The wind caught Devon’s cloak as she stepped toward me, her eyes burning like twin suns. "Ready for another go, big guy?" Her entire upper body was engulfed in deep red flames.

  My grip tightened on my sword—on Embermist—the gem in its pommel pulsing a deep crimson color. "Let's go."

  I shifted, but she struck first. With a flick of her wrist, a massive wave of flame roared from her outstretched hand. I raised my shield, and Embermist’s gem flared.

  [Flame Ward]

  I watched as the flames unengulfed my shield. An instant later, her flames exploded around it. The flames washed over me. Panic rose in my chest—it was more fire than I'd ever seen before—but, instead of being burned to a crisp, only the smell of burnt hair and smoldering wood filled the air. My shield smoldered, but it was still intact.

  Mentally, I thank my sword.

  Adjusting my footing, I rushed forward, cutting through the lingering flames and thick smoke that billowed out when her spell hit me. When I exited the other side, our eyes met. Hers went wide. With all my strength, I slashed downward, aiming directly for her skull.

  With a screech, she leaped to the side before my blade bit into her head, but she wasn't fast enough. Embermist caught the hem of her cloak. The pommel gem flashed.

  [Spell Eater]

  When the smoldering blade struck the fabric, the cloak flashed a bright blue color, and a visible wave a mana poured off of it. A second later, the cloak erupted in flames.

  Devon rolled and bounced back to her feet. With a dramatic gesture, she tore the incinerating cloth off her shoulders. As she did, she revealed her lithe body, which was wrapped in tight leather armor.

  "You're faster now," she admitted, backing away as her cloak vanished into ash. "But you're not fast enough." She bared her teeth. "You're going to die here, you fucking wannabe."

  "Then do it," I spat back and lunged again.

  She backpedaled and threw a ball of fire at my face. Ducking, I curled into a crouch, then heaved. I shot forward, and my blade cut through the leather armor covering her thigh.

  [Spell Eater]

  A thick gouge opened in her armor, which flared bright blue like the cloak had, but it didn't catch on fire. Instead, the leather curled and blistered, and a trickle of blood fell from the hole. Devon hissed and stumbled several feet backward.

  Not willing to lose the momentum, I didn't let up. I slashed again and again, loosely following the pattern of Rising Dawn, one of the forms Renard taught me. Weaving my shield in between each attack, I caught her flames every time she tried to capitalize on an opening. I started to gain ground.

  A horizontal slash nearly caught her neck. When I reversed the cut, trying to catch her in the temple with the back of my sword, she pivoted and caught my blade with her fingers, her hands wrapped in thick black ice. With a flick of her wrist, she shoved me back, nearly wrenching my sword from my hand.

  "Ice now?" I asked, bracing as she began to chant again.

  "I’m versatile," she said through gritted teeth. A pillar of ice erupted under my feet. The cold object caught me in the chest and threw me backward. Droplets of blood flew from my lips as I tumbled through the air, and I landed with a loud crash.

  [Eagle's Swiftness]

  Embermist's magic washed over me. I felt the world slow. Something above me glinted in the firelight, so I rolled. A fraction of a second later, a blade of ice cut through the ground where I had landed. Kipping up onto my feet, I ducked as a second ice blade carved through the air. I could hear it whistle as it took some of my hair off. Lifting my shield, I felt a third blade of ice slam into it, shearing off the upper third as I charged forward.

  Before I reached her, Devon was readying another spell, but something was wrong. I could see the strain in her face. Her fingers were red and blistered, and her eyes had become pale and dim. Even her skin was taking on a sallow hue. It was clear her magic was taking its toll on her. Her ice wasn't as punishing as her fire.

  She performed a series of gestures, and dozens of blades of shimmering light appeared in the air around her. Her face blanched as she thrust her hand forward. The blades shimmered, then darted toward me.

  [Reflect Magic]

  A hail of shimmering blades of light slammed into me, but Embermist's spell caused them to bounce off my skin. Devon screamed as the blades shot back at her. She disappeared in a ball of white light.

  This was it. I ran forward and cut into the light, but before my attack could land, a guttural scream erupted from the sphere, followed by the crackling of flame. Out exploded a wave of deep red fire, the shockwave sending shards of glowing stone tumbling across the scorched plaza. I barely had enough time to raise my shield and brace for impact. The force slammed into me like a battering ram. My boots slid backward against the stone, leaving twin trails of scorched dust behind.

  Smoke swallowed the world. Coughing, eyes stinging, I waited, not knowing what would come next.

  As the smoke cleared, she was there—silhouetted in the smoke, hunched low, both hands on the ground. Her armor was cracked along her arms and shoulders, and one of the light blades was lodged in her ribs. Blood painted her side in long black streaks.

  But she was smiling.

  “You know something, Alex?" Her teeth gleamed in the lingering flames. "I'm glad you're putting up a fight. It would have been so boring if you went down easily. I'm going to have fun tearing you apart." She slammed both fists into the ground. A ring of crimson sigils burst to life in a ten-foot circle around her, then another, and another. A sigil appeared under me, so I leaped just as flames roared out of it.

  The entire plaza lit up like the eye of a volcano. Fire spiraled up from the glyphs in whipping columns, and the ground beneath me cracked and buckled. A quick glance revealed that all the nearby buildings were on fire. Devon, her eyes glowing red in the smoke, snapped her fingers, and a tendril of flames snaked toward me.

  [Flame Ward]

  A barrier formed over my skin just as the first torrent of flame engulfed me. The heat hammered against the ward, sizzling my arms and chest. The strand of flame wrapped around my arm, but I slashed it with Embermist, severing it from its master.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  The gem in Embermist flickered. I could tell that the sword was struggling, barely keeping pace with the damage. And, without it, I was dead. Devon whipped another tendril of flame at me, so I threw myself underneath, rolled, and darted forward beneath the spiraling arc of flame.

  A sigil appeared under my feet.

  [Flame Ward]

  Fire exploded around me. Everything went red. My lungs burned. My armor glowed red-hot. I charged through the thick wall of flame, emerging from the other side a sooty, smoldering mess. There, several feet away, was Vral.

  The goblin's red eyes widened when she saw me. She was still holding onto the rapier, which had become dislodged from the ruined cobblestones. The blade was shuddering as it struggled to return to Devon's side. By the look of her pale, clammy skin and straining veins, she was barely holding on.

  "Let it go! Get out of here!" I shouted at the goblin.

  "NO!" She shrieked as the rapier dragged her a foot closer to the wall of flames that was Devon. She wrapped her legs around the blade and hugged it close. "You'll die if this thing gets free."

  The wall of flame to my right opened, and Devon walked through. Her body was wreathed in fire, and she was covered in ash and blood. Her eyes gleamed a deep red color, and her canines had grown, looking almost like fangs. Her face was filled with pure joy.

  She whispered something in a language I didn’t recognize, and lines of black snakes under her skin where her veins ran. The smoke around her rippled, and glowing red eyes opened in the air behind her.

  "Monster!" Vral screamed.

  The red eyes congealed into a massive black cat beast thing. It snarled, reared up, and leapt from behind Devon. I lifted my shield, but I wasn't fast enough. Black spittle flew at my face as the monster fell down upon me.

  [Feral Charge]

  A green streak slammed into the monster. The monster tumbled to the ground. An instant later, Vral appeared on its chest. Her arm lifted and drove her wicked spider dagger into the monster's neck. The beast yowled, but she held it fast as she drove the knife in again and again, tearing into the monster's flesh with abandon. The rapier was in her teeth.

  Devon screamed and lifted her hand at my partner, but I lunged for her neck. Vral's head jerked to the side, but the rapier held fast in her mouth as my slash forced Devon backward. A second cut nicked her forearm, which oozed black blood.

  She parried, fire dancing along her fingers as she summoned a curved dagger of molten stone from the crackling ground. She slashed at my wrist, but I blocked it with my shield, then barely caught a second dagger in her other hand with the flat of my blade. Embermist and her dagger crackled as their magics clashed.

  I punched my shield forward, catching her in the temple. Her head snapped backward. She groaned and fell back a step, then parried my shield away and struck at Embermist directly. The blade crackled and sputtered under the assault, but it held firm. I twisted my sword so that her daggers were forced into an X shape and pressed, locking them in place above her chest.

  "Why are you doing this?!" I screamed to my old friend. She pushed back with all her strength. I barely held my footing as I slid backward. She was so strong. Even with the enhancements from Embermist, she was still stronger.

  She snarled inches from my face. "Do you have any idea how many times I imagined this moment? Me standing above your corpse while a whole city burns around us? It's like a dream come true. You finally get to be useful." Her face was twisted into a mockery of her past self. Her eyes glowed red as the flames surrounding us grew hotter, and two small horns sprouted on her forehead.

  I pushed harder, trying to overpower her, but the ground was slick with dust and gravel. Each time I pressed, my footing threatened to give way. "Why? Why do you hate me so much? What could I have possibly done to make you into... this?" I caught the edge of a cobblestone and shoved forward. She slipped back a step.

  She smirked. "It isn't about you. It never was. You're not the main character. You're barely even a fucking NPC!" She thrust her head forward and caught my jaw. My head snapped down, and stars filled my eyes.

  I shoot away the stars. "Then why do you want me dead so badly?"

  Her eyes gleamed. "Because I want to. Because it sounds fun. Aren't you having fun with me, Alex? It's just like old times."

  "No! This isn't fucking fun!" I caught another cobblestone and shoved. She stumbled back a few steps, Embermist nearly pressed to her neck. "We were friends!"

  She laughed maniacally. "You were never anything more than a toy, idiot. You were a thing to play with for a girl who was way above your level."

  "Fuck you!"

  "Done that already!" She kicked forward and caught my shin. I couldn't believe it didn't snap in two. I fell back a step.

  "Then why'd you tell me to go back to the temple?"

  She frowned. "It was a brief bout of nostalgia." The smoke returned. "And pity."

  Bitch. "So that's it? I wasn't anything?"

  Her lips split into a savage smile. "I stuck around you because I liked the attention. You always tried so hard to act like you were some big, valiant hero sacrificing yourself for everyone, but you were just some loser who wanted to feel special. That way, you didn't have to think about how you wasted your life." She shoved hard, pushing me through the ash and soot.

  "Then why did you sleep with me? Why did you want have that talk?"

  The red light in her eyes grew brighter, and her horns grew another couple inches. "I fucked you because it was fun. Nothing more, nothing less." She kicked at my knee, but I parried it away before it connected. "And I asked to talk because I wanted to lock you down. Then, I could parade you around like sad foster puppy. It sounded fun, showing you off to everyone before dropping you back off at the pound."

  I shoved my shield forward, catching her forearm. Her dagger slipped out of her hand and crumbled into shards of stone as it hit the ground. "You're a monster."

  "A monster?" The fire in her eyes flared. "I am what I am." She grabbed my shield with her free hand and tore it from my arm, throwing it into the flames.

  "And what is that?"

  "I'm Devon. I take what I want when I want it. That's the way the world works. You take or you're taken. There's nothing else." Her remaining dagger flashed, then twisted into a wicked hook made of sharp volcanic glass. "And right now, I want you to die. I want you to die so badly. Your essence will be delicious." She hooked my shield and pulled it down.

  [Iron Skin]

  The obsidian blade caught my throat but bounced off my iron skin. She snarled as I paried her blade downward with Embermist.

  "Sounds like I never knew you."

  "You didn't know anything."

  I changed my sword's angle and caught her bicep. Her skin sizzled where the blade cut. "Why are you working with the cult?"

  She hissed. "They offered me everything I ever wanted." Her skin had turned dark gray, and her horns were long and curved now. Her glowing red eyes met mine. “Power, status, wealth. I'll have it all once she's free."

  "She? Who's she?'"

  Devon cackled. "Why would I tell a dead man?" Her obsidian sickle morphed, widening and lengthening until it formed a fiery red longsword. She swung, and I barely caught her weapon before my head was cut off. Sweeping outward with my sword, I caught her molten longsword at the crossguard. The two blades crackled against one another until Embermist's pommel gem flashed.

  [Spell Eater]

  Her sword cracked and exploded, shattering into burning shards that peppered Devon's face.

  She screamed and swatted at her face. Without hesitating, I stabbed forward, directly at the smoldering cut I'd opened her armor. Embermist buried itself halfway into her chest. He skin sizzled where it met my blade, and the smell of burning flesh wafted from her. She groaned as she gazed down at the sword in her chest.

  My heart thundered. Had I won?

  A wave of guilt washed over me. She was horrible, but...

  With a grimace, Devon's fingers wrapped around the hilt of my weapon. "Did you..." black blood spilled from her lips, "... really think that would kill me?" Her fingers blackened as she grabbed Embermist.

  "Rest now, Devon." I pushed the blade further into her chest.

  She groaned, more black blood running from her mouth. Her armor was in tatters as Embermist's flames consumed it. She looked up at me, eyes unfocused. "I... was chosen..." Her hand, the one grabbing at Embermist, crumbled away. "She gave me his power. Told me he was strong. How could it... not be... enough?" The light in her eyes dimmed.

  A bloodcurdling scream sounded beside us. Then, one of Vral's black daggers buried itself into Devon's neck. The woman gurgled as fresh black blood poured from her torn lips.

  Devon raised a trembling hand and mouthed the words to another spell. Pure black flames, identical to the ones back at Embermist Keep, erupted in her hand.

  “No,” I growled, tearing Embermist from her chest. What remained of her armor and half of her ribs sheared as my blade carved through her body. “You’re done.” Black blood poured from her ruined torso onto the burnt cobblestones.

  The black flames roared to life in her hand. "I'll never be—"

  I swung for her neck.