Chapter 237: Double Elimination
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The ambush was devastating.
Vesuvius shimmered into being beside Tyris, and the pair poured lava and flame down on Claygon and the elemental knights from the Outcasts of the Divine Wind. The knights could not escape the torrent of lava and flame and were instantly blasted from the contest.
Lava continued to pour over Claygon, weighing the golem down with the full weight of molten rock. Three of Tyris’ team suddenly appeared, adding a barrage of ice magic spells to the onslaught, combining intense heat with freezing cold.
The mixture erupted.
Shrapnel of ice and rock sprayed the stones Alex’s team crouched behind, as the lava encasing Claygon rapidly cooled.
‘The fire-gems!’ Alex thought. ‘Liquify the stuff on you with your fire-gems!’
Whooom!
The fire-gems began to power up.
“Not this time!” roared Tyris.
More of her team appeared, drowning Claygon in spells, keeping him rooted in place. Alex was getting agitated watching them deal nonstop punishment to his golem, but how could he help him?
“Agh! This is enraging!” Khalik cried, exchanging a look with Thundar and Isolde. “I cannot do a damned thing with my mana so low!”
“Neither can I!” Thundar said. “One wrong twitch from behind this rock, and I’m done!”
“We may have to retreat!” Isolde warned.
“Wait! Not yet!” Alex held up his hand as a question hit him.
He looked at Tyris’ team. Why weren’t they staying invisible? Why were they revealing themselves when they were attacking them?
He thought about the monster attack on the patrizia’s manor. The bone-drinkers, gorgers, and muupkaras were the first creatures to appear and had kept everyone focused on them. Meanwhile, the clawed monsters were lying in wait until they were ready to join the attack.
It might be the same now: the ones who were visible were the distraction, providing cover for the ones who stayed invisible. But if there are hidden opponents somewhere near, then what are they waiting for?
‘We’re behind cover and prepared for an attack,’ he thought. ‘But we’d be a lot more vulnerable if we were retreating…maybe that’s what they’re doing—waiting for us to leave cover and retreat.’
Alex looked at his summoned swarm. “Spread out,” he said quietly. “If you touch anything you can’t see, land on it.”
He looked toward Theresa as his beetles scattered. “I think I know what’s going on. Watch the bugs,” he said quietly. “If they stop flying and settle in mid-air, shoot at that spot.”
Alex glanced at the Outcasts.
One of their battle wizards had used a magic spell to find Tyris and Vesuvius when they weren’t visible, so Alex watched him, hoping he’d unveil anyone else cloaked by invisibility spells.
Unfortunately, that wizard had bigger problems.
The Outcasts were trying to retreat to the smoke, seeking cover, but flying warriors kept popping from thin air, hitting them from all sides. Elemental knights fought back with spell-enhanced speed and strength, but the wizards held them in check.
As some of Tyris’ battle mage teammates launched offensive spells toward The Outcasts, others continued their sustained attack on Claygon.
Alex’s attention was suddenly drawn to the beetles.
They had begun pausing in mid-air, folding their wings like they were preparing to land.
Theresa acted. She darted out from behind cover, loosing arrow after arrow at unseen enemies. Cries began, then abruptly ended as her arrows hit home. Thundar jumped from behind his hiding place and released a crossbow bolt.
Another scream died.
“Hah! Bye-bye, Woluld! That’s what you get for being too cautious!” Tyris laughed. “Can’t wait to see the look on his face after the battle-Oops!”
Whoooosh!
She dodged Claygon’s fire-beams.
The golem was fighting to free himself from the growing mound of hardening rock and exploding lava. Alex kept running interference, shooting Elemental Beetles, his forceball and all three Wizard’s Hands at her team.
Fwooooosh!
Two mages fired crackling lightning all around, destroying his spells and casting his beetles back to the elemental plane of fire.
“Shit!” he cursed.
Theresa switched her shots to aim toward Tyris and some mages near her, but they all soared behind Vesuvius, using the gigantic vulcanchelone as a shield between them and the arrows. Even her powerful shots had no effect on the tortoise’s shell.
She took aim at his eye, but a forceshield whipped around from the other side of the beast, blocking her.
Alex’s mind raced.
His team had very little mana left, and Theresa’s arrows weren’t doing much against Vesuvius’ hide. Grimloch, Hogarth and Najyah were gone. His active spells were gone, and it looked like their enemies had Orbs of Air around their heads which would stop his booby-trapped potions from affecting them.
They were running low on options.
Wait.
He looked at his bag. If he could use Call Through Ice to teleport a potion into Vesuvius’ open mouth, that might turn things around.
He started focusing his mind, ready for The Mark’s interference and glanced at Claygon: his golem was nearly buried in lava and half-melted rock. His powerful limbs were smashing and scraping at the molten rock, fighting to keep it from sealing him in, but it was a losing battle.
He was being buried: even the flight spell wasn’t helping him break free.
Alex grimaced. ‘Come on Claygon, just hold on a little longe-’
“Perfect!” Tyris shouted. “That golem’s not dodging a thing now! Vesuvius! I cast Blows of Lead on you! Make like an avalanche and go crush him!”
With a roar, the vulcanchelone shot out of the sky toward the immobile golem. His club-headed tail emerged from his shell, flicking behind him.
Alex’s eyes flew wide; he remembered how much power that tail had: enough to send Claygon flying in the Duel by Proxy. And that was when there was magic dulling its blows; now, it had magic enhancing them.
“Run!” Alex told his team. “We’ve gotta get out of here, now!”
They looked at each other then shot from behind the rocks.
Whoooosh!
Vesuvius turned in mid-air, swinging his tail down with every bit of built up momentum his great mass possessed.
Boom!
It collided with Claygon at full force, and the powerful golem simply vanished.
“No!” Thundar and Alex cried in unison.
“Mop up the rest!” Tyris’ teammate shouted.
Vesuvius turned his long neck and breathed a massive cone of fire at Alex’s team. Lava also erupted from his shell, fountaining toward them.
Whooosh!
They scattered.
Khalik shot skyward, just dodging the lava fountain.
But Tyris shouted an incantation; lava swerved, turning as though it had a mind of its own, then it snapped around the prince like a serpent.
It constricted.
The prince of Tekezash vanished.
“Khalik!” Alex cried.
His mind tried to work out a strategy…but they had few resources. So few resources.
They weren’t all making it out of thi-
Ching!
He had been grabbed in mid-air; a chain of light—attached to a point of empty space—had clamped over his ankle. He was trapped. His hand shot into his bag.
Think.
Adapt.
Thin-
Teleportation magic manifested in front of him.
One of Tyris’ battle mages appeared and with him, Tyris. She was already finishing a spell and had both hands extended toward Alex. Lava roiled between them.
He sighed. “Ugh, well done.”
She smiled, revealing her gold tooth. “You to-”
Alex threw his booby-trapped potion of sensory enhancement at them mid-sentence.
Fwooosh!
Lava sprayed from Tyris’ hands, hitting the potion bottle and bursting it.
A cloud misted in the air around them.
But just before it did, he spotted two long, pointed objects racing toward her and the battle mage. They never saw them coming through the mist.
Clack! Clack!
Alex smiled as the lava rushed over him and his spell-mark activated. Teleportation magic cast him through space until he appeared in the middle of a beach-side camp on the southernmost point of Oreca’s Fall Island. All around him medical and tournament staff bustled about, checking participants as they appeared on stone circles set on the sandy beach.
A breath later, Tyris and her battle mage appeared in the circle in front of him.
“-o,” she finished her ‘too’. “Wait, what in the hells?”
“Couldn’t fall alone,” Alex shrugged, then smiled. “You understand, right?”
Theresa rushed up the mountain along the stones, loosing arrow after arrow behind her. The giant volcano tortoise roared and flew up after her, while the rest of its team joined in the pursuit.
Brutus barked with one head while bounding up the mountain path with the other two pointed forward. Isolde and Svenia were flying a little ahead, and Thundar was close, swearing up a storm as he dodged spell after spell.
The tortoise spewed flames from its beak.
Theresa’s jaw hardened.
Alex was gone. Khalik was gone, along with Najyah. Hogarth was gone. Claygon was gone. Grimloch was gone.
Most of their team was gone.
There was no way they were going to take down those battle mages now, and if the rest of them got eliminated, they would lose.
“Go!” Theresa shouted at her team, whirling around.
She took a breath, concentrating and firing a stream of arrows at their pursuers.
“I’ll hold them off as long as I can!” she shouted. “Get somewhere safe and regenerate your mana!”
She continued firing as quickly as she could, only to see Thundar shoot back beside her.
“Oh no, you’re not doing this by yourself,” he said, holding up his mace. “If you’re gonna form a wall, then you’re gonna need more bricks.”
Whap!
His mace slammed into his palm.
“And I’ll be just another brick in the wall.”
Brutus loped up beside her, growling and barking.
“Very well-” Isolde started to say.
“No, you and Svenia go!” Theresa shouted. “You’ve got the most magic! Go and recover! Stay in the contest until the end!”
“…until the very end then!” Isolde shouted. “We shall see you at the end of this!”
“Yes!” Theresa said as she shot at the closest battle mages.
The huntress, Brutus and Thundar surged forward toward the enemy. The trio rushed through the barrage of spells, trying to hold back their opponents with everything they had. Thundar’s reckless charges and Theresa’s arrows pulled their enemies’ attention away from Svenia and Isolde’s retreat, while Brutus lunged for the giant tortoise.
There was a whirling of weapons, teeth, spell and flame.
Brutus vanished first: a well-aimed blast of fire knocked him out of the contest.
Thundar was next: the minotaur grabbed one of the battle mages and knocked him out of the contest, but the warriors on his team surrounded him with a storm of swinging weapons.
He disappeared.
Theresa fought with everything she had.
When she ran out of arrows, she drew her sword and hunting knife. She dodged spell after spell, but the battlefield was growing harder to manoeuvre: each blast of Vesuvius’ lava splattered the mountainside with boiling rock. The heat was rising: she could feel the sweltering blaze each time she came near one of the pools. Only the Orb of Air around her head stopped the fumes from choking her.
She dodged until there was no place left to dodge to.
Surrounded by lava, Theresa could only watch as the tortoise’s flames blasted over her.
An instant later, she was blinking on a beach with a stone pad beneath her feet.
“Dammit,” she swore.
“Theresa!” someone called.
She looked to the side and saw her friends waving at her: Alex—barely holding back an excited Brutus—Thundar, Claygon, Grimloch, Hogarth, and Khalik with Najyah perched on his arm.
As she tried to step off the stone pad, medical staff surrounded her—poking, prodding, turning her to make sure she wasn’t injured—before letting her go to her friends.
Panting from exertion, she stumbled through the sand to meet them. “How much…how long did I last?”
Brutus nuzzled up to her.
“About five minutes,” Thundar said as the group came together. “You should’ve seen the look on Goldtooth’s face when she appeared here. It was almost worth getting blasted just to see it.” He grinned.
“Yeah,” Alex said. “She was expecting all of us to end up here, not her. Glad we got to disappoint her. And she’s not the only one either.”
He inclined his head toward another group and Theresa looked to see the three centaurs of The Outcasts of the Divine Wind standing alongside other eliminated members of their team. All were watching the illusions floating above that were displaying the action on the grassy plain and mountain.
“It looks like it’s all up to Isolde now,” Alex said. “And Svenia…hopefully they can hold out to the end. We eliminated a lot of opponents, and it looks like-”
He looked up at the illusions and watched as Vesuvius and the remainder of Tyris’ team climbed the mountain and attacked the team holding the peak.
“-it’ll be hard for any other team to keep the peak with Vesuvius up there now. Most of the other teams have been eliminated too, which means it’ll take a lot for anyone to close the point-gap we hold now. We might even get second…or maybe third, depending on what The Outcasts do.”
“Let us hope,” Khalik said. “May Isolde move quietly, recover her mana…and may she and Svenia remain undiscovered.”
He’d been undiscovered so far, and it looked like he was going to get away with it. Kybas stuffed the last of his mushrooms into a large sack and drew the bag shut.
“Well, that’s that, Harmless,” he said a little sadly. “At least until that demon summoner gets caught.”
Harmless rubbed his snout against Kybas’ leg.
The goblin put his hands on his hips, his eyes cutting through the dark. Only the muted glow from the mushrooms inside his sack shed even a little bit of light on his garden…or what had been his garden.
His little cavern was empty now: all of the mushrooms and his tools had been packed up. Most had already been squirrelled away to other little hidey-holes he had around campus.
“One day,” he said quietly. “One da-”
He stopped.
His ears twitched as the sound of footsteps reached them through the holes he’d made in the ceiling.
Someone was near his cavern, trying to walk quietly, but their heavy footsteps betrayed them.
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The ambush was devastating.
Vesuvius shimmered into being beside Tyris, and the pair poured lava and flame down on Claygon and the elemental knights from the Outcasts of the Divine Wind. The knights could not escape the torrent of lava and flame and were instantly blasted from the contest.
Lava continued to pour over Claygon, weighing the golem down with the full weight of molten rock. Three of Tyris’ team suddenly appeared, adding a barrage of ice magic spells to the onslaught, combining intense heat with freezing cold.
The mixture erupted.
Shrapnel of ice and rock sprayed the stones Alex’s team crouched behind, as the lava encasing Claygon rapidly cooled.
‘The fire-gems!’ Alex thought. ‘Liquify the stuff on you with your fire-gems!’
Whooom!
The fire-gems began to power up.
“Not this time!” roared Tyris.
More of her team appeared, drowning Claygon in spells, keeping him rooted in place. Alex was getting agitated watching them deal nonstop punishment to his golem, but how could he help him?
“Agh! This is enraging!” Khalik cried, exchanging a look with Thundar and Isolde. “I cannot do a damned thing with my mana so low!”
“Neither can I!” Thundar said. “One wrong twitch from behind this rock, and I’m done!”
“We may have to retreat!” Isolde warned.
“Wait! Not yet!” Alex held up his hand as a question hit him.
He looked at Tyris’ team. Why weren’t they staying invisible? Why were they revealing themselves when they were attacking them?
He thought about the monster attack on the patrizia’s manor. The bone-drinkers, gorgers, and muupkaras were the first creatures to appear and had kept everyone focused on them. Meanwhile, the clawed monsters were lying in wait until they were ready to join the attack.
It might be the same now: the ones who were visible were the distraction, providing cover for the ones who stayed invisible. But if there are hidden opponents somewhere near, then what are they waiting for?
‘We’re behind cover and prepared for an attack,’ he thought. ‘But we’d be a lot more vulnerable if we were retreating…maybe that’s what they’re doing—waiting for us to leave cover and retreat.’
Alex looked at his summoned swarm. “Spread out,” he said quietly. “If you touch anything you can’t see, land on it.”
He looked toward Theresa as his beetles scattered. “I think I know what’s going on. Watch the bugs,” he said quietly. “If they stop flying and settle in mid-air, shoot at that spot.”
Alex glanced at the Outcasts.
One of their battle wizards had used a magic spell to find Tyris and Vesuvius when they weren’t visible, so Alex watched him, hoping he’d unveil anyone else cloaked by invisibility spells.
Unfortunately, that wizard had bigger problems.
The Outcasts were trying to retreat to the smoke, seeking cover, but flying warriors kept popping from thin air, hitting them from all sides. Elemental knights fought back with spell-enhanced speed and strength, but the wizards held them in check.
As some of Tyris’ battle mage teammates launched offensive spells toward The Outcasts, others continued their sustained attack on Claygon.
Alex’s attention was suddenly drawn to the beetles.
They had begun pausing in mid-air, folding their wings like they were preparing to land.
Theresa acted. She darted out from behind cover, loosing arrow after arrow at unseen enemies. Cries began, then abruptly ended as her arrows hit home. Thundar jumped from behind his hiding place and released a crossbow bolt.
Another scream died.
“Hah! Bye-bye, Woluld! That’s what you get for being too cautious!” Tyris laughed. “Can’t wait to see the look on his face after the battle-Oops!”
Whoooosh!
She dodged Claygon’s fire-beams.
The golem was fighting to free himself from the growing mound of hardening rock and exploding lava. Alex kept running interference, shooting Elemental Beetles, his forceball and all three Wizard’s Hands at her team.
Fwooooosh!
Two mages fired crackling lightning all around, destroying his spells and casting his beetles back to the elemental plane of fire.
“Shit!” he cursed.
Theresa switched her shots to aim toward Tyris and some mages near her, but they all soared behind Vesuvius, using the gigantic vulcanchelone as a shield between them and the arrows. Even her powerful shots had no effect on the tortoise’s shell.
She took aim at his eye, but a forceshield whipped around from the other side of the beast, blocking her.
Alex’s mind raced.
His team had very little mana left, and Theresa’s arrows weren’t doing much against Vesuvius’ hide. Grimloch, Hogarth and Najyah were gone. His active spells were gone, and it looked like their enemies had Orbs of Air around their heads which would stop his booby-trapped potions from affecting them.
They were running low on options.
Wait.
He looked at his bag. If he could use Call Through Ice to teleport a potion into Vesuvius’ open mouth, that might turn things around.
He started focusing his mind, ready for The Mark’s interference and glanced at Claygon: his golem was nearly buried in lava and half-melted rock. His powerful limbs were smashing and scraping at the molten rock, fighting to keep it from sealing him in, but it was a losing battle.
He was being buried: even the flight spell wasn’t helping him break free.
Alex grimaced. ‘Come on Claygon, just hold on a little longe-’
“Perfect!” Tyris shouted. “That golem’s not dodging a thing now! Vesuvius! I cast Blows of Lead on you! Make like an avalanche and go crush him!”
With a roar, the vulcanchelone shot out of the sky toward the immobile golem. His club-headed tail emerged from his shell, flicking behind him.
Alex’s eyes flew wide; he remembered how much power that tail had: enough to send Claygon flying in the Duel by Proxy. And that was when there was magic dulling its blows; now, it had magic enhancing them.
“Run!” Alex told his team. “We’ve gotta get out of here, now!”
They looked at each other then shot from behind the rocks.
Whoooosh!
Vesuvius turned in mid-air, swinging his tail down with every bit of built up momentum his great mass possessed.
Boom!
It collided with Claygon at full force, and the powerful golem simply vanished.
“No!” Thundar and Alex cried in unison.
“Mop up the rest!” Tyris’ teammate shouted.
Vesuvius turned his long neck and breathed a massive cone of fire at Alex’s team. Lava also erupted from his shell, fountaining toward them.
Whooosh!
They scattered.
Khalik shot skyward, just dodging the lava fountain.
But Tyris shouted an incantation; lava swerved, turning as though it had a mind of its own, then it snapped around the prince like a serpent.
It constricted.
The prince of Tekezash vanished.
“Khalik!” Alex cried.
His mind tried to work out a strategy…but they had few resources. So few resources.
They weren’t all making it out of thi-
Ching!
He had been grabbed in mid-air; a chain of light—attached to a point of empty space—had clamped over his ankle. He was trapped. His hand shot into his bag.
Think.
Adapt.
Thin-
Teleportation magic manifested in front of him.
One of Tyris’ battle mages appeared and with him, Tyris. She was already finishing a spell and had both hands extended toward Alex. Lava roiled between them.
He sighed. “Ugh, well done.”
She smiled, revealing her gold tooth. “You to-”
Alex threw his booby-trapped potion of sensory enhancement at them mid-sentence.
Fwooosh!
Lava sprayed from Tyris’ hands, hitting the potion bottle and bursting it.
A cloud misted in the air around them.
But just before it did, he spotted two long, pointed objects racing toward her and the battle mage. They never saw them coming through the mist.
Clack! Clack!
Alex smiled as the lava rushed over him and his spell-mark activated. Teleportation magic cast him through space until he appeared in the middle of a beach-side camp on the southernmost point of Oreca’s Fall Island. All around him medical and tournament staff bustled about, checking participants as they appeared on stone circles set on the sandy beach.
A breath later, Tyris and her battle mage appeared in the circle in front of him.
“-o,” she finished her ‘too’. “Wait, what in the hells?”
“Couldn’t fall alone,” Alex shrugged, then smiled. “You understand, right?”
Theresa rushed up the mountain along the stones, loosing arrow after arrow behind her. The giant volcano tortoise roared and flew up after her, while the rest of its team joined in the pursuit.
Brutus barked with one head while bounding up the mountain path with the other two pointed forward. Isolde and Svenia were flying a little ahead, and Thundar was close, swearing up a storm as he dodged spell after spell.
The tortoise spewed flames from its beak.
Theresa’s jaw hardened.
Alex was gone. Khalik was gone, along with Najyah. Hogarth was gone. Claygon was gone. Grimloch was gone.
Most of their team was gone.
There was no way they were going to take down those battle mages now, and if the rest of them got eliminated, they would lose.
“Go!” Theresa shouted at her team, whirling around.
She took a breath, concentrating and firing a stream of arrows at their pursuers.
“I’ll hold them off as long as I can!” she shouted. “Get somewhere safe and regenerate your mana!”
She continued firing as quickly as she could, only to see Thundar shoot back beside her.
“Oh no, you’re not doing this by yourself,” he said, holding up his mace. “If you’re gonna form a wall, then you’re gonna need more bricks.”
Whap!
His mace slammed into his palm.
“And I’ll be just another brick in the wall.”
Brutus loped up beside her, growling and barking.
“Very well-” Isolde started to say.
“No, you and Svenia go!” Theresa shouted. “You’ve got the most magic! Go and recover! Stay in the contest until the end!”
“…until the very end then!” Isolde shouted. “We shall see you at the end of this!”
“Yes!” Theresa said as she shot at the closest battle mages.
The huntress, Brutus and Thundar surged forward toward the enemy. The trio rushed through the barrage of spells, trying to hold back their opponents with everything they had. Thundar’s reckless charges and Theresa’s arrows pulled their enemies’ attention away from Svenia and Isolde’s retreat, while Brutus lunged for the giant tortoise.
There was a whirling of weapons, teeth, spell and flame.
Brutus vanished first: a well-aimed blast of fire knocked him out of the contest.
Thundar was next: the minotaur grabbed one of the battle mages and knocked him out of the contest, but the warriors on his team surrounded him with a storm of swinging weapons.
He disappeared.
Theresa fought with everything she had.
When she ran out of arrows, she drew her sword and hunting knife. She dodged spell after spell, but the battlefield was growing harder to manoeuvre: each blast of Vesuvius’ lava splattered the mountainside with boiling rock. The heat was rising: she could feel the sweltering blaze each time she came near one of the pools. Only the Orb of Air around her head stopped the fumes from choking her.
She dodged until there was no place left to dodge to.
Surrounded by lava, Theresa could only watch as the tortoise’s flames blasted over her.
An instant later, she was blinking on a beach with a stone pad beneath her feet.
“Dammit,” she swore.
“Theresa!” someone called.
She looked to the side and saw her friends waving at her: Alex—barely holding back an excited Brutus—Thundar, Claygon, Grimloch, Hogarth, and Khalik with Najyah perched on his arm.
As she tried to step off the stone pad, medical staff surrounded her—poking, prodding, turning her to make sure she wasn’t injured—before letting her go to her friends.
Panting from exertion, she stumbled through the sand to meet them. “How much…how long did I last?”
Brutus nuzzled up to her.
“About five minutes,” Thundar said as the group came together. “You should’ve seen the look on Goldtooth’s face when she appeared here. It was almost worth getting blasted just to see it.” He grinned.
“Yeah,” Alex said. “She was expecting all of us to end up here, not her. Glad we got to disappoint her. And she’s not the only one either.”
He inclined his head toward another group and Theresa looked to see the three centaurs of The Outcasts of the Divine Wind standing alongside other eliminated members of their team. All were watching the illusions floating above that were displaying the action on the grassy plain and mountain.
“It looks like it’s all up to Isolde now,” Alex said. “And Svenia…hopefully they can hold out to the end. We eliminated a lot of opponents, and it looks like-”
He looked up at the illusions and watched as Vesuvius and the remainder of Tyris’ team climbed the mountain and attacked the team holding the peak.
“-it’ll be hard for any other team to keep the peak with Vesuvius up there now. Most of the other teams have been eliminated too, which means it’ll take a lot for anyone to close the point-gap we hold now. We might even get second…or maybe third, depending on what The Outcasts do.”
“Let us hope,” Khalik said. “May Isolde move quietly, recover her mana…and may she and Svenia remain undiscovered.”
He’d been undiscovered so far, and it looked like he was going to get away with it. Kybas stuffed the last of his mushrooms into a large sack and drew the bag shut.
“Well, that’s that, Harmless,” he said a little sadly. “At least until that demon summoner gets caught.”
Harmless rubbed his snout against Kybas’ leg.
The goblin put his hands on his hips, his eyes cutting through the dark. Only the muted glow from the mushrooms inside his sack shed even a little bit of light on his garden…or what had been his garden.
His little cavern was empty now: all of the mushrooms and his tools had been packed up. Most had already been squirrelled away to other little hidey-holes he had around campus.
“One day,” he said quietly. “One da-”
He stopped.
His ears twitched as the sound of footsteps reached them through the holes he’d made in the ceiling.
Someone was near his cavern, trying to walk quietly, but their heavy footsteps betrayed them.
The ambush was devastating.Vesuvius shimmered into being beside Tyris, and the pair poured lava and flame down on Claygon and the elemental knights from the Outcasts of the Divine Wind. The knights could not escape the torrent of lava and flame and were instantly blasted from the contest.Lava continued to pour over Claygon, weighing the golem down with the full weight of molten rock. Three of Tyris' team suddenly appeared, adding a barrage of ice magic spells to the onslaught, combining intense heat with freezing cold.The mixture erupted.Shrapnel of ice and rock sprayed the stones Alex's team crouched behind, as the lava encasing Claygon rapidly cooled.The fire-gems!' Alex thought. Liquify the stuff on you with your fire-gems!'Whooom!The fire-gems began to power up.Not this time! roared Tyris.More of her team appeared, drowning Claygon in spells, keeping him rooted in place. Alex was getting agitated watching them deal nonstop punishment to his golem, but how could he help him?Agh! This is enraging! Khalik cried, exchanging a look with Thundar and Isolde. I cannot do a damned thing with my mana so low!Neither can I! Thundar said. One wrong twitch from behind this rock, and I'm done!We may have to retreat! Isolde warned.Wait! Not yet! Alex held up his hand as a question hit him.He looked at Tyris' team. Why weren't they staying invisible? Why were they revealing themselves when they were attacking them?He thought about the monster attack on the patrizia's manor. The bone-drinkers, gorgers, and muupkaras were the first creatures to appear and had kept everyone focused on them. Meanwhile, the clawed monsters were lying in wait until they were ready to join the attack.It might be the same now: the ones who were visible were the distraction, providing cover for the ones who stayed invisible. But if there are hidden opponents somewhere near, then what are they waiting for?We're behind cover and prepared for an attack,' he thought. But we'd be a lot more vulnerable if we were retreatingmaybe that's what they're doingwaiting for us to leave cover and retreat.'Alex looked at his summoned swarm. Spread out, he said quietly. If you touch anything you can't see, land on it.He looked toward Theresa as his beetles scattered. I think I know what's going on. Watch the bugs, he said quietly. If they stop flying and settle in mid-air, shoot at that spot.Alex glanced at the Outcasts.One of their battle wizards had used a magic spell to find Tyris and Vesuvius when they weren't visible, so Alex watched him, hoping he'd unveil anyone else cloaked by invisibility spells.Unfortunately, that wizard had bigger problems.The Outcasts were trying to retreat to the smoke, seeking cover, but flying warriors kept popping from thin air, hitting them from all sides. Elemental knights fought back with spell-enhanced speed and strength, but the wizards held them in check.As some of Tyris' battle mage teammates launched offensive spells toward The Outcasts, others continued their sustained attack on Claygon.Alex's attention was suddenly drawn to the beetles.They had begun pausing in mid-air, folding their wings like they were preparing to land.Theresa acted. She darted out from behind cover, loosing arrow after arrow at unseen enemies. Cries began, then abruptly ended as her arrows hit home. Thundar jumped from behind his hiding place and released a crossbow bolt.Another scream died.Hah! Bye-bye, Woluld! That's what you get for being too cautious! Tyris laughed. Can't wait to see the look on his face after the battle-Oops!Whoooosh!She dodged Claygon's fire-beams.The golem was fighting to free himself from the growing mound of hardening rock and exploding lava. Alex kept running interference, shooting Elemental Beetles, his forceball and all three Wizard's Hands at her team.Fwooooosh!Two mages fired crackling lightning all around, destroying his spells and casting his beetles back to the elemental plane of fire.Shit! he cursed.Theresa switched her shots to aim toward Tyris and some mages near her, but they all soared behind Vesuvius, using the gigantic vulcanchelone as a shield between them and the arrows. Even her powerful shots had no effect on the tortoise's shell.She took aim at his eye, but a forceshield whipped around from the other side of the beast, blocking her.Alex's mind raced.His team had very little mana left, and Theresa's arrows weren't doing much against Vesuvius' hide. Grimloch, Hogarth and Najyah were gone. His active spells were gone, and it looked like their enemies had Orbs of Air around their heads which would stop his booby-trapped potions from affecting them.They were running low on options.Wait.He looked at his bag. If he could use Call Through Ice to teleport a potion into Vesuvius' open mouth, that might turn things around.He started focusing his mind, ready for The Mark's interference and glanced at Claygon: his golem was nearly buried in lava and half-melted rock. His powerful limbs were smashing and scraping at the molten rock, fighting to keep it from sealing him in, but it was a losing battle.He was being buried: even the flight spell wasn't helping him break free.Alex grimaced. Come on Claygon, just hold on a little longe-'Perfect! Tyris shouted. That golem's not dodging a thing now! Vesuvius! I cast Blows of Lead on you! Make like an avalanche and go crush him!With a roar, the vulcanchelone shot out of the sky toward the immobile golem. His club-headed tail emerged from his shell, flicking behind him.Alex's eyes flew wide; he remembered how much power that tail had: enough to send Claygon flying in the Duel by Proxy. And that was when there was magic dulling its blows; now, it had magic enhancing them.Run! Alex told his team. We've gotta get out of here, now!They looked at each other then shot from behind the rocks.Whoooosh!Vesuvius turned in mid-air, swinging his tail down with every bit of built up momentum his great mass possessed.Boom!It collided with Claygon at full force, and the powerful golem simply vanished.No! Thundar and Alex cried in unison.Mop up the rest! Tyris' teammate shouted.Vesuvius turned his long neck and breathed a massive cone of fire at Alex's team. Lava also erupted from his shell, fountaining toward them.Whooosh!They scattered.Khalik shot skyward, just dodging the lava fountain.But Tyris shouted an incantation; lava swerved, turning as though it had a mind of its own, then it snapped around the prince like a serpent.It constricted.The prince of Tekezash vanished.Khalik! Alex cried.His mind tried to work out a strategybut they had few resources. So few resources.They weren't all making it out of thi-Ching!He had been grabbed in mid-air; a chain of lightattached to a point of empty spacehad clamped over his ankle. He was trapped. His hand shot into his bag.Think.Adapt.Thin-Teleportation magic manifested in front of him.One of Tyris' battle mages appeared and with him, Tyris. She was already finishing a spell and had both hands extended toward Alex. Lava roiled between them.He sighed. Ugh, well done.She smiled, revealing her gold tooth. You to-Alex threw his booby-trapped potion of sensory enhancement at them mid-sentence.Fwooosh!Lava sprayed from Tyris' hands, hitting the potion bottle and bursting it.A cloud misted in the air around them.But just before it did, he spotted two long, pointed objects racing toward her and the battle mage. They never saw them coming through the mist.Clack! Clack!Alex smiled as the lava rushed over him and his spell-mark activated. Teleportation magic cast him through space until he appeared in the middle of a beach-side camp on the southernmost point of Oreca's Fall Island. All around him medical and tournament staff bustled about, checking participants as they appeared on stone circles set on the sandy beach.A breath later, Tyris and her battle mage appeared in the circle in front of him.-o, she finished her too'. Wait, what in the hells?Couldn't fall alone, Alex shrugged, then smiled. You understand, right?Theresa rushed up the mountain along the stones, loosing arrow after arrow behind her. The giant volcano tortoise roared and flew up after her, while the rest of its team joined in the pursuit.Brutus barked with one head while bounding up the mountain path with the other two pointed forward. Isolde and Svenia were flying a little ahead, and Thundar was close, swearing up a storm as he dodged spell after spell.The tortoise spewed flames from its beak.Theresa's jaw hardened.Alex was gone. Khalik was gone, along with Najyah. Hogarth was gone. Claygon was gone. Grimloch was gone.Most of their team was gone.There was no way they were going to take down those battle mages now, and if the rest of them got eliminated, they would lose.Go! Theresa shouted at her team, whirling around.She took a breath, concentrating and firing a stream of arrows at their pursuers.I'll hold them off as long as I can! she shouted. Get somewhere safe and regenerate your mana!She continued firing as quickly as she could, only to see Thundar shoot back beside her.Oh no, you're not doing this by yourself, he said, holding up his mace. If you're gonna form a wall, then you're gonna need more bricks.Whap!His mace slammed into his palm.And I'll be just another brick in the wall.Brutus loped up beside her, growling and barking.Very well- Isolde started to say.No, you and Svenia go! Theresa shouted. You've got the most magic! Go and recover! Stay in the contest until the end!until the very end then! Isolde shouted. We shall see you at the end of this!Yes! Theresa said as she shot at the closest battle mages.The huntress, Brutus and Thundar surged forward toward the enemy. The trio rushed through the barrage of spells, trying to hold back their opponents with everything they had. Thundar's reckless charges and Theresa's arrows pulled their enemies' attention away from Svenia and Isolde's retreat, while Brutus lunged for the giant tortoise.There was a whirling of weapons, teeth, spell and flame.Brutus vanished first: a well-aimed blast of fire knocked him out of the contest.Thundar was next: the minotaur grabbed one of the battle mages and knocked him out of the contest, but the warriors on his team surrounded him with a storm of swinging weapons.He disappeared.Theresa fought with everything she had.When she ran out of arrows, she drew her sword and hunting knife. She dodged spell after spell, but the battlefield was growing harder to manoeuvre: each blast of Vesuvius' lava splattered the mountainside with boiling rock. The heat was rising: she could feel the sweltering blaze each time she came near one of the pools. Only the Orb of Air around her head stopped the fumes from choking her.She dodged until there was no place left to dodge to.Surrounded by lava, Theresa could only watch as the tortoise's flames blasted over her.An instant later, she was blinking on a beach with a stone pad beneath her feet.Dammit, she swore.Theresa! someone called.She looked to the side and saw her friends waving at her: Alexbarely holding back an excited BrutusThundar, Claygon, Grimloch, Hogarth, and Khalik with Najyah perched on his arm.As she tried to step off the stone pad, medical staff surrounded herpoking, prodding, turning her to make sure she wasn't injuredbefore letting her go to her friends.Panting from exertion, she stumbled through the sand to meet them. How muchhow long did I last?Brutus nuzzled up to her.About five minutes, Thundar said as the group came together. You should've seen the look on Goldtooth's face when she appeared here. It was almost worth getting blasted just to see it. He grinned.Yeah, Alex said. She was expecting all of us to end up here, not her. Glad we got to disappoint her. And she's not the only one either.He inclined his head toward another group and Theresa looked to see the three centaurs of The Outcasts of the Divine Wind standing alongside other eliminated members of their team. All were watching the illusions floating above that were displaying the action on the grassy plain and mountain.It looks like it's all up to Isolde now, Alex said. And Sveniahopefully they can hold out to the end. We eliminated a lot of opponents, and it looks like-He looked up at the illusions and watched as Vesuvius and the remainder of Tyris' team climbed the mountain and attacked the team holding the peak.-it'll be hard for any other team to keep the peak with Vesuvius up there now. Most of the other teams have been eliminated too, which means it'll take a lot for anyone to close the point-gap we hold now. We might even get secondor maybe third, depending on what The Outcasts do.Let us hope, Khalik said. May Isolde move quietly, recover her manaand may she and Svenia remain undiscovered.He'd been undiscovered so far, and it looked like he was going to get away with it. Kybas stuffed the last of his mushrooms into a large sack and drew the bag shut.Well, that's that, Harmless, he said a little sadly. At least until that demon summoner gets caught.Harmless rubbed his snout against Kybas' leg.The goblin put his hands on his hips, his eyes cutting through the dark. Only the muted glow from the mushrooms inside his sack shed even a little bit of light on his gardenor what had been his garden.His little cavern was empty now: all of the mushrooms and his tools had been packed up. Most had already been squirrelled away to other little hidey-holes he had around campus.One day, he said quietly. One da-He stopped.His ears twitched as the sound of footsteps reached them through the holes he'd made in the ceiling.Someone was near his cavern, trying to walk quietly, but their heavy footsteps betrayed them.
