The Magical Kingdom remained eerily quiet and unsettlingly peaceful as the meeting in the war room raged on. Without the normal traffic of wizards and mages running around, the serenity of the forest sueded a couple of the remaining guards to doze off. As one of the guards slept restfully at his post, Mark, Valin, Rudy, and Hunter snuck up to the bottom of the wall.

The guard heard a clanging metal noise and was jolted awake in his chair. Confused, he shrugged it off and tried to go back to sleep. He didn’t think much of it until he heard it again. He looked over in the direction of the sound and saw a hook being thrown up into the air, only to bounce off of the side of the wall. He got up out of his chair abruptly to watch it being thrown again, this time attaching itself to the top of the wall.

The guard peered over the ledge of the tower his post was located, as he tried to control his drowsiness. He watched as the four of them climbed the precarious rope up the wall. Recognizing Valin and Rudy, the guard rolled his eyes and grudgingly climbed down the stairs of his tower as the group reached the top of the wall.

“See that wasn’t so bad, I got it only took four tries,” Hunter stated sarcastically as he pulled the rope up from the side of the wall.

“Yeah but…” Valin started to speak when she noticed the guard standing next to them on the wall, with a whistle in his hand. She blatantly froze and calmly tried to persuade the guard, “Marvin, let’s talk about this. If you let us go, we will let you have first dibs on the crystals we gathered.”

Marvin stood there for a second contemplating what Valin had offered him, considering his options. Remembering they had awakened him from his peaceful nap, he proceeded to blow the whistle anyways. The group started to run in the opposite direction but were unable to make it in time. Within seconds, guards from the other towers used a teleportation spell to appear in their exact location, surrounding the four of them.

They were swiftly apprehended by the tower guards before they could even contemplate rationalizing with them. Their weapons, satchels, and equipment were forcefully confiscated on the spot by Marvin and another guard while the remaining guards arrested Valin, Rudy, Mark, and Hunter. The group were shackled at the wrists and ankles with heavy iron chains and locks, immobilizing them. The tower guards then shoved them and started to take them down to the courtyard of the Magical Kingdom. The entire way down the stairwell the group hung their heads down in shame as they continued to get pushed and shoved by the guards.

By the time they had gotten to the bottom of the stairwell and out into the courtyard, the group of wizards and mages from the war room were emerging from the inner castle, both concerned and curious at the commotion. As the guards marched the group to the middle of the vast green courtyard, Marvin and the other guard took their confiscated belongings away to another larger guard tower.

The four of them were then thrown to the ground as they were surrounded by the angry mob, who were shouting and demanding answers from them. Deep in the crowd, the Mage of Darkness was pushing and shoving his way through. When he finally made his way to the front of the crowd, he looked down to see the shackled group sitting on the ground being bombarded with questions and accusations.

The Mage of Darkness sighed deeply before speaking, his voice being a loud outlier of the mob, “And just when I thought you two may be a great asset, you do this.” He started pacing around the group, and the more he spoke the louder his voice became. “Why the hell would you think sneaking out of the kingdom would be a good idea?”

The group stayed silent after the wizard asked his question, looking at each other with concern. None of the four wanted to be the one to speak on behalf of the accusations being thrust upon them. Hunter then stood up to speak but was interrupted when the Lightning Wizard emerged from the crowd.

“Don’t test me, Harry,” the Lightning Wizard said sternly to one of the wizards he pushed past the mob. He gestured with his hands making sparks of electricity to threaten the annoyed wizard. He then turned around to the group to see them being confronted by the Mage of Darkness. He scoffed before speaking, “I explicitly told you to gather the crystals without being caught, now look what you’ve gotten yourselves into.”

“Wait you put them up to this?” The Mage of Darkness exclaimed vociferously as he turned to the Lightning Wizard.

“Well yeah, I sent them to get Blood Amethyst for us,” The Lightning Wizard said casually as he was approached by the enraged Mage of Darkness. “I wasn’t just going to give them the Magic power tablet so I sent them to prove themselves.”

“Are you insane?” The Mage of Darkness screamed at the Lightning Wizard, flailing his arms around in disbelief.

“A little bit yeah,” the Lightning Wizard responded softly. He looked at the group, who looked back at him with shameful looks. He then spoke up, “They weren’t supposed to get caught, so they failed their quest.”

“Are you kidding me? We almost died in those caves for you!” Mark exclaimed loudly as he tried to abruptly get up, but was stopped by the chains. “We even got more crystals than you wanted us to grab!”

“I don’t care, you failed your quest,” the Lightning Wizard responded sternly as he turned back toward the Mage of Darkness. Mark was about to interject but was stopped by the Mage of Darkness’s roaring voice.

“You sent them to the Blood Caves? They could have died you idiot!” The Mage of Darkness raged, readying himself to slap the Lightning Wizard. He instead took a step back and took a deep breath before speaking again. “I will deal with you later. Right now we need to expel these two from the Kingdom and form battle plans for when the Soul Taker does inevitably show up.”

The Mage of Darkness snapped his fingers in a glorified fashion. Two of the tower guards behind the group grabbed Mark and Hunter, starting to drag them away.

“Hey let us go! We only did what you asked us to!” Hunter yelled as he resisted being dragged by the tower guard.

“Mark!” Valin shouted as she tried to run towards Mark. The shackles around her ankles stopped her and she fell face-first into the dirt.

“Let us go!” Mark objected indignantly, pulling back on the chains the guards were using to drag them.

As the four of them were distracted by the new development, the Mage of Darkness turned to the Lightning wizard.

“Do they like each other or something?” The Mage of Darkness whispered to the Lightning Wizard, watching the group being split apart.

“You tell me, she’s your apprentice,” The Lightning Wizard commented jokingly as he turned to walk away.

Suddenly, an obscene screeching whistle interjected itself throughout the loud mob, silencing and stopping everyone abruptly. The arduous whistle was projected from a tower guard, but it was cut off quickly. Everyone in the courtyard looked up in the direction of the sound and saw a sudden blur of movement. The tower guard at the top of the wall was thrown off and plummeted to the ground grimly.

Everyone stayed speechless, as they watched a dark figure slowly look over the gap in the wall to see the wizards in the courtyard frozen in fear and terror. A mysterious soldier, a suit of armor set alive by a cloud of plague, stood at the top of the wall and blew a crudely sounding horn. The Magical Kingdom was under siege.

The throng of magicians in the courtyard had their fight or flight response challenged. The elders ran towards the danger as dozens of plagued creatures and humanoids started to pour over from the top of the wall. Some of the apprentices followed behind the elders, and a majority of them ran for the castle. The tower guards dropped Mark and Hunter and sprinted towards the elders running for the wall. Mark and Hunter were left defenseless in their shackles as the onslaught grew closer.

•

The Lightning Wizard pushed through the crowd as terror and a hibernated fighting spirit started to flow through his veins. His anger grew deeper as he approached the front line. His fellow peers stood there boldly, with their magical staffs firmly gripped and aimed toward the enemy. The Lightning Wizard’s outrage took over as his body started to be enthralled with electricity. He took this opportunity to be the first to attack, the approaching horde.

He shifted his feet deeper into the grass of the courtyard and leaped into the air with a strong and abrupt velocity. As his body swiftly sped through the air he continued to gather a large charge of electricity behind him. His eyes started to glow as his power grew. The further he ascended into the air the larger and more powerful his charge became.

The atmosphere around him became incredibly dense and thick, forming a slight smog. As he reached the apex of his jump, he released his charge in a torrential tornado of wind and lightning. His wall of terror ripped through the bodies of the corrupted creatures as they attempted to approach the group of spell-casters that remained in the courtyard.

Ultimately his attack stunned the horde and swept a majority of them in every direction, throwing them back over the towering castle walls. The blast was followed by a loud clap of thunder, which shattered the eardrums of many. As the tornado started to subside, the Lightning Wizard started to gracefully plummet back to the earth. However, was met with an arrow to his shoulder from a sneaky archer flying in the air beside him. The arrow knocked him back as he fell to the ground, changing his trajectory. He crashed to the ground with a bang, as he used what little charge he had left to shield himself from the fall.

A group of archers appeared from the top of the wall and started flying arrows at an alarming rate toward the group that stayed to protect. The Mage of Darkness and the tower guards stepped forward from behind the elders in the front line and cast a spell to create large glowing shields of dark magic to protect everyone from the downpour of arrows.

The Lightning Wizard was met with aid from some of the elders in the front line, who rushed to help him up. They watched as the flock of arrows penetrated the massive shields. The projectiles dissolved on impact, but the shields got smaller as a result. After the sea of arrows had passed, the Mage of Darkness and the tower guards stepped back, and six other wizards stepped in front.

These six mages each had their own abilities and spells that they have spent their lives training and perfecting. The first of the six to attack was a well-known wizard known as the Cinder Wizard, whose robes were embroidered with flames and gave off an iridescent flair. He reached into a satchel and grabbed several small blocks of wood, then proceeded to ignite them with his hands. He started to juggle them around until he had a ring of twelve fiery projectiles circling around him.

The wizard took a deep breath in and breathed out with fire, causing the enflamed cinders around him to grow larger and more powerful in strength. He gestured his hands to fling the chard blocks towards the approaching horde, nailing and not missing a single shot. When he was out of ammo he smiled and screamed at the enemy prematurely, “Nobody messes with the Cinder Wizard!”

“Don’t get cocky Cinder,” a much older mage advised the young wizard as he stepped forward, clutching a very old and tattered book. He was known throughout the castle as the Mage of Wisdom, a bookkeeper who took care of the spell books in the castle’s vast library.

“Nice try old man, I would like to see what you’re going to do with that old book of yours.” The Cinder Wizard responded arrogantly as he started to ignite more wooden blocks from his satchel.

The old mage scoffed at the Cinder Wizard’s ignorance. He opened the book and cast a spell, causing the pages in the book to flip from page to page, increasing in speed. The old mage smiled and then moved his hand over the book. Pages started flying from the book toward the enemy at very high speeds, slicing through the creatures with incredible accuracy. The Cinder Wizard stood back, impressed.

“I have to admit, I underestimated you,” The Cinder Wizard said presumptuously to the Mage of Wisdom as he started to juggle the blocks of flaming wood.

“Never underestimate the bookkeeper, you should also get that ego of yours checked,” The old mage said smugly as he continued to fling pages from his book toward the enemy.

“Poking fun at Cinder without me I see,” another wizard chipped in as he joined the others on the front lines. The Mage of Wisdom turned his head towards this wizard and shook his head.

“Took you long enough to get here,” The Mage of Wisdom proclaimed as he continued to hold back enemies with his book.

The Voodoo Master, a gothic spell caster, stepped forward and opened the large box he carried with him in one swift movement. Inside the handcrafted box were dolls, some completed, some half-made, and some blank. Needles stuck out of these dolls, and rolls of thread deep inside the capsule.

“You know this box is heavy, and that I don’t have the ability to levitate.” The Voodoo Master joked as he reached inside the box. He pulled out a needle, and mimicked attaching a thread to the needle, then pulled as a vibrant red thread of magic appeared from his clenched thumb and index finger. He then grabbed a blank doll from the box and looked up at the battlefield around him, with arrows flying and spells flying in every direction.

“Considering there are a lot of you, I’ll do a very basic spell,” the Voodoo Master told himself smugly as he stuck the needle into the blank doll and sewed words across its face and chest in a very speedy manner. After he was done he jammed the needle into its head and he sprinted straight towards the enemies. He leaped into the air and chucked the doll against the ground, causing it to explode in a large shockwave of red magic.

All of the mysterious creatures in the immediate area stopped in their tracks and were dragged to the ground by the red thread that appeared up from the ground. The Voodoo Master landed on the ground then pulled out a machete he had on his back and swiftly slashed all of the creatures affected by his spell. The Voodoo Master stopped and chuckled at what he just accomplished, but was then immediately struck in the chest by a mysterious warrior wielding a sledgehammer.

The Mage of Wisdom immediately turned his attention to the Voodoo Master, with concern, shifting his attack to the warrior that struck down his comrade. In this distraction, an archer struck him deeply in the arm with an arrow, causing him to stumble down. The Cinder became overrun with immense guilt for not immediately helping, but he didn’t have time to react, as he was surrounded by a large onslaught of creatures.

•

Meanwhile, amongst the savage attack, Valin and Rudy remained shackled and in the same place they were in before the attack, abandoned just like Mark and the Hunter. Valin grabbed a pin she had in her hair and started messing around with the lock in her shackles. “I almost… got it…” Valin trailed off as she kept moving the pin around in the lock.

“That small hairpin isn’t going to…“ Rudy tried to say before they heard a loud click. Valin removed the pin from the lock and took off the shackles from around her wrists.

“Aha! I got it! And you thought I wasn’t going to get it,” Valin said to Rudy in a snarky tone as she shook the shackles in front of his face.

“Great, now get mine off,” Rudy requested in a snarky tone as he held his out hands towards Valin.

“On it!- Ack!” Valin stepped forward to remove Rudy’s shackles but fell to the ground again because of the shackles around her ankles. “Oops, I should probably get these first.” She said in an obvious tone as she put the hairpin into the other lock.

Rudy rolled his eyes and spoke regretfully to himself, “I can’t believe this is how I will die, being shackled to the ground as Valin struggles to free herself.”

“Hey now, be more patient. Besides, those… things are preoccupied,” She told Rudy as she succeeded in unlocking the shackles around her ankles. She then scurried over to him and proceeded to attempt to unlock his shackles. After a few minutes, she was able to pick the locks around his hands and ankles.

“Thanks, Valin,” Rudy said as he rubbed his hands where the shackles were. Valin and Rudy looked around the immediate area viewing the chaos that was ensuing. “Where is Mark and Hunter?” Rudy asked, now looking around more frantically.

“There!” Valin shouted promptly and pointed in the direction that the duo were in. They started to sprint in that direction as Mark and Hunter laid on the ground struggling to pry the shackles off of their limbs.

“Damnit we need… to… help…” Hunter uttered as he struggled to remove the shackles from his wrists.

Mark was also trying to pry the shackles off, but then he looked up and saw Valin and Rudy running over to them. Valin reached Mark first and started to work on unlocking his shackles. After a bit of effort, Valin was able to unlock Mark’s shackles. She then hugged him tightly, causing Mark to blush.

“Valin…” Rudy said in a condescending tone.

“Oh right, I’m sorry Hunter,” Valin apologized embarrassingly as she stopped hugging Mark and ran over to Hunter to pick the locks on his shackles. After a few seconds, Valin was able to get the shackles off of Hunter swiftly because she had gotten used to the process.

“There you go!” She said as she backed away from Hunter.

“Alright, we should probably join the party, it doesn’t look like it’s going well over there,” Hunter stated worryingly as he stood back up, rubbing his wrists from the shackles. The group looked over at the battle, watching the rainbow of colors from the mages and wizards, as well as the large mob of corruption, with more still pouring over the wall.

“They still have our stuff. We would be defenseless! How can we join the fight if we don’t have anything to contribute?” Mark exclaimed irrationally, standing back up.

“They put our stuff in the guard’s chamber which is…” Rudy trailed off as he looked at the wall. He pointed at the tower in the wall which Marvin had carried their stuff to just minutes before the siege. He continued in a partially rushed tone, “There. Our stuff should be in there, and with everyone distracted, we can slip in and out without anyone noticing or caring.”

“Sounds like a plan, let’s go,” Hunter said sternly as he started to walk towards the tower. The group followed, with their walk quickly transcending into a sprint.

•

The Mage of Darkness called the tower guards to move to the front lines after the six mages were succumbing to their enemy’s grotesque battle strategy. As the tower guards were running forward, the Mage of Darkness looked over to where Valin and Rudy were supposed to be, only to see the shackles left behind. He then frantically looked around and saw Valin, Rudy, Mark, and Hunter all running toward the main guard’s tower. The Mage of Darkness sighed and spoke to himself, “They’re going to get themselves killed one of these days.”

The injured and exhausted wizards on the front lines retreated as the tower guards cast the shield spell once again, but this time the Mage of Darkness went in for a separate attack. He boosted himself into the air and used dark magic to keep himself suspended. Similar to the Lightning Wizard, he charged up his attack. In doing so, the entire Magical Kingdom grew darker. He used the setting sun to his advantage. The shadows became deeper and the sun in the sky started to grow dimmer. A large swirling violet cloud formed around the Mage of Darkness, and only continued to swirl faster as it increased in size.

The sky around them continued to grow exponentially darker until there was no natural light left in the Magical Kingdom. When the sun became null, the Mage of Darkness attacked. He released a spiraling blast of dark magic from the cloud around him, swallowing up every enemy in its path. This colossal stream of darkness smashed a large group of corrupted creatures against the castle wall before the cloud around the Mage of Darkness dissipated. As the cloud dissolved, the dwindling natural light returned to the Magical Kingdom. The Mage of Darkness then slowly started to descend from the sky.

A very swift knight who avoided the blast leaped from the walls surrounding the castle to the roof of the fortress before lunging himself at the Mage of Darkness, driving a knife deep into his abdomen. The Mage reacted, pulling the knife out of his sleeve and stabbing the knight in the neck. Both the Mage and the knight fell to the ground abruptly. The Mage of Darkness slammed against the grass in the courtyard, shattering his ribs, but not enough of a collision to kill him. A couple of the tower guards abandoned their posts to help the Mage of Darkness. In doing so, the wizards were open to an attack. The Mage of Darkness’s attack was all in vain as the sun finished setting beneath the horizon.

•

The group continued to sprint across the courtyard to the main guard’s tower, hugging the wall in an attempt to not get spotted by anyone. They opened the door and quickly dashed inside the tower, with Rudy shutting the door behind them. The group sighed with relief before Mark broke the silence.

“Do you think anyone saw us?” Mark asked calmly as he started his way up the stairs. Valin and Hunter followed close behind him.

“There’s a chance, but they’re pretty preoccupied at the moment so I don’t think they would entirely care,” Rudy replied, being the last to walk up the stairs.

“Mark, why are you leading? You have no idea where we are going,” Hunter exclaimed, stopping on the stairs, which caused everyone else to stop.

“You know, I didn’t entirely think about that,” Mark responded dumbly, turning around to talk. “Would the guard’s chamber just be up these stairs?”

Rudy and Valin turned to each other and Rudy chuckled before speaking, “You’ve never been in a magical castle before and it really shows.” Rudy politely pushed past Hunter, Valin, and Mark so he could lead the way. He started to continue his way up the stairs as he spoke, “Putting the important rooms of the castle in very obvious spots puts our security at risk, hence why we had to lead you to the vault.”

“The important rooms are either really difficult to get to or are hidden behind secret passageways. That’s why many mages here know the teleportation spell. However, some people, such as the Lightning Wizard or us, don’t have the ability to perform the spell.” Valin pitched into the conversation.

Mark turned to Valin, “What exactly do you mean by ‘don’t have the ability?’”

“Well…” Valin trailed off, not knowing how to answer the question.

“Everyone who resonates with the Magic element is different. Everyone is born with different abilities, some similar some not. We first learned how to channel our magical ability through spell books, then expanded our knowledge through further research and practice. At a very young age, we learned many basic spells, so we could distinguish what abilities we hold. For example, the Lightning Wizard is able to conduct lightning, but is unable to teleport.” Rudy explained as he continued to walk.

“Or how the Cinder Wizard can control fire but not his ego,” Valin joked brazenly.

Rudy started laughing as he continued to walk up the stairs. “Alright, it’s just a little bit further,” he told them while still laughing a little.

Rudy then stopped on the stairs abruptly, looking at the wall. Hunter and Mark looked at Rudy confused about why he had stopped. Before either of them could say anything to Rudy, he pushed on a brick in the wall, causing a doorway in front of the group to open up as the bricks folded inward. Flabbergasted, Mark and Hunter walked in first, perplexed by the sheer size of the room, wondering how such a place could exist.

“Cool right,” Valin said to the duo as she walked past them. “The chamber was built inside of the castle wall so enemies wouldn’t think to look here.”

Rudy followed behind them and started to glance around the room, determined to find their belongings. He noticed the pile of contraband and dashed over to grab his staff and bag. Valin, Mark, and Hunter followed behind Rudy and grabbed their belongings as well. Rudy and Valin then walked over to a small collection of weapons on the opposite side of the room and each grabbed a staff.

“Well that was easy, now we can just-“ Valin turned to the group to say, but stopped talking. She noticed the room getting darker around them. “Oh no…” She started to panic and ran out of the chamber and up the stairs.

Rudy, Mark, and Hunter started to run after her, not completely knowing what was happening. The room and tower around them grew darker and darker until they couldn’t see anything.

“Valin! Where did you go?” Mark yelled up the stairwell, trying to run up the stairs while trying to not trip on the stairs. The three of them then reached the top of the tower, where they spotted Valin watching the Mage of Darkness’s attack. In an instant, the light returned to the area around them as they watched the Mage of Darkness plummet to the courtyard.

“No!” Valin screamed in terror. She leaped from the top of the tower, making Mark, Hunter, and Rudy panic, running over to the edge of the tower. They watched as Valin slid down the side of the tower using dark magic. Before reaching the bottom she leaped from the wall and flipped before landing on the ground in a burst of magic, making a run for the Mage of Darkness.

“Can you do anything cool like that?” Hunter asked Rudy casually.

“Nope. Guess it’s just the stairs for us,” Rudy responded as he turned around. They then sprinted for the stairs, running down them in hopes of catching up with Valin as the natural darkness of night set in.

However, Valin reached the battle long before they did. With the tower guards’ shield partially down, the horde of mysterious creatures went for the attack. Valin reached the front lines exactly when she was supposed to. The destructive warrior with a sledgehammer charged at her, but she blocked the attack with her staff and cast a spell of dark magic to blast the soldier back, along with a few others charging toward them.

Valin looked over to the Mage of Darkness, only to see him lying on the ground unconscious and injured. The grip on Valin’s staff grew tighter, as she became angrier at the sight of her injured master. Valin went on a rampage, casting spells left and right, killing many of the mysterious creatures that came her way. The injured watched as she put her training to good use to avenge what had happened to her trainer.

Meanwhile, Mark, Hunter, and Rudy had made it to the battle and caught the tail end of Valin’s rampage. The horde grew closer, and the number of enemies kept growing. Valin realized this was too much, so she retreated back to where the Mage of Darkness laid injured. Mark started sprinting over to the scene, with Hunter and Rudy following close behind. When they reached Valin, the Mage of Darkness woke up.

“Master! Are you alright?” Valin said with grave concern as she sat at the Mage of Darkness’s side.

“Do I look alright?” The Mage mustered out as he suppressed a cough. He groaned and coughed before speaking again, “You need to get out of here while you still can.”

“We can’t! You’re injured and I can’t just leave you here to die!” Valin started crying as she spoke.

Hunter stood as he watched Valin and the Mage of Darkness argue, but became distracted. He couldn’t exactly describe this feeling to anyone, it was more of an instinct anyways. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the Elemental Gem, which was incredibly active. The colors in the gem changed frivolously and Hunter could feel the power surging from the gem. He looked up again to see Valin crying and hugging the Mage of Darkness.

A feeling of rage overcame him, as he looked beyond them, and saw the horde of creatures rushing forwards. He turned and slowly started to walk forward, which then evolved into a sprint. He ran past the injured and started to run toward the horde, wielding the gem and his spear. Mark looked up to see Hunter run past him.

“Hunter! No!” Mark yelled at Hunter, who didn’t seem to hear his cry. All the noises around Hunter became white noise as he ran further and as he let in more of the gem’s power. The energy emerging from the gem started to become visible, with an aurora of rainbow light emanating from the Hunter’s fist as he clenched the gem in his hand.

Hunter’s eyes began to glow, much like the Lightning Wizard’s, and the aurora continued to grow larger around him as he started to release more energy from the Elemental Gem. He leaped into the air in an instant, causing his robe to slip off of his shoulders as a result. As his robe slipped further off of his shoulders, the remaining mages in the courtyard could see a birthmark, and a strange one at that.

The elemental insignia, presented boldly on Hunter’s left shoulder, was glowing the same color as the aura of energy around him. The veins in his left arm started to become visible and glow as the immense elemental power surged through Hunter’s mortal body. He traveled a great distance in the air as the horde of plagued creatures ran below him. He then made a sharp turn then struck the ground with his spear creating an earth-shattering burst of energy.

The shockwave displaced and dissolved all of the corrupted creatures in the immediate area, leaving only a handful left in the courtyard. Hunter stood back up, as the remaining creatures went to attack their new threat. Swiftly, as if he had done this many times before, Hunter used the power of the gem to counter the corruption’s crude battle tactics.

The same warrior wielding a sledgehammer, who had survived his attack lunged at him first, but Hunter caught his hammer with his left hand, revealing that the gem had embedded itself within his palm. He shattered the end of the sledgehammer with his hand and plunged the spear deep into the warrior’s chest. His next attacker befell the same fate. As this next creature lunged at the hunter with a machete, he was met with a head-shattering blast from the Elemental Gem.

All eyes in the courtyard were watching the exemplification of elemental power that was unfolding in front of them. Mark was especially speechless and even somewhat frightened at the power that his companion was unleashing. Hunter promptly slayed the combative creatures that continued to lunge upon him. After the last combatant in the courtyard was disarmed and disemboweled, he quickly turned his attention to the castle wall. The enemies had stopped crossing to watch, some even starting to retreat back into the forest. In a split second, Hunter launched himself from the crater he was standing in and flew through the air toward the wall in a spiral of rainbow light.

He landed on the wall by slamming his fist into the top of the stone wall and propelling himself at the group that stayed behind. In one swift movement, he used the power from the gem to obliterate the unfortunate beings who couldn’t leave in time. At this moment the army fully issued a retreat, and within seconds they had escaped.

Hunter stopped and watched as the enemies scattered back into the forest, with his strength starting to dwindle. He then turned around to see the damage that resulted from his attack. Surprisingly, the mysterious creatures killed in the battle were gone. Confused, Hunter looked around and watched as an archer he killed from his onslaught dissolved, leaving no trace of its existence behind. A loud uproar arose from the courtyard that got Hunter’s attention. The remaining wizards and mages were shouting and cheering in praise of Hunter’s actions.

Hunter smiled and started to walk to a tower so he could meet the crowd at the bottom of the courtyard. However, he suddenly became incredibly exhausted and tired. It felt as though the wall he was standing on was shaking, causing him to lose balance. His mind became heavy as a sudden dizziness plagued him, along with a painful ache in his left-hand setting in. He stumbled around before he proceeded to pass out on the battle-stricken wall.