Lady of Curses

By the looks of it, Aella's only option was to get close to him and kill him using her knives. The problem was that the mage had magic that had a good amount of range, while Aella didn't. Another disadvantage for Aella was that they were in a somewhat open space, so Aella didn't have anything to hide behind and was just a clear target for the mage's spells.

Her only somewhat ranged weapon was now unavailable, because when she dodged the fire potion she lost her way to her fire potions. She could try and wait out when the fire goes out and then grab and use the fire potions, but she didn't know how long will that be, plus she wasn't keen on spending that time evading spells.

Even now as she was thinking Aella was on the move, trying to not get hurt as the spells flew past her from time to time, and even then she wasn't capable of dodging all of them, she didn't sustain major injury just some scratches here and there, but if this continued she will eventually go down.

She could try and wait for one of the raging bandits to wander here and attack the mage, but again that was a waiting game, and there is a possibility that even if she waited the mad bandit doesn't come here. So her only real option is to get close and kill the mage herself.

She grabbed a knife in her right arm and got ready. The mage shortly glanced at the knife but didn't change anything, and let loose another wind blade. 

Aella was ready, she got out of the spells way, and the moment it moved past her she sprinted. She could feel the uncomfortable stone floor under her bare feet, as she ran, but Aella didn't pay any mind to it, her full attention was only on the mage and to get closer to him. 

As she got closer she saw the mage prepare another spell, so Aella put more effort into running and her speed rose a little bit. Soon Aella arrived at the incline and started to run downward angle, her speed again increased, but that didn't come free in this situation. 

The mage shot another wind blade, and Aella tried to dodge it. Unfortunately, she couldn't completely dodge it, because her momentum was fully on running straight, and she was running straight at the spell. 

She saw the blade made of wind coming at her as she tried to evade it. Aella succeded at getting out of the way mostly, but as the blade went past her, she felt her body's right side shift to her back a little bit as if something impacted the side. 

Aella felt that she got cut, she felt the pain and the blood leaving her body, but she didn't care, her dark eyes didn't shift away from her target not even a moment. 

The mage saw this and got ready to cast another wind blade, his goal was to take Aella down with this last spell. Halfway through his casting, his face went pale, realizing that his spell won't be ready before the tattered dark lady got to him, and similar to him Aella too understood that, and she couldn't help but smile. 

Seeing the smile the mage started to panic more, he saw his end in the lady's dark eyes. Not wanting to die the mage did something that normally is considered stupid, but he had no other options.

Aella was almost on him when she saw the mage's expression change, she was only a few steps away from the mage, and as she got ready her knife, she saw a sudden wind ball form right in front of the mage.

The ball looked like a deformed sphere that constantly tried to smooth itself but failed. Aella didn't have time to comprehend what it was before the ball expended. The next moment Aella felt an impact and then the weightlessness as she sailed through the air. 

Aella saw the cave's ceiling as she rapidly flew through the air. For Aella it felt like this moment would last forever but that idea went out the window the instant she felt herself impact the ground. Instantly there was pain coming from her spine as she made contact with the stone ground, and then a burning sensation as she slid for a distance before completely stopping.

Aella couldn't get up, her back was in agony. Her body hurt, the slashes from the wind blades. the impact that injured her front and now even her back. She wanted to scream, to curse, hoping it would help her. 

''Hhhhh...'' But nothing came out, her lungs were depleted of air. 

'What the fuck was that?' It was the only thing Aella could think about right now. She was so close to killing the mage before he pulled out this stunt.

Aella just laid there, she heard the battle still going on so that was a positive, but even then anyone could come and kill her, she was in a bad spot. She wanted to close her eyes, to rest, to let all the pain go away, but she couldn't, she still had a job to do.

Still in pain, Aella rolled to her side, to see if she could find the mage. Her vision got a little bit blurry as she tried to move, but that didn't hamper her much and she slowly got on her side. She was now lying on her left side, her vision was still a little blurry so she couldn't see that well, especially in the distance, so while her vision cleared up she looked at the wound she got from the wind blade. 

It looked like the wind blade had done some damage, the gash was deep and there was a lot of blood coming out of it, her dress and skin were covered in crimson liquid. Her eyes slowly recovered and she started to see normally, looking at the wound she saw that the sight wasn't nice, but she will have to deal with it later, now she had to see how the mage was doing. 

Some distance away, she saw the mage. He was in a similar state as she herself was. The mage was lying on his stomach, with blood coming out of his mouth, his robe was in tatters, and Aella could see the man's green eyes looking right back at her. 

She saw the pain and hatred in his glare. Slowly the man started to move his hand, he outstretched his bloody right hand. It took a moment for Aella to figure out what he was doing, but the moment she did, her eyes widened and she got ready. 

The mage used another wind blade, but compared to the other ones he used, this one was smaller and slower, so Aella even with her injured body got time to get out of the way. She used all her weight to roll out of the way. The roll wasn't gentle on her wounded body, so she had to grit her teeth, as she endured the pain. 

The spell didn't hit her, but she was still in pain. She quickly looked at the mage and understood that he was getting ready to launch another spell. Aella didn't know how much mana the mage still had, but she knew that it should be low, so one of her options was to roll around until he exhausts his mana reserves. But she didn't want to roll around with her injured body so she tried a different option. 

She looked at the mage, and then crimson smoke came out of her chest. The smoke quickly formed into one line and shot at the mage. Aella hoped that now when the mage was weak, she could use her [Curse of madness] on him, and this time succeed. 

The mage's eyes widened when he saw the crimson smoke coming at him, he couldn't do anything but just watch. In seconds the smoke arrived where the mage was, and flew straight at him. When the smoke made contact with the mage, his body quickly absorbed the smoke and after a short, while his eyes turned red, Aella had succeded.