And as much as I wanted Izzy to win this fight, the longer she stayed in, the greater the chance I’d bleed out and die from my wounds. A selfish shame filled me as I wished for Izzy to lose quickly… so a healer could tend to me once the game was done.
That was my last thought before I blacked out.
IZZY
Fuck.
I was so screwed.
I needed some way to end this fight now, before Hana recovered and Golana and Saldrea got their act together. Right now, they were both doing their own things, trying to crush me with earth or throw boulders at me, and I was only just managing to evade or block their attacks. But if they coordinated again, like they’d done with Rook and Olinara, I’d be toast.
Rook…
And my grandmother…
I’d gotten those two into this mess, and they might have paid with their lives. Neither was moving and the amount of blood…
Wait… if they were off the field… they could be healed.
As careful as I could be — while dodging and evading attacks — I softly scooped them up with earth and pushed them off the field.
Now they could get medical attention and hopefully live, but that meant only Vyns and I could fight and Vyns’blinding attack wouldn’t be doing much at this point. It might dazzle Hana once she’d recovered, but by now Golana and Saldrea would know not to use their eyes, but their earth-sense.
And the distraction of me saving my teammates was all those two had needed to get me.
I didn’t know who did what, but suddenly the earth under my feet softened to quicksand and I slipped, hip-deep, into the ground. The earth then solidified around me, trapping me. At the same time, rocks pummeled me. I put my arms up in front of my face, blocking the attacks while I summoned an earth shield. The stone wall jutted up in front of me, but not before my arms were a bloody mess.
I only had a second or two before the two earth users simply crushed me, like they’d done with Grandma and Rook… only instead of pushing me back, they’d simply kill me.
I needed a second to recover, heal, think!
But I didn’t get it. The earth shifted as two massive walls closed in on me.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!
I did the only thing I could think of, a last-ditch defensive move Lhorine had mentioned. I’d never tried it, but if I didn’t do it now…
I hollowed out the earth around me, shifting it aside, making a hole, which I fell into, then I covered over the hole with more earth, so I was completely underground and hidden.
The walls of earth meant to crush me had only been above ground and when they crashed together, I was below them. Golana and Saldrea would figure out what I’d done soon enough, but I hoped this little ploy would fool them for a second or two.
I quickly healed myself. When I’d healed Vyns from near death, I’d realized I could sense his injuries. And now, after learning how to focus my anima, I could target only those areas, instead of using tons of anima and hoping.
With pain no longer lancing through me, I could think straight.
I couldn’t use water, not down here, which meant, if I was going to do anything while hiding, it would have to be with earth…
…Against two of the strongest earth wielders on campus.
Fuck.
But it was all I had left, all I could do.
I summoned all the power I had, which people kept telling me was significant now that my mother’s binding had been removed. Then I pushed earth as hard as I could against Saldrea and Golana. I knew where they were through my earth-sense. I couldn’t sense far, but across the pitch was far enough.
All I’d been able to manage yesterday was a rolling wave, which wouldn’t do much more than knock them off their feet… maybe. But this time, perhaps from sheer desperation or fear of death, I created a tidal wave of earth.
And it was just in time, as — for an instant — the walls of my little hole began to close in on me. The two had found me, but once I initiated my attack, they stopped theirs, to block and cancel mine.
