Discover L (Book 2) | Editing |

~~ Pass The Blame ~~

L's smirk widened, and she locked eyes with Andrei before turning invisible before him. She was satisfied by his momentary look of surprise and brought herself around to face him. Using Ogre strength and the magic of the Elves, she threw the dagger as fast as her abilities would allow. With a satisfying thump, it buried itself deep into Andrei's gut. To her dismay, however, he barely reacted to the injury, and L flew up high to avoid a wave of his magic.

Andrei's eyes were nearly bugging out of his head, and he was basically frothing at the mouth. L could see the crazy on his face while the blood trickled down the front of his clothes. She had to end this quickly before he did something drastic and took them all down with him. She weaved around and dodged the spurts of magic he shot out randomly. He couldn't see her, but he must have thought he might get lucky. L had to think fast, and her gaze quickly wandered to the guys' fight.

They were holding their own. Bryce had managed to dispatch a few of the creepy crawlies; their carcasses lay in smoking pieces nearby. Robbie was still fighting with the Abdoria, which had a few more injuries than the last time she'd noticed. L had faith they'd win their fights and wished she could help them do so, but she was dealing with a worse issue.

"Hiding in the middle of a fight? Typical Keepers, cowards. You don't deserve the power you hold. Now come out and fight!"

Andrei's eyes were scanning the whole cavern, and he soon settled on Bryce and Robbie. L knew what he was thinking before he'd even made a move. She acted quickly, running at him and slashing her claws down the length of his back. He did react this time, crying out in pain and fury. She ran around to the front for another go when suddenly a cloud of dust appeared out of nowhere. It clung to L in an unusual way, and she realised a moment later that it was showing exactly where she was.

Andrei let out a cold laugh, and in her moment of confusion, he managed to hit her with a blast of magic. L flew several feet and smacked into the ground. Luckily, she had strengthened her body with Dwarf skin and saved herself several broken bones. She jumped to her feet to face Andrei, attempting to brush the dust off while he shot lightning at her.

"See, you only think you're cleverer. When in actuality, you're an inferior leech who must be stopped from taking advantage of the community."

L rolled her eyes, "You talk absolute crap! I don't think the species the Keepers have helped would agree."

"A few good deeds do not make up for centuries of taking, of failing when it matters. You're done. You're the last, and when you're gone, I can rest."

His words rang in her head, and she tried not to let them reach her heart. There would be time to dwell on that truth later.

"You keep repeating yourself. Do you practice this in the mirror every morning in case you meet me? I think I might be flattered."

L had to sprint to the side when Andrei suddenly ripped a boulder out of the ground and threw it at her. Infusing it with magic meant it barely missed L by a hair. Despite this, she smirked and spat venom in his general direction. Andrei was enraged, and he was getting creative. L wracked her brains for something that could take him. Unfortunately, the two of them were too evenly matched, and she hated that. Even the blood from his wounds had stopped flowing, which meant he was healing himself.

She needed something stronger to take him down or to find a better distraction. She skimmed her knowledge stores for anything that might help defeat a Warlock. There were a number of instances, but in most of them the Warlock was killed before they knew what happened or taken down by several other Warlocks. Keepers had never had a personal issue with them before and therefore never had to fight one head-on. Negotiations were the first line of defence for Keepers, but she knew they were way past that stage.