Sorcerer from Another World

I looked back to Maradon. 

We both looked worse for wear. His hair was fried off his now smooth scalp and a faint white smoke misted from smoked skin. The claws had been crushed and his toes now bent out like tree branches. Fresh blood seeped out of his mouth, fingers and toes. 

In imitation of his protective shroud, I constructed my own made of the storm. The blue bolts sparked and stretched out from my back.  

He rushed at me. We traded blows in a ruthless midair melee of pressing boundaries. Attacks of lightning against shadow. He feinted with his dagger that I met with my staff, then unleashed a furious attack with his spear.

I blocked it with a shield of pure mana. He kept on the attack with a toying thrust with the spear that he doubled. The second slipped past my mana shield but the spear point blasted away my storm shroud.  

He charged forward and we rammed our respective boundaries of shadow and lightning. We wrestled through the air in a twirling of blue and black. We tumbled and arced towards the earth.

We crashed near the battlefront about a hundred feet off the breach where the main battle was happening. Our clash decimated the surrounding area further; neither of us gave ground. 

A force wrenched Maradon back. It had Morgana’s familiar presence. 

Maradon rose up once more. He rolled his shoulder back and his chest heaved. He was tiring from the fight. 

“Nuisance.” He grumbled then pointed his index finger at Morgana. A single beam of chrome shaded energy fired. 

The umbra blast pierced through Morgana’s hip and she crumbled, unable to support her weight. No blood spilled. She lay there still, looking back at me, her eyes blinking but stunned. 

My open hand formed into fist. I looked at Maradon who laughed at my expression. My fingers retraced, turning claw-like. I lurched forward, staff in hand.

He shrugged bearing a wide smile, “I’m sorry but the agreement was for single combat. She broke the terms and paid the price.”   

I feigned an easy going smile. 

I walked around Maradon. He paced away as he followed me in a wide circle. I reached Morgana and bent down to a crouch. All the while I kept my eyes and concentration on the enemy.

“I’m okay.” Morgana said in a shaky, pained voice.

“Can you stand?”

I heard a quiet thump, “No.”

Maradon fired another beam of energy at Morgana, but I blocked it with a mana shield. 

Maradon’s hand shook and they broke eye contact for a moment. A nervous smile appeared and then he looked back into my eyes. 

I rose and planted my feet in a strong and wide stance. I pulled back my staff, my muscles tightened as I held strong eye contact with Maradon. A great crack of thunder boomed.

I step forward, and a lance of light shot out from my staff. In a less than a second the blue bolt shattered through the umbra shroud engulfing it in brilliant white light.

I thrusted my other hand in a claw-like grip pulling dozens of my enchanted swords from the breach. They struck and stuck through Maradon, skewering him from head to toe and tearing holes through his wings. I withdrew the swords. He sighed with relief, then stabbed them all in again and he wheezed. I repeated the process three times more. Finally, I closed my fist and the swords penetrated cleanly through Maradon and out again.  

He let out a pained gasp. His eyes faded to dark circles. Thick, gloomy clouds bellowed out from his open wounds. The dark mist grew thick enough to consume him. Still, the dark clouds spread further through to the breach and across town until all of Ferisdarm was covered in darkness. His low mocking laugh carried through the mist. 

In the cloying pitch black, I hobbled back to Morgana. I stretched out a hand to hold her when…

“Perish!” said Maradon in my ear and every other living ear. 

I was thrown and sent tumbling through the air. I saw with my magical senses Morgana fall back into the breach along with her warriors and the faithful. I crashed through another wrecked building. But, that was merely the beginning. 

Ferisdarm was raised on high. Hundreds of metres we were pulled up with Maradon who ascended skywards. Before we reached the clouds he let Ferisdarm go. 

Gravity yanked us down. I spun round, visualled and formed a great cushion of mana to slow the descent. I felt Morgana will the hillfort to slow down through great telekinetic strength. Together we brought Ferisdarm down as gently as we could. 

Ferisdarm crashed back to the earth and all at once stone smashed, wood splintered and flesh burst. Though the damage was great it was not total. I reached out and felt that the majority of the survivors of Ferisdarm still lived. 

I rose up to scan for Maradon. 

Then I felt the weight of a force bear down upon like a god swatting me out of the sky.

My body fell to the earth. People were squished like ants and buildings were further crushed leaving rubble and ruin. Ferisdarm was annihilated as the hillside was crushed into a crater.  

At the bottom of the crater, I was shook from unconsciousness. Galen the Good stood over me. 

“The fight is not over yet, Sorcerer.”

He clasped my hand and picked me up. We hugged briefly. 

“You fought well. I must ask you to fight again for what is left.”

I leaned over my chest and head level with the ground as I tried to simply breathe. 

He patted me on the back. 

“You’re alright.”

I leaned back, “How long have I been out.”

He kept a firm grip on my shoulder, “A moment or two only.” 

Morgana held the invisible weight like Atlas holding up the sky. She protected the dozen of survivors in Ferisdarm. 

“She cannot hold Maradon back for much longer.”

I looked around and felt less than a hundred were still living. The hundreds of corpses littered the crater, but most were puddles of blood or had been eradicated to the extent there was little evidence that they had ever existed. 

“Where’s Iris?”

He looked me in the eye with feverish overly-bright eyes, “I lost sight of her in the confusion. But you must focus. Until Maradon is stopped there is no hope.”

I grunted and huffed in acknowledgement. I walked a few steps away and took sight of my foe. I called down a bolt of lightning that pierced and stung him. 

The great weight was released. My stomach rose and fell as I gulped in large breaths. I picked myself up using my staff to keep my balance. I was wobbly on my feet and the world spun for a few seconds. 

Galen kept a grip on my shoulder. I waited a few moments until the dizziness passed. I looked, once again, skyward and bared my teeth at the Maradon. I rose after him. 

He was filled with holes but I could feel he was still alive. 

I exhaled smoothly and thunder boomed in the dark clouds above. 

“I’ve finally snapped. You cannot endure.” I said. A purple orb dropped from his mouth, but a dead silence fell. “I’m a Gift of Magic. I’ve snapped. The shadows will not avail you. You cannot endure.”   

Arcs of lightning fell like a long claw reaching down from the heavens. They tore Maradon asunder. Legs, stomach and wings ripped off and dropped to the earth. Their chest lurched and he clung to life still. Smoke rose and dark swirls surrounded him then a great hole was ripped out in front of him. He fell through it and disappeared from the battle. 

I looked down at Ferisdarm and saw it was obliterated. But, the fight raged on and the warriors of Ferisdarm had no time to rest as a fresh wave of assault reached the breach. Morgana had kept them alive. Now they had to fight to stay alive. 

I lurched and floundered back to ground level. I gritted my teeth as I tried to maintain control over my falling with style. At the last metre, I dropped and sprawled among dirt and rubble. The jutting pain up my arse was nothing compared to the sheer weight of exhaustion. 

Starfished spread, I was happy to be alive.