Cast Out (Book 1 Done; Book 2 In-Progress)

Chapter 11

Alexa's dagger was less than a foot away from my face when I broke out into a grin. This time I hadn't even bothered to activate my ability.

Realizing that they'd pulled off one of the oldest tricks in the book and took advantage of the fact that I was alone in order to double-team me was more than a little surprising, but it was something that would be their downfall.

After all, I survived 20 years in one of the worst prisons in America. You either learned to turn bad situations to your advantage, or you died. It was as simple as that.

I could feel something on my face twist as the blade stopped less than an inch away from my eyes, the corners of my lips arched with some kind of insane glee. Obviously I normally wouldn't be able to tell since I couldn't see myself, but this time I could see it clearly reflected in Alexa's eyes. They widened with more than a little fear at the insane look I could see on my face from the reflection in her eyes.

I smirked as I saw from her eyes that she wanted to immediately back away from me. More specifically she wanted to get the hell away from what was coming up from behind me.

Blistering heat!

"NOW!!" I shouted out as loudly as I could, while Alexa tried to back away from the impending doom I knew was coming up from behind.

Before she could even start to run, roots burst up from the ground! Piercing through her legs as if they were made from paper, the roots quickly grew and climbed up her body, pinning her arms to her sides.

I didn't have time to see what would happen next, though. I only had 1 last [Mist Form] usage left, and I was d*mn sure going to use it now!

A familiar cool feeling washed over me, and I quickly split my body in two. Half of me going to the right while the other half went to the left.

In less than a split second after I dodged, an ENORMOUS beam of fire erupted from Misa's direction, right behind where I'd been.

I re-formed far enough away that I wouldn't be damaged, but close enough that I could see Alexa's skin boil like water. She didn't even have enough time to scream, since she was already dead by then.

I stood there for a second, taking in the sight.

What was once part of a lush, green forest, was now a straight line of burning desolation. The beam had scorched everything in its path, not leaving anything of Alexa's body except for ash. Whereas there was the smell of nature, now there was only the smell of slag from the superheated earth.

I coughed a little as the leftover smoke filled my lungs. There was a distinct sound of wood snapping, and I turned around to see the 2 druids I'd met with before this. There was a tense feeling in my chest as I looked at them. I hadn't just been calling on luck when I knocked on wood earlier.

The two men could easily have been mistaken for trees if they weren't hovering slightly above the ground. Although they were human-like, it was only to the point where it looked as if a tree had grown into a slightly human shape. They did have very human-like expressions on what counted for their faces though. The 7ft tall beings looked down at me from their lofty, mid-air perch arrogantly, a sneer on their faces.

They could easily kill me right now, but I knew they wouldn't. Still, the tense feeling in my chest never went away as I smiled and walked up to them, the grass crunching under my feet as I did so. "Sir Druids, I humbly thank you for your assistance in eradicating the ones who defile the forest." I bowed from the waist as I thought, 'Even though I'm the one that did practically all the work AND took all the risk.'