“Daniel! Daniel what’s wrong!?” calls out Treia. She shakes Daniel’s shoulder, shouting, “I need some help over here! Something’s wrong with Daniel!”
Neith whirls and flashes towards them with frightening speed, but he drops to a kneel to check on the mechanic. As Treia said, Daniel is on his hands and knees, wheezing. He also sounds like he’s retching under his helmet, and the dragon reacts quickly.
Neith pulls Daniel’s helmet off, placing his fingers against Daniel’s neck. “My Liege! Can you hear me?”
The mechanic is struggling to keep his composure, and everyone can see it.
“The spell!” calls out Veiranoei. “It started with the spell! Senn!”
“I am committed,” replies the elven archmage. “If I drop the spell now, I won’t be able to restore it.”
“It’s killing him!” shouts the gatonine knight.
Gwenesphia runs to Daniel, also calling his name as she drops to his other side. “Daniel! Someone get the shuttle over here. O-Or,... Where’s Hekate!? Hekate!”
“She’s back at the Citadel!” replies Treia. The young gatonine woman feels a deep pain in her chest as Daniel struggles against pain that he isn’t letting out. Given how erratic his breathing is, though, it’s possible he can’t even muster a scream.
Treia was there when the greatest tragedy of her family hit them. She held her youngest brother through the last night. He was a pitiful mess, unable to keep food down and weak, but in constant pain.
And yet, his last words to her were barely audible as she was half asleep from exhaustion.
“Thank you,... Big Sis Treia…”
Without thinking, the gatonine woman drops her knees. She pulls Daniel by the shoulders to lay against her, hugging his chest and head with his back against her knees and belly. He doesn’t have the strength or presence of mind to resist her if he wanted to, and she says quickly, “Senn, are you able to protect us in Neith’s absence?”
“Very few monsters will be able to enter the hallowed ground,” replies the elven mage as she approaches, keeping her staff upright to maintain the dome. She crouches to study Daniel for a moment.
Gwenesphia asks, “Is he dying?”
“I’m not sure. He shouldn’t be affected by the spell. I didn’t exclude humans because he was the only one, but even so, the reaction should be far less than this.”
“This spell… must exclude races?” asks Vaergraes, studying the golden glow surrounding them all.
“Yes. I developed this spell to allow myself to sleep during my adventurous youth. To exclude races or species, I have to attune it with the additional spells I was casting. We’re… certain Daniel is human, yes?”
“Yes!” snaps Treia, her ears folding back as she continues to hold Daniel. They shift to a slightly more docile angle, though. “I guess… He’s not from this world…”
Suddenly, Daniel’s right hand starts to move, flopping against his belly briefly. He gasps and groans, and Treia quickly asks, “What is it, Daniel? Please, say something.”
Gwenesphia somewhat instinctively takes his head to try to comfort him, but he tries to pull away, shaking his head ever so slightly.
Luceniel, the small pixie-like elemental is darting around Daniel in a panic. In middling daylight, such as the shady forest they’re in, she doesn’t have a strong role because the present elemental effect is very weak, with her in her light form until now.
With Senn’s Hallowed Ground spell, she has taken a new form that has dual-tone violet and orange hair like a sunset, with an even more ethereal loftiness to her clothing than usual. Suddenly, she seems to perk up and become more composed, and she flies down near Daniel’s left hip, trying to tug on the pommel of the sword there.
Thinking for a moment, Aoloan quickly makes a realization. “Nemaisol! Gwenesphia, put his hand on Nemaisol.”
“That’s right!” agrees Treia quickly, somewhat brusquely taking Daniel’s hand from Gwenesphia. Neith stands up, guiding Senn back a few steps. “Please stand back, Lady Senn.”
“Right,” agrees the elf when Treia places Daniel’s hand on the legendary sword’s hilt, and he grips it, trying to pull it out.
“Gwen, help me,” urges Treia, shifting Daniel in her lap to give her leverage. The violet-haired gatonine slides in close and gently grips the human’s hand, as well as the hilt.
Neith cautions them both with the warning, “Be wary. Nemaisol will shock anyone that isn’t a chosen wielder.” Luceniel seems relieved that they figured it out, and she hovers close to their hands.
The gatonines both nod in agreement with Neith, but before they can act, Gwenesphia is yanked backwards by a young man in armor. This shocks the little elemental as much as the gatonine women before anyone can make sense of it.
“Kuboen!?” snaps the younger sister.
Without paying attention to her, the male gatonine smacks Treia’s hand free, saying, “Let me do it. I’m not letting my sister get electrocuted if it’s going to happen.”
He takes hold of Daniel’s hand and the scabbard of the sword, pulling them apart to free the sword. He ignores the little pixie trying to silently lecture him with commanding gestures and scowls, since he’s still going to do what she wants.
As soon as Nemaisol is freed from the locking ring, Daniel’s breathing restores to normal, and Treia can feel him relax in her arms. She sighs. “I think that helped…”
“Yes, but thankfully, we are not being attacked from underground,” remarks Goelselmo. Treia looks around her, and she notices that the glow that should be swirling around them on the ground is completely absent in a circle around her and Daniel.
The human emperor murmurs, “Thanks…”
“Sorry, Daniel. If I dropped the spell, I wouldn’t be able to cast it again,” explains Senn apologetically.
“You made the right call,” replies Daniel. “What’s our status?”
Neith reports, “The Hallowed Ground spell is holding the monsters at bay, and most of them seem to have lost interest.”
Senn clarifies a little further. “Monsters are driven by an urge to kill, and Hallowed Ground makes everyone inside appear as too great a threat to be killed by weaker monsters. It wouldn’t have worked much at all on the Terrors, but for creatures like the slormontus, it’s highly effective. They should lose interest and leave us in a few minutes.”
“Won’t they just come back?” asks Veiranoei. “Slormontus normally appear in large numbers requiring rank and retreat, with our normal strategy.”
“Those things are slormontus?” asks Daniel, pointing at one of the fallen alien-looking monkey monsters.
“Yes,” replies Kuboen bluntly.
Gwenesphia fumes at her elder brother, but she adds gently towards Daniel, “Natural slormontus are territorial, but they generally stay in the trees because they’re slow on the ground. That’s why rank and retreat works on them. Attack in ranks, and fall back when their numbers get too large and clustered.
Senn adds, “To answer your question, your Grace Veiranoei, I can sustain the spell for an hour or so, and the lingering aura left on us should hide us even longer, as long as we aren’t making a lot of noise.”
Goelselmo offers his own insight with, “They likely came to investigate the noise from her Greatness Hekate’s scouting.”
Kuboen scoffs, and Peiburi giggles, prompting Gwenesphia to scowl at them both. “Hekate did what she had to do. I have no doubt about that.”
While Kuboen is unconvinced, he doesn’t say anything. Peiburi, on the other hand, laughs gently. “I just think she’s so funny. She came running back into a circle of men without a scrap of clothing on… She’s quite brave.”
“Clothes were a luxury for her at one time,” replies Daniel quietly. This silences any potential mockery, though it might open Hekate up to more later. The mechanic from Earth knows his own reputation is in the toilet in some of the countries, but he has the Citadel to curtail that. By extension, Hekate has the same, but she doesn’t have the years of tempering emotions that he does. She was beaten down from childhood, and now that she is in power, she is growing into her strength and emotions that she is now allowed to make use of.
Even Daniel struggles, and Hekate could do as much damage with her own magical capacity alone as Daniel can do with his worst weapons.
He should start preparing for times that she needs to be in places where people will try to provoke her with words.
For now, they need to resume the mission as much as they can.
Neith kneels before Daniel saying, “Forgive my sudden change of topic, my Liege. However, her Grace Geirahoel has told me that if you don’t put your helmet back on immediately, she is going to come and light me on fire and drag you back to the airship.”
Daniel chuckles. He jokes softly as he reaches somewhat uselessly, and Gwenesphia searches around herself, finding Daniel’s helmet near Aoloan, who picks it up and passes it to the gatonine. Gwenesphia hands it over to Daniel, who realizes he’s still being held affectionately by Treia of all people.
“Treia?”
“Hmm? OH!” She makes the realization as well, having been kneading his chest as she idly focused on the conversation. She blushes, squirming out from under Daniel. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. Thanks, Kitten.”
Her cheeks turn a fiery pink, and Daniel realizes that he deserves every eyeroll, slightly envious pout, and uncomfortable chuckle that comes from him saying that.
As everyone who isn’t already standing climbs to their feet, Vaergraes asks, “Do we have any ideas why Daniel is affected by the spell?” She looks at Senn first, who created the conjuration.
“I didn’t expect this, so I can only assume Daniel doesn’t technically qualify as a human by our standards, in whatever subtle way that implies. Otherwise, there’s some other anomaly.”
“We’ll have to address it once we’re back in safety,” replies Daniel. He puts his helmet back on, and he is immediately met with a scolding that Treia can hear from outside of his helmet. Geirahoel is quick to light into him, as if she has nothing better to do than watch over him.
I thought the dragon empresses were supposed to be carrying out negotiations with the Stalvaltan family, thinks the gatonine to herself. But, I guess I’d be worried, too…
Treia looks at the human as he quickly tries to calm the dragon down so he can return his focus to the mission.
She hasn’t mentioned it to, but she wishes rather often that she knew about revival potations long ago. There wasn’t anything to be done, since she wasn’t strong enough to forcibly take one, even if she knew where they were, since they were and continue to be a precious commodity. But, she can’t help but wonder if Daniel would have spared one for Barlen, her youngest brother.
She smiles softly as Daniel navigates a verbal minefield with the disembodied voice of the most fiery of his consorts.
I wish you arrived in this world several years ago, Daniel…
Once Daniel can return to task, he says gently, “Sorry about that. Neith, can you still sense the plor’va’plor ahead?”
“Pol’vapporr,” corrects Aoloan.
“Ah, right, pol’vapporr,” repeats Daniel to help himself remember it. “Thank you, Aoloan.” She smiles and nods politely.
Neith answers his question, “The pol’vapporr is still ahead, my Liege. Though, it has diffused its presence into its surroundings. It appears to take up a much larger area than its actual size, from what I can tell. Otherwise, it is nearly as large as the Citadel.”
Some of the others snicker, but while Senn jokes, “It’s possible. The Strylak is larger than the Citadel.”
“I don’t think we’d just be standing here if it was anything like the Strylak,” replies Vaergraes humorously.
“You’d be surprised. The Strylak is quite the placid soul.”
“So long as ships avoid the open ocean,” retorts Neith dryly.
“What’s our plan, your Grace?” asks Peiburi, resting her rifle across the back of her shoulders with her hands on either end of the weapon. Like most of the weapons, the barrel is still a faint red color from the intense heat of firing it continuously against the slormontus. “You still going to make whatever thing you were going to earlier?”
Daniel shakes his head. “Unfortunately, it relied on Wenlianna’s magic crystal charger. I don’t want to destroy the ecosystem with poison, so…”
Daniel looks at Neith a little uneasily.
“Explain to me your the intent behind your device, my Liege. If possible, I will emulate it with magic.”
“I was going to make a lightning discharge weapon, and then try to bait the monster into grabbing it.”
Senn curtails Neith’s impending offer to volunteer just before he speaks. “Magically summoned lightning will be reduced in effect against a monster pol’vapporr, most likely. Crystal’s discharging would be one thing, as it’s not technically a spell, but the beast will likely ‘steal’ Sir Neith’s spell.”
“Why can’t we just drag it out of the water like we did with Rohgattobor?” asks Kuboen a little bluntly. “Seems like the obvious answer to me.” He gestures at Helbeit, Gwenesphia, and Resken, who all have dragonslayers. Unless it has skin or scales as tough as those of a dragon or faormyr, a direct hit on any vital area should prove lethal with one or two shots.
“As long as Sir Neith is willing to go in and drag it out,” replies Daniel.
“I have absolutely no objections, Sire. Allow me to handle it. I ask that you stay within range of Lady Senn and her Grace Vaergraes.”
“We’ll have to be mindful of Nemaisol,” points out Vaergraes. “But, I’ll protect Daniel.”
“Good. Let’s move forward. Senn, I’ll ask you to remain further back once we reach the water’s edge so the pol’vapporr can’t reach you.”
She nods in agreement. “Of course. I won’t be able to use my staff while I’m maintaining Hallowed Ground, so I’d appreciate it if at least some of our force is dedicated to defending me. I can use some simple spells while maintaining this one, but I’ll be severely limited.”
Daniel nods in agreement. “Sirs Helbeit and Resken, I’d like one of you two stay with Senn. Baron Goelselmo, you and your family can have the kill. Just be careful to stay out of its attack range.”
“You honor the Honeydip family, your Imperial Grace. Thank you.” seaʀᴄh thё NovelZone.fun website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
“U-Um… C-Can I let someone else fire the dragonslayer in that case, Daniel?” asks Gwenesphia sheepishly. She’s still using Daniel’s original 20mm rifle, so it doesn’t require its bound user like Helbeit’s and Resken’s.
Daniel nods, and Kuboen steps up, immediately volunteering. “I’ll do it.” He offers his rifle to his youngest sister, and she trades with him. She explains, “It’s only a single shot at a time, Kuboen…”
“I know.” He lifts and pulls the bolt back, inspecting the inside. Seeing the round loaded, he nods in satisfaction and closes the bolt. Gwenesphia hands over her shoulder bag as well, which contains spare ammunition for the large rifle.
Peiburi whines playfully, “That’s no fair, Kuboen! What about me?”
He scoffs, offering her the rifle. She grins, skipping over to take it. “I love you big br-HOLY-!” She grunts as soon as she has the weight of the weapon in her arms, nearly dropping it. “Oh god!” She drops the stock just to support it, and she complains, “What… Gwen!? You were using this thing!?”
Gwenesphia blushes, nodding a little sheepishly.
“It weighs as much as us!”
“Just about,” replies Kuboen, taking the rifle back up. It’s not easy for him, but he is able to wield it readily.
“Alright, we have a plan,” states Daniel. “Are we ready?”
Everyone agrees, and they move forward. Peiburi remarks as she follows Kuboen, “You could probably just club the monster with that thing…”
“Don’t tempt me,” retorts the second eldest son of the Honeydip family.
Unfortunately, as they press towards the known hazardous area, something becomes very obvious that they didn’t understand what Hekate meant.
There is a heavy haze ahead of them, but no signs of a lake. Neith casts wind magic forward to blow the gloomy mist away, but the soupy fog squeezes in quickly with a seemingly endless volume. He concentrates on at least finding the water’s edge, but even a focused wind tunnel struggles to stay visibly clear, and no matter where he sweeps it to, there is no apparent lake.
That said, the area stinks of swamp. Treia recognizes it well, since there was a marsh that was about a half day’s walk away from where she grew up, and the decay of plants and stagnated water couldn’t be more clear. Treia covers her nose, asking quietly as the group slowly moves forward, “Everyone else smells that, right?”
“Definitely,” replies Resken. “There’s a marsh here, but I’m not seeing pools or algae you usually see.”
The entire group halts and drops to a kneel when a deep and resounding ‘twongongong’ sound echoes all around them. It’s a strange sound, and it echoed like the tone was generated in water.
“What was that?” whispers Aoloan.
“I’m not sure,” replies Resken, who has the strongest ears now that Hekate is gone.
“I didn’t sense the creature move,” replies Neith quietly. “It’s still in hiding.”
Daniel replies, “It sounded like taut cables shifting.”
“Cables?” asks Gwenesphia.
“The easiest example I can think of isn’t really helpful to anyone here, I think, but we had what we called suspension bridges that would make a noise like that sometimes as the cables shifted and flexed from weather conditions throughout the day.”
Daniel looks above them. The heavy fog hides the branches of the trees, so he can’t tell if there are any vines or similar strung tightly between the ancient wooden giants.
Treia is fairly confident that the noise came from below, though. She gently tugs Daniel’s arm to get his attention, and she asks quietly, “I… think it came from below us.”
“I agree,” replies the human. “But, it doesn’t…”
“There were trees and a lake but the ground isn’t real!”
These were the words Hekate said when she was trying to describe what she experienced during her brief scouting mission.
“...but it lives under the ground but in water that’s like a net.”
Treia tries to think. Hekate is a sharp girl, but she talks faster than she thinks sometimes.
As she’s thinking, Treia’s knee feels a little cool, like her pants are absorbing water. The ground is definitely moist, which makes sense, given the heavy fog.
“...but the ground isn’t real!” repeats in her mind.
“The ground!” shouts Treia. She starts clawing at the grassy plants, which are stringy and tangled together like a carpet… or a net. She pulls some of it away as the others watch, and she doesn’t find solid soil. Instead, she finds tightly tangled fine roots from trees reaching the larger lateral ones that criss-cross just out of sight thanks to the tangled mess of grassy weeds and plants.
And, just a few inches beneath the ‘surface’, which manages to support their weight surprisingly solidly, Treia finds water.
“‘Under the ground, but in water…’” murmurs Neith.
“I thought she fell into a cave or something,” remarks Vaergraes a little guiltily.
“Shh!” hisses the shenwulf knight Resken. He whispers, “Forgive me, but if we are over top of it…”
“Agreed,” whispers Neith. “My Liege, I will submerge and find the beast. But, I expect it will be difficult to navigate.”
“Leave that to me, Sir Neith,” replies Vaergraes. “I’ll wait for a telepathic message from you, as I don’t want to attract the beast with mana until you have control.”
The dragon nods. “Then…”
Something creaks beneath Treia’s feet, and she looks down. She screams, “Move!” Daniel is right next to her, and he’s the only one who won’t be able to be saved in a worst case scenario.
Without thinking, she flops onto her back and uses her legs to shove him up and away from the spot as the ‘ground’ begins to swell, startling everyone with her suddenness of launching the mechanic a short way across the ground.
No sooner does his back hit the ground does Daniel call out, “Treia!”
KrkrKRACK-SPLASH!
It’s a startling and terrifying moment as the reality hits the young gatonine woman. A huge looming shadow is above her, moving fast, and yet ridiculously slowly to the feline woman. Gatonines generally have faster reaction times than humans, which is compounded even further by her adrenaline rush.
It was difficult to picture from Hekate’s brief and discombobulated descriptions, but Treia can see it in full, defined detail.
A massive, nearly pitch-black hand with three fingers is bearing down on the gatonine.
And, in the center of the palm of that hand is a massive, oppressive eyeball that is glaring down at her, as if to stare through her very soul.
The grip of the monster slams down on her, and she has the wind knocked out of her for a moment, seemingly distorting time.
Before she can make sense of the brief blackout, she is being crushed under water as the light quickly shrinks above her, and the weight and pressure threaten to force her last breath out of her no matter how strongly.
Her heart aches for a different reason. She reacted in a way that she’s proud.
But, she doesn’t want to lose her ridiculous and goofy family.
She can only reach towards the fading glow of the small amount of life piercing through the trees and the strange false ground above the lake, praying that her voice reaches someone or something.
***
“TREIA!” screams Daniel and Gwenesphia as the gatonine is snatched with a stunning swiftness by a massive black-ish brown shape. Water splashes as the massive form retreats as quickly as it speared out of the deceptively-solid mesh-like ‘ground’, taking with it the gatonine consort.
There isn’t time to worry about whether or not she’s alright. Daniel scrambles to his feet and moves to dive into the hole, but he is tackled and grabbed by Goelselmo and Lyrtef. The Baron calls out, “Don’t be a fool, your Grace!”
Neith is already running ahead of the group, and he leaps into the air with his wings exposed, hovering above the foliage roof as his pilot flame crackles and begins to whine with intense heat as the air itself is incinerated.
He blasts forth a brief and momentary streak of plasma that shrieks through the air like a sci-fi weapon, and the ground ahead of him explodes violently with steam as the plasma-bolt immolates everything in its path to the water, and the intense difference in temperatures flash-boils a humongous amount of water that reappears as a white dome when it instantly cools back below the boiling point, aided by a higher boiling temperature from a sudden drop of pressure. The dome is lit from underneath in several flashes and terrifying crackling as the intense energy causes sonoluminescence from the collapse of the sudden steam bubbles under the water.
Neith is still in motion as he dives into the condensation dome, which partially collapses in on itself as it rains back down. The dragon is unfazed by the boiling temperatures, all but flying into the water to engage the monster that snatched Treia.
Meanwhile, Vaergraes has hesitated only a moment before suddenly beginning a dance, moving in a circle as she does so and singing in a tone that is nervous, but maintaining a melody.
Daniel tries to fight free of Goelselmo and Lyrtef, while the Baron orders, “Gwen! Ku! Find solid ground! Now! Knights, fan out, but stay in visual range of at least two others!”
“Let me go!” snarls Daniel. “She doesn’t have air!”
Goelselmo leaves Daniel to Lyrtef and Peiburi, who joins her brother in keeping Daniel from doing anything rash, and the Baron stands up. “Everyone, keep in constant contact with the closest person. If you lose anyone, call emergency!”
Meanwhile, Aoloan crouches near Daniel, explaining, “Daniel, this is the right thing! You have to focus. You need your lightning gun and your potations.”
Daniel pants breathlessly, his mind racing as one of his longest and closest companions remains out of reach.
For some reason, he recalls a memory from Navy boot camp that causes him to finally stop struggling.
During a simulated battle on an authentically-realistic replica ship, there were dummies in one of the damage zones that were to be treated as wounded sailors, meaning Daniel and his fellow recruits were to take them to the med bay for triage.
How and why it’s the memory that comes to him, he’s not sure, but most of the recruits, including himself, struggled to act. When they finally got themselves together to begin carrying the dummies in teams, they forgot how to get to the med bay.
Then, their path took them through another dangerous zone, and all of them ‘died’ because they didn’t use their brains and didn’t assess the situations properly, attempting to cross a simulated electrified area.
This same kind of situation caught him again years later during CPR training with his scuba diving instructors.
It’s not about the electricity itself, but the rash actions that got himself ‘killed’ and ensured that the person he was trying to rescue would never be saved.
Daniel is probably the weakest person present, since he has no mana once again, and his physical strength only barely surpasses the female gatonines and maybe Aoloan, Senn, and Vaergraes.
In the water, given how big the monster is that grabbed Treia, and without any of the clever equipment he had before, he’d have to rely entirely on Luceniel’s deep-water element to navigate, but with virtually no ability to fight.
Rash action will get him killed, or in a best case scenario, create a second body which Neith will be the only one capable of saving in the current situation.
Vaergraes’ body begins to glow with her delicate and fluid-like dance, and she comes to a halt as she lifts her arms up in a crane-like pose.
The ground rumbles and shakes, wavering partially due to its inherently flexible nature and the spell that is being cast.
Columns of water erupt from the false ground, spraying up into the air in powerful rivers each spanning several feet thick. Above the group, thousands of gallons of water levitates in the air, suspended by magic, engulfing the trunks of the trees and their leaves as the humongous gravity-defying jets continue shooting upwards into the growing mass.
“D-Daniel! I’m counting on you to carry me!” cries out Vaergraes as the water finally slows some. A deep bellowing shriek fills a void below them, truly sounding like there is a cavern beneath the group.
The Uhl’tall archpriestess has cast a spell that is levitating seemingly all of the coffee-brown water that was beneath them up into the air.
Now, the mechanic has been given two tasks while his mind is still stuck on one of his precious family members being in immediate danger of death.
Senn, for her part, uses her free hand to cast several light spells that she tosses like baseballs into the large hole Neith left behind, and these bright lights descend into the cavernous void, revealing even through the thick mesh of plants and roots how truly vast the space is. A football stadium would feel cramped in comparison, even with the massive tree trunks that reach all the way to the floor of the under-surface lake.
And, deep within is a massive form that is difficult to truly gauge its size, other than it being quite massive, with ten long, dark, vine-like arms. Most of them are supporting the creature’s weight between a couple of the gigantic tree trunks, while one is shielding the monster’s head from the light and chaos of the dragon’s attack, while the creature shrieks loudly again. Because the carpet of foliage is so thick, it’s difficult to see everything, and the monster is moving as well, considering it’s an aquatic beast that is now exposed because of Vaergraes’ evocation.
Veiranoei jogs close to the hole Neith created, careful of the torn mesh of vegetation.
“We need to evacuate!” calls out Peiburi.
“We have ground!” shouts Kuboen from beyond the fog. The heavy mist is rolling into the deep chasm, starting to make the monster disappear as it descends lower to try to find water again.
Flashes of purple-white light blast the beast with several hits, though its arms wield the large, evil-looking eyes to intercept several of the spells, sapping the intense power of the plasma shots from Neith, who is too small to see in his human-form.
Gwenesphia calls out as she ignites a magic flare on the ground, “This way! Follow the light!”
“Leave Treia to Sir Neith,” orders Goelselmo as he crouches in front of Daniel. “We need to move.” The gatonine Baron helps Daniel to his feet once the two pinning him down have released him. Daniel takes a breath and exhales, nodding once. He can’t do everything, and once Vaergraes drops her spell, the titanic amount of water that she moved will come crashing down with hundreds or even thousands pounds per square inch of force behind it.
“Daniel…” urges Vaergraes wearily. She’s straining to maintain her spell, which is undoubtedly a ridiculously heavy load on her mana supply.
The mechanic hands his rifle to Lyrtef, who offers to take it, and the gatonine jogs to catch up to Senn, who is staying between Gwenesphia and Kuboen and the rest of the main group to ensure they’re all still protected by Hallowed Ground.
Without hesitation, Daniel focuses on the one who needs him right now, which is Vaergraes. The human’s weapons are his ‘magic’, and everyone else are more experienced fighters armed with his same tools, while he has a fair amount of strength and height to carry Vaergraes.
And, unknown to him, her status as Archpriestess and Imperial Consort was a factor as well.
Kaeralegier…?
“{Don’t worry, Daniel. I won’t negate her magic. You can thank me. I’m amazing.}”
Thank you!
With that, Daniel scoops Vaergraes up in a princess carry, calling out, “Moving!”
Aoloan, Gwenesphia, Lyrtef, and Kuboen stay close to Daniel as he carries Vaergraes. She keeps her arms up, visibly growing weaker as sweat starts to form on her.
Daniel asks as he jogs ahead, “How are you doing, Vae?”
“Great,” she murmurs. “For once, you’re treating me like a maiden…”
He laughs lightly, trying to be careful with his footing. He’s running out of time, but falling is absolutely unthinkable.
He’s not sure why. It’s possible that it’s simply in his peripherals, or it’s just chance that causes him to look.
Aoloan stumbles slightly, which could be due to the uneven ground of the strange marsh. But, she also touches her temples like she has a sudden but slight headache.
And, when she looks at Daniel and Vaergraes, the eerie lighting and fog could be playing tricks. It feels like there are a million thoughts urgently fighting for attention in Daniel’s mind, so innocuous details could be escaping him.
But, something in his gut causes him to see those tricks of the light as a flash of mana in her bright pink eyes.
***