Ike activated Tempest with all his strength. Energy burst around him. Aether swirled, cycling through his limbs, out into the world, and back again. As it circulated, it grabbed strands of aether from the air and sucked them in, dragging yet more energy into the spell. Wind whipped Ike’s hair around his face. He squinted against it, pushing his bandanna up a bit to force the strands into some kind of complacency.

The wind built and built. It howled, bouncing off the walls in its intensity. It snatched at the armor and the weapons, shaking the armor where it sat and rocking the weapons in their rack. Ike gritted his teeth and pressed on. This isn’t enough. This won’t tear stone from mortar. I need more. A true Tempest!

He leaned into it, pushing more aether into the skill. The skill started to retreat, having taken its fill of aether. Ike grabbed onto it and pulled it back towards him. He refused to let it go. Not yet. Not until it was completely, utterly, full. Until it was bulging with aether. It was only full right now, but there were still thin spots in his aether. Still places where he could force the skill to take more aether. He forced more in. More!

The winds whipped even more furiously around him. The armor rattled faster and faster, then lifted off the ground. It flew up into the air. The swords leaped off the rack, sucked up by the force of the winds, and joined the armor. A second later, the rack lifted off the ground and joined the armaments. They flew around at the top of the room, knocking into the ceiling.

Ike focused on the spell. He pushed, forcing a little more aether into it. A little more, a little more! Just until it starts to tear down the walls…

“There you are.”

Ike startled. He looked up.

The ceiling had retreated. A head gazed down at him, trapped firmly under Lord Nors’ arm. The two pieces of his sword circulated slowly around him, bobbing to the beat of his mana. He flicked his finger and sent the two shining fragments at Ike.

Ike narrowed his eyes. He diverted a bit of his mana to cover his hand in ice. With a single decisive strike, he knocked the blades away. The ice shattered off his hand from the force of the blades.

Startled, Ike stared at his hand. Earlier, I broke that thing with my bare hands. I only used Ice Armor out of caution, but if I hadn’t, I might have lost my hand. He looked up at Lord Nors.

Lord Nors smirked. “Surprised? That little rod you stabbed me with unlocked my powers. Now I can use the full force of my true strength.”

“Yeah, keep smirking, armpit sniffer. Self-pit-sniffing loser,” Ike said.

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Lord Nors’ face turned bright red. He trembled from fury, his eyes going wide.

“You heard me. How’s it smell down there?” Ike taunted him again. He put more energy into Tempest. The skill trembled. It shook in his hands, struggling to escape his hold. With every passing second, it slipped a little further out of his grasp. He was no longer in control of it. He could only feed it and hope.

The wind howled around him. His clothes whipped against his body. He waggled his brows at Lord Nors, daring him to fall for the taunt. His head’s already detached. If I can lure him in here, Tempest will knock that head away from him. Since he’s carrying it around, it’s probably important to him.

…It’s his head. Of course it’s important to him.

The Tempest shuddered in his hands. Ike clenched on with all his might. The skill shredded his skin and ate at his flesh and bones. He activated his healing skill and clung on. He eyed Lord Nors. Externally, he remained cool, but internally, he howled at the man.

Get down here already! It was a good taunt, dammit!

He laughed. “I guess you like the smell. Everyone has their own fetishes—”

Lord Nors’ eyes flashed. He leaped at Ike, his swords flying forth as he closed in. The winds buffeted the swords, but they cut through. The blades honed close, so close Ike could see his own reflection in them.

Now!

He unleashed the Tempest.

Winds unlike any he’d experienced before burst from the skill. Lord Nors’ blades felw away. Lord Nors, too, was whipped aside. The fierce rush lifted him up bodily and slammed him into the wall. The winds tore at the wall, beating it down all around him.

Ike grabbed Shawn and stopped holding the boy’s weight. He fell to the ground. Shawn pinned him there. The wind howled, pulling at his clothes, at his skin, trying to get under him and lift him up, but Shawn’s weight was too much for them.

Lord Nors’ weight was not. The winds tore him into the air. They whistled down his hollow neck and tossed him around like the doll he was. His body shook. It slammed into the wall with a hollow crack. The stones flew out behind him, and he fell through the hole.

The wall tore down around Ike. Stones flew everywhere. One slammed into the ground beside his head with such force that both the flying stone and the floor stone shattered. Ike hunkered. He cast Ice Armor over himself and Shawn, layering it once, twice, three times, until it formed a kind of ice dome around the two of them. Stones smashed into the ice wall, knocking holes in their protection. Every time one struck, Ike layered another set of Ice Armor over them.

The roof ripped off. Exposed to the sky, Ike peered through the ice and dimly made out what he’d summoned. Winds churned overhead. Lightning crackled nearby, dashing through the clouds. Hidden in his ice dome, he started using his lightning skills. He kept his eyes on the sky. If he had to bet, Lord Nors wasn’t done yet. If he needed to use Lightning Caller, he wanted to be ready.

Two bright spots of silver flashed high overhead. They slashed through the winds and plunged toward Ike’s ice palace. A terrifying pressure exuded from the silver. Ike felt the shiver of sure death pass over his spine. He burst off the ground and smashed through the ice hut.

The two blades sliced through his hut of ice a moment later. A head clenched one of them in its teeth, and two hands gripped the other. Lord Nors’ disembodied head glared at Ike. His body was gone. Even Ike couldn’t say where it had been thrown.

“You’ve only made me stronger!” Lord Nors howled, and flew at Ike. The blade thrust forth from his teeth, aimed directly at Ike’s heart.