Next Mage
47.Preparing for War-1

~Oliver's POV, 2 days later

I cracked my knuckles, focusing my power on the ground in front of me. Marilla, Emma, Cam, Carissa and Terra watched me from a distance, worried expressions painting their faces.

"You might want to move back a bit more, in case the lava bubbles and starts exploding everywhere or something!" I shouted, feeling the heat rush through my arms and build up at my fingertips. The others began to backtrack across the dry earth.

"Are you sure you're going to be okay?!" I heard Marilla say as she retracted further. I inclined my head towards her in a swift nod.

I squinted as I directed my energy towards the dry patch of dirt once more.

Come on... I grunted as I felt my arms begin to ache and sting, as if the fire was somehow inside my arms, the flames heating my bones and burning my skin. Now I just need to get the fire out... I thought. Shutting my eyes, I focused harder. Suddenly, the dirt in front of me cracked, small, jagged lines appearing on the dusty, once-smooth surface. A strong rumbling, bubbling sound appeared.

Then out of the cracks, lava came flowing out.

The lava sputtered and bubbled out of the ground, fighting against the chilly wind to stay warm. It burst out of the cracks, faster, oozing out and burning the small patches of grass that were in its path. Parts of it was turning from molten to solid, black obsidian, whilst other parts were still destroying anything in its way. I moved away from the lava as it sped towards me.

"Now, Marilla!" I shouted, the hot molten liquid just inches away from my shoes. I could feel the heat emanating from it as my shoes sizzled slightly.

Marilla raised her arms, cool drops of water raining down on the lava in a swift downpour. The lava cooled and hardened into black, solid, rock, and I sighed as I turned around to grin at my friends.

"Good job Ollie!" Cam and I high-fived.

"Yeah, I'll just have to make it a little bigger and then it's done," I said, rubbing my aching head. I felt as if Marilla had whammed me on the head with her clock again. I grinned. That seemed like ages ago... "Heh...you feel pretty exhausted afterwards, though," I said.

"Okay! Now let me show you my thingy--I mean Ultimate!" Marilla suddenly shouted eagerly. She stepped over to one of the wilted, dry plants and bent down, putting her hands over it.

Marilla then summoned a water bubble and scrunched up her face in concentration as she placed the clear liquid on the brown plant.

"What do you think she's doing?" Terra whispered to Carissa. Carissa shrugged back, clueless, and we watched as Marilla's water bubble began to glow a bright white.

"Wait--I know this magic, I've seen it before. It's healing, but I'm not sure how you would heal a plant, they don't really get injuries--" I stopped as Marilla backed away from the plant, gathering the last drops of water off her fingers and blowing on it, turning it into vapor that disappeared almost instantly.

The plant was green and straight, dewdrops appearing on the shiny green leaves and reflecting the sun's rays like pure diamonds.

The plant was alive.

"How--" I sputtered. "But you can't bring things back to life! That's i-impossible!"

"Exactly!" Marilla squealed. "Isn't it awesome? Whoa--wait--head rush," Marilla put her hand against her forehead wearily. "Yeah, it does make you tired," she sighed. "I guess that's why we only have one shot at it..." Marilla's legs wobbled from underneath her, as if they were about to give way, and Emma rushed over to help her.

"Wow. That was amazing, Marilla," I said, and Marilla blushed. "Your Ultimate just puts mine to shame... I mean, that's virtually impossible! Al I'm doing is just making lava explode out of the ground..."

"Which does sound pretty awesome, you gotta admit," Terra exclaimed. "Look at mine,"

Terra grunted as she splayed her hands out towards the ground. Her arms suddenly jerked as a large crack appeared in the earth, not like the small ones I had made by summoning the lava, but a crack nearly as long as a bed. It's width wasn't so bad either.

"Whew," Terra gasped as she wiped the sweat from her brow and sat down tiredly. She looked up at me, grinning. "I was thinking," she huffed, "that instead of making those tiny cracks by forcing the lava out, why not use a crack already made? It'll be killing two birds in one stone," she said. "Except when I fully use my ultimate it'll be ten times as wide, deep and long, probably,"

"Great idea!" I exclaimed. "Although we probably shouldn't test our incomplete Ultimates yet," I said, rubbing my still-stinging fingers. "It takes up too much energy. Also, we kind of wrecked the field...mom's gonna kill me..."

I glanced around at the now mostly destroyed field, most of the grass burnt away and covered in obsidian, a giant crack forming through the middle of it, and finally, a tiny, surviving plant in the center of it all. Whoops, I thought.

"Well, Cam, Carissa and Emma, tell me about your Ultimates. Tell me, not show me," I said hastily, as Cam threw his arms up dramatically and a powerful gust of wind blew my hair the wrong way. "Oh. Oops," he said sheepishly. "Well, that was rather anticlimactic,"

"A wha..? N-never mind, just tell me what you're doing," I said, not bothering to find out what anticlimactic meant. Probably another science thingy, I thought as I smoothed my hair back down.

"Oh, we're actually doing something together," Carissa piped, strangling her twin in a half-headlock, half-hug as she wrapped her arm around his neck.

"G--bleh--okay--sis, geddofmeh--" Cam choked, his glasses nearly falling off his ace as they hung off one ear. His sister let go of him.

"It's our way of showing affection," Carissa said simply, as everyone stared at her. There was an awkward moment of silence. "Obviously I'm the stronger twin," she said, and we burst out laughing. Cam eyed his sister reproachfully as he put his glasses back on.