It’s a Caged Match!

Boric attacked first.

Several heavy metal spears materialised around him, their points long, narrow and viciously sharp. They shot towards Sybill from different directions as the golden bangles slipped from Craven’s arms and began rotating rapidly around her, gathering a fierce metallic glow with every revolution.

Several luminous magical arms gracefully unfolded from the silver light behind Sybill, spreading around her in a symmetrical fan. One carried a shield, another a sword, another a spear and another an axe, while the remaining hands crackled with different forms of magic.

Boric’s first spear crashed against a shield. Sybill’s sword knocked another aside, her spear intercepted the third, and the axe smashed through another before it could reach her. Fire erupted from one empty palm towards Craven’s spinning bangles while another sent a violent gust of wind across the enclosure, knocking several of them off course.

The assault continued from every direction. Sybill’s additional arms moved independently, weapons intercepting metal while magic met magic in flashes of fire, wind and silver light.

Zack’s flames joined the assault while Mariana sent cutting gusts towards Sybill from the opposite side. Lola’s barriers flashed into place wherever openings appeared, shielding the others as the attacks converged around Sybill.

Craven’s spinning rings cut dangerously close to Boric as another of his conjured weapons tore past them. Lola’s barriers continued snapping into place where they could, but the enclosed space was rapidly becoming crowded with metal, magic and flying debris.

Mariana watched the chaos for another second before making her decision.

“We can’t keep attacking her like this. Five different kinds of magic flying around in here, and we’ll end up hitting each other.”

She looked towards one of the enormous shimmering walls surrounding them.

“Boric, Craven, Lola—you three handle her. Zack, with me. We’re getting us out of here.”

Mariana placed one hand against the barrier and raised her wand. She struck the wall with a concentrated blast of wind. Cracks raced across its surface, only to disappear almost immediately as the magic knitted itself back together.

Mariana frowned.

“If she made it, we can undo it.”

Behind her, Sybill finally brought the first assault to an end. The luminous arms faded one after another into silver light until only her own two remained.

A massive shield appeared in one hand while her wand remained in the other.

It was all she needed.

Several razor-sharp shards of silver magic erupted from the tip of her wand in rapid succession, each one streaking towards a different mage.

Mariana twisted out of the way without taking her attention completely from the wall. Lola immediately raised her shimmering barrier, and the shard struck with enough force to send ripples racing across its entire surface.

Craven was not as fortunate. One tore across her arm, and she cried out as blood ran towards her wrist.

Zack’s halo of fire flared violently, swallowing the shard aimed at him before it could reach his body.

Boric conjured a heavy metal shield. The silver shard smashed into it and drove him several feet backwards through the air, but he remained hovering.

Then he grinned.

A huge axe materialised in his hands.

Craven snarled as her remaining bangles rose around her and began rotating faster. Lola hesitated. A barrier around Craven would stop Sybill’s attacks, but it would also leave Craven’s own rings smashing uselessly against the inside of it. There was nothing she could do without interfering with the attack.

Craven thrust both hands forward.

Sybill looked towards her.

The ground moved.

Vines erupted from below and wrapped around Craven’s ankles, wrenching her out of the air.

“What—?”

Craven screamed as the vines left her dangling upside down and began shaking her violently, destroying whatever control she had over the spinning bangles.

One slipped free.

Then another.

Then another.

Clink. Clink. Clink.

They fell uselessly onto the ground below.

“Stop this!”

Sybill flicked her wand. A barrier wall appeared beside Craven, and the vines swung her directly into it before dropping her in a heap onto the ground.

She did not move.

Boric roared and shot towards Sybill through the air, bringing the enormous axe down with both hands.

Sybill slipped aside with lightning speed. The blade tore past her, and Boric’s own momentum carried him forward, leaving him bent over and exposed before he could pull himself upright.

Sybill swung her shield with tremendous force.

The metal slammed directly into his spine.

For one horrifying instant, Boric felt as though his back had shattered. Blood burst from his mouth as the impact folded him around the shield and sent him plummeting from the air.

He crashed into the ground below with enough force to crack the stone beneath him.

Boric coughed, blood running down his chin as he forced himself onto one knee. Before he could rise again, vines erupted around him and coiled tightly around his arms and torso.

He conjured a blade and hacked through several of them, only for more to coil around him.

Sybill raised her wand.

Lola reacted instantly.

A shimmering barrier snapped into place around Boric just as Sybill’s lightning struck it. Brilliant white veins spread across its surface, and Lola clenched her teeth as she fought to maintain it.

Sybill tilted her head.

The vines tightened.

Crack.

Lola’s barrier shattered.

Her eyes widened.

Lightning surged through the vines before Boric could cut himself free. His entire body jerked once, then again as the current travelled through his armour. Smoke curled faintly from the metal before his weapon slipped from his fingers and he collapsed unconscious.

Lola stared at him, then at Craven.

Across the enclosure, Mariana and Zack had continued attacking the layered walls of the shimmering cube. Layer after layer had broken beneath their combined magic until only the final wall remained between them and the battlefield outside.

Mariana smiled as cracks spread across it.

“We’re almost through.”

Silver light suddenly travelled through the damaged wall.

The cracks began closing.

Mariana’s smile disappeared.

“No.”

The wall regenerated in front of her.

Behind them, Lola raised both hands. A dozen shimmering barriers appeared around her, thin and razor-edged, twisting and twirling through the air like an enormous deck of cards being expertly shuffled.

Sybill’s silver eyes brightened.

“Ooh. They are the very pretty.”

Lola flicked her hand.

One of the rigid barriers turned sharply, presenting its razor-thin edge before shooting towards Sybill like a blade.

A shield appeared in front of her and knocked it aside.

Lola flicked her fingers again. Another barrier changed its angle, then another, each one shooting forward from a different direction as she sent the entire formation towards Sybill in rapid succession.

Sybill continued hovering towards her without a care in the world.

Her shield moved with lightning speed around her body, intercepting every attack before it could touch her. It snapped above her head, swept across her side and dropped beneath her as the sharpened barriers came from every direction, each impact ringing through the enclosed cube.

Lola’s movements became faster. Her hands twisted and flicked as more barriers appeared around her, spinning and changing angles before joining the assault.

Sybill kept coming.

Lola gritted her teeth and threw both hands forward, sending the remaining barriers towards her at once.

Sybill finally lifted one hand.

A tremendous gust of wind exploded outwards.

The barriers were thrown violently off course. One slammed into another, then another, the entire formation crashing together as fractures raced across their shimmering surfaces.

Crack.

The barriers shattered around Sybill.

She continued hovering forward.

Lola hastily conjured another formation, sending the rigid, razor-edged barriers spinning into place between them.

Sybill swept her hand through the air. The barriers parted down the middle, and she flew straight through the opening before Lola could close it.

Her hand caught Lola by the hair.

“What are you—AAAAH!”

The remaining razor-edged barriers disappeared. In their place, thick white magical barriers resembling slabs of polished marble materialised in a circle around them.

Still gripping Lola by the hair, Sybill began to spin.

Lola swung around her.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

Her face struck one marble-like barrier after another as Sybill whirled her around the circle.

“Oh no! My face! Not my face! Please, not my face!”

Sybill stopped.

“Okay, the back.”

She flipped Lola around and started again.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

“THAT IS NOT WHAT I MEANT!”

“Leave me alone! I surrender!”

Sybill immediately stopped.

“The surrender is appreciated. So is the outfit.”

She let go.

Lola dropped from the air.

Thud.

She hit the ground and fell unconscious.