Slayers: Alive

Slayers: Alive 11

Slayers: Alive - Episode 031: Bittersweet! Victory and Defeat

The peaceful slumber of those inhabiting the wooden clock tower was interrupted in the night by the violent shaking of the structure. The group was quick to assemble at the base of the tower and rush out to face the enemy that simply couldn't wait until morning. The many trees that surrounded the tower were shaking their roots unnaturally, threatening to bring down the entire structure. "Everyone fight back! Defend the home base!" Lina shouted her commands, playing her rehearsed par perfectly. It was time to put on a show.

"Terrible villain who uses innocent trees as helpless pawns for your evil ways!" Amelia shouted dramatically from the ground, since climbing a tree was too dangerous given the situation. "Feel my justice! Elmekia Lance!" Amelia's attack collided with a tree, causing substantial damage. Another tree extended its branches, trying to reach Amelia from behind, but Zelgadis swiftly cut the branches with his enchanted sword.

Gourry was doing some intensive gardening of his own, swinging his new sword around in every direction, which Celo had provided claiming it to be of top quality. It indeed was, even if it didn't measure up to the sword of light, but for a normal sword to match that sword was definitely too much to ask. Nonetheless, Gourry was making short work of the trees that dared to attack him.

"Fireball!" Lina set another tree on fire, albeit Celo wasn't too happy about sacrificing the dark forest, he accepted the necessity of putting up a show. Likewise, Celo and Xellos defended against the trees with their monster energy, while Filia, Tiffany and Phythan got them with their laser breath. "Let's draw out the puppet master controlling these trees, everyone advance!" At Lina's command, the group boldly rushed deeper into the forest. The time to put their strategy into play was near.

Phythan purposely got close to one of the trees, while pretending to lower his guard backing away from another attacking tree. As expected, the tree behind him grabbed him and tried to absorb him in an unusual type of forceful teleportation that would transport him to the location of the main tree that passed the magic to the others. Phythan immediately started trying to push out the monster with Filia, Tiffany and Amelia assisting him with exorcisms and white magic.

Lina focused on sensing the flow of energy around her. "Invisible links of the chain, which binds all in this plane, make the target's struggle vain, follow the inescapable lane, Pursuit!" The monster's energy was linked to the energy controlling the tree, but it wouldn't be long before the link was broken, so everything needed to be done before the puppet master had time to react. Xellos was already in position with a barrier of black energy around Phythan and the tree, with Filia, Tiffany and Amelia casting their healing magic that passed through the barrier and reached Phythan within. "Multiply my humble speed, let all my energy be freed, to quickly do as I please, accelerate all my deeds, Hastega!" Lina repeated the speed spell aimed at the area contained in the barrier.

The flow of energy within the barrier kept increasing with each fraction of a second. "Miss Filia, Miss Tiffany, we're losing him!" Amelia intensified her white magic, pushing herself to the limit.

"I won't allow this plan to fail!" Filia continuously healed Phythan, even if it felt like his energy was being consumed faster than they could replenish it.

"We can do it!" Tiffany assured. "The monster is being pushed out, Phythan's energy is being purified, we're making progress!"

All the while Gourry, Zelgadis and Celo kept the busy spell casters safe from the wrath of the Green Alchemist, though so far, they had not been able to spot the puppet master among the attacking trees, even if he couldn't be too far. At the same time, Xellos found that the barrier wasn't as easy to maintain as he thought. Keeping the spells in created a tremendous pressure. Add to that the strain of the separation of Phythan and the monster and the amount of energy released was colossal, fueled even more by the sparks of fusion magic that occasionally formed inside the barrier with the mixture of dragon and monster energy. He could feel traces of the Hastega spell trying to escape the barrier with Lina's constant casting. Trusting in his own strength in a moment of rushed actions and confident pride, Xellos gave the barrier everything he had, making it so that anything that escaped from it was redirected at himself and didn't affect the others.