Forged Destiny [Book 5: Ch. 15]

I wanted for another spell to hit the pillar, shaking dust from the ceiling. I pushed off it and dashed out after the Mage once more – seeking to close the distance while he was recovering from the last attack.

"Die!" I roared, swinging towards him.

"Fool," he laughed, vanishing into another portal. He appeared back where I'd been, raised his staff, but then froze as a cracking sound echoed behind him. The pillar he'd struck had started to tumble, aided by my solid push before I'd charged him. It tottered and teetered, now threatening to fall down and crush him.

With a wave of his staff he summoned another portal, but when he tried to step into it, he stumbled and fell. Panicked, he looked down at the ground, where his right foot was stuck, almost sunken into the floor. He couldn't get into the portal.

His eyes shot to me in time to see me on one knee, bare hand pressed against the solid gold tiles which made the religious symbol inlaid into the floor. Where my hand touched it, a burn mark looked to have traced all the way to him, but in truth it was nothing more than an etched line. And beneath him, where I knew he'd land, a chasm had formed in the gold, trapping his foot.

—Forged Destiny [Book 5: Ch. 15]