder as he twisted, scoring along the armor he wore and failing to do any significant damage. It knocked him off balance for a moment, giving her an opportunity, to follow up and actually land a real blow, but Emily didn’t have a chance to follow up on the opening.
She was forced to dodge back as vines raced across the ground and reached out toward her, attempting to intertwine her legs and keep her from dodging.
Another bolt of lightning slammed into the air, stopping against a disk of light just inches away from Emily. The light wavered as power crackled off it. For a moment, it seemed as if it would break, but the magic held strong. James was keeping the attacks from hitting her and buying her time to attack, but it wasn’t enough.
There were three enemies and James was forced to play defensive so Emily could even try to fight back. If she could actually injure any of them, perhaps she would have had a chance. But with the armor they wore… she needed more than a glancing blow.
Emily resisted the urge to curse as she dodged out of the way of more magic. Readying her attacks took time and attention — two things she didn’t have when three mages were raining down attacks on her from different directions.
“We can’t keep this up forever.” James’ voice was low enough to only be heard by Emily’s ears. “Can you survive for long enough if I go after one of them?”
“Probably.” Emily wasn’t so certain. The students attacking them had a ridiculous amount of energy. They’d been raining down attacks for nearly two uninterrupted minutes and showed no signs of slowing.
That would have been impressive if she didn’t suspect basically all of their power was coming from someone transferring it to them through their Soldier armor. Unfortunately, the source from where they pulled their magic changed nothing.
“That doesn’t sound very confident,” James said.
Emily dodged back as forked tongues of lighting screamed down toward her, blackening the dirt where she’d been standing with a brilliant explosion. She spun toward the mage that had called them down, but before she could take a moment to take aim, acid spikes were hurtling for her head.
She dropped to the ground. Vines reached for her and she gathered moisture from the air, flicking a blade of ice from her fingers and slicing the vines apart as she rolled back to her feet.
We can’t keep going like this.
“Oh, shit,” James said. “I think Isabel is using her… you know.”
Emily blinked in surprise. The hesitation nearly got her impaled by a sharpened root, but she twisted out of the way at the last moment and cut the root apart with another blade of ice.
“Seriously?”
Lighting slammed down toward them and a dome of light bloomed overhead, absorbing the hit before shattering apart into sparkling motes of light.
“You should be paying attention to us, not your friends,” the lightning mage said in a sneering tone. They sounded female, but the helm on their face muffled their words and made it a little difficult to tell.
Emily really didn’t care one way or another.
“You’re all pretty pathetic. Having to rely this heavily on equipment in a Year 2 exam,” Emily said, sending an arrow of ice streaking through the sky toward the other woman.
Without time to properly take aim, the attack only managed to slam into her shoulder and shatter against her armor. One of the other mages laughed as they flung acid blades toward Emily once more.
James summoned more shields of light from the air, blocking the magic and letting out an exasperated sigh. “This is such a hassle. Can’t you just deal with them already?”
“What do you think I’m trying to do?” Emily hissed. “I told you, I’ll be fine! You can go attack—”
A vine shot up from the burnt ground, reaching for Emily’s leg faster than she could react. Light flashed and several chunks of plant matter splattered against Emily, severed in a dozen different places.
“You’re not doing the most you can,” James said. “You could do more. I’ve seen it. Isabel certainly is. Why are you holding back? You’re welcome, by the way.”
“Isabel is better at it than I am,” Emily hissed. “I’ve never tried using that ability during a real fight. Just training. Have you forgotten how bad I was at it when we started?”
Acid arrows rained down toward Emily and a shield of light formed in the air above them, absorbing the attack once more. The acid mage snickered. “Talking to yourself isn’t a good sign. You might want to get that checked out.”
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“Where did you go to learn your shit-talk? Your teacher fucking sucks,” Emily said, diving out of the way as lightning streaked toward where she’d been standing. A hand snagged the back of her shirt and yanked her up to her feet before the vines crawling across the ground could reach her, and she froze them in place with a blast of ice.
“That’s a sharp mouth for a noble. Maybe you’ve been hanging around scum for too long,” the lightning mage said. “You’re not half bad. Swapping between two different forms of magic so quickly is really impressive. It’s too bad that’s all completely wasted.”
Gods, they’re stupid. I’ve got my ice magic active at the same time as James’ light abilities. Anyone with half a brain would realize that I have an invisible Light Mage on my side, but I suppose these idiots threw their lot in with Marley. That doesn’t say much for their intelligence.
“Who cares how bad you were at the start?” James hissed back to Emily, prodding her in the lower back. “I’ve seen what you can do. You’re holding yourself back. I know you can do this.”
Light flashed as lightning slammed down on them again. Emily gritted her teeth. James poked her again.
“It takes me too long,” Emily snapped. “I can’t pull it off fast enough to—”
“You can. I’ve seen you do it before. Stop doubting yourself so damn much. You aren’t alone. I’ve got your back, but I can’t keep blocking magic forever. Are you really going to let Isabel show you up this hard? You’re just as good as she is.”
Emily’s hands tightened around her bow. Her heart thumped in her chest — once, twice, and then her features set in stone. “Fine. Cover me.”
“On it,” James replied, and she could hear the grin in his voice even as the air rippled beside her and he let his invisibility fall away.
The plant mage let out a curse. “Where’d he come from?”
Idiot.
Emily dragged her thoughts away from the fight and turned them inward. She stilled her breathing and gathered her concentration. She had time. James had promised to cover her. He wouldn’t let an attack get through — but she had to hold up her end of the deal.
Magic crashed and crackled all around her. James and the other mages exchanged taunts that slipped past her ears like a rushing stream.
She barely noticed any of it.
Frost prickled against her skin. Freezing mist coiled up from her body and spilled all around her in a white fog that was only a step away from condensing into thick snow. It rolled out in every direction, creeping across the ground and filling the clearing around her.
Her senses traveled through the icy mist — through the patterns of frost racing through every single minuscule crystal that made it up. Every noise in the world stilled. Even the thump of her heartbeat and the throb of her head faded into the background.
Emily closed her eyes.
She moved a hand through the air. Felt the patterns in the ice shift as her hand passed through them. The mist coiled in her arm’s wake. Every single movement within it changed the pattern.
And that was exactly how it was meant to be.
Ice was a single element of water, and more than any other element, water was ever-changing. Todd had spent hours with her going over the properties it could achieve in imbuements, and Emily had studied every single one of them as best she could.
Hers was not a pattern that remained exactly the same. It was not a pattern that could be approached in a rigid manner. The change itself was part of the pattern.
Emily let her bow vanish from her hands, letting herself completely immerse herself within the mist. She felt where it was — and where it wasn’t.
And in that mist, Emily felt the three mages.
Her eyes snapped open.
James laid on the ground before her, his arms crossed behind his head. A bolt of lightning streaked toward him, but a disk of light flashed up and blocked it, fading away the very instant the lightning had been stopped.
Another shield flicked up to block a bolt of acid, and a third one manifested itself to cut through several vines. All of them vanished the very instant their task had been accomplished.
Power thrummed in Emily’s body, and the mist thrummed in response. They were synchronized.
“How are you doing that?” The female student demanded.
“Optimizing,” James replied through a yawn. “I’m lazy. No point using more energy than I need to, and now I don’t need to use any at all.”
The acid mage let out a snort. He stepped through the mist and gathered magic above his palms, forming it into a large spike of sickly green energy. “And why’s that? You surrendering?”
“No,” James replied, letting his eyes drift shut. “You’re dead.”
The air around the mage crackled. He only had an instant for his eyes to widen in surprise before a hundred white streaks flashed through the air. His shield flickered to life around him, but it shattered under the flurry of magic.
He staggered back with a scream. Thin needles of ice emerged from every single piece of unarmored skin in his body. There wasn’t a single part of his face or upper neck that hadn’t been run through.
The attack wasn’t enough to kill him, but a brilliant flash of light lit up the forest as his pendant activated and yanked him to safety.
“You’re so cheesy,” Emily murmured, her eyes drifting over to the other two mages.
Both of the other mages reacted instantly, grabbing for their magic and darting in opposite directions to split Emily’s attention. They slammed down every bit of armor they had and activated their Shields.
It changed nothing. She didn’t have to see them. She could feel them. Everything within the fog was visible to her. Needles flashed within the rolling fog, scraping against the shields and wearing their power away with every strike.
Lightning screamed toward her, but another disk of light blocked it. Emily didn’t so much as glance in its direction. Her attention was fully within her pattern. There was no room for any distraction — and she had no need for it.
James was protecting her. She didn’t have to think about anything other than her magic as long as he had her back.
Shields were excellent for blocking attacks, but as it turned out, they had a minimum amount of power they called on every time they activated. Nobody tried tickling a Shield to death, after all. Controlling hundreds of tiny attacks was too difficult for most mages to bother with — but this wasn’t hundreds of tiny attacks.
The needles were all one. They were part of the fog. Part of the pattern — and part of Emily.
The plant mage’s Shield shattered. He let out a scream as needles found every inch of exposed skin, no matter how small. They flitted through gaps in the armor and flooded into his mouth.
His pendant flashed.
“How is this possible? What kind of—” The lightning mage’s shield shattered before she could finish her desperate protest.
“Eat shit,” James said.
Her pendant flashed.
Emily slowly let her hands lower, her heart pounding in her chest. She’d actually done it. She’d activated her pattern in the middle of a fight.
Yeah, that’s right. Eat shi—
Wait.
“You know what?” Emily asked as a small laugh slipped from between her lips. “They were right. You’re ruining my vocabulary.”