Flowers of Spring

Cries could be heard throughout the area, it was clear that Rose Garden has never heard its cries, especially in the middle of the night. Nobody was around, so nobody was here to help her…

It was raining petals, and albeit they were falling slowly, the moment one dropped in the hands belonging to Milala Alexander, it clearly triggered some memories that even she thought would never pop up again. It upset her a lot, to an extent. The fact that it involved her clan, and the fact that when she finally got out of that treacherous building when the cherry blossom petals were falling down in the area slowly, it was saddening, but at the same time, it represented the woman’s freedom. Her freedom after being used as a guinea pig for many years.

“These cherry blossoms…” The female whispered as she stroked the one in her delicate hand, a tear falling down from her soft skinned cheeks to compensate for her emotional outburst. “So many memories that I didn’t want triggered are suddenly triggered…” The female sighed softly as she placed the petal right close to her chest before letting it go, the petal slowly fell down onto the woman’s knees, the knees that weren’t covered by her already luscious skirt.

“Godamnit…” The female stated as she stood up…

“Seems I have some stuff to deal with… This is getting aggravating.” She sniffled as she slowly stopped her depressed and upset antics, this was no time to cry, it was time to stop the bugger before it made her upset again, after all... she wouldn’t want to revisit them memories at all right now.

Word Count: 276
Total Count: 276
Goal: 2,000

Rose Garden, a small part of northern Fiore that was well known to be quite lively during the day due to all of its attractions and its use of magic in quite literally everything. This would be the place where the young woman known as Aliarey Casady would find herself, except instead of the bustling daytime life surrounding her it would be that of the quiet night. Most of the citizens residing in Rose Garden had turned in for the night, leaving only deserted streets and alleyways. The hum of the lacrima powered lamp posts lightning the streets had been the main source of sound until a stream of loud cries rang through the area and broke the silence.

A few moments before the mysterious outburst Aliarey had taken notice of the cherry blossoms slowly falling from the sky. If asked even she would have had to agree it was a pretty sight, even in the night. The variations of pink and red contrasted against the dark sky and the variations of color on her dress. Her gloved hand reached out and allowed a small petal to gracefully land in her palm. A few seconds were taken to merely stare at the petal curiously before she would turn her palm over and allow the petal to fall gently on the ground. A single petal was harmless, but the falling blossoms were beginning to be numerous. Every inch of her doubted the scene was what would be categorized as normal. There was a source and it had to be stopped, if only to prevent herself from drowning in a sea of cherry blossoms during her stay in Rose Garden.

Then the emotional cries of another person had reached her ears. Her thought process had broken and her gaze turned towards the direction of the sound. It was not far at all from her location, but Aliarey normally was not one to care for such things. Still, a sigh escaped her lips and her legs began to take her towards the source. Curiosity was hard to fight.

Aliarey soon found herself turning a corner and upon doing so her blue eyes caught sight of a young woman standing up from the ground. Her feet stopped moving, wanting to keep the distance. Had she been the one to make such an emotional outburst? She seemed perfectly fine physically. It then dawned on Aliarey the appearance of the woman.  Innocent looking blonde twirled pigtails, a short dress with the color of white purity, and a sinfully red ribbon around the waist. The woman certainly had the appearance of one to be in a model magazine or even the more adult classified ones. Hopefully her personality was not the ditzy type. “Hey, are you okay?” Aliarey would ask, tilting her head slightly and placing a hand on her own hip. The matter of the blossoms would have to hold up for a moment more.

Word Count: 489
Word Count So Far: 489/2000

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HP: 220
MP: 100
Spells Used: N/A
Abilities Used: N/A

Not knowing what to do, Milala sighed softly as she crossed her arms, there must be a way to stop the cherry blossoms, they were having a terrible time with her, and she was starting to get annoyed by their pinkness. She shook her head and looked around for anyone that could be causing it… instead, she heard a voice, a voice of a female. So… she wasn’t the only one out here…

“Ah, yes… I am fine.” The female nodded, walking towards the other blonde, letting one of her feet follow the other in an accordingly fashion. “Just memories decided to flash back into my mind by seeing these lovely petals falling from the sky.” She mentioned as she bit her lower lip. Right now, she felt she could just collect these petals and place them on a bed while waiting for a ravenous man or woman. That was not the right sort of mind to go about with.

“My name is Milala... I am quite new around here, which explains why we have probably never met before. That is no issue though... right now I believe that there is a bigger issue here. We will be drowning if we don’t stop this… I will be asking for a lot of support however if we do decide to go with this endeavour.”

Trying to walk over to the other girl, the girl then slipped up over some cherry blossom petals and fell flat on her butt! On the bright side, it was only her butt that hurt and not everything else. Groaning in pain, she shook her head and looked up to the one who was questioning if she was okay.

“Ha… haha… This is awkward!” She chuckled to herself as she got herself up. It seems that they really do need to be dealt with, especially since she tripped up, imagine how it would be if everyone suddenly started to trip like her. She believed in death, but not being injured.

Looking around some more, she continued to look for the culprits of the issues, and sure enough, not far from the blondies, appeared to be dancers. The dancers looked like they were having fun while performing ballet tricks in a circle.

“There’s four over there who seem to be commanding it, should we take them out??” The lady in white queried towards her. “If you want to share, thats fine, theres enough for both of us.”

HP: 180
MP: 100%

Spell/Ability:


Word Count: 409
Total Count: 685
Goal: 2,000

A slight nod was given towards the other female after she had responded in regards to her well being. She was quite glad she would not have to waste her time taking the woman to a hospital or escort her home, although the question of what sort of twisted memories existed within the stranger to cause such an outburst trailed through her own mind. It was not important at that current moment, however, nor was it any of her business to ask. Aliarey stood silent as the woman introduced herself and mentioned being new to the area. In truth, she did not visit Rose Garden much herself and even then not many people stood out enough to linger within her memory. It would seem this time would be a little different. Milala was the first to comment on stopping the cherry blossom storm which came as a surprise to the re-quip mage that was usually not a fan of teaming up. Perhaps this time an exception could be made. The innocent looking blonde seemed competent enough and if she was willing to help put a stop to the pink madness then she was likely a mage as well. A small smile came across Aliarey's face, and she was just about to agree to the temporary alliance when the other woman slipped and fell right onto her butt while walking over. The smile quickly turned into a frown. A lot of support was right.

"Name's Aliarey, and are you sure you can do this?" The question came with a tone of doubt, but with poor Milala already slipping before things even got started surely no one would blame her. The question would not matter much since the stranger began looking around for the cause of the petal storm. Her own blue eyes scanned the area, helping in the search. It was difficult to spot much of anything in the distance with the amount of cherry blossoms falling but it did not seem to affect the other blonde. Aliarey squinted her eyes as she looked in the direction the white dressed woman had mentioned and sure enough there were four figures dancing. That was indeed very weird and certainly fell under Aliarey's definition of suspicious. They did seem harmless, but there was the old motto of act first and ask questions later.

"Definitely," the gun mage responded with a wave of enthusiasm taking over. It was time to cause a little mayhem. If she knew Rose Garden was going to provide such entertainment she would have dressed for the occasion. For now, her lovely arsenal of weapons would have to make the first impression. Within one of her hands a circular spark of light flashed and formed into a small disc, a disc that was then thrown onto the ground and formed into a small gatling turret. She held out her hand over the turret and with more of her magic energy was able to replicate the weapon to create two more. A series of ten shots were fired from the rotating barrels of each turret, some hitting the desired targets while some missing completely. The aim was never one hundred percent unless it was a massively sized target, after all, and the enemies the blonde duo faced were thin and agile. If the dancers did not take notice of their presence before then they surely did after the first projectile attack wave.

Word Count: 571
Total So Far: 1060/2000

---

HP: 220
MP: 70
Spells Used:
Mini Turret Disc - Duration 1
Abilities Used:

Tower Defense Game:

“Yes, yes, of course I can. The cherry blossom petals seem to be very slippery however, so I ask that you are to be careful.” Milala reassured her temporary partner. There was so many things that the two should be careful about. If the petals are super slippery like Milala herself suggested, then this may be a tad difficult if they were to rush to Rose Garden’s aid.

Watching Aliarey’s face turn the moment the dancers were spotted, then Milala knew what she must do. Hell, even seeing the other female suddenly bring out her weapon of choice made Milala’s smile turn a bit on the psychotic side of things. “Welp! Here goes nothing!” The unholy goddess grinned as suddenly, a piano fell over all of the dancers and instantly vanished. This made the expert of dying giggle, her hair was changed, her eyes changed. Hell, even her clothing instantly changed and all the female could do was play with her long, silver hair as she walked over to the dancers.

They looked a bit fumbled, but that didn’t matter! Milala was about to sort them out right now, grabbing one of them by their hair and even cackling.

“Tell me, Aliarey… do you believe that this will stop them??” Milala turned over to her as the dancer then fumbled around, trying to make Milala let go of her hair. “Awwwh, what’s wrong sweetie?? Are you having a hard time?? Let me help you… you earned it, honey!”

Summoning a knife in her hand, Milala kicked the dancer onto the floor and then walked towards her again, eventually stabbing the youthful creature. The dancer clearly perished, the female then licked her lips, tonight was indeed a good night.

With the knife still in her hand, Milala then decided to kill herself, stabbing herself seppuku style before falling onto the floor. “I’ll be back in a quick 5 minutes.” Milala announced before her eyes closed.

She killed herself...

HP: 180
MP: 80%

Spell/Ability:

Falling Piano:

Sharp knife:

Unique Ability:

Word Count: 328
Total Count:  1013
Goal: 2,000

At the sight of a piano seemingly coming from no where to fall upon the group of dancers and instantly vanish Aliarey became quite shocked. That was a new one and was especially hilarious. She had to blink several times just to be sure she saw what she really did see. The dancers seemed heavily damaged and had a wave of surprise of their own, proving enough that something had fallen out of the sky randomly. Was the mage she had a temporary alliance with have a sort of cartoon gimmick magic? Her blue eyes turned to glance over at the direction Milala spoke, or at least what used to be the blonde drilled hair mage. What stood there now was a being that looked somewhat darker, deprived of the innocent guise that the other form had. If that had been the look Milala had from the get go then it was likely Aliarey would have avoided her at all costs. Something seemed unnatural about it and the gun mage could only be thankful that, at that current moment, they were allies. She had no idea what to expect from the other woman and traveling the realm of mystery and unpredictability while being on the wrong side was not exactly a hobby she wanted to pick up.

"Ouch..." Aliarey watched as Milala toyed with one of the dancers with the end result of stabbing it, causing the trouble-making being to perish. "Yeah, that'd just about do it," Alairey commented in response to the earlier question asked of her. Milala seemed to enjoy taking out the creature in such a way, but the thought of pressing a dagger into the body of another made her own stomach turn. While she personally had nothing against using such methods, it just wasn't her style. It was far too intimate between the victim and the attacker and the last thing she would want is to actually feel the life draining away while also being so close as to actually see the light fade from the eyes. Using ranged methods avoided all of those unpleasant details so long as she never thought about or paid attention to it.

The second wave of her mini turrets had completed, each firing off ten more projectiles before disappearing in a small explosion and eliminating more of the dancers. By that time Aliarey's widened slightly as she saw the now silver haired woman turn the knife upon herself. "Hey, what are-" It was too late. Milala had quickly jammed the knife into her abdomen, leaving Aliarey to stare on with a look of horror on her face. What the hell?! So surprised was she by the other woman's actions that she found herself losing her balance upon the slippery ground and fell, the very thing she had mocked the other for some time ago. As the woman closed her eyes to pass onto the world of death the gun mage got even more confused. "Oh, you'll be back in five minutes all right! As a useless ghost!" If she was not already dead then she would of shot her until she really was! Just what was she supposed to do about the current situation? The cherry blossoms were still falling, proving that there was more to the petal storm than just the dancers themselves, and now thanks to her ally wanting to find out what the other end of her blade felt like she was alone in the matter. What a complete mess.

(Word Count: 584
Total So Far: 1644/2000)

---

HP: 200
MP: 70
Spells Used:
Mini Turret Disc - Cooldown 4
Abilities Used:

While Milala was dead, she was unaware of stuff that was going to happen. Her whole body was numb and she couldn’t move. Her fair skin not showing a sign of a pulse nor is she moving willingly. No breath projected out of her mouth and the wind was blowing over her casually. It was clear that the female was well and truly dead.

In the land of the dead, a set of eyes opened and a breath escaped from the lips of the wondrous female. Getting up, it was pitch black and her legs was wobbly, but that didn’t matter. Milala did know however, that it wouldn’t take a very long time before she would be welcomed back into the land of the living once more.

Surrounding her, was a graveyard. This graveyard was very similar to Milala in all the other times that she has died before reviving.

“Milala?? Again?? Mind you, it’s been some time before you done the deed.”

Walking towards the silver haired maid of death, was a man. He wore all black, but the female can’t tell what he even looks like. She just knows that he was also someone kind of like her, except he hasn’t found a way back into the living. “If you keep coming back, you might end up like me! Har har har.”

“Sir, you know I will never end up like you…” Milala protested lightly, before walking up to him and hugging him tightly. “I have a duty to do.”

“That you do, now go, oh and, I see you joined Basilisk Fang… don’t fuck yourself over, some of the people there cannot be trusted.”

The light began to envelop the young lady before she dissipated, her eyes flicked open with such aggression and she sat up quickly, breathing and looking over to the other female. “See, I told you I would be five minutes.” She grunted as she looked over to the area of the stabbing… she was bleeding out, but that was fine, she expected this with her knife.

Looking around once more, she gave out a little think before looking around. It seemed only one of the buggers remained and she merely grinned. “Oh… hehehe…”

Walking over to the last dancer that survived, she grabbed her by the ear and then placed her mouth near the dancer’s ear.

“Where the fuck is your leader??” Milala would ask. “It was clear that you were motivated or at least you were commanded to dance like that.

“N-no! Our master didn’t tell us to do anything! We were just having fun and watching it!”

“Tell us… where are they?”

“N-nowhere! N-not here!”

With a faster speed, Milala performed the same trick that she performed on herself, except it was on the dancer. The dancer struggled with profound results, but in the end, she limped out, and all Milala could do was kick her to the side. “Pfft.”

“HOW DARE YOU!!!”

The voice boomed all over Rose Garden, it was loud, clear and somehow… childish? Yes, this must be their leader, leaders usually feel like that with their comrades if something were to happen to them. The female couldn’t help but look behind her, sure enough, there was a girl behind them, she looked very young.

“Ah, so you’re the leader??” Milala had to ask before looking at her partner.


HP: 175
MP: 80%

Spell/Ability:

Sharp knife (Second Post):

Unique Ability (1 stack activated):

Word Count: 561
Total Count:  1574
Goal: 2,000

Unbeknownst to Aliarey, Milala was actually quite alive and well even if she was taking some time to conversate in a realm of the dead. It was doubtful she would even be able to comprehend such a thing even if she allowed her imaginations to come to that conclusion based on the other blonde's last words. For now, all that she knew was that the piano conjurer was a corpse rotting on the ground and she lacked any sort of power to change that herself. It was still a scenario she found to be rather annoying and the thought of just taking off and leaving crossed her mind as she got back on her feet and brushed the petals that clung to her clothes away. She wasn't a saint and no sense of guilt would swell in her gut if she left Rose Garden to defend itself, especially when she felt she had already done her part in clearing up some of the dancers. One remained, however, and after bringing out her normal set of pistols from the holsters on her hips she shot at it. The damn creature was alert by that point and avoided the attack with ease. "Tch." Such a simple attack was not going to work, but she really did not want to waste anymore of her energy on it. If she did, it'd be likely she would just go overboard and attempt to blow up the entire area just to get rid of the dancer.

A slightly familiar voice spoke up as Aliarey stood there, contemplating her options. Her thoughts froze as she slowly turned her head in the direction the corpse had been lying before. She felt like she was in some sort of horror flick and even dropped her gun at the sight of the silver haired woman standing up with a grin on her face as she walked over towards the last dancer like a villainous predator. It was clear from her viewpoint that Milala was bleeding out, but the whole stabbing might as well of been nothing more than a scratch. Just what was she? That was no magic she had ever heard about before. Her mouth opened to say something but nothing came out but a puff of air. She was stunned beyond belief that even her loud mouth couldn't react normally.

The dancer was soon dealt with ease, likely also too shocked to do much of anything to defend herself. No leader information was obtained though but it would seem that would not be necessary anyway. A childish voice boomed throughout the area and caused Aliarey to snap out of her stunned trance and come back to functioning reality. She turned around just as Milala did to see a young girl standing there, looking very unhappy. Great, a kid. The gun mage never liked dealing with children on a regular basis and now one was out of control and an enemy. Was she supposed to actually hurt the little twerp? Her eyes closed for a moment and a decision was quickly made as they opened once more and looked towards her ally. "Just so you know, I think you're really creepy." Aliarey admitted as the weapon she had dropped moments before returned to her hand. "Lets take out this brat." She would continue to work with the strange mage for now even if the way she died and came back to life was a real enigma. Milala had not posed any threat to her so far and Aliarey could not find a reason to make her an enemy at that point when the leader of the blossom party had appeared. While the young girl could of just been a child in need of a time out, she was now considered a threat and had to be dealt with before she did anything harmful. Aliarey was a survivor and she wouldn't even underestimate the dangers of a child having a power trip. Without even seeing how Milala felt about dealing with a young child, Aliarey raised both of her pistols and aimed them at the cherry blossom leader before rapidly firing in her direction until both clips were empty.

(Word Count: 698
Total So Far: 2343)

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HP: 200
MP: 70
Spells Used:
Mini Turret Disc - Cooldown 3
Abilities Used:

Weapon Recall:

Standard Pistols - 0 Ammo

So much was going on, and yet, there wasn’t much time gaps to ease the two girls along, all the while, Aliarey thought Milala was a very creepy person, but who could blame her?! Milala’s magic wasn’t exactly ordinary… it was strange, unusual, extra terrestrial if one could even call it that. Her magic was based on killing herself before coming straight back to life, not that she minded though, she felt good and feeling good was the main thing that mattered.

Milala crossed her arms, knife still in hand… It was clear she was thinking, now to take the leader off guard, that is… of course, she allowed Aliarey to do her thing first, shooting till the clips were empty.

“What to do, what to do… oh… I know.”

Milala’s grin turned into a right little smirk, one that suited her facial complexion at that time, even her eyes bled out evil intentions. “We should furnish you with a warm bloody welcome then… shouldn’t we??” She asked as she uncrossed her arms slowly, this was before she quickly flung the knife at the child, kind of like how a knife thrower at a circus would. While it missed for the area that the seemingly young woman wanted to aim for, she still hit the childish leader in the arm, and boy did it seem painful, the young woman screamed out in pain, holding the targeted area in pain.

“You… you wuss! How dare you!”

“Oh, simply I dare…” Milala grumbled, rolling her eyes. Why do people always act the same in pain?? She knew her methods were… questionable, but at least she was going to get the job done. “You know, you remind me of someone…” She grinned as she walked towards the flower girl. The flower girl, wasn’t going to take this easily, with a huff and a puff, she sent out razor sharp cherry blossom petals towards the two girls, Milala, being Milala, blocked it with her face, feeling the full force of the petals cutting her delicate cheeks.

“Aliarey… I suggest you go, I am going to deal with this girl personally.” Milala said when the razor sharp petals finished their fill. It was time to teach her a lesson, and so, summoned a large guillotine. The moment the guillotine popped up, the girl instantly panicked and even looked around in a little daze. She was already in a lot of danger, and she was not in the condition to fight, to see her end being involved with a guillotine was not her thing.

“No… No!!! Yield! I yield! Please don’t keep hurting me!”


HP: 110
MP: 65%

Spell/Ability:

Spoiler:

Word Count: 438
Total Count: 2,012
Goal: 2,000

Aw, hell. The flower girl was still standing strong even after all of her shots. "Stupid, weak things." Aliarey muttered to herself and mentally cursed all the shop clerks that never gave her a discount for upgrades. Rather than spending the time to reload the pair of pistols, she threw them back into their holsters along her hips and summoned out a pair of revolvers from her magic storage. Being a re-quip mage had its perks, one being able to summon her more special weapons near instantly. She had missed seeing the knife attack, but she could hear the scream and the dialogue between Milala and the girl. After looking over the weapons she had summoned to ensure they were ready for use, Aliarey looked up to see a wave of cherry blossom petals come in her direction. Since they were petals she thought they would of been harmless, but as one cut into the skin of her cheek she shouted at the minor pain and covered her face with her arms until the attack was over. The sleeves of her clothes now had many cuts through the fabric and her arms had many cuts as well. That little brat.

As she brought her arms down from her face she could hear the other woman suggesting she leave so the girl could be dealt with personally. Normally she took off when things got dangerous and even though she took some damage things were not serious that she needed to ditch completely. Then again, she was the lazy type that did not mind letting someone else handle things. She shrugged and was about to go when a guillotine popped out of no where. Staring in disbelief, Aliarey came to the conclusion she was using re-quip magic the wrong way. Who even thinks to store one of those?! After this experience, she was so buying a tank that ran on auto pilot and would try to stick that in her magic storage to summon. Or maybe a giant cannon. Cannons were good and fun.

The girl's screams of surrender brought the long haired blonde back to reality. Oh, right. She was leaving. Unfortunately, Aliarey was not heartless and not quite dark enough to sleep well after hearing that and just allowing her head to get chopped off or worse. A large amount of guilt ran through her and she had to answer to it. "Whoa, whoa, and a little more whoa," Aliarey shouted as she quickly made her way to be in front of Milala, her back turned on the flower girl. "I know what I said before but she surrendered and that," she pointed at the guillotine that had been summoned, "is just a little much. Lets just forget about the whole head chopping idea."

(Word Count: 464
Total So Far: 2807)

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HP: 140
MP: 60
Spells Used:
Ember Revolver - Duration 2
Mini Turret Disc - Cooldown 2
Abilities Used: NA
Standard Pistols: 0 Ammo

Dang, Milala was just about to have some fun and already Aliarey was trying to get in her way. Maybe she shouldn’t of proposed this alliance, maybe she should shove Aliarey’s head in the guillotine instead… but no… she has a job to do. That job requires getting this childish little git in front of the two, to stop being a complete hellhole!

“But Aliarey… ugh… fine… I will knock her out instead… the guillotine stays!” The female demanded. “Theres someone I usually meet when I die and I want to speak to them again.” It was clear that the female knew what she doing, and instead summoned the falling piano once more, landing on the flower maiden and crushed her. Job done, nothing to it. The piano vanished and it did indeed look like the flower girl was knocked out.

“There…”

OOC: well it’s done now x) sorry it’s a lazy post though, there isn’t really much for my girl to do here. Finale will be the last post


HP: 110
MP: 50%

Spell/Ability:

Word Count: 142
Total Count: 2,154
Goal: 3,750

"Phew," Aliarey let loose a sigh of relief. Honestly she wasn't sure if the strange woman would be that easy to convince. If it came down to having to fight her off it was unlikely the gun wielder would actually stick around to partake in the battle. No way was she getting herself harmed or killed for the flower girl. She was no hero, after all! The falling piano made its appearance once more, causing the blonde to cringe at the sight of the crushed flower maiden. Yeah, she was definitely glad she wound up not having to fight her.

With the flower girl unconscious, the cherry blossom storm came to an end. The girl herself even disappeared as her body turned into petals. Aliarey did not care for an explanation on that since she was honestly glad she did not have to carry the young girl around just to prevent Milala from changing her mind and killing the girl after she left. Wait a minute, did the suicidal weird woman just say the guillotine stays and that there was someone she met when she dies? All right, she certainly was quite the insane character. "Wait...are you?" Her gaze turned towards the guillotine and then fell back onto the woman of many lives. Her mouth opened to speak again, but instead of saying what she thought she just laughed nervously and pointed in the direction she had originally come from. "I'm just...yeah I think I'm just going to go... over there...somewhere...away...from you...now." It dawned on her she was busy babbling rather than getting the hell outta dodge. "Why am I still talking?" She didn't wait for an answer and took off in a run. That woman was just a tiny bit too extreme.

Never had she needed a list of people to avoid until that night. Beside number one would be Milala's name. Hopefully that list never got any bigger, and hopefully she never ran into that crazy woman again. If she did, running away in the other direction might not be enough. If she was lucky maybe Grema or Liam would be with her. Then they could just be pushed towards that woman as a distraction while she got away. One thing was for certain, Aliarey had her standards and being alive and healthy was very high on that list. Crazy people were to be avoided always, and not to be teamed up with. A lesson she learned that night.

(Word Count: 411)

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HP:
MP:
Spells Used:
Abilities Used: