Oh, fuck. Lilly froze like a deer in headlights, eyes widened at the sight of the incoming orb of unadulterated flame.

“Lilly! Move!” She heard John scream from behind her, the sound of her name drawing her out from the shock. She blinked backwards, moving from the wagon in a panic seconds before the miniature sun made contact with the ground.

For a moment, her body floated in empty space, curled in a foetal position. She felt a sudden sense of vertigo when a loud BOOM assaulted her ears. Debris lashed at her body as the concussion threw her through the air. Her back slammed into a tree and she blacked out.

***

“Lilly! Move!” John screamed frantically from further down the hill. He watched as the rogue seemed to break from her trance and blink away. Moments later, the fireball landed on the east side of the caravan. He slammed himself to the ground, and dug his fingers into the dirt.

A flash of heat burst out from the impact. Blinding light filled his sight as the spell erupted, searing his retinas through shut eyelids as a powerful gust of wind threatened to rip him from the ground and sent Lilly out of sight, vanishing around the curve of a hill around fifty meters east from the caravan.

He cursed their misfortune. Looking back, he saw that the fireball created a field of flames separating the party from the wagons.

They cut us off! He tried to get up, but lost his balance and fell back to the ground; one of his eardrums had burst from the explosion. “Amy! Eli! Sitrep!” He could barely even hear himself, a headache fogging his senses. Pushing down the feeling of nausea, John pulled out one of his healing potions. He downed the red liquid and felt an immense itching come from his ear as his hearing and sense of balance returned.

Looking around, he found Amy similarly drinking a health potion, but Eli was nowhere in sight. The ranger was most likely scouting for information, so he regrouped with Amy and assessed her condition. Apart from a few scratches on her armor here and there, she seemed battle ready.

“Hey, do you think you could do anything about that fire?” He pointed to the flames that blocked their way. He could feel the heat radiating from the blaze and hear the cracking of the fire, despite their distance.

“That’d be a waste of mana and time. It’s best if we go around. Where’s Lilly, is she alright?” She asked, scanning their surroundings.

“She got sent flying by the initial blast, I lost sight of her after that,” he said, gesturing towards where Lilly had flown. He readied his weapons, taking his shield off his back and unsheathing his axe.

Amy whipped her head around in the direction that he’d indicated. “We should-”

He moved his arm to block her way. “Not right now. She’ll be fine, she doesn’t seem like the type to get taken out that quickly. We need to worry about the immediate threat.”

Amy’s eyes tinged with worry, but she nodded. Pulling her staff off her back, she headed towards the end of the fire with John.

***

Lilly woke up a minute after being knocked out, her ears ringing and her entire body shaking from adrenaline. She tried, and failed, to get up, and collapsed onto her side. Breathing heavily, she blinked away the bright spots in her vision.

If I had a health bar, it’d probably be critically low. She laughed at that, causing a fit of coughing that sprayed blood all over the grass and sent waves of pain through her torso. Wiping the blood from her mouth, Lilly shakily crawled to her feet and leaned against the tree, her legs trembling. She pulled a health potion from her inventory and chugged it all. It was just a stopgap measure, nowhere near as potent as healing from a real healer.

Drenched in sweat, she felt the distinct feeling of hunger that she’d heard came with drinking low quality healing potions. Eventually, her legs stopped trembling as heavily, letting her stand on her own. Off in the distance, she heard the ringing of metal striking metal: the sound of fighting.

Where am I? She looked around, but could see neither the fight nor the fire. She must have been blown far from caravan, leaving her party and the other adventurers to fend for themselves. She looked in the direction she heard fighting. Bright light came from flames flickering over a hill. She tried to blink in the direction of the hill, but found herself farther than where she started.

What the fuck? This time, she focused a bit harder, but still ended up off the mark from where she aimed, though closer than her previous attempt. Oh, so I can’t teleport. That’s just great. She started to stumble towards the light.

She reached the top of the hill and saw the field of flames blocking her way to the caravan. The acrid smell of ash stung her nose. John and the others were nowhere to be seen. The only way to the fight was around the fire, so she started off for the edge of the blaze.

***

When John and Amy passed the fire, Eli saw them and regrouped with the party.

“What’s the situation?” John asked.

“A dozen bandits, two of which are mages. I took one of them down and the other took an arrow to the shoulder but seems to still be functioning,” Eli said.

He acknowledged the information with a nod. “How are the other adventurers holding up?”

Eli pointed to the group of bandits surrounding the adventurers some twenty meters away. “Barely. One of the bandits is level 57, and wields a heavy war axe. Looks to be their leader, he’s been pushing to break their formation.” He then pointed further north towards the bridge, where there was another, smaller group of bandits looting the caravan. “Four of them split off from the main group to loot and watch for reinforcements.”

John nodded. “Go take care of the remaining mage. Me and Amy will go assist the main group.”

Eli nodded and vanished from sight.

“Amy. Can you kill those bandits without hurting our allies?”

“No, there’d be casualties. Don’t we have a healer somewhere? It can’t hurt to break a few bones here and there.”

“No. Instead, we need to get the bandits’ attention and take some heat off the adventurers. Do what you do best.” He stepped back and gave Amy space.

Amy grinned mischievously. She channeled several orbs of sub-zero water, launching them into the bandits and soaking them all. The bandits cried out in pain and indignation as the water froze on impact, freezing metal armor to skin. They looked for the culprit for their less than desirable situation. The bandits’ eyes searched the field before spotting Amy laughing her ass off at the soaking wet bandits.

“Hey, uglies! How was the shower?” She taunted mirthfully.

Faces red with anger, three bandit minions charged to attack Amy.