Elma looked around, stunned. The black wool was forming around the amalgams and was somehow trapping them within its fibers.

"By the gods..." Elma looked at Cindeen and smiled. "Cindeen!" she said, grabbing hold of her by the shoulders.

"I don't understand what's going on with you, but you really are a Hero!"

"Huh?"

"Cindeen, this wool, this form--it's your heroic power!"

"My... heroic power?" she said, unsure what to make of anything.

Elma's grin grew wider. "You can be a Hero too, Cindeen! Or a Mountaineer Hero!"

"A Mountaineer Hero?!" Cindeen replied.

"The most heroic of all Mountaineers!"

Cindeen's eyes shimmered as little balls of wool radiated from her hair. "I want to be that!"

"You're already living it!" Elma grabbed her hand and faced the horde of goblins and the master beyond them. Cindeen, blushing, faced their enemies.

"I can stop him from abusing this place's mana!"

"You definitely can..." Elma's grin turned into a confident smirk. "Alright, Cindeen. Ready to work like a Hero does?"

Cindeen jumped in place and smiled. "Of course, Elma!"

"My magic isn't good enough against these guys but yours..." Elma glanced at all the goblins. They had gone limp, all suffocated, or something similar. "But yours has been effective from the start. Cindeen, can you clear the way for me? I can't take all these goblins down but..." Elma trained her eyes on the man. "I can definitely get the 'Goblomancer' to knock it off."

"Sure! I'll be the best teammate you've ever had, Elma!"

"Do your best... Let's do this!"

Cindeen licked her lips and held out her hands. All she had in her mind was the thought of getting the goblins out of Elma's way. Black magic rings flew from her hands.

"Dodge, my friends," the Goblomancer yelled. Alas, some goblins were faster than others. The ones who the rings passed through started growing black wool from their bodies.

"Yay!" Cindeen cheered.

"We can't be on the defensive! Swarm her!" he commanded.

All that was left of his forces were the fastest goblins. They ran toward Cindeen.

"Oh, here we go," Elma said, readying her dagger.

"Wait, Elma! I think--"

Cindeen slapped the first few amalgams that approached her.

"--I can do this!"

The ones that were slapped recoiled and cried as black wool sprang out from their bodies.

"Amazing," Elma said, her eyes filled with wonder.

"I feel like I'm just bursting with potential!"

Cindeen ran toward the rest and swiftly passed each goblin, tapping them as she went.

"What amazing footwork!" Elma remarked.

"Yeah! I'm a Mountaineer in training, after all!" Large masses of wool sprang out from the affected goblins and soon crowded the scene. "We've got to be light but stable on our feet!"

Cindeen held out her hands, and more puffs of wool flew out and floated all around the battlefield.

"I'm positively bursting..." Cindeen looked to the sky and happily declared, "Let Elma pass!"

Elma watched in shock as black energy suddenly burst out from the many puffs of wool covering the battlefield. The energy radiated in the form of pulses. The amalgams who had been ensnared cried out with every pulse until they expired. The ones who were still free were struck by the inescapable pulses and thrown from one violent, propulsive pulse to the other unless they were unlucky enough to get caught in one of the wool puffs.

What could describe the scene? Mayhem. Pure and utter, chaotic magic mayhem. And in the middle of all of it was Cindeen.

Elma trembled. "Wait, didn't she just unlock her power?" Elma's heart sank a little. "She can already do this much? Just like that?" Elma clenched her fists.

The last Hero she met on a Mission--Gwenybell--came back into mind. Then, the words of the old man she met in that world, Goff, rang in her ears.

"Every contribution, no matter how small, was worthwhile."

"But... what did I even contribute here?"

"Elma!"

Elma's eyes snapped onto the smiling Cindeen. "I cleared the way for you! I'll keep holding these baddies back!"

"You..." Elma's expression turned fierce, and she sprinted toward the Goblomancer, that was behind a few scattered and bulky goblin amalgams.

She passed Cindeen. "Thanks."

"We've got this!"

"Yeah."

Elma didn't have time for doubts. The world's hero was giving her an opportunity to help in a way she considered meaningful. She locked her eyes on the enemy. She used her agility and leaped over the few goblins that got in her way.

"He's somehow still summoning them! Don't drop your guard, Cindeen!"

"Got it!"

Elma locked eyes with the Goblomancer, and he became visibly panicked. Her eyes went to his hand--the one he had grabbed Cindeen with earlier.

So, that's it, huh?

Elma landed on her feet and pulled out her dagger. The Goblomancer let out a low squeal as fear flashed in his eyes.

"You got caught by that wool?"

True enough, there was black wool growing around his hand. It had anchored him to the ground.

"Pretty unlucky, huh?"

Elma propelled herself toward him with one powerful step.

She reached for him. There was a flash of a blade, and blood spilled out.

Elma growled. "Desperate, huh?"

The Goblomancer had cut his arm off to escape Elma's approach.

"I'm pretty sure you just weakened yourself," Elma said as she fired her hand at him.

"Things are never so simple when you're on the bleeding edge!"

A tiny goblin leaped out from behind him and latched onto Elma's hand. It clamped down and exploded into a green burst of magic. Elma cried out in pain and instinctively recalled her hand.

"As long as I can breathe, I will go on!" The Goblomancer held his freshly severed arm out toward the podium of branches. "Just like the restless goblin!"

Green wisps of magic flowed from the podium into his arm. Within seconds, a green mass grew out from the arm.

"Regeneration?" Elma mumbled as he regrew a green arm.

The Goblomancer, sweating and pained, smirked. "That's right." He pulled a handful of tiny eggs from his coat and threw them into the air. "I choose you! My dear friends! Be animated and come alive!"

Streaks of green magic burst out from the podium of branches and struck the eggs like lightning bolts. Within moments, each egg grew until it cracked, and freshly born feathery goblins landed before Elma.

Elma took a step back as the Goblomancer laughed. Behind him, a pillar of light flashed. It rose eight feet into the air before releasing a pulse that flew over everyone's heads and into the forest.

"Welcome to the frontier of creation. You face I, the Master of Life and Vitality! The building blocks of life--they are the tool by which we will defeat you, Messenger of Death!"

The ground suddenly shook, but Elma didn't stumble.

"Elma!" Cindeen screamed.

Cindeen, too, was overwhelmed by the enemies. Goblins were pouring out of the forest still, as if the pillar of light was calling them in.

"Elma, you have to stop him. I'm sure that tremor was due to the mana being roused! We can't let him tamper with the region's mana any longer! Eek!" A hog-goblin charged at Cindeen, but she just barely stopped its charge with a mass of wool that sprung out in front of her. "Elma! We can't give up! Everyone around this range might be in danger!"

Elma glared at the Goblomancer, who looked at her, confused. "Don't listen to her! That's just superstition! No one is in danger!"

"The ground's shaking, man, and there's an ominous pillar behind you!" Elma yelled.

"No! This is just what tapping into a leyline entails! Don't think I don't know that you Mountaineers are just gatekeepers! You can't trick me!"

"Yeah..." Elma released a cloud in front of the feathered goblins. "I'm not a Mountaineer." Elma sent her right hand and dagger into the cloud. "But I'm pretty sure I know who's in the right here."

Her aim, get her hand close enough to the podium of branches and cut it apart. Meanwhile, she ran and leaped over the coughing goblins. She fell headfirst into the Goblomancer's forehead, delivering a headbutt of epic proportions--one marked by a loud crack.

Elma landed on her feet as the Goblomancer stumbled backward. Meanwhile, her floating hand cut through some of the branches that made the podium.

The Goblomancer, as if he was connected to the structure, roared. "Don't touch the catalyst! Friends! Restrain her!"

The feathered goblins jumped on Elma and pulled her back, one of them yanking her back toward the ground by the hair.

Elma let out a roar as she fought against the goblins, every vein in her neck throbbing. She released more of her mana, making a black cloud around herself. In her mind, her time before the Hub flashed.

"No!" she yelled.

The Goblomancer ran toward the podium and tried swatting Elma's hand away. "Get away! It took me days of careful planning to erect this!"

"Elma!" Cindeen screamed. "I'm coming!" Cindeen hastened her efforts at erecting walls of wool so that goblin reinforcements couldn't keep pouring into the battle.

Elma was frustrated. Everything was building up within her.

"No!" she yelled, her eyes still on her floating hand. The Goblomancer hadn't noticed it yet--as long as Elma could see enough to be able to maneuver her hand, he would be unable to catch her hand. "I'm not so limited anymore!"

The four fingers on her left hand separated and flew into the goblin's eyes, stunning them and causing them to loosen their grip on her. The moment she gained her freedom, she pulled at another of her daggers and, in a display fitting of her dagger proficiency, she slashed the eyes of the goblins.

"I'll never be restrained again," she said to herself.

She ran toward the Goblomancer and slammed her shoulder into him as the ground shook again.

He slammed his fist into Elma's cheek in retaliation. She flexed every muscle in her neck and prevented her head from giving an inch.

"Back off!" he yelled.

"Never!"

Elma drove her dagger into his gut, but hit the armor he wore beneath his clothes first. He pressed his hand into her face and tried to push her back.

"Stop!"

"You first!" Elma said with a smile.

After cutting it up some more, her floating hand flew into the center of the branch podium, and she poured all the mana stored in her hand out into the podium.

Again, he snapped his sights onto the podium. "Wait--no--my work!"

Bastard distracted, Elma drove her shin straight up his groin.

"Gah!" he yelled, turning green as his eyes rolled toward the back of his head.

Ground shaking more intensely than before, Elma ran toward the podium and let herself crash into it. With the fall of the podium, the pillar of light was finally disrupted. It lost its form and instead looked like a mass of squirming tentacles reacting to the wind.

The ground shook again at the same intensity while Elma looked up at it.

"Hey, what's the deal? Why's energy still flowing out?"