It was, surprisingly, difficult to find an enemy to kill. It was as if they knew I was coming, and they all decided to go poof. Alaric had disappeared somewhere on the journey, and Kaelen explained that since they were Companions, the owl could leave our world and be 'stored' in another dimension until he wanted to come out again or if Kaelen called on him. I could not resist a grumble when we still found nothing more than rats - not even humans! Where did they all go? - twenty minutes later, "If we still don't find anything in ten minutes, let's just find some shelter and rest until they come to us."

"That sounds good," Elias nodded, wiping some sweat from his forehead as he panted, "Doesn't this place have a map?"

A few seconds later, he perked up, "This place does have a map."

"What... What?" Kaelen was worse off than both of us, her injuries wearing her down, "We can't see whatever you are seeing, Elias."

"Terra, Kaelen, try this: System, show me the map for this region," Elias grinned as he told us the command. We did as he suggested, and soon, I could see a small map at the corner of my vision. I focused on it, zooming it in until I could see the details. There were red spots of various shapes and sizes scattered all over a map, as well as a obnoxious and generic 'You're Here!' off to the side.

"It works!" I said, before starting to analyze the map and figure out where to go next, "I think we can head for the red spot about 5 blocks ahead and 7 blocks to our right. That seems to be the closest one. Unfortunately, the map doesn't tell us what the monster is like, so we'll just have to go and find out."

"That is a big one, though," Kaelen scrunched up her brows, "I think the monster a little further behind us would work better. See? That's a small dot. Maybe it's one of the rats we saw on the way here. Elias, what do you think?"

The person in question considered the two options for a moment, before deciding, "We can do both, but let's try Kaelen's first. If her theory about dot size being related to monster strength is wrong, we can check out Terra's monster."

"The monster isn't mine!" I grumbled, slapping his back, "But that plan is fine with me."

With that, we turned back, and Kaelen led us towards the shining red dot she had picked out.

--

With the map guiding us through to our destination, we could take a few shortcuts. As we approached, there was a low buzzing coming from the direction of the red dot. We shared a few glances, but could not decide on what it might be. A few steps later, we reached our last turn. Once we leave the protection of the building hiding our presence from the enemy, we would be able to see what it was, and it would also spot us. I halted us, and cautiously poked my head out. As soon as I saw what we were up against, I gasped in surprise. It was a lone bee zipping around on the road. It was larger than normal, and its exoskeleton look more like metal than organic, but it was... anticlimatic.

"Alright," I said after retreating into the shadows of the building, "It is just an overgrown bee with some armor. We should be able to do this. We won't even need to call Alaric, unless he wants to come out."

"Any plans?" Elias asked, worried, "Just in case it is more than it seems?"

"Kaelen, you can make force fields to protect us, right?" I asked, even though I already knew that she could. Just to confirm.

She nodded, "Yes, and I can heal anyone in it, but if the bee attacks us, I would need to exert some effort to strengthen the force field."

"Great!" I clasped my hands together, "Once we get in range, Kaelen can create a force field for us to hide in. Then... Kaelen, if you want to, can you let a person through your force field without disactivating it?"

"Yes, I think so, but I'll need to check. I've tried it with objects before," Kaelen hummed thoughtfully, "I think I know what you want to do now."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Okay, I want you to let Elias dart in and out to use Corrode on the bee. I will create an illusion for the bee to think that he is not there, and that there is some kind of delicious flower on the ground. Then, while it is distracted, Elias can attack from behind," I finished, "What do you think?"

Kaelen agreed readily, and Elias just shrugged, "As long as I don't get stung to death, I'm fine with the plan."

With that, we headed out, and we all began preparing for our respective roles. The bee turned to us as soon as we were ten meters away from it, but I led us two metres further before yelling, "Kaelen, now!"

She concentrated, and the force field quietly set into place, its edges glimming silver in the sun. I closed my eyes and began setting the scene for my illusion. I had not tried this Skill before, but it did not mean that I couldn't guess about how to use it. If it was anything similar to Artist, this should work. I imagined that the bee could only see a large, glamorous flower, dripping with nectar and pleasing to the bee's every sense. Then, I replaced us with this imagery, making sure that we were completely invisible to the bee before forcing the illusion on the creature. As the Skill description promised, I felt no resistance from it.

As soon as the bee began aggressively licking thin air, Elias left the force field successfully and whipped out a medium-sized knife, which was lit on fire, the tongues licking his hand, but not really hurting him. Raising the knife up high, Elias plunged it into the bee's exoskeleton, causing it to jerk up violently. It ejected something out of the tip of its stinger, but it was not venom. As I scrutinized it further, I realized that it was a tiny bee. I shouted for Elias to get back in, but by then it was too late. He went in for a second hit, this time cutting off one of its legs. The bee was no longer as enthralled by my illusion, and following the second attack, its stinger began producing a flood of more tiny bees.

Elias' face twisted with fear as they began heading for him, not at all affected by my illusions as their larger host was, and they were very angry. Although he was not far from our force field, he was still stung by one of the bees before he entered the protective barrier. The swarm rammed themselves at the veil separating us, and Kaelen had to repair the hit. I frantically called for my Story Weaver paper and began drawing, but every time I tried to activate Artist through my drawings, a harsh headache hit me like a truck, and I had to give up after a few tries. Fortunately, the bee had not yet broken out of the fake world I created, so it was not much of a threat.

Its tiny minions, however, were becoming dangerous as they pushed against the force field again and again as a swarm, and I could see that Kaelen was straining herself. We did not have much time, but maybe Alaric could help us? I took a glance at the bees and cancelled off that idea. He might be helpful for one versus one fights, but in this, he would just get overwhelmed. What else can I use? My mind raced, trying to come up with a plan so that we would not get killed, but I could not-

Wait, the fire fox had dropped something called an ability stone, didn't it? I pulled up my inventory and scanned it, and surely, there it was.

1160 New Gems, 0 Ancient Crystals

W: Weapons

M: Materials

C: Clothing

T: Tools

F: Food

CI: Cursed Items

MI: Magical Items

O: Other

2x Lion Claw (W/M), 1x Lion Hide (M/C), 2x Raw Lion Meat (F), 1x Green Bean Seed (O), 1x Rope (T/O), 1x Rope [Acid Resistant] (T/O), Ability Stone: Normal Fire Manipulation [Rare] (MI/O),1x Magma Griffin Golem Feather [Unbonded] (MI), 2x Cooked Griffin Meat (F), 1x Magma Griffin Golem Cloak [Unbonded] (MI)

I pulled it out of my inventory, and it landed heavily on my palm. I stared at it, not sure what to do. I could try the visualization technique, but what if an item and a skill works differently? I sighed - I'll just try it anyway. Even if it didn't work, it wouldn't cost me much time, so it should be fine. Elias glanced at me, "Terra, I surely hope that you have a plan and aren't just staring at a red-colored stone, because Kaelen can't hold on for much longer."

I tuned him out after giving him a quick nod of acknowledgement, closing my eyes as I imagined the rock as a swirling fireball of energy, and then forced it to merge with my skin, burrowing smoothly down and becoming a part of me. Accepting it was difficult at first, and the stone's energy lashed out at me, strugging against my hold, but as moments passed, it stopped causing as much trouble, and calmly entered me. As soon as all of it was gone in my mind's eye, I opened my eyes in the real world.

The stone was no longer there, and my hand was glowing with a soft red, the light pulsating every few seconds. I grinned, determined and more confident now that I have the ability to use fire. If the stone does what it says, I should be able to destroy the swarm together with Elias.

Time to test it out.