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Volearden turned his armored head towards Vur. “What’s your wife doing?”
“She’s trying to beat Malvina,” Vur said, blinking at Volearden. “See?” He gestured towards the sky where Tafel and the queen of the phoenixes were both standing. With Zilphy and Sheryl’s help, the demon had no problem with flying in the air.
“She’s, uh, doing a pretty bad job at it,” Volearden said in a low voice. He hiccoughed. “Do you want me to give her some advice? I have lots of experience fighting phoenixes.”
Vur nodded. “Yes.”
“Perfect,” Volearden said. “I was cringing just watching the way she fought.” He raised his front paws in front of his mouth to amplify his voice. “Tafel! Malvina’s main weapon is her crystal ball. It helps her control flames. It’ll be hard to pry her weapon away from her talons, so you should be aiming to slice her whole leg off!”
Despite the roaring flames surrounding the demon, Tafel heard Volearden loud and clear. She glanced down at Malvina’s crystal sphere before frowning. How was she supposed to cut off Malvina’s leg when Chi’Rururp simply passed through the phoenix’s body? If she had one of those extinguisher weapons Malvina mentioned, then it might be possible, but….
“If you don’t have an extinguisher weapon, you can use Vur’s water elemental to coat the edge of your sword,” Volearden said and hiccoughed. “It’s not perfect, but it’s better than whatever ice thing you’re doing.”
Malvina turned her head and glared at the armored dragon. Although she wanted to tell him to shut his face and quit coaching her opponent, her opponent was Marima’s descendent and someone she had promised to teach. Even though Volearden was doing his best to make her lose, Malvina turned her head and ignored the armored dragon, narrowing her eyes at the layer of water forming over the edge of Tafel’s sword. The sword’s eyeball rolled upwards to look at the queen of the phoenixes, and Malvina shuddered upon meeting its gaze. “Erde must’ve led you astray,” she said to Tafel. “How could a phoenix ever pick up such a hideous weapon?”
“Hey!” Tafel said and frowned. “Chi’Rururp is not hideous; it’s cute!” The demon’s horns glowed silver, but Malvina shifted to the side, avoiding the portal opening beside her.
The queen of the phoenixes clicked her tongue. “After showing me an attack once, did you really think I’d fall for it again?” Malvina asked. She gestured with her foot holding the crystal orb, and a rotating flaming spear shot into the portal. It flew out of the portal that had just formed in front of Tafel, brushing past the demon while grazing her shoulder.
“Without a flame-controlling crystal yourself, you can’t let her flames make contact with yours,” Volearden said, cupping his front paws in front of his mouth once more. “When they’re rotate like that, they take in the flames surrounding them to add to their own strength. As long as the spears continue to exist after taking in your fire, the amount you can use will be reduced as well. To regain control of the flames you’ve lost, you have to destroy the spears with the water elemental. If you lose the majority of your flames to her spears, you’ll be burnt by her attacks even if you’re a phoenix.”
Tafel frowned, and a furrow appeared on her brow. In that case, she had to keep her phoenix flames close to her body to prevent them from drifting into the suction caused by Malvina’s rotating spears. Luckily, the demon had plenty of experience with concentrating her flames thanks to the blacksmiths’ training regimen. “Chi’Rururp, cast Absolute Zero for me,” Tafel said. “I’ll tell you when to release it.”
“Okay!” Chi’Rururp said, its voice muffled and vibrating as if it were speaking underwater, before chanting in a low voice as if it were mumbling.
It was true she was lacking in flame-control experience compared to Malvina, but who said a phoenix had to use phoenix flames to fight? Tafel took in a deep breath. She’d use the overwhelming amount of mana the phoenix imprint had given her and concentrate it into her spells instead. Her horns glowed silver, but instead of a portal appearing, a clockface appeared underneath Malvina’s feet. “Slow!”
Malvina glanced down at the clockface and raised an eyebrow. She flapped her wings, pushing herself slightly to the side and out of the glowing circle. “Serious question,” Malvina said and pointed at the clockface. “Have you ever hit anyone with that spell before? It has such a narrow effective range; even if it’s strong, what’s the point of using it … if … it … never … hits…?”
Tafel grinned. “Looks like a hit to me,” the demon said. Tafel clicked her tongue, and the clockface shimmered before disappearing. A second later, a gigantic clockface winked into existence underneath Malvina and her flame spears, the clockface’s minute and hour hands moving at a snail’s pace. “I used a simple trick to make my spell’s range look just a little smaller than it actually was.”
“What … the … heck?” Malvina asked as she raised her head, her body moving in slow motion. Was it really a simple trick to mask a spell’s effective range? How could it be simple if she couldn’t do it herself? The phoenix queen narrowed her eyes—in slow motion. Although she was slowed, all she needed to do was escape into her World of Fire and wait out the spell duration. Her feathers rippled as they changed into flames, and—
“Now!” Tafel said, pointing her sword at Malvina.
“Absolute Zero!” Chi’Rururp said as a cold-blue light poured out of its eye.
A glacier appeared in the air, trapping Malvina within, freezing the phoenix and her flames solid. Tafel leapt forward, her movements assisted by Zilphy, and crossed the distance between herself and Malvina in an instant. “Acid!” Tafel said as she raised her sword over her head, readying for a downward slash. Chi’Rururp rumbled, and a layer of green stained the water covering the blade’s edge. Tafel’s eyes narrowed and with a cry, she slashed at the glacier, cutting it—and the phoenix queen’s body—into two.