A New Strategy

I reach for her arm as she jumps up, but fail to grab it, unable to bless her in time. She turns and runs off again. Poru sighs.

“The individual members of this team may be capable, but if we can’t stay together, we can forget this whole endeavour outright.”

He’s right. We are a group, but we aren’t a party. If this was a game, we would need to work together as tank, healer and so on. Once we get out of this trouble, I have to address this. Or maybe I’ll just tell Safrim, and he can address it. He is our CEO, after all.

“Just focus on getting through this right now, Poru-in.”

He nods. What else can he do? I touch the unconscious people in turn and bestow small blessings on them, hoping they will protect them. As I do so, I read their status. All of them are surnamed Lylt, just like Nono. None has any special skills, except her mother, who is fire aligned and has the fireball skill. Is alignment something to be inherited? Everything speaks in Nono’s favour. Even the little things she couldn’t know I’d see. Then why…

“Yuki, we’re clear here!” Karina suddenly pops up behind the low wall. She is sweaty and her clothes are charred, but she is unharmed. Next to her, the women in the guard uniform stands watch.

“I am Sergeant Hani. Where is Captain Kal?” she asks.

“He went off to the farm to look for survivors.”

“Where’s Nono? Did she go with him?” Karina asks.

“Yes. She couldn’t sit still.”

“Captain Kal won’t find many people. We had to abandon the farm after we were overrun. To stay in the buildings would be a death sentence.”

“Why?” I want to know.

“Because demons often set buildings on fire as soon as they come close. They don’t care for resources. They just want to kill,” Karina explains. “That’s why so many people had to flee and cannot return. Their hometowns have all been razed.”

“Scorched earth…” I murmur. “Abominable.”

“They follow the orders of the true dark mages, who raised them. It’s them, who are abominable,” Poru says. “My kind have been ostracised since we practice magic that is close to the one that raises these demons.”

He follows Sergeant Hani around the area to crush the remaining cores. Every time he does, a flash of light is visible like a small lightning, and there is a high screech of pain.

“The essence of life is constantly screaming inside the core. It’s being prevented from returning to the world. We don’t know if it’s in pain, but…” Karina says and flexes her fingers.

A particularly loud scream is audible, sounding so much like a child, I flinch. Next to me, Nono’s mother stirs. She gasps as she wakes and starts, but I manage to hold her down.

“Stay, you’re safe for now.”

“What? Who are you?”

“I’m Hiroyuki Satoyama, the Hero of Light.”

“You’re… oh, thank Lady Erya. We’re saved.”

“We might have arrived too late for that,” I say.

Nono’s mother sits up and looks around, assessing the other people. She relaxes when she sees that none of them are grievously injured anymore. Just then, Poru returns together with Sergeant Hani.

“You stay with them. We should go and help Safrim and Nono,” I tell her.

“Nono? She is here?” her mother asks.

“Yes. She came back with us.”

“Oh no. She shouldn’t. I told her to stay in Atol this time, stay where it’s safe. Charles said she would. When she didn’t come back with him, I thought…”

I can’t bring myself to say that she joined the hero’s party to put herself into even more danger.

“We’re going to help her now.”

“Please.”

Karina, Poru and myself start running towards the farm after I bestow a blessing on Sergeant Hani, who accepts it with immense gratitude. The demons are drawn to us like they were to Safrim, but with Karina’s firepower, we clear a way easily. We manage to make our way to the center of the farm, where we encounter what could only be described as a boss battle.

Several guards are locked in a fight with what can only be described as a large bull. It’s an animal made of pure shadow and malice, raging between the humans trying to wrangle it. As any bull would, it kicks with its hind legs and rams with its horns, sending the guards flying. And then I spot him, in the middle of the dark vapour that the bull’s body emits: Safrim, clinging to the demon animal’s back, his sword plunged deep into its back.

“What is he doing?” I shout.

“He’s trying to damage the core, so that the demon is weakened. If we can’t find the core, we can’t purify it!” Poru shouts back.

There is commotion all around us, metallic clangs of weapons and battle screams. I try to spot Nono in the crowd, but amidst the dark fog swirling around the buildings, it’s hard to make out anything. Hopefully she is safe.

Wait. Of course she’s safe. She is on their side.

Or is she?

A guard is flung away, crashing into the wall right beside us. Poru immediately turns to him. Karina joins the fight. And I… I feel useless. What can I do except hide? I have bestowed my blessings. I can’t do anything else. The only skill I have is appraisal.

I stare at the bull and will it to reveal its secrets to me. It doesn’t. That’s right, it’s still a living being, a human once, if a twisted one. I would need to touch it. But what would knowing the attributes even do? Would it help? I… Wait. Manipulation. Maybe… I pick up a pebble from the ground.

[Stone]
Type: Stone
Attributes: None
Durability: 50/50
Age: 2351 years

That’s… one old stone. Can I manipulate any of these attributes?

“Manipulate Type.”

[Manipulation Skill too low.]

“Manipulate Attributes.”

[Manipulation Skill too low.]

“Ugh. Manipulate Durability?”

[Please state desired durability.]

“Yes! Durability 0!”

The pebble crumbles into dust in my hand, which is immediately taken away by the breeze. Oh. Oh! That’s… I know why it’s called a god-level skill now. I shouldn’t be able to do that. No one should be able to, but I am. Maybe if I can get close to the bull, I could reduce its health points? I draw my sword and get up.

“What are you doing, get down!” Poru hisses and draws me back.

“I need to help them!”

“You’re going to get yourself killed! Remind me how many days it’s been since you first picked up a sword?”

“Not even a week.”

“So stay down!”

Poru makes a good point, yet the battle still rages. Like a miracle, Safrim is still on its back, stabbing at it. It doesn’t seem to do more than enrage the demon further. Then I see Karina aiming for its legs. Her fireball hits. It doesn’t only hit, it seems to hit critically, blowing one of its feet clean off. The bull stumbles and falls, which is good news in theory, but Safrim is finally thrown off, his sword still in the bull’s back.

What can I do to help them? Magic is grown from imagination. What if I imagine what I want to happen? In my imagination I am a powerful light mage, who can shoot beams of light from his fingers, piercing the bull’s core in one fell swoop. I hold out my hand and picture it, my fingertips lighting up and the beam building itself up like a lightsaber. Nothing happens, except a slightly warm feeling in my fingers. Damn. There must be something…

And then I remember.

“Erya? Erya, can you hear me?” I whisper.

“I can,” comes her reply, from nowhere and everywhere at once.

“What can I do to help them?”

“You can bestow my blessing upon the whole area, not just a single person, but it will take much of your power, since you are not used to it yet.”

“But it will help them?”

“It will.”

“Show me how.”

Images flood into my head like an ideal version of myself, who is at the center of an area, which is bathed in golden light. I look like a saint, blessing the very ground I walk upon.

“In time, this effect will be like breathing to you, and your mere presence can empower everyone close to you.”

“So that’s what they meant… I see now. Thank you.”

Erya is silent once more, but that’s alright. I’ve seen what I need to do. I get on my knees and put my hands together in prayer. I visualise the area around me exactly as I have seen it, like a tent made of light itself, enveloping everything in it. As I open my eyes, I see Poru staring at me in pure surprise. It’s working! It’s working! My body is enveloped in a golden shine, which spreads out from me like tendrils of fog. I envision the whole picture again and it shoots out, forming a barrier like a large birdcage around the farm buildings.

The next thing I hear is a scream. The bull. It’s writhing on the ground as the golden fog eats away and its shadow like acid.

“Now! I can’t hold it for long!” I yell and Safrim complies immediately.

He dashes forward and grabs his sword, pushing it deeper into the bull. With one last convulsion, the body collapses and falls to the side, lifeless. Poru runs forward and together they manage to open the body up and crush the core. The resulting scream echoes in my head, making an unbidden sadness well up.

Finally, there is silence and I collapse as well.

“Yuki!” Karina is at my side in a heartbeat, propping me up.

“I’m alright, just a bit tired.”

“You did it. You saved all of us.”

“I did nothing. You were the ones who fought this abomination.”

“Don’t sell yourself short. Without knowing that you were there, we would’ve never even dared come here and help these people.”

I have to smile at her words, even as the buildings around us are burning. Safrim and another water mage run around to put out the worst of the fires, and Poru is once again on a quest to crush the remaining cores. There must be another light mage around, since the screams resound from every direction. It’s a haunting soundscape, with the crackling of the fire, the screams and the shouts of the guards. Karina holds me like a child and supports my head and I dare close my eyes for a moment.