Chapter Three:Hawk and Howl

Our blades clashed and in that moment, I felt like I could see everything, the embers falling off his flaming cloak, the sweat on his brow turning to steam, my heartbeat pounding in my ears and slowing to a dull roar, I felt the cracks form.

My knife was about to snap in two, so I turned it and his axe aside and leapt over him in one movement, throwing my knife at his back.

Galan was known for his toughness, so flinging my knife was futile, breaking in half as the blade was embedded in his back by the tip.

I attempted to put his flames out, swirling my cloudy wings and flinging rain at him like shot, which hissed and steamed where they struck to no avail.

In response he planted his axe in the ground, clapping his hands together and knotting his fingers together, before separating them and thrusting them up at me, flame spiraling from them into the shape of hounds, jaws snapping as they flew through the air with a hunger.

Swirling my misty mantle I was able to soften the attack and dive at the ground, burying my hands in the dirt.

My voice dripped from my lips as I felt my strength flow into the earth, the ground turning to a swamp rapidly as galan sunk down to his knees in the muck.

Still feeling like I had just vomited up 3 meals, limbs heavy as if they had turned to lead, I clapped my hands together as a storm of rain swirled around him and I, cutting at his cloak and finally extinguishing it, only for him to create a dome of clay from the mud around him, a burst of steam coming off it as it hardened into a thick shell, the slicing rain eroding it slowly as I forced my grip to tighten, wrapping the coil of cutting cloud into the clay and digging into it deeper.

"Rika, what's our charge at?"

"About eight tenths, don't tell me-"

My smile in that moment must have reached my ears as I felt my hair stand on end. The feeling in the air at this moment was truly electric as I thrust my hands forward, forming the water into a spiraling skewer and firing it into the dome, shattering it as galan wasted no time in charging me, the ground ejecting it's moisture and allowing him to walk on solid ground.

Out of all the magic I know, my absolute weakest is lightning, being only good for party tricks and pranks. But by having Rika manipulate the water as if we were in a cloud, generating electricity the same way a thunderstorm forms a bolt of lightning, we can surpass that weakness in time.

I leapt over his head, air walking just enough to put distance between us and to give me a clear line of sight to the blade still stuck in his back. With a clap of my hands I felt it course through me, my blood and bone vibrating with the energy as I directed the ensuing bolt into the blade, piercing him from behind in a violent flash of lightning and thunder.

Magic has an intrinsic drawback, that whatever is channeled must flow through the user, heat magic can cause fevers and burns and water magic causes some to become seasick or dehydrated for example.

I felt my skin light up with pins and needles as every nerve in my body opened up in pain before closing off in a numbing wave that wrapped us up tight as I couldn't believe my eyes...

He was still standing, stones rising around him in a ring as he raised the axe as said stones struck each other, sharpening into blades that merged into a new axe blade as I could feel an ever stronger killing intent radiating from him.

I felt... elation in that moment, as spring turned to summer in my song as I was now on the defensive, rika cloaking me in a mirage, our subpar heat magic working to the limit to toy with his senses as he chased us with an axe, wings clipped by the recoil of our thunderbolt and forced to backpedal like a frightened tomcat, searching for a minute opening in the assault. We found it, the exact moment he'll take a breath was coming very soon, so we closed in, gathering dust and bringing our fist up to meet his jaw, gathered heat sparking dry dust into a blast that staggered the hulking man into stumbling back as we caught our breath despite the burning in our lungs, wings forming once more as we sang and danced to a harvest tune, mounting a ceaseless counter attack only for galan to shrug off our blows and bring his axe down and for Rika to coat out arm in hard roots to meet it with a strong blow of our own, only for him to split it in twain, axe finding her egg and being repulsed violently as I felt consciousness fade...

"Why do you do this to yourself?"

A girl, standing and observing a boy standing from the ground, dusting himself off as he readied himself to leap over the bar twice his height.

"Because, life isn't worth living without a challenge." He wiped the sweat from his brow and leapt again, clearing the bar this time with a smile of pure bliss, awaking to seeing his foe below him, looking up in stunned disbelief.

Ice had formed around his leg as his smile widened, predatory as he saw his mark and dove, icy talons primed to kill as he let out a howling roar, two voices as one releasing a primal fury as the blow split a pillar of stone in two and they would feel darkness overtake them, strength spent.