Chapter 338 Change Of Plans
"What's happening?" Noelle asked as she saw the trees around her move and close in on them, "Why are the trees coming closer to us?" She asked, pointing at the thick foliage growing closer and closer.
"That's not me," Kashish said as she checked the roots that she had spread around in the area and noticed a foreign mana seeping into them; trying to wrestle her for control over the seeds.
"It's the damned tree," The regional lord hissed as he looked up at his pack and noticed half of the pack dead, "He found out about it. We need to hurry," the man said as he urged Aella to take out the scroll.
In the meanwhile, the trees and and the vines in the whole forest started to wrap around them, trying to bind them and capture them.
"We will fight and buy you time. Activate the scroll and ask for help. Don't worry about us, we will handle it all," Kashish said as she used her powers to control her vines and temporarily halt the oncoming assault.
"I will hack them down," The man with axes spoke as he raised his large axe and broke it in two. Bewildering others, the axe turned into two axes that resembled each other and then, a strange aura covered the man. The axes suddenly seemed much sharper and hotter, almost as if they had been forged again.
Jumping in the air, he hacked the vine nearest to him and got to cutting down the thick foliage. Seeing his example, Noelle did the same as she unsheathed a thin rapier out of her waist and started to parry the vines and trunks that came at her.
Seeing everyone fighting against the tree, Aella took out the scroll as she injected her mana into it. The scroll turned bright as the runes engraved upon it lit up and illuminated her face. It flew in the air and floated for a second or two before it disintegrated into nothing. Aella waited a bit but nothing happened as her face turned ashen.
"What happened?" She thought, struck by sadness as she believed that the scroll had faced. However, the sadness didn't stick for long as right after, she noticed a small tear in the space in front of her. The tear slowly grew larger and larger until it was big enough for a single person to go through.
She looked at the portal and then behind her as she saw everyone fighting against the jungle that continuously closed up upon them and then steeling her resolve, she decided to step forward and step through.
Yet, how could life ever be so easy? There were bound to be surprises and for Aella, her good luck had ran short, right as she raised her foot; a vine appeared from below the ground and then pierced through her foot.
"Argghhhh," Aella screamed in pain as she stumbled and fell forward but alas, even that would have been in her favor as the portal was right in front of her. Then suddenly the air whistled as several different projectiles were fired at her. From where they were fired at was unknown but it was sure that they were as deadly as they could be. Aella was in pain but she wasn't out of the fight. Her eyes took a silvery hue as she controlled the air around her and balanced her fall. Her injured foot was in the air as she couldn't place it on the ground yet and hence she stood on a single foot.
The projectiles were aimed at her from every angle she could think of but she wasn't weak. She was in the magical realm and dealing with these projectiles wasn't anything har for her, she raised both her hands as the wind around her stirred. It turned into a small tornado that had Aella as its eye. The tornado not only acted as a barrier but also as a means to diverge any other sneak attacks. Within the tornado, she felt something seep inside her body. Looking down at her foot, she realized that she had indeed lost all the sensation in her foot and the loss of sensation seemed to be going upwards to the rest of her body. She knew about this and also knew that the cause of it was the vine that had pierced her foot and hence, she bent down and pulled the vine out.
"Arghhhh," however, Aella had rushed and acted a bit too fast without considering any consequences. Apparently the vine wasn't some simple vine but was jagged eerily to the point that when Aella had pulled it out, a chunk of flesh and a mesh of bones had come out along with it, leaving a gaping hole in her foot. Her vision got blurry from the pain but she knew her task and used the wind around her to support her and levitated forward.
Knowing the risk to her life, she ditched any effort to preserve her mana and went all out. Bullets of wind and various other attacks were launched from within the tornado while the tornado itself got stronger and stronger as it seemed that the trees and the vegetation of the forest was targeting her more and more.
Kashish and the others felt the pressure on them lessen and turned around as they noticed Aella in a tornado, surrounded by multiple vines, trunks and creatures that resided in the forest. It seemed as if a tornado was against the whole forest and that the forest itself had decided to eliminate the forest yet the tornado persisted as if the Goddess of Air was with the tornado itself and kept it going.
"Guys, lets support her," Kashish said as she unsheathed two curved blades out from her waist. The blades were greenish purple in color as they continuously shifted form one tone to another. Just looking into them made someone be bewitched and that was not all, it was Kashish who was taking action now and from the expression on her face, it was clear that she was going all out and when an enchantress went all out while in a forest; it lead to nothing but havoc and that was exactly what she was going to cause.
She ran forward as the blades seemed to be merged with her hands, they moved as her hands moved. As if an extension of her body, the blades also controlled her vines that she had spread out once again. She didn't care for her mana anymore and used everything she had.
The vines rose in the air as she jumped from one vine to another and kept on moving forward while slashing at the incoming attacks. A slash to the right and a parry in front of her, the incoming vines and trunks were dealt with accordingly while she moved with the grace of a princess. After all, she was a princess and had been trained for war ever since she was born.
Seeing her move, the others also went all out. The rapier in Noelle's hand lit up with a blinding light as multiple blobs of light were scattered out from it as they landed on Kashish, Aella and the others. Feeling the lights landing on them, they didn't resist and welcomed them as their wounds started to heal at faster speed than usual while a portion of their mind felt revitalized from the battle stress they had accumulated throughout the battle.
The Regional Lord also made his move. His hands turned into paws and claws elongated out from them while the wind around him moved. He had more affinity to the element than the other Warmacks and currently, he was sharing his powers with the rest of the living Warmacks; empowering each other. The Warmacks took the burnt of the attacks but they healed faster and attacked even faster. Even though a whole portion of the forest half turned against them, the mismatched group of people and beasts were fighting against the forest just so that a single human being could cross a portal that seemed to be getting more and more unstable by the second.
"Aella!!!" Kashish shouted as she was the first one to notice peculiarity about the portal. It semed that someone was interfering with it and it would close soon enough.
"What happened?" A strained shout wa Shepard from within the tornado as it was apparent form her tone of how troubled Aella was right now and even though it semed that she was fine and fighting well, she was running on fumes while the trees, trunks and vines around her were pushing her back by the second.
She was farther from the portal than anyone else and if she made a run for it right now, she would never reach it in time.
"Kashish i wont be able to hold on for longer and never reach it on time. You go and ask Ray for help, tell hi-," just as she was about to continue, a vine pierced through the tornado and into her shoulder as after that it was Aella's shout that had reverberated and the tornado had weakened until only Aella was left, captured by a vine.
"Noooooo!!!!" Kashish shouted as she raised her vines in retaliation but other vines came in front of her and stopped her.
Kashish saw as Aella was taken away right in front of her eyes, "Kashish goo!!!" Aella shouted before she lost consciousness and then the regional lord appeared as he held Kashish tightly and threw him right into the portal and with it, Kashish had become the one who crossed the portal.
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