Sekhmet dives through the smoke cloud she created, and when she lands I hear the angry, pained grunt of a redcap with a knife in its back. She darts behind me and behind Alesha's tower shield, sheathing her swords and drawing her own short-bow.
"Heeks, you got something?" she asks.
"A theory," he says. "I hope I'm wrong."
Another redcap leaps and slashes wildly, trying to score hits on our entire front line. He strikes sparks against Alesha's shield - then I wheel my hands to the outside, catching the blow on my bracers. For a moment it looks like he'll sink both blades into Ace's shoulder, but with a shout, she manages to roll to the side and onto her knees.
Sekhmet almost lazily dodges. "Sure, take your time," they say. "Not like there's an owlbear trying to maul us."
"If I can get to it I can push it off the road," Alesha says, brandishing the pommel of her sword.
Siobhan releases an arrow I never even saw her notch and puts it through the wounded owlbear's eye. It's dead before a second arrow tears through the sprite that tried to deep-fry me with lightning - and she notches a third, much less before the chimera hits the ground.
"I'll take it," Leesh says.
"Yeah, stick that in your thinking cap and eat it," Sio yells at the dead monsters - apropos of nothing as far as I can tell. The she hops, letting her wings convey her deeper down the road, onto an oak branch to scout. "Buying you time, wiz-kid, make with the magic."
"I can't tell if that quip doesn't make sense or if I just have a concussion," Ace says.
It's nice to know I'm not alone in my confusion.
"I've heard worse in pick-up groups when they're nervous," Alesha says. "How many times did we hear 'fuck you very much' at the end of a duty?"
"In my defense, Kevin deserved it," Sekh mutters.
"That sounds like another reason I'm glad I never played these games," Ace says as she rises up and takes her hammer. "Just sounds messy."
"Chime in any time," Sio says, through gritted teeth.
I plant my feet in the road, take a deep breath, then step into pushing the dead owlbear off the road - clearing a path for Tayeb, who cracks his whip and advances. Then I turn to the seedling who tried to tangle up Siobhan, linking my palms, half-exhaling, gracefully turning the push into a pull, gathering the wind.
I release the rest of the breath as an incantation as my hands snap in front of me:
"GALE BLAST!"
The missile of swirling wind detonates into a short-lived tornado, blasting a Seedling tail over sepals past my frontline and far from the cart. Between the jolt and the distance, I know it's not going to have any fight left.
"Thank God that Point Blank Shot penalties aren’t a thing anymore,” I say, clearing my stance, pivoting back to neutral readiness.
Ace cracks her neck.
Loud enough that I can hear it, and wince.
"All right," she says softly, dropping her hammer, shaft straight up. The flagstone it hits cracks, jumping up an inch before hitting the ground again. "Enough of the hammer and fantasy shit, we're playing to my strengths, now. Shadi, pass!"
Shadi blinks, before throwing something vaguely spherical at Ace overhand like she's shooting hoops. Ace catches it on her chest, before lifting it with her knees and punting it.
My eyes see the ball as an oblong blur before it rebounds, in a hard vertical arc, off a redcap. The sound is deep, even metallic. Does this thing have an iron core?
Ace just... jumps. Kicks off the ground, kicks again off the tip of her hammer to get extra air, flipping around in midair - and spikes the ball directly into the face of the last seedling fighting your party.
As she lands again - out of the magic circle Hikaru is examining - the ball lazily rolls back to her. Ace kicks it back into Shadi's hands, then picks up and shoulders her hammer again.
I have never wanted Ace more than I do right now.
"Getting out of that shit was a good idea, right, Heeks?" she shouts at him.
Sekh leans away from the blue glowing runic circle. "Shout out to magical crosshairs, gotta be one of my favorite genders," they mutter.
"Those do look like crosshairs from some FPS or another," Ace says. "What genre are we in? I thought this was high fantasy?"
"With guns," Leesh admits.
"Why are there giant crosshairs?!"
"You don't watch much anime, do you?" I ask her.
"I was a jock," Ace says. "What do you think?"
“I think I want to ask Heeks how big a hole is that going to leave in the road,” I say to him.
There's a growl and a flash of brown hair.
Alesha is where I was a second ago, on one knee, crouching behind her shield with a hand to her side. Bearing down on the shield is the other owlbear, who Alesha is straining against.
I swear. "Leesh, are you -"
"...Bruised?" Alesha laughs, once. "Armor got the worst. Are you okay, Deeds?"
And she rises to her feet, pushing the ursine Volvo off of her.
I backpedal, breathing hard. "It’s fine, I’m fine," I say.
Hikaru takes a deep breath. "Under no circumstances should you stand in the mechanics," he says.
"Can we dart through them?" Sekhmet says, eyes flicking to them. "Quick-like?"
"How much do you trust yourself to time the universe's tick mechanic correctly?" Hikaru says. "We're all of us underleveled to deal with a Divine Beast's magic."
Sekhmet goes "Fuck" at the same time that Sio swears "Eranda's tits."
"There shouldn't be a Divine here," Siobhan continues. "We're far from the Jackalope's hunting grounds."
"The Divine isn't here," Hikaru says, looking up at the origin of the dripping saltwater. "It's still patrolling the Sunken Gyges, legions of leagues distant if not more. But it can see us through the eyes of its servants, which are here - likely invisible."
Alesha grimaces, scanning the saltwater rain. "Or unnoticed," she said.
"That would mean it's Capricorn. Meredar's," Sio says. "Or the Leviathan stalking it."
Ace - who is carefully outside the runic circle - raises her hand.
"I have no idea what any of that means," she reminds us.
"It means that a raid boss twice our level is throwing artillery strikes across a continent from under an ocean, and there's ads here spotting," Alesha says.
"The AoE effects are also carrying over," Hikaru reasons out loud, hand on his chin, thumb stroking an absent mustache. "Obscuring fog. The sea it lives in."
Alesha puts her hand to the solar cross on her tabard. "Hell with it," she says. "If we're up against something like that, better to overheal."
Sunlight pours from the Auroran symbol, warming me. Healing me and mine; I hear Ace sigh relief. And I wince despite the warmth - Ace has taken a huge beating...
"Kaioh!" Hikaru points at a spot just west of the owlbear, which explodes. The fire clings to it, and it hisses.
In anger.
"Hell if I'm getting in close to THAT," Sekhmet says, notching an arrow and sighting down it. "All we need is to make sure the horse isn't fishfood, yeah?"
"The horse moving is also good," I say. "And making sure it doesn't run afoul of..."
I gesture to runic crosshairs that are way too close, as placed by the raid boss that's way too far away.
"Check that." Sekhmet draws back the bowstring. "Nothing personal, but outta the way."
She looses it, then loads and fires again as she starts running. Her grizzly opponent tries to batter away the projectiles but isn't fast enough, both sinking deep. Hikaru, seeing Sekh on the move, raises his arm; Sekh steps on it and up, jumping, shooting a third arrow into the beast's side before catching herself on a tree branch and hauling herself up.
A redcap near it takes that cue to flee past us without bothering to fight.
Sio looks at the place where the salt rain is falling, then darts across the runic crosshairs.
Ace hisses in a breath.
Sio darts down a side path, worn into the forest's grass and roots from use - presumably by elven feet - not even stopping to aim as she damn near automatically nocks, pulls, and shoots an arrow into the owlbear's other side.
It's not even slowing down. Ace gestures to me, pointing me to the shadow of Alesha's shield.
"I've got a stupid idea!" Ace says.
I nod, moving into position. "I think I know what it is. Watch this."
I steady myself, my breathing, and my perception of time slows to 60 frames a second. Then, I ready my glaive and leap forward into melee with the charging bear.
"WHIRLING TIGER CLAW!"
Duck it's wild swing with a heavy paw, and counter across, pushing it back. Follow up with a knee, and another two thrusts, with seemingly no effect now that it's ready.
Fine. If it's not enough, I'll pour in more. No time to finesse; time for power, and knockback.
I parry a claw swipe, take in a breath and use it to bless my limbs; exhale, and let the wind swirl around my arms and blade like pneumatic drills. Parry a swipe, outside high, then another, inside middle and twist.
"I said WHIRLING!"
I drive a spearpoint into its shoulder and it snarls.
"TIGER!"
Another into its leg, feel the crunch and the tear, as it sinks on that side.
"CLAW!"
And a blade into its chest, lifting it a foot off the ground, top-heavy and backpedaling.
To fall on it's back right in the center of the runic circle.
I clear my stance, using the exhale to cast healing winds at Ace. She stiffens up a bit, staring, hammer poised, waiting for a signal to do something.
There's a brilliant flash and I have to cover my eyes.
I hear a tremendous, thundering, supersonic implosion, see the tail end of a bubble full of fire popping slowly - as if it were in a liquid medium. Everything within the magic circle is engulfed in a torrent of flame that starts out spherical before melting away into embers.
When it fades, there isn't even a corpse left; just ashes.
Ace screams, "STOP THE HORSES, STOP THE HORSES, STOP THE HORSES RIGHT NOW!"
Shadi just screams.
Alesha is where you were a second ago
where I was
Welcome back!
Good to be back.
thank u I feex