Just as the lightning surged forward, Thunderbird yanked Ferrum Ignis back into position and grabbed hold of Voltbrand's blade with his own wand, halting the surge of electricity with sheer force and will.
Then, without pause, Thunderbird focused his magic into the ruptured shield. The glowing scarlet barrier trembled, and with a twist of power, it began to close around the lodged sword. In just a few seconds, it locked down on Voltbrand like a vice.
"Drink!" he bellowed, voice echoing with raw magic.
In the next moment, blue Fiendfire erupted around him in a ferocious ring, the flames howling to life and crashing toward Alex with the same overwhelming power he'd used during the pursuit a year ago. The deadly wave of flame surged forward like a tidal wave, threatening to engulf Alex in one devastating sweep, and disarm him in the process.
'So that's your plan? Force me to retreat and trap the sword?' Alex thought, sensing the pressure of the clamping barrier tightening on Voltbrand. He tried to pull it free, but it was locked too tight to budge for now.
But instead of panic, a cold smile crept onto his face. 'That's wishful thinking.'
This battle wasn't like their last encounter. This time, Alex had come prepared. He'd run the tactics through his head a hundred times, he wasn't caught off guard, and he wasn't going to throw away the advantage he'd fought to earn.
Retreating was out of the question. Getting this close had been a struggle, and giving up now would only lead to a drawn-out mana duel, something Thunderbird would likely win in the long run due to his larger reserves.
He needed a counter. Fast.
Without missing a beat, Alex reached into a pocket on the front of his tactical vest. With a quick flick, he revealed a small enchanted flask clipped to his gear, his travel water bottle, deceptively ordinary on the outside.
With a hiss of magic, the flask opened and unleashed a torrent of enchanted water that spilled upward and around his body. Within seconds, it had flowed across his limbs and torso, solidifying into a sleek, shimmering armor of water.
The roaring blue flames struck, but instead of swallowing him whole, they met the water shield and stopped. The two elements collided in a violent clash, but the Fiendfire couldn't penetrate the enchanted liquid. The swirling blue inferno broke apart, deflected and extinguished on contact, steam hissing from every inch of Alex's body as the water armor held firm.
Even though the raging Fiendfire surged toward him under Thunderbird's command, it couldn't overwhelm the shimmering water armor clinging to Alex's body. As soon as the flames made contact, they sputtered and hissed violently. The enchanted water, imbued with anti-Fiendfire magic, worked like a natural countermeasure, resisting, suppressing, and steadily extinguishing the flames that tried to cling to it.
However, this wasn't an endless defense. The water's power came from the magic imbued into it beforehand, magic specifically tuned to resist Fiendfire. Once that energy ran out, the water would offer no more protection than ordinary liquid.
But Alex had already anticipated this. His plan wasn't to hold out forever. He intended to finish the fight, right here, right now.
As soon as the Fiendfire was blocked, he surged forward, both hands gripping Voltbrand tightly. Lightning arced from the blade as he drove it with all his strength, trying to push the sword deeper through the fractured shield.
At the same time, a soft glow lit up across his tactical vest. Two rectangular metal compartments on his back slid upward along hidden tracks and locked into place over his shoulders. With a mechanical click, small panels on their fronts opened up, and from inside, two gleaming white aspen wands extended outward.
The transformation finished in a blink, two wand-tipped shoulder cannons now stood poised like something out of a Muggle action film, reminiscent of the tech used in the Predator movies. They sparked with silver light.
'Now we're talking.'
The cannons fired. Twin beams of silver plasma burst from the wands, thin but scorching, and struck with pinpoint accuracy, slamming into the weakened section of the magical shield that was still clamped around Voltbrand's blade.
At the same time, Alex fed more magic into Voltbrand, his mana pouring into it without restraint. The wild thunder wrapped around the sword roared with intensity, growing blindingly bright as its energy built.
Thunderbird saw what was happening, and his heart sank.
He hadn't expected this. Not only had Alex refused to retreat, but the enchanted water shielding him rendered the Fiendfire completely useless. And now these unexpected shoulder-mounted wands, clearly custom gear, were hammering down on his defense.
Even if the magical shield could hold on a bit longer, Thunderbird knew he couldn't.
He was stretched far too thin. He was feeding magic into Ferrum Ignis just to keep Voltbrand at bay. At the same time, he was holding the fragmented shield together under direct assault from two different directions. And on top of that, he still needed to maintain the surrounding Fiendfire attack.
Even with his massive magical reserves, the strain was enormous.
It was just like what Lily once taught Alex, theory behind magical output capacity. No matter how much magic a wizard possessed, the amount they could channel in a single moment was limited by their physical and magical conduits. Unless they overpressurized their channels, and risked serious internal damage, they'd hit a ceiling.
Thunderbird had already gone past that limit. He was pushing himself under high-pressure output. And with his current state, his condition was rapidly deteriorating. The internal injuries from the earlier explosion still throbbed through his body, wearing him down moment by moment.
He was burning out, and the storm wasn't slowing.
Thunderbird knew, he couldn't hold out much longer.
His jaw clenched, fury boiling beneath the surface. He hadn't expected this. A young wizard, barely past his schooling years, was pushing him to the edge. Him, Thunderbird, the notorious enforcer who had crushed countless foes without effort, was now struggling just to stay on his feet.
But no matter how much he refused to admit it, the truth was written all over the battlefield.
'Five seconds,' he thought grimly. 'Ten, if I'm lucky. If this keeps up, it won't even take a direct hit. My body will collapse from the inside out just from the sheer overload of magical output.'
"No," he muttered under his breath, hatred twisting in his voice. "I can't let this drag on... If this continues, I'll lose. I will lose."
His mind raced, and in a flash of ruthless clarity, he made his decision. He had no intention of dying here.