The Prodigies: The Return of Equinox

Chapter Sixteen- Boulders and Mercury

"Numbers won't change a thing." The voice came from the vines covering the walls. It reverberated throughout the walls and vibrated into the bones of those he was talking to.

"I don't know. How did you think we were gonna fight Equinox?" Replied Garvhoz. His breathing was heavy and he had shallow cuts all around. The cuts stung with poisons meant to stun, kill, or sicken. Had they been deeper they would affect him ten-fold

"Hang back. I'll try to deal with him while you rest for a quick bit." Whispered Svetra. She stood right behind his left shoulder. "You're looking deathly. I wouldn't rec-"

"I can handle myself just fine, Svetra!" Garvhoz hated the position he was in. Tired, bleeding, and in pain. Truth be told, he didn't know how he made it this far with only a knife. But he could not, would not, dare to ask for help. Especially from a Kuvarian. A disciple, a follower of Gorund would never even think of it. Gorund did not ask for help, and neither would he. His own strength should be the factor he would rely on solely for survival.

"I think you're gonna croak." Hissed Svetra. "And then your Aviagard would learn that it was a daughter of Kuva that saved the day from a creature such as this." She couldn't stand his pride. His beliefs. He was beyond stubborn with taking charge. Maybe this threat would help.

"I will assuredly not allow for something like that 'daughter of Kuva'." Spat Garvhoz, mocking her. "What a silly title." Garvhoz straightened up and tightened his grip on the knife he had. The blade was already dulled from hacking and slicing at bark. But he would make it work, he was determined. Besides, fruit did not call for sharp knives.

Garvhoz jogged three steps before throwing everything he had to fight Alegna. Or at least the center of its being. Young, long, thin trees came from the ground and acted as giant limbs to attacked him, but he always managed to deflect their attacks or break the limbs outright with a well placed punch. There were thorns that would stop his legs had he not been fast enough to break them as they caught. Brush would sprout to cloud his vision and block his body, but he broke and chopped them down. Until now that is.

He barely had the strength to get past the thorns like he used to. And he could only manage to block the swipes and pounding of the tree limbs. His body collected new bruises every second. He barely managed to reach Alegna through a painful crawl before collapsing. But Alegna wasn't too worried about Garvhoz at the moment.

Svetra ran around where Garvhoz was struggling. She decided that maybe Alegna would have a weakness from behind. Without a doubt, it wasn't the smartest decision. As soon as she could see the back of the creature, projectiles that seemed more like pine needles fired at her. Her reflexes would have been more than enough to save her, but as she tried to make her stop and change of direction the worn stone floor and momentum carried her farther than she'd like. Feeling that she was still moving she twisted and tried aiming her fall so she could spring back where she came from. She dashed to the entrance of the room before a sudden pang of dizziness had caught her.

"What was that?" She yelled. Her eyes moved towards the floor and she saw the faintest hint of blood coming from her trail. She looked around her body and found that one needle made its way into her thigh. As she pulled it out she was dumbstruck that she felt no pain with a needle burrowed two inches into her. Before she could recollect herself she was hit by Garvhoz who was flung into her.

The doors behind them were then shut and sealed with a thick layer of overgrown vines, branches, and shrubbery. Svetra felt her hopes and courage flee her as she saw the doors shut for what could possibly be the last time in the rest of her existence. Fear had started to kick in. The weight of a giant man was bearing down on her and she would soon be killed by a thing that was not even human. She started to sweat, silent tears ran down her cheeks and the sight of Alegna started to blur with the rest of the overgrowth.

"Calm down," came a whisper, "let me help you." Svetra scanned the room for where the voice could be coming from before she realized it was in fact the person that was lying on her. Garvhoz.

"He only means to subdue us."

"I don't care!" was Svetra's shaky half whispered response. "If we together can not fight a thing such as this how do you expect we can fight Equinox?" Tears still ran down her face. "Tell me, how we are supposed to be part of the front line when we can't even handle a plant of all things?"

"Look!" Garvhoz said sharply. The speed and attack in his voice made Svetra flinch. "I figured out his attack patterns. How he thinks when something attacks him. I know you're not as strong or fast as I am but you don't need that if you let me help you." Svetra's eyes narrowed. She felt disgusted by the offer. Her, the daughter of Kuva, to be helped by the one that embodies everything she hated about her captors?

The relentless blind following of defeating Equinox. The ends always justifying the means when the end is not even certain. Doesn't matter how many were lost in training like with Year-Group Ten. Families torn apart by the Order. Her, torn away from the only family she had known and her country. Trained to spill blood and nothing else.

"Have you terminated the personal necessity for conflict?" Asked a rather annoyed Alegna.

"Listen closely. I might not be able to repeat what I say." Garvhoz brought Svetra's head closer to his mouth and quickly whispered how to beat the vampiric tree. Every swipe of its branches, every growth spurt of thorns, every spot where shrubbery would appear, he knew. His only regrets were that it took so long, and that it was this "daughter of Kuva" that would be saving his hide.

Garvhoz groaned as he rolled off of Svetra, everything ached. The rush of battle had left him, and he could now feel the strain he had put his body through. Every bruise, cut, and tearing of muscle. This was nothing like sparring practice. And now Svetra's words came to him loud and clear through his mind, "If we together can not fight a thing such as this how do you expect we can fight Equinox?"

Svetra had taken the knife Garvhoz was using. It was incredibly dull at this point, but fruit did not require sharp blades. Even so, this was not mere fruit that she would be cutting through. Had she brought a knife with her like Garvhoz maybe this would be a little easier.

"Believe me, you!" Said Svetra, "until the day my breath leaves me forever and make my way to Altrada, or return to Kuva I will never stop fighting"

Voleria withdrew all of thetself into the being that thee most often presents as, a very humanoid small tree. With the shape and vague look of a man made from bark, leaves, and branches. The only things that stayed were the plant life sealing the doors.

"I don't want to kill you," said Alegna shaping it's one of thet's hands into a bow. "I have deliberately avoided dealing out fatal or serious trauma. Yet now I am done toying." Sinew grew from both ends of the bow shape and met. Alegna drew back the bow, aiming straight for Svetra's heart.

If Svetra wasn't scared before, she was absolutely terrified. She looked to Garvhoz, he nodded. He no longer saw her as a Kuvarian but a sister in arms. She saw a brother in arms. Even if he was Avirian. She turned back to Alegna and with a newfound determination prepared herself to do battle with a thing that fed off of humans.

Surprising everyone, Garvhoz went through the struggle of getting up. With nothing but his own strength, and the strength of the new respect he had for his comrade he lifted himself off the ground.

"Same here," said Garvhoz