Page 2 of Wicked Enemy

A brief flash of worry blew across the faces of my lower-level fighters. Shinji, who was standing on my right, only touched his hands together while continuing to study the quickly melting doors with perceptive dark brown eyes.

One experienced battle mage.One. That was all I had. How the fuck were we supposed to win this?

The doors disappeared in a rain of molten metal.

I yanked up a massive wall halfway to us right before a storm of magic shot through the room. Loud booms split the air as lightning, wind, and fire slammed into my metal shield hard enough to make the surface buckle. On the left, the gray metal was beginning to turn red and orange from the torrent of fire on the other side, so I released my grip on it and shoved it forwards instead.

It sped across the floor, drawing shouts from the dark mages on the other side, before half of it melted and the other half was shoved aside by a massive wind blast. A bang echoed through the high-ceilinged hall as it slammed into the wall on my right, making the chains draped down it rattle and swing.

For a moment, everything was still.

A mass of people now filled the space in front of the doors. Water and fire and lightning and a handful of other magical powers crackled around their hands. And at the back was Aaron Reyes. His black hair curled slightly at the ends, and it shifted around his face as he jerked his chin to toss it back. He was a bit on the shorter side but had a lean and muscular body. From across the room, his dark brown eyes were locked on mine as his face split into a smile full of anticipation.

I hurled a sheet of metal at him.

It whizzed through the air, the speed fast enough to sever both flesh and bones. But before it could strike, Aaron raised a massive wall of shadows to block it. The twisting mass of black absorbed the metal, making it bounce to a halt, so I released the attack and instead yanked another one from the wall on their left.

Next to me, Shinji hurled a wave of dark orange flames straight at the shadows. It burned them off, creating a large hole in the middle of it.

Aaron dropped the shield.

And then the battle was on again.

Winds crashed into my metal wall, stopping it before it could slam into their ranks from the side. Shinji let out a low curse as two torrents of water smacked into his flames with enough force to turn the attack into hissing white mist. On both sides, my barely trained fighters fumbled to cast magic attacks at the other side.

“Focus on blocking their attacks,” I snapped at them since their random shots were starting to get in the way of my and Shinji’s attacks.

The torches and oil lamps in the ceiling above swung wildly on their chains as wind magic whirled through the room. I blocked it from both sides with walls of metal before throwing another sleek sheet towards the House of Onyx. Yet again, Aaron blocked it with his shadows before I could take the heads off his people.

Worry gnawed at my bones.

He was only defending. Why wasn’t he using his shadows to attack? What was he waiting for?

Raising my arms, I pulled two simultaneous attacks from the metal walls behind them at the same time as Shinji blasted them from the front with flames.

Screams echoed throughout the room as my sneak attacks killed two dark mages who were caught by surprise. But before I could drive the attack deeper, an explosion tore through the air.

The wall halfway down the room disappeared in a flash of orange and purple.

I whipped towards it, dropping my attacks as shock clanged through my skull, right as a host of dark mages poured through the hole.

When the hell had the House of Onyx gotten an explosion mage?

Magic cut through the room on all sides.

And now, the battle was turning.

With another force appearing from our side, we were suddenly at a severe disadvantage. Aaron, who had probably been waiting for that, slapped his palms together and began attacking with full force.

Black shadows shot across the room like serpents.

Shinji threw waves of fire at them, trying to burn them off, while my less skilled mages fought desperately to block the hail of attacks from his other people.

I raised wall after wall, shielding us from the second group as well as the attacks from Aaron that slipped past Shinji. But we were losing ground. Fast.

Those old familiar feelings of panic and dread surged up inside me as my mind began to understand that I was being cornered. That I was about to be trapped. Trapped.

That word ricocheted inside my skull over and over again.

---