Spark of War (Progression Fantasy)

Nexin's flight screamed through the air, twin lines in the cobblestones beneath him warping from the heat of his blades as he raced towards his opponent. But, for as fast Nexin was, the black and white humanoid was somehow just as quick.

Midway between where they'd started, the two challengers met. One of Nexin's swords whipped around, burning so hot it triggered small explosions in the air itself as it passed, to slam into the dark water shield. If he'd expected the barrier to break, bend, or even budge, he'd have been surprised. Instead, his attention was already on the trident coming in hard from the other side, and his sword angled to intercept.

The force behind the strike was nothing to scoff at, Nexin's flame armor pulsing in response to reinforce his muscles and arm enough to repel the attack. No sooner had the two exchanged – and blocked – each other's opening probe, than they rotated where they stood, blows raining down from both sides. Nexin's swords were a burning blur of fiery arcs, heat whipping off him in great waves while the orange lines in the blackened road glowed brighter as the temperature rose.

Opposite him, the humanoid's dark-water weapons didn't behave at all like they should when met with pure plasma. There was no steam. No change in shape when his blows struck. If anything, the substance acted like a solid material, as strong as any metal or stone Nexin had seen.

Just like the hardened flames the Firestorm produced from their Sparks.

And the similarities didn't end there, the dark-water trident changing shape mid-swing. The three, barbed prongs congealed even as Nexin moved to parry the incoming thrust, then reformed into a single, vicious spike. One that darted past Nexin's sword, which had been placed to catch between the other weapon's tines. Plasma spit and flared, the spear dragging across the side of Nexin's chest, though he'd managed to dodge the worst of it. The weapon didn't punch through his flame armor, but he still felt a sharp pinch along his ribs. Putting aside the discomfort – it couldn't even really be called pain, though it'd probably bruise – he hauled his out-of-place sword back across in front of him.

With what had been a missed parry suddenly becoming an opportunity to attack behind his opponent's guard, Nexin watched closely for his enemy's counter. Impossibly fast, the back end of the spear rotated up and around to rest on the top of the ivory white wrist, cleanly blocking Nexin's attack like an immovable, anchored pole. The versatility of the weapon continued to shine from there, the spike at Nexin's side shifting again in his peripheral vision.

Thousands of hours of combat experience – the 'benefit' of the almost never-ending war with Guld – along with his own natural talents had him stepping to the side. Just in time, too, with the spear head erupting into a ball of foot-long spines that would've skewered him a dozen places if they'd punched through his flame armor.

Escaping that attack had, however, shown his opponent one of his trump cards. The flame-step, as he'd taken to calling it in his head, was a powerful movement ability that could've ended the fight with the right opening. It still could, in fact, but something about his enemy's stance screamed at Nexin's instincts that it wouldn't be so easy now. Then again, Nexin had learned more about that dark-water weapon being used against him. It changed shapes even faster than his own flames, and was at least on par when it came to hardness and power.

The shield in his opponent's left hand likely held the same properties, even if it hadn't been used yet. Both sides had shown at least one of the cards up their sleeves, but there were sure to be more to come. That was fine. The more he learned now, the more he'd be able to warn the others when they had to deal with something like…

The others.

The sudden thought had Nexin quickly scanning both sides of the street, even as the black and white opponent lunged in his direction again. Already, their battle – and mainly Nexin's power – had slagged the section of the road where they fought, parts of the charcoal-black stone having melted. The nearby buildings weren't faring much better, with their stone walls running, and the soldiers on the roofs backing away from the blazing heat. If they continued battling there, he'd do just as much damage to the defenses as the Depths would.

He needed to move the fight.

Taking the split second to assess the situation cost Nexin the initiative, his opponent charging in and opening up with a barrage of powerful trident thrusts. Back in the weapon's original configuration, its wielder rotated its wrist in subtle but efficient motions, changing the positions of the deadly spines with every new thrust.

Parry, dodge, parry, parry, Nexin intercepted each of the blazing attacks, concussive blasts of air slamming outward with each thrust. The ones he parried each hit like a strong, buffeting wind – though his flame armor easily dissipated the kinetic force as heat – but the one he'd dodged shattered the wall behind him. Cries of surprise and panic echoed out above him, even as stones and bodies began to fall, while another thrust angled for Nexin's face.

If he parried, the concussive trail that followed every strike would set off his flame armor again, barbequing any of the Pilish soldiers who survived the fall. If he dodged, it would be even worse. No use holding back now! His enemy's weapon may be able to change form quickly, but Nexin was no slouch either.

Sword already mid-swing, Nexin reforged the molten plasma in his hand, thinning the middle of the blade while widening the top, into a heavy hammer. The weapon was neither pretty nor stable, but the head of it was large enough to completely meet the thrust of the trident. And that wasn't all he had prepared, flaring his power at the moment of contact.

Already unstable from the rushed alteration of the weapon, cracks of bleeding fire erupted across the hammer at the same time flames gushed out of the front of it. Meeting the concussive wave head on, the two forces blasted outward in a vertical ring of rolling fire to either side of them. Burning patches dotted the black and white forearm, and the monster only had a fraction of a second for its dark eyes to widen before Nexin's foot slammed into his chest.

The 'simple' straight kick launched the humanoid back to smash into the building across the street. Into and through.

Nexin winced as the cracks spread up the heavy wall, soldiers at the top only just beginning to react to the unstable foundation beneath their feet. He couldn't spend more time worrying about them, though, and his weapons transformed into the familiar shape of a fiery bow. Less than a heartbeat condensed it into its plasma state while Nexin drew and released an arrow. Before the bolt was even a dozen feet in front of him, a second was in place. This one, he didn't immediately release, instead pushing power into his wings and shooting into the air. As soon as his feet left the ground, then he let his arrow loose and prepared a third while he gained altitude.

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Release, and the arrow shot off to join the other two, all three of them wham, wham, whamming into the dust falling from inside the broken building. Unlike most of his other arrows, Nexin hadn't imbued those with the explosive force he usually used. Sure, dropping a building on his opponent was always a valid strategy – except when said building was already stuffed full with people he'd hopefully be calling allies by the end of the day. Instead, he'd refined the projectiles' penetrating power, aiming to pierce through his enemy's defense.

Or, at least get its attention.

Given the reaction, he'd gotten a little of both as he cleared the roofs and continued into the air, another arrow ready on his bow. Stone exploded outward from the building to shower the opposite side of the street, the black and white warrior busting free like the wall was little more than paper in its way. A thick wound ran high across its chest and the inside of its left arm. It must've tried to block one of the arrows with its shield, but hadn't gotten it up in time. Blue blood ran down its side, coating its abdomen to its waist, but the injury didn't seem to be slowing it in the least. Dark water cupped its lower half, making it look like it stood within a constantly expanding pillar of the strange liquid.

Then it shot up like a geyser.

Nexin released his next shot directly in its path – after making sure it wouldn't strike the Pilish lines if he missed. And it was a good thing he did. Demonstrating uncanny agility, the warrior corkscrewed around the shot – as well as the next one – to close the distance on Nexin even though he'd climbed more than two hundred feet into the sky.

Now, almost on top of him, Nexin feinted releasing the next arrow formed on his bow, then morphed his weapon into the shape of a large axe the moment the warrior moved to dodge. Down and around, the large axe came, condensing to plasma even as Nexin swung, and directly into the path of the evading warrior. Again, however, the thing showed agility beyond what the apparently one-directional thrust should possess, turning just enough to catch Nexin's axe on its shield, its other arm coming up to brace the barrier as well.

WHAM, the impact shook the sky, and Nexin's eyes locked on the inch-deep cut the edge of his axe had driven into the shield. If he…

Movement on his other side had his snapping in that direction, but he was too late. A sweeping kick had burst out of the pillar of jetting liquid, a spike of dark water already shaped on the toe. Nexin's mind boggled at the fact the motion of the water had lulled him into thinking the warrior could only move in one direction – and that it even needed that motion to move – before the strike reached him.

Flame armor flared molten orange as it tried to turn the kinetic force into pure heat. The air around the pair suddenly jumped dozens of degrees in response, small pops sounding like dried paper crackling. It was a valiant effort on the part of his magic, though it wasn't enough. The absurdly powerful kick drove the tip of the spike past Nexin's protection – and into the flesh just above his hip. Pain shot across his abdomen, as if his entire left side was about to shatter like glass, but it passed a second later, his reflexes already shooting him away.

More flesh tore as the arc of the kick ripped the tip of the spike out of his side, and a shower of red blood joined the blue raining down on the fort town below them. Nexin took another step to put more distance between him and his opponent, then took a quick second to assess the injury. It wasn't too bad, the power of his flame armor and his natural reaction ensuring it only drove about an inch deep. Still, it was wide enough he could stick three fingers in, and it wasn't a small amount of blood coming out.

He needed to take care of that quickly.

One eye on the enemy who hadn't immediately given chase, Nexin reached down with his right hand and pressed his palm against the hole in his side. A flash of power cauterized the wound, smoke and the smell of burning flesh wafting up from the ignition. When he took his hand away, the flow of blood had stopped, and the magic of his Spark would soon begin the real healing process. In a few days – at most – he'd be as good as new.

Assuming the warrior glaring and clicking obscenities at him didn't punch any more holes in him.

Wait… obscenities? How was he even able to understand the strange, clicking language?

It didn't matter.

Nexin clenched his fists and coronas of visible plasma burst to life around them, even as a stream of dark water left the churning whirlpool beneath his opponent to form again into the shape of the trident. That was what had pierced Nexin's flame armor. The warrior didn't need to wield the trident in its hands.

Another point learned. How many tricks did it have left? Time to find out.

Out of Nexin's shoulders, his six small wings flared and grew, each reaching the size of his normal two. Then, from them, small plasma flares shot off around him, scorching the air with audible sizzles. Where they ended, lines of plasma rotated to life to hang in the sky. One after the other, it only took a second for a dozen, then two dozen flaming spears to appear.

Another clicking curse escaped the warrior's lips as Nexin launched the barrage directly at it, and it shot up to evade. Flames seared lines across the sky, and the warrior glared down triumphantly at Nexin at having dodged his fancy attack. Only to find a dozen more of the spears now aiming up at it. It'd barely registered their presence before they were after it. Another narrow escape from the surprisingly fast projectiles, and the warrior's eyes widened further upon spotting even more spears.

Except, these ones weren't all in one place. No, Nexin had spread them in a semi-circle around the warrior. All at once, they shot for it, making it so it would be nearly impossible for the warrior to keep dodging. And it didn't try to, its shield expanding like a dome in front to block the incoming barrage.

Step.

Nexin appeared behind the warrior even as the fusillade of spears crashed into the shield, his fist already coming around. Sensing something wrong, the warrior's head began to turn…

WHAAAAAAAAM, Nexin's punch struck with the force of a meteor in the center of the warrior's back. Bones cracked at the point of impact, the flesh and muscle distorting as Nexin's fist buried itself into the monster, before the sheer power blasted the thing down at an angle to crash into the milling – and shocked – horde of the Depths. A second WHAM announced the warrior's meeting with the ground, dust and stone rising into the air as the black and white body scoured a line fifty feet long into the earth.

Before it even had a chance to get up, another barrage of Nexin's wing spears peppered the ground and the nearby horde. These spears had the usual explosive property, and domes of fiery carnage tore through the army. Unstopping, Nexin poured on the assault until it almost looked like a torrential rain of fire fell on the monsters.

Ten seconds of that had even Nexin feeling the burn, though, and he finally ceased his attacks, senses primed for any movement or counterattack. Bodies – and pieces of them – littered the ground as the smoke and fire cleared. Blue blood coated the pitted earth all around, except for where a dome of dark water stood torn and running.

As if it sensed the assault finally over, the warrior let its shield drop – though it didn't look like it would've been able to maintain it much longer anyway. As soon as the dome fell, it sloshed off the warrior's arm to splash on the ground, its magic shredded. Its wielder didn't look much better.

It's left leg from the knee down was completely gone – though the warrior had replaced the limb with more dark water – while a dozen other wounds scarred its body. All of the white had been stained blue from the blood, and half of its bottom jaw was simply missing. Blood and saliva dripped down from where the long tongue constantly felt at the wound, like it couldn't believe what was missing.

Despite all that – and a missing eye surrounded by scorched flesh – the warrior pointed its trident in Nexin's direction as if to say the fight was far from over.

Nexin cracked his knuckles in return.

Good. More time to hone his powers, and he stepped down to remind anybody watching – the Depths included – that to step into the sky, into his territory, was a death sentence.