For the People

Characters: Dresden, Merlin, Murphy, Apprentices, The guys from SI
Author's notes: My God, this took me a while to write! Dam, I'm proud of it though

The Merlin smiled and stood up.

I was back at that moment again. The moment when a frightened teenager was led before the White Council to stand trial for the use of black magic in the murder of his guardian and mentor. His life had rested in the balance between seven complete strangers. It was a very close vote that generously gave me permission to live. It was close because one of the most powerful wizards in the world was voting against me.

It's been over a decade since I felt like a very small fish in a very big pond…filled with arsenic, but my muscles still clenched up whenever the Merlin believed he had power over me like I was his property to do as he wishes with.

Even though all decisions were meant to be voted on in the Senior Council, the Merlin still had the tallest podium, so even though I was at least several meters away from him, his increased change in height seemed to loom over the entire warehouse. Looks are everything, so I unclenched my shoulders and casually strolled past Morgan's body to stand before The Merlin. Now I come to think of it, I don't actually know his real name. I think a few of the Council members uttered his first name a few times in the past but who were his family. Were they all dead, if not, did they like him. I suppose hearing that your son is the ruler of all the wizards in the world would give a parent a certain level of satisfaction, but only the wizards themselves got to see the true level of power The Merlin held, especially the power over other's lives that he wielded with brute force.

Looking down at me (the arrogant bastard), he shook his head slightly, which I've started to notice a lot of people do when they look at me and frankly it's beginning to get on my nerves. "Well Dresden, it seems that once again you have managed to kill an innocent man with the blatantly wrong use of magic."

Trying to go for a sore spot are you. Well I can easily top that. "I soulgazed Morgan you know." The Merlin's smile vanished. "I see that you and him have been doing some very naughty things, some very…traitorous things," I told him, making sure to extend the last few words for an added effect.

The Merlin turned to his side, while keeping a glaring eye on me, and descended around the podium so he was facing me across an empty space. "Touché Dresden, but now you have given away your only bargaining chip. There was very little chance I would bargain with you, but the chance was there all the same," the Merlin tittered to himself. "Now, I have an even greater perseverance to making sure you will never leave this room alive."

As many military tacticians that you have no doubt encountered during your lives will tell you, the worst thing you can do in battle is to face an enemy you know nothing about. While I had known of The Merlin throughout most of my life, I had no clue what skills he had in terms of magic. Every wizard has a certain way of using his magic in dire situations. Ramirez was a big fan of water and entropy magic, which allowed him to separate most objects back down to their cellular state. I've seen him throw an energy bolt that completely dissolved a ghoul's head. I myself didn't really have the time to work the finer points in magic. Obviously, I had a certain aptitude for finding things, which is what a private investigator is primarily meant to do, but in battle serves no real purpose unless I manage to drop my staff in the dark and need to find it again. This has actually happened on more than one occasion. Facing an enemy in direct combat though, I liked the not-so-subtle approach of pouring huge amounts of energy into a spell and praying to god that I take someone out in the first hit.

The only news of The Merlin's abilities I'd ever heard though was from a recent attack by the vampires on our ranks. They were being chased through the Nevernever by vampires, ghouls and outsiders and he had managed to create a single shield that could stop all of them. At first, I had been pretty impressed by this notion, but in light of new events, there was a chance that he could have just ordered the vampires to stop following them. If he could slow an outsider to a halt, why couldn't he have just vaporised the army that that were attacking the wizards and they would never have had to retreat into the Nevernever in the first place. It was a set-up. Who would believe that the honoured Merlin would betray us after saving all our lives, ignoring that he didn't even kill a single one of his 'supposed' enemies.

It only just hit me now that Lash was probably gone for good and with her, my ability to summon Hellfire. I'm now going to have to settle for regular fire, which does score high on my moral counter but will lack a noticeable kick that I had grown accustomed to. On a lesser note, I won't be able to understand Latin any more, so I'm going to have a serious disadvantage if the Merlin randomly decides to start blubbering out his secrets in another language in the midst of battle.

Luckily for the speech centre of my brain, but unfortunate for me in general, the time for discussion seemed to be over. Neither of us moved or made a sound, only hearing the vibrations from the gentle fans at the top of the warehouse. It would have been the perfect Mexican stand-off aside from a little less tension, as too avoid a soulgaze, we had both our glares set on the bridges of each others noses. Concentrating slightly, I could feel the wards that coated the walls of this place, thrumming with enough energy to keep out everyone but the strongest intruders. Ebenezer once told me that a while back, a troll had tried to head-butt the wards and knocked itself unconscious.

It would only take one of us to make the first move.

It would only take one hesitation to make the last.

Very slightly, the Merlin adjusted his stance. Taking this as I better sign than any, I threw up my staff and aimed it in the general direction of the Merlin.

Fuego!

Billowing clouds of fire shot from my staff and descended towards him. The only noticeable difference I felt between it and Hellfire was that didn't have to suffer the gut wrenching smells of Hellfire now. No longer contained by my will, the orange fireball spread itself across several metres and flew outwards. I saw the Merlin pull up a small smile before turning his body to the side and holding up his hand in a karate-chop position.

Inconspicuously, at some point during our banter, he had slipped on a metal gauntlet, a medieval glove that knights wore to protect their hands but still allow for the flexibility needed in a sword fight. The sparkling surface was so shiny that I could see the distorted reflection of my face upon it.

Though I heard no sound, his mouth moved enough to indicate he was chanting a spell and the air around him shimmers as he built a shield around himself. Rather than stop the fire in its tacks though, my flames hit his shield and equally separated past him, hitting the back wall and scorching the area black, aside from a clean patch positioned directly behind the Merlin. Wasting no time, he changed back to an aggressive stance and flicked his hand directly at me. A loud snap emitted from his hands and the spell began to take form as it crossed the room. Translucent metal began to form in a X shape as it reached me, and I could hear the whooshing sound as the razor sharp points sliced through the air.

Purely on an instinctual level, I dived to my right to try and avoid the spiritual swords and tucked into a roll that would get me back on my feet. As the swords went past, I heard the whooshing sound and a small slice as they cleanly cut through the floor and the edge of my duster, and carried on to neatly decapitate the statue behind me, cutting the head straight off a statue of a Roman Goddess

The head hit the ground almost exactly the same time as me, as I distributed the weight of the fall across my shoulders and stood up straight into a run. With several more snapping sounds, the Merlin through more ghostly swords at me and only my superior fleeing skills allowed me to outmanoeuvre the first set and narrowly dodge the second.

Before allowing him to continue to try and separate my head from its resting place, I carefully aimed (as much as you can do while running) at the Merlin and threw concentrated force at him.

A split second after I shouted Forzare, he saw the blow coming and dived forward, rolling under the force that head been heading straight for his neck. I had figured he would try that move though and sure enough, my spell continued on and slammed into the base of a large, metal beam that had been positioned behind him. Warping the edge of the beam and some of the wall behind it, the beam detached from its bolts and groaned in protest as it fell to where the Merlin had fallen.

Hearing the groan, the Merlin quickly flipped onto his back and pointed his fingers upwards. Once again, the swords erupted from his fingers in a large arc and sliced clean through the metal. As the now individual beams clattered noisily next to him, I used this moment of distraction to hurl more fire at him, now in a more concentrated area as his lying down position would preventing him from trying to dodge the attack.

Fuego! At the sound of this, the Merlin tilted his head back with a glare and a snarl to see the upside-down image of Harry Dresden trying to barbecue him. With only the slightest of hesitations, he quickly brought his gloved hand down and slammed it against the tile floor. The laws of physics, with some help from the Merlin's enchantments, proved true and his stiff body flew upwards into the air and over the fire, as it blasted the floor below him and scattered in a wide circle.

While rotating, the Merlin's flight projection sent him straight at a wall about ten meters off the ground, but he easily pushed his legs out and, with inhuman strength, dug his toes straight into the steel wall and held him in a sideways standing position.

Stepping forward, more for a dramatic posture than a useful foot position, I punched in the direction of his highpoint and activated the remainder of my force rings. Stored kinetic energy erupted from my jewellery and pushed away air and anything else in its way. He tensed his muscles and kicked himself away from the wall, flying directly over my head.

As the kinetic energy ripped a hole through the metal wall with a loud crash and kept on going, the Merlin soared out of my field of vision and once more, I heard the snapping sounds. With no time to dodge the attack, I span round to face the general direction of the flying wizard and held out my arm, sending energy into my shield bracelet. The blue-tinted form of my shield barely managed to extend out, as the ethereal forms of a dozen swords hurtled directly towards me an hammered into my defences.

Unlike most of my foes, who were all in favour of physical weapons that my shield had been designed to stop, these swords had been created to cut through just about anything. Instead of the spread pressure that I would usually feel, the razor points slammed into my shield and tried to slice their way through. I only just kept them out, but my arm shook as the sharp metals cast shallow cuts into my hand and wrist. On the edges of my shield where the energy was out its weakest, some of the knives had sliced straight through and had cut deep indentations into the ground around me.

As the sharp pain hit me, the Merlin had reached the end of his glide and landed gracefully onto the shoulders of the decapitated statue. No longer calm and poised, he was coated in a thin layer of sweat and was breathing ruggedly, his long white hair dancing around as his shoulders rose and fell. A subtle check for any injuries brought me to the conclusion that I wasn't in a much better state. The edges of my duster had been shredded and while most of my cuts had sealed, there was a particularly nasty one close to my wrist that had yet to stop bleeding.

At exactly the point where me and the Merlin were about to continue our violent duel, the walls and roof began to creak with an uncomfortable strain. It took me a second to realise that some of the casualties of out fight had been a large section of one of the main walls and the supporting pillar for the corner of the roof. Before I had time to consider the structural ramifications, the ceiling began to collapse around us and the walls began to fold in on themselves. Looking upwards, the Merlin held out his hand, facing downwards and pushed air beneath him. His body immediately flew upwards and he slammed his gloved hand into the ceiling above him, creating an escape hole that he promptly escaped through.

A fallen slab of masonry hit the ground next to me and shattered a wooden bench into kindling. Deciding for once that the Merlin had the right idea, I narrowly dodged another falling missile and extended my hand outwards. Veniche.

Once I uttered the words, the air around me began to condense, billowing my duster around me. The solid air formed around my feet and my body lifted upwards, through the collapsing building and towards the roof. I had forgotten how much I'd missed flying and this enjoyment almost distracted me from the issue of how to get through the ceiling. Thanks to my keen survival instincts, I eventually noticed the problem. As I was going to fast, there was no time to throw up a force spell, so I show my arm above me and activated my shield. Sparks shot around me as my accelerating forced my way straight through the roof and out into the open air of Chicago.

My body wanted to just rest in my cushion of air and stare out at the evening lights of the city, but my gaze was immediately drawn to the floating figure of a battered and very angry wizard, currently hovering a relatively large distance away from me.

While it is generally an easy spell to keep a grown adult off the ground, it takes up a lot of my magical concentration just to keep myself from spinning around in the air currents. If I had decided to practise it a little more, I could end up doing a whole number of complicated tasks while suspended mid-air. Ah well, no sense looking back at what might have been. I'm just going to have to beat the crap out of Merlin the old fashioned way.

I mentally adjusted my buoyancy and my body tilted in the Merlin's direction. No sooner had I moved though, he held up his palm straight at me and the air crackled around him. Deciding that speed was an essential element here, I put all my will into flying straight at him, while simultaneously charging my bracelet.

As I shot forward, the Merlin smiled and a beam of white hot energy shot out of his hand. Tilting my body sideways, I activated my shield and waited for the last possible moment.

Just as the beam was a few centimetres from my face, I brought my arm over my shoulder and hit the edge of the beam, forcing it to bounce away and straight into the corner edge of an office block, searing a perfect hole straight through the solid concrete. Seeing that his attack failed, the Merlin brought his arm back and pushed forward again in a repeating pattern. Dozens of balls of sizzling energy shot out from him in a way that reminded mush of an artillery gun. Applying pressure here and there, I dodged and weaved my way past the bolts and the ones I couldn't avoid, I deflected off of my bracelet.

I was now hurtling straight for the Merlin and I was too close for him to fire off another spell. With red hate in his eyes, he sent his bare hand into the side of his cloak and I could just the edges of a sword hilt, slowly coming out of a hidden scabbard.

I gripped tightly on the handle of my staff as I approached his position.

Half of the Merlin's sword was now out.

I drew my staff alongside my body, hoping to use my collected momentum to throw him off balance.

Just the tip of the sword was left now.

Just before we both slammed into each other, we brought our weapons out at the same time and the edges of wood and sword slammed together in an almighty scream. Ripples shot through our bodies as two, powerful objects met and refused to back down. Physics was on my side though, as the momentum from my attack, went straight through me and into the Merlin's block. With nothing but air to put on any kind of resistance. The Merlin was pushed backwards several meters, before he built a pocket of air behind him, thick enough to slow him down.

The Merlin's weapon was a similar design to that of the Warden's swords, but had a certain zest about it. I'm guessing that Warden Luccio must have also designed his weapon, but had apparently put more style into it. The blade was the same, but the hilt had been coated in gold and silver colours that sparked when our magical instruments met. When they hit, I could feel the multiple layers of enchantments that the Merlin had cast on his sword over the years and I had no doubt that it would slice straight through me, given the chance. Even my staff sparked in multicoloured lights as the spells on the blade tried to unravel the ones on mine, but unlike the Merlin, I had years of field experience in the modern world, which had taught me to never allow your enemy to destroy your weapon. Sure my blasting rod had been snapped on multiple occasions, but I always kept my staff at its most potent.

As our bodies slowed, I had a brief opportunity to look at the Merlin's face close up. With all of the action in the battle, his hair draped around his shoulders in sweaty clumps and his arms were straining with pressure to hold me back. His teeth were bared and his eyes were staring daggers into my head.

When we finally came to a stop, there was a split second of awkward silence as two arch-rivals suddenly found themselves uncomfortably close to one another, before the Merlin parried away my staff, sending me back a few paces (or whatever the distance is called when your not touching the ground) and lunged for my chest.

No longer limited by two dimensions, I span upwards above him and brought my staff down into his side. I heard a grunt from his mouth as he span around me from the blow, but he quickly regained his composure before pressing back towards me.

He threw his sword left and right at me as my Jedi staff sense kicked in and my arms reacted to his movements, knocking his attacks away from me and tried to get in a few of my own.

I soon noticed a pattern begin to form as he struck his blows around me, and that was that he wasn't going for any killing blows, just the dehabilitating ones that would cut the edges of my arms or chop off my legs. They were pretty serious, but they wouldn't kill me.

Sure enough, he span around my attack and I only just managed to knock him away with my elbow as his blade cut a narrow slice into my side, just below the ribs. As payback though, my hit had struck him right on the nose and sent him reeling away. I brought my hand to my side and felt a damp bit of blood forming below my shirt.

Looking back at the Merlin though, his nose was beginning to drip blood. He wiped the wound with his sleeve and stared at it curiously as if he had never seen his own blood before.

There was little time to rest though, so I straightened back up again and concentrated on the pain. I focused on the spot it was coming from and forced it down into the recesses of my mind so I could no longer feel it. Normally (yeah right), I would worry about the after-effects that would surely hit me later, but now was not the time to think about limitations. If I had hurt the Merlin now, I could do it again.

No sooner had I finished my minor meditation, the Merlin lost interest in his wound and hurtled towards me, while bringing his sword over his head and looking to slice straight down my spine. Automatically reacting to his movement, I brought my staff up with both hands just as his blade struck down. As soon as our weapons met though, I realised that he had led me into a trap. When he attacked my staff, I only felt maybe a half of the energy that he normally put into his offence. The reason behind this was because only one hand held onto his sword while his metal gauntlet was sent straight towards my belly.

With no time to defend myself, his punch struck straight into my stomach and I was sent hurtling backwards. The momentum behind a train had been put behind the blow and I think it was only the edge of my duster that had stopped my intestines from exploding outwards.

No longer controlling my flight, my trajectory began to slope steeply downwards towards the ground. I knew that I was supposed to do something about it, but my mind was disorientated and I was still trying to figure out why hitting the ground would be a bad thing.

With just enough time to spare though, I forced my thoughts to the surface and drew up a defensive shield around me, that would spread around the kinetic forces that I would normally feel after hitting the ground from nearly ten stories up.

I dimly saw flashing lights and heard someone shouting, before my body slammed directly into the hood of a police car. While I didn't feel any of the effects, the car didn't fare much better. The force of my drop crumpled the hood to around half of its original height and the back wheels actually lifted of the ground for several feet.

There was a moment of silence, before the car tilted backwards again and groaned as it thudded back into the ground.

"Harry?"

The sound of my name jolted me to my senses again, so I let down my shield and jumped off of the car wreck that will never again be used for transportation.

Quickly looking around, I spotted some distinct changes to the outside of the warehouse. The first was a whole army of police officers with most of their guns drawn. Some were aiming there guns in the sky while staring at me, others were questioning some very worried looking apprentices while staring at me and the rest were aiming the guns at me…while staring at me.

I followed the line of fire that the first set of police were aiming at and spotted a flying figure way up in the sky. Hells Bells, was that how high I was? I couldn't make out his expression, but I doubt his was happy about seeing me get up again and his emotion showed clearly when the air crackled around him once again and I saw a sparkle as he shot pure energy at me. The white of beam glowed and lit up the area around me. The beam began to spread out as it headed downwards coating a large enough area to take out me and the innocents around me.

I glanced downwards at the figure who had called my name. Standing at the closest line to the Merlin was Karrin, no longer aiming her gun upwards but now standing straight and looking at me with confused eyes.

There was no time for semantics though, the energy from the Merlin had piled on top of itself and was cutting away the edges of the buildings around it.

I took off into a sprint and ran straight for Karrin, bringing as mush power into me from my environment as possible.

The area was glowing brightly now.

I would only get one shot at this.

The beam was almost upon us.

I reached Karrin just as the energy engulfed us. Spinning her into my arms, I held her close and drew up my hand to face the vortex of power.

Magic is all about willpower. The spell or ritual needs the castor to believe in it, shape it and control it for it to be cast. Reflectively, someone with a greater will could come along and over power the castor.

Holding Karrin in my arm, I felt energy flow from her and into me. I knew she was scared and confused, but those emotions were overpowered by her trust in me. This trust gave me the strength I needed to even attempt what I was about to try.

Focusing on the power that was about to burn us to ashes, I thought about the innocent bystanders around us, what the Merlin might to Molly and what would happen to Karrin without me to protect her.

I stared down the beam, "Forzare!" I yelled.

The pure energy slammed into my will. Blue wall met white tsunami and there was a tremendous explosion as the two forces met and the violent reaction practically screamed at me in frustration. Bright sparks the size of footballs shot out of my shield and fell to the ground around us. I moved a bit and one hit my cheek, sending a flash of pain through my face as it burned the skin.

I wasn't about to become distracted though. All my attention was focused on preventing anything from crossing the barrier. Gusts of winds were blown past me as my shield bent and curved under the sheer weight of the matter pressing against it.

As the energy reached its high point, my barrier began to strain and buckle. I pressed more strength into it to spread the pressure around, but this resulted in a perfectly balanced force. My feet began to slide backwards over the gravelled path of the lot, as the distance between me and the face of the burining magic decreased.

Straining my muscles, it took all my effort just to hold it back once more as it closed in, only an inch or so away from the palm of my hand. Heat was singeing away the edges of my fingernails and the static friction between the forces currently in play interfered with the nerves in my arm and I began to shake.

Under my shoulder, Karrin's grip tightened around my waist as she stared it the great abyss of light. If my defences failed, she would be gone in a moment, not even feeling a thing. I almost stopped feeling negative about the whole thing, until I heard a quiet whimper escape her lips.

Karrin had a very similar ideology to me when it came to fear. We both believed that you fight your fears with knowledge of the fear and especially how to counter it. Karrin knew about the fast energy in front of us. She knew that it came from the souls of Magical creatures and can prevent death, as well as start it.

What she also knew though, was that she could never beat this fear. Nothing in her vast arsenal of knowledge and weapons would make any kind of difference when faced with this. She could only turn to her friend for the protection she could not give herself.

With new perseverance, I faced down the heart of the beam. White light flowed through my arm and shot into the shield. The flare blinded everyone around me, but I forced my vision through the sea of light and took affirmative control of the situation.

As much as it pained me, I brought up my other hand from around Karrin's body and held it out, palm facing upwards. Concentrating, I pictured the base of the attack, just a few millimetres above the ground in front of my barrier. Lifting my hand up suddenly, I put power into the air around me and pushed upwards against gravity.

The pressure suddenly faded from my shield, and I almost fell over if it weren't for Karrin's tight grip. Upon receiving new orders, the bright beam of energy shot straight up into the air and kept going, flying past the reflective windows of the tower blocks, through the thick clouds that marked the approach of rain and didn't stop. I pity the poor alien who gets hit by that.

With nothing left to focus my energy on, I fell to my knees and stared at the ground. My body was shaking head to toe as the adrenaline rush faded and my body fought to keep up with my rapidly beating heart.

A small shadow descended over me and warm hands grasped my shoulders, forcing me to look up. Karrin's face was directly in front of mine as she yelled at my face.

"Harry! … Harry! Are you still with me?"

My body relaxed and my shaking stopped as I looked into Karrin's eyes. Though the world felt right again, I knew there was something I was forgetting…

"God dammit Harry, speak up."

Something important…

"Harry, are…" her words froze in her mouth as she looked at the shocked expression on my face.

Grabbing her arms, I threw her to my side as a bolt of lightning shot through the space where'd she's been sitting and hit me straight in my chest.

My body and my mouth screamed in pain as the electricity travelled across my body. I lost control over myself as my limbs began involuntarily shaking. Bruises and cuts I can take, but this was hitting every nerve in my body, shouting millions of orders directly into my brain, saying that I was under attack as it ripped through me, over and over again.

At some point, my eyes had squeezed shut, as I felt my knees leave the ground and my body began to rise into the air. Every now and then, my mind would make a sensible thought, before getting overlapped by mental screaming. I was only just barely aware of the world around me.

Someone called my name again, the sound slapping into my eardrums. I heard it but I didn't know the relevance of it.

Across my skin, I felt random ripples of air, rapidly rushing past me as I was lifted higher and higher.

Opening my eyes for a split second, I saw the source of my anguish. Bolts of electricity were shooting down the Merlin's arm and channelling through the air and directly into me. His other hand was controlling the lightning itself, forcing the power to lift me through the air and towards him.

As I passed close to his face, the pain suddenly disappeared from my own. The suffering in the rest of my body was still there, but I could just about open my eyes and force my senses to work. I smelt burning flesh.

"You are an insubordinate little shit Dresden!" Froth was now foaming from his mouth. "You will die. Your friends will die. Everyone who even had a good thought about you will burn in anguish and torment!""

I spat in his eye.

Roaring in outrage, the Merlin removed my heads' temporary invulnerability to his electricity and the shooting pains returned. Lifting his arms up, he brought my jittering body above him and poured energy into his arms. The extra juice of lightning forced my body up into the air, flying past the tower blocks and reaching just the edges of the dark rain-clouds that had already formed in the open air.

I couldn't move. I couldn't think properly. Just like that moment over a decade ago, he had me in his grasp and this time, wasn't going to let me go that easily.

Forcing my eyelids open, I eventually got my neck muscles to turn my head downwards, to face the Merlin below me. His eyes showed satisfaction and his arms were evidently feeling the same way.

A whizzing sound suddenly caught my attention as hails of bullets slammed into his back. The back covered by the enchanted cloak of a Council member. The bullets did little in the way of damage, but they sure as hell annoyed him after distracting him from the death of his prey. Flicking his gloved hand, he sent a thick ball of fire straight downwards at the source of the bullets and I very faintly, saw a small explosion.

There had to be a way out of this, but I couldn't think up any decent strategy plans as the Merlin burned away my skin. The fight my body was putting up with the attack was using all of my reserves. My resistance was killing me.

So instead of keeping the lightning out...I took it in.

I gasped as the massive flow of power went straight into my soul. Spare energy sparked around my body and flowed out my pores. With a new power reserve, the wounds across my arms and in my side began to furiously knit back together again and blood was pulled back into my veins.

Like dropping a toaster into a bathtub, the Merlin immediately short-circuited. His power had suddenly all been drained and the massive output had singed away a part of his arm.

The human body was never meant to contain that much power. I've seen wizards drew energy from the forces around them, but they will always expel it again in one form or another. Even with most of my concentration, sparks were flying around me as they fought to be used. The air around Chicago became electrified and anything with a circuit board suddenly failed. Glancing around me, the city light of Chicago had began to go out one by one and soon, only the area around me was lit up.

Puzzled, I looked down at my hands and arms. The power I was holding in was freely moving under my skin and as such, I was a glowing orb in the heart of a dark city.

All this power though, had not wavered the Merlin one slightest. Even with a large portion of his magic gone, or at least large compared to my standards, he still projected confidence that he could still kill me in a second and as such, began to move carefully upwards towards me.

To test the waters a little, I aimed the tip of my hand in his direction and carefully relaxed some of my concentration. Mega-volts of energy flew straight out and were sent towards the closest, possible conductor. Without hesitating, the Merlin held out his gloved hand, carefully holding the burned one under his cloak and voluntarily connected it to my lightning bolt. He winced slightly as the energy condensed around his hand and began to dissipate. The Merlin had been around for Centuries, maybe more. Would hope did I have of killing him.

The realisation of this only just hit me. I couldn't kill him with my own power, but I could kill him with his.

Before he had a chance to react, I forced the air above me to push me down and I hurtled towards him.

Just as he drew up his arm for another attack, our bodies slammed together and threw us into gravity's mercy.

I don't know where he got it from, but he pulled something sharp from a hidden pocket and stabbed it straight into my belly. I screamed more from frustration than pain and proceeded to punch him in the face until he dropped the knife. We were speeding downwards so fast though, that as soon as his grip slackened, the knife flew into the air above us. With wind pounding our bodies, I continued to push down with the air, increasing our speed and momentum.

Just as we reached the same height as the office blocks, I grabbed the Merlin's shoulder with one hand and held my other around us in a tight hold. My bracelet activated and a luminescent bubble of shielding circled around us.

The Merlin's free hand shot out from under him and the sizzled flesh grasped around my neck. "Dresden," he screamed, "We won't stop hunting you. If it takes to the end of time, my order will scatter your ashes into hell!"

When I refused to answer and concentrated on my plan, the Merlin's body tingled for a slight moment before the ghostly blades shot out of him once more. With the wear of battle, they no longer had their unnatural sharpness, but they still cut into my sides and arms and blood began to pour from my wounds.

I couldn't afford to get distracted though. Channelling more power into my shields cut out the sound of wind from the area around us. All I could hear was me and the Merlin's heavy breathing as we plummeted to the earth.

We were now just above the roof of the collapsed warehouse...

My barrier grew brighter...

We shot into the building...

I saw Karrin's face through an area which had once been a wall...

Only a meter or so to go now...

I briefly wondered if this was going to hurt...

Just as we hit the ground, I relaxed my hold on the vast energy I had held together...

The power of a thousand explosions was released as a ball of blue energy. Combined with the energy from the drop, it multiplied quickly and filled the space between the shield in no time at all.

With the sudden pressure, the barrier expanded to accommodate the rush and filled the size of the warehouse. Metal and wood and stone were destroyed in an instant, after either being flattened by the shield or evaporated inside it.

The shockwave from the force spread out through the barrier and into the environment around it. Every window in the surrounding buildings flexed and shattered with an explosive roar as the force was knocked against it. Cars too close to the rush of air were tipped over and those that weren't were pushed back against the screeching protest of the tyres.

Upon sight of the fiery power, every cop in the area once again took shelter behind cars and scenery, dragging civilians and apprentices down with them. Murphy herself quickly rolled behind her squad car and held a riot shield above her head as the glass slammed down into it.

As the energy wave expanded, it rushed towards Murphy's car. With violent winds blowing viciously around, she couldn't move anywhere. Before the burning heat reached her though, the blue shield solidified and held the explosion back. Like piranhas, bolts of lightning swam beneath it, eager to continue outwards and eviscerate the environment but still the shield held.

After agonizing minutes of roaring flames and screaming winds, the fire lost its energy and began to dissipate. Upon sensing this, the shield lost its glowing aura and faded away. A bright white light shot out as its hold was released and blinded the area. There was no sound, just a sea of light that reflected off even the most callous of surfaces. Using up its power, the lights went down and Karrin was left in darkness.

Next Chapter: What Remained

P.S. I enjoyed writing the fight scene, but I appear to have a limited vocabulary. I'd greatly appreciate it if anyone could offer some words other than "power", "energy" and "beam", but still mean the same thing.

Recommended Song: Pretty Green Eyes by Ultrabeat