Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 65: The Wrath of the Forest

I yelled aloud as the lightning cracked overhead, the emotions pent up in my chest from my desperate escape finally released in a voice that echoed like thunder, the sound mana in the air roiling like the waves of the sea.

I breathed heavily, my blood dripping down with the water. My side hurt like hell, but now I wasn't running. My telekinetic shroud slowly reformed, the lull in the fight giving me much-needed time.

I turned around, looking straight down at the ground. My hair fell around my head in drenched locks, sticking to my face as I stared at the tree demons. The demons crowded around the base of the spire in a sea of white. Their beady blood-red eyes stared up at me from below, condensed fury churning inside them.

I yelled a primal battlecry down at them, adrenaline flowing through my veins.

That started the horde. They dug their fingers into the stone, climbing up after me in droves. I distantly thought they looked like ink flowing up a long pen, seeking to coat all in white.

I threw Promise with a telekinetic burst. The blade buried itself in the skull of a tree demon, cutting off its screech before the dagger wrenched itself free. Then, it swerved to the side, cutting at another beast and darting around under my control.

I conjured a sound grenade in my left hand, throwing it down at the approaching wave. When it detonated, all the scrambling creatures in the immediate vicinity lost their grips on the stone, tumbling off the spire and knocking more free as they fell.

But still, they came. Still, they hunted.

I ran my finger along the edge of Oath, making the blade sear. Whenever the rain hit my saber, steam rose as my fire mana rebuffed the water.

I threw a handful of fireshot at the beasts, the orange streak of solid flame punching through a dozen more. Promise darted around closer to me, ready to intercept any that got too close.

And they finally reached me, standing against gravity at the top of the stone spire. One of them lunged at me, its long, gangly limbs seeking to tear me apart. Oath severed its arm from the shoulder with a hiss, making the creature lose its hold and tumble back to the floor.

Another monster tried to circle around the edge of the stone, but a direction to Promise sent the dagger into its skull. I used a telekinetic push on another to dislodge its wooden fingers. It screeched as it fell, but whenever I knocked off one, three more took its place.

The creatures didn't bleed. Their wounds leaked a viscous red sap that coated my weapons and dulled their cutting edge. I had to periodically run a fire spell over the edges to burn away the refuse.

I was trapped on this spire, facing an unending tide of aether beasts. Though this funneled them into a more manageable space for me to fight them, I also realized that I had no idea how to survive this. Eventually, I would be overwhelmed by their sheer numbers. My mana would dry up, and I would be dragged into the horde and ripped limb from limb.

I danced around a lunging beast, grabbing it by its thin neck and using a telekinetic push to send it barreling into its compatriots. Oath came up in a quick arc, severing the head of another. I used the sharpened head to batter another away, then grit my teeth as claws raked over my telekinetic shroud.

I couldn't turn to my attacker as I was facing four more to my front. Instead, Promise rounded behind me, taking the beast in the head. In the meantime, I slammed my fist into the stone in front of me.

The sound spell–a derivative of my sonic clap spell–caused the slick stone to tremble as shockwaves traveled through it. The tree demons in front of me, unable to stay latched onto the earth, fell with a screech.