Watching the last arcanist struggle as he was slowly being overwhelmed by the countless attacking roots, Jareth felt his intestines twist. His heart was heavy.
"T-T-They… They will die because of me?" He struggled to speak.
Clenching his trembling fist, he narrowed his eyes.
"There must be a way!"
His eyes quickly searched the battle scene, and he soon found the body of the tree octopus hiding in a tree canopy not too far from the scene.
'It camouflaged with the tree trunk by standing on it and sent its roots through the ground to fight? But, how do I send it running? Jareth, think! Think!! Think!!!'
His eyes rolled around before they froze.
'I'll just risk it!'
Stretching his hands out, he commanded in a low voice, "Blaze!"
Crimson fire erupted from his palms, swirling into the outline of a massive spear, twice the thickness of an adult arm and about five meters long. More flame jetted from his hands, feeding the fire spear as it pulsed in the air, threatening to explode. Intense heat radiated from it.
His fingers trembled, then his whole arms shook with the effort of holding it together.
A low groan was torn from his throat, his teeth gritted so hard his jaw ached. Every muscle in his arms and back bulged, with sweat stinging his eyes and drenching his body.
He resisted the pounding headache that threatened to shatter his concentration.
This was the first time he felt the true strain of controlling his flame.
With each new surge of fire, the spear grew more solid, but also more unstable. He could feel the fire resisting his control and bucking against his will.
CRACK!
A jagged fissure suddenly split the spear's side. Jareth's heart lurched into his throat as he stopped adding fire, but he swiftly switched his focus to mending the crack while maintaining the spear's form.
The edges of the crack crawled back together in an agonizingly slow manner that felt like forever until it was sealed.
Then he continued adding more flame until he was almost empty, before the torrent finally halted.
Hovering in the air before him was a gigantic crimson spear, gleaming with a glassy, molten sheen.
Jareth couldn't tell how much power was held within it. But he had no desire to experience it detonating close to him—not when it contained eighty percent of his mana.
'I don't know if this will hurt that tree octopus. So, I'll add a final touch.'
With trembling hands, Jareth began spinning the spear. It slowly rotated until it was spinning like a drill. Jareth's body was now trembling as maintaining the gigantic fire spear while spinning multiplied the difficulty and instability. It nearly went out of control.
His remaining mana was dropping like a broken faucet.
'Go!'
He launched it forward immediately.
The huge fire spear blitzed forward with a sharp whoosh.
Jareth barely held it from exploding halfway.
It reached its target in a few seconds.
The tree octopus tried to escape when it finally spotted the falling spear, but it was too late. Jareth released it as the spear struck the tree.
BANG!!!
The vicinity quaked after the deafening bang as crimson flames flared in the sky. Debris flung into the air. Dust swirled around.
Beasts ran helter-skelter.
Jareth staggered and dropped to one knee. His ears still heard only muffled cacophonies of roars after the loud explosion.
Ignoring the weakness and headache, he looked down.
The corner of his lips curled into a small smile when he saw the other arcanists escaping.
Turning his head, he squinted at the scene when he saw his crimson fire slowly shrinking, leaving a scene of utter destruction. The little trees in the area had all turned to ashes, leaving only a wide burning crater where the spear struck.
'Did that tree octopus also die?'
Jareth couldn't be sure as he didn't see anything in the scene.
Rubbing his head, his vision was becoming blurry.
'Controlling that wasn't easy.'
Staggering to his feet, he went and pushed the snake to seal the hole.
Then he went to the corner and laid down.
He slept the moment his head touched the ground, maybe because he hadn't slept for many hours coupled with the strenuous madness he had done.
***
When he opened his eyes again, the soft silver glow of moonlight was seeping through the opening beside the snake's corpse.
Groaning, he checked the time on his comm band.
To his absolute shock, a day had passed.
'I slept through the evening, the night, and the next day, only in the middle of the next night?'
A sharp shrill from outside made him shut the light of his comm band.
Sitting in silence, he mused, 'I will use tomorrow to observe and make my final preparation to escape this hellhole.'
Spending the night accompanied by his idle thoughts and brainstorming his grand escape plan, he sat still.
The multiple roars informed Jareth that the night predators had vanished.
He stood up and dusted his body.
'Let's begin.'
Walking up to the snake, he activated [Quintessence Claws].
Black mist swirled around his lower arm, sheathing from his elbow down to his hand in a thick black misty gauntlet, ending in extended sharp claws.
Jareth carefully climbed the snake until he stood on its head.
Crouching down, he swiped his clawed fingers against the neck of the snake.
A soft ding echoed.
Jareth felt his fingers trembling.
He sucked in a deep breath at the sight of only a light scratch on the snake's scale.
'How long will this take? I need a sharper blade. Wait! That guy covered his blade with fire. Maybe it's a special spell for him, but I'm not others; I can mimic him.'
'Blaze!' He commanded.
Crimson fire spewed from his palms and curled back to his wrists, swirling within the black mist until they transformed the gauntlet into a mix of undulating crimson flames and black mist.
He nodded in satisfaction. But he used his will to keep the fire under control and his mana kept it burning.
Jareth halted his action.
Then he swiped the neck of the snake.
Retracting his hand, he saw a deep charred gash on the scale beneath the previous scratch.
Jareth smirked and began swiping both hands from both sides of the snake's neck.
Little by little, he chipped deeper. Surprisingly, beneath the scale was dry, with clogged blood that released sizzling noises when in contact with his 'fire gauntlet'.
When his mana was exhausted, Jareth went to the hole to observe the beasts while mapping his escape route.
He continued alternating between the decapitation and observation until evening before he reached the bone. He left it like that, fearing that it might not scare the big bats without a head.
With all his fingers aching, he stayed awake.
The night quickly passed and the next day, Jareth spent trying to cut the bone. He slashed until another evening, his fingers aching from the strenuous exercise.
He paused because it was evening, leaving a small uncut section on the bone to connect the head to the body, because of his fear of big bats.
'Tomorrow it is! Whether I die or I live will depend on how smooth my plan goes.'
He fell asleep as he needed to be at his peak condition.