Moments that lasted for hours, it seemed, were not that precious in times of stress, for as the two casters stared one another down, determining the best way of taking the other down. Sylphid above hadn't even been able to turn around.
Izaneus once more mentally thanked Tseyphalk for their assistance. Else he probably wouldn't be able to stand. His eyes weighed heavy like lead, his lack of physical exercise having a large effect on his stamina. Couple that with his already liberal use of his magic, and one could reasonably infer that the boy was exhausted. His eyes narrowed at the staff his opponent held tight. Her grasp being just as powerful as the magic she wielded.
Izaneus quite understood it would be a test of skill, not power, that would win him the day. Or even just a couple more minutes while his… associates? He didn't quite know what to refer to them as. Regardless, he needed time.
Fouquet was obviously experienced, and powerful. Fighting toe to toe with her was not an option by any means, as she could likely smash any ward Iza could conjure with any direct attack. There were plenty of unknowns in the situation. If he had fought her before, and after she had the staff, he could reasonably judge the power difference it offered her, and how difficult the battle would be afterward.
But he didn't have time to figure that out. He needed to survive, and she was already beginning her first attack.
Fouquet's hooded visage stood still, examining the boy who'd thrown lightning at her, an impressive feat to be sure, at least by her standards. She quite understood the gossip about this boy. Seeing as she spent plenty of time around the academy in the first place. But this only proved those rumors. He could cast without a wand. Which was… worrying to say the least.
Irrational fears of his potential elven lineage forced themselves to the front of her mind. Making her panic slowly rise at the thought of fighting an actual Elf. Monstrous beings capable of so much destruction… She'd no clue how this fight was going to turn out. Her best chance would be to throw something fairly powerful his way. Judge his reaction, and gauge his power.
When He and his friend were slinging spells at her, They'd been fairly powerful, but were they the extent of his power? This was to find out.
Raising her staff, she slammed the butt to the ground, creating a shockwave Through the earth they stood on, raising generous spikes as the ground slowly began cracking, and forming toward Izaneus in the form of the aforementioned implements of impalement.
Izaneus swung his hand upward in retaliation. His hand gracefully controlling the arcane forces around him, and out in front of him jutted a thick wall of stone. Which the spikes failed to penetrate.
Flourishing a gesture, the wall opened a large round hole in the center, and Izaneus threw forth a raging ball of Flame, which soared to Fouquet, until the golem next to her swat it out of existence with little effort. An explosion ensued, but the thief was spared the brunt of the spell.
This proved two things, firstly. The golem could react on its own, without her direct control. Which was mildly worrying.
Secondly, Izaneus truly would need to be tactful in order to keep his life, as this brief exchange of power showed him all he needed of their current difference. In fact, he was lucky her attempts to stab him with rock and earth fell short of his own wall, she seemed surprised as well. If her wait to cast again said anything.
Izaneus needed a plan before she decided to throw a more powerful spell forth.
First plan of action, distract.
Conjuring the illusion of several similar balls of flame similar to his last floating around him, he made sure to mix a couple of real ones in.
It was here Fouquet also got to work. Not wanting to leave him room to attack, she pressed hers. Rotating the end of the staff clockwise, making sure to gather enough of this strange magic into its core for maximum effect.
For some inexplicable reason, whenever she held the staff, she could feel a different type of energy flow through her, and for an even more strange notion. It was familiar.
She had no time to dwell on such useless thoughts at the moment however, she needed to focus on killing this boy.
After sufficiently enhancing her spell's effect by what she assumed was tenfold, she swun it horizontally, causing the earth around them to shake and crash, before a large earthly structure entrapped Izaneus within, all the light around him being snuffed at once. Izaneus felt his chance of escape low, and painful thoughts began to surface.
" Oh gods above… I'm going to die, aren't I?" Panic had started to settle, he threw blasts upon blasts of pure force at the walls above and around Trying desperately to escape his tomb. To no avail. He tried contorting the earth below him to escape. Yet, it seemed that at this point, even the ground he was on had become hers.
He was trapped… practically defenseless, and waiting for her to finish him off. He was terrified, frozen with fear at the thought of death. The shadows creeped forward to him, the groaning of the earthen structure would serve as his tomb, and trap him.
And yet..
It was here he noticed, the back of his hand was glowing a touch.
Louise anxiously waited for Tabitha to turn around, and as she did so. Suddenly she found herself rather wishing she hadn't.
In the distance from where they flew, where Izaneus and Fouquet were currently duking it out, sat a large structure created from the surrounding dirt and stone.
There was no sight of Izaneus.
Anxious anticipation built most heavily within her smallish frame. He had to be okay right? He was Iza! He knew magic she didn't! He was exploring complex Formulae that Louise couldn't comprehend!
So why was she so unbelievably scared? She knew Izaneus had to be fine, and yet she couldn't help but feel an unmistakable fear in her chest. Her eyes started to water, as the worst came to mind. She did her best to remain stoic, however the fear that gripped her slowly became more and more prevalent as they neared the battlefield.
And as they did so, the structure collapsed in on itself, almost as though the earth had called it back in the form of a fantastic implosion, Leaving nothing but the original ground that was once there.
No Izaneus.
Her breath hitched in her throat, Louise did what she could to speak. Yet her voice did not follow her commands, and all that she managed to squeeze out of herself was a mild whimper, which she immediately regretted letting anything loose at all.
She stayed silent, soaking in the truth. Tabitha hung her head low in respect for the man she'd barely known, he'd healed Sylphid, and herself, and that was all that she needed.
" Huh?" a low toned voice spoke behind them, confusion laden in its tone.
Louise whipped around, more than ready to blast whatever had managed its way up to them off to the plains below.
To find her familiar sitting still with an arched eyebrow and a new fear seeing her hostility.
"Louise! Wait!" Izaneus shouted, trying to deter her from blasting him off the dragon.
Only to be frantically embraced.
Confused, but soon realizing what it must have looked like from her perspective. He felt a twinge of guilt, treating her so coldly during their study sessions when she obviously was glad he was okay. What made him think he could treat someone like that? It wasn't her fault his apathetic nature was on the rise, it was likely his own, and his inability to move on from that past.
"I'm fine, you're okay, and we have bigger problems right now…" Was all he could say in response to her emotions and eventual Catharsis.
She nodded, pulling herself away from him, and sitting forward, readying another pass, and this time, she wouldn't allow her familiar to be thrown off. What a terrible mage she was, letting something so horrid befall her companion.
Never Again.
Meanwhile, Izaneus studied the glowing runes on his hand, ever since his arrival, he hadn't given them much thought, yet. In this moment, he felt himself empowered and enlightened, his senses sharper than they'd ever been.
Trailing his hand through the air, it was as though the magic of the world had given him full access, as his hand trailed slowly through the air. He could feel it all. As though the air itself had become thicker than he'd ever known it. Was this how he'd been able to conjure that stasis field back then? He'd never done anything like it in the past.
Fouquet was beginning her usual assault again, molding a lance of earth before his eyes, looking to finish what she started. As Izaneus studied, and watched the spell form, what once was daunting, and inexplicably powerful. Suddenly became simple, and single minded.
The lance was launched toward them, moving at a speed that would surely sunder buildings of tempered steel.
Izaneus raised his hand, and grasped the spell with his power, stopping it mid-air and deconstructing it to its fundamental form, before using his newfound enlightenment to refashion it to his own design. Carving curved grooves into the sides of it, and spinning it clockwise in a drill like fashion. Firing it forth with the force unlike anything anyone on the Dragon Sylphid had seen before.
Fouquet stood speechless at what she'd just seen. What just happened?
She couldn't react, too deep in her shock to do anything of actual use.
The Golem she created lurched forth, diving itself in the path of the projectile, which carved through it as easily as one cut through the air.
The golem fell forth, promptly weakened, but not entirely defeated, and the projectile sat snugly behind Fouquet the Crumbling Dirt. If it had been a hair lower, she'd have no head to produce the amount of panic and overwhelming shock she felt. The tables, it seems, had been thoroughly turned.
Louise stared at her Familiar in just as much surprise, had… he always been able to do such a thing? Surely not? If that were the case, he'd have done it when they first pursued the thief.
Then when, pray tell, did he acquire such strength?
Nothing she could think of explained this phenomena. Tabitha had much the same thought process, however. Her thoughts drifted more toward admiration for the sheer amount of knowledge and experience needed to perform such a feat. She'd no clue something like it was even potentially possible.
Likely, because it wasn't. Not for anyone of ordinary caliber in any case.
Izaneus studied his senses, determining the limit of his abilities. Quickly determining that as he was now. He couldn't see them, yet, he could see, and now feel, everything else. Pulling a flame to hand, it felt as though his understanding of the reality he was drawing on had deepened. Allowing more powerful invocations. He felt… amazing, there were no words to describe it.
The flame he held felt deeper, its meaning more powerful than the candle light he had held before.
Was this the potential his mother had seen within him? Had he awakened to its purest form?
Likely not, he felt something more at play than a tad of talent. Regardless however, he would ruminate on this transformation at a later date. This was a battle and he would treat it as such.
With the snap of his fingers, the flames he conjured not moments before multiplied, and coalesced into one abyssal orb of death. It's flames taking on blues and purples in color, It's heat rising by the moment he launched it forward. Watching as it streaked through the air.
Still too stunned to react to what the wizard was performing, Fouquet tried to comprehend the situation idly, until the attack was headed straight for her.
Fumbling with the staff artifact she'd stolen, The thief struggled to conjure a wall of rock amidst her panic, which crumbled like sand on impact, but did protect her nonetheless. She struggled to stand, and even to look at the aerial torment above. She pulled Stone and Earth Forth, conjuring javelins of Earthen might beneath Sylphid. Which struck not against the beast, but a shield that was thrown down, crushing her weakness beneath it as it crashed onto the ground, leaving a cloud of dust in it's wake.
Storm clouds were beginning to form above, and with them tempestuous winds.
She struggled once more to conjure power to her fingertips, before stopping dead in her tracks.
"You're outmatched, you know this now. Surrender. For your own sake." A menacing voice reverberated through her skull. And in the chill of the winds she saw two unmistakably lethal Eyes stare at her from the skies above, illuminated in Azure glory, The rest of his figure cloaked by the rising storm.
Lightning crashed, silhouetting his menacing gaze.
However, Fouquet couldn't surrender, if she did, They would surely know, and come for her. She tried to continue pulling power from the staff to do her best. She... She could take this... thing down..
"Try, I Dare You." spoke the voice, behind her ear, and once more lightning crashed, as if by design.
She whipped around, trying to find her target, and hoping with all her might that it wasn't the demon in the air.
She turned back around to face the dragon hovering above now, and came face to face with fear incarnate, with glowing Azure eyes that pierced her soul.
The demon stepped closer, she stepped back, and the Golem stepped forth. Swinging it's hulking fist down at the nightmare before her.
It's boulder of a hand crashed unto the grass, seemingly crushing... whatever it was that terrified her, indenting the earth with a mighty roar.
Fouquet smiled, relieved.
Until the thunder above became her enemy, smiting her creation with as little effort as one would flick a fly, with a roaring strike of lightning. The Golem fell, and this time, for good. As its form crumbled, the being behind its corpse stood still, its head focused on the sky, and its hand outstretched toward it.
Then it looked back at her, and finally. Nothing was in its way.
It took one step and was in front of her again. She fell back fear clouding her, making her surroundings feel much darker than they were adding to her feelings.
It crouched, and waved its hand in her direction, and suddenly, she was exhausted… her eyes as heavy as lead...
The clouds parted, the glow in his hand faded, and suddenly, Izaneus felt much the same. Exhausted, he fell unconscious, and allowed the dreamy void to take him.
Louise stared as they started to land, what… what had she just witnessed? Shakily climbing off of Sylphids powerful form she slowly approached her familiar. Her eyes filled with a mixture of emotions, one moment he was up in the air with them, and the next he'd been in front of Fouquet, calling lightning down, and Annihilating the Golem they'd done such little damage to over the course of the battle. Not only that, but his demeanor completely changed as well, she'd never seen him like that. Even when he was particularly annoyed with her inability to grasps concepts of his magic he found simple. Yet... he almost seemed bloodthirsty... What was that..?
She felt terrified of his power, proud of his abilities as her familiar, and most of all, Curious, as to how that all had happened.
Approaching the unconscious form of both The renowned Fouquet, and her familiar, she stroked the hair away from his eyes, gasping as a tendril of shadow embed itself into his Iris. She opened his eye quickly, to see if something had hurt him.
No changes.. no blood... not an injury of any sort. What.. was going on?
She needed to get him back to the Academy, that was all she knew right now.
She attempted to use magic to levitate him…. To no avail. Sighing, she did her best to lug the bastard over her shoulder. She'd give him a mouthful later..
Tabitha, meanwhile, stepped loser to Fouquet, grasping the the staff she held, and feeling the world wash over her, her eyes now witnessing a different world from the one she was accustomed to, wisps of powerful magic focusing around the implement she held, she turned around, following other, less opaque wisps, which led themselves to Louise and Izaneus respectively, but mostly the latter.
With a hum of contemplation, she decided to pursue this phenomena further in her own time.
With a small incantation she conjured ropes which promptly wrapped themselves around the unconscious thief. And with another, Fouquet was levitating slowly behind the Chevalier.
It would be a long ride to the Academy.
She couldn't wait to get back to reading.
Hey Everyone! Delightful to post here again, I had a lot of fun with this chapter! I REEEAAALLY hope I got across some important points and emotions. Cause I felt a lot during this one, and all of it was delightfully invigorating.
IN any case, I'm beyond happy you're all enjoying this, cause I definitely am. As always, let's make this into something Amazing! Until next time folks! Goodnight!