Spirits below!

I rolled to my right, narrowly avoiding the wall of fire. The wall turned, cooking the backline of archers and cutting off my escape. The shouts and screams of the dying men sent a chill up my spine.

"Jacob!"

My eyes snapped forward. Van Lagos was charging. He divided the mercenaries so that there were fewer enemies between us. He swept his fiery scimitar low, slicing and cauterizing the legs of the mercenaries in his path.

I pushed aside the panic fluttering in my chest and sank into my stance, unsheathing my short sword and raising my arms as high as I could manage. My right shoulder was swollen, limiting my range of motion. Van Lagos slowed to a walk as he approached.

"Are you finally done letting old men fight for you? I didn't take you for a coward."

My left hand twitched.

I grimaced. I was being smart. Not that he would understand. I tightened my grip on my weapons.

"Let's end this."

"We will, but first…"

Van Lagos raised his steel scimitar.

"Show me your fire."

I blinked.

"What?!"

"You heard me."

I frowned, sliding my dagger into the short sword's hilt and locking it in place.

I raised my right hand, letting a tongue of fire ignite and hover over my palm.

Van Lagos swatted aside a thrown spear and squinted at the flames.

"Hmm."

"What does that mean?"

"It looks like plain fire, but this feeling… How strange."

Van Lagos shook his head.

"It doesn't matter. Are you ready to die, Jacob?"

"Are you?"

The tongue of fire hovering in my hand collapsed into itself, forming an orange orb. I lobbed it at Van Lagos in an underhanded throw.

His eyes went wide. Van Lagos extinguished his fiery scimitar, reached out and grabbed it!

It was my turn to stare in awe.

The explosive orb fit perfectly in the palm of his hand. I pushed down a spike of fear. He was immune to fire. Not just his fire. All fire.

So, this is how you escaped on the hill," Van Lagos said, raising the orb to his face.

I willed it to explode, but it only vibrated in his hand.

Van Lagos laughed.

"A second-order ability? How long have you been Landbound?"

Second order?

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"Two months."

Van Lagos jerked his head away from the orb to give me an incredulous look.

"Two months?!"

He laughed.

"Landbound train for years to develop their first-order ability, let alone their second."

He smiled to himself.

"It's almost a shame to kill someone so talented."

"Thanks… I think."

Van Lagos smiled wider.

He glanced at the fiery wall separating us from Rugar and the other mercenaries. With a thought, the fire extinguished, and Van Lagos lobbed the orb at the surprised mercenaries waiting on the other side.

KABOOM!!!

Men screamed as the explosion sent bodies and body parts flying in the air.

"Not bad. One of your spheres has as much yield as your hand bomb."

Van Lagos turned to face me.

"What else can you do?"

I charged, closing the distance to stab with my short sword. Van Lagos stepped back, slashing at my wrist.

I pulled back my hand.

CLANG!

The steel scimitar slapped the short sword down. Van Lagos raised his left hand, igniting his fiery scimitar for another slash.

I raised my right palm to his stomach, created another orange orb and-

KABOOM!!!

Van Lagos disappeared in a flash of fire. The force sent him flying back to the base of the hill.

When the smoke cleared, Van Lagos' leather breastplate was in tatters, and his off-white shirt was burned to a blackened crisp.

Van Lagos coughed.

"Is that the best you can do?"

He tore off the remains of his leather chest piece, revealing the unburnt flesh underneath. His black dragonfly tattoo was emblazoned on his chest. It was the symbol of his former owner and his last mark of captivity.

I didn't give him time to recover. I rushed forward, shooting a stream of fire at his face to blind him. He opened his mouth, inhaling the flames! I took the chance to slip to the left, slashing my short sword across his stomach.

He twisted to the side, avoiding my slash and breathing out the flames he just inhaled.

I stepped back, my right sleeve on fire.

Shit!

Before I could put out the fire, Van Lagos slashed his steel scimitar to the side. I ducked before it took off my head. He rode the momentum of his missed attack, spinning into a diagonal slash from his hip to shoulder.

I blocked it with my short sword. The force of his swing sent me stumbling back something hard and wooden.

A mercenary's shield.

I glanced behind me.

A loose line of mercenaries was forming up in front of Rugar. He had stripped down to a grey, blood-stained gambeson, his head rocking forward as he tried to stay conscious.

I was amazed he was still alive.

Footfalls crunched on the grass.

I whipped my head back to Van Lagos charging with his scimitars raised high.

I created another orange orb in my right hand.

"Again?! I'll just eat it," Van Lagos said.

"Oh yeah?! Eat this!"

I threw the orb at the ground between us. Dirt and flaming grass flew at Van Lagos. He covered his face with his left arm.

Now!

I willed my dagger into my right hand and winced as I struggled to raise it over my head.

I was too slow!

Van Lagos peeked through the hail of dirt and stomped on the ground. Orange veins pulsed from the bottom of his foot to the earth beneath me and the mercenaries. I threw my dagger a heartbeat before the ground exploded.

KABOOM!!!!

For a moment, I was weightless, staring up at the blue sky, clumps of earth suspended around me.

It was a perfect moment…

Until the ground broke my fall.

I landed with a thud among the groans of injured and dying men. Dirt rained from the sky. Blades of grass drifted on the wind, burning as they touched embers from the explosion.

The back of my head throbbed with a dull ache. I rolled it to the side for relief. My arm was still on fire, and the camp looked like a picked at corpse. Chunks of missing earth pitted the ground. Orange-red flames danced among the tents. Dead bodies loosed their bowels, filling the air with the smell of urine and worse.

"Not bad for my first time," Van Lagos said.

He slinked out of the smoke, his steel scimitar under his right armpit while he worked my dagger out of his left forearm.

"Are you dead, Jacob?"

"Not yet," I said, my voice a dry rasp.

"Not as powerful as your hand bomb, then."

With a squelch, Van Laos yanked my dagger free and licked both sides of his wound. Water sizzled, and steam rose from where his tongue touched his skin.

He dropped the dagger at my feet, flexing and unflexing his hand to test his cauterized wound.

I glanced from the dagger to the flames working up my right sleeve. The fire petered out to dying embers at a command.

"Thanks."

"Don't worry about it," Van Lagos said. He slipped his scimitar out of his armpit and held it loose in his right hand.

"It's been fun, Jacob, but it looks like you'll be seeing Lira and my brother before me. Will you give them a message?"

I smiled.

"No."

Van Lagos smiled back.

"It was worth a shot."

He raised his scimitar for the killing blow.

I frowned in concentration, focusing my will for one final attack.

Boots skidded to a stop beside us. We turned to an unexpected spectator.

Dugan.

He was out of breath. His face was pale, dark circles ringing his eyes and sweat plastering his thick beard.

He looked at me with a grim expression…

And my will shattered.

"Isla…"

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