"I need to amplify your elemental fire," Henry said, his hands weaving something like a f
golden sphere from thin strands of light spilt from his fingertips, curling and twisting around one another as they gathered into the glowing orb.
"Okay," Darius said incredulously. "What the hell is that?"
The torrent of fire he had conjured still blazed halfway down the hill of bones, cutting off the Vomeks as their dreadful screams echoed from below.
"It's called an amplifier spell," Henry answered, never taking his eyes off the orb as he continued weaving it. "A little trick we came up with during the Battle of the Seven Mages. Who would've thought it would come in handy at a time like this?"
"Whatever, warlock," Darius muttered, gazing down at the fading fire.
And once again, the Vomeks began their ascent up the bony hill.
He swallowed at the sight of it. They had joined together into a swarm, like ants climbing over a rock. It would take more than his flames to even hold them back.
Then, golden light exploded from the orb Henry had conjured. His hands were spread around the torrent of energy—it was no longer a sphere but a storm. Its weaves, once thin strands, had erupted outward, spiralling around him like threads of living fire.
"Now!" he screamed at Darius.
"What are you talking about?" he bellowed, caught off guard by the Vomeks' cries surrounding them.
"Throw your flames at me," Henry shouted back, "and don't stop until I tell you!"
"What?" Darius gaped.
The Vomeks were already climbing the sides of the hill, nearly upon them—and Henry was asking him to throw the flames at him instead of fighting the monsters.
"What are you waiting for? Do it, or we're finished!" Henry shouted, the words tearing out of him as though they might be his last.
Then he closed his eyes.
The golden threads pouring from his fingers multiplied exponentially, weaving faster and faster around him until they became a blinding sphere of light. They spun through the air in widening circles, engulfing both him and Darius. The hill of bones glowed gold beneath their feet.
With no better choice, Darius thrust out his hands and summoned fire. Flames burst to life across his palms, savage and bright, and he hurled them straight at Henry.
For a heartbeat, he thought he had gone mad listening to Henry, but the flames never even touched him.
The instant they reached him, they bent following the wake of the light. They wound themselves around Henry, following the glowing strands as though they had become part of the spell. Fire and gold twisted together in spiralling currents, faster and faster, until a great vortex surrounded them. It rose above their heads like a living storm, swirling in circles so vast that it seemed to drag the darkness itself into its heart.
And yet, there was no heat.
Darius stood in the center of the inferno and felt only the rush of wind tugging at his clothes.
Below them, the Vomeks shrieked.
The creatures came charging up the hill through the smoke and darkness, their twisted bodies scrambling over the mountain of bones. Then, the firestorm descended.
The swirling flames tore down the slope in a single roaring wave. They spiralled around the Vomeks, coiling through the horde like serpents of living fire. One by one, the creatures were snatched from the ground and dragged into the spinning blaze. Their dreadful screams echoed through the tunnels as they writhed helplessly within it.
More kept coming from below.
The fire only grew.
The vortex poured down the hill like a burning flood, swallowing every Vomek in its path. Flames raced between the bones, climbed over the walls, and rolled through the creatures in great, spiralling torrents. Those still charging from deeper below vanished beneath it, buried under a sea of fire so vast that the entire hill seemed to ignite.
The darkness at the bottom of the slope disappeared beneath a churning ocean of gold and crimson.
Slowly, the flames began to die.
The roaring vortex lost its fury, the spiralling currents weakening until they drifted apart into fading ribbons of gold and red. The sea of fire rolling down the hill shrank into scattered patches of flame between the bones, then into embers, and finally into smoke.
Silence followed.
Henry swayed where he stood.
The golden light around him flickered weakly once, twice, then vanished altogether.
He collapsed to his knees.
For a moment, he remained there, breathing in ragged gasps, his head hanging low. Then even that little strength left him, and he pitched sideways onto the bones.
Darius barely stayed standing himself.
His hands still burned with pain from the spell, and every breath felt like dragging knives into his lungs. The effort of summoning so much fire had drained him completely. His legs trembled beneath him, and he dropped heavily to one knee, bracing himself against the scorched ground.
Below them, the hill had remained a graveyard.
The Vomeks were gone.
Only their remains littered the slope in twisted heaps. The fire had burned them so completely that their bodies no longer looked like flesh. They had been dried and charred into black, brittle husks, frozen in the shapes of their final screams.
One of them cracked.
Then another.
A dry snapping sound echoed as one of the scorched corpses broke apart and collapsed into fragments. Soon, more followed. The blackened remains splintered and crumbled across the hill, breaking apart like burnt wood beneath an unseen weight.
Within moments, all that remained of the Vomeks was a field of ash and shattered black pieces scattered among the bones.