Nila did not look at me, but instead raised her wand and performed yet another attack, however, this time onto those who stood behind us. The giant plant's stem wiggled a little and its vines were launched in our direction again. I closed my eyes, preparing myself for an impact, but Nila successfully cast the barrier, preventing it from reaching us. Finally, she lined up with me and fired an attack spell once more, although the effect was the same. The plant withstood it without an issue.
"This is why I need your help here. You shan't worry, Dusk, if you really slayed the darewolf, then corrimorpha should not be a problem for you."
So she was testing me after all! I was certain that her knowledge in magic was not only limited to one attack beam, she did not even try to burn this plant. Thus, her assessing my abilities must have been the only option to her behaviour. I squinted upon realisation and made a step forward, but as soon as the plant's vine was launched at me once again, now stopping inches away from my face, I froze in place.
This attack was way too fast, I could not see it in the slightest! If it was not for Nila's barrier, I would have been dead in this instance. Moreover, my body felt significantly more heavy than during my battle against the darewolf. I could not feel the lightness in my body, nor my mind could run wild with tactics against the beast. All I could do now was simply observe and tremble… I was trembling, my hand that was holding a knife to be precise. Why was that? Was I afraid?
A few more vines were launched at my body and as they hit Nila's barrier with a loud stump, I stepped back and fell onto my behind. I was truly overwhelmed, not by the monster's attacks or its appearance, but rather by my inability to do anything.
"Am I… this weak?" I whispered, to which Nila made a step forward, however, she did not say a word. I was not sure about her expression, since my eyes were focused on the plant further away from me, which bent a little, revealing its snow-white petals and an open core. Suddenly, a noise spread through the cave, reminiscent of the one geyser does before erupting.
Nila leaned over and whispered, "It is getting desperate now, I see. Tureis naos."
Instead of a singular barrier, Nila summoned the spherical one that covered us completely. Immediately after that, the flower's core widened further and liquid escaped under high pressure. It was not water, rather something yellow with chunks of bones and rocks that fell onto the ground. The liquid hit Nila's barrier without penetrating it, but the steam escaping it was so putrid that it nearly made me vomit. Those were the flower's digestive juices.
"It saves the trouble of retrieving corpses." She said and raised her wand, this time, however, instead of several stars only one formed, the red and menacing one. It grew in size significantly, I felt the warmth coming from it. Then, Nila casually said, "Betelgeuse." and another beam of light, the wider and swirling one, escaped her staff. It reached corrimorpha nearly instantaneously, penetrating its core and even blasting a deep hole in the ceiling of the cave, with few rocks falling nearby and onto the barrier.
The monster did not scream nor made any sound, it silently leaned backwards and slowly dissipated into dust only to disappear completely. I blinked at this spectacle for a few minutes while Nila released the barrier and cast another spell that was called "Lesath reversal", which stopped the evaporations of the digestive juices, presumably neutralising them completely since Nila took a step on the liquid without an issue afterwards.
I had a lot to say regarding her test, as well as the concealment of such a powerful spell, but ultimately kept my mouth shut. My head faced the knife in my hand, that happened to be absolutely useless, and it was not its fault at all. Even though I had done it before, even though I already killed both monsters and humans, when I faced that thing, I was completely frozen in place. Such were my limitations without Solitaire's assistance, huh?
Nila, although she confirmed my inability to fight, did not ridicule me in the slightest. She was not even looking at me, but instead collected the skulls of people and even animals that the plant spat out while performing its ditch effort attack. Just what was she thinking, playing around with the dead? This was not the time for it, yet she did pile them up at one place, or rather put them in a line. Could it be that she was able to resurrect the fallen?
It would be nice, however, my assumption was wrong. Instead of casting any fancy spells, Nila dropped on her knees, held her hands in prayer and sat in silence for a few minutes. I huffed at this side and turned my head, of course, this religious fool would try to pray for the dead. But they were dead regardless of that, they would not be able to say thank you or whatever, it did not matter to them, thus I could not understand the point of this prayer.
After she was done, she took the four skulls of people, leaving those of animals behind, and extended the two of them towards me. I hesitated for a moment, thinking those were disgusting, but after she forced these skulls into my hands, I was not able to drop them.
"Well then, shall we go?" she said with a content smile and turned away without mentioning my inability to fight. I finally stood up from the ground, but this time hush did not prevail within me, "And you are not going to say anything?"
She turned to me, tilting her head, "Is there anything that I should say to you?"
"You know damn well! I was useless! I could not do anything about this monster, only watched as you fought it."
She raised her head in consideration, but then turned to me and shrugged, "If you want to feel useful, then you can carry all of these skulls."
"This is not what I mean! Why are you not angry about it, or at the very least disappointed in me?"
Nila looked at me with a listless expression for a second, then made a few steps towards me and put the remaining skulls into my hands. Now I had to prop them up with my chest as well, in order for them to not fall.
"I guess, I am a little disappointed, since you were bragging about slaying a darewolf so much, but this is not like I expected anything from you. If you had slayed the corrimorpha, it would be great, for sure. But this is not such big of a deal to be mad at you for failing, either. The most important thing is that we were able to retrieve the remains as well as take down that monster without issue."
For some reason, her words made my heart heavier and my mouth remained open from shock. This was the first time someone ever told me anything like that… I did not really know how to feel about it. But then I wondered, "Wait, so you wanted to retrieve the remains? Why?"
Nila gave a confident smile, "To bury them, of course. In the village that is." and turned away now, finally, stepping out of the cave. I stood still for a second, but then followed her lead. Even overtook the lead as I noticed that she took the wrong way and was about to move further away from the village. She did not lie when she said that directions are not her strong point.