//------------------------------// // Chapter 56 Behold my power (M) // Story: Spike the Knight // by vadram //------------------------------// Behold my power (M) The creatures themselves stood well outside of Kirabo’s field of view, but that didn’t mean he was unaware of their presence. Like any Elemental, a treant is a creature of magic, but unlike timberwolves they barely contain enough magic to stand out against the background magic of the Everfree Forest. This held especially true for young ones like this. But these were no ordinary saplings, they were enchanted, and to a degree controlled by Zecora whose magic could be felt flowing through them, making it easy for Kirabo to notice them as they reformed. Either that or he saw their shadows. “Much better...” Kirabo repeated, still smiling. He was overjoyed, finally the dance was coming to an end and the real battle would begin. And what's more it was Zecora who escalated the conflict, meaning that for one reason or another she wanted to end the fight. To Kirabo the reason seemed clear: if she hadn't started fighting seriously she would have lost. With a twisting slice from his sword he cut the three treants in pieces and took a couple of steps backwards. Zecora poured more magic into the ground below and thru the ethereal veins beneath her feet, veins that connected every living thing, it reached the scattered pieces of wood that once were treants. The ground shook again. The quake was weaker than the one that caused the elementals to appear but stronger than the ones before. Kirabo noticed that and knew something was coming, something bigger than a few measly saplings. From the six pieces of wood, six saplings rose and grew further, bigger than the ones he cut down had been. The seventh, the one that grew from the pod that had hit his cape, was charging him. “I see now they are multiplying. Well we can’t have that, can we?” The smile had not left his face. “And there is only one way to deal with wood elementals” His sword was passed from one hand to another, and his grip tightened. “You burn them.” A cyan spark appeared in his left eye. This got Spikes attention, as well as making Imamu raise an eyebrow. “It is starting.” He told the dragon perched upon his shoulder. Small strands of cyan smoke flowed from behind Kirabo’s cuirass, down his left arm, past his hand, past the rapiers handle, past the simple metallic guard finally resting on top the blade before being absorbed by the weapon making it glow a mix of cyan and pale blue. The six newly formed elementals were the closest to him and charged him at once, all of them launched their branches at him, preparing to fill him with more holes than could be found in a large changeling hive. Kirabo just lifted his left arm above his head, blade pointing downwards, holding it as one would hold a shield. A elemental does not feel any actual pain, just a feeling that something is not right, or that he may be injured, but not pain. But if they could they would surely have collapsed from it. As their branches drew nearer to Kirabo’s body they slowly began heating up before bursting into white and blue flames a few inches above his arm. Having protected himself from the attack he moved his sword to strike them down. As the blade moved through the air it left behind a trail of color, when the blade touched the bark of the treant, for a moment, all the color seemed to vanish from the swords blade and flowed towards the struck portion of the trunk. As did the branches, it exploded in a blazing inferno of blue and cyan flames, which engulfed the treant turning it to ash as soon as the blade exited on the other side. With five more swipes, all expertly chained together the creatures were defeat. The last of them, the one that wanted to charge him, the one that had Kirabo’s cape froze in place. If it wasn’t for the glowing holes that made up the creatures ‘eyes’ and ‘mouth’ it would have looked like any other weeping willow, a fitting name. For the first time in the creatures short existence it felt fear, terrible horrible fear. It wanted to run so badly, to run into the forest, find a patch of dirt somewhere where a few rays of sun would shine and never move again. But it couldn’t. When faced with certain death there are times when any creatures, be it made out of flesh or bone, ethereal magic, stone, wood or any other thing, simply freezes. This was one of those times. Kirbo dashed towards the creature, with his silvery blade in hand ready to strike it down. The hand moved and the blade followed. The treant prepared for death, and was surprised when it did not came, the blade had cut a piece of the cloak that the creature grew around. The piece fell to the ground and Kirabo picked it up and tucked it under his chestpiece. The creature tried to attack him but his blade turned blue again and with a swift strike cut the creature in two setting it ablaze, cloak and all. Zecora took this time to search for something in her saddlebag. When Kirabo was busy dealing with the final treant Zecora made her move. A brief gallop towards Kirabo and she blew some grayish powder into his face. He shielded his eyes but could not stop himself from inhaling some of it. He could not see that Zecora just drank the white paste that filled a half empty jar. He expected a lot of things to happen, but he did not expect to start yawning without feeling sleepy, and drooling excessively. Nor did he expect Zecora’s followup. Zecora jumped onto him, her cheeks were puffy, and pinned him again, placing herself on his chest keeping his hand stuck against his body. She was standing a little higher than last time so he had a harder time grabbing her. Now, instead of wailing on him with her hooves she waited. “What is she waiting...” He could not finish his thought that he let out a loud yawn. That was what Zecora was waiting for. With her hooves she grabbed the sides of his head, making sure he could not move his head. “What?” Spike yelled as he saw what followed. His eyes fixed at the scene that unfolded in front of him. A similar reaction was shared by Kirabo and Imamu, each of them with small variation. Imamu could barely hold back a wide and silly smile and Kirabo tried not to change colour. Zecora had lowered her head until her mouth touched with his. To all those watching it looked like the two were sharing an intimate moment, but Zecora’s intention was not that, instead she pushed the white paste she had been holding in her mouth into his. With the contents transferred from donor to recipient she held his mouth closed and waited for him to swallow before jumping off of him He got back onto his legs and unsure what Zecora did to him charged and tried to hit her with his sword. Zecora stood still. The blade touched the zebras mane, then passed thru it reaching her head, then passed through it and continued its move until it hit the ground. Along its way it met with no resistance whatsoever, no bone, no flesh no nothing. It was like cutting through air. “What the...” His head started pounding and his vision started getting blurry. “Zecora...” He said starting to wobble and swinging his sword at the air. “Why are you pink? Why is the grass looking at me funny?” with a slice of his blade he lit the area around him. “Take that grass. Ha, you thought you could laugh at me and... and... and get away with it?” He swung again at the air. “And why is the sky rainbow?” He was staring at the sky, drool flowing from his mouth. “And are those bubbles?” He asked twirling around. “They are pretty. I just want to pop them” His sword started moving poking imaginary bubbles. “I’m going to kill you bubble.”