We cross paths with the Harbinger just in the nick of time, moments before it enters the village proper. Adma was certain the village guard would show up imminently, but there was no time to wait. As close as it is, civilian lives are already in danger.
Adma wastes no time in channeling her corestone, Samina Vectos. She hoists her sword up high above her head as a swirling cyclone of wind energy begins to build around it. She accumulates more and more energy until it reaches a breaking point, a full tornado forming from the sky and reaching down to the tip of her blade. I'm nearly blown away by the sheer force of the power she's gathering up with her magic. Scattered debris around the village is sucked up into the vortex. She's as much of a destructive force as even this gigantic Encephalim!
She swings her sword, and the tornado begins whirling away from us, plummeting toward the Harbinger with frightening speed. In moments, the monster is swept up and begins to be throttled by the windstorm. It screams just like it did earlier as the tentacles on the ground are blown off balance and the full tentacled mass falls to the ground with a heavy, wet thunk.
The Harbinger sounds like it is crying in despair. Did Adma really take it down in a single blow!?
"Damn, Adma, where was this when we fought Leoni!?"
Adma turns to me and scoffs. "Underground, surrounded by stale air and darkness. It was perhaps the worst scenario for me to show off my skills. Do not let your guard down! This beast is far from finished."
She's right. It keeps screaming and screaming. Suddenly, a flock of birds erupts from the nearby forest. I recognize these - we saw one just earlier. Volches. Dozens of them. They swarm around the Harbinger Oktinu and begin to rip pieces of its tentacles off of it.
"What in the -"
"August Madera! If you can, use the corestone and deal with those birds! I shall focus my attention on the Harbinger!"
As she shouts, she readies another attack. This one seems different. She adopts a different stance, and instead of a cyclone forming from the sky, a barrier of wind begins to swirl around her and her blade. She's imbuing her body with the wind itself.
In a flash, she's off with such incredible speed that again I feel as if I could be knocked off my feet, but I steel myself. Adma has given me a job to do. I look to the Volches. Each one is carrying a long tentacle and they are beginning to fly in unison with their treasures, doing god knows what.
Alright. Sola. Any good magic we can use with the corestone to hit multiple targets?
"Yes! The incantation 'Blanc Noveum' should work well in this situation! But be careful. With a corestone like this, we can still only muster three or four good spells."
Alright. Here goes nothing. I focus on the images that Sola projects into my mind to form the spell and evoke the name of my corestone, Exoran Holla.
"Blanc Noveum!" I shout, as loud as I possibly can, using all my breath and focus as I will the most destructive explosive power I can muster into existence.
For a moment, the sky itself turns orange. And then, one of the Volches is caught by my spell. The bird and the little bit of tentacle hanging from its beak are reduced to atoms. At first, I think I have only hit one, but then I see the beauty of the spell. It has created a chain reaction. Two more Volches explode violently. Then four. Then eight. Fifteen of the hellish beasts total are expunged from existence, each one igniting in a chaotic pop that sends echoes throughout the valley.
About half of the Volches down in one hit. Not bad. I look at Adma and see she has just reached the main body of the Oktinu. It raises a tentacle in a frenzy to defend itself, and Adma charges through, her greatsword swinging faster than I thought would be possible for a blade of that size. She effortlessly arcs her blade through the tentacle and continues her charge. It raises another of its goopy arms to attack her, and she leaps off the ground ten feet into the air, dodging the attack completely. From above, she swings her sword, a beam of slicing wind ejecting from the blade and piercing the yellow, gooey eye of the Harbinger Oktinu.
It yells once more, and every tentacle it has reaches for its eye as it begins to thrash about senselessly. I think she may have blinded it.
At that moment, one of the Volches lands on the ground in front of me, taking me by surprise. But it doesn't attack me. Instead, just as quickly as it lands, it stuffs its beak into the ground and the tentacle it's carrying slithers into the earth. Uh oh. I don't like that.
I don't need a spell for this one. It's close enough and I'm quick enough that I thrust my sword out the moment I realize what's happening, directly through the creature's heart - or at least, where the heart would be. Not sure if Encephalim have hearts.
They do, according to Sola.
The Volche withers and dies in front of me, but as it does, I hear a disturbance from behind me. The tentacle has sprouted from the ground, looking a little different than it did before. It seems to have gathered some of the dirt and stone from the ground and transfigured itself. I catch a glimpse of the tentacle through the cracks and see that it has created a golem out of earth to protect itself. I take a step backward and quickly survey the battlefield. These golems are popping up everywhere. The Volches, using pieces of the Oktinu, are purposely creating them. Oh lord.
"Our explosion magic would make short work of these golems, but the problem lies in how many there are. We won't have enough spells to take them all, and your sword would be useless against them."
"We have to do what we can!" I shout, speaking to Sola and myself at the same time. I raise my hand out and use the same spell I'd used to kill the Lula bird yesterday - Volkai Aespolos. The golem in front of me is decimated into a pile of smoldering dust.
"The birds," I realize. They are the biggest threat. I need to take them out.
"August Madera! Grab onto something, quickly!"
I snap my head toward Adma. She has just used a blast of wind to shatter one of the golems. She's getting overwhelmed with the sheer amount of attacks coming her way, from the flailing tentacles to the newly spawned golems to the Volches that now swarm her.
I look around and see a small well in the ground near us. I run to the far side of it, grab the stone wall, and hunker down.
Adma sees I'm in position and throws her sword. It passes clean through one of the golems. Unarmed, she raises both hands into the air.
The area swells and it's as if time stops for a moment, before suddenly the force of Adma's spell becomes apparent. Like a vacuum, every enemy in the area is propelled into Adma as she forms a spiral of wind that sucks everything in the area into her. She leaps well above it all, as a mass of golems and Volches are all brought together within mere inches of each other.
"Use your spell!" Adma calls from the sky above, rocketing away from the enemies with her wind magic. I understand immediately.
I point my hand at the mass she's gathered together just for me.
"Blanc Noveum!" I shout. And then I watch as the remaining Volches and golems together are blasted from existence.
Just one enemy left. The Harbinger. But there's nothing I have to do. Adma gathers up her wind for a final attack, creating a razor-thin circle of wind all the way around her body as she dives into the Oktinu. In one quick, clean, and fluid moment, she slices the Harbinger in two, just as the village reinforcements arrive.
And among them, someone I recognize.