"What? Are you surprised?" the guard asked while looking at Marie straight in the eyes, eye ball to eye ball.
'What's wrong with this guy? I can already tell he's a creepy and psychotic person.' Marie thought to herself as he looked at the man's eyes.
He had small rounded eyes that didn't quite match his larger head. With his rough beard strands, small ears, a tiny nose, and a wide mouth, he resembled an irregular fish creature more than a human. He was huge, at most, twice the size of Marie, as he stood over her like a towering giant.
"How bold can you honestly? Anyway, it doesn't matter, I just have to kill you here." He man said as he stood up and started walking forward slowly, while all the while not taking his eyes off Marie, not even blinking once.
The man's words didn't seat well with Marie. Was her arrival here predicted? Or did someone leak information of her mission to the enemy? No, only a few people knew, it was unlikely. Either way, she wasn't going to stop now.
Chunks of debris scattered around flew around them in random motion as they stared at each other. Soon after, the fog had been replaced with dust and dirt caused by two mages who were fighting with all the intention to kill each other.
The caravan remained unharmed amidst all the pieces of the earth and trees that flew about, 'a barrier must have been put up to protect the caravan, seem like the merchandise transported by these people really is special.' Marie thought.
The guard seemed to be an earth magician as he kept using one earth spell after another. Marie was a water magician, so their spells both worked against or worked for them with significant effects.
The slammed his right palm on the moist ground, and five big chunks of earth formed from the gound before him and flew straight at Marie, She saw it coming, and with a huge wall of water, she was able to block them. The battle continued like this, in this fashion, as they both were perfect counter for each other in a way.
After some time passed, the battle between the two Grandmaster mages seemed to be going nowhere, just stagnating on the same tricks. No one was going to use their bigger spells, so that they could conserve mana, but no one was pushing the other back.
After their magic clashed for the uncountable time, "Twin Blade!" sends out two crescent shaped blades of water, "Stone axe!" Throws an axe made of condensed stone, they paused for a brief moment, and without saying a word, they both understood, it was time to pull out the big guns.
Both mages had strong magic affinities. Marie was a special one as she possessed two affinities, water and ice. This was commendable, and it's why she is regarded as a rare talent in the kingdom, since most people were born with just one magical affinity. People who are born with two are rare and are considered gems by their Kingdom, and everyone else. Her opponent however, had an affinity with earth. Normally, this would be a disadvantage because ice is a high tier elemental affinity, but unfortunately for Marie, her opponent's affinity with earth was remarkably high.
… Everywhere rang in sudden silence…
"Ice Hive!"
"Sand Burial!"
As Marie called out her spell, tens of ice spikes formed out of thin air and shot towards the huge guard, and unable to block immediately, the got a direct hit.
The guard's own earth surge shock the ground towards Marie as it turned to quick sand. She began sinking into it instantly and fast, almost as if something else was at work, pulling her from below. Thanks to her fast reflexes, she was able to freeze the sand and push herself out, within seconds.
Marie was unharmed, but the guard's body had sustained injuries that made his skin look truly like a bee's hive.
After what seemed like a short break, they were ready for round two. Marie raised her right hand up slightly, and after a couple of seconds, a mini chaotic storm of snow appeared just a few feet behind her, about halve the size of the guard and almost as big as herself.
Irrespective of the word mini, it soon grew big enough to wash down more than halve of the caravan.
The icy wind that accompanied this snow storm blew apart the surrounding trees, uprooting those with weak roots. The caravan seemed to be unaffected, probably because of the barrier, but the other mage was looking at the storm with a worried expression on his face. Although he did his best to hide it, his injuries affected him quite a bit. With a hard frown on his face while all the while still staring at Marie like he could see her soul, he prepared his own spell. 'As if having two affinities isn't enough, this little girl's mana pool is massive. I might end up running out of mana after this spell..'
"Seems you are finally serious. It would be shameful if I were to lose to a child. Very well!" While he was speaking, the earth shook, as two giant snakes shaped bodies of the earth rose from the ground, each to his sides. With no words or warning, both of them launched their attacks.
"Raging Ice Cyclone!"
"Stone Twin Serpent!"
As the magic from both mages collided, it seemed like the earth mage would come out the victor, because the pieces of ice in Marie's spell were too small to affect the stone serpents greatly, but what appeared after would shock the earth mage to no end.
The collision between both spells was strong. Marie's cyclone behaving like solid matter, smashed into the twin serpents, and started eating away at the body of the serpents. As the guard saw this, he directed one of the serpents towards the sides of the cyclone, and used it to attack Marie directly, evading her spell. 'What's this?' the guard asked as he felt something off about his direct attack on Marie.
His Twin Serpents which were made of stone were completely gone, from halfway to the top. The Spell Raging Ice Cyclone might not be accompanied by boulder sized ice particles, but the ice roaming within the cyclone is fast and strong enough to eat out of the rock like paper inside a shredder. If it wasn't for the barrier, the caravan would have gone together with the surrounding trees that had been reduced to shrubs by the passing spell.
As he watched his stone serpents get eaten away by his opponent's spell, his initial confidence seemed to have faded as he stood there, still. His eyes staring at the closing spell as though they would devour it, he watched the ice spell get closer and closer as time seemed to have slowed down a bit, just for him. "Ahhhh!!" His manly cry swept through the forest as he screamed in pain while being shredded by his opponent's spell. Pitiful.
"I used 6th tier magic, so it's natural that it would overpower your 5th tier magic. Worry not, you died by the hands of a capable mage, that should put you at ease." Marie said as she watched her snow white spell turn red.
Although she sounded confident just then, she was more concerned with the fact that even a 6th tier magic such as Raging Ice Cyclone couldn't break the barrier protecting the caravan.
'I have a feeling that this isn't over yet. I hope that's not the case.'