Queen Mother Yalerox, Paragon of the Hurricane: A-Rank

Rage.

And fury.

The kind I'd felt on the playground the first time I'd hit a bully.

Not pain. Not despair. Just anger. I shouldn't have felt like this. Why did I feel like this? Power flowed through me, even though my core was broken. It ripped at my veins and nerves, but my body was holding together. And even better, I'd learned something new. Something that would give me a single shot. One desperate punch to win a fight against a bully much stronger than me.

Every fiber of my being wanted to launch it now. To strike before Yalerox could kill me or my friends. But I was only going to get one chance. And I had too much riding on this fight to use it before the right time. Too many promises. Jessie. Dad. Ellen. The team. The survivors in the bunker in Carlsbad.

They were all counting on me. I couldn't let them down.

And Yalerox was up to something. The storm around her sandstone castle had redoubled in strength and was only growing more powerful. That kind of power investment had to come at a cost, and she had to pay it.

I could survive this. Not forever, but for a while.

I summoned Tallas's Dueling Blade. Its portal metal bar looked weak and cracked, but lightning surged along it, forming its blade. Good enough. The Stormsteel armor and cloak appeared a moment later. I dropped into the two-handed Thunderbolt stance and charged.

Yalerox stayed on her throne, staring at me. "Foolish," she said.

I lunged. A cut appeared on her chitinous cheek. Not enough to draw blood. Not even enough to cut through her exoskeleton. But one of her hands reached up to touch the wound. "Fascinating. You should be dead."

"I'm not." I attacked again, the Lightning Charge at the tip of my blade humming as it spun around my sword. The Hurricane Paragon hit the throne room's floor, and my sword gouged her seat's backrest where her head was.

"Allow me to remedy that," she said. One moment, she was in range. The next, she'd seemingly teleported across the room. Wind swirled around her, and a dozen darts of pure air appeared over her head. "Gathrix's Claws!"

The blades launched toward me in a rippling barrage. Each grew from the size of a Zephyr to that of a tree trunk, and I rolled as the first one hit the ground in front of me, then let one hand drift behind my back. Another slammed into the ground. Shards of sandstone sprayed through the air where I'd been. Flashstep had saved me.

But it had also bled energy I couldn't afford to lose. My broken core had hemorrhaged power in the moment I'd used my skill.

I cursed under my breath. Then I threw myself to the side. A jet of water hit the wall behind me, gouging a foot-long trench into the sandstone.

Another punched across the room as I tried to close the gap. This one caught me in the chest before I could react. The Stormsteel breastplate stove in, and pain ripped through me as ribs gave. It hurt. But it didn't hurt. Not like it should have. Stamina poured in from my broken core—more Stamina than a wound that size needed.

I still felt great. Why did I feel great? The Hurricane Paragon's blow should have been lethal. What was I missing? Something was…wrong.

Or was it right?

This wasn't my power. It couldn't be. It was too…strong. I was only Rank C. I shouldn't be able to mitigate A-Rank blows. And yet…I was. Why?

It didn't matter whether it was my power or not. It was power—and power was what I needed. I dropped into Cyclone stance and cast Lightning Chain—adding Saltspray to slow Yalerox's casting down as much as I could. My broken core weakened further. I ignored it. I had a much better source of power now.

The chain hit Yalerox. A moment later, her casting stopped, and I yanked the chain taut. A small part of me had hoped it'd pull her off-balance like Tathrix.

Instead, I flew through the air like a bolt of lightning. My feet slammed into Yalerox—or rather, into the barrier of wind she'd summoned. She disappeared as my sword thrust through the barrier and touched her neck. But this time, I knew what she'd done. She'd wind-walked. I was already spinning, trying to close the gap again. Without Wind charges, I couldn't slow her. Instead, I accelerated myself with Gustrunner.

"You can't beat me, Thunder God's Pet," Yalerox said. Three rays of compressed water sliced into the floor where I'd been standing. Another caught my leg. Muscle parted—but the leg kept working even through the pain.

Yalerox wasn't hitting like an A-Ranker should. I thought back to Deborah. She'd mop the floor with this Paragon. Even Carrol would be able to give her a run for her money.

Why? Why was she so weak?

Queen Mother Yalerox felt weak.

She always did, in the minutes before the Eye of the Storm fully opened. Yes, she'd be able to draw power from the gigantic windstorm—a windstorm that had destroyed continents. But it took almost her entire core's Mana and Stamina to sustain it, leaving her weakened.

Not that it mattered. Her armor was still thick, her chitin thicker, and the Thunder God's Pet couldn't even pierce her abdomen with that pathetic sword. Her defenses were still A-Rank quality, even if she could barely muster a C-Ranker's offense.

Without his allies, the swordsman could only delay. He was annoying, yes, but that was all he was.

And killing him—and his crippled allies—wasn't her priority. In fact, the longer they lived, the more time she'd have to open the Eye before that aura arrived. The more prepared she'd be to crush it.

She summoned a tornado that counterspun to the Eye's clockwise rotation. It ripped across the breeding pit—her children flew through the air, screaming. Dozens more eggs were already growing inside of her. Their lives didn't matter. What did matter was winning this fight without compromising the Eye of the Storm.

The Thunder God's Pet dodged. He dodged a thirty-foot-wide tornado. Then he dodged the follow-up Water Cutters. How was he doing that? His sword flicked out. Another tiny cut appeared on her breastplate. Not enough to hurt. But enough to irritate her. And another of those damnable lightning orbs spun around his sword.

Queen Mother Yalerox stopped being annoyed and allowed herself to be furious. The Thunder God's Pet was frustrating her—and…

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She stopped. Stared at him. And at his aura.

It matched hers. Was he A-Rank? His sword cut toward her neck. She wind-walked away, then stared at the strings of Mana pouring down from the swirling clouds overhead. They connected to her. But they also connected to the Thunder God's Pet.

Yalerox realized her mistake.

"Oh. I see."

Something had shifted.

Yalerox's attacks hadn't gotten stronger. But she was casting more of them. Dozens of blades of wind. Lances of water that shattered stone and left my sword arm ringing when I blocked them. A wind shield so powerful it lifted her off the ground and ripped the sandstone panels below her apart.

Her magic felt less discriminate, too. She wasn't targeting me. She was targeting everything. And every trace of amusement had shifted from her face.

I ducked inside the wind shield, letting it rip at my clothes and hair. I had to be aggressive. To force her to focus on me—and only on me. My sword flicked out. Rain-Slicked Blade activated and consumed a Rainfall Charge. The lightning blade sank into Yalerox's abdomen. Something popped inside, and she screamed in agony.

Then she spun. A hammer of compressed air smashed me down into the ground. It hit once. Twice. Three times. Bones crunched. Power poured out of my core—only to be instantly replaced with something that…wasn't quite right, but was close enough. It hurt, but I pushed myself to my feet and dove back into the fight.

Or I tried to. The wind hammer slammed into me—and I slammed into the palace's wall. Gore splattered across the room as Yalerox surged toward me, directly over the pit in the center of the room. I needed a moment. But I didn't have one—and no one could intervene. So I forced Tallas's Dueling Blade up in a desperate parry.

The hammer hit anyway, but I Flashstepped as it made contact.

Slicing Bolt. A full handful of Ariette's Zephyr. Shade Scythe. I fired spells like a machine gun, building my complete set of Wind Charges. Then I dropped Windfall onto my last spell—Darkness. As she slowed down in the field of blinding shadow, I rushed toward her. The gap closed. My sword came up.

And a wind screen appeared between us. No. All around her. "Thunder God's Pet, you are beginning to annoy me."

"I'm doing more than that," I growled.

She cast a spell. I slammed a Saltspray-infused Zephyr into her. The dueling blade flashed over and over until the wind screen fell apart. A jet of water cut across me. I ignored it.

None of the damage I was taking mattered. All that mattered was that I was getting closer. My new skill screamed to be used. I ignored it. Not yet. Soon. But not yet.

We traded blows. Cuts appeared on Yalerox's chitin and black portal metal armor. Some of them bled. Others didn't. Her abdomen did bleed—every time I hit it, it sent ripples of pain up her body. I fought as hard as I could, even as my body started to succumb to the energy flowing through me.

Just a few more seconds. Just a handful. I had to hang on. The moment was almost there.

And then.

Pain.

Agony.

It wasn't like my core breaking. It wasn't spread through my body. I lifted my sword arm to block a blow. The sword came up, but the blow didn't land. Instead, it ripped through my guard and into my other arm, just above my elbow.

I stepped back. Agony filled me, and I tried to cast Darkness again. But the spell didn't come.

I stumbled. Slipped on something. Looked down as I hit the ground.

It was my arm. Yalerox had cut off my arm.

Another wave of pain. Even more pain than before. My entire casting arm was on fire. Every bit of it—even the part on the ground. Blood covered me. It sprayed from my stump and from my forearm.

I'd never taken a wound like this. Ever. It took everything I had not to take my one shot at the Hurricane Paragon right then and there. But I gritted my teeth and resisted. It wasn't time yet.

"And now, Thunder God's Pet, you will die," Yalerox said, "and your death will fuel the Eye of the Storm, just as your life stole from it."

Stamina rushed into my arm. The gushing blood began to slow. I couldn't control it. And I didn't want to.

I pushed myself to one knee. Then, as Yalerox cast a beam of water at me, I threw myself into an aggressive parry.

Too many people were relying on my promises for me to give up now.

As her spell cut through her enemy's arm and he hit the ground, Yalerox couldn't help but smile thinly. The male was persistent. He didn't even have an aura he could control—much less any power that could actually hurt her. Sure, he'd disrupted her next hatching cycle. She'd have a few fewer servitors in a month or two. But he hadn't caused a meaningful setback, even with his strongest blows.

Queen Mother Yalerox breathed through her mandibles. It had been a long time since she'd had to fight like this. Since she'd been denied her power or put up against an equal.

It was…exhilarating. She almost didn't want it to be over.

So when the Thunder God's Pet stood back up and threw himself into battle, she laughed. "This fight is over! You've lost! Give up, and I'll grant you and your allies a quick death!"

It was the truth. Impossible to argue with. All around her, the Eye of the Storm opened. Her full power—not her A-Rank strength, and not even what she'd ritually brought to bear against the fortress outside of her domain—surged through her. This was power that could fight gods, or make her into one.

She unleashed it.

Tsunami. Typhoon. Cyclone. A half-dozen different spells that all did the same thing: destroy everything in their path. Even the God of Thunder, if he was watching, had to be impressed.

It didn't matter if the Thunder God's Pet surrendered or not. His death—and that of his allies—was going to be quick.

Without my arm, I had very few options.

Thunderbolt Forms wouldn't work. I didn't have a second hand for the proper grip. That left me without Rain-Slicked Blade, Howling Gale, and Thunderblade.

And Cyclone Forms had failed, too. I couldn't cast and attack. Windfall and Saltspray were both out. The latter hurt more than the former, but not as much as missing Lightning Strikes Twice did.

I had no offense. Not that offense would save me, and whatever my source of borrowed power had been, it was fading fast. So was my core.

The agony of losing my arm had turned into a pulsing pain that matched my heartbeat. It disrupted me with every pulse—and my heart was flatlining as I backpedaled. My eyes couldn't leave Yalerox for a moment.

The Eye of the Storm had finished activating. Power coursed through the Hurricane Paragon. It rippled outward as windstorms and waves crashed across what was left of the throne room. The pit we'd fought around was two feet underwater. Sophia and Yasmin—and Ellen, to my relief—slowly dragged Carrol and Jeff away from the fight and toward the cracked, shattered door. Muddy, red-brown water poured around them.

All I could do was ride out the storm and wait.

My new skill screamed again for me to use it. But it wasn't time yet. The longer I waited, the better it would do.

Instead, I unsummoned the dueling blade. I needed a free hand to cast. Needed to empty my Mana pool completely.

Nothing could be left. Not for this.

I dodged a miniature hurricane. When it hit the throne room's wall, sandstone collapsed in a fifty-foot-wide gash. Shade Scythe slammed down. Yalerox's barrier blocked it. I didn't care.

Mana: 310/490

Shadowstorm Battery was going to be a problem—but with Ellen out of Mana and Cheddar safely tucked away in his dimensional space, I only had to worry about my own regeneration.

Wind blades sliced into my skin. The Stormsteel gauntlet and cloak held through some of them. Others ripped to the bone. I fired back. Two Lightning Chains. A double handful of Zephyrs. Slicing Bolt. Everything I could. I had to drain my Mana before—

"Enough!" Yalerox yelled.

She raised a hand, and the hurricane surged to life around her. Her voice rose high-pitched over the roar of the wind.

"Enough! You are an ant to me! Even your Thunder God will not fight—not against the Eye of the Storm! I am Queen Mother Yalerox! This world is mine! Your world is mine! The voice screams for blood and death, and I will give it to it! Then, I will be free!"

The voice?

I didn't have time for answers.

The hurricane crashed in. The throne room disintegrated around me, and Yalerox and I were both thrown to the wind, a thousand feet over everything.

My casting arm ached as wind ripped the half-formed clots away. The pain was all but blinding. Lightning ripped across the sky all around me.

In front of me, surrounded by clouds and wind, Yalerox loomed. Electricity arced off her armor; the wind shielding her was so strong it even ripped at the pure energy.

And my own energy was almost gone.

Mana: 28/490

The fight was over. Time was all but out. I couldn't win. There was no way.

But I smiled anyway. Because I just had. I'd survived. Even as pain ripped through me, I continued to survive.

As my core had broken, the storm inside of me had rushed free. And it had been familiar. I'd realized what had happened right away. A new skill. No, not new. But different from its old form.

The wind carried me toward Yalerox, and I let it.

Then, as the gap closed and Yalerox's magic started to hit me, I finally used Stormbreak.

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