Tara watched as Eli ran into the haze after she shook her head to get him to back off. She knew he could feel what she was doing magically, and that dissonance made feeling her emotions difficult especially while splitting focus. This was her choice, she was going to claim this magic for herself so that she could be closer to his level of power. The feeling in her gut was that it wouldn't kill her, but it could still cause permanent damage. She wasn't trying to get hurt and was being careful as much as she could, she just really wanted this.
With every part of her being, she pushed Eli's chaos magic through her body, it felt like a shot of adrenaline to the heart mixed with being tazed. She held onto the feeling and looked-up as the monsters got close enough for her to start attacking, Tara smiled, and got to work. It was going to be hard for her to hide it from the others since every swing of her axes left black lightning trails behind, but she was determined. She wasn't going to be left behind, she would prove that she belonged at his side, even though she knew he wasn't asking her to prove anything.
That was the most difficult part for her, she knew he loved her and that he wouldn't leave her behind and he wouldn't force her to get stronger. But she also knew that if he held himself back so the gap between them wasn't as large for her sake, she would hate herself for it. Adding the power from her scars to her fighting power was the only way she could think of to help fix this situation. Step one was to force her body to accept it, but the dangerous part was step two, forcing her magic scars to come together and make a chaos node when she didn't have one. With how violently her body was reacting, it was going to take a lot of fighting to get step one to work.
Gritting her teeth at the pain, Tara fought on, willing the magic to become hers. As time passed the pain grew as well as the scars growing longer and starting to look like stripes, dark purple stripes. Her one facial scar that went down her left cheek just below the eye grew up to her eye and turned purple, it also grew down her neck. The pain was unbearable but she refused to give up and tugged on her connection to Eli, borrowing some of his will to subdue the magic. The instant she did the pain exploded in her body and her skin started to flake off, her whole body was glowing a light purple except the scars were deep purple with small arcs of lighting flowing down them.
Just as she was about to pass out, she felt Eli's will reach through their connection and crush the magic into submission instantly and effortlessly. He was using its full power and the chaos magic quickly obeyed, dragging itself from the scars across her skin. It drew into a point on the back of her neck and formed a ball just under the skin. Monsters were approaching her but Eli used his will skill through her and they all turned to dust on the ground. Then, as if a mountain's worth of spiritual and magical pressure fell onto her body, the ball of magic compressed and formed an artificial node.
With that complete, the pain was gone, her body and soul both felt close to leveling again but she was tired, mentally, physically, emotionally, drained to the bone. She told the others that she needed a minute and jumped back to the center of the crater. Her scars were bigger and longer with purple running through them, but they no longer hurt. The more important part was that she felt stronger, like the skill from this node would be something truly powerful. It would be something that would put her on close to even footing with Eli and she didn't have to fear being left behind.
After a few minutes she saw that they were falling behind without her and she returned, finding every action and movement of her body just a bit easier and her magic abilities all had a flavor of the chaos from her new node in them. This reminded her of how Eli's abilities all had the flavor of ash and sometimes the literal flavor of sulfur, which he explained as a level two fire node born from volcano flavored magic. But her chaos magic wasn't the flavor of Eli's magic alone, she could feel his through their connection and hers was different, only slightly but it was different.
Audrey was taking a magic usage break and ran over to Tara. "Your new magic, it's not Eli's."
"I know, our connection has made me very familiar with how his magic feels, this is similar but different."
"It's his mother's magic, or at least a small piece of it. When his seal broke and you got those scars, remnants of the seal were mixing with his magic. Since his mother is the one who cast the seal on him, that's the part that is different." Audrey said while breathing heavily, "I just thought you should know since it's now a very permanent part of you."
"We will need to discuss this more, come see me at the next break," Tara said.
"Nope, sorry, I need to go talk to Grayson at the next break, I have him right where I want him," Audrey replied with a big smile on her face.
Tara was not able to keep herself from asking, "and where is that?"
"I'm going to make him my first minion."
*************
Eli could feel that the issue with Tara was resolved, however, the issues in his mind and heart were not. He wasn't going to be able to be around them all the time, his training needed to accelerate, every time he meditated he could feel that the system would not slow down. It was going to keep pushing him further down the road of power, he was not going to be able to wait for his people to catch up. If he had to go places they couldn't he needed them stronger, but just then he had an idea.
They wouldn't need to be as strong if there were more of them, and that would also help him stay more connected to his humanity if he had some responsibility for a larger group. Maybe when he left this time to try and push his body further inside his volcano then train his level at the bigger volcano he could have them recruit more to follow him. He had no need to actually be in charge, he would just be what people were drawn to, the powerful and mysterious figurehead.
Feeling settled and more in control, Eli flashed his will skill for a half second to give himself some space and stood. He was covered in small cuts and tears in his skin and his cloak was in tatters and since he didn't want to lose it he took it off. Realizing he still had never asked any of them to buy him some clothes, he was now in his ape underwear with the tail hanging out. He put his mask away too since his entire body was covered in blood from all the cuts even though most were healing up easily enough.
Running back to the others, he killed any monsters he came across and soon rejoined them. They all gave him weird looks but none of them stopped fighting long enough to say anything. He did notice that Bethany's look was a bit more lustful than usual but that no longer annoyed him so he smiled and winked at her. She almost took a jagged sword to her arm and was just barely able to dodge in time and after that she refocused. Eli winced and went to work getting back into the rotation of the fight giving each person a break long enough that they no longer felt pressured.
After the same amount of time as the last wave had passed the monsters diminished and were shortly after cleared out. Everyone gathered at the center of the crater for some rest and discussion, Tara did not join them at first but eventually walked up to the others apprehensively. Eli noticed her and walked up to her with a smile on his face as the others moved away giving them some privacy.
"Well, that was a little crazy, but it seems to have worked out, and with a surprise bonus as well," Eli said, still keeping his smile as he touched her left cheek where her only facial scar was.
"Worked out? Bonus? What do you mean?" Tara asked in a slight panic. She was worried that she had missed something or maybe she had made him more upset than she thought.
"The artificial node I created seems to be working, its flavor is very close to mine. And the bonus is you have these sexy scars, if we didn't have monsters to fight I would be dragging you behind a tree."
"You're one to talk, you show up covered in blood in nothing but a fuzzy loincloth. You look like the god of pure sexual masculinity. If you wanted me right here right now I would rip this armor off my body, get on my knees, and beg for it," Tara said loud enough that everyone heard. "But now isn't the time."
"Ok you two, I would say to get a room but we don't have time. Let's rest and discuss options." Stevens said trying very hard to change the subject.
They sat or laid down and talked out a rough plan with improvements, taking turns to make sure they could all voice their opinion. The general consensus was to keep going with the current plan but focus more on those who needed it more for relief. Eli would play a bigger role and work harder at clearing the monsters, which he was fine with since it seemed his smash skill was getting close to level 10 and his purity buff spell was getting close to 9. The other's skills were all between 1 and 5, except Audrey who had grown her skills like a mad woman using her magic sense.
Audrey was back talking to Greyson and his family on the wall when she noticed people approaching their walled little town. She sent a message to Eli and Tara right away letting them know while pretending not to notice it and continuing her conversation with Greyson and his family. Tara and Bethany ran back to the wall and stood between the people and their new town waiting for them to get to them. There were almost ten people approaching, some limping and injured so they weren't moving very quickly.
"I think you should do the talking, I'll just stand here and look menacing," Tara said. "Hopefully that will deter them from being stupid."
"I can manage the talking, but I'm not sure menacing is something you can pull off. Maybe just try and look stern and official," Bethany replied.
"Fair enough, I should be able to manage that."
"I know you said that sexy stuff loud enough for me to hear, I know he is yours, you don't have to keep planting your flag on him like that." Bethany said in a teasing tone.
"That wasn't as performative as you think, that man does things to me." Tara said with a little shiver.
"Oh I know," Bethany said while also doing a little shiver and touching her lips with a finger while remembering their kiss. "I'm not trying to steal him though, I have no interest in being a wife."
"Fair enough," Tara replied, "I just want you to keep in mind what's best for him, his emotions are brand new so he is like a teenager with puberty hormones right now."
"Focus up," Bethany said pointing at the approaching people. "Game faces on, we should expect a trap so stay aware."