Artemis

  I glanced over toward Celeste. She’d Healed most of the injury. The gash still wept, but the worst of it was closed.

  She looked drained, breath shallow, shoulder's trembling - worn from both the chase and casting.

  The bounty hunters kept their distance, watching us in silence.

  They hadn’t moved. Not yet.

  Five of them stood across the forest floor, spaced out.

  I began to weigh my options.

  Celeste was healed enough to move, but she would still be hindered from her wound.

  The Wind Caster had seen her cast both Healing and Light. He’d seen me use Ice. But I didn’t suspect he’d picked up on my Wind ability just yet.

  Suddenly, one of them stepped forward, boots crunching lightly over the forest floor. His hand rested casually on the hilt of his weapon.

  “We’re here for the girl,” he said. His voice rough. “She’s got a bounty on her head. Alive.”

  He let that hang in the air for a moment, eyes shifting between the two of us.

  “You, we would’ve let walk. But let’s not pretend that's the case now.” His head flicked toward the body behind him. “You killed one of ours.”

  He paused briefly.

  “You won’t be leaving.”

  I let my blade drop slightly, just enough to look casual.

  “You can still walk away,” I said. My tone matched theirs. “I won’t kill you like I did your friend.”

  A few of them shifted their weight, their hands tightening around their weapons.

  I tilted my head. “Or stay. Show me what you can do. I’d hate to wonder if the rest of you are as disappointing as he was.”

  Nothing but silence.

  Birdsong cut through the stillness, each call unnaturally loud. The Wind Caster’s jaw flexed, but he didn't bite.

  So much for the bait. They held their composure better than I’d hoped. Not a flicker, not a slip. I’d wanted one of them to tip their hand, giving me even the smallest hint of their affinity.

  If I’d had any doubts about what we were up against, their calm erased that.

  The break came fast.

  The Wind Caster we had fought, surged forward first, hand cutting through the air. A crescent of compressed wind hissed toward us, sharp enough to split bark.

  Two more broke off from the line, flanking him on both sides in a V formation. They kept their swords low and ready.

  They closed the distance quickly.

  I shifted my stance, letting the wind coil at my back. If they wanted to come in tight, I’d meet them head-on.

  The first blade of air tore past, close enough to rattle the edge of my sword. Celeste staggered back, light already starting to gather in her palm.

  They weren’t holding back and neither was I.

  I sprinted forward, closing the gap in a burst. Wind surged at my back, increasing my momentum forward.

  The lead Wind Caster raised his arm for another strike – but too slow. I cast mid-stride, hurling a shard of ice straight for his chest.

  To my right, Celeste moved in sync. The bounty hunter charging our right flank barely had time to raise his weapon before she loosed a burst of Light. It flared white-hot, a blinding light in the shadows of the forest.

  Again, the Wind Caster veered my attack off course with a sudden, brutal gust. The shard shattered against a tree, spraying ice chips into the air. It still gave me the opening I needed to close the distance – until heat nearly slammed into my side.

  I turned just in time to see it – a fireball roaring toward me from the left, its edges shimmering with white-hot intensity.

  The other hunter was a Fire Caster. He’d launched a flare shot that would set half the clearing ablaze if it hit - me along with it.

  I had no choice.

  Drawing deep from my well, I dropped my sword and flung both hands forward. Water burst from my casting like a river loosed from its banks. A surging wall, wide enough to swallow the fireball whole.

  The impact was violent. Flame met flood, erupting into a hissing roar that shook the air. Steam exploded outward, billowing through the clearing in a blinding cloud.

  This wasn’t the kind of casting they’d seen before. Not this much water, not conjured in a single breath. I had caught the flicker of their surprise.

  The Wind Caster hesitated. He’d been counting on the Fire Caster to finish me.

  I didn’t give him time to recover.

  I surged forward, closing the last few yards, ice already formed in my grip. This time I didn’t throw one, but five shards back-to-back, sharp and jagged, each one aimed in his direction.

  At this range, he couldn’t dodge them all. Couldn’t pull enough wind to catch every shot.

  The first struck his arm. The second tore across his ribs. And the third buried deep in his side.

  He dropped hard, legs sprawled in the dirt. I didn’t need to worry about him anymore.

  I swept the field in a glance.

  Celeste’s attack hadn’t landed. Her target had dropped his weapon and raised a massive wall of stone between them. An Earth Caster.

  Not a variant, but rare all the same. Rarer than Fire or Wind. And dangerous. I knew too many ways an Earth Caster could kill, and none of them pleasant. He was directly to my right, hidden but watching.

  To my left, the Fire Caster was already advancing, heat radiating off him in waves.

  And ahead, the last two had shifted into another V formation, moving in to close the gap.

  They’d surrounded me in a loose semi-circle.

  Nowhere to run. Only one way out.

  The fight wasn’t over.

  The ground gave under my boots.

  Not a sinkhole – mud. Thick, heavy, and sucking me down just enough to kill my momentum.

  The Earth Caster. I’d been expecting it the moment I knew what he was. Only the advanced ones could pull it off, and he was good. Fast too.

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  But not fast enough.

  I dropped my focus to my legs and pulled from within me. Water surged downward, thinning the muck, breaking the grip it had on me. At the same time, I blasted Wind in a tight spiral around my boots, tearing the softened ground outward in all directions.

  The mud spat away in wet chunks and my legs came free.

  Even after my boots hit solid ground, they were still coming at me. Fire roared from my left, a wind blade cutting straight ahead, and another jet of fire from the front.

  No time to think.

  I pulled deep. Shaping water in a wide arc from my left to my right, spinning it into a half-tornado that rose taller than me. The wall slammed into the incoming attacks, smothering flame and splitting the wind blade before they reached me.

  Steam exploded outward in a white surge, swallowing the clearing.

  Celeste moved first. I caught the flare of Light from the corner of my eye as it streaked toward the Fire Caster on our left. He reacted fast, casting a stream of fire to block, but the Light tore straight through it, bursting past the flames and slamming into his leg.

  He stumbled, a shocked grunt escaping, but she didn’t let up – another beam, then another, each one punching through his fire like it wasn’t there and leaving smoking holes where they struck.

  I added to it. Ice surged into my grip, and I hurled a volley of shards through the steam toward him.

  The combined hits shredded what was left of him. Light blinding and searing, ice driving deep. He went down hard and didn’t get back up.

  Celeste and I kept moving to our left until we closed the distance between us, falling into step side by side. Her breathing was sharp. Mine wasn’t much better.

  The remaining three didn’t rush in.

  Earth, Wind, and Fire. That’s all that remained.

  They’d spread wide, forming a loose V – angled more to our right than directly ahead. They were keeping their distance now, their steps measured.

  They’d just watched their man burn through and drop in seconds. And for the first time since this started, I saw it – the pause. The recalculation.

  There wasn’t a wild charge anymore. They began adjusting, watching us both. Looking for a clean, safe kill.

  “How you holding up?” I asked, keeping my eyes on the three of them.

  Celeste gave a short, tight breath that might’ve been a laugh. “Better than he is.” She tilted her chin toward the body on the ground.

  A corner of my mouth twitched. “Try to keep it that way.”

  I kept my tone low. “The one on the right’s an Earth Caster, if you weren’t already aware. He can loosen the ground under your feet and turn it into mud. Costs him more the further away he is, so he’s not likely to try it from too far out.”

  Her eyes flicked toward the stone wall still standing to our right.

  “And that’s not all,” I added. “If he gets a hold of loose rock or gravel, like what’s near him now, he can throw it hard enough to break bone. Don’t give him a clean shot.”

  She gave a single nod. “Got it.”

  I shifted my stance forward. “Cover me from behind,” I told her. “Shoot whenever you have any openings.”

  She gave another curt nod. “Go.”

  I pushed off hard, casting as I moved. A huge gust of wind tore across the clearing toward the three of them, whipping dust, leaves, and loose debris into a roiling wall aimed directly their way.

  Their surprise was evident, but they reacted fast.

  The Earth Caster snapped another wall up in front of himself – thick slabs of stone rising just in time to catch the brunt of the debris. The impact rattled the clearing, chips of rock spraying off the edges.

  On the far side, the Fire Caster swept his arm across his body in a sharp arc. Flame erupted in a combustion wave, a brief but searing wall meant to burn away the wind’s push. It cut through some of the debris, but not all – shards of stone clipped him across the cheek and neck, drawing blood.

  The Wind Caster in the middle braced low and sent a counter-gust roaring forward. The air between us buckled, my push meeting his in a spiraling clash that tore leaves and dust into a chaotic whirl.

  I pressed forward into it.

  The moment I stepped clear of the worst of his counter-gust, I cast again. Ice shards formed in my hands and streaked toward the Fire Caster on the left. He ducked, fire flaring from his palms to melt some midair, but the last two sunk deep into his side.

  A flash of white streaked past me - Celeste’s Light. It punched through the haze and caught him in the arm, burning a clean hole through. He staggered back, shouting in pain.

  The Earth Caster seized the opening, dropping his wall and sending jagged spikes of stone shooting from the ground toward me. I leapt sideways, using a burst of Wind to clear the reach of the spikes, landing in a crouch with ice already gathering in my palm.

  The Wind Caster saw it coming and tried to push the attack, sending another slicing gust toward my midsection. I met it with a twist of my own Wind, redirecting the edge just enough to let it pass by.

  Behind me, Celeste fired again – another Light beam slamming into the ground at the Wind Caster’s feet, forcing him to stumble.

  That was my opening.

  Casting Wind at my back, I launched myself toward the Wind Caster in a sudden burst of speed. His eyes widened as I closed the gap far faster than before.

  Mid-stride, I raised my right hand. Not ice this time.

  Flame.

  A roaring inferno burst from my palm, the heat slamming into him before he had time to react. They hadn’t known I could cast Fire, or speed myself with Wind. The surprise locked him in place for half a heartbeat too long.

  It was enough.

  The fire engulfed him, flames wrapping his body and consuming the scream before it could leave his throat. He went down thrashing, the smell of burning cloth and flesh rising thick into the air.

  When he stopped moving, the only sound was the crackle of dying embers.

  Two left.

  The Earth Caster stared at the charred body for a heartbeat. The Fire Caster’s face twisted, eyes flicking from the corpse to me.

  “What the fuck are you?” he shouted, voice cutting through the haze.

  I didn’t answer.

  The Fire Caster’s left arm hung stiff at his side where Celeste’s Light had burned through it, the flesh around the wound charred and blackened. He was still mobile, but every movement drew a wince.

  The Earth Caster was uninjured, at least visibly, but the way his gaze kept flicking between me and Celeste told me he’d seen enough. He knew he could no longer win this fight. But he also knew escape wasn’t an option.

  Both of us still here. Both still holding our own.

  His hand dropped to the ground.

  The forest floor shuddered, loose stones and chunks of earth broke free and launched high into the air. Not a wall this time.

  Ammunition.

  My attention snapped to the Fire Caster as his remaining good arm rose. The air shimmered, the heat blooming in an instant. He wasn’t aiming at us. He was aiming at the stones.

  Flame roared upward, catching the airborne rock. The gray turned orange, then white-hot, molten droplets spitting off mid-flight.

  A rain of fire and stone was coming down on us.

  “Move!” I shouted, already casting Wind to shove Celeste sideways and out of the way. Molten shards hit the ground where we’d been, bursting into sprays of searing fragments.

  More fell, tearing through branches, thudding into earth. The heat was choking, the air shimmered around us.

  I pulled water and wind, fast and wide, shaping it into a dome that hissed and steamed as the molten stone struck. It dulled the heat, cooled the surface just enough to keep it from splattering, but not enough to stop it completely.

  Chunks still punched through, glowing dull-red as they tore past, searing holes into the ground. They were slower now, but still lethal.

  I’d have to move soon. Because if I stayed here, this dome would turn into my coffin.

  I dropped the water in an instant and pushed off with Wind, pouring a tremendous surge of power into it – enough to blur the world around me, almost like I’d vanished and reappeared between breaths. There were fewer now than when the attack had first started, and the gaps gave me room to move. A few fragments flew past, one grazing my shoulder with a flash of heat, but I didn’t slow.

  The Fire Caster was still focused upward, trying to keep the barrage alive. He didn’t see me slip through the thinning storm until I was nearly on top of him. Too fast for him to turn. Too fast for him to realize what just happened.

  I cast ice mid-stride with both hands – five shards in a tight spread – and hurled them at his chest. The first two shattered against his hasty wall of fire, but the rest tore through, punching deep and sending him staggering back.

  Celeste’s Light lanced past my left side, cutting clean through his torso. The blast punched a smoking hole through him, dropping him where he stood.

  Before the Fire Caster’s body even hit the ground, I was already turning toward the last man standing. He couldn’t have been more than a few yards from where his ally had just fallen, close enough to have seen how fast I’d closed that distance.

  His eyes went wide, fear breaking through the hard mask on his face. He shouted the words at me, raw and shaking, “What in the fucks name are you? Just die already!”

  He didn’t wait for an answer.

  The ground under him split with a sharp crack, chunks of stone tearing free in a violent ring. With a roar, he sent them flying outward. Dozens of jagged rocks, each spinning like a blade, the air shrieking with their speed.

  A shrapnel storm.

  The first pieces were already screaming toward me, close enough that I could see the edges blur. I had less than a second before the rest hit.

  Celeste fired first. Her Light beams cut through the air toward him, forcing him to throw up a thick wall of stone between them. He raised another wall between us as well, making sure he wouldn’t get caught in any of my attacks. The beams hammered against the barrier facing her, chipping away at the edges. He doubled it with another slab, reinforcing as fast as she broke it down. His attention was locked on her.

  I threw out both hands. One summoning water, the other igniting with fire. The two met in a violent hiss, bursting into a wave of steam that rolled forward in a thick, choking cloud. It struck the incoming rocks, forcing some of them off course, and a few dropped harmlessly to the ground. The rest billowed out, blanketing the space between us in white.

  Wind surged under my feet as I pushed hard, lifting off the ground in a blur. The steam swallowed me as I rose, carrying me high enough to clear the jagged wall he’d thrown up to block Celeste.

  From above, I saw him – hemmed in by his own defenses, attention still fixed entirely on her.

  My right hand flared, heat building until the air shimmered around it. I shaped the fire into a single, heavy orb, and hurled it down. It struck his shoulder and detonated, flames curling across his chest and arm.

  He staggered back from the wall and straight into Celeste’s line of sight.

  Her next Light beam lanced through the steam and into his ribs, punching a clean, smoking hole, straight through him. His body crumpled against the stone, sliding down until he was still.