Ophelia glanced over to Ruby for a mont. Her hackles were raised, her tail and the hairs on it stiff as the storm rolled in, its walls roiling with stone and darkness. She worried for the young woman, but she had to focus on the task at hand.
The storm encompassed much of her view, spreading out for what felt like miles. Compared to the small island they stood on, she felt like they were a candle in the wind.
The island was drawn in toward the wall of wind, like a ship pulled toward a deadly whirlpool. The vortex clashed with the spinning storm, shielding them from the turbulent winds and debris–sowhat. Large boulders occasionally thundered through the barrier of wind like teors, crashing into a tree and shattering it to pieces.
And this was just the edge of the storm.
Their island had been moving away from the storm at the sa ti, so even though it was moving quickly, it slowed how quickly the whole island was enveloped in the storm. Still, it wouldn’t be long before they were completely covered by the turbulent winds.
Tanda knew what Ophelia planned to do. “There’s probably monsters inside the eye of that storm. If you use Guan Yu for the storm…we won’t have him for the fight.”
Ophelia grinned and gestured to her shield with her polearm, infusing vajrafire flas into it, and it beca much like a valkyrie made of fla, holding the special floating shield. “Then we’ll just have to win without him. I’ll need you girls to watch my back. I have my Hearth Guardian, but…who knows? I’m a little vulnerable when I call on the Divine.”
Ruby and Tanda nodded, and Nessa’s lake spread out beneath them. “Of course. We’ll give it our all.”
Jake might not be joining them on the battlefield right away or on the wind continent at all until after the battle ended. But that didn’t an he didn’t intend to assist. He had entered the State of the Monarch, and through Ophelia’s Chosen Resonance, a blackish gold light filled the various runes on her armor, shield, and weapon. Bloodberri on the other battlefield was now enhanced, and given that she was the other champion facing enemy Aspects, this was fitting.
Ophelia began to gather her Divine Energy, having much more within her soul to draw upon now that she was in the second Tier. The energy was brought out into the world, swirling around her chest as she held onto her feelings of wanting to protect the weak and win the battle for her lord and family–she spoke her prayer.
“Guan Yu, Guardian of the Just–stand with now to shield the weak and turn the storm aside.”
As the Divine Energy finished building, she felt things shift–Lord Guan Yu driving its movents within her. It felt different from the other two tis she had called upon him sohow. He hungrily drew out more of the energy from within her, leaving about half of it.
Sothing about the way he was being summoned told her that she would need to continue channeling it just to keep him out.
The Divine Energy rushed out, and in motes of light, a hazy apparition of Guan Yu appeared on his Qilin mount, a manifestation of the almost-deity. Previously, her summons were more like representations of him as a golden statue, and he wasn’t present.
This ti, however, the armored Asian warrior in green looked around for a mont, his eyes focused and his expression solemn. It was like he was here, his honorable divinity weighing down on the surrounding area.
“Calm winds stand in the face of chaos, a last stand to protect the weak as you serve your lord. An honorable battle.” Guan Yu looked at his armor and hands; the Hindu and Buddhist scripts on his armor and weapon had changed to a blackish gold–the State of the Monarch. “A powerful covenant. A true monarch controls the battlefield, whether they fight from the front or lead from the rear. I can use this.”
He held his glaive over his head, and then he began to grow. The large polearm and qilin grew with him until he was even larger than Ophelia would be with her Valkyrie Champion ability.
Guan Yu began to twirl it around his head, and the qilin he rode on roared. As he spun his polearm around, lightning and wind gathered, the qilin’s influence aiding him. The vortex surrounding the island sped up as if following his movents. Righteous lightning joined the vortex and sparked and exploded as it shredded the oncoming debris and flaming anomalies, helping the island weather the dangerous storm.
Ophelia saw that the calming winds were invading the tempest; the winds dyed a bright-green or yellow lightning color, infused with streaks of the black gold. At first, it was just a drop in the large bucket in terms of influence, but as Guan Yu continued his defensive efforts, more of the encroaching storm was dyed this color, the whirlpool slowing down.
But Ophelia knew the truth–Guan Yu couldn’t continue this forever. Just summoning him had expended half of her Divine Energy, and as she had thought before, keeping Guan Yu active required her to continue channeling more energy into his manifestation.
This required a bit of her focus, and she was unable to move away yet. She could fight if soone ca near, but she couldn’t just fly into the storm, or Guan Yu would fade away quickly.
The island was completely enveloped by the tempest now, and they could see silhouettes of what was contained within the eye of the storm. It was a sea of monsters, corruption, and deathly miasma. Even if they defeated this storm, a deadly battle was waiting for them on the other side.
The explosions of stone shattering and thunder crackling continued, a scream of wind filling Ophelia’s ears as the two storms clashed. The worshipers from the temple did their best to strengthen the vortex, and she could feel the spirituality in the winds from the Breath of the World aiding them.
More than a minute, perhaps nearly two, passed, and the incoming storm continued to slow from Guan Yu’s spinning glaive, the calming winds dying even more of it over ti. It had noticeably slowed, as the greenish winds had gone full circle around the giant tempest, a portion of it dyed their color. Guan Yu’s lightning also purged any corruption contained within the deadly winds, but Ophelia was nearly out of Divine Energy.
The storm fluctuated, and Guan Yu stopped twirling his glaive. “Your fight is only beginning, and the burden for victory will be great. But you don’t bear that burden alone. Stand strong, Champion Ophelia.”
Ophelia nodded, and the Qilin reared its front legs up high before dashing forward and leaping into the sky with trendous speed. The wind from the vortex around the island followed him away from the island as he twirled his glaive over his head once more, and he swung it downward with a shout.
A wave of wind and lightning followed his swing, and the sky was cleaved in half, the wind from the vortex continuing at Guan Yu’s back as he disappeared in a burst of motes of light.
The incoming wind from the vortex was split in two, and the ground below was shredded for what looked like hundreds of ters. The calming winds redirected and broke the rotational force into smaller cyclones, pieces of the larger tempest splitting apart. The entire storm shrunk as it turned inward on itself, continuing to clash against the island’s reforming cyclone.
Now, the weight of the storm against their vortex had almost halved. At the sa ti, their defensive vortex had weakened, as Guan Yu had used a large portion of what they had built to destabilize the storm with his sky-cleaving slash. At the sa ti, the storm had weakened to what was no longer true supernatural levels.
Ophelia doubled over to catch her breath, exhausted and a little relieved. She popped a healing pill ant to revitalize her spirit from her Storage Ring, knowing this strained her too much for the battle to co.
Because now the army of monsters within the eye of the storm could truly be seen. The island’s barrier had also lessened enough, and Guan Yu’s lightning was gone, so the monsters began their assault. There were thousands of them, various flying monsters from birds and harpies and wyverns, though the largest percentage of the swarm was black or corrupted giant flying insects.
There was no sign of the talari, and as much as Ophelia hoped she could go on the offensive instead, they would need to focus on defense. The storm still made it difficult for them to take the fight to them instead.
Nessa pointed off into the distance above them. “There it is. There’s an Aspect in there, a giant manta ray.”
[Aspect of Eternal Night Detected. Defeat for reward.]
As Ophelia caught sight of it, a swirl of corruption rushed for its mouth underneath its sleek body, and several huge flying insects appeared. It was an imnse black and white manta ray that over ti had spawned the swarm of the large flying insects, most likely. There was also the sea of corruption and malevolence, which fed into the spawned monsters and empowered them.
The small island had nearly been covered with jungle now, the auril heroes able to have plenty of auril for their attacks and defense. So when the monsters pushed through the vortex of winds, they were t with hundreds of arrows and javelins filled with auril. It was a volley of multicolored light, and each strike manifested powerful claws, talons, and fierce bites, tearing off wings and legs, so of the blows sending the monsters careening toward the world below.
Vines wrapped around the invading insects as they eventually encroached on the jungle. Volleys of thorns were fired from spitter plants, and carnivorous plants took bites out of the monsters. The monsters spewed wicked miasma, which weakened the plants and the auril heroes, but the extre vitality of Highlands was not easily defeated. The beastkin were forced to fight hard against this new deadly storm of violence.
The enemies were endless. Even with the volleys and the jungle stopping many of the large monsters in their tracks, the rest of the black swarm reached the many beastkin and fought against them within, their sharp mandibles biting down onto flesh.
Ophelia, Tanda, Nessa, and Ruby all joined the battle, their blades flashing and spells launching. The four went for the more powerful boss-level monsters that hid within the swarm, those seeking to pick off beastkin as they fought their weaker brethren. Using her polearm as a lance, Ophelia dashed around on Valora and targeted these monsters with powerful flanking charges.
And Nessa’s frost-powered poison wore the larger monsters down, the woman rushing around, popping in and out of her lake, and tagging as many of them as she could to inject the venom and freeze them with her lake. This allowed the beastkin to more safely bring them down, her Qi-infused powers able to produce sothing deadly enough to weaken them significantly.
Tanda was sending out various seedlings with her arrow barrages, killing monsters with her bow, and strengthening their defenses. The deathbloom seedlings fed on the corruption and miasma given off by the insects, corroding them away with their acidic gas they released.
Finally, Ruby was a storm of restrained violence. She moved fluidly between her opponents, her swords flashing in deadly cuts. Her blades sought softer flesh between segnts, drawing blood and using it to cut deeper into her foes and tear them apart. She gathered a pool of blood in her usual orb, but Ophelia could tell that she was being careful.
There was a constant stream going to her chest, which she purified with her bloodfla and kept the orb from becoming too corrupted. She used this orb to power many of her spells, whether it was to send a wave of blades outward or to heal herself. It seed she was being more cautious than usual, thanks to Aisling’s prophecy.
The four of them fought close to one another, knowing that their betraying enemy likely sought to attack one of them. And this continued for a ti, until sothing seed to shift. The manta ray moved closer to the edge of their defensive vortex, and with a warbling cry, it sent up an orb of pitch-black malevolence into the sky. It blotted out the sun and the wind moon above them sohow, eclipsing the area and covering it in darkness. It was like an odd veil had been spread out, and it encompassed much of the island and the surrounding area.
Ophelia felt a spiritual weight pressing down on her and more than a bit of unease. It was like a Sword of Damocles raised above her head, ready to fall down and cleave into her at any mont. Her movents slowed, and she noticed this was true of all of her allies as well. On the other hand, the monsters attacked with even more fervor. They sped up their scything, deadly limbs, and vicious maws lashing out and drawing blood. The beastkin clergy now offered their protective prayers, doing their best to mitigate the effect.
Tanda said, “It looks like we need to kill that thing, and fast!”
Ruby said, “But there are so many enemies in the way. They never end.”
Nessa had a pained look on her face. “Yes, but…there’s more.”
[Champion of Loviatar Detected. Defeat for Reward.]
A flying insectoid looked much like a hornet of so kind mixed with a dark-skinned humanoid, with spindly arms and legs. In his four arms he held two separate scythes, their blades long and deadly. His eyes were compound, his armor was chitinous and reflective, and his large thorax had a deadly scorpion-like stinger as well.
Ophelia was going to say she’d take on the enemy champion, but he rushed forward all on his own and toward Ophelia, blitzing forward at a speed competitive with her Blitz ability. Drawing from her auril and guiding Valora, she blitzed to et him in the air, swinging her polearm to et his scythe.
A loud clang rang out as their weapons clashed, vajrafire blasting outward and striking the insectoid warrior. Her Hearth Guardian blocked his other scythe, its spear also stabbing outward to mirror her attack.
A wall of corrupted wind t her vajrafire and the guardian’s spear. It was when they clashed that a flash of darkness erupted from sowhere within the storm, and a deadly beam headed toward Ophelia’s chest.
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Ruby’s instincts must have caused her to suddenly launch herself forward, a burst of speed and violence as her blood orb interposed itself between the beam and Ophelia. The badger girl swung one of her blades, infused with all the ferocity of a deadly predator, in a wide arc. Her spirituality was infused into her blade, a manifestation of a bloody-clawed hand slashing into what Ophelia didn’t even see until the last mont–an arrow covered in darkness within the beam that passed right through her orb of blood.
The arrow was shredded, but it exploded into a roiling wave of darkness that wrapped around Ruby and her orb of blood like it was alive. Black scripts lit up on her blood plate before it invaded her body, a raging curse of corruption that burned away at whatever it touched. Her blood plate lost cohesion, and her orb of blood went a little haywire.
The powerful malevolence contained within was significant, a feeling of dread coming to Ophelia unbidden. Ruby’s bloodfla likely worked hard to counter the curse, and it was joined by three different energies from her clan sisters. Nessa’s Runic Heal, the Hearth Guardian’s Renewal, and Tanda’s Rejuvenation were thrown at her, purifying flas burning away a bit of this malevolent curse.
Ruby growled. “Leave ! Go ahead and get the attacker!”
Tanda and Nessa frowned at the girl, but they followed her wish and rushed off to who was likely Calix to take him down for his betrayal, as well as prevent additional sniping. The telari mbers of his guild seed to have arrived as well, and they were already shooting arrows at the beastkin instead of the insects, their bodies filled with corruption.
As much as Ophelia wanted to help Ruby, she had her hands full already. The enemy champion was fast and deadly; the two scythes swung with vicious precision in a barrage of attacks that did not let up thanks to the hornet’s buzzing wings that allowed for rapid movent. The deadly swings were filled with an unholy might, a dark malevolence powering his swings.
And there was an aura emanating from him, filling Ophelia with pain and dread. She was used to managing pain thanks to dealing with her seal, and this appeared to be similar in that it was on a spiritual level. It was an ongoing attack, and she had to cover herself with auril and hearthflas to counteract it.
The man’s extra-long limbs allowed him to attack at range with the high-finesse weapon, making it challenging to counter his attacks. Thankfully, Ophelia was not alone. Valora kicked out with her front hoof, striking the man’s scythe and sending it askew as Ophelia feinted, her polearm swinging not to et the incoming scythe but to cut into the man’s exposed shoulder.
With her hearthblade, her vajrafire mixed with auril to extend the axeblade of the polearm, and sheered into one of the man’s segnts. However, he deflected the blow with Divine Energy, causing her blow to accomplish little, barely cutting through his chitinous protection.
The spiritual pressure given off by the eclipse made things difficult. She found herself needing to burn quite a bit of vajrafire to enhance her body with her technique just to keep up with the champion’s speed. Then, defending against the pain aura was taxing. The enemy seed almost like it was chosen to face her in particular, and she supposed it made sense. Loviatar’s Champion was the one she defeated during the Fortress Assault.
What they didn’t know was that their pain was aningless to her. Just earning her Asura seal had her suffering of the worst kind, where she endured a horrible scenario and gave her life for her husband. And that was without rembering she had a child to fight for, the mystical trial removing all her mories except those it wished to test her on. Pain during a fight was only temporary. The pain and suffering from a loss could be endless.
With a roar, Ruby suddenly burst forward from her fugue, launching herself toward the manta ray. Countless insects and monsters got in her way, but her orb of blood launched a deadly wave of blades, cutting through many of them at once. She was thankfully still using her swords, and Ophelia could feel a powerful tenacity building within her. The scripts covering her had already lessened, and Ruby appeared to be tempered by the conflict rather than falling apart, so perhaps this was a good thing.
The Champion suddenly seed like he wanted to bring this fight to a close and drew heavily upon his divine energy, and if he was saying a prayer with its buzzing, it made no sense to Ophelia.
Tanda had already opened her Diva Seal in the fight against Calix and his ilk, it seed, so now was the best ti.
She leaped off Valora and told her ntally, “Go help Ruby with the manta ray, Val.”
With a whinny, Valora rushed off to obey, the mount bursting forth in a bolt of lightning to catch up to Ruby.
Black scripts spread out from Ophelia’s tattoo as purified deathly energy covered her tempered body. Her muscles were infused with the might of death, the strength of an asura. Already, she could feel like the eclipse had a lower impact on her, the impending doom lessened. However, the pain from the enemy’s aura only increased, causing her to nearly double over.
Ophelia wasn’t done. She activated Valkyrie Champion, her body growing in size as she was infused with the flas of the divine Guan Yu and Hestia.
The enemy’s divine was called, its body bulking up and enlarging just as she had. Winds were drawn in and corrupted from the surrounding area, making a vortex of protection, and its pain aura increased.
Following Nessa’s thoughts over their bond, she and Tanda had rushed inside the tempest, and they now chased the descendant of Hers down. So telari within the storm tried to ambush them, but they failed and ultimately ended up being sucked into Calix with his evil artifact, empowering him further. His arrows corrupted even if they were blocked, thanks to the beams of darkness, and he flew and strafed as he fired and evaded their assault, being an overall annoying enemy.
But he could not overco the imnse life force of paradise. Tanda had an endless vitality as she opened the diva seal, able to remove all corruption and empower her attacks endlessly with her Avenging Flas. He had already taken a wound from Nessa’s blade and received her malevolence-killing venom, so it was only a matter of ti before he was weakened and taken out.
Ophelia began her deadly dance with the Champion of Loviatar. This bulking-up enhancent made the blows of the scythes strike faster and harder, and she was barely able to keep up with the monster’s strength. Her speed had increased too, and her wings deflected the scythes all on their own thanks to the deathly energy infusion, allowing her to keep herself from being put on the back foot.
Parrying and countering the scythes as the two dashed and danced around in the air, she once again landed a few strikes on the monster’s body. The vortex turned away the blows from being too damaging, but thanks to her strong hearth control, she was able to mix auril into her vajrafire and finally pierce through with a powerful Vajrafire Blast.
The shock and fla hard it, but it really only made the creature angrier instead of truly weakening it, its wings buzzing in irritation as it was unable to score a aningful blow on Ophelia.
The monster began imbuing its powerful corrupted wind energy into its attacks and increased the pain aura. Whispers from her tattoo started filling her mind as she grunted in pain, but she remained focused and resolute. Each deflection sent the cutting energy in another direction, the monster wasting its attacks as Ophelia kept her movents minimal and her defense strong as she bought ti for help to arrive.
It sped up and increased its strength, its body going into so kind of berserker rage, a red and black aura mixing through its body.
Knowing she would be overwheld if she faced it head-on, she decided to change the ga. Her shield flew into her hand, and she held her polearm as a one-handed spear. With waves of her wings between her blocks and parries, Ophelia launched a storm of feathers, and so pierced into the insectoid’s carapace as it continued its mindless assault. With enough of them stuck, she blitzed at the monster and used her Monarch-state-empowered Consecration.
An explosion of Vajrafire emanated from her, and the righteous lightning struck the powerful feathers, piercing right through the wall of corrupted wind and blasting into the monster’s flesh. The monster’s body spasd as it locked up, and Ophelia capitalized with a second burst of speed, a flap of her powerful wings. Letting go of her shield, she brought down her poleaxe powerfully with both hands and sheered off two of its arms on one side, sending one scythe careening away toward the ground beneath them.
New arms sprouted quickly, and the remaining scythe grew as it was held with four hands rather than two. Thankfully, her powerful consecration also sent plenty of fla around her in a massive wave, covering many of the nearby insects and freeing up the beastkin. The swarm was still coming, and the beastkin were starting to fall despite their defenses, the numbers too great to deal with.
The monster renewed its furious assault, this ti with a deadly single scythe, sending cutting blades with every swing. Thankfully, so help finally arrived as she continued her defense.
Like a solar flare, a giant ribbon of fla was sent from the fiery moon to the wind continent. A city-block-sized pillar of fla descended from the sky, like a giant finger of a goddess–and into the eye of the storm.
The giant fingertip of fla pulsed outward like a giant nova of fire repeatedly, golden rings crashing into the inner walls of the storm and many of the monsters still swarming within the eye. So of the golden flas even washed over the Aspect and its eclipsing moon, weakening it for Ruby to land so powerful waves of blood blades, her claws wounding the strange monster. Valora also crashed into it with her horn, piercing deep into the manta ray with wind and lightning.
Combined with the fla and wind pulses that weakened the eye of the storm’s inner walls, the cyclone that was the giant incoming storm began to disperse, the winds no longer continuing in a circular pattern. Rock and debris fell from the sky as they crashed into the storm barrier surrounding the island, and the clouds began to clear up.
The pulses from the fire also destroyed much of the swarm of monsters, leaving the enemy with few to no reinforcents remaining. And from the finger of fla’s tip showed a familiar figure: an enlarged Sati, sitting in her lotus pose in a giant orb of fla. Her massive spiritual appendages imdiately lashed outward, striking down several of the insects and tearing them apart, as she headed to aid Ruby and Valora with the Aspect.
And the other fight took a big turn. It seed Calix had been using the storm’s winds to his advantage, but with them dispersed, Tanda landed a powerful blow, and Nessa was close enough to finish him off. The two had managed to wound him despite his Nascent Divine Energy usage, Nessa’s poison even more effective because he had drawn from the corrupted artifact.
And to their surprise, a Divine Spark and bulk of faith energy had shot out, joining Nessa and Tanda. Perhaps it was due to the corrupted divine energy within the artifacts he used, but they had pocketed his storage items and communicators. Nana was going to do what she could to make sure they didn’t crumble away as they continued their fight.
The Champion of Loviatar’s attacks beca more frantic, its swings more vicious as it went for the kill. It understood that soon it would be surrounded and defeated, and it wanted to inflict as much pain on Ophelia as it could. Its stinger took a more active role, but Ophelia hunkered down, blocking and deflecting its blows. She just had to withstand the pain for a little longer.
The elves and druids now ca outside the temple, their spells adding on to the battle. With the new help, the beastkin now worked to clear the sky, and Ruby and Valora had already wounded the manta ray sowhat.
Waves of pain flooded Ophelia’s senses, and she did what she could to focus only on the fight in front of her, bringing her weapon to bear and defending herself. The whispers were now shouts of anger and hatred within Ophelia’s mind, promises of greatness and an ending of the pain if she just gave in to the power. She was approaching what she had set as her personal limit to close the seal, but the end of the battle was near.
The champion drew up the last of the wind in the area, and its defensive vortex dispersed as it wrapped around its scythe, a deadly black blade extending. In a burst of speed, the champion swung it downward, its sharp scythe enormous, and prepared to cleave Ophelia or an entire building in two.
Using her hearth mana and her control, Ophelia had rged it with her auril and manifested her will, her guardian dao as she infused it into her shield. Her hearth burned brightly, and her hearthian presence joined the effect. The spiritual weight of the energies layered over the shield, making it a thick, powerful bulwark.
The scythe slashed into the shield and pierced into it, sending a devastating amount of malevolent energy scattered in all directions, and so of the black energy blasted at her. The scorpion’s stinger shot forward to strike her in the shoulder, but she brought up her wing infused with all the hearthflas she had, blocking it. The stinger still pierced her wing and injected sothing that caused her body to spasm with pain.
The warrior nearly had Ophelia dead to rights, with its scythe coming for the killing blow. But then a powerful green and gold arrow crashed into the insectoid from the side, a giant, flaming wolf bite taking a considerable chunk of the monster’s torso and invading it with the energies of life. The attack was cancelled as the insectoid was nearly killed in just one blow, and Ophelia knew she needed to capitalize on it.
Fighting through the waves of pain coursing through her body, Ophelia extended her hearth blade and brought her polearm around with both hands. With a strong swing of defiance, she cleaved through the monster’s chest from the other side, cutting it in two, before spinning through and bringing her poleaxe downward, cutting the insectoid in half again.
The Divine Spark that shot out of the monster was substantial, joining her chest as she focused on fighting through both the pain and the corruption injected into her, hoping to purify it. She attempted to close the Asura seal but found that she couldn’t, the seal not responding, and the shouts only growing louder. Her breathing grew heavy, pain starting to overco her thoughts–but her clansister was right there for her.
“I’ve got you, Lia.”
Tanda arrived next to her, hugging her from the side in the air, along with Rejuvenation with purifying flas. Ophelia started to regain her thoughts, and so she let out the flas of the family from her hearth, including the ones newly added–Sati’s. These burnt through the corruption in a significant way, and Jake’s new little void fla was extrely hungry as it consud even more of it, despite its tiny size in comparison.
It wasn’t until Jake used his Energy Nexus ability to send more of Sati’s pure heart flas through to burn through more of it that she was able to finally close the seal, Ophelia breathing a sigh of relief.
That was close, she thought. If not for Ruby blocking Calix’s arrow, she might have gone far beyond the point of no return in order to claim the victory. The tattoo receded, and Ophelia looked up just in ti for Sati’s pure heart flas to wrap around the manta ray and burn it away, purifying it.
This spark from this enemy actually shot into Ruby before shooting into Ophelia again. Faith energy bathed them all, enriching all of their spirits. With the three major enemies defeated, Ophelia landed on a tree near the edge of the island.
And with the Aspect and the Champion down, Sati then focused on purifying Ruby, who flew to join Ophelia and Tanda. Her pure heart flas wrapped around Ruby’s orb of blood and then her body, burning away the cursed sigils, before she went off to aid the beastkin.
Tanda cast another Rejuvenation on Ruby, helping her recover her vitality before she took off to do the sa. She had closed her Deva seal but could still snipe enemies as she charged her attacks with auril.
As much as Ophelia wanted to join the battle again, she was beat, and from the looks of it, Nessa was too. She took a pill that helps recover her vitality and mana and saw Nessa doing the sa but for Qi as she landed near them on the bough of the tree.
Ophelia said to her, “You had a tough ti of it, Nessa?”
Nessa chuckled. “You could say that. The jerk was slippery, and his telari brethren rained down a lot of attacks on us. Tanda is nearly invincible and attacks with unlimited flas with her Deva seal open, but that didn’t help much. I only have so much Qi, and much of it is stored in my lake. Nana had to work hard to sneak her bite in on him.”
Ruby’s eyes were wild, and she was breathing heavily. Eventually, she took a steadying breath and smiled. “I…made it. I did it.”
Ophelia arched her eyebrow at her. “Yeah, you did. I guess Aisling’s warning must have helped you in so way, huh?”
“I’m…not sure. Maybe it was just that all of you reassured .”
Nessa frowned. “Really? I know prophecies and foresight can often end like this. You don’t have any idea what you might have changed, Ruby?”
“I really wanted to help Ophelia against the champion, but… Trying to stay calm and trusting her, I just focused on cleansing myself for a ti and then on how I could best help once I got myself into a better place. And taking out that eclipse and helping the beastkin…it felt like what I was best at.”
Ophelia humd. “You did take out a lot of those insects. If you had stayed and assisted with fighting the champion, the pain aura definitely could have sent you into a rage. It could be that simple.”
Nessa was now looking over the various items they recovered from Calix, a frown on her face.
Ophelia asked, “What did Nana find so far, Nessa?”
“We definitely had enough to put this guy away for good…if he’s not already dead, Tanda being granted a Divine Spark was rather surprising. But now, we’re hoping to put their entire Guilds away. If we get anything from Avaron or Cassius, there’s no doubt we got what we need.”
Having recovered enough, the three rejoined the battle and helped the beastkin with cleaning up all the remaining insects. The many beastkin roared in triumph as the last insect was slain, and the party was filled with pride of their success. They had given their everything to overco this difficult challenge, and they were victorious.
The other battle was still ongoing, but now total victory was within their grasp.
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