Selection (Book 2 of P.O.E. chronicles)

Chapter 14 Everything has changed

Holding onto that thought, I squeezed my eyes shut and the strangest sensation spread through my body. It was like someone had dribbled cold water onto my head, but in a very pleasant way. It was like my blood had turned into a cool, minty fluid and my muscle loosened and rejoiced as they flew past. I let out a soft moan and snapped open my eyes. My eyes widened in shock at the sight before me.

The Legre was right in front of me, merely inches from my face. It was suspended mid-strike; seemingly frozen into place by some mysterious force. It was staring at me in the most human like way I had ever seen, eyes filled of incredulity at what had transpired. I could hear people shouting around me but I couldn’t make out the words.

Still frozen as a statue, I tried to move backwards and found there was a thick, jelly like wall between us. It was dissipating as I moved backwards and I saw the leopard’s right arm moved; so that was what kept me alive. A normal mind wall would not have worked under such a close proximity if the Legres was two class higher, because the force would merely shattered along and you would ended up getting hurt inside and out.

An energy ball whizzed past my left ear jerked me out of my train of thoughts and my hearing seemed to return to me. Kailey and Jeremy were shouting for me to get back into the circle and Ho was shouting for Steven to run faster.

The energy hit the strange mind wall instead of the Legre, which began the melt the wall down. Bizaarely I didn’t feel anything as the wall melt down; I wasn’t even sure if I had created it in my moment of panic or someone was protecting me. However I didn’t have a chance to think about all these; the Legre was now free from its bond and was starting to advance on me.

“Stay back.” A deep voice that I didn’t recognise commanded and my eyes nearly fell out of my socket as Steven walked right past me, marching towards the Felixia. He was covered in a strange, earthy armour that I had never seen before and with each step he took, the ground below us shook.

Retreating back to the circle hastily I saw that two of the Legres were killed on the ground; Emily had somehow managed to wrap three of the Felixia blanc in branches like a cocoon and they were withering on the ground, obvious work from Jeremy. The poison wasn’t enough to kill them, but combined with the occasional energy blast from Vladimir, it just might.

“Oh my gosh are you okay?” Kailey said, grabbing me by the arm as I stumbled towards them, still a little dazed. Energy seemed to be draining out of my body pretty quickly in a way that felt completely opposite to the nice, dribbling feeling I had earlier. I collapsed into a pile next to them and Jeremy bend down to look at me with a guilty look on his face.

“Sorry Gwen, I shouldn’t have shouted.” He said, scratching the back of his head. I offered him a weak smile and assured him that it wasn’t his fault. John and Kailey were making sure I was geuniely alright whilst Emily blasted questions at me. Vladimir stayed out of the conversation as always whilst I tried to deflect Emily’s interrogation.

Ho had jumped down from his tree and came towards us. Steven was finishing the Legre with surprising ease, grabbing it by its tail and repeatedly flipped it around like a sack of potatoes. I winced at the sound of bone cracking against ground. It was not a pretty sight.

“What happened?” Ho demanded, pinching the bridge of his nose looking pained. I shared a panicked look with Kailey and we turned back to look at Ho. fortunately he seemed more concerned than angry.

“Jeremy.” He said, turning to the sheepish blond. “You do realise that calling Gwen to help it when she was in the middle of a fight was a stupid idea?”

Jeremy looked embarrassed and sent me another apologetic look and nodded his head. Ho shook his fingers at the boy and turned to me with his hand on his forehead as if preventing his brain from falling out.