Nentarli [COMPLETE]

~ Forty-three ~

In the morning we had a Long-Arm lesson with Kayle, which we used half of to go over our tactics for Merkell's lesson. Each of us knew our part to play and we still had it fresh in our minds when we arrived in the gardens to meet Merkell after lunch. He was waiting as usual with his floating pencil and paper, however before we could reach him, Kayle broke out the Slingers and fired two quick shots at him within seconds of each other.

Merkell was ready and they stopped in thin air, directly in front of his face. But the distraction was all we needed, the first part of the plan was going well and the rest of us disappeared in a plume of smoke. We each popped up at four corners surrounding Merkell, without hesitation we each aimed an attack at him from our respective sides.

He barely had chance to recover from Kayle's Slingers before our magic was baring down on him. He deflected the first two attacks, dodged the third but the fourth managed to knock him off of his feet. We surrounded him ready to attack again but he disappeared, turning up again behind Kayle and placed a thumb to Kayle's throat.

"Well done, you nearly had me," he said once he'd let Kayle go. The pencil was writing frantically against the paper. "Distract, divide and destroy, it is a very good strategy and may work against any strong opponent but Riltresik is not just any opponent. He will expect everything, give him no time to recover or disappear the way I just did... otherwise it would not be his thumb at Kayle's throat, or whichever one of you he chooses."

Merkell seemed thoroughly impressed though as he moved to stand in his usual spot, perfectly predictable.

Without hesitation Kayle took the dagger from his belt and within seconds he was behind Merkell with the dagger held against Merkell's neck. Blaike and Kaleb disappeared and reappeared directly in front of him with fireballs pointed at Merkell's chest while Emy and I created a magical shield surrounding the six of us, nothing would be able to get in or out.

"No way out, no way to avoid every attack pointed at you, nobody to come and help you," Blaike said rather scarily and I was glad he would never have a reason to talk to me like that.

Merkell looked genuinely worried for a second and then his brain caught up and he smiled.

"Never let your guard down until you know for sure that it is safe to do so. That is what I taught you and I see you took it on board, whereas I fell victim to the ruse. Bravo, if I were Riltresik now, I would be dead... I do hope you were not planning to talk to him or taunt him beforehand?"

We all shook our heads, not moving from our current positions. I couldn't imagine what someone might have thought if they came out now to see us.

"He'll die in the attack, we won't have to explain to him how we managed it."

I smiled and caught Emy's eye, the shield had been a brilliant move she'd found in one of the books from the incredible library. When all of this was over I was ready to spend a good few days in there, looking through the books and making an infinite 'to read' list. With the way people aged here, I might actually get through half of them.

"I applaud your ingenuity, you can remove the attacks now and we will continue on with our lesson."

Merkell's tone made it clear this was over for real, we each relaxed and Merkell rubbed at his neck.

"Sorry, sir. I did not mean to press so hard," Kayle said apologetically.

Merkell smiled and shook his head, "It is quite alright, Kayle, you landed the hit just as I asked you to do. Today was a success, I believe when the time comes you will all be ready to defeat Riltresik and his darkness."