Seirra: Chapter Twenty-Four

All five of them were mermen morphed with red tails highlighted with flashes of orange. The color of their hair and eyes was all red. Plain swords with no particular hint of where they came from were gripped by each of their right hands. They could have been five identical creatures except for the fact that three of them had larger builds than the other two and the lengths of their hair varied. They all looked mercilessly at us—their sharp teeth ready to devour—that a shiver ran down my back in a slight moment of fear.

They began to form a circle to enclose the three of us and we were left with no choice but stay close to each other, our backs pressed against the others’. We braced ourselves for their assault and no sooner than two seconds did they start spinning around in a dance that resembled a fire that crackled furiously. They whirled faster and faster until the crackling fire became an enormous red twister that surrounded us with no possible escape route.

A beam of magic covered in sand attacked us from my right and Erwann waved his sword for defense and released his own magic, targeting at least one of the mermen who were now a blur around us. More strikes came from every direction and we ended up merely defending ourselves. It felt like we were in the eye of a tornado as the noise of running water combined with the sounds of rushing sand. The pressure of the water made it sharp enough to wound us when some of the enemies’ magic pierced through our defenses.

They suddenly began simultaneous attacks; this time aimed on all three of us. It compelled us to move a bit farther from each other as we tried to go on the offensive. Marina was skilled enough to use one hand to form a barrier to protect herself as she used the other to attack. It made me relax a bit as my duty called for me to put the princess’s safety before mine. I saw the same relief in Erwann’s face when he realized that he could somehow focus on the fight instead of worrying about Marina.

We slowly began to move closer to the edges of the makeshift twister in an attempt to stop the enemies from spinning. Water and sand continued to beat us but for every gap in their attacks, we countered with a strike of our swords or magic, hoping to at least make the enemies falter in their speed. It had been no use as we failed to make a direct hit on any of them.

Our powers slowly took away our energy and hope started to evade me. It seemed that these absolute morphs were bound to torture and then kill us. We opted to go back to our original positions, constantly raising and waving our swords and hands to defend and strike.

“We can’t let this go on any further,” Erwann struggled to tell me. He raised his hand to attack with a condensed form of lightning but it was evaded by the speed of the cyclone.

“I know,” I said before I dodged a blaze of light and sand with a wave of the Ardus sword. “But the only way to get out of this is to break off their spin.” This time, Marina had to deflect a surge of water and sand. “And we can’t do that with our powers divided between defense and offense.”

I got another beam of sand but instead of obliterating it, I decided to redirect it to strike the enemy. It worked and caused the whirlwind to quaver but it had not been strong enough to completely abate the attacks.

“I still,” Marina begun before she attacked on her side, “have enough powers to get through them. But I have to drop my defense to do it,” she ended through gritted teeth.

This plan would be dangerous for the princess as she could get killed by a direct attack from the enemy. It was, however, a sound plan. I had seen and even experienced the powers she could summon at will and there was no doubt that she could strike through the enemy’s cyclone. The enemy doubled their attacks on us and we had to decide immediately.

“We have no choice, Seirra,” Erwann said, exhaustion audible in his voice.

I glanced at Marina and saw her brows furrowed together, her movements slowed down and her arms and face covered in cuts still fresh with blood.

That had been enough for me to make a decision and I motioned for them to come closer.

“Here’s what we’re going to do.” We had to avert ourselves from several consecutive gushes of sand and water that was thrown at us in several rays of magic. “I will first cover Marina from the west and the north, while Erwann will take care of the east and the south. They can’t seem to attack from above us so to keep them from targeting Marina, the two of us will exchange positions now and then.” An attack that had water and electricity combined came from my side. “Marina,” I began, worn out, “how long do you need?”

“About a minute.” She concentrated her powers into a shape that resembled a sword and then warded off an attack towards her. “If I can concentrate.”

“Good. When I say ‘now’, we do exactly as planned.”

They both nodded as we faced our enemies again. It was difficult to create a strategy that would surely work in this kind of situation and I could only hope that our half-baked plan would suffice. If it didn’t, the enemies could kill us in an instant. And if they didn’t, our exhaustion would.

An attack on Erwann’s side immediately followed by another towards Marina and then a third shot against me. The timing of each blast had exactly been a second in between and the moment another second passed without a follow-up, I held my sword tighter as I gritted out, “Now!”

Erwann and I immediately covered what we had agreed upon, our energies seemingly renewed as we hoped for our last piece of strategy to work. The enemies saw our change of positions and probably realized that we were up to something and they instantly multiplied their efforts to murder us.

It made it even more strenuous to defend, attack, and move around but we had to do it. Marina needed a minute and we could not afford to prolong that by letting fatigue overcome us. Erwann and I circled the princess as she gathered her magic around her hands: water combined with electricity and sand which seemed to also be covered with fire. How she could summon fire or whatever it was that glowed in her hands was beyond me. I only wished that amount of power would not kill her.

A shiver ran down my back the moment her minute passed and she was ready. A glimpse at my back showed me just how tremendous her powers still were as she shone with purple fire ready to aim the moment she saw the opportunity.

It came after a double attack on both Erwann and me, and as soon as we deflected them, Marina yelled, “Get down!”

We dropped to the ground as she raised her hands to shoulder-level and released the magic she had been holding in her hands. She didn’t need to bother aiming at a particular merman as her magic had reached a wide enough range to immediately strike two of the morphs. They fell dead before they disappeared into bubbles. The whirlwind stopped but before they could counter Marina’s magic, the princess twirled and targeted each of the three enemies that were left.

They were hurled in different directions, one of them immediately dying as the other two crashed on the cave’s ruins. Marina must have used all the energy she had left and she fainted. Both Erwann and I were exhausted and bloodied from the fight as well, and it took us quite some time to gather Marina’s floating body. Little did we realize that the morphs who were last to be attacked by Marina’s powers had not disappeared into bubbles.

It happened quite fast: Erwann was reaching for the princess when a sudden bolt of lightning burst from one of the morphs, obviously aiming at Marina. It would have hit her directly but Erwann had decided to use the last ounce of his speed to reach the princess and protect her with his own body. It rendered me momentarily motionless but his scream of pain brought me out of my shock immediately, and I wielded my sword to cut down the magic that would have killed him.

Anger exploded within me and gave me the speed I needed as I swam fast to slay the two remaining enemies.

My scream of fury was the last thing I heard before everything went black.