novelraw Chapter 230: Untapped potential
Chapter 230: Untapped potential
Merlin stared at the incoming wave of ice in silence.
A hollow, chinking sound swallowed the forest, with several sharp, irregular cracks resounding in its wake. A cold frigid wind followed with its passing, chilling the already frozen stumps further.
Within moments, the whole area had turned into a frozen wasteland. Standing at the centre of the disaster, Emily resembled a primordial deity.
Her eyes glowed eerily her hair dancing wildly in the wind. Her dark hair slowly turned a vivid shade of crystalline blue. Her skin turned paler and her lips slowly became an ethereal blue.
Frost swiftly crept up the sark uniform she was wearing, transforming it into a crystalline armour within moments.
With every step she took forward, the lethal cold increased.
Every frigid breath she released, fogged in the cold air.
As she moved, the wave of ice swirled around her in a strange mesmerizing pattern, blooming into a single massive wave that flattened everything within a wide radius in all directions.
The remaining stumps froze over, the ice creeping over the ground at an incredible speed.
Within moments the temperature dropped dramatically, a biting chill radiating in all directions. Merlin’s impassive gaze ran over the petite figure down below in the snowy clearing.
Against the brilliant white backdrop, with her glowing eyes and dark hair, Emily, despite her small stature, made for quite an imposing figure.
With catastrophe unfolding around her, she took on a striking semblance to a certain angel of death he’d once known.
"To think that they’re so alike..."
His eyes narrowed slightly, his lips parting in wonder.
"Could she be?"
A split second later, a thunderous explosion ripped through the forest floor sending several shards of ice flying sky high.
Emily streaked through the air, blurring towards Merlin at a frenetic speed.
Merlin’s eyes widened slightly.
"Interesting..."
The air around him shimmered eerily, the temperature dropping drastically.
Within moments, a thin layer of frost slowly began creeping across his limbs. He could feel the frost insidiously crawling up his skin.
No, it was much more than that.
The chill seeped through his skin. He could feel the deadly ice enter his body through his pores, like a deadly poison, attempting to freeze him from the inside out.
He bit back a curse at the bite of the illogical cold invading his body like a parasite.
He lifted his arm staring at it for a few moments then crashed the swiftly growing layer of ice with an audible crunch.
"She has grown much much stronger. I already like her."
He gritted his teeth willing small currents of electricity to run through his body. His internal body temperature soared drastically negating the chilling cold that had already seeped into his muscles and blood vessels.
With a controlled roar, a wave of heat emanated from his body, rippling through the air around him.
Previously Emily couldn’t fly, but with the new powers she’d unlocked the ice propelled her through the air.
Her eyes blazed with emerald fire, boring into his own with murderous intensity.
She swung her hand through the air in a blistering motion and with the motion, impossibly, a massive form shifted with her movements.
The air rippled then froze forming a gargantuan limb that mirrored her movements perfectly. The arm-shaped construct clenched its titanic fingers, spreading deathly cold through the air.
With alarming ease, the extra limb whipped through the air at an incredible speed shaking the sky with its passing.
A silent roar resonated through the sky with the ice fragment’s wake. Merlin laughed then with unhurried ease he stretched out his hand.
The thin layer of frost on his clothes instantly evaporated with the sharp scent of ozone following in its wake almost immediately.
Almost as though appalled by the catastrophic powers being unleashed, a small drizzle began pouring down in the dome. Erratically bolts of lightning streaked across the sky illuminating the icy wasteland below.
A searing heat radiated from Merlin’s lone figure standing in the sky, washing over the frozen clearing.
The ice slowly began melting away in the wake of the scorching heat.
A few moments later, a loud groan reverberated through the forest, the ground cracking in its wake.
Several small sparks ignited in the air, an eerie screech echoing through the air from the raw current whipping the space.
The temperature abruptly spiked, soaring several degrees.
Metlin slowly raised his arms, a slow cruel smile spreading across his lips.
Hovering silently midair, with his arms outstretched, he seemed to be waiting for something.
In the darkness, with his eyes burning with silver fire, he resembled a sinister apparition.
He slowly flexed his finger slowly swishing his hands in an intricate pattern. After a few moments, he closed his eyes as though listening to something only he could hear amidst the silence.
A split second later, his eyes snapped open, his grin growing eerily wider.
An unearthly silence followed and with it, a single whisper echoed around him.
"Boom!"
The sparks of electricity ignited the air within seconds setting off a massive chain reaction.
A horrendous explosion rocked the forest, splitting the earth for miles around. The resulting tremors surged through the ground sending several vehicles through the academy buildings nearest to the explosion.
A massive mushroom cloud of steam and mist erupted from the chain reaction, sending debris and chunks of ice flying through the air.
****
Several assassins were now gathered outside the massive dome at this point but rather than taking any action they all stood still, for one simple reason; they’d all been ordered to stand down.
It was the headmaster’s explicit order.
None of them was supposed to interfere until he arrived on the scene.
Rundrik Ember stood at the domestic periphery with his fiery orange eyes glowing, watching the two shifting figures in silence.
It was one of the few moments in his life when he felt truly conflicted. But then again, from what he knew, Gregory Whizen wasn’t a foolish man.
And so they waited.
To his left, Professor Lilia stood with her arms clasped firmly behind her back. Her face was an expressionless mask that betrayed no emotion but he could tell that she shared the same thoughts.
Professor Emmett from history stood just a small distance away alongside a large Talented with piercing blue eyes that Rundrik hardly knew.
Letting out a sigh, he casually reached out.
Rundrik gently caressed the dome with his bare hand, feeling the unnatural resistance that barred them from going any further.
A violent current of electricity erupted from the point of contact, surging through the space around him. Lilia threw him a sidelong glance
Rundrik impassively stared at it, then casually removed his hand staring at the small scorching marks on the palm of his hand.
The man who seemed to be the Talwnted behind the dome turned, staring at him for a few moments before turning away.
"Still the girl is pretty impressive. To think that she was capable of such power all along," Rundrik thought to himself.
*****
Turning back to the fight, Merlin smiled in amusement.
"Looks like I’m in trouble then."
He could perceive the growing number of assassins around the dome but strangely enough none of them made a move to breach it again.
Hovering in the midst of the immense heat,
Merlin casually swatted away an icicle midair then snatched another aimed at his face through the fog.
"I’ll take this one step further then."
The glow in his eyes intensified for a few moments, then his eyes narrowed briefly.
All around him, the icy projectiles whizzing around him seemed to be moving in slow motion. The aura around him rippled once more, a small bubble appearing out of thin air.
The bubble expanded slowly turning into a larger sphere than it enveloped him.
The projectiles collided with the barrier with harrowing force, expanding in size midair into massive jagged harpoons that horrendously ripped through the barrier and the figure within.
Except they didn’t.
On contact, the barrier shimmered for a few moments, rippling fluidly.
The massive icicles harmlessly passed through it, vanishing without a trace.
Looking at the small frown that had appeared on Emily’s face, Merlin’s lips curled into a small smile.
Raising his hands dramatically, the air around him rippled once more, the spatial distortion expanding once more and flaring all around him in a wide circle.
The projectiles surrounding abruptly disappeared, and with them the spatial anomaly.
Noticing the oddity, Emily snarled in fury, lunging at him mid-air.
Twin serpentine streams of ice followed in her wake flowing forward in erratic patterns.
The twin serpents encircled Merlin in a spiral pattern, emitting a literal breath-taking chill from their bodies.
The air around them bloomed into sinister jagged shards of ice that shot towards him at a frenetic speed barring any chance of escape.
Merlin threw her a lopsided grin, twirling around mid-air and rising with the twin serpents.
The lethal chill instantly started spreading across his dark jacket and body. With every passing moment he lingered at the centre of the vortex, he could feel the sinister chill slowly sapping away his vitality.
"Cheeky little girl..."