Flower Falls and Crystal Calls

Introducing the Eidolons

Chapter 35

On the way to the hand-to-hand ring, Elle grabbed a spear. She didn't exactly have a plan of action, but she needed to feel something. Without a punching bag, then she hoped the feeling of the shaft rushing through the air would help. She spent the next half hour running through every spear configuration she could remember. She had already shucked off her outer long-sleeved shirt and brushed the sweat off her brow as she frowned.

That hadn't done more than get her blood rushing even more than it had been. She looked around for a moment and wondered if she could somehow build targets for her to use as target practice. She half-jokingly cast a low-level earth spell, but it only rattled the earth before it settled. It was at that point that she decided she needed a real challenge. She needed to act and not think, and she had the perfect idea. It might end up kicking her ass, but that might be better than her current state of mind.

With that thought, she cast a mid-level ice spell that had several chunks falling at once. As soon as they appeared, she immediately switched to fire and started trying to shoot them from the sky before they could hit the ground. She managed to catch about half of them. She didn't give herself a chance to rest before she did it again, and again, and again. She quit thinking about anything except speed, accuracy, and trajectories. She honed her senses into the moment to the exclusion of all else.

It got to the point that she did not miss a single one. She did not notice how she yelled with each energy expenditure, or how her body was being pushed to its limits. She forgot all and reveled in the blessed release, even if it was momentary. It felt good to not feel, for just one moment in time. Even though it could not last.

Despite how much she tried to insulate herself, somehow, her pain worked its way into her mind once more, and the blocks of ice were no longer just blocks of ice. They became physical manifestations of her anguish, and she strove even harder to wipe them out, to push them from herself and demolish them, so they no longer haunted her.

Back on the other side of the training grounds, almost all activity had stopped to watch the tiny woman. At first, it had hardly been noteworthy, even when she first started casting. However, it was not long before her yells started to sound angrier, and the ice was barely seen before the fire obliterated it. She was practically flying; she was moving so fast as she raced from one spot to another and blasted the blocks from the sky.

Laer was watching with concern and had thought about going to stop her, but he wasn't sure how to do it without getting crushed. As he watched her, he began to wonder just how much the woman had held back during her spars with Caius. If she was capable of this level of destruction, she was a force to be reckoned with.

One of the other trainers joined him with a nudge. "Do you think we should tell Caius? I mean, I've seen them spar, and she never acted like that before. I'm not sure he could beat her if she went like this."

Laer shook his head but plastered on his signature grin. "Let's not. He's still too new to put that big a dent in his ego after all."

The other man laughed and was about to say something, but their gazes were both jerked back around to Elle when they heard her scream. She had dropped to her knees and was hunched over. Both men started running toward her immediately, but they froze when she flung her head back, and a light shot up to pierce the sky.

Neither of them knew what they were seeing, but they saw another similar light in the distance over the city. Laer had a bad feeling about the whole thing. He was jerked from his stupor when Ingens came running up and yelled to the man next to him. "Get the trainees back!"

He didn't wait for a response before he grabbed Laer and started running. "We must help her. If she loses, we may as well forfeit our lives instead of return to the Seeress."