[Third Person POV]
Arthur and Merlin didn't hesitate for even a moment; the two sprinted forward in unison, the snow crunching and scattering beneath their boots with every powerful stride. Merlin raised her staff ahead of her, magical energy crackling and swirling at its tip like a storm barely contained.
Violet beams of energy erupted from her staff in rapid succession, each blast tearing through the air and detonating in bursts of pink fire as they collided with Ifrit. The explosions sent waves of snow flying outward, painting the battlefield in a haze of light and smoke. For a brief moment, the elemental was swallowed by the violent storm of magic.
But from within that cloud, beams of pure, concentrated heat speared outward, cutting through the veil of smoke with searing brilliance. They burned paths through the frozen air, scorching everything in their trajectory. Merlin thrust her staff forward, intercepting the torrent of fire with her own spell, turning it into a shower of pink petals, while Arthur swung Caliburn with both hands, the blade shining with holy radiance. With a single mighty slash, he cleaved through one of the beams, splitting it in two before it could consume them.
Ifrit roared, the sound rumbling through the ground itself, and stomped heavily onto the snow. In an instant, fiery plumes erupted beneath their feet, molten cracks ripping across the tundra like the maw of a volcano. Arthur and Merlin reacted on instinct; Merlin levitated upward in a graceful surge of magic, while Arthur threw himself into a roll, snow spraying around him as he narrowly avoided the inferno.
Arthur rose quickly, stabbing Caliburn into the snow before slamming his free hands against the ground. Energy coursed from him like veins of lightning, splitting the earth as massive stone pillars erupted in a wave, surging forward toward Ifrit.
At the same time, Merlin steadied her breathing and aimed her staff, a swirling sphere of water forming at its tip. The liquid churned and pulsed, growing denser and sharper as she poured her focus into it, preparing a devastating strike.
Ifrit, however, merely flicked his finger. A brilliant spark ignited, blossoming into an explosion so violent that it consumed the incoming pillars in an instant. The stone was obliterated into shards and dust, scattered uselessly across the battlefield.
Merlin did not falter. With a sharp cry, she unleashed her attack. A piercing jet of water, compressed and deadly, shot from her staff like a spear. Ifrit tilted his head lazily at the last second, the torrent slicing into the frozen ground behind him with enough force to split the earth apart.
His molten eyes narrowed at Merlin, indifferent and unamused, but she only smiled in return. That smile widened just as a colossal shadow overtook him. Ifrit turned just in time to see a towering tsunami—born from the water she had already fired—crashing down upon him. His eyes widened in rare surprise as the wall of water slammed into him, the ground quaking and buckling under the weight of the impact.
Arthur's grimoire floated at his side, pages fluttering as a golden magic circle spun into existence in his palm. Lightning surged and gathered, the energy unstable and hungry for release. With a shout, Arthur unleashed it into the wave.
[2nd Tier Magic: Shock Pulse]
Electricity coursed through the water, the tsunami amplifying the power of the spell. Ifrit bellowed in pain as the current ripped through his molten form, smoke hissing from his body where water and lightning met.
But his fury burned hotter than any wound. With a deafening roar, he released his rage in a single pulse, a wave of heat exploding outward from his body. The inferno swept across the field, instantly vaporizing the water around him into steam. Merlin reacted swiftly, conjuring a shimmering bubble of magic that enveloped both herself and Arthur. The shield held, but the force of the heat slammed against it with such intensity that Arthur could feel it searing through, sweat trailing down his face despite the tundra's frozen air, while his skin burned painfully.
Snarling, Arthur tightened his grip on Caliburn. Planting a hand against the ground once more, a pillar of stone erupted beneath his feet, launching him forward like a missile. Golden light flared around his body as he invoked another spell.
[2nd Tier Magic: Haste]
The magic surged through his muscles, and in a blur of motion, Arthur kicked off the pillar, propelling himself straight toward Ifrit. His blade sang as he unleashed a ferocious slash aimed for the elemental's head. Ifrit twisted backward at the last possible instant, causing Arthur's strike to cleave only through air.
But the elemental was faster than he looked. His massive hand shot out, snatching Arthur by the leg mid-flight. With terrifying strength, Ifrit swung him downward and smashed him into the ground. The impact rattled Arthur's bones, forcing the air from his lungs as blood splattered across the snow, trickling down his head in a crimson trail.
Before Ifrit could finish the motion, his arm was slashed apart by a severing spell. Merlin stood nearby, her staff glowing with power, her eyes sharp and merciless as she glared at the elemental.
Arthur, dazed but unbroken, forced himself to his feet. Despite the splitting pain in his skull, he pressed forward, Caliburn shining brightly as he slashed again and again. Ifrit weaved around the attacks, his form blurring with flame, even as fire surged from his severed limb, connecting the two from a distance.
Ifrit pulled on his distant arm, calling forth for a crushing punch toward Arthur's exposed back. At the very last moment, Arthur twisted into the air, bringing his sword down in a radiant arc.
Caliburn cleaved straight through the fiery limb. The arm couldn't be connected anymore. It disintegrated instantly into ash, erased by the holy power woven into the blade.
Ifrit froze for a moment, his blazing eyes locked on Arthur. The arrogance and indifference he had shown before were gone. In their place burned focus and recognition.
For the first time, Ifrit regarded Arthur—not Merlin—as the greater threat.
However he quickly created a brand new arm with his fire. Replacing the disintegrated one.
Merlin darted through the air, her cloak whipping behind her as she swooped down to disrupt Ifrit's next strike before it could reach Arthur. The three of them—The Knight, The Wizard, and the Elemental—collided in a furious dance across the frozen tundra. Every movement shook the battlefield. Explosions rippled outward with thunderous force, geysers of snow and splintered ice erupting skyward until the pristine field looked more like a shattered war zone than a winter plain.
Merlin's control over the fight deepened. With Arthur locked in a relentless melee, she seized partial control of his body with a tether of magic, pulling him back from a crushing blow or shoving him forward into an opening. Together, their coordination blurred the line between two fighters and one entity—steel and sorcery fused into a single strategy.
Ifrit answered with fury. His body ignited like a living inferno, the air warping around him as storms of fire spiraled outward in every direction. The frozen land sizzled and cracked, ice and snow liquefying into rivers of molten lava. The suffocating heat wrapped around Arthur and Merlin, sweat pouring from their brows as patches of their clothing seared and skin blistered under the scorching waves.
Arthur swung Caliburn with blinding precision while Merlin countered with her staff, both of them hammering at Ifrit from opposite sides. But Ifrit's speed was monstrous—he moved with fire-propelled bursts, flames blasting from his palms and feet to rocket forward, to evade, or to strike. At one moment he was across the battlefield, and in the next, he was directly above them.
From the air, Ifrit thrust both palms downward. A torrent of flame, wide as a collapsing building, billowed down like a divine punishment, its overwhelming heat threatening to incinerate everything below.
Merlin raised her staff to meet him, blazing with violet energy. A beam of condensed magic shot upward to intercept the flames. The two attacks collided midair, clashing with a brilliance that lit the skies as if day had broken in the middle of night. The shockwave rolled across the tundra, flattening jagged peaks of ice in an instant.
Behind her, Arthur steadied himself, his eyes narrowing with determination. He leaned closer to her and whispered, his voice sharp but hushed, "I have a plan."
Merlin glanced back at him briefly, her lips twitching into a smirk as he shared the details. Her confidence returned in full. "Alright," she replied, "let's go through with it."
Without hesitation, they broke apart. Merlin and Arthur charged in different directions, splitting their paths across the battlefield. Ifrit roared, molten flames spilling from his hands, melting the ground where they had stood only seconds before. The once-frozen tundra was reduced to an ocean of glowing magma, cracks spreading outward like fiery veins.
His focus locked on Arthur. Ifrit's burning eyes tracked the knight as he darted across the field, readying a wave of fire large enough to consume him whole. But the instant Ifrit unleashed it—Arthur vanished.
The elemental's eyes widened in disbelief. He spun around and found Arthur floating behind him, his grimoire spinning with fierce energy. In his hand, a Tier 1 magic circle pulsed with crackling blue light.
[Mana Bullet]
The sphere of energy whined sharply, unstable but deadly. Ifrit's response was immediate. He thrust his palms forward and released a stream of blistering flames, the torrent screaming toward Arthur.
Arthur's eyes flared with resolve. He poured he unleashed another spell, not into his body or at Ifrit, but rather at the spell itself.
[Tier 3 Magic: Reinforcement]
The humble Mana Bullet shifted, expanding and condensing at once, its core tightening until the surrounding air shrieked from distortion. No longer a mere projectile, it transformed into a devastating lance of raw power.
Arthur unleashed it.
The beam tore through Ifrit's flames as though they were nothing but smoke, cutting a clean path through the inferno. It struck the elemental square in the chest, detonating with colossal force. Ifrit's body was hurled from the sky, smashing into the ground below with an impact so violent the earth split apart, leaving a deep crater.
Growling, Ifrit staggered back to his feet. The heat around him spiked dangerously, snow vanishing instantly, stone liquefying into glowing magma. He stood tall in the smoking crater, radiating raw destruction.
But when his eyes snapped up, Arthur had vanished once more but this time he was replaced. It was Merlin. She extended a single hand toward him—Arthur's glove adorning her fingers. With a confident snap of her fingers, the battlefield shifted.
Ifrit froze. He sensed Arthur's presence elsewhere. He spun around just in time to see the knight charging directly toward him, sword raised. Snarling, Ifrit summoned his fire, intent on drowning Arthur in an ocean of flame. Yet when he thrust his palm forward, only a faint wisp of smoke sputtered out—and dissipated into nothing.
Confusion overtook him. He looked at his hand, then back at Arthur, realization dawning too late. His fire had been stolen from him.
"You should be careful where you stand," Arthur said, voice strained with exertion as he drove Caliburn straight through Ifrit's chest.
[3rd Tier Magic: Mana Burst]
The blade blazed with golden and cerulean light, erupting into a pillar that cracked the heavens themselves. The air shuddered under the explosion of energy as the light engulfed Ifrit. His scream echoed across the battlefield, but his molten body disintegrated almost instantly, burning away into ash that scattered in the icy winds.
Silence fell.
Merlin floated down gracefully as Arthur staggered forward, clutching his throat as he gasped. "Merlin… the air…" he wheezed, his lungs straining.
"Oh—right." Merlin snapped her fingers. Oxygen returned at once, and Arthur collapsed forwards, gulping the blessed air and coughing harshly.
When he recovered, Merlin smirked, leaning lightly on her staff. "I have to say, Arthur… that was a brilliant idea. Giving me your glove so I could create a giant transmutation circle and alter the air itself—robbing him of the fuel for his flames at the critical moment. Clever."
Arthur blinked and looked around. From high above, the two of them stood at the center of a massive circle carved into the tundra, intricate runes glowing faintly beneath their boots. From the sky, they would appear as little more than ants at the heart of a divine symbol.
"The position swap caught me off guard," Arthur admitted, rubbing his temple as he steadied himself. "But… good call."
Merlin, ever the tease, slipped off the enchanted glove slowly, deliberately biting the fabric between her teeth to tug it free. Her eyes never left Arthur's as she offered it back to him, her smile playful.
Arthur's cheeks flushed as he snatched it from her hand. "Was that really necessary?" he muttered.
Merlin laughed, light and melodic, the sound ringing across the scarred battlefield. "Very," she replied simply.
And with that, the battle with the demonic spirit Ifrit was finally concluded.
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