with it quickly and efficiently.
Shar finished the spell and froze in place as the contest of wills started. She was an ancient demoness from the lower planes and immortal. She was as powerful as she was stunningly beautiful, and she had a will that had almost crushed his when they’d bonded. He had no doubts that she’d overcome the elemental in her contest, it was just a matter of how long it would take and what the elemental would do in its fear, anger, and panic.
The whole tunnel shook violently, for all he knew the whole mountain had. He had to let all the loose pebbles and falling dust go, as he concentrated on keeping the solid stone in one place. He increased the flow of channeling magic close to his limits, as he felt the earth elemental reach out and try to open up the floor beneath their feet. When that failed, it tried to slam the walls of the corridor together.
He grunted and held firmly against the pressure of the earth magic fighting against his. He was no stranger to a battle of wills and focus, but in his mind, he’d never fought with earth magic before to maintain the status quo. He grimaced as the stone cracked and buckled beside them, and he pushed back hard.
Just as he was winning the contest of holding the walls still, the elemental shifted once again and rained them all with the pebbled he’d ignored. He heard his ladies cry out and felt the impact of the wickedly fast-moving stones slamming into them. Small or not, they knocked him back and he felt rage at the blood dripping down his sweet Tansya’s face from the cut on her forehead.
His magic exploded out of him as he channeled the maximum amount that he was capable of, and he sent it at the elemental. He’d been fighting the wrong battle, trying to anticipate and counter an intelligence too foreign to his thinking. He wrapped the elemental in bands of power like a steel cage. Not only holding the elemental in place, but also locking his magic inside the cell so the elemental couldn’t control any of the earth around him. He felt stupid, he should’ve done this in the beginning, constrained the elemental’s magic rather than fight for control of physical stone.
The elemental’s magic smashed into his own over and over again, but his will and magic held for the few more seconds Shar required. The elemental seemed to implode, it’s magic and presence folding in on itself as it shrunk and was displaced out of the plane.
He walked over and brushed Tansya’s forehead, life magic flowing into her body and healing her wounds. Not just the cut on her forehead, but the bruises on the rest of her body from the hail of stones.
Tansya looked up at him with so much submissive love and awe in her eyes he blushed before turning to treat his Nysa. His anger at failing them, insane possessiveness and protectiveness, mixed with his love, had made it a very intense and intimate moment as he’d stared into her eyes. Of course, treating Nysa turned out not to be necessary, as April was already healing both her and Shar.
Cinder hadn’t been hurt at all, her fire shield had burned the dust and even the small rocks out of existence. She was also giving him a challenging look that he wasn’t quite sure how to interpret, until suddenly she was smiling carefree and gave him a teasing wink. She’d drive him crazy yet.
He was pretty sure the phoenix had also shielded Carl, because he didn’t have a scratch on him either.
Shar said, “Well, that was fun. It was very old, and the earth is stubborn. Fortunately, it wasn’t a major elemental.”
He grunted, not sure he’d want to meet one of those, “Let’s go pick up the bounty reward, and get out of here.”
She smirked, “You did well, even a minor elemental is no joke. It’s similar to me, compared to the ruler of a lower realm. Elementals are also immortal, and the four realms of the elements are in the exact center of the middle realms. Minor doesn’t mean weak.”
Carl looked a bit shaken, but also pleased they’d be able to renew expanding the mine in the new level and tunnel. The foreman led them back up to the surface, and they headed back into town to the baroness’s estate to collect the bounty.
Of course, plans were made to