Nyssa looked on terrified of what she saw. She was looking directly at Doric and backed away slowly. The shadow girl was doing the same thing. What was going on. He felt normal, was he a zombie, did he get brought back as a freaking zombie? "That would be a funny joke now wouldn't it…"
"Nyssa it's me, Doric what's going on?" His voice sounded a little hollow and his jaw kept grinding as he spoke. He remembered this sound before. Where did it come from though?
He thought hard on it before seeing his reflection in a nearby window.
He had once again become a wisp. He looked down to see if his body was stillt here and all he saw was the dust of where his body once was floating in the wind. He felt embarrassed at the fact he was just a floating skull again. He looked back at Nyssa and tried to justify himself.
"Don't you remember, you made me into this when you first brought me here. I guess I died or at least partially died or something and Folia brought me back. Although she did a great job at making sure my body stayed." He ended that with sarcasm as he looked at the rest of the people watching him.
"MONSTERS!" screamed a stall owner. "MONSTERS IN THE TOWN!" panic ensued and people began running for their lives away from the three companions in the center of the marketplace. Guards started rushing towards the location and Doric was worried once again.
"We need to get out of here quickly you two, remember this is a town that hates us. We could not stay here even if we wanted to. Miss uh," looking at the shadow girl who seemed afraid of him but more afraid of the guards spoke up. "Skia is my name uh mr skull."
"I said before, my name is Doric, I just don't have my body anymore. Skia, you understand the importance of running right? We need to get out of here now!"
She nodded her head slowly and looked around. "I have an idea." She started making her way down the alley. Doric and Nyssa followed. Nyssa watched Doric as he floated behind Skia. Once they made their way towards the alley the guards had made their way to where they were. Scattering around to find them.
One of the guards looked directly at them and squinted his eyes. Doric felt scared for his life. He wanted to run but Skia shushed them. "Don't move or make too much noise. They can't see us right now." She looked like she was concentrating on something.
"What are you doing right now?" Doric asked as he watched the guard walk away.
"I'm using my shadow bloodline to create a sphere of darkness around us. We can see through it as long as I focus on us but to everyone else, it just looks like natural darkness. However, I cannot maintain it for long if I have to concentrate on all three of us."
Doric looked around and saw a portion of the wall was crumbling. He looked to Nyssa and motioned his head towards the spot of interest. She nodded her head and they all started slowly walking towards the crumbled remains of a wall. The wall itself looks like it had been hit by something large and from above. There was no sign of what could have caused this to happen.
"Let's get over this and make our way outside to someplace safe." Doric floated up over the wall and outside the village. Nyssa required a little help from Skia who had dropped the darkness spell and began helping her get over the rubble. Skia was last and as she was crawling up the steep rubble she slipped a little and yelped as some rocks cut into her hand.
It was a quick yelp but loud enough to draw the attention of a nearby guard. "There they are!" he shouted charging towards Skia spear in hand. As he charged after her she scrambled up the wall being helped by Nyssa the adrenaline blocking out the pain in her hands.
They made it to the other side when they heard bells being rung by the guard tower in the center of town. Taking the time to leave during all the noise they scurried away into the nearby forest trail. Spooking a few animals as they ran towards the bushes. They were safe for the time being. They stood still not making any noise.
Any time someone would come by, Skia would use her innate ability to shroud them in shadows. They did this for hours slowly moving closer into the forest until the soldiers stopped chasing them.
"This is not good. We need to be careful from now on going into towns." Doric breathed a sigh of relief as he mentioned that.
"Especially now that you are a flaming skull, I still don't understand how that happened." Nyssa was still uncomfortable with looking at Doric but she was starting to be more used to it.
Skia looked fatigued beyond belief. She had never used her powers that much and it took it's toll on her. "I…Need to rest I am…start to get dizzy." Catching her before she fell Nyssa made sure to lay her down gently and rest her head on her lap. From the brief interaction, she could tell that Skia was skin and bones.
"Poor girl…" She felt really bad thinking about how she had been kept in that cell her entire life. "From now on we are going to eat proper food." She whispered to a now sleeping Skia.
Doric looked around trying to picture anything that could be useful to them. It was already starting to get dark out and they did not know where they were or what kind of actual monsters could be in this forest.
As if struck with realization he panicked. "Where is my book!" He moved around in a sporadic pattern as he realized that the book was most likely left with the ashes of his remains.
"Don't worry Big Bro! I am still here!" came Folia's voice in his mind. He felt a little more at ease but was confused, which became common when he interacted with Folia.
"Where are you?" he looked around trying to spot her but she was nowhere to be found.
"Call my name and I will appear before you whenever you want to spend time with me!" came her cheery voice once again.
"Alright, guess it's worth a shot." He cleared his non-existant throat and spoke clearly.
"Folia!." just like that the book materialized in front of him floating in the space where his eyes were. Moving to stay in position for him to read.
"What can I do for you Big Bro?" she asked excited to be out in the open again.
"The mission I completed earlier. Can I see it." Doric realized he never received the rewards for the last mission yet. The book opened and went to the locked chapter.
Mission- Fire Bolt!
COMPLETED! *technically…*
REWARD- 100 Magic Power and one tag of your choice!
Current Magic Power- 110
Doric looked at his current Magic Power and tilted his head. "Why did my magic Power go down?" The response was quick and precise.
"Because you died I had to reset you back to a previous save file. Unfortunately that was just before Nyssa granted you some of her power. But don't worry you can get it back quickly! I promise. Now please pick your free Tag!"
Doric clicked his teeth a few times. "What exactly does that mean? I kinda understand tags but what does it mean I get to pick one?"
"It's simple. You pick a tag and I will give you access to it when casting spells. You currently don't have any learned tags. The ones you used in your last body were forced and unfiltered so I would not recommend using those again unless you really do want to return to the main menu!" She said half-jokingly but with a hint of seriousness in her voice.
Ah, alright so a tag huh? I wonder what kind of tag I should learn. It seems like there are as many tags as there are descriptions in the world based on my current understanding. I can't even begin to think of a decent tag." He continued clicking his teeth as he thought hard about the idea.
"Can I receive this reward later?" he hoped that was the case or else he would probably pick something stupid.
"Unfortunately the mission reward is already in progress so you would have to pick now or risk losing it forever Big Bro" she responded with an apologetic tone.
"What would help me the most right now you think?"
She piped up as if she was waiting for him to ask her the question. Knowing that he would have trouble. "Some things never change." She giggled. "Alright, I remembered a really good one. It's a simple Tier 1 tag that would be great for you!."
He sounded really excited now. "What is it?"
She paused for dramatic effect making sure to milk the anticipation before telling him the tag's name.
"Drum roll please!" She said with excitement in her own voice. "The tag you should get is!"
With one last pause she finished her sentence. "Investment!"