See If I Care

~9~

*Gobbledygook*

~Parseltongue~

-April 28th, 994-

Alex ducked as a curse flew over their head, twisting around as they dropped. They withdrew their bow and fired off an arrow directly at Ric, sending a stunner to either side of him. Ric ducked under the arrow, rather than dodging it into a stunner like they had planned. They twisted out of the way of another spell that Godric sent at them as they placed their bow back on their back. They continued to send spells at Godric without their wand, still finding it easier to use their magic without a foci, such as their wand was.

Alex twisted again, dropping low before jumping up and into the air to dodge the spells being sent at them. They pulled out two of their knives and threw them towards Godric, aiming not at him but a bit in front of and bit off to the left of his feet, making Ric step back slightly and to the right, directly into a cutting curse that they had sent there, not seeing it until the last second when it was too late to dodge. Godric managed to get a shield up just in time to avoid getting hit with the majority of the spell, but still getting hit with the backlash, a cut appearing on his arm; Alex had called first blood.

The duel continued back and forth, with both Alex and Godric being hit by some of the spells they couldnt dodge, continuing to twist, turn, duck, jump, shield, and, in Alex's case, use daggers to deflect the spells, to avoid being hit by the spells being sent their way. Alex suddenly had an idea and quickly made a few steps back and creating a strong shield to prevent any spells hitting them for a moment. They created a small fire in their hand, having gotten a lot of control over both fire and air through their lessons with Merlin – water still almost completely evaded them despite having an affinity to it – making the fire smoke more than flame, while creating a wind around them, making the smoke swirl around both them and Ric to obscure his vision. They closed their hand, extinguishing the flame and let the wind die down, casting a temporary invisibility spell on themself while still holding their shield up to stop the spells Ric was casting at where they had previously been; the invisibility would hold until they moved.

They watched as Ric looked around cautiously, trying to work out where they were. He knew the spell they had just used, having been the one to teach it to them, but had no idea where they had moved to while the whirlwind of smoke was hiding them. Alex stayed still for a moment longer as Godric kept sending stunners around the room, trying to hit an opponent he couldnt see. As soon as he turned far enough that he wouldnt see them, Alex moved. They pulled their two short swords and rushed at Godric, who noticed them coming out of the corner of his eye and turned, pulling his sword just in time to deflect their oncoming attack.

They fought back and forth with their blades, for a short while until Godric was able to pull away far enough to send a spell at Alex, which they deflected with their short swords, moving back to give themself more room from Ric, giving themself more room to move and time to counter Godric's spells. Alex sheathed their swords and waved their hands, sending a blast of pure power at Godric, flaring their aura out so it acted as a mix between a shield and a ward. Godric dropped to the ground to avoid the blast of magic, rolling to the side as he did.

Godric conjured up clay plates and sent them spinning at Alex. The plates slowed down as they hit their aura and they waved their hand transfiguring the plates into small birds which they sent towards him to attack. Alex sent a freezing spell at the ground around his feet, freezing him in place as he sent a wave of fire towards them, getting rid of the conjured birds as the flames pushed towards Alex. Alex didn't blink as the fire engulfed them, instead sending stunners and binding spells at where Godric was frozen to the ground, hoping they would hit while they were engulfed in the flames – thanks to their phoenix form and their affinity to fire, all fire (apart from Fiendfyre and other extremely Dark, cursed fire) was basically harmless to them.