Chapter 46 — The Divinesday Newcomers Tournament! (Part 5)

Ria gaped at the giant plant golem pushing its way into the clearing, and as she watched in awe, nearby tree branches and underbrush wrapped themselves around the golem adding to its bulk.

Wasn’t the wood manipulator just a second-year?!

Because of the golem’s size, its movements were deceptively faster than they appeared, and with only two thudding steps, a tremendous fist was arcing toward Zena, creaking with the sound of a great tree dangerously swaying in a strong wind.

If Ria hadn’t been holding her breath in worry, she would have screamed when the twisted sinews of wood and leaves ponderously passed through her friend, exploding the raven-haired girl into a puff of spores on its way to impacting the ground with an earth-shaking thump that sent dirt flying and rippled the grass around it.

The cloud of spores swirled around the arm and up toward the torso where Netaliri was directing the magic from. But what she was seeing was Iselyn’s work—Zena’s embers were hidden among the spores!

Ria’s attention was drawn back to the grass in the clearing. Oddly the grass hadn’t stopped rippling except in one location where it was twisting around an empty space forming twin rising cylindrical shapes… and the golem’s other fist was already swinging around right for that location!

{{I’m attacking!}}

Keira’s voice in her head announced, and an array of golden beams lanced out from the nearby hill, suddenly striking against Netaliri and the golem, knocking it off balance enough for the fist to pass over where Zena was rooted to the ground. After the initial onslaught, Keira’s strikes continued, focusing on the bubble of energy that sprung up to protect the elf boy as he calmly powered his magic.

More spore-illusioned embers streamed upward, wrapping around the arm—that was now raising up to smash downwards!

Suddenly the illusion broke and Zena appeared, legs wrapped in twisting grass, her staff’s flame blazing with power as its burning veins stoked brightly.

“Ignite!”

At Zena’s yell, the embers flared, igniting Iselyn’s spores in a rush of fire that filled the clearing with intense heat.

When the flash of fire cleared enough for Ria to see, the now flaming fist was crushing down on a protective dome of tightly-packed ashen embers.

{{Zena! Can you hold?}}

{{Probably. I’ll be free of the grass in a few more seconds.}}

Zena’s response to her inquiry sounded confident, but Ria still ground her teeth in impotence. Was there nothing she could do to help?! They still didn’t know where the other three elves were, and revealing her position or dropping her sensing magic would only worsen their situation. Should she send Ranger?

The second fist slammed down, and when the protective dome around Zena began to crack, Ria made her choice.

{{I’m switching spells!}}

{Ranger, watch the woods! Don’t let any more approach!}

His affirmative was immediate, and Ria was already dropping her sensing magic to form the spell matrix for her new fire magic. She made the glyphs and constructs as large as she could reliably control and shoved as much energy through the matrix as it could withstand without distorting. Netaliri has to be taken down before the others show up for her team to have any chance at victory!

The resulting flow of forge-hot fire was more an angled pillar of raging inferno than her spell’s intended searing stream as it broke against the golem’s torso and wrapped the twisted wood and leaves in billows of devouring flame.

The heat was fierce enough that Ria had to pull her cloak closed, and the grass in the clearing rapidly turned to ash just from the proximity. Through the heat-warped air and squinted eyes, she witnessed the wood of the golem burning to charcoal and crumbling away as if dissolving in acid.

At first Ria was optimistic that she had acted in time, but even with her fire burning away the golem’s trunk and Keira’s light magic pounding down on it from afar, Zena’s dome of embers collapsed.

However, contrary to her fears, the embers flowed like a glowing river of ash, carrying the girl safely around the golem’s withered fists as they crashed into the ground. In a continuous motion, Zena leapt from atop a burning golem arm to land on a platform of ash and swung down her staff against the elf boy’s strained barrier. Spears made of ember began to form behind the suddenly imposing first-year Flaming Dragon member, and Netaliri was no longer calm as the golem retreated back toward the safety of the trees.

Cheers from the stadium rained down, and Ria felt herself cheering along. Go, Zena! Destroy him!

Her jubilation at pushing the wood manipulator back was short-lived as Ranger’s alarmed report of a nearby shadow smell abruptly cut short and her familiar bond suddenly became unresponsive.

Before Ria could understand what had happened, a fast approaching whistle sounded, and she dove just as an arrow struck the ground, a burst of wind erupting out and slamming her face-first into the grass. Her cloak held back the rending winds, but she had to bolster its enchantment from her reserves. Barely holding on, her concentration slipped and both the fire magic and the camouflage spell fizzled out.

{{I’m under attack! I’ll hold Yeliir as long as I can!}}

Keira’s voice through the tether sounded harried, but Ria had her own concerns at the moment and could only hope her friend could hold out long enough to be rescued or win her fight. Thankfully the wind magic dissipated, and not waiting to be an exposed target, Ria filled her muscles with energy and scrambled behind a tree trunk, stomping the ground and extending out her senses without bothering to shape the sensing spell.

{{I’ve found Halis! He got Ranger!}}

As she reported Ranger’s condition and her enemy, Ria spun to face the threat, but almost immediately, the elf disappeared from her perception.

Focusing her senses as Tina taught her, she quickly sensed for a deadened space and worked out the shapes—an elf drawing a bow!

Angry about Ranger, Ria drew her cloak close and used her wand to harden a thin blade of air in the path of the bowstring just as the elf, Halis, loosed his arrow. The arrow struck her, painfully knocking her back, but as she maliciously hoped, the bowstring struck the air shield and snapped, whipping the elf in the face and causing the bow to make a cracking sound.

Maybe it was petty. Ria wasn’t in the mood to care and leapt to the attack, her remaining energy reserves roiling to be released.

{{Anasari’s Light!}}

{{I lost Keira’s link.}}

Keira’s exclamation of surprise and frustration and Iselyn’s report only heightened Ria’s anger, and rather than lose another dagger, she stored her wand and struck with her offhand fist, pouring a full third of her energy into the punch.

Not prepared to receive an attack of that magnitude, Halis was launched backward limbs askew to crunch painfully against a tree.

Ria didn’t give him any time. Her body moving by instinct drilled into her by Tina, she closed the distance almost instantly and stabbed her training dagger through his neck, energy passing through to disrupt the protection of his magical jewelry, but the slippery elf managed to twist away just enough to avoid a fatal injury.

Ria continued the strike into the tree, and the explosion of bark and heartwood left the dark-haired elf staggering and holding his head with a grimace of pain.

{{Horse droppings.}}

Iselyn’s huffed critique and the embers fluttering away from Ria’s rapidly dissolving armor yanked her attention back to Zena, and to Ria’s great dismay, her ember-affinity friend had a fletched shaft protruding from behind and was collapsing to the ground. That wasn’t the worst of it. Netaliri, turtled inside what remained of his golem, survived Zena’s assault somehow.

The brief distraction allowed Halis to take some distance, and the shifty-eyed elf was reaching for one of the many blades sheathed in his bandolier.

Narrowing her eyes, Ria resummoned her wand. At the least, she would finish Halis.

Another whistling hurtled closer as it ripped through the leaves in the way. This time Ria reacted instinctively, forming a gust of wind to swat the arrow off-course and toward Halis at the last moment.

His widened eyes as she launched herself backward and erected an air shield were almost amusing. Almost.

The elven shadow mage had managed to equip a new protective item and weathered the exploding arrow’s rending winds.

Frustratingly, Ria was no longer sure she had enough reserves remaining to defeat him, and certainly not while being shot at by the wind mage. But there was one thing she could still do.

With a growl she decided her course of action, bolstering her body and darting off into the underbrush, leaving a clear trail as she crashed through bushes and brambles toward the nearest tunnel entrance.

{{I’m going to draw them off and buy us some time!}}

{{Wood boy is under my control. Do you want me to send Malleron to help after finishing him?}}

It wasn’t a bad idea. If Iselyn could stay hidden from the water mage long enough…

Ria cut a sharp turn and slid down a ravine just as another one of Aelyri’s arrows flew past to explode on the opposite slope. Both elves were fast! Aelyri was by far the faster of the two and was rapidly catching up.

Ducking into the low-ceilinged tunnel and scurrying along its twists and turns, Ria paused at the first fork and her senses searched both directions until she found an open enough space down one, but it was unfortunately a dead end. Halis and Aelyri reaching the tunnel opening forced a decision, and she chose her fork.

{{No, my reserves are too low to last long enough for Malleron to arrive in time. I’m going to try to take out Aelyri and Halis, after that I’ll be out. Focus on defeating Nateliri and Yeliir while I keep Aelyri and Halis busy.}}

{{Good luck.}}

After more frantic tunnel scrambling, Iselyn reported on Nateliri’s demise, and the deciding moment had arrived.

Scuttling into the large hollowed-out den, Ria summoned and tossed her devastator into a corner where it wouldn’t be seen from the entrance. The metal plate landed with a thump, and she could only hope that the remaining magic from the generated terrain would hide it long enough.

Quickly continuing to the far side of the den, Ria cast the Create Water spell above her head and formed an air shield to direct the water around her in a narrow dome-shaped curtain. If such a stupid plan worked, she should make an actual water shield spell...

A snicker sounded from Halis as the two elves casually entered the den. “I know there’s nowhere left to run, but hiding behind a curtain of water, really?”

“She’s buying time for the mind mage and the spriggan to defeat Netaliri and Yeliir, huh?” Aelyri’s delicate voice added in soft amusement of her own. “As first-years, you girls put up a surprisingly respectable fight and can probably win the tournament once we lose our newcomer eligibility after three more wins. We’ll be sure to cheer you on.”

Sensing the elf girl draw her bow, Ria knew the time for chatting was over.

“Activate #99!”

“Wha-?”

The air lit white with arcing lightning, and soon gibbering screams sounded among the cracks of thunder.

Bolts repeatedly struck the flowing water and were grounded into the muddy dirt. Ria grimaced and grit her teeth, focusing on maintaining her defensive magic as small tendrils still leaked through to shock her and make her legs tremble.

When the lightning discharges stopped, she retracted the energy remaining in the Create Water spell’s matrix.

As expected, hoping for her cowardly trap to win the day was naive, and the dissipating water revealed what she could already sense: Aelyri was climbing unsteadily back to her feet, tremors still making the elf girl’s arms visibly shake.

“Now, it’s one on one,” Ria stated and made a wry grin. At least, Halis succumbed and revenge was hers. Whether she had enough reserves left… her opponent sure seemed to almost be as bad off.

“...can’t believe… to fight at a disadvantage and keep such in reserve.” Aelyri shook her head. “No, it’s our fault for looking down on you. Come, let’s finish.”

Remembering her hopeless training sessions with Tina, Ria fixed her determination, forced her twitching legs to move, and stepped forward from the mud, dagger and wand in hand, ready for one last fight to the end.