Discordant Note: Crescendo | TBATE

Chapter 244: A Soldier's Duty

Thank you to my beta reader and editor, GlassThreads!

Tessia Eralith

I descended into the Second Phase of my Elderwood Guardian Will on instinct as I faced off against the three noxious auras. My hair brightened to a verdant green, and vines erupted from the cobblestones in waves of silver blossoms. Beside me, Grandpa fell into the Integrate Stage of his Shadow Panther Will as well, his features gradually overcome with darkness. Dark motes of energy misted off his form as he became naught but shadow.

"Tessia," he said in a gravelly voice that carried a predator's undertone, his feline eyes locked on the Retainers, "you need to run. Now."

I didn't even wait a second to respond. "No," I hissed back, my hands clenching around my swordstaff. "There are three of them, Grandpa, and only one of you! I won't let you fight alone!"

Grandpa opened his mouth to say something else, but then the sickly one with green mana blades snorted. "Bivran, you have another mission. Mawar and I can handle these cretins."

The shorter Vritra-blooded mage–who had emerged from a tree not moments before–snarled. "Fine, brother. But you'll give me the spoils after. These trees resist my magic and I can't stand being in them too long."

My eyes widened as Bivran melted back into the tree. With my enhanced senses with Willow's insight, I could feel the path he was taking as he traveled supernaturally through the Elshire Oak, his path veering away from us and into the heart of Zestier. Like a buzzing fly that darted from branch to branch.

"You can't just run!" I snapped, putting a foot forward as I engaged my magic, prepared to tear Bivran from his hiding place. The Retainers had appeared in the middle of the most populated city in Elenoir, and if we let them near our people–

A bullet of black wind slammed into the ground in front of me as Mawar casually cast a dozen spells. I snarled as vines grew around me, the serpents of green batting each projectile away and resisting the decaying wind as best they could. Silver flowers blossomed, spewing mist that combatted the fell air as it sought to degrade my lungs.

Grandpa disappeared in a shadowy blur, less than an afterimage left behind as he sped toward Bilal. The Retainer cackled as he leveraged his dual-green mana blades, inviting the former king of Elenoir to try.

They became a flurry of blades and wind-enhanced claws as they bounced around the trees, the crash of their mana echoing across the forest. People screamed and ran as scythes of cutting wind and pustules of acidic rot ate at houses and homes.

I gritted my teeth, my eyes focusing into pinpricks as I spotted the leisurely Retainer high in the trees. She matched me with an expression that could've been apathetic.

I need to kill this one! I thought. And then I'll go after the other!

Vines as thick as trees erupted from the ground around me as I embraced my Will, and then I was lurching through the air. The verdant tendrils of blossoming life hauled me through the trees of Elshire at record speed as I approached the intruding Retainer.

The shadowy Retainer, however, didn't seem perturbed at my approach. She backed away slowly, balancing perfectly on the tree branch as tendrils of shadow emerged from beneath her dress. Each was black as pitch and disturbingly close to my very own vine-shroud spells.

Mawar's face furrowed into an expression of concentration as she glided away from me, sending out more tendrils of shadow and wind as I tried to close the gap. They twirled and danced with the hulking mass of my vines, the shadowy tentacles more than able to keep me at bay. My blossom-covered vines withered and decayed wherever they touched the shadows, but for every vine broken, another surged to take its place.