The process didn’t take long, and it went smoothly. Before long, I was already finished. Night still clung to the sky, but enough ti had passed that the moon now hung directly overhead like a pale eye watching us.
The next part, of course, was sparring, so we all rose to our feet.
Elric lifted a hand, volunteering himself first. “We should head to the coast. It’ll be bad if we accidentally burn the forest down.”
I blinked at him. “What? You can’t control your own power? I thought that was your specialty.”
“My power’s a lot greater when Natural Force fuses into my Fire, plus the Precursor Energy from my system,” he said, slinging an arm around my back as he addressed the others. “We need so boy ti—”
The way he said that sent a shiver down my spine, and I instinctively tried to break away, but his arm tightened like a lock around mine.
“I’ll bring him back soon, so don’t worry, Thea. You two will have plenty of ti—” He cut himself off abruptly, then launched forward, dragging with him as a crackle of lightning burst behind us.
I glanced back only briefly, catching a glimpse of light so intense it dripped with energy, falling in sizzling droplets that scorched the ground. Not lightning. Sothing thicker, heavier—more like tangible plasma.
I managed to wrench free, breaking into a more relaxed jog as I made my way to an open stretch of shore. The sand stretched empty around us, the tide whispering nearby.
We stopped and took a mont to catch our breath.
“What’s going on with you?” I asked, starting a loose stretch, oddly comforted by the half-nostalgic sensation of my lobster-red skin tightening with movent.
He rolled his neck until it popped, a sharp crack in the quiet. “There’s another idea Drake and I ca up with, but it involves you.”
We eased into our stances.
It had been on my mind as well. If I was being targeted, there was an obvious solution. “I leave and hide,” I said, more statent than question. “Make it public, so everyone here is left alone?”
He squinted at as if I’d suggested sothing absurd. “What? No. Going off alone is insane. Have you not learned anything? And hiding by yourself is pointless. You can’t progress that way. A small group, that’s the plan. Then we start advertising.”
The way he said “advertising” only confused further, but I didn’t have ti to process it.
A red-and-gold blade—a fully ford double-edged sword—flashed into existence mid-air, then slowly split apart into ten gleaming shards.
“We’re taking this seriously?” I called out.
He only nodded.
Elric didn’t waste any more ti. The mont we finalized our stances, the air around him warped. A blade of red and gold coalesced in his hand, then split into a furious bloom of ten razor-shards that humd like insects. They spun outward, fire licking their edges.
But it wasn’t just a normal fla, but sothing thicker, like deadly orange cotton.
He closed the distance, blades and fire folding together into a relentless advance. The first strike ca as a sizzle of light, a crescent that chewed through sand, erupting from his leg like a whip. I moved to parry—summoning my own gloves—but Elric didn’t give any opening. As soon as I blocked, then swung, a spear of ice elongating from my hands, it only struck and invisible barrier so close to his skin it may have just been clothes.
And when it did, a pulse rang out from it, shattering the ice into nothing.
His assaults continued, each bite of tal accompanied by a lash of heat that tried to carve into my skin. I’ll admit, my robes were doing so heavy lifting, and becoming more like scraps by the mont.
At the start it felt like he was trying to surround with pressure. Coordination of physical and raged attacks, accompanied by the deadly threat of the needle-like blades. There was one mont when my vision and hearing began to blur, disappearing into nothing.
But I countered, using Sensory Veil and intent to block out foreign Force.
The attempt ca in half a second too late, and I felt sothing nick my foot. Not deep—we were friends after all, but enough to know it would’ve been serious enough in a real battle. But still, a fist that should have knocked the air from my lungs failed to find purchase.
That bought ti. Elric’s strikes kept coming at high volu, all of it both physical and magical.
Instinct pulled at . I t the blades directly, catching them when I could, tossing them at each other—each strike causing Elric to pause half a mont. All the while, I let my fingers trace an invisible fuse through the air. A thin, trembling string of ember that ran between the lashes of Elric’s blaze.
The explosions would detonate when he moved too close, causing a misstep. A mont to breathe for , and for him to reset. I’d abandon the idea of causing a large enough explosion to ss the entire place up. It wasn’t a practical strategy.
Not for two people that would survive it in near equal asure.
Borrowing Luna’s sight would have made it more obvious, but even now, absent that borrowed clarity, the flow was there. I was near the sa edge I’d stood on in the sandstorm when everything had been clear.
This was close to that feeling, only more violent. Threads of natural current, rerouted by Elric’s intent, violently ripped away from its original path. The ripples pulsed where his will clenched.
It wasn’t perfect. A shard slashed across my forearm, a clean line of fire that bit through fabric and skin. Another nicked my cheek. But, I continued, pushing him back. Less attacks landed on . The retaliation from his barrier began to dim.
Suddenly, Elric adapted. He began to compress his volu, concentrating the fla-tendrils into a ring. The air thickened as the circle rose, tendrils breathing up and down with the flow of the wind.
They lunged inward as a dozen synchronized whips. Each lash sought to find the gaps I left while I danced along the beach.
At one point the circle beca the only thing in sight. The shore narrowed to that ring. The walls rose, trapping inside. His blades had disappeared, but now, more and more whips lashed at .
I realized, with a quiet flare of panic, that Elric’s control wasn’t like usual. The ripples I’d been seeing grew less jagged, smoothing into a steady flow. His manipulation beca part of the channel.
Every ti I dived away, there was sothing else to greet . Every attack causing my focus to dwindle, my attacks to fade away. There was only him, standing there, hands moving in motions with the attacks.
Heat licked my hair; the sll of singed salt filled my nose.
But really. I felt fine. Though I’d been moving around like a wild man—most of my attacks weren’t heavily charged. My movents looked erratic, but were controlled and smooth. I took in the rhythm of his motions, and moved within that cadence.
It was a delicate balance between us.
Shards suddenly rushed in from outside the wall. I let two cut across my shoulder, then retaliated, slinging a captured blade in an arc that clipped his shoulder, scoring a shallow line into him. Finally breaking past the barrier.
But he hardly reacted.
The wall tightened inward, the attacks quickening. Elric’s brow furrowed as sweat stread down his temples in glowing beads. It was obvious the control had a cost. Each breath he drew looked harder than the last, the lines around his eyes deeper.
Then, without fanfare—as I dodged several more tendrils of fla—the fire dimd. The whips eased, the ring vanished. The last shard clattered into sand, before disappearing entirely into particles of light.
Elric dropped to his rear, lungs heaving, his face streaked with disbelief. I jogged over and sat down beside him, the sand warm under my palms. His chest rose and fell like a bellows.
“Who won?” I asked, grinning despite the cut on my cheek.
He made a string of incoherent noises, a growl followed by several grumbles, before whatever pride or stubbornness in him left. “That one’s on you,” he said, finally.
I laughed, the sound a soft release. “What the heck was that? Felt like I was being read like a book.”
He wiped a hand across his mouth, breath rasping. “I should say that to you,” he said, the words unguarded. “Watching you move… it was like you were riding sothing. After I realized it, sothing started to—I don’t know, click, I guess. It’s hard to even tell what I was doing.”
I scrubbed my sleeve over my face, the cuts already disappearing, ignoring his ability to learn and adjust so quickly. “You never finished earlier,” I reminded him.
Elric pushed himself up. His eyes were bright, as if the heat of the fight had burned away any hesitation. “Yeah. So, here’s the plan,” he said, a dangerous grin spreading. “, you, and Thea start taking down outlying towns. Bring down the royal authority outside the capital. Hit their supply lines, seize territory.”
The words ca out quickly, like he’d been dying to say them. “We spread our nas. Move quickly. And repeat town after town, converting anyone along the way. I’m sure so will follow, and those who don’t, so be it.”
I let the idea land. “And we beco targets,” I finished for him.
His laugh was low. He nodded. “And the one’s here should be mostly ignored,” he said. “Besides, what other choice do we have?”
We sat there, two figures on a black shore. “So, we start a campaign to draw attention, recruit, and cause problems for the country.”
I flexed my fingers. My body didn’t feel beaten, but wired. “Recruitnt,” I said at last, tasting the word.
Elric shrugged. “It’ll make preparing for your tournant an issue.”
He wasn’t wrong. Serith had advised us to go to her library, but I couldn’t really care less about it. I had my own thods of getting stronger. I could go when the danger to our family was reduced. The fights in the tournant were an unfortunate necessity, but I was gaining more confidence in my own strength to deal with them.
And that look she’d given before too. There was sothing in it that struck as odd. Not fear. When I had the image in my head, it felt more like… excitent?
Apart from that, I couldn't help but notice that Elric hadn’t used any of his usual pain-inducing abilities—focusing instead on his blades and fire. Then again, he hadn’t touched physically… He couldn’t be that much stronger right?
“Let’s head back,” Elric said, clapping my back causing to jump.
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