Incline 51: Brewbrt

The warrior's foot steps forward, his knees bend and the ground erupts. Eyes widen and my heart pumps knowingly as I unleash the magic within my grasp. The warrior runs out of the exploding silver-emerald light without a sign of interruption. His target, the man who shot me and those who came with him.

Nothing happens.

Barely getting my reinforced arms up in time, the warrior's blade finds purchase and a scar is put into the steel. The disturbed winds emanating from the slash travel back to the still men and they fall apart. Blinking in surprise, I realise how fast this man is and how he's kicked my instincts into overdrive. I need to go at this with all that I am and all that I can have.

Pushing Einervaene away, I throw in a quick grenade and roll away into the air with her in my grip. A thrusting blade is aimed for my gut and I release a short-fused detonation to propel myself further away. Gritting my teeth, I glance to Einervaene in the barely a fraction of a second moment and note what I have to do. She needs to go the rest of the way on her own.

"EINER-" I try to roar before another thrust goes along my armour.

Seemingly parrying the blade, it comes around as if no hand struck it aside.

"RUN!" I scream plain and simple, meeting the sword with a barely-formed spell after throwing her away like a ragdoll. I barely acknowledge how violently she lands across the harsh ground and instead throw a punch. It meets the warrior's armour and slides off, my momentum exploited and punished. Barking my pain, I send shredding shrapnel his way in a cloud of magic.

"WHERE DO I GO!? W-WHICH WAY DO I GO!?" I pick up amidst the blows, strikes and swings. Slipping in another spell and crushing it into an explosive oblivion, I barely reach her. Blow arcs along the warrior's swing and I hiss as a weak point in my protection is taken for what it is. Swinging my golden foreleg around, I bash the warrior towards the ground only for him to elegantly slip around and rise back up.

"TURN LEFT SLIGHTLY AND GO INTO THE SKY, FOLLOW THE SIGNS OF YOUR MOTHER!" I explain as I find myself needing to catch the warrior on his next charge. My arms steadily give ground and the warrior steps forward, gently. One arm goes wide and he steps back, making three quick, backless cuts. My body shakes and sparks fly from the plate.

"BREWBRT!" Einervaene cries as a stab manages to get my side.

"DO AS YOU ARE TOLD AND GO!" I roar during an attempt to punch the sword out of the warrior's grip. He holds on and spins away into a lightning-coated swing that worms its way into the land. The sudden heat melts the ground away and much is warped. Dashing for Einervaene, I bring her away from the worst of it only barely.

She howls out of surprise and clutches her now bleeding leg.

"Einervaene... Go." I tell her against her ear as a spell I was able to send up drops and explodes viciously.

"You promised..." she manages not to stutter as I unleash even more self-made munitions against the warrior. I need to aim ahead of him, but he's too fast, too nimble. Each time I am able to aim ahead he changes directions and is still somehow able to keep on closing the gap. Noticing his next slash, I shove her away and take the brunt of it along my curving back.

Its magic seeps into my skin and boils my blood and I fire back with a conical blast at his shield-like shoulder. He bounces away with it and instantly runs back for me, sliding under my kick to slice at my shin. His own foot knocking me over into the ground and exposing Einervaene. He turns for her.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! DON'T YOU TOUCH HER YOU BASTARD EUSOROCHIIAN!" I roar as my feet ignite, rocketing me right for them. Hugging them like a beast, I try to crush them and we go crashing into the mountainside, rocking the land with our impact. The warrior slips my grip and lightning strikes for us, I grab him just in time and throw him at the incoming bolt. However, as it arcs a little, he finds his footing.

The warrior runs up the stormlight and leaps for another bolt, twisting around and riding it back down. He strikes into me with the Thunder God's wrath as his spear and my bevor barely stops his next cut. Blowing the ground behind me, I swing up for him and knock him away. Running after him, we meet again at the edge of this crater-like place and his free hand slashes. 

The land melts under us and I back away as he tries to go for her again...

"EINERVAENE, RUN!" I roar once again as I barely tackle the warrior before he can get the blind girl.

"I'M SORRY!" Einervaene cries helplessly as she picks herself up from another fall. Sighing inbetween blows, I back away towards her, more spells covering us and I hug her tight.

"Einervaene, go, go into the sky as a bolt of lightning." I explain, knowing her magic senses can guide her the rest of the way.

"I'M NOT LEAVING YOU!" she screams against my as I blast the warrior away again.

"If you do not go, we both die. Let Eratheen see you, at all costs." I remind her as she tries to magnetise herself to my armour. Peeling her off despite her desperate protests, I throw her high into the sky, high enough that she knows her only chance is to change. The sky flashes and thunder booms with grain-bouncing results as the warrior backs off.

Watching him carefully, he prays before the sky and picks out Einervaene's blue form. 

Leaping after him and then flying, I barely make it to his ankle. Dragging him down, he's forced onto another bolt and I fight my way through the static-woven clouds to clear Einervaene a path. My magic pushes back what it can in this artificial storm and a sword nearly takes my head. Falling out of the sky, I shoot back into it with a sonic boom.

Meeting the warrior's sword with a decorative piece of armour, it detracts from the finest steel. He clears away most of the clouds, revealing a net of barely moving bolts, slowly itching to the ground. Growling, I break through most of them and take on their power recklessly for her sake. The warrior makes his first noise, one of hatred and despisure. 

He becomes almost vicious compared to the grace I have so far seen, as if I am some kind of stain belittling the noblest of white dresses. Meeting his blows with desperate speed, I quickly find myself giving ground as our warped sense of speed changes. The storm acts up and a forest of stalking plasma lights up the land as we fall. A body other than ours falls from the sky.

"Dammit..." I spit, increasingly frustrated by my held-back nature. Finally getting the sword out of the warrior's hands, I kick it as far as I can as some weaknesses of the warrior come through. Insignificant as they are. 

"BREWBRT!? BREWBRT!" Einervaene screams as she falls.

"GOT YOU!" I roar as we quickly recoil upwards so she can get back on her way.

"I'm sorry..." she tearfully goes as she clutches on tight, my senses focused on what is near-instantly coming back for us.

"Einervaene, do not look back, even if it hurts, keep moving. You need to keep moving." I explain quietly despite our situation.

"O-O-Ok... Ok... I love you, Brewbrt, thank you for being my friend..." she sobs as I try to force her off of me, yet, she clings on. Sighing, I return the hug and hold her close as I orient her the right way to go.

"Go see your mother for me, go with my love keeping you safe." I explain, kissing her on the forehead as if she was my own before throwing her away as if she is the worst thing I have ever known. Blinking, the water in my eyes becomes all the more pronounced and I turn to face the warrior as their blade warps the air with its heat.

His magic cackles.

Mine twists and howls, the pride of a Jhermonikra spinning its deadly power.

"SHE WILL SEE HER MOTHER, DO YOU HEAR ME LAND OF LIGHTNING!?" I speak to the empire that has brought her nothing but misery, my fist shattering the warrior's mask and rupturing the land with his landing. Diving after him even like this, I quickly find a raised sword prepared for me, only avoiding it through self-mutilation.

Bouncing and rolling on the ground with a blood-filled mouth, I flip onto my feet. My aged bones cry out not in pain, but with excitement, my history as one of Jherikra's finest witches comes back nostalgically. Years of loot rattles with reminded purpose and I walk up to the swordsman as he sheaths his sword. Tornadoes form by the many dozens, blocking us both off from the outside with growing fury that sucks the crater clean of most of its air.

Only our magic is left to sustain us now, only what we came into this battle with...

"Honoured be your death, Great Man of the Greatest Land." the warrior speaks with a salute of his sheathed blade. I nod, smirking a little at the fact he chose to translate the Stonetongue version of my home's name and that of my ethnicity.

"I have people I'd rather not disappoint, and if the Skybomber crashes today, so be it, for no nobler a cause is there than helping a child find her long-lost mother!" I declare as my proverbial bomb bays are loaded to their fullest extent with all kinds of spells and preparations. All that I am, hold and will be, that is what this warrior will fight, to both ours or his doom alone.

There shall be no future where only I fall!