As the sand body of the earth spirit hit the lava, it melted. Individual grains flowed together into a pool of clear glass in the shape of a four-armed man. The molten glass rose out of the heat, hardening and crystallizing. His sharp edges shone in the light of the volcano’s fire.
I kicked again. My foot collided with the center of the creature’s body, and it shattered into thousands of shards.
Two spirits down. Now, the third would come, and judging by previous encounters, it would be the deadliest of the lot.
The lava in front of me rippled and rose. A creature formed out of it, humanoid in shape like the others, as tall and broad as Kegohr. He had the face of a demon, with curling horns and red eyes shining from a black visage. His body was cased in plates of rock, with molten stone glowing at the joints.
The magma spirit crawled out of the lava, rose to his feet, and strode toward me. The rock melted beneath its feet, leaving molten puddles in his wake. The whole world seemed to be consumed by his heat and power. I felt as though I was being roasted just standing this close to him.
It had been one thing to grapple with the fire spirit, when I already had the element on my side to protect me. But this was a different creature, his heat far more intense, and I didn’t have the ability to tap into my Vigor and use a technique like Fire Immunity.
The creature stamped a foot. The stone beneath him shattered, and lava spewed forth from the gap.
I couldn’t just muscle my way through this one. I needed something else.
For now, the easiest thing to obtain was time. I turned, leaped over a lava flow, and sprinted away down the side of the volcano. The ground was rough underfoot, and I almost fell a dozen times as stones rolled away beneath my feet. But I had to keep upright, had to keep moving; I could hear the spirit lumbering after me.
A ball of magma hurtled past an inch from my ear and spattered the ground with its fiery ooze. The creature was turning the lava into a weapon in a way I couldn’t.
I heard a hiss as a second ball of magma flew at me. I dodged to the left, and the magma missed, landing in a glowing stream of molten rock. I jumped over that stream, heard another hiss, and did a forward roll to stay low to the ground. Magma soared past above my head and disappeared over the cliff edge that now loomed before me.
I stopped at the edge of the cliff and looked down. The drop was at least a hundred feet, with jagged rocks to impale anyone who fell. Climbing down wasn’t an option because the surface was completely slick and without protrusions to hold onto.
The magma spirit roared as he approached. He was too close now for me to avoid him by running along the length of the cliff. But he stopped a dozen feet from me and flung a ball of magma at the ground by my feet. I jumped aside and found my back foot on the very precipice of the cliff. The spirit laughed, a sound like an avalanche rumbling down a mountain.
I looked over my shoulder into the lake, then back at the magma spirit. I picked up a rock and flung it at the spirit. The rock melted as it hit and dripped onto the ground.
The magma spirit laughed again and flung more gobbets of magma at me. I danced around the shots, ducking and diving, leaping and rolling, keeping clear of his attacks but never more than an inch from plummeting off the cliff.
The spirit’s expression became fiercer, and he flung his magma faster as his frustration mounted.
“Getting a little angry?” I asked. “Good.”
I continued dodging his projectiles until he let out a final roar before charging me. I waited until the last moment before spinning aside, and he hurtled over the cliff before plummeting to the bottom. He screamed as the spiked rocks at the bottom impaled him. Lava oozed from his body and bubbled over the spikes jammed through his body. I waited a few moments, wondering if his molten body might melt the rock, but then my vision wavered.
The spirit realm faded, and I was back in my hiding hole beneath the desert boneyard.
Now that I had triumphed over its spirits, I could see the maga blueprint in my mind’s eye. I reached inside myself for the powers of earth and fire, then brought them together. They intertwined and combined inside me, swirling and surging. Each resisted being bound with the other, but I had mastery over them. I squeezed with all my Augmenting skill and power, and the two became fused.
A new core throbbed with power within me, a magma core.
“So powerful.” Nydarth said, her voice clear and low inside my head. “Is there any battle you cannot win?”
“Let’s hope not,” I said. “Now, tell me, you’ve seen these Vigors combined before. What power have I gained here?”
“This first combining will give you Magma Burst,” she said. “At first glance, it seems like Untamed Torch, but it’s for magma instead of fire. A burst of boiling magma that you can shoot from your palm. But in the right circumstances, it can be so much more powerful than Untamed Torch. It will blaze through almost anything it hits. Wood will catch fire and char away to nothing. Any flesh will be cooked or crystallized in rapidly cooling stone, depending upon what creature you hit. With practice, it can melt through stone and metal with ease.”
“Sounds useful,” I said. “Let’s try it.”
I activated Hidden Burrow and shot up through the earth to emerge beside the great cairn. As the dirt settled, I saw that night had fallen
