I wanted to thank Savannah for her warning, but I barely had time to breathe let alone respond to what she was saying. I flinched back from another right hook. He was seriously trying to take me one on one in hand to hand combat. I stepped up my own speed. Forcing him on the defensive.
I didn't know what was going to happen if I won this fight, but something gave me the feeling that he still hadn't gone all out yet. He threw flames at me suddenly. They were widespread flames that were meant to burn most of my body. I was getting irritated. This fight was dragging out one hell of a lot longer than it should, but he started blasting me with flames every time I felt I was getting the upper hand.
Then he pulled a stunt where instead of launching the flames at me, he launched them at Ethan, and Savannah. I threw myself between the flames, and my bonded. Taking most of the hit myself instead of letting it get past me to my friends. It stung, but it wasn't enough to stop me. Our speed kicked up a notch.
I was surprised that Mr. Earl was able to keep up with me. Every time I felt I had a solid lead on him he changed up the way he was fighting.
"If you're so hung up on protecting them," he said between gasps, "Then protect them from this."
Mr. Earl smirked as he launched a pillar of fire at Savannah, and Ethan. Who weren't directly behind me right now. Shit. How could I be so stupid? I launched myself between them, and the flames.
I crossed my arms in front of my face, and realized that my small human frame wouldn't be enough to protect them. I sprouted my wings on instinct, and extended them enough to catch the flames that were going to make it around my body. The flames scorched me until it felt as if my entire outer body was charcoal. Yet he kept on burning me even after that. Notification dings kept going off in my head over, and over again.
I didn't care about any of it. Until one notification in particular caught my eye.
User has successfully gained fire affinity level 1.
When my membranes burned through he finally decided to stop. I couldn't open my eyes because they were scorched shut, and moving was painful. I wondered if I should experiment with my new fire affinity. First I needed to heal. My health was really low at the moment.
I really shouldn't have wasted so much mana on that stupid spatial portal. I wouldn't be able to heal myself completely. I would have to cancel out my shapeshifting skill. System use my remaining mana to heal me. My body started healing at an accelerated rate as my remaining mana was used up.
He tried to strike me while I was blinded, and immobilized. He didn't know about my spatial awareness. I forced my arms to move. Grabbing his outstretched jab before it could hit me. I snapped my eyes open, and growled at him as my form shifted back to my regular body.
I kept his hand in my grip as my body expanded, and healed back into my original form. I didn't heal completely, but I healed enough that moving became painful instead of just a dull throb in sync with my heartbeat. Every breath brought in more mana to heal myself with. I growled down at the pathetic mage in front of me. He launched more flames at me, but these ones didn't affect me nearly as much as before now that I was completely armored up, and protected by my own fire affinity.
"Neat trick," I snorted flames, "I can do that too."
Magnus recoiled away from my flames. He hadn't expected me to steal his thunder like that. I almost chuckled at his fear. Then over a dozen ability users rushed into the room ready to attack. I tossed the fire great at the oncoming enemies.
They caught him awkwardly as I hunched up, and put myself in front of Savannah, and Ethan again. I refused to let them get hurt in the crossfire of this attack. I was hyper alert, and ready. The tension in my muscles made me wonder what was going to happen next as I crouched down to growl at the reinforcements. My head was lowered down close to the ground.
Barely a foot away from touching the ground. Then I felt it. That touch of a being much stronger than myself. Come to me. I tried reaching out with my mana.
I wouldn't be able to fight off an army. I didn't have enough mana to make the full reach. I didn't have a choice. I forced my thread of mana to reach all the way down to the presence. It burned to force more mana out of a completely empty reserve, but somehow I managed to force a connection with the being.
"What is it that you want?" she asked me.
"I want to live," I reached further trying to catch a glimpse of her, "I was told you could help."
"Really," she sounded amused, "Fine then. I'll humor you."
I opened my eyes. Not realizing that this whole conversation took a split second or that I had closed my eyes in the first place. My body felt weak, and I could taste blood on my tongue, but the magic circle on the ground in front of me proved that I'd succeeded. A white almost formless creature came up through the magic circle before taking a form that resembled a female barbie's body with a face that only had the shape of a face, and no distinct features.
"It's interesting to see how much the human's have changed over the years," the white spirit woman said.
I could barely keep my eyes open. My head dropped to the ground, and I couldn't move anymore. The sounds of gunshots went off as the men in the room all shot at her. She held out her hand, and the bullets stopped in the air before they could strike her.
"You humans forget that metal is just a highly concentrated form of earth," the white spirit mused.