He groaned as he opened his eyes, the world a blur around him.
"Ringabel!"
He blinked, all suddenly coming into focus at once. His thoughts first flew back, trying to find out what had happened. He was sitting on a bench, looking at the skies, a giant planebird was there... and then suddenly something dropped on him...
"Riiiingabel!" Mephilia called out, exhasperated. "Are you even paying attention?"
The freelancer slowly sat up and shook the last bits of sleepiness from his head. "I am now," he said. "So sorry to keep a lady like you waiting, Mephilia!"
The summoner crossed her arms for a moment before allowing them to rest at her side. The anchorite of wind cawed overhead before swooping down, shrinking down to a managable size and perching on Mephilia's shoulder. All of the bindings lay on the ground, wiggling like worms. "It took you too long to wake up from your coma," Mephilia said almost apologetically, "so before you could oh-so-heroically undo the bindings, a couple of very polite women aided me."
"I'm curious as to how you got into those bindings to begin with, to be quite frank." Ringabel stood up and dusted himself off before pulling from his pocket a small journal, with a D on the cover. As he flipped through the pages, he cotninued, "There aren't many monsters in the Florem Gardens that are quite capable of entanglement. In fact, the Alraunes are much too stubby for that, so they prefer to use Paralyzing Pollen to stun their victims before they engage them en masse."
Mephilia sighed and replied, "Well, it wasn't someone from Luxendarc, from what it looked like. Too... otherworldly, for lack of a better word. I had only been distracted for a moment before she tangled me up in... in..." She bent over and picked up one of the bindings and cringed as she showed it to her companion.
Ringabel wasn't sure what to make of it at first. Upon closer inspection, though, he paled and asked, "...Why would a kracken be on land?"
"A kracken would never be on land, Ringabel," the summoner grumbled. "It was a girl with octopus legs for hands that snuck by me, and she mentioned something about this Mistress Kuroma before she binded me with those hideous things. Her face was covered with a strange slip of paper..." Her tone suddenly became more serious as she added, "I know this much, though: her hands are stained. Her heart, black as pitch, as Edea would say. "
Hresvelgr made a racket of caws, fidgeting on Mephilia's shoulder. It then flew to Ringabel and started pecking at him angrily. "Ack!" the freelancer cried, flailing his arms to shoo the summon away. "Whatever she is doing, it appears that it requires urgent action, yes? Could you, perhaps, lead the way?!"
Mephilia stared at him in shock before she sputtered out, "Well, uh, if you insist on taking care of this. But aren't your orde-"
"Nevermind those," Ringabel said quickly, waving a hand away. "If this person decides to attack town and holds more power than she unleashed upon you, Florem would be in danger. Better to strike while the iron is hot."
"But-"
Too late, the summoner watched as Ringabel ran off, Hresvelgr in tow. With another sigh, she gave chase, although she knew that perhaps the anchorite of wind thought Ringabel alone competent enough to handle the job that lay ahead.
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-FLOREM GARDENS-
His heart twisted and lurched at the sight before him, made much worse with Mephila's panicked cry.
The once beautiful Florem Garden, home to usually docile wildlife and Florem's guardian spirits, was now tarnished beyond recognition. The flower patches were now home to ragged, poisonous weeds and rafflesias, permiating the air with rot and decay. Where there were once Alraunes and Dryads were awful-smelling mushrooms and crows with forked tongues and eight eyes, squawking in delight. Bramble vines grew every which way, making it difficult to walk without something catching onto them. The sun was obscured by dark, purple clouds, a purple haze lingering about the garden.
"It seems the situation is much worse than we thought," Ringabel said, drawing blade and shield, gingerly stepping around the weed patches and bramble.
Mephilia gagged at the stench of rot and said as she coughed, "That person must have some sort of corrupting magic... Nothing we've ever seen!"
"And I suppose we're going to see much more of it soon." Ringabel plucked two orbs from his pocket, red in color and shimmering a pale blue, There was a quick flash before the summoner's eyes, and soon enough...
Mephilia and Hresvelgr tilted their heads to the side. "Knight, hm? I'm not nearly as fragile as you might think, you know."
"It's just a precaution," the blonde pointed out, "in case the enemy tries to take you by surprise, as before. Besides, we've yet to see how strong they truly are!"
"And what's the second asterisk for?"
"Well, every party needs a healer... And the duchy's asterisk holders are not privvy to secondary abilities, yes?"
Mephilia stared at Ringabel for a moment before she said with surprise in her voice, "That's a pretty good point, actually. I never really delved deeper into the magical arts except for when I was in school. After that, I focused purely on my role as Summoner, and acquired the anchorites."
A slight smile spread across Ringabel's lips until he heard the low growl of monsters ahead. He quickly signaled to Mephilia to get behind him before raising his shield and scanning the area. Giant rafflesias rose from the ground, revealing an octopus-like form covered in dirt and wearing the corpse flower as a hat. The crows took off as a pack of wolves with silver fur stained crimson took point in front of the tentacled fiend, baring their fangs at the duo and growling.
Time itself seemed to freeze as both parties were perfectly still, prepared to strike. Only when a crow's loud caw echoed through the garden did Mephilia command Hresvelgr to assume its full form and swoop down upon their enemies, summoning fierce gales that took them by surprise. Before the wolves could regain their footing, steel dug into their bodies, blood dripping down their sides. They tried biting at their attacker, but they found themselves with a mouthful of armor rather than tasty flesh. Ringabel smirked for a moment before a tentacle slammed into his chest, shoving him back a few steps.
He stepped back out of range of the tentacles and saw silver blurs flanking him and lunging at him at full speed . They bit into his armor and drew a little blood, but not without the wind crow swooping down and grabbing one of them, wresting them from Ringabel's side, and flying up, up, up. The other wolves kept up the attack until their companion fell from the skies onto the ground, twitching and whimpering. It provided the perfect distraction for cutting both wolves down, removing them as a threat.
Ringabel smirked for a moment before turning his attention to the rafflesia monster. Nothing in the beastiary spoke of anything like this. From the looks of it, it could be weak to fire or wind, given that the attacking body appeared as roots of a plant. Roots with suction cups and looked absolutely slimy, but roots nonetheless. He watched carefully as the monster's rafflesia spewed out a cloud of flies and sent them towards the duo. He rose his shield up, but too late: the buzzing darkness blocked his sight, clogged his ears, bit at every inch of exposed skin possible.
Mephilia let out a wail that pierced the buzzing. The flies must be getting to her, too. He quickly shut his eyes and stayed calm, even through the chaotic "bzzzz" of angry flies. Even when a tentacle smashed right into him, sending him flying towards his companion. He just got up and bided his time, keeping his shield up all the while. Attack after attack, blow after blow.. he took it all in stride, waiting patiently for that moment.
An angry screech pierced through the buzzing, and a fierce gale finally forced the flies away, allowing the knight to hear and see again. The gales also tore tentacles and petals off the rafflesia, the monster reeling in pain.
Now.
Ringabel quickly healed himself with a Cura spell before bolstering his defenses and charging in, bashing the monster's head in with his shield and putting all his weight into the blow. The monster cried out in pain, flailing its tentacles about uselessly as he went for a second powerful charge. So strong they were, they knocked the poor beast right onto its side. Its misery did not end there, even as the knight took a breather. Mephilia recalled Hresvelgr before calling forth a train wreathed in flames that stood upright. Only when it opened its maw did it reveal that it was a dragon, belching flames upon the rafflesia, ignoring its cries and whimpers.
When the flames died out and the dragon, Promethian Fire, was recalled, there was nothing more than ashes where the Rafflesia Monster was. Ringabel hastily took out his journal and a pen, scribbling down notes about the new beast.
" 'Rafflesia Menace,' " he said quietly as he wrote, thoughts flowing onto the page. " 'a fearsome monster much more dangerous than a normal Rafflesia, it uses great force when attacking with its tentacles and can blind and deafen adventurers with clouds of flies... ' " Once he was finished, both book and pen were pocketed, and he cast a few Cure spells on Mephilia. "Everything alright there?"
"I am quite fine, thank you," she said with smile, no trace of sarcasm in her voice. "That monster was a bit trickier than I thought. Just waiting for a chance to unleash full power was a test of patience."
Ringabel was about to reply when out of the blue, a giddy voice replied, "Oh, oh, oh~ I hope you're ready for a test of life and death, then!"
He steeled himself on instinct upon hearing the voice, and he was quite glad for it once the source walked out from the purple haze it hid from.
After all... one with dark robes, a scroll on their face, and a lot of tentacles for hands, giggling and holding the dead bodies of fairies, does not an ally make.
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