Chapter 38
The first pass was over before Louise had quite registered that it was even begun.
Blades of wind had struck and cleaved Wardes into seven pieces. Had he been formed of flesh, the monster would have instantly died from the assault. Instead, he had struck in turn.
Three red lines formed from his fingertips welled up on Karin's cheek as he passed by.
She paused for a moment to touch them, and draw away drops of red, before returning her unimpressed focus to the traitor.
"I'm stronger than you, now." Wardes leers. "I'm [i]invincible[/i]!"
"Air hammer." Is Karin's simple reply.
The spell is named for its effect, wind gathering together into a concussive orb of force. A beginner, or average mage, would be satisfied with its initial size, roughly that of a clenched fist, or the head of a laborer's small hammer. With time and invested effort, however, the size and effect of the spell would grow.
An air hammer compressing wind and force into an orb the size of a cannon shot, or of a grown man's head, was considered impressive and the sign of a mighty mage.
The sphere of force Karin released was like all the wind of an entire hurricane had been compressed into the size of a stagecoach. Wardes was instantly smashed apart.
His laughter didn't cease, even as lightning gathered together and surged, stretching out into claws lancing for her side.
"Wind shield."
The spell itself is a simple zone of stilled and hardened air, preventing or slowing passage.
The more inventive do not still the air, but move it, spinning like a localized tornado, and flinging objects away.
Wardes soars a bit, before halting in midair, and lunges past to open another gash across Karin's collarbone, dangerously close to her throat.
"What's wrong? [i]Karin[/i]. You look... tired. Where is it, your infamous Heavy Wind?" Wardes says, mockingly. "You've been in retirement too long. You've gotten soft. How long has it been since you've so much as fought in a border skirmish? Five years? Ten? You're even weaker than back then!"
[b]"Die."[/b] Louise interrupts, standing shakily, and Wardes' body is blasted apart. He howls as he reforms.
"... You're interrupting me, Louise." He snarls.
"You are a fool, Wardes." The Heavy Wind sighs.
One hundred invisible blades carve through the Lightning Bolt.
"Gragh!" Wardes snarls, as he takes form once more.
"There is no merit to measuring yourself against someone else."
"Wretched-!"
"I will definitely. [b]Kill you.[/b]" Louise hisses, blasting him apart again.
"Am I stronger than him, today? Am I more skilled than her? Am I superior, today, to that person? All of it is irrelevant. There is only one suitable question."
"Karin..." Wardes snarls, and lunges.
An Air Hammer drives him back.
"Every day. Am I stronger than I was before?" Karin says, somberly.
An explosion blasts Wardes to pieces.
"Through terrible means, you are stronger now, than I was then." Karin admits freely. Then her eyes become sharp and hard. "[i]So am I![/i]"
There is a howl of bestial fury as Wardes rises, and the battle continues.
It seems like an even match, or relatively so.
On the one side of things, Karin had already entered the fray weary from working great magics, and Louise was heavily injured. But working in tandem, even as their wounds bled, Wardes could not close in time to strike so much as a single further blow.
On the other, Wardes was impossible to truly harm the way a normal human might be. But with every blow struck, he seemed to reform just that much slower, just that bit more clumsily.
And through the whole endeavor, he had not cast so much as a single spell, instead fighting like a simple, though immensely powerful, animal.
In the end, it was becoming a contest of nothing more than endurance. The deciding factor wasn't going to be who was killed first, but whose drive to continue wore thin, who's healing slowed too far to be relevant.
It was a race against time, to simply and repeatedly inflict damage without being harmed, until the monster could no longer recover from its own wounds.
And then Karin paused, to simply and without expression point upwards.
Wardes looked, without seeming able to help himself.
In the sky, and approaching the earth rapidly and nose-first, was the Reconquista airship. Rumia was standing on its deck, arms outstretched and grinning widely, like a child running through the wind and pretending to fly like a bird.
Wardes is no longer human.
Even so, he freezes for a moment.
A heartbeat, as it approaches the earth, through him, at full speed.
Another, as his eyes widen, and his jaw starts to move.
And then it crashes down to the earth fully, with what seems like it must be all the force of an enraged god smiting down some sort of heresy.
Silence settles , after the wreckage grinds its way across the court and to a shuddering and crunching stop. Louise can't [i]imagine[/i] what the cost of repairs for [i]this[/i]...
"The students. Evacuate them, we're falling back to-"
Karin is powerful, experienced, and imaginative in the use of her powers.
She is not, however, invulnerable to harm.
This is displayed with a meaty, softly crunching noise as Wardes' fingers emerge from between her ribs. There is an appalled, disbelieving silence, as he pulls his hand back.
"I'm not afraid of you." Wardes spits.
"Are you scared of the dark?" Rumia whispers, from over his shoulder, red eyes gleaming as the rain begins to fall heavier than before.