“You think you can kill me?” Tren asked with a thunderous laugh. The fire coating his fists roared. It raced up his arms and wrapped around his shoulders like a molten cloak as he lunged forward.

Noah’s bow danced across the strings of his violin as he stepped to the side like a ballroom dancer. Red energy twisted into being between him and Tren’s fist, solidifying an instant before the larger man’s blow could connect.

A deep thrum echoed through the archives. Cracks raced through Noah’s magic, but it held firm beneath the blow, only shattering once Tren pulled his fist back. Arcs of buzzing magic cut through the air in a building storm around Noah.

“What is this?” Tren demanded, sounding more curious than scared. He still didn’t see Noah as anything more than a mildly irritating novelty. “Some manner of demon magic?”

“Aren’t you guys meant to be the experts on that?” Noah asked, stepping back to keep his distance. A droplet of sweat rolled down the side of his face. It wasn’t alone. His hair was already slicked to his head even though his heart had only just started to speed up.

The temperature around Tren was rising at an uncomfortably fast rate. Coils of flame twisted into being around the large man, wrapping past his body like wisps of smoke. He was going to cook Noah alive if nothing changed.

Using intense fire magic inside a room full of musty old books — particularly valuable ones — didn’t exactly feel like the smartest idea. Then again, Tren had never struck Noah as the most intelligent individual.

I just hope he doesn’t burn anything I care too much about. I still want to get a chance to look around and see what kind of information the Inquisitors have gathered on demons.

Noah skipped back as Tren leapt for him, sending a powerful roundhouse kick carving through the air where his head had been an instant before. Pressure bore down on him as the Inquisitor’s domain tried to crush his.

He gritted his teeth. Tren might not have been the most powerful Rank 6 to ever live, but his domain was still nothing to laugh at. It was certainly enough to oppress Noah’s abilities. Any attempts to attack at a range would almost certainly fail. The magic would just get crushed the moment it got a few feet away from him.

“What’s wrong?” Tren asked. The fire swirling around him intensified even further. The man was completely wrapped in a scorching blaze — and it didn’t show any signs of stopping its growth. Fire coursed along the floor around him and rose up like the tendrils of a kraken. “I thought you were going to kill me. You haven’t done much but run so far.”

“And all you’ve done is set yourself on fire. That isn’t impressive. Even I can do that,” Noah countered. “Hell, I just did it yesterday. Don’t you have any cooler tricks? Try barking for me.”

Anger twisted the fire covering Tren’s features. He let out a snarl and drove a foot down on the ground. The blaze around him crackled and rose up into the sky around him like a forest of dancing heat and light.

A huge flame tendril whipped down toward Noah, forcing him to dodge to the side once more. The magic struck the ground with a crackling hiss, searing the stone floor and sending embers flying into the sky.

Several of the bookshelves near where it had struck started to smolder as the smell of smoke pushed its way into Noah’s nostrils. Noah’s domain screamed a warning. He gritted his teeth and skipped to the side as another tendril lashed out at him, only missing by a few inches.

Noah didn’t get a chance to recover his ground. Another two tendrils of flame lashed out toward him and forced him to vault back. Magic twisted through the air around him as his hand continued to pull his bow along the violin’s strings, gathering more magic into his building Formation — but he couldn’t keep this up forever.

Tren had nearly a dozen tentacles of flame twisting around him, and it seemed each of them could move independently. It was only a matter of time before he managed to land a good hit.

I can’t overplay my hand. Tren has more raw power than I do. Any tricks I reveal are unlikely to work more than once. Fortunately, I’ve got a hell of a lot of tricks… and Tren is still holding back. He might be using fire, but it looks like he doesn’t want to destroy the archives completely.

Noah couldn’t help but notice that even though he could smell smoke and see the edges of the bookshelves starting to singe, not a single book had caught fire yet. Perhaps they’d been magically reinforced to avoid that exact scenario. Something told him that this wasn’t the ideal time to spend effort wondering what kept the books from burning.

His eyes narrowed as he focused himself further on the song coiling from his violin. He had the perfect Formation to deal with Tren… but he had to set it up properly. Rushing things would only waste his opportunity.

Fire roared through the air around Noah. He danced through the flames, pressed to the very limits of his ability. The Fragment of Self was the only thing keeping him from getting melted into paste… but even that had its limits.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Grim trembled against Noah’s back. Surprise shot through him at the unexpected motion. The only thing that kept him from losing his spot in the song was years of training. Noah suppressed a curse and re-focused himself.

What? This better be important. I’m trying to kill someone right now.

The Grimoire didn’t respond. Noah didn’t have the liberty to ask it what the hell its problem was. The distraction could have proven fatal. He focused back on his song, pulling notes of magic into place to bring his Formation closer to fruition. Noah tried to slip into a flow state and enter a Full Merge, but the ability evaded him. He could feel the power at the very edge of his consciousness. It taunted him, just out of reach.

Damn it. Garina warned me it wouldn’t be easy to replicate, but I could really use that power right about now.

Flaming tendrils lashed at Noah from every direction, forcing him steadily backward. Tren advanced on him slowly, as if he were just taking a casual stroll. The man barely even looked like he was in a fight anymore.

Noah’s teeth clenched harder. His eyes were dry from the heat and he could feel his skin well on its way to joining them. This was a Rank 6 Inquisitor — and he wasn’t taking the fight seriously.

Damn it. My only job right now is to buy Fuyin time, but we can’t exactly make a run for it even if she gets the info she needed. I need a way to take this guy down… preferably without getting myself killed in the process. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can scam my way to victory this time.

He tried harder to slip into his Awakened state, but the increased effort only seemed to push it away. It wasn’t an ability that could be brute forced. The energy he was wasting trying to activate it was just going to end up getting him killed.

Fine. I’ll do things the old fashioned way. If I want any chance to get a good hit on Tren, I’m going to need him off balance so he can’t screw my magic over with his domain. I just need a few more seconds—

Noah’s back hit a wall.

Alarm shot through him. Noah spun, only to find that he’d been backed right up into the end of a pathway. There was only one way back out of it — and it was back they way he’d come.

Through Tren.

“I think I’m starting to get bored of you,” Tren said, his voice partially swallowed by the roaring flames surrounding him. “I really thought you’d be capable of more than this… but I suppose I should be impressed that you managed to block my attacks at all. There aren’t many mages outside the Inquisition that bother to train in physical combat. But that’s all you’ve got. We’re done here.”

The swaying flames rose up around Tren, coiling past the bookshelves to loom over him like a tsunami frozen in time just instants before crashing down on the land.

Grim! Books! Help!

Noah didn’t have time to say anything else. He couldn’t stop playing yet. His Formation was so close to completion. If he lost his spot now, all the magic he’d gathered would go off like a bomb and any chance he had of catching Tren off guard would evaporate — if he managed to survive the explosion.

The tsunami of fire bore down toward Noah. Heat drove into Noah like a physical blow as molten orange light filled the hall and seared into his eyes.

Grim snapped open. Tongues of paper erupted from within the grimoire and streaked out to the shelves next to Noah, ripping the books free of their spots.

The wave of flame crashed down on Noah — and Grim raised the books he’d grabbed, slamming them into place an instant before the fire could consume him.

There was a deafening roar as the fire washed over him. Tongues of fire licked through the gaps between the books and seared across his body, melting his clothes to his body near-instantly and sending pain carving through him.

But the books didn’t burn. They held firm under the torrent of Tren’s magic. Noah’s hair crackled as it burned and the smell of burnt flesh bit into the air, but the magic that had been meant to scorch him alive failed to stop his song.

And the wave of fire passed.

Grim tore the books away from Noah. The ground between him and Tren had been scorched black and the bookshelves all around them were scorched black. Roaring fire twisted back up behind the Inquisitor.

“Clever,” Tren said with a sneer. The fire loomed higher still as it formed into another enormous wave. “But that won’t save you forever. Let’s see how many times you can survive. You’re already medium-rare.”

“Actually, chef, I think your time in the kitchen is done,” Noah replied. “Hang up your apron and leave. You’re out.”

A flicker of confusion played across Tren’s flaming features. “What?”

Noah’s violin sang a final note. Then his hand finally went still, his song completed at last. A grin pulled across his features.

The Formation roared into life.

Power screamed through the air around him like a primordial giant finally awaking after years of slumber. The air shuddered — and then it went completely still. The flames smoldering across the ground snuffed.

Tren’s eyes only had an instant to go wide before Noah’s Formation ripped over him as well. The flames coating his body went out, torn away from him in the blink of an eye. There was nothing left for it to burn with.

The Inquisitor grabbed at his throat as he suddenly found himself unable to breathe.

Noah smiled. The key rune in his Formation had been Combustion. The Master Rune on its own probably wouldn’t have been enough to completely catch a Rank 6 off guard… but when it was empowered in a Formation, even someone as powerful as Tren wouldn’t be able to shrug its effects off.

The Formation was a complex one. Turning the air inert everywhere other than directly around Noah wasn’t an easy task. It had taken just about every single scrap of power he had in Unraveling Disruption.

But the results were worth it.

“What is this?” Tren wheezed.

“A distraction,” Noah replied as he lifted his hand toward the other man as he drew power through his body. He didn’t have any magic left in his normal runes — but he was no longer limited to a single Rank 5. “I’ve been waiting to see what this would do.”

And I sure hope it works the way I think it will.

Then Noah released the magic held within Concentrated Singularity.

A shudder ripped through the archives around him and Tren. The large Inquisitor’s eyes had an instant to go wide as he found his feet lift off the ground.

And then gravity inverted — and Tren hurtled headfirst straight into the ceiling like he’d been shot from a cannon.