Yipion - part 7

Yipion answered with a flick of his arm.

The beast shimmered and attacked. Hamut was apparently no match for it, getting attacked multiple times, barely avoiding the hits. Desperate to evade the monster’s quick strikes, Hamut dropped his spear and shield. Now much lighter, he dodged a punch from the beast, hopping on its arm. He climbed up the creature, feeling its smooth skin, like a frog’s. Knowing that killing it would only delay things, he leaped with lighting speed towards Yipion, all the while unsheathing a short sword. A swift thrust slashed the prince’s shoulder as he tried to evade. Another cut a finger off.

Yipion wielded his sword skilfully, parrying several lethal attacks. But it wouldn’t be enough to stop the fiercest of the warlords. Once again Yipion shone blue, immediately disappearing only to reappear at the other end of the cavern. An explosion of rock and dust where he had left barely scratched Hamut.

From afar, the prince conjured upon the Flux to create a magic link between them. And then he fired it up with immense energy. A flash brighter than the sun filled the crevice, and a beam of electricity pierced and shattered Hamut’s armour, sending him flying. Relentless, Yipion once more conjured another link and fired it up, this time throwing a blast of air which cut deep into Hamut’s skin.

Feeling faint, Yipion decided to deliver the fatal blow with his bare hands, before he ran out of energy. But the warlord was resilient, agile, and deadly, deadly fast. He got up, finally clashing in a violent sword-lock with Yipion. Face to face, closer than ever, kicks were thrown under their swords, each one aiming to trip the opponent, to no avail.

To break the thug-of-war, Yipion tapped into his deepest energies to withdraw a power so mighty even the voice had kept him from using it in the past. But this time, it was it – the voice – who was claiming for that power. It was the ultimate spell: the Ionika, an art reserved for the most skilled masters only.

Hamut had only seen it used once before, but when the blue smoke burst out of Yipion’s eyes, mouth, ears and every single pour, the warlord tasted the bitter hatred of that aura and remembered that unmistakable feeling which had once doomed him. He wanted not to see what was coming. He made for his dropped weapons as fast as possible, and threw the spear up and out through the opening of the crevice with enormous accuracy. Like a puff of smoke blown by the wind he travelled to it, freeing himself of the incantations of his long lost brother.

The slender monster tried to climb after him, without success. Tired, having just used his last reserves, the bloodied Yipion couldn’t possibly keep up, and fell over.