Unlike my earth magic, I had never figured out water magic fully. It was too fluid and somewhat fragile. I used my magic for power: my fire bloomed walls of flames, my wind magic created gusts of high-speed winds, and my earth magic was about producing tough walls and spears of rock. But I always learned that water could create whips and waves of water that, to me, never felt like anything powerful. It all seemed so gentle. I could use waves of water, but I never found myself with that big amount of water to help me create the tall waves I imagined.
Water guns and jet streams of water seemed more my style, but this was the first time I had tried putting them on a spell. Creating a spell isn’t so simple. I had created two earth spells on the fly, but only because I had already used earth magic before. Today, I had to use water magic for the first time by creating my spell. I was trying to fly before I opened my eyes.
I may have to attribute it to the constant use of magic in the past month, or my exposure to other types of magic. I could have acquired enough experience to do what I wanted to do. However, all my speculations can only be found true once I made my final decision.
I wasn’t sure I was ready, but there was someone who believed in me just as much as I did in her. I’m also sure Tedet trusts me just as much, and my newest friend, my ex-warden, trusts me almost as much.
“Tedet!” I called out. “Protect her!”
Tedet jogged towards me and placed Misa behind him.
“Are you finally ready?” he asked.
“I need to be.”
“That’s the answer I want to hear.”
Behind me, I heard the distinct clicking sound of a gun being reloaded. Misa was putting her trust in me. I needed to return the favor. A life for a life. Mine for hers. She saved me, and now it was time to finally end this.
“I cannot miss,” I explained. “Make it come to me.”
“Roger,” Tedet said.
Without much else, he jumped to action again.
I siphoned the magic in my last stone and began walking forward. My mind was focused on the demon and the spell. My tunnel vision kept me from seeing other things. There was a skirmish behind us, Misa was probably shooting vampires, but all I could see was the demon before me. In my mind, I did not think of much else, most of my thoughts were images of what my spell should look like, on the power of high-pressure and fast-moving water.
Tedet, Yand-Una, and Grikhat joined forces and taunted the demon. It bit.
In seconds, it began swiping and charging at them. The Knights tried their best to inflict damage, but it was easy to see they were running on fumes, as well. Yand-Una still had some magical strength, as expected of a Senior, but you could see she was no longer as nimble as she was at the start. Out of breath and out of strength, our group was quickly succumbing to attrition. It was ridiculous to think we could’ve killed the demon, the two groups alone. We were so naïve.
The knights have yet to realize our strategy, and so they tried surrounding the demon as it walked towards us. That did not stop the demon, but it did distract it keeping it from thrashing around too much. My spell was a precision strike and I could easily miss my shot.
I was never a man to weave the thread in the needle, I had people to do that for me. I was more useful in putting down a fire by drowning buildings in erratic streams of water. This time, I was trying my hand, for the first time, with a surgical strike. Aiming squarely at the chest, where the center of the spirit should be.
If I miss, the battle will not be over.
The demon turned towards me. I was about to strike it with a huge amount of magic again, it couldn’t be a coincidence that it was staring and charging at me.
All the better to me. I was hoping for it to move towards me.
I aligned the sights of my metaphorical water gun on steroids. I began slightly pulling the imaginary trigger until it met resistance, I only needed a little more effort for it to fire.
Just a little closer, I beckoned in my mind.
“MISA ALMEIDA RENSTAD,” it spoke. “STOP HIM!”
I peeled my eyes as it tried commanding Misa once again. Time was up. Now or never.
“Pillus!” I chanted.
All the water in a ten-meter radius flowed towards my hand, crawling along the concrete. The water rushed up my legs and formed a spike just before my palm. It only took a second for the water to form, but there was a lot more water that was coming. Just before shooting my water spear, the rest of the water began forming a straight line right before me, pointing towards the demon. No more water began climbing up from my body and, instead, it formed a reverse waterfall.
As if the pointing water was the trigger, the spear shot forwards. The force of the water jet hit my palm and pushed it backward, against my arm and my shoulder. The pain I felt in my shoulder, neck, and collarbone made me imagine I may have broken something.
The stream pulled the rest of the water faster. The whistling line of high-speed liquid rushed toward the demon who tried dodging, only to fail. Because of it, I didn’t manage to hit the center core. Luckily, the impact stunned the demon as the jet tore right through its body. I moved my arm, moving the stream slightly towards the center of the demon.
Two arms jumped out from behind me, constraining me. I could feel the weight of the person once it held me with her legs. Misa was trying to stop me, pulling me away from where I stoop – trying to botch my spell and attack.
She was succeeding. My aim was off, and the demon was only partially cut on the side. The stream kept veering off as I tried aiming and fighting off Misa.
“I’m sorry!” She apologized.
I could only grunt.
I was distracted from everything that was happening that I only realized until it was too late that the spell was wearing off.
I felt like my chest was growing hollow. Something was pulling away my breath, and it wasn’t Misa’s constrictive embrace.
I tried pulling magic from somewhere else, within me, trying to keep the spell alive for a little longer and I made one last effort to pull the stream further in.
The water began moving inside and I saw hope for that moment. The water was cutting through towards the center in the direction of the core.
I moved my hand more and more, the stream dashed in faster than I expected, and the water jet was cut in half. The rest of the water that had to push through the air and through the demon sprayed as it collided with itself as well. Any water that tried cutting through the heavy mist that was left lost its power. The demon was only carved in once the spell ended.
The demon reincorporated itself, triumphantly. If it could grin, it would do so mockingly.
But just as it took the first step forward, its knees gave in and the demon dropped forward, its head digging itself into the concrete.
The rest of my and the Knights’ team, that remained silent during the process, took that moment as a signal. Yand-Una sprang into action, beckoning to push on.
“It’s weak! We can still do this!” she shouted. “Don’t let up!”
The rest of the raderas spoke in their tongue and cackled in a radera noise I took for a war cry. The only ones that did not move, were me and Misa, who was no longer holding me but sprawling on the ground.
I saw hope within Yand-Una’s command, but something inside me felt defeated. I had finally run out of power. There was nothing else inside me to keep going. My head and stomach were aching, a stabbing pain caused by an excessive use of magic.
“We can do this right?” asked Misa.
But I could not answer clearly. I did not have the energy to answer. I was kneeling, looking at the small skirmish that was about to start.
Even when the demon had fallen, the fight was not over. At any point, the demon can start attacking again, and the creatures behind us can spill their fight over us.
“We need to get away from them,” I told Misa while trying to stand up. My knees could not hold me up and I crumbled into all fours. “We need to move.”
“Give me your arm,” she beckoned.
Misa wrapped my arm around her, a complete flip of the situation just a few seconds ago. With my arms wrapped around me, she pulled me away from the supernatural battle behind us. Now that the demon was held down with several kinds of water magic, getting close to it was the safest place in this canal.
I turned around to see the treants standing still. Not a single treant was moving. On the other hand, the elves were still dashing around. Torviela and vampires were distracted fighting each other, and with their barked faerie counterparts left alone dead like lumber, elves could roam free. With no other immediate threats, they turned toward us.
I started picking up the pace and even tried jumping to get away, but I only found myself tripping on my feet.
This could be it for both of us. I had no magic and Misa would be overwhelmed. There was nothing else we could do but go out swinging.
“Drop me,” I told her. “Drop me and fight.”
Misa turned to look at me, protesting, but I saw the calculations running through her mind with every twitch of her facial muscles. She knew, just like I did, that this was our last stand, and that we will fight to the bitter end.
She let go of me. I slid off her hold and fell straight down, with nothing to cushion my fall. Misa widened her stand, putting me right behind her, defending me like a child. With the last of her courage, she pulled the gun, that kept in her pocket while she was helping me, and pointed it straight at the enemy.
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From behind, she looked amateurish, but she also looked tough. All she needed was a cool one-liner and she’d be like a character coming straight out of a movie.
‘None shall pass!’ I imagined her claiming, the sun shining before her, and her shadowed back looming over the camera. A heroine through and through.
It took only seconds before the clapping of her gun resounded and I saw her body shake from the recoil.
The elves approached and danced with Misa’s aim. For as much bravery and guts Misa had, that was all she had to compensate for her lack of experience and aim. She missed all her shots and ran out of ammo.
Our end was at our doorstep and I felt myself give up. But I was lifted by Misa’s stance as she held her gun from the barrel, ready to use it as a melee weapon. She took my words to heart, and she was ready to fight until she had no more life left to fight with.
I decided that I had followed her example – I was not about to disappoint her. I grabbed my staff and held it like a quarterstaff. If we were really dead, then I wanted to be proud about my last seconds of life, and the way to do it was to make Misa proud – that she wasn’t defending a wuss.
All that energy we managed to bring up was all for naught. As if the elves were laughing at us, they decided to run past us. They didn’t even look at us as they passed by. I felt insulted. But I felt more scared as well.
Behind us, Tedet, Grikhat, and Yand-Una were distracted. If the elves caught them by surprise, they are going to die.
I tried screaming but my throat was dry, and I could not utter a word as fast as I could. Before I or Misa could warn them, the elves were right on top of them… and past them, as well.
The elves hurried towards the Knights that were holding the demon with their magic and struck them. The hadtherads fell to the ground like sacks of sand and lay there unmoving for a moment before lifting their heads.
Just as fast as they attacked, they surrounded Ssadassar.
“We’ll be taking this one,” one of them said.
The utter shock left everyone silent. This was a development that no one was expecting.
“What?” spoke out Yand-Una. “No, I can’t let you do that.”
Every single magically sensitive person on this side of the canal turned sharply towards my ex-warden.
She held on her arm, her prosthetic arm.
“That demon is far too dangerous to be left alive,” she pressured.
“This is a fight you cannot win, wizard,” the elf warned.
“Lose the battle but win the war,” she answered. “Have you heard of that one before?”
I knew what she was thinking. Every single one of us was about to run out of magic. There was no way we could win against the elves now, not with so many of them. But there was one thing we could do to at least consider our expedition a win.
I couldn’t allow that to happen to her. Not with what it will cost her.
I could not move, and so I could no longer stop her. But there was someone else who was ready to do what was right.
The elves braced for impact as Yand-Una’s arm began un-morphing from her usual appearance.
“Misa,” I began pleading. “Stop her. If she uses the demon in her arm, she’ll be selling her soul further.”
“How? How do I do that?”
“Anything. You’re the only one that can do it now.”
With those words, Misa set off to save her to-be savior.
As the arm was set ablaze in a maroon flame, Yand-Una was in the middle of striking a deal with the demon in her arm. She was hell-bent on saving Misa with everything she had. She thought she was going to die today and with that, she was ready to die off trying to save a mortal. If she knew she’d live, she wouldn’t think of selling her soul. Which is why I needed Misa to save her. She was the one Yand-Una was trying to save, and with her words, she’ll be able to stop her from recklessly throwing away her life.
Before anything else could happen, Misa held onto that same burning hand. The lack of hesitation threw me off. I knew that the flames were not going to burn a mortal, since those kinds of flames only hurt the spiritual, but even then, the sensation of heat was very real. Misa must have seen the flames almost as if they were very real, all up until she put her hand in the fire, she should’ve believed they’d burn her.
What did not stop Misa, stopped Yand-Una. With a touch and a few words I could not hear, our War Angel, Misa, managed to subside Yand-Una’s fury.
“Wise, mortal,” said the elf. “Very wise. We shall be taking this one with us. And with it, we shall take you to hell as well. So, don’t make this harder on you; we’ll kill you quickly.”
I tried to speak out, but they moved too fast for me to react. Everyone else was in better shape than me, and they reacted accordingly. Quick spells were cast and several shots were fired.
All to no avail.
I saw the knights being knocked out even though some of their spells landed square against a few elves, who easily shrugged them off. Tedet and Grikhat had their guns ripped from their hands and were thrown against the ground, pinned by a hand to their necks. As for Yand-Una, she tried using a spell along with her sword, but the spell failed in contact with the enemy, and her opponent’s reflexes were too much for her clumsy fighting style. She was too tired.
With the sword slapped off her hand, Yand-Una was left defenseless and surrounded. But she had one more ace. The flames flared up, and her arm began turning maroon.
That too was not enough. When the elf realized the pressure of demonic energies, it took her from the arm and ripped it apart. The prosthetics were slightly crushed. As it did, it hissed from the pain of the flames that burn it from only the second that it took to rip the arm off from her.
With the flames off, the elf looked at the artificial arm, gave it a look of admiration, and promptly threw it away, like trash. Landing between them and me.
Misa was the only one left standing, with a gun in her hand. Without any ammo, all she could do was try to look tough.
“You have no more ammunition, human,” said one of the elves. “I’ve been counting. You fired too many shots. Unless you have a secret stash, there is not much for you to do.”
Misa looked around, trying to find something to use. Something to defend or attack – or both. She eyed the prosthetic arm and strolled a little to grasp it.
She held it close and spoke: “help me.” She pointed the arm towards Yand-Una and nothing happened. “Please, I need to save her!”
The silence that appeared a little after her plea was broken by the elves laughing. They mocked her for her stupidity. I felt furious. They didn’t understand what Misa had tried to do. Against all odds, she was ready to sell her soul to a demon for the sake of a friend. There was no greater – and more stupidly desperate – sacrifice.
I admired that. It was as reckless an idea as mine were. I felt like she was a little more like me than before. I felt a little surer of myself.
“The demon won’t help you, human,” one of the elves said. “You need to make a contract, and I bet you have no idea how to do that.”
Misa looked around desperately and her nervous face turned into panic. I knew her well enough to understand that she was scared she could not save anyone else. She felt like she was, once again, letting her friends down. She could not be able to save the life of someone she cares about.
She was afraid she will die being useless.
‘I knew I was not a heroine,’ she must have thought.
But in between the defeat and the tears, she turned to me to apologize. We crossed eyes, and our stares triggered something. It was like we had simply understood each other.
“I’m sorry,” she spoke and ran towards me.
The elves looked at her for a moment, perplexed that she was still full of energy, that she wasn’t defeated. They must have believed she was acting on naïve bravado – the struggle of the mortal. That she was unreasonably hopeful.
I saw it. I saw how their faces turned from mockery to genuine fear when Misa reached out to give me the arm like she was passing a baton.
I prepared myself and looked at Yand-Una’s mortified expression before I reached for the demon trapped in the arm.
Give me power, I asked. Give me the power to save Yand-Una, your contractor.
It was true I needed a contract to ask the demon for power, but that contract already existed between my warden and the demon. That contract needed to be specific enough to allow me to use the demon’s power. This time, it was. The contract was to save Yand-Una, to keep her from death. Today, death came from a spirit and not from a mortal or Yand-Una herself, but the demon could only act when requested. Yand-Una was her contractor, but any mortal is capable of enacting that contract by paying the price – a piece of your spirit.
Misa had the right idea, but she did not know how to use a possessed item and how to talk to a demon. Had she known, it would’ve been possible for her to use the arm. I doubt she’d be of a lot of use since there’s only so much a mortal can do with recently obtained demonic power. I, on the other hand, knew exactly what to do with it.
The flames came to life before any of the elves could move. I pointed my hand towards the demon and when I felt the flames filling up the void inside me, I prepared the demonic magical energies for a supercharged spell.
“STOP!” I screamed. “STOP OR I’LL DO IT!”
The elves froze. Silence grew thick for several seconds and everyone looked at each other, unable to know what to do.
“What are you planning to do, wizard?” the leader of the elves spoke.
“I will destroy the demon right where it lays,” I said.
This was my gamble. I could not kill every elf, but I can at least get rid of the demon, once and for all.
“I can still kill that thing, and you’ll be leaving this place without the trophy for your higher-up.”
“What makes you think we need it so badly?” he asked.
“You think I’d believe Isadal doesn’t care about its existence,” I emphasized while pointing at the demon. “I know why you’re here.”
I made a small bluff. I had imagined it was Isadal who did this, but it could’ve been anyone else. However, this was the only logical explanation I could come up with my inferior brain. I’m sure Tedet would’ve come up with something better. If I had gambled correctly, we might get out of this safe and sound.
I did not have to wait for much more to know how right I was about my logic, all thanks to the silence that lingered far longer than it should.
“Bingo,” I mocked and laughed. Emulating a torviela that had once check-mated me with a single sentence.
The elves looked at one another and, after another two seconds, the leader of the elves spoke again.
“Very well,” he said. “I shall let you keep your lives in exchange for this one’s.”
“Wise,” I said. “Very wise, elf.”
Even I could see his veins popping this far away.
And after they had opened a way to the spiritual world, with a swing of their arms, they held on to the demon with water shackles and took it away from the canal. Their bodies distorting themselves, flipping themselves on the z-axis as they crossed the space formed by burrowing themselves between and through a higher dimension.
It was over in a few seconds.
Anti-climactic.
“Why did you let them go?” commanded Yand-Una. “Misa’s life is still at risk!”
Still on the ground, battered and bruised, she berated me.
“That was your moment. If you had killed it, we could’ve saved Misa’s life. You even let the demon take your soul for it and you didn’t even use it.”
Part of my soul was sold for power, power that still lingered within me and will not go away until I use it. The demon had successfully done part of its deal and I had done mine as well. The demonic power was exchanged for part of my soul, and so the power would stay with me.
I looked at Yand-Una, and before I could even say or do anything, I smiled.
I shocked myself when I did it. For as much as we went through, I smiled at Yand-Una and everyone else.
“Are you mocking me, Wizard Avarez?”
“No,” I answered. “I just felt like this time it was different.
“Last time I fought against evil, I did it alone, and I didn’t think there could be a good outcome from it regardless of what happened. I fought tooth and nail, and in the end, nothing changed, and I put a lot of people in danger.
“Today. I see myself surrounded by friends. Competent friends, ready to fight. What’s better is that you’re not doing it for me, but for her.” I pointed at Misa. “For the first time, I feel like we can do this. We can win if this ever comes back to haunt us. And we’re going to be ready for it.”
From behind Yand-Una, Tedet and Grikhat reached out to hold their hands, yearning for any kind of physical contact. Both nodded at me.
The Knights looked at each other and nodded. They were also convinced that maybe this was the best course of action. Misa looked unsure of herself, but I knew that if I asked her to help us next time, that same fire that I saw burn inside her will light up again.
Yand-Una was the only one that seemed unsure.
“You’re not giving up on us, are you, Warden?” I said, and extended my hand while I sat on the ground.
Somehow, my words moved her. She reached out and formed a fist, emulating a fist bump. But there was still lingering regret in her eyes. Maybe regret for her inadequacies, or for her reckless need to save someone, to prove she is worth the person she is. Or maybe regret for not fulfilling one of her principal tenets, that she was a weapon and a shield for mortals, and today she did not manage to fulfill that role.
“We need to leave, anyway,” she said. “We’ll have a talk once we’re out of this.”
She tried to hide it, but it was obvious to any human around – Misa and I – that she had given in to our fighting spirit. All she needed was to feel like she had a team, like she had people with her. Like we had her back no matter what.
We, humans, are simply too easy. When we feel accepted, when we feel like we belong somewhere, we crack. Today, Yand-Una had gained a team of friends.
As for the Knights behind her, that’s going to make us a weird team. Bunch of oddballs if you asked me.
“Let’s get the hell out,” said the Knight behind her. And for the first time, I recognized the voice and tone.
“Shkadaur,” I said shocked.
Both Misa and Yand-Una turned in shock to see the face of the Knight that had just fought alongside us.