The Unexpected Heir: A Tale of Alus (70 page)

Lifting Yara higher as if considering its meal, the plant held the wizard precariously between life and probable death in its maw.

“Scythe,” he hurled the magic wind blade at the thick vine nicking the outer shell and simply made the plant shake even more violently. More vines suddenly began to reach for the mage.

Taking hold of the Hollow Sword, Sebastian repeated his spell invigorating the sword with the shimmering blue of wind magic. Like Annalicia in the ship, the battle mage attacked the vines nearest him. A screaming wind tore at the vine and severed the limb in a single blow.

With his offhand, he cast the spell that had sent Serrena to the other end of the island to prevent. “Fireball,” he challenged the stalk casting it for the large target. A vine whipped through the air snuffing the ball with ease. Like water soaked tinder, the flame had no effect except to perhaps anger the plant even more.

He tried to strike the vine swinging Yara like a ragdoll. Another vine blocked his attack, but it was further away than the earlier severed vine. The sword’s wind blade cut, but didn’t severe the massive limb. Seeing the sword’s limitation was reach, Sebastian cast his reflex spell and proceeded to dance among the vines.

The word dance called to mind a powerful weapon of his arsenal, “Lightning dance.” His blade dipped to touch the ground like a lightning rod. From his left hand, a swirling trio of lightning bolts flung towards the central stalk of the plant. Like Bairh’loore, the Hollow Sword spared him the brunt of the earth’s biting power. Unfortunately, the plant survived the attack by blocking with its tendrils and their swift speed. One vine exploded as it superheated in the exchange. The juices within the charred limb had torn the piece of plant from the inside out with a violent expansion. Another vine slowed turning black with the strike.

“Lightning,” he channeled into the sword. Brown mingled with the wind magic before sparkling with white electricity. This time his attack severed both a defending vine and the one holding Yara.

A small cry as the girl dropped to the ground couldn’t be helped. He only hoped that his stone skin spell had lasted long enough to spare her the brunt of the blow to the ground. Unfortunately, Sebastian had no time to check on the healer more as the plant concentrated on the creature pruning its limbs one by one.

Dropping the blade with two hands holding the hilt, he dragged the point in the earth as he charged it with another call for lightning. His eyes had to avoid the flare of power in the blade’s channels. The edges nearly steamed with white hot power. He was pushing the weapon to the brink. The mage could feel it nearly bursting with the power now flowing through it.

In an upper cut aimed at the stalk hidden beyond its snake pit of whipping vines, Sebastian unleashed the Hollow Sword’s pent up magic. The blindingly bright flare of lightning bounced from the ground into the air shattering vines and blinding Sebastian before he could see if he had succeeded in killing the beast.

Blinking against the darkness left after seeing the flash so close, Sebastian called up a secondary spell, “Hound.” His other senses increased as the mage tried to regain his vision. It was a stupid mistake and only the addition of super hearing and smell could help try and compensate for the error.

His reflexes were still at full enhancement as the mage awaited the plant’s retaliation. Blood pumped in his ears threatening to deafen him despite the spell and all he could smell was burning plants.

He realized that a voice was calling his name.

“Sebastian!” Yara cried out even as he felt her gentle touch on his back.

“Did I get it?” he asked rubbing at his eyes with his left hand. The outer portion of his vision was clearing around a dark blur formed where his eyes had watched the bolt rip through the air.

“Yes, let me check you with my magic. We seem to be safe for now.” He felt her magic enter him through her touch.

“That bolt blinded me, but my vision’s coming back slowly if you could speed that up I would appreciate it. I can’t see enough to fight right now.”

The mage realized that he was nearly shouting. The thunder of the lightning had apparently backfired on him in that regard as well.

His vision suddenly cleared to nearly full and the mage witnessed the devastation caused by a fully charged Hollow Sword. “Oh, thanks. That’s better Yara,” Sebastian stated without yelling as well.

A blackened stripe of ground led straight to where the central plant stalk was supposed to be. Vines covered the ground both those blackened and the green, but the trunk at the center stood burning and only about the height of a man. Pieces of the upper flower and stalk were scattered in all directions.

Giving a low whistle, Sebastian declared, “So that’s what a Hollow Sword can do.”

Yara released her magic finding no real damage to the mage other than what had been done to his senses from his own spell. “You don’t even seem that drained of power. If you had done that using a staff, I think you wouldn’t be standing by now.”

Looking at the blade emptied off all magic, Sebastian found no cracks or other damage as he feared that he might after abusing the weapon with the great power of the earth. The mage had managed to tread the fine line between holding the power and destroying the sword, though he had a feeling that it was only just. Like a wizard or mage, the weapon could only hold so much power before breaking and he had just tested its limit.

The jungle seemed quiet once more.

“Now what?” Yara asked as she looked around at the devastation.

Pulling out the compass, Sebastian noted the position had remained relatively the same. While he had thought that the direction they had been pulled by the plant was the same, in the jungle direction was hard to keep track especially in the midst of such a strange fight. “We could finish this. I don’t think that we’re far from the source of the marker now.”

“But what about the others?” the girl asked worriedly.

Sebastian listened and even added the hound spell. Something sweet was in the air tickling his nose and managing to prevent any scent coming to him of his team, while the strange silence settled by the jungle also seemed nearly magical in its ability to prevent him from hearing anything beyond the two of them. “I can’t sense them at all. This jungle must be magic. I don’t know if it is something that was created by the Cataclysm or something that was created by someone afterwards but this can’t be just a coincidence.

“We can try and find this point now using the compass or we can try to find the others without any idea of where they are.”

Yara frowned at the conundrum caused by the situation. The look was suddenly interrupted as her face crinkled up before giving a petite, squeak of a sneeze.

Sebastian laughed at the sheer cuteness of the sound. He had never heard her sneeze before he realized.

“Stop laughing at me,” she rebuked him while still managing to smile. “There’s something in the air. It’s really sweet.”

The girl’s steps moved in the direction of the dot on the compass without having seen the last reading. Sebastian’s nose tickled as well, though he was nowhere near to sneezing. Simply rubbing the feeling away, the man followed the little blond noticing small rips and tears in her yellow shirt and brown pants. It was nothing too severe and he knew that he wasn’t in any better condition. Spots of red could be seen on the yellow, however, and Sebastian realized that the healer needed to be healed yet as well.

“Are you hurt?” he asked as he followed the girl past the destroyed vine system.

“Hmmm?” Yara questioned seemingly at least half distracted by the strange smell on the air. She didn’t sneeze anymore from the scent, however. Noting where he pointed to the blood on her shirt, the girl replied, “Maybe we can check it after we find the water?”

Bas was surprised as the sound of water running suddenly became noticeable to his ears. They hadn’t walked very far, but it was like the sound had moved to meet them as much as they had walked towards it. Rubbing his nose, the mage moved with little thought other than the curiosity of finding the water.