The Fire that Consumes You | Job | Aiyana, Enola

Enola was an early bird, no doubt. Every day, before it was seven in the morning, she had already awoken, dressed herself, dressed her teammates, and supplied them with a well-balanced breakfast. This morning, however, she awoke and alarmingly found a token item of hers missing: her little white handkerchief. The flimsy cloth was an object she carried everywhere with her, securely tucking it in her pockets every morning before she did her daily duties. The cloth, albeit simple, was a priceless treasure to the sentimental maid. She had carried the thing with her since she was eight-years-old. As a little girl, she used to carry with her in her tiny pockets as she blissfully went about her daily duties. It had even been with her when she traveled with the Inopians some years ago. It was like a life-long companion to her.

The maid figured she had left it at the Lamia Scale guild hall after she briefly used it to clean a smidge of dust the night before. She garnered herself with her servant’s outfit, the housemaid uniform, and headed hurriedly into Hargeon Town. With Shohei’s manor located on the outskirts of the town, Enola was forced into a habitual walk until she made it to the center of town, where she found the marble tower. While it still needed some work, the guild hall had regained its luster from the damage it received at the hands of Zuo Cii’s sons. She walked up the bare, beautiful staircase and entered upon the main room of the guild hall and looked around in search of her precious handkerchief.

“Oh dear, where did I place it?” she mumbled to herself.

---

WC: 280/250
PC: 1/20

”Where. Are. My. PANTS!”

She had been searching for her pants for the last half hour, unable to find them in the mess that was her room. They had to be somewhere, really! 'Maybe I should start sleeping with my pants on,' she thought to herself as she took her late uncle's satchel that held all the documents she had found and tossed them onto the pile on her bed. Maybe it was on her desk? She turned to the small desk in her room and started moving papers and beauty supplies around until she found the object of clothing she was in desperate need of.

”HA! Found you little guy! She yelled the phrase quite loudly as she started to put her pants on as she walked towards the door, backwards. This proved to be a poor decision for the young woman. As she took a step back, the back of her foot met something hard that didn't move as she stepped. With one leg currently in the air, and her pants halfway up, the girl fell backwards against the slightly ajar door. With an “Oomph” that could probably be heard from halfway across the Lamia Scale's Headquarters, Aiyana fell onto her butt in the hallway.

Slowly standing up, rubbing her butt as she did so, Aiyana put her pants all the way on with her one free hand. As she looked around, she noticed a white handkerchief lying on the floor near her door, the woman having fallen past it to get where she was now. Picking it up, as there was sure to be someone wanting to find it in the Guild, Aiyana held it in her hand as she turned to see someone turning into the hallway she was in.

”Hey! Know anyone that carries a handkerchief around by chance?” The question was yelled down the hallway, Aiyana not knowing the other person as she really hadn't done any jobs with other Lamia Scale members other than the lobster girl from her first job in the cafe. 'I wonder how that girl is though, I should try to find her one day,' she thought as she started walking towards the other woman. She appeared to be a maid, but perhaps she was a mage who was into that sort of clothing!

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Word Count: 385

Enola wondered into the marble hallway, nearing the personal quarters where many of Lamia Scale’s members called home. Her porcelain shoes clicked against the stone floor but was overpowered by a rough thump echoing down the hallway. With the window light guiding her, Enola hurriedly followed the source of the noise until she came upon a young woman holding her handkerchief. The white cloth looked like a diamond appearing miraculously out of the sky; angelic hymns might as well have been playing as Enola graciously plucked the cloth from her new friend’s hand.

“Oh dearie me, thank you so much!”

Enola looked upon the cloth as if investigating it for any oddities. It still had the small blood stain on it, a feature that seemed t only infatuate the maid with more nostalgia. She gracefully folded the cloth up and placed it snuggly into the pocket of her uniform, making extra sure it wouldn’t fall out be lost once more.

Feeling the necessity of kindness at hand, Enola curtsied and inquired, “Ms. Enola Gay. To whom do I owe the pleasure of finding my handkerchief?”

The maid was ashamed to admit that she did not know the names of all her fellow guild mates. Given that she spent the majority of her time in Shohei’s own home, she did not spend as much time in the guild hall as most of the Lamia Scale mages. In fact, new members seemed to pop up all the time whilst older members just seemed to disappear.

---

WC: 253/250
PC: 3/20

'Well shit, that was pretty easy!'

Aiyana almost laughed at how quick the owner of the handkerchief she had found had shown up. It was almost as if fate led it to happen! The white cloth was gently taken from her hand as the other thanked her for finding and returning it. She watched as the lady examined every inch of it before folding it and placing it into the pocket of the maid uniform she was wearing.

'Wait...why is she in a maid uniform? Is she an actual maid?'

There were many other thoughts that ran through her head before the taller woman began to introduce herself and ask for an introduction in kind.

'My name's Aiyana. It's not a problem, just glad I could return it to the person it belonged to without having to scour the entire guild to find you.'

With that said, the bandaged mage's curiosity got the better of her, asking a question that probably should have been obvious to her.

"Since I doubt we have any maids hired in Lamia Scale, do you happen to be a mage?"

She hoped the question wasn't found offensive, as that was not what she was hoping for. Meeting more mages meant more friends to go on jobs with; and she REALLY needed the jewels from those jobs if she wanted to eat in the future.

It was then that she realized that her door was still open, and that the two of them were facing each other a step too far away for her to quickly shut the door without being rude. Her eyes shifted from looking into Enola's, to the room, and back to the girl as she worried about the absolute terror of a mess that room was. Having tossed everything around to find the pants she now wore, nothing was in place and most everything was on the bed or floor.

"So," the shorter girl spoke up to keep Ms. Gay from looking into her room. "Would you like to go on a job with me today? Think of it as a time to get to know each other as guild-mates!' Aiyana hoped and prayed that the new acquaintance would not mention her room, she wasn't ready to have to explain that one to her yet!

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Word Count: 383

Enola was not well known for being a member of Lamia Scale. Many just seemed to cast her off and believe her to be little more than the help that cleaned up around the guild hall. Enola did not mind in the least though; she preferred to be in the background, far away from the spot light where the true heroes were supposed to stand. The fact that barely anyone knew of her despite her role in defending the guild hall spoke volumes of her much she valued humility.

“I am most thankful, and yes, I’m a mage. I belong here to Lamia Scale as you yourself do, Ms. Aiyana.”

The maid smiled with radiant happiness, enthralled by the chance to meet a fellow Lamia Scale mage she had not had the pleasure of formally meeting once before. Her enthusiasm subtly lessened though as she peaked her head to the left and saw a horrible mess at hand in the woman’s room. Enola seemed honestly astonished by what she, the person who spent weaks cleaning every nook and cranny in the guild, saw in Aiyana’s quarters.

“Job… eh, of course but… perhaps we should clean your room first?”

It was difficult to explore what was going on in Enola’s mind rather than a thought train of OCD that desperately wanted to clean the cluster fuck that no human being would dare to call a personal room. Enola fought and resisted the strong urge to just walk in and clean up the mess herself but figured it was a tad rude.

---

WC: 260/250
PC: 5/20

So she WAS a mage! AND was was actually from this guild and not a visitor. 'Well, that makes everything a lot better,' she thought as the mage in maid's uniform held a radiant smile. That smile didn't last long, not when she turned and got a glimpse of the young woman's room. There was quite the pause as Aiyana just held a wide-eyed stare at her, the other woman too distracted by the mess to actually notice it.

After the bandaged mage could move her face again, the other girl mentioned cleaning her room first. She wanted to yell 'NO!' at the top of her lungs, but that would have been rude to yell; even though the things in that room were not one's another wanted to find while cleaning. Instead, the short girl quickly stepped over to shut the door as she laughed nervously.

"Let's take a pass on the cleaning, you DON'T want to see what all is in there. It would be better if I did a slight amount of the cleaning before letting you in there after...

While those words could mean anything, this time they meant MANY things. You would have to be brave to clean that room alone, and Aiyana wasn't sure where she had left a few things that would embarrass both parties involved.

"Why don't we just look for that job then, huh?"

The phrase was said as quickly as she was suddenly moving down the halls, going directly for the job board to find something to distract the maid from the disorderly room. Once at the job board, Aiyana grabbed one that seemed to have been pinned up quite recently, and haphazardly from the looks of it.

Here's one that's out in Oak Town. Says there's a Wizard and his pals are attacking civilians and they need some mages to stop the attacks. Want to take this?"

The last question was raised to Enola Gay as the other girl showed her the job paper she had pulled off the board. It would give her a great chance to practice her magic against it's one weakness, although a very slight one. Every mage involved seemed to use fire magic, the leader of the group apparently having a very dangerous fire attack that was taking out decent sized areas; people being hurt or killed in the process.

"Uh, if we take this we should probably hurry on to it. Seems like people have already died!"

She really hated all the senseless violence. Couldn't people just get along? A place with no violence would be a great place to grow old, and be happy in.

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Word Count: 442

Enola felt the desire to raise her voice and protest to clean up the mess, but Aiyana had a point; everyone has something in their room that never needs to meet daylight. The maid knew she could never look at Sinon the same way again after discovering the box under his bed (shivers went down Enola’s spine every time she thought about the incident). She took her new companion at her word and followed Aiyana to the job board where they peeked over what needed done. Aiyana took the initiative to select the most urgent of the bunch, one that required defending the helpless people of Oak Town.

“Yes, we should probably head off right away. It seems awfully strange though.”

Enola plucked the sheet of paper from Aiyana and gave it another good luck before folding it up and placing it in her own pocket. The thought of mages randomly attacking people prompted questions as it was definitely out of the ordinary. She tried not to put too much thought into it, assuming it was a case of power going to one’s head that centered around the pointless destruction reported by the job description.

The two exited the guild hall and threw up her hand. A great ball of dust formed above them and slowly gathered until its form shifted into that of a three meter-tall angel composed completely of dust.

It flexed its wings as if showing off and Enola could do nothing more than laugh, “Ready, Ms. Aiyana?”

Enola jumped onto the angel’s back and, whether she was ready or not, the angel grabbed Aiyana by her shirt and they were flying off to Oak Town in the matter of moments.

---

WC: 284/250
PC: 7/20

"Yeah, it really does seem strange. The mage must have something REALLY wrong to think what he's doing is right. Not to mention if it was a dark guild there would already be some people there to take care of it.

The small conversation took place as they walked out of the guild hall, Enola suddenly throwing her hand up as they did so. Above them, a large ball of dust started to form and continued to grow. As it did so it shifted into a shape that anyone could recognize; an angel. 'I've heard of dust bunnies, but never dust angels,' she thought as she stared at the three meter tall creation that was flexing it's wings.

Aiyana was asked if she was ready as Ms. Enola Gay jumped onto the creature's back. Before she got a chance to say anything, or even open her mouth, she was grabbed by the dust angel and taken for a ride. At this point, having ridden on two other pets, Aiyana had no problem with being in the air. Her hair whipped around as they flew towards their target, Oak Town. Still worried about her beloved jewel in her hair, she kept looking back to make sure it was still attached.

It wasn't long before the angel set her down at their destination. Aiyana fussed with her long hair and fiddled with the jewel on the end to make sure it was set properly. After double checking her belongings, weapon included, she turned to her job partner of the day.

”Well Ms. Enola, shall we head to the location they keep appearing?”

Not waiting for a response, kind of like with how the flight had went, Aiyana walked on towards the market they would be defending today. It wasn't a long walk, Aiyana traveling at a quick pace to get there before anything else could distract them from stopping more damage being dealt. Unfortunately, the sound of screams were already reaching their ears.

”Let's go Enola! Looks like we're late to the party!”

With that said, Aiyana ran towards the sound of screams to find out who it was.

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Word Count: 357

The member 'Aiyana' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

Enola and Ai made their way through the town in search of those horrendous screams. The sight they came upon was like Hell on Earthland. The shopping district that they had come upon was burning down! People were screaming to escape the flames that seemed to come from every direction. Three figures in particular were more than enthusiastic than the rest though…

“Burn! Burn! Hahahahaha!”

One of the three figures cackled like a complete maniac as he channeled magic power into hands and lit more of the surrounding buildings on fire. He was having a blast, but in the midst of his fun, a woman was unlucky enough to catch his sight. She was hysterical and frozen up next to the brick wall of a building, too paralyzed by fear to move from her spot.

“Hey, I wonder if you burn as easily!”

The three men laughed before one of them pointed his hand toward the woman and fired off a large ball of fire at her. Good old Mr. Angel saved the day though: Enola sent the dust angel flying in front of the woman to catch the flames with its body. The angel stumbled back slightly but quickly regained its composure. The confidence that the dust angel expressed could not be said for its creator, Enola. The maid looked around with a great worry as the flames among the builds spread. She had such a crushing fear of fire, more so than drowning or prison or anything that her fragile imagination could cook up.

“You and Mr. Angel deal with those three. I… I’ll put the fire.”

Enola gulped and sweated as she looked around for anything that might help her in her endeavor. In truth, she just didn’t want to deal with any sort of mage who used the most destructive element known to man.

---

WC: 308/250
PC: 9/20

The sounds of screams were met with even more noise, a noise everyone could ascertain the source of; fire! This wasn't good for the bandage mage, not at all. Her magic had an easy time falling prey to flames, the burning slightly weakening her spells in both damage and range. That's okay though. I just have to make sure they don't ignite the bandages I send out and get clean hits in. If worse comes to worse I can always use my khopesh.'

With that thought, the two woman got close enough to see three figures in the midst of the burning market. These three were, quite obviously, part of the gang that was doing the damage to this town. As they watched, one particularly excited fire mage threatened a civilian before throwing a large fireball at her. Just before it hit the dust angel, the very same that had flown them here, took the hit to same the lady's life. The angel's stance showed quite a lot of confidence, something that couldn't be said for Aiyana's guild-mate. She had a look of worry in her eyes as she stared at the flames, only speaking up to tell the bandaged mage that she was going to put out the flames.

”Okay...guess I'll work on taking these three down and hope Enola actually comes back,” she muttered to herself before going in at the mages. With their attention focused on the dust angel Aiyana had the perfect chance to get a first hit in on all of them at once. Being so close together, a flick of her wrist and a loud scream let loose a cat 'o ninetails whip that struck all three mages in their backs. One went to the ground, while the one that had tried to attack the civilian and one other managed to stay on their feet.

Before the one could get back up, and regain his composure, Aiyana let loose a standard bandage whip with a casual flick of her wrist. The wrappings struck the mage in the face, making him move a hand to cover it in pain as he fell back to the ground. As he wasn't out of the fight yet, Aiyana rolled underneath a decently sized fireball before smacking the blunt part of her weapon across the back of the grounded mage's skull.

”Come on! You think you can take us on? There's more than just us three here! You'll never make it out alive, just like the rest of this petty place!”

As the cocky mage said this, he let loose another inferno at the bandaged mage. She barely managed to avoid it, dropping to the ground completely before rolling to her left to get up.

”There's no reason to commit such acts of violence needlessly! Stop now and let us handle this without any more fighting!”

The words went unheeded, as the other mage tried to surprise the girl with a fireball at the same time the one doing the speaking did. Neither hit, but the Lamia Scale mage had to retreat to do so. 'Well! I guess we have to do this the hard way then!' The angry thought was followed by a snap of her fingers that was a simple command for her fairy to come out of the protection of the shadows.

”Give us a frightful spirit. We can scare them off of us and maybe possess one and even the odds as we go.”

With that said, a sparkle midair formed that quickly became an embodiment of human fear; the frightful spirit she had fought when she, Seikatsu, and Katerii had been figuring out the zombie curse. The ghost's one command was to strike fear into their opponents and attempt to possess any that the creature deemed it was possible to do so on. She gave Memory a nod of approval and ran back towards the two. While the talkative mage had no reaction to the ghost, the other one was now wide-eyed and frozen in fear. Using this to her advantage, the girl rammed into him at full speed. The hit forced him, with a loud 'oomph,' to the ground before Aiyana clubbed him with the Khopesh and sent him into unconsciousness.

That left just the talkative one, whom was already hit a bit from before. In a panic, having watched his buddies get taken down with ease, he launched fireball after fireball at Aiyana. One hit, blasting her back and sending her into the dirt.

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Word Count: 752
HP: 95%
MP: 85%

Spells Used;

Bandage Whip:

Great Wife's Jealousy:

Enola looked around in search of a way to put out the fire but it all seemed helpless until the maid spotted a ladder leading up to one of the highest buildings which had yet to be consumed by the magical fire. An idea popped into her head and she rushed toward the ladder, certain her new friend could hold her own whilst she calmed the flames. Her gloved hands tightly gripped the ladder, forcing a wobble from the metal hunk that scared into double thinking her plan. The fire had no time to wait though; it continued to spread amongst the buildings like a virus would ravish a herd of beasts. The pressure, much like the fire, raged on and Enola closed her eyes as she courageously scaled the ladder despite the everlasting feeling that she could fall at any moment.

When she reached the top of the building she peaked over the building and spotted Aiyana battling it out with the fire mages. From the look of things, however, she was clearly the more superior opponent. The sight of the fire mages being beaten rejuvenated Enolas courage and brought her back to the matter at hand: how to handle the fire.

“Alright, here it goes…”

Enola channeled a massive amount of magic power into her right arm, causing it to disintegrate along with most of her shoulder into a dust cloud. The dust cloud began to spin and expand, like tsunami of dust. The end result was a massive dust storm that encompassed the whole area. The uncountable amounts of dust began suffocating the flames and extinguishing them before any more damage could be done. The dust even began making its way toward the battle field, prompting the dust angel to give Aiyana a bear hug and shield her from the dust. The last fire mage, however, could do little as the dust slowly suffocated him into unconsciousness.

A brief moment later, the dust storm had resettled, and Enola’s arm was restored. She peaked over the edge of the building once more and waved to Aiyana.

“The fire is gone!”

---

WC: 352/250
PC: 11/20

The member 'Enola Gay' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Monster Dice' :

OOC about dice rolls!:

Before she could fully get up off the ground, Aiyana was suddenly enfolded upon by the dust angel Enola had made earlier. She started to panic for half a second, before she heard the sounds of flames start to dwindle down. Along with this there was the sound of the talkative mage choking and gasping for air. Only once all those noises were gone was the bandaged girl released from the safety of the angelic shaped dust-form. Looking around her, the first thing she noticed was that every flame had been put out. "So...she did that with her magic?' As she thought this, Aiyana looked up at the sound of Enola's voice telling her the fire was gone.

"Good job Enola!"

Just as she finished saying this, waving to the woman on the roof as she did so, there was the sound of maniacal laughing coming from around a corner. As Aiyana looked in that direction, four figures came around and moved in their direction. The three in front looked like new mages recruited by the other guy behind them. That guy, though, was a sight to behold. He seemed pretty young, sporting a long blue coat with red runic markings on it. His blue hair was at face length, sweeping across his face as he moved about. The only bad part to how he looked was the look on his face. He gave her and Enola a deranged look, and a very toothy smile with it.

”Well look at the two beautiful vixens come to ruin our fun. Haha! You put out the beautiful flames! Now we have to ignite it again, as well as you two!”

The man was quite crazy, from what the short girl could tell from his actions and speech. Having finished that, Aiyana was automatically put on the defensive as all four began shooting fire spells rapidly at her; ignoring Enola on the roof for the time being. The ghost, however, was also ignored and managed to hit one of the henchman's before the purple tinged creature fazed into the ground to avoid being counter-attacked.

”That's right, keep backing up! We'll hit you eventually and then you won't stand a chance!”

The crazy man was cocky as well, meaning this would be aggravating if it went on too long.

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Word Count: 385
HP: 99%
MP: 85%

Just as the battle was coming to a close, four men with the widest grins came walking around the corner as if they owned the street they were walking on; although, they were probably insane enough to believe it. One of them, the one swathed in a blue coat, was the obvious leader of the bunch. His claim to authority appeared to be little more than cocky grin demanded a cringe from every passerby who happened to witness his mad presence. Atop from the building, Enola, somewhat spooked by the crazy man who likely weaved fire just as his barbaric companions did, watched to see what moves either Aiyana or the fire mages would perform first.

Between the lot, it seemed to be Aiyana who was the fastest as her creepy creature managed to one-shot one of the minions as if he were as fragile as a glass bottle. The leading fire mage did not seem to care though; in fact, he appeared to be absolutely thrilled by his own companion's torment and pain, even cackling as he beckoned his other two goons to rush the Lamia Scale mage. The maid would have none of that though, sending Mr. Angel at the two who were powerless against a being with such an advantage of fire. They, of course, fire off a fire ball each but the dust angel shrugged it off before slamming its fist into one of the goon's stomach. The poor minion fell to the ground, utterly defeated.

The one remaining minion stepped back while the fire mage leader was possessed by mirth, even pulsating his magic power to throw out a ring of fire that went in every direction.

---

WC: 282/250
PC: 13/20

The member 'Enola Gay' has done the following action : Dice Rolls

'Damage Dice' :

The amount of dodging lessened considerably quite quickly within a few moments of the fight erupting into blazing fireballs. The spirit she had summoned had been strong enough to knock a mage out instantly, leaving the mage one less fireball to avoid almost instantly. In response to this the lead mage just cackled even more before ordering the other two to rush her as they cast spells. In response the this, Enola's angel came down and took two fireball hits. In the process the angel managed to take down one of the guys with a powerful punch to the stomach.

Before Aiyana could react in time to take the last lackey down, she was forced back even further to avoid the ring of fire that the lead mage let loose. Fortunately for them, and the town, not one person or building was damaged in the process. This didn't sit well with the leader of the gang as he looked around to see his spell do nothing. "The demon's here must die! DON'T YOU SEE THAT!? This place will be cleaned, and we will take over it afterward!" The man yelled at them as he threw fireballs at Aiyana rapidly. She easily avoided the attacks, the insane mage to worried about everything going wrong to aim properly at the time, while moving ever closer to the last minion to take him out.

Once close enough a deft swing with the blunt side of the weapon was enough to knock the man unconscious, the thud of his body hitting the ground making a pleasant noise and making the fight uneven for the leader. The ghost fazed up from the ground again, the purple haze lashing out at the man feet. This resulted in the man losing his balance for a moment, stopping the attacks on the Lamia Scale mage long enough for her to get into range to attack. She reached out with the hooked part of the Khopesh and latched it around one of his arms. With a yank a loud popping sound could be heard, the man's shoulder being popped out of place with a loud and pained scream.

She jumped back in time to avoid a point blank attack, although the spirit was not as lucky. With another attack thrown, the spirit managed a body full of flames before it could faze through a nearby wall to get away. The man screamed as she fell back to avoid a counter punch that narrowly missed her nose. 'So glad that didn't hit, I love my nose the way it is!'

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Word Count: 430

Enola could almost cheer as the leader of the fire mage's flames missed everything, Aiyana included. Her own dusst angel, however, did not have much longer. The creature of dust began falling apart until it was nothing but a pile of dust itself. The maid was not deterred though. As her guild mate took care of the final remaining minion, Enola made her way down the rickety ladder that had brought her up to the building tops in the first place. She ran toward the fight, her porcelain shoes clacking against the stone street. As she charge toward them, magic power began pulsating through the maid's body, a tan aura engulfing her until her entire body exploded into a mass of sand. The sand rapidly expanded to form a great, sideways tunnel of sand that surround both Aiyana and the mad fire mage. The tunnel was spinning ferociously, though the inside was hollow and acted as a prison that kept both the fire mage and Aiyana from leaving.

The fire mage looked around with a look of agitated insanity. His exaggerated emotions made him feel trapped within the tunnel, prompting him to hold his head and shake with irritation. Enola, being the tunnel itself, was no where in site, prompting him to attack the only opponent he could see: Aiyana. The mage pointed his finger toward the Lamia Scale mage and charged his hand with magic power. Flames began engulfing his hand until he fired off a sustained beam of pure fire.

---

WC: 252/250
PC: 15/20
Notes: I did not roll an attack dice since Enola's spell prevents the opponent from attacking surrounding buildings and people.
Spells Used: Dust Tunnel
Abilities Used: Sand

She wanted to be mad at Enola, for what she just did, but couldn't bring herself to be angry. In theory, the crazy mage could no longer ignite anything on fire. Well, everything but Aiyana that is. The mage's only reaction was to attack the one thing he could see, the bandaged girl. A finger was pointed at the Lamia Scale mage, the hand involved in doing so slowly engulfed in flames.'Well, this doesn't look good,' she thought to herself before realizing Memory had the perfect solution to her problem; the Shadow Clones.

”Memory, shadow clones please!” With that said, two shadows moved to become perfect replicas of the woman the shadow fairy called Master. As the laser was fired at her, she was switched with one of the shadows. The shadow, by chance, happened to be the one right behind the attacking mage, giving her the option to counter the man's unsuccessful attack. Her Khopesh swung down, the blade making a slight sound as it tore through the air, and the blunt part of the weapon struck the man on the back. Not expecting an attack so suddenly, the strike brought the man to his knees. As he did so Aiyana swung the weapon again, this attack hitting the already injured arm of his.

The man screamed in rage, swinging himself around as he fell to the ground, and threw a small fireball at point blank. Aiyana didn't have time to dodge the attack, but the ghost that was summoned had enough time to phase out in time to take the hit. That wasn't enough to stop the mini-explosion that hit both mages that were there, separating them as both were singed.

The swirling tunnel paused for a brief moment as the fire interfered with its swirling motion. It returned quickly returned to normal though, and Enola began to form her body. As the injured fired mage stood up with a wobble and snarling face, a ripple in the floor of the sand formed. Slowly, Enola's head took shape and rose of out the ripple, followed by her upper torso along with her arms. Her body and clothes were composed of coagulated sand, making her look akin to a golem. Even her glasses had taken the texture of tiny rock. In her sand-gloed hands, she held a little spear, the same feather duster spear that had accompanied her on every journey so far.

"Tell me about how you defeated the evil fire wizard again, Mama," Inquired Enola's daughter two decades later. Despite the fact that Enola had defeated the fire mages years earlier, the ass-whooping was so real that it was still talked about to that day.

"Oh dear, not this old story again. You're so much like you're father, you know that? It can't be helped though... So there I was: forming behind the man in my sand-dust form with my spear. Aiyana, a dear friend of mine, had just narrowly escaped death. While the fire wizard was distracted, I took the opportunity to jam my spear into his ankle." Ni-Ju Jr. awed at the tale of her mother's heroism.

Several decades earlier, in the present, Enola did just that: she jammed her spear into his ankle, causing him scream, bounce forward, and fall over while flailing about and throwing bits of fire everywhere.

---

WC: 272/250
PC: 17/20

It was strange, very strange, seeing a sandy dust version of Enola form out of the tunnel she and the insane fire mage were trapped inside. It could have been considered beautiful, had it not been just a sheer amount of dirt as the item of creation for it all. The bandaged mage slowly got up, finding herself a few dozen feet away from their opponent as Enola pierced the man's ankle with a small spear the maid had produced to use as her weapon of choice. It resulted in the man screaming as he bounced forward, the other girls cue to start running in at full speed to take advantage of his pain.

As she grew close the mage with issues fell down, his ankle no longer supporting his standing, causing him to throw bits of fire everywhere. Weaving around the flames, the Lamia Scale mage got as close as she could to the man before taking a hard swing at the back of his head. The crack was like that of two rocks colliding together, echoing across the dust tunnel a few times before all that remained was the sound of the sandy dust flying around her. The hit resulted in the man flopping down to the ground completely, his body laying limp on the ground with his head facing off to his left. The position looked uncomfortable, and at first she worried if she had accidentily killed him in the process. She quickly put her weapon away, the movement so natural one would be hard pressed to see it happen, and knelt down next to him to check for a pulse.

It was a few nervous moments before she found it, he was alive. A sigh of relief left her lips as she stood back up, dusting her legs off of the sandy dust that had stuck to girl in the process. ”I think you can stop your spell now. He's not getting up any time soon.”

"Grandma! Tell me that story where you and Grandma Aiyana beat up the fire wizard!" Ki-Ju Ana, the grandkid of so many popular mages that he would never worry in life, asked Enola. The story would go on for a good hour, the aged maid having practiced the very same story for the children across the extended family.

"And after he hit the ground, we realized it was all over. Dropping the wind tunnel spell, I walked up to Aiyana to let her know how much of a mess there was. The bandaged woman said she would turn the man in and get the reward for us and meet me back in Lamia Scale. With that, I cleaned up the mess we had made.”

”Ha ha! I have the best grandparents! I wish I could hear this story every day!” With that said, Ki-Ju Ana would hug Enola before running off to play with the other kids. Aiyana's kid and hers had had a wonderful grandkid for them. She would have to make sure to sneak him another piece of candy before he had to go back home. Like grandma, the child had a fondness for candy.

All of that was so far in the future that neither woman there would even be thinking of it. Instead, Enola did exactly as how her story would go with her grandchildren. So much to clean, so little time. The maid still had to get the daily cleaning done back at Lamia Scale after all, couldn't just skip out on the daily chores.

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WC: 260/250
PC: 19/20

It didn't take long for Enola to drop the sand tunnel spell once the man had fallen to the ground, and Aiyana telling her it was good to go. Once she had done so, Enola Gay walked up to her with a frown on her face. Before the bandaged mage, with the cat eared hat, could ask her why she was sad she was given her answer. “This place is a mess. You go on ahead and turn the guy in. I'll stay back and make sure this place gets cleaned up and back into a livable order.” With that said, Enola began what she would consider something normal for her line of work. Dusting, and any other cleaning that was to be done, was started as Aiyana wrapped the man in bandages so that she could drag him without injury.

”Be careful out here Enola. Make sure that no other lackeys that might show up don't catch you off guard!” After making sure to give the words of caution, Aiyana began her trek to the town hall, where she planned on turning this guy in to the local authorities. While five thousand jewels seemed like a good amount when she had grabbed that paper back at the guild hall, she wished it had been a bit higher. Of course, when one added in the jewel costs the town would be spending on repairs, it made sense to have the payout be a little lower than just taking down a mage that was causing problems.

Two men were ready for her when she got to the town hall, both strong looking and in uniforms that made it known the were the ones that would be taking the fire mage into custody. Hanging her a bag of jewels, the payment for both Aiyana and Enola inside, they carried off the man as Aiyana began the trek to home. 'I wonder how long that silly maid will spend trying to clean up this place. Probably long after I get back to the guild.' A small giggle left her lips as she thought about Enola spending days on end trying to clean as a crowd of people just watched from the sidelines. 'If she's that adamant about it, maybe I really should let her clean my room...'