This time, he unleashed Maxwell’s taught sword technique, a hurricane of sword energy radiated from his frame, each beam homing on Winston like meteors hungry for impact.
Simultaneously, Sylvia wove her fingers through a rapid series of seals; ripples of crystalline sorcery burst outward, hammering the air toward Winston in glittering waves. Winston laughed, welcoming the double assault. “Excellent, show me everything you’ve got!”
His hands blurred, conjuring a massive gilt shield that blossomed before him, absorbing the twin storms with a resonant clang.
Steel, bright echoes—clang, clang, clang—rang out, scattering sparks across the battlefield. Sword light and mystic force collided with the golden barrier, chiming like crystal bells smashed by hammers.
Impressive as they were, Jared and Sylvia’s strikes only rippled the shield’s surface; the wall reformed instantly, almost taunting them.
Winston’s laughter boomed. “Is that all? You really think such feeble sparks could singe me?!”
He clasped his palms, a lance of molten gold erupted, surging toward the pair with the roar of a collapsing star.
Sylvia shouted, “Move!”
She yanked Jared sideways, both bodies rolling clear an instant before the beam punched a crater into the stone.
The detonation thundered through the valley; dust and rubble geysered upward, leaving a smoking hollow large enough to swallow a cottage.
Jared caught his breath amid the haze. “This isn’t working, Ms. Vale! Winston’s power eclipses ours, we’re barely scratching him.”
“We don’t have the luxury of quitting,” Sylvia replied, green eyes blazing. “If we fall back now, everything ends here.”
She wiped a thin ribbon of blood from the corner of her lip, steadied her breath, and met Jared’s gaze.
“We have to find a way to bring him down,” Sylvia said, her voice soft yet steeled with resolve.
A heartbeat later, Winston’s fingers blurred through a whirlwind of sigils. Gold light burst from his palms in a glittering storm, each beam a needle of divine wrath that rained toward them like a falling constellation.
Jared’s eyes narrowed. “Ms. Vale, split up, now!”
They whipped apart in opposite directions, boots skidding over jagged stone as the golden deluge slammed into the ground where they had stood a breath earlier. Even so, several lances of light ripped through their defenses, carving searing lines across flesh and fabric.
A sickening wet crack echoed in the gorge. Jared and Sylvia spat crimson, stumbling as the heat of the blows scalded their bones.
“Hahaha! You were never worthy opponents!” Winston’s laughter rolled through Death Gorge. “Allow me to demonstrate real power!”
His hands twined again, faster, and a globe of molten gold swelled between his palms, growing, pulsing, collapsing inward before roaring outward. The air itself quivered, rocks vibrating as if afraid of what was coming.
“Lord’s Judgement!” With a vicious shout, he hurled the sphere.
It streaked across the battlefield, a miniature sun dragging a tail of burning sigils toward Jared and Sylvia.
Their faces blanched. The pressure alone felt capable of grinding marrow to dust. If that strike landed, bones would shatter and organs would pulp, of that they had no doubt.
“Together!” Jared yelled, hope forging iron in his tone.
Sylvia nodded once. They unleashed everything.
Light flared along Jared’s sword, dozens of razor-thin arcs exploded outward, each one humming with killing intent.
At the same instant Sylvia’s fingers danced, releasing a torrent of emerald celestial force that crackled like living lightning.
Boom!
Gold, silver, and emerald slammed together, the collision thundering through the chasm like the sky itself collapsing.
Death Gorge convulsed. Cliffs fractured, boulders atomized, and a crater yawned where solid ground had been.
Jared and Sylvia were blasted backward, coughing more blood as they skidded across shattered rock. Even Winston staggered three paces, shock flickering across his otherwise smug features.
“Impressive. The two of you actually blocked it,” Winston admitted, lips curling. “But that was only the opening act!”
He moved again, faster, fiercer. Another golden storm erupted, this one denser, merciless, a living net of light.
Jared and Sylvia dodged desperately, yet beams still found flesh, fresh blood soaked their torn clothes, each breath shallower than the last.
Jared gritted his teeth. “Sylvia, we can’t keep absorbing hits. We need a counter, now!”
She winced, scanning Winston’s flawless guard. “I know, but his power leaves no seam, I can’t see a single weakness.”
Winston’s silhouette straightened amid the broken columns of light that still drifted through the air like dying fireflies.
With a butcher’s calm, he raised both hands. All around him, the wind imploded inward, as though the mountain itself were breathing only for him, and a darkness thicker than tar coiled at his fingertips, his most merciless strike, called up once more.
