Chapter 52 - Part 52: Endgame

Jake's POV"Jericho!" I said and summoned my armor. Speed is good, not getting hit in the back by a spell I didn't see coming is better. Running to the crest wouldn't take long, despite how far away it was. All I needed to do was not get shot in the back, or front, on the way there. The other Neame were too far away for me to see clearly, but I could see them in the rapidly closing distance. I have no idea how I'm going to fight them off long enough to- *CRACKATHOOM* My train of thought was derailed as a bolt of lightning hit the ground next to me. It caught me off guard and I tripped over my own feet, falling to the ground and skidding for a short distance. Once I realized what happened, I used magic to raise a boulder between myself at where I thought the shot had come from. "Of course they shoot lightning," I mumbled.I looked back, Two was still distracting the mage. It looked like he was using illusions to distract him, then dodge any of the mage's attacks. I used mana wrapping to lift up the boulder and carry it in front of me for cover as I ran. It was weighty, and slowed me down a bit, but it was better than getting fried. *CRACKATHOOM* Another bolt of lightning hit the boulder, but it held… mostly. I noticed after that the rock felt a bit lighter and heard the sounds of rubble hitting the ground as I ran. The bolt must have done some real damage to the front of the boulder. *CRACKATHOOM* A third bolt, *CRACKATHOOM*, a fourth. The boulder was getting uncomfortably light, but I was almost there. *CRACKATHOOM* The boulder shattered, and its pieces shot off in every direction. Rather than raising another, I dove behind the top of one of the hills."A plan, a plan, a plan, a plan…" I repeated to myself desperately looking around. "Can lightning be inverted? No, that's not how lightning works. Maybe if I used- no that wouldn't work…. Wait a second," I had a plan… well, an idea, well... a thought. Inversion, Wild, Energy, Nature… and Death; those are the types of Chaos-Magic. "Lightning is energy… I have-" I stopped thinking and started casting the spell. Not realizing it, I was talking aloud, "Lightning is an electrostatic discharge during which two electrically charged regions temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous release of energy." My eyes were closed, but as I spoke, I started to hear the sounds of birds chirping, and an electric hum. I opened my eyes and saw a ball of electricity starting to form. Only one shot. I thought to myself. I needed to make sure it hit, so like the railgun spell, this one needed to be guided. "Two electrically charged regions," I repeated. The first region would be the origin point of the spell, the other… the target. Soon the lightning was huge, the size of one of those old computers from the nineties, and it crackled and popped like it was alive. "I really hope this doesn't kill anyone," I said and popped up from my hiding spot, then shot off the spell. "LIGHTNING BOLT!"In a blindingly bright flash, the lightning tore through the air and branched out in a dozen different directions, like a root burrowing into soil. I wish I could describe in more detail what it sounded like, but the ringing in my ears was too loud. In fact, I didn't hear much of anything for the next few minutes. I dropped to the ground, clutching my ears in pain. I looked at my hands, now covered in streams of blood, either from the spell or my ears I couldn't tell. My vision was blurred from the flash, everything was just a haze for a while. I stumbled towards the other team's crest as best as I could manage, occasionally stopping to vomit from the dizziness that came and went in waves. By the time I made it the rest of the way up the hill and to their crest, I saw it had already been destroyed. It was just a half melted and shattered pile of metal on the ground now.I looked around, trying to find someone, anyone, to figure out what happened. I couldn't hear anything, but my eyes went back to normal after a while. I tried calling out, but couldn't hear my own voice, just that constant ringing. I stumbled across a Neame eventually, not Two, another one; probably one of the other team. They were lying on the ground, occasionally twitching. I took off a piece of my armor and summoned a couple of daljar, then used my armor's healing runes to fix us both up. After a minute, my hearing came back, and Suma showed up.------------------------------------------------------------------------Suma's POV"Indeed, your other teammate and Sentinel have no-" He was cut off by another crack of thunder in the distance, this time even louder. I flew up to try and get a better view, and what I saw made no sense. It looked like a lightning bolt, but it was impossibly large, and longer lasting than any I had ever seen before. It hung in the air, light pouring off and pulsating as it slowly shrank down, like a tree's branch had been lit on fire, then plastered on the sky."Lauric, I am going to go check on Jake!" I called out, then flew off. I heard him try to call out to me, saying that I should stay, but I ignored him. "Jake!? Jake, can you hear me?" I tried to contact him over our private connection. There was no answer, so I used the enhancement spell and flew as quickly as I could manage. It only took a short time for me to arrive and see the devastation. There were scorch marks everywhere, patches of grass were still on fire, several Neame were unconscious, maybe dead, and the lingering smell of a lightning storm was still thick in the air. I came to look for Jake, but I could not simply leave the Neame. I dove down and started healing everyone I saw, three in total, one of which was Two from our team, and the others were from the opposing team. Once they were healed, I started looking for Jake again; I would have asked Two which way he went, but Two did not wake up. However, he was alive; they all were actually, but scorched just as badly as the surrounding area. Their feathers were burned, some now had bald patches where the feathers, and in some cases, skin, had been blown off. Flying away from them, I saw more Neame start to arrive; the instructors and military officials, as well as additional healers. Finally, I found him. "Jake!" I cried out and landed beside him. He had taken off parts of his armor, and wrapped it around a severely injured Neame; the healing runes were on as well."Suma," Jake said once he saw me, "I think I over did it…"