Grey Spatium 15

“I accept.” Cadell’s voice was strained and bitter. “But this battle”— he paused, letting the words hang in the air with him—“will be to the death.”

The held breath of the rattled audience was audible.

“Yeah,” Arthur answered, taking several steps back toward the center of the half-ruined combat field. “It certainly will be.”

Cadell wasted no time, gave no warning. An aura of black flames ignited the air, both surrounding Cadell and billowing out and down in a wide cone. The arena floor where Arthur stood was obliterated, the earth blackened and burned away, leaving a widening crater the length of the battlefield, Arthur vanishing within it.

The crowd gasped as the inferno dissipated.

Arthur had not moved, except he was now standing at the bottom of a deep crater. His body was undamaged, and no soulfire mana burned within him, eating away his life force as it should have.

I had to bite back a chagrined smile at the sight.

It had been a good trick. From where Cadell was, with his vision obscured by his own attack, he probably hadn’t even seen, and the movement had been much too fast for anyone in the audience to follow, even with strong magic enhancing their vision. For a blink, just long enough for the wave of fire to pass, Arthur had vanished with a flash of purple lightning.

Caera had mentioned this ability, but the incredible speed and control Arthur exerted astonished even me.