Chapter Thirty Three

Round Two

TRACY

"Okay…" Tracy rubbed her palms together. She had just sent the Warriors through a Crossing Point into the Pilgrim's lair. The information Elsa had written in the letter had panned out, and Tracy had managed to accurately teleport the rest into Swynvort. At least, she hoped it was the right place. Otherwise, the Warriors would have been dropped into the cold, freezing sea in the Northwest Region. Nope, it had to be the right place.

Anyway, she really hoped the plan would work. Honestly, it was all a bit complicated and confusing, but it was a necessary bane in order for them to succeed. They had failed before because of a direct approach and being picked apart by the League. But this time, the Warriors were going to reverse that strategy. Divide and conquer.

Since Anna and Tracy couldn't be in the same place at the same time because of the Qa'nneth, Tracy was going to keep the fight in the Crossing Zone by pulling the Elemental Sorcerers in. That would give Anna and the rest the opportunity to take down the Pilgrim with the help of the Qa'nneth amulet while Tracy held her own in the Crossing Zone. She just had to keep them occupied long enough and away from the Pilgrim and the rest.

Only when she felt it was safe and the threat neutralized would she open up the Crossing Zone to allow the rest to help her fight off the Elemental Sorcerers. Not to boast, but she was probably the only one who could take them all on and survive. She was a Ha'naeth, after all. Till the Warriors sorted things out, she was on her own against them.

"Here goes nothing." She drew her huge breath, and then closed her eyes. Stretching out her arms, she focused on Anna's emotions and locked on to her location. When she felt she had a rough sensing of the room and the hostiles' positions, she moved one of her hands in a giant circular motion above her head. A Crossing Point opened from above, and Tracy stepped away quickly as three figures fell through the portal of purple mist and onto the ground of the Crossing Zone.

Yup. It was the three Elemental Sorcerers. She had got it right, and now she was in for a world of trouble.

"You…" The one Tracy recognized as the fire sorceress growled, getting off the other two sorcerers and brushing herself off.

"Hi." Tracy waved nonchalantly. "Nothing personal." One, two three, four, she began counting in her head.

"Let's make it personal then."

"Okay." Tracy dug in, ready for a fight. All she had to do was stall till enough time had passed and she was sure that the Pilgrim had been dealt with, and then she could let the rest of the Warriors in to assist her. Twelve, thirteen, fourteen…

The fiery sorceress' hands began to glow yellow, then orange, and then red. Wow, Tracy thought to herself. She's angry. The fiery sorceress hurled two balls of fire at Tracy, who dodged them neatly, circling round. The other two sorcerers had gotten up and were now standing alongside the first. Great.

"I'm guessing it's too late to say welcome to the Crossing Zone?" Tracy glanced at three hostiles. Fifty four, fifty five, fifty six, fifty seven…

"Oh, we've been here before." The girl with electricity said, and the boy, presumably her brother, nodded and looked ready for a fight.

"Ah. Cool." Tracy glanced round as she noticed the fiery sorceress circling around to her back. "So you know…there's no earth to manipulate in here, right?" she gestured at the boy.

"Oh, Jordan knows." His sister said.

"A pretty neat trick, don't you think? Evening the odds a little. It was my idea." Tracy said proudly, stalling for time. Seventy one, seventy two, seventy three…

"Don't worry, you still have enough on your plate as it is." Jolts of electricity jumped between her hands, and she aimed them at Tracy.

"Woah!" Tracy brought her own hands together, and a dark purple lance made out of black magic materialized in her hands, and she gripped it tightly in front of her. The lance absorbed the electricity from the attack as if it was a lightning rod, and she wielded it carefully, glancing behind her back.

The fiery sorceress had positioned herself directly behind her back. Smart. Tracy knew that either way she faced, she would have a blind spot, leaving herself open to attack from either enemy. There was only one way to rectify this.

"Come on, then. What are ya waiting for, Sparkles? Can I call you Sparkles?" Tracy taunted the second girl.

"Cool nickname, but no." 'Sparkles' sounded amused, and formed a long tendril of electricity in her hand. Using it like a whip, she lashed out at Tracy with it.

Tracy dropped to the ground, and the tendril swung over her head, catching the fiery sorceress by surprise instead.

"Gah!" The fiery sorceress grunted as the electricity jolted through her, and Sparkles drew it back quickly before it could do any further damage to her ally.

"Sorry!" Sparkles winced.

"Grrr…" The first girl growled, staring at Tracy who was still crouched low.

"Technically, that wasn't really my fault." She shrugged, and then rolled out of the way swiftly as a ball of flames was thrown inches from her face. Tracy got to her feet, now out of the middle, eyes darting left and right at the three sorcerers. One forty, One forty one…

The boy called Jordan couldn't use his powers in the Crossing Zone, so he wasn't exactly much of a threat right now. The main focus was playing keep away from Sparkles and the fiery one. That sounded easier than it actually was.

"Stop avoiding the inevitable. There's no escape." The fiery sorceress inched closer toward her.

"You're kind of right. There's no escape, for you." Tracy pointed at them. "See, if you kill me, you'll have no way out of the Crossing Zone."

"Oh, don't worry, we won't kill you." Sparkles said.

"We're gonna make you wish you were dead." The fiery sorceress added dangerously.

"Man, that's dark." Tracy arched her eyebrows. Two purple lances of black magic formed in her hands, and she got ready to move. Two eleven, two twelve…

The two enemy sorceresses launched simultaneous attacks at Tracy, and she warded off jolts of electricity and balls of fire as fast as she could. She ran sidewards, holding up her lances in defence as the attacks kept coming. She took a huge leap, dropped low and hurled one of the lances at the fiery sorceress.

Before the lance could reach her, it was melted in midair by a massive heatwave, and Tracy could feel the temperature spike drastically. Sweating, she got to her feet with the remaining lance in her left hand. Switching to her right, she held it up quickly in front of her as a bolt of electricity surged towards her face. The lance absorbed the energy, and with her other hand, Tracy created a shield made out of black magic, protecting her from a few more hurls of fiery balls by the first girl.

However, the combined attacks from both sorceresses were beginning to overwhelm her, and she sank to a knee. Still holding up her lance and shield, they continued to absorb the impact from both simultaneous attacks which were annoyingly relentless. The two sorceresses inched closer and closer to Tracy, till they were literally a few steps away. The sheer force and magnitude of both their attacks proved to be way too much, and Tracy's legs gave way beneath her. The attacks ceased, and the two sorceresses, joined by Jordan, towered over their fallen prey.

"Had enough?" Sparkles asked.

Two ninety eight, two ninety nine, three hundred. It was time. Tracy chortled to herself.

"What's so funny?" The fiery sorceress asked.

"You just ran out of time." Tracy grinned triumphantly at her two confused enemies. She shot out a hand behind her, and a Crossing Point opened. "Here comes the cavalry."

MELODY

"That way," Melody glanced down the dark corridor.

"Are you sure?" Kristoff asked.

"That side leads to a dead end." Melody gestured at the opposite side. "Prometheus and his mercenaries could have only gone done this way. Come on."

"The one good thing about this passages," Kristoff said as he ran alongside Melody. "No forks. They lead to only one place at a time."

"Probably something to do with the old designs. This place looks like it's been here for centuries."

"It probably has." Kristoff said as they neared a stairwell. "If the whole League being around for centuries thing is true."

"Look." Melody slowed to a halt, and pointed across the parapet. A large hall could be seen below, where many young sorcerers were scattered, all engaged in what seemed to be…training.

"They're training?" Kristoff arched an eyebrow.

"I think so." Melody still couldn't believe her eyes. So many people with magic abilities all hidden away from the world…the League was way bigger than she had imagined. So far she had only encountered the Elemental Sorcerers, but the Pilgrim had stashed away so many young people for her own nefarious schemes and missions! That made Melody's blood boil.

"I see him!" Kristoff pointed at the edge of the training hall, and Melody squinted to see where he was gesturing to. A group of men in black, led by one in a cloak and hood, raced across the training hall, pushing the sorcerers out of the way.

"Meet me down there." Melody removed an arrow from her quiver, nocked it, and aimed.

"Wait, hold on-"

"There's no time!" Melody let fly, and a grappling arrow with a solid line flew out.

Before Kristoff could get in another word, she anchored one end to the parapet, and as the other end found its mark in the ground of the training hall, the daredevil girl hooked her bow up on the line and launched herself off the parapet without a second thought.

Sliding down the cable, she saw Prometheus turn as he noticed the line. But by then it was too late for him. She stretched out both legs and bent them a little at the knees. Prometheus took the full force of the impact, rolling across the ground at her kick. She unhooked her bow and dropped to the ground, not waiting to reach the end of the line. By this time, a sizeable group of the young sorcerers had gathered round to watch the intruder take on the entire group of mercenaries and the Pilgrim's second in command.

"You." Prometheus stood to his feet, flanked by his mercenaries.

"Yeah. Me." Melody gripped her bow tightly. From the corner of her eye, she saw Kristoff running to join up with her.

"I don't want to fight." Prometheus said, his tone unreadable. "Leave me alone."

"Can't do that." Kristoff joined Melody's side. "You've committed some pretty serious crimes, and we're not letting you get away."

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Prometheus shed his heavy cloak, revealing his leather jacket and hood, and his usual assortment of weapons. The bow, a quiver, scabbard and a couple of knife holsters around his belt. "Last chance."

Melody set her jaw. "You're not getting away this time."

"As you wish." She imagined that he was narrowing his eyes behind the mask, and then he called out loudly. "Everyone out."

The sorcerers that crowded the training hall cleared out of the space, heading up to the bleachers above to spectate the fight.

He turned to his own mercenaries, which numbered about a dozen. "You will not interfere."

"Oh don't worry," Kristoff said, drawing two knives in icepick grips. "They'll have their hands full."

Prometheus removed his Martin Panther Recurve bow from his back and stood with his feet at shoulder width apart. "Let's get this over with."

Melody drew back her own Hoyt Satori bow and narrowed her eyes. "With pleasure."

Author's Commentary:

Well things are getting interesting. The simultaneous battles going on between the various combatants were incredibly hard to pace and develop, but they were extremely fun to write. I haven't had this much fun in a very long time. And just to keep you excited, at the time of this writing, I've already begun working on a sequel which is going to be bigger, more explosive and dangerous than ever. But for now, stay stoked for what comes next! And yes, to answer your question, things are only going to ramp up from this point onwards.