4 - Friendship (Patreon)

Phoenix flew into the air and almost panicked for a moment as the ground rushed away from her. Once she got to the height she wanted, she cut off the power and focused back on the behemoth’s red light as she began to free fall. She initiated [Pull] and soared towards it, maneuvering her body around and bent to land daggers-first followed by feet.

As she collided, she both felt and heard the rocks crack. She braced herself against it, keeping them close together with a small steady pull of her ability, and began repeatedly stabbing into the glowing crystal. It was a challenge to try chipping away at it furiously as she focused on maintaining the gravitational pull to keep her from falling off of it.

“Watch out!” Dazien yelled from the ground at her, and she glanced back to see a rocky arm heading for her. She reflexively triggered [Push] to fling herself high into the air once more as the monster smashed a stone palm against its face and getting a stack of [Dishonor] for its troubles. She was glad the monster seemed to not be very intelligent otherwise this could have been much harder.

As it roared and moved to bring both of its massive fists down to crush the Defender, Phoenix retriggered [Pull] with a bit more mana than she initially intended in her concern for her leader. She slammed into the creature, hoping to knock it off course and the Wayfarer was fairly certain she managed to break her leg as she landed on the half destroyed crystal. Instead of shifting the blow as she hoped, the limb crashed through the [Sun Shell] around Dazien, completely unaffected by the blinding debuff, and into the gemite’s actual shield which he seemed to brace for with his [Stand Your Ground] ability. In response, the Supporter choked back her pain-filled tears and began plunging her obsidian dagger once more towards the bright red light.

Phoenix almost lost her concentration and slipped as the creature buckled underneath her, one of its legs now just a pile of rubble from Rayna’s destructive song. She realized her new problem as the monster began to tilt forward toward her and Phoenix’s back was now aimed towards the ground. In her panic, she flooded mana into a [Push] of her dagger against the remaining layer of crystal until it hammered its way straight through it to pierce the light and extinguish it.

The redhead felt the unnatural pull of gravity she had been channeling suddenly halt and she fell to the ground hard. All the air escaped from her lungs but, before the weight of the monster could crush her to death, it dissolved into white ash all over her. The massive amount of monster dust made it harder for her to catch her breath as her eyes watered and she began painfully wheezing and coughing up dead monster remains.

“Are you a crazy person?” Rayna asked as the music that had been going during the battle came to a halt with the fall of the elemental and the voxen looked down at her prone form sprawled in the packed snow with slitted pupils in amber.

Phoenix gave a weak smile and waved off her concern, “I’ll… be fine…” she assured. Feeling fairly mana drained, she only triggered the low cost version of her heal spell then tilted her head back to look towards the hill where their other teammates were positioned and croaked, “Saiya?”

The twin was already making her way towards the downed Adventurer but a bolt of life energy shot out from a held out paw and, as the magic struck Phoenix, she gasped in sweet relief as she felt her leg begin to mend further.

Ability: Heal Life

Type: Spell (magical, life)

Cost: Low mana.

Cooldown: None.

Current Caste: Crystal 7 (90%)

Crystal Effect: Delivers Life energy though a projectile, giving a small burst of health to an ally target.

As the serene Healer knelt down at the patient’s side and took her hand gently, Phoenix asked once she could breathe properly again, “Have I told you how amazing you are, Saiya?”

The woman smiled at her, displaying sharp canines, and said, “Not yet but I was certain you would.”

“Well, you are very awesome and I am so glad you joined our party,” she reaffirmed.

“Sure, suck up to the Healer,” Dazien muttered as he made his way over.

“That actually sounds like a good life lesson in general,” Phoenix pointed out as she slowly sat up, “Always try to please the person that keeps you alive.”

Rayna spoke up and gestured towards Phoenix’s face, “You said that your Familiar stores up energy that can regenerate the whole party’s mana and stamina when you’re glowing like that, right?”

Phoenix nodded, “That’s right.”

“And that the amount of regeneration is based on how much light your skin absorbs?”

“Yup.”

“Then why aren’t you showing more skin?” the bard said with a mischievous grin, “We could find something that just covers the more intimate bits.”

Phoenix’s eyes went wide in horror and her face flushed a bright crimson, “Why would I need to do that?!”

“Well at the very least, so we don’t have to blow through all our potions after every fight and at best it can save us in a pinch to be able to restore us mid-fight and you’ll want to get the biggest bang for your Bits, right? So it makes sense to store up as much as possible as quickly as possible, right?” Rayna’s slightly feral smile grew wider, showing off sharp fangs as the voxen teased her, “Plus, it has the added benefit of gaining the attention of potential mates.”

“I-um… th-that’s not something… I mean, I don’t-” the shy Wayfarer stuttered incoherently as she tried to come up with logical arguments.

Dazien, who also seemed a bit flustered from Rayna’s suggestion, reprimanded the Striker, “Don’t push her into doing something she’s not comfortable with.”

“What? Like telling her to fight a giant rock monster?” the pugilist pointed out with a flat look.

He ignored the jab and held out both hands to help the two women stand again, “So…” he began, giving Phoenix a look that somehow seemed both disapproving and amused, “You just decided to try flying?”

"Um… blame Tala?" She said, offering her Familiar up as a scapegoat.

The fluffy bird appeared then, cheeping at her and bouncing up and down on her head as if to declare that it was, in fact, not her idea that Phoenix pull a stunt like that and the Wayfarer couldn't help but chuckle at her Familiar.

Dazien's stunned stare at her face, however, cut off her laugh and made her suddenly worried as she asked, "What? What's wrong?"

"Um… you're uh, still glowing."

"What?!" she exclaimed, hoping the gemite was just trying to prank her. Lifting her hands into view proved his words true though and she whirled on Uriel and practically squealed, "You said it would go away!"

The cinderen refused to meet her eyes as he grumbled, "I said it should. It's probably because you've charged up some of that [Starlight Qi] now with her, so until you use the ability it'll stay?"

She glared at the inflection of a question in his words, "You don't sound very sure about that."

"I'm not," he replied solemnly.

"So should I use it now?"

"No," Dazien interjected, "It's a powerful tool you'll need to get accustomed to using. Try to save as much as possible to use at the right time in a battle."

The Celestial Astromancer groaned loudly and complained to the sky, "I don't wanna glow!"

Phoenix sat near the campfire that Uriel had conjured with his Fire passive as he began conjuring his Ice passive's magic fort for them to sleep in that night at the edge of the lake.

Passive Ability: Home's Hearth

Type: Utility (construct, elemental, fire)

Current Caste: Crystal 6

Crystal Effect: Construct a hearth that produces light and heat for a low mana cost. Allies near the hearth slowly gain instances of [Hearth’s Warmth].

- Hearth’s Warmth (boon, cleanse, elemental, fire, stacking): Increased health regeneration and periodically cleanses Elemental Banes.

Passive Ability: Fortress of Solitude

Type: Utility (construct, elemental, magical, ice, dimension)

Current Caste: Crystal 7

Crystal Effect: Construct a fortress of ice nearby that serves as a shelter and dimensional storage, increasing the mana regeneration and effects of meditation of the inhabitants.

The Wayfarer hadn't been able to stop herself from giggling at the name and having to explain the concept of "superheroes" from her non-magical world.

"So they're basically illegal Adventurers that don't get paid?" Rayna asked in confusion.

After contemplating for a moment she nodded slowly, "I guess so, which just makes it sound a bit sad…"

"Yup," the bard agreed and then bounced over to sit closer to her, wrapping her long warm tails around her to pull them closer as the voxen said excitedly, "Now show me the quest loot!"

Quest: Mission: A Rocky Start

Objective complete: Defeated a Crystalline Elemental.

[Magical Tattooing I] has been added to your collection.

Quest completed.

10 [Crystal Mana Bits] have been added to your collection.

Quest: Mission: A Pack of Problems

Objective complete: Defeated twenty Snolves.

[Snolf Paws] has been added to your collection.

Quest completed.

10 [Crystal Mana Bits] have been added to your collection.

Quest: Mission: Foul Fowl

Objective complete: Defeat six Icespitters.

[Caustic Floe] has been added to your collection.

Quest completed.

10 [Crystal Mana Bits] have been added to your collection.

As the pugilist read, Phoenix examined the large hole in the midriff section of her shirt and sighed heavily, “Looks like you got your wish, Rayna. Those Icespitters completely ruined this top…”

The bard grinned wickedly, “I don’t think any of us care if you went without.”

“Lady Rayna, as a noble, you should understand the importance of propriety,” Dazien chided her.

The Striker rolled her eyes, “Propriety is both boring and arbitrary. It's also something my clan cared little about. Besides, it’s not like anyone else is here to observe decorum,” she said, gesturing to the icy lake and surrounding evergreens.

Phoenix mirrored the voxen's eye roll and swapped out the shirt with another in her collection, only showing a brief shimmer of silver light. Then she glared back at the lake where they had just finished their final mission and said bitterly, “I thought with a name like ‘Icespitter’ that they would shoot ice bolts or something, not be a deranged puffin variant that spits acid.

"Why does every monster here, even birds, seem to have an insane amount of teeth? And why aren’t they called Acidspitter? That would be more useful for Adventurers knowing what they’re up against,” she complained.

“Acidspitters are an Emerald Caste snake-like creature that would destroy us in an instant,” Uriel spoke up, “Surprisingly, those don’t have teeth.”

Phoenix gave him a sidelong glance, “Where did you learn that?”

He shrugged and replied simply, “A book.”

She rolled her eyes, “So Acidspitter was taken. Who comes up with these names anyways?” They all shrugged at her and she sighed, “I’m going to go through so many clothes at this rate.”

Rayna began saying, “That wouldn’t be a problem if-”

“I’m not walking around half naked,” Phoenix cut her off, firmly raising a glowing hand to halt the line of conversation. The acid had done quite a bit of damage not just to the Wayfarer’s clothing as she placed her hand against the glowing skin and cast the low cost variant of [A New Dawn Rises] again to supplement Saiya's mana. It had been a rough fight but the challenge had been a good one and they had once again come out victorious.

Phoenix gazed over the still beauty of the frozen lake with the sun beginning to set behind it, marking an end to their second week of traveling through the tundra. She found herself saying to the group a bit wistfully, “You know, this world can be really beautiful sometimes…”

The others paused to look at her curiously as she continued speaking, “My life for the last few years has seemed like an endless gauntlet of darkness, death, and now monsters. I couldn’t do anything back on my world. Even after I arrived here and got powers it’s been one monster encounter after another it feels like. Endless fighting and training to get stronger. It’s the handful of moments like this that make it seem like it might actually be an adventure and not just an endless struggle for survival.”

The rest of her party glanced out to the sunset, appreciating the interplay of coldness and warmth on the horizon. Saiya surprised Phoenix by hugging her gently, entwining her own tails with Rayna's to surround the Wayfarer in warm fur, and saying, “I am glad to have you as a friend.”

Phoenix's eyes went wide slightly and she couldn’t stop the question from leaving her lips, “Friends?” She hadn’t really thought of them as such. They were teammates, comrades in arms, travel and battle companions, sure. But friends? Jin had been her best friend on Earth but they had died years ago. She hadn't bothered trying to find another and, especially after her mother's death, she had withdrawn from the idea of getting too close to people.

She had come to the conclusion that if she didn’t call anyone ‘friend’ or ‘family’ then she wouldn’t have to mourn the inevitable loss. That she wouldn’t need to experience that pain ever again. Her thoughts turned to her mentor and the suggestion he had made, they were friends now but he was stronger than anyone she had ever met, he at least could survive their friendship. She asked more rhetorically, “I have friends again?”

Dazien and Uriel both turned to stare at her and the warrior almost shouted, “Of course! Have you not thought of us as friends? After everything we’ve gone through together?”

She looked away, feeling slightly embarrassed at what felt like an accusation and she felt a large hand lightly grasp her shoulder. She looked up into the fire of Uriel’s eyes as he said firmly, “We may not have many we consider friend, but I will be there should you have need.”

“Friends are the people who are there to support you without any need for something in return and accept you for who you are. You have been a friend to us, Phoenix, and I would hope you understand our intentions enough to know we reciprocate the feeling,” Dazien said resolutely.

Phoenix felt a bit stunned by the sincerity her companions were showing her. She glanced towards Rayna who just smirked and said, “Yeah, you’re alright.” She felt Saiya’s grip on her tighten as though reaffirming her commitment.

The young Wayfarer realized that even though she might not have consciously labeled them as ‘friends’, what Dazien had described was exactly how she felt towards them, and that despite her aversion, she had come to care about them. She also realized that she wanted to stay by their side, even if she might lose them one day.

Phoenix gave them all a shy smile and whispered, “Thanks… friends.”

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