The first bolt of lighting streaked past my hunched form, missing me by mere feet. So it begins. I can feel the alchemic power in me rising, then with each lightning strike it dips low. 356…357…358…I was counting down the number of rods that had been hit by the lightning so far. I had placed somewhere around 400 rods out into the desert sand, and I was almost complete with my task.
389…390…391…Almost there hold on Axelle. My stomach was clinching and relaxing uncontrollably, it felt like someone was punching me in the gut over and over again. This was a side effect of prolonged alchemy use, my body was trying to create more energy before the alchemy drained too much of my power and killed me.
394…395…396…Yes! Almost finished! Did I hear shouting? I maneuvered my body so I could look behind me. My brown eyes widened in surprise, there donned in full black attire, were at least ten Madjai on horseback thundering their way across the desert to my present location. No! If they enter the array (1) they'll all be killed! I still had a few more rods to hit. If I left them in mid transmutation (2) then the lightning would all release at once and hit whatever was in its way, but I couldn't let all those men die.
I threw a quick glance to my unfinished transmutation and removed my hands from the ground, a deep rumble inside the storm clouds signaled the nearing lightning release. I had to get those men and myself as far from here as possible, turning back around to face the men I was they were at least 50 yards away and closing in fast. I saw the first streak of uncontrolled lightning and a metallic crack followed soon after Run! Run to them! They Need to be warned Axelle! For once in my life I actually listened to my common sense and ran straight toward the black robed men.
"Stop! You'll be killed! Please Stop! "I tried yelling to them in the broken Arabic that I had learned over the past two years, but they still came forward. "I need to stop them…think, Axelle, think! Fire. There was no other choice I had to use what little energy I had left to save these men, " Sorry Roy Mustang, but I'm going to steal your powers for a little while." I drew my hand into the air above my head, and looking towards the men who were a little less than ten yards away from me.
Everything seemed to stop for a moment, the storm silenced suddenly and I readied my first and third fingers to snap. Then a searing pain ripped through my left side as another metallic bolt of lightning hit the ground inches from where I was standing, burning my side in the process. I screamed in pain and dropped to the ground just as the horsemen reached me and the storm cleared. The crunching of sand under someone's feet told me they were nearing me and hushed whispers echoed in the suddenly quiet area. A hand grabbed my clothes flipping me onto my back and earned a pained cry from me, I cracked open one eye and saw the last person I had ever expected to meet in this world. As my sight faded from pain and the darkness brought me closer to unconsciousness I looked into the worried black/ brown eyes of Ardeth Bay. I can't believe it…Ardeth Bay…Ardeth Bay… and with his name swirling around my head I drifted into blissful blackness.
1: An Array is used to create Alchemic reactions. Its looks like a circle and is sometimes called a transmuation circle.
2: The act of an objects changing in an Alchemic reaction.