Unmotivated Deity

There was no question as to what every one of the members of the group was thinking. They only wanted to escape the destruction firing at them from the pool. The pure water pressure was enough to pulverize stone, let alone their light armors and the level of spells that they could produce. They abandoned all thoughts of organized retreat, turning their backs and charging at full speed back toward the entrance, looking back every once in a while, looking at the pool with clear fear clear in their eyes.

Their instructors had watched everything from the start, staying closer to the entrance to ensure that if worst came to worst, they would be able to interfere and save them if needed. The beginning of the plan had received their silent approval. Mark especially found himself praising Jien's attempt to be more communicative with the others. He knew that Jien by his very nature was introverted and would rather have had his nose in one of the several books he was sure the boy had brought with him.

It was when the rose and the fish it was latched to appeared that all of the tutors knew that things had truly gone south. They were all hardened veterans of the battlefield; each having completed their time in the academy and proven their mettle in war zones. They felt the very shift in the situation when the rose wavered above the koi's fin. They saw the reaction and felt the fear of their students when they began their retreat.

It was when the group of noble heirs turned their backs that the adults finally took action. Mark was the first to move, drawing his sword and whispering a spell under his breath before charging forward with an unprecedented focus. His goal was simple, he needed to defend the children while speeding up their retreat.

The distance from the pool was not far in the least, but in a situation like the current one seconds meant more than the difference between life and death. The blast of water from the pool was so fast that even Mark had a level of difficulty tracking it. The moment the second was fired he saw it was going to miss the children, but he could see that it was headed close to the entrance as if to box the plant's new prey in so that it could take its time with them.

Johnathan was the second to make a move. He walked over to the large stones that the first burst of water had freed from the cavern wall. He, with the seeming calm of an untouched forest spring reached down and with a flex of every muscle in his substantial frame dug his fingers into the largest of the stones that had fallen, one that seemed to tower at one and a half of his size and likely at least four times his own weight.

With another flex of his muscles, threatening to shred his clothing and break the straps of his armor he lifted the stone with what appeared to be relative ease. While Mark had taken the job of collecting the children, Johnathan had chosen the potentially more dangerous job of being the shield during the retreat. Still, he did his job quickly and with efficiency of a professional soldier. He stomped on the ground spoke a one-word spell that only one close to him would be able to hear.

The ground where he had stomped seemed to break and push against his foot with great force, sending his body hurtling forward in a monstrous leap. He covered the distance between the back wall of the cavern and just in front of the children in one leap. His landing leaving the sound of a cannon ball hitting stone echoing throughout the space. If one listened closely, they may have been able to hear the sound of bones creaking like steel pipes trying to bend, and yet the bear of a man stood up as if nothing happened, ready to intervene at the next blow of the creature targeting his student.

Mark first targeted Rosalind for his rescue, knowing that her weapon was slowing her retreat and seeing her lag behind. As he was halfway to her he stopped running, using his momentum to carry him across the slick floor floor of the cavern. This saved both time and energy as he slid by the other children at a speed that left him looking like a blur, arriving before his target in but a split second.

Rather than stopping to grab Rosalind he reached out an arm and in a move that confused the girl and knocked the wind out of her lungs all at once wrapped his arm around her waist. The momentum nearly carried them back toward the koi and the pool, but at the last second Mark circulated mana through his body down his legs, forcing his left leg to endure all of the pressure to force him into a slingshot maneuver.

Rosalind had absolutely no idea what was happening. One moment Mark was running, the next all she saw was a blur before all the air was blown out of her lungs like she had been struck by a hammer striking an anvil. She nearly vomited, her vision swimming to black for a split second before clearing to look back from Mark's shoulder as they seemed to be skating at a speed she had never reached before. In the next moment she had been tossed to the prim and proper woman who went by the name Ms. Dalia.

Mark had never stopped his forward momentum even as he passed his first rescue off, instead taking the momentum to the back wall of the cavern, speaking a new spell and circulating more mana into his legs, focusing on control with a determination that most wouldn't be able to muster even in the best circumstances. The spell broke a small stone beneath his foot and spun it sending him back, his legs taking the impact of the shift with creaking bones and burning thighs. He began his rush back to grab Bernard who had been at the front with Rosalind before things fell apart.