The Storm King

Leon plummeted through the sky, his body wracked with the pain of broken bones, and the red giant’s hand pursuing him. His wrath for Maia’s pain was unabated, but his pain tempered him; he finally activated the invisibility ring around his ankle and in a moment vanished.

With all the raging magical energies of the battlefield, Leon’s invisibility didn’t last a single second before it began to unravel, but with his power flowing through him, he made good use of that time, spreading his wings and catching the air to propel him back into the fight.

With as much grace and deftness as his broken wing allowed, Leon slid around the red giant’s hand and shot straight at the steam mage, who had righted himself first and seemed in the process of reorienting himself to strike at Maia. The river nymph had reformed her water dragon body and gotten some distance, but eyed the fighting combatants hungrily, ice spreading across the surface of the dragon as she prepared herself for further violence.

As Leon’s invisibility was torn asunder by the raging ambient magic, he beat his wings one more time—swallowing his pain as he did—and extended his talons, which blazed with silver-blue lightning. He crashed into the steam mage from below, and for a brief moment, his lightning, powered by origin power, made him and the steam mage the brightest objects in the sky.

The steam mage screamed as Leon’s talons again wrapped around his torso and lightning danced across his body, but the armor he wore was strong, and Leon was unable to secure a decisive end to the man with this one attack. For a split second, Leon eyed the gash he’d left in the steam mage’s neck and contemplated a second strike, but the red giant had already swung around and was coming in for another strike, and Leon was not keen on being hit a second time.

So instead, he released the steam mage, who shouted in pain and frustration and shot off to the side, gaining distance from Leon.

Leon then tucked and rolled, dodging another strike from the red giant, but allowing it to pass close enough for him to bathe the watery limb in lightning. The red water boiled and the magic keeping it together sputtered. The limb began to rapidly lose its cohesion, but before Leon could notionally grin in triumph, the water droplets from the limb landed in his feathers and began to burn.

The added pain amped up rapidly, going from a mild burning sensation to a near nightmare in moments, and Leon let out an uncontrolled shriek and dove again to pick up speed and put a few hundred feet between himself and the red giant.

Above him, he could feel Maia’s anticipation, her bloodlust; she wanted to strike but had no opportunity. Leon, despite his fear for her safety, sent her a quick mental message. His speed was heavily impacted by his broken wing; he needed help if he was going to beat these two eleventh-tier mages.