Blooming Hope

Beth had only ever broken into one other barrier and that had been John’s, so she didn’t have a lot of prior experience to draw from, but she thought it would have been harder.

‘Maybe having so many people trying to get in at once makes it easier?’ she wondered as reality shifted for her, turning the parking lot into a forest and dropping them only a few meters from a pair of standoffs.

‘We’re a lot closer to the action than I thought we’d be,’ Beth thought as she took in the battlefield. Her heart began to beat harder when she realized just how badly things seemed to be going.

A hand on her shoulder drew her attention away from John and Aeolia’s battles and she turned to see Vivian with a finger to her lips. Her other hand began to trace in the air, dark patches appearing after her finger.

‘I don’t think he sensed us,’ Beth read. ‘I’m going to focus light into his eyes and blind him. Then we can attack.’

Beth glanced at Teri who nodded to Vivian then flashed a few hand signs to her squad. They nodded in turn and brought their weapons, a spear for the girl, a sword for one of the guys and an ax for the other, into ready positions. Beth did the same with Thornbite, circulating mana through it.

‘If I get the chance, try to stick him in place. Make him a sitting duck for long enough for everyone to beat on him.’

Tensed for the attack, Beth felt Vivian’s magic around them drop at the same time the guy began to lunge at John. His eyes widened at their sudden appearance and his movements slowed slightly. Then he let out an exclamation of pain as Vivian enacted her part in their plan.

Beth launched her attack in the moment their assailant flinched from the sudden increase of light in his eyes. Thornbite soared through the air and Beth adjusted its flight, intending to make him permanently blind. However, as Thornbite passed into the red aura that enveloped him, Beth’s flowing mana went haywire and the whip’s trajectory became uncontrollable.

Its erratic path still scored a hit on the man’s face, wooden spikes gouging a pair of deep wounds up the right side of his face, starting just above his jaw and reaching to his scalp.

As Beth pulled Thornbite back, the goblins rushed in, spear, sword and ax reflecting the red glare of the roiling aura. The man let out a roar and a wave of **** knocked them back, then he swung his left arm back towards the cerberus.

The red aura condensed around his open palm, a spike of energy quickly forming before it launched towards the cerberus as it tried to lunge up at Aeolia. The spike struck the beast behind its left shoulder, eliciting a yowl from the creature. It thrashed about for a second as the spike sent arcs of red lightning across its body, but then it settled down.

A groan of pain drew Beth’s, and everyone’s, attention to Teri as she clutched her head.

“There’s something else bleeding through him,” the goblin girl said in between pained gasps, a hand pressed onto her forehead.

Beth looked back and saw the man look at his hand with a perplexed expression, then he began to laugh maniacally.

“Sic ‘em,” he ordered and the cerberus sprang to life and darted towards them. “And you can take a time out!”

He cast his hand in a wide arc and several wooden spikes shot out at Aeolia, keeping her from rushing in to aid them. The winged woman deftly dodged the attack, but the onslaught kept her from heading off the cerberus as it charged at them.

Beth sprang into action without a plan, quickly flourishing Thornbite at the approaching monster. The whip snaked through the air at the creature and it easily jumped back from her attack, all six of its eyes now trained on her.

‘Okay, got its attention. Now how do we deal with it?'

Beth didn't think she could kill it with Thornbite or slow it down so the others could get in a strike.

'What if I don't try to slow it down?' she wondered as an idea came to mind as the cerberus resumed to gait towards them.

She lashed out with Thornbite once more and like before, the beast lept to avoid her attack. Which was exactly what Beth had wanted.

With a twist of her mana, she directed Thornbite downwards, striking the ground beneath the airborne monster. Beth kept the whip pressed into the dirt and sent her mana into the earth, rapidly reducing the friction.

The cerberus landed on dirt as slick as ice and the unexpected change in the terrain and its speed caused its feet to slide out from under it.

It crashed into the slippy dirt heads first and slid several feet. The trio of goblins were quick to capitalize on its prone position and attacked, their weapons skewering into it. The three heads all let out yowls of pain in differing tones and the goblins drew their weapons back to attack again.

Arcs of red lightning coursed through the three headed hound’s body, forcing the goblins back, and Beth felt her mana get torn to pieces by the foul energy.

‘Can’t deal with it if that spike thing can just zap us away and screw up our magic,’ Beth thought. ‘If I can rip it out, we’ll just have to worry about its teeth. And claws. And its own spikes. Okay, not exactly the auto win button, but got to start somewhere.’

A plan made, Beth drew Thornbite back, the remnants of her power fading from the ground. She dashed to the side to get a better angle for her move. One of the heads followed her actions and Beth knew she’d only get one shot. If the anti-magic bullshit the spike put off didn’t screw up her attempt to remove it, the hound’s many teeth and claws might.

‘Well, can’t waste time second guessing the play,’ Beth reassured herself as she slid to a stop and sent her mana into Thornbite as she lashed it out in an overhand throw. The whip flew through the air and the cerberus tried to intercept it, one head shooting up with its jaw opened wide.

With a surge of mana, Beth altered the course of Thornbite’s flight upward, the tip soaring above the reach of the hound. The rest of the whip wasn’t so lucky and the cerberus’ jowls snapped down on it. Beth grinned as she quickly dropped the friction on the whip’s cord to near zero, allowing it to still slip through the monster’s wooden teeth.

With another surge of mana, Beth triggered Thornbite’s growing feature. The tip of the whip shot out and Beth coaxed it to the red spike. The whip wrapped around the lurid obtrusion, prompting another outpouring of crimson sparks that shot through the whip, hound and Beth.

She winced as the unsettling power coursed into her and she struggled to maintain the grip around the spike, her mana constantly distorted by the lightning. With all her focus on trying to remove the spike, the whip regained its normal friction, letting the cerberus tug on the whip.

With her mana scrambled and all efforts focused on keeping hold on the spike, Beth couldn’t affix herself to the ground and found herself yanked towards the beast, its paw lifted to swipe at her. Beth managed to slow herself by planting her feet into the dirt, generating enough resistance to just avoid the cerberus’ claws from doing more than tearing into her shirt, the fabric ripping easily and exposing her toned midriff.

With all her might and a grunt of defiance, Beth willed Thornbite to rip the spike out even as the cerberus wound up for a second swipe. The spike fell to the ground as Beth ran out of mana, Thornbite going limp. The exertion left Beth too slow to evade the incoming attack but the flash of goblin steel came to her defense.

The goblin’s sword cut into the viney paw, driving it back from Beth. The ax came next, cleaving into the neck of the head holding Thornbite, causing it to drop the whip. The spear wielder attacked last for the goblin warrior trio, shouting something at Beth in an excited tone and drove her weapon into the central head’s eye.

The cerberus reeled back, sap dripping from its wounds. A gleam of green came from above it as Aeolia dived down and sliced into it with a massive blade of wind. The monster’s center head was cleaved in two and the beast flailed further back, discharge from its ruined head blinding the two remaining ones.

The goblins kept on the beast, striking at it with quick maneuvers to avoid getting hit by its blind attacks. Beth took an uneasy step towards the fight, ready to finish it, when Aeolia landed beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“You’ve done enough,” the winged woman said softly with a small smile. “Good job getting that spike out of it.”

“I can still-” Beth began to say before a wave of dizziness caused her to gag slightly and slump against Aeolia. “Maybe I’m not alright.”

“Yeah, no telling what that shit did to you,” Aeolia remarked, her eyes shifting from looking at Beth to survey the battlefield. “Plus, you're tapped out. Just take a breather. Looks like John has things covered.”

Before Beth could ask about that, she caught sight of John charging the man who attacked them, purple energy flowing out from his sword and around him.

The arrival of Vivian, Beth, Teri and her goblins lifted John’s spirits and the added combat pressure gave him a moment to think.

‘He’s still not healing,’ he mused as Beth attacked Bill as he was blinded. ‘Getting through that aura with brute **** seems like the way to go.’

His thoughts must have been shared by the three goblins Teri had brought, led by the one he recalled as Gryit. Before they could get in, Bill roared and the aura pulsed, knocking the goblins back.

‘Shit,’ John cursed internally as Bill created a spike of the energy that flared around him then seemingly gained control over the cerberus while Teri remarked on feeling a second presence emanating from him.

That got John to recall the vision he had and he glanced down at his blade as Beth darted to face the now charging cerberus.

‘This and my ring reacted when this power showed up,’ John hastily thought. ‘Could there be something that can be drawn out that can counter this?’

“Vivian,” John said with a firm voice, causing the redhead to jolt slightly. “Think you can slow him down a bit? I have an idea.”

“I can try,” she said, withdrawing a Glyph Sphere from her pocket space. “That aura thing’s going to make it only last a few seconds. I can’t even focus on the light around him.”

She chucked the inscribed sphere at Bill while he was launching thorns at Aeolia to keep her from assisting Beth against the cerberus. The sphere landed just beyond the fluctuating red aura and pulsed as its effect activated.

Bill froze and John turned to Teri.

“When he got charged up by that aura, something happened and I got pulled into a vision,” John quickly explained. “My sword and ring got hot when he started glowing.”

Teri’s eyes lit up as she caught on to John’s train of thought. “You think there’s some power I could draw out of them?”

“There were other people pulled into the vision,” John added. “One of them was able to counter what I think was the being that dragged us in. And I think…”

John glanced at Bill, who began to move, Vivian’s restraining spell failing.

“We don’t have time to go over everything I’m thinking,” John said, his heart beginning to race again. “Do you think you can draw something out of the sword?”

“I can try,” Teri replied, gingerly placing her hand on the flat of the blade. “But if I get a bad vibe, I’m going to abort.”

John smiled at her. “Let’s hope that isn’t the case.”

Teri closed her eyes and John felt her magic flow into the Greatwood Sword. Then another power welled up, one that felt like the last warm day of fall, and Teri gasped. She didn’t speak on her reaction, which left John with the impression whatever she felt was something not dangerous to them.

Then, John felt himself suddenly lurch forward and the forest they were in changed. Old trees formed a ring around him, stretching high towards a nighttime sky, nearly bare branches raking the dark canopy. What leaves remained were the dull oranges and reds of late autumn and looked ready to fall. The only light was a faint purple at the center of the clearing, emanating from around a lonely, bare tree, coiled like some kind of root or tail.

John tried to move, but like the first vision, he was rooted to the spot. Thankfully he didn’t have to wait long as the glowing tree grew brighter for a moment before an aura not unlike Bill’s broke away from it, leaving it barely alight. The blob of light floated over to John, where it sank down to where his hand rested where it slowly took on the shape of his blade.

John felt a warmth and the vague sense of grandmotherly approval wash over him as an image flashed in his mind’s eye, one of an elderly woman with a kind but tired smile. He didn’t get long to dwell on the figure as the energy blade flashed with greater light, a small mote breaking off.

John blinked as he was back in the barrier; Teri stepped away from him, her eyes slightly wet. Before he could ask her about that, whips of purple energy streaming from his blade caught his attention and a popup blocked his view.

Divine Blessing of Yerda: +50% Strength, Endurance, Agility. Effect will remain active as long as the focus remains intact. Durability loss: 10% per minute.

Power flowed through John’s body and he felt like he had just woken up from a refreshing nap. Having lost track of how much durability the sword had left and not wanting to waste time pulling up its info, John rushed towards Bill as he fully broke free from Vivian’s binding.

Wooden sword met vine coated arm and a spray of light purple and dark red erupted around them. John didn’t feel the burning from his enemy’s aura as it flowed around him. With a defiant shout, John brought his newfound strength to bear and **** Bill back.

It was time to put an end to this fight.

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