Reborn: High Strung | ONC2024

Chapter 16

Zev's eyes shook as he lifted himself from the grass. The air was filled with smoke and the smell of burned bodies. Sparks flew through the air before him; Simon was wielding his shadow dragon's blade, currently battling the excitable warrior; Ziva was twirling her twinblade, wrapped in lightning sethra, and blocking the links of his weapon as they tried to lash out at her. They seemed to have a good back-and-forth happening. Zev's head shifts slowly to a loud clang to his left. Near the wreckage of the home he had never known he was in, Meira was dodging the attacks of a large wild man who was swinging a warhammer like a child's toy. Zev fully gets to his feet as emotions grip every inch of his mind, pulling in different directions. Who were these strange people? They had pale gray skin and pointed ears like nothing he had ever seen. He tries to focus on the fighting, but the new sensation of loud screams fills his ears as people in the town are getting torched by some flying, winged beast he can't quite make out from this distance. Zev closes his eyes for a second, shaking his head firmly before steadying himself and rushing to Meira's aid. That had to be his priority right now.

Meira dives out of the way of the brutes' strike as dirt sprays into the air where she just was. She rolls and stops in a crouched pose, aiming her bow at Gavriel in his reborn state. To her, he resembled a monster; monsters could be killed. She hadn't named this ability yet, but it should work well enough with her training. Meira releases her arrow at the brute. Gavriel watches as six arrows sporadically erupt from the normal bow, all flying at slightly different speeds and angles. How was that possible? They looked so realistic; what sethra could possibly replicate weapons that easily? He grips his hammer and slams the ground in front of him, his force sethra creating a wave to block the arrows. To Gavriel's shock, the arrows passed through the wave with ease, all converging on him. His ability dissipates as he stumbles back and wildly swings his weapon at the arrows, terrified. The warhammer slams through the illusory arrows, dissipating just in time for the broad man to get struck right in the chest with Meira's real arrow. Gavriel growls out in pain, letting the arrow stay embedded in his chest as he rushes toward Meira with the anger of an injured bull. Meira quickly stands up; she was hoping that trick would have taken him down for good. The wild warrior was closing the distance quickly when he tripped. Confusion and anger mixed across his face like the hot and cold air of a tornado. Zev stood behind him, gripping his purple strings. His heels dug into the dirt as he wrapped his sethra around the brute's ankle and used his weight to pull his leg back. His sethra was still only flame level, but they were much easier to make physical than when he tried to gather the mushroom. "Now, Meira!" Zev shouts through the pain shooting up his arms.

Meira understood immediately, dropping her bow and aiming one hand forward as Gavriel's body hit the ground. "Nightmare Cowl." She almost spits the words as the true name rings loudly at the man.

The black wave of sethra blasted out of her hand, hissing through the air and crashing right onto Gavriel's head. The man squirms, rolling onto his back and grasping at his face as the mask seals off all of his senses, ready to place him in a world of horrors only his own mind could create. Zev's strings dissipated from around his ankle. Zev didn't see a man; he saw a monster ready to kill his best friend. He started running toward the struggling brute, reaching to his back and pulling his dagger from the sheath there. His thoughts intensified in his mind. 'You will not take anyone from me.'

Meira watched as Zev leaped onto Gavriel before the man could fully realize what was happening in the real world, stuck in Meira's nightmare cowl. Zev began stabbing Gavriel in the chest over and over again around the arrow, as if trying to decorate Meira's attack. The brute let out two screams of enraged pain before they were drowned in muffled gurgles of blood. Zev stilled once the broad man stopped struggling; his body lay limp under Zev as his chest heaved and his bloody hands shook. Meira's ability dissipates off of Gavriel's head, leaving his blank expression staring into the sky. With no soul link any longer, he would not be reborn ever again.

Ziva's twinblade twirled in front of her, electricity crackling around the blades as she stared at Simon with killer intent. She spoke her ability's true name with the gusto of a crazed zealot. "Razerin's Light."

Simon leaped back, trying to dodge the strike; however, the blinding speed was too much for him. Lightning swirled around the spinning twinblade before she jabbed it forward with the point aimed right at where Simon was leaping. A bolt of lightning arcs through the air and strikes Simon on one of his legs. The pain scattered through his entire body, and he flies through the air, back slamming against one of the tall jungle trees. Simon crumples on himself, falling to the ground and rolling until he is laid on his back, his leg smoking as he grits his teeth, still clutching his shadow dragon's blade. With how tense his hands are, he doesn't know if he can currently let go of it. Ziva had a wicked grin spread across her cheeks as she began walking toward him. "I've been waiting for this, snake."

It was right then that Gavriel's scream cut through the air, catching her attention, instantly her head jerked to see Zev deliver the finishing blow on her partner. Simon desperately tried to use this moment of shock to his advantage, but all he could manage was getting to his hands and knees as his muscle spasms slowed. Simon suddenly realized Ziva wasn't walking toward him anymore; she was running right for the younger soulkindlers. He cries out while trying to move his legs faster. "Stop, fight me, coward!"

Ziva ignored Simon, her bloodthirsty eyes only seeing Zev as she ran at him like a wolf ready for its kill. Zev's hands still shook as he looked up to meet the woman's crazed, anger-filled gaze, her blade gleaming brightly as she raised it over her head with a twirl. The world felt like it was progressing in slow motion as Zev desperately tried to think of a way out of her weapon's path.

"Stop." Jekuthiel's words washed across all of them as he hovered overhead, casting down his overwhelming presence.

Ziva froze as if Razerin itself had spoken the words, the weight causing her shoulders to sag and her weapon to lower. Simon, Meira, and Zev had all listened just as well, the level of the man above sending their thoughts to the back of their minds like how light erases shadows. Zev felt sweat beading on his forehead as he looked up at the winged Nova. That was no beast as he had thought; that was a man more powerful than Zev could fathom, and Jekuthiel's eyes were locked on Zev. He felt the nova's gaze looking through him, as if he could see every inch of his soul. Jekuthiel slowly glided down to stand over Zev, still looking into his eyes sternly. "What an interesting young man. You reached the peak of flame, even with such constraints."

"Constraints? What do you mean?" Zev managed to jam his question out through his stiff jaw.

Jekuthiel's words danced across Zev just as his string sethra did the day he learned of them. Mocking him, making him feel smaller than the bugs in the dirt. "You're a burnt soul."