Raging Inferno of the Cataclysm Mage [https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/ADCreHc0loP2AEcKh75FaP_RrY4kD6w35raJlcN07bbEFV2WakYyYMRsU-PqwtaDfXsycN_o8yglMD4h-Es1lKjroGdnDMd9EjssQ4RadCZkpOsAirfUL9uR8aznMDfj6DR2WHSJyPKpZcS7nY12xi401KWp=w621-h931-s-no-gm?authuser=0]
Once again Phoenix found herself waking up in a place she didn’t immediately recognize. She really needed to stop doing that. The sound of fire raging, shrieking screams, and metal clashing awoke her as her Crystal 5 Fortitude attribute attempted to stop her from bleeding out while she lay in the middle of the street. It took her a moment to figure out that the sounds were from her Familiar trying its best to protect her from a pack of the Shivs that had invaded the city.
The Wayfarer could barely breathe through the pain in her chest as the meager attempt of her healing power hadn’t quite finished mending the broken bones. She tried to sit herself up from the ground but failed as the pounding in her head raged again. Phoenix knew she needed to get up before Tala was destroyed by the mob but everything hurt and she just wanted to sleep for a week. She heard a familiar low voice from nearby say, “No... Not again… No!”
It finally clicked that the voice belonged to Uriel and her aura sensed his as it suddenly and unexpectedly flared outward. She could easily sense the emotion flooding it. It was an emotion she had never known the quiet cinderen to have and she knew that he should not have been able to with his magical items. Uriel was furious.
She couldn’t quite understand what was happening but his aura was almost trembling with rage as it began to shred its surroundings in a manner she had never witnessed during the times he unsilenced it. She heard him begin quickly muttering spells, one after the other, barely taking a breath between each.
“Let the sky wail. Let the world tremble. Let my enemy cower. For I am the eye of the storm.”
“Wind stings. Ice bites. Snow freezes. The blizzard claims life.”
“Let fire rain upon my enemies that they may burn before my will.”
“Succumb to the might of the tyrannical winds.”
“Be the bearer of the all consuming plague.”
Suddenly Phoenix sensed the information of a new quest enter her mind and her worry for her friend increased tenfold.
New Quest: Catalyst Character of Cataclysmic Concern
Your companion has succumbed to a berzerker’s rage. Stop him before he turns his gaze to the civilians!
Objective: Calm, contain, or kill Uriel Karislian.
Reward: Legendary Spirit Gem.
Bonus Objective: Let no harm befall a civilian from Uriel Karislian.
Reward: Epic Crystal Caste tool.
The time to worry for her teammate quickly fled as she realized that she was caught up in the area spells and her meager health started dropping again. First gale winds began ripping around her, making her torn clothing even more apparent, as rain, hail, and snow began chilling her exposed skin. Luckily, she knew his [Plague Bearer] spell wouldn’t affect her since that was one of the few abilities he had that could differentiate enemy targets and allies. The raining fire, however, was another matter as it began to fall and sear through her clothing and flesh.
Ability: Rain of Fire
Type: Spell (elemental, fire)
Cost: High mana.
Cooldown: None.
Current Caste: Crystal 8 (89%)
Crystal Effect: Create an area of falling flames. Targets in the area take ongoing Fire damage and slowly gain instances of [Scorched].
* Scorched (bane, elemental, fire, stacking): Decreased Fire resistance.
Some of the damage seemed to be negated by the furious work of her [Starlight Companion] attempting to shunt away some of the tiny projectiles falling from the sky but there was simply too much to stop. She managed to conjure another [Sun Shell] and the glittering light surrounded her, flickering briefly with the minor bits of damage it absorbed, but that would only give her a limited reprieve.
Phoenix struggled to roll onto her side to get a better look at her friend as he stood in the center of a maelstrom of his own creation. She barely recognized him, his own appearance currently a ragged mess from the battle, but she noticed that he was bleeding from the left side of his head where it seemed one of the monsters had managed to slice off an ear, and the calming magic items it had held. The golden Silencer he normally wore was also nowhere to be seen, not hanging from its usual spot and she assumed from the torn clothes and missing cuffs that the item had been lost while fighting the Shivs.
The thing that looked the most disparate from his usual appearance, however, was his expression. Phoenix had never seen Uriel mad. She had barely seen any expression aside from slight disapproval, slight contemplation, or slight humor. Now, though… Now he was enraged; his face contorted by the severe emotion literally radiating off him.
Monsters were struggling against the tempest as they slowly succumbed to the devastating effects. She tried to call out to him but he seemed oblivious to anything that wasn’t an enemy as he continued chaining spells and she found herself vaguely wondering what would happen once he ran out of mana.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Uriel showed her a moment later when he cast a spell she didn’t remember seeing before but her still-conjured book informed her of its effects with the overlapping of their auras.
“My blood for mana. My life for power.”
Ability: Siphoned Vigor
Type: Spell (drain, magical, blood)
Cost: Variable health.
Cooldown: None.
Current Caste: Crystal 6 (61%)
Crystal Effect: Consume an amount of your own health to replenish your mana.
Each time he cast the spell, Phoenix could see a haze of vibrant red surround the Mage before shifting to blue and reabsorbing into him. She tried calling out to him again as she finally managed to sit up, her braided hair coming loose in places and whipping around wildly.
Uriel seemed unaware of her presence as he continued his assault on the monsters around her and, as she continued to take damage, her own Familiar tried to stop the wild mage. When she realized this, she called Tala back to her, not wanting the tiny phoenix to enrage the incognizant man further or get destroyed in an effort to calm him.
“Uriel!” Dazien's voice broke through the howl of the wind twisting the elements around them. Phoenix felt a wave of relief as their leader reached the cinderen and grabbed his shoulders firmly as though trying to wake him, “Uriel! It’s me! It’s Dazien! You need to breathe! Look around you!”
The warrior looked around the area, his confused expression trying to further understand what had happened to trigger his friend’s frenzy. When his eyes locked on hers, he grimaced as he took in her appearance and she reactively tried to cover her bare skin that had become exposed when her clothing got torn both during the battle with the troll-man and the storm currently surrounding them.
The Defender yelled again at his best friend and grabbed the sides of his face in an attempt to get the cinderen to look at her, “Look at Phoenix, she’s safe now! We’re all safe! Everything’s okay now!”
Phoenix became more and more amazed as she watched the scene unfold before her as the gemite tried desperately to calm the cinderen with reassuring words and comforting touches. Even as the Cataclysm Mage’s aura sliced through his skin and armor causing small scratches to appear and eventually start bleeding, Dazien kept talking and hugged the man tightly to him while the storm raged around the pair.
She suddenly recalled the words of her quest: calm or contain. With great effort, Phoenix attempted something that she had only experienced Paul do to her before. She tried to wrap her aura around his.
Her mentor had used the technique in an attempt to calm her when she was distraught. Now she needed to use it to calm her friend or at least contain the damage he was causing. With a push of her will against his, she pushed back his aura. No new cuts appeared on Dazien as he spared her a curious glance before refocusing on Uriel.
Once the Aurabreaker had completely pushed back Uriel’s frenzied yet weaker aura, she attempted to radiate calm emotions, which was extremely difficult given her current state of mild panic. As the storm slowed and their leader continued to speak, the two men ended up on their knees with Dazien’s arms wrapped around the Mage who suddenly looked exhausted.
Phoenix relaxed slightly once the tempest of fire and ice halted completely and the best friends knelt in the middle of the road, quietly speaking to one another. She could tell that Uriel was weeping as he trembled against his companion and king. She suddenly felt very out of place as it seemed like she was intruding on something private.
Trying to distract herself from the pair, she refocused on the information her book was giving while her cleared mind remembered to swap out new clothes as well as down a mana potion from her collection, which now had not just one but three new Spirit Gems sitting inside of it.
Quest: Catalyst Character of Cataclysmic Concern
Objective complete: Calmed Uriel Karislian.
[Cataclysm Spirit Gem] has been added to your collection.
Bonus Objective complete: No harm was done to a civilian from Uriel Karislian.
[Crystal Caster’s Complete Cooking Kit] has been added to your collection.
Quest completed.
20 [Crystal Mana Bits] have been added to your collection.
Quest: Attack of Opportunity
Objective complete: Helped defeat twenty of the invaders.
[Avatar Spirit Gem] has been added to your collection.
Quest completed.
50 [Crystal Mana Bits] have been added to your collection.
Phoenix recast the stronger version of her heal spell with the replenished mana while absent-mindedly wondering who or what was naming her quests; noticing that it was getting a bit enthusiastic with the alliteration and references to her original world. She heard a noise from somewhere above her and looked around to spot the two children looking down at her with wide eyes from the broken window. When she thought about checking on them, she remembered the bodies on the lower floor and decided to circumvent that route.
The Wayfarer carefully forced herself to stand once she felt the life energy restore the majority of the wounds remaining. Then she used her gravity ability to push away from the street and pull herself into the window, landing as carefully as she could manage in front of the two small cinderen.
“Are you alright?” she asked with a soft voice and a reassuring smile. She had quickly learned in the hospital that smiling would normally help put the other kids at ease when they were hurt or upset about something.
The pair nodded cautiously and the slightly older girl asked, “Are you an Adventurer?”
Phoenix nodded, “Yes. If you come with me I can take you to safety.”
“What about Mama and Papa?” the younger boy asked, “Will you bring them too?”
Her smile slipped, knowing that if their parents had been in the building then they were no longer alive, “Let’s get you safe first, then I can come back for them. I only have two hands, you see,” she said, raising her glowing hands up for them to look at, “I’ll need each of you to sit in my arms as I hop down to the street.”
Their eyes went wide at the mental image and they moved forward with outstretched arms to climb up and grasp her tightly, their unwavering trust bolstering her resolve. She briefly wondered when she had lost that feeling. That ability to trust a complete stranger like they trusted her at that moment.
She shook the stray thought from her head and pulled out her [Drifter’s Umbrella] from her collection. Opening it up to hold in her hand, she saw that it was colored in quarters, blue, red, teal, and brown, with Elemental runes embroidered into the cloth and more Magical ones engraved into the golden handle. She triggered the slow fall ability and leaped out the window with the children clinging tightly, using just a trickle of mana to direct her descent by adjusting her relationship with the ground.
The Supporter was glad to find the rest of her party had joined them as Saiya moved from her inspection of the two men to see to Phoenix’s injuries and the children.
“Dazien tried to explain what happened but both of them only had bits of the puzzle,” the Healer said softly then glanced at the kids, “Once we regroup and finish securing the city, will you be alright with sharing the missing pieces?”
Phoenix nodded, “Yeah… it… um,” she nodded towards the perforated body on the ground nearby, “It was a monster… that liked to get handsy…”
Saiya went still at her words then asked seriously, “Are you sure you’ll be able to talk? We can wait. You’re alive and that’s what matters for now.”
“I’m alright,” the redhead replied, “It didn’t get very far.”
The voxen nodded but didn’t speak on it further as her friend held out slightly furred hands in an offering to take one of the children and the group returned to the gathering point together.