Skarlet let out a choked cry as what felt like a massive boulder smashed into her side, Aries had swatted her from the air, she felt and heard multiple bones crack as the beast's hand slammed into her. She was thrown downwards, as a last-ditch effort she encased herself in a wind and fire barrier, but the force of her impact shattered her barriers and still slammed her whole body with enough force to shatter multiple more bones.
Skarlet gasped in pain as blood dripped from her nose, mouth, and ears. She couldn't move as the air barely made it into her lungs, she raised her arm, a bone stuck from her twisted and shattered wrist and forearm.
"Godess of the world's soul, mend my skin and bone, Healing light." She rasped, she was in too much pain to cast it without a chant, then a thick and mind-numbing pain encased her whole body, she screamed as her body untwisted and her bones mended together. A morbid cracking sound accompanied her twisting body. "Fuck!" She exclaimed as the pain finally subsided, she tried to sit up only to collapse again, "Damn, need a minute. . ."
She rested for a bit as she looked up at Cody who was keeping Aries busy, after a few moments she got to her feet. Skarlet used more air magic, jumped back into the sky.
"Hey, there's a crystal on its forehead. I thought it was a third eye but it's some form of mana Crystal. I think we should focus on that." Skarlet explained to him as he paused his attacks.
"Oh, you need me to give you an opening?" He asked with a smirk.
"If you could." Skarlet didn't wait for a response before letting herself fall backwards, flipping around into a bullet like shape she tore through the air towards its head.
"Ah, come on. You're actually trying to piss me off right!" He exclaimed as he used air magic to blast himself after her.
Time seemed to slow as they both reached Aries's face at about the same time, Cody used a second burst of magic to abruptly stop and swing his sword. "Blinding strike!" He exclaimed as the flash exploded.
Aries waved its hands and yelled as its eyes squeezed shut, Skarlet smashed into its forehead letting out a choked gasp, she wiped the blood from her lips and stabbed her sword into the crystal. She forced fire mana down the blade of her sword and made it explode at the tip.
Pain filled her body as she was thrown away, even through the feeling of her body being torn apart she squeezed her grip on her sword. Eyes closed and face contorted in pain, she expected to hit the ground however she didn't. As familiar hands caught her, she sighed and checked on her body's state. She was burned and bleeding from a lot of superficial wounds. She relaxed a bit, taking a moment to catch her breath, though the beast wasn't dead yet.
Skarlet stepped onto her own air magic and began forming another fire spear. It was easier the second time and even seemed to use less mana. She tried to steady herself, but couldn't and eventually just accepted the current state. She fired the spell, once again everything went quiet before it smashed through the air with a bang.
Aries was distracted as it was clawing at its forehead and moaning in pain. It reacted too late as the spear pierced through its shoulder, it screamed an animalistic roar of rage and pain as its arm barely held on with tendons and bone fragments. Skarlet then fell, her mana gone except for a small sliver, just enough to keep her conscious.
Cody swooped down and caught her, "Hey! Let's back off for a bit, if you're out of mana you can't fight and I can't do this alone."
"Just get me back to its head!" She yelled at him, he frowned, suddenly the beast let out another roar and the air immediately got colder. It raised it's hand as it began to use ice magic on a mass scale.
"What's that! He's changing the weather!" Cody exclaimed as clouds formed above Aries's hand which stretched towards the sky and snow began to fall, it quickly became a blizzard and Aries vanished into the whiteout. Skarlet pulled on Cody's arm and pointed forward.
"GO, I'll guide you." She exclaimed, he nodded and they flew forward, "Left!" Skarlet exclaimed and Cody dodged to the left as an Ice spike shot through the blizzard beside them. "Right, then Left!" She exclaimed as her senses told her the directions. Cody followed the best he could, the Ice spikes started to become more frequent so he started receiving cuts, and so did Skarlet.
"UP ABOVE, QUICKLY MOVE!!!" Skarlet suddenly screamed too late as Cody threw her and a tree smashed downwards into him at an insanely fast speed, he shot towards the ground and disappeared into the blinding white.
"Fuck! Don't you fucking die you damn moron!" She screamed before using her last bit of mana in the form of a blast of air and threw herself forward, she landed on something and rolled while drawing her sword and dashing forward.
She scrambled to her feet only to find she was inches from the Beast's neck. Without hesitation she started gouging out flesh, though she couldn't help but wish her sword was bigger.
Suddenly, as if in response to her wish, her sword's blade elongated and widened till it was big enough to decapitate the creature. Skarlet didn't waste the moment, as she swung the sword. She cut deep into Aries's neck but soon hit something hard, she let out a snort of frustration before yanking the sword back and swinging it back. On the second pass she managed to decapitate the beast.
Aerie's body fell forward, Skarlet realized it was gonna crush her but she couldn't do anything. Her mana was depleted and her energy too, she felt very faint.
She noticed something red out of the corner of her eye just as she'd given up, moments later she landed on something and was brought out from under Aries, it was Beatrice. Beatrice also swooped down and scooped up Cody with her claws; he looked unconscious but otherwise alright.
Skarlet sat up and glanced to her side, Amber was riding beside her, she turned to Skarlet and for a moment Skarlet thought she saw relief.
"AAH, let me go!" A voice called from below, Skarlet peered over the edge of Beatrice's wings, Cody was awake and trying to slice Beatrice's legs off. Beatrice simply snorted in annoyance as he couldn't even scratch her red scales.
"C-O-D-Y! She called down to him through the wind whipping past, he looked up at her in surprise and confusion, "DO. YOU. HAVE. ENOUGH. MANA. TO. FLY. UP?"
"YEAH!" He called, Skarlet patted Beatrice on the neck and she dropped him immediately with a satisfied snort. He made a yelping sound as he suddenly plummeted, then he soared up and landed beside Skarlet. "Little warning next time." He sighed as he plopped down beside her.
"Shut up, you coulda died dumba-." Skarlet suddenly paused and all the light drained from her eyes, she fell back and her entire body began convulsing and she let out moans of pain. Black only goo began dripping from her mouth and her eyes filled with it till they were completely black. A low ominous laughter trickled from her lips. Cody froze, not because of Skarlet, but because of her sword which had changed. Her sword stared at him with its large bloodshot eye that rested on its hilt, blood oozed from its blade and it seemed happy and joyful as Skarlet seized and screamed in pain before it suddenly transformed into the plain stainless steel sword it was before.
Skarlet was looking at him, blinking as he looked around in confusion. "Hey you ok man? How hard did you hit the ground?" she asked while tilting her head. If he wasn't feeling an immense amount of dread right now it would be cute. "Ha, I'm actually really tired." She said with a yawn before laying down and curling up on Beatrice's back. Amber stroked Skarlet's head as she slept, Cody was creeped out though as Amber continued to stare blankly ahead, he finally decided that she must have been blind as he turned and looked away. Beatrice was carrying them back to the camp so he decided to just enjoy the ride.
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Skarlet sat up, her head pounding, she was laying in her bed in the camp.
"Good morning Sleepyhead." a voice spoke up, Skarlet glanced at the familiar face, he was dressed in a loose shirt covered in flowers and shorts made of a slick material. He also wore glasses with black lenses, she couldn't see his eyes.
"Hello Griax, I've killed Aries as you asked." She spoke up and he nodded excitedly.
"Yes you did, it was a spectacular battle indeed, I can't wait to see how you beat the others." He excitedly explained, "Also, before I just scratched a bunch of abilities onto a piece of paper, if you twist the pommel and handle together you'll receive the learnable skills list.
"Why do you purposefully make things difficult?" She asked as she drew her sword and did as instructed, a sheet of paper slid out, and glowing words were etched into it:
Danger Detection [LVL: 1-10]
Appraisal [LVL: 1-10]
Appraisal blocking [LVL: 1-10]
Lie perception
Spatial magic
Fire Resistance [LVL: 1-10]
Water Resistance [LVL: 1-10]
Earth Resistance [LVL: 1-10]
Air Resistance [LVL: 1-10]
Poison Resistance [LVL: 1-10]
Paralysis Resistance [LVL: 1-10]
Mental attack Resistance [LVL:1-10]
"There is less here than what you wrote down," Skarlet noted as she read.
"I just did a bit of guesswork, that's all," he explained as she then twisted the pommel and her current status sheet came out. Oh, I got a lot of skill points from that, I should put two into Sword Arts. Wait, Spatial magic? Did I learn Spatial magic from Aries? She wondered as she allotted the points, I think I'll do Appraisal, and put four into that.
Wielder: Skarlet
Skill points: 0
Titles :
ꂠ̶̫͎̐͛̔̍͂̿̈͗͊̆̕̚͝͠ͅꈼ̷̢̠̪̜̥͚̟͕̻͇͉̓͊̆͋̂̀̉̒͌͑͂͂ꂵ̵̡̨͈̬̳͎̤̺̥̌̏́̔̈ꂦ̷̛̤̩̆͝ꋊ̶̜̰̪̫̎̅̎̈͊́͌̚ ̵̨͇̩̫͍̼̣̥̗̦̣̫͖̏ͅꀗ̴͉̘̳́͛͘ꂑ̷̢̙̹̭̻̫͕̞̱͔̐̋̊̚͝ͅꋊ̵̠̪̦̟͇̦̲̖̥̱͙̠͛͐̊̀̈́͛̕͝ꁅ̷͕͇̮̏͒́̂̓ꌚ̵̛͉ ̶̟̹̫̰̖̙̭̱̩͙̣̇́̎̐̄ͅꂵ̷̢̢̝̦̙̦̓͆̔͐̄͐̾̄̄͜ꁲ̵̧̻̤̮̱̺̪̙͓̩̥͓̗̩̎̈́̇̽͗̕ꁅ̴̰̺̾̑̀́͌̾̑͋̊̿͘ͅꂑ̴̡̬̘̖͍̈́͗͗̐͂̂͂̑͗̑͗͝͝ͅꀯ̶̧̧̧̞̲̫̼̬̭̹̭̪͛͐̆͂͜
God-Beast killer
Spatial Magician
Skills:
Appraisal [LVL: 4/10
Sword Arts [LVL: 5/10]
Presence Detection [LVL: 1/5]
Mana Manipulation [LVL: 5/10]
Chant Shortening [LVL: 5/10]
Special Skills:
Language Deciphering
Spatial Magic [Rank 1/10]
A Secondary segment was created for Special Skills, and Spatial magic was added to it. Wait, titles? She examined the titles, they mostly seemed alright except for one, it seemed a little messed up. What does that say? Oh, whatever it's probably not important, what about what it does: ๔є̸ɭ̴ɭ̴เк̴ ̶г̵є̶รย ̸є̸ђ̷Շ Շєﻮ ๔ภค ̸,̸г̸є̵ﻮภค๔ ฬคг๔,єภยՇ�̸̵ͩŦ̶รเ๓ єรย�̵̝͎̠̎̈ͩ̓ς �ͩՇ єςภ�̵̝͎̠̎̈ͩ̓ђς ɭɭค๓ร �̵̝͎̠̎̈ͩ̓ รคђ รรєภк̵г̷�̶̴̶̶̵̵̷̴̵̵̝͎̠̎̈ͩ̓๔ ̷Ŧ̴�̸̵ͩ ̶๔г๏ฬร єђՇ Ŧ̵�̴̴ͩ ̵г̵є̶๔ɭєเฬ ̶є̴ђ̵Շ, Skarlet frowned as her brain tried to make sense of the information that was fed to it. Guess I just won't worry about it. The God-Beast killer title gave her a magic boost and gave her the Spatial Magician title, the Spatial Magician title simply gave her the ability to use Spatial Magic.
Skarlet twisted the pommel back and then twisted the pommel and handle back into its original position and both pages were sucked back into the sword.
"Ooh shiny new toys, well anyway, there's gonna be another Beast attacking the capital of Gulress." He told her, "You should start heading there."
"When will it attack?"
"Who knows, just try and stay in the city till it does." He replied aloofly, "Seriously Skarlet, I'm not omnipotent."
"I wouldn't put it past you." She replied as she felt Amber pull on her shirt, she turned to pat Amber on the head and when she turned back, Griax was gone. Nothing but a wisp of green smoke.
Cody wasn't in the tent as she got up, she could hear breathing outside, she stepped into the moonlight and saw him gazing at the stars. His breath filled out in front of him, white and frosty.
"I-It's getting c-colder." She broke the silence causing him to glance at her, he nodded as he rubbed his hands together.
"You're gonna need to get some warmer gear." Skarlet glanced at her clothes and nodded.
"I wonder if Yofen is still in Otalos?" Cody spoke absentmindedly, "Wanna head by and see tomorrow or just forget it?"
"Y-yeah, let's go s-see." She stuttered, he nodded. Shivering she brought her hand out and created a fireball it floated lazily in her hand and she noticed something interesting. It was taking more mana to maintain due to the cold.
"Let's go once the sun rises." Cody decided, he sighed and wrapped his cloak tighter around himself. "It's bout to be Christmas." He muttered.
"Kristmos?" Skarlet asked, glancing at him in confusion.
"Umh, it's a holiday celebrated in my home town. . ." He blurted out, "you decorate a tree and give presents to each other."
"That's weird." She chuckled, watching the white air escape her lips. "But it sounds cozy."
"Why don't we do it together?" He offered, but she took a step back and shook her head.
"I-I don't know, I'm not too good with people. . ." She deflected.
"You're talking with me just fine." He pointed out causing her to frown.
"We'll See what happens." She replied, but he only laughed. "What?"
"No it's just, you got so docile the moment you lost that duel, ahh no not in a bad way I mean it's easier to talk and work with you in combat."
"Well, I lost so I have to keep my side of the promise." She stuttered, he continued to chuckle as she blushed before glancing at the sky, it was almost light.
"Let's go ahead to town right now." She decided and started walking, Cody started after her.
"Hey wait, come on I'm sorry for teasing you." Cody called after her as he followed her into the forest, Skarlet paused in front of him and turned back. Cody glanced over his shoulder as well and saw that someone was following them.
"Amber, come here." Skarlet sighed as she called and the girl scampered over to Skarlet's side, she held onto the hem of Skarlet's shirt, her eyes as emotionless as ever. Cody noticed that her tail was wagging slowly as Skarlet started walking again; she had just wanted to come along.
They arrived at the city gate and headed inside, Cody decided that they should go to the guild and ask about Yofen. Skarlet agreed and they headed there first.
"Ah looks like you found your friend, good for you." The red-haired receptionist announced to Cody as he and Skarlet walked in. He winked at Cody, but Cody shook his head and frowned.
"Hey man it's not what you think, anyways I got a question for you." Cody sighed with exasperation as he leaned his elbow on the counter.
"Suuure man, what's up." The receptionist gave him a look of disbelief before putting his professional face back on.
"Hey, do you know if a dwarf named Yofen is still in town?" He asked, causing the receptionist to pause and think for a moment.
"Actually yes, Yofen was planning to leave yesterday but saw it was getting colder and decided to stay a bit to make some winter gear before heading to Blushai, it's too warm there," Zealsus explained, then he pointed to the left. "He's actually sharing a blacksmith shop with Zexceed, they seem to have made good friends."
"Thanks, oh, we'll be leaving soon," Cody told him as he waved bye, Skarlet just followed Cody meekly as they left.
"We make a great team." He said suddenly with a chuckle.
"What do you mean?" Skarlet asked.
"You're no good at people, so I do the talking, you're the one with the plan. . . so I'll follow your lead." He leaned forward with his hands crossed behind his back and flashed her a smile.
"Uhm, yeah," Skarlet replied, not sure how to respond as she scratched at her cheek. "I-I think this is it." Skarlet led the way into a blacksmith's shop, she wrinkled her nose at the smell of smoldering coal and sweat, salty sweat.
"Hoho, if it isn't my friends Skarlet and Cody, howr' ya'll two doin'?" A familiar voice called out, Skarlet turned to see Yofen.
"Hey, it's getting colder. . . we were thinking about winter gear." Skarlet conveyed and Yofen lit up.
"I was hopin' you'd say that!" He exclaimed as he turned and disappeared for a bit. When he came back he was carrying two bags. "I made ya these in case I saw ya again before I left." He handed them both their bags.
Skarlet took hers and opened it, inside was a black-furred cloak, one that would reach all the way to her ankles and could button in the front. There was also a long-sleeved woolen black shirt and a knee-length skirt with a white fur trim. To top off the outfit there were white fur boots and black tights, along with some thicker fingerless gloves and a new collar with a white fur trim. "It's s-similar to the outfit I c-currently use."
"Oh yes, I tried to make it similar, if it gets real' cold, that cloak will keep ya warm." He replied, Cody opened his own bag.
"This is a matching set to the fur cloak you gave me when we first arrived," Cody noted, Yofen nodded. "Thank you for this." Cody thanked him readily.
"Yes, also, we'll be leaving Otalos soon and heading for Gulress," Skarlet told him.
"Ah, yes, I will also be leavin' soon, though I will be headin' to Blushai." Yofen told them, he held his hand out to Skarlet, she shook it "I'll see ya around brave one." She nodded, Cody stepped up but Yofen shook his head.
"We said our goodbyes already. I'll make you some better armor next time we meet." He promised them before kicking them out of the shop.