Earth, Wind, and Fire

LEGEND OF THE OMNIMAGI
Chapter 3: Earth, Wind, and Fire

The hunter mage simply stared at the intruder. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I said, I'll be taking that fire staff now," repeated Len. "To be honest, I don't think I trust you with something like that in a place like this."

The hunter scoffed. "And why exactly should I let you do that?" He decided to examine the gutsy young man. His open robe revealed a set of normal-looking traveler's clothes covering a tall but only slightly muscular body. He had no visible armor, weapons, staff, or any means to protect himself from any kind of attack. The only thing the stranger had was magic, and he highly doubted someone as young as him was a threat.

After a moment, the hunter chuckled and said, "Well, if you want it that badly...here!"

He quickly pointed his staff at Len, shooting out a small streak of flame towards the young man's robe, lighting it on fire. As soon as he felt the sudden heat hit his body, Len yelped in panic and threw the robe onto the ground, stomping on it furiously in an attempt to put out the flames. The hunter laughed wildly at the sight, completely ignoring his original target.

That proved to be a mistake. Khaea, though still a bit surprised by the stranger's hapless rescue attempt, saw her opportunity to attack. With silent grace, she dashed toward the hunter and pounced on him like a wolf, pinning him down with her hands. While he was stunned, she tried to nab the staff, but he held on to it. Even as the two rose from the ground, both of them refused to relinquish the weapon, fighting over it like two children over a toy.


While the girl and the hunter were struggling, Len had not only put out his robe, but had prepared another attack. While he hadn't planned on Khaea's surprise assault, putting out his robe on the dusty road was also his means of putting together a diversionary tactic. As the dust rose from the ground, Len had begun magically circling it around his body, creating a duststorm large enough to completely envelop a person.

With his spell complete, he turned to the struggling pair and got a look at the girl. She was clearly dressed for light travel, but looked as if she hadn't washed her clothes in weeks. Her body was small, but surprisingly well-toned, and she looked like she could lift him off the ground with one arm. What stood out the most, however, was her hair. Though the brown locks were hardly surprising, the hair itself looked completely untamed. He would have been honestly surprised if she had ever heard of a comb in her entire life.

Seeing that his opportunity to attack wouldn't work if she was so close to the hunter, Len yelled out, "Hey, crazy hair! Move!"

Both Khaea and the hunter looked in his direction and saw the miniature storm brewing nearby. Deciding to heed the stranger's words, the girl raised her foot up and kicked off the hunter, dashing quickly away from him.

Finally seeing the hunter open to attack, Len waved his arms forward, as if conducting the sandstorm to attack. Still unbalanced from Khaea's kick, the hunter was soon overtaken, trapped in the blinding storm. Then, seeing his target unable to escape, Len bent down and placed his hand on the ground, repeatedly whispering an indecipherable phrase. However, his spell seemed to have no effect, and eventually the hunter managed to dispel the aggrivating twister.

As he wiped the sand out of his eyes and off of his face, the hunter turned to Len, noticably angry. "Alright...no more playing around, kid. Time for you to...wha-a-a-at the...?"

-----

On the other side of the village, some people were still asking each other about the three strangers that had just run so suddenly through the town, especially the white-haired one that had been seen walking around earlier. As the questions and gossip spread, the earth beneath their feet suddenly began to shake. The tremors were very minor, but frightened everyone nonetheless; there hadn't been any earthquakes in this area for as long as any of them knew.

Then, as people started to panic, the tremors ceased as quickly as they came. Before people got relax, though, something else caught their attention. A large, monolithic...something had just risen from the ground in a mostly uninhabited part of town, blocking out the afternoon sun. Many people simply stood and looked at it in stunned silence, but some of them decided to investigate the strange goings-on. Cautiously and armed with the farming implements on hand, they made their way toward the giant object.

-----

"Wha-a-a-at are y-y-you do-o-o-oing?"

The shaking was more violent in the vicinity of Len, who seemed unaffected by the sudden quake. Khaea, who was busy trying to keep her footing, looked around anxiously, wondering what was going to happen.

"What I'm doing," spoke Len, calmly and powerfully, "is something I call 'The Arm of Gaia'!"

With a smile of victory Len stood up, lifting his open hand off of the ground and thrusting it into the air. The tremors ceased, and the earth beneath the hunter's feet began shifting. Before he could react, a giant hand, opened wide with its palm facing the sky, suddenly appeared on the ground underneath him and rose towards the heavens, attached to a giant stone arm. It looked as if the planet itself had extended an arm right under the hunter. Completely taken off guard, the hunter fell backwards onto the hand and clung to the rocky surface with a white-knuckle grip, staring at the ground far below with fear-widened eyes.

"You want down?" shouted Len mockingly. "Alrighty!"

The hunter screamed back, "N-n-n-no! Wait, wait!"


Still smiling, Len closed his hand into a fist. The giant stone arm rising out of the ground followed suit, trapping the hunter in its grip. Then, Len slowly lowered his arm down until his elbow was digging into the ground, which in turn caused the stone arm to sink back down into the earth up to its own elbow.

Finally, he focused the magical energy in his arm entirely into his hand, then relaxed his grip, ending the spell. In reaction, the stone arm quickly returned deep within the earth, leaving the earthen fist above the surface. Len knew, with the spell gone, it would vanish soon as well, so he had to act quickly.

Len approached the trapped hunter. "As I said before, I'll be taking that staff now."