Chapter 7.2

Dwaine and Hamilt were off to the side of me, standing warily. Both had their wands out and seemed prepared to fight. I smiled. That’s right, they should be wary, I thought. I was a demon, and demonic magic was nothing to scoff at. Even if I had no clue what I was doing.

I took a step toward them, hoping it would scare them off. It didn’t. They glanced at each other and together they began casting.

My eyes narrowed. Luckily, I’d been friends with these two for years. I knew exactly how they liked to fight. So I took a page from Yulia and did what I knew they wouldn’t be expecting from me. I ran straight for them. I felt the magical fields around them splutter out as they lost focus on their spells, moving to get out of my way. Much like myself, they weren’t particularly skilled at close combat. They preferred to fight at a distance, and even my small figure could be intimidating when flames were swirling off of me. It was quite fortunate that we were so close together, and I could charge them before they had time to get any spells out. I focused my flames in front of me as well as I could and marched toward Hamilt. It would be better if I could take him out first. He turned to run in a panic, but I was quicker.

As I got close enough to him to start burning his clothing, a painful flash of warning burst in my head, and my feet skid to a halt. I stood, confused for a moment. I’d almost breached my contract, I realized. But, how? Hamilt stood several feet away from me, patting out the scorched spot on the shirt he had on. Blinking, I suddenly realized what had happened. I’d made a deal with Esme not to harm the students. I couldn’t recall all the specifics of what she’d constituted as harm, but setting someone on fire certainly counted.

Something slammed into me from the side, knocking the air out of me. My feet left the ground for several seconds as it pushed me through the air, and I smacked into the grass, rolling across the ground for several meters. I coughed in pain, as my body scraped to a halt. A large rock sat to my side, and I put two and two together as I brushed my hand along my aching side. Dwaine marched toward me, his wand pointing my way.

I felt my body rapidly healing as the fiery energy within me continued to swirl. I got the sense that with the magic flowing as it was, I’d heal a lot faster than otherwise. The pain from the boulder quickly faded, and I felt a small jump in the lust still distractingly within me.

What was I going to do? How could I win this if I couldn’t hurt them? I was utterly fucked. I felt my flames beginning to dampen around me, as my will to fight began to drain into hopelessness. Was this it, the extent of what I could do? Was there no way for me to win?

I watched as the two of them surrounded me, grinning as though they’d already won. The memory of our encounter in the hallway flashed into my mind, the two of them trying to pin me down in the girls’ dorm. I’d been able to fight them then, I realized. The difference was that the pain I had caused them was minimal and wouldn’t permanently harm them.

“Already giving up? I always knew you were a weakling at heart. One spell and you go down like a helpless fawn.” Hamilt smirked down at me.

A plan slowly started forming in my head. I didn’t need to beat them in the traditional sense. I just needed to find a way to make them not want to fight me. My flames flared back to life, and I stood to my feet. Both guys stepped back as the heat flushed over them, and they covered the glaring light from their eyes with their arms.

“Given up?" I scoffed. "I was simply surprised you managed to hit me at all. No, I’m not giving up. In fact, I’m just getting started.” I smirked at Hamilt, who scowled back.

Dwaine’s wand hand twitched, and I shot toward him. My flames went out quickly as my fist punched into his stomach. He folded over in pain as I casually walked past him. No warning flashed within my mind, and my grin came back.

“In fact, the two of you are so weak, I doubt I even need magic to defeat you.”

“You bitch,” Hamilt spat. “We’ll see how long that bravado of yours lasts.” He sprinted several steps away from me as the words to another spell were murmured under his breath.

They were scared to get near to me, scared that I would set them on fire. So long as I could keep that fear kindled, I could perhaps scare them enough to make them run off. It was my best chance at winning, assuming I didn’t use up all my energy beforehand, turning myself into a useless horny mess. The question was what sort of spell he was casting, and whether I could counter it.

Quicker than I anticipated, spikes of rock shot up from the ground in front of me. I backed up, only to feel one smash into my back, lifting me painfully up into the air for a brief second. I stumbled away from it and slid my hand behind me along my back and wings. It would potentially leave a bruise but hadn’t pierced my skin from what little I could feel. Earthen magic was both Hamilt and Dwaine’s specialty, but that didn’t mean they were necessarily all that good at it. A real mage could have pierced me in half.

Another pillar of ground surfaced through the grass toward me, and I folded my arms together in front of my chest. It crashed against my upper arms, crumbling against me, and pushing me backward. I stumbled but stayed on my feet, doing my best to breathe through the pain of being smacked by a spike of dirt. I had to do something. I had to keep control of the situation and make them think I was more powerful and fearsome than I actually was.

With a panicked sense of urgency, I heightened the flames within me once more, focusing them on my arms as best as I could. My skin felt as though it was close to melting off. As the next pillar of earth shot up from the side, I swung my arm against it, hoping for the best. It slunk through it like a hot knife in butter, or perhaps an arm through mud. The dirt split into a steaming melting pile, disrupting Hamilt’s control as it became immobile. I took a step toward him, noticing that Dwaine had moved to his right. Together they cast again, one sending two small spikes of dirt toward me as the other magically tossed another large rock bigger than my head. I shot to the side, dodging the rock and smashing through the pillars of dirt. The moisture in it steamed as it met my skin, causing smoke to rise up from around me.

I could feel my energy steadily draining. Hot fingers rubbed against my thighs and trailed up. I let out a lusty moan as I had to force myself from stopping and playing with myself. What I wouldn’t give to just start masturbating here and now. But I had to concentrate; I had to win this.

“This is the best you’ve got?” I taunted and burst into a run toward them, gripping my hands into fists to keep them from touching myself. I could feel my magic running lower, and with it, my lust was ever-increasing. I’d need to end this soon, somehow.

More rock formations were tossed in my path. Spikes, walls, and boulders flew up from the ground around me. I crashed through them all one by one. Getting numerous bruises and a few cuts, but coming out mostly unharmed. Most importantly, they didn’t stop my rush forward. I approached them once more, a confident grin intentionally across my face.

“Dwaine, now!” Hamilt yelled out.

A moment later a massive but brittle rock smashed into me from behind. It broke apart, doing little to actually harm me, but sent me stumbling forward to the ground. As I hit my knees against the dirt below, Hamilt chanted a spell in front of me. I looked up in time to see a torrent of water flooding toward me. The wave splashed against me, dampening my flames and nearly pushing me completely to the ground. The water steamed and sizzled against my skin, slowly managing to cool me off and put out my flames. As it ended, I noticed Hamilt already chanting another spell. Sweat was dripping from his brow, and his face gave away his tiredness. I stood quickly intending to tackle and stop him before he could finish. A leg stuck out in front of me, and I was shoved forward. I tripped, falling to my face, and barely managing to put up my arms to not get a mouthful of dirt. A moment later I felt a bolt of pain run through me, and my arms slipped. I heard the light crack of electricity as it shot through me and into the ground below.

“Ha! That should show you your place, you stupid demon,” Dwaine shouted from behind me.

The lightning was shocking but mediocre, something that wasn’t a surprise since it wasn’t Hamilt’s specialty and he was already tiring. A hand gripped my hair and pulled my head up to look into Hamilt’s face. A cruel smile stared down at me. “You should have just given up from the start, Gordon. You were going to be ours either way.”

I snarled and smacked his hand away. Quicker than expected, I darted upward to my feet and shoved Hamilt with all the strength I had. He fell backward, having no chance of regaining his balance after the hard push, and landed on his ass a few feet away from me.

“You dare to lay your disgusting hands on me?” I said.

I didn’t need to light the flames within me, they roared out chaotically bathing my body in a bath of heat. As they rose higher, they formed a cone around me, like a swirling tornado of heat and death. I took a step forward, and Hamilt shuffled backward. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Dwaine take a hesitant step back as well.

“I’ll kill the both of you,” I continued. “Set you both aflame and watch you burn until you’re nothing but a couple of charred corpses.”

“Y-you,” Hamilt spluttered out.

I took a step forward, letting out a chuckle that quickly turned into a dark maniacal laugh. He scrambled to his feet as quickly as he could, running away from me. Dwaine quickly followed behind him, making a wide circle around me as he ran to catch up.

I sighed as they left the courtyard. Somehow, that had actually worked. It was a good thing I could still pull off the evil laugh despite how different my voice was now. I smiled, then removed my hand from my vagina, where I’d begun to finger myself without even realizing it. Had… I started masturbating before or after they’d run off, I wondered? Nothing I could do about it now, I supposed with a shrug.

An explosion sounded from behind me, and I remembered that the fight wasn’t over quite yet. Looking back, I found Victoria standing up on shaking legs within a small crater of dirt. Yulia walked casually toward her, a spear in hand. It was clear I had to do something. Victoria couldn’t win, and at this point Yulia seemed to be toying with her, dragging out the fight longer than necessary. Yet what could I even do?

I forced my feet forward, hoping I could come up with a plan by the time I reached them. Meanwhile, Victoria ran forward as a spell of hers completed. A smokey darkness flooded off of her, concentrated primarily on her right arm. With a punching gesture, it blasted forward in a ball of darkness. Yulia smirked as she managed to barely sidestep it, and charged toward Victoria once more.

“You’ve never known when to give up,” Yulia snarked.

Her sister ignored her, shooting out yet another large orb of darkness. Yulia split it in half with her spear and charged through it. Pieces of it clung to her, slowing her down slightly but not stopping her. It was enough that Victoria managed to block most of her flurry of attacks. Yet I cringed as one strike pierced through her magical barrier and into her forearm. Yulia smacked her back to the ground with the butt of her weapon.

“Victoria!” I shouted with worry and ran forward.

“Stay.” The command had my feet stopping so suddenly that I fell forward into the grass. Yulia turned to me with a devilish smile. “Little Ivy, surely you aren’t thinking of interrupting our duel?”

My flames erupted around me as I glared up at her in anger. “Call it off. Don’t do this, Yulia.”

She walked over to me with a casual sway. “Is there something between you two perhaps? I thought it strange that she would go so far out of her way to defend you. My sister’s always had a soft spot, but I knew it couldn’t be just that.”

I growled as she bent down in front of me. “That’s none of your business.”

Her empty hand grabbed my cheek, the flames around me parting from whatever magical barrier she had protecting her. “My little pet. Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for her?” A small chuckle left her mouth. “You should be cheering me on then. After all, when she begins serving me, the two of you will have all the more time to spend together.”

I pulled myself out of her grasp and stood back to my feet. “Call off this duel Yulia. Do it or I’ll make you regret it.” My voice was hard. I wouldn’t let her do this to Victoria, not for me. She didn’t deserve it.

“And what do you think you can do to me?” Yulia stood and asked, her finger poking into my naked breast. “I own you. You can’t do anything without my say so, especially so after we adjust your contract later. I’ve got quite a few additions I believe I’ll add and make you a properly obedient little demon.”

“I’ll find a way.”

Her eyes stared into mine. I could tell she didn’t believe me. I smiled back.

Earth swirled up around Yulia’s body, devouring her up to her neck, as Victoria finished the spell she’d been casting in the background. A snarl came out of Yulia’s mouth, and she smashed through half of the rock surrounding her. As she took a step out of the trap, several lightning strikes surged down around her.

“You’re not the only one who knows a bit of lighting magic,” Victoria muttered.

For a brief moment, Yulia fell to her knees as the magical barrier around her visibly fell apart in a bright flash. It was clear her protective spells weren't nearly as good as her sister's. She stood with a snarl. “When I’m done with you, you’ll learn when to stay down.” The grip around her spear tightened, and she shot forward in a piercing attack. Her feet stumbled as she tripped over a carefully placed stone that had risen up from the dirt. As she skidded across the ground, the earth swallowed up around her. I winced as the rocks squeezed and Yulia screamed out in pain.

“You were always too overconfident, Yulia. It’s no surprise that it would be your eventual downfall. To think that you’d seriously turn your back to me in a duel, though.” Victoria shook her head. “Concede,” she demanded as Yulia screamed out in pain once more.

“No,” Yulia spat. She mumbled a quick spell, and the rocks around her exploded outward. I yelped out as one smacked hard into my leg.

Carefully, she stood back to her feet. Her eyes glared with hatred toward her sister. I could tell through her dress that she was bleeding, from the crushing rocks or the explosion, I wasn’t sure. As she tried to step forward, she nearly stumbled, making it obvious just how hurt one of her legs was. Another bolt of lightning shot down toward her, and this time she managed to use a spell to redirect it away from her.

“You’re going to regret this after I win,” Yulia asserted. With a flash, her spear became a wand once more, and she began to weave another spell.

Victoria ignored the comment, too focused on her own magic. As the words of the spell continued on and on, I both wondered what she was trying to cast and worried it would take too long and that her sister would beat her to it. A torrent of blue flames emerged from Yulia’s wand toward her sister, evaporating the grass as it moved past it. My eyes widened as Victoria didn’t attempt to dodge, but instead took the flames head-on. They circled around her, quickly eating away at her magical protections. Then she cast. A magical darkness exploded out from her body, expanding quickly outward until it covered my vision. The world around when silent.

For a long moment, I stood still, unable to see or hear anything. My hope rose and flickered with fear. Could Victoria win? Even with Yulia now injured, I still worried it might be impossible. Yet as the darkness continued, my hope continued to rise.

Light from the shining sun above began to slowly pierce through the strange darkness. At first, it was only my body that I could see, and then the grass around me. Finally, I saw a figure in front of me fall forward to the ground. As the darkness cleared, I realized it was Victoria. My feet ran forward without thinking, without realizing what it meant.

“Victoria!” I fell beside her and watched in relief as her eyes opened to meet mine. My hands gripped tightly around hers’.

“I’m fine, just a bit out of mana.” She gave me a grinning smile, and I frowned down at her. Quickly, my eyes scanned around me until I found Yulia several feet away. Her eyes were closed, her breath heavy.

“Is she…”

“Unconscious,” Victoria finished with another smile. I looked back to her. “I won.” This time I smiled back.