The Call to War

Chapter 11

"Hey there cutie, are you lost?" An unfamiliar female's voice rang in Arthur's head.

Arthur quickly landed in one of the trees and frantically looked around the area, but saw nothing.

"Are you looking by chance looking for this beautiful lady?" The shrill voice screeched inside Arthur's head.

Her voice sounded as if it was coming from every direction, clearly an attempt to intimidate him. Arthur bit his lower lip in an effort to keep focused as he activated Realmheart.

His eyes scanned the area, looking for any signs of a mana fluctuation, but saw none. Suddenly he saw something out of the corner of his eye that looked like a shadow shooting by. It was so fast that he couldn't even focus on it, only able to get brief glimpses of it that barely allowed him to track it, until he saw it appear to stop within the trunk of a tree. She then began moving from tree to tree, leaving a sickly green mana behind while she taunted him with a childish laugh.

Suddenly a bone pale arm shot out of the tree he was in, and grabbed him by the neck as he was lifted up. A searing pain spread around his throat, feeling as if he was being branded. The owner of the hand was a woman with a tall sickly frame with two scraggly pony tails behind her head, while wearing a black sparkly dress and a ceramic mask resembling that of a doll's face.

"My, what a handsome young slave you'll make," the woman commented almost gleefully as Arthur fought against her grasp.

Arthur then grabbed her arm while using his ice spell Absolute Zero. She immediately dropped him, resulting in Arthur crashing to the ground. Ignoring the searing pain in his neck, Arthur scrambled to his feet, only to see the woman standing in front of him.

"It seems my new toy has a bit of a bite to him," she commented as she looked at her arm, which looked almost like frostbite where he grabbed. "I guess I'll just have to be more strict with your training."

Arthur instinctively stepped back and drew his sword from his dimensional ring as he realized she had no intention of killing him, but instead planned to keep him as some sort of pet. Arthur was confident that he could win if it were a matter of strength or combat skills, but this unusual magic she wielded truly made her a dangerous opponent.

"Oh! So the cutie wants to play?" She asked excitedly as she stuck her injured arm inside the tree they were just in. "I'm a bit busy now unfortunately," she then removed her arm from the tree completely healed, while the tree had a gaping hole in it. "I don't suppose you'd just be willing to become my slave?"

"I'll have to decline," Arthur replied, then saw a sickly green mana gathering beneath him.

"That's fine, breaking the will of a defiant slave is half the fun!"

Arthur quickly jumped up and back as a dozen murky humanoid hands shot out of the ground, before shriveling up into nothing, leaving the ground looking as if it was burned with acid. With Realmheart Arthur was able to see she was preparing another spell. He fired a stone spear from the ground, but it disintegrated as soon as it touched her. He then swung his sword, sending a blade of wind, but several hands shot out of the ground and blocked his spell before dissolving.

"Her body disintegrates solid matter, while she can form those hands to shield her from non solid attacks," Arthur thought as he tried to come up with a strategy.

However before he could test further he saw the murky green mana forming around him in the trees and ground. Arthur then released his full strength, knowing she was clearly either a scythe or retainer. Dozens of murky hands erupted from all around as he shot off like a rocket. Realizing her magic appeared to be a mutated form of Tess' plant magic, Arthur decided to deal with these hands the same way he did Tess' mana vines when her beast will was out of control, and began using Absolute Zero. Taking it a step further he used the spell just as he did his Vacuum Barrier spell in school. The spell covered his body, and everything that came within a foot of him froze instantly. The murky hands froze and crumbled as he raced towards his target. Not wanting to risk his sword just yet, Arthur created an ice claw on his left hand.