When Kim told her to start using her magic, Elin didn't hesitate. She First started with her Sacred Burst spell, only to find that it hardly traveled any distance before dissipating. She couldn't be sure, but she doubted it would have reached the orcs if it had gone ten times as far.
While her attempt was a spectacular failure, she couldn't help but notice that Elmo's Brimstone Flare struck directly on the orcs. Which caused a plume of fire to arch up in the middle of their flank to Elin's left, tearing through them like a rolling boulder would.
Elin wasn't sure if she should give up at that moment, but she still wanted to try. If her magic proved only to be short range, then she'd merely have to wait until they got closer, even though that meant she might disappoint Kim.
So, she tried her Sacred Flare spell, hoping that it would have a better effect. Although, if that didn't work, she knew she didn't have anything else to try. Unlike Elmo, who had a number of attack spells that he could choose from if one didn't work.
Her spell seemed to create a column of fire that nearly blinded her directly over the orcs flank opposite of where Elmo was using his magic. When her eyes cleared and she could see again, aside from the after image of the light, she couldn't tell what effect her magic had, other than the front line of the orcs looked even more uneven than it had before.
"You, know, I feel kind of like we're the artillery of your army," Elmo remarked, as his second Brimstone Flare erupted among the orcs' ranks, tearing through their ranks again.
Elin still couldn't see any effect on the orcs, but she wouldn't be surprised if that was because of the distance, since they really couldn't differentiate between the dead orcs and the ones still charging. Aside from the fact that she wasn't able to really see how much damage they were doing to the orcs either. She assumed they were dealing a good amount of damage, but it wasn't like she could say how much they still had left of the orcs to deal with.
Elin also couldn't help but wonder if the spells looked like they might be so effective simply because the orcs numbers were so close together. That if they were spread out just a little more, if their spells would be more of a waste of their MP than anything else.
Still, she sent out a few more of her Sacred Flares, but unlike Elmo, she remained conscious of her MP, knowing that she didn't have as much as Elmo seemed to have.
Not that she worried too much about it. She knew that it didn't matter if she didn't have as much MP as Elmo, only that their specialties were in different areas.
Although, when they were stuck at that same location for an entire week, Elin wished that she could have had Elmo's MP then, since it meant that they wouldn't have had to remain there for as long. Plus, they might have been able to be on the road that much quicker, which in turn meant that they might have been able to avoid this encounter with the orcs as well.
As Elmo shot of one volley after another, Elin spaced hers out a little, trying to keep track of how much MP she'd used up. Regardless of what Kim had told her to do, as well as how eager she used to be to use her offensive spells, she wanted to try and save some of her MP so she could potentially heal any injuries that might occur once the orcs reached them.
Around them, Elin was aware that some of the people in the army were starting to line up next to Kim, most with only a sword and shield equipped. Which made Elin wonder just how prepared this army was or what they thought was necessary.
Elin wasn't sure herself, but she at least knew that she'd have used Kim as a standard of what equipment she'd have needed. Maybe there wasn't enough time, but Elin had a feeling that they could have gotten even a basic suite of leather armor, like Kim had done when they'd gone to fight the goblins in order to close the portal.
Elin almost choked on her fourth casting of her Sacred Flare. When she thought about the portal for the goblins, she couldn't help but wonder if there might be a portal for the orcs. Especially since Lance had already said that orcs were like goblins, only bigger.
Elin opened her mouth to express her concerns to Kim, but was surprised when Kim responded to her question before she even could ask it.
"Don't worry about anything other than what I told you to do, Elin," Kim told her. "Just focus on that and we can worry about other things later."
Elin looked at Kim for a minute in wonder, not sure how to really take her statement, but then she nodded. She decided that Kim probably didn't know what she was going to say, but wanted her to focus on dealing with the orcs. Letting anything else go for the time being.
After Elin used her Sacred Flare spell three more times, she stopped. She wasn't sure exactly how much she had left in her MP, since she couldn't remember exactly how much the cost was reduced with her Reduced MP Consumption skill. Especially since she doubted even just one more time would be as effective as her healing would be to the soldiers on the front line.
Elmo however, seemed to have an almost inexhaustible amount of magic. Every few spells, he'd pause for a minute or two before starting up again. Elin didn't know what that was about, but she didn't feel like questioning it. The main focus for her was how long he was able to keep it up for. It especially felt strange that he seemed to get physically exhausted the more he cast his spells.
Elin had never had that happen to her, so she felt like there was something that she wasn't aware of. She was certain that Kim wasn't aware of it, given how much Kim cared to pay that close attention to Elmo, but she couldn't be sure if Jonas had noticed or not. If he had, Elin reasoned that she might be able to see if he might know why Elmo looked like he was getting so tired doing this.
Elin wasn't sure how long she'd been looking away from the battle, but when she turned her attention back to it she was shocked to see how devastated the column was. She couldn't be sure if all of the dark bodies that covered the slope were all dead, but it looked like close to half had been wiped out.
There was still a significant number charging at them, but the orcs hadn't even reached the base of the mountain yet, and still had a good amount of distance to cover. Elin wasn't sure if Kim had really expected it to turn out like this or if this had been entirely a gamble, but she couldn't help but feel rather intimidated by Kim at that moment.
Even though she knew that Kim wouldn't turn against her, she couldn't help but worry that she might get caught in the crossfire one day. Even though she couldn't imagine any circumstance that might lead to a situation like that, it felt like to possibility was still there.
Yet at the same time, Elin couldn't help but feel even more protected by Kim. If she was this good at figuring out how to deal with this many orcs, she couldn't imagine what else Kim might be capable of.
What she knew was that she couldn't even imagine getting as good as Kim at these things. Even if she had Kim guiding her.
"You can ease up now, Elmo," Kim said, as the orcs continued their charge, apparently oblivious to their fallen comrades.
Elmo didn't say anything, he just merely let out his breath, like he was nearly spent altogether, and nodded.
"Want the rest to be dealt with by your army?" Jonas asked, making Elin jump. She'd forgotten that he was there.
Kim shook her head. "No, If they were going to run because of the damage we've done already, they'd have done so," she answered. "So, if Elmo starts up again right before they reach us, that might have more of an impact on them. Especially if they think that we've run out of magic to throw at them."
"Good enough," Jonas replied, continuing to watch the orcs.
Elin looked around and saw that while most of the soldiers only had a single handed weapon and shield, there were a few who had a breastplate and helmet on, while there were also a few who didn't have a shield, but instead had a spear and occasionally someone only had a sword or axe in both hands. Elin wasn't sure why there were so many different weapons, but she didn't feel like questioning it.
All she could see in the faces of the soldiers was resolve to see through what was coming for them. Regardless of how it turned.
Elin then turned back to watch the orcs continue their charge.