Runestone [https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AP1GczNtxR3hPJ0bawAas5BAg1myCTWD7sXWCzmvo6-G6UUYin6P-s-GS01KxythJf9NZqpG7UoRZGIrnmgStUx3Z_OfEUgC8dxIWaI2RFN1QXnszkqudmdAUCk0uAcyIoItj2JfwNNsdidC84la1AII4noY=w661-h992-s-no-gm?authuser=0]
Camilla couldn’t see much of the fight as it broke out on the ship. Uriel had placed himself between the corner she sank into and the enemies that quickly attacked and began boarding their ship. The act of protection by the large and intimidating cinderen, who rarely smiled and always seemed distant to her, had greatly surprised the timid researcher. The fact that it was the second time he had done so was the only reason she didn’t panic from it.
While she had spent quite a bit of time with the party —by her standards at least— Uriel and Rayna still made her rather uncomfortable to be around. It had taken time for her to get used to Dazien, but his words had reassured her, while Saiya’s aura did the same in that regard. Meanwhile, Phoenix reminded her of Paul, who she missed dearly. The Wayfarer had been kind and patient with her, just as he had been.
She was grateful for Uriel now, however, as she struggled to cast anything while shaking so badly. The cacophony of sounds was enough on its own to cause her to feel off-balance and overwhelmed. Usually tucked away safely in a study or workshop, Camilla rarely saw combat, and she preferred to keep it that way. She was perfectly satisfied with using Monster Seeds to cultivate her abilities when little seemed to offer her a challenge, and had zero desire to battle monsters.
One reason she wanted to join this little excursion outside of the city was because their destination was another well-established city centered around a unique type of Reality Rift, though she had to take proper precautions and make specific preparations to handle their particular culture. The other reason was her newest cousins would be going.
She had been relieved when Dazien had also thought to go by ship when she inquired about their travel arrangements. While monsters and brigands were a possibility at sea, they were a guarantee by land.
Camilla was not suited for combat, and that was perfectly acceptable for her goals… until her newest short-term goal became “survive the pirate assault,” and she was thrown into combat.
Uriel was doing most of that in her place, though, as he chained incantations while Dazien stood as a second layer of protection between her and the pirates.
She conjured her [Runestone], which acted as a semi-transparent platform for casting rituals and got to work on a few buffing and protection spells for her allies that she had never needed to cast before.
Passive Ability: Runestone
Type: Utility (construct, magical, arcane)
Cost: Low mana.
Cooldown: None.
Current Caste: Sapphire 8
Crystal Effect: Conjure a semi-translucent runic platform of varying size and shape that allows rituals to be created on it. The platform grants materials and ritual diagrams protection from outside elements. The platform can withstand moderate damage. You may only have a single platform active at one time.
Sapphire Effect: The ritual platform creates an area of local gravity that allows the Caster to stand on it no matter the altitude or angle of the platform. You may have two platforms active at one time.
There were a few close calls as the enemy outnumbered them, and a few tried to get past the knightly Defender to take out the devastating Mage and the obvious weak point: her. She wasn’t particularly upset about being weak in this situation. It wasn’t her purpose. Her purpose was to learn, leverage, and hopefully advance their knowledge about Reality Rifts and their interactions with the world. Fighting monsters did not help her accomplish this.
However, monsters were the problem in front of her now, and as the Emerald Caste monstrosity rose from the ocean, she felt her heart almost stop. This was not what she had prepared for at all. Chaos erupted, and she felt paralyzed with fear and uncertainty. What could she possibly do against something like that?
Camilla saw the Captain speak briefly with Dazien before calling out the retreat and disappearing to the bridge. The enemy pirates seemed equally terrified by the new threat. They also made their way back to their own ship, dodging the lashing tentacles moving at speeds that seemed impossible for their size.
As she noticed Dazien move to intercept Phoenix from launching herself towards the creature —which boggled her mind as to why any sane Caster would run towards that thing— Uriel surprised her once more as he stopped casting and turned to her.
“Do you know a shielding ritual?!” he asked urgently, getting her focus by getting in her face and blocking her view of the threats.
His closeness put her whole body on alert, and she quickly diverted her gaze from his, but she registered his words and nodded mutely in response. She knew a few different shielding ones that she normally used to contain potentially explosive items.
“Cast it now! As wide as you can! As many people as you can! Quickly!” he instructed without preamble, and she felt herself easily comply with the precise orders.
She used one of the slightly more combat-oriented abilities that she used for more practical purposes as she tilted her glasses down to use small beams of blue light from her eyes to draw out a ritual diagram on her magical platform, the components being fed directly from her personal dimensional storage.
Ability: Ritualistic Gaze
Type: Utility (channel, magical, arcane)
Cost: Low mana per second.
Cooldown: None.
Current Caste: Sapphire 9 (12%)
Crystal Effect: You can produce eye beams that can be used to write rituals or deal low Arcane damage to enemies.
Sapphire Effect: Your eye beams can rewrite, modify, and disrupt rituals at extended range.
If she had been a second later, she would have been too late when she triggered the ritual, causing a series of pale blue Arcane shields to surround each of the allies caught within the wide-area effect. The glittering shells popped into existence right as an explosion of mana threatened to completely overwhelm her senses, and Uriel reactively wrapped his arms around her.
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Camilla didn’t like being touched at all, but the act made her hyper-aware of her surroundings and realize what was going on. The explosion had shattered the shield around the ship, exposing the false ground they stood upon. She immediately conjured a second [Runestone] anchored perpendicular to the edge of the first to act as a makeshift wall.
The concussive force from the damage to the ship below and the monster on the other side of the semi-translucent wall she had put between them was enough to push the gravity-isolated platforms away from their original position, but it was the flailing Emerald Caste tentacle slamming squarely into the vertical platform that sent her and Uriel both flying at a breakneck speed across the ocean to the west.
While gravity didn’t really affect the platforms at all, massive amounts of force did.
She found herself clinging tightly to the large cinderen as they hurtled through the air. Once the pressure of the wall pushing them along lessened, the wind took over to rip the pair from the platform and into the arctic waters. Their small force shields shattered upon impact with the dark waves, but the pale pink haze around them remained, and she could sense some sort of Boon on her.
To Uriel’s credit, he managed to stay with her in the icy water that threatened to drag them apart. While she hated being touched, she didn’t want to be lost alone in the middle of the ocean.
Camilla conjured another platform and did her best to help Uriel climb back atop it as the waves periodically nudged it along with the currents. After catching his breath, which he still had as a Crystal Caster, both of them took a moment to gather their wits. She looked around but had no bearing as nothing except the sea stretched out in every direction. Not even the sun could be seen; just grey sky, white chunks of ice, and blue waters.
After a few more moments, Uriel broke the silence as he softly said, “I apologize for grabbing you like that. I didn’t know how else to shield you and stay together.”
Surprised again by the younger Mage, she simply shook her head, then curiously asked, “How, um… h-how did you know t-to tell me to shield everyone?”
He gave a low chuckle and shook his own head in turn as he answered, “Phoenix was running toward it.”
“Why?!” she inquired incredulously. She still could not comprehend the action. She thought the Wayfarer was more intelligent than some other people she had been forced to deal with, but her actions had made no sense.
Uriel grimaced and informed her, “The beast grabbed Saiya. I know Phoenix. She reacted just like I expected.”
“How c-could anyone expect s-something so illogical?” she asked, pulling her knees up to her chest as the cold nipped at her despite the gloves she had purchased that helped mitigate the cold.
His ember eyes glanced her way, and she automatically avoided meeting them as he responded, “Because that’s how a Shield reacts when fighting to protect someone they care about. It’s how I would have reacted without these.”
Her peripheral vision picked up his gesture towards his ears, and her eyes traveled to the magic items piercing them. She recognized the design and intent of the calming jewelry that helped one stay focused and not get angry. Her eyes narrowed at them as her mind raced through the accounts of their usage. She had rarely heard of them used by combatants since most reported that it dulled their reaction times, but some had lauded them for the improved focus they could grant.
Camilla’s eyes trailed down to the bare neck that was normally wrapped in a golden collar to keep him silenced and hold back his aura, the nature of which she had felt only a handful of times while the group had been training. Perhaps it was for the best that he stayed calm and in control when the Silencer was off.
At the realization of his neck being oddly barren, since he had needed to remove it in order to fight, she asked with sudden trepidation, “W-where’s your, um… the um…” She gestured to his neck after not being able to find acceptable words and feared upsetting him.
He gave an annoyed huff, “I lost it in the water. I had it hooked on my belt this time to better free my hands in case I needed to use my sword in melee. I’m trying my best to keep my aura restrained. Phoenix and I have been training a lot more with it lately… when we have time,” he tried to reassure.
Camilla’s mind instantly wandered to try to come up with ways to remedy the situation. She had quite a few materials in her dimensional storage; maybe she could make something to help? She might need to take a few more measurements and get a few more data points from the cinderen and his odd aura…
“Do you know any way to get us to shore?” he asked, interrupting her thoughts. “I don’t think either of us would be much use in that battle, and any survivors are most likely to head for our destination to rendezvous… I think. Hopefully, we’ll meet up on the way. I’m sure that’s what Daze would tell us to do,” he explained in more words than she thought she had ever heard come from the man at once.
It took her a few moments to parse through his question and formulate an appropriate response, “I c-can get us a direction and conjure more mundane tools, but I don’t keep a propulsion device on me,” she explained, then added, “The few c-combat rituals I know won’t help much in this case.”
Uriel grimaced once more, “I have a Spell that might work, but it’s… rather destructive.”
Her curiosity won out as she conjured her handy notebook and waited almost patiently for the new information. She had found most people reacted negatively towards her if she pushed them for knowledge; after it turned violently physical one time, she never asked more than once ever again. It was a harsh lesson she didn’t want to be repeated by a man she barely knew, who had to wear calming jewelry.
Class Ability: Archivist
Type: Utility (construct, magical, arcane)
Cost: Low mana.
Cooldown: None.
Current Caste: Sapphire 8 (88%)
Crystal Effect: Conjure a book that can store knowledge and other books containing information. Information contained within the book's library can be mentally accessed and more easily connected.
Sapphire Effect: The book can store ritual reagents and analyze items using deductions from the knowledge contained in the book.
The ember eyes watched her curiously. Then he simply sighed and gave a soft smile. “Direction first?”
“Oh!” she exclaimed, then conjured her wand.
Ability: Wand of the Arcanist
Type: Utility (construct, magical, arcane)
Cost: Low mana.
Cooldown: None.
Current Caste: Sapphire 8 (88%)
Crystal Effect: Construct a wand to act as a medium for cantrips and Spells.
Sapphire Effect: Can also be used as a tool to empower the effects of activated rituals and Spells.
She cast a quick compass ritual and pointed to the south, hoping to hit land eventually. Uriel nodded in confirmation and adjusted himself to be braced against the edge of the platform. He then started to cast what she hoped wouldn’t be as destructive as he had said.
“Succumb to the might of the tyrannical winds,” he incanted, and a rush of wind shot downward into the sea beside them.
It sort of worked as the waves that formed shot the platform forward; however, Camilla had been unprepared for the sudden force and slid across the smooth platform and straight into the cinderen, causing both of them to crash into the sea once more.
As they both sputtered salt water, she began apologizing profusely, “I’m s-so s-sorry! P-please d-don’t get mad—”
Uriel’s unrestrained laughter was the most surprising thing today. She had never heard it before, and this situation was the last one she would have imagined to cause it.
“It’s alright, Camilla,” he reassured as he swam closer to her. “I wish the others had been here to see that. I’m pretty sure Phoenix would have done the exact same thing as you, and Daze would be in stitches.” He gave a wide grin and asked, “Let’s try again, yeah?”
She gave a hesitant nod, reconjured her [Runestone], and then they awkwardly climbed atop it again. This time, she conjured a second platform once more to act as a windshield, anchored at a 60-degree angle to the edge of the first, and tucked herself within the wedge. Uriel waited a minute and cast the spell again, which resulted in the same explosive burst that sent them flying across the surf.
They were able to stay atop the platform that time and Uriel began casting the spell every minute it came off cooldown to keep them moving. Camilla meanwhile employed a rejuvenation ritual between bursts that helped siphon her own mana into the Mage to keep up their pace. They soon reached the shore, both grateful to be less exposed out on the open sea.
Uriel setup his [Fortress of Solitude] then, needing the rest after continuously casting for so long since the start of the battle. Even with the mana reserve being refilled, he was obviously exhausted from the events of the day. In the morning, they would move east and hopefully reunite with their friends.