Let's Go Home

Yoruhi unleashed a torrent of fire from his orbs at the flock of birds, torching their ranks. Some of them withered down and collapsed, but others continued charging despite being on fire. It was as if they had some sort of resistance to it.

“It’s not working…” he murmured, channeling the magicules into ice instead.

Not wanting to be useless, Tatsuko pulled out some of her remaining daggers and began tossing them.

Shards of ice and tiny daggers began to torpedo out from the group, striking some of the birds down, but completely bouncing off of others.

“They each have different resistances,” Yoruhi theorized, “some of them take more damage from physical attacks than magical. I’ll switch to using fire only and you guys take out the remainder that survive.”

“Got it!” Tatsuko and Ryuji said in unison.

Yoruhi began to channel balls of fire in front of his palms, changing his attack pattern to focus on larger, smaller quantity, attacks that had a larger explosion radius.

As the surviving birds got close, Ryuji began slashing through some of them along with Tatsuko who pulled out her karambits and began swiping at them in a frenzy. When the next wave of them came, Yoruhi readied his fireballs and launched them forth, burning most of the swarm down with ease, and leaving behind only the ones weak to physical attacks. When those got close, they were shredded under the synergized attacks from Ryuji and Tatsuko.

“Nice work guys,” Ryuji said while panting, “but… how many more do we need to kill?”

He looked up at the skies which were still darkened with a massive cloud of birds. Yoruhi could keep blasting magic at them with his superior mana supply, but Ryuji and Tatsuko would tire out eventually, and when they did, the ones immune to Yoruhi’s attacks would pummel towards them.

“We can’t keep doing this forever,” Yoruhi relayed the situation to them, “We have to find an escape opportunity.”

“But how?” Ryuji asked.

“If only Altair were here…” Tatsuko said, still regretting the mean things she said to her.

“Let’s not worry about that right now. For now, prepare your blades.”

Yoruhi launched another torrent of flames at the oncoming birds, dropping them one by one, while the rest were sliced by the two blade-wielders. The process repeated for another two waves before the two children began to tire out.

“Get up,” Yoruhi said, sweating from the heat of his flames, “we have to keep fighting.”

There were many more flocks of birds left in the sky, and Ryuji was beginning to exhaust from overexerting his Enhancement Magic.

If only I had magic, Tatsuko thought, then maybe we would have a chance.

The next swathe of birds charged in and this time, the group began to take heavy damage from their claws, unable to swing their blades fast enough. Everyone began to bleed from the scratches and cuts along their upper body, but they held firm.

Yoruhi began to switch his attack pattern again, mixing the ice and fire.

I’ll just have to attack faster, he thought, wiping the blood from his cheeks. I won’t be able to kill all of the physical-resistant birds using this method, but it’ll lift some of the burden off the two of them.

Seeing her brother switch his attack to half-and-half, made Tatsuko feel a sense of guilt in her chest as she knew what he was thinking.

He’s putting more work on himself, she thought with worry.

“Tatsuko,” Fukuro suddenly said next to her, “have you still not learned how to use magic yet?”

“No,” she murmured, readying her daggers.

“Who are you talking to Tatsuko?” Ryuji asked, gripping his katana tightly.

“Fukuro…? Do you not hear her?”

The two boys gave her a weird look.

“They can’t hear me, Tatsuko. Only you can. That’s because I formed a bond with you. But that’s not the point. Listen closely. Using this bond I have with you, I can detect some of the magicules in your body. Can you try focusing the muscles in your arms?”

Ok… Tatsuko thought, I will.

“Just think of it like flexing your muscles,” Fukuro said, “except instead of your muscles, try thinking of something deeper than that. Something deeper and on the inside of your skin. That’s where the magicules are located. Try flexing those instead.”

Flexing the tiny things inside my skin? She thought. I’ll try.

When the next flock charged, Tatsuko focused on the muscles in her arm, swinging at the birds with lethal force.

I can feel it! She thought, suddenly feeling a burning sensation in her muscles.

“That is Enhancement Magic,” Fukuro said, “keep using it. It’ll help you last longer. The only reason why I was able to last that long outside with the condition I had was because I was using this type of magic.”

I see, Tatsuko thought.

Yoruhi unleashed another quick blast of fire at the remaining physical-resistant birds, and their charred bodies fell to the ground one by one.

“We got this!” Yoruhi said, but suddenly, a fast flock of birds began rushing towards them at an unparalleled speed.

“Look out!” Tatsuko shouted.

Yoruhi tried to ready another attack, but casting magic took time to do, and time was what they didn’t have.

The birds dawned on them with extreme speed, cutting through Ryuji's chest, and causing him to collapse.

“Ryuji!” Yoruhi yelled, unleashing his fire a little too early and only melting through some of the attacking birds.

Tatsuko began to swing her daggers wildly using her newly obtained Enhancement Magic, but her muscles became strained. Her amateur use was causing the magicules to overexert them, and she could almost feel them start to tear.

Just as all hope seemed lost, a powerful blast of wind tore through the attacking birds from behind.

Wind? Each child thought in unison.

They turned around to see Arien waving her staff at the birds.

Behind her, someone running so fast that they couldn’t be seen, darted towards the group of kids, and before they could even process what was going on, an array of icy daggers tore through birds in the sky.

Daggers thrown before they could even be seen, Tatsuko thought, there’s only one person I know who can do that.

“Vivian!” Fukuro thought in unison with Tatsuko.

Vivian's presence suddenly appeared before the kids, and she gave Tatsuko a stern stare.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

Tatsuko nearly cried again from relief, and nodded slowly.

“Good. Because you are in so much trouble,” she said.

She looked over to Ryuji who was collapsed on the ground, and Yoruhi who was still preparing to fire off another array of attacks, inspired by the presence of his mentor.

“I told you, you have a good group of friends,” she said, “if it hadn’t been for Altair, I wouldn’t be here right now.”

Altair called her here? Tatsuko thought, now feeling more guilty than ever.

“Now let’s get out of here,” Vivian said, picking up Ryuji with one hand off the ground and hauling him behind her, before grabbing Tatsuko.

She looked over to Yoruhi who was still casting fire with determined fury in his eyes even as he was bleeding from the forehead.

“You can stop now,” she said, snapping him out of his trance.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Arien, said, “this is the only time I really get to do this with someone, so I want to try something.”

She launched another blast of wind that cut through the air and caused a turbulence amongst the flock of birds that messed up their flight patterns.

“C’mon Yoruhi, let’s launch a joint attack.”

He smiled with renewed vigor and aimed his fire at his mentor’s staff. She began channeling a huge gust of wind, and when it came in contact with the fire, it caused an enormous fire tornado to form.

“HERE… WE… GO!!!” Arien shouted, launching the swathe of flames into the sky, burning the confused birds down to the ground.

The flames flickered and danced through the air, tearing into the crowd of birds in a claw-like manner before dissipating.

“Now that’s an attack I haven’t seen in a while,” Vivian said in awe, “let’s get on out of here.”

The group quickly rushed back towards the portal, and when they crossed through, they were met by a crowd of worried guards and a crying Altair.

When she saw that her friends were safe, she smiled in relief, and ran over to hug Yoruhi.

The guards began asking everyone questions, while Arien and Vivian ignored them and pushed through the crowd with the children.

“There’s so many guards outside…” Tatsuko said, “why didn’t they go in with you?”

“Because Arien and I are pretty awesome and we only needed two of us,” Vivian said, “and if we failed, it was better to station the guards outside in case the monsters flooded through.”

She dropped Ryuji onto a medical cot that dragged him away.

“But enough about today,” Vivian said with a smile, “let’s go home shall we?”