"Wh-who cast it…?"
The black-haired girl took her eyes away from the strange fireball for a second and looked up, hoping to see another adventurer wishing to help. She was also praying that it wouldn't turn out to be some magic-casting monster - or worse, a demon.
"Eh…?"
But no matter how much she strained her neck, she couldn't spot anything, let alone anyone, peeking down at them from over the edge of the cliff, making her let out a confused gasp.
Then the fireball made some sounds besides the crackling of its fire, getting back her attention…
The strange fireball sounded like… munching and chewing on something, with slight shifts in its peculiar movement that corresponded a bit too perfectly to be coincidental.
It was…
Oddly entrancing…
"...do you think… you can make a wall like they did…?"
"...?!"
The hooded individual backed off a bit more, pushing the girl with him. He mouthed his question in a hushed voice, making her flinch.
"O-one like the ch-chieftan did…? N-no… My a-ability isn't elemental m-magic oriented… I-I use e-earth s-spells because th-they were the e-easiest to l-learn…"
The black-haired girl gulped down her saliva and shook her head as she whispered back.
The fact that the hooded individual was whispering in such a tense voice at least doubled the severity of the bad feeling the girl was having.
There was something terribly, terribly wrong with the situation.
"Can you… make more rocks grow on my shield? At least to be wider than my torso?"
"...I… I -can try… Enchant s-stone."
The hooded individual asked, raising his shield, which was already much thicker because of the stones that grew on it from the last spell - a spell that the black-haired girl used again.
"...stone… Enchant stone…"
And then again and a couple more times after that.
She proved quite capable of manipulating the spell, making the new rocks grow outwards from the shield edges and not only forward.
"Good. Get behind me and do stay put… quiet too… If you have enofh mana, use the spell for armor on yourself."
"..."
Satisfied with the result, the hooded individual nodded, crouching down both intentionally and because of the immense weight of his enchanted equipment. He motioned at the girl to do the same and then instructed her.
"...o-okay… b-but… w-will it even w-work…? If th-that spell explodes… I-I don't think that we w-will… you kn-know…"
The black-haired girl gulped down her saliva, using the enchant stone spell to turn herself into a remarkably believable rock - and she even used the remains of her mana to do the same thing for her ally, although that's when her mana ran out, so only his back and shield-bearing arm got the additional protection.
"...that is not a spell…"
"...wh-what are you t-talking about…?"
The rock-camouflage stranger breathed out in a tense voice, making sure that the enchanted shield was covering them both, while the black-haired girl felt her stomach churn.
"You… you d-don't mean i-it's a…"
"...it is a monster, yes… Now, shhh… But if you can… make them make noise…"
The girl gasped, feeling as if her heart was about to stop - the hooded individual not only nodded in affirmation but also added, motioning towards the two remaining boarkin orcs that were already backing off into the forest as quietly as they could.
"I… I d-don't think I-I will be able to do th-that without… hmmm…"
"...?"
The girl shuddered and shook her head, peeking at the hushedly escaping monsters, but then she closed her mouth and let out a curious hum as she spotted one of them had a severe limp…
"I-if there a fragment of the s-spike with m-my mana is still there, th-then…"
The black-haired girl muttered to herself, raising her hand as if taking aim…
"Stone spike."
"BUHUIIIIIIIIIH!"
"...!"
The moment she chanted the incantation, the limping Boarkin Orc squealed in pain at the top of its lungs, and the strange fireball turned its way!
"WHAT THE-MPFGH…!?"
"SHHHHH!"
At the glimpse of what the fireball truly was, the black-haired girl raised her voice, to which her hooded companion reacted instantly - he dropped his mace and reached out for the stone-covered girl, grabbing her and then pressing her tightly to his chest while shushing her desperately…
The massive fireball wasn't, in fact, a spell.
As the hooded individual pointed out, it was a monster.
Although surrounded in lion-mane-like flames, the creature was in face… a head.
To be more precise - a skull, although a skull that looked like some skilled artisan carved the shape of a furious old man in.
The bone face was bluish-gray, and although it appeared to resemble a human skull, it was over four feet tall and three feet wide.
The crimson flames covered it like hair—it even had a mustache and beard—and gave the monster additional volume, but they were also filling it.
The eyesockets didn't hold eyeballs and were just holes behind which even more flames burned.
It was the same with the jaws and fangs in between which a roasting hand of a Boarkin Orc was stuck, which explained the chomping noises from earlier… the flaming head had been eating the other monsters.
Well, maybe - incinerating them - would be a more appropriate description, though.
Even at that moment, it was already too focused on the squealing Orc and his comrade, trying to dash away to pay attention to the girl's scream.
*WHOOOOOO*
When it opened its jaws, a constant stream of fire erupted out of it, causing most of the moisture in the air and surrounding plants to evaporate or turn into white mist.
"BU-H…!"
The howling flamethrower reached the squealing Orc in a flash, turning its upper half into ash within the first second of contact.
"BU-UHIIIIIIIUGHIIIII!"
The Boarkin that tried to run away wasn't hit directly, but the flamethrower passed it close enough to turn most of its body into a roast that peeled away from its bones as it squealed in agony.
"...ghhh…!"
The hooded individual spat through his teeth as the heat from the attack melted the outer layer of his enchanted shield. A lot of heat made it through to start burning his flesh—still a better result than getting turned into charcoal, of course.
"...!"
The black-haired girl trembled, feeling the heat from the shield, but she said nothing and clung to her ally while clenching her jaws shut.
"...h-heal…"
"...!"
Still, she gulped down her saliva and muttered, making her ally flinch as he felt her hand on his stomach - but regardless of her good intentions, she lacked the mana to activate the spell.
"..."
The monstrous flaming head floated forward, shifting around as if looking around despite not having any eyeballs.
It silently passed by the huddled pair, and it didn't pay attention to the earth rampart created by the Boarkin Orc Warchief either, going straight for the Boarkin Orc Veteran and a half amidst the fire spreading through the forest.
"...wh-what is th-that…? I-it-s not a F-fire Ele… elemental…"
The black-haired girl shuddered and mumbled in a hushed voice as she continued to tremble in her ally's arm.
"Deep-Dusk Hearth Head… It should be… level 65… but, it also should be sealed off… Something… is wrong…"
The hooded individual whispered back, huddling even more before trying to remain as motionless as possible.
"This time really… the only thing we can do… is pray…"
"...nhehe… y-yeah…"
He let out a muffled scoff, to which the girl responded with a pitiful chuckle.
And they so they did.
They waited, and they prayed…