I STAND BEFORE NATURAL DISASTERS.

One of them is a storm that sends great lightning from its gray clouds— cracks in the sky that rivals even the heavenly retribution conjured by the Forsaken Palace.

The other is a deluge. A flood so strong that it can reshape the land and lay waste to all living things on it. Even the grass and the trees. It is ironic. Water, typically a source of life, bringing such destruction wherever it went.

Even in the face of these threats, I spread my arms wide and welcome the challenge. After all, it is only right to stare down death in the face and repudiate it.

“Come, Void Pirates!” I call out to them, letting them make the first move.

I consult the Mark of the Elocunive just before they come down at me.

Tian

Race: Ren

Class: Soulborne Level 7

Feats:

- Void Walk

- Ray of Esh

- Dual Core

- The Guardian’s Blessing

- Soul Cycle

- Lifeblood’s Call

- Aura Pull

I have not achieved a significant Feat since beating the first group of Void Pirates to arrive. Now, it is time to change that. Lightning fell from above one after another like rain. Sparks fly as I throw myself into the air, using my Qi to create a circling pole of metal around me. It attracts the electricity and draws the thunderous attacks away from me.

The deluge tries to intercept me, rising from beneath like a mountain. I toss the hoop of electrified metal at it. It strikes the deluge and unleashes the lightning it had stored up. The earth rips open from the accumulated attacks, but the deluge escapes from it mostly unscathed.

I narrow my eyes as my Aura forms around me, taking the form of feathery wings. I take off to the sky to escape the deluge’s wrath. It continues to rise like an unending pillar, but I can deal with it later for now.

Instead, I turn my focus to the storm above as it crackles and sends hail down from the sky. Boulders of ice— each one dwarfing me in size— tear apart the earth. I nimbly avoid the attacks, returning with my own blast.

Ray of Esh.

The golden beam splits the storm clouds in twain, however they reform quickly enough. I frown. How am I supposed to destroy something that can do that?

The question weighs on my mind, but I am not able to think it through before a wet feeling creeps up my leg. The deluge grabs me out of the air, slamming me down into the earth and crashing into me. I am crushed by the weight of a tsunami as it washes over me, before a sharp electric feeling zaps up my spine.

I can see through the rushing waters— lightning falling from the sky. It strikes the deluge which conducts the attack onto me. My teeth grit as I clench my fists. The deluge really is made out of water, is it not?

I know how to deal with it. I begin to freeze my surroundings, turning the deluge into ice. It rapidly pulls back, its frozen bits breaking as it recedes away from me. I seize that opportunity to once again target the storm.

This time, I send a wave of flame up above. It parts the clouds, evaporating the water droplets above as it panics and sends actual rain down at me to snuff out the fire. Except— it is not water.

But acid.

I look down to see the sizzling of the earth as the acid eats away at the soil. My Aura spread over, still in the shape of wings, like a parasol. It protects me from the acid rain that is accompanied by strong winds. I am just about to call forth the School of Transmutation to reshape the very air itself when the ground beneath me shakes.

A tremor splits the earth open and I stare down as it threatens to swallow me. I leap into the air, only for mud and debris to come flying out from the hole on the ground. Violet Essence wisps off my body, protecting me from the onslaught from above and below, when something else comes.

An inferno— crimson flames that splashes over me. A roiling red that moves in circles, lashing out at everything close to it. My eyes widen as its fire whips out at me, sending me flying into a thicket of trees.

A crater is left behind where I land, and I can see the Violet Essence protecting me flicker. Sighing, I pick myself up and stare down at my four foes: a tremor, a storm, a deluge, and an inferno.

“Is that all of you?” I ask, unconcerned. I do not see any other fighting around me. “Good.”

I clap my hands together, and the landscape changes. The fallen trees split open into hundreds of wooden tendrils that dig into the earth and threaten the four natural disasters. It is an onslaught that would not have harmed them if not for a simple trick— the School of Enchantment.

These thousands of branches are coated in Blue Essence as Dual Core rapidly cycles my Aura into the Essence for me.

I raise a hand, aiming for the storm above. I move my palms in a circle and create my own storm over it. But mine does not send bolts of lightning down. No— it changes the atmosphere around the storm. The air grows thin and colder, turning its acid rain to ice before they can destroy the tree branches.

The inferno is my next problem. It burns through the wood faster than I can create the bindings. So, I send a strong gust of wind to redirect the frozen acid rain from the storm. It cools the inferno and hurts it, the acid putting out a considerable amount of fire from the inferno.

And as the tremor threatens to shake the earth, I continue to turn the falling trees into the branches necessary to contain it.

But the deluge— the deluge manages to escape. It seeps free from the wooden bindings that hold it, and I click my tongue. But before I can react, a blast of flame washes over the water surface, sending a plume of steam into the air.

“Sorry, are we late?” a relaxed voice calls out. I glance up, smiling as Nindran arrives on the scene, carried by a dress of flames.

“It seems we’ve arrived just on time.” Behind her, a man steps forward. Kalmat draws his blade as his black Aura extends into a larger sword. “What do we do, Tian?”

Beihal follows behind him, followed shortly after by Seiled and Keshiy. I shake my head, turning to the four natural disasters before us.

“There is only one way to halt a disaster such as them,” I say simply as they continue to struggle against their snares. “You contain it.”

*******

Blossom.

Tian’s body was enveloped with a golden light as her core ascended to the next stage. Was she really becoming a Blossom here? She almost doubted the situation she was in. It was ridiculous. It was more likely she’d passed out from the smoke and was now having delusions.

But as the girl reached out to the world— to the Dao— her understanding of it grew. Her vision expanded. She saw the Qi that swarmed out of all living things. It was nearly snuffed out, choked away, here in the eye of the inferno. The fiery storm that raged on.

It was a deluge of fire all around her. She stood on unsteady feet, like a tremor was threatening to knock her off balance. Yet, she saw the Qi pervading through the rest of the forest. There was plenty of life still left to protect. And Tian moved to save it.

She moved faster. Her legs carried her forward faster than she ever remembered being able to move. Bounding forward, leap by leap, she reached the edge of the firestorm. It spread quickly, igniting tree after tree and bush after bush. But that was all it did.

The girl understood that without life, the fire would die. That was how Qi gave birth to flames. And that was how she needed to stop it. To cut off the source of the fire’s Qi.

She sent her own flames out, cutting ahead of the firestorm. Her body pulsed with energy. These new flames of hers burned faster than even the firestorm. it quickly brought down trees and turned the grass to ashes. Then with a snap of her fingers, her fire vanished. All that was left was dead earth. The inferno tried to spread its destruction further, but it could not find any life to feed on.

It stopped here. At least, on this side of the forest. There were whole other sections left— areas with plenty of greenery. Plenty of life. Plenty of Qi. And Tian moved to destroy that life. Not all of it. Just some.

After all, sometimes, one had to destroy to protect.