“We meet again, brother,” said a familiar voice. Haad.

He wasn’t wearing his glowing white archon garments, but rather a black two-piece that seemed to have been enchanted to keep his movements silent. My brother, the archon, was an experienced fighter. I had no doubt that him speaking to me was nothing more than part of his attack.

“Spare me your cheap tricks, brother,” I replied, keeping an eye behind him.

Sure enough, I saw some of the purple light orbs instantly disappear and reappear. This was most definitely his paragon, running to the side under some kind of invisibility imbuing spell or artifact. But this was enough time for Myriam to finish casting her spell behind me.

I had recognized the beginning of her incantation as a boon which would hasten my movement. As soon as the spell landed, I launched myself toward Haad, shield first. Before I managed to take a single step, Myriam had already landed a secondary spell on my brother’s paragon whose outline was now glowing in all colors of the spectrum.

I was familiar with this spell and even though neither I nor anyone in the tower was able to cast it, both Kard and Krysha had arrows and daggers which would have a similar effect once they hit invisible targets. What surprised me was the fact Myriam was able to dual-cast.

I had heard of people being able to dual-cast and knew my sister was one of the few able to do it in the university. I would never have imagined Myriam would be capable of such a feat. Filled with confidence in her abilities, I continued my attack on my brother.

Haad was already casting a spell that I recognized. At first, the spell sounded identical to the one he’d used when we dueled last time, and I got ready to adjust my footing so I would not sprain my ankle again on the magically uneven ground.

However, watching his hands, I realized he was using a different movement pattern. He was feinting the spell he had already tried on me, knowing I would recognize it and try to counter it, while he was actually casting a different one.

You’re underestimating me, brother.

As soon as he finished casting the spell, a stream of lava was projected from his hand and would have hit me on the chest had I kept my eyes on the ground.

I didn’t.

I brought my shield up in front of me and the lava hit it without causing any damage, merely splashing above and away from me. Without losing any of my momentum, I brought my sword down in an arc, catching some of the still-flying lava and redirecting it at my brother who was not expecting it.

The molten pieces of metal and stone hit him in his knee and on the top of his right hand. While his robes carried protection against heat and fire, meaning he didn’t feel any pain on his knee, he pulled back his hand in a violent motion.

As I was about to bash him with my shield, he brought his hands in front of his face and disappeared, but not before I had a chance to smile at his blistered hand. I turned around swinging my sword, in case he was careless enough to teleport close to me, but my sword cut straight through the air meeting no resistance. Glancing behind me, I saw Kai still struggling in the lightning net, squirming like a golden earthworm.

Some distance away from Kai, Myriam held a white orb in her left hand as she moved her right in the pattern of a spell I did not recognize. The blindingly bright orb sent missiles of white energy at the paragon hiding behind one of the trees, and the moment she stopped moving her right hand, a series of phantasmal hands started to pull at the net Kai was trapped under.

I scanned the area, trying to locate my brother, but to no avail. He must have used an invisibility-inducing item. I considered the most probable move by thinking about what I would do if I was in his shoes. Seeing the field and calculating our abilities, Myriam was the biggest threat in this fight.

Not only could she attack from a distance, but she was also trying to free Kai. A hit on her would mean the concentration spell she was holding to release Kai from the net would disperse, as well as the paragon being unpinned from her attacks.

“Myriam, watch out!” I shouted at her. “He’s invisible!”

She simply nodded in acknowledgment and began casting a spell that would spread the same rainbow outline on everyone invisible at that moment. This was a much less efficient version of the spell she’d cast on the paragon, as it needed more mana and had a longer casting time. But she had no other option since we had no idea where my brother might be hiding.

I moved closer to her, keeping an eye out for disturbances in the purple floating lights, but I could not locate him. As soon as Myriam’s incantation was completed, a colorful wave blasted out in all directions emanating from her.

To my horror, I saw my brother’s large outline directly behind her, a large tome in hand. Before I was able to warn her, an explosion of rocks threw her onto the ground.

She tried to stand back up while I ran to attack my now-glowing brother. Haad, however, didn’t wait for us to counter his attacks and neither did his paragon. My brother cast a spell of binding on Myriam and gagged her mouth with a series of long thin vines.

In the meantime, the second spellcaster, who had now emerged from his hiding spot, was already at work, his hands forming semi-transparent circles in the air in front of him and then punching them toward me. I knew this spell very well and had recently been trained against it by one of Man’s combat specialists.

With each punch of my foe, the circle would expand and form a bubble which would move toward me in an attempt to lock me inside it. The spell was not too difficult to cast, but the material components needed were expensive and for this reason, it was not used very often. However, the spell’s casting time was short and a wealthy battlemage would be able to fill a battlefield with prison bubbles very quickly.

The way to counter this spell was simple, but actually doing it was difficult. I just needed to burst each bubble with my mana-absorbing blade. However, each bubble burst would completely fill my sword with mana and I would quickly need to discharge it before bursting another one.

This moment between my defensive actions might be just enough for a bubble to envelop me and take me out of the battle. And I would still have to take care of my brother, who definitely wouldn’t wait around to watch me fight his paragon—not now that he had already taken down two out of the three of us.

I reached him just as he was about to direct a mana arrow at me and bashed him with the shield Myriam had created for me. Simultaneously, one of the stored spells of the shield was triggered and directed hundreds of little flames at the vines securing Myriam.

My brother fell to the ground with force, and seemed genuinely surprised when Myriam stood up. The bubbles were now almost upon me and I needed to deal with them, having confidence in Myriam once again being able to handle my brother.