"Sam and I will destroy the ships while Myrrh and Perceval with deal with any who escape the carnage," Emory seethed, "Does anyone have any problems with that?" Everyone shook their heads gravely. Seeing no objections, Emory and Sam stepped forward. "Sam, create as many orbs of Arcane magik as possible. We'll fire them all at the same time," Emory directed Sam.
Sam had become quite proficient with her Arcane magik, so she took a deep breath and created about a hundred orbs, each about the size of a baseball. Next to her, Emory glared at the ships and extended her hands to form around ten thousand orbs that lined up next to Sam's. The two girls flicked out their wrists to fire the bolts which caused a high-pitched whistling noise to pierce through the air. In less than a minute, the balls cut through ships and exploded out the back end. The shockwave caused by the explosions pulsed out through the air and tore up the ground.
Then Myrrh and Perceval stepped forward, bent down, and placed their hands on the ground. Magik vines as wide as redwood trees burst from the ground and surged towards the wreckage of the ships. Like a horde of vipers, they struck the Apleem that emerged from the damage, either piercing or cutting through them with no resistance. Clicks and hisses filled the air as the Apleem were torn to shreds. To ensure the job was completed, Emory released another volley of bolts that crashed down on the enemy, causing subsequent smaller explosions. Dust and smoke quickly filled the area, so the four of them waited for the debris to settle.
When the air cleared, four Uthid stood atop the piles of broken ship parts, each one holding a trident in one hand and a tower shield in the other. They looked scuffed and cracked but remained standing there with a resolute look on their faces. Instead of waiting for them to charge, ethereal wings sprouted from Emory's back and propelled her forward at a pace that bordered on teleportation. She landed at the end of the wreckage roughly a hundred feet away from them in just a few moments, but instead of attacking them outright, her body glowed like a candle in the night. When the light dimmed, an obsidian and pearl scaled dragon the same height as the Uthid stood before them on its back two legs. The weapons and shields in the enemies' hands almost fell on the ground from shock. Emory inhaled deeply before exhaling a cone of fire that consumed all four Uthid and burned them to ash in a minute.
With a glittering effect, Emory transformed back into her original form and flew back the group who stood in relative shock at the sight they had just seen. Perceval bowed lowly after he regained his composure while Myrrh and Sam continued staring with their jaws cracked slightly. "That was spectacular, Lady Supreme. Your power knows no limits," Perceval thanked her.
"Now that you are also a type of fire child, you should have a new Meta Form as well," Emory smiled, "Go over there and try it out." Perceval nodded and walked a few feet away from the others. When he activated his Meta Form, the two green magiks mixed together and formed an ethereal cloak around him that made him look similar to Myrrh. After a minute or so, the cloak hardened and became solid, making his appearance look very close to his normal form except he appeared to be made of tree bark. Once he took a minute to study his new body, he transformed back into his normal form. Emory remarked, "Try to keep your distance when you take that form or you could harm others around you."
"I wondered," Perceval grinned, "I could feel my body pulling in magik much stronger than I did before. The power I felt was quite intense though."
"Can we just take a breath for a second? We defeated hundreds of thousands of Apleem in a few minutes! Do you all know how much of a difference we can make now?" Sam exclaimed.
"Sam, you are forgetting just who we are now," Myrrh giggled, "A mixed blood, two gods, and myself. Surely the four of us represent one of the highest concentrations of power in this part of the stars. If we couldn't do what we did, we would not be worth of the titles we have."
Emory agreed, "Myrrh is right. If the universe gave us this power, we must be conscious to use it well. Let's head back to the outpost and make our report. Would you like to see the base, Myrrh?"
"Thank you for the invitation, goddess, but I have a lot to fix here," Myrrh apologized, "Perhaps another time. Please let me know if I can help in the future. Oh, before I go, here's the spell I used to unlock his potential," She touched Emory's hand and projected the spellwork into her mind. Emory, Perceval, and Sam waved goodbye to Myrrh as she shrank into the ground before disappearing completely. Then the trio locked hands and disappeared in a flash of light, returning to the bottom floor of the main outpost building moments later. Elffin and Gatrie were there, waiting patiently for them to return.
Gatrie grinned, "So, it's done, right? We heard the explosions and felt the shockwaves all the way from over here."
"It's done; the Apleem are now gone from the planet," Emory nodded, "Will you please let Shepherd know? Please limit the details as much as you can." Gatrie flashed a thumbs up and ran off to deliver the news.
"What will you do now?" Sam asked Emory.
"I'll go back to Yuzuno and ask Athos what the plan is," Emory replied, "We couldn't have done what we did without the Elandrian's help, so it's only fair to ask them how we can help now."
Sam pouted a little bit, "Oh, I was hoping you'd stick around with us for a little longer, but I understand. Can I come with you to help the Elandrian?"
"No, I can't take you with me," Emory frowned, "It's too dangerous for you to come along with. Stay here and continue training. Once I have a clearer picture of what's going on, I'll bring all my friends along with me. Perceval, will you please stay and help here?"
"With all my abilities. Thank you, Lady Supreme, for everything," Perceval bowed. Sam rushed in and hugged Emory tightly.
"Be safe," Sam said as her eyes welled up with tears, "We'll call right away if we need anything."
Emory blushed, "Thank you. You all be safe here. I hope I won't be gone too long." As Sam released Emory, Emory began to fade away into particles of light. A tear rolled down Sam's face as Emory faded away completely.
Emory rematerialized back on the stone tablet where she had first met Athos. After she sat down and closed her eyes, she tried to call out in her mind to Athos to update him. At first, she considered trying to reach Soren, but if he was in battle, she didn't want to distract him. She tried for a couple minutes before he finally answered back.
"Miss Emory!" he boomed, "It's great to hear from you again. How did things go on your outposts?"
"We fought off the initial wave of attacks from the Apleem and were victorious. There's a lot that happened in a short time, too much to tell you like this. Anyway, I called because, since things have settled down here, I wanted to reach out to see where I could help." Emory explained.
"That's a wonderful suggestion," Athos beamed, "I'll reach out to Bramimond and get an answer for you tomorrow. In case we need to pick you up, which planet are you on currently?"
Emory sighed, "I'll wait for you on Yuzuno, the planet where we first met. Is that okay or do you want me to come to Arcadia?"
"Where you are is fine. Get some rest, though if I know you, you're probably training right now," Athos chuckled, "Just promise me you won't overdo it. I don't know how your first conflict went, but our battles have been getting more intense recently. We'll need your full strength."
"Thanks for your concern. I'll wait to hear from you tomorrow," Emory groaned as she broke the mental connection. Even though it was late, she wanted to keep training. She continued making steady progress on her Chaos sphere into the late night until she felt like she had a breakthrough around midnight. Exhausted, she teleported to her bedroom but couldn't even make it onto the bed. Pulling the blanket down on the floor, she curled up in a ball and drifted off to sleep. But her dreams kept her awake as she began to get visions of the Apleem once again.