A/N: Before you read past this, I just want to say this to clarify since I've been getting so many people asking why the mages/nobles are so weak.
The people in this party are lazy aristocrats. They more of handle estates, do business, and just sit around their homes being pampered by servants.
They are not soldiers. It's not that they are inherently weak, they still have some strength and powers but they are not well-trained for combat.
It's like asking why businessmen and tycoons are so weak. It's like asking why Elon Musk can't fight off a powerful kid that can raise literal hailstorms.
I didn't want to explain this at first, but apparently some people don't get that logic.
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"Everyone! We forgot to mention a tradition in this family!" Zeuxis proclaimed after gaining everyone's attention by dunking a pie on Ronin's head.
He clapped his hands and the servants all came with trays of freshly baked but poorly done pies.
"You see, every 5th birthday of a Zafeiri, we have this little fun game we play. Not too far off with what the prince of Scirocco was doing." He strutted like a real troublemaker in front of the crowd. "But instead of very small appetizers, we use whole pies."
Duke Taevas clenched his fist. "Zeuxis, what are you---"
"Awesome! Like a pie fight?" Cermin Drychspiel exclaimed across the room. "I've never been to one before!"
"Ah, the clever prince is also aware of this tradition!" Zeuxis chuckled. "Yes, yes! The 'Pie Fight'!"
"It's very easy, everyone. You just take a pie..." He took one from the tray, seeming to be an apple pie.
Smack!
He skillfully threw it right at his sister's face!
"And throw it to whoever you like!"
"Zeuxis!" Duke Taevas quickly took away the pie from his shocked daughter's face, but then----
SMACK! PLOP! SMACK!
Everyone followed Zeuxis' example and threw pies at each other!
Ronin can hear all this commotion even when lying almost lifeless on the ground and groaned. 'Fucking typical Zeuxis.'
"Ahahahaha! I got you! I threw some mustard pie on your face--- Oh!" A lady that was laughing in delight on top of the tables carefully arranged for the guests slipped on some blueberry pie and came crashing down.
But she laughed it off, and continued throwing pies at other people like they were grenades.
Everyone was in the same mad frenzy as she was in. They had abandoned all their posh etiquette and became determined to throw pies at their enemies, friends, and even family members. All in the name of 'fun'.
The parlor immediately became a battlefield of pies.
Duke Taevas doesn't know how to stop this madness. And his second son, the mastermind behind it all, just laughed incessantly while holding his head back.
"That's right! Make sure to give your regards to the birthday girl too using pies!"
This brought an ambush of pastries hurtling towards Belladonna, who was close to crying from the state that she and her party were in.
Her father tried to valiantly summon his sword and slice the flying pies on time, but it only resulted to bits of it and creams and custard raining down on him and his daughter.
"Wahhhh! Everyone stop it! Stop it!" The little girl begged.
But nobody could hear her over the sound of their crazy fits of giggles and laughter.
Cermin was among those who enjoyed this 'tradition' a whole lot and take it as a challenge for his expertise.
"Gotcha! Haha! Let them eat pie!!!" He laughed just as much as Zeuxis and assulted everyone he can see with loads and loads of pie. "Someone make another batch, we're running out of ammo!"
"You heard the prince! Prepare some more pies!" Zeuxis ordered the servants around.
"Eat pie, suckers!" Cermin even took a very intricate and antique-looking pole from the display that used to be a marker for when the House Zafeiri was built.
Duke Taevas' eyes widened. "Your Highness, don't! That's a very valuable heirloom---"
Cermin used it as a bat to hit the incoming pies with. "What? Can't hear you, old man!"
'And now Duke Taevas will grow to hate him too.' Ronin smiled a little despite the agony he was in.
The onslaught continued and the more it did, the more agitated Belladonna became. She was breathing heavily and puffing her cheeks, and Duke Taevas and the other servants gathered around trying to calm her down.
"Deep breaths, Bella. It's fine, everything is fine!" Cholie, her best friend basically and the one who can calm her the most told her.
But Bella was having none of it. "It's not fine! Brother Ronin is lying on the floor, there are pies everywhere..... And my hair and clothes are ruined again! After you just fixed it! Why do people like throwing food so much!?"
She stormed off at the center of it all, yelling in a great fit of tantrum.....
"STOP THROWING FOOD! ALL OF YOU! AHHHHHH!!!!"
Everyone went silent from this.
Then, the whole house shook!
"Oh, dear." Duke Taevas' eyes were full of dread. "Everyone, run! Just run out of here!"
But it was too late, and the sound that was similar to breaking glass came, gaining the gasps of these nobles.
But it was not glass. It was ice.
And soon, it was no longer an onslaught of pies, but an onslaught of large pellets of ice!
"Ahhhh!!" The people screamed, trying to avoid them as much as they could.
But the floor was filled with mushy pies everywhere, and so many of them slipped the moment they ran.
'We're all gonna die.' Ronin thought still lying face flat on the ground.
"AHHHH! AHHHH! I HATE ALL OF YOU!"
Belladonna screamed and screamed out of frustration, and the more she did, the greater her hailstorm became. It was no longer like a hailstorm, actually.
She was summoning many, many projectiles made of ice onto these guests she hated!
And they were no longer the size of ice cubes. Some of them were as large as bowling balls, and when they break, the shards were bound to cut someone!
And that was not the worst of it.
They did not just start to fall down from the ceiling without any pattern----
They followed people to strike them!
Swish!
It came fast, and someone yelled.
"Blood! There's blood!"
A man's left leg had been hit by these balls of ice, which brought shards sticking out in many places. "Argh! Help me!"
The flying balls of ice pummelled into more and more people; causing bruises, broken bones, wounds from shards, and many more injuries!
The guests panicked and immediately brought out their Mage Focus to protect themselves!
"Stop the freakish girl from attacking us, Taevas!" Someone yelled out to the dumbstruck duke.
(Bella's powers were never this strong before. How...) Ronin heard Duke Taevas' thoughts.
The Coal boy smiled as he had a theory about it.
Flames were in the Heartstone, and whenever someone was emotional, a person's heart rate increased. And when there's a lot of motion by the heart, it causes friction as well as heat. By adding more heat and pressure.....
A Flame can ignite and burst brighter than before!
The injured guests continued to rise in numbers. More blood was shed, and they desperately called out to the shouting girl to stop.
Even Zeuxis had his arm hit by a heavy ice ball, and Cermin cowardly hid under the tables for cover.
'So much for a fucking "hero".' Ronin scoffed.
He noticed that none of the ice pellets were hitting his area at all.
He was the only one safe from the hailstorm.
Ronin crawled his way through towards the little girl and patted her head.
"Bella."
This caused her to stop sobbing and shouting immediately.
"B-Brother?"
But the damage was already done. This party was completely and utterly ruined.