Chapter 47: Chapter 47 – Everything is on Fire

The moment fire started to build in Iona’s hands I turned and ran for Hex. I managed to get to the golem woman just in time and threw up a hasty spherical divine shield. The glowing, gold ball was conjured just in time as the roaring inferno passed over us only a split second later.

The fire was so intense, that I had no doubt it would have instantly turned Hex and me to ash. In fact, the woman’s conjured fire was so hot, that even with my divine shield blocking us from the brunt of the spell’s effect, it was still hot enough inside the cramped ball, that I started to sweat profusely.

It was a relief when the spell finally let up because my divine shield was actually starting to crack from the assault, something that had never happened before since it had never gone up against such a powerful spell. When I dismissed the miracle I used to save us, I was greeted by the devastation wrought by the famous Inferno Tornado.

Spreading out in a cone, with her at its starting point, the ground of the training hall was completely charred and melted. A quick glance behind me revealed that the doors had been completely blown off their hinges and a fair portion of the wall was either melted away or currently on fire. Although the structure of this training facility was enchanted to be completely unfazed by spells of the 3rd level or lower, this enchantment did absolutely nothing to stop higher-level spells or the fire created by them. 

Speaking of said fire, it was slowly spreading across the stone walls. Normally stone would have done a good job of containing the fire as it didn’t give the fire anything to consume as fuel, but that was only true for mundane fire. Magical fire could consume magic to burn as fuel, of which the enchantments in the walls had plenty and were completely defenceless against the level of power used to conjure them.

All it took was a glance to tell me that the fire was going to be a huge problem, but as it was, I had a bigger problem. One that was across from me, coalescing more fire in her hands. That said, she did have a surprised expression on her face as she paused and said. "You survived? That’s… of no concern. It would be easier for both of us if you just gave up, but one way or another, you will die here."

As soon as Iona finished speaking, she flicked her hands forward, sending a barrage of overpowered firebolts my way. I conjured fresh, circular divine shields to block them. With one in each of my hands to protect myself, the magic balls of fire detonated on their surface, but the power they were packing was so powerful that the fire licked around the edges, singeing my clothes and skin.

I turned my head back to Hex and whispered new orders so that the woman trying to kill us wouldn’t hear. "We need to split up, but keep your distance from her. Focus on dodging her attacks more than anything else, but don’t shy away from going in for the attack when you see an opening to do so without the possibility of her retaliating. Our best hope is to wear her out, and get her to expend all her mana."

"As you command, Master," Hex responded moments before she sprinted off. 

The golem woman was much faster than your average human, but not so fast that Iona couldn’t track her movements and send firebolts her way as well. With Hex running around, I didn’t stay idly, standing where I was. Instead, I ran around as well, making it harder for my would-be murderer to hit me.

Like this, the woman was positioned in the centre of the training hall, shooting out fire bolt after fire bolt at both Hex and me. After years of duelling in the arena, Iona was rather proficient at combat and, as such, was skilled at fighting multiple people at a time. Although her focus was split on tracking the two of us, her aim and the flurry of cantrips she sent our way were still almost too much for us to deal with. 

Hex was just fast enough that she could nimbly dodge each firebolt, and I, who was much slower, had my divine shields to block any of the firebolts that didn’t miss me, but we had no opportunities to attack her back. Worst of all was what the missing firebolts were doing. Since they were just cantrips and not higher-level spells, the balls of fire that struck untouched parts of the walls had absolutely no effect, but the ones that hit parts of the walls that were already on fire had their magic consumed by it, causing the flames to be spurred on to greater heights.

Soon enough, the fire had spread to almost a third of the training hall, and even further outside. Parts of the walls were collapsing into charred heaps, but this devastation didn’t deter the fight happening in its centre in the least.

I knew that the fight couldn’t continue like this. Eventually, the burning building would attract others, at which point it would be very easy for the famous one of us to pin it all on me, despite pyromancy being the thing she was most known for. If I wanted to end this, I needed to make big moves.

To that end, I reached inward and brought forth a surge of divine power. Before that moment, my reserves were only slightly impacted by the conjuring of divine shields, but in these next few acts, they dropped to a little below half. However, it wasn’t just one miracle I was performing, but a series of them.

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My attempts to dodge the firebolts by running around came to a stop and I planted my feet on the ground as firmly as possible. One of my two divine shields blinked out of existence as I raised the other one between me and Iona. Pouring vast amounts of divine power into the shield, I slowly expanded its size until it was larger than myself by a couple of extra feet.

Fire bolt after fire bolt immediately started to slam into the shield, and I diverted extra energy into reinforcing it. That said, conjuring the extra-sized shield wasn’t all I was doing as I split my focus in two. With the other portion of my focus, I conjured holy bolts, but they weren’t ordinary holy bolts. During the week of training and practice I had, I managed to alter the way my holy bolts worked, allowing me more control over their movements.

Although this slowed them down slightly, it allowed me to leave them floating in the air behind the safety of the shield as I conjured one after the other. Soon enough, I had nearly twenty of them side by side, and it was time to act. With a push of my will, I shot the divine shield and the payload of divine-powered balls behind it off towards Iona.

Once the divine shield got far enough away from me that my connection to it snapped, the damage done to it by the fire bolts started to wear it down. Before too long, it shattered and dissipated into thin air, but at that point, I sent all of my holy bolts shooting off as fast as they could go.

Iona was not at all expecting this attack, and hastily conjured up a wall of fire to intercept my attack. Although the holy bolts exploded on impact with her wall of fire, the explosions they created joined together, using not only each other’s energy, but that of the fire to create a shockwave more powerful than I could have possibly imagined.

Not only was the wall of fire completely snuffed out by the shockwave, but so was most of the fire burning around us. All three of us were thrown off our feet by this unexpected force, but no one was close enough to actually get hurt by it. 

With her inhuman speed and strength, Hex was the first of us to get back to our feet. The golem woman didn’t waste a second and immediately dashed to our attacker, trying to fulfil my orders now that an opportunity had presented itself.

Unfortunately, Iona's reaction speed was great enough for her to spot the approaching threat and defend herself. However, the woman didn’t have enough time to calmly think through her next spell and acted in desperation. As such, fire gathered in her hands and spread around her like a cloak of flames before she shoved all of that fiery energy into the ground.

Moments before the spell activated fully, I could feel the mana in the air. It was so palpable that I knew immediately that she wasn’t just upcasting a spell to 5th-level but casting one of that power level. All I could do was throw up a spherical divine shield around myself and hope it would hold, but I could do nothing for Hex, who was going to take the full brunt of the spell.

A literal tornado of fire consumed the training hall as Iona finished casting the spell that had given her the moniker she was known by. Between the earlier fires that had undermined the strength of the enchantments and the explosion of force created by my holy bolts, which must have done more structural damage to this place than I initially thought, the training hall was not in good condition at all. From inside my protective ball, I could hear the sounds of the rest of the hall collapsing in on itself. The tornado of fire had been the straw that broke the camel's back. I knew, even before the fires died down and I dismissed the divine shield, that nothing of this hall would remain.

Although I was proven right in the end, there was even less of the hall than I expected, as it appeared as if most of the place had just been reduced to ash. In hindsight, it made sense since I never felt any of the rumble falling on my shield, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. Whenever Iona used this spell in the arena, it was always in an open, sandy space. The viewers never really got to see what it would do to a building. As it turned out, the tornado of fire just burned a cylindrical hole in any structure it was cast inside.

Once I had come to terms with the destruction the Inferno Tornado was capable of wreaking, my eyes darted around looking for any signs of survivors. To my delight, I saw Hex standing on the roof of the building, peering into the devastation below. She wasn’t completely unscathed by the fire, as all her clothes were long gone and her skin was horribly burned, but thankfully she managed to get out of it before it turned her to ash. Any normal person would have been too overwhelmed by the pain of being burned alive to even attempt to escape, but since she was a golem, pain meant nothing to her.

Unfortunately, Hex wasn’t the only person still standing, as Iona stood safely on a small circle of completely unburned flooring. Since she was capable of controlling her own flames to a high degree, the woman was completely unharmed by her attack. That said, she was panting and gasping quite a bit. High-level spells took a lot out of anyone who casts them.

"How… are you still alive?" She panted as she stared at me with a mix of anger and confusion. "You’re just a 2nd-level arcanist. You shouldn’t have been able to survive my opening attack, let alone this!"

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