The Lightning Mage

28 | The Hardest Pill to Swallow

A monster. Neil was just like a monster.

Finally, Lyn escaped out of the hellish, unending slash-fest. She stood a safe distance from Neil, eyeing the tall man warily while catching her breath at last.

"Wow, you're really going all out," she said, as she wiped her sweaty face.

"Not really." Neil shrugged. "I've just been in way more duels than you since I'm a fighter." His voice was calm and stoic, a stark contrast to Lyn's breathless gasps.

Lyn felt the stares from the rest of her team, and her blood rose to her face. "Well, I'm not all out, too," she grumbled before slamming her hands down.

A bright streak of lightning blasted across the studio. It missed Neil by an inch as he leaped away. As Lyn sent a few more strikes towards the fighter, he avoided all of them, running in a zig-zag line, lunging towards her. His cool composure caught Lyn by surprise. Most people would usually be scared out of their wits by this flashy display of power, or at least be caught off-guard by one of the rarest elemental magic in the world—but Neil did not seem to be affected in any way.

Soon, Neil made his way next to Lyn; behind him, smoking scorch marks traced his path.

Lyn tried to shoot another bolt of lightning at him, but since he was so close, she could not generate a strong enough charge to reach him—the resulting impact was so weak that the swordsman dissipated it with a mere tilt of his blade. The next thing she knew, Neil's weapon was flying towards her.

Sensing danger, Lyn raised her hands to the sky. The windowpane sitting under the ceiling smashed into smithereens as a blazing light ripped through the window, across the room, and then right into the small space between Lyn and Neil.

The force from that lightning pushed both of them away from each other. Lyn fell backward, her arms burning in pain as she slid across the floor. She had never aimed a strike from the sky—the most powerful lightning she could ever summon—this close towards herself, and damn, this was not fun at all. Smoke engulfed her, making it difficult to breathe or see.

Before she could even push herself up, however, the smoke around her cleared.

It seemed that Neil had recovered much faster than Lyn. He was standing over Lyn, his large blade pointing at her neck.

The entire room was silent for a while, except for the sizzling noise from where the lightning struck, and the tinkling sound from shards of glass that were still falling onto the floor.

Lyn was defeated.

Sure, she had been defeated countless times in jail, but she had disregarded all of them. But right now, she was outside, free from the cursed magic sensor, free from the enclosed space of the prison halls.

And she was still defeated.

"Okay, okay..." she mumbled, staring at the shiny blade in front of her. "I... I lose, you win. You're as good as I expected."

Neil let out a chuckle before keeping his sword. "And your magic is as impressive as I imagined too." He held out his hand. "It's a real honor to finally see it up close."

Lyn grabbed his hand. "Well, it's obviously not good enough to beat you though."

"I told you, I've been in way more duels," Neil said as he pulled her up from the ground. "If you ever want to beat me, you should learn to rely on skills beyond your magic."

A small scowl appeared on Lyn's face. "What do you mean?"

Neil raised his eyebrows knowingly. "Just saying, you're the type that brute-forced your way through life, and that won't work against me."

Lyn's eyes twitched. The inside of her mouth had turned bitter and coarse, but she forced a smile. "Well, thank goodness I'll never have to fight you for real."

"Yeah, I hope you never have to."

She turned to the rest of the team, who was still standing in a corner, mouth agape. "Well, I guess he's in?" she said with a soft, nervous laugh. "He's... he's good, right?"

Millie was the first to snap out of her shell-shocked state. "Yeah, he is!" she exclaimed. Next to her, Raph was so flabbergasted that his face had completely lost color.

"Jeez, you really put elemental mages to shame, Lyn." Irene crossed her arms and snorted.

"Shut up..." Lyn mumbled, her face was still hot with embarrassment. "Anyway, welcome to the team, Neil. See you tomorrow for our team meeting?"

"Sure."

Lyn brushed the soot off from her top and hair. "Okay, see the rest of you tomorrow too," she muttered with her head lowered, "I'm gonna go get a drink now."

"Oh, where to—" Irene began to speak, but she stopped when Lyn turned around abruptly.

"Sorry Irene, I'm tired, I'm just gonna go by myself," Lyn said. Her tone might have come out a little too curt for her liking, but she was too distracted to care.

Carefully avoiding eye contact with her team members, she stormed out of the training studio.

ϟ☁ϟ☁ϟ

A/N: Oof, Lyn is suuuch a sore loser, amirite? xD jk, hope y'all enjoyed the fight scene, and that tiny sneak peak from Lyn's jail time.