The Final Redemption by Michael Manning (little red riding hood ebook free .txt) 📕

direction to facewhen speaking, since it was obvious that I was unlikely to be whereI appeared. “Stealing odd bits of power, do you think you’ll gainenough to balance the scale?”

I hadn’t thought I could hide it forlong. Nor had I believed it was practical. Such a thing would havetaken days at the rate things were going now. There weren’t enoughcircles to keep him busy for that long. My main purpose was to showhim the truth. He might win, but it would only be because of bruteforce. In every other way I was his superior. That couldn’t sitwell with him.

Just to get under his skin evenfurther, I reactivated the shields at the places where he had triedto hit me with his spellwoven whip. Since I had turned them offbefore he struck, the enchantments were still functional. Theplaces he had smashed with pure aythar were a lost causehowever.

“There really isn’t a balance betweenus,” I told him. “No amount of power will ever compensate for allthe things you lack.”

“I haven’t forgotten the places Iattacked,” he assured me. “Shield or not, I won’t bother with themagain.”

“Then you assume that it’s illusionI’m using?” I said suddenly, and this time I appeared in one of theunshielded circles near the center. He had been ignoring thosesince deciding they were decoys, but my appearance there now was adirect challenge.

Without a shield to hide my aythar, heknew without a doubt that I was truly there. I teleported away aninstant after I appeared.

His reaction, expected as it was, wasstill so swift that it nearly caught me, although I had alreadyprepared myself to teleport immediately after showing myself. Ablazing column of raw power struck the place I had been standing,burning a deep hole in the ground. The attack was so great thathalf of it was absorbed by the earth itself, and only half wascaught in my enchanted sieve—to be funneled into my greedyhands.

Damn, I thought, he isn’t playingaround. The strike had used an incredibleamount of aythar. If he keeps doing that,he’s a bigger fool than I thought.

Snarling, he sent more of hisspellweavings to destroy the shields around empty circles, but Ihad enough warning to shut them off before they struck. I broughtthem back up the moment his spellweavings vanished.

He had to be frustrated.If he used spellweavings, I couldn’t steal any of his aythar, butif he attacked spontaneously and missed, I grew stronger. Of coursethat assumed he played by my rules. He’sgoing to start changing the game.

Mal’goroth couldn’t be sure howquickly I could teleport, so I was betting that he would assumethat my visible location was bound to be an illusion if it wasunder a shield. Taking a chance, I removed the illusion hiding meand dismissed the false image I had placed in one of the othercircles. If he used a spellweave, I could probably teleport, but ifhe tried a spontaneous attack I knew I’d never escape intime.

But you won’t do that,will you? You’re going to focus on the empty ones.My thought was as much a wish as a prediction. Itwas entirely possible he’d swat me like a fly if he had a differentchain of logic.

“I think we’ve had enough of this,”said Mal’goroth. “I’ve grown tired of the game.” Extending hisarms, lines of spellweaving shot outward and upward, until itseemed that they might cover the sky. From one horizon to theother, the blue was replaced with an absolute black as his powerexpanded, filling the air over our heads out to a distance that washard to comprehend.

He gave me a charming look. “Now thatwe know where we stand, let’s see where you are.” A flash of rawpower erupted from his body and destroyed all of my shieldedcircles in an instant. I had reinforced my own, which kept me frombeing completely overwhelmed, but the others were gone now. Atorrent of aythar was channeled through my spell-sieve. DesperatelyI absorbed everything I could, but I knew it wouldn’t beenough.

Pointing at me with a slender fingerhe crooned, “Now, we see you revealed.”

I stood in my lone circle,a hundred yards away. My strength was far greater than it had beenwhen we started, but anyone with even a hint of magesight couldstill see the difference between us. With my circles gone, I hadrun out of places to hide. Things areabout to get painful, Isurmised.

This is going tohurt.

“I already said that,” I admonished myinner voice.

It was worthrepeating, it responded.

Gathering everything I had, I threw mystrength into the shield ring around me. Mal’goroth’s spellwovennightmare in the sky was shrinking now, closing with everincreasing speed. A contracting knot of blackness, with me at itscenter.

When it reached me, I lostconsciousness, which was interesting in itself. As a rule, immortalbeings don’t black out. The crushing power that destroyed my shieldshould have been painful, but it completely overwhelmed my senses,leaving me awash in a sea of dark oblivion.

My senses returned far too quickly,and I found myself trapped within a black sphere, or at least Ithought it was a sphere. I couldn’t tell much about it other thanthe crushing pressure it seemed to exert upon me from everydirection. I’d never experienced anything quite so claustrophobicbefore, not to mention painfully unpleasant.

Speak for yourself,chimed in my inner self.

The pressure lightened for a moment,and light began to enter my world. My body lay in the same place Ihad been, wrapped within tight bands of densely powerful She’Harspellweaving. They were covered in thorns, and the pressure theyapplied made them less than enjoyable.

Very little of my body was exposed,primarily my eyes. The beautiful face of my enemy looked down on mefrom only a foot away. “I’m sure you’re starting to feel foolishnow, aren’t you?” he told me in an amiable tone.

I tried to speak, but my mouth wascovered as well, so I crossed my eyes instead, hoping that wouldcommunicate my disdain for his opinion. After a few seconds ofstaring at me he gave me access to my mouth again.

“You had to tear up halfthe valley and wrap who knows how much sky with your aythar to subdue me,” Itold him. “That can’t sit well with you.”

“We’re going to be together for