Nythe (5)

Sahaela had died once, but she feared she was close to hitting number two.

The scarred man fired beams of crackling reddish-black energy her way, they wove through the air as if they had minds of their own following no traditional leyline current she knew of. It made dodging them completely next to impossible.

Yet she felt it from the first strike, any contact would shave away a portion of her essence. The perfect spell for dealing with conjured entities, spirits, and of course ghosts.

"You didn't even notice the box I'd trapped you in!" He cackled while unleashing a trio of beams in her direction.

It was then she noticed the cuts on the man's palms that allowed him to mix his own blood with his mana. She had read about blood magick, but never expected it to be so fearsome.

There was no point in trading barbs, and spell she cast at him he'd devour with one of those snaking beams of energy and so she had spent the past few moments focusing on unweaving the spell keeping her trapped.

It was a barrier, but she suspected there was some kind of trap hidden within for the walls hummed with more power than needed for just a basic barrier like she had shown Midori.

But a sudden sharp pain in her shoulder put the need for caution aside, as a crackling beam tore through her leaving her form wispy and fluttery like a tattered strip of paper. It would take her awhile to recover from that.

Pulling the barrier down Sahaela exploded through the ceiling as fast as she could. Guilt ate at her but she had unfortunately come upon one of the few people perfectly suited to completely eradicate her, and she wasn't willing to take that risk for people she'd just met yet.

-----

When Rune was young he had seen the true power of the ocean when a boat deemed unsinkable was easily toppled by a towering wave. What he was witnessing now felt not dissimilar to that.

Midori was chasing Evan across the encampment, thrashing easily through what had now become a muddy swamp battlefield. Destroying anything and everything in her path that came between him and her.

She moved across the land almost like a snake, her powerful tail slapping and slithering as she twisted and turned to move in different directions.

As Evan made an incredible leap across the camp in a futile attempt to put some distance between them, she conjured a swirl of water that solidified into an enormous looking fishhook clearly refusing to let him escape.

Hurling it towards him she snapped it back with the experience of a master fisher, piercing through his leg and sending thick spurts of blood across the remnants of the camp as she pulled him back into her grasp

At some point the order to retreat had been given and those soldiers that remained conscious had raced to the boats docked at the port. And while this was certainly a type of victory, Rune would not feel ready to celebrate while Midori was still in a rage.

“Oda, Toma!”

The two warriors had scattered during Midori’s transformation but they were there almost instantly when Rune called.

The trio had grown up together in a way, Nythe being the closest settlement to Yanara, Rune had spent much time playing and training with the pair after his banishment. They were the first to acknowledge Rune’s desire to become khan, swearing they’d serve as his guards should he succeed.

“We can’t let her rage like that, she’ll burn herself out.”

“What do you suggest?” Oda asked while Toma just listened.

“As much as I don’t like it we can’t let her kill that armoured oaf. Her last request to me was to not kill him, I can’t imagine that deep down she really wants this…” Rune let his words hand there, he knew she had remembered something and that it was possible her opinion had changed, but something in his gut told him otherwise.

“Try and get the kid from her, I’ll handle Midori.”

“But Rune, she might kill you.” Toma’s words were quiet and the fear evident in them.

“I am going to become Khan of Moana Mau’u, I will not die here.”

It was enough to reassure both Oda and Toma, whom headed off clearly with a plan already in mind. For Rune however he worried that death was more definitely on the table.

No one knew the strength of a Herald that had become Untethered better than he.

Pure spiritual power coursing through them there were few things that could match such ferocity, not even the vessel could withstand it. His fingers gently touched at the wound on his chest, the parts of him that were burnt and flaked away, the parts of himself that had been destroyed the first time it happened to him.

Taking a slow breath he stood and readied himself to try and bring Midori back to her senses.

-----

Everything was red.

It was all Midori could see.

This man had wormed his way into her life, into the lives of her friends, all just to get closer to her.

He ran from her and in her mind she wanted to feel him in like a fish, and as if commanded the water obeyed forming a large fishhook of grey-blue water. The hook-like weapon she summoned drank in the blood of its victim as it bit through Evan’s leg, and she savoured his screams of anguish.

She smashed him into the ground and he screamed in pain, but it wasn’t enough, she wanted to make him truly suffer. But before she could bring him to the ground again there was resistance from the hook.

Two large figures were standing near Evan. They looked familiar to her, she had met them at some point.

Why were they here? And why were they trying to help Evan?

Whoever they were, they would have to die first.

The rain continued pouring down and with a twist of her hand large fat droplets were formed into arrows that she sent hurling toward the two figures.

She screamed and hurled more arrows of water at them only for them to be batted away with a singular and incredible swipe upward from the figure holding a club momentarily destroyed all bits of water.

It was only a moment, but they made full use of it pulling Evan fully free and racing away while she shrieked in rage.

The rain began again and she raced after them, swinging the hook down to clash with the tiny sack of meat holding that stupid club.

Stupid club.

Stupid Evan.

Stupid EVERYTHING!

As if in response the rain came even harder. A twisted smile spread across her face.

The anger felt so good.

Why did it feel so good to give in to this anger? And why did no one ever tell her it felt so good to scream like this?

But even though it felt good, what was this perturbing feeling in her stomach?

She battered it down and looked around for her prey. Those two fools had hidden him somewhere, but she knew how to force them out. And she could see other figures trying to move some metal tube from a shed, one of the other figures shouting loudly and hitting the others.

Casting her fishhook skyward it seemed to catch on something invisible, and once it had she began to pull with all her strength. And when she did the rain that had been coming in sheets came then in buckets, and soon it was a tsunami of water coming down from the sky.

If they were hiding Evan in this place, then she’d just wash this whole damned place away.