052

--TheirWorld--

She struck another blow, and it began to falter. It can’t have much health left, she hoped more than she knew for sure. Her confidence rose as she watched it floating lower to the ground than it had before. Gripping her spear, she charged forward and took another whack at it. Seeming to be more affected by her slow than she had thought, Guin was able to utilize her [Dance] and stabbing abilities more than she had thought she would be able to — until finally, with one final thrust of her spear, the wraith fell into a pile of ash.

Falling back onto her butt with a heavy sigh, Guin kicked the pile and groaned. That had been far too much work. She was rewarded, however, with a loot of materials, including five of the [Spectral Essences] that they needed for the quest.

But she was tired.

After savoring a moment to just breathe, she felt a little better and went to pull up a communications window with BronzePaw. But as her hand lifted to hit the garule woman’s portrait, a rush of chilly air brushed against her skin. No… she shivered, looking around quickly. She couldn’t handle another one. Not by herself.

It was the hissing she heard first. From several directions, above her. Her eyes rose slowly from the window to the vaulted ceiling above.

She laughed. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” she said, still chuckling as she looked between the six specters above her as they floated above the fluorescent blue of the sea of moss. She had barely survived one — how was she going to fight six?

She thought about running, but she knew she would never make it. They had surrounded her. She thought about contacting BronzePaw for help — but that would only end up getting the both of them killed.

So she gripped her spear and pointed it at them.

“Fine!” she shouted. “You want to fight? Bring it on!”

The hissing continued as they stared at her. Guin sent a blade of wind out, hitting two of them, but they made no other movement. She bit her lip as she waited on one of two things: Her cool-down, or her death.

A ding sounded as a comm screen came up, causing her to nearly jump out of her skin. She expected it to be BronzePaw looking for her, but to her shock, it wasn’t. Where she had expected to see a worried looking bronze garule staring at her, she saw a very disgruntled looking white one.

“I commend your foolish courage, but did you not think to at least try to run?” Though he was scolding her, Ibraxis’s translated voice washed over her like a warm bath as she bit back tears. “Look to your left.”

In the doorway that she and BronzePaw had come from, stood a tall white garule with crossed arms and tail waving calmly back and forth, and next to him, an exuberant blue and orange one was jumping up and down, bright feathers spread out behind him.

“Guin! Guin!” TeaforaDragon shouted down the way. Guin laughed, seeing Ibraxis grab him back by the collar of his coat. Instead, his nose appeared in the comm window. “Ibraxis says it’s dangerous there! Run!”

“I tried inviting you to our group, but it seems you are in one already,” Ibraxis said with a frown. “Where did they go?”

“I sent her away,” Guin told him, shaking her head. “She can’t see them.”

“If it’s just two, I will invite group to group,” he said. “Accept. We don’t have much time and I can’t see your health bar like this. When you join up, head towards me; I’ll cover you.”

Overcome by the sudden emotions of relief and hope, Guin could only nod. Ibraxis grunted at her, then signed off. She got the invite from Ibraxis and accepted it quickly.

“Come!” Ibraxis roared at her in English, then screeched so loudly at the wraiths above that even Guin wanted to cover her ears. Instead, she focused on Ibraxis’s shadow, and stepped into it.

Luckily, she had had enough practice with BronzePaw to know to avoid Ibraxis’s tail as it swished, then went still and ridged as he looked around the room.

“G-Guin?” Tea sputtered. “Where did she go?” The little garule tugged on the larger garule’s arm as he pointed down the hall. “Ibraxis —”

“Boo!” Guin went from behind them. Tea jumped and cowered a little closer to the ground than he already was, his jaw dropping as he stared at her. The fear reflected in his eyes made her feel a little guilty. “Sorry!”

Ibraxis fwipped his head around, the surprise in his eyes made her giggle a little as her emotion turned into adrenaline from gaining the reinforcements.

Tea’s eyes turned starry as he ran up to her. “How did you do that?” he asked her, taking up her hands in his. Guin couldn’t help but beam at him as he went on, “And you look so pretty now! You have a tail like I do! Why?”

“I wasn’t pretty before?” Guin chided him.

“No, no, that’s not what I meant!” Tea went quickly, waving his hands in denial. “I-I just meant ---”

“Let us not get distracted right now,” Ibraxis said gruffly. “Let us chat when there aren’t a small army of ghosts in the room. If you can teleport, all the more reason to try and run...” Guin blinked, then laughed realizing that she had forgotten that shadow stepping to run away was even an option. This game was causing her to live on the edge.

Tea’s orb shaped eyes suddenly got wider as he slowly turned to look up at his companion. “G-Ghosts? What ghosts? What do you mean ghosts?”

Ibraxis sighed. “The ones you can’t see that Guin and I are going to have to fight so you better damn well be up to your support role,” he told him, as if they had gone over it a couple of times before this. Guin looked up at him with sympathy and respect. “Stop getting distracted and start playing that lute of yours.”

“Okay…” There was an uneasy sense of disappointment in his voice as he did as he was told.

Guin moved up to stand in line with Ibraxis. The white garule looked her over, then looked back up at the wraiths. “What are they doing?” she asked him.

“Calling,” he told her. “It is basically a summoning spell, similar to the way pack aggressors work. It calls all ghost-based creatures within an area to this location.” Then he grumbled, “Though it looks like you’ve managed to pull all the ones in the area as it is.”

“Sorry,” Guin said. “I didn’t know…”

Ibraxis shrugged. “You are just lucky you haven’t died. Yet,” he said pointedly. “Let us just hope that luck of yours holds out and we can kill these things before more respawn. These things can end up in endless battles. Buys us time to strategize, for now.”

“What should we do?”

“Either you have a new class or new abilities,” he said, side-eyeing her. “What can you do?”

Sighing, she admitted, “Not much more than last time, really. I can teleport, slow, and I have one ranged spell that can be either a single target or AoE depending on how I use it.”

“That’s not nothing,” he said. “It could be better,” he granted. “But it is not nothing. And this room is Water, Earth, and Shadow based…” he muttered to himself, obviously thinking out loud.

Guin blinked. Is that how it works? she wondered, looking around. Were different elements stronger in different places? She supposed she shouldn’t have been shocked, but the complexities of the game had started giving her a headache each time she learned something.

“Uhm,” Tea went, tapping Ibraxis’s arm, then pointing at his nose. “What should I do?”

Ibraxis blew a long stream of air from his nostrils. “First, you need to listen,” he said. “You cannot see the enemy, and so you must rely on us. And by ‘us’ I mean Guin.”

“Me?”

“Because of my class, I need to use both the motion cast and the voice cast systems,” Ibraxis told her. “I can’t be issuing orders. That will fall to you.”

Guin nodded. “That’s fine.”

“Tea, you will need to heal, buff, and if either of us tell you to move, move,” Ibraxis said. “This is going to be a game of trust, more than one of power.”

“Power would help,” Guin grumbled.

“Don’t worry!” Tea chattered happily. “It won’t be too bad! Ibraxis is really strong! Really amazing! And you look strong now too!”

Ibraxis put a hand on his shoulder. “That’s enough! We all need to focus now!” the white garule growled, pointing forward with his nose. “They are coming. Guin, keep them off me. Tea, focus on Guin!”

“Okay!” Tea and Guin went and readied themselves for a battle only one of them could see.