Bartimaeus

There was a distant sound of explosion – the ground shook beneath us. Abraham halted, blinking. Maduk raised his head, sniffing the air. Both the minotaur and I held our breaths.

I heard a shriek – Anne stumbling past a bewildered Stefan towards the door. Abraham moved.

As if the gods have blessed me with incredible timing, a great force erupted from the walls. Magic crashed through and flowed its way into the room like a great overflowing river. From the smoke and debris, a djinn appeared. She took shape of a built woman with arms that could tear limbs apart, her red skin glistening with sweat.

I didn't care who she was or where she came from. I just took this as an opportunity. I twisted sideways; my uninjured leg kicked up and successfully launched the lion over my head. As he flew, just before slamming against the wall headfirst, Maduk cursed and took a swipe at me. He missed by just a hair's length. I stuck out my tongue in a crude childish manner which only exacerbated Maduk's anger. I didn't wait for his response. I rolled to my side and hopped to my feet; dodging the minotaur's fist. Arms reaching, he took a step closer and leaned heavily against a leg, bending by the waist to get down at my eye level.

He was asking for it.

I raised a hand and let loose; he was met with a full force of a Hurricane. Bands of crashing wind rushed out from within my palm, enveloping the minotaur and lifting him off his feet. Behind him, I could see Maduk getting ready to pounce. I sent the minotaur flying backwards with his heels over his head. With calculated precision, he crashed against Maduk. The two became a tangled mess of shoving limbs.

I bit my lip, feeling my energy being sucked right out of me. An explosion sounded off. I craned my neck. Behind me, through all the dust and debris being kicked up into the air, I spotted the female djinn swiftly dodging attacks made by Abraham. It seemed like I had an ally. A lousy one at that.

This is taking too damn long.

Abraham waved his knife all about him erratically, making large sweeping motions towards the djinn. As stupid as he looked, it was effective. The knife was nothing but pure silver. Just its presence alone made my essence curl. In his other hand, he held a sphere. An Elemental Sphere. He gripped it with such fierceness that I feared that he'll accidentally shatter the glass with his own bare hands. As long as she had him preoccupied, I didn't care. Nathaniel was my priority.

I took a step forward. My breathing hitched. Nathaniel was nowhere to be seen.

I quickly scanned the room. Nowhere.

No. No, no, no.

Suspiciously, Stefan and Anne were missing too. This isn't good. I took another step – my legs gave out.

I crumbled down onto my knees, stilling my shaky hands. A quivering feeling blossomed from the pit of my stomach.

I'm still here. Nathaniel is still alive. That's all I need.

I swallowed my anxiety down. I need to do better than this. I'll make myself useful and help this mystery djinn wipe out this old magician. This was taking way longer than it should have been. He should have been dead long ago. Picking myself up, I took notice of my hand for the first time.

"Shit."

I watched my left hand lose its definition for a few seconds; a blurry mess of oozing essence spilling out from its form. It was almost as if a child had colored me outside the lines. I willed my essence to bring back the shape of my hand. My essence flickered and shimmered but did nothing. I tried again, forcing my hand to a fist. Again, nothing. No matter how much effort I put in, my essence continued flowing out of its shape. It was like controlling water. This was useless; I was useless.

I looked back behind me. The female djinn was closing in on Abraham but was extremely wary of his weapons. Abraham held the Sphere high above his head, as if threatening to throw it against the ground. A bluff, maybe. If worse comes to worst, the Sphere will come crashing down and the force will cause this room to be cleared out. It could potentially kill everyone in this vicinity. I silently prayed that Stefan and Anne actually took Nathaniel away – away from the damn Elemental Sphere. Where the hell did he even pull that out from, anyways?

"Feeling rather oozy, Bartimaeus?"

Damn it.

Tearing my eyes from the commotion, I noticed that Maduk had finally managed to disentangle himself from the minotaur. He stood on all fours, his red mane looking matted as ever.

I sighed, rolling my eyes to the ceiling. Looks like I'm going to have to fight one-handed.

"I would really appreciate it if you continued playing Twister with your friend there," I mocked. I kept my left hand close to my chest. Knowing Maduk, he'll probably reach for it and weaken it even more.

"I see you've brought back up," he continued, nodding his head towards the commotion behind me. "Is she a friend of yours?"

"Nope. No idea who she is or where she came from."

Maduk laughed haughtily. "Oh, come off it. Just admit that you're weak, Bartimaeus. Time and time again, you fail to protect."

I made a face. "Okay, first of all, fuck you. Second of all, I'm still standing. As long as I'm here, he's still around. I didn't fail shit."

From behind Maduk, the minotaur was finally getting up on his haunches.

"I've had enough of you," he said. He almost sounded exhausted.

"The feeling is mutual, bud. Why don't you take a nap? All that running around and talking can really tire out someone like you –"

The minotaur screamed. I would be lying if I said it didn't startle me. The minotaur launched himself towards me; pushing past and successfully knocking down the frazzled lion.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Maduk shouted.

I panicked and scrambled to my feet; horns pierced the ground where I had been sitting. The force of the collision caused the ground shake and I nearly lost my footing. The minotaur raised its head, tearing his horns from the ground. A chunk of the ground remained lodged into his horn, bits of cement and stone cascading around his face.

"You got a lil' something on your horn, pal." I pointed out.

"Bartimaeus, shut the fuck up!" Maduk shouted over the sound of the minotaur's screams.

A heavy fist came swinging at me; I ducked just in time.

"I AM - NOT – YOUR - FRIEND!"

With each word, the minotaur swung his fist as if for emphasis. I jumped and dodged and hopped. With every swing, the minotaur seemed to get stronger. I was only getting slower while my energy continued to leak out from my hand. It seemed as if his anger was only making him want to destroy me even more. I took a mental note to take Maduk's advice.

Maduk prowled behind me, taking great care to stay away from the minotaur's erratic attacks. From his paws, he let out a Detonation. I sidestepped, letting the Detonation zoom right past me. Maduk let out a cry of contempt.

"Fight back, Bartimaeus! Or are you going to continue this long ritual of dancing and escaping?"

With quick steps, I avoided another blast. From above, hooves rained down on me; I darted to the left and landed unceremoniously on my knees. I took a quick glance at my hand – my entire hand was nothing but a chaotic glob. My wrist was beginning to blur. I bit my lip and willed my essence one last time.

"Running away didn't work the first time, did it? Tell me, Bartimaeus, how did it end."

A Detonation blasted to my left; thankfully Maduk was always a bad aim. Unfortunately, due to the debris caused by the blast, I didn't see the good sized chunk of cement fly straight at me. It hit me straight onto my chest, knocking the wind out of me. I fell flat on my back, wheezing like some asthmatic child. Propping myself up with my elbows, I raised my right hand. And hesitated.

Casting any more magic will only make my physical state worse. I could potentially fall unconscious. It was taking everything in me to keep the leaking essence from degrading even more. Evidently enough, Maduk noticed as well.

"Do it," he taunted. "Cast that Detonation. Show me what the great Rekhyt can do."

He slowly prowled towards me, his tail twitching anxiously. Behind him, the minotaur stood by, frowning down at me. I glanced past the minotaur.

I lowered my hand. I'm not going to win this fight. But I didn't have to.

"Well, am I glad to see some familiar British fucks."