“I can’t say I’m surprised.” Gem lied. “A temporary alliance seems the most obvious solution to me.”

It was all she could do to keep her voice untouched by the terror coiling below. Mind racing, hands jittering and sweat beading, she thought, peculiarly, of her father. Of all the times she’d seen him leave people tied in knots with nothing but his silver tongue.

“You saw this coming, then?” The Írìsi asked from behind. Gem didn’t turn to answer her, opting to keep her eyes on the greater threat posed by the duo in front.

“Of course I did.” She said. “There are few things you could’ve done to be more predictable.”

“So I suppose you have a way of countering us, then?” The girl asked.

She didn’t sound at all convinced, and her skepticism fed Gem’s panic like breath on a fire.

“Do I need one? You’ll be at each other’s throats the moment I’m no longer a threat. None of you can let your guard down around one another, each will spend every moment watching for a betrayal as much as an attack from me. I can’t imagine a flimsier team.”

A pause, birthing hope and elation. Then dashing it as she heard rapid footsteps behind her.

Gem whirled to meet Balogun’s charge.

She struck with the fury of one who knew their weakness, raining blows upon Gem without thought for defence- seeking to drive her back into the mystics behind. Gem’s retreat lasted only heartbeats, ending as she seized the girl and spun once more to hurl her at the others.

Red eyes widened a moment before shutting tight at the impact, dakaran flying back as Balogun plowed into her mid-flight. The shrouded boy darted aside swift enough to avoid even a graze, rushing forth undeterred.

He was fast, but too slow by far to catch her off guard.

The boy lashed out with a punch the moment he was near, almost catching her as she stumbled back, then powering forth to keep her from widening the space between them.

Fists followed Gem with every step, too quick in pace and tempo to be avoided. Too strong to be weathered for more than moments. A masterful assault, substituting skill for ferocity.

Gem was pushed backward, leaving her teeth gritted against pain as the very bones of her arms seemed to rattle.

Her enemy was strong. Strong enough to force a change of strategy.

Gem drew on the remainder of her magic, realising she’d have no hope of victory without tapping all her power. Even as she bound it to her second ability, the boy dragged her forth.

He was surprised by the lack of resistance. More surprised still when she turned her forwards momentum into a headbutt, feeling his nose pop under the bridge of her brow.

The impact sent him stumbling, loosening his grip enough for Gem to tear her hands free. She grinned, retreating a half dozen steps before she found the wall at her back and cursed.

Cornered in her own trap, she saw the two girls rise with a fury even as the shrouded boy straightened up. They charged for her without leaving time for thought or consideration, just a hair slower than Gem’s magic took to answer her call.

Before the group was halfway to her, Gem felt energy coil at her feet before erupting like a volcano. She almost screamed in exhilaration as it propelled her upwards, passing over the tops of roofs in moments, then carrying on dozens of feet higher still.

The wind closed a howling embrace about her, ash seeming to part like a curtain as she flew. At that height, far above the troubles of her enemies below, the laugh was too much for Gem to suppress.

Not flight, not really. But pit if it’s not close enough.

Her thirst for the skies sated, Gem twisted in the air and stemmed the flow of her magic. Momentum carried her higher still before gravity’s grip returned, then she was soaring back down.

The ground grew larger with a frightening speed, though one that was slowed by the rapid pace of her thoughts. Gem had all the time in the world to study her enemies as she fell towards them, as did they.

Strategy’s test came when her feet touched the ground just yards from the alley’s mouth.

Crimson eyes narrowed, and the dakaran charged first. Lips parted in a sneer and tongue running over them with thirst. She made an unnerving sight, and a perfect first target.

Magic burst from Gem’s palms and arched towards the monster, striking dead-centre; sending limbs splaying as it reversed momentum and cast her back into the alley.

The remaining enemies stumbled aside to avoid being struck by the flying girl, Gem was already running by the time they straightened back up. Reaching them as quick as her legs could manage.

She struck Balogun first, bursting lips and sending her reeling. It bought a split second’s reprieve, ending when the shrouded boy charged at her once more. He moved like a viper, uncoiling rather than stepping, and closing in whipstrike fast.

Gem had expected him to be no slower.

He lunged, grabbing rather than striking. Gem leapt backwards, parrying his every attempt with closed fists.

For moments they fought like cat and mouse. Her power no match for his, his speed no match for hers. Then Gem felt her heel strike the elevation of a curb, threatening to topple her and giving him chance enough to close in.

A tongue of magic from her hand stifled the lunge, stunning him as she stepped aside his blind scrambles.

Footfalls interrupted her strike, turning her to see a wave of fire uncoiling across the stone.

Gem loosed magic from her feet instinctively, body acting far quicker than her mind. She felt the winds of motion simultaneous to the heat of flame, then a soothing frigidity as she soared over the conflagration.

Her landing was hard, the enemy’s reactions harder. As soon as Gem’s feet were flat she leapt back from an arcing blade wielded by the dakara, then felt the wind driven from her as something struck her from behind.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The impact plucked her from the ground, sent her spinning as she flew. Momentum dying only when it met the fragile brickwork of a ruined building.

Ash and grime filled Gem’s eyes, breaking beneath her weight, charred mortar and crisped stone proving a brittle barrier. Her stomach lurched at the deceleration, then she struck the floorboards and felt them split her while rolling two fathoms further.

Gem stood with a groan, then the agony doubled and forced her back to kneel. Urgency banished the protests of flesh when she saw the wreathed boy follow her through, bringing strength enough for Gem to rise by the time he reached her.

His shoulder met her guard, driving her back and forcing her spine-first into the wall behind. It cracked suddenly, raining debris. She could taste acid and blood at the impact.

He’s stronger, and I can’t evade him in these conditions.

The realisation chilled Gem, drawing the walls about them thrice as close. She stared at the boy as he drew an arm back, throwing herself aside barely fast enough to avoid it.

His blow met the wall, knuckles grinding charred mortar apart. Then he was spinning for her again.

Gem retreated, able to do nothing else as his fists twisted like the winds of a cyclone. Seeming to draw rakes of agony no matter where they met, numbing limbs and burdening her guard with each impact.

She swore as he drove her back, as if words might parry better than flesh.

Every step Gem took towards an exit was cut off, mirrored and surpassed by the enemy. Every desperate coiling of magic about her feet incurred only a greater haste to his assault.

No matter what she did, he seemed a step ahead.

Of course he is, I’ve shown all I can do. All he needs to do is wear me down until my body’s too damaged to keep him from skewering me with that knife, then rake in all the points himself at once.

Panic seeped into her at the thought, like worms burrowing through dirt. Nihil fled from Gem’s grasp, ignoring her call with a terrible apathy. And still the shrouded boy’s blows fell.

One after another, a dozen after a dozen. Each pushing her closer to the brink, working her like a smith’s hammer bending hot iron.

No. Gem snarled, voice echoing through her head with a ferocity not mirrored in her body. I won’t lose. Not like this. Not to you.

She filled her hands with magic, saw the boy pause as he noticed it. Then lashed out with a knee to his gut.

A grunt escaped the silent mystic. Sparking hope.

The shrouded boy moved fast, reaching for Gem’s knee and dragging her off balance with a great tug. The iron grip opened once more as her magic caught him in the face, snapping his head back and leaving scraps of burning fabric to drop like embers from a bonfire.

He stumbled, and Gem seized her breathing room with both hands. She sprinted for an exit, diving through the newly bored hole in the wall and rolling to her feet outside in the street.

Magic burned like beacons in her sight, rendering the black skinned girl clear as day even through the billowing ash. A raised arm panicked Gem, and she threw herself to one side with barely time enough to avoid the currents of fire that washed over her position.

She rolled, scrambled to a stand, then dove again as another wall of flame followed her.

The dakaran was on her before she could rise a second time, jagged blade barely halted by Gem’s grip about her wrist.

Muscles screamed beneath skin as she pitted her strength against the girl’s, finding satisfaction in her advantage. Their struggle had lasted only moments before she heard footsteps nearing them, sound drawing panic to flood her thoughts and giving every move she made a frantic haste.

It took Gem only an instant to free the knife she’d been supplied, another to draw it across the girl’s face.

Mist seemed to coil about it, bleeding into the edge, then the blade in its entirety. She stared as the metal passed through the dakara like a hand through fog, before continuing its path the moment it left her.

A striking sight, accompanied by the widening of red eyes and gaping of a razored maw.

Gem hurled the girl from atop her in the lull of shock, rolling to her stomach and hurriedly leaping to stand. She was too slow; the wreathed boy charging at her before she rose.

He wielded a dagger just as she had, abandoning his previous strategy and swinging it in compact arcs clearly born from hard training and careful practice. His speed was no closer to Gem’s own, yet sudden skill sharpened it.

Panic seized her at every swing, uncertainty placing a curse upon each counter. No matter how she thought, her mind could rest on nothing but the edge of his blade.

Of course it can’t. She could practically hear Lavastro say. That’s what blades do, they change things. All you need to change them back is a hair of ingenuity.

Gem glimpsed Balogun circling around from the corner of her eye, seeing the dull glow of an arcane weapon clutched in the girl’s hand and feeling her panic redouble. She cursed as the wreathed boy’s knife shot for her again, flicking out like the tongue of a serpent. Parried more closely with every thrust.

Change things back. I need to change things back.

Forcing her thoughts from the metal leaping at her, Gem drew once more on her magic. The shrouded boy lunged, as she’d expected, aiming to cut her attack off before it could begin.

Bringing his face mere inches from her palm when the light erupted from it.

A curse resounded, the first noise she’d heard from the boy, then she was turning to Balogun. Metal rang against metal as their knives kissed, and the girl’s eyes widened.

Gem threw herself forth, slamming a shoulder into the enemy and grunting with satisfaction as much as effort as the Írìsi shot back like a sling bullet.

Sound turned her again, and she barely parried the wreathed boy’s slash as he rose. He stumbled more than advanced, tortured vision leaving him clumsy. Darting around him and twisting aside from his attack, she dragged her own blade across his arm. The effect was immediate; freezing him just as it had the dakaran.

He regained sense an instant later, spinning as Balogun rose behind him.

Gem’s magic leapt from her to club the boy down, then her grip tightened around the knife as Balogun reached her.

She fought worse than the wreathed one, though quicker. Slashes hasty and swift, clumsy and weak.

It took only a half dozen clashes before Gem’s own blade drew a line across the girl’s chest, phasing through her as it had the others and widening eyes in its wake.

A gasp escaped from Gem as ice seemed to flood her, leaking in from a point in her back. She glanced behind her to see the grinning dakara drawing her own blade back once more, eyes alight with the urge to drive it home.

Balogun was flattened by a boot, then Gem spun to face the sneering monster in her wake.

The dakaran darted back from her lashing steel like a shadow before light, smile unbroken. Gem was given no time to dwell on it before she heard boot leather scrape the ground anew, whirling to meet the wreathed boy’s latest attack.

She’d taken his measure, seeing faults in his technique where her eyes had previously found only unblemished stone. Her speed proved just the tool to make use of it, keeping her an eyeblink ahead of every thrust, swing and hack of his dagger. But he fought alone no longer.

Every advantage Gem found was split as the dakaran’s threat loomed behind her, and soon enough Balogun rose to compound it.

Her enemies attacked as three individuals, alliance too shaky by far for any practiced unity or coordination just as she’d predicted. Yet numbers were a threat of their own, and Gem soon found a second numbing tendril of ice run through her as the black skinned girl caught an arm with her blade.

She answered with a strike; closed fist bursting lips and sending her enemy to the ground. The two still on their feet closed in as one, attacking from mirrored directions like blinking lids.

Gem cried out in frustration as a blade bit her once more, then answered with a slash across the wreathed boy’s face. It did little to cool the coals of her rage, nor banish the panic creeping into her.

Her retreat was swift, the enemy’s advance swifter.