Hineni jumps over the front-counter, heading into the library. Someone yelps in surprise on the other side.

“- Seltsam!” he barks. “Get Eilig and run upstairs. We’re being attacked.”

“…Huh? What?” asks the librarian, still dazed from just waking up. “- By the frogs?!”

“Worse.” Hineneni narrows his eyes, turning back to look out into the restaurant. The glass of his favorite window shatters, as someone blasts it in with a spell. Shards of razor glass fly out in all directions, jutting into the wooden walls. “- Elves.”

“What?” asks Seltsam. “What’s wrong with el-”

“- GO!” snaps Hineni.

Seltsam yelps, scrambling off.

Thankfully it’s night time and nobody else was downstairs. But he’s going to have to do something about this. Hineni runs back out behind the front desk, closing the library door behind himself as he watches some people clear the broken glass and then hastily start to climb inside. He jumps out in front of the counter and holds his hands out in front of himself.

A slender man with a shawl around his face looks towards Hineni, half-way through the glass.

“He’s over h-!”

(Hineni) uses [Ash: Incinerate]

The man’s shawl, wrapped around his face, catches fire. He lets out a frightened shout, clawing at it. In his scramble, he falls over the window, landing into the broken glass just below, inside of the room, flailing and screaming.

(Hineni) has applied status: [Burning][Bleeding{2}] to (???)

Hineni spins around as the front door is kicked open, a couple more of them there. They’re wearing matching uniforms. They’re strange, dark-gray fabric ensembles with soft leather padding. The gloves and boots are tightly fitting, but the material around the limbs between them is oddly baggy, giving the slender people an odd constraint in shape.

A man pushes in his way, running forward with a wet-looking knife.

“GET H-!” shouts the man, barging in, the fabric of the shawl covering his mouth moving.

(Hineni) uses [Ash: Antichrysalis]

Swirling cinders fill the room in an instant. The dark of the night that had been present here before is both now emboldened by the fog wall of ash, which now fills the room; but it is also brightened in particular locations by the ethereally glowing cinders that blast out in all directions. They cut through the thick, obscuring veil like shooting stars in the night.

And a mass of them collects in the shape of a face before himself, glowing like a radiant smile, before it falls into ash.

(Hineni) has killed: (???) (???) has used: [Persistent Gale]

Hineni covers his face as the ash and the cinders all blast away, flying off through the house as a powerful wind pushes inside.

Something shatters down at his feet. He looks down, seeing the orange, violently bubbling potion puddle there, coming together into a volatile mass. It’s going to explode.

Hineni feels his feet leaving the ground, sure that he was just blown to the ceiling by the blast.

— Instead, he turns upside down, landing on the rafters, having been removed from the scene by some kind of powerful magic.

The floor beneath himself explodes. A jagged hole tears through the restaurant from the front door, all the way to the kitchen door. Wooden shards fly in all directions, shattering glass and breaking walls.

A shadow shoots past him through the chaos, landing on the vague silhouette of a person stepping into the house. The scene devolves into feral screaming, as feathered silhouette rips into the attacker, dragging him off into the shadows.

He looks around himself. How many of them are there?

Fires rage outside and people scream and run through the streets. Is this a full on attack on the city?

“He’s here!” shouts a voice from the front door. He turns around to look as several more of them jump in through the broken window in the back, stepping over the first intruder, who has managed to peel his shawl off. But his face is severely burnt and he leans back against the booth, panting. “He’s here! Activate the spe-IAH!”

The man is cut short, his words silencing into a gurgle.

(???)(???)(???)(???) have activated Conjoined Spell: [Grand Bind]

Hineni feels his arms pressing themselves against his torso. His legs stiffen and he falls from the ceiling like that, the spell holding him aloft having been dispelled.

Several of them rush over towards him.

(Rhine) has used: [Serpentine Flow]

An aquamarine shape shoots through the debris and rubble, winding around the broken wood and the glass and the overturned furniture. A man turns towards it, facing it just in time as the snake, made up out of a controlled flow of poison-water, sinks its teeth into his neck, biting through the shawl.

(Rhine) has applied status: [Major Poison] to (???)

The other two break off, one of them heading towards Hineni and the other towards Rhine, who had just come down the staircase. Rhine jumps back, swinging with his staff to strike against the arm that swings his way with a knife in hand. He pushes his staff forward, throwing it with both hands at the confused attacker who fumbles and catches it out of instinct.

(Rhine) has used: [Cascade]

A mass of water fills the room in an instant, the ground and the walls shaking violently from the force of the magic that is several times stronger than it was, those many months ago.

Hineni watches as the attacker is washed away and how the wave, not able to be contained by the ceiling, surges towards him and the assassin who is about to reach him.

The assassin lifts his hand, the shadow of the wave looming over his back, the glinting blade in his hand.

— A throwing knife is lodged in his throat and he only has a chance to grasp it, before the water washes over them all.

Hineni floats.

It’s a dazed moment, as clear, crystal water, a beautiful thing, surrounds himself. But it is ruined, marred by the ash and the blood and the dirt and the rubble. The cascade, inherant with a form of natural beauty, is besmirched by all of the ruin that has befallen it.

— A polluted river.

Hineni feels like there’s a metaphor here, perhaps. But he doesn’t really know why he’s thinking about such an odd thing, as he tumbles around. His legs and arms are still stiff and locked in place by the spell, this makes swimming exceptionally difficult, of course.

A shell around him freezes, pulling the water away and leaving him trapped there in a small bubble of ice.

An instant later, he thuds against something. The ball of ice strikes a wall and shatters apart. The water fades away.

He lands on the floor by the front door, just beneath the quest board.

Hineni looks out at the chaos. Everything is trashed. The restaurant is torn apart, the front desk is ripped out of the foundation and sits straight upright, pressed into the ceiling by the force of the wave. The windows are all broken. The tables are all shattered and split.

Hineni exhales in relief.

Obscura lands down at his side, hooting. Rhine looks around the room with wary eyes, picking his staff back up. Sockel hops over from the stairwell, picking up a knife to finish the last man left alive. Eilig is there too.

“Are you okay?” asks Hineni, looking at Obscura. “I think that was all of them.” Screams ring out outside, as the chaos continues there.

(Obscura) uses: [Major Status Purge] Status Removed: [Grand Bind]

He feels his arms and legs loosen back up, returning to his control. “Thanks.”

Obscura hoots, helping him up to his feet. “I am well,” she replies, looking him over. “What of him?” she asks, looking him over.

Hineni shakes his head. “I’m fine. Just a bit wet.”

“Who~”

“Sorry!” calls Rhine from across the room. “But to be fair, you should have known this would happen,” says the boy. “After all-“ Sockel kicks a piece of wood over his way, wiping off her knife on her pajama pants and rolling her eyes. Rhine plants his boot onto it, pointing at himself. “You hired RHINE! THE RIVER-WIZARD!”

“I wish we hadn’t,” snaps Eilig, flying past him. “You better not have flooded my cellar!”

Rhine shrugs. “I’m not sure if that’s the priority here.”

“It damn well is!” exclaims the fairy, pointing at him.

“Sockel,” calls Hineni, gesturing broadly to everything around them. “What the hell is this?” he asks. “The city's under attack, but these guys were after us specifically.”

Sockel looks down at the dead assassin she’s standing next to. “How big of an attack are we talking about here?” she asks.

Hineni blinks, stepping to the side and silently gestures to the front door with both arms. Sockel idly leans to the side, looking through it down the way, towards the view of the tower district. A massive fire-elemental, easily the size of several houses, is still atop it and crashing around in a violent firestorm.

“Are the elves attacking the city?” he asks.

Sockel yawns. “No. Well… yes, but no.”

“Nice pajamas,” says Rhine.

“Shut up, twerp,” she says, looking his way. He’s fully dressed. “Why the hell are you dressed?” she asks. “You even have your boots on.”

“I was awake, exercising,” replies Rhine, shrugging.

“…In your adventuring gear?” she asks.

Rhine shrugs. “Sure. Isn’t when I wear that also when I need to be in the best shape?”

Sockel stares at him for a moment.

“- Focus, people,” says Hineni, hitting the back of his hand into an open palm. “Sockel.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah,” she says. The elf points up at the chaos down across the city. “That’s too showy. It’s meant to attract attention,” she explains. “I mean, just look at it,” says the elf, almost sounding disgusted as she watches the rampaging fire elemental. “It’s too much.”

“Huh?” asks Rhine. “It’s a fire-elemental, Sockel. They’re just kind of… I dunno, bright. They’re made of fire, you know?”

“Mhm,” says Sockel. She bends over and leans in towards Rhine. “And why would they go through the effort of summoning a fire-elemental in the tower-district, on the tower, which, I remind you, is made out of enchanted stonework.”

“Uh…”

She presses a finger against his forehead. “Because it’s the tallest building around. Everyone can see it, no matter where you are in the city,” she explains. “It’s an attention grab.”

Rhine blinks. “Huh. Still. Nice pajamas though.” She flicks his forehead. “Ow!”

Sockel turns to look at him, grabbing the front door and pulling it shut. She breaks off the arrow lodged into its surface and throws the head onto the ground. “This isn’t an attack on the city, that’s just a distraction to keep the guards and everyone else important busy,” she says. “This-” Sockel nods towards the destroyed room. “This was the target. The elemental is eye-candy. We’re the hit.”

The front door falls off of its hinge, landing noisily in the mud and stones below.

She sighs, shaking her head. “So much for my retirement.”

“This place?” asks Hineni. “Why the hell would the elves want this place?” he asks. “The whole city is full of gods and craftsmen who are working for the war-effort.”

Sockel nods, picking up her thrown over chair and sits down on it. “Yeah. But they want you,” she explains. “It’s not about the numbers, it’s about the message,” says the elf, swiping a bang out of her face. “All of the craftsmen in this city are helping in one way or the other, sure,” she says, nodding. “But not all of them are personally signing every single one of their weapons, Weaponsmith Hineni - Chosen of the Owl-God,” says Sockel, rolling her eyes. “You made it personal. They took it that way.”