Macha's Journey

Tyr raised his lance and Jarnvid blocked it with the side of his blade. Using a burst of energy, Tyr pressed the attack and his lance struck five times. The force of his attacks pushed their fight far away from the others. They left a deep trail in the snow behind them.

He purposefully relocated the fight away from the others because their battle would endanger his allies. He understood Jarnvid would not care, but he did.

Aži flew closely behind Tyr. The wyvern blew streams of flame that wrapped around his friend and scorched the tips of Jarnvid"s hair. He would make sure no one tried to back attack Tyr and try to inhibit Jarnvid"s actions.

The heat from Aži"s breath bothered Jarnvid, and he whipped gusts of wind around him to fan out the flames. His eyes narrowed and the black mark glowed on his forehead. Tyr"s lance continued to force him back. "Shove off," Jarnvid snarled.

Four small twisters touched the ground and rushed towards Tyr. The twisters caused him to back off, but the force of the winds picked him up into the air. His body glowed with silver light and crashed heavily to the ground. The snow flew out from where he landed.

A twister hit him and he destroyed it with a sweep of his hand. With three more sweeps, he nullified the other twisters. The silver light faded from his body and he threw a lance into the air. The weapon multiplied into a thousand, their numbers blotting out the light from the sky above.

The lances rained down from the sky, forcing Jarnvid to dash around the field as he made his way to Tyr. Jumping into the air, he brought his halberd down upon Tyr"s shoulder.

The moment his blade touched, Tyr disappeared into a wispy shadow and reappeared to the side. Jarnvid"s blade quickly changed direction and slashed its way toward Tyr. Before the weapon connected he was forced to jump back in order to dodge a lance that crashed down from the sky.

Since he had to put distance between himself and Tyr, Jarnvid twirled his halberd above his head in a circle. It deflected the lances that tried to impale him. While he twirled his halberd, gossamer threads appeared around the field. One settled on Tyr"s hand and caused his skin to blister.

Aži blew fire, and it lit up the threads but failed to destroy them. The fiery lines revealed that Jarnvid spun the threads from his body and that they were being shot out from his weapon.

Tyr put his hands on the ground. Sweat beaded on his temples as he glowed red. Hot steam erupted from the surrounding ground. The ground cracked as the steam made its way to Jarnvid, stopping him from casting his webs. Now that the weapons rained down from above and hot steam erupted from below, he had to move constantly.

While Tyr and Jarnvid fought in the distance, the other fights grew intense. Aila swung her sword across the snow causing a high wall of snow to rise up towards the sky. This wall blocked a wall of arrows that Iminathi summoned and allowed Aila to close in on the woman she believed to be the healer.

As the snow fell, Eeva found the flat-side of a sword rushing towards her head. She did not have time to dodge, but her brother parried it away. She ran further back to stay away from the fray. While the attention was away from her, she began to chant a spell to increase Dailen"s speed.

Aila"s eyes narrowed with annoyance. She almost had the woman, but Dailen got in the way. His crystal sword glowed red from the sky as their blades clashed. Both had their arms raised from the attacks. While left unguarded, he punched Aila in the face.

Her face did not even blink from his attack. Instead, she forced his arm higher with her shield and used the bottom of the shield to hit him in the throat. Dailen coughed and bowled over.

Aila brought her pommel down towards his head, but an icy pillar erupted around her weapon before she could strike the back of his head. She did not want to kill him, but he was making it difficult to knock him out.

While he restricted her movements, Dailen thrust his blade up towards Aila"s torso. The attack caused sparks to fly as his sword sc.r.a.ped against her armor. She narrowly sidestepped his blade and realized he was too skilled to not fight to kill.

With a swift twist of her wrist, the ice pillar shattered. She used her shield to smash the sharp shards in Dailen"s direction. He rolled out of the way and the shards stuck deep into the snow.

A large shadow caused the area around Aila to darken and she glanced up. An icy meteor came crashing down above her and she had to drop her weapons to catch it before it hit her. While her hands held the large ball of ice, a white aura surrounded the man.

His speed doubled as he dashed towards Aila with his sword aimed at her heart. Aila"s body glowed in a golden light and she kicked the blade up into the air. Her foot extended higher, and she kicked the icy meteor behind her. The ball of ice flew into the air and hit the mountain behind them.

A loud crash echoed through the battlefield and everyone heard a low rumble as the snow cracked away from the mountain"s side.

Aži noticed Eeva cast a spell, so he flew away from Tyr for a moment. Right now Tyr and Jarnvid engaged in melee combat, so he could spare a few seconds to deal with the spell caster. The wyvern inhaled the cold winter wind, heating it in his belly as he cut through the air towards the woman.

Eeva turned around because she felt it getting hotter behind her. A ma.s.sive explosion of flame consumed her, and she screamed. Her body dropped to the ground while she tried to focus on healing herself. The flames grew brighter, and the skin melted away from her bones. When Aži finished, all that remained was her charred body.

Dailen saw his sister die within seconds of being consumed by the fire and he fought back tears. It frustrated him that he failed to defend her. Aila remained unarmed, so he did not have time to mourn his sister. He needed to make the most of his opponent not having a weapon. This fight was difficult, and he had to push his sadness out of his mind to focus on his fight.

He slapped his hands together. A soft blue light enveloped his palms, and he spread them apart. A string of icicles formed from his hands and shot out towards Aila.

Using her gauntlets, she parried the icicles. Dailen blocked her from retrieving her shield and one-handed sword, so she unsheathed the great sword that she strapped on her back. She sensed that her opponent seemed upset, "Was that woman close to you?" Aila asked.

"Why does it matter to you? Eeva was my sister, but who cares. You want me to meet the same fate, anyway." This woman was so annoying. He did not understand why she found a need to ask questions during a fight.

Aila nodded. "I am sorry for your loss. I need to fight you, but if you surrender, you do not have to die." If Dailen chose to surrender, she would be much happier. There was no reason for her to kill him if he turned himself in.

A bitter smile spread across Dailen"s face. "Sorry, they paid me to fight. Can"t do that." A contract was a contract, and he was a man of his word. As long as the mission was still obtainable, he would fight until the brutal end.

The avalanche drew nearer and Dailen began to worry about it. Aila glanced behind her and saw the tumbling waves of snow headed towards them. She wanted to finish their battle quickly, but her body seemed sluggish.

Dailen cast a ball of ice to shoot out of his sword. It split into thousands of icicles which shot out towards her. They did not cause too much damage, but blood now covered Aila"s face. A golden light enveloped her, and the bleeding stopped. She felt the weight on her body lift and she charged at the man.

Their swords crossed, and she tried to kick his feet out from under him. He jumped into the air and summoned an icy wall to knock her to the side. She tumbled along the snow and rolled to her feet.

Golden wings of light spread from her back and her movements became quicker. Each of her attacks had more force behind them and Dailen"s arms grew tired from parrying.