Mettan hung in the water.

He should be falling. He should be drowning, but he wasn’t. His Elemental should be falling apart, but it wasn’t. He looked at the water and that’s when he felt it. His blood.

There was power in blood. That was why dark mages use it for rituals. Why creatures from the Dark Legion fed on it. And why life binding contracts were signed in it. Blood had power.

Now his blood was mixed in the water of the Elemental. He no longer had to focus to manipulate the water. It was as natural as moving his own body. The light returned to his eyes as he shot back up through the Elemental. Tentacles shot out of his Elemental and connected the other three Water Elementals. Each one tried to move away, but they were no match for him. He was in control now. Mettan used the extra water to push back the Earth Elementals. The Earth Elementals resisted as he pushed them. They were able to root themselves in the ground, but they weren’t able to do anything else.

The Fire Elemental turned from Mettan and made a dive at Paige and Caleb. Mettan jumped out of the Elemental and landed in front of his students. The bulk of the Water Elementals wrapped around the Fire Elemental. Sealing its flames inside a watery grave. The water tore the Fire Elemental apart, silencing its screams for good.

Mettan looked over at his students. Paige had finally passed out. She was draped over Caleb protectively. The gesture brought a smile to his face. That was something that would never be seen from an Elf.

The sound of whistling rocks brought Mettan back to the fight. One of the Earth Elementals had managed to get and arm through the torrent of water and was shooting rocks at them.

Mettan pulled the water in towards them and began spinning it. The globe around them was ten feet tall and five feet thick. As more water merged the globe doubled in height and thickness.

Mettan kept spinning it faster and faster. The Air Elemental got caught by the edge. It exploded into a mass of bubbles that were quickly dispersed through the swirling globe.

The globe washed over the Earth Elementals. The churning tide began to whittle away at the titans. Mettan kept the water spinning faster and faster. Each turned shrinking the Earth Elementals more.

After the Elementals had been reduced to mud, Mettan dropped the globe. The Cruisers were landing about a mile away. A big globe of water would be a quick way to attract a Dark Legion scout.

Mettan crouched down and checked Caleb’s neck for a pulse. It was weak, but there wasn’t any danger of him dying in the next hour.

Mettan noticed that there was still water on his arms. He brushed the water off, but it clung to his arm. That’s when he felt it. It wasn’t just water that was concentrated with his blood. It was his Elemental leaking out. His Elemental was hanging off of him like a coat. All of those cuts had leaked too much blood. He wasn’t just bleeding out into the Water Elemental; he had been dying into it.

Mettan closed his eyes. He began mentally pulling the Elemental back into his body. An Elemental was part of the Elementalist’s soul. If his Elemental tore completely loose, he would die.

The water began to soak back into his ebony skin. The more he pulled back in, the more fatigued he became. He was exhausted, but he couldn’t afford to pass out yet. The Dark Legion was less than a mile away.

A blast of wind hit him in the back. He almost fell over. His focus snapped and he started bleeding again. This time it was just blood, but he couldn’t afford to lose much more. He was already lightheaded.

Mettan pulled himself up. The second wind blast knocked him to one knee. He tried to grab some water, but he had already used his power too much. He turned around. He had forgotten about one Air Elemental.

The last Elemental circled around him. He knew that he wasn’t its first target. It wanted Paige.

Mettan stumbled in between Paige and the Air Elemental. He pushed past the pain, the exhaustion, and the fog. A dozen handfuls of water rose off of the ground. It wouldn’t stop the Air Elemental, but he didn’t care. He stared defiantly at the fifteen foot column of air. It screamed like a hawk, tucked its arms and dove.

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Mettan pulled his arms together. The dozens of handfuls of water splashed against the Air Elemental. Each broke apart and surged through the column of Air.

Mettan set his feet in front of Paige. He knew he was about to die. His Elemental was so close to being released, there might be a chance it could kamikaze itself in the Air Elemental before it killed Paige.

Mettan stared at the speeding column of death. Water began building up on his body again. His Elemental was begging to be released.

The Air Elemental jerked to the side as a big red Dragon wrapped around it. The Dragon slammed it into the ground, scattering the air across the lawn. The gale tore towards them, picking up dirt as it charged.

The air split around them. Mettan sank to his knees. He could finally allow the exhaustion wash over him. Ever y cut on his body, every bruise, all the stress came washing back as his adrenaline subsided.

Kark caught his cousin, before he hit the ground, “Triftion! We need help!”

Andrew ran over with Alex under his arm. He dropped his brother beside the other humans and knelt down next to Mettan. His hands slowly moved over the Elf’s dark skin.

Every cut sewed back together. Every bruise faded. Mettan was still tired, but he didn’t hurt like he had just a few seconds ago. Now he felt like he was going to live.

“Better?” Andrew asked

Mettan nodded. Andrew had fixed his body, but he hadn’t mended the uniform. It was still torn in over a hundred places. The uniform would fix itself, it was just going to take a while.

Mettan looked over at the unconscious humans. “Caleb needs help.”

“I’ve got it.” Andrew slid over and placed his hand on the older man’s forehead. It was amazing to watch Andrew heal people.

Mettan turned to Kark, “Stilas?”

Kark pointed at a blaze across the lawn. It was burning brightly, “I enchanted it to burn through the night. He’s gone.”

“Feletis?”

“Alex killed him.” Kark knelt down and rolled Alex over. There was a big hole in the back of his uniform that the bolt had melted. A swirled scar the size of a fist marred the skin in the center of the hole.

“He died?” Mettan asked

Kark put his finger to his lips. His eyes flickered towards Andrew, “Later.”

“I’m going to fix that.” Andrew was working on Paige, “Once I get done here.”

Kark nodded and rolled Alex back over. He lifted Alex’s right arm and inspected the bite.

“That will never heal,” Mettan stated. His right shoulder started burning, reminding him of a scar that he had received from a WerePanther. The skin would heal, but it would never feel the same again.

Kark glanced at Andrew, “I know.”

A trio of fighters flew overhead. Kark reflexively cast a shield around them. It wouldn’t be long until the Dark Legion troops came over to investigate.

“We have to go,” Mettan said.

Kark closed his eyes. In a flash, they were in his projection room on Atlantis.

“What are you doing?” Andrew spun towards the Elves, “We have to go back! We have to stop this!”

Mettan put his hand on Andrew’s shoulder. The gesture stopped any other words.

“Zeus?” Kark prompted

Zeus motioned at the wall. Four screens popped up. Dumas and Xannah were displayed on two. The other two showed nothing but Dark Legion troops.

“The twins are dead.” Zeus motioned at the screens. One twin’s body was lying face down in the street. Huge gashes on the side of her neck where the Ogre Vampire standing over her had drained her of her blood and her magic. The other twin was gone. His body had been burned to ash by a Silver.

“The Warden and Lyst…” Kark’s voice trailed off

“There was a Dark Master here,” Dumas shot off a blast. There was an explosion in the background, “He’s not here anymore.”

“I vanquished a Dark Master as well.” Xannah unleashed a cone of fire. Vampire lit up, then quickly turned to ash, “It was nothing special.”

“Get what is left of your charges and get back here.” Kark ordered, “It’s over.”

“I can still fight!” Andrew shrugged off Mettan’s hand and moved in front of Kark, “I’m supposed to destroy the Dark Legion! As long as I can fight, it’s not over!”

The four screens merged together into an image of Earth that appeared in front of them. Red spots formed appeared in twelve places. Only three of the dots were shrinking the other nine were spreading out.

“Earth is lost.” Kark said, “You can’t fight at every one of these places. There are too many of them.”

Andrew started to say something, but there was nothing to say. They were overwhelmed.

Mettan walked up behind Andrew and put his hand on the Triftion’s shoulder, “You can fight later.” He motioned to where Alex was lying, “Your brother needs you now.”

Andrew looked at his brother’s wounds. He wiped a tear from his eye, “Yeah. I can fix those.”

Andrew picked Alex up and headed for the stairs, “I’ll be in his room.”

Mettan watched the human leave. “Could the Prophecy be wrong?”

“It never says when.” Kark shrugged, “It’s not today.”