Hadrian’s icy vines wrapped around Marv’s protective cocoon; its surface pulsated with life.

The thorns attempted to dig into the spell, to put pressure on Marv from all sides, puncture his defence and wipe him out in one go!

“Die! Die! Die!” Hadrian cursed, his pent-up anger releasing all at once; his eyes were bloodshot as he controlled several vines at the same time, some slinging at his foe, while others instead tried to drill into him.

The cocoon began to deform under the pressure, “Keep defending! See how you’ll end up, haha!” Hadrian laughed while holding his belly.

The more vines that tangled around the cocoon the quicker all of its red colour drained from it, it looked like the thorns were sapping the blood, absorbing it into themselves.

Red lines wandered down the full length of the vines, replacing the white and blue that was inside before.

By the time the cocoon looked like a dried-up husk, and Hadrian’s smile had grown as wide as it possibly could, he raised all of the vines into the air, preparing to pummel Marv and his protective cocoon into a meat-paste in one fell swoop!

“Hah.” he exhaled, a satisfied tingling spread through his body, “You were a good punching bag. I’ll take the rest out on Reyna. Bye, bye.” Hadrian smiled and waved his hand, then pointed his finger at Marv, who had finally revealed himself, his cocoon opened up for him.

The icy vines moved, their red lustre shone ever so brightly, almost illuminating their surroundings, they came crashing down, a hurling sound could be heard as they parted the air on their way.

Hadrian’s smile froze, his eyes went wide as the vines struck their target!

There was just barely enough time to cast a defensive spell, but not enough for it to cover the whole body...

“Aaarrghh!” a bloodcurdling scream accompanied the sound of bones shattering from the impact.

Marv covered his ears as he stared at Hadrian, there was not a shred of empathy within him, he received what he had coming.

The icy skin that protected Hadrian’s upper body just now receded; he looked down to his legs, but all he could find was a bloody mess.

There was no feeling in his feet, in fact he felt paralyzed from the waist down, “H- H- ho- how?!” he stuttered, his lips were quivering, as all colour drained from his face.

Marv stopped covering his ears, “You died as you have lived Hadrian, full of arrogance.”

“NO! There is no way!” Hadrian shouted, he tried to raise his hand, to keep controlling the vines, but there was no reaction anymore.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?!” he roared at Marv.

Marv chuckled, “You look pathetic. It suits you. I’ll let you know since you are too stupid to figure it out yourself... My family specialises in blood magic, a sub-category of water. Do you think we could possibly be as proficient as we are without knowing anything about water itself?”

Hadrian gnashed his teeth as he held up his palm, forcefully gathering water particles-

Marv raised his leg, then stomped onto Hadrian’s hand, along with a pained grunt all of the particles dispersed again, “We combine our blood with water to create most of our spells. And you let my blood combine with your water.”

“And you call yourself a rank two mage? You are a disgrace.” Marv spat, then looked around himself, “Seems we attracted quite the crowd with our battle...” Treemen had already surrounded the two on all fronts.

Hadrian coughed, he wriggled and twisted on the ground, then grabbed both of Marv’s legs as tightly as he could, “You are not going anywhere!”

“You are asking for me to kill you!” Marv’s expression darkened as the Treemen closed in on him, he gathered more and more water particles, always combining them with droplets of his own blood.

Waves of red crashed into the approaching Treemen, just barely keeping them at bay, “Let go Hadrian!” Marv yelled, trying to free himself to just escape.

There was no point in staying here, Hadrian could fend for himself for all he cared.

Sweat ran down Marv’s face and body, trickling onto the earth below, he bit his lip as he sent out another wave, buying himself just a moment of time to look down and swing his hand, a bit of blood he held back moved according to his commands, stabbing into Hadrian’s hands and arms, “If you won’t let go! Then I will make you!”

The blades of blood dug into Hadrian’s skin, he cried out, but held onto Marv as tightly as he could, until he lost all feeling in his arms as well, he slumped to the ground, unable to support himself anymore as another cry escaped his throat.

“Bye Hadrian!” Marv said as he put his focus on a single Treeman, preparing to break through their encirclement.

His blood gathered in front of him, it formed into a big ball, then shot forward like an arrow.

The entirety launched itself at the Treeman’s chest-area, effortlessly penetrating into it, but Marv knew that just this was far from enough to destroy them, he stopped the blood once it struck the chest, then swiped his hands apart.

The blood mimicked his hands and spread into all directions, cutting deeper into the Treeman’s body, before bursting out on all sides.

Marv’s entire body was still tense, but he at least heaved a sigh of relief, he made himself small to fit through the gap in the circle of locals, surrounding himself with even more blood to act as a protective layer.

He held his breath as he continued to charge, simply focusing all his strength into his feet and all his attention onto the blood barrier.

Some of the Treemen around him began to sling attacks in his direction, while others continued rushing at the helpless Hadrian.

Marv didn’t look back, the world was better off with one less of his sort, once he was out, he would need to quickly catch up with and find Reyna and Frey, hopefully it was not yet too late...

His thoughts already drifted off, but he abruptly came to a halt again, as he ran face first into some awfully sturdy object!

The blood barrier had covered most of his vision, he tumbled a couple steps backwards, his hand was feeling his nose for any kind of damage.

He opened up a small gap to see ahead of himself, there shouldn’t have been anything in his path...

His eyes slowly trailed up from the ground, an awful feeling grew inside of his stomach as another Treeman towered in front of him.

Marv gritted his teeth and sprinted to the side, trying to circle around the Treeman and continue, but only shortly after he was knocked off his feet, flying backwards, then rolling across the ground to regain his balance as his vision was starting to spin.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

He propped himself up with one hand, the other wiped away the blood that came dripping out of his nose, “...There were... more...” his body began to tremble as he pushed himself to his feet, his self-inflicted blood loss was showing the first signs of affecting him.

The blood barrier lowered itself, a stream of red was spinning around him instead, ready to force his way through again, he could see the full area, there really was another wave of Treemen!

So many!

The feeling inside of his stomach worsened, this situation was far from normal... first there were no locals, not a speck, no sound, nothing that would indicate their presence, and suddenly they were getting overrun by them!

Marv’s frown grew deeper, “I need to get out of h-” his words got stuck in his throat, his mouth opened wide, but there was no scream, he just sharply inhaled, something had struck his back.

His body felt rigid, he tried to turn, to look over his shoulder, only to lock eyes with Hadrian, whose bleeding stump of an arm was raised, pointed at Marv...

The blood in Marv’s body began to boil, he tried to inhale again but found that he would be gasping for another breath right after, it felt like something was stuck in his back, stopping him from properly breathing.

His magic that circled around him stopped, it had just decided upon its next target, when Marv’s vision darkened; he turned his head, and tilted his body, but was far from evading the wooden fist that was accurately hurled at him.

Marv’s vision split in two, he landed on the moist floor headfirst, feeling like his skull had been struck by a hammer.

He clasped the spot he had been hit at with his hand, then used the blood that was pouring out of him to conjure up another wave to push away the Treemen that filled his sight.

“Arrgh! Urghahg!” high pitched and deafening screams filled the air, coming from Hadrian’s direction...

All of Marv’s limbs were trembling, blood had flown over his eyes, drenching his surroundings in a dark red, he once again forced himself to his feet, his knees were fighting against the urge to collapse, as the sound of something crunching and breaking warned him of what would happen to him, should he fail to use this chance to flee!

He tumbled left and right, no balance to speak of, the Treemen were closing in as Marv shredded the one that had knocked him down.

A mix of red, green and brown painted the pictures that would soon become his final memories, a last stand to survive just a little longer on this hellish plane, where humans were both friends and foes, even though their survival depended on each other's cooperation...

Marv felt his fingers go numb first, they were just getting pulled along by the movements of his hands at this point.

With each Treeman he cut down his vision became smaller, like a cone that was shrinking, the blood that was flowing down his entire body felt as natural as sweat.

His ears began to buzz, and his body was nearly moving on its own, as his mind was detaching from his limbs.

Every breath filled his lungs with blood, and every spell drained it from his veins, his split vision multiplied, more and more Treemen appeared to clog his vision, they looked like an insurmountable wall.

One of the Treemen managed to get through his offence, coming close enough to fight back, it raised its sturdy arm, the size of a tree trunk, and threw it at Marv.

Marv instinctively launched a bloody projectile against it, but there was not enough blood left to gather a decisive spell to harm the Treemen; its arm punched the blood apart, then struck Marv in the chest, knocking him to the ground another time.

He pressed his hands against the ground again, trying to rise, spit and blood were drooling from out of his mouth, he had no strength left to keep it shut.

Black darkness overshadowed the remaining colours, tens of Treemen towered over him, blocking out even the smallest speck of the white fog that used to surround him.

The buzzing in his ears was beyond loud, it was the only thing left he could hear, Hadrian demise was just an afterthought, it was silenced soon after it had started.

Marv’s body was numb, there were only a handful of places left where he could still feel, but he didn’t want to give up, he wanted to keep fighting until the end, to keep looking for a chance, to survive, because survival is the only thing that matters!

All of his non-existent strength was channelled into his arms, pressing against the earth to lift himself up above the ground.

The muscles all across his arms were convulsing, he didn’t even feel the strike that followed, he only saw that the dirt below was rapidly closing in on his face, as he flopped to the ground.

The cone that was his vision slowly eclipsed, the last bit of red that he could see now also turned black... he couldn’t feel the cold swamp that was his resting place, he couldn’t taste the blood that was building up in his mouth, he couldn’t notice the smell of iron, and he couldn’t see the swarm of Treemen that were his executioners... it was oddly peaceful.

But his body was still moving, even though there was no one left in control of it, even though there was no strength left in him, even throughout the trembling of his limbs, his body was still trying to rise.

“Rest now.” a cool breeze blew past him, whispering sweet words of comfort into his lonely ears, the buzzing was gone.

Marv’s body let go, the voice was alluring, he felt it could be trusted; he fell; fell onto a giant cloud that gracefully lowered him down.

The last few months had been horrible, everyone’s lives were on the line, so many were in need of his healing, and that number grew by the day, the responsibility that was forced onto him, to help Kassan, to help humanity survive... but now it was finally time... to close his eyes, and to take his well-deserved rest.

‘At last.’ the muscles in Marv’s cheeks moved ever so slightly, in an attempt to form a smile.

The peaceful wind that softly delivered him to the ground swept over the Treemen, leaving nothing in its wake, like a gale it ripped each and every one of them apart, tore the limbs from their wooden torso, and left naught but pieces behind.

A single man rushed through the freshly cleared fog, and knelt next to Marv, delicately picking him up; it was Daren, the rank three wind mage Kassan wanted him to wait for, whose hands quickly filled with dark red blood, “You idiot...” he whispered, then glanced deeper into the swamp, “Forgive me Lord Cykrus... Please survive, Frey!” he spoke as he rose with Marv’s body in his arms, he rushed off into the direction of their camp, the wind under his feet carrying the two away.

... ...

A small, condensed ball of fire appeared at the tip of Reyna’s index finger, it soared through the air, and incinerated the first Treeman it hit, before spreading to a couple others around the initial target.

They were trying to surround her, their numbers were mind-boggling, but that was nowhere near enough to stop her in her tracks, now that she was closer to her target than during the past couple of months.

She left a path of fire in her wake, before each and every spell her body shortly glowed in an orange and red hue, after which new particles appeared around her, but her fires only lasted for a few moments, before the humid swamp drenched them, and they burned out.

Wave after wave of Treemen turned to dust as they attempted to close in on her, but for some reason their numbers did not shrink.

Her brows furrowed, but there was no time to think too deeply on it, or to go and investigate, lest Frey manages to escape again!

As she cleared the way ahead of her, she also carefully observed the path she was moving on, Frey was resourceful, he had shown as much as earthen spikes shot out in front of her, or even tried to do so right below her feet.

None of them managed to hit their mark, but they got close enough, should Reyna lose focus for even a second, that she could fall prey to his designs...

“Shrewd guy... but why are none of the Treemen going after him?!” she cursed, for some reason none of them were trying to slow him down, there also wasn’t any sign of spikes or other earthen spells being aimed at the locals around them!

Was there no need for him to defend himself?

“Almost like back in the cave!” a memory resurfaced in her mind, “Tch. No matter! We will see who runs out of energy first, little guy!”

Another tiny ball of fire appeared within her hand, she focused her sight, her aim straight ahead of her, ignoring the Treemen to her sides.

Reyna flicked her finger, and the fierce spell was launched with a terrifying speed, it cut through the fog, and detonated many meters in front of her, clearing the air, and revealing her target’s charred back.

A smile returned to her face; Frey would fall into her hands at this rate…

The dispersed fog converged back in just a few moments, hiding Frey’s figure until the next fireball would be sent his way.

The silhouette of another Treeman appeared on her path, “It is futile Frey! Their kind cannot slow me down! Much less block me!” she roared, as a big bunch of particles gathered at the centre of her palm, she created a sizzling weapon that looked like a trident, then raised her hand in preparation to throw it, “Out of my way!”

The burning trident left her hand, and accelerated even further on its flight, as it collided, the darkness around them, as well as the white fog had vanished, replaced by the aftermath of her spell’s explosion, thick smoke and deformed earth.

Reyna continued to sprint in Frey’s direction but was launched backwards by a blow to her face!

She rolled through the dirt, covering several meters of distance before coming to a halt and getting up again.

Her back was arched as she ran a hand through her hair, her assailant, the Treeman she was sure had been decimated, was still alive and kicking… it looked odd, somehow sturdier than the regular Treemen, but it also looked different from the rank two variant; it wasn’t quite as bulky.

Intense green lines shone from within the creature’s bark, through the gaps in its natural armour, but for some reason that didn’t strike her as a weakness, rather, it gave her an ominous feeling.

“…Another variant we haven’t seen? To think it could survive a fully powered rank two attack…”

She glanced past the strange Treeman that was blocking her way, “Don’t think you will get away. I’ll finish this quickly, then we can continue our game of cat and mouse…”