Chapter 83. The First Defiance
Carlos held Xath’rael’s gaze without wavering, his eyes fixed on nothing but him. Xath’rael, brow still furrowed, stared back at the floating boy before him. Then his eyes drifted downward, settling on Simon, still kneeling in the dirt. In that instant, instead of striking Carlos directly, he changed course and lunged toward Simon first.
The other students meant nothing to him. But whatever lived inside that boy could prove genuinely dangerous, and eliminating him took priority over everything else. Anyone who didn’t stand in his way simply didn’t matter. Without wasting a moment reaching for his swords, Xath’rael extended his claws instead, letting his nails lengthen into blades, and launched into a sprint aimed straight at Simon. The moment he moved, he closed the distance in a heartbeat, leaving Carlos behind him in an instant.
He planted himself directly in front of Simon, steadying his footing, straightening the fingers of one massive hand while the remaining fifteen arms adjusted to keep his balance. With his hand fully extended, he drove it forward in a direct thrust, aimed straight at Simon’s chest. Simon watched the enormous hand rushing toward him, eyes widening in horror. It moved too fast for him to react, too fast for him to even think about dodging. All he could do was watch it come.
But just as the hand was about to strike him, something caught the edge of his vision. Something white, closing the distance at a speed just as blinding. The moment it arrived, it slammed directly into the abomination’s body. A deafening crack of thunder tore through the clearing.
*Rumble.*
The instant the lightning struck Xath’rael, he was knocked one or two steps to the left from where he stood, and the trajectory of his hand shifted just enough, missing Simon’s chest by a hair’s breadth, passing harmlessly beside him instead. The sheer force of the strike sent a shockwave of wind tearing outward, sweeping Simon off his feet and sending him tumbling several feet away.
Xath’rael stared at his own outstretched hand, hovering in the empty air where Simon’s body should have been. It had struck nothing. Slowly, he turned his head back toward the group of students behind him, and his eyes landed on a girl radiating a strange white aura, threads of lightning flickering through it and across her body. Her hair was silver, cascading down her back like moonlight caught in a waterfall. Her pale silver-blue eyes burned with a strange fire. Her face, striking and elegant, was set with unmistakable resolve. She held both hands raised before her, cupped together.
"This annoying attack again. To think I’d face this irritating element again, so soon after being reborn. This one’s nowhere near as strong as that bitch was, but it still stings."
Xath’rael straightened his hand and rose to his full height, turning his sharp gaze toward Lyra. He extended his second left arm, and one of the four swords planted in the ground nearby spun through the air and flew directly into his open palm, settling neatly into his grip.
Lyra stood facing him directly now, no trace of fear or hesitation left in her eyes. Only one thought remained: stand against this thing with everything she had. Prove that she wasn’t useless, that she was capable of something. With that resolve fixed firmly in place, she closed her eyes, and began sensing everything around her through qi. It was a technique she hadn’t yet mastered, but there was no time to perfect it now. She’d have to fight with whatever command of it she currently had.
Eyes closed, she reached out with her senses, feeling the qi of everything present in the clearing. The leaves scattered across the forest floor, the insects crawling through them, the small stones embedded in the dirt, the mutilated remains of every fallen student, every living student standing around her, and the massive abomination looming over all of them. She could feel every one of them, sense exactly where each one was. But one thing stood out above all else: their speed. With her eyes closed, everything she sensed seemed to move at an impossibly slow pace, as if time itself had dragged to a crawl around them. She didn’t know what to call this sensation, but she recognized instantly how useful it was.
With her eyes shut, she poured all her focus into the abomination before her. She felt it shift, felt it begin advancing toward her, sword gripped in its second right hand, angled just slightly, positioned to end her in a single strike.
But even though everything around her seemed to move at a crawl, Lyra noticed that the creature’s speed still outpaced everything else by far. No matter how fast it truly was, she could see it coming toward her now. And just as the blade came down toward her throat, she was already gone, having moved out of its path a fraction of a second before it landed.
Xath’rael’s blade struck nothing but ground, plunging straight into the dirt. He stared at the spot, genuinely stunned. He had never imagined anyone here could actually dodge his attack. And it wasn’t just him. Every student present froze in disbelief. Elizabeth and Dominic both stared at her, mouths open, because dodging a strike like that should have been impossible even for combat-trained fighters, let alone a Magic Department student like Lyra.
And yet she’d done it. She’d dodged the attack clean. She didn’t stop there either. She raised her hand toward Xath’rael and unleashed another bolt of lightning. But it struck nothing. The bolt shot straight through the space where he’d been standing and continued upward into the sky, because he was no longer there. He’d already reappeared several feet away, in the spot he’d occupied moments before.
"Not bad. Not bad at all. To think a human sapling could actually stop my attack, that truly is an impressive feat. And mastering lightning to this degree as a mere mortal is genuinely admirable. You should be proud of yourself."
Lyra felt a strange mix of emotions at the praise. Part of her felt a flicker of real satisfaction hearing it, even knowing it might just be a taunt. But she refused to let it distract her. She kept her focus locked entirely on the creature in front of her.
Xath’rael, still watching the students, suddenly found himself under a barrage of fireballs, coming from his right, launched by a student hovering in midair, dark violet energy blazing between both his hands. The fireballs slammed into his body one after another, detonating on impact. Flames erupted across his entire frame, engulfing him.
But the assault didn’t stop there. A second volley followed immediately after the first, and a voice rang out from where they’d been fired.
"Don’t forget about me, you ugly insect. Did you think you could just brush me aside and expect nothing in return? How foolish of you. Take this, and burn like the insect you are."
Fireballs kept forming behind Carlos in an endless stream, each one launched straight at the abomination before him. Volley after volley slammed into Xath’rael without pause.
After the twentieth strike, Carlos looked at the creature, now wrapped entirely in flame and thick, roiling smoke. Watching the display, he allowed himself a moment of satisfaction. Maybe, just maybe, he’d actually taken down the legendary monster.
As the smoke began to thin, revealing whatever lay beneath, Carlos stared with wide eyes at what emerged. Nothing. There was nothing there, as if the creature had never stood in that spot at all. The abomination was simply gone. Carlos swept his gaze frantically across the clearing, searching for any sign of it. Nowhere.
Then a scream tore up from below him. Simon’s voice.
"Watch out! He’s right above you!"
The moment the words registered, Carlos snapped his gaze upward. There it was, hovering directly overhead, all sixteen arms crossed over its chest, its many eyes staring down at him with cold intent. A bead of sweat rolled down Carlos’s temple. And then, in the space of a blink, the creature vanished from where it hovered and reappeared directly in front of him.
The instant Xath’rael materialized before him, one massive hand closed around Carlos’s throat. The grip was crushing, powerful enough that it felt as though it might collapse his windpipe on contact.
"You’re really starting to annoy me now. Just die."
Xath’rael’s grip tightened around Carlos’s throat. Carlos couldn’t breathe. His lungs strained uselessly, his face flushing deep red as the air was crushed out of him, blood beginning to trickle from his nose. Then Xath’rael hurled him downward with brutal force.
Carlos plummeted toward the ground at terrifying speed. He tried to invoke gravity magic to slow his fall, but it wasn’t working, the spell fizzling uselessly against the momentum. He slammed into the earth with a deafening crash. The impact tore a massive crater into the ground, cracks spider-webbing outward across the surrounding dirt, and Carlos lay motionless in the shattered pit his own body had carved.