Thaltos glared sternly at Akira.
"It is not your place to help Asakai. There is likely little you could do...however..."
He put the child down, a hand on his shoulder to keep him in place. Thaltos had promised to allow Torque to confront his brother without his aid...but he had made no promises about helping Asakai without confronting Gai.
Thaltos took the Shears from his back and faded back into the trees with a final warning to the child telling him to stay put.
As Gai and Torque busied themselves fighting one another and Akira watched him, Thaltos moved through the trees quickly and silently around to where Asakai was being strangled.
Standing above the roots that held her bound, Thaltos raised his blades and muttered an invocation of his father's name, and brought down the blades into the roots. If it lives, the Shears can kill it.
As the blades buried themselves in the thickest of the roots that was crushing Asakai, they started to do their deadly work, draining the energy that animated the plant. The energy was not electricity, and therefore could not be used by the Shears for energy-based attacks, but nevertheless their purpose was the extinguishing of all life, and they siphoned the life from the roots that held Asakai.
As their life drained away, the roots weakened and stopped thrashing, and before long they were limp enough for him to resheath the Shears across his back and tear them away with his hands. Picking Asakai up, he faded back into the trees. Behind him, Gai realized that his prize had been taken, and from the sound of the cry he made, he was not pleased.
But alas, Thaltos and Asakai were gone, faded into the shadows of the trees and working their way back around to where Akira stood waiting.
