Free The Dragon's Wrath: Ashes of the Fallen by Brent Roth Page B

quickly disappeared as my brows narrowed and my eyes focused in on the targets in front of me. With my shield still on my arm, and my axe in its sling, I raised both hands and palmed them together. Pulling them slightly apart, I began to cast my chain lightning without a verse as electricity quickly condensed into four tiny little individual bolts.
    Swirling around between my hands as they intersected and intertwined, the bolts of electricity took shape and became the four-part bolt that I was now overly familiar with. One-point-five seconds had passed, as I aimed at the healer and thrust my arms forward, expanding my hands.
    At the two second mark, I yelled.
    "CHAIN LIGHTNING!"
    With a flash that nearly blinded and a deafening crack of thunder following, the bolt swirled through the air as it impacted directly into the center of the healer's chest with a small explosion. Nearly instantly arcing and bouncing off to the other three members immediately behind him, the three bolts found their targets as the fourth flew off and landed in the ground, discharging harmlessly into the surroundings.
    All four party members started to convulse temporarily as I only had a second to capitalize on the moment. Raising my right hand I quickly created an electric tether between the healer and I, as pulsating energy was pumped out of me and into the man twenty feet from me.
    He wanted to scream, to shout profanities at me, but the man convulsed as his muscles continued to spasm uncontrollably. His throat could be seen trying to vocalize sound as his eyes appeared to roll back, succumbing to my magic. Then with nothing more than the white of his eyes showing, he collapsed to the ground without so much as a sound, opening his mouth to let out a suppressed noise that never came.
    His body betrayed him, and as his last bit of life drained out, two fireballs whooshed through the air directly towards me.
    Dropping to a knee, I raised my shield with a ferocious urgency, barely in the nick of time as fire exploded all around me, engulfing me in flames. The impact nearly knocked me back as heat radiated outwards and before I could even lower my shield, the thud of multiple arrows hitting my shield could be felt and heard.
    I had no time to hesitate, as I kicked my leg out and rolled to the side.
    An arrow whizzed past my face as I repositioned, and then another two fireballs were shot in my direction as I tumbled and threw my shield up once more to block them. Fiery explosions filled my field of vision as the heat tickled my face and burned my arm.
    Ignoring the pain I continued to move.
    Standing up and repositioning myself, I then charged at full sprint towards the archer as his face contorted in fear.
    Raising my axe as I neared within ten feet he instinctively turned and ran in the opposite direction while shooting off arrows wildly in my general vicinity. One of those wayward arrows hit a mage as he was preparing another fireball and the sudden distraction jolted him, causing a rebound as the spell exploded in his face.
    Taking advantage of the situation, I quickly jumped to my left as I changed my angle of approach and swiped my axe at the fazed mage who was largely unhurt but unable to cast anything.
    He raised his hands in a vain attempt to defend himself as I easily chopped through his forearms, causing him to scream in terror. The fright of pure horror displayed on his face reflected in my eyes as I readied another swing, and right as I was about to bring my axe down on his exposed neck, an instant cast flame hit me in the side of my chest causing me to jerk to the right.
    "Ah fuck!" I cursed under my breath as I lost my aim on the man in front of me.
    Grimacing and attempting to ignore the smell of burnt flesh, I shook my head and quickly looked to the mage I was previously attacking.
    Throwing my shield out at the mage that had hit me, it knocked him back and forced him to retreat another step in fear.
    The wounded mage that I had failed to