The Novel's Sidekick

Shailyn flew on her left side, evading the dark flame. Wisps of wind came from all directions and swirled around her to make an air shield, flinging away the arrow that was shot at her.

The rogue knight shot at her, but Ilias intercepted him, swinging his bastard sword right at his bloody head. His sword was enforced with a full-slash. The blade hardened, sharpened and turned heavier as it came for the rogue knight’s head, but before it could make contact, all the power was reduced, and the swing almost turned into a bloody swing with no spiritual energy empowering it.

Spiritual energy drifted in the air from the sword, dissolving from Ilias's grasp. The swing slowed down too, as Rial dodged it effortlessly, thumping his sword at the lower body of Ilias. The sword penetrated through the light armour, drawing blood as Ilias withdrew.

Ilias withdrew further while in the back the two magi had their battle. Enforcing more energy on the defence, Ilias looked at his opponent. “Never thought of seeing a rogue knight of Ruthalyn here,” he said. “I guess you fellows are not just fancy suits and armoury.”

“If I had my suit and armoury here,” Rial said, raising his long sword, “your corpse would already be cold.”

“But you don’t have your suit,” Ilias said as his eyes glowed out as the flow of energy became all too clear to him. “Let’s find out how good you are just with your Dominion then.”

Ilias shot at him, drawing his sword from his right to downwards. He saw through what his opponent was going to do and feinted to go the other way around, drawing in his force to collide against the underarm of his opponent.

However, his speed slowed down again, and so did channelling speed. Spirit force reduced from his move and dissolved in the air in a smokey aura of pale yellowish-green. His empowered sword turned into almost a normal attack with no supernatural force, and Rial just got a nick of time to raise his sword to block.

Ilias's eyes glinted as both swords clashed, clanging metallic noises. Even though Rial got the better of him, the rogue knight was weary until his Dominion of Seer was ongoing. Well, why wouldn’t he be? Dominion of Seer had no attack force, however, the ability to see through the opponent’s next move—was like gold in the right hand.

Rial withdrew instantly, but Ilias chased after him, knowing what he was attempting. Ilias jabbed his sword at the lower body, but again, the Dominion of Reduction turned his attack into a normal attack. Rial failed to block it this time, though the blow didn't draw any blood.

“You’re good,” Rial said, withdrawing, “but that woman I faced before was better. She got the speed, while you mostly brawl. And you're aware of what happens when a simple spiritual force meets the Dominion of Reduction."

“Tell me that when I smash your head with my sword,” Ilias said, clashing again. Like before, his power was reduced to a bare minimum, where he would barely be a threat to his opponent, but he was going to keep at it.

Dominions are powerful, but one thing is sure, every one of them has weaknesses. Dominion of Reduction could break and reduce almost all the spiritual arts, and it was even easier if it's just some simple force, but it draws in an overwhelming power from its user. There was even a theory that on each reduction, the user has to work with the exact or more spiritual force of the opponent’s move, or it wouldn’t work.

So, what Ilias needed to do was waste time, and draw as much of his opponent as he could till he was entirely spent. This is going to be hard. Even though Ilias hadn’t fought anyone with Dominion of Reduction, he knew it was going to be terribly hard.

All his attacks would be powerless against this opponent, while he had to dodge all his opponent would throw at him. Luckily, he got the power to see through the opponent's moves.

While Ilias found a way out of his battle, Shailyn found an arrow sticking out on her back.

She was fleeing now, flying out of the way.

They haven’t actually put down everyone of the underlings. As it turned out, the warlock had a reserved few ready with the Ruthalynian augmented bow and arrows that they have used so far. It was like a trap they set and Shailyn fell right into it.

Well, what else could she do? With most of her focus and energy busy on the Warlock, she could barely redirect her spirit could on any sneak attack. However, the spirit cloud could only tell her about sneak attacks, but not the immensity of force behind them.

Her air shield failed miserably to block the arrow. She was only alive because she strayed away from hitting any vital spot and the defence of the Magus robe, or else it would have pierced right through her.

The arrow still stuck to her back, piercing through her fine magus robe as Shailyn drifted away. Her mind buzzed with an awful headache, reminding her that the arrowhead was probably stained with some afflictions. Poisons too, perhaps. She dozed herself with whatever antidote she had with her, though it couldn't stop all the affiliations.

Gritting her teeth, she hid in the trees, escaping from the arrows that were shot at her. She didn’t know if all of them were magically engineered ones or not, but she was relieved to not find it out with another one sticking to her body.

Rojar Iker walked in the snow, chasing after her. An unfathomable aura surrounded him as he gestured to his underlings to tell them to switch attacks.

“You have already failed, Arbiter,” he shouted. “I have succeeded in the ritual and have my prize. Nobody and definitely not you and your righteous fools can stop me.”

He walked around, examining the residue Shailyn left behind. It didn’t take much for him to find it. Now he just had to track her down. He gestured again to his underlings to point to his three o’clock.

However, abruptly, some cracking noises echoed as a burst of lightning charged at him from his three o’clock. The warlock’s mind rang as he formed a shield immediately, however, the lightning just burst through the shield to strike him, flinging him away. His body fell to the ground.

Several seconds passed. The underlings all got worried when he stood up again, jerking his head around. His winter robe was all torn in the chest region while his skin looked charred. Rojar said nothing, but his eyes were glowing red now.

“What are you trying to accomplish running around like this?” he shouted, creeping forward. “Are you trying to buy more time for your other associates to arrive?”

Rojar turned to his right and walked. Spiritual energy surrounding him danced, undulating the mad wind and snowfall. “However, I’m unfortunate to tell you, no one’s going to come for you.” He paused for a second, looking around while ready with his defence as well. “They might be alive, but they won’t have any time to return here. You know of the sweet children I took as hostages?

“Say, what will your partner do when she finds out all of them are afflicted with terrible curses and affiliation? Can she ignore all of them to come to your rescue? Nah, as far as I know, you fools, she will burn herself dry to save all of them.”

Rojar spun abruptly, casting his black flames into the pine tree in front of him.

A silhouette shot from behind the tree, face to face with him as the tree burned, making the air pungent.

“I wondered how many she could save,” Rojar said again, black flame condensing in his arms. “I didn’t have enough time to work on them, but considering those children are just some clueless fool, I won’t get my hopes up. Probably two or three, if she’s lucky.”

Shailyn gasped for breath as she stood, eyes glaring dagger at the warlock. She wasn’t waiting for Noyar to come. She came prepared knowing Noyar wouldn’t be free to return and watch her back, however, just hearing those terrible things this man before her did, just to keep the rescuer busy, made her stomach churn and blood boil.

“You’ll pay for it,” she said as waves of angry winds swirled around them. She attacked, but not at the Warlock.

Well, not at first. Her raging wind drew the underlings hiding in the trees with the arrows, flinging them dozens of metres away. Well, she got two of them, not sure how many of them were there. She hoped the one with the magically engineered bow and arrows was gone. Next, she formed an air shield surrounding her as the black flame crashed against it. Shailyn willed the wind to empower the shield more, as the dark flames consumed the shield.

Her numb mind hurt to keep the spell straight. The medicine barely took any effect, with the fact that she had already taken more of them before coming here. She couldn’t keep the Spirit cloud ability ongoing now, just the swirling air shield was her limit. Still, she willed a few wisps of air to charge, condensing into air blades.

Her mind was numb in the pain, and she couldn’t even see clearly anymore. The force broke through her shield again, though didn’t reach her, but it did weaken it. It wouldn’t be long until it gets to her, either.

Shailyn slapped her cheek and kept herself awake. She forced her spirit cloud ability in front of her and found the Warlock was walking towards her. Gritting her teeth, she tried to redirect the raging wind of the storm to work for her, though she found it really hard to redirect the wind as if it was not listening to her at all. Even her shield unravelled, and the revolving wind slowed down.

Shailyn was at her wit's end when the shield dissolved entirely against the relentless black flames of the warlock.

“Trofas Kamaraz.” No wind answered her call.

“Trofas Kamaraz,” she shouted again and this time a wisp of wind answered, swirling around her.

The warlock chuckled, barely ten paces away. “I guess this is the end for you.”

Rojar Iker walked further as three more figures came out of the darkness. One behind him, a dozen paces away with the bow, and the other two behind her, blocking her way of escape, unsure if she even had the strength to escape.

The warlock flicked his finger and didn’t attack, but the archer behind him released the string of his bow as he was prepared for it for several seconds already.

Shailyn’s eyes widened in horror as she forced a wisp of wind to condense into a small shield on her chest, while also trying to stray away. She knew it wouldn't be enough, but perhaps she could survive. But what after that?

Shailyn’s mind was buzzing with pain and horror, and for a split second, the snowstorm halted.

It was as if the angry wind in the surroundings was compelled from their domination as a crimson fire drew over Shailyn. The warlock took a step back, and Shailyn found herself clinging against a hard chest as an arm wrapped around her waist, swinging her whole over one-eighty degrees.

Her mind whirred at the sudden swing, and she could only see glorious crimson flames hurling into a ring, making a full circle of fire with their swing. The devastating flames deflected the arrow, pushing away all the raging wind and snowfall to charge at the warlock and the other two underlings.

Rojar Iker prepared a shield the moment he saw the fiery silhouette flying towards them, but he was barely half a dozen paces away. The all-consuming flame hurled against him, knocked out the shield and flung him away. The outcome was the same for the other two underlings.

Then the split second passed, the ring of fire dissolved, and the mad icy wind rushed in, however, Shailyn looked at the eyes of the youth, who was protecting her in his embrace, and felt all the warmth. It was all she needed now.

“Looks like I’m late.”

__________

The climax of this arc has been going on for about a month already and mostly it's my fault. I changed a lot of things, drew more characters and showed almost all the scenes, and most importantly, sucked at the updates.

BTW, if you're thinking it would end here . . . then you probably forgot the reason why Scar came to the mountain in the first place. Still, it won't be that long, I was supposed to end this arc 20k wc back. (Btw these extra words cost nothing extra)