The battlefield dissolves into complete chaos. I look wildly around, fear gripping my heart as I see that not everyone has broken through Torrent’s earlier magic. Those who are still frozen are sitting ducks!

  Wordlessly, I leave Torrent’s containment to Kalanthia. She accepts my warning not to get too close with grim acknowledgement – water that’s powerful enough to burst through rock will rip even her enhanced hide to shreds.

  Meanwhile, wings explode from my back and I propulse myself out of the mire with a burst of intense force. Soaring over the battlefield, I summon with a touch into my storage tattoo all those who are still unmoving.

  At the same time, I carpet the ground around my companions with a thin layer of fire, solidifying the top layers of the mire as I evaporate the water Torrent saturated them with.

  The mire closer to the rift currently works to our advantage – the rat-like ithans find it just as difficult to traverse the bog as we did.

  But it won’t stop them for long – already, those behind are beginning to circle the area. They adapt fast. I dart a glance at Torrent and Kalanthia – he’s winning out, but slowly. We have a little time.

  “Bastet, Catch, take your teams and deal with the Tier twos. Artio, use your vines to control how quickly the Tier twos approach.”

  This is the one who Bound me and my brethren, Artio screeches. I will have my revenge!

  Have your revenge by giving me the space I need to act! I snap back at him, then turn to face the humans. “I’ll leave you guys to fight the way you feel best. Take on one of the Tier threes if you can. Kalanthia will take on the other.”

  “And you, my lord?” Sulir asks, already starting to shoot arrows at approaching Tier twos.

  I push myself into the air.

  “I’m going to do my best to stop him escaping,” I tell them grimly since they didn’t hear my previous message, shooting back towards where Torrent is almost out of the earthen binding.

  Be careful. He is strong, Kalanthia warns me as I send her to deal with the Tier threes.

  I know. You too, I tell her grimly, passing on what I’ve learned of the Tier threes through Inspect to her and the others. With one being an affliction specialist and the other focussed on physical strength and endurance, it will be a challenging fight for all of us.

  Torrent breaks out of the earthen confinement just as I reach him, my shield from my tattoo up again though it won’t last long. The water blast from Torrent crashes into me, most of it deflected by the shield that now flickers and dies, the rest crashing into me.

  Thanks to my armour, most of the force is deflected or absorbed into the leather, and I only rock back a pace. I use that to rock forwards again, plunging my spear towards the mage. It’s covered and contains a payload of magic-inhibitor. If I can get that into Torrent….

  But before it can sink into his chest, a wall of water rushes upwards, deflecting the point and washing away the poison on its blade. Fortunately, there’s still some more inside its head.

  All I see of Torrent is a chin – the cloak must have some sort of magic that keeps it on no matter what. But even with just that limited view I can tell that he’s seething.

  I start sending magic into the ground even as I stab at Torrent again. I activate my speed-enhancement tattoo and test Torrent’s ability to defend himself.

  The lord uses a whirling disk of water like a shield, deflecting every thrust. In his other hand, he wields another disk of water like a sawblade – the same technique he used earlier to cut through the brambles. I note that the lord is pretty static – while he shifts a little to counter my thrusts, he relies primarily on his magic for both offence and defence.

  Though, as I’m forced to duck as the sawblade actually leaves Torrent’s hand and extends to strike at me on a tendril of water, that might be because he doesn’t need to move.

  My spear is definitely not effective against Torrent – not if I’m trying to kill him with this.

  A moment later, I sense that my trap is ready and can’t stop a smile from playing on my lips.

  “What do you have to smile about?” Torrent demands angrily. “Your minions are struggling against the rift beasts. They’ll die because you just didn’t know when to give up!”

  My smile is gone, replaced with a wolfish grin.

  I don’t bother responding to Torrent, triggering the trap I’ve set below him. The lord gives a cut-off gurgle as a spear of earth shoots straight up from below him with unavoidable speed. Impaled, the figure’s body stiffens.

  Not wasting the opportunity, I stab at Torrent, my spear sinking deep into his shoulder. The magic-inhibiting payload discharges into his body and I feel a thrill of triumph.

  Grim satisfaction going through me, I remove one hand from my spear, ball it into a fist and strike the figure full in the face.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “That’s for my friends who you had captured and tortured, you prick!” I tell him savagely.

  But I’m celebrating too early.

  Torrent’s bloody teeth clench together, my first – and only – clue.

  A wave of water picks me up before I can react and throws me halfway across the battlefield before I am able to arrest my momentum with my wings. Righting myself, I look back at where I was a moment ago.

  Torrent has risen above where he had been on a swirling pillar of tumultuous water. While I watch, he lifts his hands to the level of his shoulders, his posture like a god of the sea, Poseidon, perhaps.

  Water rises from the ground, and from the trees around. Those below stagger for a moment as water pulls from even their mouths and eyes in streams.

  Angry at Torrent feeding off my companions, I burst with fire myself, pouring the flames out to encircle my companions and cut off the streams that are being sucked from them.

  My instinctual move seems to have worked – once cut, the streams of water do not resume even after I remove the flames. But it’s too late to use fire to reduce Torrent’s growing strength. He’s already summoned more than the swimming-pool’s worth of water and it wraps around him like a cloak.

  What little I can see of his expression is beyond malevolent; somehow I know what he intends to do next.

  Artio, Kalanthia! Don’t let anyone wash away!

  I watch helplessly as earth and vines snake around my companions and Torrent lives up to his name. With a sharp gesture of his hands, and a cry of ‘tidal wave’, the cloak of water wrapped around him becomes a tidal wave that sweeps through the forest. The Tier threes brace against the flood well enough; many of the Tier twos are not so lucky.

  Several ithans who were not prepared to be attacked with a wave of water are washed down the mountain and over the cliff where the yelnas used to be. Their frantic squeaks trail off as they disappear. My companions are mostly fine – the worst are some injuries from being pinned in place by vines or bonds of earth while the wave of water attempted to rip them away.

  They’re bedraggled, but, if anything, this has been a bonus to us – the number of enemies has almost been cut in half. Even the humans have managed to weather the tidal wave, shields from Sorya and Tiria deflecting the bulk of the wave away from the three men.

  But Torrent isn’t finished. As he lifts his hands, the water rises again until it’s several metres in the air, almost my own height. It forms into very familiar spikes. Oh hell!

  Aingeal, help me! I exclaim, shoving my idea and my desperation at the fire elemental.

  “Arrow Rain!”

  Pouring magic into fire, I billow hot flames between the projectile rain and my companions. I feel Aingeal adding to my efforts, the rain evaporating into steam as we work.

  It feels like ages, but is probably only minutes later when the last bit of sharp liquid becomes gas.

  I relax a little, allowing the flames to disappear, winded despite myself. That much fire takes a lot out of me, even when aided by Aingeal.

  Down below, the battle has joined again. Kalanthia takes on both Tier threes at once while supported by Lathani, Bastet, Tiria, and the Dragon team. The rest are dealing with the other Tier two ithans, the challenge difficult but possible.

  But when I turn my head to see the smirk on Torrent’s face, my stomach sinks.

  Once more raising his hand, he summons all of the steam together and a dragon formed of super-heated steam almost as big as Raven appears in the air above the battle.

  Torrent looks more than a little tired after he completes the cast, but I have no opportunity to do anything about it – the dragon swipes at me with its claws. I pull up a shield of fire instinctually, but this time, it was the wrong move.

  I cry out in pain as the fire only heats the steam further and the super-heated claws carve straight through my armour to sear at my skin. If not for the fire-affinity of the armour, I suspect that it would have gone straight through my chest.

  A barrier of wind works far better when it swipes at me again, but air is one of my weakest elements. I don’t even try water – I have no doubt that Torrent’s control is far stronger than my own and will win hands down.

  When I deflect its attacks, the dragon loses interest in me. Instead, I notice with a chill, its eyes are on the battle below. Before I can do anything, it rears back its head and then exhales in a stream of steam that makes the air warp.

  “Catch!” I cry, seeing the direction of its breath. The samuran seems to know exactly what I mean – he twists and his shield catches the bulk of the super-heated steam, yet I feel the pain that spikes in him before he manages to stifle it.

  One of the Tier three ithans strikes at his unprotected back. I’m already flying towards the action and pour mana into my wings to make myself double in speed. My spear strikes the ithan in the shoulder and knocks it enough to miss Catch, but I have a nasty surprise – the majority of the impact velocity rebounds at me, stunning me briefly.

  I land heavily on the ground on one side of the battle, needing a moment before my senses come back to me. I flood Flesh-Shaping through my body, healing the damage that reflected back at me. I’m not doing that again, I tell myself grimly, pushing myself back to my feet and looking around for Torrent.

  My stomach sinks as I don’t spot him anywhere. His dragon is terrorising the battlefield, creating hazard for ally and foe alike, but of him, there’s no sign.

  How did he overcome the magic-inhibitor? I ask myself grimly as I rise in the air. Or the impalement? Does he have some powerful healing Skill? If so, this will be even more difficult than I thought.

  One thing he doesn’t seem to have, though, is Stealth. Whether it’s due to lack of access or lack of compatibility, Torrent is still obvious as he tears through the forest, riding on his tornado of water.

  I hesitate. Part of me is aching to go after Torrent. To catch him red-handed at the scene of the crime and drag him away in chains. But so far, barely anything I’ve done has even touched him. And even when I did manage to land a blow that would have taken down almost anyone else, it barely slowed him down.

  Worse, if I go after Torrent now, I will be alone. The rest of my companions are embroiled in the fight. And I can’t help but wonder if this is a ploy to draw me off by myself – no witnesses, no support. Nicholas was right – I’m not strong enough to be able to face Torrent one-on-one. Not yet.

  Gritting my teeth and swallowing my disappointment, I set Sirocco to following Torrent from a safe distance – if Nicholas comes, she might be able to direct him in the right direction.

  Then, setting my eyes on the dragon, I decide that getting rid of Torrent’s parting gift is surely the best place for me to start.

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