(8.2) One After Another

Seconds later, Mirra is there, anger in her eyes as she grabs the head of the one that bit Phoebe and squeezes.

Its head pops like a water balloon. Vile juices and brain matter spraying everywhere. The ork Drowned groans, agonised by its immobility.

Mirra spins in place, slamming a fist with so much force into the Drowned's head, it generates an air current that cuts into the magic stones and sprays the brain matter in a jetstream toward the forest.

Aki and Winter, meanwhile, had rushed to Phoebe's side. She was missing a significant portion of her right hand. Her pinky was somehow still holding on by the flesh that connects to the ring finger. Around the bite mark, the flesh was rapidly necrotising. A disgusting blue goo wiggled into the muscles like some sort of sentient creature.

Tears fill Aki's eyes as she rapidly runs through her known spells.

"What do we do?! I don't know what it did! Aki? Aki what do we do??" Winter shakes her, desperation in his eyes. "This kind of stuff is way too dark for an Otome game, even Carnia Love had a limit!"

Aki hurriedly puts Phoebe on her back and pulls the affected arm outward. She quickly begins to draw a circle in the sand and desperately struggles to recall the symbols necessary for what she's trying to do. Every second spent, the hand dries up and necrotises more.

"Skies! Do you know the ritual spell Death Ward??" Aki says, halting her drawing as she messes up.

"Y-yeah." Winter barely manages to respond before Aki interrupts.

She casts the Bubble spell around the hand and repeatedly attempts to purify the infection as she speaks. "Draw it, I'll try to stall the damage as much as possible."

Aki again curses her circumstances. If her stone amulet was fully charged by moonlight, restoring Phoebe's hand would be no problem. As it is now, however, she wouldn't be able to cast more than one lunar spell even at half power.

She turns her amulet against herself. "BOOST!"

Her body swells with energy. Her already massively increased magical potency doubles. Aki thinks through all her options, if she uses lunar magic, she'll be unable to cast any more until fully recharged. If she doesn't, the slim chances Phoebe has fall to nothing.

Raising her hand over the injured area, Aki lets her amulet hang over it. "Moonlit Recovery."

The area around them darkens and a pale white orb manifests over their heads.

"Woah, the air feels denser. What spell could do that?" Mirra says in surprise.

Behind her are unrecognisable piles of meaty mush splattered on broken stone spikes. Mirra raises her arms defensively, her gauntlets reforming the metal around her fingers quickly. Aki raises a brow, finally seeing how Mirra's gauntlets work for the first time.

Questions however, had to wait.

"Is she gonna be okay? What can I do to help?" Mirra asks.

"I finished drawing the ward." Winter says. "What else can I do?"

"Good." Aki shrinks the Bubble spell and places Phoebe's hand in the ward. "Let's make it fight itself. Death Ward."

The drawing lights up, a faint wind blows in spite of the still air and circulates over the ward. The necrosis halts its spread, though already most of Phoebe's hand and wrist have blackened.

"Any purification spells you know, start casting them on the hand. Any healing spells, do it along the arm." Aki instructs. She nods up at the white orb. "Don't worry about mana cost. As long as this is active, any mana you use will cycle back in."

To demonstrate, Aki proceeds to chain cast a series of spells on the affected area. Healing Touch. Minor Heal. Restore Stamina. Water Manipulation. Bubble. Purify Water. She casts them consecutively without showing signs of exhaustion.

Winter joins her, casting various necromancy spells on the affected area. Pulling at the shadows, draining the goo, strengthening the body. Mirra tries to help but her spells are too basic in function; she quickly pulls away, deciding instead to stand watch over them while they work, unable to do much of anything else.

This continues for a few more minutes when the lunar spell begins to stutter out of existence.

All they've done in that time is regrow the missing chunk, save the skin, veins and all. The infection and necrosis, however, still remain stubbornly present. Fortunately, they prevented it from moving any further, even reducing it to just beyond the rest.

"...Mirra, can you use a sword well?"

Winter recoils. Seems he already guessed why Aki was asking.

"I'm a Brawler but I was a Swordsman class before." Mirra says hesitantly. She jogs over to them, holding a squared knife. "Uh, this is all Phoebe had packed."

Mirra pauses. Aki and Winter have cleared a space for her and hold Phoebe's arm out.

"Is there no other way?" Mirra's expression is stoic but her eyes plead for another answer. "Winter, can't you do anything with necromancy?"

"There's- well-"

"If it means saving her arm, do it!" Mirra's even tone wavers in desperation.

"Turning her arm skeletal is possible but she'd have to be an Undead." Winter grinds his teeth as tears form. "With a potion of Undeath, it's possible to do it without killing her but it doesn't exist yet! The protagonist of Carnia Love invents it with their super rare magic."

Mirra's expression tightens as she looks toward Aki, her grip tightening on the knife, her eyes pleading.

"I'm sorry."

Mirra nods and steps up. Winter closes his eyes and turns away. Aki clenches her jaw and prepares a series of healing spells for the aftermath.

"Below the elbow, Mirra. I can't tell just how much is affected just from what we can see. Better safe than sorry."

In a moment, the deed is done and a multitude of healing spells cascade over the stump, rapidly closing and purifying it. The lunar spell fades halfway through, leaving them to burn more conservatively through their mana pools.

------------

Aki  Title: Witch

LE: 1/55  HP: 200

MP: 205/300

SP: 50

[Adjusted to Darkness: 10% increase in vision when in dim light or pure dark]

[Death's Door: All stats reduced until LE restored. All defences -200%]

[Final Journey: +10 to physical stats. +100% magic potency. -80% MP cost]

More: ⟲

------------

(Healing Touch Lv. UP! Lv.1 -> Lv.3  - Power increased)

(Minor Heal Lv. UP! Lv.1 -> Lv.3 - Power increased)

(Restore Stamina Lv. UP! Lv.2 -> Lv.3 - Power increased)

(Water Manipulation Lv. UP! Lv.0-> Lv.3 - Control strengthened)

(Bubble Lv. UP! Lv.1-> Lv.4 - Control strengthened)

(Purify Water Lv. UP! Lv.4-> Lv.5 - Power Increased)

***

"Wishful thinking to believe I'd never do something like that again," Mirra shakes her head. Phoebe lays draped over her back and tied securely with Winter's Shadow magic.

The three of them walk along the river toward the city. Carefully standing in the middle distance between the water and the forest, wary of an attack from either side.

From their position, they can clearly see the walls of New Pinacca looming before them. Unlike the main city on the other side of the water, the trade district of New Pinacca doesn't have a multitude of spires and tall buildings peeking over the walls, though it still looks impressive in its own right.

"Pick up the pace but don't drop your guard," Mirra picks up speed, eager for the safety of the walls.

BOOM!

"Spoke too soon," Aki runs forward and overtakes Mirra. "That sounded like it came from the gates. Are the Dead attacking again?"

"Bad luck for us, but it sounded like a long distance spell." Winter runs to catch up, keeping pace with his two companions' speed. He points a thumb at the unconscious Phoebe. "We can't exactly wait out here with her like that. Maybe we can hurry inside before they get too close."

The three cover the distance to the gates in record time to a spectacular sight. The walls of the gatehouse are cratered, but standing strong. The gates are closed tight and soldiers scurry on top of the wall, weapons drawn and ready. On their right, lining the edges of the forest and the main Southern road is a horde of Dead. More than just a standard array of spectres, skeletons, zombies, and draugr.

"Open the gates, we're Silver Sword, the necromancer and the Acolyte!" Mirra shouts with an impressively commanding voice to the soldiers above.

There's a brief commotion then one voice orders for the gate to open.

"Hail and hurry!" the soldier shouts down. "They're moving up!"

Aki turns her attention to the horde. At the forefront, walking along the road as if on an early morning stroll, is a woman clad in black. At first, Aki wasn't sure she saw correctly, considering how dark it is.

Vibrant, acid green mana engulfed her like flames, illuminating her figure. Behind her, the horde moves in unison as she moves forward.

"That's the necromancer," Winter gasps. "Outta the way!"

Winter pushes Aki onto the ground, both of them rolling on the dirt before stopping atop her.

A large, shadowy javelin is impaled into the ground where they stood moments ago.

"Is Shadow magic something all necromancers can do?" Aki has her stone amulet raised between herself and Winter, her head turned to try and discern the details of the new opponent.

"No, it's supposed to be rare." Winter helps Aki up.

Another javelin, visible only to Winter amid the darkness, flies toward them. They're ready this time, and the pair dodge closer to the gatehouse. More magical attacks fly toward them from the necromancer, interspersed by other spells launched by the magically capable Dead.

On top of the walls, soldiers fire their own magical attacks and enchanted arrows into the horde. A select few attempt to take out the necromancer with little luck.

Mirra is already inside. Soldiers prevent her from running out to aid them. For the best, Aki thinks. Without Winter to help her, she would have already been killed.

"Struggle all you want, cowards! Your city WILL fall!"

Winter freezes in place only a few metres from the open gate. Two soldiers shout at him to get a move on but he does not budge.

"Kokone?"