Summoning Woes

Ch 9 - Ruthless

That sneaky Shida wasn’t about to get away for getting them into a messy situation. Themis stood before him, folding her arms as she looked at him in the eye. She knew she wasn’t the most intimidating person to deal with a menacing magician like him, but with the other two busy in their own battles, it was up to her to stop him from mobilizing even more fighters to incapacitate them. She fired a pink bolt at him, chipping off a small part of his armor as he swerved to the side in an attempt to evade it.

“Looks like I’ve underestimated this tiny creature alright,” Shida wiped off the burning debris on his shoulder.

“Call me that again and I’ll make sure you’ll never see the sun rise again,” her eyebrows arched to form a “V” shape.

“I love your confidence, you know that?”

Themis focused all her energy onto her wand, unleashing the largest shot that she could conjure at him. It didn’t come with a recoil strong enough to slam her on the nearest wall though. If it was that powerful, Shida probably wouldn’t stand a chance, that was, if he got hit by it. Perhaps now was the time to believe in lady luck…

He raised his staff in full anticipation, intercepting the projectile with little difficulty. It didn’t stop there - he threw the spell right back at her, reinforced with an overwhelming presence of dark power in it. Themis dived away from the evil magic as it crashed right on the hovel behind her, bringing up into flames.

“You were correct to dodge that thing, tiny creature,” Shida said, resting his staff on his shoulder. “Warm up is over. Time to get serious.”

Shida swung his staff across, sending a wave of black fire blazing towards Themis. She jumped away, ignoring the flames that blazed on her shoulder as she tumbled across the floor like a smooth metal ball. Themis bounced to Shida side, wrapping her arms around his waist, pointing her wand at his face.

“See if you can dodge this, old man,” the tip of her jewel wand lit up, blowing up the projectile before she could even think of escaping. She crawled out of the dust cloud, cursing her itchy trigger finger for releasing the shot too early.

“Is that all you can do?” he heard his voice from her back. She turned around, staring at a demon incarnate whose hands became wicked claws similar to Luther’s. Instinct told her to run but with her body a bashed up by her own blast, she couldn’t see herself successfully evading the attack. She took it hard, enduring the five talons that ripped through her back. Blood rushed out of the fresh wounds, staining her dress to create a deep red patch. She should at least try to stop the bleeding since there wouldn’t be much time before the loss became too great for her body to bear.

She pounced onto his head, pulling his hair with all her might before smashing her wand flat on his forehead. The damage ought to keep him down for a while. But no, he stood right back up, denying her the time she needed to heal herself of the grievous injuries.

The environment around Themis with nothing but dark matter. The tips of his lips lifted as he swung his staff down as he shouted the words “Soul Prison”. She wasn’t about to repeat the same mistake. She mumbled a spell under her breath, picturing a location away from the perimeter of Shida’s incoming attack. A small pink magic circle formed around her but before it could be completed, a purplish circle of a different design formed on top of it. It overloaded her spell with foreign magical particles, destabilizing it before it blew up on her.

She fell to her knees, having been drained of all the remaining power left of her. It was of little comfort that she was risking her life for Klavier’s escape, only to be stopped by a mad magician whose magic pool knew no bounds. Her death would probably help him in his survival.