Nightblade (Darkest night)

Chapter 227: Merlin

The sound of falling timber echoed through the vast expanse of the forest disturbing the tranquil silence.

Emily sprinted wildly through the forest, feeling the ominous feeling of the air around her humming with electricity.

Within moments, a visible distortion washed over the air.

Her eyes ignited simultaneously but in the next moment, her ability felt suffocated. A

The temperature around her dropped momentarily then steamed with an audible hiss.

"That’s not going to work..." a voice whispered. The man slowly glided through the air above the forest at a leisurely pace.

The slave around him underwent a sudden distortion, his dark coat shifting fluidly in the air.

Lightning flashed illuminating the wide expanse of the forest briefly before the whole forest was thrown into darkness.

Emily’s lungs burned from the effort. Her breaths came fast and shallow. All around her the trees blurred into vague, distorted figures.

The trail that she’d been following was long lost, obscured under the cover of the oppressive darkness that seemed to move with a life of its own.

She barely felt the scraping of the thorny undergrowth as she stumbled through it.

The adrenaline pumping through her body heightened all the rest of her senses and reflexes.

The rolling wave of destruction roused the other inhabitants of the forest sending the animals into a frenzy.

An overbearing presence washed over a larger section of the forest. In an instant, everything went silent, until even the rhythmic chirping of crickets and other insects completely disappeared.

In the face of the man’s overwhelming power, all the animals in that section of the forest where they stood turned tail and fled in terror from the unknown predator.

The mass migration slowly caused a snowball effect, triggering the rest of the wildlife to move until it was a full-blown stampede.

In the darkness, the man’s silver eyes glowed ominously as the wind bowed gently around him. He observed the disturbance he’d caused with seeming amusement in his burning eyes.

" How nostalgic, this reminds me of the old days..."

Just then the first of the academy security arrived barreling straight towards the levitating stranger at an inhuman speed.

A split second later the man collided with a wall of solidified air bouncing off with a horrendous thud.

The man scoffed, shaking his head slightly.

" How noisy..."

Gesturing casually with his fingers, the air rippled visibly forming a small dome, effectively cutting off any outside influence.

The collision spiraled into a horrific explosion of light and sound, the resulting shockwave blasting through several more trees.

Emily turned, throwing a furtive glance at the floating figure.

That turned out to be a mistake.

A secondary explosion tossed her through the air. Emily gasped, clawing desperately at the steaming mass of air.

She rolled wildly on through the thick undergrowth tumbling down a small mound of raised earth before coming to a stop in the middle of an unnatural clearing.

Using the small moment of respite, her eyes burned with emerald light.

Within moments, the temperature around her dropped dramatically, the dead leaves instantly turning into icy realistic sculptures. A chilling wave of frost washed over her surroundings flooding the air with chilling cold that slowly sapped the vitality of the plan and creatures around her.

The tips of her hair slowly turned an unnatural shade of icy blue heightening her already ethereal appearance even further. She slowly rose off the ground wreathed in a blizzard of snow and ice. The wounds on her legs and arms rapidly healed at a visible speed. Using the ice, she streaked through the air, darting through the forest at an inhuman speed.

A wave of ice and chilling cold followed in her wake. Following closely behind her, a dark blur through the forest followed her.

" What are you trying to do? Are you trying to escape?"

The man’s sinister melodic laughter carried over the howling of the wind.

" You should know by now that you cannot escape me."

The familiar ominous sparks of electricity began pulsating erratically around her.

" Stand and fight."

The air around her rippled and distorted, actively resuating her ability. Small tendrils of steam slowly waft through the air.

"Demonstrate your ability to me."

Emily snarled, hurling several jagged icicles through the air.

At an almost leisurely pace, the man casually waved his hand through the air, flicking the wave of incoming icicles aside with unnatural ease.

Emily bit back a frustrated scream, exerting even more of her power.

Chilling icy blue frost crept through the forest with unnatural speed, rapidly seeping into the soil.

With a frantic shout, she hurled a large chunk of frozen soil through the air.

The jagged fragment split midair, breaking into several smaller projectiles that shot through the air with lethal speed.

"Interesting, you’re adapting. Very nice. But unfortunately, it’s not enough," he said calmly, patronizingly.

Incorporating the ice with the soil put a tremendous strain on her ability but it rendered man’s ability to simply dissipate the ice less effective.

It was infuriating. It had been a while since she’d felt so powerless. The calmness that she’d learnt in the battle wasn’t helping her much. Every Observation of her opponent led her to the same conclusion. At her current t level of power, there was simply no way she could beat him.

Which left her only our viable option.

To run.

And so she did. " I’ve got to buy time, enough time for someone stronger to intervene."

By this time, the academy’s security would have noticed her absence and the destruction that the man’s harrowing power had wrought.

" Reinforcements are on the way," the man whispered.

Emily’s eyes widened slightly.

He shrugged, leisurely sleaking.

"That’s probably what you’re thinking but with that kind of mentality, I doubt you’ll survive this test. In fact, it may turn out to even be quite fatal for you."

Emily gritted her teeth erecting a wall of ice between her and the man but almost instaneously it began to melt.

The man let out a lighthearted chuckle.

" Now I know I said that I was just testing you but I think you’ll need to take this a little bit more seriously. "

His lips curled into an ominous grin.

" Which is why I’ve raised the stakes a bit. With your life on the line, I’m sure you won’t hold out against me. What do you say?"

Suddenly a violent distortion ripped through the air. A searing heat blasted through the air, sucking all the oxygen from the air.

Emily gasped, clutching her throat desperately.

"Help...help me..."

Her face quickly turned blue, beads of sweat rolling down her forehead.

The light in her eyes dimmed, glowing faintly.

Then everything went black.

****

A catastrophic blow rocked the dome, sending a web of cracks through it.

The man stopped for a brief moment, the amused smile on his face slowly fading away.

"How curious..."

The web of cracks began to rapidly repair itself, the cracks mending themselves at an incredible speed.

A moment later, the ground shook violently from the impact of a second blow.

This time, the man paused.

The website of cracks spread even further but this time, a wave of tenebrous dark flames followed in their wake.

The flames moved with a life of their own rapidly proliferating and devouring the dome with a vicious tenacity that far surpassed the rate at which the dome regenerated.

The man smiled.

" It appears there may be more than one person of interest this time."

He turned staring at Emily’s unmoving figure. " I commend you, girl. It appears that my journey here was not for naught."

At that exact moment the tenebrous dome, burst open admiring a figure wreathed in dark flames.

Furious white flames burned where the man’s eyes should have been while the rest of his body pulsated with pitch-black flames.

A sinister heat emanated from around his body washing into his surroundings with a searing intensity.

The man paused midair, slowly surveying the scene of carnage around him in silence.

Seeing the unmoving figure on the forest floor, His eyes narrowed flickering with an inscrutable emotion.

A split second later, he disappeared from the spot where he’d been standing.

A moment later, a thunderous shockwave rolled through the forest.

"Gregory, calm yourself."

The man stared in amusement at the flaming figure before him holding his flame-wreathed hand in his in one hand with apparent ease.

’I must say, I’m quite impressed with this new form of yours. He squeezed down slightly on Gregory’s offending hand.

" In fact, I would go so far as to say that this power of yours is quite uncomfortable to deal with."

Gregory pressed forward refusing to back down.

" Why did you do this, Merlin?"

The man stared at him for a few moments, his silver eyes boring into his own fiery ones.

" I was just testing the girl. I need to know that my trip this far was worthwhile." He shrugged, releasing Gregory’s fist with a casual flick.

Gregory moved back a few places, slowly flexing his injured hand.

" Besides knowing who I am, shouldn’t you have a little more trust in me?"

Gregory stared at him for a few moments, then the dark flames dissipated harmlessly revealing the figure within.