Giant blob-like ticks charged at the party.

Species: Splash Tick

Class: Crippled Star

Statistics: 100% HP

Skills:

- Corrosive Bite

- Corrosive Pop

Weak spot: Head

Just looking at them made Dallion’s stomach churn. It was like watching a large squishy water balloon with legs and a hardened pin of a head on top. Only one emotion rang through them—a deep desire to destroy everything and anyone.

A knife split the air, hitting one of the creatures in its blobby body. The Tick burst with a pop, splashing everything around it with greenish yellow liquid. Even from this distance Dallion could sense the acid smell among the bouquet of disgusting odors.

“Corroders,” the lieutenant said. Immediately, everyone in the party unsummoned their armor.

“And that’s why you don’t use ranged against them,” Alera told Dallion. “You might get a few of them from a distance, but when they get close, things get messy.”

Dallion nodded.

“I’ll try to slow them down with music,” Dallion shouted, gripping his harpsisword.

“Speed is not the issue,” the lieutenant said. “Make them dizzy instead.”

That was a novel suggestion, but quite good. The issue with the ticks wasn’t the speed—even slow, they would slowly advance towards the party en masse, then start biting what they could—it was precision. A dizzy tick wouldn’t be able to attack, allowing the awakened to kill them off in an efficient manner.

Dizziness, Dallion said to himself as he played the corresponding chords, synching with the attacking creatures. The melody vibrated loudly, immediately affecting the front rows of ticks, then moving further on. Of course, the effect was only temporary. Not wasting any time, Dallion played a second chord.

Familiar with the method of creating states and emotions, he didn’t even have to look at the music markers as he played. He had gone a long way since he started learning music a while back, but he felt it wasn’t nearly enough. The more complicated the tasks, the stronger the enemies he was facing, and it was no longer possible to simply freeze them as he did to low-level guardians.

“Not bad.” Spike grinned. According to the emotions within him, he was more amused than impressed, but at this point Dallion was willing to take that as a compliment. Being among elites made him feel quite out of place, and by the looks of it, with good reason.

As expected, Spike was the first to attack, slashing off the heads of several ticks with one strike. The precision was such that it instantly killed the creatures, not giving them a chance to splash their contents on anything. Moments later, the rest of the party joined in.

Very soon, it became clear why all of them were only equipped with short weapons. Anything longer would have made fighting in a cluster much more difficult, not to mention it risked killing a tick by accident. Only the removal of the armor didn’t make sense, but Dallion decided to ask that at a later point. For now, he had to focus on his music.

“Any chance you can make them fall asleep?” one of the younger members asked. He was a skinny guy with long black hair tied in a braid. Unlike most of the other party members, he was only able to take out two ticks at a time and even that with difficulty.

“Stick to dizziness!” the lieutenant barked. It seemed that Dallion wasn’t the only person he had a thing against.

The sea of ticks slowly surrounded the group. No attempt was made to avoid or even delay the process. On the contrary, the people specifically waited for that to happen, even slowly moving towards the thick of the enemies.

Rows of ticks poofed out of existence every second, barely making a dent in the overall numbers.

“Dal, get ready!” The lieutenant shouted. “Once I give the order, cocoon yourself in your shield. After that, don’t come out until someone taps twice on it.

“Sure.” That was very specific.

Any idea what he’s got planned? Dallion asked.

An all-out attack, if I had to guess, Nil said in a disapproving voice. That’s the problem with kids. No patience… and at the same time, they waste their time with everything beneath the moons, instead of learning their craft.

He’s way old to be a—

“Now!” the lieutenant shouted.

Within seconds, all members, with the exception of Dallion, dashed forward, leaving a line of destruction in their wave. Rather, it wasn’t a line of destruction, it was lines of emptiness, like a vacuum cleaner passing over a floor covered in dust. In the moments before enveloping himself with the armadil shield, Dallion managed to get a glimpse of the attack style they used. It was very similar to the zig-zag method he had learned from Janna and Kallan, but significantly more sophisticated. What was more, each of them wasn’t going a simple run, they were doing a split run. Dallion could see five instances of each reaving through the ticks. In each case, it was the best outcome that was selected.

“Shield!” Dallion said. Before he could see more, the shield formed a sphere around him , protecting him from any potential harm.

So that’s what an elite is, Dallion thought.

Indeed, dear boy. An elite is a very good expert who’s had decades to develop enough tricks for the battlefield. Sometimes centuries. That’s not what a party leader is, though. A lieutenant, and a captain for that matter, is someone who could command their party in a way that would maximize their efficiency. There are many different styles, but the outcome is roughly the same. That is why you’d often see elites with far greater skills than their party leaders, even in the city guard, or the Imperial Army.

Waiting silently in the shield, Dallion counted the seconds. Ten seconds in, the sound of fighting intensified. He could hear the lieutenant barking orders to direct the party members about. Another ten seconds later, the yells sounded a lot closer than before. Shortly after, there was silence.

Holding his breath, Dallion counted to five, then to ten, then to twenty. All that time, there wasn’t a sound to be heard.

Lux, Dallion thought. Better get ready to come out. Nox, you too, buddy. We might be in a bit of trouble.

Just as Dallion was about to order the shield to return to normal, the two taps sounded as if someone was knocking on the surface.

“Shield,” Dallion whispered. The guardian obeyed, opening up and contracting to its original form.

“Welcome back,” Spike said.

There was no trace of the ticks. Not only that, but Dallion saw that the air tendrils had diminished. Looking at the horizon, however, there was no change, suggesting that the mist was still present. The lieutenant and several of the party members had gathered around one of the newbies, who seemed to have half a trouser missing.

“Do you need to stop?” The lieutenant asked.

The other didn’t reply.

“What happened?” Dallion whispered.

“Skiv got in a bit of a mess,” Spike replied. “A tick bit him, then burst. Nasty thing. The pain will last for weeks and will need serious treatment. He won’t be able to take on big jobs for a while.”

“That serious?”

“Nasty stuff. But hey, it’s the life of an explorer. Beats being an item mender.”

As harsh as it sounded, there was truth to that. Even Dallion had no intention of going back to standard mending.

“There’s no way to heal him?

“Not if you know any magic,” Spike snorted.

“I’ll make it,” the guild member groaned. “I just need a bit of rest.”

“You don’t look like you just need rest,” Alera said. “Get out of here. We’ll take you to the guild once we’re done.”

“I can heal him,” Dallion said.

At that moment, all eyes turned towards him. There were elements of confusion in the people, along with curiosity, but for the most part, there was universal disbelief. If healing involved magic, it had to be a pretty big deal. Dallion knew as much from the cleric he’d seen during the chainling hunt.

“It’s not magic,” Dallion quickly said. “I have a familiar that can do it.”

There was another long moment of silence.

“Show me,” the lieutenant said.

Out you go, Lux, Dallion thought.

The firebird appeared on Dallion’s head. Happy like a chick that got a chance to fly out of its cage, it chirped several times, then looked at the people nearby with almost as much interest as they were looking at it.

“That’s Lux,” Dallion explained. “He’s a… healing firebird?”

Don’t expect them to know what that is, Nil said. If I hadn’t come across such a creature, they certainly wouldn’t have.

“That can heal?” the old man in the group asked.

“It can restore health for certain.” Dallion tried to grab Lux from his head, but his hand only passed through the blue flame. The firebird seemed rather amused by it. “Never tried it on something like that. I guess it’s worth a test? What’s the worst that could happen?”

“I guess there’s no harm,” the lieutenant had to admit. “Are you up for it, Skiv?”

The other nodded eagerly. From his perspective, anything was better than remaining in this state.

“Lux, go on his leg,” Dallion said out loud. “If anything feels off—”

Before he could finish, the bird had zoomed from Dallion’s head onto the wounded’s leg. Clearly the firebird was reckless as its owner, in its own unique way. Blue flames surrounded the entire affected area of the leg.

For several seconds, nothing happened. Normally this was the point at which a red rectangle would appear, making it known that five percent health had been restored. While that did happen, it was also accompanied by a sudden browning of an area of Skiv’s leg. Green fumes went up along with a distinctly sour smell of rot.

“Lux, get—” Dallion began, but was quickly interrupted by the lieutenant.

“Not yet.”

Looking closely, Dallion saw what the other meant—the area was slowly shrinking. What Lux was doing was effectively pull the corrosive substance out of Skiv’s leg and burning it away. It wasn’t the fastest process, and quite smelly, but it managed to do something which was otherwise considered impossible.

None of the guild members said a word, but Dallion could see awe vibrate inside them. For once, even the lieutenant was impressed.

“Everyone, rest up for another ten minutes.” The lieutenant looked at the size of the infected area on Skiv’s leg. “Make that fifteen. We’ll tackle the swamp afterwards. Dal,” he added as the rest started walking away. “You stay.”

In Dallion’s experience, being asked to stay behind meant either something good or something very bad. Considering the circumstances and the emotions he could see in the lieutenant, it was possible to go either way.

“How did you get it?” the lieutenant whispered.

“It happened during the Art incident. I guess somehow he changed a firebird guardian into—”

“I’m not asking where, I’m asking how.”

Dallion remained silent, not understanding the question.

“There are four people in the entire guild with familiars. Half of them received them as an inheritance from a family member. The rest got them from birth. You didn’t have it before, and I doubt you inherited it, so I’m asking again. How did you get a familiar?”

“It just happened?” Dallion replied. “After I defeated the guardian, a blue rectangle appeared and told me that I had an azure firebird. That’s it.”

The lieutenant glared at him.

“That’s all that happened. If I knew how I did it, I’d have gotten a few more to help me in combat. And not only there.”

“You really have no idea, do you?”

“Idea of what? I know it’s not that rare for an awakened to have a familiar. Some even have more. Captain Adzorg even said that—”

“It’s normal for the Archduke’s city, or Imperial capital. Just look at Skiv.”

The man’s leg was all but healed. Nothing more than two large brown pimples remained and even they were quickly fading away beneath the blue flames.

“Only magic can do that.”

“Don’t worry, I don’t have any magic.”

“I know, but the familiar does, and when people find out, there’ll be many more questions coming your way, including from people that won’t accept the answer you’ve giving.”