"Holy Fire Arts, Shooting Star!" Without so much as a word or taunt, Aidy resumed the fight. As soon as the incantation left Aidy's lips, she turned into a blazing projectile and shot towards Gareth with incredible speed.
Gareth barely had time to react as Aidy's attack closed in on him, the intense heat radiating from her. "Holy Fire Arts, Fire Wall!" Gareth quickly summoned a wall of flames to shield himself from Aidy's blazing assault.
The flames crackled and roared as they formed a protective barrier around Gareth, blocking Aidy's fiery thrust. Responding to Aidy's attack, Gareth focused his energy and prepared to counterattack.
But Gareth forgot that this is not a one-on-one fight. Behind his back, the armored elf Harthela managed to sneak up on him, launching a surprise attack with a shield bash.
Caught off guard, Gareth was sent flying through the air, crashing into a nearby wall with a loud thud. Several of his bones audibly cracked upon impact, leaving him writhing in pain on the ground. And by making contact with the shield, he was not only hurt but also drained of his energy reserves.
His offensive and defensive capabilities, however, did not diminish at all. Retrieving another Aether Wand from his belt, he chanted, "Holy Fire Arts, Soothing Kindle."
A warm and calming kindle of flames erupted from the wand, engulfing Gareth's body and mending his broken bones. The pain subsided, and he regained his strength, ready to continue the battle.
Adopting a dual-wand-wielding stance, Gareth unleashed a barrage of fireballs on Harthela and Aidy, his aim precise and his movements fluid. "Here I go!" Gareth shouted as fire blazed on his military boots and propelled him forward with incredible speed. With each step, the ground beneath him ignited, leaving a trail of scorching flames in his wake.
Harthela weathered the onslaught, using her armor's energy absorption capabilities to withstand Gareth's fiery assault and pressing forward relentlessly.
Meanwhile, with beastly agility, Aidy leapt into the air, dodging Gareth's fireballs with ease. Like a pinball being launched into a frenzy, Aidy bounced off the walls in the confined alleyway, using the narrow space to her advantage.
She retaliated by shooting fireballs back at him, fighting fire with fire. Gareth, in an aethereal tete-a-tete, obliged with his own Holy Fire Arts.
Both sides fired fireballs and a myriad of projectile made with fire. And to defend themselves, walls of fire rose to counter the other’s attacks.
This continued for what felt like an eternity, the air thick with the heat and crackling energy of their fiery battle. Each dodge and counterattack was executed with precision and grace, as if they were dancing a dangerous waltz amidst the flames.
And then, when an opportunity presented itself, Gareth made a big move.
"Holy Fire Arts, Magma Geyser!" Columns of fire erupted at Gareth's command, shooting up from the ground below Aidy.
Additionally, to keep Harthela in check and prevent her from interfering, Gareth intentionally fired fireballs into the surrounding area. He knew it was useless to shoot directly at Harthela, as her armor would just absorb the art and render his attacks ineffective.
"Play firefighter for a while, long ears!" Gareth taunted Harthela as he continued to unleash his fiery onslaught.
"That bastard!" Harthela growled, torn between aiding Aidy and preventing the fireballs from damaging the surrounding area.
This kept Harthela at bay, just as Gareth had intended.
The fireballs Gareth threw at the surrounding buildings to keep Harthela in check hit their mark. Almost, if not for Harthela's armor augmenting her physical abilities.
Contrary to her bulky armor, Harthela moved with surprising agility, flitting across the battlefield to absorb the attacks from Gareth. With the armor becoming full of absorbed energy, it enhanced her speed and strength by an insignificant margin.
However, Gareth sent more towards the surrounding buildings. Harthela, in response, leaped into the air, using her augmented strength to propel herself towards the buildings.
'My apologies, Aidy, but please hold on a moment longer,' Harthela thought as she soared through the air. 'I can't let anyone suffer because of the principality's actions.'
***
Whoosh! More Magma Geysers continuously erupted from the ground, spewing molten lava into the air, leaving the skies as the only possible refuge for Aidy. Without Harthela to absorb Gareth's arts, Aidy had to rely solely on her own agility and quick thinking to evade the attacks.
"Holy Fire Arts, Greaves of Fire!" Aidy, left with no choice, clad her greaves in her own fire to protect her legs from the scorching heat, rode the geysers, and escaped upwards.
Aidy's decision to take to the skies, however, was engineered by Gareth to create an opening for a sure-kill Holy Fire Art of his own.
Similar to an orchestra conductor, Gareth waved his wands. Orbs of fire then materialized, enveloping Aidy in midair.
Above and below, left and right, front and back, there wasn’t even the smallest gap in this Art for a thread to pass through.
The fire orbs formed a spherical cage of fire meant to trap Aidy. Yet, this isn't the end of Gareth’s move.
“Holy Fire Arts, Scorching Iron Maiden!” The moment the incantation left his lips, from every orb of fire surrounding Aidy, beams of intense heat shot out, converging towards her.
Meant to pierce and burn at the same time, ensuring the death of those caught in this art.
Even with this certain death Art, however, Gareth scrunched up his face in annoyance. Not because he lamented the fact that a Holy Fire Art specialist like him died, no.
But for only one reason: With his enhaced senses, he was sure he heard Aidy mutter, “Holy Fire Arts, Heat Mirage,” before the moment his Art hit her.
And as if to prove his feelings right, alarm bells blared in his head, warning of a threat to his life. Behind his back, like a mirage in the scorching desert, Aidy's figure flickered and appeared.
“Holy Fire Arts, Flamberge!” “Holy Fire Arts, Cerberus’ Claw!” As though they were in sync with each other, Aidy and Gareth uttered their Art’s name simultaneously.
Gareth's aether wands burst with flames that formed into blades of scorching heat, while Aidy's gauntlets glowed with an intense silver fire.
Clang-clang-clang! The clash of their weapons reverberated through the air, creating a symphony of metal against metal. Sparks from their flame-encased weapons danced and scattered, illuminating the battlefield with bursts of fiery brilliance.
Aidy's upward claw swipe was answered by Gareth's downward slash, his flaming blades meeting her claws burning in silver fire with a shower of sparks.
Gareth feinted then with a thrust of his flaming blade in his right, aiming for her chest. A fireball erupted from his oustretched blade of fire and hurtled towards Aidy, who deflected it with a swift wave of her silver-glowing gauntlet.
But Gareth's real attack came from his left, as he swiftly swung his other flaming blade towards Aidy's exposed side. A fire edge emerged from the blade, leaving a trail of scorching heat in its wake.
She decided to brute-force her way through Gareth's attack, increasing the silver fire coating her gauntlets and striking at him with all her might. But he blocked it with his two flaming swords, creating a clash of red and silver fire that illuminated the battlefield.
Flaming blades and claws locked as the two opponents pushed against each other, their strength and determination evident in their faces.
"Hey, what's wrong, doggy?" Gareth taunted, a sly grin spreading across his face. "Your strength seems to be fading along with your flames."
Gareth noticed that Aidy's total aether reserve was diminishing, causing her silver fire to flicker and weaken. To make his point clearer, Gareth pushed with his Flamberge-covered wands, and Aidy, while in midair, twisted her body, avoiding the full force of the attack.
Landing on her feet, Aidy pointed behind Gareth and said, "Before you celebrate too soon, you might want to check your own back."
Just then, a shield came flying out from behind Gareth. It was Harthela's shield, who's back after absorbing the fireballs Gareth had launched to keep her occupied.
Knowing the energy-absorbing properties of Harthela's shield, Gareth evaded the shield by quickly diving to the side.
And yet, even though he managed to distance himself from the shield, Gareth felt his energy sucked out of him as it passed by. 'Shit!' Gareth cursed under his breath.
'It's okay.' He reassured himself, trying to regain his composure. 'I don't use my own aether reserves much since my wands have exchangeable Purity Crystals that I use to channel my magic.'
Holding out a hand to catch the shield Harthela threw her way without worrying about its energy-absorbing properties, Aidy grasped it firmly. In fact, instead of absorbing her energy like it did with Gareth, the shield passed the energy to Aidy, filling her spent Aether reserves.
This is Harthela's trump card—Energy Transfer—that Aidy told her to keep hidden until the right moment. And it was the reason why Harthela's cracked armor returned to normal after going over its absorption limit and why Aidy's total aether capacity increased significantly.
'This is absurd!' Gareth thought, noticing Aidy's energy reserves fill up, his mind reeling with disbelief. Energy Absorption and now Energy Transfer?
Harthela might not be any more than Level 5 in Energy Manipulation, Gareth mused, but with her armor's absorption capabilities and ability to transfer energy to others, she was becoming a force to be reckoned with.
'I shouldn't have let her get close to that dog maid earlier,' Gareth thought to himself, realizing that it was his own mistake why the tables had turned in their favor.
But if he wanted to keep these two women from hindering their mission, Gareth would need to come up with a plan to neutralize Harthela.
