Page 23 of Elemental Hall: Nautica (Elemental Hall #1)

I stumble as the punch lands, then lash out with a kick to drive Ash back. It buys me a second, but only a second, then I have to dive to one side to avoid a burst of flames.

“You aren’t so tough when you don’t have a whole ocean to use,” Ash sneers. He kicks at me when I start to rise, sending me sprawling. I roll to my feet, circling him warily.

“At least I haven’t betrayed my friends, my academy, my kingdom,” I shoot back.

It has the desired effect, getting him to rush in angrily, striking out with fists and feet. I turn aside from the rush, hoping to trip him and land on top, but he twists at the last moment in the air. We tumble to the ground, but he’s the one who lands above me.

“You all betrayed me first,” Ash says. “You ignored me, you went out of your way to outdo me. Even the Umbrans went to you first, asking you to join them. They think I didn’t know, they tried to tell me that I was first, but they weren’t careful enough. I found out.”

“They let you know deliberately,” I guess. “It’s a way to make you angrier. Ash, they’re using you.”

“Shut up!” he snarls.

His hands fasten around my throat, squeezing, the pressure awful. I can’t breathe. I’m used to swimming underwater now for as long as I want, to pulling oxygen from the waves, but with this crushing pressure on my throat, I gasp for air.

I summon a blast of air to buffet Ash, but it’s not strong enough to dislodge him. I hit at him from below, but it doesn’t make any difference.

“You were only ever any good with one element,” Ash snarls in triumph. “They would have seen that soon enough. Now, they won’t even find your body once the wave hits.”

I look past him, seeing the truth of that, even with my vision starting to close in at the edges. The tsunami is bearing down on the island. Anything that isn’t protected will be washed away. Clearly, Ash believes that he has the means to survive it.

I see the tsunami, and I also see the figure bearing down on us, moving quickly. Darius slams into us, knocking Ash from me. Ash rolls to his feet quickly, scything a kick at Darius’s legs that makes him jump back to avoid it.

“So, I get to kill both of the annoyances on this island,” Ash says.

He flings fire at Darius and Darius responds with lightning, the two elemental attacks meeting in the space between them.

For a second, all I can do is lie there, gasping for air, watching the two of them fight in a bewildering mixture of hand-to-hand combat and elemental attacks.

Lightning crackles all around, fire rages, and the two of them exchange blows with sickening force.

Meanwhile, my eyes fall on the damaged sea gate and I realize the point of Ash’s plan.

This island might be abandoned, but it has plenty of defenses designed to minimize the impact of a wave such as the one heading toward us.

The elementalists want to test us, not kill us.

By destroying these defenses, Ash is going to let the tsunami run out of control.

I force my way to my feet, determined to help. Ash sends a blast of air my way, then a bolt of fire. I dodge both, but only barely. Darius hits back at him. Ash moves out of the way, then throws a blast of fire at Darius. I throw up a barrier of air just in time to intercept it.

The tsunami is here now, looming overhead, the power of it terrifying. I grab for Darius, holding him close, summoning all the power I have as the wave washes over us. I hold a bubble around us, keeping the water out, stopping us from simply being washed away.

“We need to get to the others!” I yell to him. “If we don’t, people will die!”

“Ash—”

“We don’t have time to fight him. Too many lives are at stake.”

Darius nods his agreement, and I reach out for the rushing torrent of water around us.

There is no way that we will be able to run to the other side of the island faster than the water can get there.

All I can do is seal us in our bubble of water, letting the rush of the tsunami carry us along.

We’re moving so fast that I can barely react quickly enough to guide us around obstacles, pushing the currents beside us one way and then another.

Darius and I cling to one another as the water carries us along. I hold onto him tightly, the lean muscles of his body pressed against me as we ride the power of the wave back to where the others are waiting.

I see them ahead. They’ve gathered together now, and I’m grateful for that. Anyone out here alone will be helpless against the power of the tsunami. I can see the shields they’re holding up against the onrushing water.

We slam into those shields, then pass through them, tumbling to the ground in front of Cara and Orion.

“Sera, what’s going on?” Orion demands.

Looking around, I can see all the students trying to hold back the power of the tsunami.

“Ash is a traitor. He’s smashed the island’s sea gates!”

Orion frowns at me, obviously not understanding. I do my best to explain.

“This is meant to be a test, but the Elemental Hall has safety measures in place. Canals and gates on the far side of the island that are designed to slow this down. Without them… there aren’t any safety measures now.”

Orion looks worried then. “We’re barely holding back the water as it is.”

“We need to dissipate the tsunami,” Cara says. “But if we put any strength into doing that, our barriers will fail.”

“Maybe we can survive it,” Darius says. “Everyone here can breathe beneath the waves and hold off currents.”

Orion doesn’t look happy with that suggestion. “And if someone isn’t strong enough? Doing it in a few normal currents is one thing, but against this power? People will die!”

“We can’t just hold the barriers forever,” Cara points out. “If we don’t redirect the water, we’re going to get swept away anyway.”

I can see the strain on her face and realize that even as she’s talking, she’s putting everything she has into holding up the barriers against the tsunami. I see Orion raise a hand, lending his strength to the power of the group.

“What would it take to redirect this?” I ask.

“I’m not sure,” Cara says. “Potentially? It could be all of us. But we can’t hold the barriers and do it.”

“I can,” I say.

Orion frowns. “Sera—”

“I can hold them, if anyone can,” I say. “You channel the water away safely. I’ll hold the barriers.”

“Even you will need help,” Darius insists.

“Then help me. Maybe a few of you will be enough to dissipate this tsunami, but whatever we’re doing, we have to do it now.”

I don’t give them any more time to argue.

I reach out for the barriers that the others have set up.

I lend my strength to theirs, feeling the fury of the tsunami beyond, feeling the power of it and helping to hold it back.

For the first second or two, it’s easy. I am one with the power of the water and it does what I ask of it, flowing around us, over us, past us without ever touching us.

I hold against the full power of the water flooding in, bracing my feet in the dirt as if I’m lifting the weight of all that water physically.

Then the first students start to pull their strength to work on redirecting the water, and I feel more of the pressure hit me, then more again.

Cara is the first to pull her strength away from the barrier. That makes sense. She’s the one who can work out how to redirect the tsunami safely. She’s the one who worked out our original plan, and I can feel her trying to channel the water now.

Others join her, one by one, and each time, the pressure on me increases.

I close my eyes, focusing on the power I’m putting out, trying to hold up the water above.

It feels as if the full pressure of an ocean is crushing down on me.

It feels as if my entire body is being squashed flat.

I grit my teeth, keeping the shields in place.

More of my classmates pull away to help with the efforts, then more again. Finally, only Darius, Orion, and I are holding the shield, and the effort of it is agonizing.

“We need more!” Cara says. “We’re almost there, but we need more.”

I look over to Darius, then to Orion. “Do it.”

“Sera, you can’t hold this,” Darius insists.

“Do it,” I shout.

I feel the moment when they both let go of the barriers to focus on cutting new channels to redirect the water.

I feel the full weight of the tsunami bearing down on me, too great even for my strength.

I can’t hold it. It’s too much for me. Even trying to keep it at bay is agony.

The power required to keep it back is tearing me apart.

Every fiber of my being screams at me to let the barriers fall, to save myself while I can…

but that would mean letting the others die.

I can’t do that. I hold. I hold because I have to.

I hold, screaming with the pain of it. Finally, I feel that the channels are in place, that the others are starting to pull the water away.

I let the tsunami flow along those channels now, and I feel the pressure starting to fade.

It dwindles, growing less and less, until finally there is only a trickle of water around us.

I let the barriers fall, then collapse to my knees. We did it. We’re safe.