The Fourth Gate: Chapter Three

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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“Fox and Forest,” Liz said, letting out a breath. “Primes. I had hoped that we wouldn’t need to fight one another.”

My lips pressed together and I bowed my head. On my shoulder, Dusk did the same thing. 

“I had hoped to avoid this as well,” I said. I wanted to say more, but with the recording spells focused on us, I didn’t want to say anything that would let people connect me with Malachi Roth Baker, at least not overtly. 

“I’ve seen you fight,” Liz said, slipping into a fighting stance that resembled the one her grandfather used, her domain sword appearing in her hand. “You’ve been holding back so far, but I’m going to pull out your full power.” 

“I could say the same for you,” I said, sliding into a fighting stance of my own, the one that Ikki had first shown me. Dusk hopped off my shoulder, forming her cloud under her feet and preparing to fight. The power of the Shepherd, the Healer, and the River Lord swept through the world around us, and the River Lord’s eyes focused into one of the recording spells. 

“Begin!” 

I almost lost then and there as a sword rushed in at my back, and I barely managed to teleport out of the way in time as Liz’s domain weapon drove through where my back had been a moment earlier. She had teleported, appearing out of my own shadow. A moment later she was behind me again, sweeping her sword through my neck, only for my body to vanish as I had teleported out of the way and left a Material Echo in my place. I locked myself in place in the air overhead, not even having the mental energy to spare to keeping my feet obscured in clouds as if I was a gumiho. It was either keep up my disguise or attack, and I chose the latter, launching twin balls of Foxfyre from my hands, while pushing down with Kludde's Weight.

Liz's shoes flared in respons, and she leapt into the air, sword extended, while I mentally cursed. I knew the shoes had magic that empowered her speed, and that minorly empowered her body, but not to this degree. She sliced the balls of fire in half as if they were nothing, and beneath me, my shadow exploded up into a spike. I teleported again and tensed, ready to dodge, as Dusk rammed into her, throwing off her flight, only for the second spike of shadow created by Liz’s legacy to rip through the air and target Dusk instead of me. I left Dusk to handle it while I released Kludde's Weight. Later, maybe, but for now, I'd need to drain more power from the shoes, or from Liz. Kludde's Weight was an area spell, after all, so they had an edge in efficiency.

Dusk was far from a pushover, and she managed to draw on the power of the countless flight spells within her to angle so that she slipped between where Liz’s shadow had been, and the sword that was aiming to slice her in half, while I used the moment of reprieve to begin cycling Mantle Dragonfyre through my body. I had to keep it slow, in the background, but I knew Liz well. She had powerful offenses, and her growth shoes gave her impressive mobility, but if I could actually hit her, then she should go down.

I threw myself forward, even as Liz swept her sword at me, sending an arc of shadows where I’d been. It was a good technique, as hidden within the shell of lunar and sharp edge of desolation mana, there was something else, a tiny bead of power that most people wouldn’t expect. I flipped over the blade, as if I hadn’t felt it, then teleported. I used a combination of Mold Aura and Material Echo to leave a me behind that radiated my power, even as I landed behind Liz. 

“Overconfident!” she called out, detonating the fireball that she’d hidden within the shadows. As my echo was swallowed in flame, I leapt forward, even as Dusk’s hands erupted from the earth underneath Liz, and a swirling globe of ice and snow froze her in place. I thrust my palm, ready to strike with a Foxthorn and disable the magic she was building even now, only for Liz to slam her blade down into the ground. She lifted her entire body out of the grasping hands, her shoes glowing green, and launched into the air, sailing over my head.I threw Foxfyre up at her, only for clones of her sword to appear from nothing, cutting them both in half as she landed. 

My eyes widened. I’d known she had the ability to create echoes of her sword, but since when could she control them with such precision? She’d been holding back in her spars with me, it seemed. 

I teleported forward, slamming my palm at her, only for tentacles of shadow to explode from beneath our feet and knock me off course – she’d cast the spell three times, conjuring six of them thanks to her legacy. She attempted to cut my head off, but before she could, Dusk was there, launching shockwaves and a concentrated Sandstorm Lance that drove Liz back. It wasn’t for long, but it was just enough for me to regain my footing. 

Liz slashed her blade out, and my eyes widened as her one cut split into a dozen. Twelve crescents of shadow, each of them infused with what felt like her domain weapon’s sword echoes. As if that wasn’t enough, a hail of ice daggers erupted from her other hand, rushing over me. Dusk and I both slipped into her realm, then teleported behind Liz, only for the twelve slashes to vanish and teleport out of our own shadows, launching themselves back up at us. I didn’t know how Liz was doing that – it wasn’t a standard Shadowstep, and it didn’t line up with what I knew of her spellbond effects. Maybe a meta spell on Shadowstep? It had let her teleport shadow spells into shadows, while the ice had vanished. However she was managing it, through, I teleported back, while Dusk slipped into her realm, only for them to vanish again. 

As if that wasn’t enough, Liz was spinning her sword, shadows, flame, and acid merging together at the tip of her sword, as she tensed, preparing to attack me. I cursed, flickering three more times from spot to spot, dodging the crescents, but they just kept appearing underneath me again. It was likely that I could out-pace her, since I was guessing this was a fourth gate spell, while I was burning second gate, but she only needed to predict one teleport and hit me with that attack she had built up. I let out a breath, and spun my mana around me, even as I reached into Dusk’s realm for more power. I hadn’t wanted to reveal this trick so quickly, but I couldn’t keep using Foxstep and staying on the back foot. 

Fungal Armor sprang to life around me, thick plates of turkey tail and honey mushrooms appearing over my body. Foxarmor melted the space and time around me, pushing back at incoming attacks. The Ivy Cloak swept out, its long, thin edges catching at the blades of the attack. Briarthreads spun into existence, rotating like a tumbleweed to intercept the worst of the attacks. I unblocked my newest spell, Retributive Thorns, and tangles of thick spikey thorns interposed themselves between the slashes and me. Enhance Forging rushed into Fungal Armor, Retributive Thorns, Ivy Cloak, and Briarthreads, strengthening their structure and increasing their stability. 

Spirit Tether and Cwn Anwnn’s Hunt both poured power into Arthur, and his protective dominion rushed out, empowering the protection that my spells offered me, while the spirit lantern mushrooms blazed their light through my armor, further empowering his magic. Magic from the ninelight morels flowed into Fungal Armor, further strengthening them. 

Finally, Concentrate Spellpower. I didn’t have the experience with fourth gate mana manipulation to weave it into all of my spells, but I had enough to send it into Fungal Armor, focusing my intent on defending against shadows and cutting strength. I wasn’t entirely sure it would work, but I figured if any spell would be receptive to my intent, then it would be the spell that adapted to external effects. 

I wasn’t a defensive specialist, not in the way that someone with physical and abnegation mana could be, but my armor had been well fed against shadows through countless spars with Liz, and I had enough synergy between all of my spells thanks to the Kirin’s spell creating synergy between spells even where none technically existed, to make it fairly impressive all the same. The twelve blades crashed down into me, shredding through my layers of defenses, throwing me up into the air, where I tumbled end over end, and Liz leapt up, thrusting her glowing sword and slamming it into my body. I twisted, pulsing Tortoise Time to slow her down, and managed to shift so the spell clipped my protections, rather than striking my heart, where it had been aimed. 

And even with all of my spells working in concert, it very nearly hadn’t been enough. Liz was a true combat specialist, to a point where I had never been. She forewent learning spells like Analyze Lunar, using the room that the spells had to empower herself further. For all that I’d poured into my defense, she’d poured just as much into her offensive capabilities. And all of that specializing, all of that power, it built into a truly impressive level of power. 

Her magic tore through the Retributive Thorns, cut Briarthreads into nothing but ribbons, was slowed only fractionally by the Ivy Cloak, and barely seemed to be bothered by the combined Tortoise Time and Foxarmor. Even with the enhancements I’d poured into them, the attacks were slowed, but they weren’t stopped. It shredded through the plates of Fungal Armor, my last line of defense, and I was forced to reach for soul mana.

Within myself, I could feel the stitches that I’d woven around my mana channels to help give me just that little bit of an edge starting to pop and fizz. Not new damage, but it still hurt like someone was tearing at chunks of my spirit.

As I infused the soul mana into the shreds of my remaining defenses, and Liz’s overwhelming offense finally, barely, came to a stop. I grinned and spread my hands wide, doing my best to hide the spiritual pain that was throbbing in my chest, while I let my defenses evaporate. In such a sorry state, they were costing me more mana to maintain than they were providing a benefit. 

Liz’s legacy kicked into effect, and the echo of that tri-element attack appeared at the tip of her blade again. This time she flicked it forward, where it expanded into a swirling cone of multicolored destruction. 

I thrust my hand down, and called soul mana, infusing it into the Mantle Dragonfyre that I’d been slowly cycling throughout the fight thus far. In the same moment, I teleported out of the way of the attack, using Magical Echo to maintain the force of the beam, even as I landed safely on the ground. 

Dusk, within her realm, stepped out from where she had been when the initial barrage of attacks had shredded me. But Liz and I had still been leaping upward, and between the power of her shoes and my physical empowerments, we were now feet above, giving Dusk the perfect opportunity for an ambush. She didn’t have a single overwhelming strike, not like Dawn or I did, but she hadn’t been idle while waiting. A pair of portals tore open to either side of Liz, and nearly thirty different spells erupted out from behind her: shockwaves, spears of sand, globes of ice, and more. 

Together, Dusk and I attacked Liz from four directions at once. She tried to surround herself with a sphere of water, but it was torn through in seconds as the sheer quantity of Dusk’s magic overwhelmed Liz. It paved the perfect way for my Mantle Dragonfyre to punch through Liz’s offensive cone, right into her. 

Liz had powerful offenses, ones that had taken everything and more for me to overcome. But she didn’t have the defense to take a hit like this, and in the air, surrounded by attacks, she had nowhere to dodge. A beam of red and brown magic slammed into Liz’s chest, then drilled through it, leaving a gaping hole in her body. My eyes widened in shock at the sight – shouldn’t the Shepherd and Healer have pulled her out?