Unmotivated Deity

Jien was still laying on the grass of the clearing before the lake, blood slowly but surely beginning to pool beneath his injuries dying the green a dark crimson. No one else in the clearing had the attention to notice when Jien seemed to shift slightly. He didn't move to try to sit up or stand, merely shifting so that his face was facing the fight between his father and the bandit leader. They had gone through a few more exchanges at that point but were fairly evenly matched. Neither had been wounded like Jien had, both having a fair amount of experience.

Jien opened his eyes slightly, and if anyone had been able to see or was paying close attention, they would have noticed that the vibrant green of his irises had deepened to the point that it was almost completely black. "Hmm, so this is what a mortal body feels like. Well not that I can actually feel much of it." Jien murmured these words as he observed another exchange between Lord Losler and the bandit leader. The boredom in his eyes would have been visible to anyone paying attention. It was as if he was simply reading a textbook or watching an uninteresting play.

"I suppose I better get this over with. The body won't hold up under this strain for long." With that thought he reached out his uninjured arm slowly and laid his palm on the ground.

Jien remained in the darkness of what he could only assume was his own mind. He had no idea what was going on around his body. He only knew that he had been injured in the fight with the bandit leader and had likely passed out due to his injuries. This however changed abruptly after what seemed like possibly an eternity after the shadow had vanished.

He still couldn't see or feel anything around him, but an odd feeling swelled from within the darkness. It was like an emotion, but it had many meanings blended and then distilled. Jien both recognized the feeling and didn't. It was similar to the feeling of the Nigh Light spell or the feeling of the Personal Library spell, however it was also very distant in terms of the meanings imbedded in that feeling. He knew that he must be casting a spell, but he didn't know how he would be doing so.

Let alone casting a spell that he knew, this spell was beyond anything he had learned yet, and it was using a type of casting that he had only succeeded with for a single spell. The feeling welled up in the darkness for what felt like yet another long expanse of time before vanishing in an instant. With the vanishing feeling came a deep sense of weakness down to his very core. He didn't know what he had just cast, but he did know that in casting it he had burned through the majority of the remainder of his mana. He could only hope that whatever was happening would put an end to the fight. He knew that even if he was to wake up he would now be absolutely useless in this battle.

In the outside world only a few seconds had passed since Jien had decided to make his move. He had thought for only a moment before putting his mana behind a spell and focusing on casting it. He knew he would only get one shot at this even if he was only to use a slight portion of his overall mana rather than almost everything. Thinking along those lines he decided to make a single, powerful play and end the battle quickly, knowing that he would need treatment soon after. Right now, his wounds were being held from bleeding out by mana manipulation being used to clamp down around the wounds. Once this spell was cast, there wouldn't be enough mana to keep this going.

The feeling of the spell enveloped his senses for but a brief moment before a subtle pale light shown from beneath his palm where a mass of mana had been released. His palm was pressed on the ground, allowing for the suppression of the light from the spell and leading it to being unnoticed.

At first nothing seemed to happen, the spell appeared to be a dud, which was always a possibility if it had been cast incorrectly. However, that concern never reached Jien as he continued to peer at the fight not far from him with his calm, deep eyes.

His focus went to the ground by the left ankle of the bandit leader and his lips curved up ever so slightly when he saw a small stem reach above the level of the grass, on its end a single small bud. The plant itself was completely inconspicuous, and nobody but Jien would notice it growing in the dark.

Once the stem had grown an inch or two above the level of the grass its length straightened until it was aimed at the bandit leader. The bud at the end of the stem seemed to quiver ever so slightly before unfurling in a spiral to present gorgeous red petals, but the most interesting part of the phenomena was the thorn like object that jettisoned from the center of the newly exposed flower.

The thorn like seed shot forward with a fierce momentum of an arrow loosed from its bow and struck the bandit leader's exposed neck with the accuracy of a trained sniper. To the bandit leader this felt like a bee sting and though her body's reaction would have been to swat at her neck, she was locked in a battle that wouldn't allow her to break her concentration.

Seeing the seed had successfully struck the bandit leaders neck and had pierced into it, Jien gave a slight sigh before closing his eyes once again. "I guess that will do. Hopefully he gets stronger soon. Didn't think I would become a nanny." Those were the last words mumbled before he went still once more. The only difference being that more blood was beginning to spill from two wounds.

After the feeling of the bee sting had assaulted the bandit leader's neck she had continued on for a few exchanges before a sudden feeling of weakness struck her. It was like her body didn't want to listen, her muscles felt as sore as they would if she had spent days fighting rather than maybe the fifteen minutes they had been facing off, and her mind felt sluggish. Her reactions slowed as a result and though she was able to continue the exchanges with Lord Losler she was unable to do so with the same level of skill, leaving more openings in her stance and lacking strength in her blows.

Still, the most surprising turn of events came after a few more exchanges. With each exchange she felt her body becoming heavier and her mind foggier, but after about a minute of this feeling after the bee sting a sudden change occurred. From the location that the seed had dug into her neck, vines burst forth and grew at an extraordinary rate. They tangled themselves around her body tightly in what could almost be considered a cocoon before the vines themselves seemed to harden into a density that would match hardwood.

Between the weakening effect of the plant and the vines now holding her firmly in place the bandit leader had been captured. This though left Lord Losler baffled, having never seen or heard of such a spell being used. Not only that, but everyone else was still in their own battles, or so he thought.

That was the first chance he had gotten to take a look at the other fights in the area, and after he saw the results, it left him even more confused. Not only was the bandit leader captured but all of the other bandits were in the same predicament. The battle against the bandits had come to an abrupt end, though unfortunately not soon enough for some of the guards who were lying lifelessly on the ground.