Spring of Discovery (Celestia Chronicles Book 1/Seasons Arc: Book 1)

Chapter 29: Battle of Kred: Moving Forward

As the mountain erupted, Syvix teleported, appearing beside Galof. He was bruised badly and bleeding profusely.

"That bitch!" exclaimed Syvix. "Can't believe she got one over on me like that."

"What happened?" asked Galof signaling his army to retreat.

"She dropped a mountain on me. I don't even have enough energy to properly heal myself."

"And what about you special technique?" hinted Galof.

"I can't do it right now. I still need a massive base energy to start with. I have just enough to teleport back to Xaug—you coming?"

Galof looked to the town. "No, I'll stay. They've been considerably weakened and we can get rid of at least a small part of our opposition."

"Don't underestimate the girl," Syvix warned. "With the sword she's on a whole new plane."

"But she still has her morals. The same morals that held her back from killing Xaug."

"I've given you my warning. What you do with it is your problem now."

Syvix disappeared into thin air as Galof readied himself for the next wave of battle. He placed his hand on the ground and summoned all the shadow soldiers he could muster.

As Jade and Saje made their way back to the town Arda was catching her breath and trying to heal all she could.

"Thank god you're back," exclaimed Talon. "We were worried after the mountain collapsed."

"I tried to get Syvix but I think he teleported away," sighed Jade.

"He did," confirmed Hendok. "But he left the battle. I guess his injuries were too great. Galof just summoned an entire army, this one bigger than the one we've been fighting this whole time."

"What do we do?" wondered Serenity. "I'm completely useless at this point. I've run out of arrows hours ago and I can't even use my dragon power yet. I can breathe some fire and ice—I think—but..."

Jade turned inward. This army was a problem and everyone seemed to be at their limit. She needed a solution.

Galof.

"What if I kill Galof? This magic is his doing."

"The shadow soldiers are a conjuration spell of dark magic," said Arda. "If the caster dies or becomes incapacitated the spell fails. We won't even need to kill him, just injure him enough to force his reconstruction."

"Killing him is the better option," Jade countered. "He will just comeback later and cause more problems. I need to aim for the heart."

"Finding him will be the hard part," Gremdar added. "His strategy is to be as removed from the battle as possible."

"No, he won't," affirmed Hendok. "I've been scrying his location this whole time. I'll let you know telepathically where he is."

A clear image formed in Jade's mind; she saw Galof's exact location. She nodded to Hendok.

"Thanks you. I need to get over there."

"Then let's go," Talon beckoned as he transformed into a dragon.

Jade climbed upon his back and the two of them took off into the sky. She could see the sunlight peeking above the horizon; dawn was mere minutes away. She indicated to Talon where to go and he touched down near Galof. Talon transformed back into his human form and charged at Galof with his sword drawn. Galof kicked the sword from Talon and knocked him to the ground with the hilt of his sword as he drew it. He rounded on Jade with his sword readied.

In an instant everything fell into place. Jade felt the drive to protect Talon as the sun shone on her back. She drew her sword as her hand exploded in pain. She swung hard, throwing Galof back with a fiery blast from her swing. She ran up to him as he laid on the ground and struck, aiming for the heart. In a last-second attempt in self-defense Galof managed to hit the sword with his hand, deflecting it toward his neck.

"I underestimated you," said Galof as his body disintegrated into a black dust. "I won't make that mistake again."

As Galof disappeared, the shadow soldiers followed suit. Jade examined her hand. The mark of the flower now resembled the sun. As she looked to the sky on this first day of summer she knew there was no turning back. She needed to keep moving forward.

"You did good, kid," Flint's voice rang in her head. "You did good."