27 Reconstruction magician Vs. Tempest magician (1/2)

Part 1

Xadi was carefully studying Evlin. He was fully aware that she was a promising mage with a lot of potential but he was still sure even her wouldn't be able to execute magic without moving. Even a master-rank mage can, at best, perform magic without the use of a staff or wand, there has never been a mage in history able to release magic with it's mind.

Something wasn't right. Could it be possible that in the three days ever since she left the city she managed to develop an even higher ranking of magic than master-rank? If so, then Xadi had even more reason to capture Evlin and make her work for him.

”Looks like i underestimated you... My apologies...”

”...”

”From now on... I'll be going at you with all i have!”

Xadi started to cast two spells at the same time, a water spell on his left and a lighting spell on his right. Evlin looked at him and thought to herself 'Here it comes...', his signature move, the 'death prison', is what he called it. A combo that made use of all of Xadi's spells. Using wind to gather some distance, freezing the opponent with water magic and then finishing it off using a thunder strike.

Evlin started to shake in fear hoping that the plan would work. Cold sweat started to drip from her face. The fear of death was completely paralyzing her on the spot making it impossible to move an inch. Xadi released his attacks making sure the freezing magic was slightly faster than the electric magic.

Evlin closed her eyes in a reflex and started to pray for her life, but just like before, something came out of the ground and blocked Xadi's attacks keeping her safe. A wall of stone appeared surrounding Evlin and collided with the ice spell, followed by a giant pillar showing up and blocking the thunder spell. Evlin wanted to drop on the floor and thank the heavens but she couldn't get distracted. She needed to keep carrying her job, keeping Xadi focused on her.

”I- I can't do this all day you know? Could you hurry up and just get lost already?”

Xadi remained silent after hearing that taunt. He was starting to figure it out that something really was not right. He decided to take a gamble and turned off his wind magic dropping himself on the ground. He took another look at Evlin and then started to analyze his surroundings. Evlin was starting to get nervous with his silence. If Xadi was quiet, it's because he was thinking, and letting him think was dangerous. She tried to taunt him again.

”What's wrong bookworm? You ran out of tricks already? I'm still standing right here!”

”...”

Xadi remained quiet and started to slowly walk towards Evlin. At each step she would get more and more nervous, her body trembling uncontrollably. Xadi was making no expression, only focusing on putting one leg in front of the other.

Once he was ten steps away from Evlin he heard a small sound coming from his feet. His eyes quickly moved to the source of the noise and he realized a small marble on the ground. Not even a second later, the earth where the marble was located exploded and two stone hands appeared trying to grab him, but he managed to avoid it by jumping backwards using wind magic.

”... So that's is how it is...”

Evlin stiffened up even more, assuming that was even possible by this point.

”... You are not the little girl are you...?”

”...”

”No matter how good you are there is no way someone can use magic without moving... She's hiding somewhere isn't she? Using you as bait and shooting the ground with that cursed crossbow of hers...”

”... ... ...”

”... I see... She changed my eyes with her magic... So she probably developed some kind of modeling magic that affects living beings now... Am i right sister?”

Evlin, or rather, Ashley disguised as Evlin gritted her teeth. Xadi saw that reaction and formed a devilish smile as if saying 'Bingo!' to the girl in front of him.

”Nice, very nice... You two almost had me for a second... So each time i attack she shoots the ground and protects you... So all i gotta do is kill you faster than she can shoot!!”

Xadi used wind magic to create a storm of dust in order to block the view from anyone outside of that area. He followed by charging three spears of lightning and launched them towards Ashley, the same attack he used against Evlin in the red district.

For the first time Ashley tried to move in a attempt to run a way from the dust cloud. Before the spears managed to reach her she reached a designed spot and screamed 'Here!' towards the sky and the ground beneath her started to rise pushing her away from the spear's trajectory, however the lightning still clashed with the moving ground causing an explosion beneath her feet making her fall on her back.

Xadi rushed towards her carrying a staff charged with electric magic ready to turn Ashley into literal ashes. But before he reached her, two shadows appeared out of nowhere and kicked him sideways.

Xadi rolled on the ground but quickly stood up and made another surprised face.

”What's this now...?”

In front of him there were three Evlins. One was Ashley in disguise still on the ground but now two more had appeared standing in front of her.

”So now that we are done with hide-and-seek you want to play 'find the difference'? Did you drag some random traveler you found on the road to help you with this little game?”

The two Evlins remained silent while Ashley was trying to stood up from the floor. She them answered his question.

”Who said that hide-and-seek was over?”

Xadi immediately heard the sound of another marble beneath his feet and tried to jump again with wind magic, but this time he was a little too late and was bruised by a giant spike that emerged from below. His arm was bleeding from a huge wound caused by the attack but he hurried to fix it with healing magic.

”So this is how it's going to be huh...? How many people did you drag into this? Ten, twenty? one hundred? You do know you're just giving me more hostages to use against you right?”

One of the Evlins started to rush towards Xadi in a attempt to punch him but Xadi was faster and stabbed her in the stomach with his electric-charged staff. However he once again found himself surprised. There was no blood coming out of her. Her body started to lose color and begun to crumble into a pile of rocks.

”An earth golem! I was tricked!!”

Xadi heard the sound of three marbles colliding with the ground, positioned in such a way that completely surrounded him. The marbles exploded and several spikes of stone appeared in a circle around him.

He could not escape this attack. Before the spikes stabbed him he covered his entire body with a cloak of lightning and smashed the spikes with his fists. Ashley saw the scene and became frustrated.

”Tch! So close!”

Xadi looked at her.

”I'm getting tired of being hunted... Time for me to do the hunting!”

He rushed towards Ashley but the other Evlin tried to block him. Xadi easily knocked her down making her start to crumble into a pile of rocks as well revealing that she was indeed a golem too. Ashley tried to escape but Xadi was much faster. He launched a beam of magic towards the ground she was stepping on and froze her legs.

Ashley started to panic when she turned her head an saw Xadi right behind her, ready to strike. He was wielding a massive ball of electricity at the end of his staff and was about to release it on top of the frozen girl. But before he could, Ashley revealed a small knife behind her back and used it to break the ice. She jumped away at the last second barely being caught by an explosion of electricity.

Her legs were severely damaged and she could no longer run. Xadi approached her and stared at her knife, a silver blade that he had never seen before that she used to cut his ice so easily. An ice so powerful that Xadi could imprison creatures three times his size with was destroyed by one small knife.

”Where did you get that...?”

Before she could give an answer, Xadi could feel the wind changing on top of him. Something was dropping from the sky at an immense speed. Xadi moved out of the way from the object's landing spot assuming it would be another stone attack from Evlin. When the object landed it created a cloud of smoke and under it revealed that the object was in fact a winged golden creature of the size of a large adult person bearing some feline features.

”... Another surprise...?”

Xadi took another glance at the golden monster and realized that it was wearing the same clothes and shared some facial features with the disguise Ashley was using. He looked at those massive wings and realized what was going on.

”So you were hiding above us this whole time huh? You really are a diamond in the rough little girl!”

Part 2

A few hours before Ashley reached Emerald Dawn's gates and confronted Xadi, she and Evlin were discussing their battle plans on a safe location.

”Xadi has a fighting style very similar to yours. He likes to keep his distance and strike the enemy with powerful attacks. If it's you, you probably can use earth magic to block most of them. The problem is that he strikes so fast you won't have many chances to fight back.”

”So how do we create an opening?”

”We need to drag his attention somewhere else. Give him a new target to focus on!”

”A new target? Like what...?”

”Can you create golems with your earth magic?”

”Golems...? You mean those giant dolls made of stone? I tried once but they kept breaking so easily that i stooped using them... With my boosted body I'm usually much faster and stronger than them.”

”Could you perhaps make them smaller and give them color with your modeling magic?”

”What for...?”

”We can make a fake 'Evlin' to keep Xadi distracted!”

”Oh! An Evlin golem!! That could work! But... Won't he realize that she is a fake? I'm not sure how good of an actor a golem can be...”

”True... If only the golem could talk... Ah! What if...”

”What if...?”

”What if you used your transformation magic to turn me into you?”

”Are you crazy?? I'm not gonna let you get close to that psycho!! He will kill you!”

”He won't! He knows how valuable you are to him, and he knows how powerful you are! He will keep a safe distance from me and avoid getting to close or using lethal attacks. If you protect me from afar and stop his attacks before they can reach me you might get a hit while he focuses on me!”

”But- But what if I'm not fast enough??”

”You will be if you boost your power with these knifes!”

”... I don't like this plan...”

”A surprise attack is our best chance against Xadi. Your new power is the only thing about you that he doesn't have any information on. If we can exploit ti well we might finish him in one strike!”

”So how would we do that...? Like i said, i hold his attention and you protect me while looking for openings to attack! Just find a safe spot where he can't see you.”