22 - The Battle’s Never Over (Patreon)

As the party moved among the sharp rocks at the bottom of the icy gorge earlier, Phoenix felt the various auras of her friends encompass hers like ripples in a pond, one after the other adding their effects to strengthen and protect one another. Dazien’s aura had become stronger with his ascension and the new effects reminded her of Paul, always promising to avenge any that might harm her.

Passive Ability: Monarch’s Dominion

Type: Aura (magical, covenant)

Current Caste: Sapphire 1

Crystal Effect: Allies within the aura gain increased resistance to Retribution effects.

Sapphire Effect: Enemies gain an instance of [Reparations] for each attack made while in the aura.

• Reparations (bane, retribution, magical, covenant, stacking): Inflicts ongoing low damage. Damage dealt is the same type as the triggering attack. Instances are lost quickly while not attacking.

Rayna’s aura, [Reverberate], on the other hand, was all about making them deal more damage and the enemy less. It was a steadying rhythm that oddly worked well with Saiya’s more calming aura, [Soothing Soul], to keep them focused and in sync during the fight.

“Come on, Uriel,” Dazien whispered over their communication network, “You’ve got the earrings on and the Silencer off, but it doesn’t matter much if you’re not giving your all and challenging yourself. We’ll be fine, so push that aura.”

The Mage didn’t answer with words, but his aura washing over them showed his deference to his king’s commands. More often now, Phoenix noticed how submissive the cinderen was towards others, and she found herself wondering why that was. She had often chosen submission when she knew she didn’t have the power to stand up to others, but Uriel was one of the strongest mages she knew of at Crystal, and his aura spoke to that power.

Passive Ability: Battlemage

Type: Aura

Current Caste: Crystal 8

Crystal Effect: Allies within your aura deal increased damage with Spells and Spells that affect an area have increased range.

That ability didn’t fully explain the additional ability she knew he had that transfigured the aura to also slice apart anything caught within it but she had been too nervous to ask him to see that one. 

The wash of aural sensory data and her book faithfully trailing behind her to feed more information into her all happened before her party leader had given his formation orders and engaged with the pair of giant two-headed centipedes that would serve as their next challenge. 

As she targeted it with her new [Nemesis] Bane –courtesy of Paul’s shared talent– and maneuvered around the monsters, trying to get on the opposite side of the one Dazien had taunted onto Rayna with his [Duelist] ability, she realized that she still wasn’t quite the match for Sapphire Caste speeds. It almost effortlessly snatched her in mid-air with those nasty mandibles as though she would make a lovely snack.

“Nope! I am not getting eaten again!” she yelled, bringing her dagger down on the nearest large beady eye and using her [Ruler of Relativity] to further push the dagger into the creature’s skull and herself away from it.

“Phoenix, back off for now and stay at range,” Dazien mentally ordered as she dropped to the ground and he incanted aloud, taunting his target again, “Bow before your king!”

While both heads turned to look at the Defender and attempt a weird bow, she pushed herself away from the enemy, incanting a farewell, “Gaze into the abyss,” to cast her [Call of the Abyss] Bane but the higher Caste monster was able to resist its effects, just as she feared.

Meanwhile, the bard seemed to be having a blast with her newly upgraded [Percussion Strike] ability that had bonded to the [Focus Spirit Gem], consistently ramping up boons and damage that chipped away at the chitin armor of the monster.

Class Ability: Percussion Strike

Type: Special Attack (magical, song)

Cost: Low mana.

Cooldown: None.

Current Caste: Sapphire 1 (1%)

Crystal Effect: Each consecutive strike against the same target inflicts Song damage and an instance of [Brittle].

Sapphire Effect: Each consecutive strike against the same target gives you an instance of [Focused].

• Brittle (bane, magical, song, stacking): Reduced Song resistance.

• Focused (boon, magical, song, stacking): You become more aware of your target, gaining increased chances of landing a critical strike and dealing an additional burst of Song damage. Instances are lost when changing targets.

As Phoenix tried to put more space between her and the pair of Sapphire enemies, she stumbled and managed to catch herself against a large stalagmite made of ice. She hadn’t stumbled like that in a while, becoming much better at controlling her movements as she increased her Caste level, but the sickening sensation she finally focused on clued her in that the stupid bug had managed to poison her with its pincers.

Her health was being devoured quickly, and she muttered the high-cost version of her heal to buy more time, “As surely as the sun will rise again, I will see the dawn of tomorrow.” Then she mentally whispered to Saiya, “I need a cleanse quickly.”

The Astromancer managed to hear the incantation over the sounds of battle and the stream of magical water that not only managed to reach her but covered the others –monsters included– as the Healer got the most from the spell.

“May the stream cleanse you,” the voxen said from somewhere Phoenix couldn’t see as her vision became clouded. Then she heard Saiya’s voice over the mental party chat, “Don’t get bitten. The Bane is Magical, I’ll need to restore Phoenix to clear it.”

“Can you heal through it? At least till one is down?” Dazien asked while repeatedly stabbing his taunted target between the armor plating with his [Accelerating Strikes].

Phoenix understood the logic; Saiya’s [Restored Foundation] took a long time to set up, cast, and come off cooldown which meant both of them would be out of the fight for a chunk of time. Waiting until the threat was lessened before committing to that chunk of time was a tactical move in case others needed healing or got poisoned in the interim.

Unfortunately, with how much of her life was rapidly trickling away, Phoenix wasn’t sure she had the time or mana to heal through it. The tingling sensation of numbing senses started suffusing her being, and as her health lowered, she felt her magically reinforced muscles get weaker. She tried making her way toward the Healer, relying on her bracelet for direction as the Bane finished making her magically blind.

Something roughly pulled her to the side, and she felt a stalagmite beside her shatter from some attack she couldn’t sense. The minor papercuts slicing her along with the large hand that continued holding her upper arm was the first thing that clued her in that Uriel had come to retrieve her as he asked, “Are you trying to get killed? Get back over to Saiya.”

“I can’t see,” she managed to say aloud before switching to the easier mental form of speech, “I don’t think I’ll make it. It’s dealing too much damage. What kind of insane poison does it have?”

“A Sapphire Caste one that’ll chew through our Fortitude. Neither of us has bonuses to that attribute, nor resistances to Corrosion –or whatever else that Bane on you has, apparently,” the Mage said as he dragged her towards the Healer that she sensed but couldn’t see.

She heard Uriel continue casting spells under his breath as they moved and met up with Saiya, who seemed to be chain casting heals herself, “Heal this life,” the voxen incanted, sending a projectile of [Heal Life] at her, which also granted an instance of [Life Regen] to continue healing over time before Saiya physically took her from Uriel’s grasp.

“I’ve got her. Focus on taking down Rayna’s target,” the Healer told the Mage, then cast [Refreshed] on the Supporter, “May your soul feel refreshed from life’s demands. Now, when you feel your health getting too low again, cast that highest-cost version of your heal to help sustain my mana.”

Phoenix didn’t argue. Hating the sense that she had definitely messed up and it resulted in her being more of a burden on the party than an asset to help take down this challenge. The spell Saiya had used had reset the cooldown of her healing spell, the ability taking on the cooldown for her and unusable on one of Saiya’s own heals.

It was shortly after she cast that severe cost of [A New Dawn Rises] that she heard the echoing sound of a gong, and her aura sensed the disappearance of one of the jalkainen. Her own looting talent, [Collector], triggered, and she felt two stacks of the new Boon from Dazien’s looting ability trigger, which felt wasted on her.

Passive Ability: Tribute

Type: Utility (magical, covenant)

Current Caste: Sapphire 1

Crystal Effect: Allies with [Subject] gain a brand that allows them to loot slain enemies with a touch. You gain additional loot from enemies looted by allies with [Subject]. Loot goes directly into your dimensional storage.

Sapphire Effect: When you or a [Subject] slay or loot an enemy, both gain an instance of [Rightful Plunder].

• Rightful Plunder (boon, magical, covenant, stacking): Gain a moderate amount of stamina and mana over a short duration.

Phoenix knew it was only a matter of time before the other would follow and she felt lucky that they had managed to hold off in time. Then Saiya told her to, “Hold still,” while the Healer created the delineation for the zone spell that could cleanse the Magical Bane on her.

Once the voxen finished chanting, “Let the foundations be restored to the pinnacle of their existence,” Phoenix felt the life magic infuse her being and wash away the Banes that had threatened to take her further away from her goal of Ruby. 

She let out a ragged sigh as her vision returned and she could see Saiya standing nearby with a conjured lute in hand from her upgraded Song passive ability. 

Passive Ability: Accompanion

Type: Utility (construct, magical, arcane)

Current Caste: Sapphire 1

Crystal Effect: Can construct a musical instrument of your own design.

Sapphire Effect: Constructed instruments can serve as a medium for Spells, enhancing their effects and costing less mana.

Then Phoenix whispered quietly to the Healer, “I’m sorry. I know I was less than useless during that.”

“The battle’s not over yet,” Saiya replied, turning back to the others still fighting the remaining monster, “Help the others once this is finished.”

It was only about a half minute later when she felt fully restored and rejoined the battle, this time staying next to Uriel and focusing on her ranged abilities. Casting [Call of the Abyss] again was successful that time, and the illusion of a swarm of birds from her [Lunar Dream] helped distract and confuse the creature as one of the heads tried to attack them.

Tala also took more of a direct approach by staying just out of melee range and breathing [Star Fire] all over the monster. While the Crystal Caste attack didn’t do a lot, being mostly resisted, it was still better than nothing she had accomplished during that first half of the fight.

Her [Meteor Shower] was still on its long cooldown from having used it earlier to open up on a swarm of arachnicles –the spindly icy spiders creeping her out. With nothing else left for ranged options, she resorted to conjuring her dagger and launching it like a projectile at the monster. She had used the tactic before in more desperate moments, but her aim wasn’t fantastic with it from a distance, and the cost of reconjuring the construct was worse than launching it in the first place.

Right now, though, she didn’t have anything better to spend her mana on, so she went full rotary canon until the monster stopped moving and began turning into Sapphire ash from being looted –the [Rightful Plunder] Boons helping both her and Dazien recover from the fight.

As Rayna and Dazien moved to regroup with the three that kept their distance, the party leader double-checked, “I’m not picking up any more distress signals from my [Subjects] so everyone’s okay?”

“Yes,” Saiya responded, “I used my [Restored Foundation] but nobody else needs it for now. Should we call it a day and get some rest? We’ve already been clearing the gorge for most of the night.”

The Defender glanced up at the sky, the crimson moon already disappearing from view, and he nodded, “Yeah, sounds good. Phoenix, make note of this location and we’ll portal back around midday to pick up where we left off.”

She nodded, looking around the area to quickly memorize it and let the aural imprint settle, and asked, “Are we going back home for the night or camping out?”

“Actually, I think it might be better to bunk back at Linnake,” the gemite said thoughtfully, “We saw that the standing guard was called back to participate in the war and these new patrols. I think they’ll appreciate us being available in case of an emergency, even if we’re there to sleep.”

“That’s a great idea,” Saiya agreed, her three tails wagging slightly, “It’s always good to boost morale where and when we can.”

Nobody seemed to object to the idea so Phoenix made the first portal, letting Saiya and Dazien go through first, as she usually did, before following five minutes later with Rayna and Uriel. She couldn’t wait to hit Sapphire just so she could portal everyone in a single go again, though at least now she could safely do two Sapphires at once since her [Transversing the Stars] ability hit the cap of Crystal 10.

The party leader managed to find them a roof to camp out on instead of bothering with taking a room, Uriel’s [Fortress of Solitude] offering the beds they needed along with the bonuses to meditation that they took advantage of before turning in to sleep.

Phoenix had trouble settling into her meditative trance, her mind constantly wandering back to the last fight and trying to figure out what she had been thinking, rushing in like that. When she finally decided to give up on meditation and stood up, Dazien called out to her, “Hey, Princess, mind going for a walk to do some extra aura training with me?”

She nodded despite not fully feeling up to it, but the weird tone in his voice made her feel like it wasn’t just some aura training he wanted to do. She was almost positive the leader was going to chew her out for almost dying again, but maybe that was her own guilt making her paranoid.

As they made their way down to the street level, they were already poking and prodding each other’s auras like a liquid game of tag, trying to push through the other while keeping them out at the same time. She always won.

“You doing okay?” Dazien finally asked, breaking the silence between them that never seemed to survive in the gemite’s presence, “You’ve been pretty quiet since the fight.”

“I don’t have the insatiable need to talk like you do,” she retorted.

He simply raised an eyebrow at her, falling silent in response as they continued walking down the fairly empty street that was slowly being lit by the dawn.

“Sorry,” she said, “That was mean of me… I just–” her fists clenched at her sides, “I hated being so useless.”

“You weren’t useless,” he countered, “I should have told you to keep your distance to start with. The fault is mine, and I’m sorry you paid for it.”

She blinked at him, confusion filling her mind as she replayed the whole fight again, “But I rushed in–”

Dazien laughed, “You always rush in. I should have warned you. Uriel knew those monsters, as always, which is why I knew of them, but I forgot that it was the first time for you to run into them. I should have had Uriel brief everyone instead of assuming you all knew what I did.”

“I should have asked,” she interjected, “Should have said I didn’t know what they were. Shouldn’t have run in when I didn’t know what to expect. I’ve been replaying it in my head and can’t figure out why I did that.”

The Defender chuckled again, “I think we’ve gotten a bit complacent; both to blame for not communicating like we should. Mistakes are what happens when we fall into that familiar rhythm without checking in with one another. I’m just glad nobody died from it.”

“I guess no matter what we’re fighting, I need to communicate better just in case there’s something I’m forgetting.”

“That’s something we could all do better at, I think. Like I said, the failing isn’t just with one person. We’re a party and rely on each other not just to do our roles but to help support one another when we falter. If you make a mistake because you weren’t fully informed, it's less a mistake and more an inevitability.”

“So how do I fix it?”

“We fix it together,” he corrected with a smirk, prodding at her aura for emphasis, “We’ll adjust our tactics more. It’ll be easy enough to add in a signal before a fight for everyone to indicate they’re fully aware of what a monster is capable of or maybe need a refresher. I don’t want to see something like that happen again.”

“I’m just glad the battle’s over,” she muttered, “Feeling completely useless for over half the fight is terrible.”

“The battle’s never over for an Adventurer,” her party leader said with a sad smile, “There’s always another fight, another monster. We all make mistakes and stumble but that doesn’t mean we stop fighting or stop adapting. Besides, mistakes like this help us grow too. We learn from them and keep moving forward.”

Phoenix let the silence fall again while she thought about that. It did make her feel better about everything and she gave the gemite a suspicious look as she asked, “Were you getting private lessons from Paul on how to lecture me?”

Dazien burst out laughing, “I wish. He did that to you too?”

The Wayfarer smiled at the memories, “Yeah. I swear he practiced beforehand or something.”

He returned her smile as he said, “Just think of the lecture we’re in store for once he wakes up. He’ll have all this time to come up with a masterpiece of verbal exposition meant to strip us of any ego we might dare to build.”

She chuckled, shaking her head at the mental picture, “Should be epic. I can’t wait.”

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