“Amara, you’re my eye. Find us the best target. We’ll advance slowly.”

She gave Akamori a nod, weaving a stealth spell, and went invisible as a sphere of light wrapped around her. Then she flew up to a higher elevation above the fighting so she wouldn’t get struck by a stray missile spell. Then she channeled the light magic the Air goddess had gifted her in Hoshun, and the warm, comforting voice as she whispered a prayer.

“Mother of light, grant me the sight to see all truth. To find what I need to see.”

Her AP gauge dropped by 2, and her health dipped by 1.

System Info: Buff Triggered: Eye of Maetraya. You have prayed to your goddess and have been gifted the Eye of Maetraya. Maetrayops enable the user to view as a god would for a limited time period - At a cost. Use your time wisely, mortal.

A gold aura billowed out from around her lone as she consumed a small portion of her magic, and when she opened her eye, it glowed with gold radiance. She could see through the magic rain and fog as though they didn’t exist at all. Through the wards and shields cast by the talisman guardians. Amara saw everything. More than that, she could see beyond what was happening here. All the visible spectra and the enormity of it all overwhelmed her. Time and reality held no meaning. Every action and reaction played out before her. Each possible variation spun off into its own timeline. Every infinite possibility lay bare ahead of her. She cried out in pain and clutched her head; she tried to press her eye shut to keep the input from overwhelming her. It was too much for any mere mortal to glimpse.

The next thing she knew, she crashed into the soft mud on the ground. She gasped air back into her lungs after having it violently evacuated on the landing. Slowly, she pressed herself up. The pain was lessening now, and she wasn’t sure if that was more to do with the fact she’d lost focus and fell out of the sky or if it was because she’d grown used to it. Wearily she pressed herself up off the ground, hands on her knees and looked willed herself to look up again. Mud gurgled between her fingers as her weight pressed down into the muck.

It took enormous effort to zero in on the things she wanted to focus on. There, the talismans. She wanted to see those. She could see the lattice of runes connecting each talisman together, and how they connected the entire ritual. She could even see their comparative strength. She saw countless threads spin out from each of them. All spurred on by cause and effect. She saw the ritual succeed. She saw the ritual fail. She focused on those threads. In those potential realities, she saw the team attack the various talismans with varying degrees of success. She zeroed in the ones with their best chance of ruining the ritual and found their best possible targets. It felt like an eternity for her to scrutinize each talisman and review the next, but eventually, she finished. Something trickled from her nose, and she tasted a metallic tang in her mouth.

Amara marked the target talisman in her hud and shared it among the squad. “That one. That’s the one we should hit,” she said with strain between words.

“You mean the most heavily guarded one here that’s hiding behind a line of orcs, dragon hatchlings, and undead?”

She nodded weakly and instantly regretted the gesture after it sent pain spikes that echoed off the inside of her head. She winced in response. “Yeah. That’s the one.”

“Well. Wouldn’t be an average day for us if we didn’t to do the impossible. Form up team.”

Everyone fell into a tight formation, with her falling in last. Sirsir shot her a worried look. “You ok kid? You’ve got a little…” He trailed off, gesturing to her nose bleed, and she shook her head gently. She wobbled from side to side and the Sgt. braced her upright.

“I’m fine. Let’s get this done.”

Her HP dropped another point, and she released the spell. She sniffed a small trickle of blood back up her nose and closed her eye. The toll of exertion weighing hard on her. The spectra faded quickly and the expansive tapestry of realities slowly collapsed down into one as her mortal perspective slowly took over from the god sight she’d harnessed. Amara drew her rifle from her dimensional pocket and shouldered the weapon. The enemy outnumbered them easily with 2:1 odds. She was going to focus on putting targets down. Akamori stood up front, holding his blade in his right hand. She could tell by the way he stood, he was getting tired. The potions on his bandoleer were all empty save for the last one that resonated with the light energy inside her. She knew it was a gift from Kusinaki.

Sirsir hefted his heavy spell machine gun with an eager grin. She gave him an odd look that he’d caught. Shaking away her judgement, he nodded to the enemy.

“I joined up to stuff these scaley bastards in their place. After seeing what they’ve done to so many worlds? I had to join, to do something. Sure beat stickin’ around home. So here I am, the only line between them toppling the sector or failure. Shit’s a rush, man.”

She nodded slowly; she supposed from that kind of viewpoint it was exciting. Something about how he spoke about home stuck with her. Like he found the idea of home uncomfortable. Yasiin channeled void magic and flew up and to the rear of the group, drawing her attention with him. The end of his rifle glowed with gathering dark violet energy. Yasiin was still an enigma to her, but from what she knew of him, he was a marksman with no peer, and a superb counter magic user thanks to his people’s mastery of light and dark magic.

“We move. Sarge, you’re on suppressive fire. Amara and Yasiin pick off the strays. I’ll charge up the middle. If they try to slip around? Turn them back, or turn them to ash. If you get hurt? Walk it off. If you die? Kill them harder.” Akamori said, sprinting ahead of the squad. She opened fire with her rifle, targeting every orc she could find. Light bolts roared from her rifle in a rapid fire staccato. Sgt. Sirsir next to her engaged, laying down a suppressive fire with his machinegun as Yasiin dropped high profile targets one at a time. She snapped several bolts into a towering orc. His dark green flesh burned and sizzled with each golden shot. Then a void missile fired by Yasiin cored through his forehead, leaving a smoking hole as the creature tumbled over.

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Ahead of them, the stream of spells being fired at the enemy and against them made the battlefield madness. She glimpsed Akamori deftly dodging a spell, spinning in place and blasting himself in the back with a clap of air and hurtling into the air. Incoming fire splashed harmlessly against the small circular blue spell shield he deployed just ahead of the torrent. She fired several bolts to distract his target. The spells smashed against the scales of a hatchling that howled in pain until its body jerked as Akamori’s blade sank into its open mouth. A soft, weakening, gurgling sound bubbled up from its throat. The dead dragon youth’s body went slack and fell to its knees.

The fighting shifted from ranged attacks to up close now that Akamori was in their ranks. This made it easier for the squad to shift focus from suppressive fire to kill shots. Yasiin’s spell rifle kicked another void bolt clean through an orc’s head at range. Sirsir belted hatchlings with golden light bolts as Akamori continued to press the fight against them.

She suddenly appreciated the Captain’s conservative use of magic early on. The intensity in this battle was octaves above what they’d previously experienced. Had they been any more tired, she could see the squad running out of energy and being overrun. Only Akamori might have had a chance, given his tendency to favor close range fighting. She watched as his blade bit through scale and flesh alike. She could visibly see the trail it cut cleanly through the air. She snapped off several shots to help support his attack as he tried to punch through their ranks to clear them a path. She wished they had Sala with them, but he was protecting the Captain. Those two were trying to buy the mage squad time to destroy that talisman.

“Hey sir, I’m not trying to tell ya how to fight an all, but shouldn’t ya use that special god potion?”

“The tears?” he shouted back to Sirsir as he yanked his blade free of an orc’s chest cavity, then shook his head no. “Too soon. These are just grunts. We can deal with grunts. We don’t know if we have to deal with that,” he said, stabbing a thumb back at the talisman’s guardian who’d been watching them slowly carve into the forces arrayed against them.

Amara’s stomach clenched. Was that? No… it couldn’t be? She fought the urge to use her special power again so soon. The pain alone made it worth reconsidering. She had a feeling she’d soon discover if her hunch was right. For now? She needed to focus on the threats in front of them.

She advanced as she fired, dumping several shots into an advancing Orc’s knee. The searing gold energy burning away flesh and bone, buckling his posture. She was about to followup with a shot to face, when a massive blast surged past her and detonated the creature's head. Gore sprayed everywhere, and she turned back to Sirsir.

“Really, Sarge?”

He shrugged, “What? That’s big man shit.”

She rolled her eyes as she resumed the attack. They’d quickly learned that the Orcs were just shock troops, but performed poorly against their squad, so downing them first was proving to be an effective strategy. The dragon hatchlings were the harder problem, thanks to how difficult it was to damage them. She sighted down the barrel, ready to fire another round, when something swept her off her feet. The world spun, and she slammed down on her back, thankful for the helmet protecting her head. Her damage indicator flashed yellow on the helmet and she groaned, trying to push away the threat of unconsciousness. Her attacker gave her no time to get her bearings as the dragon hatchling fell on top of her, trying to drive a spells word into her chest. Her arms shot protectively, catching the Hatchlings forearms and halting the blades descent into her chest. But the hatchling had weight and its strength going for it, and exhaustion clung to her like sweat. The tip wobbled against their struggles and it snapped its jaws eagerly for the kill that it sensed was coming soon. She summoned what remained of the light energy she had left, pulling deep at her reserves to scrape every shred she could find, and felt rejuvenation coursing through her body. She’d bought herself some time, but she couldn’t say how much. In that moment, she felt her anger writhe. She could feel the air goddess herself. The soft kiss of swirling air magics, coalescing around her and within. It coiled about within her, like a viper ready to strike.

“JUST GO AWAY!” she howled.

A powerful air blast slammed into the hatchling, gusting the young dragon into the air. She watched as it traveled ten, no, twenty feet into the air! Time slowed down for her. She knew when it landed, her fight would end. They drained her. All she had left in her was missile spells at this point. She watched, waiting for it to descend on her and finish its task.

As it fell, she watched as it angled its wings to help it glide down, sword ready to stab in a reverse grip. It fell a few feet, then exploded in a blast of light magic. Its HP bar tumbled in a free fall into the red till it struck 0. She watched confused as the scorched corpse tumbled uncontrolled and landed close by, scales still steaming. Heavy boots sank into the mud next to her, and she glanced up to see the Sergeant's hand reaching out.

“C’mon private. We’ve got a mission to finish.”

It took all of her effort to reach out and take the hand, and he pulled her up to her feet. She took the quick moment of respite to check her status for debuffs. Thankfully, the Eye of Maetraya debuff finished, but she had a new one.

System Info: Magic Exhaustion: Your AP is below 3. Regen halted until you’ve fully rested. Potions will refill your AP, but you will continue to not regen AP until a rest period or out of combat. Clearly you’ve slacked off your magic training.

Once she was on her feet, he fished a vial from his bandoleer and held it out to her. “For you.”

She took the vial and looked at it; it was an aether potion, to recharge her AP. She shook her head, pushing it back to him, but he refused.

“I insist. We’re only as strong as our weakest link, and we need you strong. I’ll be fine.”

Her brows furrowed, and she wanted to protest. It was the duty of a priestess to put her life before others. She couldn’t reconcile his own act against her code.

“I don’t know what to say…”

“You don’t know what to say, Sergeant.”

She glanced up from the vial, and this time he had a wry smirk on his face. Was that approval in his expression? She nodded and repeated with the correct honorific.

“Now, let’s get back to kickin’ some ass. The Eltee is puttin’ on a clinic, an’ I’m feelin’ thoroughly challenged here.”

Amara plugged the vial into her armor’s potion socket on the forearm, and she watched as the plunger injected the fluid into the armor. Strength came pouring back to her, and she gasped. She really hadn’t realized how gassed out she’d been. The socket ejected the empty glass vial and she unslung her rifle.

“Can’t disappoint the XO, can we?”

“No, we can’t.”

As the broad-shouldered sergeant trotted off in the wake of the carnage Akamori was carving into the enemy ranks, she brought her rifle up to the high ready and searched for targets. She couldn’t help but recall how they’d nearly been overwhelmed by a pair of hatchlings on the station, and now here they were fighting frantically against a whole horde. They’d grown in skill and in power since then. Kalenza would have been proud of her, and his son both. She took pride in knowing they carried on the will of the people of Hoshun with honor.