Tipping the Scales

34

Lukas' eyes were clamped shut as the rock shifted and crumbled on all sides. He pressed close to Ellis out of fear of being left behind and becoming entombed within the mountain, buried alive. It only took a few seconds to pass through the sheer rock before they emerged into a small passageway, but the experience shook Lukas to the core.

"I don't ever want to do that again," Lukas said, breathing heavily.

"We have a city to escape from," Ellis said. "You're welcome to walk around the central road network but I think the Ferlandian's will have something to say about it."

"Don't you know a secret way or something, where no one will find us?"

Ellis rolled his eyes, "why would we need to sneak around our own city? We can pass through the rock for that kind of thing." Ellis looked right and left. "The safest way out of the city is from the port, and we can get there with virtually no risk. You agreed it was the best option, did you not?"

"That was before I knew what wall shifting was," Lukas said.

"You ready for the next one?"

Lukas shuddered. "I'm still recovering from the first."

Ellis moved to walk off and stumbled. "That's weird."

"What's up?"

"I feel like I'm – weakening?" Ellis steadied himself, looking around for some sort of answer to his predicament.

Lukas noticed a faint trail of Ellis' mana flowing from his foot to the rock they had passed through. The feeble yellowed string was being slowly taken over by a deeper red mana emerging from the stone. Lukas recognised it immediately.

"You need to disconnect from the rock Ellis, quickly," Lukas stammered. He swiped at the trail to no effect.

"What is that?" Ellis' expression was taken over with alarm and confusion. "I can't pull away; I can't stop the stream."

Lukas watched fearfully as the malevolent, parasitic mana climbed towards Ellis' foot. Once it reached his body's mana network, he was done for. "I can try and break the flow, stay still." He tried to produce as small a concentration of shadow as he could – he needed to be precise. The remaining length of yellow mana was only a few inches long and closing. The dark mana burst into Lukas' palm, almost the size of his head.

Smaller, Lukas willed, I need to go smaller. He tried to reduce the size but the mana sputtered and failed completely.

"I don't know what you're trying to do, but you don't have that level of control yet," Ellis said, his eyes not moving from the snaking red mana, now seconds from reaching him.

"Screw it," Lukas said. He reproduced the head-sized ball of mana and thrust it against The Leech's encroaching magic. The red tendril flailed like a snake, protesting against Lukas' engulfing shadow. It fought harder than standard fire and earth magic had, as it struggled against its aggressor, but the battle went the same way – the shadow consumed it all.

There were crackles and pops as the last of The Leech's mana was devoured. The shadow spiralled in Lukas' palm for a few moments, filled with red streaks, before blowing up in a miniature explosion.

Lukas was thrown against the wall of the passageway whilst Ellis cried out in pain.

"Are you okay?" Lukas said as he regained his feet.