Stupid girl.
I pick up my speed. I know that I can run long distances, but if this is the same scene from my vision, I need to keep my energy. I glance behind me and see Phillip still chasing after me. Keeping my shield up, I call my magic to me. I can feel the magic building up in my core, coming to the surface. I push myself to run further. I need to create a greater distance between us.
When there’s a couple feet between us, I stop running and turn around. Dropping my shield, I thrust my magic out. Time stops as I watch it cascade through the air for a couple seconds before hitting Phillip. His eyes widen as my magic connects with him. His forward motion is reversed, and he flies backward through the air—limbs flailing in every direction. He lands on his back on the trail and stays down. I turn around and start to run again.
Is he dead? I stop running. I slowly turn back around. He is still lying in the center of the trail. I take tentative steps toward him. Why am I worried about Phillip? He just tried to attack me. Standing a foot away from him, I crouch down next to his body. I don’t want to get too close. I stare at his chest until I see its rise and fall from breathing.
He’s alive.
With that confirmed, I spin around and run back in the direction I was heading in before. I slow to a steady jog and look around me. I can hear sounds of things moving through the forest, but I don’t know what they are specifically.
Footsteps.
I pick up my pace again. I’m going to be discovered soon anyway. “I found her!” someone yells. Shoot. I look back and see a large group of men chasing after me. This is my vision. This is what I had to get to. I open my mind and try to read their thoughts, but there are too many of them. My steps falter as I try to get control of them. I can’t concentrate on anything.
Pushing their thoughts back, I lock them away and continue running. I enter the clearing and stop. Though I know where I am this time, it still shocks me that I am here. This was where I’ve been attacked by gorgoths before, and now I am about to get attacked by something real. Gadramicks. Valdus intentionally brought all these people into the dream world to search for me when I foiled his attempt to bring me back to the compound.
I start running again but stop dead in my tracks when I see the man standing in front of me. I take a couple steps back and look to my right: another man. Left? Another. I’m surrounded. I spin in a circle. Yep, definitely surrounded. These don’t look like the same men, but this is the same situation.
Nine to one. Not fair.
The man directly across from me starts walking toward me, smiling with each step. Wow, he is cocky. The men in the circle spread out to cover the open area. I take a couple steps backward, but I know that I can’t go too far.
As he jumps into the air, I throw up my shield. He slams into my magic and stumbles backward. Now it is my turn to be cocky. I take a step toward him and smile. “Did you think I’d go easily? Have you guys not learned anything?” I watch as he picks himself up and narrows his eyes at me. Saying he is mad would be an understatement.
I run toward him and drop the shield. Doing an aerial cartwheel, I call my magic to my limbs and stop in front of him. Since he is stunned, I easily reach out and kick him in the jaw, knocking him unconscious. He falls limply to the ground. Stepping over him, I spin around and look at each of the guys, arms outstretched. “Who’s next?”
Instead of individually attacking me, they decide to make it a collaborative effort. As all the guys start running for me, I call my magic to me and push it underneath my body. I’m as light as air, let me fly. When the wind picks up, I jump in the air and fly above everyone. I hover about ten feet in the air and watch as all the men slam into each other, grunting in pain as they realize what I’ve done. I flip a couple times in the air before landing in the grass behind them, crouched down in a defensive position. All the men, minus the unconscious one, push through the pain and get up to face me.
“Oops.” I smile at them and look down at my nails, feigning boredom. “You really should pay more attention to where you’re going.”
Barring their teeth, they all growl in annoyance at me. Am I surrounded by werewolves or something? Do werewolves exist? I’ll have to ask Colton that question sometime.
They all start running for me again. I throw up another shield. Shields are becoming second nature to me. I don’t really have to think about them anymore. When I need one, it appears. As they run into the shield, they cry out and fall back to the ground again. I walk toward them slowly. I am getting pretty good at annoying incredibly large, bad men. Can I put that on a résumé as a skill?