Out of Hiding (Part 3)

Above me, two different ice spells collided with the retainer, who was floating on a current of wind-attribute mana. I was able to see the vibrations, like squiggly black lines written in the air, as they caused the ice to break apart before reaching her.

Lyra Dreide seemed to have very precise control of mana, directly influencing it to counteract our spells instead of casting spells of her own, which allowed her to subtly counter almost everything we were throwing at her.

Feeling for the earth-attribute mana in the chunks of stone all round me, I sent them hurling back up into the sky. Instead of disintegrating, a draft of spinning wind caught them and flung them across the town square so that they rained down onto the retreating crowd.

Oops.

"Be careful of the villagers!" Varay shouted.

"No crap," I muttered as I pulled myself out of the rubble.

Seeing our hesitation, the retainer let out a laugh that resounded throughout the town, rolling back over itself, building into wave after wave of noise that grew until glass shattered and timbers splintered.

I clapped my hands to my ears, but it sounded like the noise was inside my head. I could feel my bones aching with it, my heartbeat skipping with the rhythm of the laughter, but then it was gone.

Varay had been equally affected, I was glad to see, but Aya had been able to counter the deviant spell with one of her own. Mica can't be the weakest Lance. That would be humiliating. Unlike the three of us, the villagers left in the town square had no mana to buffer against the attack. Every one of them collapsed to the ground, and I couldn't be sure if they were alive or dead.

Although the attack was effective, it seemed to have drained our opponent. Lyra Dreide sagged, her wild hair hanging limply around her pouting face, her arms dangling at her sides.

"Cylrit, you bastard, where in the name of the Vritra are you?" she muttered, her voice carrying through the plaza on her own wind spell.

"Things not going to plan?" I jeered, sticking my thumbs in the thick belt I'd used to keep my potato sack of an outfit together and looking up at her like I didn't have a care in the world. No reason she needed to know that her spell had left me with a persistent whistling sound in my left ear, which I thought might have a little blood dribbling out of it.

"Enough talk," Aya snapped from my left. "Let's finish this."

The retainer snarled, her haughtiness and regal bearing gone. "You'll regret coming out of hiding, Lances. Next time I won't be alone."

"Next time?" I asked, cocking my head to the side questioningly. "Cute that you think there's going to be a next time."

The jagged black lines of her protective spell tore through the air around her, forming a solid barrier.

Aya threw a barrage of round chakram formed from condensed wind that spun, slashed, and whirled around the battlefield, striking Lyra Dreide from every direction, but they dissipated as soon as they passed through the vibrations. Varay conjured a storm of frozen bullets that should have shredded the retainer, but not a single one made it through.

Lyra Dreide screamed. Unlike the laugh, which was an undulating wave of building, debilitating noise, this was a single sharp note than cut like a knife. I shrouded myself in mana, reinforcing the hard layer that already clung to my skin, and Aya conjured a thick mist that thrummed with a low tone to counter the attack, but it was still enough to knock the breath from my lungs.

Dizzily, I glanced up at the retainer.

Inside her cage, Lyra Dreide had pulled some kind of device out of a dimension ring. I couldn't see it clearly through the black ripples in the air, but I experienced a moment of vague recognition before it snapped into place. I'd seen something like it years before, at Xyrus Academy.

"She's trying to flee!" Varay shouted, coming to the same conclusion as me: the retainer had some kind of teleportation device, and she was trying to buy herself enough time to activate it.

"How do we break that barrier?" Aya shouted as she redirected the mist to condense around the retainer's magic, but it hissed and popped as it passed through the vibrations, dissipating harmlessly.

I winked at the elven Lance. "Leave that to Mica."

Lyra Dreide had easily countered all our spells that utilized ice, wind, or ground, but she had definitely struggled to escape the increased gravity I'd created. It seemed likely that she couldn't counter every type of magic, and I knew just the spell. If it worked against a Scythe…

Focusing a few feet above the barrier, I began condensing gravity into a single point. My ears rang and sweat ran into my eyes as I focused all of my prodigious capabilities on that one spell, letting mana pour out of my core as fast as possible.

Within seconds, the gravitational pull from the Singularity spell was strong enough that the retainer took notice. Her flamelike hair was blazing up from her head, and she was being tossed around on the current of air keeping her in flight as she battled to maintain her concentration while also trying to activate the teleportation artifact.

The visible vibrations all around her began to warp, losing their shape as the barrier collapsed under the pressure of the black hole. The whole barrier was being pulled upward, but Lyra Dreide couldn't let herself drift with it or she would be drawn into the spell and crushed.

That wasn't exactly what we were trying to achieve, but if it happened…oh well.

Varay and Aya stood by, spells ready, and when the cage of vibrating mana pealed apart, like the rind being ripped off an orange, they both attacked. A bullet of wind punched through the teleportation artifact only an instant before a rectangular block of transparent ice formed around the retainer, encapsulating her within.

The block hung in the air for a moment before plummeting down to the ground with a heavy thud. Inside it, Lyra Dreide was held perfectly, unable to move an inch. Her eyes darted around, flighty and wild with fear and frustration.

I could see her lips moving as she started to beg for mercy—or curse at us, it was hard to tell—but no sound escaped the icy prison.

"That's nice. What's it called?" I asked Varay casually, hopping up to stand on top of the block of ice and striking an appropriately victorious pose.

"Frozen Tomb," she said, her gaze sweeping across the destroyed town square.

"That's not very good, is it?" I asked. "Mica invented this spell called Black Diamond Vault. Now that's a good spell name. It—"

"Mica?"

"M'hm?"

"Go help Aya check on the villagers."

I ignored the frosty tone in Varay's voice and flashed her a grin as I flew toward the closest prone body. When I poked him, he groaned and struggled to sit upright. It was the young man who'd been brave—or stupid—enough to call out the retainer's lies.

Seeing that he wasn't dead, I gave him a friendly pat on the back. "I'm not sure if you can hear me, considering the blood coming out of your ears, but you're alive. Congratulations!"

I left him with a wink and headed for the next one, whistling merrily.

Poor and Poorer