Dorvo felt the heat of the magma geyser as it erupted from the ground, though only saw the spray of molten rock from the corner of his eye. The eruption turned out to be quite the boon, however, as it distracted his opponent long enough for Dorvo to slide his swordblade between the man’s ribs.

As the bandit crumpled, the young noble withdrew his weapon and turned his attention to the magma. The geyser had already stopped, and the red-hot liquid was pooled about the ground. Fire was catching on the trees where the magma had landed.

And standing there, nowhere near where he had just been, was the bandit leader, the man with the glyph of life burned into his face—and he had Garban.

Dorvo felt his heart grow cold as he realized what he was looking at. This damned bandit was about to kill Garban! His friend and mentor, the man who was teaching Dorvo all he knew of the adventuring life, was mere moments away from dying.

Well, that simply could not be allowed to stand.

With a cry of anger, Dorvo charged forward. He swung his sword before him in a wide arc, sending strands of Fire Magic to connect with the burning trees around him. The flames pulled themselves away from the wood, the heat sucked out of the magma and cooled it into rock, and the tongues of fire spiralled together in a convergence on the bandit leader.

He saw them coming. The man dropped Garban and hopped backward, just barely out of the path of the flames, and scowled at Dorvo.

“Kill the boy!” he roared.

A dozen more bandits burst from the trees, each with their eyes trained on the young man. Dorvo gasped in surprise—where had they all come from!?—and raised his sword, bracing himself for what would surely be his last stand.

Behind the oncoming bandits, he saw Garban climb unsteadily to his feet. Just as the first of the assailants reached Dorvo, the dwarf stamped his foot, and two columns of stone burst from the earth. They catapulted a pair of bandits into the air—one was one of the bandits about to strike Dorvo, and the other was a straggler, behind the others.

Dorvo jumped away as one of the remaining bandits swiped at him. Why in the world had Garban disposed of only two of these men; and one nowhere near him at that? Had the bandit leader’s strangulation harmed his brain?

There were three bandits bearing down on Dorvo, forcing him on the defensive. It was all he could do to avoid their attacks. With a cry of desperation, Dorvo arced his blade outward in a trail of fire that shot through his assailants. It wasn’t concentrated enough to cause any real harm, but he hoped that it might drive them back, if only for a moment.

Instead, the flames went straight through each bandits’ torso and out the other side, somehow leaving them completely untouched. None of them seemed to even react to the fire.

Dorvo’s confusion slowed him down, and a sword went through his throat.

It passed through him harmlessly.

All at once, it made sense. The bandit leader was lightsworn—that was obvious from his command of Magma Magic. And it seemed that his other domain was Illusion. The bandits swarming him were false images!

Laughing, Dorvo charged through the mass of illusory bandits, running through each one without difficulty, the tip of his sword aimed squarely at the bandit leader’s heart. The man’s smile of amusement quickly morphed into a look of surprise and then worry as he realized that Dorvo was coming for him, running straight through all the false images he had conjured with a clear intent to skewer him.

The false bandits all vanished, and Dorvo prepared for the final, victorious lunge.

The ground beneath him began to shake.

It was not Garban’s doing, of that he was certain. Dorvo threw himself to the side, calling upon his Wind Magic to propel him faster than he would otherwise have moved. It wasn’t a second too soon. The blast of magma that spewed out of the ground would surely have incinerated him had he not dodged in time.

But now the bandit leader no longer possessed the element of surprise. Dorvo and Garban knew both his domains, and they knew how to counter them.

With a flick of his sword, Dorvo drew the heat from the magma and converted it into fire. Behind him, Garban altered the tunnels the bandit leader’s magic had carved through the ground, redirecting what magma was still there toward the remaining bandits.

The air was filled with the screams of dying men, but Dorvo shut them all out and forced himself to focus only on his opponent.

The bandit leader was a big man—far bigger than Dorvo. He was broad and well-muscled, and if this fight came down to a simple brawl, then he would surely break Dorvo in half in but a moment.

So it was best not to let that happen.

Dorvo shot a blast of air at the bandit leader’s face, hoping to blind the man for the split second it would take him to dodge behind the bandit and slash him. His plan worked, and the bandit leader let out a cry of pain as drops of scarlet fell upon the dirt below.

Stumbling, the bandit leader turned to face Dorvo, his eyes filled with murder and his scarred visage contorted into a vicious scowl. Howling in rage, he charged at Dorvo, but he was too slow. The other adventurer had already run up behind him.

Garban’s hammer cracked him across the side of the knee, and the bandit chief fell forward. His face struck the ground, and Dorvo moved in for the kill.

He stood over his fallen foe and raised his sword. It brought it down. The tip went straight for the man’s neck…

What happened next, Dorvo had no idea. A haze came over the bandit leader, and suddenly the whole of his body vanished into nothing. Dorvo’s sword struck empty air.

It took him a second to realize where the bandit had gone. His opponent was now standing behind Garban. Not a single injury showed on his person. The man turned to face the two adventurers.

Why was he facing away from us? some part of Dorvo wondered through the confusion and terror.

A savage grin spread across the man’s badly-burned face and he raised his sword. The blue gem in his amulet pulsed with light that soon faded.

Dorvo could only shout in warning as the bandit leader swung his blade directly at Garban’s back.