For what feels like an eternity, I just stare at where Honey used to be. I can’t believe it. One moment she was there, savable if only I could get there in time. And the next, she was…gone.
A feeling of glee surrounds me and it takes another moment for me to place it. When it does, a pulse of anger hotter than any I’ve ever felt goes through me. The trees are glad they’ve killed one of my companions. In fact, I’m abruptly sure that the consciousness within all of the trees aimed for her specifically because it would hurt me.
Without even standing up, I raise my hands and scream wordlessly as I release a stream of white-hot fire.
The trees recoil immediately – the fire might not make them burst into fire the way it once would have, but it still sears its way straight through their branches, roots, and even trunks. Unfortunately, the range of the intense flame is far too short for my tastes and the trees quickly move out of my reach.
I sag for a moment on the ground, exhausted in ways that have little to do with the amount of magic I’ve just poured into my undirected Fire-Shaping. I take advantage of the trees’ retreat to crawl forwards to where the scraps of Honey lie. I scrabble through them, hoping desperately that I would find something big enough to still have life in it, her head, her heart…something.
But it’s hopeless and, deep down, I already knew it. Where the Bond with Honey used to be is empty and aching.
Markus…. River’s voice is hesitant, and full of her own grief. The reminder that I am not alone in this is enough to force me to pull myself together. I’m angry, furious, and these trees are going down, but I’ll only be playing into their hands – roots – if I let my fury and grief overcome my decision making.
My flames aren’t enough. Not with Fire-Shaping, anyway. Maybe that will change when Aingeal gets here; maybe it won’t. I need to use something else, or indeed a combination of things. And it’s clearly too dangerous for anyone not capable of impacting the trees to be present.
It’s a pity that I don’t have another Earth-Shaper with me – I struggle to do two types of magic at once and right now Earth-Shaping would be more impactful than Water-Shaping, for all that Dusty’s sharp jets of water are working as well as any blade. The problem is that they’re only cutting through the thinnest of the spearing roots – the trees are even more resistant than I remember them being.
Then again, perhaps I can have another Earth-Shaper with me, two even, unpracticed as they are.
Everyone except for Dusty and Lathani retreat out of the trees’ range, I order. Try to move around them towards our true targets. We’ll catch up with you later. Dusty and Lathani, borrow Jumpy’s Earth-Shaping.
We haven’t practiced with it! Dusty protests, alarmed, even as they all obey my orders.
I know, I concede heavily. I’m hoping that your experience with Shaping and your large mana pools will help you to use it. But even if all you can do is make the earth harder for the trees to move through, that will be fine. I just need a bit of uninterrupted time to concentrate.
After all, even if the trees have learned to counter fire, I’ll put my money on the guess that there’s something else in my Skill-set which will overcome their resistance. Regardless, these trees are going down. For Honey, and for those they will kill if we don’t stop them here.
Lathani and Dusty send me wordless acknowledgements, and then I sense them beginning to concentrate. I feel my other Bound moving quickly out of range and almost sigh in relief – without needing to worry about their safety, I can focus more.
In the meantime, the trees have moved closer again, overcoming the caution caused by my previous jet of fire. Quickly creating wings of earth with Transformation, I shield all three of us from any roots that come our way. Though the trees attack my shield with fury when it’s first created, it’s not long until the impacts taper off. The reason is clear: the trees are suddenly finding it hard to even stay upright as their roots begin sinking in the soil rather than finding purchase.
Closing my eyes and sinking my mind into the earth below, I call upon both fire and earth to combine together to create my most mana-hungry but arguably most powerful Shaping magic. The trees might be protected against fireballs, but will they be able to withstand lava?
As I bring the magic to the surface, I sense another presence quickly approaching. Joy and curiosity fill the Bond between us as Aingeal soars through the air at speeds far faster than what any of my other Bound are capable of. I send it my anger, my grief, and my fear, and overall, the absolute need to burn the trees before me to ash.
Aingeal takes even less persuasion than usual, if that were possible. When I open my eyes, I see an intensely burning speck zoom towards the mini-forest. The trees seem to be aware of the elemental – and fearful of it. Now it’s me that feels glee. Is the grove reconsidering? Too late.
I feel the collective consciousness of the vine-stranglers orientate itself on the elemental, almost forgetting about the rest of us. At the same time, I feel an intense focus from Aingeal as it zips into the heart of the small grove.
Oddly, it ignores the trees around it which cower away. Instead, it seems to be aiming for one tree in particular – the biggest and centremost trunk. When the grove realises this too, the trees change their tactics – no longer trying to move away from the intensely hot ball of fire, they throw themselves in its path.
Yet the agility of trees cannot come close to matching the agility of a fire elemental and Aingeal passes by their obstacles with ease. I wonder why it is so determined to hit that particular spot. Is it linked to the fact that it was made from the fire of the rest of this forest? Or is it that Aingeal somehow recognises that the trees are a single consciousness and it thinks that if it destroys the obvious leader, the others will be destroyed too?
I push the question out of my head. Now is not the time to ponder it – I can ask Aingeal later. I might even get a response that I understand. My lava has finally received enough mana to be useful so it’s time for me to strike from below as Aingeal attacks from above. And together, we’ll burn this infection out of the forest for good. The way I should have done months ago.
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I feel Dusty and Lathani’s clumsy efforts in the earth as they work with me to bring the lava to the surface. I decided it was more efficient to sink fire mana into the mountain rock some metres below the surface than it was to transform the surface soil into rock, but that means I have to bring it out which is easier said than done. Still, with my two Bound helping to part the soil around my lava intrusion, it’s faster than it could have been.
The trees realise something is wrong as I start turning their deeper roots into cinders. The vine-stranglers are shallowly-rooted – expected considering their ability to move – and so by the time this happens, my lava is almost breaking through the surface.
We can talk about this! I hear as the forest’s consciousness reaches out to me with panic promoting its speech. I’ll make a new alliance with you!
Too late, I tell it grimly. It has already proven that it cannot be trusted. In fact, even if Tree-whisperer hadn’t convinced it to move against us, even if it hadn’t killed Honey, it was obviously using the Energy it absorbed to make itself more fire-resistant – it would have attacked at some point. I cannot trust it and I refuse to make the same mistake again. Maybe mercy is the wrong choice sometimes?
The first lava breaches the surface of the soil and spreads out at the speed of a slow walk. I feel the trees scream as it turns their roots and lower trunks into cinders. Aingeal takes advantage of their distraction and buries itself in the heart of the biggest tree so deeply that I can barely see the glimmer of its presence.
Tamer, it’s hot, Dusty complains even as Lathani sends a more direct plea.
Can we go now? This is making my fur sizzle!
Of course, I answer with chagrin. You’ve done a good job. Go join the others. I should be able to handle the rest of this.
They willingly retreat quickly. I have to admit that I don’t feel the heat they’re complaining about. The lava is hot, yes, but it’s not burning my hair or singing my skin more than a bonfire might. Perhaps this is my fire affinity at work.
Now that I don’t have any allies to worry about, I feed more magic into the lava, increasing its heat and allowing it to spread faster.
The trees rustle and shift in place, but don’t move, even as more and more of them are brought crashing down by the loss of their roots, their trunks lighting up with flames even as they’re burned away into cinders. Are they too panicked to move, or is this a result of their centremost tree being attacked by Aingeal? Certainly, that tree is the only one I can see which is completely still without even shivering leaves.
The tree closest to me abruptly takes on life and lashes out at me. I bring my earthen wing up to deflect its attack instinctively, but it doesn’t end there. As if determined to at least take me down even as it is itself destroyed by the pool of lava still spreading outwards, more attacks hit my shield.
I weather them easily enough, but then an idea occurs and a smile touches my lips. I don’t want to dismiss my wings and reform them, making myself vulnerable in the time that takes. But maybe I don’t have to.
There’s so much heat and fire around me that it’s easy enough to pull some of it into my wings. The rocky feathers soften and take on a faint glow. The next attack from the trees sinks far further into the shield than it had before, but if the tree feels any elation at its ‘success’, it soon comes to regret it when the limb bursts into flame. A trap for the trapper.
It’s not long before the attacks stop coming – the trap-trees can learn. I lower my wing-shield just in time to see the centremost tree burst into flame, another scream ringing out through the remnants of our alliance. As the flames take over the biggest tree, the others finally lose their battle against the heat and flames surrounding them.
As if covered in accelerant, each of the remaining trees goes up with a whoosh, burning as fast as I remember them doing before. Faster, even. Was that centremost tree the anchor for whatever fire-resistance it had?
Aingeal emerges from where it had been buried, glowing brighter than ever. It hovers over the conflagration and sucks the flames into itself. I fear for a moment that it might be so greedy to take the fire that it would leave the vine-stranglers only half-burnt, but my fear proves itself to be groundless. The flames which Aingeal absorbs seem to take with them all life and substance, leaving only the carbonised remnants of the trees behind.
By the time it’s finished, it’s glowing at least twice as brightly, and pulsing slightly. It comes to bob over my shoulder as if nothing has changed, though I notice that it radiates even more heat than usual. I eye it thoughtfully – is this a permanent change or just a temporary one caused by the amount of fire it absorbed? I guess I’ll find out later.
With the battle won, I reabsorb the magic from the pool of lava and release my control over it with a grateful sigh. Immediately, it starts cooling. It will take a while, and I’ll probably have to ask one of the Earth-Shapers to deal with the resulting rock platform, but for now it’s unlikely to cause more damage.
Good job, I say to Aingeal, projecting my tired appreciation for its help. Come on, let’s go to help the others.
With this chunk of trees dealt with, it’s time to focus on the others. Even as I start running around the pool of lava I created – I’d rather conserve mana than try to demonstrate my lava-walking skills – I reach out to Sirocco to see what’s going on, pushing my grief about Honey to one side. There’s nothing left of her – the trees tore her to bits and the lava burnt even those to ash. All I can do is try to keep everyone else alive.
The sight that meets my eyes is expected, though dismaying. My Bound are already in battle with Tree-whisperer’s band. It appears that she has brought an Earth-Shaper, Air-Shaper, and Water-Shaper with her if what I can see is any evidence.
Dusty is occupied with the Water-Shaper, stopping the enemy samuran from attacking my people, but in turn being prevented from aiding them in any way. They look evenly matched but I know that Dusty has already fought in two battles so far today where the enemy is fresh. Their even matching won’t last long.
Lathani is targeting the Earth-Shaper but the Pathwalker is proving to be annoyingly good at sliding away from her attack – perhaps she has some sort of Earth Sense which warns her where Lathani is. The nunda’s own Earth Sense is enough to allow her to dodge the spikes of rock and pits which appear before her, but they are also at a stalemate.
The rest of my group are currently being prevented from coming to help by the Warriors Tree-whisperer brought with her – twenty-one of them, though two are already down and bleeding.
Kalanthia has emerged from the den and is fighting well, but she’s being hit by both the vine-stranglers directed by Tree-whisperer and the Air-Shaper.
My vision is disrupted when I trip over a rock and slam against the ground. My increased Constitution reduces the injury I take to a couple of light bruises and grazes on my hands, and my health regeneration heals those quickly enough. Quicker than my pride.
But I’ve seen enough for now – I know what forces my enemies are bringing to bear and the basic status of my allies. Too much looks to be at a stalemate – my presence should hopefully be enough to break that in our favour.
“I’m sorry, Honey,” I say sadly, staring at the spot where I last saw her. And then I take off at a run to help my living companions.
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