Julian dodged to the side, but his eyes never once left the guardian towering above him. He could sense the immense mana fueling the summon, and beneath it, a faint but unmistakable instability.
Elara was pushing herself hard, perhaps too hard, to maintain something so complex and demanding. He countered with a focused blast of fire, striking the guardian's arm and causing it to splash apart momentarily before the water surged back together and reformed as though nothing had happened at all.
The water guardian did not wait. It surged forward, and the ground itself seemed to groan beneath the sheer weight of its presence.
SPLOOSH!!
Its massive palm slammed downward again, and this time Julian barely rolled clear before the courtyard stones where he had been standing shattered under a hammer of compressed water. Chunks of shattered rock spun into the air and clattered back down, and a fine mist of spray drifted over the barrier like morning fog.
