Uziel and Dante exited the hill-camp and soon pursued the pair of High Elves trough Dante's Tracking enchantment, that registered and tracked the heat assinature of the two.
Uziel took a small red stone from his space pocket given by the army. It was a magical device given to soldiers of all minor patents to report to their higher ups. The advantage of this stone was that it was connected to the user's mind, so they could report telephatically, to keep discretion, or avoid to make sounds in sensible situations.
After he ended to report to his supervisor, he signaled to Dante to lead the way, and soon followed him.
The twins didn't find any scouts for some kilometers, and after running for so much time, they only found their messy empty camps, like they left in a hurry. It puzzled both of them, making them anxious.
Just like they agreed, they met again in their original location.
- Did you find any scouts on your side?- Prodótis asked, putting his spear off his back
- No, only deserted camps. And you?
- You too...? - Prodótis furrowed his browns, deep in thought
- Do you think that they ran away because of us? But I didn't sense anything... What do we do? We never failed before!
- Calm down Atímia. Do you still have that Emergency Gem that I gave you?
He agreed, showing a small golden gem at his hand, very similar to Uziel's stone. These were called Magical Stones or Magical Gems, that were stones or gems enchanted by a Mage with a certain element to have especific properties or identify their origin: Red stones were the most common and made by Fire Affinity nations like Fiamma Clan, Golden Stones were made by Air nations such as the Elfic Empire, and so on. Magic Stones were more simple and common, and Magical Gems were more complicated and rare, as well as expensive. But as High Elves from nobility, even as a traitor family, money wasn't a problem for them.
- Think about the Captain or Vrómikos,as you think about the message. They will know what to do and...
He felt a sudden increase of mana level around his brother, as his neck hair stood up with eletricity. Instictively, he casted his Shield Spell made of Lightning. One second later, a wave of fire encircled it, making them fuse for a moment and potentialize each other, as Prodótis poured mana to his spell and didn't let the enemy take over. However, even if the effect of this small battle created explosions, it didn't reach inside the dome, as Prodótis continued to feed his spell with mana, betting on his mana capacity being bigger than his attacker, and he was right.
After just some seconds of this thug war, Dante was out of mana and the High Elf won the match, making the lightning Shield prevail and create a shockwave around it. While it all happened, Uziel tried to find an opening to fight with his sword, but the shockwave was still too strong to pass trough it, even with a mana layer around him.
Atímia by then, already used his Air Affinity to locate their enemies breathing; when he saw that he and his brother were ou of danger, he casted one of his most powerful and dangerous spells on Dante: the Air Blocking Spell.
It can block air from a certain range that the caster wants, blocking the oxigen from that area. And that was exactly what Atímia wanted: with just a tought and no need for hand gestures, a wave of mana exited him and created his spell on a dome of two meters in lenght encircled Dante, extinguing the inner oxigen and blocking any other from entering.
The young scout felt the lack of oxygen and launched fire attacks at the dome's direction on the hopes to break it, but it only sped up the suffocation: his white face was getting redder by the second, and his attacks were also getting weaker.
Uziel noticed his friend's struggle and rushed to help, but was intercepted by Prodótis's spear, that was envolved in lightning.
- Where are you going, little soldier?
He dogged it at the last moment going to the side, but the electrical charge still hit him, hurting his shoulder and weakening his grip at his sword. The High Elf furrowed his browns.
- Good reflexes, little soldier. But can you keep it up with me?
A common strategy of Prodótis was talking with his enemy to distract him, as the Elf was the type of person that easily could do very tasks at the same time with mastery. He used this strategy especially with young opponents as Uziel, as it had a higher chance to distract or irritate the enemy, but Uziel wasn't the type to talk during a real fight, nor was easily irritated when he had a goal. And his goal now was to reacue Dante.
Without wanting to waste time with the pointed-ear man, he stayed silent and created an Earth Wall, a strong defensive enchantment of his, between him and the Elf while running to Atímia's direction: he wanted to kill the sorcerer to extinguish his weird spell. However, he didn't noticed at time that a lightning was casted behind him, nearly hitting him again. Instinctively he put his sword before him, that was charged whith eletricity and conducted it to his body.
Trembling and screaming in pain, Uziel finally fell to the ground motionless with his veins bulged up, while Prodótis broke his wall and passed trough it's remnants, looking first at the trapped human that was now blue, motionless and probably dead, then to his twin brother that undid his Air Blocking spell sweating at the distance, while shaking his head.
'This spell is very demanding of his mana reserves, he is reckless as always.'
He didn't give any attention to the fallen human, as he tought that his spell Fury of Zeus would be too much for him to handle, as he walked to his brother direction and give him a mana potion. But he was wrong.
He heard a sound behind him, and before he could see where it came from, he felt a strong punch hit his back and make him roll for meters away in the dirt, hitting a tree and spouting blood from his mouth.
Prodótis, worried for his brother's well being, failed to notice that the soldier fallen to the ground had now gauntlets made of earth, that were almost pulverised for taking the majority of the blow conducted by the sword. If it wasn't for his quick thinking and the nullifying effects of Earth Magic on Lightning Magic, Uziel would be dead.
But he didn't think about it at this moment. While he was laying in the ground regaining counciousness, he saw Dante with a blue color, starting to shake uncontrollably, while looking at Uziel with a look of despair in his eyes, before getting motionless. That fueled Uziel's determination and anger, causing his retaliation with a punch. He switched his look from Prodótis to Atímia and then to his dead friend, determined and even more angry. His now crapped gauntlets of earth desintegrated to the ground, as rocks rotated around him and got closer to his hands; they formed a brand new and stronger gauntlet of rocks, that emitted an even stronger and deadlier aura of mana than the last one.
If nowadays someone asked to him what happened after it, he wouldn't remember exactly, as the anger blinded his eyes and his trauma made him forget about it in the passing of years. But I was there watching everything, and I remember every bloody detail.
His eyes became bloodshot, and his Rage Aura became more and more brown at the seconds passed. While this whole process happened in some seconds, Atímia that was already weak at the mana expenditure and sweating bullets only got worse with the mana layer that he created to protect himself against the Rage Aura: he became whiter and looked like a ghost on the verge to collapse, only his vitality as a High Elf keeped him concious.
He knew that his brother was in serious danger if he was going to fight alone, so he endured and made an effort to stay awake and make a move: he looked desperately at his brother and made a head shake as a signal at the mana potion's direction. Prodótis understood and created a mana layer to protect himself, as he trew his spear at the human's direction, which was easily intercepted with a slap of the gauntlets.
However, it was just a distraction, as in the same time, with his other hand, he trew the potion at his brother, that quickly opened and drank it. He tried to stand up and create an Air Arrow spell to hit him, but he wasn't quick enough.
He didn't noticed that the time he took to catch the potion, drink it, recuperate himself and prepare his spell, wich were mere five seconds, were enough to Uziel make a move.
Although he was dozens of meters away from his hurt twin at the tree, he became faster and stronger than the previous movements from Prodótis, as the Rage Aura envolved his body like a brown armor made of smoke. With one of his feet stomping at the ground and the other stood at the front, the erth below him cracked at the next second, and Uziel apeared beside Prodótis, that was supporting his weight at his spear and didn't had much time to react. He only saw the mad face in front of him and out of fear, charged his spear with lightning while using it as a shield at the last moment, before another punch came at him.
He hoped that his Lightning Magic, when passed to the human's gauntlets, would late his movements enough for Atímia to make a new move at him, but reality was cruel to him. The gauntlets absorved the lightning and instead of passing the remnants of the charge to his owner, it involved the gauntlets on a coat of eletricity, getting even more deadly.
When Prodótis saw that, he cursed himself inwardly. Why he didn't remember that stone had this effect on lightning if he had a half-dwarf at his team?
But he didn't had much time to punish himself. The punch came and thankfully he stopped it again with his spear, but he was fo focused on Uziel's hands that didn't noticed the kick that was sent to his stomach at high speed.
He bent forward and spout more blood, but it didn't end there. In this moment of weakness, Uziel grabbed the High-Elf's head with one hand, while with the other he caught the spear from his enemy's weak hands. He trew Prodótis head to the ground with all his strenght, making the elf to finally faint and have a pause from his pain. And it was at this moment that Atímia was recuperated and saw the scene with horror and shock, as Uziel was looking at his unconcious brother with despise.
Then Uziel seemed to remember about the other elf, and looked at him with even more rage. At first Atímia was scared, but then rage also fueled him. Why and how this human dared to hurt his brother and then look at him like that? He lost all his cool and sent all kinds of arrows in his arsenal at the human soldier, that blocked or dodged it all easily, while walking slowly at his direction.
Something that the other teammembers of the twins would agree is that the twins had emotional problems during battle: Prodótis with his ever flowing arrogance and Atímia with his reckless thinking and low emotional control. When Atímia and Mikrós fought, the half-dwarf would win almost all the times, as Atímia fell for provocations easily, and earth was a great element of surprise as it came bellow the feet of the enemy, especially efficient against someone distracted. And that was what Uziel did: he neven with all his being full of rage, he decided to invest in his instinct and ability of reading people.
If Mikrós was there, he would shake his head in dissapointment at the elf or slap his face with one hand, before interveining in the fight. He would also notice the shaking of earth near his friend's feet in a circle, growing in size. Normal arrows, invisible Air arrows and even arrows full of venom launched at the human's direction, but all of the failed, keepimg being blocked or dodged by Uziel.
Atímia didn't stop, as his golden Rage Aura also got stronger as he shoot only Air arrows, that now were also golden and even more powerful. Finally, two of them hit Uziel with blinding speed,one at his arm and the other at his leg, makjng the human bleed and grunt in pain. Atímia smiled cruely at this view, but it only lasted a second, soon having his expression turned to horror again.
The brown Rage Aura now seemed to move on it's own, pulling off the two arrows stuck in it's caster like a brown and immaterial hand; then, the aura seemed to penetrate the small holes that bleeded profusely, like trying to heal it's master by fusing with his body. While it all happened, Uziel looked at him like a mad and cruel beast looked at a prey.
Atímia created even more arrows to defen himself, but his hands shook in a mixture of anger and fear, as his mana was once again depleting. When he did pull his Air Arrow and shoot, he realized that the human vanished. He panicked even more, trying to look around the forest to find his pursuer, but without sucess.
Finally, he noticed that the ground around him seemed unstable, and before he could jump away from it, a brown figure emmerged from the earth holding a golden spearwith one hand, while with the other clenched his fist to a punch. The elf flew dozens of meters away from the scene, fainting for some seconds near his twin brother.
Uziel looked at his friend's body near him, and sadness comsumed his mind for an instant. He got closer to the corpse and closed it's eyes, giving him part of the calm and rest that he deserved. Then, he once again shifted his attention to his killer and his brother, appearing once again by their side at a blink.
They were both unconcious, and Uziel opened a healing pption to give at Atímia first, then to his twin brother, just enough for them to wake up. They opened their eyes shocked and desperate and rage filled their eyes as they remembered were they were and looked at their agressor. But it soon turned to pain as Uziel pined Prodótis's leg with his own spear at his thig, making him scream; Atímia tried to get up and help someway, only to have his legs engulfed in solid earth, restraining his movements and forcing him to stay in place.
Uziel looked attentiously at the face of the two, shifting his look between them
- Are you two twin brothers? - he said to Atímia, who angrily confirmed wirh a head sign.
In Gaia, having twins, triplets or so on was a rare case and a sign of fortune in every culture, as it almost always guarantied the babies to have a heightened talent according to their species. Twin humans had more versatility and used to be mages; twin orcs were stronger and twin elves had a higher talent at magic.
However, it did not guaranteed the victory of the two, as their arrogance made them lose to a mere human. This gave a sense of shame at them and a weird kind of happiness and pleasure to Uziel, as he put a little smile over his face.
- I see. Guess you two weren't good to fight today, so you lost.
- You...- Atímia tried to redoo the Air Blocking spell to make the human stop talking, but realized that even that he sensed his mana again, he just couldn't form a spell, no matter how he tried.
He seemed puzzled by this, so Uziel talked before he could mutter a question:
- This healing potion is for humans only, as it is made of a Jaguar's Red Horns powder. Any other race that gulps it in small quantities doesn't get to form any spell or enchantment for some time; at big quantities... they die of overdose. So don't try anything funny, or I will make you or your brother drink it till your stomach pulps out. Is that clear?
- Yes - they both answered, while Prodótis was sweating bullets as he looked at his blooding thig
- Alright. I will ask you some questions, long-haired elf. If I don't believe in you - he twisted the spear, making Prodótis scream louder - he will suffer. Do we have a deal?
Atímia was silent for a second, looking at his brother who seemed to ask him not to say anything. He bit his lips, finally answering his new captor:
- Yes, we have a deal. What do you want to know?
The human smiled cruely, knowing that he had full control over his friend's killer, while revenging himself from the race that he hated to the bones.