Page 135 of Serpent and Shadow

Still holding my shield between me and the five of them, I slid deeper into my magic, and their auras lit up all around me.

Immediately, the ranking of their magics became crystal clear.

Mordopast was the strongest, which I hadn’t known.

Scar came next, which I’d suspected.

Norrick Voltaire came in third.

Which meant I’d hit the weakest two Magicals of the bunch first.

Bones would be ranting at me, if he’d seen.

He’d also warned me that in the heat of battle, all thinking would go out the window. He’d wanted all of it to be rote, something I did automatically, without thinking at all.

Clearly I hadn’t reached that point in my training yet.

I began another set of mudras as I remained just enough in the Aether to see them move and ignite their magic. Scar’s was definitely the brightest right now, with him clearly gearing up to attack me again, building something he likely hoped would get past my shield.

Despite Mordopast being stronger, I decided to go after Scar first, since he was the immediate threat.

“Asantulanam,” I said, trying to knock him off balance as my fingers and hand dipped into the next elaborate mudra. “Ignire aerum,” I hissed next, louder, when he knocked my first spell sideways. His shield was tough.

I would need to find a way around that.

“Know your strengths.” Again, I heard Bones’s voice in my ear, an echo of our training sessions in his Experimental Magic Shed. “Don’t fuck around with spells you unsure about, not when you’re in trouble. Use what you’re good at. You’re good at fire, Leda. If you’re ever in trouble, use that. Fire scares the shit out of most people. Press that advantage.”

Fire exploded out from my hand, streaking across the air, igniting every molecule of oxygen in its path. I aimed it right at Scar, focusing all of my attention on him. I saw him try to throw up a secondary shield.

I hit him with a second spell to throw him off-balance.

“Crus levare!” I hissed, gliding my fingers into another mudra. “Balah!”

Scar stumbled backwards before he could finish the mudra, and crashed into Pants, who’d only just managed to make it back to where we were. Both of them landed on their backs. Christian and Norrick jumped back to get out of the path of the fire, until I saw a spell divert the stream of flames away from Scar and up into the air.

I followed the trail of black and red magic, and saw Mordopast standing there, his eyes glowing from the heat of his own magic.

Damn Bones for always being right.

“Agni ajagar!” I snapped, that time aiming fire at Mordopast with a hard clap.

A dragon made of fire exploded from between my fingers.

It was followed by another, and another.

They flew straight for the tall mage with the long black hair and prominent Adam’s apple. His eyes shone brighter with magic as he threw several complex shields in front of himself, and then boomeranged the dragons back at me.

I was able to divert them again, so that they shot past me along either side.

But I was panting now, out of breath, and I could feel myself panicking.

There were too many of them.

I reinforced my shield, but it didn’t feel strong enough.

Norrick, who’d stood back slightly, maneuvering himself into my blind spot while I fought with Orrin, Pants, Scar, and now Mordopast, now unleashed a series of copper-colored knives. I managed to twist my shield around to block most of them, but not before one nicked my upper arm as it flashed past.

The pain made me gasp and jump forward, closer to the others.