A Wizard's Grace [Job]

Riding on a borrowed horse, Leila was headed far north this time. Quite far north in fact. She accepted a contract that required her to discover why all vegetables in a certain village turned... weird. The job itself required weaker mages than she herself was actually, but the rewards was too grand for her to not take this offer. Even contracts on her level of power usually didn't offer this much jewels for so little work. Unless there was a catch to this whole situation. But that remained to be seen, as Leila finally spotted a giant column in the distance. The famed beanstalk that the village itself was named after. It truly reached all the way into the skies. Maybe it was part of the heavenly Eden's garden. Probably not, but one never knew. After all, it was rather unusual plant, and Leila's magic was associated with nature that was unnatural, as weird as it sounds. These thoughts helped her pass time as she eventually reached the dense forests that were all around the village. At some point, she even had to leave the horse behind, tying him to one of the trees and marking the location on her map, making sure that she wouldn't forget him there. It probably wouldn't be the best if she lost a rented horse. It would certainly impakt her finances. Maybe she should already buy her own steed. Thinking about that, she moved through the bushes and other vegetation, eventually reaching the Beanstalk village.

She was quick to find the village Elder, a truly old man whose body was covered with tribal markings from head to toe. He was also rather small compared to her, only reaching as far as her waist. She never really understood why were almost all old people so short, yet so long in the prime of their youth. But right now, she had to focus on the matter at hand, the strange veggies in the village. "Name's Leila Vergious. I'm here about the... vegetable problem?" She introduced herself and stated her business when she approached the man. He quickly turned towards her and hopped in sheer happiness. "Oooh, finally! We were starting to worry that nobody would come and help us. Oh, this is such a tragedy. The most awful, dreadful tragedy in the history of Beanstalk village, surely!" He started explaining, or wailing rather. "C..calm down, ser. Please, show me those vegetables of yours." She urged him to stop complaining and actually show her what was the problem. Oh.. oh! Yes, of course! He shouted, almost as if he had forgotten what he was talking about just a moment ago. With a swift turn, he waddled off to somewhere and Leila could only sigh. Looking around the village, the atmosphere here truly was something else. It was... quite dreadful. And then the elder returned, holding a basket filled with vegetables. But as soon as Leila approached it, the vegetables started shining with a blinding, unpleasant green light.

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Status
HP: 200
MP: 100%

Word count: 500

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

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'Monster Dice' :

All of the tomatoes in the basket suddenly grew larger. Much, much larger. They also grew... arms and legs? The whole situation suddenly got a lot creepier that it was moments ago. Though, overall, they didn't look all that intimidating. Like, not at all. In fact, they were actually quite cute and cuddly, with their giant round bodies and happy smiles. But still dangerous, these were clearly not friendly creatures. Swiftly stepping in front of the Elder to shield him, she got ready for an incoming fight. "Ser, the entire village is contaminated it seems. But since they only appeared after they came in contact with my magic, you sill have time. Tell everyone to hid in their homes and not to come out under any circumstances!" She warned him and gave him few instructions. Thankfully he was the kind type of elder, not the one that would snap back at her, all grumpy about a young lady giving commands to someone who has much more experience in life than her. As he slowly wobbled off, the tomatoes got closer, their smiles suddenly looking a lot creepier. "Look at the puny human! They think that they can get rid of us! Nooo way, there is no way in hell that puny human like this one can even touch us!" One of them spoke while the other one suddenly tried to body slam the little mage. "They can talk?!" Was her immediate reaction but as she saw the giant red ball coming from the sky, she quickly rolled to the side, letting the demon slam into the dirt.

"She dodged it? Ha, pure luck! Luck I say! The next attack will totally obliterate her and make her into a red stain on the ground!" Spoke the one that attacked her, clearly upset that it had no effect at all. But despite how their looked and talked, Leila didn't sense any higher magic from them. These guys were chumps! But there was ten of them, and that was not a little. "The only ones who will turn into red stains will be you, sheesh!" Leila verbally attack back and pointed her finger at the crowd of tomato red. "Fear the magic of Eden!" With those words, the one that attacked along with two others suddenly started withering, eventually crumbing into pieces with screams of agony. The rest suddenly started shaking after witnessing such a horror, and so did Leila. Their screams were much more brutal that she expected, burning themselves into her mind. She actually felt bad for them, but it had to be done. These things were demons, their emotions were fabricated throughout. And she had to end them as soon as possible. Taking advantage of their terror, she transformed her fingers into claws and her toes into talons, suddenly looking like an amalgamation of human and a monster. Running towards them, she jumped and started slashing. As expected, they were falling down, one after another. And even though some of them regained their senses as they spotted their brethren getting slaughter and tried to smash Leila with their bodies, they were simply too slow. The red insides of their bodies quickly filled the streets as the corpses started transforming back into ordinary vegetables upon being defeated.

After she slaughter all ten of them, she took a moment to breath in and out a new dose of fresh air. Wiping the sweat from her forehead with wrists, she remained partially transformed. After all, she only massacred one single basket worth of vegetables, there was bound to be more around. Looking to the sides for a bit, she eventually started walking in one direction. It also seemed that the elder already finished telling everyone, as all the doors were shut closed, windows boarded up and some of the tyky styled homes even having several layers of leather on them for extra protection. Truly, houses in this village were hardly structurally strong and even one of those tomatoes crashing down on it would probably destroy them. Something she had to prevent at all costs. The streets as well were littered with tables, seats, fire pits and crates. If she were to use her wide-area spells, it would probably not end well. Thanks to that, she had to stick with small-scale attacks only. But thankfully the bodies of demonic veggies weren't very sturdy and ready to rip apart with easy spells. And just as she said that, the earth around her started changing a bit. Quickly growing suspicious, Leila started running towards an area where there was more space to fight and waited if some other demons try to challenge her.

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Status
HP: 200
MP: 90%

Word count: 777

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

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'Monster Dice' :

Just as she though, she spotted more giant bodies moving towards her in the distanced. But these were clearly different from the ones before, even if she wasn't able to make out what exactly they were, shape of their body was completely different from a giant tomato. And eventually, they all appeared right in front of her. Five this time, they were giant corns. What more, they were all posing dramatically, every single one of them. That left Leila a tad bit dumbfounded again as she started at them with a blank expression. "Why are you guys... posing?" She asked them out of sheer curiosity. Expecting attack instead of an answer, she was pleasantly surprised when they actually answered. "Why? Because it is stylish! Why would we just stand there like a corn in a field when we can be so fashionable and beautiful?!" Their answer certainly was strong, leaving Leila in even more confused state. Were these demons actually meant to harm the village, or not? Those questions started popping up in Leila's mind, as the corns still stood there, changing poses every now and then. It was more of a stare down than an actual fight. "Right... mind if I ask you corns something? Why are you plaguing this village?" She was hoping to get some solid clues and maybe even answers, but her question was taken in a negativ sense. "What did you say?? Plaguing? We? Ridiculous! This village needs fashionable starts like us! And anyone who says different... will be disposed of!"

With those words, one of the corns started running towards Leila, purposefully tripping and trying to fall on her body when near enough. A simple sidestep was enough for her to dodge and still remain in attacking distance. She quickly hopped on the corn's back and started slashing at it. But these guys were slightly more durable than the tomatoes. The corn started getting back up before she was able to deal enough damage and in a corner of her eye, she saw another one preparing to attack. Quickly jumping from the giant vegetable, she suddenly felt several gusts of wind pass right next to her body. Looking more closely, the other corn started spitting out... well, more corn at high speed. She only barely managed to avoid all the shots thanks to her luckily timed jump. And as she landed, she started sprinting towards the annoyance. To her advantage, these guys were clearly more worried about looking stylish during the fight than about actually defeating her. And as they posed, she had enough time to jump and and scratch out those cute eyes of his, tearing her claw into his body and ripping some of his veggie insides out like a true monster. That took care of one with three remaining and one being very hurt. Noticing a growing shadow underneath her, she decided jump away, two corns crashing down on the place where she was. They even made it easy for her and landed on one another. Forming few roots under the earth, she created a spike that went through them both and easily destroyed them.

With only two left, there was almost no chance of her loosing. But as the damaged one started taking a deep breath, she knew that he was about to start firing again. However, these guys had no coordination whatsoever and the uninjured one tried to attack her at the same time. Jumping into the air, Leila sank one of her claws deep into the corn and got onto his back when the other one started firing. Still aiming at the girl, he only hit his fellow vegetable several times with corn that was flying at high speed. Now heavily damaged, the corn fell to his knees as Leila delivered few final swipes on his back, letting him turn back into a normal corn as he laid there defeated. All that remained was one injured corn, the one that she attacked first. Knowing that he had zero chance of winning, he posed dramatically. "At least... finish me in the most stylish way possible!" He plead, waiting for his final breath with twisted smile. Leila only signed as she slowly approached him. Once close enough, she jumped into the air and slashed with both of her hands, finish him off easily. He too, returned to his original state as he was defeated. That marked fifteen vegetables she already clawed down today. And she had a bad feeling there was still plenty of them left out there.

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Status
HP: 200
MP: 75%

Word count: 758

Questioning the nature of the magic that was at play here, she sat down on one of the boxes nearby for a moment. But only after making sure that it was sturdy enough to hold her weight of course, she didn't want to damage anything in the village. Although the corns probably stamped over few minor things, there was still no big damage done to the environment. Which kinda suggested that all of this was only to harm the villagers and no one else, not even the land. But of course, there was no concrete proof of that. It was nothing but theories and Leila's assumptions. Unfortunately, she was no detective and so far, she wasn't able to determine what was wrong at all. She could only hope that once she defeats more of those vegetables, everything will return to normal. Either that or maybe she could get lucky enough to find the one responsible for all of this. But that would probably require an immense amount of luck, something that Leila was missing lately. Though, the fact that there was a job with such a high reward like this one was probably lucky for her in the first place. Which would contradict what she had though earlier about herself not having any luck. Scratching her head with both of her claw-hands, she decided to not think about nonsense like this and focus on the mission in front of her instead. Once everything would be done, she could think about luck all she wanted without anyone interrupting her.

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Status
HP: 200
MP: 85%

Word count: 258

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

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'Monster Dice' :

Not really leaving her much time rest up, the ground started shaking slightly as more corns started drilling their way up, as if it was no problem at all. Seemingly wanting to avenge those she destroyed earlier, they started quickly surrounding her and limiting her options of moving around. Posing in a way to make the gaps between them as small as was possible, they all started staring down at her. Without a words, they all started getting ready for attack. But Leila had her ace back in the sleeve, as her time command spell was once again usable. Simply snapping her fingers, three of the corns suddenly started changing color into a gross green and black, the individual corns falling from the body until they were nothing more than a mess on the ground. Obliterated with that little, the remaining two corns started backing away. "And there you have it, you just don't stand a chance. So be nice corns and just tell me what's happening here!" They were both looking rather nervous, their expression a good mix of fear and anger. And Leila here thought that she would never see a corn sweating buckets. It was almost disturbing to look at. And after few moments of waiting, both corns turned around and started elegantly sprinting away from her, trying to save themselves. "Hey! Come back here, you can't be running around the village and causing chaos!" Shouting that, she started giving chase. Thankfully their bodies were too large and legs too thin and short, they just weren't built to overrun an athletic mage.

Jumping on one's back, she sank her claw into him, making sure he won't be able to shake her off. But as expected, it made him squirm as crazy, running around in circles, spinning and even jumping around. Eventually, he exhausted his energy and started slowing down. "Alright, be good and-" She wasn't even able to finish because the corn suddenly started screaming. That surprised her so much that she had no idea what to do. And then, the corn executed it's perfect plan. It fell flat on it's back. And poor Leila who's hand was stuck in it's body was momentarily flattened. Certainly not pleasant experience, that thing was huge and heavy! Thanking the gods for such a resilient, she started pushing him up with all of her strength until she was able to roll from under him. Getting back to her feet, she was breathing heavily and clenching her fists. She no longer desired to get any info from this one, she only wanted to tear it apart for what it just did. But the corn was not giving up. His body allowed him to start rolling sideways, almost flattening her again. But thankfully she noticed it soon enough and jump on top of him. Running on place and accelerating him, she eventually rolled him to the edge of the village when the other corn that was running around frantically and chaotically came into view. Deciding that she had enough of that poor corn that was unable to get up in it's state, she shredded it with several swipes of her claws, not to mention all the wounds it had from her talons that were stepping on it this whole time.

With only one remaining, she started running towards that one as well. Apparently it wasn't bothered by posing anymore and just wanted to save it's life, the poor vegetable. But just like the other one, Leila eventually caught up. And she learned too. Never let the corn crush you, no matter what. She was still rather angry about that fact and her eyes were gleaming with a crimson vision of a dangerous predator. That only freaked the corn out more and made him all the more speedy. Getting close enough eventually, Leila lunged forward and swiped at him stick-like legs, easily injuring them and making the corn faceplant. Stepping on it's head, or rather the part that had face on it, she leaned close to the veggie. "How about you? Will you tell me anything." The corn was clenching it's small teeth as it listened. But in the end, it decided to go against her to the very end and started rolling sideways just like his friend did. And since it didn't work the first time, it didn't work now either. Only fool would fall for attack this slow and sloppy. This one wasn't capable of getting back on his feet ever so by killing him, Leila was doing him quite the favor. Of course, she did it by ripping his face off and watching how the rest transformed back into an ordinary corn. Sighing, she bent forward, her hands on her knees as she breathed out. It was quite the chase and she was out of energy. Problem was, she run through the entirety of the village, which caused a lot of commotion. Even from the distance, she saw a small army of veggies heading her way as they sprouted from the earth when she ran by. This definitely would not be a pleasant encounter at all, whatever type of enemy was headed her way.

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Status
HP: 180
MP: 75%

Word count: 864

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

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'Monster Dice' :

Seeing five more corn-like giants in the distance, quickly approaching her location, Leila could only sigh. Apparently this village was mostly cultivating corns and few tomatoes, nothing else. Thar or the demons only liked being corns and tomatoes, who really knows. But what was strange was the fact, that the strange atmosphere of this village just got even heavier. A dark mist started rising, limiting her vision as the five shadowy figures spread around her. Though it was still clear that they were posing like crazy. However, there was something else. Something way more sinister than just a bunch of over-sized veggies trying to body slam her. And then, she finally saw another shadow approaching her. Only this time, the silhouette was much smaller and actually shaped like a person. This was no vegetable, it was a man. And soon enough, he was close enough to reveal himself. A long, gray-ish beard, he actually didn't look that old in his face. His body was enveloped in black garb, one that you would see on a necromancer or other dark mage and in his hand, a warped wooden staff. "So it was you, making all that commotion around here... destroying my lovely demons and granting them no mercy. Fufu, have the villagers hired you to clean up this mess? I'm afraid it won't be that easy... you see, I have big plans! And I don't plan on loosing here." He clenched his staff and the miasma got thicker. His magic was clearly doing it's work, casting something. Something very unpleasant. But she was able to resist... if she were to find the right moment...!

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Status
HP: 180
MP: 75%

Word count: 273

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

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'Block Dice' :

Managing to block his magic for now, she quickly looked around her. The corns were already getting close when she suddenly felt a strong pain. One of them stayed behind and started spitting corn again, hitting her directly while she was distracted by the mastermind who actually showed himself for once. In the end, she probably was lucky. And injured, the blow managed to knock her to the ground. But thankfully, she was ready to cast spells again. Targeting the one who managed to hit her and two others that were closest to her started immediately withering, screaming in pain as their bodies disintegrated. Display of that spell made the dark mage move few steps back. He clearly realized how she was able to deal with his work so effortlessly. And he definitely wasn't happy about it either, trying to make his magic work again. But Leila had more problems heading her away in the form of two remaining corns. They actually tried to squish her by belly flopping against each other. Creating a whip or of her hands, she was easily able to wrap it around their legs and make them both fall before they were able to do so. Quickly jumping on one of the corns, she started clawing at him until his body started falling apart, indicating that he had enough. Looking forward, the last corn was back up. But to that, Leila only started dancing around with her whip, shredding the poor bugger from distance until he fell on his back and transformed into his original state. At that moment, the dark mage sent another wave of his dark energy against her.

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Status
HP: 140
MP: 65%

Word count: 276

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

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'Block Dice' :

After defeating all those foes in the form of giant corns, she was unfocused and he caught her off guard. She wasn't able to repel his magic and in few moment, she completely lost control of her left arm that slowly retraced the claws and looked human once more. But despite that, it didn't damage her in any way. And she still had her right hand, that was plenty to take care of an old geezer like him. "I don't know why you did this... but I shan't tolerate it any longer. I was actually hoping to run into the one who caused all this. Because by creating vegetable demons, you must think of yourself as some sort of powerful monster, right? Well... I'll show you what a real monster looks like." With a grin on her face, the entirety of her body started changing, just like her arms and legs did at the start. Her entire body was now reminiscent of a wooden sculpture that was capable of moving. And soon after, it ignite itself. With her body engulfed in flames, she felt pain. But it wasn't nearly enough to stop her. It was only making her stronger and angrier. "I had about enough of fighting giant vegetables! This ends now!" With those words, a flaming spike rose from underneath the dark mage. Not being anywhere near fast enough to dodge, he flew into the air. Creating a small flaming flower with a bright red fruit next to her, she took the fruit and threw it directly at him. Upon contact, it exploded in a fiery explosion. But it wasn't enough. Jumping at her own flaming column, she used it as a platform and jumped even higher, grabbing his foot and burning it just with that touch. Of course, she immediately slammed him back into the spike, nearly impaling him. As he fell down, she landed on top of him, digging her searing talons into his flesh. And finally, she summoned several small roots right underneath him and nearly strangled him. But she had no desire to kill him and released him as soon as he passed out. It was a fierce combo that quickly put the mastermind to sleep.

And with that, her body returned to normal as she fell to the ground next to him. The miasma disappeared completely and people started coming out of their homes. Quickly surrounding the two, villagers helped Leila get up and tied the dark mage up. One of the younger villagers also noticed that all the vegetables returned to normal. Her mission was a great success. Not only she managed to remove a large number of the vegetable demons, she even managed to capture the one who caused all of these problems in the first place. And even her arm slowly started returning to her after the whole fight was done. Which made Leila extremely happy, as she was unbelievably worried that the effects of his magic were permanent. Soon, the elder approached her as well, bowing in front of her. "You showed a great courage and rid us of our problem. Along with the gratitude of the village, I'd like you to have the promise reward and nothing less." With those words, he handed her a giant pouch, filled with jewels to the brim. Something that made Leila's eyes spark without a moment of hesitation. Taking the rewards and accepting the village's gratitude, she slowly left with the dark mage being dragged behind her. Now she only had to find her horse again and after that, make a small stop to the nearest prison for mages. After all, she had to deposit this 'veggie mage' somewhere.

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Status
HP: 120
MP: 50%

Word count: 616

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