Catalyst(108)

My greatest strength—fire—came out to battle the blackness, though. I knew it would be useless against Premier’s black mana. I needed the mana of life. I thought the fire would be devoured as it pushed out against the shadows. It wasn’t.

Instead of trying to overcome the darkness with its own light, the fire absorbed it. It swayed and roared with power, sucking the black mana within itself. The room spun into view again. I slowly got up, calming the fire and forcing it back within myself.

Krystal lay on the floor, very still. I ached to go to her, but it would be suicide. I thought I saw her take a shallow breath before I turned my attention to Premier.

“How did you do that?” Premier asked, taking a few steps closer. He seemed to have forgotten all about the princess. “That spell is far too advanced for a whelp like you.”

I had no idea how I’d done it, but I wasn’t going to tell him that. “I told you. I'm going to stop you.”

The curiosity left Premier's face. Good. I wanted to anger him, so his complete attention would be focused on me instead of the princess. I circled around him. Premier countered my move. When he was safely away from Krystal and before he realized what I was doing, I attacked.

I summoned a small portion of my fire and tossed it at Premier in the form of a fireball. He deflected it easily, and it bounced off the wall and dispersed. The next time, I used both hands. Premier knocked aside the fireballs as if he were swatting flies.

“You showed promise with your counterspell earlier,” Premier said. “Don't disappoint me now with these simple spells.”

I performed the same spell again. Right before Premier deflected it, I split each ball into two. He blocked the first two as I had expected, but the other ones broke through, heading straight for his head. I thought they were going to hit him, but he dissipated them without even blinking.

I sped up my attack, trying to take him off guard. I let out a shout, creating a scattershot of fireballs. They sped out of my hands, swooping towards Premier. He stood calm, blocking them or absorbing them. He wrapped himself with air mana, using it as a shield. The air diffused my spells. Then he extended his shield and blasted my fireballs and me. I stumbled backwards, breaking my concentration.

“Is that all, boy?” Premier asked, with a bored expression on his face.

I punched the air and used the force of my punch to guide the air towards him, as if I was close enough to hit him. Premier tilted his head to the side, dodging it. The force of the air caused pieces of the stone to break off the wall behind him. I swung my left arm. He dodged again. However, those stones gave me an idea—something to work with in this stark environment.

While I loosed more fireballs at Premier, I channeled earth mana into the stones. They trembled in response. I prayed my fireballs were enough to distract Premier. He continued to block them. I summoned air to hurl the stones at the back of Premier's head. I thought I had him, but he sidestepped at the last moment. I barely had enough time to dodge them. They whizzed by my head and struck the opposite wall.

Premier's constant smirk infuriated me. He toyed with me, making no move to attack me. At most, he countered my spells. His eyes reminded me of Master Stradus's, the way he studied me and my spells. They focused on every move I made, unwavering. Unlike Master Stradus, though, Premier wasn't going to give me any feedback. I expected him to attack me any minute. My spells just weren’t powerful enough. I needed more time. The question was, would he give it to me?

Judging from the smug look on his face, he just might.

I gathered in water mana. As I hoped, Premier didn't attack me. He stood, waiting to see what spell I had in mind. I wiped the sweat from my brow, flinging it to the ground. I gathered as much water mana as I could, until I became dehydrated and my dry mouth pleaded for water. I fed the mana into my drops of sweat. My skin shriveled and caved in. My spell ballooned and multiplied.

Water sprang up beneath my feet and swelled, rising until it nearly touched the ceiling. The salty water formed into a tidal wave, and I brought it down at Premier with as much force as I could. Premier didn't make any move to stop it. He just looked at the wave and smiled.

It crashed into him with tremendous speed. The backwash covered me to my neck in the warm water. With horror, I realized I had forgotten Krystal. She floated face down. I swam over to her and turned her over, trying to get her to breathe again. She sputtered and coughed up water, but she was still unconscious. I held onto her, making sure she wouldn't drown.

I didn't see Premier break the surface for air. The water level went down as he worked his magic. I held onto the princess but still concentrated on my magic. If I didn't stop Premier here, we were dead.