Gale's Storm

CHAPTER 12

Gale woke that night in the dream realm again, this time she was already standing in the field with Anthony standing in front of her with his staff in hand.

"You fought well against James today. Let's see if what he taught you will help against a fellow sorcerer. I won't be using my staff and I'm only going to use sky magic. Tell me when you are ready," he said, immediately launching into their training session.

She took a deep breath and put her hands in front of her in fists before she nodded at the spirit. His staff vanished and he swept his hands up and twisted, making himself float into the air. Gale took a few paces back with her hands still ready in front of her, emanating a bright glow with flames enveloping them. Anthony swirled his hands above her, a small thundercloud taking shape as he did.

Gale leaped back, but the cloud only grew and followed her, pouring rain and shooting lightning, thundering too. An idea sparked in Gale's mind and when the thundercloud shot a bolt lightning she struck a hand out and caught it before swirling it into a ball of fiery and sparky energy. This took Anthony aback as she kept one hand moving around the ball of energy and one hand taking more lighting.

This strategy made the thundercloud shrink ever so slowly, but it's conjurer just kept maintaining its size. When Gale could barely contain the lighting and fire ball with one hand, she took it in both and threw it at Anthony with full force. He clearly saw it coming and merely swerved to the side, avoiding it. Gale attempted to bring it back with her magic, finding distant magic a lot harder than when it was in her hands.

Figures. Gale thought as she brought it back, hitting Anthony in his legs.

He fell promptly out of the sky, quickly taking his thundercloud and having it catch him just before he hit the ground. Gale darted forward and punched his side with a flaming fist. He was knocked off again, this time the thundercloud vanished completely when Gale accidentally hit it.

Anthony dropped onto the ground in a roll and was up again just as fast. Gale shapeshifted faster than she ever had before and bit into his pale leg before bolting back when he tried to strike her with lightning. The bolt grazed her nose, making her flinch backward as she shifted back into human form. She ran at Anthony again, only to have a gust of wind knock her off of her feet.

The powerful sorcerer started to twirl her around with a lot of wind, making her spin and flip in every which way. Soon she became very dizzy and Anthony had her in what seemed to be a small tornado. Gale did the one thing she thought could help, she took all of her remaining strength and struck out with her hands, creating the biggest blaze of fire she could muster.

Gale heard a very loud phwoom sound along with a shout from Anthony. The tornado that had her caught had caught fire and she was stuck in her large blaze. She felt the heat around her, but felt no fear.

This fire can't hurt me as much as a small breeze. Even in the material realm. She thought confidently before she struck out to regain balance.

The blazing tornado was dying down just as Gale had her balance back and dove out of it. She rolled as she hit the ground and whipped around to find Anthony making the tornado vanish. She was exhausted, but lit her hands once more and brought them back up in fists. She was going to wait for her opponent's next attack.

But it never came, Anthony simply applauded her and said; "You are growing very quickly, Gale. Very good strategies, using my own attacks against me. Next time we meet I want to teach you how to contort your fire into any weapon from a small dagger to a long whip. I'll see you then, the material realm awaits."

Gale watched as everything faded and found herself in her sleeping bag again. It was just past dawn and everyone else was shifting awake too. James was sleep-talking as Lillian woke him up.