Before we had even entered the farm, it was very easy to see exactly what was happening. We stood just outside the gate and watched as plants began to tear up from the ground completely on their own and begin flailing around wildly. The farm was already eerie looking at night with it’s single barn and several smaller surrounding builds which I could only assume were stables for all kinds of magical creatures. I began to think of all the ways that essence could affect the evolution of creatures here and what kinds of things they would have to adapt to.

“Avien!” shouted Lilith from beside me. I blinked and looked over to her, realizing I had completely forgotten about what we were here to do.

“Sorry! I was just… Never mind. Let’s go!”

We pushed through the gate to the farm and stepped on to the pathway that led to the main fields and the center of the issue. None of the crops were moving in the same way. Some were simply flung in to the air to then smash in to the ground while others would swirl around in circles just above the fields. It was a hurricane of chaos and unrest amongst the crops of the farm. I couldn’t even begin to come up with a reasonable explanation for this. This could easily be the work of a nature apprentice with significant concentration, but every single person in town seemed to be afraid of this. It wasn’t just an isolated incident.

At one point, I could swear that one of the strange, pumpkin-looking plants turned and looked at me. It seemed totally crazy, but then, things seemed to escalate. The hurricane of plants and crops got wilder and started to get a bit deadly. Some of the harder and larger flying crops started to target the buildings with fierce deliberation. What looked like a large walnut began smashing through the windows of the smaller buildings while a torrent of food pelted the barn, causing it to begin caving slightly.

“We have to protect the buildings!” I shouted to the rest of the group.

A glowing seal appeared on my palm as I focused on the barn. I placed a thick layer of wind essence around the entire barn, protecting it from the assault of the farm. Similar barriers popped up around the other buildings, each different colors and patterns.

We had¬ stopped the crops from being able to destroy the buildings, but they did not at all seem to be very happy about that in the slightest. They began to spin around in tight circles. They were going so fast that they started to create a torrent of wind that picked up rocks, dirt, leaves, and anything else that wasn’t tied down around the farm. Soon, there was a full-blown tornado brewing in the middle of the farm and it was growing by the second. If we didn’t deal with it somehow, we would be in for some serious problems.

Before I could even say anything, Lilith leapt in to the air and flew to above the tornado. At first, I had no idea what she was doing, but then I watched as she dropped down to the bottom of the tornado, a bright orange glow following her the whole way. The crops around her quickly caught fire, turning the tornado in to a fire tornado. At first, it seemed like things could only possibly get worse, but then the crops crumbled to dust and the tornado quickly ceased. Lilith walked back over to us with a big smile on her face. “That was fun.”

“I was a bit worried for a second there, but now that all the plants are gone, we shouldn’t have too much trouble finding whoever is controlling this all.”

Lilith thought for a second. “Why don’t you just use your observer’s eye and search for any active earth auras in the near area or even some form of permanent seal that has some conditions set on it.”

I nodded and was about to activate my eye when I heard a deep rumbling begin emanating from the forest just behind the farm. We all turned toward the sound and our collective jaws dropped as we watched the forest come to life. Trees, bushes, vines, and everything in between were all ripped from the ground and began to hover in the sky, a mass of nature beginning to form in a very menacing fashion.

We watched in horror as the limbs and a body began to form. Vines wrapped around the new monster’s legs as the upper half of the thing started to construct itself. By the time it was done, standing in front of us was a several hundred-foot-tall abomination of nature. We all just sat there in awe as this towering creature seemed to flex its arms and become acquainted with the new form it possessed.

“What in Ser is that?!” I shouted.

We dodged backwards as one of the giant’s massive arms came down on top of, creating a massive crater where we had once been standing. “That is a problem!” Lilith shouted back at us.

The giant stomped out of the forest and in to the village. To it, I imagined we looed no more threatening than a few little daisies in a field.

“I think I have an idea!” Viktor shouted over to us.

We ran over to him, huddling closely as the giant approached. “Talk quick. What do you have?” Lilith said.

“Okay, so basically, there are pretty few explanations for what this thing is, but assuming it is another apprentice that created this thing. They likely aren’t controlling it. It seems to have free will and be moving of its own accord.”

Julian nodded. “And you think it might be a golem.”

“Exactly. If I can override the life force of even a part of that massive thing, I should be able to give us a serious advantage and maybe even destroy it.”

I nodded. “Get it done. We’ll just try to keep it away from the town while you do that.”

We broke off. Viktor positioned himself on top of the barn and I watched as a massive green seal expanded underneath his feet. He directed his hands towards the giant and closed his eyes. Lilith had begun flying around it, shooting blasts of fire while avoiding the arms trying to swat it. Behind the legs, Julian was trying to anchor it down with massive steal spikes and a bit of black wiring.

I had to help somehow as well. I couldn’t use wind arrow here. That would take a little too long to prepare and creating one big enough would be way too hard. However, I could maybe create something similar, a wind orb. I placed seals on both of my palms and focused. Instead of trying to create swirling strips of wind moving in a specific way, I simply created swirling masses of wind vaguely in the shape of sphere. I formed one over each palm in almost no time at all. They were pretty easy to make and required a lower essence cost than the precise wind arrow.

The only thing that remained to be seen now was whether or not they would actually work. I rushed forward towards the beast, wind orbs in hand. As I flew, I tried to gradually increase the size of the orbs to around the size of myself. I needed them to be as big as possible to take out this stupid tree giant. Once I was close enough, I tossed the orbs right in to the giant’s chest. I was hoping they would push it back at least a little bit, but before they could even impact the main part of its body, vines sprung out from around it and blocked the blow, the vines were destroyed, but the body of the giant remained unaffected by my attack.

I flew back down to Viktor, landing on the roof next to him. “How’s it coming?”

He fell to the ground, panting. The seal underneath us disappeared. “It’s not working. Something’s wrong…”

“What do you mean?” I placed my hand on his shoulder.

He shook his head. “I don’t know. Either the person who created this golem’s life force is a lot stronger than me or this thing is a has a natural life force.”

I nodded. “I don’t really know too much about how golem magic works, but if you can’t do it, you shouldn’t try to push yourself. And you shouldn’t feel bad either. We can take care of this thing another way, I’m sure.”

“Thanks, Avien…”

“Wait! I have an idea!” I flicked my hand over my eye and stared up at the giant, watching as the auras began to appear. I tuned out the essence from the surrounding forest. When I looked up at the giant, I saw something a bit confusing.

“What do you see?” Viktor asked.

I turned to him. “Uh… Well, this thing does have a natural life force.”

“And?”

I looked at the giant and then back at Viktor. “Well, it doesn’t just have one. It has around a hundred or so auras. Not only that, but I can tell that they’re the auras from shades. They’re a bit corrupted which explains why they’re attacking the town. They’re not in control. The only question is: Where are they coming from? I find it hard to believe that this many shades could simply have stuck around this town and gone unnoticed until now.”

He nodded. “Alright. Well, can you find out where they’re coming from then?”

“Yeah, give me a minute.” I expanded the range of my vision and scanned the town for anything that looked abnormal. Eventually, I turned my focus to the forest and found something very peculiar. It was a large mass of destruction essence that seemed to be constantly changing and shifting. “Found it.” I pointed in the direction of the unstable essence.

Viktor squinted in that direction. “I can’t see anything. What is it?”

I shook my head. “I’m not entirely sure. I’ll go find out.” Without another word, I used the seal on my hand to bolt in the direction of the essence. My vision slowed as I slipped under the giant and I watched as Lilith unleashed a massive jet of fire right in to the thing’s arm. Once I was on the other side, I continued on to the strange aura. As I got closer, I noticed that the aura was actually a cluster of unstable earth essence surrounded by destruction essence. Once I got to it, I immediately recognized it. I didn’t fully understand it, but I knew what it was.

Sitting in from of me was a swirling rift of earth and destruction essence. I watched as auras continued to flow out and directly in to the tree giant behind me. We had to close this thing somehow, but I couldn’t do it. I had no power over earth. Thankfully, we had two apprentices to fill that role. I race over to Julian who was still trying to use metal spikes to slow down the giant.

“Julian, I need your help!”

He turned back to me as another spike broke in the giant’s leg. “With what?”

I pointed towards the direction of the rift. “Over there, there’s a rift that leads in to the earth plane, but it’s unstable and it’s allowing shades to spill out and in to this giant thing. I need you to widen it so that all these shades can flood back in quickly once we take it down. Then I’ll need you to collapse the rift at the same time.”

He shook his head. “I have no idea how to control rifts at all. It’s never been something I needed to know.”

“It doesn’t matter. You’re not making it. All you have to do is focus on the earth essence holding it open and add more to it. Then once all the shades are in, you cause it collapse. That shouldn’t be too hard considering how unstable it is already.”

He shrugged. “I can try, but I can’t promise anything.”

I flew off, shouting back to him, “You can do it! I believe in you!”

I made my way back to Viktor. “Well, what’s happening?”

“There’s a rift releasing all the shades out in to the world and in to that thing,” I answered, pointing to the tree giant. “Julian is going to be doing his work there. You, Lilith and I are going to take down this stupid tree monster.”

He gave me a puzzled look as I said that. “How are we going to do that? If you hadn’t noticed, we haven’t been doing all that well so far.”

I grinned down at him. “Trust me, I have a plan that will definitely work. All I need you to do is make sure that this forest is safe and that any fire that falls won’t be spreading to the town. Can you do that.”

He gave me a thumbs up and I smiled. “Great! I’ll see you when this is over!”

I flew up and over to Lilith who was still doing her thing. “Lilith! I have a plan!”

She turned to me. “Alright, let’s hear it.”

I dodged a swipe from the giant’s massive arm. “Okay, so basically, this thing’s whole body was pretty haphazardly put together. That means that nothing on this thing is very solid.”

She smiled devilishly. “I see where you’re going with this. Because of the way this thing was put together, there’s a lot of empty space in its body. You can force that apart with wind and I can send a jet of fire through that.”

I nodded. “You may have to do even less than that. I’ve never done it before, but I may be able to create a layer of gas in the gaps. All you would need to do is send a tiny spark and this whole thing would go up in flames.”

“Got it. What about the forest and town? What happens if pieces of this thing fall the wrong way?”

“I have Viktor managing both of those.”

She smiled, her scarf turning a brilliant white color. “Let’s burn this overgrown twig!”

I nodded and threw the seal on my hand up to the sky above the giant. I poured a massive amount of essence in to it and watched as the giant slowly began to separate all over. Cracks were forming all over it, making it more vulnerable. The vines all over its body kept it together and tried to force the pieces back together which caused me a bit of strain. I had to get this over with quickly. I threw the seal from my other hand below the giant and converted it in to a weather seal. I poured more essence in to it and slowly, the cracks began to fill with gas.

Once they were all full, I turned to Lilith. “Now!” I shouted.

Without any hesitation, she snapped her fingers and I watched as a piece of her burning blue scarf shot towards the giant. The second it touched the first gap, the fire expanded and the giant instantly caught fire. A blue haze enveloped the whole forest and cast an eerie light on to the town. The giant collapsed to the ground as its body began to crumble. I watched as the shades flooded out of each of the smoldering limbs and in to the rift at the edge of the forest. Once I saw that there were no more shades I shouted to Julian. “Close it!”

I watched as the brown and grey aura collapsed in to nothing. I let out a sigh of relief as my body gaze out. My seals disappeared and I fell to the ground. My vision began to fade as something swooped down and caught me. I dropped to the ground and my vision went black.