Joan tried to step back, but the heat from the passageway was so intense she didn’t dare go any closer. Instead she leaped to the right, barely avoiding being skewered by the flaming creature’s sword. Its momentum sent it racing into the flames of the hallway. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to do much aside from slowing it down. She could see the red orb at the core of the creature, but she could no longer make out its body.

Joan reached for her sword, but struggled to even pull it from its sheath. Her hands were shaking so heavily and felt so sweaty she couldn’t even keep a proper grip on the hilt. She could feel the panic building inside her, though she tried to shove it down.

The Inferno God wasn’t here. It wasn’t him. This thing wasn’t that. Joan desperately repeated those words over and over in her mind.

The giggle came again and she couldn’t help it. She turned and ran away. Not that she could go very far before she was stopped by the walls of the small room. She looked around for another door, a passageway, anything. But there was nothing. The only way in and out of the room was the passageway which was now wreathed in flames. “It’s not the Inferno God,” Joan said softly. “It’s not even one of his minions. It’s just a normal, everyday fire elemental. You’ve fought thousands of elementals, millions. The orb is just its focus, destroy it and it disappears. You can do this.”

Despite her words, she couldn’t get her hands to stop shaking. When the elemental stepped out from the hallway and began to walk towards her she felt as if her heart might explode.

‘Searle! Korgron! Andres! Help!’ Joan yelled through their bond, but there was no response. They couldn’t hear her. Even if they could, she doubted they could come into this place without her. If time had truly stopped outside of this realm, how could they? No help was going to come. She had to deal with this herself.

The elemental raised its sword and readied for another piercing stab.

Joan looked around before kicking one of the nearby piles of seared, damaged metal towards it. The elemental cut through the chunks with ease, its flaming sword tearing them to pieces with the same ease it would likely cut through her. It then charged at her, stabbing once more.

Joan ducked and rolled this time, narrowly avoiding the blade and rolling back to her feet, dashing across the room before coming to the wall once more and turning around. The elemental was watching her. It then let out another giggle, before it began to walk towards her once more.

Why did it have to be a fire elemental? Why not ice, or earth, or wind or anything else? Joan looked at the flame wreathed hallway once more, but there was no sign of it fading. She had to fight, that was the only way.

Joan didn’t even try to draw her sword this time, instead using a small bit of her magic to summon it to her right hand. Her hand was shaking so bad she had to grip it with both hands to keep it steady. “Come on, Joan. You’ve done this before. It’s just one elemental. You can’t die to one elemental.”

Another giggle made her almost drop her sword. Worst of all she had the impression it was just playing with her, it didn’t seem the slightest bit worried. Not that she could blame it. She mentally kicked herself for not bonding herself to the demonic blade, it would have been so much more useful against a foe like this.

The elemental was almost upon her and she took the initiative this time. Running forward, she brought her sword up and then down in a cleaving strike. The elemental let out another giggle before it flicked its wrist, swinging its blade to knock hers aside. Joan reinforced her strike with her magic, momentarily wreathing her blade and body in her magic to amplify the strength and speed.

She had expected the blade to, at best, push the elemental’s blade back.

To her amazement, her sword cleaved through the elemental’s, causing the outer half of the blade to fizzle out in a small puff of smoke. The elemental seemed just as surprised as her, but she quickly took advantage of this small development. Charging forward and around the elemental, she pulled her sword up in both hands before cleaving down with all her might and power at its back, aiming for the small, red core.

With a loud clank of metal against metal, the sword connected with the core and the elemental went entirely still, the flames across its body even going still. Joan felt relief surging through her, she couldn’t believe it. She’d hit it.

The elemental exploded, flames enveloping and sending her flying across the room. She hit the wall, her sword bouncing away moments before she all but peeled off the wall, falling to the ground with a pained moan. Her clothing was singed, her fake horns had fallen off and burns now covered her body. But she’d won. She’d done it. She looked up at the elemental with a smile.

Only to have a new horror rise in her. The core was exposed, but there wasn’t even a mark on it. Flames sprouted out and enveloped it, reforming the elemental’s body once more. It looked to her and let out one more, horrifying giggle.

Joan wasn’t strong enough.

Even if she could cut through its sword she couldn’t hurt the core. She’d thrown everything she had at it. Maybe if she’d had the demonic blade she might have pierced it. But she, as she was, couldn’t.

‘Searle, please. Help me,’ she pleaded through the bond, even if he couldn’t hear her. He’d always been there for her, why not now? He’d always saved her. One of the chosen always did. No matter how bad things went, if she could just hold out they’d come for her.

But they couldn’t here. She was alone. Against another foe she couldn’t even hurt. There had to be something she could do to hurt it. Some spell, some technique, something. If only she had cracked the core or done some kind of damage to it. But it was just like the Troll of Reflections all over again. No matter what skills she knew, it didn’t matter if her body couldn’t do them. If only she could do Swanfall, she could certainly cleave through it in a single swing, but she doubted any of the ice spells she knew could last even a second in those flames, let alone be strong enough to hurt the core.

If only she was stronger, able to endure the spells she needed to use. She watched the elemental coming closer, cold helplessness grasping her to her core. Her body couldn’t handle the power she needed to use without killing her. And now she was going to die because she couldn’t unleash that power. Burned, alone, screaming. Why did so many of her fates have to end up like this?

Joan shook her head. NO! She refused. Everyone was still counting on her. She didn’t have time to wallow in her misery, pain and fear. She slowly got to her feet, gripping the wall as she climbed up. “You messed up my dress,” Joan said, trying to put the confidence she didn’t feel into her voice.

There was a way out, something she was missing. Some way she could win. This was not how this would all end. She clenched her fists and glared defiantly at the elemental. “You won’t beat me. This isn’t over,” she said. “I’ve fought a thousand of you before. Do you think I’ll be beaten that easily? Everyone is depending on me!” She held out her left hand and summoned her sword to it. At the very least it wasn’t shaking as badly as her right. Granted, she couldn’t even feel the sword in her grip in that hand, thanks to the key, so it wasn’t--

The key.

Joan’s eyes went wide and she looked back towards the sword. Her body couldn’t handle swanfall and she certainly didn’t have the power for it. But the key could and did. Maybe. If she could properly tap into it without killing herself.

Another giggle brought her focus back onto the elemental. Maybe it would work. If she was lucky. If she was capable enough. If she took the risk. If fate was kind. Maybe. But what other choice did she have? To sit here and die? She pushed off the wall with every ounce of energy she had, running at the elemental. It let out another giggle before taking a swing at her.

Joan ducked under the blade and gripped her own in both hands. Sending every drop of magic she could into the key in her left hand, she tried to push the magic through the key and into the form she needed it to take, struggling to trigger the ancient artifact. “Swanfall!” The sword came up, aimed once more at the core. She prayed to the gods, to the stars, to the chosen, to the fates themselves.

Just please let this work.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the elemental’s blade coming down at her, but she focused forward. Trying to force the spell to work, the key absorbing her magic greedily, but the spell wasn’t activating. While it took her magic, it refused to trigger its power and let the spell flow out. She felt as if time was slowing down while she watched her sword come ever closer to the core.

Every muscle in her body felt like it was going to be torn apart, every drop of magic drained from her. It was now or never. She gave one more prayer to the gods, the fates, the stars. Just let her be strong enough. Just let this work.

Ice erupted from her sword, starting from the hilt and moving up through the blade. It connected with the core, cleaving through it with the same ease that the elemental’s sword had cleaved through the chunks of broken metal. Frost erupted over the core before encasing it in ice and causing the flames to turn a light, soft blue.

Joan couldn’t do anything else, though. She barreled forward, her body refusing to listen to her, and ran into the two broken chunks of core. The fire enveloped her and she closed her eyes, awaiting the inevitable burning death.

Joan collapsed to the ground, her sword still held in her left hand, but to her surprise she didn’t hurt that much. The burns she had already received hurt, but she didn’t feel the searing pain of new burns. Instead, she just felt warm. Slowly she opened her eyes and, sure enough, she was covered entirely in blue flames. But they didn’t burn. They felt warm, comforting. The ice was melting from her sword and the mark on her hand from the key was glowing a light, soft blue. Slowly the flames were pulled from her body, instead flowing into the quickly defrosting sword.

The blade was now glowing a light red, the edge of the blade rippling as if it was made of liquid flames. Joan tried to pull it over and look at it, but her body refused to move.

Joan had done it, though. She’d won. She wasn’t going to die today. All she needed to do was take a nice, long, well earned nap. The battle was over, but she could still feel the key, hungrily devouring her energy. She just needed to wait for it to finish, then she’d be better.

She didn’t know if this place was truly connected to the gods, or if they had heard her prayers. But as the darkness enveloped her, she thanked them for giving her one last chance.

MelodyAvant

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