The Stronger Flame

Fumiko collapsed to her knees as the pain screamed through her body with such intensity that her voice couldn’t even make a sound. It just turned her body pale and her mouth slightly agape. Nothing more processed through her brain for seconds. Pain locked up everything inside Fumiko.

Stamatia pulled herself up. Her body rang with bruises and her shoulder wound screamed at her once more. Blood renewed a drip down her body under her armor with her concentration thrown. The blast did more to her than she thought possible. It took her a while to focus completely again. She thanked that her head stayed together long enough for her follow up. Even clashing, she knew that she wouldn’t come out cleanly ahead. Something in her gut told her that she needed a backup plan. It took everything she had to hold together long enough after it to make her counterattack, but it still missed.

The wound she gave still was important. Their battle was over. She won with the last attack. The fight disappeared from the woman. All that remained was to capture her. ‘So exhausting…’ Stamatia stumbled a step, but recovered quickly. She hadn’t run herself so close to the edge in a very long time. ‘…my resolve is stronger… Nothing will stop me and I’ll take any pain on to see it succeed…for them…’

She felt her strength returning to her. Her posture improved and her step turned solid again. Flames came to her call loosely spinning around her, further signs of her recovery. Stamatia stopped a few meters away from Fumiko. Still not responsive, she looked down at her knelt opponent. Flames rose around Fumiko acting like bars for a prison, surrounding her. “It’s over for you. Face your fate with a little pride and surrender.”

Chapter 146 – The Stronger Flame

Directing men around the camp managed to establish a small semblance of order. However, the chaos in the distance worked against him. Simonides stood in the center of it all working hard to keep his stone face in front of all of his men. While he foresaw it in his plans that they would attack, the timing fell outside of what he predicted. Another mysterious occurrence troubled him.

He knew if they used their powers to immediately track them, they would have found them within a couple of hours. Since he expected an attack that soon, he had his men ready for it, however it never came. By the time night felt, he expected that they traveled on foot and wouldn’t arrive until at least the morning. The reason he sent out Vangelis was meant to delay them, as he knew their arrival to be an eventuality. He just needed Vangelis to slow them down until he got the answers he needed to mount a proper offensive, but their presence must have meant that Vangelis never found them in time.

The reason he let slide, as he had more immediate concerns. He needed to ensure the safety of his men while under siege from the enemy. ‘It’s fortunate that Stamatia, Galen and Nerine have engaged them. It’ll buy time for us to regroup and prepare a counterattack.’ Once more, he found himself placing his men in an undesirable position. None of them had the proper briefing for handling their opponents. So they all went in blind. He trusted them, but a desperate enemy was far more dangerous than just one trying to survive. Anything could happen.

‘It bothers me why the fire user didn’t act in the last battle. The power even from this range is clear…’ Something about the situation didn’t sit well with him. His gut nagged at him. He had almost no information on the woman and could only connect her to the large flames reported in the Skoupa skirmish. ‘What is this feeling? What is it that I don’t know yet?’

It took Stamatia’s words to snap Fumiko out of her paralysis. She blinked and twitched, as the pain reminded her that she still lived. Her eyes looked down at her arm, not remembering her condition. Everything from roughly the middle of her upper arm down was cut clean off. Loose drips of blood fell from the stump, as the flame sword didn’t fully cauterize her wound in the speed it ran through. She still felt as though she could move her fingers, even though her mind knew clearly that it was impossible. It all presented an odd disconnected feeling of understanding yet not fully grasping the situation.

“I see you’ve snapped to now. So what will your answer be? Surrender or death, traitor?” She intensified her flames around Fumiko to emphasize her point and bring her attention to the matter at hand.

Fumiko gritted her teeth between the pain and situation. She didn’t know what she could do with only one arm, but she didn’t feel like giving up. ‘I have to find Chiharu. I can’t be stopped here… I won’t make any more regrets!’ Bracing her flame hand to the ground, Fumiko pulled herself up a little. Her body still felt unwieldy. She guessed the blood loss started to affect her. Fumiko channeled all of her determination into her face. “It’s hard to be a traitor of a country that was never yours.”

“So you’d go so far as to deny your homeland! Atlantis is far better today than it was twenty even ten years ago in the laws against MP. How can you still be denying the progress we’ve made?!”

“I don’t care about what progress you’ve made. It’s all meaningless to me. As I told you before, I'm Japanese, so it’s irrelevant.”

“Still spouting that nonsense? You have the Meso Prosecho! That’s proof enough that you have Atlantean blood!”

“Afraid you’re wrong there too. It’s not too surprising, since it was pretty recent, but things aren’t the same outside of your world anymore.”

“Lies! It’s not possible!”

A choking laugh came from Fumiko. She finally had the strength to stand on her legs. The talking bought her all of the time that she needed. All she needed to do was prepare her mind for what she was about to do. It still scared her a bit. “Yeah, I can’t really expect you to believe it. We didn’t at first. But I guess since it was because of someone like you who did it, then I guess you could say your powers are the reason I have mine.”

“You aren’t making any sense. What sort of lies are you trying to use to con your way free?”

“It’s a shame. It’s all the truth, but that’s all the time I have to talk.” She lifted her up her flame arm to stare at it. Fumiko flipped her eyes back at Stamatia to meet gazes. “However, I don’t need words to free myself,” she smirked. Her hand tightened, growing a new flame, smaller, but tightly controlled. It burned red rather than blue. ‘I know it’s a lot to ask, but Kimiko watch over me, please…’ Fumiko prepared all she could.

She screamed her throat rough drawing away the pain and securing herself. Her hand moved over to the stump and hovered for a second. The pause of anticipation built up anxiety inside her, but she pushed through. Her red flame lifted into her wound burning the edges acting to cauterize everything exposed. Fumiko coughed and screamed louder into the new world of pain. The seconds passed and she pulled away feeling enough time passed.

Fumiko panted heavily and stared back at Stamatia through the cage. She worked up a grin on her lips. “I should thank you. Your fire managed to keep my blood loss to a minimum otherwise I’d probably be passed out now.” Flames burst from around her arm building into a new spell. “So I’ll do so, by defeating you!” Fumiko slammed the flame at the ground in front of her and then slashed out with the blue flame arm. Small whiffs of fire fell around her as she made her escape.

Stamatia staggered back, held in shock at what she witnessed. ‘How can she still have fight in her? What’s with that resolve in her eyes? Why does she think she can win?’ Blasts of fire around her rudely pulled her out of her stunned state. When she returned to reality, she found Fumiko standing over her, the height measuring out an imposing stature. It immediately turned her eyes thin, narrowing to brace herself.

Another fire burned in her hand. “I granted you a free chance to recover. Consider the debt repaid. I’ll show you no further kindness!” The pain from her arm began to fade to the back of her mind. She felt the focus of her magic coursing their body once more. Unity restored itself and felt even stronger. Ribbons of magic freely spun around her chest channeling into her arm. It made the glow from it brighter.

‘That arm of hers…’ Stamatia pulled away, launching flames up from the ground at Fumiko. She released more of her Field than she had previously while fighting. However, each stream was blasted away by Fumiko with a single attack. She needed more.

Fumiko felt everything flowing smoothly through her body. She didn’t even think that she spent time to cast her fire. The sensation felt strange, but almost natural. ‘Even after the last spell I still feel like I can cast again. I normally feel like I have to build up my magic, but it already feels like it is ready to go…’ Her magic never felt so close to her fingers before. She didn’t understand it, but was glad for it. ‘I’ll find you, wherever you are!’

New flames ignited from her hand ready to go. Stamatia took a few steps back trying to plan an attack. ‘Something’s different…’ Fumiko didn’t grant her much time to think. The new fireball forced her hand to summon a wall to halt the attack. Their impact blasted out the wind. A stalemate again for the two, Stamatia didn’t think it possible. ‘After my attack…how… My resolve is stronger!’

Desperation on Stamatia’s half forced the release of even more of her Field. She channeled rivers of flame around her. It pulled from behind her funneling in towards Fumiko as a massive column. Three more came up in quick succession. They all were larger than anything Stamatia used before. Their presence cracked the ground and set wood afire.

Not turning back, Fumiko built up her flame and released a brightly glowing blue flame at the first stream. They met quickly and fell to mutual destruction, but the other three remained unaffected. She felt the magic in her arm still ready and she fired off another spell of equal strength. Even after the second spell, her arm still roared for more. Fumiko granted its request, tossing two more flames out. A fiery blast grew from the impacts with a shockwave that the wind rode.

She looked down at her arm. It lost a little of its shine, but still looked strong. ‘Is this the strength of this arm? I can use spells without the cast time?’ Fumiko glared over at her frustrated, but not finished foe. ‘This will help me end the fight! I can keep up with her with this!’ The hand clinched a glowing fist in preparation for the next round.

Nothing happened again for Stamatia. ‘Damn it! She’s able to keep up with this speed and strength! I just need more…’ She couldn’t stay in a stalemate any longer. ‘Time for something new…’ Walls of fire came up in front of her to stop the next attack that Fumiko launched. It gave her the time to bring up new streams behind her and mold them. Dozens of spinning discs hovered around her waiting for the cloud to settle out. However, when it finally did she found nothing. “What?!” Stamatia darted her eyes around trying to figure out where Fumiko disappeared.

“You didn’t think I’d just stand in the same spot did you?” remarked Fumiko, out of sight of Stamatia. “I’m winning this fight!”

Stamatia spun around behind her figuring out the direction of the voice, but it was too late. A new series of fireballs came at her, already close inside her. She instinctively raised walls of flames, but they had to be very close to her. The impact knocked her off her feet and sent her into the tents. It snuffed out all of the weapons she prepared.

The collapse released her flames again, forcing Fumiko away. She jumped out of the razed earth still partially enveloped within the flames. As she reached the peak of her jump, she dispelled the flames to recover a safe landing. ‘Almost had her there… Just need to get a little closer next time…’

Slowly recovering, Stamatia focused her Field under her control. However, she still needed more time. She flipped her Field into automated defense mode. It released partial control of it to her subconscious allowing her the time she needed to stand and prepare.

Finding the Field back to normal, Fumiko took the chance to move again. She needed to strike while Stamatia was still recovering. It was going to be her only chance to end the fight. However, once she stepped into the range, fire attacked her immediately. Her arm threw it off, but she came under attack again. She threw it off with a fireball and sprinted through. More streams trailed her forcing her to send them away. Just as she recovered, new ones appeared striking at her. ‘What’s with this? The reactions are too fast…’

Standing up fully, Stamatia began to take in the scene once more. It startled her a little watching Fumiko turn into a blur with her movements. She remained in her Field and yet kept up with her defenses. It even looked like she was starting to make progress. ‘How is that possible? Even with adjustments to the physics of nature to reduce friction, drag and boost performance…it shouldn’t be possible to move that fast! That isn’t even normal for us!’ Stamatia suddenly felt a heavy weight come down around her shoulders. The words that Fumiko spoke to her came back to haunt her. ‘Is it true? Could she really be…different from us?’

Stamatia's eyes grew wider as it all began to settle into her mind. She no longer knew what she should believe. Who was her opponent? New questions appeared that she didn’t expect. Her mind twisted into a thorny labyrinth. ‘What do I do?’

Flashes of all those from the academy that looked up to Paian appeared in her mind. ‘I just have to fight… It doesn’t matter if it is lies or not! I have to stop her!’

Flames rose up dividing repeatedly to become weapons for her. She marched forward to meet her enemy. Fumiko stood between her and her answer. “I’ll grasp my own truth!” All of the spinning flame weapons launched at Fumiko, still in the middle of keeping up with the streams.

Out of the corner of her eye, Fumiko picked up the new targets. She flipped around on her leg to turn her into the attack. Her arm raked through the air leaving behind flames. It took the initial few weapons and exploded outward. The blast shot out like a shotgun shell spreading small pellets of fire taking out most of the spinning weapons. A fireball discharged to eliminate the remaining. Fumiko slid out in front of the defensive streams dropping her arm down sending out a blast behind her to naturalize the rest. The explosion accented her with a dramatic background that darkened her figure leaving only her staring eyes.

Realizing the pointlessness of the defense, Stamatia flipped it off. She knew the source of her troubles. “That arm of yours. Let’s see how you do without it!” A long sword of fire appeared behind Fumiko spinning up to take out her arm.

Fumiko rotated around and grabbed the sword with her hand. She crushed it under her palm. Her head tilted over to Stamatia unimpressed. “That won’t work again.”

“Oh?”

Suddenly another sword flew from behind Fumiko already in motion long before either of their words. Fumiko didn’t have a chance to evade. It sliced through her arm and disappeared, its job complete. A surprised look appeared on Fumiko's face.

Stamatia smirked, pleased to see her plan succeeded. “Without that arm you’re finished. This fight is over!” At the end of her declaration, Fumiko disappeared from her sight. Stamatia froze for a second before attempting to look around, but it was already too late.

Fumiko appeared behind her. She rested her flame hand on the shoulder of her fire armor and wiped out half of it in the process. “Yes, the fight is over.”