Let It Burn

8 ~ Defeated

Cora stomped over to Kaede. She jabbed a finger into his chest, then looked up to meet his eyes. "If you lay even a finger on him, I'll slaughter you."

Kaede smiled. It wasn't a smirk, and it didn't seem to show any violent intent. But his words did. "Well now that doesn't seem fair. You have a finger on me, so does that mean I get to slaughter you?"

Iesane rolled her eyes, then started dragging Haydn over to Kittria. "Take him to the infirmary; get Maiwin to help you. I'll monitor this while you get him some assistance."

Kittria nodded and slung Haydn's arm over her shoulder, and they walked away from the newfound battle. Kittria's only guess as to why Iesane would allow this was she wanted to see Kaede's capabilities.

Cora waited for Kaede to make the first move. And he did. His hands lit up with sparks, and then he lunged forwards to try and touch Cora's arm. She swiftly leaned out of the way, and Kaede tumbled to the floor.

Cora looked down at him wearily, then pulled her glasses from her face. In a swift movement, she snapped them in half.

"What was the purpose of doing that?" Kaede asked as he popped back up. His hair was being held up by static, and the air around them started to smell of electricity.

"Just give it a moment," Cora said, dodging another attempt to have her get shocked. And then, out of what seemed to be nowhere, Cora's eyes started pouring out immense amounts of tears. Boiling hot tears.

"What the hell?" Kaede yelped as the water started burning his skin. From their watching point, Iesane tapped Lumin's shoulder and he rose them away from the ground in anticipation of the next most obvious move.

Kaede plunged his hands into the water, causing electricity to flow directly up to Cora's eyes. But just before the surge of yellow energy touched her, she closed her eyes; cutting off the gateway to her head. She herself was clinging onto one of the wooden posts holding up the walls, but that didn't disable her.

With a mumble, the water turned to ice. Kaede's hands were still in the water, so he was rendered defenseless as Cora dropped off the wall and onto the ice. Her boots clicked as she made her very short walk to her opponent. With a heavy kick to the stomach, Kaede felt bile rise to his throat and he kept it in as best he could.

Cora snapped her fingers. A new pair of glasses appeared in hands, and she flicked them open and put them on. Then, she squatted down and put a hand under Kaede's chin and forced him to look at her.

"If you lay even a finger on him, I'll slaughter you."

She then proceeded to melt and absorb the ice in the room, leaving only the ice that trapped Kaede. "Iesane, do what you please with him."

Lumin set Iesane and himself down on the ground, and Iesane offered a momentary smile of congratulations to Cora. Cora accepted it, then smiled back.

They parted their different ways.

Cora and Lumin made their way through the maze of hallways to the infirmary, where once inside they were greeted warmly by Kittria.

"So who won?" Kittria asked.

"That's a stupid question. He used elementals, which is disappointing, I guess. Just plain old lightning magic from what I could tell. And he was cocky, which didn't help him at all," Cora said. "So how's ponytail doing?"

"Haydn? He's fine, I guess. I think he expected himself to be able to do more, but he's in the acceptance phase of realizing he's weak."

"Well anyways," Cora said, "with all these new guys, I haven't had a chance to tell either of you this." She eyed Lumin and Kittria.

She continued, "You know the Hahai, right?" Kittria and Lumin nodded. "Apparently, she broke out of the fairy base. Which shouldn't be possible, since she can't use magic. But it happened, and she's coming to our branch."

"Wait, are you serious?" Kittria asked.

Cora nodded. Before she could continue, a blonde head popped out from behind one of the curtains. Maiwin.

"New guy asks 'what are you saying?' I think he's jealous," Maiwin called.

"Tell him we'll explain later," Lumin called back.

They turned back to their conversation. "So you're telling us that the Hahai, the singular source of magic energy throughout the entire world, is coming here?" Kittria restated.

"Yes, that's what I said. And based on my predictions, she'll be walking into this very room in three, two, one."

And then the door swung open.