A smile touched my lips as I flooded my wood pathways with magical energy. Tall Plank Pillars exploded out of the ground and formed a set of makeshift steps. I leapt from foothold to foothold and called a Smothering Mist and Ash Cloud into being around the Xilarion. Thick black clouds of ashen mist appeared in a ring around him. Xilarion’s power could vaporize water, but it couldn’t burn ashes, and that gave me a momentary edge.
Nydarth’s voice arose from the depths of my mind and echoed through my thoughts.
“Master, as loathe as I am to admit it, fire is not your friend in this fight,” she said urgently. “Take up the little one and Yono. You must use them to their fullest if you are to pass this test.”
“Odd of you to be so humble,” Yono observed.
I sheathed the Sundered Heart by my side, yanked the Demure Rebirth from its harness on my back, and rebuilt my Frozen Armor. Xilarion appeared from behind my smokescreen, fire gathered around his hands. My icy armor hissed, the intensity of the guildmaster’s Vigor enough to melt ice without him even producing a technique. I whirled the warhammer around my head and gathered a Sandstorm around me. With my other hand, I pushed my trident into the midst of the abrasive sand and summoned a Smothering Mist. The two techniques combined, sand mixing with rapidly deteriorating mist, and I pushed them toward Xilarion with all of my might.
He sent another fireball into the midst of my attack, and the mud crystallized as steam expanded outward. Tiny shards of glass shot every direction, and I heard Rutmonlir roar in pain below us. Xilarion brushed a line of blood away from his cheek and nodded approvingly.
“Even on the back foot, your ingenuity serves you well,” he said.
Something slammed into the Plank Pillar beneath my feet and upset my balance. I twisted as I fell, unleashed a huge Sandstorm up toward Xilarion, and summoned another Pillar to land on. I shot a look at the arena below and saw Rutmonlir and Kegohr engaged in battle. Rutmonlir summoned a dome-like Flame Shield, and Kegohr’s mace bounced off it. Another strike, and the dome shattered like a thin sheet of glass.
Ashes, flaming leaves, and burned roots filled the air around Faryn and Vesma as they fought. The two women danced around each other’s weapons in a flurry of steel, fire, and splinters. Faryn’s wood Augmentation put her at an obvious disadvantage, but it didn’t slow her down one bit. Vesma sliced through Strangling Roots again and again with her flaming spear and managed to keep up her offense against Faryn.
I returned my attention to Xilarion, and he bowed his head a little. “Now that you’ve ensured your fellow disciples are safe, shall we proceed?”
Flames enveloped the guildmaster and punched outward in a fierce sphere of consuming light. I poured Vigor into Fire Immunity, but I still felt the heat of Xilarion’s technique scorch my flesh. My vision burned with the afterimage of his attack, and I was blinded for a few seconds.
I felt something move past me, and I lifted my warhammer a second before it clashed with Xilarion’s sword. After blinking a few times, my vision returned, and Xilarion was floating in the air in front of me. I could see the tendrils of his power swirling around him, and I thought at first that they were tongues of flame. But they ebbed and flowed inward and outward, and I realized I was looking at his Vigor pathways. These, however, weren’t internal pathways. They existed outside his body. What were they then?
Tolin had told me that Vigor flowed through everything. Not just the Augmenter, but all of nature and existence itself. The mystery of Xilarion’s power clicked into place in my mind.
He wasn’t using his own Vigor in this fight. He was drawing it from the heat of the day around him. Maybe even the sun itself.
I didn’t have a lot of Vigor left, but if I focused on a defensive application of Ash Cloud, I might have enough to cut off Xilarion’s supply.
I returned my trident and my warhammer to the harness on my back and drew the Sundered Heart. My fire and wood pathways crackled with energy, and I forced them to expand and stretch until they started to hurt. With a push of my will, I sent Vigor coursing through the internal entanglement of the two elements, producing an Ash Cloud from the end of my sword. At first, it was like a small swarm of bees, then it became an overwhelming black tide. The Sundered Heart siphoned Vigor from my body to fuel the dark mass as it gathered over the arena like a simmering storm cloud.
Soon, the sun was dark, and the arena was bathed in shadow.
Xilarion sheathed his sword and bowed. “Well done, Ethan. I concede.”
I ceased pouring Vigor into my sword. The instant I released the Ash Cloud technique, my shoulders slumped, and I wavered on my feet. It took all my concentration not to topple from the Plank Pillar beneath me.
The dark cloud turned into ashen rain, falling on the crowd as they roared their approval.
I drew the Vigor from the pillar beneath me, and it slowly carried me to the arena floor.
The fight was over. I had been so focused on Xilarion that I hadn’t seen whether Kegohr and Vesma had won their duels. From their smiling faces as they joined me, it seemed they had been victorious. Both of them, however, looked like they had been through a meat grinder. Kegohr sported a
