It seemed like every minute, reports kept rolling in, notifying Skylar of a new place the Shadows’ been spotted in. It wasn’t long before Shellport was under siege, enveloped in two sides by Shadow forces. The fort soon came under fire by cannons from various angles, paving the way for lord-on-lord combat to break this horrendous stalemate. I had seen this tactic before: the Shadows would bombard my army with relentless long-ranged assault to force a lord-on-lord fight. So then, who would the lords be?
Luckily for us, there were three of us. Eryx, Skylar, and I marched into Shellport to drive the Shadows out of the city. When we got there, we saw civilians running north, retreating past the high walls and into the wilderness. As houses turned to commercial property, a large concentration of Shadow infantry was spotted.
“Where’s their lord?” Eryx whispered as we hid behind a warehouse’s wall.
“Oh, my gosh. They’re right there,” Skylar gulped. “Oh, yikes. They look ready.”
“They’re infantry,” I dismissed, “find the commanding lord.”
“Okay,” the general tiptoed ahead of us and peeked around the corner. Her eyes widened before putting her whole body against the wall. “Uh oh.”
“What?” I mumbled.
“Oh, my gosh this is bad. Oh, my gosh. I don’t think… Oh, my—”
“Skylar—” I grabbed her arm. “What did you see?”
Suddenly, a wall of ice cut straight through the street. In a perfect line, the reflective wall extended throughout the whole city and solidified once reaching the end of the colony. Even though it didn’t strike us, we looked upon it with fear as whoever conjured such a thing was powerful. The conjurer rounded the corner, his face reflecting off the ice like a mirror.
My eyes met his. “Dante!” I readied a water bolt.
“Skylar! This isn’t our first bout,” said the Shadow, emerging from the alleyway. Behind him, the ice wall elongated his reflection, broadening his shoulders while showcasing a tight smile. and rippling through the crystal reflection, Dante’s blade glistened. Only his head tilted toward us, letting his right side carry his posture. Raising his chin, his hair whipped, chuckling, “Though Zul and Eryx? I didn’t expect you two here, but,” he shrugged, “I might as well defeat you two. As a matter of fact, why don’t I just capture you Zul? I’m getting tired of meeting you at odd places.” He looked at his blade in awe. “But tired of winning? Maybe not.”
Without a second passing, a line of ice branched off from the greater wall, slamming into Eryx before he could stop it. Skylar used a gust of wind to propel herself forward, engaging the Shadow in sword combat. While spheres of water orbited around me, I joined the fight, firing bolts whenever Skylar gained distance from Dante.
Amidst the whizzing spells flying every which way, Eryx broke himself out of the ice prison which seemed to have sprouted from the various other branches the ice wall created. I hadn’t seen something so complicated before, prompting me to really think about my last battles with him. My conclusion? Dante was something else. Ever since I first fought him, I felt like he was going easy. Now, he was just making it obvious.
Dante’s blade locked with Skylar’s—she tried striking him—but Dante simply stepped backward. “Pf—” he sighed, parrying the attack, and landing a blow to her waist. As she stepped back, Eryx engaged, having hundreds of small ice bolts entering the fight with him. All Dante did was erect an ice wall between them. It stopped Eryx dead in his tracks, and when the wall dissipated, Dante battered him with his own spell.
“Oh, you two,” he purred. “Stop it… Artist! Engrain this in your memory!”
Behind some building, a man appeared and said, “Engrained, sir!”
“Another victory to claim!” he announced. “If this is an attempt at reforming the Knighthood, this sure is a sad one! Oh, but we only have two of the eight: Zul and Skylar, two legends I studied immensely, now fall by my blade?” Twirling his blade, he paraded around the battlefield as we all caught our breath. “It’s useless, really, to fight me. Why raise your blade again?”
He was specifically referring to Eryx, whose sword dragged on the ground as he caught his breath. He glanced at his sword, and worriedly looked around for Skylar’s validation.
“I’m not intimidated by some mercenary Valdrec hired,” I yelled, letting a strand of water circle cover my hand. I glanced at the loading zone. We were close to the port, and where there’s a port, there’s an ocean. An idea sparked in my head.
“Some mercenary,” Dante spat. “Excuse me? I believe I misheard,” he stepped forward, having the ground crack and freeze under him.
I hid my left hand behind me, as that was where my glyph hovered. It felt like I was picking something up from behind me, as the weight of the water grew, the ocean began to pillar upward. “You heard correctly,” I huffed, watching the shadow of a wave fall over the city. “Just a petty, inexperienced mercenary.”
“How dare you! That’s what you think I am?” Dante pressed his teeth against each other, as he brought the tip of his blade close to his palm. He cut it open; blood pooled to the tips of his fingers until he clenched his dripping fist.
The wave was high enough to strike Dante: an enormous geyser towered over the buildings and now awaited my call.
“I am Icelord Danterius, the greatest swordsman Jaihara has ever seen. Artist, it would be a sin not to engrain this.” His eyes daggered toward me. “I see right through you Azurilina,” he smiled.
“Wh—” I backstepped.
“The shadow of the wave behind me. Splash me.”
“Now!” I shouted.
The wave had been fated to wash over the city. The entirety of the Shellport Bay had been drained for it—the geyser touched the tip of the sky. Joining the free air, Dante raised his hand, freezing the wave—just how I predicted it. He couldn’t have stopped all three of our spell-casting right at the same time. I watched Skylar summon a lightning bolt from the sky, causing the sky to rumble, and finally smiting the ground where Dante stood. The ground simmered, sizzling and crackling as Eryx used Dante’s frozen wave to his advantage. By splintering a part of the ice arc, Eryx rained millions of ice shards upon his target. We had exhausted every spell in the book—every bit of knowledge and every drop of energy into one devastating barrage nobody could have survived from.
Mist enveloped the battlefield—dead echoes of thunder rang in my ear.
“Oh, my gosh…” Skylar gasped. “Did—did we stop him?”
The collision was so hard, the ground cracked like veins and a crater soon became visible.
“Nobody can live from that…” Eryx sighed. “It’s impossible.” He grabbed his chest and cleared his throat, “Agh! I’m winded.”
“Me too,” I responded. “I’ve never summoned something so large, and actually went through with it.”
“That was amazing, Zul,” Skylar nodded. “I—I’m surprised I didn’t get wet, actually.”
“You can thank me—” Like a phoenix emerging from the depths of hell, Icelord Danterius rose from the ashes. He was bleeding—from many angles, shards of ice stuck out from his chest and arm. But his sword was still pointed up. An insane spark shimmered in his eye. “I predicted it all,” he coughed, “all of it,” he cackled.
Skylar and I shared a glance.
Dante erupted in laughter, shrieking as his fingers stuttered while twirling his sword. Then, he stopped, pointing the tip at me. Behind him, eight glyphs of the ice element shone in bright blue. “Shouldn’t have spread ice everywhere.”
Indeed, the wave was fractured into millions of pieces once it froze over. And as I looked around in disbelief, shards of ice lay on the ground, each levitating by Dante’s beck and call.
“We’re not winning,” Skylar wheezed, attempting to blow as many shards away from her. Gusts of wind shot out from her palms, sending ice flying everywhere, though all in vain—as they were not destroyed. The both of us were punctured like voodoo dolls, constantly being stabbed as we tried running. How—was all I thought—just how.
Eryx was the only one who didn’t get hit. He barely held each shard of ice at bay, and once he got time to breathe, he erected an ice wall.
“Skylar, Zul!” He yelled, dragging us behind the obstacle. “This battle is lost. You need to leave.” Eryx grabbed my arm and looked into my eyes. “Get to Ra’Sasha. Show the world who Valdrec is.”
“What? Eryx!” I tried stopping him, but by then, he was already in brutal melee combat with Dante.
“C’mon, Zul! We can’t stop him.” Skylar yanked me away, my hand still pointing toward the Icelord.
And that was my glimpse of him: standing parallel to Icelord Danterius.