"FIGHT LIKE A HELLCAT," Adrian whispered to himself, his fingers tightening around the unfamiliar grip.
He felt Daevera's approving hum in his mind. - "Remember, though, you need him off-guard." -
The rain cloaked most sounds, but Adrian could now pick out footsteps approaching slowly, measured and deliberate. He held his breath, willing himself invisible, every muscle tensed to spring away.
It was one thing to fight random bullies on the streets of Briarhold, to run from the City Watch, and another entirely, to fight a mage - no, a wizard, whatever the difference was.
The wizard stopped just outside the thicket, his voice a soft, mocking whisper. "Do you think you can hide from me, boy?"
- "Hold, Adrian, wait him out. He's expending power on his weather spell, let him weaken further." -
With a sharp, desperate breath, he lunged. The wizard's focus was split, his attention still stretched thin by the storm he controlled, and for a brief second, Adrian caught him off-guard.
Reodok stumbled, his foot missing its mark as he stepped back, but recovered quickly. He dodged Adrian's wild swing with the ease of someone who had fought this kind of battle a hundred times before.
The wizard's hand sparked with lightning, a deadly streak arcing through the air.
Adrian's heart thundered as he tried to dodge the lightning, but the bolt caught him on his left side. Agony flared up in his body, searing pain ripping through him like fire, stealing his breath.
Every instinct screamed at him to collapse, to give in, but he forced himself upright, pain and dizziness mixing as he closed in again on the wizard. The pain was sharp, but it didn't matter.
He had to fight, or he wouldn't leave this night alive.
"Foolish boy!" Reodok snarled with contempt. The coiled snake tattoo on his bald head began to writhe, stretching itself like something alive.
The tattoo peeled itself from his skin and lunged forward, twisting into a serpent shape, and shot at Adrian's throat like a living whip.
Adrian choked, gasping as the serpent's constriction tightened, squeezing the air from his lungs. His vision blurred, spots dancing in the corners of his eyes. He could feel the tension building in his chest, his body betraying him.
- "I told you to wait!" - Daevera's voice sounded panicked,.as if the thought of being claimed by the wizard filled her with dread.
Adrian barely heard her. His pulse was drowning out everything but the suffocating pressure of the serpent around his neck. The terror, the desperation, clawed at his insides.
He wasn't going to make it.
Reodok's lips curled into a victorious smirk, his eyes glinting with cruel satisfaction as he closed in. His fingers crackled with fresh lightning, an electric buzz that vibrated in the air as he advanced. He wanted to watch Adrian burn alive from the inside out, to relish the pain. He would savor the kill.
And then, he would claim his treasure.
Adrian felt a range of emotions at his looming death. Anger, sadness, pain, regret, but most especially, anger. He had lost his best friends in one night, and in one stroke of awful bad luck, he was being hunted by the City Watch and a mad wizard.
Then, something within him snapped.
He felt his irises heating up, warmth radiating from his eyes, sending waves of heat throughout his body. The warmth spread, rising from his core until it reached his irises, with an intensity that he could no longer suppress. The magic, his magic, surged to the surface, raw and untamed.
And for the first time in his life, he didn't stop it.
He let go.
A flash of blinding light exploded from Adrian's body, blinding in its brilliance. The serpent shrieked and hissed, disintegrating in an instant, vanishing into wisps of smoke that spiraled into the rain.
Reodok staggered backward, his eyes wide with disbelief and horror. He clutched his head where the tattoo had once been, panic creeping into his features.
Impossible!
The stupid boy is untrained, he doesn't even understand his magic, how can he so strong? Oh, the pain, it hurts, everything hurts!
"You… insufferable brat!" he shrieked, his voice cracking with rage and pain.
Adrian's head spun as he gasped for air, his throat raw. He could still feel the magic beneath his skin, humming inside his veins, cracking along his limbs, begging for release.
His irises burned a glowing blue and green, an otherworldly light that flickered in the dark of the night.
Reodok reeled, his face contorting as his thoughts spiraled into confusion. How? Is it possible that I have been duped? Was this always the plan, or did I underestimate the child?
In the wizard's moment of distraction, Adrian felt a surge of reckless determination that overwhelmed any caution. With a yell, he thrust his hand forward, feeling a hot, searing energy course through him, too fast to stop.
Bright green and gold beams shot from his palms, tearing through the storm, striking the wizard square in the chest. The force of the magic flung Reodok back, sending him crashing into the wet earth.
The wizard screamed - a sound that was inhuman, raw with pain, as the beams burned into him. His flesh bubbled, blackened, and peeled, sizzling under the unbearable heat of Adrian's magic.
The air was thick with the acrid scent of burning flesh, as the wizard's writhed on the ground.
How could he? He's nothing but a child! Reodok thought frantically.
"Have mercy!" He cried, his voice breaking. "Please! Mercy!"
Adrian's eyes were cold. He stared at the wizard's writhing form, feeling no sympathy.
He was going to kill me. And now that the tables have turned,the dares to beg? The thought flashed through Adrian's mind, and a bitter laugh bubbled up in his chest. If I were the one burning, he wouldn't have mercy on me.
Reodok's body twisted, contorted under the invisible flames that ravaged him. His screams became weaker, his voice cracking. "Curse you! Curse you!"
As he died, his last thought was how he spent twenty five years chasing his treasure, and just at the precipice of claiming it, he was defeated by a pimple faced imp.
Finally, with one last anguished scream, the Wizard's body crumbled to the ground, a smoldering, blackened husk with smoke rising from the charred remains.
Silence fell.
The storm overhead parted, and the rain ceased as though it had never been. Adrian stumbled backward, his breath coming in short, ragged bursts. His heart pounded in his chest as he tried to process what had just happened, but he wasn't sure he cared enough to.
It was too much. Too fast. Too overwhelming.
Not right now, anyway.
Everywhere hurt,and he wondered how much of the acrid smell was coming from him. The side of his stomach that had been hit with lightning was raw and bruised, but he was confident it was nothing he wouldn't survive.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow, he would figure out what had happened here, what this power meant, what he was supposed to do next. But right now, all he could do was sleep.
He was tired in a way that he had never been before, every movement seemed like a task, every thought, a chore.
But first... He glanced around, something caught his eye. The figurine - he must have dropped it during the chaos. It lay in the mud, glinting faintly in the dim light.
Adrian picked it up, eyeing it warily. The madness had started with this figurine, whatever it was. If it attracts more of Valtak's kind, I'll be dead for sure. It's safer for me this way.
With a sharp flick of his wrist, he threw the figurine as far away as he could, into the dark night.
Good riddance, he thought.
His body shivered, reminding him that his clothes were soaked through. His legs ached, and his mind was a tangled mess of thoughts, but he could hardly bring himself to care. He stumbled back toward the cabin.
He barely made it past the door before he began removing his wet pants. Whatever Valtak had done to the hearth must have worn off, because it was lit again, infusing the space with a much needed warmth.
He made his way to the bed, and threw himself under the blankets, his body sinking into the softness of the mattress, and drifted into a deep, dreamless sleep.