Yes, YES! MUHAHAHA FINALLY! Mia ecstatically rambled to herself as she darted around the feet of her human rescuee, cutting various monsters to ribbons whenever they got to close. She'd initially considered jumping up to his shoulder, cause she'd TOTALLY fit, but decided against it because it might spook the person she'd known for like, six seconds, just a little bit too much. Plus it's not like Mia could get much work done from up there.
It seemed as if he'd gotten the memo, because even when Mia got into eye shot of the fighter they didn't even make an attempt at attacking her. Which was just, so satisfying on so many levels, Mia couldn't even really describe the feeling. She could tell that he was slowly making his way back towards the line of humans. And she followed with him, cleaving a path forward for the man in the hopes that they might end up accepting her.
I mean-I have a way to communicate with people now! I can explain I'm not hostile, I just need a little bit of mana first. I can let it charge while I'm helping this guy through the horde and then I can tell them I want to live with them, it'll be great! Mia found herself not even acknowledging Willa at that moment, so caught up in her own thoughts that she'd completely forgotten about the cat whom she'd tried to help. So single minded in her focus that she hadn't even noticed them struggling in the distance. No, they continued to escort their new found human. That wasn't to say Willa didn't notice them however.
So single minded in her focus was Mia, that with every monster she cut down she didn't even notice what they were. So single minded was Mia, that when Willa had ran towards her in relief, she hadn't even realized what she was cutting until her claws were rammed into his side.
Blood sprayed from Willa's mouth as his eyes went wide. Mia's eyes shot open in alarm as she looked down at Willa, stumbling backwards and collapsing onto the ground, bleeding out across the ground.
...What-what did I-
She froze stock still for a short moment, the world around her going quiet as her ears begun to ring. Slowly the sound of the shouts across the battlefield, and the cries of monsters that she always shut out, faded into the distance. Not that she wasn't paying any attention. Her eyes continued to widen as she looked at Willa's body, his chest rapidly rising and falling as he took in short quick breaths, gasping for the life that was leaking out of his body by the second. Mia's legs buckled under her as her breathing picked up, collapsing to the ground.
She was dimly aware of the blood spattering against her coat as the man who she'd chosen to defend cut open a monster moments away from attacking her, but she couldn't find it in herself to care. Did I just... Kill... Mia stared back at Willa's body, eyes widening even further as she looked at his chest still rising and falling. He's alive.
Right as she was about to shoot from the ground, Mia felt a hand gripping around her back, yanking her off of the ground. No-put me down! "Low, Link, Low, Translate" Cast! "PUT ME DOWN RIGHT NOW!" She mentally screamed straight into the mans head.
"What the hell?! He jumped a little bit, dropping Mia onto the ground in shock. As soon as she hit the floor, she darted in, gripping Willa's scruff tight, before darting right back with him in tow. As she ran, Mia noticed her body was starting to glow blue, huh, that was new. And also EXTREMELY painful! The veins in her body were the sources of the newfound light, slowly turning to a pale shade of the painful color.
"What are you?"
Mia ended her sprint, finishing just below the man. With a final mental shout, Mia screamed two things at her companion.
"TAKE AND PROTECT HIM!" And with that, they cut the link.
With a fresh goal and determination blended with the omnipresent agony rising throughout her flesh like a tsunami, Mia made a 360 turn. Looking at every single monster nearby, Leaping off of the ground, she got to work. Constantly running around in a circle with what she needed to protect at the center. What did she do while running in that circle however? Every monster stupid enough or unfortunate enough to be in her path, or just so happened to get a little too close to the human, and by extension, Willa, was immediately minced. Turned to bits in a single strike of Mia's claws.
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Every possible attacker was immediately made dead, taken to pieces moments after they'd entered Mia's notice. She ran as fast as she possibly could, tearing every monster she got her paws on to shreds in an instant before switching her focus to the next target. She was moving so fast, that the human who she was protecting didn't even have the time to make any attacks of their own. No monsters even getting close enough to be a possible threat.
Soon enough, the human had stopped trying to make attacks, instead solely focusing on defense and advancing towards his companions. Mia made an estimate and figured she'd have to keep this pace up for another thirty seconds or so... And that was a tough ask. Even disregarding the pain that made it feel like she was melting from the inside out, running and attacking like this was strenuous work. She was pushing her natural abilities to the absolute limit, and even her abnormally high constitution score wasn't quite enough to keep her running at peak performance forever. Suck it up or cry and die. She once more told herself, even though it wasn't technically her at risk if she messed up this time.
Level up!
+8 strengt-Really don't care right now.
She tore through a charging bull that was headed straight for the two targets she was defending, turned into three slices and collapsed onto the ground. She spun around, took out another monster that had decided it would be a good idea to go charging over eighteen corpses of it's brethren, glanced back to see another two monsters baring down on the human as they ran and dipped back in to deal with them as well. Slash, cut, bite, stab, again and again and again.
All the while her body was screaming out in misery, exhaustion starting to rise as every inch of her flesh cried out in protest and agony. Every vein in her body glowing with a pale shade of blue. Then, she saw a distance that she would not be able to travel in time. A monster just out of her reach that would reach the human before she would. While they might not die, they could end up wounding Willa in some way. She couldn't let that happen.
Mana-Life Boost, activate it! Raw fiery agony. There are no words to describe the pain that resulted as a consequence of these actions. Hurt juice, she'd drunk hurting juice. There was nothing else to say. It was the most pure and unbridled pain that one could ever imagine. It wasn't necessarily the worst single instance of pain that could ever happen to one individual, but it was a constant everlasting pain that did no fade. Though she'd at least accomplished her goal, having reached the monster well before it reached her human. Instantly she shut the skill off, though the veins running throughout her body glowed even brighter as a result.
She carried on running with a blank state of mind, almost not thinking due to how much pain she was in. Though, just as she was about to make a mistake similar to the one she'd made about a minute prior, Mia backed off at the last moment. Leaping backwards and away from the human who'd stepped into her path. Claws inches away from having scraped at their armored shins. She blinked rapidly for a moment, her eyes having dried out from the wind pushing against her while sh'e been running. Then she looked around, it would seem that she'd finally made it. Her human was back within their lines with Willa in tow, that just left her... Sitting in the middle of the field alone.
With one final effort, Mia darted back towards the man she'd guarded all the way here, made a silent prayer and leaped upwards. She latched onto their armored shoulder, claws lightly digging into the leather padding as she held herself aloft. She made sure to grab the arm that was NOT holding Willa, as she didn't want to end up getting the man to drop him. Mia once again gave her small size praise, then she left it up to chance.
If she'd had the presence of mind to spare on anything that wasn't crying (not actually crying cause she literally couldn't) from how bad she was hurting right now Mia might've listened in to what the humans were saying. The time for action on her part had ended, she couldn't bring herself to do anything besides holding on any more. She'd trusted that her current human ride wouldn't immediately sell her out, even though she technically had no insurance.