I flung up a Smothering Mist around me. It mixed with the acid, and the weight of the two together turned into droplets that fell like acid rain on the ground. The acid ate into the ice and changed the floor from a stable surface into a slurry mess.
Horix hurled more Ice Spears at me. I ducked and weaved as I advanced closer without getting skewered. Some of the projectiles sailed past me. Others hit, but their impact was absorbed by my armor. It held strong despite the acidic splashes of the Guildmaster’s techniques.
I countered with a small Untamed Torch. The fireball hit the ground under the elf’s feet and forced him to readjust his stance. Horix formed a frozen whip. It was longer and more robust than the ones Cadrin had used, and its tip slithered into an ugly cluster of points and hooks. There was a crack as it whipped through the air and took a chunk out of the armor on my right shoulder. Horix aimed a blow for my head, but I flung myself sideways to avoid it and grabbed hold of the whip as it snapped past.
Now, it was my turn to try a different trick. I called on ash again and created a cloud of it around Horix to buy myself some time and space. He let go of the lash and dissipated the choking cloud with a burst of Smothering Mist. Black water ran in rivulets over his armor as he shook his head and flicked the trident. A burst of boiling flame rippled toward me, and I dived to the left and skidded across the slippery floor as my armor steamed from the force of his attack.
“Your grasp of technique is impressive for one so young and untrained,” Horix said. “But you lack the subtlety and power that comes with extended study. Ambidexterity is useful, but you cannot rely on its shock value forever.”
“Shame,” I panted. “It’s worked great so far.”
The pools of water beneath my feet surged as I used Crashing Wave. Slim streams of water hammered against Horix’s armor, and he pushed away from the balustrade to keep his footing. He vaporized the water into steam with a brief flash of Untamed Torch and gave me the space I needed to close in on the guildmaster. I obscured the air around me with a Smothering Mist and drove the Sundered Heart for a weak point in the armor of his shoulder.
But he was skilled in combat as well as Augmenting. The trident flashed up, blocked my blade, and swung around in a strike that gouged a hole through the armor on my thigh and knocked me back a step.
Horix’s expression became grim as the two of us battled. We darted back and forth, cut, slashed and hacked. His superior reach with the trident worked to his advantage as he sought to puncture my experimental suit of armor. The elf’s body was still agile after decades of experience, and he repeatedly managed to pin me against a wall or section of balustrade and score a hit, while I could seldom keep him in one place.
My Vigor fizzled dangerous as I fired another blast of Untamed Torch from the palm of my free hand. Horix leaped back so that the fire shot past him and melted a section of the wall. He laughed, took another step back, and pointed the trident at me.
The air above my head suddenly swirled with green clouds as I was swept up in a miniature whirlwind. Tiny acidic daggers whipped at me, and my armor started to dissolve at the intense acid’s touch.
Half-blinded by the swirling swarm of acid, I dropped to the floor and kicked off against the edge of the balcony. The corrupted blizzard followed me at a gesture from Horix. The acid ate at my armor and burned the skin of my face. I created a Flame Shield and turned the hail of tiny daggers into liquid that slithered over the Sunlight Ichor on my armor and threatened to puncture through it. I cast Flame Empowerment onto my shield and expanded its flat disk shield into a flaming nova. I expected it to consume the entire blizzard, but it ebbed like a gutted candle.
My Vigor was running out. But, at least, I’d managed to dissipate the clinging cloud of green hail.
I launched a wide, thin blast of fire at the frozen floor of the balcony beneath our feet. Whatever remained of rough ice vanished as I burned away the last of it and turned the entire area into the pristine surface of a skating rink.
I skidded across the balcony and slashed at Horix. He stumbled as he parried my blow and tried to puncture my armor with the trident. His strike went wide, and I scored my first hit on his upper thigh. The Sundered Heart hissed in a cloud of steam as I boiled away a chunk of his armor and bared his robes beneath.
Horix pushed to his feet and hit me with a kick. I slid and slammed my sword into the floor to serve as an anchor point. Horix found his footing and attacked me with a frozen whip. I ripped my blade free and slashed at the barbed tip of the whip. The elf twisted his wrist and snapped his whip back at me. I rolled over, and tiny shards of ice sparked off the floor an inch away from where my face had been. I darted out to one side, and the ground added to my speed as I slipped clear of yet another attack.
“You continue to surprise me,” Horix said quietly. “But it won’t save you. Your tenacity and your fixation on meddling must be removed. For the good of all who follow the Straight Path and its precepts.”
He cracked his whip, but I ducked and slid. The slippery ice carried me under Horix’s
