Chapter 35- Blowback.

"Eat this, you green bastard!!" I yell as I release the enormous flash fire spell onto my Nemesis, the elder dryad before I promptly start Blinking again and again as fast as I can manage to get as far away from the soon to manifest devastation.

After my fifth Blink, I am hit with a strange pressure, one that I instantly recognize: It is the same pressure that I was hit with when I first confronted the elder dryad, only this time it is multiple times worse; I can't move at all, and so I promptly fall flat on my face as I am unable to move my arms to guard my face.

Hitting the ground face first, the shock and pain sends my mind reeling; It is only by the thinnest of margins that I manage to keep myself from passing out outright.

A moment later I am hit by an enormous shockwave, immediately followed by the sound of a deafening explosion: The shockwave is so powerful that I get sent flying diagonally upwards and into foliage and tree branches dozens of meters above. My flight continues through long moments of painfully crashing through various foliage and small branches that drain my momentum little by little. This continues for a few moments until my back abruptly connects with something hard and unyielding, and my vision goes dark.

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…… #[email protected]$?

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As my consciousness slowly returns, I am utterly and totally confused; To the point where I can't even construct thoughts that make any sense to my mind. A few moments pass before my mind finally manages to make thoughts that make sense to my mind.

… W-what? Where… Where am I? What…? … How did I get here? … Where is here? …?

Half a minute passes before my mind finally snaps back into place and my memories start coming back.

"Right… I was sent flying by the shockwave from my flash fire bomb spell… Ouch! Damn, my back is killing me!" I exclaim as the pain from my back starts registering with my mind.

Taking a look around, I only see leaves, branches and various vines and other foliage behind me. Behind me is the tree trunk of one of the gigantic trees that I apparently slammed into and knocked me out cold. Looking down, I notice that my Katans is gone, once again. "Great…" I mutter tiredly as I recall my sword and watch as it materializes out of thin air before my eyes.

Promptly returning the blade to its sheath, I start looking around the immediate area for any signs of my current whereabouts, but it doesn't reveal much, except for the direction where I came from.

I don't know if there are any dryads waiting in hiding to abush me or if there are other dangerous beasts or monsters around, but considering that I haven't been eaten alive already, I'm guessing that the chance of that is pretty low, and there likely aren't any true dangers in the immediate area.

'Or so I hope…I really don't feel up for another round right now.' I mutter in my mind as I feel out my body for injuries before I start meditating to heal the worst of the injuries that I discovered: Worst of is my back, which took quite a hit when I slammed into the solid tree trunk and the countless cuts that I received from flying through the foliage at high speed. The second worst injury is the one I received from the last root spear from the elder dryad, that rendered my left arm unusable for combat.

To mend the most pressing injuries, I take a good long time to simply eat, rest and meditate and let my beaten and bruised body heal and rest properly.

Even as the time passes, No attack from the dryads comes, neither do any dangerous beasts or monsters appear and try to eat me; Which is a first, really.

'Don't jinx it, don't jinx it!' I retort in my mind as I gaze fearfully around my surrounding, fully believing that an enemy will come screaming bloody murder as it launches itself upon me any second now.

As the seconds pass and nothing happens, I breathe out and relax once again.

Standing up slowly, I walk over to the edge of the branch to try and get a look down at the ground somewhere below me. No such luck; The foliage is too thick and won't let me see further than a few meters below me.

So I can only sigh and start climbing down the vines and foliage so that I may get a better view of the area and see the aftermath of my flash fire spell and whether or not the dryads survived it or not.

"I re~ally hope that they didn't, 'cause I'm just about done with dealing with these god damned walking plants." I mutter as I continue my climb down the foliage towards the lowest branches which I saw before when I still was on the ground myself.

A few minutes passes as I continue climbing down the foliage but I am not seeing any change in the foliage or it's thickness. "Now where are those damn 'low hanging' branches…?" I mutter to myself as I take a moment to look around for the branches in question, that I know should be somewhere around here. Probably. Maybe?

Quite honestly, I'm not at all so sure, since I was sent flying by a freakin' explosion and I kind of lost my bearings. Or completely lost them, if I am to be completely honest.

"Hmm… Should I just let myself drop and then do a Blink once I am clear of all the foliage?" I muse aloud as I keep looking below me for any signs of the terrass like tree branches which I am seeking. Sighing, I shake my head and continue my downwards climb.

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After another 10 minutes of downwards climbing I finally find one of the terrass like tree branches and redouble my efforts to reach it.

Once my feet land on the solid branch and the highly packed foliage I immediately slump down to let my tired body rest from the half hour or so of intense climbing I just put it through.

"I never knew climbing downwards could be so hard and tiring…" I mutter as I try to calm my heavy breathing and lay down to rest my tired body; Particularly my arms.

As I lay there and look up at the foliage above, I also begin to meditate to try and help my recovery along, because why not? It's not like I have anything better to do to help me get the hell out of this deathtrap of a forest as soon as possible.

Breathing in deeply, I can feel the Mana seeping into me as I gather the free-flowing Mana from the surrounding air and pull it inside my being where the pure Mana starts to purge the impurities existing within me.

After a long while of meditating, I feel my body start rejecting the Mana I am gathering as it can't take in any more Mana and so I stop my meditation and slowly stand up before I start stretching out my stiff body.

"Alright, time to get round 2 going, if any of them are still alive." I exclaim and walk over to the edge of the terrass like branch and look down, seeking for the aftermath of my spell.

It immediately become painfully obvious where my spell went off however, as there is a huge crater and everything in a 100 meters around the epicenter has turned to black carbonized dust.

… "Yeah, I may have gone overboard a bit there…" I say somewhat remorsefully as I scratch my head awkwardly as I take in the destruction before me which I have caused.

"At least the green bastards got done in, right?" I mumble as I search for any remaining dryads in the area.

Finding none, I return my gaze to the epicenter of the explosion, where the elder dryads remains should be.

"Now where is that elder dryad essence…" I mumble thoughtfully as I search the ground for any signs of an 'essence'; Not that I have any real idea of what one of those would look like except what I heard from Ter'vi about it: -It's like a small shiny stone; You will know it when you see it.- Whatever that is supposed to mean.

After searching for a while longer, I notice a glimmer that catches my eye.

"I guess that would be my essence, then?" I mumble as I stand up and jump off the edge and start free falling towards the ground.

'The momentum nulling aspect of Blink is really neat, I'm really glad I figured that out but I really don't get why Ter'vi' didn't just tell me about it when he taught me the spell...' I muse as I keep my eye on the shiny stone as I quickly pick up speed as I continue falling towards the forest floor below.

End of chapter 35