Julius didn’t see how the word “advantage” could be applied to anything that had happened over the last few minutes. “So you’re just going to keep dodging until he wears you down?”
“Stalling is the entire point of this,” his sister snapped. “Or did you forget your own plan?”
“Keeping him busy is different from losing,” Julius said frantically, pointing at her bloody shoulder. “How are we going to hold out if you’re the only one taking hits?”
“I won’t be for much longer,” Chelsie growled, looking down her sword toward the far side of the circle formed by Vann Jeger’s wall of water. “When I attack, go stand over there.”
Julius couldn’t see why. That stretch of muddy, torn up grass looked just as bad as everywhere else. Before he could ask what she was planning, though, Chelsie was gone, stalking toward Vann Jeger with her sword held low.
“Tired of running?” the spirit taunted, reaching out with both hands to catch an enormous sword—the sort ancient infantry used to cut down horses—as it condensed from the air.
“Tired of you,” Chelsie snarled, planting her feet in the mud. “When you’re ready.”
Vann Jeger attacked before she’d even finished, charging her with his massive sword clutched in both hands like a bat. Chelsie let him get almost all the way before she jumped, landing on the edge of his raised blade like a bird. She lashed out with her much smaller sword at the same time, cutting down to take Vann Jeger’s head.
This started an exchange of blocks and counters that went too fast for Julius to track, so he didn’t even try. Instead, he focused on doing what Chelsie had said, quietly sneaking around the side of the water prison until he was standing where she’d pointed. When he got to the right spot, he looked back up to see how things were going, and immediately regretted it.
Despite attacking all out, Chelsie was still getting pushed back. Not because she was slower or less skilled—she and Vann Jeger’s swordwork actually seemed to be pretty evenly matched —but because the spirit didn’t seem to care about getting hit. She was drawing blood with almost every attack, but while that would have been enough to whittle down any other opponent, Vann Jeger’s blue skin just closed right back up. She might as well have been trying to slice up the sea for all the good she was doing, but while Vann Jeger was grinning like he could do this forever, Chelsie was looking significantly worse for wear.
Other than the arrow wound from earlier, nothing looked major, but she was bleeding from multiple small cuts across her arms, legs, and torso. It had to hurt like crazy, but the pain wasn’t slowing her down at all. If anything, she actually seemed to be moving faster, but it didn’t matter. A fight where one opponent could be injured while the other couldn’t had only one outcome, and Julius was starting to think they’d made a fatal mistake when Vann Jeger’s sword finally landed a solid hit, flinging Chelsie backwards into the wall of water.
Julius gasped, eyes wide. But though that looked like the beginning of the end, Chelsie was smiling as she flew through the air. Then, just before she should have smacked into the geyser of water and been thrown right back at Vann Jeger, she vanished.
The spirit jerked, looking around. Even Julius was confused. He was starting to think Chelsie had given up and cut her way back home to the mountain when a boot landed on his shoulder.
He stumbled, fighting to keep his balance as Chelsie dropped out of the cut in the air she’d made over his head, almost taking him to the ground. It wasn’t until she pushed off him again, though, that he understood. The place she’d told him to be was directly behind Vann Jeger. The spirit hadn’t landed a hit, she’dlethim launch her so she could cut to Julius, putting herself in the perfect position for an attack from behind. An attack she clearly meant to be final.
Julius had never seen Chelsie attack for real before. He’d thought he’d seen it earlier, but now he knew he was wrong. She’d been playing defense this whole fight, doing only what was necessary to stay ahead of Vann Jeger’s one spirit army. Now, though, she attacked in earnest, her magic roaring through the air like dragon fire as she shot toward Vann Jeger. Fast as he was, the spirit didn’t even have time to turn around before Chelsie plunged her sword into his back, burying her Fang’s bone-white blade between his shoulder blades so deep, the point emerged from his chest.
As soon as he was impaled, Chelsie planted her feet on the ground and yanked the blade up, clearly intending to slice straight up through his neck and into his head. But while Julius could see her muscles straining, Chelsie’s sword didn’t budge.
For the first time in his life, Julius saw real surprise on his sister’s face. He was sure his looked the same. He’d seen Fangs of the Heartstriker slice through solid stone without even trying. A water spirit should have been nothing. But no matter how hard Chelsie pushed, her sword didn’t move. She was still trying when Vann Jeger’s body flickered like the water had earlier.
Chelsie let go with a curse, leaping out of the way just in time as the wooden dragon spear Vann Jeger had been carrying when he’d first arrived shot out of the spirit’s body at her face. She landed back by Julius, her heavy boots sinking deep into the sodden ground. Meanwhile, on the other side of the water prison, Vann Jeger reached over his shoulder and calmly yanked Chelsie’s Fang out of his back.
Julius had seen his sister angry plenty of times. It was always a terrifying sight, but nothing,nothingcompared to the fury rolling off her now as she threw out her hand. Magic shot out at the same time, snapping at the sword in Vann Jeger’s hands like jaws. But though the Fang clearly wanted to fly to her, it couldn’t seem to escape Vann Jeger’s grasp, and every time it failed, Chelsie’s fury grew even hotter.
“How?” she demanded, caution completely forgotten as she stomped toward him. “How are you holding it? That sword belongs to Heartstriker magic! It will never be yours!”
“But everything that falls in my water belongs to me,” Vann Jeger replied, turning his hand to show Chelsie her Fang as it began to dissolve, turning into water, then to vapor, and then vanishing entirely, just like all his other weapons.
Standing behind his sister, Julius couldn’t see her face, but it must have been horrible, because Vann Jeger smiled wider than ever. “There it is,” he cackled. “There’s thehate. Poor little snake. You thought you were clever with your bait and switch, but I’ve been jumping around battle fields since the mountains were young. I allowed you to hit me because I wanted your sword, and now that I have it, I’m afraid my interest in this fight is at an end.”
“Does that mean you’ll let us go?” Julius asked hopefully.
Vann Jeger looked at him like he was very, very stupid. “It means that if you want to keep living beyond this moment, you’d better figure out a new way to be entertaining.” He flicked his hand, and a new bow—this one longer and heavier than the one he’d used before—appeared in his hands. “Let’s start with something simple, like seeing how fast you can run.”
“Julius,” Chelsie growled as Vann Jeger summoned an arrow and slowly began to notch it. “Split left. I’ll go right. Focus on weaving.”
Julius stared at her in horror. Surely she wasn’t actually suggesting they try to stay ahead of the monster who could teleport, summon infinite weapons from any direction, and who’d justeatenone of the Fangs of the Heartstriker before their eyes? But Chelsie just smacked him on the shoulder.
“Remember the plan,” she growled, darting her eyes pointedly toward the place where Marci was hidden behind the wall of water. “We’re not dead yet. Now,” she shoved him. “Go!”
Julius stumbled backwards just in time to miss the arrow that sank into the mud where his feet had been. Chelsie was already sprinting away in the other direction. Vann Jeger’s shots seemed to be following her, and Julius took his chance to run the other way. He still thought it was insane, that there was no way they could get out of this mess, but then, they didn’t have to. All they had to do was survive long enough for Marci to drain Vann Jeger’s magic down to a level where they could beat him, which, by his reckoning, should only be about another ten minutes. Of course, considering what they were up against, ten minutes might well be nine minutes too long.
Please Marci,he thought, running faster than he’d ever run before.Please hurry up!
That was all the conscious thought he had time for before instinct took over, pushing him faster still as Vann Jeger’s arrows began whistling over his head.
