“I don’t need to be told twice,” he mutters as he practically sprints further away from Farren and the beast.
Farren’s holding on for dear fucking life as the beast tries its best to dislodge her. It’s so intent on its task that it’s damaging itself as it tries to get to Farren, although it doesn’t seem to notice at all.
As soon as Farren sees that everyone is out of the way, I feel her call on her magic, and my eyes widen in shock. It shocked me when Ifelt how much magic she was using when she killed the first beast. It shocked all of us. She automatically keeps her magic signature locked down, just like the rest of us. It’s safer. Otherwise, we act like a beacon for anything that thinks it’s stronger than we are or that wants to somehow use us for some reason.
Basically, having our magic cloaked makes others leave us alone.
Apart from Hades, when Rast told him that he could uncloak here, he did it within a couple of moments, and the relief in his expression was clear. Hades is a god though, so in theory he should be able to take care of anything that comes for him.
Unless it's another god.
Or a prince who has the backup of the god.
What has me shocked is that I can now see what happens to Farren when she calls on that much magic, her eyes turn black, with no signs of any iris, as I swear sparks of colour dance through them. I’m too far away to see exactly, but the effect is absolutely incredible.
Her swords appear in her hands and glow with magic, as she scissors them, severing the head of the beast with ease. Everything falls silent for a split second, and then the creature explodes into tiny chunks.
Farren lands expertly on the ground and immediately stands, grimacing as she looks down at her ichor-covered clothing.
“Oh, that is so gross,” she mutters. “Why is it bigger?”
“You killed it!” Fry exclaims.
She winces, “Yeah, sorry about that. I did try to warn you that you guys need to move further back and out of the way.”
Fry frowns slightly and then looks down at his blood-splattered clothes. “Oh no, I don’t care about this. You killed it. No one has ever killed one before.”
Farren shifts slightly uncomfortably, “I erm.”
The Others all look at Farren expectantly.
“We need to go,” I chime in and receive a grateful smile from Farren.
“That must be the first time that all of us are walking away from a fight with one of the Abyss creatures,” the main woman who was speaking before says. “Thank you. Your companion is right though. You really do need to get going. I would imagine that its death will be a signal to the others, and I know that none of us want to deal with a pack of them.”
Storm nods and steps forward as Farren disappears into the middle of our group, shielding herself from the curious eyes, and letting Storm do what he does best and take charge.
“Thank you,” Storm replies simply.
“Hey, if you get the chance, come back to visit?” Fry asks. “It would be awesome to learn more about you.”
I smile, “We’ll try our best, mate.”
“Travel safely,” the main woman replies.
“You stay safe as well,” Kill replies in kind, his arm wrapped around Farren.
With nothing else needing to be said, we all head back the way that we came.
“They have gone,” Laikynn says as he trots up next to Farren. “I am so sorry. For some reason, I was not allowed to tell you that we were headed in the wrong direction.”
“That’s okay,” Farren replies with a smile. “I know you would have told us if you could, and we knew that you couldn’t say anything.”
“It’s probably got something to do with Sage,” Rival suggests, and then before any of us can agree, he adds, “Or to prove that the people at the compound can’t be trusted.”
“It proves that Ricollio can’t,” Rast says. “There’s no way to know if the message that he gave us was actually the message that the compound leaders sent.”
“That’s true. I suppose there’s no way to know for certain,” Kill replies. “From what you’ve said, I would bet that it was the compound leaders. Ricollio seemed like a giant dick, but he seemed sincere when he said, ‘he wouldn’t risk the fate of the realm’.”
