I face him on the balcony of a penthouse a hundred stories high, a wolf in a frock coat whose black velvet drinks in the city lights. White lace spills from the cuffs and he's wrapped
in an aura of magic so strong reality bends and warps, ripples like stones beneath the shallows of a flowing stream.
His gaze meets mine, golden eyes shining with hate.
My father is dead, the building is on fire.
A bolt of lightning snaps like the tongue of a viper from my fist, hits his shield. Nothing.
"I'm going to kill you pup," he whispers.
I take the crystal out of my pocket, toss it in the air and speak the words. It blossoms into a violet crackle, explodes.
I thought it would blow him off the top of the building, make him fall to his death, yet I was wrong. We both rise up in smoking rubble that stinks of melted concrete and
tortured ozone.
He's fared worse than I. A chunk of concrete sent flying had torn off half his face. Blood soaked his fancy coat.
I thought I'd won.
I was wrong.
He took his wand out of his pocket, raised it towards the stars. I cast the strongest lightning spell I had and his shield collapsed, yet he remained unharmed.
It's like the second before a car accident, the terrible sliver of time when you realize there's nothing you can do to avert catastrophe. He had the seconds he
needed and I couldn't stop him.
"At the cost of my soul," he said softly, covered in blood, barely standing within the ruins and framed by countless miles of city shine...
It was a summon. No. This wasn't happening. Couldn't be.
"I summon Zarasha."
Thunderclap, the skyscraper's collapse, a glimpse of a chromatic dragon just before I began to fall.
I never reached the ground. The dragon's breath incinerated me as I plummeted through a storm of broken glass around floor fifty.

-

I tore the VR set from my face and my chair toppled over, throwing me into the disaster of my apartment. Beer bottles clattered and shattered, staining the carpet darkly, and the latest
pizza box became a pillow of sorts. I breathed in pepperoni, garlic and cardboard, felt my stomach turn and promptly threw up.
"Game over," the speaker announced.
Well thank you very much.

-

I flunked the math test, haunted the hallway outside the classroom. It was late October and the leaves were turning.
"Saw you!"
I turned, hackles up and frowning. There's this pup freshman high on hero worship, a husky hybrid who obviously
doesn't know what a loser I am.
"It was awesome," he said. "One cast sooner and his spell trap would have collapsed, you could have stopped the summon! He's one of the best players
in the world! You came so close."
I looked down at the floor, heard the reply in my mind I didn't say because it would have hurt the kid. I'm one of the worst. I don't know why he believes in me.
I forced a smile. "Maybe next time."

-

Thanksgiving break was coming up. Maybe-yet no. I'd promised myself I'd quit Wizard War. I should sell off the stuff and just stop.