Chapter 3
Efran

"We're under attack!"

Soldiers were entangled up by the trees one by one like little fishes hooked up by the rods. Archers were screaming, shooting their arrows anywhere that couldn't even create a bare scratch. Pyrozu's hands only ended up smoking through the rain, and Aquazu just nourished the build of the trees, giving more strength to squeeze them tighter. Only swordsmen barely keep up and the Captain's axe does well, at least, through cutting the woods like scissors, screaming along the rolls of thunder.

The storm they thought an ally was turning up against them. They don't need Aquazu to take advantage of the weather from the start, they only need Pyrozu with fine weather against the trees, if the Pyro spirit myth wasn't true.

"I can't find the enemy. My wind can't sense anyone except us."

"S-Sir, the legend must be true. There was a forest that had living trees!"

"Living fire spirits is what I heard, idiot! No living trees!" the Captain growled as he hasted his axe against the wood branches that tried to get his Mzerlish sensor. "All of you! Find the enemies lurking around! They must have concealer!" he taunted, giving all his voice against the rain and shrieking soldiers.

The forest bursted into red as the giant fires began to run from the Firaijan boy's fingers pressed into the ground. The heatwaves crawled into circles to make a firewall. Every tree that dared to enter turned into ashes.

The Captain was stoned by what he saw. "His fire is inextinguishable!"

Gio winced in suffering and raised his sleeves up to avoid burning it. "But I can't hold it any longer, Captain!" he shouted.

Efran squeezed his green eyes shut under the dark, repositioning his seat on the gold inside the carriage. It hurt his butt but this was the only choice he had so he could hide from the others and at least help him to focus.

If only there was no rain, it's easy to tell that the plant's fibers were filled with water compared to clothes. Now he can only analyze the texture, which he never tried before. Woods were too thick, the leaves were too thin, and both were rough and raw. Compared to their uniforms and even underwear, there's only one thing he understood–clothes have this soft cottony texture.

He counted the clothes he could sense. Some were moving, and some were not–they were probably dead.

"How many are we, again?" he asked the Firaijan boy near the carriage.

"Three octa squad plus the Captain and his sensor! Twenty-seven! What are you doing inside the carriage, coward?"

Efran counted. One, five, ten, fifteen. Some were missing. Right, the one that the trees just pulled away in the air and doesn't care where it would land. Now he needed to expand his horizon. Seventeen, twenty-three, twenty-seven.

"I can only sense twenty-seven pair of clothes! I can't even sense where Xienorra and others were!"

"Who's Xienorra and others?"

Efran slapped his face, giving a red stain in his cheeks. "Huh? Who are they?"

"But you just said–argh! Never mind! Just do what you need to do!"

"Right! They were my dogs who followed us! But they aren't there anymore! Sad!"

"And I can't take it anymore!"

The firewalls wore off. The captain hissed, "At least it gave us time to recover our breaths." He then screamed, "Defend the Pyrozu!"

The soldiers went around Gio. The captain, together with the Mzerlish sensor, entered the circle as well.

As the trees laid their branches to soldiers, the forest was surrounded by screams again, contesting against the roaring sounds of the storm and the heavy splats of the rain against the dirt ground.

The Firaijan boy spat in rage, raindrops falling over his lustering coal-colored face, and angled chin down to his Adam's apple. He upped his sleeves more, showing off his lean muscular arms, and went into a stance where he was about to do something big. "I should've trained harder, not just my fire."

"But also your brain?" the old Mzerlish lady cut in, trying her best to cut twigs through her thin pressurized winds.

"Just watch, old hag," he answered, and gave the carriages three knocks. "How long can you breathe underwater?"

Efran, who was still trying to concentrate inside, answered cluelessly, "Thirty?"

"Then you have thirty seconds to find the enemy!"

They heard a rumbling sound, followed by a small shake. The Firaijan boy clenched his fist and screamed out through the skies, drying all the voices out of his lungs as the earthquake began to rumble. A very big one.

"We're sinking! Bear yourself!" the Captain warned his troops.

They slowly sank until reaching six feet apart, closing the ceiling ground in an arc formation. Their world became dark and silent–only their heavy breaths could be heard inside the underground fortress.

"You're a dual Razua?" the Mzerlish lady awed. He ignored it, trying to concentrate on his Terra formation and his breathing.

"What's your name, boy?" the captain asked, panting while being alert to the surroundings.

"Ignacio Magnus, sir! Gio for short!"

"I'll file your promotion if you make us alive, Gio!"

"What's happening?" Efran said inside the carriage.

"Don't waste your air, and just do it! I have a feeling the enemy was concealed underground!" The Firaijan boy groaned.

"Aren't you gonna ask me too how long can I breathe under the water? I can do more than an hour."

"'This isn't water anymore, ocean lover lady."

"Don't forget I'm also a Razuha."

The Mzerlish old lady placed her hands on her chest, breathing the thin hot air underground. Gently, she raised her hands in the air and then quickly clasped her palms together as the air waved like a beaming light, and their hair and clothes were brushed.

The soldiers gasped for air in relief, not until roots came inside their fortress to tear one in the chest.

"F*ck!" Gio cursed and looked at the Mzerlish lady, "Do you have a cooling fan in your sleeves?"

"I never let my crew in the ship be dried from the sun," she said, and another wave of air filled inside, the cool ones.

Efran wanted to ask why they were exceptional from sunbathing earlier but he needed to focus.

"I hope this wouldn't turn like we're fighting each other," Gio said as he stamped his feet and orange crack lines glowed in embers, forming molten rocks so none of the roots could come across.

The Mzerlish groaned, barely able to keep up, as well as the Firaijan boy.

"Faster, nerd! Your time has just extended!"

"My air believes in you, whoever you are inside the carriage."

Efran's chest thumped faster. He never fought like this. He never gambled in his life before. Yet, he was here, wearing the uniform he always hated to see in his father.

Efran Fritz
The Forge Priest

MVCabusas | The Invisible King