Amara watched as an orc smashed Akamori square in the torso with a massive tree trunk sized club. Mud and water rooster tailed around him as he slid across the rain soaked top soil. A large rock exploded into gravel as he crashed to a stop against it letting out a groan. She rushed over to him and winced at the beating his armor was taking.
“You’re a mess.”
He looked up at her, dazed, his eyes unfocused for a moment. She watched him shake his head, and the sharpness returned. She helped him up to his feet, and he winced. “Hows your armor holding up?”
“Pretty much red all over.”
She could only nod at that. It definitely looked that bad on the outside. She tried to smile to give him confidence, but she was pretty certain it wasn’t working. He held his hand out, using his air magic like a lasso to grab his sword by the hilt and yank it back to him. She could hear it clap into his palm as he gripped it tightly. At least his fighting spirit hadn’t diminished. Based on how intensely he was eying the orc, she felt confident in assuming he was enjoying himself.
She quickly eyed the rest of the opposition. Both sides had regrouped, with the Sauridius forming a column to block the mage's advance. They snarled and growled, but it was all threats they’d faced before. Though she noted the necromancer dragon behind the column looking as amused as ever, his arms folded while watching passively.
She glanced at Akamori, trying to scry his aura. She was curious how much magic he’d spent carving his way into the lines this far. She caught he was panting and wasn’t sure if that was magic or physical exertion. She had to admit that the Sergeants hard physical training had helped get them into at least passing shape for this. They’d trained on Hoshun, but what they’d undergone with Sirsir had taken their bodies to a whole other level of fitness. She’d never been much of a fighter and knew Akamori was skilled with a blade on a basic level. Now his increased physical endurance and strength made him dangerous. Added with his growing comfort with his magic and he was becoming difficult to keep track of in battle because of how quickly he flitted about from target to target.
She pulled her spell rifle tighter into her arm, noting how rejuvenated she felt after taking the sergeant's potion. The ache in her body had lessened, and she could feel her magic reserves brimming.
“So what’s the plan?”
“What’s the plan, Sir? I will break my foot off in someone’s ass if you pukes don’t learn better.”
Amara bit back a chuckle at the sergeants interjection. She noted he didn’t call them fuzzies anymore. They’d earned the respect of being more than that. She was a mage now. She turned to see him giving her a stern look, but the cracked smile on his lips showed he was enjoying himself while still disciplining them.
“She’s right, tho Eltee. What’s the play?”
Akamori’s lip twitched as he was about to respond, then deliberated his response. As he did, she took the moment to summon her visual power and examine his aura finally. Light energy flashed, and her eye turned golden as all lies and deceptive magics faded away as her eye revealed the truth as seen only by Maetreya. The HP debuff kicked back in, and her health leveled out at half.
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She hissed at first as something almost blinded her, but then her power pressed through the ward. The strength of it was overwhelming, and she realized she’d just burned through a ward meshed together by something with divine level strength. No one should see this. She doubted even she was. She had to squint to get a clean look, which struck her oddly. Akamori’s body blurred and rippled, like a mirage in the desert. More prominently though, she noticed the Golden seals on his back. The marks of a god, or more likely goddess. Did the air goddess brand him during his soul march? She looked closer, examining the detail.
There was a large golden circle that framed the seal. Some kind of barrier or seal. Inside it she could see runes or writing etched in a language she didn’t understand, framed by another gold ring. Inside sat a large octogram, with a symbol in each point of the star. Outside of it sat the 8 magical aspects. The Air rune shone in a subdued glow though being less vibrant than its peers, and she wondered if that meant someone had canceled it out? The same for the Darkness Rune. Maybe the Air goddess had done something for him, unlocked something during his soul march. Something writhed beneath the seal. Something she could only sense for a faint moment, but it was immense.
“You ok?”
The words were distant and echoed in her mind for a moment. She was aware she was being shaken and blinked, looking at the sergeant who had concern all over his face.
“Hey. This is no time to be spacin’ out. What’s up?”
She shook her head, feeling the ache of the power in her eye fading. She gave the sergeant a weak smile. She’d lost a few HP examining the seal in closer detail. Eventually they needed to figure out what it was, and why he was marked.
“Nothing, I’m fine. Are we ready?” she asked. Trying to redirect the focus off of herself.
The sergeant nodded, though looked like he had more questions he wanted to ask. She watched him bite down and push the urge aside. Good. They needed to focus, and she needed time to digest what she’d just seen. She wasn’t sure what that even was. She filed it away for another time. Now they needed to destroy that talisman, and that meant getting through the rest of the enemy in front of them.
“They’ve done a decent job of bleeding us of magic. They wanted us tired and weak by the time we hit the guardians.” Akamori said. “They think they’re on top of this fight because they haven’t squared up against us until this planet. I’ve been going about half speed to sell the idea I’m flagging.”
She knew he wasn’t lying when he said this. He still had plenty of magic to spare. Even for the battered shape he was in. Was this the warrior his father trained? or was this the commander the Sergeant had forged? Or something somewhere in between? Perhaps this man had always just buried beneath the surface. Waiting for the right moment to cut loose. She couldn’t be sure which. She tried to imagine this Akamori being the same young man who just wanted to travel the stars she knew from back home. He’d changed so much. She saw that now. How much had she changed?
She glanced down at her rifle, his voice cutting her drifting attention and pulling it back to him.
“I’ll go first. Sweep right and outside. Go for the hatchlings, avoiding the orc. They’ll probably expect this and try to either bait me in or punish me hard. Depends on how they want to play it. Either way, I’ll only feign weakness for an instant, then we lay into them.”
He glanced back at her, then to the sergeant. “Ready?”
She nodded, “Ready.”
“Ready.”
Akamori turned back to the opposition, then crouched a little lower, his blade held out to the side. “Follow my lead, and stay in my wake,” he said over his shoulder, and in that moment, she felt like she was hearing his father, more than the son.