Malik brought his sword up in a desperate parry. The two blades collided with a deafening ring, the sheer kinetic force of the impact sending both men skidding backward across the grit.
Malik drove the tip of his azure sword into the earth to brake his momentum. The moment he steadied, his face twisted into a mask of unadulterated fury at the sheer audacity of the treason. He charged like a wounded bull.
"Traitor!" he roared over the din of combat. "You strike at your Lord in the heart of a melee?"
The Vizier planted his feet, raising his brown-glowing blade, entirely unapologetic.
"You are the traitor!" Yamen bellowed back. "You will lead us into the abyss! This is the Sand Mage's design. You are nothing but a puppet forged to draw us out of our sanctuary so he can butcher us in the open! You used religious fervor to blind them. The dead do not return after a century. This I know for a fact!"
Malik closed the distance, a feral, predatory smile exposing his teeth. "No, Yamen. You are the mage's perfect tool. Treason is simply an enemy's shortcut to an effortless victory."
Metal clashed against metal. They fell into a lethal duel, striking with absolute killing intent. The pale yellow aura of Malik's borrowed Coating and the dense brown of the Vizier's Art ground against one another, bleeding together in the air like a turbulent, violent nebula.
Their blades moved in a blur of thrusts, parries, and lethal arcs. Through the haze, Princess Yasmin spotted the duel. Panic seized her. She yanked her Wathib's horns, spurring the beast toward them and screaming at the top of her lungs.
"Stop! You cannot fight each other now! We are in a kill zone!"
As if to prove her point, five Sand Soldiers lunged at the dueling men. Malik didn't break his rhythm. He pivoted, severing a construct's torso with his azure blade, snapped two quick strikes at the Vizier's guard, and then thrust his sword through the chest of a second sand monster.
The Vizier, demonstrating the terrifying proficiency of his Art, executed three blindingly fast rotational strikes, reducing the remaining three constructs to dust. Without pausing, he launched himself into the air, flipping forward like a descending wheel to bring his blade crashing down on Malik.
Malik brought his sword up horizontally, bracing his boots against the dirt. The block held, but barely. Sparks cascaded over them, and the earth beneath Malik's feet spider-webbed with deep fissures from the sheer downward pressure.
Suddenly, a streak of pure flame shot past them like a falling star, aimed directly at the Vizier. The older man abandoned his downward press, twisting his blade just in time to split the projectile of fire in half and disperse it.
He looked up to see Princess Yasmin. She had her index finger leveled at him, shaped like the barrel of a pistol. Another bolt of condensed fire shot from her fingertip to drive him away from Malik. Her face was contorted in a rage she had never shown before.
The Vizier retreated several paces, his blade moving in a frantic blur to bat away her rapid-fire barrage.
"You are brainwashed!" Yamen shouted over the crackle of flames. "Blind! Open your eyes, Princess! He lured us into a battle we cannot survive... we will all be exterminated! Look at the men around you!"
Yasmin's hand trembled. She allowed her gaze to snap away from the Vizier and sweep across the battlefield.
The reality of the war crashed into her. Her soldiers were drowning in a sea of white sand. She saw men struggling desperately, only to be impaled by jagged spears. She saw others dragged to the ground, beaten into the earth by heavy stone clubs until their bodies broke. She saw seasoned warriors freeze in absolute terror as a colossal giant raised its massive axe to the sky, bringing it down to crush them. Even Kaser, who was surrounded by mountains of shattered constructs, was beginning to slow, his chest heaving with exhaustion.
The battle was not in their favor.
A chilling thought crept into her mind. Is the Vizier right? Or was he merely spreading the poison of weakness and defeatism?
Was the man fighting beside them truly their Awaited Hero... or just another twisted tool of the Sand Mage, playing them exactly as the enemy had before?