//------------------------------//
// Chapter 18: Battle between gods 
// Story: human of the everfree 
// by Aljazig 
//------------------------------//

"... no, thank you." I finished.

"Well, of course you would agree, after all, who would- " The dryad who was pacing stopped and focused her eyes on mine.

"What did you just say? Did you, a filthy animal just disagree with me?! The most powerful being on the planet?! The one who has the power to destroy the Sun?!" She was absolutely livid, as I thought. She was just trying to manipulate me to do as she said.

"Yes, I disagree with you. Personally I would rather not work with someone who sees me as an animal, that just needs sweet words to be persuaded." While I talked I was putting the finishing touches of my escape plan together.

But as they always say, no plan survives contact with the enemy. Except in this case, there was no contact, just a sudden blinding flash, followed moments later by a shockwave and a thundering boom. I probably lost consciousness for a few seconds and when I finally managed to blink the spots out of my eyes I noticed I was lying on the far side of the clearing, some 20 meters from where I was pinned by the dryads roots.

Looking towards the spot, where the dryad previously stood, all I could see was a dark green globe, that stood in the middle of a crater, at least 2 meters deep. The dome disappeared in a shower of green sparks, revealing the dryad, her face contorted inhumanely in her fury. She started yelling something towards the sky, but my ears were still ringing from the deafening explosion, so I couldn't hear anything. I wanted to move, but my body just wouldn't obey me, either from the physical trauma of accelerating from zero to a hundred, or because I broke my spine when my body hit whatever prevented me from being blown further back. 

As such all I could do, was observe as the dryad finished yelling and just stood there. That gave me the idea of using my magic sight. When I turned it on, I felt like puking my guts out as I looked at the monstrous amounts of magic the dryad was pulling from every plant around her. I tried to stop using it, but the amounts of magic going through my eyes stopped me from doing so, I wasn't even able to close my eyes.

Just when the pressure rose from physically painful to, oh my god I want to gauge my eyes out, make it stop, the dryad released all of that magic through her hands in a smooth beam of pure magic, only a few centimeters tick. But through my eyes I could see, that the magic in the beam was so tightly packed together, that I wouldn't be surprised if it collapsed into a black hole. The beam lasted only for a second, but whatever she was aiming for, was bound to have a gaping hole wherever she hit it.

At that point my body had finally decided that being able to move might be a good idea. But then it decided that it should probably activate my nervous system first, and I was genuinely surprised when I didn't immediately start screaming in pain. At the least I knew that one of my arms was broken, my other shoulder was dislocated, at least one of my ribs was broken and poking at my lungs, since it hurt whenever I inhaled too deeply, and one of ankles was either sprained or strained.

I felt like fainting was a good option, but as I closed my eyes I noticed flashes of light accompanied by muted sounds of explosions, that were the first sign of my hearing coming back. I fought through the pain to stay conscious, tilted my head just slightly upwards, and was pleasantly surprised when no new pain came, and strenuously opened my eyes to an incredible sight.

About 100 to 200 meters above ground, were three creatures, two, I believe Zero called them alicorns, and the dryad in a fight that truly displayed their superiority to any normal being. The white alicorn shone like the sun and wielded a giant gold one handed axe in it's magic, swinging at the dryad with enough power to blow away the clouds for miles. The dark blue alicorn looked like it was sucking in the light around it, producing a black spot in the sky, and held 5 black claymores in her magic, using them like remote controlled arrows that flew from one end of the celestial battlefield to another in an instant, always covering for the white alicorn if she overextended.

And then there was the dryad. She levitated in the air and didn't move an inch, yet none of the attacks from the two alicorns ever hit her. Then came the counterattack, she rose her hands so the each pointed at one of the alicorns and in an instant sent two devastating beams of pure magic flying towards them. The alicorns barely had time to get out of the way of the beam, when it imploded and then exploded with enough force that I, sitting on the ground, felt it.

Yet the alicorns seemed no worse for ware, than before the death beam and just continued their deadly dance. After all, sooner or later, the dryad will run out of magic and whatever she is using to protect herself will probably fail soon after. 

'Did I seriously think about revenge just minutes before? This is completely impossible! Fuck it, I am giving up on revenge if I get out of here alive. There is simply no fucking way, that I can even come close to that. I mean, the blue one is casting a spell, that would probably kill me the moment I tried to use it!' I thought, as the blue alicorn used magic to shot thunder bolts at the dryad through the swords.

'I have to get out of here and hide! But in this forest I will surely die with my wounds. I have to think of something!'

And so, I was desperately thinking of a solution to my problem as a battle between gods raged in the sky above me.