Roana leans me against the top of the wall, the tree line seemingly tame for what is supposed to be coming. Roana puts her elbows on the wall with a huff.
"Is this a good range for your spells or do you have to get closer?" She asks.
"It's close enough... I'm more worried about friendly fire..." I say, I want to ask her why she is so mad but I will save that for later... "You going to go join the others?"
"No, I'm going to protect you just in case they make it here." She says, surprising me.
"I um, should be fine."
"Camaella, you can barely walk, dodging is going to be almost impossible."
"I... fine..." I want to tell her that the Kappas probably can't hurt me if I change into my water/blunt resistant armor, but it's best not to argue at this point, and I don't want to wear the armor right now as it looked really uncomfortable when I made it.
Leo walks out front of the wall, putting his hands on his hips. He didn't really kill that guy, did he? Before I am able to continue that thought, people start walking out front, getting into formation in front of him. I'm sure his excitement is at an all time peak, fucking roleplay junky.
After a few more minutes, I hear wet footsteps from the forest slapping towards us.
"Prepare!" Leo shouts, "If you are injured, fall back. If you see someone hurt, help them. I will not tolerate any deaths today!" Jesus christ Leo, you are trying way too hard... I let out a sigh.
"He definitely is a showman..." Roana lets out a sigh.
"If it wasn't such a serious situation, I would be laughing my ass off." Now I have something to tease him about later...
The Kappas start to break from the trees, green, frog like quadrupedal creatures slowly walking towards us making hissing sounds. Ew... Their slimy skin is glistening in the light making me want to just delete all of them now. I don't want to have people caught in the blast though.
"Mages, use what you can to thin the herd!" Leo calls out, guess that's my cue. I put my elbows on the wall and rest my head in my hands, thinking about what skill to use. I scan the field, when I finally remember a good spell for this. This should work.
I focus my intent, remembering the spell that was always a surefire way to get water creatures to squirm. Hades' Purge.
A floating, solid blue line appears mere feet in front of the Kappas, stretching out across the entire field, causing them to stop and stare at it. The beam coalesces into 3 orbs, hanging in the air. Good thing I can cast multiple at once... The orbs zip forward, creating beams of light that arc between multiple Kappas, setting them ablaze with blue, beautifully hellish flames. The spell comes to an end relatively quickly for how flashy it is. The crackling of the bodies and the screams of the Kappas echoes through the forest as they rush around trying to put out the unending flames, the one thing that makes this spell one of the better ones. They crash into each other spreading the flames to more as the ones aflame get isolated from the others.
That is... a little more affective than I thought that was going to be.
The rest of them panic and start to rush the frontline, clashing against the tanks while the spearman and mages start taking them out.
"Damn Camaella... You scary..."
"Huh!?" I turn to Roana, her eyes glued to the fight. "Why do you say that?!"
"You just killed probably half of them without even lifting a finger... That was your spell, right?" She glances at me.
"Well, uh, yeah? It was actually the same spell casted in 3 locations, but yeah, that was me..."
"That's... remind me not to piss you off..."
What did... I didn't even... I sigh, I don't even know what I did this time...
Looking back to the fight as everyone is laying into the now dwindling Kappa force, I honestly didn't think it was going to be an issue. Might as well put out the fire...
I stop the fire, blowing at the flames for show, mainly to freak Roana out even more. The spells continued effect is actually controllable, mainly because in lore it is unending, but in-game it was a 5 minute long effect... with friendly fire... you can see why they changed it to where you could put all the fire out yourself, or the person on fire could spend 5 seconds putting themselves out with a cleansing potion.
Roana sighs, "Looks like I'm not doing anything this time..."
"What are you talking about, you were guarding me, you did your job."
"True, but I was kind of looking to practice against some monsters."
"Do you want me to teleport one of them up here?"
"No, no, don't do that. The people would freak out if they learned that one of them made it inside the walls at all."
"Oh, yeah, good point..." I should have thought about that...
"Well, they seem to be getting finished up down there, lets join them."
"Alright."
She helps me down the stairs, joining Leo who is still standing behind everyone and overseeing the battle. He turns around, noticing that the battle will be coming to an end soon.
"You really wanted to be flashy with that spell, didn't you?" He asks me.
"Only for you." I wink, causing him to stare at me. He pinches the bridge of his nose and lets out a sigh. That's right, cringe like we did when you were doing your little speech earlier!
"Anyway, good job."
"So, um... did you actually kill that guy?" I ask.
"No, I'm not that sadistic, but Nabe got some good healing practice in."
"Oh, so you got him healed after you beat him?"
"Um... Well... yes? He got healed... slowly... while I beat him..." That's even more sadistic than killing him!
"Speak of the devil..." Roana says as he walks up, his head down.
"I'm sorry for how I treated you... Camaella..." He says as he looks up to me, cheek swollen, a black eye, and a busted lip. Holy fuck Leo!? You didn't feel the need to have Nabe heal him before leaving him like this!?
"It's f-" I start to say, Leo flashes me a look that sends shivers down my spine. "Thank you for your apology..." I say, Leo nods, looking over to the man and causing him to flinch.
"Thank you for accepting my apology, it will never happen again..." He quickly dashes away, I look over to Leo who looks slightly disappointed, but doesn't chase him, so that's a good thing. You... Really need to hold back a little sometimes...
Nabe, Inglis, Zorae, and Melina join up with us by the gate.
"I think everyone is healed up." Nabe says, letting out a sigh and sitting in the dirt.
"Good job, I believe we have no casualties, but I will need a report from the cleanup crew to verify." Leo says.
"I hated that..." Zorae says, putting his shield into his inventory and stretching out his shoulder. "I got so damn sore pushing back those things."
"That's being a tank for you." Roana says.
"Um... Where is Reggie?" I ask.
"I think he was patrolling the area to make sure there were no stragglers? He kind of just went off on his own, but he is doing the job I would have asked him to do anyway." Leo says.
"That's exactly what I was doing." Inglis yelps as Reggie speaks up from behind him. "From what I can tell, we are clear, but it would be good to have patrols on high alert for a while."
"Good, let's finish up here, I'll get some people on pay to guard the cleanup crew."
"Hey Camaella?" Leo asks with a forced smile and a happy tone, causing me to shiver...
"Y-y-yeah?"
"Your wolves, are no longer allowed to be alone, anywhere." He says while getting close to my face.
"Y-yes s-sir..." Why are you being so scary!? I shrink back. The wolves happened to almost scratch a hole in the bottom of the door while they tried to follow behind us, getting closed in the room in the panic.
"And you two!" He says to the wolves, causing them to sit with their heads down in a whimper. "While it's good that you want to protect her, we will also protect her, please keep that in mind before you destroy something. But, if you know that she is in grave danger, raze whatever you need to the ground." He leans down and pets them. Why the fuck are you talking like that!? I know I am a mage, but I play solo damnit! I can protect myself!
They nod quickly, seemingly excited that they aren't in too much trouble. I want to die... He walks back over to me, helping me off of the wall and over to the couch. I sit down, relaxing from the near death experience I swear I just had. I curl up and look over to Leo, he seems to have got whatever that was out of his system. Why the hell was I scolded more than the wolves... I wasn't even the one who closed them in...
"You have a cute pouting face." Leo says as he turns and sees me staring at him.
"Huh!? Fuck you bitch!" I flip him off.
"I mean, wouldn't complain..." He shrugs.
"You... Nabe! Get your healing spells ready!"
"Hey! No need to go that far!" I cast a small Wind Slash at him, which he dodges as he rushes out of the room. I growl as he gets out of sight, curling back up on the couch. That asshole, I really am going to punch him now... Melina walks over and sits behind me, rubbing my back. When the hell did this become so nice...
"You know he just cares about you, right?" Why the hell would he...
"He could chill for once..."
"He just really doesn't want anyone to die, we still have no information on what happens. He is scared, as are a lot of us."
"I know... I don't want anyone to die either..." I just wish he would be a little more mature...
"You guys seem like good friends."
"What makes you say that?" I only ever talked to him if he messaged me...
"Neither of you would be making jokes like that in this situation if you weren't good friends." I... I don't know...
I lean against the back of the couch, my mind is racing too much for me to put together a response.
"Camaella?" Leo asks, startling me. When the hell did you get back!? He is holding a small sandwich, offering it too me. "I'm sorry for earlier."
"It's fine..." Not really, but I will get you back later...
He lets out a sigh as I grab the sandwich.
"So why were you just staring into the distance?" He asks, but I don't really have an answer for him...
"That was because of me." Melina says from behind me, making me realize that she rubbed my horns to calm me down.
"I don't like that you basically have a killswitch for my brain..."
"Well, when you are spiraling down a bad train of thought, it helps."
"Um... thank you, for calming me down, and thank you for the sandwich Leo..." I take a bite from it.
"Mhm." Melina hums from behind me, I am starting to wonder who she was in real life.