The ground split all around me, long cracks tearing outward like a web as the soil heaved under my feet. Trees shuddered violently, some toppling as the earth buckled beneath their roots. A suffocating pressure washed over me, thick and heavy enough to make my lungs tighten. For a single heartbeat, the thought crossed my mind. Maybe challenging her like this truly was a mistake.
But retreat wasn't an option.
"Mother Earth, grant me power to vanquish my enemy." Her voice dropped to a low chant as she drew her sword, and the effect was immediate. The ground around her quivered, then surged upward in thick pillars of dirt and stone. They twisted as they rose, spiraling into towering shapes that stretched nearly three meters high before solidifying into serpents forged from hardened earth. Dust billowed around her feet like a chosen battlefield's mist.
