Chapter 30
Nakmar Dren looked just as he had aboard his ship, clad in space armor, although the forest setting seemed a bit out of place for him. He stood just at the edge of the trees – not really out of attack range, but far enough off to give Mirana a chance to react if he did strike. Since Dren had forced this meeting on his own initiative, Mirana decided to speak first.
“Congratulations on finding me,” she said. “Not many people manage that.”
Dren ignored her comment. “I’ve ordered the Vortak to keep their distance,” he informed her instead. “Both here and in space. Trennon and I have a bit of a treaty. The moon fortress has been neutralized as well – my ships were more than a match for it. And Trennon tells me that even the dragons are staying away. This is about you and me.”
“Just the two of us? I was actually expecting Rax.”
The mention of the Ice Master made Dren visibly angry. Normally Mirana would have expected less passion from someone on an assassin’s mission, but she supposed that it was the nature of the Plasma to generate emotion along with the use of the power.
“I see you are behind in your information,” Dren said with a sneer. “Kayleen Rax is dead. Yes, Nedward Simmons managed to succeed where you failed. He came after me with her power, but in the end he ran from me again. He disabled my ship long enough to run, but I hunted him down.”
Dren took a few steps forward, and when he spoke again his voice was filled with defiance and anger. “He is dead, Shadow Master! My Vortak chased him down and slew that pitiful excuse for a Plasma Master!”
Mirana knew she had gone pale; her hands were shaking. She was expecting danger to herself, but Ned was supposed to have been staying out of sight. Why would he have gone after Rax without the Shield Crystal?
“I would have brought you his body,” Dren was saying, “but Viper wanted the trophy sent to him immediately. But I have seen him myself. I wanted you to know this before you fell. Your friend is dead, and when you are gone there will be no hope for the others. The Viper has won.”
Despair welled up inside Mirana, threatening to consume her, but she had plenty of experience with burying emotion. She focused instead on her anger, letting her hatred for this man occupy every thought. This was why she was here. Somehow, that new Shadow power was going to have to see her through this, because there was simply no other ending she would tolerate.
“And that is my message,” Dren said in conclusion. “You can run if you want, but I will not leave this planet until you are dead. If you have any honor at all, you can face me with whatever strength you have left after losing your armor, your invisibility, and your friend.” As he spoke, fire spread out from Dren’s feet, scorching the grass as it expanded in a circle. There must have been some explosives hidden near him, because suddenly the forest to either side erupted, enveloping Dren in billowing flame. He raised his arms, welcoming the heat, drawing the fire around him in a shimmering aura. Then he looked Mirana in the eye and began striding toward her, his expression as hardened as hers had ever been. “And now you will burn.”
Whatever dramatic flair Dren had hoped to accomplish in his challenge was lost on Mirana; she was angry beyond listening. Not even waiting for Dren to stop talking, she dashed toward him, closing the distance in a dark blur. When a cyclone of red fire erupted from Dren’s hand, Mirana wrapped herself in Shadow Plasma and changed direction to dodge it, sending off another stream of dark energy as a decoy. Dren had to split his next attack across the two streaks of green-laced darkness, and even though his aim was accurate with both, Mirana was ready. She caught the blast against a wall of dark matter that she had just formed across her wrist as a shield. She kept its material porous and found that it helped to block out the heat, allowing her to advance in spite of the inferno that was exploding all around her now.
When the attack died down momentarily, Mirana looked ahead to see that Dren was actually backing into the trees; apparently he was not as eager to face Mirana head on as he had intimated earlier. She took the opportunity to fire Shadow bolts at him, and he raised his arm to ward a few of them off before lashing out with another line of fire that erupted across the ground until it caught Mirana from all directions. Again she blocked the heat with material Plasma, forming it in porous plates over her existing armor. And while this extra layer burned away from Dren’s fire, the lack of a focused beam gave Mirana the chance to dash toward him again, closing the distance quickly.
She was almost to him when his hand came out again. This time the rush of power lifted Mirana off the ground, flinging her away like a leaf in the wind. She hit the ground with a grunt and put up another shield to block yet another stream of flame. Dren was advancing on her steadily, and in spite of her shielding, the fire was everywhere. Memories of the battle on Dread Phoenix flooded back, and Mirana felt a moment of panic. But this was not Dren’s ship; there had to be something she could do to reduce his advantage. Frantically Mirana looked around, but the red fire was everywhere, and Dren was getting close. Sidestepping another fireball, Mirana fired a few more Shadow bolts at him, distracting him for a moment as he blocked them. Immediately Mirana was on the move, this time heading away from him, into the trees.
“Running again?” Dren’s rage echoed through the woods as he taunted her. “You really want to fight me surrounded by wood?” Red light blasted into the treetops and along the ground as Dren chased after her, and soon the whole forest around her was on fire. The flames spread through the treetops at an incredible rate, replacing the sunlight with a harsh red glow, and the floor was ablaze with bushes and falling branches. Several whole trees came crashing down, their trunks shattered by Dren’s attack. Mirana found a large tree and took cover for a moment. She was surrounded by an inferno.
But there was something else Dren had created, perhaps unintentionally: smoke. A dark haze soon encompassed everything, the red glare of the fire casting shadows of the tree trunks in all directions. The ubiquitous fire did not exactly favor Mirana, but at least now she had some cover for her approach. Dren’s position was easy enough to pinpoint, since he was sending bursts of Flame Plasma in all directions. Mirana carefully made her way toward him, darting through the smoke in-between fallen trees and burning stumps whenever she saw an opening. Finally she was close enough to see him stalking through the trees. He looked furious, and she wondered if he thought that she had slipped away. It was not an unreasonable supposition, but Mirana was through running. When he had passed and his back was turned, Mirana dashed toward him, power charging in her fist.
Something must have given her away, because at the last second Dren turned and caught her full in the chest with a blast of fire. The red light was all over her, burning into the joints of her armor. Mirana tried to form a barrier to the flames, but she could not keep it there for very long before Dren’s fire incinerated the matter she had conjured. And this, she realized, was exactly as it had been before: Dren positioned just out of reach, pinning her down with a steady stream of fire. And this time there was no one to interrupt the attack – even if X or Garodus did manage to break whatever truce was keeping them away, Dren’s allies would outnumber them at this point. Her armor was starting to sizzle in spite of her shielding.
But perhaps things were not quite like before after all; Mirana had gained something since then. She diverted power from her shielding to send out a smooth sheet of blackness over the ground. Just like the Vortak she had used this on before, Dren lost his footing on the frictionless surface and went down. His attack let up for just a second as he caught his fall, and that gave Mirana the time she needed to spring forward and leap onto him, bringing her fist down hard on his visor. Dren immediately fired at her, trying to dislodge her with a concentrated blast, but she had already fastened one hand to the metal on his shoulder. A second blow with the other hand shattered the visor, and Dren started coughing as the smoke reached his lungs.
Rather than reeling away, though, Dren reached out and grabbed ho
ld of Mirana’s helmet. Suddenly the red fire was everywhere, and Mirana’s helmet started to steam. It would not last much longer, she knew. But she still had hold of Dren. She knew from experience that striking him in the face would be useless; surrounded by such heat, he would have more than enough power to protect himself at point-blank range. But now a new idea occurred to Mirana. She reached out and took hold of his face, sending out a hard covering that wrapped around his head, sealing off his nose and mouth.
Immediately Dren focused all of his strength on that covering, and it took constant effort for Mirana to keep replenishing the material as Dren burned away at it. For a second it looked like this might be enough, that she might actually be able to hold on long enough for Dren to pass out. But the Flame Master was still surrounded by his element, and Mirana realized that it was only a matter of time before he charged up enough power to dislodge her. And he was not going to let her get this close again. She was going to have to do something else, while all of Dren’s power was still focused on her hand.
The seals on Mirana’s glove and helmet were cracking, and she knew she had only a moment to act, but still she could not help voicing her thoughts. “You shouldn’t have killed Ned”, she hissed in his face. “Because unlike him, I have a hard time letting go of a grudge.”
As she spoke, Mirana had fashioned a long spike attached to her free arm, and now she rammed it through the middle of Dren’s armor, driving it up into his chest. Immediately he stopped struggling and fell back, and Mirana let the blade break off. She released her hand from the seal over Dren’s mouth and stumbled backward, losing her footing almost immediately as a wave of exhaustion came over her.
Mirana could hardly believe that it was over so abruptly. Dren was dead. She half expected another explosion, like the ones the Plasma Crystals had let out when they were destroyed, but none came. Perhaps the Flame Plasma was just dissipating back into the fire that still burned in the nearby trees. Mirana quickly realized, though, that whatever the explanation, she could not stay here. Her armor was a wreck, warped and rough where it had nearly burned through, and there was no telling what the Vortak would do once they realized that their commander was dead. Not to mention retribution from the dragons for having killed a Plasma Master. Mirana forced herself to stand, still feeing incredibly weak from the extended use of her power. With a final look back at Dren’s body, she stumbled off into the smoke.