The solid static caused his hand to shutter and shake. He tried to hold the mana back, but it was not something so easily tamed.

At least not now.

The slight advantage to having such a low amount of mana was the lack of spillage or roll over one would experience with a dual move like this. When affinities smashed together, it was messy business.

Most of the kids lacked any kings of dual affinities, but he felt sorry for the poor bastards born with a second affinity without the talent to take control.

He heard the heavy footfalls from the woods approach slowly, and saw the scarecrow walking up to Rhodney. Its large gord smile twisted its head into a sudo impression of skin. Squashing and stretching to create dimples, even though grods weren’t exactly… built for that.

Navy watched the creature's construct of an arm continue its pulse. Beating. Beating. Beating. Pulsing slightly as he got close to his “Father.”

Bright Green.

Just like Rhodney.

Underneath the three of them, Nav noticed pink light begin to peek out from beneath the ground. It shook and he widened his gate to keep himself from being knocked over. The roots seemed to ‘Somehow’ keep growing and take more space.

The ground around the tree had gone from uniform and perfect, each blade of grass the same size around it, to an utter mess. Just small islands of dirt slowly being elevated by thick PVC’s of wood.

His friends were already gone, taken beneath the earth while he was binded by the creature. On some level, Navy knew that this was some Rhodney stuff.

The boy’s magic was a problem and had caused them some issues so far, but at the very least, he hadn’t heard the crushing or crunching of bone or mass. He hadn’t heard or smelled the iron in blood. Nav’s nose was far smaller than it was before, but he had an idea.

Maybe the tree was trying to protect Navy’s allies? He had no idea where it stood, but considering he heard no screams or yells from beneath the earth, he could infer that the being hadn’t been hurting them beneath the—

He smacked his head.

Stop.

He’d been on a run again. This blessing is awful, he thought. The blessing was something of a— His mind kept trying to distract him, Focusing on anything other than the goddamn mission.

Why couldn’t she have just given him an actual capacity?

Luckily, in his stupor, the creature hadn’t moved. Navy just watched it stare down at Rhodney with a goofy look on its face. Absolutely no thought behind its eyes.

He watched as its arm beat over and over again. Navy willed his ball to stay small as his heart started to accelerate in its own beats. He quickly grew impatient as he waited for the beast to jump Rhodney.

Come on, what are you waiting for? He thought.

The creature clicked at the air, turning it’s head curiously as it looked at the imp. “Father..?” It slowly raised his giant hand up, and Navy readied to pounce at the beast.

Before it could make its way to Rhodney however, it noticed the size of it’s hand versus the size of Rhodney’s own head, hell, Rhodney’s own body.

“...Small.” It said,

The Scarecrow raised his hand in the air and Navy watched as arm and body twisted and changed. His lanky body and bulky arm changed in size; He pulled a ton of his long ribbon like grass into his body, changing the weight so that the ratio was flipped. A

bulky scarecrow revealed itself after the transformation, large imitations of legs, and a far less imposing three fingered hand.

He was still imposing. The beast was almost seven feet tall and still had that uncanny look, its gord and head were now far too small for it’s body.

But, why did it change?

The scarecrow’s hand was now long and skinny looking. Like the fingers of a musician for giant alien instruments, they moved far more delicately than when the beast had attacked Navy. It moved it’s long pointer finger toward Rhodney and—

Fwoosh!

Green electricity arched off the sleeping Imp and hit the scarecrow with energy. It hissed as it’s hand was burned by the irregular energy, spitting seeds at Rhodney’s face. But it didn’t run away.

Instead, the creature had new inspiration. It tested the waters again, gently trying to tap Rhodney’s face, and failed again.

It attempted this repeatedly, eventually getting blasted by a particularly large wave.

Navy watched, dumbfounded as the creature was thrown into the woods off of the parapet. Just ragdolled by the blast of plasma.

It screeched as it spun away into the darkness.

Then, just… silence.

…

Did it die?

Navy deactivated his blue flames. He looked down at the Rhodney, his eyes rolled back, and his long veins glowing in time with the pink tree like a couple of odd glowing sea fish. He looked over at the large stirring tree and asked,

“You can bring them out now.” He said, assuming the tree was a benevolent force,

And thankfully, he was right.

The roots roiled and rooted around inside themselves like looking for something lost, and eventually, perked up when they found the kids.The glowing root slowly raised the lesser imps into the ground by their ankles.

Hanging upside down, the lessers came up in better condition than they had been before.

He saw Torrent, Smokey, and…

“Uhh, I think you forgot one.” Navy said to the root.

But the tree just held up the other two closer to his face. “No, there was a little girl with them. You need to check again–”

“Ahhh! My eyes!” He saw Misty combat roll out the forest with a large plume of smoke trailing behind her. She rubbed her face and tears streaked down her face. “Did you deal with the dummy–Stars, this hurts…” She said, rubbing her eye’s.

“What were you doing in the woods?”

“I snuck off when you got tied up. I was going to attack the giant monster that was coming closer but,” She looked irritated, her eyes were really puffy, “Apparently, it was just him...”

He heard the instructors laugh roll through the forest. His confident yell, a deterrent. And his presence, an even bigger one. Navy finally relaxed, sitting on his bun as the giant minotaur walked up.

Nike rubbed the back of his neck and wasn’t holding onto his characteristic giant club that he wielded during the first few tests.

He was all banged up and had splinters all across his hair and face from running through the woods with no care for his own bodily harm. “Sorry lass, you shouldn’t have jumped at me like that. Next time annonce ye’self,”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

“To a random monster at night?” Misty asked, raising a decent point.

“...Fair,” Nike said, “I’ll make it up by showing you how to see better in the ‘ark, aight?”

Misty nodded, but her face was still puffy.

Navy motioned to Rhodney and the friends that were still dangling. “We should take them and get out of here,”

“Ah! Has the tree spirit called Rhodney? That’s an honor you know,” Nike said, knowing immediately what it was.

Older monsters were used to this stuff happening, watching it happen more and more as they got older and started to receive titles and blessings. And monsters who already had blessings would have an… amount of meeting with these tier four and five beings.

Still, while the old goat was older than him by a bit, Navy seemed to outclass him when it came to this knowledge. While blessings were inevitable, and communion was special,

He’d hardly call it an honor.

He’d hardly call it a privilege,

He was more biased and called it…

The curse of attention.

“I don’t care what it is,” He said bluntly, using the childlike guise to avoid any attempt at religious hogwash, “we have to meet back with everyone else,”

He was tapped out and didn’t like it, being tapped out and literally unable to protect his teammates. Nike rubbed his long beard and thought. “Aye, we should, but… problem.”

“Hm?”

They both watched as Rhodney disappeared beneath the roots.

Rh

“Cmon! Cmon!” Rhodney’s mana came out in large pulses as he tried again. The tree rooted him to the ground as he was blasted back the second and third time by his mana that probably didn’t have any need for kinetic properties… literally at all.

Nothing in nature's magic’s basic description had sci fi pulse waves in it, He frowned. That made it much harder, but in the presence of the being his mana finally charged like it was supposed to, and time, he realized, passed a lot slower or faster depending on the will of the tree.

The muffled, barely legible sounds of Navy in the background had become slow and now, completely unrecognizable as human.

Either the sounds were some kind of sway to keep him here, giving him the illusion his companion’s were ok, or were the actual truth. They just were.

He teetered on it back and forth. He was a cynic from life, but an optimist at heart. The tree didn’t feel evil. And as he pumped it full of his nourishing life juice, and its form started to come into its own, he felt it.

Crack,

Crack,

Crack!

Rhodney smiled and wiped the sweat with his non occupied arm. The hours of work were actually working.

…

Hopefully.

He’d made the administrative decision of letting the tree move the mana while he just boosted the vegetable. Taking a support instead of complete role once again. It felt much better and felt odd and oddly satisfying feeling the tree take deep gulps of magic.

The old being knew its body with the familiarity Rhodney would gain as with time. It knew the nooks, each cranie, and every knot it had to slink past to get to the center.

Rhodney took notes as he felt it swirl and move.

The energy swirled around its soul like an atom, spinning with thin rings as its long roots began to glow deeper and deeper.

CRACK!

The first long crack broke it’s way down the roots, and at the same time, he felt the wet mud around his shoes begin to tremble. “Is something wrong?” He asked as he continued to pump in energy, but the boy wasn’t met with any kind of answer or emote.

He was met with an action.

Rhodney yelped as the pulsing root wrapped tight around his leg. It was thick, and squeezed with a tightness that caused immediate pain and protest. “Ow! What are–”

In a swift moment so fast he couldn’t react, Rhodney was pulled into the deep marshes of mud and water. It was dark. It was cold.

Thick Roots began to wrap themselves around his thin body. He heard his bones and muscles begin to snap and pop as he began to scream, Long chords of energy wrapped around him.

Yelling beneath the mud, his throat began to fill. Brown bubbles floated out as his veins glow became too hot to endure. The creature was siphoning him. Sucking him like gas. Desperately, he tried to cry for help. He attempted to call in any language he could, for Navy, for his grandma, Nike, his father…

But no one called back.

He kicked and rocked against the chains of wood.

CRACK!

CRACK!

CRACK!

Suddenly, a voice. (Thank you for your help,)

As the lanky silhouette of the woman appeared in the sky, he felt the mud begin to become… more clear? Like water, it slowly began to change, going from completely opaque and dark to completely translucent.

Rhodney’s eyes glowed a bright white as he looked up at the forest of roots above him surrounding the woman like the crown on an angel.

(I can finally leave, Rhodney,) Her laugh was rough, her vocal chords not used to moving like this. Her body moved very similarly to his taking the movements he did. It seemed like mana wasn’t the only thing she had taken from him.

He screamed through the water against his better judgment. Pain filled his lunges as he yelled at the woman in rage. He felt the ocean of brown water shake. The person he was trying to help, who he put all this effort in…

He was naive.

She was just another adult.

(Do not worry, your capacity should be… mostly intact. You just won’t be able to use your irregular powers for quite awhile.) Long strands of pink danced in and out of her fingers. Her pink eye’s in her tall marionette-like body looked more alive then she ever had. (I’ve done it, after one hundred years… I’ve done it.)

He screamed as she embraced his glowing body, his vision becoming more and more faint. (I know you probably hate me right now… I’m sorry,) He felt her embrace become warmer, too warm, too hot, burning, Let me go.

(Let me leave you with a little something before we meet again, little imp. It’s only fair.)

Her hand glowed a burning pink. He cried out as the mark bubbled under the water. The mark was a brilliant sigil of a tree. The branding didn’t hurt as bad as the drowning. The drowning didn’t…

The drowning…

The…

Rhodney lost consciousness, and outside,

Na

Navy watched the tree shake and have thousands of cracks begin to run up its body as it swallowed Rhodney.

CRACKCRACKCRACKCRACKCRACKCRACKCRACKKCRACK!

The concussion of cracks broke out loudly into the night sky. Bright lines and cracks raced up the creature. The tree swelled and puffed as it cracked.

Right after he was sucked to the deep, the tree exploded into a puff of pink irregular energy. The dirt between all of them started to fall and desperately, tak space back as a giant gaping hole was left in the crater.

Nike grabbed all the kids and leaped away as the ground beneath them began to fell away. As he tried to grab Navy, the ground rumbling, laying on the floor, Navy saw him.

Rhodney.

Navy heard the minotaur scream as Navy ducked out the way before the leap. hurriedly he slid down to the center of the crumbling crater. Worried, he ran up to his unconscious friend.

A new symbol.

Besides the one on the back of his thigh, the boy had received a second blessing in the woods before the tree had disappeared. The beautiful image of a tree that had taken up his left entire pectoral. Some gods did symbols, some did poems, some just did words.

Hardly any chose images.

Navy carried the boy and desperately climbed up the collapsing dirt. Feeling the ground beneath him leave as the one hundred years old tree’s foundation had been destroyed. How far did the roots stretch down? He didn’t know, but in a panic he held Rhodney tight and dashed for the top as fast as his little legs could carry him.

There was at least these hives were good for something.

They clung to rocks, not slipping as he leaped from clump of dirt to clump of dirt, eventually landing on a jutting outcroping of rock as the rest slowly fell away.

“Navy…” Rhindney mumbled.

“Shh.” He shushed him, the boy had little strength to move. He looked messed up. And black hair had begun to grow on his bald head. Rhodney’s face was twisted in a look Nike recognized.

Betrayal.

“It’s okay… they’re gone now,” he told his fellow irregular.

He realized that the collapsing upside down dome slowly became something that he couldn’t climb with a second person.

He looked back and saw the underground start to peek its ugly head out onto the above.

Damnit.

“Rhodney, I'm out of mana, order me.”

The boy didn’t answer his command. Closing his eyes and looking barely lucid. “Hey… Hey!!” Navy smacked him, half because he was worried, half because he was angry.

He heard the sounds of the monsters of the deep starting to drag their way up. They wouldn’t survive five minutes down there!

“Rhodney… Rhod! Rhodney!” He slapped him and panicked as the abyss became so close. He could almost see the glowing yellow eyes of the monsters from the deep. Felt the fall before it even came. And grit his teeth and yelled with desperation,

“PLEASE!”

Rhodney’s eyes snapped open. His head turned completely unemotional in abscess, then he did what Nike asked. “Jump.”

Blood leaked from the boy’s nose as he pulled on his life force, giving Navy what he needed.

BOOM!

An explosion of blue and green as the two left the hole. Their kick off the ground destroyed the ground beneath them and destroyed the jutting outcropping of land in one fell swoop.

They flew.

They soared.

Then they crashed.