Forged Destiny [Book 6: Ch. 14]

So, despite being made of fire, her swords acted like regular ones. That was interesting. There wasn't much logic behind it, but that was magic for you. It wouldn't have made much sense for her to use them otherwise, since fire swords wouldn't cut or stab and she might as well have just been a glorified Mage trapped with one element.

As such, I allowed my armour to cool and become more solid. On the next exchange, Cinder managed to circle her weapon over and into my wrist, seeking to disarm me. Unlike the first time, the weapon this time bounced off my hardened armour.

Which was when Cinder grinned and dropped both – cupping her hands and bathing me in fire once more.

"Shit!"

Gods, it hurt. There was only a second or two to feel it before my instincts kicked in and my armour became molten once more, immune – or as immune as I was going to get – to the flames. I still had to shield my face so it wouldn't be burned, but the pain dissipated. I rolled away, fighting for distance as I considered my options. Cinder had lured me into dropping the heat on my armour and then switched back to fire spells to cook me. A clever move. I had the perfect counter to either her swords or her spells, but only one at a time.

It was still better than anyone else might have had. If it were Ruby here, she'd have been doubly in trouble. I was uniquely equipped to counter half of Cinder's abilities, and I had the pick on which half I wanted. It must have been galling for her, knowing that I could do that and that I was `just` an NPC.

In the end, I chose to keep my armour molten. I couldn't hope to hurt her at range, so forcing her to close in was my best chance. It took more concentration on my part, but it also made my armour fluid and gave me a better range of movement. When I closed in on her again, pushing through her flames, Cinder caught on and stopped wasting energy, instead summoning her twin swords once more.

—Forged Destiny [Book 6: Ch. 14]