Flames of Fury

Chapter 37

Surprise 2nd update!

If you haven't read chapter 36, do that now!

I speed wrote this for all my people panicking out there so it's not edited yet lol.

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Magnolia

I could get used to this. Going off to fight, taunting my boys with the promise of naughty deeds to the victor. I'm not sure they realize that I'm including myself in this competition, and I fully intend to win.

My dad wraps an arm around my shoulders and teleports a few of us to the south caves ahead of the rest of our group. The earth elementals get right to work, shifting the rocks and stone of the mountain in search of a cave Ember circled on our maps.

"Queen Magnolia, over here." One of the elementals calls me over to a cave entrance on ground level. The cave isn't deep at all, only going back about twenty feet, but before the back wall there's a hole in the floor of the cave that drops down into another cavern below us.

My dad drops down into the hole, probably trying to protect me from doing it myself and getting caught off guard. But I'm a shadow walker, not him. He's at more risk than I'd be.

A few minutes later my dad flies back up into the cave. "This is it, it leads down into the Hollow behind the cells."

West side is ready. Ro's husky voice comes through our link.

East is ready. Varian's voice rings through after Ro's.

Neither of them mentioned Runidar's and Incandis' group to the North so I take that to mean that they're ready too.

South is ready to descend. Remember, let members of the resistance go free. Kill everyone else on sight, and leave Ian for me. I link back to Ro and Varian so they can pass on my message to the other teams.

Time to go.

Our dragons drop down, some wolves are teleported down while others slide down the tunnel in wolf form. Down below there's a narrow corridor that runs parallel behind the cells my father and uncle were kept in. We're rounding a corner that gives way to a wider corridor containing isolation cells and torture rooms when Varian's voice rings through my mind with urgency.

Stop where you are, the cave is flooded with poisonous gas.

I grab a bow from the closest quiver to me and hold the arrow by the head, poking the feathery fletching into the air in front of me. At the end of the hall where it turns once more to open up to the heart of the Hollow there's an imperceptible barrier that begins to burn and corrode the feathers at the end of the bow.

What a fucking coward, flooding the hollow with poison rather than fight us face to face. I throw a red flame into the space but it dies out quickly, having done nothing to dissipate the poison. I summon green flames that weave over and under through my fingers and wave my hand through the barrier that disintegrated the bow's fletching.

When my Fey fire makes contact with the poisoned air, there's an audible crackling and smoking as the poison is consumed and burned away.

Stand away from the entrances, I have an idea.  I link to Ro and Varian. I know that the message was relayed because the wolves in my group take three steps back from where they're standing.

With my hands pressed flat together, I generate more and more green flames that slowly encircle and encapsulate my hands. As I separate my hands from one another, a hole emerges within the sphere of flames, creating a large, thin circle of flames. I push the flaming circle away from me towards the tunnel in front of me and once the circle hits the poisonous barrier the circle snaps to the walls, ceiling, and floor of the cave, consuming the gas.