Chapter 6 - The Battle of the Docks
Without another word, the tavern exploded into violence.
Malakor’s men charged, their heavy spears thrusting forward. Elara sidestepped the first wave, grabbing a guard's spear shaft, ripping it from his grip, and using it to sweep three men off their feet. She ignited the wooden tip with solar flame, turning the weapon into a blazing quarterstaff.
She spun through the narrow tavern room, breaking limbs and searing armor. The Phoenix, soaring in through the shattered tavern doorway, unleashed small bursts of fire that ignited the wooden rafters, causing chaos among the enemy ranks.
"Useless fools!" Malakor roared, pushing his own men out of the way. He swung his massive broadsword in a lethal horizontal arc, cutting through a wooden support pillar as if it were parchment.
Elara parried the strike with her fiery spear, but the sheer physical force of Malakor’s attack sent her crashing through the tavern wall, tumbling out onto the wet cobblestones of the docks.
Rain was pouring down now, slicking the wooden piers and mixing with the rising sea tide.
Elara pushed herself up, her clothes soaked, her breathing heavy. Malakor stepped out through the ruined wall, his heavy iron boots echoing on the planks.
"You are weak, Elara," Malakor sneered, bringing his sword down in a crushing overhead strike. "Seven years in a hole made you soft! You cannot beat the dark power the Regent granted us!"
Malakor’s sword began to glow with a sickly purple aura, unleashing a shockwave of necrotic energy that tore up the dock's wooden planks. Elara leapt backward, summoning a wall of golden flame to absorb the strike, but the dark magic pressed hard against her defenses, driving her back toward the harbor edge.
From the high tower of the sea-fortress overlooking the docks, a tiny voice pierced through the sound of rain and thunder.
"Mother! MOTHER!"
Elara looked up. High up in a barred window of the stone fort, a small girl with bright golden hair was screaming, her tiny hands clutching the iron bars. A golden emblem burned brightly on the girl's right shoulder, shedding light into the dark night.
Seeing her daughter for the first time in seven years shattered something within Elara's soul. The hesitation, the exhaustion, the fear—all of it burned away in an instant.
"Lyra!" Elara roared.
A blinding column of pure celestial energy erupted from Elara’s body, shattering the rain around her into vapor. The Phoenix let out a deafening war cry, merging its golden body into Elara’s sword blade, transforming the simple steel weapon into a blinding saber of pure sunfire.
Malakor’s eye widened in sheer terror. "What... what is this?!"
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Elara blurred forward, her speed far beyond human limits. Before Malakor could even raise his sword, she sliced through his dark steel armor, severing his weapon in half and unleashing a solar burst that sent the giant captain flying fifty yards into the roaring ocean waves.
Without pausing to watch him drown, Elara leapt onto the stone wall of the sea-fortress, scaling the smooth vertical cliff face like a golden meteor.
