Chapter 417 (1/2)
Chapter 417
ELEANOR LEYWIN
“This would be rue from her face, all that remained of yet another beast that had attacked us
“You can’t siors of the Relicto exactly like a school teacher “The point is to ascend through the theht is mana intensive, and you’ll need to learn to conserve your strength”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Mica scoffed “I didn’t realize this was a day trip to kooky school”
Soht, and ht in the zone was diffused and hazy, reenthe uncomfortably impression that the place just went on forever and ever It also sed sound, ht beside us or halfway across the zone
The ss layered over ht be the first tiuy,” I
My bond with Booon top of hi or terror leeches—a na fro the horizon for any sign of an exit
“I wouldn’t need to conserve h this place,” Mica went on, her knuckles creaking audibly around the haft of her hammer
“Think of it as your first test,” Arthur answered huh the gloom, I pointed it out to the others “I think that shi+ny thing over there round and squinted in that direction “Mica doesn’t—I don’t see anything”
Regis chortled in aht choice in le
Eyes here our scout”
“Oh, L-Lyra!” I burst out, catching sight of a cri its way up the back of her boot
Her head snapped around, and she quickly followed the line ofHer hand scythed down and a blade of wind sliced the thing off her With a sharp stomp, she crushed it A circle of blood sprayed around her foot like a gory halo
“You’re all getting distracted,” Arthur said, his armentally “Focus”
Lyra nodded deeply, alent Leywin You are correct During an ascent, one iven leadershi+p authority, even aest—”
Mica scoffed for about the hundredth time and spun toward Lyra, but, before she could speak, a massive tentacle snapped out of the pool of acid she was hovering above I gasped and fu
“Oh, rock and root, get offher conjured ha, the tentacle see the i apart in sticky strands that very obviously defied the norain in a loop around the ha Mica Tendrils of s from wherever the acidic tentacle touched her
I drew the string of ainst the string With the twang of release, the arro a bright line through the murky air and struck the tentacle with a wet thu to fly upward and break its grip, but it soth of a Lance
Stone spikes thrust up frohtly different direction,tentacle, but still it held onto her
The air began to vibrate The noise this made was so low I doubted anyone but me could hear it For a second, I wondered what kind of newus, but then I sensed theout of Lyra and into the tentacle I heldto happen, then the tentacle burst apart into a shower of inky, slithering snot blobs
Boo lurched beneathof the stuff
“Gross,” Mica said, shaking like a wet dog as she brushed the hissing slime and bits of tentacle off her
“See, Lance?” Lyra said with a poorly suppressed se and your ability to act on said knowledge without panicking I was able to save you because—”
“I wasn’t panicking!” Mica practically shouted, followed quickly by, “And you didn’t save me—”
I jumped so hard I nearly fell off Boo’s back as a flash of violet light suddenly filled the zone, accompanied by a bonfire roar I looked away, but not quickly enough, and suddenly foundeyes Boo gruis, who had been walking just behind and beside us The huge shadoas knocked sideways, sliding down the edge of the raised lip of dirt we had been following until his paws hit the burning goop that filled the pool
I turned back in ti bits of exploded tentacle dissolving back into the acidic pool, bloay from Lyra by Arthur’s aetheric blast
“I’m sorry!” I said i Regis and glowering Arthur “I should have seen that those bits were stillas he crawled back up the slope, his paws sizzling “What a total cluster—”
Arthur shot a glare his way, and the shadoolf’s jaws snapped shut
Boo gave a quiet gruht?”
Mica had already landed back on the ground, and both her and Lyra were looking at Arthur sheepishly
“For soh she’s actually doing the task she’s been given,” Arthur said pointedly He ran his fingers through his hair and sighed “Lyra, you’ve been in the Relictombs before, but never with me And Mica, you’re used to the Beast Glades, where there isn’t th of the roith the people inside, and this whole place has adapted toyour way past every encounter You have to be strategic, fight sned to test you…or kill you”
Mica lifted her chin and ly “I’ this place can throw atlook from my brother
“But that’s part of the problem You have no idea what this place can do and I need you to understand why you’re even here Ellie is travelling with me so she can practice her new ability, and Lyra needs to be kept close to me because I can’t trust to leave someone as powerful as her locked up anywhere”—“Thanks for that vote of confidence,” she said under her breath—“and so I need you to keep an eye on theh they vanished into her hairline, and herfor the dwarven Lance to lack any words, but I was too tense to see the hu, I watched another blood slug start to crawl up the back of Mica’s leg “U red luritted her teeth, and squeezed Criers “I understand,” she said, tossing the mess into the closest pool of acid with a heavy splash
“All right, let’s getfor Mica and Lyra to take the lead
Moving together, they started off in the direction I’d indicated Arthur iht, his blond hair floating up froh I’d seen it several times now, it was still kind of eerie Arthur already looked so different than frohted his alien nature With Realmheart active, his head shi+fted fros
As we passed the pool, I was distracted by soe
My arrow, the one I’d shot at the tentacle grabbing Mica, was floating on the surface of the acid Boo, sensing runt
“What’s up?” Regis asked, staring hard into the pool, perhaps expecting some other , it’s just…” Mentally, I reached for the arrow I could feel it, sense the led, and I realized the arroas still tethered to me by the spellform I purposefully released that tether, and the arrow dissolved, the“That’s weird”
Boo whined, infor me that the others had hts stayed with the arrow
I’d always had a talent for for my pure, eleh I didn’t do it often, practicingshapes with Arthur had really helped e and power of ht me how to shoot a mana arrow that foret instead of har them But all the abilities I’d ever learned requiredout my hand, I pictured a ball As mana flowed fro white mana I tossed the ball aside, where it splashed into one of the pools It bobbed up and down for a moment, then was batted aside as a tentacle slithered across the acid’s surface
“Don’t disturb the pools,” Arthur said over his shoulder, his voice vibrating with the energy channeled by Realmy focus away from the first, but I was careful not to actively disalia h my focus was on the ball inin the acid
Somewhere up ahead, Lyra shouted out, and Mica struck down a terror leech with her huge ha the sphere in my hands, I twisted around on Boo to better see the other ball, which was now about fifty feet behind me The draw on my mana was barely noticeable, but the form seemed unaffected by my lack of focus Curious, I attempted to manipulate the physical structure of the sphere
The y that sent acid spraying up in the air like a uiltily to Arthur, but he dislance, apparently oing off constantly
“That was pretty cool,” Regis said, plodding up to walk next to Boo as the path widened briefly “You were using your spellfor aard “I’ with it” The rotten-egg son the surface of the pool next to us “On our left!”
An earthen wall sprouted fro over us like a half-arch, and I heard the spray of sludgy water on the other side “Thanks,” Mica shot back over her shoulder
“Try again,” Regis suggested after the noise had passed
I thought about what I wanted to do for athe mana When I was ready, I tossed it onto the path behind us, butto continue to manipulate the shape so that it s trotted stiffly after Boo and Regis, glohite in the di at the conjured figure and scanned our surroundings When I found what I was looking for, I drew my bow, conjured an arrow, and loosed The white bea that was hunkered at the edge of the path, ready to latch onto the first thing to get close enough
“Nice shot,” Lyra said, kicking the re behindIt was still there, frozen with its stubby legs lifted as if it was in theus I tried to start it ain, but like the sphere in the pool, it burst, creating a nova of
“Theon it, but I don’t seee the shape again, it collapses,” I told Regis, glad to have someone to bounce is shot back, giving , talking weapon, but I wonder…can you y than that? Maybe if you coe it with the intent that it, y’know, goes booled at the excitement in his tone, but went quiet when Arthur cocked his head, turning his ear back towardaround with your power? I asked myself with Arthur’s voice What if I draw in a bunch , like Lyra said, and I go into backlash?
As I considered this, I noticed the golden glow ehter “What’s he doing?” I asked aloud, is answered “He’s been focused on Dicathen, and hasn’thimself lately This isn’t just a chance for you and the insane dwarf to train It’s his, too”
I set my jaw Thatbrother was doing what he could to train and becoer, I had to too
I didn’t worry much about the physical forh, flat, very dense disk
When I was satisfied, I tossed the disk behind us It landed on the hard dirt with a quiet thud Inside ed alia intact
This time, I waited until ere al sensation coe of the tether That’s good to know
Instead of just trying to change the mana’s shape, I specifically atte it as a violent explosion—
A huge booround apart, collapsing it into the acid pools on either side Three geysers went off one after another, set off by the explosion, and several terror leeches and huge tentacles burst out of the acid to slither toward the wreckage
“What was that?” Mica asked, flying back over us and hovering between me and the site of the explosion
“S-sorry!” I squeaked,in , I pointed at Regis “It was his idea!”
The shadoolf barked out a gleeful, h “hell yeah it was”
Arthur was besidehis Godrunes, and the alien light that had infused hiolden eyes tracking over the collapsed patch of trail “How?”
A little haltingly, I explained what I had noticed about the arrow and the discoveries that had spiraled from that observation
As I talked, Arthur activated Real me carefully
I for with it Tilting htly to the side, I listened “Does anyone else feel that?”
Suddenly the ground whereswarmed by Darvish sand sharks The handful of terror leeches still round, where their bodies were pulverized by so I still couldn’t see