Statera *Chosen At Birth*

Chapter Seven

After an almost endless amount of time, Daniel found himself lying on the ground. Every tear was drying on his face after some last minute ones stopped leaking from his eyes. He felt weak, broken, and helpless. Once trails were dry on his face, he felt a calm sensation flow through his body from his throat as the lump shrunk. The rain had stopped, but when he turned over the grey was replaced by almost nighttime black. He quickly got up and rushed back to the camp.

"There is no way I was gone that long." He told himself as he picked up the pace. He slid to a halt on the dirt when he saw two soldiers eyeing the wall of water he had made curiously. Through the turquoise he could see red fire and orange beams of light shining on the other side of it.

Noticing his presence, the two men turned around with swords at the ready. Behind him, two more men walked from the forest. He was trapped. He had his hands out to hsi sides while the men circled him like vultures. He tried to think of what to do, but instead he let go and went with what felt natural.

He pulled both of his arms up and the wall of water spiraled around himuntili he brought his hands down slicing the air with them. All the men fell to the ground when the water pulsed outward on all sides. When they stood up, they were apprehensive to make another advance.

He didn't understand their hesitation. It was just water after all. He looked down at his arms and hands and noticed that his entire body was glowing a metallic sapphire blue like he was a ghost. Mesmerized by the color, he forgot that he was still technically in a fight.

When one of them stepped forward, Daniel blasted them with a gush of water that rushed out of his left hand as he held it out in front of him. The poor man got crushed against a tree before falling to the ground motionless. His comrade's caution was turned into angry vengeance as they walked closer to him.

One of them rushed at Daniel and swung his broadsword at Daniel's exposed chest. Just in time, Daniel leaned back using a small pillar of water to hold his back up so he wouldn't fall. When the man fumbled, the pillar splashed at his face knocking him to the ground. Another one joined in, but Daniel caught his wrist and shoved his elbow into the man's shoulder blade, making him drip the weapon. The last one was about to charge, but stopped when an orange and black tiger jumped from the forest with aloud roar. It walked towards them before turning into the same woman from the beach the day before.

"You three leave and take the body to Zomban." She ordered and then her attention snapped back to Daniel, "I tried to make it easy for you, but you didn't want to listen." Her movements started circling him, but he moved so that his back wouldn't be towards her. Her long black and braided hair flowed in the air that welcomed oily green and black clouds that made the entire forest look stained green.

Daniel exposed his palms towards her and had small orbs spin violently in the middle, "I believe in stranger danger." She smiled with a small upward curl in the corner of her mouth.

"You don't trust me?" She pretended to be hurt while asking with a small pout, but Daniel could see the intent to kill in her eyes.

"Not one bit." He eyed her suspiciously as her round eyes shrunk to a cat-like slit.

"Good." The black slit turned into a scarlet red diamond as a spear shaped blast of fire zipped towards him. He threw his hands into an arch in front of him and listened as the water hissed wherever the fire touched it. With a heavy push, the arch turned into a small wave that traveled on the surface of the ground.

Out of nowhere, a spiky wall of thorned roots arched from the ground that broke up the water. A woman with long silky black hair and dark skin landed next to the intended target. She waved her hand and the wall creaked back into the ground, "Who do you think you are to attack a woman?" She asked when she was able to see him, "Are you ok Lucilla?" She asked the attacker.

"Yes Jazmine, I'm fine." Daniel eyed the added guest and was startled to see black crow-like wings attached to the woman. No wonder she was able to come out of nowhere.

"Pest." Jazmine spat before a green ball of energy got fired at him. He sent a sapphire blue orb it and the two exploded into a turquoise liquid that scattered everywhere. Daniel collected whatever sapphire energy he could see and launched it in another orb, this time the orb exploded as it collided with a clear wall that was bordered by white light.

Daniel sent a small row of small orbs of water that splashed into small geysers that blocked her view of him as she sent random green orbs in front of her indiscriminately. As he went to send another one, a trail of light caught the corner of his eye. He raised another wall of water up just in time so that he wouldn't be whipped by a small flare that sizzled across the wall. Blinded by the amount of steam, Lucilla fell when Daniel pelted her with an endless amount of water balls from the wall.

He transfered the water from the soaked ground into a small wave towards Jazmine, but it was held in place by a maroon light that snaked around it. He looked around for the source and watched as someone else with the same skin walk out into the open.

"Go check on Lucilla." She demanded Jazmine as her hand glowed the same color as the magic that held his wave in place.

He collected the water into a tight speck and made it explode outward so that she couldn't contain it anymore. The droplets stayed supended in the air like paused rain until they rushed at her like tiny needles. Before they could reach her a small firey explosion evaporated them as it left her body and spread outwards. For water magic, he was doing a crappy job at fighting fire. Another traingular bolt rushed towards him that he blocked with another arch and turned it into a wave. He hoped this would be the end of it as he grew tired and didn't know how long he could keep up.

Like deja vu, a thorny wall soaked up the wave as a sponge would. Jazmine lightly landed on the wall and her eyes were glowing green when it splintered into millions of needles like his rain droplets. He was able to push most of them away, but the others he had to dodge as best as he could. A few hit his arm and a couple in his thigh.

"How much longer?" Lucilla asked as Daniel breathed hard now that he was getting tired. It didn't help that he had pieces of wood in his arms and one of his legs. The way they studied him made him anxious. They knew somehting that he didn't and he didn't like it.

"Not long now. He's almost out of aura." Jazmine stated, Daniel looked down and realized that much of the blue light was gone and only a small amount concentrated itself around his forearms. Was that what she meant and why he was so tired?

Distracted by his thoughts, Daniel didn't notice the green orb flyign towards his chest. At the last second, he heaved an orb of blue light at it and the explosion knocked him in the ground. A flury of fire and green energy flew at him. He frantically tried to black all of them, but he was reduced to moving out of the way.

"That's enough." He mumbled under his breath. He surged a wave taller than the trees around him at the three of them. As he watched it a small twitch made his neck move a little bit and then a violent pain seized up all his muscles at once.

He couldn't feel anything as he entire body went numb. All he saw was a red glow before somehting hot hit his chest and he flew backwards. He tumbled on the ground before finally stopping at the base of a tree. A seering heat spread across hsi chest and then spread across his body. A rotten stench smoked from his body as he tried to stand, but his body disobeyed his mind. He kept trying to move as the three women walked closer to him, but they only made a painful twitch that he couldn't stand as it traveled throughout every nerve in his body.

Daniel watched as orbs flew towards him and waited for the inevitable. To his confusion the area around him got dark and then a white wall appeared in front of him. Around him the air got cooler and a strange scent filled the air and then three figures appeared facing the aggressors. He listened to the muffled commotion that followed and closed his eyes hoping that all he had to do was rest a couple moments to be able to get up.

His eyes closed and muffled panicked voices spoke around him. He tried to open his eyes to see what happened, but no matter how hard he tried they wouldn't open. His mind and his body for the first time ever did not agree. Unable to do anything, he accepted fate for what it was. Since he almost died twice already, maybe luck would stay with him. Soon even the muffled sounds stopped and one by one his sense turned off and the world went dark once more.

The only thing that seemed to be familiar to him nowadays. Darkness.