Frugal Combat

 Noir and Wendy ducked under a swing from a branch that was strong enough to kill. After being charged at, they ran behind the creature on opposite sides of it—and it fell itself to the ground hitting its head on a tree behind them. They had a moment to reconvene behind it.

"Okay, Noir—we don't have a hope in hell of fighting this thing—"

"Oh, that's reassuring."

"I meant, we're going to have to subdue it. We're too unpracticed with our pathoses at the moment—I don't even know how to do magic consistently."

"I did it earlier when you said something annoying—is that how you do it?"

"Darlin', I've been on very good behavior today. Watch out!"

Wendy pushed Noir out of the way of a falling tree. A branch scratched the midsection of his stomach and knocked him to the floor. The large creature stood over him and prepared a small tsunami that was strong enough to fill Noir's lungs entirely with water. Wendy jumped on the fallen tree and watched in terror.

"WENDY! DO SOMETHING!" Noir screamed out.

"Your pathos might protect you if it's strong enough! Put your hands up over your face or something!"

Noir did as Wendy suggested out of instinct before she suggested it. In the next moment, the forest experienced a torrent strong enough to vaporize several trees immediately. Wendy used the fallen tree as cover. When the dust settled, Noir was intact—though he did have some difficulty breathing. He stood up and stepped back from the creature—which was now moving lethargically, as though it were upset about its attack failing. Wendy took note of this:

"Its pathos changed color! That attack really wore it out!"

"He's still up though! Will another one put him to sleep?"

"It might, but I don't think we can take another one! We have to find another way…"

The creature roared again ferociously, appearing even more angry than the last time. It charged again at them and split a boulder behind them into thirds.

"He's only getting more angry…" Wendy noted. "That gives me an idea…"

"Hurry, tell me what to do!"

"Well, I would, but I'm not sure if you'd understand, emo boy."

"You're trying to piss me off again so I shoot fire at it?"

"Yeah, which you just ruined so I have to resort to this."
Wendy delivered a swift kick to Noir's thighs, which reflexively made him flinch. This worked as she hoped and it sent a fireball at the creature's sharp hedge. Rather than burn it down or do any meaningful damage, it just made the creature tenfold angrier. It began to chase them down a long path and the duo screamed as they ran.

"IS THIS PHASE ONE OF YOUR GENIUS PLAN, WENDY?"

"YES, IT ACTUALLY IS, EMO BOY! DO YOU SEE THAT SHARPLY CURVED TREE STANDING ALONE AT THE END OF THE PATH!?"

"YEAH, I SEE IT!"

"FLANK LEFT WHEN WE MAKE IT THERE—I'LL GO RIGHT! IT'S TIRED ENOUGH THAT THIS SHOULD WORK!"

As soon as he heard the plan, Noir's older habits returned to him and he tripped on a branch sticking out on the path. It opened the wound on his stomach further and he was too weak to get up. Fortunately for him, the creature was too blindsided with rage to stop and attack him again. It continued chasing Wendy down the path.

"Alright," she muttered. "Looks like I'll do it myself…"

When she was a step behind the sharply curved tree, she grabbed a connected vine long enough to serve as a tripwire. She ran around the right side of the tree and wrapped the creature around the vine. With five roundabouts, the creature was entirely immobile.

"Phew!" She put her hands on her knees and breathed heavily. Noir finally caught up to her and praised her quick thinking.

"Wow…good work. I didn't think the vines would be strong enough to hold something that big."

"You learn a few things after tying things up three times."

"Three times? So who was before me?"

"Don't get jealous. It was an idiot whose pathos was the wrong color. I didn't realize the ritual had that condition."

"And they're the idiot…"

"I just saved your life, you should be on your knees before me."

"I…would…but…time and place."

"Ugh…so let's figure this out. Apparently pathoses can't generate magic willy-nilly…so what does let us actually use magic?"

"Well…it worked when you made me mad back there—"

"No, if it were just about being angry we would have brought on a storm by now. You had to have remembered something in particular when I did that—some memory or some flashback to something that was meaningful to you."

"I think that when you kicked me, it reminded me of what you did when I was tied up."

"What did I do? Sat on the desk in front of you?"

"No, when you crossed your leg and rested it on my thigh."

"Oh…I forgot about that completely…why do you remember that? Did you get some perv-thrill from it?"

"No…it made me angry. But then you apologized and that was the thing that gave me a slight perv-thrill."

"I…see. Kind of. Not really. But whatever—so it's memories like that. You know what…I bet you that we're thinking about it all wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"I was focused on how emotionally charged you have to be for the pathos to generate magic. But, what stuck out to me more about the memory you just described is that you seem to remember it perfectly while I've forgotten about it entirely. So I bet you it's that dissonance that allows us to use magic."

"Ah, you mean what we uniquely remember and what other people have forgotten… That would explain it too—why the fire came out of my hand when we first got here—it made me remember a time someone made me upset that only I remember!"
"We're not too sure yet…but it sounds reasonable—all things considered."

"But, Wendy," Noir continued, "...think about it. If that's truly what it is, isn't using magic an uphill battle?"
"What do you mean?"

"Like, the thing that generates magic runs out so much faster than we could hope to regain it. It's an unrenewable resource—in the strictest sense of the word."

Wendy paused amicably. She realized Noir was right.

"If that's the case…" she muttered, "...then let's do a field test." She delivered another swift kick to Noir's thigh, and another fireball flew from his hand. This time, however, it was bigger.

"Ahaha! I got it!"

"Ow—rude. What'd you figure out?"

"As the connections grow stronger, your pathos squeezes more magic out of the associated event. Not less. So forget the gas tank analogy—your magic doesn't get weaker as you use your unique memories—it gets stronger as they become more tied to your identity."

"Okay…I'm tracking. But if that's right, I'm going to generate magic every time you kick me."

"Yeah…it's already proven useful once."

Noir appeared insulted but made no further reply.

"Well…" Wendy continued, "I got completely lost with running away from that thing."

"Like you weren't lost already…"

"I have no idea where to go from here. I refuse to walk all the way back and retrace our steps."

"Well, what else are we going to do?"

As Noir posed that question to Wendy, the creature that Wendy tied to the tree called out to them:

"I will help thee."

They turned around in astonishment and eagerly awaited what it had to say.