A sign read [Goblet's logging company.] above
a fence leading into the logging yard filled with goblins and at the center was a 5-meter tall black obelisk that glowed ominously.
At least a hundred Goblins were straddling logs and pulling on saw blades or overall fucking about.
*Thud* One of the goblins heard a noise and looked around and saw a bucket next to the obelisk that splashed a clear fluid all around the pillar.
*Thud Thud Thud* 3 more buckets fell from the sky spilling the contents all over the open space.
A phoenix with feathers that were blue at its base and red at the rest. It landed on the fence and started screeching, attracting around half of the goblins wanting to get rid of the source of the noise.
From the other side of the mill more screeching was heard drawing goblins to it.
Only 8 goblins stayed around the black tower as the screeching only got louder.
"Huuu... Alright." Liz rounded the corner and ran into the mill lugging the hammer Ben had, behind her.
A goblin saw Liz running towards the obelisk and screamed to gather the rest but only the other 7 heard it.
The 8 rushed her driven only by the desire to murder this woman.
"Of course, some stayed but do you think you can stop me?" Liz readied Ben's hammer and swung at the set of goblins that approached her, smashing 4 in half.
The ash made from the dead goblins went towards the black tower. "30 seconds till they respawn..."
Liz immediately did a sweeping motion back hitting the other 4 and didn't even check to see if they died or not and kept running.
Liz used the momentum from running and swung at the obelisk.
*CRACK*
The hammer was Lodged in the pillar as cracks spread up and throughout it.
The cracks glowed white as the entire curse pillar exploded.
[Level up!]
"Oh, I leve-" ***SCREEE*** A cacophony of screams was heard around Liz.
..2 days earlier..
Liz placed a dagger on the table. "Am I supposed brake it with this? You said it was massive."
Ben pushed the dagger back. "You could use my hammer. It will almost certainly do the trick if you get a running start." (Liz is repeating, so Temarick understands.)
Temarick poorly drew an area with green stick figures surrounding a black rectangle on a board. "Alright, but how should we get you close enough to do it?"
Ben drew a line away from a "How about I distract them while you and Rick go after the curse pillar."
Temarick cut the stick figures into two groups. "You alone won't be enough to distract them."
Ben drew another line. "Why don't we have that soul crystal become a phoenix to do the same as me?"
Temarick crossed out the line. "The Lass can't it's been more than three hours."
Liz erased the line and drew it again. "I can, the skill leveled up while I was unconscious. it can bring back anyone within a 24-hour period now."
Temarick rubbed the side of his head. "And how will we get it to listen to us?"
Ben shook his body causing his feather to ruffle. "It probably will. I'm not sure why but I have the overwhelming urge to help her since I became like this."
"Huh? Wait I haven't checked the blessing now that I think about it." Liz pulled up her status and clicked mother of phoenixes.
(Mother of Phoenixes)
A blessing given to the creator of the phoenix race.
All phoenixes will see you as their mother and have a strong urge to help you.
Phoenixes that successfully help you will gain progress toward their next level. (Progress depends on the help given.)
Phoenixes can not intentionally harm you unless you intentionally harm them. (Time limit on backlash is 12 hours)
If a phoenix meets 2 conditions in your presence they will earn the polymorph skill. (One Condition is removed for special-grade phoenixes)
A curse is restricting a powerful ability and can not be used until it is lifted.
Liz blinked and turned to Ben. "Oh? My blessing making phoenixes view me as their mother and have the urge to help me... Also, I kinda found the way for you to turn human."
Ben felt happy hearing Liz's words. "How?"
Liz shrugged. "It says they meet 2 undisclosed conditions near me. Anyway do I have to name them?"
Ben's feathers raised and focused on eating.
Sarah raised her hand. "Oh! can I give them a name?"
Liz mulled it over before nodding. "If I can, yes."
Sarah smiled and wrote it in bold letters on the corner of the board. "Kindle!"
Liz was surprised at the name of how right it felt to her. "What a great name Sarah!"
Sarah happily went back to eating some vegetable stew.
Temarick cut back in by putting a strike in the pillar. "The goblins won't just die after you break the curse pillar. We'll still have to do that ourselves."
Ben stopped eating and tapped the table with his talons. "But something else will happen to them."
Liz knew it wasn't going to be a nice thing. "What will happen?"
Temarick drew lines from the green stick figures to a red one. "They will run at the person who broke the pillar ravenously."
Liz drummed her fingers on the table for a few seconds before picking up a marker. "How about..."
..Present..
Liz watched as all of the goblins sprinted at her and how a lot of them slipped on the liquid covering the ground around her. 'Not yet.'
Liz pulled out her daggers as the goblins ran on the ones who fell to get to her. 'Not enough.'
The first several goblins were killed before they even try hurt Liz. 'This is much easier than before. Did leveling up make that big of a difference?'
The ash that used to float away in the wind or go to the curse pillar settled at Liz's feet as she killed them. 'Almost...'
Liz glanced around and saw that 20 of the goblins were about jump at her and took a deep breath. "NOW!"
A blast of fire came from the entrance.
The fire hit one of the goblin who fell and immediately exploded into fire.
The fire spread faster to all of the goblins than they could run away, causing a second cacophony of screams but this time it was in agony.
Liz ran into the fire completely unaffected by it, even her clothes were fine, and started slaughtering the goblins while they were trying to put themselves out.
2 phoenixes also joined on by swooping down and slashing throats with their talons.
The fire hadn't even gone out before nothing of the goblins was ash.
"We've done it, Mother!" A phoenix with almost all red feathers flew around Liz.
"We're not quite done yet Kindle." Liz went over to a stack of logs and grabbed one of the smaller logs she could move.
"I'll go get Sarah now." Temarick called out into the mill.
"Take Ben with you." Liz yelled as she slowly dragged the log into the fire.
"You talk like you own me." Ben hopped along with Temarick.
Liz grabbed another log and pulled as she started to breathe heavier. "Scout around and tell me if anything approaches. will you, Kindle?"
"Ok, I'll do my best Mother." Kindle flapped their wings a few times before taking off into the sky.
"Alright, how many more should I drag?" Liz looked back and saw the gasoline was burning out, luckily the logs were catching fire.
Liz was about to continue with log dragging when she heard Kindle coming back. 'Is Temarick back? That fast?'
Kindle swooped down and landed on an on-fire log. "Mother, humans are approaching."
Liz knew Kindle wouldn't call Temarick and the others just humans. "How many?"
Kindle tilted their head. "More than 5?"
'Right, Kindle is uneducated.' Liz felt anxious about the crowd.
Liz could hear people talking to each other and that it was getting closer. "Go hide behind the logs for now."
Soon enough, 2 groups of 13 people reached the entrance of the mill at similar times. The group varied from teenagers to elderly but all of them had weapons. 'Wouldn't that be everyone else in the town?'
The group stared at Liz before A pale-skinned woman with long red hair and teal eyes with a long sword on her back stepped forward and asked with an unsure tone. "You destroyed the curse pillar... How?"
.
..
.
Temarick and Ben were currently on their way back with Sam and Sarah in tow. "Yeah, she cleared the area out much faster than we thought."
Sam had her bag with her. "I guess my worry about you not being able to help because of the fire was unnecessary."
Sarah saw the mill and noticed a large pillar of smoke coming from it. "Is Miss Phoenix ok?"
"Yeah, the Lass is just setting the stage for you." Temarick started to hear talking.
They rounded the corner giving them a line of sight of a massive bonfire made of 10 logs.
Temarick mentality measured it and it was about 3 meters tall and 1 meter wide. 'God damn, overdoing it aren't you Lass?'
Sarah gazed into the giant bonfire with awe. "So pretty."
"Why didn't you get more people for the plan?" A voice questioned.
Temarick looked around and saw the rest of the people remaining were sitting on logs surrounding The bonfire. "Well It wouldn't benefit from more people."
Sam looked around and walked up to the woman with the long sword. "Nia?"
The woman named Nia turned around. "Oh? Samantha! She said you were on your way but you took your time."
Sam saw that Liz was leaning into the bonfire talking to a tall man with slicked-back gray hair. "Why are you and everyone else here?"
"We heard the familiar sound of a curse pillar exploding so both of the groups decided to wipe out any goblins that were still alive but all we found was her building that." Nia pointed at the raging bonfire.
Sarah ran up to the old man talking to Liz. "Mister Stark! You met Miss Phoenix, isn't she great!"
Stark looked down at Sarah with a stoic expression. "Oh, why if it isn't the star of the show."
Liz walked out and gave Sarah a pat on the head. "Ready or do you want to say hi to everyone?"
Sarah giggled as her head warmed up. "I wanna do it now."
"Go tell your mom and I'll do the finishing touches." Liz watched as Sarah nodded and ran to Sam.
Stark looked at Sarah and then at Ben who landed next to her. "Didn't you say that she would turn into that? Why is she so excited?"
"She probably wants to feel whole again..." Liz walked off not elaborating to the old man.
Liz made everyone besides her and Sarah back up 15 meters.
"Before we begin I should mention that Sarah will be fine, so don't interfere in this process. You'll only make things worse besides for Temarick who will jump in if there's no fire left for my skill to use." Liz explained as she got on her knees in front of Sarah.
Sarah was fidgeting with her hands as Liz settled in front of her. "Miss Phoenix you'll be ok right?"
Liz held the side of Sarah's head and spoke softly. "Of course~ you know I'm not lying right?"
Sarah started to tear up. "No your not."
Liz wiped the tears away. "Do you want to be one of my children, Sarah?"
Sarah hugged Liz and took a step away. "...Yes!"
[Subject Sarah accepted... Grading... Sarah has been graded as special grade. Are you sure of skill use of Phoenix rebirth?]
Liz felt her blood trembling but continued. 'Yes.'
[Confirmation acquired... Error... Condition has been met before rebirth... Recalculating result of Phoenix rebirth... Elizabeth Pine and Sarah Garmin have been marked as unpredictable... Activating skill.]
'She already completed the condition?' Liz felt a stinging sensation as a blue flame the size of a basketball go from her to Sarah.
Blue flame erupted from Sarah and spiraled around her larger than the bonfire, pulling the flame away from said bonfire.
As more was pulled into the twister it did not get bigger, it got smaller and smaller.
The bonfire was eventually gone and inevitably, life force began to escape from Liz.
Another source of fire quickly replaced the bonfire stopping Liz from being drained of life force further.
Liz however did not collapse screaming this time, she didn't move, not even making a sound, only giving Sarah a strained smile.
Life force acted like a net for the fire and pushed it into an oval shape.
The fire and life force started to compress down more into a solid surface.
Everything went silent as everyone stared at Liz on her knees and in place of Sarah was a 1-meter-tall blue egg.