Elder Feather flew in the sky, her robes rippling like storm clouds, ready to unleash havoc. Wind beneath her spiraling like a hovering disc, each controlled current a testament to her decades of mastery. Her staff pointed at Validus, and from its tip, a burst of tornado blasted toward him. The High Sage, however, stood still, waving an empty hand nonchalantly, a thin brown earthly glow surrounding it as he casually deflected the wind, swatting it away toward an unfortunate tree. A section of its trunk tore free, causing the tree to tip over and fall with a slow and hard thud. The sound echoed across the loud battlefield, like a drum beating to the grand battle, drawing momentary glances from the combatants near it before they quickly turned back and locked themselves once more in their own desperate struggles.

  “Come now, are you really testing my capabilities even now? With the chaos around us? You wily crow, no wonder you survived for such a long time, always so cautious. Though…” Validus gave a wide smile as he continued. “I do find it pays to understand one’s opponent before committing to a strategy, it’s a good trait to have, one that I can respect.”

  “Your reputation is well earned to be able to focus your Terraquill to such a degree...” The Elder of the Sky Children clan said as she gazed at her enemy.

  Feather thrust her staff forward once more, sending a concentrated lance of pressurized air screaming toward him. The wind pulled the rocks and branches from the ground, shredding them apart as they drew close. Validus raised an eyebrow and pointed a finger at the lance of wind. A boulder the size of a cow glowed with a thin brown layer and launched itself at the screaming wind. Yet that did little to impede the attack, the wind responded by ripping through the boulder and turning it into dust. The pulverized stone created a brief sandstorm between them.

  Validus nodded as he quickly reached up to grasp the chain and crystals hanging from his neck. The plum-sized gems flared with a soft light as the chain extended, each crystal pulsing with an inner radiance as if beating to the sounds of the battlefield around them.

  He spun the weapon in a graceful arc before launching the beautiful weapon forward, its crystal gleaming in the air and ready to meet the wind-lance head-on. When the crystal touched the screaming winds, the air suddenly stilled. The pressurized lance began to slow rapidly, its howling roar fading to a whisper in a mere second before it became nothingness. The debris that had been spinning in the wind's grip dropped to the ground in a scattered rain of twigs and stones as the attack dissolved around the glowing crystal.

  Feather followed immediately with a sweeping gesture, her staff cleaving the air in sharp strokes, the very air itself responding to her motions in the form of bladed winds erupting from each swing to slice toward the High Sage. Validus swung his arm, the weapon dancing with his every movement masterfully intercepting the first two blades with one crystal head. Upon impact the wind blade shrieked and collapsed into a whisper, just as the screaming lance did before it, the crystal glowing faintly in the winds remains.

  Another trio of blades screamed toward him. This time, he spun on his heel and lashed out with the opposite head. A thunderclap cracked through the air on impact, erupting from the gem in a focused blast. The release struck the incoming deadly wind like a hammer against glass, creating visible ripples in the air that distorted the world behind them before shattering the attacks in a flash of dispersed energy.

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  Elder Feather’s eyes widened in recognition. “Those weapons, they can absorb the force of my attacks and also unleash the absorbed energy. To think that you have such a terrible weapon in your possession.”

  “Quite the eye. This weapon is a relic of the church and, I might add, one of the most powerful quill enchanted weapons in the world,” Validus replied, his voice calm, collected, and full of confidence. His hammers spun in mesmerizing patterns, crystals gleaming in the sunlight hypnotically, each rotation promising to destroy whatever came its way, to consume its force and make it its own.

  “Well then, let’s see what the weakness is,” she said in frustration, her weathered fingers tightening around her staff.

  Elder Feather gestured sharply upward, commanding the power of wind, calling it forth in a spiraling updraft meant to launch him skyward and leaving him vulnerable to her domain. As the air caught him however, his feet lifting from the ground, one of the crystal weapons whipped toward her head with lethal precision. The Elder twisted through the air with ease—but in the split second it took her to dodge, Validus was already back on solid ground. Stone erupted from the earth, hugging his feet and locking him in place.

  Feather spun in the air just in time, her staff intercepting the chain mid-swing. A burst of wind exploded outward the moment the crystal links began wrapping around the weapon. She had no intention of being dragged into close quarters with the High Sage.

  Grounded by his earthen anchors, Validus commanded the stone to turn with him, and it answered like a living platform, feet rotating with him as he pivoted, skillfully drawing both crystal heads back to him.

  The two continued their deadly exchange going back and forth for a few seconds. Her winds tearing his attacks apart and redirecting them, his hammers absorbed each gust and unleashed the energy back countering with thunderous attacks that shook the air itself.

  The Elder found herself filled with worry, a cold dread washing over; she did not expect the High Sage to be so well versed in the art of combat, and combined with those terrible weapons, he was able to match her blow for blow. The bitter truth was that while she had stronger and more devastating attacks, she could not unleash them because of the other members of her tribe scattered across the battlefield. Still, that did little to comfort her; after all, sages were known for their command over quill arts, not martial prowess, and Validus, with his thin earthen curtain alone, had shown an immense mastery over it. Feather knew with certainty that he was toying with her, perhaps it was caution to evaluate her threat level but…

  He was smiling; High Sage Validus, from time to time she noticed during the battle that he was smiling. Such as this very moment as he destroyed her attacks with his weapon, the man had a smile, not one of malice, or a taunting smile, but the smile of a child playing with a new toy, a smile that was already in the midst of being repressed, turned into a neutral expression, yet still, the truth was unmistakable: he was having fun! She knew she was not the strongest quill wielder in the Stormy Isles, she did not have a blinding pride that would drive her to claiming such a title, yet few quills on the isles could claim to be stronger than her, and those who could were among the ones who competed for the title of strongest of their time.

  She was a master of her craft, honed through decades of dedication. Well known and well respected in the isles, no one who knew of her would dare call her weak. Yet this man…

  He had smiled a moment ago. A child at play.

  That in itself could only bring forth a feeling that could be explained in a single word.

  Dread.