Chapitre 7: The Fall
Mordred
I took a swig of some liquid courage and charged out of the carriage with a shrill battle cry. The five horsemen were nearly upon us. I twisted my ring and began to chant. Raising my hand, my fingertips grew hot as a ball of fire formed in my palm. Casting the spell, I aimed at the leading horse, causing it to crash into the ground, pinning the rider forward under his horse. Because of the fallen horse, the other riders were forced to slow their charge to avoid getting caught in the mess. However, they soon regrouped and continued their charge towards me. Readying another blast of fire, I was certain they were charging to their deaths. I missed spectacularly and they chased me down to lop off my head as I attempted to make a tactical retreat.
Weaving my hands over myself in a specific pattern, I cast a spell that allowed me to run faster than I normally could, and narrowly dodged a cut to my leg that would surely have resulted in my untimely demise.
Looking back at my pursuers, I shouted, "Haha! Can't catch me now, can you, bi-!" I ran into Xavier. Oops! Because of basic physics and Xavier not budging an inch, I ended up on my rear a foot in front of him. He just frowned at me and raised his arm, a ball of shadow forming in his palm. He crushed the ball, causing shadows to drip into the ground. From underneath, a dark hand rose up and grabbed the man's arm. He stopped the horse and clutched his arm in pain as the dark hand inched up his arm.
Looking at the enemies, I used another of my many strengths: my mind. Xavier only had a sword and he looked strained from casting multiple spells in a short of a time. Point being I needed to help cut down the bandits. Shoving Xavier out of the way, I thrust my hands at them and a mighty cone of fire burst out of my palms, cooking them medium rare. The remaining man galloped away on their horse to a nearby dune and pulled out his bow. He aimed at me. This prompted a trench war of sorts: both of us firing our respective attacks and ducking for cover when we weren't. However, I had unlimited ammo, while they had to rely on arrows. Clearly, I was the better fighter.
Solskin
Looking at the scrawny wizard's attempt at combat, I chuckled and launched myself into my own fight. I leaped off the caravan roof and landed next to Persephone. Nodding to her, I ducked under the wild swing of our opponents axe and stepped into his arm length, depriving him of the space to swing his large axe. The Bandit realized the danger and and planted his boot firmly on my chest, sending me flying back. Persephone, seeing his focus shift to me and his leg lingering in the air from the kick, hooked her scythe around the back of his knee and pulled with all her strength. I heard the man scream from the injury and he fell fell to the ground. Turning around, I saw Xavier had charged the remaining horseman and was struggling to hold them off. Mordred was a good distance away gesturing wildly with his hand, but his bolts of flame were unable make contact as the brawl was too hectic.
Focusing on my blade, I charged to join Xavier, lightning arching down my blade. When the horseman finally noticed I was rushing him, I stabbed my blade into the ground. Thunder boomed and there was a deafening crack which echoed through the mountains. The force of the blast sent the horseman flying into the trees. The nearby wagon careened dangerously back and forth. Suddenly, we all felt a preternatural force pass through us as we realized we were falling. Up.
Rocks, sand, and leaves began to float and rise into the air. They were soon followed by Xavier, Mordred, the horseman, and I. We rose and rose, getting to increasingly more perilous heights. It was at this point that we started to panic and flail wildly.
Mordred
My only coherent though in that situation was: What in God's name is happening? Solskin released a large thunderclap, and soon after everyone began floating into the air. The Laws of Physics had been broken and nothing made sense anymore. On another note, I wasn't the only who shared this sentiment. On the entire way up, Xavier was cursing Uranus for being pissed off. I felt the urge to hurl. It wasn't pleasant, but at least I aimed it towards the remaining horseman. After spending my internal ammunation, I realized why I had thrown up. We had started to fall down.
I attempted to right myself by spreading out my arms to maximize surface area. Xavier noticed how I had slowed my descent from permanent paralyzation to broken legs, and began to mimic me.
"Good idea!" Xavier shouted at me, his voice somehow getting through the wind. I did not reply, I knew that if I did, my stomach would regret it.
While I knew how to slow down because of basic Earth knowledge, I was still panicking about the pain that would surely come from landing. Xavier didn't know that he would even live, yet I still couldn't copy the cold ferocity of Xavier. He seemed to not care that we were 50 feet in the sky. In fact, he continued to attack the horseman, unfazed by the lack of a ground. Solskin was worse. He was also panicking, but he was yelling at me for angering the gods. What did I do? Did he not realize it was all his fault? If I wasn't falling to the ground at high speeds, I would have sighed with exasperation and slapped him.
The ground rose up to meet my face. Quickly, I focused my will through the ring and an invisible hand grabbed and began pulling up to further slow myself. Sadly, it wasn't enough to stop me completely and I ate some lovely gravel. I got up, my face dripping blood from numerous scratches, and tried to help break the fall of others. It was pointless, Xavier used the horseman to break his fall. He rose up unsteadily, but the other horseman didn't. However, Solskin landed of the ground with large thump. He cried out in pain and lay there still. Serves him right for not trying to slow down.
Persephone glanced at us from the front of the caravan, not caught in the effects of the spell. Taking advantage of her distraction, the great big man leapt up and swung his greataxe straight into her arm. Her pocket watch hanging from her side began to glow. The light expanded, knocking away the man, leaving Persephone safe from further harm. Persephone cried out in pain, falling to the ground as blood poured out of the wound like a fine crimson wine. The man got up and regained his balance, readying another strike. I narrowed my eyes, too far to directly help her.
Twisting my ring and chanting once more, I thrust my hand out to the man with the axe as he brought his axe down with a yell. Persephone was looking at me, silently pleading. Then, I smiled grimly. The man was frozen still.
Keeping my hand outstretched and pointed at the man held with invisible force, I started approaching Persephone. My vision blurred, sustaining a spell for a long time was draining. I pushed on, despite the growing migraine. My hand shook and I looked at Persephone and mouthed 'I'm sorry' before falling to my knees, exhausted.
The man continued his previous attack as if he had just been paused, his axe cutting deep into Persephone's arm. My stomach twisted with disgust at my cowardice. All I could do was kneel on the ground.
"Hold on!" Xavier cried from behind. He had just stabbed the last horsemen through the chest. Blood rushed down his left arm and there was a large gash across his chest. He sprinted toward us, his sword leaving a trail of blood. The flat end of the axe crashed into the back of my head as I was distracted. I locked eyes with our last hope, Xavier, as I fell to the ground unconscious. His calm demeanor was shattered. Fear and sadness plagued his scarred face, but something was wrong. His eyes were yellow. The sensation from ten years ago was back. It washed over me like waves in an ocean. But this time, I could feel the sheer magical force behind it, flooding me with an unnatural sense of fear.
Xavier
Mordred fell to the ground. I saw fear in his eyes. I ran harder, but all I could do was watch. Not again! I cried out in pain. My first companions in 10 years were dead. I lost it. Cold shivers ran down my spine. A dark fog blasted out from me. I looked at the last enemy standing. Hatred boiled through my veins. An unnatural cold settled in my arm and it grew. The cold spread up my arm and into my neck. The only thought in my head was death. My vision turned dark as I saw shadowy hands erupt from the ground, stopping the blade. He was slowly and brutally torn apart. There was a sickening crack as the bandit was pulled apart, his limbs buckling and flesh tearing. He screamed in pure agony as the pulling slowed down, lengthening his torturous demise. His body broke apart, the shadowy hands throwing bits everywhere, scattering him across the surrounding area. His remains dangled off trees, leaving a bloody mess. I fell to the ground.
The coldness wracked my entire body. Something had come back into my mind. It said one word:
Soon. I pushed back with all my willpower and the coldness dissipated. I stood back up and sat where I originally was, not caring about my wounds. My eyes were sunken and my heart heavy. We won the battle, but I felt dread coursing through my veins. The merchants helped Solskin, Mordred, and a bloody Persephone back into the cart. We continued and didn't face any trouble.
Unbeknownst to us, a shadowy figure watched the fight from a distance.
"He is here. Master will be pleased." The figure conjured a phantom steed from the ground and rode away, toward the Capital. There was an intricate black crown tattooed on the side of his cheek.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone