The Fourth Gate: Chapter Five

Just as a reminder, there will be no chapters next week, since I'm not writing this week in order to spend time with family and friends.

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Liz reacted with admirable speed, her shoes flaring with light as she launched in as well. Her sword reforged itself in her hand, and blades erupted out around her. A pair of shadow tentacles erupted out from her shadow, spearing toward me. My fist impacted with one of them, cracking both the magic holding it in place and popping my Retributive Thorns around it, while I spun around the side of the other, letting it strike my defenses. My body was glowing with my soul mana empowered Starfish’s Regeneration that had been further potion boosted, but Liz didn’t stop. She swept her hand down, her laughter filling the stadium. 

“Didn’t expect to have to use this till top eight. Surprise!” 

Magic exploded out of her full-gate spell as she unleashed a spell that she absolutely should not have had access to. Acid began to form in the sky overhead, concentrating and glowing with destructive power that would burn through energy – locked or free – like pouring boiling water on an ice cube. An entire core of power built, and the acid rain whipped through the entire stadium, slamming against the protective force dome that blocked us from seeing the audience, melting the arcanist level defensive grass beneath us, and shredding into my armor. 

It was an entire siege class spell, like the erupting volcano of ash and flame that Kamal had produced. How had Liz managed that? She didn’t have the raw mana that those types of spells required, and she’d never waste an entire gate of her garden for a single spell that would be useless in most non-wartime situations, not when she could have six other spells in the same space. The only thing that made sense to me was that she’d sketched it once, just to cast it, and then used her spellbond's ability to store spells within it. As if that wasn’t enough, this spell was more intense than Kamal’s. I had no idea how long she’d marinated the thrice-cursed thing, gathering power, but this attack felt closer to the kind of spell that a sixth gate or even false seventh gate mage could throw around. Overhead, the dome that was protecting the audience cracked, and nearly exploded, before I felt one of the Occultists or Magi in the audience reach out and lend their will to the dome, reinforcing its structure and healing the cracks. 

I flared Tortoise Time and Foxarmor with as much power as I could, dancing between the fat drops of green acid. I had never been so glad that I’d gone with Tortoise Time’s localized sphere of slowed time instead of a more common cube that could be placed anywhere within the mana senses. I rushed at Liz, compressing a quick burst of Mantle Dragonfyre and blasting it at her, though she dodged to the side easily enough. More drops were coming now, and I released Kludde’s Weight, since the downward pressure and gravity was only increasing the speed of the droplets. I spun Pinpoint Boneshard out around me, and wished desperately that I’d had the time to learn Ghostmind and allow Hannah to take over their aim as I set anchor points to further intercept the drops coming at me.

I couldn’t hold this for long, so I needed to make every moment help. I had to take her out, even as the drops that I couldn’t dodge rendered my armor to nothing but fizzing scraps of energy in the air. Dusk’s power thundered through me as she directed power from herself, from the emperor’s tree, from the pointer moss, from the transivy, and several other sources through me. The power sparked, billowing out of me through my cracked mana channels, but enough of it made it into me that I was able to lunge at Liz. 

I didn’t have the time for Mantle Dragonfyre to cycle and punch through the armor, nor was I sure it would hit. Steam was rising up from the ground, obscuring the fight. So instead, I conjured a pair of Spatial Anchors, then used Reposition Anchor and poured a touch of soul mana into an overcharged Mass Enhance Plant Life. Blademoss, radiating power more like an Arcanist, exploded from my hands and each of the anchors, but Liz leapt into the air. I teleported in front of her, slamming my hand out and sweeping up with blademoss, but the falling acid tore through my body, my defensive spells falling apart below the onslaught. 

The blademoss crashed over Liz, and it actually cracked through her armor, leaving long scores along her body, but the unicorn horn chalice swirled within her, and the wounds healed in an instant. I screamed as the last of my soul mana flowed into Starfish’s Regeneration, healing the acid burns erupting across my back and leg. I teleported another healing potion into my mouth, the mana toxin headache barely even registering among everything else going on. I slashed out with another arc of blademosss, bones, and briars, but without the soul mana empowering my attacks, they simply crashed over the armor, which had already reformed.

More burns were wracking up across my body, and my vision began to blacken as my hair dissolved and eyes were damaged by the streams running over them. I pumped overcharged mana into Starfish’s Regeneration, but it would buy me seconds at best. I cast three spells. The first was Foxstep, bringing me right in front of Liz. The second was an overcharged Foxfyre, the spell burning a gap into her armor for a fraction of a second. The third was Transport Item, calling an arrow into my hand. Even as I could feel the Titled in the audience stirring, I slammed the disintegrate arrow into the hole I’d opened in Liz’s armor. 

She vanished. 

An instant later, I vanished as well. Two Titles wrapped around me, both familiar, as the Analyst took hold of my life. I felt the call of death for just a moment, but he used some spell that beat it back. The second Title, the Healer, flowed around me, and a soothing power washed over me. An instant later, more powers appeared in range of my mana senses. The first ones were the Springbringer and the Time Prince, but others appeared after a moment. 

“Primes,” a voice said, low and rich. It wasn’t Orykson, Ikki, or Meadow, so I assumed it had to be the Healer. “These kids…” 

“I want to teach that girl,” a voice that rumbled like a glacier cutting through stone said. The Lady of Dragontooth Glacier. “She had him dead to rights.” 

“Consumable items are a part of strength,” another rumbling voice said. It was the Fortress, but it was broken. If Ikki’s Title was wrong, a suit that didn’t fit, this was a house built on a foundation that had cracked in a winter freeze. The house still stood, at least for now. 

“He’s awake, you know, and seems to have enough awareness to understand what you all are saying,” the Healer said calmly. “He must be used to spiritual pain. Then again, judging by the fact that he has such severe damage to his mana channels, it makes sense that he is.”

There was a moment of silence at that, and then the Dreamer spoke up. 

“I’ll prepare him for a dreamless sleep. It won’t heal him, but it should speed his rec…” 

I didn’t even get to hear the word recovery, as I slid into a pool of purple light. When I finally came to, it felt like it could have been seconds, or it could have been years, and I wouldn't have known the difference. Internal Pocketwatch, on the other hand, was as resolute as always, ticking along and letting me know it had been just over fifteen minutes. I slowly blinked my eyes open, taking a mental accounting of how I was doing. 

The answer was… surprisingly good. My skin felt soft and smooth, like I’d gone through a spa day, and even a few of the scars on my hands from working in the bakery were gone. The mana toxin had been flushed from my body, so my head felt normal. There was no pain anywhere in my body, except for the omnipresent low-level ache around my heart. Even then, it seemed diminished. It wasn’t gone, but when I ran my senses through my spirit, I realized that the soul stitches that I’d created had been redone, and with far more exacting precision and accuracy than I could have managed. They were still about a thousand miles from fixed, and I suspected that in the next round of the tournament, I’d undo all that nice work, but for now I was in better shape than I’d been in since… since… huh. Well, I guess this was the best shape I’d ever been in. When I’d been first and second gate, I’d been in better shape spiritually, but in worse physical condition, so I thought it about evened out. 

I sat up slowly and looked around to see Meadow sitting in a chair next to me, knitting. Dusk was on the seat next to her, curled up and sleeping, which was the best thing she could do to recover. The Healer must have done something, though, as she looked more solid than she had mere minutes ago. Liz was in the next room over, which I could see through thanks to the fact that the door was glass with frosted lettering. She was healed as well, talking animatedly to a group of interviewers. Though I couldn’t hear what she was saying, her happiness was obvious. I shifted my attention to Meadow and coughed. She looked up and smiled. 

“How are you feeling, dear?” she asked. 

“Better than ever,” I answered honestly. “I was really only out for fifteen minutes.” 

“The tournament organizers set aside a considerable mana budget for the Healer to work with,” Meadow said through the clacking of her needles. “They have to. He refuses to spend any of his own on frivolous events like this, preferring to actually save lives with it. But they don’t want the spectacle to be ruined by messy things like recovery times.” 

“Huh,” I said, swinging off the metal exam table that I’d been sitting on. “I can’t fault him for that, I suppose. Plenty of incurable genetic conditions that probably aren’t so incurable in the hands of a magi like him.” 

“True enough, and there’s only one of him, which makes it near impossible to get his direct attention unless you win his healing lottery.” 

I pursed my lips. That seemed like a decent way to stop rich people from monopolizing his time, assuming that it was a one-entry-per-issue kind of thing. I shook my head, realizing that I was getting distracted. 

“Are you ready to face the brass?” Meadow asked, then preimpeted the question I was about to ask. “It's an illusioned door. They can’t see through it. It just looks like a blank wall.”

“I suppose so,” I said with a sigh, tucking my hands into my jacket pockets, then double checking my mask before stepping outside, tail swishing. Liz turned as I stepped out, and pulled me into a hug. I hugged her back, but before we could say anything, the recording was on us, and people were asking questions rapid-fire. 

“Is the rumor that you have a bloodline from the extinct phantom fox true?” one reporter shouted. 

“The two of you seem familiar! Are you Elizabeth’s secret engagement?” another cried out. 

“How did that pre-existing relationship change your performance in the arena?”

“What is your comment on the fact that our specialists indicate the end of your fight had more in common with peak Arcanists or Occultists than it did Spellbinders?” 

“Slow down,” Liz barked, her annoyance bleeding through while I stared at them, overwhelmed. I felt a wave of gratitude toward her, then cleared my throat and did my best to answer.

“Hold on, uh. No comment on the fox thing. We’re not dating – I don’t even like women. But we have been sparring partners before. Both of us gave it our all, neither of us were holding back to give the other a win. If anything, the fact we’d sparred several times meant that we likely forced more power out of the other than if we’d been strangers. And that’s good? I suppose? I don’t know what comment you’re hoping for. Both of us were using artifacts from the Arcanist vault, on top of pouring out our power. It makes sense.” 

I had hoped that would be enough, but my answers seemed to egg the mob of reporters on, and as they surged out with another outpouring of questions, I glanced at Liz. 

“Do you want to get out of here?” 

“Please,” she said, huffing in exasperation. 

“Wait, the public has a right to know! Who are you sle–” 

That was the last thing I heard before I hooked my arm through Liz’s, cast Antburden on her, then Foxstepped back into the healing room.