Page 63 of Elemasters

Almost.

“DUSTIN, MOVE!”

He barely managed to scramble out of the way before a searing blast of flames scorched the walkway where he’d been standing less than a millisecond ago.

His heart was hammering in his chest so intensely that he could barely hear his own thoughts. His breaths came in ragged and shallow as he examined the blackened gravel, before his eyes snapped back to Chris.

Chris, who was standing there with glowing veins and blinding red eyes.

Chris, who had almost killed him.

“Y-you… you almost hit me,” Dustin’s voice was trembling so much he could barely form a coherent thought. The timbre was so light and fractured that it wasn’t even clear if Chris heard him over the booming thunder. Or if he would listen even if he had.

Dustin’s emotions spiraled as his brain and body argued over what to do next. Part of him wanted to turn and run, but what if Chris hit him in the back? Clearly talking to him wasn’t going to work either though.

No… he had to do the one thing he never did. His entire life, he’d been trying to temper Chris’s blazes, but now that the fire was literally aimed at him, he had no choice but to fight back. And while he might not have been able to fight fire with fire…

He could absolutely smother it.

Dustin’s shock and disbelief quickly flowed into furious resolve as his veins darkened into inky blackness. As if responding to his intent, the clouds overhead opened up and a downpour ensued, leaving Dustin standing beneath the tempest… one he intended to make into his weapon.

Chris barked out another laugh as he stepped off the porch into the rain, his veins glowing brighter as the meridians beneath his skin lit up in concert.

“Christian get your ass back here NOW!” Bailey shouted, her yellow lights pulsing with uncertainty. She clearly had no idea how to handle any of this.

Chris didn’t respond. He simply held out his hand and an impenetrable wall of flame flared up behind him, forcing Bailey to stay out of it.

“Finally. Dropping the act and fighting like a man,” he said, blue flames igniting his fists as he stalked toward Dustin.

“I don’t wanna do this Christian,” Dustin said. Cold, and so painfully aware of what was coming next.

“YES YOU DO!” Chris yelled, firing two sapphire bursts of flame, “GET OFF YOUR FUCKING HIGH HORSE!”

Dustin anticipated the head-on attack, and the rain solidified into a thick wall of ice under his command, rendering the flames inert long enough for him to get out of the way before they explosively broke through.

Dustin reached for the water again, praying that he had enough control to hose Chris down without seriously injuring him… but, he couldn’t sense it anymore. In fact, everything around him felt hazy, like the world had lost its finer edges. Even moving his limbs felt like an insurmountable task in that moment.

He dropped down to one knee, but his eyes immediately shot to Chris, not wanting to give him another opening to attack. But whatever was happening to Dustin, was clearly affecting Chris too; he was just standing there, staring into open space with glassy eyes as the rain continued to beat down on them both.

“Such power,” a voice pressed into Dustin’s mind, sudden and violating… the same voice he’d heard the night they freed Leo from Qin Shi Huang’s control, “one ferocious, the other controlled. Together, you will become unyielding weapons,”

Clarity rattled Dustin like a car alarm as Sima Yao’s words came back to the forefront of his mind. About how being “spiritually compromised”, or “in emotional anguish”.

Terms that anyone would use to describe him and Chris in that moment.

“N-no.” Dustin’s words slurred as he fought to stay in control of his own jaw, “I won’t let you,”

“Relent boy. You are in no position to refuse me. You are my blood, you only draw breath because of all that I accomplished. Now it is time for you to ascend into your rightful power, to claim your birthright as the heir of Qin Shi Huang,”

Dustin ground his fist into the mud, grunting with frustration and sheer willpower as he forced himself to stand under what felt like the weight of an ocean.

“I… don’t want your p-power,” he stuttered, “get. Out. Of. My. HEAD!”

“A shame that my line produces disappointment after disappointment,” the pressure finally started to lift off Dustin, and he could breathe freely once again, “but now this boy. If you do not bow, you shall break,”

With that, just as quickly as the storm gathered, it dissipated; the last few raindrops plunking against Dustin’s shoulders as he raced over to Chris, who had now collapsed.

With the wall of flames gone, Bailey immediately arrived at his side.