Witch against the remaining two

Mariana struck the wall again.

“Mariana.”

“Not now.”

“Lola has fallen.”

Mariana glanced over her shoulder.

“So what? Boric and Craven will take care of her.”

Zack hesitated.

“Yeah, about that.”

Mariana finally turned.

Craven lay motionless on the ground. Boric was sprawled several feet away, smoke still curling faintly from his armour. Lola had joined them.

“They’re gone too, Mariana.”

Mariana stared at the three fallen mages for a moment, then turned straight back towards the wall.

“Go deal with her. I’m this close to getting us out of this hellhole.”

Zack turned towards Sybill.

Fire erupted around him.

Several enormous phoenixes burst from the flames, spreading their blazing wings before shooting towards her from different directions.

Sybill raised her wand.

Several torrents of water erupted from its tip, each one spiralling violently like a miniature waterspout as it shot towards a different phoenix.

Water engulfed flame.

The phoenixes fought against the swirling torrents for only a moment before their fiery bodies dissolved into clouds of hissing steam.

Zack’s eyes narrowed.

He raised one hand, and several fireballs appeared around him. He punched the first towards Sybill, but she slipped aside with effortless precision.

Zack spun and kicked another through the air. Sybill ducked beneath it as it streaked over her head, only for a third to come hurtling from his other hand. Another followed a back kick as he twisted through the air, almost playfully batting and kicking the blazing spheres towards her from different angles.

Sybill weaved between them effortlessly. When two came too close together to avoid, another spiralling torrent burst from her wand and swallowed them in a violent hiss of steam.

Mariana finally stopped attacking the wall.

“Zack, conjure them again. I’ll help you.”

Zack glanced towards her, then grinned.

The halo of fire behind him flared with renewed intensity as more phoenixes erupted around him.

Mariana raised her wand.

A violent gust swept through the cage and caught the phoenixes from behind.

They accelerated.

Sybill darted aside as the first streaked past her. Another curved towards her almost immediately, propelled forward by Mariana’s wind, followed by another and another as Zack directed them from different angles.

Sybill abruptly stopped.

Ice spread rapidly around her, expanding until a perfectly rounded sphere had formed around her body.

The phoenixes descended upon it.

The first struck the frozen surface, and its flames vanished instantly. Ice raced across its wings and consumed its body, freezing the phoenix solid before it shattered into glittering fragments.

A second met the sphere, then a third. Each suffered the same fate, frost consuming them from the point of contact until their fiery bodies froze and shattered.

Mariana stared at the figure visible inside the sphere.

“How long are you planning to stay in there, girl?”

A voice came from behind her.

“It is just the decoy.”

Mariana’s eyes widened.

The figure remained inside the ice sphere while the real Sybill hovered behind them.

Sybill raised her wand and several piercing spells shot from its tip.

Zack twisted around too late. Two tore across his upper arms, drawing blood as he recoiled, while Mariana reacted quickly enough to summon a transparent barrier in front of her. The remaining spells struck its surface.

Sybill flicked her wand again.

An enormous flail made entirely of ice materialised beside her. She swung it through the air with tremendous force.

Mariana barely had time to turn before it slammed into her barrier.

The impact sent her hurtling backwards until she crashed into the wall of the cage.

Zack looked towards Mariana, then back at Sybill. The playfulness vanished from his face as flames erupted around him with renewed ferocity.

He brought his hands together, and a blazing sphere began forming between them. It grew rapidly, swelling larger and larger as fire poured into it until the enormous sphere burned like a miniature sun inside the cage.

Zack thrust both hands forward.

The blazing sphere shot towards Sybill.

She raised her wand.

An enormous dragon of ice erupted into existence. Its translucent body coiled through the air, immense frozen scales gleaming as it wrapped itself around the blazing sphere, opened its jaws and swallowed the miniature sun whole.

For one extraordinary moment, fire blazed through the dragon’s crystalline body.

Then the cage vanished beneath an explosion of scalding white steam.

Zack disappeared inside the thick cloud.

The heat lasted only a heartbeat. The steam began to crystallize in the air as a wave of supernatural cold swept through the cage.

Frost raced outward from beneath the cloud, sweeping across the ground and climbing the walls of the cage while his halo of fire flickered against the cold closing around him.

He tried to summon another flame, but it sputtered weakly in his palm. His body began to tremble as the cold overwhelmed him, and the fiery halo behind him finally went dark.

Zack dropped from the air and crashed onto the frozen ground below.

He did not rise.

The steam slowly began to clear, revealing Sybill hovering silently above the frost-covered battlefield.

Then she turned towards Mariana.