bookpower Chapter 327 The Flood [Part 3]
Chapter 327 The Flood [Part 3]
"[Shatter]"
The moment the word loosed itself from Lucius's lips, a seemingly weak wave of mana surged forward like a gentle breeze. It seemed to weave through the air until it met the soldiers on the bridge. One by one, various weapons and pieces of armor both still in use and those laying on the ground, still equipped to the dead and dying, began to glow subtly red.
The unexpected glow throughout the battlefield distracted friend and foe alike. No one understood why these random pieces of equipment had begun to release mana. Lucius on the other-hand grinned evilly. Before anyone had the time to react, the sound of fracturing metal filled the bridge.
Thousands of pieces of shrapnel exploded into the air and into the bodies of hundreds of soldiers. Men and women screamed in pain as their bodies were peppered with the pieces.
Lucius could feel Kalliope's concerned gaze at the back of his head, but he simply watched on in slight amusement at the amount of confusion created by the sudden explosion of weapons and armor. With this level of confusion, the enemy was completely oblivious to the raging wall of water quickly bearing down on their position.
By this point the roar had grown loud enough to cause Lucius and Kalliope to cover their ears on reflex. Jade walked closer to the riverbed as if in a daze. Though Kalliope attempted to reach out and stop her, Lucius quickly placed himself between them and gave her a gentle shake of his head.
"Watch. I want to see if she can truly pull this off."
Lucius had a hunch that there was more to Jade than he realized. Sure his brief conversations with Desmond helped give him an inkling, but something inside his soul told him there was more than meets the eye with the normally clumsy girl. It was a similar sensation to what he felt every time he was around his sister.
Though both girls were physically weak and lacked any Compatibilities within Arts or Magic, something else itched in the back of his brain. This itch told him one thing: they were dangerous.
The roar grew ever closer until eventually, the wall of water became visible. The surging wave stood nearly a hundred feet tall. It was easily enough to overwhelm the stone bridge. Thanks to the confusion, only a few of the soldiers had seen it. Those that had desperately ran for the safety of land, not even pausing to warn their comrades.
This was true for both sides as elves tripped over themselves and their comrades trying to rush to safety under the threat of the massive wall of water. As the destructive force bore down on their position, Jade's mark glowed even brighter. Her arms trembled as if she was under the strain of a massive amount of weight.
Lucius and Kalliope watched, jaws agape, as the oncoming flood seemed to slow its advance for a moment. Slowly, but surely, the directionality of the river began to change. Instead of directly overwhelming the bridge, Jade began to push the water onto the opposite bank.
*****
Water rained down upon them as the impact sprayed thousands of gallons of it into the air. Elves and debris were pulled along with the rapids further downstream. Jade slowly relaxed her forceful control over the raging rapids, allowing it to mostly flow as it wished.
The enemy camp was no more and those that remained simply gasped for air, thankful for the fortune that smiled upon them. Faylin slowly approached with his hand around the hilt of his sword. His rage seemed barely contained, threatening to burst from beneath the surface.
"Lucius Kane," Faylin growled, "What have you done? Do you know how many villages and homes border this river? Your actions do not only affect our forces, but the lives of innocents..." he turned to face Jade, "Marked One, cease your actions."
"I wouldn't do that." Lucius warned.
To make his point, Jade slowly relaxed her control. The river instantly moved to fill the space that she had been forcing it to avoid. The water's edge quickly climbed further up the bank. It threatened to overwhelm the top of the bridge once more. If she fully relaxed her control, the bridge and all of them would be instantly swept away in the rapids.
Faylin's face paled as he watched the water greedily lap at the edge of the toes, begging to overwhelm them and carry them along with it.
"Those that remain alongside the edge of a river that has become a warzone are idiots. If they wished to avoid being casualties of war, they would have fled. This is the cost of stupidity. Their sacrifice will secure Lethaya's ascension to the throne." Lucius explained without even looking at Faylin.
"You're not the monster people claimed." Faylin stated, "You're worse. The lives of innocents mean so little? And what did you do? You are the one responsible for the detonation of our own men's corpses. Were those sacrifices necessary?"
"Yes."
Kalliope's fur stood on end. She slowly placed herself between Lucius and Faylin. The elf general paused for a moment and took a step toward Jade once more. Kalliope was about to move, but she stopped, her eyes going wide. Faylin's own eyes also went wide.
With a simple twitch of her finger, a rope of water wrapped itself around Faylin's leg, crawling around his torso before tickling the side of his neck. The other end of the 'rope' connected to the river. Jade flexed her finger again, giving the rope enough of a tug to force Faylin to take a step toward the water's edge.
"Prepare the forces Faylin. Recall all of them to our position. This bridge is the only one remaining. By the end of the day, the others will have become nothing but splinters. Send word to the capital that Ayalla's southern defense has been breached. We will advance further south tomorrow.
Be ready."