misplaced || l. valdez

35 || mari and khione fight to see who can get angrier

° ~ •. ♆ chapter thirty-five ♆ .• ~ °
"mari and khione fight to see who can get angrier"

A storm spirit charged at Mari, but she swung her sword and the monster turned to a harmless mist. Just as she turned, a white blast of snow shot at her head. She ducked in time, a bit of snow grazing the top of her head. She turned to see Khione staring daggers at her, the goddess's hands raised in anger.

"I will make sure you remember my name, daughter of Poseidon." she screeched, shooting out a dagger of ice. Mari raised her sword and sliced the projectile in half.

"It's Neptune, actually." Mari commented, avoiding another blast of snow.

She tried to push forward, but Khione would send blasts of cold air her way, pushing her back. It wasn't helping that wolves and storm spirits were also throwing themselves at her.

The storm spirits were easy kills. One stab with her sword and they would be gone in a cloud of mist. The wolves, however, were a problem. Mari didn't have a silver weapon with her, so the only thing she could do was dodge and pray in her head to whatever god was willing to listen. So far, she seemed to be doing great, weaving through monsters and stabbing her way through.

Then she heard a terrible snarl behind her, and Mari turned to see what was probably the nastiest wolf she'd ever seen in her life. Its dark gray fur was matted with dirt and snow, and its feral eyes glowed red with anger. It charged at her with its fangs bared, and unfortunately, the gods must have looked away for a second, because Mari wasn't able to dodge in time.

The wolf jumped on her, causing her to fall with a horrible crunch! Her sword fell out of her hands and skidded a couple feet away. Mari felt something hover over her arm before an excruciating pain shot through it. She let out an agonizing scream and her vision went blurry. She could feel the wolf trying to tear her arm off and the warm blood seeping through her jacket. Just as she was about to pass out from the pain, another wall of flames erupted around her. The snow around her sizzled and melted as the wolf howled in pain, its fur catching on fire. It quickly scampered away to put out the flames.

"Mari!" Someone screamed. She could barely make out Leo's figure as he jumped through the firewall. He knelt next to her, trying to stop the bleeding in her arm. "No, no, no..."

"Open... water... pouch." Mari croaked. "Pour... on... arm...."

Leo fumbled around as he quickly uncapped her waterskin. He held the mouth of the pouch directly over the wound and slowly poured a light flow of water. Mari felt her dizziness subside as the cool water flowed over her arm. Eventually, she reagined the strength to keep the water steady around the bite. Her vision started to clear up, but she almost passed out a second time when she saw the grotesque wolf bite repairing itself.

She looked around to see how the rest of the battle was going. Jason had somehow ended up riding another storm spirit, and he was plowing through wolves and storm spirits with nothing but an icy piece of wood. Piper was surrounded by Earthborn, but she was holding her own. She charged through them with grace and ease, giving the monsters a charming smile before absolutely obliterating them.

Mari looked back down at her arm to see that it looked way better than before. There was still a deep mark left behind, and she still had a long way until her arm fully recovered. But this would do for now.

"Come on." Mari said, staggering to her feet.

Leo looked at her, appalled. "But your arm—"