The fire crackled and hissed as the ball soared past my cheek. I felt the heat in its wake and winced.
The old man could still cast.
Without hesitating, I snatched the first spell out of my head and sent a spear of ice back at him. The ice cracked into splinters as it flew before exploding into steam when it hit the burning shield he threw up in front of himself.
"Ice?" Veed frowned. "Seriously, Taran? Have you lost your mind to the void completely? You can't harm me with water."
Then he roared and let loose a wave of boiling magma which crested high above my head and crashed down onto me.
Thinking as quickly as I could manage, I pulled up a stone shield which took the brunt of the glowing liquid. The sticky magma dribbled down around me, hissing as it burned into the ground.
I noticed Telly had backed away.
Smart man.
As the magma wave fizzled and dissipated, I shrugged off the stone shield and eyed my opponent warily. "Lava Wave? Meekson's version, too."
"Impressed?" Veed leered at me. "I'm not even warm yet."
"I'm a trifle impressed," I admitted. "But don't you think you're being a touch optimistic with your feeble mana pool? How many more of those can you manage? Two? At most, three."
"Ha!" Veed's mouth curled into a vicious grin. "Things have changed, Taran. I've grown. Grown more than you can imagine."
"You found a trinket, you mean."
"Hell Boar's heart."
"Ah," I nodded. "That'll work. Your mana pool has doubled, then"
"Tripled. I found an enchanter who could carve an Expansion Array on it."
"Expansion Array?" I frowned. "But that doesn't work like that…"
As I trailed off, he showed his yellowed teeth. He chortled with glee. "At last. I knew something you didn't! How does it feel, Taran? Do you feel stupid yet? You're slowing down. You're losing your edge!"
An Expansion Array increased the size of spatial bags or rings, allowing them to carry more than they had before.
The Hell Boar's heart was a literal heart of a Hell Boar which was capable of acting as a container to hold mana.
Somehow, the Expansion Array must've been able to increase the size of the heart's volume, too. I let my mind race around like a rat in a cage as ideas and possibilities nibbled at my brain.
"That's… pretty good."
"It is," he gleamed happily as he threw another fireball at my head. "Isn't it?"
I slammed up a shield just in time to catch the heated ball of plasma. "But how did he resolve the dimensional feedback? It should have caused mana leakage."
Grunting, Veed swirled his hands and cast Phoenix Flames.
A loud wrathful screech filled the street as the flaming bird of legend jetted out of his palm, exploding in size. Then diving at me with an angry roar.
Instead of blocking the thing, I cast Plasmic Hand. An enormous hand, twice the size of the bird, thrust from the ground and snatched it within its fingers.
Squeezed.
There was a sharp wet pop, and then lava dribbled between the fingers of the magic hand before both dissolved into mana again.
Motes of glittering light fell like dust.
Veed scowled. "When did you learn that?"
"Last week. Moonday. I was bored."
"Hmm." He paused. Then rumbled; "The Enchanter I used was good. He figured out that if he built a containment array on both sides of the dimensional socket, it'd stop most of the leakage. There's still a little, but not much. I only need to top it up again once a week."
I hopped two feet to my left. "That's impressive. Who's the enchanter? Not Harold Barger, was it?"
A pillar of flame shot up from the ground where I'd been standing.
"Bugger." Veed rolled his eyes as he realised he'd missed. "I hoped you were distracted."
"Really?"
Veed's cheeks flushed. "Well, it was a small hope. And no, it wasn't Harold. It was Farnsworth."
"What? Rupert?" I felt genuine shock. Rupert wasn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. "Really?"
"You looked down on him too much, Taran. He was still an apprentice when you spoke to him last." The old man gently brushed his coat to clean off some dust. "His work on Parabolic Mana Structures has been quite revolutionary."
"Hmm."
"Really," he insisted. "I mean it. Quite revolutionary."
"Maybe I'll go see him again."
"You'd best take him a gift," Veed warned. "He doesn't remember you very fondly at all. Umm. Where was I?"
"Pillar of Flame. Marksdown's, judging by the low temperature."
"Ah, yes. And you're correct. Here. Try Lucian Down's Fire Spear. That should put a hole in your chest…"
The spear was longer than the icy one I'd conjured.
And the heat coming off it was hotter than a sun. The light blinded me as I grit my teeth and pulled up five consecutive walls of ice, stone and then a final wall of steel.
I hoped the ice would lower the temperature a little.
The stone should slow its momentum.
And then more ice to keep chipping away at the heat.
Another stone.
And the steel in theory should block the tip from driving through my body.
Thankfully, I knew Holsom's Steel Wall, which was quite efficient against heat. Holsom was a dwarf and primarily used it to help with forging Legendary Items. The temperatures he worked with would have melted him if he hadn't.
I wasn't surprised that it stopped the fiery spear.
But I was surprised that the force of impact made me take a step back.
"You've been practicing," I called.
"Training," he corrected. "Practicing is for children."
"Hmm." I dropped the shields, diving sideways to avoid the casually-tossed fireball he'd thrown to try catching me at that point. "That's not very sporting."
"Since when have we cared about sporting?"
"Point," I allowed, casting Earth Spike.
Over and over.
The ground roared, spitting up spikes as wide as my wrist and as high as my hip. Dozens of them. One after the other. Tearing through the ground and spearing up at Veed, who was forced to hop and skip about the yard. "Hey! My Carnations!"
"Sorry."
He shook his head with an angry hiss. "If you make a mess of the roses, my wife will kill us both."
"Maybe we should have done this somewhere else."
He glanced at the mess we'd already made. "You could be right. But I wasn't expecting you."
"Who were you expecting?"
He gave me a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"
"Well, I thought-"
The Flame Wall shot up inches from my face. I was saved only by instinct as I threw myself backwards. But it was close enough to scorch my coat.
Grimsby wouldn't be pleased.
"Do you mind?" I called angrily. "That was a Forester and Flimpton!"
"Really?"
"Really!"
"I apologise to your coat. But shouldn't you wear more appropriate gear to a battle? Taran, I'm a bit insulted." He scowled at me. "You're not taking me seriously! Take this! And this!"
I pulled up a shield.
And another.
And another.
Each to stop massive blasts of fire from torching my face.
Or doing more damage to my ruined coat.
"You're insulted?" I hissed back. "You're using Bannington's Fire Blasts on me! What is this? Kindergarten?"
"There's nothing wrong with Fire Blast! I've killed thousands with it! Thousands, I tell you!"
"Thousands of idiots," I growled.
"Argh! I'll kill you if it's the last thing I do!"
And then I felt him pour all his mana into a spell. The air around me felt crisp and clean.
"Hmm," I said, squinting at the man. He looked smug.
I didn't like it.
Finishing his incantation, he held the spell in his hand while it formed. A dangerous thing to do for most mages. But Veed wasn't most mages. He'd spent decades on the Front Line. He'd fought in wars since before I was born.
He may not have had as much mana as I did, but he had control.
And he'd been training for this moment.
Training for it for years.
I saw the light in his eyes flare as he tasted victory.
"Die," he whispered.
And unleashed everything he had in one last spell.
Pinpoints of light. Thousands of them. Grew above his head as he slumped in exhaustion, his mana swept out of his grasp to fuel the biggest spell he'd ever cast.
Each pinpoint exploded with fire and then shot towards me.
"Rain of Fire," he croaked. "And not just any old Rain of Fire. That's Gillingham's Apocalypse version."
My eyes widened as my death rained down from the sky.
It was truly magnificent.
Almost giddy, I reluctantly lifted a hand and spoke the words I didn't want to speak but had no choice to utter.
"Numuruz'wyd M'ffz."
Countless holes opened to swallow each bright glorious meteor of fire before they could touch me.
Only when the last meteor was gulped down by the void did I turn to Veed, who was watching as I destroyed his spell piece by piece.
His eyes narrowed to slits.
Then he began to laugh.
And laugh loud and deep.
"I win," he rasped. "Finally! I win! You didn't expect that, did you?"
"No one expects the Apocalypse," I said, approaching slowly. Gently, I put my hand on the old man's shoulder. "And, as per our rules, I concede defeat, Fagen Veed."
"Say it again. I'm old. I didn't quite hear. Say it again, Taran."
"I admit defeat, Fagen Veed. You win."
He giggled.
"Umm, can I arrest him now?" Telly asked, trotting up behind me.
Veed gave the guard a confused look. "What for?"
But before anyone could say anything, a fierce shriek split our eardrums.
"Fagen Mortimer Veed! What have you done to my garden?"