Freedom Is a Good Look on You (Seika, Ivara)

Seika had an interesting relationship with the Magic Council. Like most wizards, she understood their power and influence over Earthland. That in itself garnered a great deal of respect... still, she and the rest of her guild mates typically staunchly ignored all orders that came from the council. This usually extended to notices and other types of decrees.

Today, though, seemed to be different. Several mages from Elysium were crowded around the board where announcements and flyers were posted. The space was almost always covered in dozens of meaningless advertisements that people threw up just in case someone wanted to take a quick modeling job or something. But as Seika tried to hop up onto her tippity toes over and over again to see over her guild mates' heads, she caught a glimpse of the board. It was completely empty except for one giant poster. Across the top of it was printed in alarmingly bright red letters, "MISSING PERSONS LINKED TO MURDERS." Her curiosity finally getting the best of her, Seika pushed through the crowd, ignoring the grunts and irate mutters that came from people. They let her by, though, despite any annoyances. Soon Seika stood directly in front of the board and was able to take a better look at it. Pictures of missing individuals were on the left, their portraits accompanied by a small blurb indicating their name, approximate physical appearance, and where and when they went missing. Several of the photos were crossed out with printed red Xs- Seika found that looking to the right of the poster showed a long list of the dead whose bodies were recovered from the Unknown Lands. A few names were circled in a printed red color again- the same as the Xs. The connection was clear.

"Woah..." the mage breathed as she slowly touched the face of one of the missing people, someone who seemed to be a young girl and did not yet have an X printed over her face. "That's a lot of dead people," she then said very astutely, as she ran her fingers along the list on the right. "Beautiful observation," came a dry remark to the side of Seika. She glanced over, her eyebrows furrowed slightly, only to break into a smile when she saw Aphelia sitting there. "Aphi! Did you see this poster? It says there's a bunch of people missing in the Unknown Lands! And they found some dead ones, too!" She chirped at the spirit, who was currently in the shape of a brown and white house cat. In return, her companion rolled her eyes and leaped onto Seika's shoulder, where she balanced easily. "They were probably fools," the cat said with a yawn. Seika pouted at the way Aphelia brushed it off so quickly. "Mm, no no! I think there were some Rune Knights involved! See, if you look here," she pointed to the bottom of the poster, where the Magic Council's decree of an emergency call to all guilds was written. "I bet there's something really strong over there! And, and, Aphi, guess what?" The feline blinked at Seika silently before turning her head pointedly away, studying one of their guild mates. "Aphi, don't be like that! Get this, all of the dead bodies had the words, 'You Are Free' printed on their heads! Isn't that cool? Aphi, we should totally go see what's going on over there-" Despite the lethargic nature of the cat, as soon as Seika suggested venturing into the Unknown Lands, Aphelia sprang up, her eyes burning. "No! Absolutely not," she huffed before jumping off of Seika and back onto one of the long tables that stretched through the guild hall.

Frowning, Seika pushed her tongue against the side of her cheek as she thought it through a little bit more. "Well, you don't have to come if you don't want to! But I'm going to go, it sounds really interesting Aphi! Freedom is super cool, you know? And there's also a big jewel reward," she pointed to where the thousands of jewels were promised. "I think I hear some of the others talking about leaving, and I'm going to go with them," she said far too firmly for Aphelia's comfort. "You're actually savant," the cat mourned the sanity of her bond mate, but Seika shook her head. "It's going to be fine! There will be so many of us! And I bet there will be mages from all of the other guilds too, it'll be like a party and stuff." Aphelia was extremely skeptical; scratch that, she just completely did not believe in it whatsoever, but what could she do? Seika seemed determined to go anyway, and she wasn't about to let the girl run off alone. She had to act fast. "Seika, I wanted to do a job today in Magnolia Town," the spirit told her, curling her tail to display irritation. "You're ruining our plans for the day," Aphelia said. Seika winced at that, but just as she was about to say something, a shout rang through the room. "Anyone who wants to go to the Unknown Lands, last call! We're going through teleporter two!" As soon as he was finished speaking, he jumped through the second teleporter on the side of the room, its destination set for the Unknown Lands. Dozens of mages followed after him, carrying all manner of equipment. Seika watched a man lugging a heavy broadsword disappear through the teleporter and she turned to Aphelia, a sparkle in her eyes. Without a word she snatched up the cat and threw her into the teleporter before jumping in afterwards.

Immediately upon landing, Seika felt sick to her stomach. It was a common side effect from long distance magical travelling, but for some reason, today it felt... worse. Before she could even understand if they had reached the correct location, she felt her vision blurring. Blinking hard, Seika rubbed her eyes and then spoke up, calling out for Aphelia. There was no response, but she thought she saw a fuzzy shape on the ground that looked to be brown with blobs of white. "Aphi...?" She managed to ask once more before she fell to the ground, fast asleep.

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A grand adventure. She was going on a lot of those lately. It wasn’t like she invited danger, but one thing she did invite was money. And this particular task was promised to net her quite a bit of that tasty cash. That was why when she rolled out of bed today she was particularly excited. She didn’t even think about the possibility of her job today being difficult in the slightest. So she went through her morning routine without a worry in her mind. Brushing her teeth, brushing her hair, getting dressed, eating breakfast, it was the same old same old. A couple hours later, mostly attributed to picking out an outfit, and she was ready to go. She left her house wearing a miniskirt that was nearly entirely hidden by a white button up shirt that had a checkered pattern down the center of it. Around her waist was a ribbon of sorts just to hold her shirt to her body as it was, admittedly, a little too big for her. She’d rather it be too big as opposed to being too inflexible and having it rip off during a fight. She didn’t want to think about the last time she had had that happen…

Anywho, she finally pulled out the paper that told her what her task was for the day. Something about murders, dead bodies, a common theme between all the killings, and some info about some people being sent out to investigate and they ended up killed as well. The instructions had some information about where to go but there was no name. Just coordinates that she couldn’t make much sense of. Great. An adventure to god knows where with fuck all for help. She felt like she was walking into a figurative trap where there was pretty much no way to succeed. She had a sinking feeling that she was going to end up just like those people, with the same words branded on her forehead. “Free” was it? Yeah, she guessed being dead was being free. She groaned and shook her head as she walked along. If she wasn’t so into getting a lot of money she would have just walked away from this madness but alas… It was far too late to back down anyways. She’d already made it public to her friends and family that she was going on this thing so to go back was going to be a blow to her pride.

It wasn’t exactly a short journey to get to the starting place. The first hurdle was finding out where the frig she was supposed to go to begin with. She had to pursue the help of a cartographer who was able to point out where she was supposed to go on a map. She almost wanted to hurl when she saw how far away it was. She hadn’t exactly brought camping supplies with her. So she had to make a tip to the market, buy a big duffle bag that she stuffed full of blankets and food and water so that she would be able to at least survive on her journey. Then she began her hike. The trip took, oh let’s say, three days spanning various methods of travel. Sometimes she took a wagon, and if she could manage it she took a flying mount but in the end she had to walk quite a ways because this place was quite literally out in the middle of nowhere. After the twelfth straight hour walking she felt completely out of place and had no clue where she was anymore. After a short nap she didn’t even remember which way she had been walking to begin with.

Great. Lost with only a couple day’s worth of supplies left. It wasn’t like there were a bunch of people out here that she could ask for help either… But then, just as she had given up, she saw something on the horizon. “Probably a mirage,” she told her self as to not get her hopes up. But she was pleasantly surprised to see a sleeping girl on the floor. Well, pleasant was not exactly the right word. She was actually horrified up until she noticed that the girl didn’t have the brand on her forhead that the dead people had had. This was a good sign, she thought. Maybe she could… just… wake… her…. Up...? Wait, what was she doing here again? Everything started to shift a little bit as if the ground was moving under her feet. Then she got so drowsy she couldn’t even see straight. Before she knew it she had collapsed onto the ground, right on top of the snoozing girl. She prayed that her body didn’t end up looking too stupid after having falling limp. All she could think of right now was fighting whatever unknown force had been the thing to put her asleep to begin with.

She didn’t know how much time passed. Or what was going on to begin with. She felt like she was in a lucid dream of sorts. In the distance she saw the form of a girl. It was the one who had fallen asleep! She ran over and shouted, “hey! Look out!” but that had been a dream. When she came to, she realized that she was in the exact same spot that she had fallen asleep in. Except this time she saw an enormous white dome and the floor had turned white. “Am I still sleeping?” she asked groggily. “Hey, wake up,” she said while shaking Seika. She started gently but she started shaking more vigorously when she noticed that they weren’t alone. There were enemies now. This wasn’t good. “Now would be a great time to get up and help me out!” she shouted. She had to hope on hope that this girl was competent. She herself lacked much that would do well in a fight. It was sheer luck that kept her functioning on jobs like these.

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The moment Seika woke up, her mind was absolutely blank. Obviously, she had gone to sleep, because there was a heaviness weighting her limbs, accompanied by that fuzzy weakness in her body that she always felt after a nap gone too long or a night's rest. However, the ground.. or whatever she was sleeping on. It was white, and glassy to the touch. Her cheek, still pressed against it, confirmed that despite any of her body heat that had leaked into the material, it still felt cold. Perhaps it was made of tile? Blinking in confusion, Seika slowly sat up, only to discover that she appeared to be inside of a... room? Puzzled, she got to her feet and began to step, a little bit wobbly, towards the nearest wall. It was pure white and seemed to be not that far away, but then again, with how oddly circular the vertical walls of this place seemed to be, it could have just been perspective. Now that Seika was considering it more, the area was actually a dome, like a giant half sphere set over the ground.

She stumbled over her own feet and nearly fell face first, but by pin wheeling with her arms she managed to stay right side up. Seika's expression became even more confused when she studied the wall in front of her again. She could have sworn that it was closer before- and that was before she had even walked more! Now keeping a very close watch on it, Seika took a few steps forward- then some more, and some more. As she covered distance, the area seemed to just grow and become bigger and bigger. Yet, it seemed completely empty, and void of anyone whatsoever. Well, if moving meant that there was going to be an even bigger dome, she just... wouldn't move. Plus, from what she could tell, Aphelia was still sleeping. Even though Seika had no idea where Aphelia was in this place, as long as the bond told her that her friend was still napping away peacefully, she was determined to do the same. Nodding to herself determinedly, Seika sat back down on the floor and proceeded to curl up and sleep.

She awoke to a hand on her shoulder, shaking her as if it were a life or death situation. "Huh??" She sputtered, her eyes still half closed before squeezing shut tightly as she covered her mouth in a yawn. "What on earth-" Seika opened her eyes and blinked blearily at the girl who seemed to be yelling at her. "Help... you? What's your name? My name is Taneda Akies, but everyone just calls me Seika," she introduced herself sleepily, still confused by the situation. The stranger's words hadn't even made it into her brain and were just noise. Very loud noise. However, Seika's attention was grabbed suddenly by a buzzing noise. Ten small flying... weird machine thingies were headed their way. Seika squinted at the sight with interest, still not moving, until she winced as she felt a streak of pain run through her arm. Biting her lip through the pain, Seika put a hand to it, healing the damage while dislodging the miniature bullet that had embedded itself into a few layers of her flesh. "What's this?" She looked at it before comprehension suddenly dawned in her eyes.

"Oh! We better go," the mage made a noise of understanding before she scrambled to her feet, her movements all of a sudden far less sleepy. "Um, this way!" She charged in a directly opposite of the robots, only to slam into a narrow wall after running less than ten meters. Seika stepped back, dazed slightly. Her head hurt from the collision. "Uh, ow... that's not good," she muttered, blinking hard as she put a hand to her head, healing herself again. The girl took a look at the wall; it seemed to only be the width of maybe a meter at most, and when she walked to the side of it, she could see it was barely half a meter thick. Where had it come from? That was a mystery, but either way, Seika could hear the buzzing noises of the robots getting louder. They had been so far away, but it seemed like their speed was more than she had noted from the distance. "I don't really wanna run," Seika complained, her face cringing as she remembered the feeling of slamming into that wall. Her instincts weren't fast enough to dodge those. With a yawn, she summoned a giant bubble that would encase herself and possibly the stranger, if she were vaguely nearby. A round of bullets slammed into the shield, and Seika winced before bolstering the defensive spell further, adding more magic power.

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She was glad that the severity of the situation was becoming clear to the girl next to her. “Hi, I’m Ivara. I’m one of, presumably, the many who’ve been sent here to deal with this issue. Nice to meet you Seika.” It was good that they could get introductions out of the way because things were about to get pretty bad pretty fast. Projectiles of all sorts were flying around from the enemies and it was only a matter of time before someone got hit. Seeing Seika pull out such a projectile from her body showed Ivara that these weren’t that big of threats. Still, it was no excuse to slack off. Ivara tried to develop some sort of strategy in her mind. She had little to nothing that could be used offensively and she rarely had any capacity to damage people at a distance. She was going to have to be a little creative with her strategy if she was going to… Wait, where did Seika go? She had to put her head on a swivel and see that she’d taken off. Was her strategy to run? That couldn’t be a good idea if the goal was to defeat the enemy…

“Hey get back here, I need your help!” Ivara shouted to her just as she bumped into a wall. The other girl surrounded herself in some kind of protective sphere but Ivara had no such defense. She instead ran towards one of the enemies, feeling their projectiles closing in on her. Running into all these walls that jolted her didn’t do much to improve her mood either. She didn’t have any clue as to what she was supposed to do, but she had a feeling that these things were stupid and would have a good chance at damaging each other. So that’s what she aimed to do. She jumped up, taking several projectiles to the torso, before grabbing hold of one of the enemies while its friends bombarded it with projectiles, killing it. Once it started to drop she simply leapt off of it to land onto the next one which would undoubtedly get bombarded as well. She would do this five times, dispatching five of the annoying enemies in total. However by that point she would have gotten hit enough times to not want to get hit anymore. She’d run back to her partner and hope that she had some kind of healing powers. If she didn’t, well, Ivara at least hoped that she had the ability to clean these things up.

“I can probably clean up the rest of the small fries, but I have no clue what to do about the big ones,” she said to Seika while pointing to the two large enemies off in the distance. They were still a good ways away but there was no doubt that they would be here soon and then they’d be forced to deal with them. That was especially true if they were going to have to put up a fight. There was also no telling if more enemies would be coming later. This was all one big mess.

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Seika chilled in her own dome for a little while, slumping to the ground with her back against one of the annoying little lightning walls. Even though it zapped her continuously as she leaned into it, the electricity did no harm and was probably the majority of the reason she was still awake. After all, the sleep that was still weighing down on Aphelia's consciousness was indirectly affecting her, as well. Speaking of Aphelia, Seika wondered where her other friends were. All of the guild mates that she had followed through the portal were now mysteriously missing, and she had been left with this stranger. Potentially a friendly stranger! What had her name been? Eva? Seika pressed her tongue against the inside of her cheek in concentration as she ran over her recent memories.

"Oh, whoops!" Apparently, as she'd been running, Eva had called in the distance for her to come back. She... needed help? Well, Seika had missed that completely. With a wince, she pulled herself to her feet, putting a hand on the edge of the miniature white wall to support her weight as she rose. Ignoring the electrical shock that ran through her body, Seika stared around the area. It wasn't difficult at all to spot the other girl, since the space was quite literally only filled with them, the enemies, and white walls. In the distance, she thought she could see a few more blurry shapes, but that was another problem, for later. Seika managed to drag herself in Eva's direction, but after a little while she started to feel sleepy again. Luckily, another wall had popped up right in front of her, so Seika leaned against it and watched with blearily but avid eyes as Eva jumped around and took out several of the little robots. "Wow, so cool!" She clapped, letting go of the wall, but then her eyes caught the wounds littering her body. "Ah, you're hurt?" Seika gasped, before she threw out a shimmering bubble shield that wrapped itself protectively around Eva. The other girl made her way over to where Seika was still standing.

Biting her lip in momentary concentration, she ran a hand over Eva, hovering several centimetres away from her body, like some sort of magical metal detector. Sparks flew out of her fingers and into any wounds, patching them up and relieving any pain that might have accompanied the damage. "You're so brave! Ahh... fries?" Seika blinked in uncertainty. She was suddenly hungry, but apparently there were big fries here, so maybe she would get to eat soon. Turning in the direction that Eva pointed, she saw the blurs from before, their outlines becoming clearer as they neared the two. They didn't really look like food, but she guessed appearances could be deceiving. With a shrug, Seika turned back to the other mage and said, "Okay, Eva! You be careful!" She pointed at her and shook her finger a little bit scoldingly before leaving the position and heading in the direction of the two enemies that were still a fair ways away.

Soon, Seika made the discovery that they seemed to be twins, or opposites of some sort. The one on the left was nearly the same bright white as the walls around them, but it was shining with a golden light that helped distinguish its shape from their surroundings. On the other hand, the person... thing... on the right was dark, with an anti glow around it. That might not have been the best descriptor, but it was as if an aura pulled in all the surrounding luminescence, darkening the air around it slightly. Either way, they both seemed to be very cool! Seika watched with wide eyes as they stepped closer and closer, moving steadily. Just then, the dark looking one rushed her, dashing forward in a blur and slamming into the shield Seika had formed around herself earlier. The barrier broke in a flash of bright light, and Seika wrinkled her nose in consternation. As mildly annoying as it was, she simply threw up another shield, this one bright and glowing with an iridescent rainbow. While it was smaller, it could withstand damage better. She took the moment it gave to study the dark one who was attacking again. It seemed like every one of its movements sucked out the light from the air around it, before sending pulses of golden magic back out again. On the contrary, the light enemy seemed to be exuding dark magic from its physical attacks now. With a shrug, she put those thoughts to the side.

Tugging sharply at the atmosphere around them for hundred meters, she sent a shower of bubbles raining down, splattering the two twin guardians with magic that left them rooted to the spot, unable to move any more. Seika took that opportunity to exhale several bubbles that careened into the light one's head, stunning it further and knocking it to the ground. Meanwhile, her hands had been busily creating another shower of bright sparks, mixed with silvery flames. After gathering a great deal of them, they erupted from her position, swirling around her in a storm of magic and engulfing the two enemies, slowly wearing down their bodies and leeching away their life. Seika turned away from the two as they were slowly consumed by the flames, her mind moving to other things already. Where was Aphelia? While the mage could sense that she had not yet been roused from her slumber, it had been a decent amount of time since their arrival into this place. Maybe the sleeping magic had affected the spirit more deeply; either way, she was concerned for her friend's safety.

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In the midst of all the action she couldn’t help but feel like she was getting a little in over her head. The attacks weren’t exactly stopping and she wasn’t about to magically get better in the next half a minute. She thought that she had done at least a little bit of a good job. Half the small fries were taken care of and she even was able to get healed and shielded by her new friend. That was nice. Not dying was always… nice. Maybe she should have talked it out some more before charging in head first, then she wouldn’t have had to deal with all the damage she had taken. Fortune favors the bold? Or was it look before you leap? She hated when stupid sayings like that got in the way of common sense. The enemies in the distance seemed to draw closer and closer, much faster than the small fries that were buzzing around and being a general nuisance. She wondered what her backup plan could possibly be. She could run, sure, but what if she just ran into a wall or something? None of this seemed like a good idea at the moment.

She turned her attention to her partner who still seemed a bit out of it. She seemed to have obsessed over the word Fries and had misheard her name. Neither of those two things were deal breakers to her as this was kind of a dire situation. “Wait, what are you going to do,” she asked but by then her partner was already jumping into action. She let loose a bunch of attacks that didn’t look too harmful at face value but they were unexpectedly powerful. She was able to occupy the larger enemy’s time and attention which was all the help she needed to give. In the meantime, she took time to go and attack the remaining enemies buzzing around. They weren’t all too threatening now that she had a shield around herself. It was a actually quite convenient, not having to worry about getting hit too much. It allowed her to jump up and smash the enemies with all her strength without having to take defensive precautions. She smiled victoriously as she leapt from enemy to enemy, dispatching them all in quick succession. Before long there wasn’t anything left except for… the two big ones that were probably going to be tough.

She took a moment to reorient herself and she looked at her next target. Its movements were very slow and sluggish. No doubt the result of the work her partner had done. She grinned and then ran over to it, only to find that it and its friend were already more or less goners. Was that it? Were they safe? There weren’t any enemies that she could see but she could still sense something. Something strange… She ran over to her partner and said, “that was some mighty fine work you did back there. Thanks so much for your help. By the way, do you sense something off? I know we’re supposed to find a way out but this is kind of weird. It feels like we haven’t finished or else I think an exit would become apparent.” She was having trouble putting her thoughts into words. All she knew was that something felt off. Little did she know that a final enemy was materializing behind her. It was one that only appeared as a last resort to clean up the trash, so to speak.
The enemy said, “you will die with the rest. Shame that I’ll have to purchase more defenses but the money you have on you should be enough to cover the damages...”

She turned around and let out an “eeep!” when she saw that someone had popped up out of nowhere. “Are you the mastermind here? Let us out!”
“Sure, if you defeat me the barrier naturally falls. But that won’t be as easy as you think.” He then started monologuing about his life story which nobody really cared about. He simply thought that he had no chance of losing which was why he felt like it was okay to let go of his master plan. Perhaps he was being too cocky because as he rambled on, Ivara leapt at him and held him to the ground. She knew she couldn’t restrain him forever but she had just seen how effective her partner had been. All she needed to do was keep him still for an easy hit and then they could both go home. And hopefully, once they got home, they could get rewarded for all their hard work. The money she was promised was so close she could even taste all the yummy food she was going to buy with it.
“You think this will stop me? Take this!” He started to glow. If not stopped he was sure to let loose an especially damaging attack.

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When Eva sprinted over to join her, Seika immediately looked up. She eyed the shield a little bit critically before clapping in satisfaction. "Yay! You didn't get hurt again~" she sang, happy that her new friend was still alive and well. When the other girl thanked her for the help, Seika beamed and was about to respond when she realized Eva had more important things on her mind as well. Something off? Seika blinked in confusion before she sensed the area around her using magic. There didn't seem to be any additional enemies, but Eva was right. The glass dome should have disappeared or what not, if they were finished with the mission.

Shrugging her shoulders, Seika responded, "I don't know- oh, Eva? There's, uh, someone behind you-" she was cut off as the creature began to talk. As it went on, Seika took the opportunity to get a good look at it. To be completely honest- "Oh my gosh, you are so cute! I love your hair color," the mage exclaimed, blinking down at the thing that was surprisingly shorter than both herself and Eva. However, he ignored her attempts to compliment him in favor of playing the mastermind and revealing the inner workings of his grand plans. Eva didn't seem to object, and Seika was happy to listen to him talk. Once in a while, she interjected with short noises of understanding and surprise.

The girl was just getting the gist of his purposes with this dome when Eva apparently decided they were done listening. She leaped onto him, pinning him to the ground. Seika nearly tripped over herself while standing still, shocked that the mage would have done such a thing. "Eva! That's really rude, you know? Don't interrupt someone when they're talking!" She stepped closer to the two of them; the creature, whose name Seika had caught as "Key" sometime during his monologue, was not visibly struggling or moving much, but... he was glowing. Seika crinkled her nose. Last time the two twin counterparts over there had glowed, bad things had happened. With a swift move of her hands, she threw several layers of shields over herself and Eva, making sure to peel it away from Key, so that he himself was not within the protection. For good measure, she put extra bubbles around the perimeter of every shield, so that there were layers and layers of encapsulated air, providing a fluffiness to break any impact or fall. After all, she felt like Key might try to do something fishy and send Eva flying away from him.

It was done none too soon, for a blinding light filled Seika's eyes, even as she turned away instinctively. Unable to see, all she felt was a massive pressure slam into her body, sending her careening across the area. Although it didn't hurt at all, and she took no actual damage, Seika was confused on her new position as she cringed against the floor before getting back to her feet. Nearby, she suddenly saw a shape on the ground. It was Aphelia! The spirit had reverted from her brown and white domestic house cat shape to a flaming, fiery mass of bubbles and sparks, all held together by magic. Forgetting all about the battle, Seika immediately rushed over to her bond mate, gathering up the spirit in her arms. As soon as she made contact with her, Aphelia woke up, shifting naturally into a solid form and becoming a large black cat. When she realized Seika was cradling her, she hissed and leaped away, transforming into a tiger. "Don't touch me," Aphelia growled before tossing her head and heading in the opposite direction. "But- " "Shut up," the feline rolled her eyes and then popped out of sight.

Well, that had been nice. At least Aphelia was okay, Seika reflected, but then she suddenly remembered Eva! And Key. Hurrying back over, she was headed in their direction when she was suddenly engulfed in darkness. Unable to see yet again, Seika stumbled before tripping and hitting her knee on the smooth floor. Just as she was managing to get back to her feet, vaguely moving her arms around in the darkness, she was yanked sharply up into the air, as if a strong force had pulled her up, throwing her high above the ground. Gravity insisted on her descent, and soon enough Seika found herself sprawled on the floor. Even though the bubbles had softened the landing, and she hadn't been hurt from the fall, it was still disconcerting to be tossed around like a rag doll.

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“Heh, yeah, not getting hurt is usually at the top of my list of priorities but sometimes it’s unavoidable. I wish I could shield damage as well as you can.” She didn’t have much else to say or think about that, other than a burning desire to become a better fighter. She’d been intending to develop some new stuff but yea… things always got in the way. Why spend days training when you could go out and make a quick buck? She guessed this was a wakeup call to some degree as without her partner here she would have been toast by now. That was enough regretting being useless though, she still had a job to do. She held down the man with all her might and focused hard on making sure he couldn’t reach for any weaponry. It was easier said than done because he was surprisingly hardy. For his small frame he was capable of overcoming her strength and she knew that within a minute or so he would be able to easily wiggle free. But for some reason, he hadn’t struggled much at all other than to get a little more comfortable on the hard ground. What was up with that?

She tried to focus on holding him still despite his glow and despite her teammate defending the newcomer. If he was a good guy he wouldn’t be mouthing off about his master plan no matter how good his hair looked. She, for one, wasn’t about to be the stereotypical hero who waited for the bad guy to finish their speech or let them power up before taking action! Luckily her partner was wise enough to notice what was going on and was able to buffer her from the inevitable explosion. It was a good thing she’d taken action too because there was no way that the runt of the group was going to survive such an attack. Next thing she knew she was flying straight up into the sky. The person she’d been holding down had, in the meantime, had ended up creating a big hole in the ground. “AHhhhh!’ she shouted as she flew up. Her volume increased three fold on the way down as she now feared smacking the ground at high speeds. She didn’t know just how durable she was but no matter what, this was going to hurt like hell. Like seriously, this might break any number of bones.

The bad guy jumped straight up, out of his hole, not noticing that there was a falling body directly above him until her body collided with the top of his head. Soon enough they were both falling to the ground like a pair of idiots who didn’t know the first thing about effective combat. She did her best to separate her self from her opponent and kick him to the side, pushing them to either side of the big hole in the ground. “Okay I won’t get near him again,” she said after scrambling up to her feet. She hadn’t broken anything, thankfully, but it’d still hurt quite a bit. She would think twice before tackling someone next time. Her opponent was somehow doing worse than she was. He hadn’t been shielded at all so getting knocked around had damaged him quite a bit. He looked like he was having incredible difficulty standing when he eventually did get to his feet. It was hard to feel bad for him though, after what he’d done. “I’ll make sure neither of you ever see the light of day again,” he said between incredibly raspy breaths. The good thing was that he wasn’t well enough to start attacking again… yet.

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Seika slowly pulled herself to her feet, feeling slightly irritated. It was mostly through the bond, from Aphelia, but a bit of it was her own emotions, directed at Aphelia. After all, she had been so worried about the spirit, only to be completely ignored! Then again, that was how it always was. The feline rarely showed any concern outright, and she was more likely to tell Seika that she hated her over anything else. Anyway, it was best to put all thoughts of Aphelia out of her mind, at least for the time being. Though Seika was happy to worry in an unrequited fashion about her bond mate, she also had Eva to be concerned with. Speaking of Eva, where was she? Seika scanned the area, squinting into the brightness of the dome and floor after being engulfed by the black spot all of a sudden. "Eva!" She called out to the other mage, who seemed to just be getting up on her own feet again as well, maybe having experienced the same thing as Seika. Hopefully the shields had protected her from the fall, along with the buoyancy of the bubbles, but there was no way of knowing. Just to be sure, the girl sent a flow of prismatic magic at Eva, which would shield her and heal her over time in the case of any damage. She also threw another bubble shield towards the girl with the intention of not only blocking damage but also bolstering her own damage, enhancing her attacks in case Eva wanted to go on the offensive once again.

For herself, Seika chose to throw on a few shields with increased proclivity towards deflecting attacks, just in case he threw something at her again that would swallow her up. She could send it flying right back at him, in that case. However, it seemed like Key was more interested in going back to threatening them. When she took a better look, listening vaguely to his warnings of them never seeing the light of day again- (What was he seeing, inside of here? The dome surely wasn't translucent enough to let light in)- it became apparent that he was heavily damaged. Seika felt sorry for him, but he had also brought both of them into a lot of trouble, and hadn't been very nice, what with trying to kill them and all. The mage conjured a cat in the shape of bubbles, momentarily missing Aphelia. It would have been nice to have her around, even if she were to just stand around and do nothing, or sit on Seika's shoulder barking orders. Meowing orders? No, she definitely did... barking... of commands, with her prickly tones. Seika shook her head away from the wistfulness and instead directed the cat, which had grown in size to be a large panther, to leap at Key, bursting into flames in its path of flight. Now as a flaming bubble cat, it snarled as it clawed fiercely at the enemy.

Seika dodged a bolt of dark energy that Key sent flying out with a flick of his wrist. She winced when she saw it continue travelling and slam into the wall of the dome before bouncing back. Its course of direction wasn't headed close enough to her to hit, thankfully. But- that did tell her that his attacks had the capacity to be blocked and sent in the direction of the caster. Moving closer, Seika waited for him to throw another one before she bolstered her shields, absorbing the magic and draining her own power to send it arcing back towards his face. He still seemed to be conscious, but it was getting closer, and closer. Even though the creature was losing, his attacks didn't seem to be getting any stronger; it was odd. Most enemies tended to fight with more strength as it went on. Seika supposed that perhaps he was an undying sort, that would simply come back to life again after some time and for that reason he had no desire to fight with full strength. However, he had kind of revealed his entire master plan to them? Perhaps that was just a drop in the grand scheme of time, or something, as well.

Shrugging off the musings, Seika pulled together magic power to send a shower of flames, interspersed with rainbowy sparks, toward Key. They would rain down and slow any movements he tried to make, while additionally draining his energy and tiring him out. While she did so, she took a moment to pause and breathe, double checking all of the shields she had active. It wouldn't hurt to throw some more shielding onto Eva, so she did so, focusing on making sure it didn't expand enough to also include any enemies, such as Key.

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Ivara felt lucky to be alive and also lucky that she had such a capable partner. If she’d been here on her own… she didn’t want to think about that any more. The healing and shielding her partner provided her were more than enough but it turns out that the girl had the ability to dish out some serious damage too. It was really awe inspiring to see some real action like this, as most of her time was spent doing inane boring tasks like fetching herbs or doing patrols. In those sorts of jobs she barely got to do much more than walk around and the most danger she’d run into was like a wolf or something. Not an enemy that had a predisposition for murder and monologing. In fact, Ivara had never seen someone this powerful before in her whole life, now that she thought about it. Perhaps there was something about this place that gave him power? A quick look around did confirm that they were still under the same conditions as they had been just minutes ago. She took a peek at the enemy and saw that he was damaged and he didn’t have a friend to heal him.

“Thanks for all the help,” she told her partner. She’d intended to sit back, but she’d just been healed and shielded. That meant she could go in again, if she so chose to. She also felt a little more powerful, as if she would be able to hit harder than before. So she started to run. She made an arc around the enemy and approached him from behind. It wasn’t like he had the time or opportunity to track her movements. He was too busy focusing on the only one here that could cause him serious harm. Before he even knew what the right move to do was he was bombarded with flames and explosions that sent him hurtling backwards. Not to mention the damage from that cat thing. He shouted in pain and dug his heels into the ground to stand up to the torment and overcome it. Though the damage had been quite severe, he was still a ways away from being dead. But that was before Ivara ran up behind him and tackled him to the floor again. He began to glow again but Ivara wasn’t going to let things repeat themselves. She held him against the floor (face down) and kept punching him over and over again. Relentlessly and mercilessly.

Ivara was able to more or less defeat the man simply by pummeling him into submission. He glowed, he struggled, he exploded, but none of it made any difference. Ivara had the necessary protections to withstand the attack this time and she was wise enough to hold onto his body so that they wouldn’t fly apart again. More or less, this meant that she was able to secure the victory by employing the most rudimentary of strategies. Soon enough she’d gone one punch too far and the man perished. Slowly, the dome around them started to shimmer and within a few minutes it would completely fall. “Is it… is it over?” she asked. She didn’t know whether she should expect another enemy or not. For all she knew, that was the final one but she’d been fooled before. At least with this being taken care of it would be possible to go talk to her new friend and clarify what her name actually was. So she jogged on over and stopped within arms length of the girl. “you were amazing out there! By the way my name is Ivara haha, you probably didn’t hear me properly in all the chaos.”

There was little else to do other than for Ivara to think about what they had to do to get payment for completing this task. She guessed the boy’s body would be enough proof but nobody had mentioned any masterminds behind the attacks in the mission details so for all she knew a simple body would be insufficient. But she guessed she would figure that problem out back in town. She was now remembering that she was almost out of supplies and she really didn’t want to hike for days to get out of here. “Say, you wouldn’t happen to have a way to get around quickly would you? I’ve actually been travelling for like a week to get here and I really don’t want to have to hike all the way back. I mean I could, if I needed to… but boy is it going to be a pain to have to drag this guy around the whole way.” She motioned over to the guy who’d given them so much trouble. Ivara stood and waited for the girl to respond to her. There was no rush, really. Now that they’d taken care of the threat they could take all the time in the world to figure stuff out.

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When Eva turned to give Seika a thank you, the shorter girl beamed back, thrilled. "Of course! You're super welcome!" She gave Eva two big thumbs up, before going back to laying down spells from the sidelines. From what she could tell, Eva was planning to conduct a close quarters assault. Since she had already ensured that the other girl was shielded from attack and her own did not deal damage or do harm to allies, Seika was free to cast as many spells as she could manage. There was not much to do aside from try to support Eva and continuously reinforce her shields. When her new friend straight up tackled Key, Seika pushed up her glasses and leaned forward ever so slightly with wide eyes. She jumped up and cheered, clapping her hands and shouting loudly. "Go Eva go! You're amazing! Get him Eva!" At one point, though, Key began to glow. Seika was ready to make a move to start tossing spells again, but Eva kept at it. Even though at one point it seemed like she would fly off, she held on with enough might. After landing enough hits on Key, he eventually collapsed completely. While part of Seika hoped that he was only unconscious (despite his mass murdering, schemeing tendencies, he had been extremely endearing in appearance) she assumed he was... dead... judging by what happened. His magic apparently dissolved into nothingness.

Seika glanced around, watching as the dome slowly disappeared, as if parts of it were breaking off into small fragments until all of it was gone and not even the glowing white light remained. Carefully, Seika took several steps in one direction, and when no little walls popped up to block and shock her, she felt that they were finished. "Yay! I think we're free!" She jumped up and down excitedly, clapping. From a ways away, she heard Eva ask something about it being over. In an answer, Seika whooped and cheered. "I think it is, Eva!" Her new friend seemed to hear her response, or something, because she began to head over in her direction. Seika knew immediately what she wanted; there was only one reason to get closer to someone. "Hug!" With a high degree of enthusiasm Seika also sprinted towards the other mage and would try to barrel into her arms, refusing to allow her to stop naturally a little ways away. However, if Eva really avoided being hugged, then Seika would just run past her before turning around and pouting while staring at her with disappointment filled eyes.

No matter what, it looked like Eva wanted to talk! Seika would happily listen, wincing when she realized she had been mistaken as to the other girl's name this entire time. "Thanks Ivara! I think you're really cool too!" She accepted the compliment with shining eyes before returning one of her own. Now the only thing left was to find Aphelia and get out of here! Er, maybe not in that order, though. She guessed that Aphelia had been able to teleport herself back to the guild hall, but that wasn't for certain. Suddenly, her mind was re-occupied by the outside world. Seika returned to her senses as words flowed from Ivara's lips. "Oh, um..." A way to get around quickly? Well, she usually used either the guild teleporter or just Aphelia's help. Not that her bond mate was anywhere to be found. It was hard on Seika, though- the idea that Ivara had been forced to walk or run or just plain use her legs everywhere. That would be fun for a while! But she could definitely imagine how it would get difficult after so long. A whole week of travel! "I totally understand! That's a long time of walking. Where did you come from again? If we find um, Aphi, she might be able to help us. She's probably around here somewhere?" Seika began to walk in a random direction, looking all around the area. It was a fairly open space, not filled with much. "Oh!" Ivara had to carry Key. Seika didn't really understand why, but she guessed that maybe he wasn't completely dead, and they could get him to a hospital for medical attention. Or something like that? Either way...

"Hm? Wait, what's that?" She stepped over to where he was lying and pulled out a glittering object that was half hidden underneath his torso. "A key? A key from Key!" She blinked at it with interest, before turning to Ivara and waving it at her. "Want it?" Seika held it out to her new friend. "Maybe it does something! But anyway, um, to carry him... well, I can put him in a bubble to make it easier!" That way, they wouldn't have to physically carry him around and could just levitate him wherever they went. Nodding to herself, Seika raised her hands and formed a large bubble around Key, which then hovered off of the ground. The bubble would automatically follow the two mages wherever they went. Oh, maybe Ivara wanted a bubble too? Wait, she had a better idea! "In case your feet hurt, I could put little bubbles under your feet too! It kinda makes you float off the ground and stuff, but it's just like walking, kinda, the concept. I dunno, hard to explain, you just think about where you want to walk and they move you there!"" It could be really weird at first, but Seika usually ended up just bubble floating everywhere when Aphelia refused to teleport them or at those rare times she found herself alone.

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Ivara’s favorite part about Seika had to be her up beat attitude. She had, thus far, been very lively and enthusiastic. She’d had the guts to do battle, and the kindness to save Ivara from injury multiple times over a very short span of time. Ivara liked her, and that’s why she returned the hug she was given with open arms, albeit she did so a little late because she was taken aback by the hug in the beginning. It was a nice hug and one that Ivara held for a long while before letting go. It was probably the only hug she’d gotten in years. God, she needed more friends like this so that she could experience the brighter side of life once in a while.

“My current place is in Hargeon Town,” she told Seika, “but if that’s too far away I can always just cozy up in any town really. I’m not so worried about the trip back home as I am having to walk there. If I get to the nearest town I might be able to find a train or flying mount, etc. Where are you headed after this? And who’s Aphi?”

Ivara had admittedly been very oblivious to the companions Seika had brought with her. In her defense, Ivara had a lot more pressing matters to deal during the conflict so she’d been a little absent when it came to picking up the small details. It was small details like these that she often missed. Such as the key that Seika pointed out. Wow, she would have never noticed that. “I’m okay. Keys are for summoning right? I heard they can be more trouble than they’re worth. You keep it. Maybe you can sell it for something!?” Ivara really didn’t feel right accepting any sort of reward for how little she’d actually done. It would be an insult to get greedy when she’d been carried through the entire encounter.

Ivara obliged Seika’s offer to bubble Key’s body and to bubble her feet. It took her a while but before long she was floating around. Luckily she wasn’t a dragon slayer because then she would be throwing up everywhere. It felt like she was literally walking on air and that was a very new experience for her. She wondered if she could replicate this kind of effect with her own abilities, well, whenever she got them.

Ivara presumed that they were just waiting for this Aphi person, creature, thing, whatever it was to be found. After that they could just… go home she guessed. She’d start looking around for anything odd looking, hoping to find them soon on the offhand chance that anyone else dangerous showed up. The last thing Ivara needed in her day was for there to be a surprise boss at the end of this encounter. In any case, Ivara would go along with whatever plan Seika had and then make her way back home one way or another! Then she’d take a nice long bath.

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"Mm, Hargeon Town, got it!" Seika nodded with determination, before she clapped her hands and began to think of what to do. Accidentally missing all of Ivara's questions about the nature of this Aphi individual and Seika's own plans, her attention was on the key. Well, if Ivara didn't want it, she would totally grab it! The girl leaned down to pick up the glittering key and weighed it in the palm of her hand before tossing it up in the air. She only managed a few flips before gravity brought it back to the ground. Pouting, Seika tried again. This time, she managed to get in several flips, sending it high up into the air. Barely managing to snag it before it clattered against the floor, she flashed Ivara a cheerful smile.

"Thanks Ivara! This is cool! Hm, I wonder what it does do?" With a curious light in her eyes, she threw the key up again, hurtling it up into the air until it was out of sight. Patiently, Seika waited for it to come back down, but after a few moments, nothing reappeared. At a loss for words, the mage turned to Ivara and gave her an awkward look. "Um, okay! Well anyway..." She moved along, explaining the ability to carry Key using her bubble and telling her about the feet floaty things. It was nice sometimes to be able to float around. When Aphelia wouldn't carry her, which was like, all the time, she didn't want to have to always be walking. Even though Seika loved to run around and take pictures freely, it was also great to be able to float up and reach superior vantage points. More sights to see that way!

Suddenly, her world went fuzzy, her vision darkening and blurring uncontrollably. Seika stumbled and fell forwards, eventually toppling over her own feet. For the next few minutes, she lay there, struggling to get up. Finally, the girl flopped over dramatically and closed her eyes. "Go on without me," she waved her arms randomly in the air. With a pop, Aphelia chose to appear at that moment, standing on all fours next to Seika's head. In the shape of a snow leopard, she was not necessarily an intimidating, but certainly dangerous and beautiful figure. "Idiot. What's taking you two so long- gods, you're an idiot," she had apparently come to scold the mage but changed her question to a statement upon seeing Seika's current state. "You... did you hit yourself on the head with this?" Aphelia nosed at the key that was on the ground next to Seika's prone form. "It has your scent all over it." The spirit glanced over to Ivara and surveyed the area, taking in the floating bubble with Key's body.

"Sorry about this idiot. Here," shifting into the form of a person, Aphelia dug in the knap sack on slung across her back. "Half of his bounty," the spirit stated, handing Ivara several bills that amounted to one portion of the reward the Magic Council had put out. Later, Aphelia intended to collect the actual money from the Magic Council. It would replace whatever she had lost from paying Ivara as well as give Seika and herself half of the amount in addition. To be completely honest, at this point she was ready to not give Seika anything at all. The idiot got herself knocked on the head after the battle ended. "I'll take you to Hargeon." Although Aphelia had been too lazy to actually interfere, she had been listening to their entire conversation through Seika's mind link. When the girl had been concussed (idiot) Aphelia had lost the same amount of her senses as the mage. "Ivara don't leave me...!" The girl wailed into the open space belatedly several heart beats after the spirit and taller female had already vanished away.

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