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She groaned and pushed through the pain, rising once more to her feet. She should have known it was too good to be true. He had been pissed. Then she felt the shift in the ground and knew he was coming for another attack. As mad as he is I'll be lucky to walk away from this just sore, she thought, but I'll be damned if I let him get the upper hand on me again. I've had enough of these games. She braced herself and rolled her shoulders, closing her eyes she concentrated and 'listened' to the tones of her surroundings. Just before a boulder the width of her body could slam into her, she moved quickly to her right. With little effort than she had needed two weeks ago, she stopped it before it hit the ground and returned it to its sender. The fool had revealed his location too easily, which meant he was fighting off of emotions, she had him this time. She smiled. This time she would use all of her abilities to take him down.

Sam be damned. She was fire and she wouldn't deny what lived and breathed in every essence of her being. As the boulder flew to its destination she lit it up and watched with great satisfaction as the glow filled the gloom of the evening air. She heard him curse. She laughed to herself, another mistake old friend. The upper hand was now hers. She pinpointed his location and moved the earth apart creating a cavity wide enough that he would not be able to engage her from his front, causing him to retreat. He was close to the edge of the pond, so she pooled some of the smaller grainy pieces of earth from there to swirl, lighting it on fire as it grew in speed. With a thought she sent it to his right side and she elated when she heard him cry out yet again. Then she advanced on him as quickly as she could, not wanting him to regain his composure. She 'built a bridge' and crossed the cavity she had just created and met him face to face. His expression was priceless when she slammed into him full force. She gathered the strength of her fire within her palms and began striking him back with quick jabs to leave him flustered, then swept his feet knocking him to the ground.

Pinned and looking up at her, she allowed the flames to engulf her hands, holding her palms flat towards his chest she asked. "Do you surrender?" He scowled, but refused to answer. She built the flames higher, allowing them to grow and expand. The heat did not affect her, but she saw as the sweat began to pour from his temples. His jet black hair sticking to his forehead. She leaned in closer, if she allowed her flames to go any brighter it would be enough to melt away his skin. "I asked...Do. You. Surrender?"

"Yes...Uncle. Christ La'llia. Put the damn flames away!"

Satisfied, she backed away and quickly extinguished the infernos that had engulfed her hands and forearms. "You made too many mistakes today Sam." She reached down to offer him a hand up, which he scoffed at and simply rolled to his side to rise unassisted.

"I've told you before, I don't need to see your fire skills La'llia." He said angrily. "I wasn't sent here to teach you how to manipulate fire. You are quite skilled in that respect, maybe the best I have ever encountered."

"And I told you, I can't deny what I am. Using both will be to my advantage, and today I have proved just that. You're just pissed because I can pull it from within me and you have to use your surroundings."

He shot her an angry glare then. "That's all well and good, but today I won't be cleaning up the mess we've made. Let it be your last lesson. Fix what has been done, restore it to what it was before as if we were never here."

She smirked at him, knowing she had really made him angry with her taunts, but did as he asked. She saw the look on his face as she quickly closed the cavity she had created and lifted the boulder he had sent flying at her placing it just within the edges of the trees that surrounded her property. "I don't know where you got it from, so that will have to do." She could tell from the line of his shoulders that he was not as happy that she had progressed as well as she had. She narrowed her eyes and thought. Did he want me to fail? After a quick look at his clothing, she noticed her little trick with the fire sand had done a bit of damage to his forearm and upper thigh. "You should have Christian look at that before you leave today."

Eternal Code: La'lliia's FireWhere stories live. Discover now