"Are you sure this is a good idea, Mr Zalroth?" Mymbi asked as she peered down the sand slope underneath the thin layer of pale teal mana. Her face still bore a faint shade of red, indicating the embarrassment she felt was still fresh in her mind. Whilst the girl continued snooping at space under the magical veil, Zalroth sat atop a small flat-topped boulder, his legs crossed with one foot on the ground and the other balanced on it by his ankle.
"You scared of a little sand?" Zalroth teased swiftly. He ran a finger across the base of the iron snowboard he had balanced on his vertical leg. Mymbi swung her head at Zalroth, her blush brightening ever so slightly as she puffed up her cheek furiously. After a short stare-down, she averted her gaze from the guy, unable to maintain eye contact with him as she felt her embarrassment resurface.
"As if!" Mymbi exclaimed passionately, swiping the kid-sized iron snowboard from Zalroth, and cradling it between her arms and torso like a child protecting their favourite toy. But, as the side of the board coated in a deep blue mana made contact with the kaiser beast, the board frantically vibrated like a captive animal before it swished out of Mymbi's grasp like a wet bar of soap.
The iron board shot through the water, smacking Zalroth in the forehead and rebounding off him as if it were made of polyurethane foam. Mymbi silently gasped, watching the iron board slide across the sandy ground until it bumped into her dangling tail.
"Hmnn. Seems I may have lowered the friction too much," Zalroth mentioned chirpily, acting like he hadn't just been hit in the face by the iron board. Momentarily stunned by his reaction or lack of one, Mymbi blankly stared at Zalroth, a puzzled expression plastering her face. Before long, she found her shocked expression softening, reduced back to how it was when she was simply blushing.
"Just... how?" Mymbi asked, her tone fluctuating between bewilderment and disbelief. Zalroth smugly placed an arm on his horizontally rested leg, passing a cheerful grin to Mymbi as he rested his chin in his raised palm with a light huff.
"Getting stroppy over every little thing gets rather frustrating, don't you think?" Zalroth expressed swiftly, playfully spinning the mini iron mana circle on the top tip of his boot as he spoke.
"I suppose so-". Mymbi paused, realisation dawning on her as she registered Zalroth's jab against her. "I... don't appreciate your choice of words, Mr Zalroth.". The girl turned her nose up at Zalroth, conveying her contempt for his teasing perfectly.
As she continued to express her misgivings for Zalroth's teasing through her body language, Mymbi slowly descended, intending to land on her feet. But, instead of feeling the sandy texture of the sea floor against her coral-plated soles, Mymbi felt the smooth and frigid sensation of the iron greet her senses. Knowing what was to come, Mymbi paused, slumping her shoulders and wrapping her long tail around herself as best she could before the iron snowboard let out a faint buzz.
"Not a word," Mymbi muttered as the snowboard slowly carried her away, treating the ground like it were ice once more. The board glided over the sea floor, transporting her efficiently with ease. Briefly, the nose of the board dangled over the slope's precipice, teasing its passenger with the impending drop.
Not allowing a mere object to insult her pride, Mymbi slammed her foot into the board in frustrated silence. The impact of her stomp jolted it forward just enough to tip the balance over the edge and, before long, she went diving down the slope. She retained fierce eye contact with Zalroth from start to finish, only breaking her focus as she popped through the mana veil covering it.
Zalroth stared at the spot in the mana veil where Mymbi dropped into, watching it ungulate like a ripple in a lake. He considered making a quip before shaking his head, deciding it wasn't worth wasting it when Mymbi was in earshot to hear it. He closed his eyes, rocking his head from side to side before letting out an amused exhale.
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"Can't let her get too far ahead of me, she'll hog all the fun otherwise," Zalroth remarked, right before a deafening tremor rippled from below. With yet another, albeit more on the reserved side, exhale escaping from his nose, Zalroth hopped off the bolder and kicked up sand from his boot as he planted them firmly against the sea floor.
Zalroth trotted his way to the slope, a lax sway in his step whilst the iron mana circle twirled along his path. It bounced and encircled him, its movements reminiscent of an excited puppy demanding its owner's affection. But as its colouration morphed to match that of steel, the mana circle's demeanour became less energetic but more refined, before it elegantly planted itself in Zalroth's azure palimpsest, ready to assist him.
"Alright. Let's do this," Zalroth uttered under his breath, his words slightly heavy. He raised his hands, tightly clenching them to psych himself up. But, as he brought his fists back to his side, a reserved presence emerged from the depths of his mind.
"Yes, Zalina?" Zalroth asked, casting his gaze to the side and side-eyeing it as if someone were there. A bratty snicker rippled through his mind, its underlying sense of mockery freakishly similar to that of Zalroth's prior teasing against Mymbi.
"Does that mean I can indulge in the action?" Zalina asked, a snooty flair accompanying her words as a bundle of cyan and pink qi gathered on Zalroth's shoulder and donned the shape of a miniature eight-tailed kitsune cub
"If you're back, I take you've found the staff I requested this time?" Zalroth asked sternly, causing Zalina to dart her head away and obnoxiously pout at him.
"Duh, what do you take me for? As if I'd find the wrong one for the seventy-seventh's time!" Zalina announced without a hint, cupping her arms together as she locked her tails into defiant crosses.
"Only took you till a double seven, ey?" Zalroth queried playfully, intentionally using an unserious tone to get on Zalina's nerves. Even though she knew her originator was intentionally trying to antagonise her, Zalina fell right into his grasp with her fur shooting up into jagged-looking spikes.
"Well, if all your prototypes didn't look identically the same, I would've found it yesterday. Plus your tail dimension is way too big and the organisation of everything is so wacky," Zalina whined, raising onto her hind legs and kicking at the non-existent dust on Zalroth's shoulder.
"You have Deva to thank for that, Mophead," Zalroth mentioned. The small mana being slowly arched her head at Zalroth, moving in short, yet rapid bursts, finding it increasingly difficult to control her mana puppet as the faint sound of a boiling kettle emanated from it.
"I would get mad at that nickname if it weren't true," Zalina's mana avatar grumbled before it abruptly popped into small particles that simmered into the surrounding water.
"Guess I'll have to wait for her to cool off-f!". As he was mid-sentence, one of Mymbi's octopus tentacles burst forth into the water and coiled around Zalroth's ankle, instantly deoxidizing in a wave the instant it made contact with the water. The tentacle tugged against his leg, gently goading him to hurry up as Mymbi gazed up at Zalroth through the refraction of the mana veil.
"No need to rush me, Mymbi. It's not like we're racing against anyone," Zalroth stated matter-of-factly. Mymbi frowned unamusedly at the guy's objectively incorrect statement before rubbing at her tentacle hair and leaving an oxidised green smear on it.
"Unfortunately, the people by the temple would say otherwise... both in the meaning of the phrase and that they literally said that," Mymbi explained jitterly, her voice only mildly distorted as she stood under the ruined temple's atmosphere mana veil. For a brief moment, Zalroth widened his eyes, mildly surprised at the news before he donned a confident expression born from glee.
"Looks like I own Nola seven Shulleon," Zalroth muttered merrily whilst rubbing the back of his head.
"Only seven?" Zalina asked bewilderedly within Zalroth's mind. The guy couldn't help but mentally chuckle as he heard Zalina's innocent question.
"You were that easy to please once," Zalroth retorted, causing Zalina to audible huff. Almost sensing the incoming quip, Zalina summoned a collection of her mana and congregated it behind Zalroth in a humanoid shape before making it shove the guy. With the sudden shove, plus Mymbi's grasp on one of his ankles, Zalroth easily lost his footing and bellyflopped face-first into the mana veil which much to the two girls' dismay forced them to accompany the guy as he tumbled down the mountainous slope.