Titania followed after Mikki as they barreled through the forest zone, back to the street. The trees grew thinner and thinner the further they ran until they broke from the treeline, and out onto the road, and were greeted by their Teacher who was ushering the Students away.
"Teach, take Emy!" Titania shouted before drawing her guns, "Get her to safety, I will go and distract the monster."
If I am to play a hero, then I need to do so well.
"Don't be a moron, Tarajan, you are not a combat class!" She heard Amita shout as the Lumiere hurried after her, "That is pure suicide for you."
"These guns have eighth order charger cores!", she shouted back, "Enough power to be one hell of a distraction."
"Talk about firepower!" Amita shouted back, "That might even be useful for once."
"We need to get close!" They heard a shout behind them and turned around to see Mikki alongside the teacher running after them, "Then one distracts the other, shoot!" He said.
"You three are going to do nothing but stand back until the pros are here!" the Teacher shouted, trying to catch up to them. The speed enhancers in Titania's armor were running full throttle. Amita too was not only naturally swift on her feet, she also was supporting herself with magic to run through the forest. Meanwhile Mikki seemed to have enhancers that, like hers, were better than the teacher’s.
"Don't kid yourself, Teach, I am Lumiere; we are the pros." Amita growled at the Teacher and sped up, surpassing Titania, "Try to keep up Tarajan." After that she went ahead right to the monster.
"As if I would lose to you Lumiere." Titania growled and pumped more magic into her legs to gain speed as well, tightly followed by Mikki leaving their Teacher far behind.
"Lumiere, you go distract it, we shoot!" She shouted and did not receive an answer, but then they broke through the thick of the forest and Titania felt her mouth going dry.
Talk about overdoing it Chry...
A giant Snake like beast was leering over them. Three horns on its head and a vicious glare. A seventh or eighth order Nagaron Snake. She recognized it and hissed internally, raising her guns and firing. The shots hit the panzer and the snake barely quivered to the side. For a monster with such strong defensive qualities, shots like those were barely harmful...
Switching out one gun, she took out a small crystal, the size of a toenail.
Big guns.
Next to her Mikki was loading his sniper gun, having seen the little effect her shot had He gathered the magic energy and then let loose. Titania continued shooting to keep the Snake in distance. A thin laser-like beam shot forward, hitting the tough scales, but nothing happened.
"Damn." Amita shot forward and moved through the air as if swimming, her blades scratching and trying to punch holes through the tough scales of the monster. But no way, it resisted them all, causing not even the smallest of scratches on the tough scales.
"WHAT THE FUCK!" Amita cursed and found herself a target as she jumped back. She continued to dodge the reptile; one mistake, and she would be dead.
"AMITA!" Titania shouted and started running, moving in a half circle, according to plan. "WHERE THE HECK ARE YOUR GUARDS?"
Although they can stay gone for as long as they want to, I have no desire to see them anytime soon.
"I COULD ASK YOU THE SAME!" She shouted, "EVACUATING THE OTHERS!"
Well, not entirely, but it sure did sound convincing and someone surely is, just not my usual guards.
"I HAVE AN IDEA!" She shouted back and rolled the bauble in her hand, shooting Lyle a glance.
You know what to do.
She just hoped it would work out fine. Drawing her bauble out, she took a deep breath. "AMITA LURE IT HERE!" She shouted and raised her gun. Amita did as she said and Titania gathered her Magic power, letting it play visual effects.
Illusion.
This is all about Illusion and timing.
She saw Amita run closer, behind her the beast, and then she took a deep breath.
"Now Dex." she muttered sottovoce and opened her eyes, letting them glow bright green. "Burn it."
She saw small green flickers appear next to the beast and seeing them she took a deep breath and threw her bauble right into the flames. As soon as it hit the flames it shattered and the flames suddenly vanished into nothingness. Titania held her breath and waited before she shouted on top of her lungs.
"BURN!"
The magical energy filling the air would most likely have knocked out lesser mages. A small flicker appeared and rose, suddenly time seemed to stand still when it exploded outwards in a flurry of green fire, the color of her magic and not the blue of Dex, she fired into it again and again. Scorching everything in its surroundings, Amita was thrown away by the pressure as Titania kept her back to a tree not stopping her fire and watched the flames flicker on the beast's skin, slowly eating its way through as the Nagaron screamed in agony, trying to extinguish the flames.
It rolled on the ground and the air trembled as Titania let go of her hold and watched how the beast burned in front of her. Breathing harshly, she stopped and aimed for a second before hitting home through its weakened skin.
The least I can do is make sure it does not suffer.
The beast let out one last cry as it lay on the forest ground. Titania closed her eyes, putting her gun down, the fires still burning.
"Flames out" she muttered and slowly, bit by bit, the flames vanished, as she stood there gasping. Amita, who was staring at her with large eyes and Mikki who stood a bit apart, his gun placed on the ground, his eyes staring at the beast. Titania went to him and tilted her head, "Are you fine?" she asked, and Mikki nodded.
Then the ground under their feet trembled, and they looked around, there being nothing.
"What the hell was that?" Titania muttered, but nothing happened there.
"Hey Tarajan!" She turned around at Amitas shout and looked at her. "You are not as useless as I thought." she concluded, "Still an evil bitch though." with that she turned around to the Teacher who burst through the forest edge.
With a wild gaze, she stared at the three of them and stilled, seeing the beast dead and lying there.
"Good work, your bodyguards are truly worthy of their reputation." the teacher said letting out a relieved sigh and Titania laughed.
"Teach, that was me." Titania said, claiming the kill that was not hers either, with displayed confidence she did not have.All the while Amita glared at her. Keeping herself and the adrenaline together, she smiled. "I expect some excellent grades for me and Mikki."
It is all about illusion. Thank god that crystal was strong enough to burn the monster even with a fourth order mage using it. That being said, this fire is stronger than Emerys Greek Fire.
"Well, more like Titania deserves a good grade, she beat monster." Mikki said, his gun back in his back, his posture the picture-perfect image of a slightly unsure, still nervous but secretly proud of himself student.
"I see." The Teacher stared at Titanis who kept a smile on her face. "Well however it died, this excursion is ended; all of you will be heading back home, we will let you leave wherever you want."
"Alright Teach," Amita said walking past the corpse looking at Titania with suspicion in her eyes. "I did not know oath mages could do something like this." she said and Titania shrugged her shoulders. "There are a lot of things you do not know." she answered and forced a sweet smile on her lips.
Well technically you are quite right.
Moving her hands to sign she was fine she walked after their teacher with shaky legs, now that the adrenaline had worn off she felt wobbly, like a pudding.
Taking a deep breath she composed herself, and forced her back straight. It might just be an useless habit but she always felt more confident when her back was straight, her sister had once said it gave away when she was nervous or planning something she was uncomfortable with.
They returned to the bus underneath everyone's stares and she sat down with Mikki, he was watching her with fashination.
"How did you do?" He asked her, "Tarajan are bad people, but bad people would not have saved others?"
"Well, not everyone is what they seem to be." Titania smiled. Technically they were not wrong to call them villains, but villains were not evil because they wanted to, or because it was so fun.
She noticed Mikkis glance on her and heard her sister's voice.
You do not have to draw him to our side; your character is not suited for that from the get go, but make him use his brain.
If he has the IQ he needs for being a spy then he should be someone able to think for himself, and you use that against him. No matter the small sliver of doubt, let him believe he has your trust, and then make him tangle himself in his own lies until he reveals something of importance. No matter how small it will give us a beginning, a lead, instead of fishing in the dark.
"Well what are you planning tomorrow? Want to go out?" she asked and shrugged her shoulders, being more truthful than she actually liked, "I don't have all that many people I could do anything with after all, and I am very interested on how different life is in another city." She smiled and he seemed to hesitate before he nodded.
"Yes." He answered, and smiled.
Both were smiling at each other, making the atmosphere awkward, almost stale in their friendliness. Maybe it was because both of them wanted to use the other for their advantage. It was indeed an eery situation.
"Teach, would you throw me out at the entrance to my home Forest? I’ll walk the rest of the way home?" She shouted, and the teacher shot her a dark look. Titania smiled at her, "Pretty Please?"
A huff from the teacher and she got permission to leave. A few minutes later she waved goodbye to the teacher, gave Mikki a goodbye hug, and jumped off the bus. Landing on the street, Titania took off running into the forest, waiting for the sound of the bus until it was gone. Hearing it vanish, she let her knees give out "Damn it, I was so freaking nervous that I probably screwed it up!" She shouted into the forest, "Heavens." she sighed before noticing a silver flash.
"Quit being a damn ghost Lyle." She hissed and suddenly was patted by someone looking like Dex, who continued patting her head, she could barely hold her laughter. "Thanks Dex, I really cannot screw this up, you know, first mission ever for the family."
He smiled at her. "You will do just fine." He assured her and she grinned.
"I sure hope so."
I really hope so.
