I was a ghost. I was a breeze. I was annoying the hell out of him.
ZHOOM.
I circled the Necromancer at three hundred kilometers per hour. To the students watching from the gym windows, I was just a green blur.
"Stand still!" the Necromancer shrieked, firing a volley of shadow bolts.
I didn't just dodge them; I danced between them. I ran up the vertical wall, pushed off the ceiling, and landed behind him.
"Missed me," I whispered.
I thrust my palm forward. "Wind Blast!"
A cannonball of compressed air hit the Necromancer's back.
BAM.
He stumbled forward... but that was it. He didn't burn. He didn't break. The purple shadow-armor around him absorbed the impact like a sponge.
He turned around, laughing. "Is that it? You have the speed of a god, but the punch of a chaotic fan. You cannot hurt me, boy!"
I skidded to a halt on the other side of the stage, hovering a few inches off the ground.
He was right. Vayu was fast, but Vayu was soft. I couldn't crack his defense.
"Aryan!" Riya's voice crackled in my ear.
"Analysis complete. His armor regenerates every 2 seconds. You need burst damage.
You need Agni."
"I can't!" I shouted back, dodging another shadow spear. "If I switch to Agni, I lose the speed! He'll skewer me before I can throw a punch!"
"Then don't choose," Vikram's voice cut in.
He sounded weak, but his arrogance was intact. "Switch mid-stride. Use the momentum of the Wind to deliver the mass of the Fire."
"That will fry the Chakra!" I argued.
"Do you have a better idea?" Vikram coughed. "Because I'm currently bleeding on the floor."
I looked at the Necromancer, who was charging up a massive ball of purple energy.
"Fine. If I explode, tell my mom I loved her cooking."
I took a deep breath.
Focus.
I need the Freedom of the Wind to move.
I need the Rage of the Fire to strike.
I kicked off the air.
ZHOOM.
I flew straight at the Necromancer. No tricks.
A direct charge.
He smiled. "Fool."
He fired the purple energy beam.
< AVATAR: VAYU >
I corkscrewed in mid-air, spinning around the beam like a drill. I breached his guard. I was one inch away from his face.
NOW.
I slammed my hand onto the dial.
< SYSTEM OVERRIDE >
< SWITCHING: VAYU >>> AGNI >
In a nanosecond, the weight returned. The green mist vanished.
My fist turned into molten rock. The fire exploded.
"METEOR PUNCH!"
KABOOM.
My fist connected with his mask.
The impact was cataclysmic. The speed of Vayu multiplied by the mass of Agni created kinetic energy that shouldn't exist.
The Necromancer didn't just fly back; he broke the sound barrier backward.
He smashed through the stage wall, through the brick wall behind it, and into the school courtyard.
< WARNING: CORE TEMP CRITICAL >
< SWITCHING: AGNI >>> VAYU >
I turned back into wind instantly to stop my own recoil from shattering my arm.
I chased him.
The Necromancer was lying in a crater in the soccer field. His mask was shattered. Half his face was gone—revealing nothing but swirling purple smoke underneath. He wasn't human. He was a Lich.
He tried to stand up, snarling. "You... insolent..."
"I'm not done!" I yelled.
I started running in a circle around him.
Faster. Faster.
Vayu created a vortex. A tornado began to form in the soccer field, trapping the Lich in the center.
"Riya! Vikram! Is everyone clear?"
"Clear!" Riya yelled.
"Good."
I was moving so fast the world was a tunnel of green light. I was the eye of the storm.
I looked at the dial one last time.
"Let's mix it up."
I didn't switch forms. I forced the dial to open both valves.
< CRITICAL ERROR >
< DUAL-CHANNEL ATTEMPTED >
< SYSTEM INTEGRITY: 5% >
My left arm felt like it was being dipped in acid. The metal of the bracelet glowed white-hot.
Green wind mixed with orange fire.
"COMBINATION ART: FIRESTORM CYCLONE!"
I released the energy into the tornado.
The wind ignited.
A pillar of spinning fire, forty feet high, engulfed the soccer field. It was a literal hell-storm.
The Lich screamed as the holy fire shredded his shadow form. The wind kept him trapped, and the fire incinerated him.
"THE KING... WILL... RETURN..."
WHOOSH.
The purple mist evaporated. The barrier around the school shattered like glass, letting the real sunlight pour back in.
The fire died down.
I stood in the center of the scorched soccer field. Steam was rising from my body.
My left arm was black and blue. The Astra-Chakra was hissing, smoke pouring out of the vents.
< SYSTEM COOLDOWN: 72 HOURS. >
< GOOD JOB, KID. >
I blinked. Did the watch just compliment me?
My knees gave out.
The world spun.
The last thing I saw before I face-planted into the grass was Riya sprinting toward me, and the flashing red lights of the ADTF trucks swarming the school gates.
"Oops," I mumbled. "Grounded for sure."
Blackout.