Uncontrollable

Chapter Twenty-Eight

With a sigh, I sprinted up the stairs after Bruno and Vanessa. There was never a dull moment at the Base.

The hatch flew open before Bruno could reach to open it and an unknown female came sprinting in. She pushed past us and raced down the stairs, disappearing in a blur of hair.

"Go," Bruno commanded, standing aside to allow me and Vanessa to get out before him. 

"Thanks," I muttered as I passed by and pulled myself up into the forest. The wind around us was raging and the dirt was flying.

"What's going on?" Vanessa screamed above the commotion around us.

"Get to the edge of the force field," Bruno shouted back, not directly answering her question. We did as he said without a second thought. 

As I ran, dirt pelted me, slicing open my face and slamming into my chest. The wind against me was so strong that I was barely moving anywhere. The sun was shining, causing me to squint my eyes as I searched for the source of the disturbance of the wind and earth.

Suddenly, a jet of water shot out in front of me, aimed at my right. Because of the wind, instead of the water hitting it's planned target, it slammed into Vanessa and me in a blast of cold.

"Sorry," Bruno muttered, barely audible over the wind. I looked to my right, trying desperately to ignore the chill seeping through my body and the pain inflicted by dirt and stick slamming into my face. Standing completely unaffected by any of the elements was a man, a smile stretching from ear to ear. His cheeks and chin were inhabited by facial hair, his eyes glowing gray.

I summoned a ball of fire and threw it toward the man. It dissipated within seconds of being matched against the strong wind.

"We need to calm the wind down before we can do anything about him," Vanessa howled over the wind, her eyes trained on the man as if she was trying to mentally impose pain upon him.

I nodded.

"I have an idea; I just need a few seconds," I said, not sure if they could hear me over the wind. To my left, a wave of what looked like plant seeds went shooting toward Bruno, completely immune to the wind around them. They attacked Bruno, slamming into him with an unexpected force. Gashes were immediately opened on his cheeks and he was pushed to the ground by them.

A new urgency filled my body; I needed to calm the wind down or we would all be dead or too injured to fight. I squeezed my eyes shut and blocked out the sounds of the surrounding world, focusing only on my soul and energy, aligning them with the wind.

The wind responded to me, but it felt as if there was someone else on the other side of the wind trying to tug it out of my power.

I used my soul to pull as much of the wind as I could into my power and began scattering it in waves, causing the wind to dramatically die down.

I snapped my eyes open, a smirk playing on my face. Only a small breeze was left, although it was strengthening quickly.

The earth around us looked unsettled, but the man was not using it to attack us anymore. He had a shocked look on his face.

Taking advantage of his startled state, I used my distress and sadness because of my mother disappearing and sent it toward my fingertips. My body felt alive with magic as I thought of fire and released the stored up energy.

One large pillar of flame went spiraling toward the man, crackling as it went. They slammed into his face and torso. A scream of pain emanated from the man as his body was immediately enveloped in fire and heat. Through the flames I could see his face contorted in agony and his beard catching fire. He fell to the ground in pain.