Evacuating all the air was a possibility, but Zoe didn’t want to kill if she could help it.
Zoe set the wind around the mage’s feet to compress. More and more air pulled in beneath the mage.
There had to be a threshold between wind and attack. She’d love to run a few tests, but now was not the time. Finding a way around their shield was more important.
The mage noticed something. It must have been the wind moving strangely, though she did not look down. Had she noticed the sphere of compressed air at her feet, she would have moved.
After incinerating one more peasant, she turned to face Zoe. One hand raised up.
Lightning, probably, Zoe thought as she tensed her legs. Dodging lightning might seem impossible to a layperson, but Zoe knew lightning and she knew magic. The Elysium Order might use slightly different magic, but it had the same principles.
Probably.
The instant Zoe’s enhanced eyes noticed a slight change in the mage’s arm, she threw herself to the ground.
Lightning careened through the spot where she had stood.
Not giving the mage a second chance, Zoe released her control over the compressed air.
The shock wave was like a little bubble expanding outwards. Zoe could see it coming. She pinched her eyes shut just as it rocked over her prone form.
A thundering boom came an instant later.
She tried to pop her ears, but nothing made the high-pitched ringing go away.
Looking up, Zoe found the mage knocked a good twenty feet away, slumped against the wall. Not moving.
Too much force? She deliberately kept it small, relatively speaking. Was it still too much in the end?
Zoe shook her head.
No time to check on her.
The cloud of dust had partially cleared away thanks to the blast, revealing another three mages. All turned to look at Zoe.
“Shit.”
Zoe rolled away as spot she occupied quickly turned into a black scorch mark.
With a flick of her hand, a shield sprung up in front of Zoe.
It fractured and shattered as the mages released two lightning bolts.
The first mage had gotten to her feet.
She reached out, aiming her hand.
With wide eyes, Zoe saw white fire forming at her fingertips.
Buildings, mages, even the sky itself fell as the cool white of between replaced everything.
The opposite end of the prison compound rebuilt itself around Zoe. Far from any nuns.
Adrenaline gave her the strength to stand. That same adrenaline had her hands violently shaking. Zoe tried to wipe the thick layer of sweat coating her hands onto her pants and wound up with a thick layer of damp dirt.
Zoe knew that Genoa was still out there. Fighting. Winning, in all likelihood.
She slumped against whatever building she had teleported against. Devon’s, probably.
Their cloaks hid their faces. All features were obscured save for the brilliant white glow of their eyes. That first and last nun, staring into those eyes as she prepared to incinerate Zoe as she had to those peasants…
A fear-infused shudder ran through her body.
Breathe in, Zoe thought. And out.
A short laugh followed her exhale. To think she’d been worried about using too much force in that compressed air blast.
She should have used more.
Zoe slapped her cheeks, regretting the action immediately. Dirt ground into her sweat-covered cheeks.
Situations like these were exactly why Zoe never went farther in the guild than the initial trials. She liked research. Developing, discovering, and rediscovering secrets of magic were her passions.
Applying those passions to combat did not interest her in the least.
Zoe slapped her cheeks again. This time, she ignored the extra mud her slap smeared around her face. She had to get into the right mindset. The mindset she’d had to adopt when going through the guild’s trials.
The Elysium Order did not play nice. They acted with excessive force and violence.
Zoe let out a small laugh as she ran her fingers through her hair.
With a flick of her dagger, between enveloped the world.
Before the battlefield finished reassembling itself around her, Zoe raised her dagger. She fired off a lightning bolt at the nearest nun.
As expected, it collided with a shield about three inches from the nun’s face.
That was something she could work with.
Without waiting for any kind of retaliation, Zoe teleported.
She couldn’t do the rapid blinking that Genoa was capable of–something she was regretting never taking the time to learn–only the long-range teleportation that Wayne had taught her. Her way took more energy, concentration, and time. Only a few seconds but a few seconds was an eternity in combat.
Zoe reappeared in front of another nun.
The nun was in the process of incinerating another peasant. One who had a hatchet buried in his back.
Hatchets weren’t a weapon used by the order as far as she knew. Zoe didn’t have time to frown.
As the peasant collapsed into a pile of ashes–without a single cry of pain–the nun looked to Zoe.
Who had already been preparing her attack. With the flick of her wrist, a sphere of compressed air exploded. Zoe kept the air shaped so that most of the force would aim towards the nun.
It wasn’t large. She lacked the time to create one as large as earlier. It made up for it by being placed an inch and a half from the nun’s forehead.
The nun’s head snapped back, though no sound of cracking bones reached Zoe’s enhanced ears. The rest of her body staggered for a moment before she fell backwards against the ground. White glow faded from her eyes as she landed.
There was no time to check on the results of her attack. Zoe teleported away just as the lightning from one of the downed nun’s comrades crackled through the spot she had been standing on.
She reappeared just behind the attacking nun and immediately started compressing air next to her head.
As soon as the nun turned to fire, Zoe let the compressed air loose.
The nun’s shield flickered in around her head, only half an inch away.
“Shit.”
Zoe cried out even as the world fell apart around her. She held on to her dagger for dear life. Wayne had warned her about losing control while teleporting. She had no desire to suffer that fate.
When the far side of the compound asserted itself in front of her, Zoe collapsed into the side of the building. Her shoulder slammed into the rough, sandstone bricks.
Her dagger-less hand gripped her side. Zoe winced and immediately let go.
The side of her suit had been burned clean through. A black circle the size of her fist lay just under her right breast. From it, red lines reminiscent of natural lightning snaked down through the side of her body to some point beneath her clothes. Boils and blisters had already started forming.
Zoe took a few deep breaths. She tried not to expand her chest as she did so. Every movement caused pain.
She couldn’t sit idle. Gritting her teeth, Zoe teleported again.
Reappearing at the battlefield, she prepared to evacuate as much air as she could around the first nun she saw.
Blinking, Zoe saw not a single nun apart from the prone nun she had hit a few moments earlier.
The dust settled, flattening against the ground in an instant. A few of the peasants stood around, looking somewhat lost.
Standing where the thickest parts of the dust cloud had been was Genoa. Two nuns, or their remains, lay around her. Genoa glanced around, looking none the worse for wear.
“Tough bitches.”
Zoe didn’t feel up to much besides nodding.
“You’re injured.”
Zoe nodded a second time. She could feel the adrenaline draining out of her. It was making her somewhat tired, though every jolt of pain kept her from falling unconscious on her feet. “Where did they go?” Zoe finally asked.
“Just up and vanished. Teleported away leaving that icy air you leave behind. Cutting their losses, maybe?”