Rizzala’s body shimmered for a moment, then disappeared before my eyes as the magic shifted the color of her skin and, to my surprise, her armor to match her surroundings. A moment later, Irenya’s red dress deepened to a sea-green, and I lost sight of her, too. All of them were getting a better grip on the use of the various magical powers.
As quickly and quietly as I could, I slipped up the stairs and toward the nagias. The four-armed sea monsters lounged on broken and overturned furniture, their long blue-and-white-scaled tails curled up beneath them like slimy cushions. They were bigger than the nagias of Mistress Queraya’s clan, and I saw long, straight swords on their backs instead of scimitars.
I took up position behind one of the nagia, then counted to three to give Rizzala and Irenya time to get into place as well. I couldn’t see them, but I felt a hint of their magic as they slipped up behind two of the other serpent creatures. I hadn’t told them what signal to look out for, but they’d know it the moment they saw it.
I swung my axe high over my head and brought it down hard into the side of the nagia’s neck. The black tattoo on my chest flared to life as I tapped into the Mark of the Guardian and pulled the water magic from the dying sea monster. The nagia’s gurgling cries grew fainter as I tore the power out of her body. Drop by drop, I siphoned off the magic that kept her alive until only empty flesh remained, and her serpentine form collapsed to one side.
The other nagia leapt upright in alarm, but two of them never had a chance to see their death blows coming. Rizzala’s burning spear punched through one’s chest, and while a blast of Irenya’s magic engulfed the other’s head in bright tongues of flame. A terrible sizzling sound echoed in the room, enhanced by the screams of the dying nagia.
I dropped the darkness magic as I ripped my axe free of the nagia’s neck, then tapped into the fire magic and used it to sheathe the steel head in red-hot flames. I swung at the next nagia, but she managed to draw one of her short swords in time to knock the axe wide. I summoned an ice shield to turn aside two lightning-fast strikes of her long swords, then sent a spray of neon green acid into her face. She fell back, screaming, and her body writhed in agony.
I whirled to face the next threat, only to find a nagia clawing at a fishbowl-shaped dome of ice around her head. I shot a mental note of thanks to Arieste as I cut the nagia’s gut open with a horizontal slash of my axe blade. Flesh sizzled as the fire-coated steel sliced her serpentine flesh, and her guts spilled out onto the white marble floor.
When the nagia collapsed a moment later, I leapt onto her back, tapped into the Mark of the Guardian, and siphoned the water magic from her dying body with one powerful yank. Now that I had tasted the water magic, I had a better sense of how to wield it. Water couldn’t be fought into submission, only channeled. The moment I opened the way, the power simply flowed into me as it escaped the death of its former host.
I searched the room for the last of the six nagia, but found the creature writhing on the floor as Irenya and Rizzala blasted her body with twin pillars of bright flames. Confident that they had the situation under control, I turned to race toward the staircase that led up to the towertop room.
Just in time to see Mistress Oharia herself flying through the air straight at Arieste and Letharia.
Chapter Twelve
Time slowed as I watched the huge nagia leaping down the staircase toward the two women. I sprinted toward them and reached for the ice magic, only to find it inaccessible. Eight heartbeats hadn’t passed since I last summoned it, and the same for Arieste. She still had access to the other powers I’d given her, but fire, darkness, and acid wouldn’t stop her from being crushed beneath four hundred pounds of nagia Mistress.
“Arieste!” Irenya cried out behind me, a note of helpless horror in her voice. She couldn’t do anything to save the platinum blonde any more than I could.
Suddenly, a dome of ice sprang to life in front of the nagia. Mistress Oharia’s bulk crashed into the ice, shattered it, and plowed through, but the impact had slowed her momentum just enough that she landed on the stairs a few feet away from Arieste.
With a roar, I punched my fist forward and unleashed the fire magic in a blast so powerful it burned a hole through Mistress Oharia’s torso and the glass behind her. The nagia screamed and fell back onto the stairs, and the stink of sizzling snake meat rose from the gaping wound in her body.
Rizzala’s spear hurtled past my head and slammed into the nagia slithering down the stairs behind Mistress Oharia. The flame-covered blade took the serpent creature in the side of her head, and the nagia flopped in a limp heap atop her Mistress. The last nagia died screaming as my acid magic ate through the slimy, scaled skin of her face, chest, and shoulders.
I whirled toward Arieste, who stood staring wide-eyed at Letharia.
“I-I had…had to do something,” Letharia stammered. She seemed equally surprised, and stared down at her hands. “I didn’t want anyone to get hurt.”
“You saved me,” Arieste said, and took the smaller, dark-haired woman by the shoulders. “You were our only hope of survival again, and you came through.”
“Woohoo, Letharia!” Irenya cheered and clapped from where she stood over the corpse of the nagia she’d killed. “You saved Arieste! Hooray!”
“You did great,” Rizzala told Letharia. “You faced your fears and came through the victor.”
“I did?” Letharia had the same poleaxed look, but a smile broke out on her face as she realized what she’d done. “I did!”
“Once again, I owe you my life,” Arieste said, and gratitude sparkled in her eyes. “You seem to be making a habit of it.”
“I just…it just happened.” Letharia looked at the shards of ice scattered across the floor. “I saw her coming for you and I knew I had to stop her.”
“Thank you.” Arieste swept the shorter woman into an embrace. Letharia tensed at Arieste’s touch, but when she realized there was no threat, she relaxed and wrapped her own arms around the tall, lithe platinum blonde.
“Y-You’re welcome,” she murmured.
I smiled at the exchange, glad to see that our team was bonding and growing more cohesive. The women had kicked serious ass in this battle, and we’d taken down eight nagia and a Mistress in the space of less than a minute.
I stooped over Mistress Oharia, and to my surprise found she was still alive. Barely. Her pulse was weak, thread, and she was losing blood fast. I quickly siphoned off as much magic as still remained to her, which was far less than I’d gotten from Mistress Queraya. It seemed the closer the creatures came to death, the less magic their bodies held.
I used the Mark of the Guardian to scan the other eight nagia for any signs of life. The two on the stairs were dead and gone, but one of the nagia behind me were still alive. I rushed over to her and drained her of the water magic before it faded all together. It was barely a drop in the bucket, but every little bit would count in the battle against Curym.
Something else pinged on my magical radar and when I scanned the ocean, I found a number of fainter magical presences hurtling toward us. There was no sign of the blue dragon, but I recognized her rushing, flowing water magic.
“Guys, we need to get out of here!” I shouted. “I think Curym knows we’re here and sent her merslayers to come for us.”
I shot a wistful glance up at the ceiling. I’d sensed a pair of gold magical pulses in the towertop chamber, which meant magical weapons. Unfortunately, we wouldn’t have the time to find and test them. Those merslayers were approaching far too fast for my comfort.
“Downstairs, now!” I shouted.
We barreled down the stairs as fast as we dared on the water-slicked marble. Every few seconds, I used the Mark of the Guardian to scan the ocean for the approaching minions. I held out hope that we’d get out of the tower before they came for us, but it would be a close thing given how fast they were swimming at us.
My heart leapt as we reached the bottom floor of the tower and raced down the blac
k stone steps into the tunnel. The merslayers hadn’t yet reached the tower, but they’d be there at any minute. If they got in and came after us, we’d be facing enemies from both directions.
“Help me figure out how to close this door!” I told the four women as we entered the corridor. I could see no handle, no keypad, nothing to indicate how to shut the heavy stone slab. I directed a stream of fire magic at it, but nothing happened. Ice, darkness, and acid had as much effect.
“Shit!” I cursed as I sensed the merslayers reaching the tower. To catch up, they’d have to rise to the surface of the ocean, climb into the opening in the glass, and descend the staircase after us. If we hurried, we could at least hit the other nagia tower before they caught up. Three Mistresses’ worth of power was better than none.
“We need to hurry,” I told the four women. “Those merslayers could be slithering their way into this tunnel at any minute. We’ve got two more nagias to hit, and only time for one.” I turned to Letharia. “We need as much power as we can get, which means the most powerful clan of the nagias.”
“Mistress Rannis’ clan in the northeastern tower is by far the mightiest of the nagia,” Letharia said with a grimace. “No fewer than a dozen of her sisters will have survived the battle of Whitespire.”
“Good,” I grinned, “more magic to steal.”
“You are certain?” Letharia asked. “If you fear an attack from behind and before us, would not our best choice be to destroy Mistress Kalrak and her sisters? They will be easier to defeat, and we will be able to face the merslayers from an advantageous position.”
“There are too many merslayers for us to beat,” I told her. “Our best choice is to get as much power as we can, then take the battle to Curym as soon as possible.”
“Then let us do that,” Rizzala said, and hefted her double-bladed magical spear for emphasis. “We have two victories under our belt, and surely we will prevail again.”
“Whatever we do, we do it quickly,” Arieste said. “Before those merslayers catch up.”
For a heartbeat, I considered our options. Mistress Rannis had more power, which meant more water magic to help us breathe underwater when we fought Curym. But it would be a harder battle to win, which meant a greater chance the merslayers would catch up to us sooner. So which would give us the greater chance of not just surviving this, but beating Curym?
“It has to be Mistress Rannis,” I said. “No doubt in my mind. We need that power, and we can always fight off a few merslayers. We kicked their asses in Whitespire, and we’ll do it again here.”
“Agreed!” Rizzala said. Irenya and Arieste nodded, and finally Letharia relented.
“Let’s go!”
I turned and ran off down the corridor toward the intersection and the passage that would lead us to the northeastern tower. Fifty yards seemed like an eternity, and Letharia was huffing and puffing by the time we turned into the northeastern passage.
“Come on, Letharia!” Irenya called out in encouragement. “Just a little more.”
“Can’t…breathe!” the dark-haired woman panted. “Body…tired.”
“Better tired than dead,” Rizzala yelled over her shoulder.
I sprinted ahead of the others down the last twenty yards to the door that led into the northeastern tower, and I summoned the magic to send a blast of fire shooting down the corridor. The moment the flames touched the stone walls, red runes sprang to life and the door gave a loud hissing before rumbling open.
Another rumbling echoed through the tower, this time from behind us. It was louder than the opening door, and it increased in volume with every passing heartbeat. My eyes flew wide as I looked past the running women and saw the source of the sound: a rushing wave of water surged through the tunnel, right toward us.
“Run!” I shouted. “Run like your life depends on it!”
Rizzala passed me first and sprinted up the stone stairs without hesitation. Arieste came next, and her longer legs ate up the ground with that dancer’s agility I found so attractive. Irenya and Letharia were in the rear, and both looked to be growing tired with the effort. One look at the wall of water rushing toward them told me they wouldn’t make it.
I had only one way to save them. Without hesitation, I tapped into the ice magic and gathered as much as I could handle. Even as the power threatened to dry out, I dug deeper until I found more. It would take everything I had to stop that wall of water.
A roar burst from my lips as I released all the magic welling within me. The air of the tunnel grew suddenly chilly, and a wall of ice sprang into existence just behind Letharia. I kept pouring on the magic, and I used all of my willpower and determination to thicken that ice. One inch thick, two inches, three. I couldn’t use the rushing sea water to form the ice, because I needed the wall to be solid before the water hit. It was me and the magic against the most powerful elemental force on Agreon.
I staggered backward as the water crashed into my wall of ice, and the flow of magic snapped off. I had to catch myself on the wall to avoid falling. Every muscle in my body ached as if I’d just run a marathon after the world’s most intense CrossFit session. Just the act of standing took every shred of my remaining strength. I had used so much magical energy that it had drained the physical energy from my body.
But the wall held. Impossibly, despite the crashing force of the ocean, the ice refused to yield.
Letharia and Irenya pounded up the stairs beside me, and I followed them on watery legs. As I reached the bottom floor of the tower, I heard the ice beginning to buckle beneath the strain of the water.
“We need to get higher,” I told the women. Even saying the words felt exhausting. “The water’s going to break through any minute and flood this place.”
“How did it get in?” Irenya asked. Surprise and a hint of panic tinged her face. As a former fire dragon, water would be one of her most terrifying enemies.
“It had to be Curym,” I said. “Either she cracked the glass of the other tower, or she had the merslayers do it. It’s the only way that much water would flood into the tunnels.”
“Damn!” Rizzala swore.
“Probably…sent merslayers…to both this and… northwestern tower,” Letharia gasped. The dark-haired woman had taken a seat on a crushed rattan couch and was trying desperately to regain her breath.
“Then they’ll be on their way here right now,” I said.
Letharia nodded. “They…swim fast!”
“Then we need to get above the water level now,” I said. “If we’re caught below it, she’ll crack the glass on this tower and drown us before we have enough power to face her.”
“Need…rest,” Letharia said, panting.
“We don’t have time for rest,” I told her. “We need to climb, one way or another.”
I stooped, lifted her into my arms, and straightened. She gave a little protest, but relented and grabbed onto me tightly.
“Being near you makes me feel safe, protected,” she murmured in my ear.
“I’ll always do what I can to protect you,” I told Letharia with a smile, and she nuzzled her face into my neck.
“Strong arms and heroic behavior,” Nyvea purred. “You’re a real catch, handsome.”
“Rizzala, take the lead,” I told the fierce warrior woman. “I’ll be right behind you, and I’ll keep a close eye on the tower above and below us for any sign of magic.”
“Got it.” Rizzala tightened her grip on her magical spear.
“Arieste, bring up the rear and get ready with an ice shield if the water starts rising. Irenya, if she needs help, get ready to add as much ice magic as you have left.”
Both women nodded and tapped into their magic stores. Rizzala hadn’t used any of her fire or ice magic, so she would have more than enough for the battle ahead. Irenya had relied on her fire magic, but she’d used up most of her darkness magic to camouflage her in the last fight. Arieste still had plenty of fire, darkness, and acid along with her ice. Letharia, however, h
ad used up all of her ice power, and only had darkness and acid remaining to her.
But right now, we didn’t have time for a power-up. At any second, the water would break through the wall of ice and flood the tower. We had to get to higher ground now.
Rizzala led the way as we charged up the stairs. I had to tap into the darkness magic to restore energy to my tired muscles, spent after using so much power to generate that ice wall. The skin of my hands shifted to match the lightening blue-green of the ocean outside the tower as we raced up the stairs. The sprightly power pushed back the fatigue enough that I could match the others’ pace, but I’d need to take a few seconds to breathe before we attacked the nagia.
Seconds which we wouldn’t have. Even as we reached the third floor, I heard the water surging up the stairs and into the lowest level of the tower. We’d have to climb all the way to the upper floors where the nagia waited if we wanted to escape the rising ocean.
I heard a loud growl from Rizzala, and the warrior woman leapt up the stairs to confront a nagia that was slithering down toward us. The fire-headed spear punched through the serpent monster’s soft white belly, and with a quick upward slash, Rizzala gutted the creature. Flesh sizzled and the nagia screamed as it collapsed to the staircase.
I set Letharia on her feet, turned to the dying nagia, and siphoned the magic from her twitching body in the space of three seconds. Then, drawing my axe, I summoned fire to encase its steel head and charged up the stairs after Rizzala.
The warrior woman was locked in combat with two nagia, both of whom had only drawn two of their four swords. Their blades had a vicious hook at the end, similar to the hook swords I’d seen in martial arts movies back on Earth. Even as I barreled toward them, one of the nagia locked the two swords together and whipped them at Rizzala. Rizzala had to throw herself into a backward somersault to avoid the blow that would have opened her throat.
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