"Shit. I think this is it. This is the part where they finally hang me."
I was flat on my back in the obsidian dust, watching Jessica Tiulo approach like a silver-clad omen of death. In that moment, I didn't have the luxury of worrying about Folia's missing eye or Yulea's unconscious form. My survival instincts were screaming, clawing at the inside of my skull, looking for a way—any way—to keep my heart beating for one more minute.
Then, Prince Arsehole found his voice. Through the blood and the soot, Folia roared, "Celosia! Remember! Your Absorption Magic only works if no one knows the trick behind it!"
I froze. Jessica heard it too. She paused, her diamond-sharp eyes narrowing as she shifted her stance. She was wary now. She actually believed I was a magical sponge capable of stripping her of her essence.
Folia, you magnificent bastard, I thought. I never imagined I'd say this, but I think I actually like the guy. He'd seen through my "Lie Magic" long ago. He knew I'd lied about my powers, and instead of exposing me, he used my own lie to create a psychological shield. He fed Jessica a false threat to buy me time. But how the hell did he know I was lying in the first place? Is he really that much smarter than me?
I didn't have time to ponder the Prince's IQ. I had to move. My left foot was a charred ruin, the bone literally turned to ash by Jessica's white flames. Gritting my teeth until they felt like they would shatter, I reached into my Shadow Shaping. I didn't just create an external tool; I pushed the shadows into my own flesh. I sculpted "Shadow Bones" to replace the incinerated calcium, a dark, vibrating graft that allowed me to stand. It hurt like a thousand needles being driven into my marrow, but it worked. I could fight.
Jessica wasn't impressed. She raised her blade, and the sky seemed to fracture. "White Flame Arrows," she whispered.
Hundreds of streaks of holy fire descended like a meteor shower. The woman was done playing games. I pushed my Shadow Blade Magic to the absolute limit, spinning my dark constructs in a frantic, humming shield to parry the arrows. Each impact felt like a hammer blow to my ribs, but I held the line.
I hated her. I hated how deep her well of magic was. But it didn't matter. I didn't want her flames. I wanted the prize—the Sawing Sun of the Four Colors. If I could steal that, I'd have a weapon that could level mountains. Sure, I'd have to train for a decade to match her mastery—she was at least twenty-two years older than me, after all—but time was the one thing I planned on having plenty of.
To get her to use it, I had to provoke her. I had to make her angry enough to stop being careful.
I unleashed everything. Twenty Shadow Blades, five Shadow-Shaped Dragons, and a tidal wave of raw darkness. Jessica realized the scale of the attack a fraction of a second too late. As my shadows closed in, she finally pulled the trigger on her ultimate technique.
The elegance of it was sickening. Four miniature suns ignited in a halo around her: one violet, one white, one blue, and one a terrifying, abyssal black. In the center, hovering behind her back, was a primary sun that pulsed with the collective power of the others.
"Now or nothing," I hissed.
Jessica launched the violet sun first. I dodged by a hair's breadth, the heat singeing my hair even though I was thirty meters away. Before I could recover, the blue sun streaked forward. It grazed my left shoulder, and holy hell, did it burn. It felt like my skin was being peeled off by a red-hot grater.
Then came the white sun. It was aimed straight for my heart. I was too slow. I was dead.
Suddenly, a streak of violet-black lightning intercepted the sun. Folia had stepped in, his charred arm hanging limp, his one good eye blazing as he used his sword magic to deflect the solar orb.
Jessica was livid. "Interfering royalty," she spat, turning her full attention to Folia. She decided to end him with the black sun—the most unstable of the four.
She ignored me. It was the biggest mistake of her life.
As the black sun roared toward Folia, he braced himself, using the last of his strength to parry the recoil. I moved through the shadows, appearing directly behind Jessica. She was so focused on the Prince that she didn't sense me until I was inches away. I intended to tap her on the shoulder to initiate the "absorption" (the lie), but as I lunged, my shadow-foot slipped on the obsidian sand.
Instead of her shoulder, my hand landed squarely on her backside.
The magic transfer happened instantly. I felt the "Sawing Sun" essence being ripped from her and flowing into my palm. But the reaction was just as fast. Jessica let out a shriek of pure, insulted rage and kicked me with enough force to launch a boulder.
I went flying. I hit a tree fifty meters away with a thud that definitely broke a few ribs. Worth it, I thought, feeling the new, solar energy humming in my core.
Jessica was shaking. Her strongest magic was gone, stolen by a "perverted street rat." She tried to summon her white flames to incinerate me where I lay, but she was exhausted and distracted. Folia didn't miss the opening. He channeled a massive Anemo-Kyro Whirlwind, a freezing tornado that caught Jessica off guard and slammed her into the ground, knocking her unconscious.
The remaining Shadow Hunters didn't wait around. "Curse these knights!" one of them yelled. "Forget them! We kill the dragon hatchling now and get out of here!"
"Ilea!" I gasped, trying to stand. My body felt like it was made of lead and broken glass. I managed to limp over to Folia, who was leaning against his sword, breathing heavily. "What do we do?"
The Prince looked at the unconscious Jessica, then at me. "First," he panted, "we tie this bitch up. Jessica Tiulo is too valuable—and too dangerous—to leave behind."
"And then?"
"I take Yulea on my shoulder. You take Jessica. We find the dragon, kill every last one of those hunter bastards, and we get the hell off this island. Understood?"
"Why take her with us?" I asked, looking at the silver-haired knight.
"Because," Folia grinned, though it looked more like a snarl with his missing eye, "she's the only one who can't tell the King what happened if she's our prisoner. Now, do as I say, or I'll leave you here to rot."
I did what he told me. I bound Jessica with shadow-silk and hoisted her onto my shoulder—which was incredibly heavy, by the way. Folia grabbed Yulea, then looked at me. "Hold on tight, cockroach."
He activated his Anemo magic, and for the first time, we weren't running. We were flying. We soared over the jungle, heading straight for the Great Nest where Ilea was being held.
Until next time, when the rescue begins.