"Siya?" Mo said my name quietly.
I offered her a hand up onto Fritz's back. She was completely decked out in weapons and wearing her full assassin's gear. "Glad you came prepared."
"And yet you look the same…" She grumbled.
"Yeah, well… My armor doesn't fit in this form…"
She sighed. "I know…"
"So… When do you think they'll make their move?" My voice was calm, but my whole body was tense.
She pointed past me to a lone girl walking out ahead of the leading army. "Probably around now…"
'Well… That was fast…' "She's coming out alone, maybe she wants to talk?"
Within minutes, the entire army was in formation just behind her, and they all began to march closer. "I don't think she wants to talk…"
"She's gathering a huge amount of manna… Sucking it out of the ground, the air… Even the people next to her."
"So she's using the big spell?"
"She's not that stupid, right?"
"She doesn't look like she's stopping… Siya… I think I see the manna too."
'Mo can't even use magic though…' "That's probably bad…"
"You don't sound worried…"
"Well… I know how many runes we put on this wall…"
"But… It's starting to look pretty scary… Should we do something…"
"Probably." I looked across the wall to Air and waved two fingers towards her. "Fire away…" He nodded and loosed the arrow… But it evaporated in the air before it reached her. "Yeah… It's bad…"
'It stopped growing? Here it comes… "EVERYBODY GET DOWN!" A giant flaming boulder rained down from the sky, smashing right into the wall and… Barely leaving a dent… In fact, it bounced far enough away that it wouldn't even block the mote… Everyone stood back up with a resounding cheer. "I'm honestly a little disappointed…" 'I mean, I couldn't cast a spell like that… But… That's what a legendary mage can do? And she had to borrow manna too…'
"Siya… This is the part where stuff happens, right? Like… We charge her?"
Fritz almost took off, but I calmed her down. "No, we wait until they charge up these ramps. Then we follow the warbeast into the plains, and then we charge her."
"She's making another one…"
"Another…" A massive amount of manna gathered once again as she sucked it away from a few dozen mages And put it into another spell even larger than the last. "Fairy dust…" 'Although… It's just a big rock, right? This is another reason why we waited…'
"Siya… You're making the face…"
"What? I don't have a face…"
"Uh, yeah, you do… It's your I'm about to go do something stupid because it's a fun face."
"That can't be a thing…"
"You're words."
"I don't remember ever saying anything like that…"
She poked me and pointed to the giant amount of manna.
'Wow… It's just getting bigger and bigger, isn't it… Still nothing on Rune though… "Hey, Mo, we evacuated all the houses behind this wall, right?"
"Yeah… If this one goes through, there won't be any casualties."
"Except for my beautiful new wall…" I pouted… "EVERYONE GETS AWAY FROM THE DENT!" 'The wall is enchanted, and tall, with any luck the meteor will go right through and leave it standing.' "Mo, you should probably get off for a minute while I take care of this. I'm going to piss her off, so they are probably going to attack soon."
She rolled her eyes and dismounted. "Get on with it then…"
'Right, judging by the impact of the last one, and this one being larger, assuming the same velocity, its larger size is actually a detriment, and it will probably get stuck inside the wall, instead of bringing it down or anything like that. I've always wanted to do something like this.' I got off of Fritz and patted her neck. "Meet me at the bottom of the wall, ok?"
I jumped off, reinforcing my body to the point I barely even felt the landing. 'The timing should be easy, right?'
The giant rock came bursting through the sky, and just before impact, I leapt into the air and then, pushing off the wall, I leapt into the meteor… Momentarily forgetting I couldn't max out my strength, speed, and durability all at the same time… Naturally… I quickly redirected all power to surviving, but instead of breaking it apart, or catching the rock like a superhero… It squashed me straight through the wall… Although I will say that at least it didn't land on top of me…
'I'm actually kind of glad Lu didn't see that… Bet Bhaltair would have enjoyed it though…' "Now then…" I groaned. 'This still works… And since it was on fire, it's already super hot too!' I growled as I put everything into strength and began to roll the boulder back to the wall. However, lifting it was another story. Thankfully, I had a literal army that was obligated to follow my orders.
Once we got it back into the hole, I spat fire at it until the stone melted, effectively welding it into the gap. Then I went around to the outside and did it again, making a full display as their army lazily watched. When I was done, I walked back up the ramp and drank some water before I took the chance to look back at the mage.
"So… What now? I thought you said you were going to piss her off?"
I focused my eyes. "Oh, she's pissed, you should see her face."
"So… Are they going to charge?"
"Not if they're smart…"
"And… They're moving forward…"
"To be fair, they still think this is the easiest to invade between the two cities… And with monsters at their backs, their supply lines likely aren't the most steady… And only attract more monsters with the smell of food."
"Siya… I think they're almost in range of archer fire."
I heard a loud boom howl through the air as the winds changed. "Yeah… Airisdh just took out one of their commanders…"
The sounds of marching stopped as the entire enemy army froze. "HEY! THE NEW ARROWS WORK!" He shouted. Waving at me to get my attention.
I sighed, trying not to smile. "Someone just died… I thought I'd feel guilty… But it's really hard not to laugh… maybe there's something wrong with me…"
"What? No… The crazy girl who breathes fire and tries to punch meteors out of the air?"
"Case and point…" 'Here is where they either charge… Or they fall back…'
A giant fog suddenly overtook the plains as they began to charge. 'Does anyone in this world know when to fall back?' "OPEN FIRE!" 'I'm surprised they had this much manna left. Then again… They aren't the only ones… Clearing fog is hardly something that would expose me… as a mage… "Hey, Mo, did you know dragons can breathe through their skin?"
"You have that look again…"
"Come on… Don't you trust me?"
"You just tried to punch a meteor out of the air. At least I think that's what you were trying to do."
I slowly raised a hand over my bruised arm. "I mean… It worked out in the end…"
"I used to think you were smart… Now I'm thinking of luck."
"That… Actually, it really hurts you know…" Closing my eyes, I wrapped all the manna I could around my respiratory system and body, breathing a constant stream of wind that swept across the plains and pushed the fog back into the forest… Which just so happens to be a perfect cover for my little friend Tabernath whenever he decides to move in. "Fire at will…" I muttered as arrows continued to fly, now finding marks, instead of flying blindly.
"This won't be like before… We are not powerless in the face of magic… And we won't let it force us to a disadvantage either… "
'We might actually win…'