Part 15 Preview

Hiya!

Heh heh... yeah... hi...

...I know. Obviously, I broke a lot of promises.

But I have a preview!!! That's good, right?

Sorry, no Wizard101 updates... only been on once, and that was to admire my friend's new Sultan Palace thingy. I hate that place and love it at the same time. I love it because... it's amazing. I hate it because I know I'll never get it. :P

Btw, 61 Followers is AMAZING. :D

Here's the preview! I had to kind of take a few parts out, of course, to prevent spoilers. I decided on showing this one because... it's my first epic fight scene. Please tell me how I did, and what I need to work on - more detail, less detail... um... less fail... Idk...

This is the battle between Gurtok FireBender - that boss in the Great Spyre before Malistaire - and Sierra and Hunter. It's, um, not exactly that much of a fight to the death battle. Gurtok FireBender and Sierra are on somewhat friendly-ish terms. Hard to explain without giving you spoilers. ...You know, I might have already revealed it here somewhere, though, I don't know. Whatever. XD Feel free to guess on why their relationship might be a little nicer than most wizard-to-monster ones.

The Tale of Sierra WinterBreeze - Part 15 Preview

With a flash, Gurtok FireBender summoned a Sun Bird. I was so surprised, I didn’t even have time to move. The fiery, winged beast swooped at me, its beak and flaming feathers brushing my robes and blinding me. I shrieked, ducking out of the way, carefully creating a bit of ice to quench the fires burning through my robe. Groaning a bit, I fumbled with the cards of my deck, dropping a few when I tried to obtain a useable spell. That Sun Bird’s blow had a hurt a lot more than it usually did, when the battle was contained in a dueling circle. And my clothes had never caught on fire before. Nor did the pain last any longer than a few seconds, leaving me to feel only tired afterward.

“Sierra?” I turned to Hunter, who was looking at my pleadingly. “Can I summon my minion? Sydney never lets me.”

“Yes!” I said through gritted teeth. “We need all the help we can get.”

“Yay!” Instantly a Cyclops Watcher appeared, using the two pips Hunter had saved up. The first thing it did was cast a MythBlade – on me.

It took all my willpower to prevent myself from directing my next spell at it and screaming, “I. Don’t. Know. Any. Myth spells!”

I powered myself up with an IceBlade, again wishing that I’d already learned Colossus. Since I was still waiting for pips, I added an Ice Trap to the mix as well.

And of course, he just had to put up an Ice Shield.

I closed my eyes. This frustration was becoming too much. Opening them again, I used a Feint I knew from my Death spells. It would have to work until I could find a Steal Ward, which could take that Snow Shield away from Gurtok FireBender.

Then Hunter, standing next to me, said, “Um, Sierra?”

“Yes?” I snapped, looking at him. I was stunned to see the Cyclops next to him running toward Bender, club raised as he drew the triangular Myth symbol. “Wait!” I shouted. I could only watch as the Feint disappeared to power up the Cyclops’ most useless spell – Blood Bat.

I spun around, facing Hunter again, this time absolutely furious. “HUNTER!” I yelled. “You wasted my Feint on a Blood Bat? On a level ONE spell?”

“I-I’m sorry,” he stammered. “You cast it just as my Cyclops was attacking, and–”

“I cannot believe this!” I fumed. Okay, it was all my pent up frustration that I was venting out on poor Hunter. The Feint wasn’t a big deal – there was still another one in my deck somewhere and I didn’t really need it if I got Steal Ward – but I couldn’t stand it any longer. I continued screaming, until I heard a small chuckle.

I directed my glare at Gurtok FireBender. “What?”

“I find your arguing amusing. You’re supposed to be partners, teammates – but you aren’t getting anything done. Besides the Blood Bat, you haven’t damaged me at all.”

“Well, if he stopped getting in the way–”

Bender sighed. “Fine. Don’t listen to me. Won’t be my problem in the Malistaire battle, if you even make it that far.” He pointed above his head. “Fortunately, while you were bickering, it gave me time to cast this FireBlade.”

With that statement, the battle continued, with Hunter’s minion casting a Ghoul to do a small amount of damage. I was still angry, but trying to cool down.

There! I triumphantly snatched up my Steal Ward, raising it above my head. I used it, praying it wouldn’t fizzle. Fortunately, it didn’t.

The Snow Shield dissipated in front of Gurtok FireBender, floating over to protect me instead. He frowned slightly, so I smirked, quickly casting Ice Wyvern. Just as I did so, he summoned a Firezilla.

The two creatures glared at one another, neither wanting to move and leave their master at the mercy of their opponent. Finally, the Firezilla roared and lunged at my Wyvern.

The blow to it felt like a blow to me. I felt the wind knocked out of my lungs as I staggered backwards, staring at the Gurtok in surprise. He smirked, raising his sword again.

The Firezilla attacked my Wyvern again, but this time I was ready. Using all the willpower I possessed, I mentally told my Wyvern to dodge. Amazingly, it worked.

From then on, it was a strange, deadly dance between the Ice Wyvern and the Firezilla. Being opposite schools, the battle was fierce; being both for four pips, they were more or less equally matched. This battle was taxing – not only was I harmed by attacks aimed at my Wyvern, but my mana reserves were beginning to dwindle. My energy was quickly draining, and a glance at Gurtok FireBender told me it was the same for him. One of us was going to tire soon, and for some reason, I had a feeling it would be me. I was level 40, and he was… what… Rank 9? He was meant to combat Grandmasters, or at least wizards who, oh, I don’t know… knew Colossus?

Fortunately, we’d both forgotten about one other participant in our battle.

The ground began to shake. At first, neither of us noticed, as occupied as we were with our battle. But when I took a step forward and tripped over a small fissure that opened in the ground, falling painfully onto my knees, it was hard to ignore. Bender stumbled a little too. We exchanged a brief look of confusion with one another before turning to the side to see Hunter proudly standing with a Treasure Card held out.

The cracked ground rumbled again, and then a particularly large crack shot across the ground near Hunter, heading toward Gurtok FireBender like a flash of lightning. With a jolt of horror, I realized this could be his end. I looked at his expression, and it stunned me to find him looking calm and serene.

Then the ground opened beneath him, and he dropped into darkness.