Reason didn’t work as the winds swept with more ferocity. Fallen leaves picked up and spun through the air as they rode the twister.
“I don’t care.” He snarled as he threw his magick at her again and again. Wisps of air sliced her skin like a thousand paper cuts. “I’m going to shatter every bone in your body and watch you bleed.”
Not again.
How did she end up in this situation a second time?
She couldn’t kill him.
Not this time.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” she pleaded.
“Arrogant of you to think you can,” he replied as the current inside him pushed against the waves of wind. His son might not have been a mage, but one didn’t get the rank of three-star without good reason.
Wind slammed into her back, sending her forward face-first. Before she could lift herself to her feet, another rush came from the front and threw her on her back, her head cracking the ground with a painful smack as she hit.
The wind came from above, pinning her to the point that it sucked the air right out of her lungs. She gulped as she forced herself to her knees against the wind that rattled her bones.
“I’ve never encountered a wind mage before,” Ambrose forced out above the roaring in her ears. The wind coming from all directions as it struck her.
“Don’t worry,” he offered through wild eyes, “you won’t get thechance to meet another one.”
A burst of wind crashed into her side and almost knocked her off her feet again.
Each time it slammed into her she braced herself and prepared for the blow. Wind howled and beat her so forcefully she struggled to breathe against the mighty current. Her lungs burned as though a fire raged inside her chest with each breath she couldn’t fully take. At this rate, she’d pass out long before she could counter his attack.
Her head whipped from side to side as she knelt to the ground, desperate for any air she could find.
“I said stop!” The words burned her hoarse throat as she pushed against his next attack with everything she had. Her charge snapped as his wind was met with the ghost of an immovable wall.
The cool wisps of his magick tapped against her wall, urging her to release it but she held strong. Even as her head throbbed and her eyes struggled to focus, she held strong.
Enraged, the lieutenant half abandoned his magick and hurled himself at her, hands moving to pull the sword from his side.
Ambrose threw her hands up and as the sword was pulled from its sheath, she pounded against the air and a powerful burst of wind knocked it from his hands. She stared at her palms in shock, unable to process what just happened.
He reached for her but she dodged his grip, ducking under his extended arm and sent three alternating, quick jabs into his abdomen before she turned her body away and out of his reach. She faced him, hands raised and ran through the possibilities in her mind. She had no idea how to escape but she knew one thing—
She couldn’t kill him. No matter what.
Not this time.
“You’re a sneaky little one, aren’t you?” he hissed as he held his side where she jabbed him.
If she was lucky she broke a rib.
“If I have to be,” she declared, standing tall.
“Ambrose of Eltoria…” He laughed as a burst of wind hit her from behind, sending her flying back onto her hands and knees. The following gust that she knew would come from above was too quick for her to dodge as her knees gave way and her face hit the ground. Her cheek stung as it struck a rock and blood poured from a fresh wound. “Servant turned Trial Champion.” He approached her, unaffected by the wind that pinned her from every side. “First of her name. No Elemental mastery. Unclassified.” He leaned down as he reached her, his face inches from hers and she scowled at him defiantly. “I’ve been briefed on your entire life. According to your records, you have repeatedly failed to master an Element even though you’ve been trained by the Grand Mage himself. And all this time, you’ve been hiding your own Wind Magick. Sneaky… And you clearly know how to defend yourself. What else are you hiding I wonder?”
“I’m not hiding anything,” she pleaded.
“Liar.” The pressure on her body grew as the wind pushed and she was sure every bone in her body would splinter.
“I swear!” she cried against the force crushing her skull.
“Liar.”
