The Unbidden: A New World (1) (Short Parts)

Part 60

Wind Tunnel created a tunnel of wind from me to the destination point, guiding me like a train on tracks toward said point. Air Suspension was supposed to keep me free-floating in a sense while in the wind barrier. Wind Ball was meant to keep me in an air-version of the water bubble. Lastly, Air Boost generated a tremendous amount of push behind me using air.

It was all supposed to succeed in an "I'm-probably-going-to-die-so-I-hope-this-works" theory. I felt my position shifting directions as the tunnel spiraled in a tornado-like fashion. My target was Loht first, then the ground. As my descent exceeded terminal velocity for a human, I thought about how glad I would be to survive the strike. The air around the Wind Ball made loud, tearing sounds. It took nearly an entire minute and a half for me to get within the danger zone.

Loht must've heard me coming as the beast craned its neck toward me. Its eyes light up in surprise as it attempted an evasive maneuver. It was already too late though. The wind tunnel guided me into the creature. Unfortunately, Loht was able to evade enough that I rammed into its rear right leg. Everything seemed to slow down. It reminded me of when I was killed the first time – back in my old universe.

As the ball made contact with Loht's leg, the force pushed into it, severing the scales, and soft tissue underneath. The next second, it was tearing through the leg muscle and tendons before striking the huge leg bones. My air ball snapped it apart, continuing through the other end of the leg. The ground appeared on the other side in full view, and within a few seconds, I slammed into the ground, carving out plenty of earth.

A pained roar resound from outside my deeply carved tunnel. When I finally came to a halt, I blinked myself to the surface near Jayde. She was unconscious on the ground with deep burn marks across the left side of her face. I glanced over to see Aurias was still standing, fine as ever and sighed in relief. I casted Greater heal on Jayde, turning my gaze toward the sky.

Loht flapped its wings in as it turned to the opposite direction as me and began flying away in either anger or fear. There was a large, perfectly spherical hole in the center of its hind leg. Dark red blood spilled across the ground as it flew away, roaring in pain. I looked back to Jayde. Her burns healed up, but a light scar tissue had formed in place. It seemed even magic couldn't escape scarring tissue.

I stood up, but when I moved to take a step, I felt my legs give out from under me. It was then I realized my whole body lost its strength after healing her. It wasn't like when I used up too much magic. It felt more like putting out so much physical energy that my body overexerted itself. I also ended up vomiting as the constant falling and turning from the wind tunnel caught up with me.

"Xavier, there are five presences on the edge of the tree line. They have been there for several minutes," Aurias commented.

Crap. Just when I thought things were going well, I thought, groaning aloud.

I squeezed my eyes for a moment before looking around, but I couldn't see anyone. I didn't doubt Aurias' powers though. The entire hamlet, to include the forest at least a few dozen feet in a singular direction from where I was at during the breath attack was burned to ashen char. Several trees still stood, but one may have broken if I so much as touched it.

My hearing had gone out slightly from the abundantly loud sounds during the battle as well, so I didn't hear the five figures exiting the tree line and coming toward me. The first one I noticed out of my peripherals wore a dark-grey colored armor. It was an Orcish man that wielded a longsword and shield. He cautiously approached me.

I squinted my eyes in pain as I rolled myself onto my rear, leaning against the charred rubble of the hamlet.

"May I help you?" I asked in a pained chuckle.

The Orcish man halted his advance toward me. He looked up and nodded, shouting in some foreign language.

That's rude, I thought sarcastically.

I heard several sets of footsteps approaching after about a minute as my hearing slowly returned. I craned my head to see a womanly figure

Next to her was an older human male. The other two were twins, maybe. Both were shorter than everyone else, but both had bows and a quiver of arrows with leather armor. One was female, the other was male.

Hobbits, maybe, I thought.

They all gathered in front of me. The only person's face I couldn't see was the white-robed woman.

The witch.

"I'll ask again. Can I help you?" I repeated.

I tried to maintain a confident attitude, but it was blatantly clear I wasn't in a good condition.

"That was some impressiv- Ow!" the female hobbit spoke, only to get poked in the side by her twin.

"You use magic ... who are you?" the old human asked, his voice slightly crackly.