Deserving or not, I wasn't about to let him kill me. I was in a bad position though. I've won my share of duels, with knives or swords, and I'm not bad in a regular fight, but Emil went at me like a cage fighter, and all I could do was try to protect my head and chest by bringing my arms in close and trying to survive long enough to make an opening.
Ignis, get him off of me, I commanded, and heard screams as my fire spirit took form. Two and a half meters of humanoid magma tends to do that, and only an idiot picks a fight with a spirit without time to prep. It surged forward, a jet of flame proceeding it, and Emil threw himself off of me and rolled away before he got torched.
With his bulk no longer blocking my view, I could see the teens scattering, and Emil sprinting towards his house. And his shotgun. Iginis, however, didn't pursue, and I cursed when I realized my command hadn't been phrased to keep him on the attack. I only had one more task he would perform for me before his was free of his binding, and it had to be phrased properly. Ignis was a stickler in that regard. Fortunately, my last request of him was simple.
By the time Emil had made it to the porch, I'd vanished from sight, the difficulty imposed on my spell casting from the area and my injuries outweighed by the power Ignis granted me. It was up to my usual standards, but it would have to be enough. At least the version of the spell I knew meant I was truly invisible, so even if Emil had eye modifications, he couldn't see me. Tyler could have, if he woke up, but I'd hit him hard enough that it seemed unlikely.
Standing was difficult, I was shaky, and it wasn't from the adrenalin. One eye was swollen shut, my ribs screamed at me with every breath, and my left arm wasn't doing what I told it to. The fact that Emil had managed to hurt me that badly that quickly was terrifying. He hadn't gotten me though, which meant the fight was on my terms now. I didn't have spells that made me stronger or faster, or to kill with a look. I wasn't trained for combat magic, I had been scout and lookout when I was a ganger, and I never bothered to expand my resources when I went legit. Fortunately the good people at Ruger had made an equalizer, the Super Warhawk. Six rounds, each with enough stopping power to drop a medium sized car, and no one dodges a bullet they can't see coming.
My vision was blurred, either from the hits to the head or the fact that I could only see out of one eye, so I crept closer as quietly as I could, thanking the stars above that Emil had made a stupid decision. Instead of hunkering down in his house and waiting for me to come after him, he just stood there, looking for someone who'd not only vanished, but clearly had magical abilities. Even devil rats know when to run, but Emil wasn't thinking straight.
I was close enough to touch him when I thumbed back the hammer of the revolver. He froze instantly, which I couldn't blame him for, I'd have done the same thing. Seconds ticked by, as we stood there, the Orc with the shotgun and the invisible elf primed to empty his skull. My arm stared to burn with fatigue, the Warhawk being a heavy gun after all, and I had to step back.
I had wronged Emil in the past, possibly in the worst way I could have. Killing him in a fair fight was one thing, I could do that.
I could not, however, simply murder him.