TBATE| The Demon of Elshire

Chapter 10 - Reunion

Arthur Leywin Pov

I was beginning to feel the predictable repercussions of going into my second phase as I landed on the ground, staggering away from the frozen beast.

'I'm lucky to even be conscious right now,' I thought to myself as I turned my focus on the confident half-elf, 'Had I been on my own, I don't know if I would have survived the backlash.'

Watching the boy stand his ground, preparing something, I wondered what he was going to do. I initially hadn't thought much of him, that was until I'd seen his ability to manipulate flames that weren't his own. I wasn't even sure if I could replicate something like that...

'What's his secret?'

My eyes widened in surprise as the boy muttered something under his breath. His normally dull, red eyes became a blazing inferno of fury and his jet black hair was lit ablaze as it shifted to crimson.

His entire body erupted into crimson flames as he stumbled under the weight of his own pressure. Suddenly, two eagle-like wings made of feathers and flame jutted out of his back, and with one beat of the powerful wings, he ascended into the air.

'Is that a beast will?'

He clasped his hands together and shouted the name of some spell I'd never even heard of. What followed was a ginormous surge of hyper-dense blue flame. My cheeks flushed red from the rapidly increasing heat that engulfed the room.

The spell connected with the frozen Elderwood guardian and the battle was over before I could even figure out what sort of beast gave him its will.

'That kid's a monster,' I thought to myself as I ran over to where he was floating in the air, 'although...I'm one to talk.'

Before I could make it to the spot under where he hovered in the air, his wings fizzled out of thin air, and his hair faded to black. His body dropped into a freefall and the flames clinging to the rest of his body were snuffed out as well.

Unable to reach him in time, I willed a bit of wind mana to help soften the kid's fall and he landed with a small thud on the ground. Upon making sure he was okay, I sat back down on the ground and locked eyes with Jasmine who was running to me about 10 feet away.

By the time she reached me, she pulled me into a firm—and agonizing—hug. I was about to protest when I felt teardrops fall on my neck. 

What the hell, I could endure a few more seconds of pain.

"I'm sorry I couldn't protect you," was all she could manage to say, and I could tell she was holding back sobs.

"It's all right, Jasmine. I was the one being stubborn. I'm sorry I dragged you into this mess with me." I patted her back, "but we really should make sure that the rest of the party is okay.

She pulled away and looked into my eyes, regaining her composure as the two of us slowly stood up. I shakily got to my feet, and broke one of the gems on my glove to relieve some of my pain. When we made our way to Elijah, who was just now waking back up, a loud noise drowned out his pained grunts as he rose to his feet, and we noticed that the roof was collapsing.

Samantha, who was fairly far away, had the ground around her suddenly shift, and a metal dome rose up to surround her. To my surprise, the same metal dome surrounded me, Elijah, Jasmine, and the unconscious Firae.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a while of waiting, we finally decided to make our way out of the metal structure that Elijah had created.