Surrounded
Before he even hits the ground, Kline severs the metal chain using a razor-sharp compressed blade of water. Right before impact, he discharges a powerful blast of water from his back, cancelling out the kinetic force of his fall and landing gracefully on his two feet.
Looking around the space, Kline analyses the situation; eight chosen warriors, each with various different melee weapons, all of them most likely within threat scale troll and minotaur. This could spell trouble… I have to be extra careful fighting the one wielding the chain, he’s most likely an upper minotaur class based on his movements.
The warriors ready their weapons, planning to attack him all at once. Seems I have no choice; I don’t see another way out. Kline begins conjuring extremely dense water magic between his hands, even denser than that of many Captains’.
The first warrior swings his axe at Kline from behind, another warrior at twelve-o-clock swings horizontally at his neck with a sabre. With a rapid twist of his body, Kline drops his body and ducks to the right, evading both the sabre and the axe. Nearly doing a split on the ground, Kline simultaneously aims his open palms at each of the warriors. In only a split second, both warriors are blasted by a lethal beam of water magic, each stream piercing their bodies like nothing, the sheer force sending them flying towards the cave wall.
The bodies crash against the stone wall, the resulting shockwave reverberating the whole cavern. The remaining warriors pause momentarily, stunned at the sheer power that came out of a small child. The lifeless bodies hit the ground in a simultaneous rocky thud, sending dust flying into the air.
The warrior wearing chainmail shouts to the other warriors:
“Don’t be afraid! He’s just a kid, we are trained warriors of the Third Flame! He doesn’t have the experience we do!”, before flinging his now-broken chain straight towards Kline.
As long as you can follow its movements, any weapon – no matter how deadly, only amounts to mere wind if it never hits its mark, Kline thinks to himself as he softly sidesteps, avoiding the deadly chain which crashes onto the stone floor right beside him, sparks and debris flying from the impacted ground. Kline has a calm expression on his face as the gentle gust of wind from the slash hits his face.
The man yanks his chain to the left, sending a wave of chain flying towards Kline’s legs. Kline jumps over the oncoming chain with a graceful hop, firing a blast of water towards the man while still in the air. The man quickly evades the blast, the blast still grazing his shoulder and tearing off a small piece of his chainmail.
From the left comes a warrior trying to pierce Kline through the side of his abdomen with an adamantite-steel spear. Kline counters by conjuring a water shield into his hand; an ingenious design composed of water swirling imperceptibly fast from the center outwards, effectively deflecting incoming attacks, even sending weapons flying, while also neglecting the force of the impact on the arm. The piercing spear is sent flying out of the warriors’ hands as it makes contact with the hypersonic water, flinging into the stone ceiling with a crackling thud.
Kline snaps his fingers, turning the shield into a hurling water-wall, blasting the now unarmed warrior to the opposite side of the cavern. That’s three down, five left.
Two warriors, each with longswords, try to pincer Kline, as a third warrior swings at him with a massive two-handed axe from straight ahead. All warriors activate their fire magic, boosting the raw power and the lethality of their attacks. Kline swings his arms into a crossed formation, sending multiple razor-sharp blades of water flying towards both sides, ripping apart the warriors with the swords. I hate having to going all out like this, but I can’t afford to lose anymore time or Emery will die!
As the two-handed axe heads for Kline’s head from above, Kline swings his arms back to a neutral position, casting his water shield above his head. Out of nowhere, a metal chain rips through the warrior in front of Kline, piercing straight through his stomach and killing him instantly. Kline tries to evade the chain by twisting his body, but it’s too late; the chain slashes his chest, ripping a deep gash on his chest and sending blood flying. Shit!!
Kline clenches his teeth and shrivels in pain, quickly enveloping himself in a protective water barrier, instantaneously blocking a firebolt that would’ve killed him. Couldn’t be that easy could it! Kline releases his barrier, trying to take the offensive. A thick lukewarm mist permeates the cavern following the impact of the firebolt, obscuring the visibility. Good thing I learned magilite sensing from Kyros; I’ll have to thank him for that later.
Straight ahead behind the misty clouds stands the chain-wielder. The other remaining warrior, a hooded assassin, attempts to hide his presence by holding onto a cone-shaped piece of stalactite in the cave ceiling just above Kline. I bet he’s going for a sneak attack.
The chain-wielder snaps his chain, cracking it like a whip before sending it slicing through the cavern towards Kline. Kline leaps underneath the flying chain, just barely evading the deadly crackling slash. As Kline looks up at the warrior on the ceiling, he sees a black baseball-sized object flying straight towards him. A flareburst bo-!!
A powerful fiery explosion sends Kline crashing into the cave wall. Dust and debris fly everywhere as he breaks the rock from the force of the impact. When the dust clears, Kline is sitting inside the smashed-up wall, miraculously only slightly bruised. I managed to activate my barrier just in time; that was close, way too close. Now… Time to finish this…
Kline conjures up his signature compressed water-whip, swishing it around to clear the mist around himself. The assassin drops to the floor, taking out two adamantite-steel daggers from within his black leather-clad armor. The assassin starts playing with his daggers by throwing them from one hand to the other. He starts flipping the knives around, as if showing off his skill. Each flip lights up his armor a vibrant orange-red, as clouds of fire flash from his knives.
“Now that the runts aren’t in the way anymore, why don’t we finish this kid, eh Piercer?” the chainmailed man says, swinging his chain around his arm in a circular motion.
“Affirmative.” the assassin says, voice muffled by the bandana covering his mouth. He grabs onto his daggers before blasting himself towards Kline like a flaming arrow, fire trailing from his back and feet.
In the same instance, the chain comes loose, roaring straight towards Kline with incredible speed. Kline swings his water-whip, simultaneously aiming his left palm towards the assassin. In the same exact instance that the water-whip collides with the crackling metal chain, Kline sends a blast of water flying towards the assassin.
Both the water-whip and metal chain recoil backwards from the impact, metal crackling and clattering from the impact, water flinging in every direction. At the same time, the assassin slides below the steam of water, narrowly evading the deadly blast. As the assassin closes in on Kline and starts swinging his dagger towards him, Kline swings his whip back, aiming for the assassin’s stomach. The assassin flips his dagger into position, deflecting the whip, but losing the dagger to the sheer force behind Kline’s whip, sending his dagger flying. The assassin quickly rotates his body, ready to strike Kline with his other dagger.
Kline jumps back, the dagger just barely missing his eye as the assassin swings. The intense infernal-like heat almost burns his face as the trail of fire passes in front of him. In the blink of an eye, Kline let’s go of his whip, lifts both arms up and sends a powerful water-wall hurling towards the assassin.
The assassin’s life flashes before his eyes before flying towards the cave wall, bones cracking and instantly passing out from the blast. Now, one left… Kline moves his gaze to the chainmailed warrior, glaring at him with his intense deep-blue eyes.
The warrior yanks his chain, beginning to whirl it erratically before igniting it on fire with his magic. The chainmailed warrior, despite being as strong, arguably even stronger than some Captains of the Lumare Empire, has a nervous expression on his face, sweat running down his cheek. He thinks to himself; t-this kid… his magical potential is near limitless, he can’t be human, can he?…
The roaring of his flames and crackling of his chain increase even further as he speeds up his whirling chain, simultaneously boosting the output of his fire magic, making the chain start glowing a red-hot color like fresh lava.
Let’s see whose final attack is stronger then, shall we. Kline begins channelling a whirling ball of water magic, compressing and spinning it until it almost seems to have a glow of its own.
Out of nowhere, a profound understanding floods Kline’s mind like a dam being ruptured, insight! The true essence of water… The true essence is not found in the appearance of the water, in its color, taste, shape or density, but in the emptiness that contains it. The true power of water is found in its intrinsic potential, the potential to take shape, to flow, to change…
Kline stops pouring more power into the swirling ball of water magic, readying himself to blast the warrior into smithereens. While holding the ball of hypersonically-swirling water, Kline identifies a new-found tranquillity and ease within himself; it’s almost as if the vast magical potential within him suddenly became a part of his own being, a part he now controlled as naturally as his own body. The powerful realization of freedom permeates his body and mind. Conventionally, drawing from your magical potential requires intense concentration and visualization, but now… it’s as natural as walking or running, as natural as your own heartbeat.
Witnessing the sheer magnitude of power building up in Kline’s attack, the warrior deactivates his fire magic, slowing his chain down to a stop. His face is locked in a horrified expression of fear and disbelief, as if he was facing a demon itself.
“Y-you’re a MONSTER!!” the warrior screams before running off in the opposite direction. In pure desperation, he uses all of his remaining magical potential to blast himself away from Kline, disappearing into the darkness ahead.
What I shame… I was hoping I’d get to try that one out… Kline thinks to himself while re-absorbing the magic into his open palm. He dusts off his clothes before looking up at the hole he came from. No time to lose, I have to get to Emery.
The World Stones 