The Beginning After The End (New Heights Book 2) (13 page)

“Impact Blast!”
 
The blow this time was harder and the
lock crumbles.
 
Stepping forward, he
pulls the handles of the door and opens it.

“What the…”

Through the other side of the door was a field
of grass that reminded me of a masterfully painted piece of art.
 
It was a couple of hundred meters wide
and I couldn’t even see the other end of the cave.

“Let me guess, this field wasn’t here last time
either?”
 
Reginald mutters, his eyes
never leaving the scene in front of him.

“N-no…” Brald takes a deep breath, astounded as
well.
 

Reginald just mumbles something under his breath
and takes a step through the door, where we all followed in after.

This didn’t resemble a cave at all, where even
the brightness within was enough to make our eyes squint.
 
The rows of stalactites high up on the
ceiling of the cave were the only things that reaffirmed our doubts that this
was actually an underground cavern.

“Wow!
 
It’s so pretty!”
 
Samantha
couldn’t help be in awe at the serene meadow.

There were tall trees and plants dotted across
the field.
 
Even I couldn’t help
want to just lay down and relax here but ever since we walked through the door,
the hairs on my body have been standing on its end, as if my body wants me to
stay wary.

Everyone’s guards were down but I noticed that
Jasmine and even Elijah kept darting their eyes around, looking out for
anything suspicious.
 

“Something’s off.
 
Keep your guards up guys.”
 
I stay vigilant with my shortsword out
and my left hand on the grip of Dawn’s Ballad that was still sheathed to my
waist.
 

“Are you sure?
 
I don’t even hear anything, let alone
see much besides the grass and trees.”
 
Kriol is a bit doubtful but raises his shield and wills water affinity
mana into it.

I study my surroundings to see what was making
me feel so tense.
 
The light seemed
to come from the stalactites that glowed much brighter than the ones from the
previous caves.
 
There was a slight
haze all over the field that seemed insignificant, but that was it.
 
There was literally nothing else besides
the plants and this mist.

What am I missing?

I notice the mist around us gradually get
thicker, so I could only make out the shapes of everyone around me.

*Thump*

“Clara?
 
Is that you?
 
H-how are you
alive?”

I spin my head to the direction of the
voice.
 
I see that Kriol dropped his
gigantic shield.
 
He’s holding his
arms out looking at something in the distance.

“I knew you couldn’t be dead Clara!
 
Stay there!
 
I’m coming to get you!”
 
Kriol bolts off, leaving his shield
behind him.

“Stop!
 
It’s dangerous!”
 
I yell
after him, but it’s too late as his figure fades out of sight.

Jasmine grabs my arm and sticks close.
 
“I think the mist is an illusion.”

“I suspected that as well.”
 
I nod in agreement.
 
“Everyone!
 
Stick together!
 
This mist is playing tricks on our
senses. Samantha, barrier!”

Huddling together, we face each other to discuss
a plan inside the ball of water protecting us from the mist.
 

“Who’s Clara?”
 
Samantha asks.

Reginald shakes his head.
 
“I-it’s Kriol’s fiancée.
 
But it’s impossible that she’s
alive.
 
I-I saw her get killed in a
dungeon with my own two eyes.
 
We
buried her together!”

I could tell Reginald and Brald were both shaken
up.
 
The three have partied before a
couple of times so the name Clara wasn’t news to them and hearing Kriol go
after his dead fiancée wasn’t good news.

“What the hell is going on…
”
Lucas just mutters and I could tell by how hard he was gripping his staff that
he was holding in the urge to blow this whole place up.

“Jasmine.
 
Can you create a wind big enough to clear this mist around us?” I look
towards my partner, hoping she could give me some good news.
 
We didn’t have any wind attribute
Conjurers here.

She looks down and answers.
 
“Not big enough to clear it all away,
but I can blow away a path.”

We give her a bit of space inside the ball of
water as she starts emitting a green aura.
 
The wind picks up as it swirls and gathers to form a small whirlwind
around her arms.
 
Her straight black
hair lashes chaotically around her, as the mini tornadoes gathering in her arms
get bigger and tears apart the water barrier.

While Augmenters’ biggest disadvantage compared
to Conjurers are the usage of long ranged spells, after a certain level,
Augmenters will be able to store and exert enough mana to use ranged
techniques.
 
Of course, however, the
power and efficiency would be vastly inferior to a Conjurer of the same level.

The mist around us was getting thicker, limiting
our field of vision to about a meter away from us.
 
The once peaceful field of grass now has
an ominous feel, almost as if this mist wants to swallow us whole.
 

“Storm’s Gale.”

The condensed whirlwinds swirling around
Jasmine’s arms collide as she claps her hands together in front of her.
 
The impact of the two tornadoes expands
and bursts forward, shredding the mist into a clear path in front of us.

The once excited looks on everyone’s faces turn
dim at the sight before us.
 
The
tornado revealed a path, but also uncovered something else.

There were tentacles of vines and branches that
were making their way towards us.
 

“Enough of this!”
 
Lucas points his tall staff towards the
incoming wave of vines and mutters a spell.

“Crescent Ember!” Swinging his staff, the fire
glowing on the tip of the staff shoots a large blade fire.

“BOOOM!”

The slithering vines and branches flinch back
from the flame but other than a dark mark where the spell hit, they were
unfazed.

“Shit! What kind of trees isn’t afraid of
fire?”
 
Brald grits his teeth as he
ignites his broadsword in a fiery tornado and charges into the wave of vines
that were crawling our way.

“Samantha!
 
Elijah!
 
Lucas! Support
us!”
 
I command, willing mana into
my body and sword as well.

Jasmine rushes next to me, both daggers
unsheathed.
 
The spell she just used
obviously drained a lot of her mana, but it didn’t do much as the mist already
refilled the path the tornado spell created.

Reginald stayed behind to protect our Conjurers
as they’re casting spells.

“RAAAAAHHH!”
 
Brald is hacking away at the endless
wave of vines that seem to come out of nowhere.

The vines seem to be regenerating faster than
Brald is cutting them though, as I see him getting buried deeper and deeper
inside.

That idiot.
 
Is he really an AA class Adventurer?
 
He’s lost his cool and his ability to
pay attention to what’s happening around him is nonexistent.

I augment my sword in fire as well, speeding up
to support our one-armed companion.

“Flame Whip.”
 
The fire around my sword grows larger as
a whip of fire forms from the base of the blade.
 

Lashing my weapon at the vines shooting
themselves at me, a pile of dismembered branches form around me.

I keep tabs on Jasmine to make sure she’s okay
but she seemed to be fine on her own as her body was a cyclone of blades,
mincing any vines that came her direction.

Brald was having a harder time as I notice
various gashes on his face and body.

“Spread and burn!
 
Liquid Fire!”
 
Lucas finishes his spell first as he
shoots a fiery spray of red liquid from his staff while Reginald was blocking
the incoming vines shooting at our Conjurers.

The three of us jump back to stay out of the way
of the spell.
 
I had to hand it to
the noble brat that he’s still thinking straight in this situation.
 
The spell Liquid Fire wasn’t as powerful
as the actual fire spells but it spreads quickly and if not doused, the fire
would keep spreading.

The spell lands on the torrent of vines, but
before the liquid fire is even able to spread, the mist that was around us all
gathered towards where the spell hit the vine.

*FSSSSSSSSSSS*

The spell didn’t even last two seconds as the
liquid formed from the condensed mist doused it.

Lucas’s face pales as sweat drips down his
neck.
 
I think that last spell was
as much as he could do for now.

“Crater.”

Elijah’s brows furrow as he finishes his
spell.
 
The ground underneath the
wave of vines crumbles and a hole a couple of meters deep deter the vines from
reaching us for now.

“Water drain!”
 

Samantha crumbles to her knees as she releases
the powerful spell.

Water drain was a scary spell that sucked the
surrounding area the spell affected of its water.
 
The only drawback of this spell was the
amount of mana it used for the limited amount of space.