It's around half an hour before dawn, and I'm very tired. I push through it for the plan. Kiaran has his new pet lead the way. It's being way more cooperative than I was expecting a wild monster to be. According to Freware, Gnostis Rana are pack hunters, so maybe it thinks we're its pack? I'll think about it later, we have something much more important to be worrying about.
Anyway, according to Freware, "Spatial Awareness" revealed a goblin village to her, which we're going to be ambushing. Lots of adventurers are going to be launching surprise attacks like this in the darkness before dawn. The objective we decide on is to destroy this newly constructed goblin village, chase down any survivors, then wait for further instruction.
Marching through a forest as quietly as possible is actually really challenging. From the branches, to the leaves on the ground, to the animals that react to your presence, it's actually really hard to keep yourself from making any noise in this environment. That's what we have to do though, in order to sneak up on this goblin village.
The plan is to sneak up on them enough to get into range, then have Inell, Cesre, and I start blasting them from distance with spells, and then have Aubrey, Kiaran and Freware kill all the goblins that had survived our magic barrage.
The hand signs Kiaran made to show off when we were all ready to attack without making any sort of noise are probably going to end up really useful. His experience in the Ulfur Forest really paid off. I guess compared to hiding from bodyguards of a Royal Selection candidate, sneaking up on goblins would be a remarkably easy feat.
Kiaran and his Gnostis Rana lead the way, with Aubrey and Freware close behind him. Inell, Cesre, and I follow in the back. Eventually Kiaran gives the sign for us to split up. I can feel my anxiety growing. As I approach Kiaran, I finally see the goblin village we're meant to be ambushing.
It's a really quickly put together little thing that's made almost entirely out of wood and various materials from animals and monsters. Very few goblins are awake right now, so I can see barely any movement. I can't make out just what the goblins look like because of how far away they are and how dark it is, but I can tell that they're small. Like this they seem really cute, but all the descriptions of goblins I've heard in this world were that they were really ugly creatures so I try and forget that.
Kiaran, his pet, and Freware, head off to the left, Aubrey and Cesre stay put where they are and Inell and I head off to the right. After I reach a good position to begin raining spells of death on the unsuspecting goblins, Inell will head away from me to reach another good position, and I'll be left completely alone.
I really want to talk to Inell, to ask him if he's nervous, to ask him to make sure I don't screw up, but I can't make any noise. I don't want to be the idiot that ruins our surprise attack, so I stay silent and leave my worries to myself.
Inell eventually reaches a position that he decides will be good for me to attack from. I know this because he gives me the hand sign for me to stay put, and then leaves me. This is the plan, so I have to stay here on my own for now. I really want to keep to the plan, but my anxieties keep biting at the back of my mind. Why am I the one scared? We're the ones with the element of surprise here, it should be the other way around.
I gulp the fear down to the deepest recesses of my body and look over the goblin village as I decide what I'll do. I think… I think a little lightning from Adad at the tallest building would be really fun… What good would that do though? What strategic purpose am I trying to achieve by doing that? Psychological warfare? Yeah, that's what I'm going for, I'm totally not looking for an excuse to cause as much destruction as possible. I'm a kind little girl, I'd never do such a thing…
Nevermind that now, I need to pay attention to everybody else. I look over at where we left Aubrey and Cesre, and manage to spot them in position. I look over for wherever Aubrey and Freware setup. It takes me a whole lot longer to find them, but eventually I spot Freware. I can't even see Kiaran and his pet, even though I know where I'm meant to be looking. How honestly amazing.
Now all that's left to wait for is for Inell to take position. Once he gives the sign that he's ready, we'll begin shortly. I can't believe that this is my first time really thinking about it, but this is actually the first time I'll ever be killing monsters. I'm not sure about Inell and Kiaran, but I'm sure the rest of us have some experience here. Inell and Kiaran probably do as well, but I'm unsure. I'm probably the only one here who's having their first time killing. What a terrifying thought…
Suddenly I see Aubrey and Freware raise their fists into the air. Huh? Did Inell give his go ahead? But I haven't spotted him yet? Whatever, it's Inell, I don't have to worry. I begin charging up the mana for my lightning strike. I can't help but get giddy. I can't wait to see how much destruction this will cause. Adad! You know what to do! Give your power to me! Show these stupid midgets just who they're messing with!
When I'm ready I raise my fist as well. This is the sign we're ready. Now we just need the go ahead from Aubrey, like we discussed. Aubrey puts his fist down, then punches the air so that we all can see. Once. Twice. Thrice. The instant he punches the air the third time, the slaughter finally begins.
"Lightning!" I scream at the top of my lungs!
A bolt of lightning strikes the tallest building in the entire village, causing a thundering boom and the whole thing to explode into burning pieces. It's quite the dazzling display if I do say so myself.
Then I see huge gusts of wind lifting the houses off of their very foundations, and rapid small explosions happening all over the place, all in the most vital areas. Both of these cause way more destruction than my lightning and kill infinitely times more goblins. My attack probably killed about 0, but these attacks are killing scores within seconds.
If I had to guess, the explosions are definitely from Cesre, and the winds from Inell. They're both doing so much more damage than me and they didn't even scream out their attack. Why didn't they? Wait, incantations are basically training wheels right? There's no real need for that. In fact, it's probably better not to so you don't give away any information to the enemy.
So the real question is probably why did I scream "Lightning!" before I cast the spell? Because that's what anime characters do is the cringey, embarrassing true answer. Oh how I hope no one confronts me about that later…
Oh, crap, I spent too much of my focus on that, that I haven't cast any other spells… Inell and Cesre have basically flattened the village by themselves and now Kiaran and Freware are already down there massacring the survivors of the rampage of those two. Aubrey's busy lighting everything he can find on fire. I guess that's one way to get rid of the goblins. I never really took Aubrey for a pyromaniac type though.
With the extra light from the fire I can see all that's going on better. Kiaran is swinging his scythe around all elegantly like in our duel and absolutely dicing all the goblins up into bloody pieces. He doesn't show the slightest hint of hesitation or remorse. Like some sort of beautiful dance of death.
Freware is the complete opposite. Whereas Kiaran's fighting with beauty, she's fighting with sheer brutality. Swinging that staff around, breaking bones and bloodying meat with every swing. It's honestly quite terrifying. Wait! A goblin just jumped at her with a knife! And she has her back turned! She just turns around and punches it right in the jaw though. Did… did that punch cause the goblin's jaw to fall off? Dear God Freware, what are you on?
Hey I just realized, the guy's fighting with some sort of beautiful dance, and the girl's fighting with sheer, unhinged brutality. The roles are reversed here, aren't they? Ah! I love that sort of thing!
As the goblins start to group up, I see what appear to be lasers coming from Cesre's position that explode on whatever they hit. Inell's already flattened the village with his winds, and Cesre is still just blasting.
That reminds me though, I still haven't done anything yet! I destroyed that one building that would have gotten knocked down by Cesre or Inell anyway, and that's it! What am I even doing here!? Kari, let me borrow your winds for a bit, please?
I gather up the mana for the wind blades and begin firing them into the rubble wherever I see anything move. I have no indication as to whether I'm killing anything or not, and for some strange reason this is the first time it's occurring to me that of course this would be the case.
In video games I guess I'm used to seeing how many kills I've gotten on screen, but that isn't the case here. Why hasn't something so obvious occured to me until just now? I don't know, I'll think about it later. Right now I have a job to do.
Suddenly I hear a huge roar as pieces of the burning rubble explode into the air. It's a goblin much larger than any of the others dressed in all sorts of thick animal pelts and wielding a giant stone ax. A hobgoblin, maybe? Doesn't matter, it's squaring off against Aubrey who clearly has no idea what he's supposed to do. Kiaran and Freware suddenly stopped whatever it was they were doing and started bolting towards this thing full speed.
Before either of them can get there, or the hobgoblin or Aubrey can attack each other, Cesre fires another fireball right towards the thing. Before that can hit its mark though suddenly the hobgoblin flies high into the air confusing not only me, but everybody else on the battlefield as well. It's like in a video game, where you accidentally no clip into something and it sends you flying into the air. Yeah, it was like that.
I notice though, that a lot of the ground and its surroundings got sucked up with it. And also now it's falling, screaming for its life. I think I get it now. Inell must have used a wind spell to send the thing high into the air where it would fall to its death. If you can fly with wind magic, you should be able to do things like this to your enemies. I'll really have to remember not to get on Inell's bad side. Or would an attack like that even matter to me, since I can fly?
Time doesn't wait for me to think though,as the hobgoblin hits the ground and promptly explodes into a red mist of blood and guts, leaving a mangled corpse behind. I can't help but be repulsed and look away. I need to think of literally anything else, or else I might actually hurl.
Think, think, think. Um, a wind current that strong, right? I wonder if I could probably spread the fire using something similar? I don't want to burn Kiaran or the others though… Maybe if I give them a heads up, it'll be fine? Um… as long as I don't have to say it to their faces, my anxiety shouldn't whell up, right?
"Guys! Watch out!" I yell as loud as I can. As soon as I do, Kiaran, Aubrey, and Freware all go on guard.
Alright, that should be enough. Kari, I apologize for asking for your power to do something so horrendous, but I want to be at least somewhat useful to them, alright? You can let me have your winds if it's for that, right?
I try to imagine a strong wind blowing through the fire. I take the mana out of my soul, and try to send it through the fire like wind. Sure enough, a large wind starts blowing over the village. I'm sacrificing speed for area coverage here, so the winds aren't that strong, but they'll get the job done.
Slowly but surely, the winds I'm creating over the village send the fire all over the place, quickly burning what areas haven't been touched by Aubrey's pyromania yet. Then though, the three of them are about to get hit by some of the spreading fire. I quickly try and cancel the spell so they don't get hurt, but an even stronger gust of wind that I didn't create carries the fire that was about to hit them directly up into the air.
Thanks for the assist, Inell! Oh no, I hope I don't get scolded for that later.
I quickly realize that this is having a huge drain on my mana. Luckily, this isn't nearly as addicting as pushing lightning spells up to their absolute limits, so I'm actually able to stop before I drain every ounce of my mana down to my life force.
As I stop though, I realize the wind doesn't stop after I stop pouring mana into it. In fact, it only gets faster, and more controlled, efficiently covering every last inch of the village that hasn't been touched yet, all while avoiding the trio on the ground. I guess Inell figured out what I was trying to do and took over after I stopped.
Seeing this though, it makes me realize just how much stronger Inell is than me. I mean, I always had a vague idea, given his fame and wide assortment of titles, but this is my first time really seeing the difference in action.
It's really making me itch to start training again! After we're done with this, I need to practice precise wind manipulation! I also want to experiment with more of Adad's spells, and I really want to try and get that "Spatial Awareness" spell down in my repertoire, and I want to learn how Cesre creates those fireballs and explosions!
Aaaah! There's still so much for me to do! I'm so excited! I need to start training again!
Inell eventually carries the fire to my area, quickly scrapping all of those thoughts. It doesn't come anywhere near me, but I can still feel that oppressive heat. It's like standing right next to an open oven. I wouldn't be able to do anything in this heat, and the others were fighting in it?! How?!
I always prefered the cold. I guess no one knows about my adversal to heat yet in this world, but that's only because it's spring and there's been no reason to bring it up. I've always preferred the frigid cold over any kind of heat. I was playing in the snow once when I was a kid, and my glove had ripped. My hand had gotten wet, but being a kid I still kept playing. To say it hurt afterwards is an understatement. Even back then though, I preferred that kind of sheering cold pain over any kind of heat.
Back in my old life too, when, um… "adult content" was more readily available to me, any kind of sweat or other sign of heat would take me out of the mood immediately. That's really saying something too, given just how much of a degenerate I ended up being.
If I had the choice of dying in subzero temperatures, or having to live in 100 plus degree weather all year round, I'd be trying my best to come to terms with my hellish cold death before you even finished asking the question. I can not do heat.
I actually have to run away from the fire and start throwing some of the clothes I have on off. I'm sure by normal adventurer standards, it really isn't that hot, but to someone as averse to the heat as I am, it's absolutely unbearable. I'm literally stripping down without the slightest bit of hesitation, just to alleviate any of this heat. What other situation could possibly call for an action like that?
I manage to get far enough away from the fire that the cool feeling of the nighttime spring breeze takes over again. By the time I reached this point though, my pants were already down by my ankles and everything else other than my bra and panties had been thrown off. If it was literally anything else, I wouldn't be caught dead in such a position. It isn't a medical condition, it isn't some sort of trauma, it's just that even back as a kid, I could never deal with the heat.
I need to hurry up and put my clothes back on, before anyone sees me like this. I'm so sweaty just from that though that all my clothes are sticking to me, and they're really hard to put on. So disgusting.
"Azariah, are you OK?" Inell's voice! Aah! I quickly cover up my boobs with what I had previously been using as a shirt, even if the sweat makes it disgustingly unbearable.
"I can't… I can't do heat…" I say, as I look over to where his voice was coming from. Sure enough, he's standing there, looking concerned for my well being. After I say that though, from his facial expression he seems to understand.
"That… that honestly wasn't something I would have expected from you… well, if you wound up running away and throwing all your clothes off, I guess you really can't handle it…"
Thank you for understanding, Inell…
"I've been monitoring everybody in our party via disturbances in the wind, and when you went off running, I got worried. If it's just that though, I'll have to warn Aubrey to keep from using fire in the future. Hm… if this is what happens with fire, then just how do you deal with summer?"
Air conditioning. Sticking my head in the freezer and making use of ice packs. When I was a little girl, whenever I came inside after having to go out in the heat, I'd grab a bunch of ice cubes from the freezer, run to my room, get naked, and have them melt on my body. That actually gave rise to a certain fetish when I hit puberty, but Inell doesn't need to know about that. I doubt I could tell him any of that other stuff either.
"I just never went outside." I say.
"Seriously? How have you- nevermind, I'll ask later, we have a mission to do."
Oh right, we're supposed to be exterminating the goblins! The heat made me forget all about that! I quickly try and put most of my clothes back on. Inell and I have to get back to that!
"Come on, most of the goblins should be dead by now. We'll convene with Aubrey to see about moving on to the next village."
"Right!"
Inell and I start walking back to the smoldering remains of the goblin village. It's still on fire and still incredibly hot. It's like there's a wall of oppressive heat that's specifically barring me from moving forward.
"You really can't deal with it, huh?"
"No, I can't. This is… this is about as far as I can go if my life's not in danger."
"Right then. I'll try and call Aubrey and the others over to our position then. Oh, and nice idea about spreading the fire around like that. I'm not sure why it never came to me."
"You did most of the work though. It also made it pretty much impossible for me to check anything out."
"Don't worry about it. It was your idea. And Aubrey and I also didn't know a thing about just how much you hate hot environments like this."
><><><><
Inell and I are flying ahead of the others in our chase. I'm not skilled enough with wind magic to fly forward at this speed with no aid like this, so Inell is assisting me with his magic. I'm flying forward while Inell's keeping a close eye on me to fix any of my mistakes so I don't fall and break anything.
Following behind us are Aubrey & Kiaran. They're both made for speed, but they can't keep up with our flight. Kiaran's able to maneuver around all the natural blockades of the forest, while Aubrey just chops right through them.
Behind them are the two members of Aubrey's party, Freware & Cesre. Freware is a healer/brawler and Cesre is a long distance attack mage, so neither of them have any real good options for speed. The forest terrain is only slowing them down even more
I doubt that will really matter all that much, as I can see a cliffside rapidly approaching. What's better, is that they're approaching the base of the cliff instead of the edge! No jumping off at the last minute and miraculously living to fight another day for you! You're getting pierced up against a sheer stone wall!
It won't be long before those goblins are cornered. I wonder if Inell and I will be able to kill them all before Kiaran and Aubrey reach us? If they do, will the four of us be able to do that before Cesre and Freware finally catch up? I'll figure it out soon enough.
Inell suddenly increases his speed to a rate I couldn't hope to replicate with my current skill, and fires multiple massive wind blades down at the fleeing goblins. The things were huge, if my normal wind blades could knock the wind out of you, these things Inell started hurling down at them would crush you instantly. And crush, they did.
Huge plumes of dirt and blood fly into the sky as they hit their mark. So strong… I really want to do that! I really want to! Teach me how to make wind blades that huge! Is it kind of like "Small Hurricane Gust," except you put the mana into the form of a wind blade? Ooh, I'll really have to try that out even if that's not how he's doing it. I'll try it out as soon as I get the chance, probably right after this mission is over. In that case, I'll have to finish it as soon as possible!
Wait… maybe I could try that now? I mean… What's stopping me? Nothing, that's what! Nothing can possibly stop Azariah! Kari! I really want to try something different~ You know the drill! Give me your winds! Let me show you this experiment!
I prepare the mana for "Small Hurricane Gust," but before I fire it, I begin to reshape it. Normally to cast "Small Hurricane Gust," I shove all the mana into a tight little ball, and let it go all at once. For this though, I compress the ball, then proceed to stretch it out into the shape I normally cast a wind blade with. When it's about the size of the ones Inell fired, I become satisfied, and cast the spell.
It creates a massive wind blade at first, but it dissipates immediately, not only causing absolutely no damage whatsoever, but creates winds flowing every which way which nearly knock me out of the sky. I wasn't even able to regain control myself, Inell had to help me with that.
"Azariah, I'm really proud of you for creating your own spells, but save that for training! Not a battle!"
Inell's right, I'll try this again later. If I can manage to keep it from dissipating, but also have the winds within it keep flowing everywhere like just now, it could probably be more destructive than any of Inell's huge wind blades. Oh boy do I want an opportunity to cause more destruction…
We corner the goblins at the base of the cliff soon enough. One of the goblins actually casted what appeared to be one of Adad's spells at me, but Inell pushed me out of the way with his wind as soon as he sensed it coming. I also really have to try and get better at dodging in the air! I'll try and get Inell to help me train with that when I get the chance! There's so much more work for me to do, so much progress still to be made, and that makes me so giddy!
Inell and I aren't able to finish killing all the goblins before Aubrey and Kiaran finally manage to catch up with us. They're the ones who finally manage to finish the job. It's a couple of minutes later before Freware and Cesre finally meet back up with us.
Also, Freware showed up carrying Cesre on her back. Apparently she ran out of stamina during that run. Stamina, that's also something I'll have to keep in mind. I'm not always going to be able to fly, so I'll have to try and practice running as well. Both sprinting and long distance running. It should be good if an enemy ever manages to close the distance between us.
With our first mission of the day finally done, I start thinking about all the things I want to train with when I get the chance as I watch the sunrise. I'm eventually interrupted from my surprisingly non-sexual fantasies though.
"Hey guys! I found this really cool cave, come and check it out!" Kiaran yells.
"Hey, those are dangerous. They're all over the place out here, but you still need to be careful." Inell says
I decide to humor Kiaran and go and check out what he managed to find. Sure enough, it's a truly massive cave entrance that looks straight out of an open world fantasy game. Everybody else is at the entrance while Kiaran is looking deeper inside, where we can all still see him of course.
"I mean, we have time, might as well check it out." Cesre says, before lighting a fire in her hand. I back away right away.
"Don't worry about it. It's just for light. It's my connection with the Archon of Fire, Florian, by the way. I'll be sure to teach you when I get them time."
"Hey guys, this rock sounds-" Kiaran begins.
Crlrk! Is the sound I hear just before the rock below Kiaran crumbles and he begins falling.
"Kiaran!" I immediately jump after him. I try to use my wind magic to grab ahold of him like Inell did with that hobgoblin, but I'm not skilled enough to do that on the spot yet so I just fly down the hole he fell down, hoping to catch him. It's incredibly deep and incredibly dark down here. I'm worried that I'll wind up hitting something before a long laser of orange light comes up from the surface down to the very bottom, illuminating the whole chasm.
As this happens, I realize I was about to fly straight into the ground at full speed, and that Inell had somehow also flown down here without me noticing and had already managed to grab Kiaran with his winds. I slowly land on the floor of the chasm as the relief sets in that Kiaran's safe.
Inell's above me, making sure that Kiaran's still flying. Whatever laser that Cesre made is lighting up the cave incredibly well. Looking around, there's all sorts of different paths that I can go down. Looking down far enough through these paths, the light from Cesre's laser fade into complete and utter darkness, like my hair.
Man, caves are so terrifying. Complete darkness, your eyes will never adjust to, the maze-like patterns, tight spaces you can get completely stuck in, whatever monsters are lurking in the dark… I really want to explore one!
"Inell… can I stay down here for a minute or two?"
"Huh? Why?"
"I'm just curious, is all."
"Um, well… it can be really easy to get lost down here."
"I won't wander off too far, I swear. Besides, I can just mark arrows on the walls if I really need to."
"Don't go wandering off too far. Stay in sight of the light, alright? And come up soon."
"OK, I will."
Inell doesn't press the issue any farther and flies up with Kiaran. If Kiaran had wanted to say anything, he didn't say it. Maybe he's just embarrassed at falling down here.
Alright, first order of business, I want to go as far as Inell allowed me to go. I don't want to get lost down here, but even worse, I don't want Inell to scold me. That's why I'll keep walking in a direction until I can just barely see the light.
The ground below me starts to shake. What? Another monster. The ground keeps shaking, really hard. I nearly fall off of my feet, and have to put both my hands on the ground in order to keep balance.
I hear crunching, and then the sounds of rocks falling. I look up and see said rocks falling on top of me. I quickly use wind magic to dodge out of the way of the incoming rocks.
The shaking continues, and rocks keep falling. Cesre's laser cut off for some reason, leaving me in complete darkness. The shaking doesn't stop and I keep hearing rocks fall.
It feels like an eternity before it's over, and when it is, I'm stuck in complete and utter darkness with absolutely no sense of direction. It's quite a strange experience.
I can no longer hear anything either. After all the shaking and the rocks falling, it's also really weird.
I'm just standing here, with all of my senses failing me, and I'm unsure what to think.