Tyrant in the Shadows

Challenge 5 (part 6)

"The girl?! She's doing all that? Red eyes means fire elemental maybe?"

"Well... we don't have anyone with the four main elements but I don't see why it's impossible."

Delaney shakes her head, then glances at the burns on her student, "Did she do that?"

"Indirectly. I didn't know exactly where to go so I got a bit too close to the fire a couple of times."

"Is there anyone there with her?"

"A little girl. She looks to be about three or four. They look terrified. I think we need to get them out of there."

Delaney nods, "Of course. Not until the battle is over. They're safe in there."

"Ok. I need to get back to helping the injured," Sophia says glancing nervously again at the battle raging around them.

"Good, go."

And with that she disappears. Ivan fights his way to his partner, sweat dripping down his face and soaking his shirt, "Look, you have to get someone to close wherever the shadows are coming from. We're holding off," he blasts another shadow, "But not for long."

"I know."

Delaney marches into the battlefield, when she gets to the center, she throws a huge shadow over the whole place, blocking the sun, but it also blocked the shadows powers as she had control over all darkness for that moment.

"Energy weavers! When I let this shadow down, get to the fire as well as anyone who can guard them. We need to close that opening!" And she lets the shadow down, doing what she could to get the energy weilders to the fire.

"Remember what to do," the officer ranked right below Ivan and Delaney instructed, "Swirl the energy, absorb it for your own power."

The battle moved slowly to the portal as the exhausted students and officers closed the portal, the other Potentials fighting off the shadows to keep them safe.

"It's closed!" a student called, and everyone heaved a sigh of relief.

It wouldn't be hard to fight off the remaining shadows without more coming through the portals and constantly barraging them. And, of course, it wasn't. As the last shadow was stopped, the small army stopped as one and collapsed, breathing hard, but smiling. They had won.

Delaney, leaning her back against the base of a tree, caught her breath and looked to her partner sitting beside her. His dark hair was matted with sweat and he stunk, as they all did, but she leaned over and kissed his cheek, "I'm glad you're ok. I guess we need to go count casualties now."

He sighs and nods. Of course her displays of affection would come right before something like having to see how many of the people he'd gotten used to seeing everyday were dead. But he pushed himself to his feet and pulled her up afterwards, "Let's go see."

They walked to the transport in silence. They were exhausted, and going to see how many people they'd lost. It wasn't a good combination. 

A teleporter met them at the door of one of the transports, a grim look on her face. Was that because they had lost a lot or because she was exhausted?

"How many dead?" Delaney asked, getting straight to the point.

"Sixteen. Another might not make it. You need to get the shadows out, the others couldn't. Just... I hope it's not to late."

She nodded, a spark back in her dark eyes. She could save someone. "Bring me to him."

"Follow me." 

They walk to another transport when Sophia walks out the transport. She was crying. Ivan, who had previously planned on following Delaney, went to his student instead.

"Sophia? What's wrong?" he asks while pulling her to him for a hug. She didn't even seem to mind he was soaked with sweat, she was too.

"E-Ezra. He's-" but she breaks off, crying, and Ivan knew what had happened.

We lost  one of ours.