World Between Chapter 2 Part 3

Wham! Sofia hopped up a fairly steep cliff, and slammed her hammer into the slug hiding far higher than most could reach. “Geez, the realm breakers must have barley come up here.”

“That makes sense.” Jen stated. “Mountains mostly slow us down, so we avoid them as best we could.” Creating a whirlpool, and ensnaring as many slug as possible

“You do realize the Earth gem is the mountains, right?” Sofia stated charging the hammer with dark energy before throwing it into the whirlpool.

“As is the Shadow gem.” Jen stated dismissing her magic as every slug was dealt a swift death blow. “Both of which were going to be difficult anyway, but at least we knew where they were.”

“You couldn’t find some, huh?” Sofia stated collecting her hammer as the whirlpool ended.

“Well, whoever is watching the Dark gem basically vanished.” Jen summarized her ex-group effort. “The Soul gem is very heavily guarded. And we were closing in on Fire, but we hadn’t found it yet.”

“Any chance it’s also it’s also somewhere in the mountains?” Jill questioned everyone turning her direction, and then followed her gaze as a small wooden caravan hiked it’s way up a very unwelcoming trail.”

“No.” Jen stated rather firmly. “But we were getting desperate enough to move up so of the plans.” Leon, their team leader, grabbed another team member's shoulder as he tried to run down.

“We’d never make it in time, even with magic.” Leon stated.

“Correction.” Sofia stated.

“We’d never make it back up in time, even with magic.” Jill stated. “A little bit of dark, and little bit of wind. We’d be over in no time.” Leon looked over the scene.

“The slugs have died down.” Leon stated. “And while I heard some... rumors, I know where I stand on simply standing by, and let some outsiders shatter parts of our world.”

“Who go first?” A very tall, and strong looking org asked. Grinning as both girls pointed at him. “Bango likes this plan.”

“Are we sure about this?” Another male team mate asked.

“We outnumber them two to one.” Another male responded as the others nodded. “And most of them don’t even have magic.”

“We go now or we don’t go at all.” Jill stated readying a makeshift catapult with Sofia’s assistance. In typical org fashion, that was all Bango needed to hear before he charged straight into the magic and landed almost flawlessly on the other side.

“Beside Lydria said they were fair game.” Leon stated. “Surely you mates need more action than this?” He gestured out to the already defeated slug population before diving in himself. It’s kind of hard to argue with that, so everyone else followed after. Sofia Ending the line before Jill flew over on her own wings. Speeding herself up a little since the fight was looking like it would over before it started. And Sofia had dove in with a hammer swing breaking one of the back wheels, so an escape seemed pretty impossible.

“Miss me, hun?” Sofia stated mockingly as Aaron narrowly dodges the swing. Watching a little surprised as some light magic began fixing the broken wheel.

“You taught him magic.” Jared stated walking out as he drew spikes out of the mountain’s walls “Are we really so great of enemies that we can’t even pass through?” He asked.

“We’re not great enough enemies that I think I need to kill you.” The caravan to stop in its tracks as the earth seemed to become mud. “But coming from me that’s not saying much.” Sofia stated.

“You’ve caused a fair amount of trouble.” Leon stated. “But nothing worth bypassing the justice system over.”  Several quakes drew the attention of Leon and Sofia’s team as various boulders rolled down. Sofia noticed the mud illusion vanishing, and started fighting to keep it in place. A task increasingly difficult, since she wasn’t quite sure what she was fighting back against. And doing even simple magic is complicated when two other people are fighting against you, eventually Sofia gave in and focused on the two attackers she could see. Creating fake copies of herself in order to avoid using Dark magic as much as possible. She wasn’t willing to give up ground being the one of the two people that ended up in the back. But when the caravan began rolling backwards, choices were limited. So with putting her hammer away she climbed the mountain as best she could. Riding the current Jill made as she flew over as well. “You’re carrying me back over.” She stated to Jill who looked a bit concerned

“I thought Dark magic was the draining one?” She questioned. “Did you use that much?”
“Getting everyone over.” Sofia pointed to the fairly large canyon. “Took a lot. I had enough for a couple extra power swings, but..ugh.” She held her head. “Holding Shadow stuff together like that isn’t without consequences.”

“It acts real enough.” Leon stated. “Hardly ever see it, because it’s “only illusions”. But not sure we would’ve held them off without it, newcomers don’t normally pick up magic so quickly.”
“Seriously, what was that?” Jill stated. “Jen is one of the smartest people I know, and even she is having a harder time than that.”

“We’ll just have to report it.” Jen stated. “Not much more we can do… You sure you’re alright.” Sofia jumped a bit swatting Jen’s hand away as she reached out for her shoulder.

“Sorry.” Sofia stated shortly after. “I… I’ll have report some side effects myself, but I can get everyone else back across.” Reluctant as they all were, no one knew how else to get back, so they settled on letting Sofia take up what resting space she wanted on the trip back down. Sofia and Leon updated Lydria while Jen and Jill turned in the quest for the group.

“That wasn’t quite what was planned.” Lydria stated. “But it could make sense, there’s no way to know for now though.”

“So we are-” Lydria simply nodded at what Leon was about to ask. “Are you still sure it’s safe?”
“You really think I would’ve let go to a vote, if I didn’t think it was safe?” Lydria questioned. “This has been up for discussion almost the moment it was brought to public attention.”
“For what purpose though?!” Leon shouted. “What is the point of-”

“Leon!” Lydria shouted back before lowering her voice to a whisper. “I understand the concern. I do. And if I had something I could to you that I thought you’d believe, I would say it. But for now I can only remind you that my sister and I wouldn’t be unaffected, and noted that Sofia recovered rather quickly given her condition.” Lydria paused and scanned the crowd before speaking normally again. “Sofia seems in good health. And your team provided valuable information, and for now that will have to be enough.”