I screamed. “A human. To challenge me? Why-o-why did they bother to let you out of your cage?” His smile became placating. “What will you do without your puppet-master, little puppet?” Faster than thought, a blast of white came at me. I plunged into it with my opposite magic and imploded the damn thing. I knew what he was about. I might be a human hack, but I was a destructive one. “Puppet-master? That is so cliché,” I said with a sneer as I took a step forward and blended two of Toa’s really, really nasty spells. I added my own flourish—a bunch of jumbled, magical crap all heaped on top with little zings and blasts of magic. No pretty wrapping that he’d be used to, no. A bunch of spare parts and forgotten bits that would affront this sensibilities. So suck it! Tim roared and attacked one of the mages huddling against the wall. “Let me disengage!” the man screamed as the bear descended.
