"How are you feeling?" Roxanne asked Rastel as she helped him keep his balance.
"Just a bit disoriented." Rastel pressed on his forehead as he felt a bout of headache.
He had felt his connection with Amba strengthen and a huge burst of mana flooded his body for just a moment before that violent attack had been launched.
His body was aching a bit as a result like it had been strained from the flood of mana. Checking his status, he saw that his health had even dropped by a chunk because of it.
'What was that attack? Amba is really hiding some weird stuff under his sleeves isn't he?'
Seeing that he was okay Roxanne patted his back with a relieved smile.
"It is good you are alright, if you died so easily it would have been a great loss."
"Please don't remind me of that. This is the second time since I started this game that I felt death was so close." He murmured in pain as he adjusted himself.
BANG!
A loud shot echoed as Roxanne took aim and fired coolly at the magic beast that was still down on the ground. It shrieked shrilly and a round of lightning burst out of its body, scaring off the approaching melee fighters.
"Don't put too much thought into it." Roxanne said with a teasing smile as she appreciated her damage.
"You will definitely experience more near-death situations in the future." She chuckled greatly when she saw Rastel pulling a long face.
"But it's really not a nice feeling." He murmured with dread as he stared at the magic beast.
His heart was still palpitating when he remembered his situation just a few moments ago. But at least compared to when he was stabbed by that assassin, Amba reacted much quicker.
'He is really getting stronger. I never knew that the mana channel was a two-way thing. If Amba can provide me with mana when I'm out, my strength can increase considerably. Ah, I should probably thank him properly after this."
He sent feelings of thanks through their mind link first which Amba replied to with a snort, at least that was what it felt like.
Looking back at the battle, the rest of the team were using this chance to frenziedly attack the magic beast while it was down.
Waves of attacks hit the poor beast from all sides as it was pummeled into the ground like a punching bag. It was truly a sad sight.
But even as they had the advantage now, the amount of damage they were dealing to the magic beast was still truly too pitiful. If they had to continue like this, it would take them nearly an hour to finally kill it. And it would be more likely for the magic beast to kill all of them within that time span than for the reverse to happen.
As he had been down for a while and couldn't utilize the array to defend the rest, some of the melee fighters had taken on some serious damage and Whitesoul was very busy as he moved from place to place, trying to heal everybody.
Looking at the situation, Rastel was quick to make a decision.
"Whitesoul, come back to the array. Your healing spells will be much stronger with the boost."
Whitesoul turned over to look at Rastel before turning to Redbone as if asking for confirmation.
"Do what he says quickly!" Redbone was standing by the side with one eye on the beast while his other eye was secretly sizing Rastel up.
Whitesoul quickly left the person he was attending to and entered the array again. Using the array's strength, the few injured people were easily healed and Rastel then asked him to cast buff spells.
Whitesoul didn't have any AOE buffs which although was disappointing, was still within Rastel's expectations. AOE spells were too rare and most required a lot of money or the trust and allegiance of a certain faction.
As Redbone's group were just mercenaries, it would truly be difficult for them to get their hands on an AOE spell. Rastel instead chose to occasionally send buffs over to a few priority characters to enhance their strength while he defended against the magic beast's attacks.
Redbone, Baluu, and a few other tanks got endurance buffs, a few rouge characters like Black Raven got agility and he sent a dexterity buff to Roxanne and Vars.
As he was about to give Vars a buff, however, he discovered that this fellow was behaving a little weird. Vars was charging toward the magic beast with a vengeful glint in his eyes as he blasted one arrow after the other with alarming speed.
BOOM! BOOM!! BOOM!!!
Some of the melee fighters even had to give him space for fear of getting in his way, the current Vars was looking very terrifying!
"Hey, little viper! Ease up a little!" Baluu called out to him in alarm.
Although the magic beast was injured, it was still a dangerous foe far above their strength. Everyone was treading carefully while fighting the beast but Vars seemed to disregard everything as he pushed forward madly.
"Hey, Vars! Come back here, I am in charge of your protection you know!?" Rastel felt cold sweat going down his back as he controlled more shields to protect Vars.
This fellow was truly suicidal! What was he getting so riled up for?
Vars gritted his teeth and hesitated for a moment before growling back.
"I am going to kill this thing!" He didn't seem willing to stop as he kept pushing forward trying to reach the beast.
"We all want to do so too but killing yourself would only cause grief. Come back here and stay by my side, we will kill the bastard together." Rastel tried to convince him.
Vars's eyes flickered and he paused his advance for a moment. Baluu who was fighting nearby suddenly thought of something before looking over at Vars who was far ahead of him.
Gritting his teeth, he pushed towards Vars and quickly reached his position.
Seeing Baluu move towards Vars, Rastel decided to let it be as he was convinced that Baluu would convince him to retreat. He didn't let up his focus on defending that side though, he truly couldn't afford to let something happen to Vars.
"What are you doing little viper. I honestly didn't expect you of all people to be like this." The instant Baluu reached Vars's side, he immediately lowered his voice to a low murmur and spoke to him.
"Be like what?" Vars replied with a small frown on his face.
"Sigh, you know what I mean little viper." Baluu sighed deeply as he narrowly dodged a wild bolt of lightning that wasn't blocked by a water shield.
Vars ignored his friend and continued firing arrows.
"Although I am glad to see you acknowledge someone else you are willing to defend, I don't want you to make the wrong decision and suffer because of it. Although he saved my life, I can't act biased towards him when it comes to you. Are you sure this is worth it?" Baluu questioned him.
If anyone else was to overhear this conversation, they would be confused. These were words that only the two of them as best friends could understand.
Vars hesitated for a little before finally replying.
"He is a muan…."
"And he is also a summoned so it doesn't count!" Baluu interrupted fiercely.
"The rules of our world do not apply to summoned, you should know this. If he decides to act on benefits…."
"Do you know what he told me that time? When we took shelter with them during the storm." Vars was the one to interrupt this time but contrary to Baluu's expectations, his voice was soft.
"He thought halflings were amazing." A small smile could be seen tugging on Vars's lips and his amber eyes glistened.
"But little viper…..." Baluu interjected hesitantly.
"He also wished that he could meet one someday. He looked really regretful about it too." Vars turned to look at Baluu this time with a somewhat melancholic gaze.
"But little viper, if this goes wrong…" Baluu tried to speak up one more time.
"It won't!" Vars turned around and fired another arrow decisively!
"I have watched him all this time and I am sure of my judgement. And besides…." He turned to look at Baluu once more.
"The rules of our world don't apply to summoned, you said it yourself." He then turned around and continued firing explosive arrows vigorously.
Baluu's huge frame trembled when he saw Vars like that. He turned his head back slightly and sneaked a glance at the muan.
He was controlling the array to launch defensive spells while occasionally firing his own attacks and buffing one or two people.
Heaving a deep sigh, he looked at his friend one more time before hardening his gaze.
'No matter what, I shall stand by your decision. And if it turns out to be the worst possible situation, I will take care of it myself!'
As this thought flashed through his mind, he suddenly left out a hearty laugh.
"Okay then little viper, you've won me over! Tell me, do you really have a plan?" he asked Vars as he dodged another attack.
Seeing Baluu act like this, Vars was secretly relieved but he didn't show it.
"Of course, I do. Before we came here, Father gave me something special." He gestured towards a ring on his left hand with a black set gem that seemed to swirl with clouds.
"As long as I can get a chance to attack, I will be able to deal significant damage." He said with narrowed eyes.
"Okay then." Baluu nodded.
Turning his head back, he yelled towards Rastel with his booming voice.
"RASTEL! VARS HAS A PLAN OF ATTACK AND WE NEED YOU TO GIVE US A CHANCE!"
Rastel stopped what he was doing and stared at Baluu incredulously.
'I thought you were going there to take care of the matter but now you are acting suicidal too?"
Baluu didn't flinch though as he stared back and waited for an answer. Vars was also tense as he waited, he wanted to know if Rastel had some level of trust in him.
Seeing the two of them act like this, Rastel couldn't help but feel powerless. He shook his head and let out a helpless chuckle.
"Alright then, let's do it. Don't worry about your defense and attack with everything, I have your back!" he gave them the go-ahead.
'Although, I wonder why they would ask me in the first place.' He lamented in his mind.
Hearing Rastel's answer, Baluu let out a wide grin.
Vars's lips also curved up slightly and his amber eyes flashed ferociously as he glared at the magic beast in front of him.
His gaze then went to the interspatial ring on his hand and his gaze hardened even more as he thought about his father.
'This time…..' Taking a large leap backward, Vars and sent his consciousness into the ring.
'... I will prove myself to you, Father."