Syl

Chapter 97: Fireball

"Give me a few minutes' headstart to cast my debuffs. Everything goes undetected, and I get a bonus if I do it from stealth." I requested.

"Sounds like a good idea," Roderick said, turning towards Whitney.

Whitney nodded, "I agree, and I vouch for her stealth skills; no way that monster is detecting her."

"Start with the treants, then I'll open with a [Fireball] to drag them away," Dewi said.

"And I'll taunt the boar," Roderick added, gesturing to his massive tower shield.

"Before you go, let me cast my buff," Evan said, and we gathered in a tight circle around him. We were all enveloped in a brief light, and I saw a new condition added to my profile.

"It's a luck bonus; it helps with accuracy and evasion." He explained.

"Thanks. It won't take long. Then we can get this fight started." I said and stealthily maneuvered into position.

When I had a good line of sight of all the monsters, I started weaving my spells, landing [Flammable] one by one on each treant. Then I started casting an empowered [Erode] on the boar, hoping to debuff its physical defense for Whitney and Roderick.

It all landed successfully, and our foes were none the wiser. I was in the middle of empowering [Flammable] to cast on the boar when the group erupted from the clearing, and I heard Dewi and Roderick shout out in tandem.

"[Fireball]!"

"[Taunt]!"

'Shit. I should have cast [Flammable] on the boar first.'

The fireball crashed against the boar's head and erupted in an explosion of flame; it was a notably larger explosion, but from how I witnessed the mana flowing, Dewi must have sacrificed some damage for a wider area of effect. Both immediately darted in the opposite direction, and then I successfully cast my spell.

'Of course, now you have decided to level up. Well, not like an extra minute duration would matter in the grand scheme of things.'

As expected, the treants rushed towards Dewi, unhappy about being partially on fire. The boar let out a guttural roar as it charged towards Roderick. It clashed against his giant shield, and his feet dug into the ground, being slightly pushed backward. Appearing from nowhere, Whitney abruptly appeared above the boar's head, dual-wielding her two daggers and plummeting down, stabbing them into the back of its head before retracting them and disappearing again with a skill I recognized.

'[Wind Step]. I'm so jealous.'

I changed position to chase after the treants, shambling towards Dewi, leaving the other three to deal with the boar while we cleaned up the angry trees.

Dewi raised his palm and launched another spell, "[Fireball]!" which again detonated in a larger explosion.

The tree directly hit seemed to falter after being caught in two explosions, but Dewi must have continued to prioritize the area of effect over direct damage as it wasn't dead yet.

'Or perhaps he's conserving mana to deal with the boar since these are only minions.'

I joined the fray and cast two of my improved [Fire Arrow] spells from behind at two treants in the rear, both only slightly empowered to prevent going into blue flame territory. [Sneak Attack], [Flammability], and being weakened by two [Fireball] spells meant two dead treants.

x2

Dewi grinned and gave me a thumbs-up before responding with three of his own [Fire Arrow] spells. One targeted the severely weakened treant and killed it, while the other two converged on a single treant and also killed it.

x2

"Dewi!" I exclaimed excitedly.

"What?" He shouted back.

I raised my hand and grinned, "[Fireball]!"

I didn't have the time to tinker with it beyond giving it a quick empowerment with my [Sub-Cores]. I would have loved to have added the extra heat and, thus, damage, but I didn't have the time to tinker mid-battle with a spell I had only just installed into my core. The spell formed quickly, and I launched it at the group, a blossoming burst of flame erupting amongst the lumbering trees.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

x3

He seemed confused at first, but then it rapidly turned into joy. "Yes! That's the stuff!"

"Oh Gods... Now there's two of them." I heard Evan mutter, clearly half in jest, as he was chuckling shortly after.

I wanted to celebrate, but I had more notifications that I couldn't ignore.

Would you like to swap classes?>.

'No.'

Would you like to swap classes?>.

'No.'

While I was happy that I unlocked new things, I wasn't pleased that the prompts were not dismissible. The class change prompts wanted you to decide right then and there or constantly have a mental box in your vision throughout a fight.

"Let's finish these guys off, Syl!" Dewi said, extending his hands outwards and forming two balls of flame above his palms.

I mirrored his gesture and formed two of my own, and I swear I could hear him squealing in delight. I had to admit, this spell seemed damn fun.

Right before I launched my spells, Dewi shouted, "Be sure to spread them out! We'll kill these guys in one giant explosion!"

With an unspoken agreement and coordination, we let our spells fly, causing a cascade of fiery explosions upon the remaining treants.

x6

"Jeez! Talk about overkill, you two." Evan shouted, "You trying to burn down the entire forest?"

"We had to get the spell out of our system; can't exactly use it against the boar!" Dewi chuckled.

"You're a terrible influence, Dewi!" Evan argued, "Now hurry up and help with the boar."

The boar was covered in various stab and cut wounds as Whitney danced around it. Every time she cut or stabbed at it, the boar tried to retaliate, and Whitney would evade and disappear into the wind. I thought Whitney would have had a good chance to kill the monster by herself, but then I noticed that a vine would grow from the bark skin and patch up any wounds with an impromptu herbal salve.

She appeared next to Dewi and me, a little out of breath. "I don't know what you did to it, but my blades are sharper than ever. However, it keeps closing up the wounds, and unfortunately, I don't think we can win with a death by a thousand cuts. Roderick and I will be out of stamina before it dies."

"Physical defense debuff." I explained in a hurry, not wanting to leave Roderick to fight it alone, "I'll give it a few more debuffs and start attacking. I already gave it [Flammable], Dewi."

"Great. I'll stick to [Fire Arrow] for now, then."

While I doubted I'd use any ice or water spells against a monster so clearly weak to fire, I still wanted the debuffs present when I tried out the [Decay] spell. I was quick to apply both [Permeable] and [Frigid] to the monster, and then I rushed in close to cast [Combust].

In retaliation, a series of roots burst from the ground and tried to impale me, but I effortlessly dodged them. Afterward, the roots kept trying to grab at me, and I got a sense of reverse déjà vu as it reminded me of when I tried to kill the Blade Wolf with my tendrils.

"How the hell is it targetting me so well with these roots while clearly focusing on Roderick?" I asked aloud.

"It's a root monster!" Roderick answered before blocking another blow and smashing his mace against the boar with a resounding clang.

"Well, that's annoying," I said, waving my hand and casting both [Fire Arrow] and [Combust]. The roots writhed in pain as they burnt, but I was happy to keep dodging while they burnt to death.

Whitney had swapped her strategy to go for the boar's limbs to reduce movement, cutting huge gashes against its tendons. Root monsters also spawned to try to grab her, but she was gone before they even emerged. Her hit-and-run tactics were remarkable, although very energy-intensive.

I tried casting [Poison Mist] a few times for another affliction, but it seemed that unless I targeted its face, it wouldn't apply. An open wound might have also worked, but it patched those up so abruptly I didn't have a chance. With five empowered afflictions on it, I decided to finally cast [Decay]. I tried empowering the spell, but it refused any additional mana in a way I had never seen before.

'I guess that makes sense? It does a set amount of damage by purging all afflictions on the target, ' I thought before casting the spell. From my perspective, a swirl of purple mana surrounded the monster before vanishing. The boar suddenly screamed in pain and partially collapsed from the unexpected damage it took.

"Holy shit! It just lost a crapton of life out of nowhere!" Evan exclaimed suddenly.

"It must have been a lot to cause you to swear. What happened?" Roderick chuckled, releasing another solid blow that let out a resounding crunch. "The hell, did it just get tougher? I used a skill but did less damage."

"Ah! I'm sorry I purged its debuffs. I'll cast them again!" I apologized and immediately worked on casting [Erode] again.

"What? Why?" Whitney shouted, looking disgruntled as her blade didn't penetrate as deep.

"The spell deals damage based on the number of afflictions on the target. I'd never cast it before, but it seemed appropriate." I explained, casting my spell, "[Erode] is up again! [Flammable] is coming up next!"

"Good to know!" Roderick shouted, repeating his previous action and grinning in satisfaction.

"That's probably a spell you should call out," Dewi suggested, forming multiple [Fire Arrow] spells and holding them back until [Flammable] was applied again.

The boar was struggling to stand up, so I handed over the [Flammable] spell to my [Sub-Cores] to complete while I rapidly cast [Ice Patch] under it. The ground beneath it was coated in a slick layer of ice, and it fell over itself again. Roderick laughed joyously and began rapidly pounding at the boar with his mace.

"[Flammable] is back up! Also, I froze the ground under its feet; It should stop it from moving around for a bit." I exclaimed after my [Sub Cores] finished casting the debuff.

Dewi wasted no time and flung all his flaming arrows at the boar, each causing wails of pain and rage.

"Good job, lass, you're learning on the job!" Roderick said proudly.

"It's close to death. If you can repeat that spell from earlier, I think it will finish it off!" Evan shouted.

"I will do that. But how can you tell it's close to death?" I asked while preparing to cast the debuffs again after quickly casting another [Combust] and setting the oversized pig on fire again.

"I have a trait that lets me see lifeforce. It's meant to be used for healing, but it can also be used like this."

"Please show me that trait!" I begged.

"Sure? It's your trait point to waste." Evan replied, confused at the sudden request. "But please focus on the giant boar trying to kill us first!"

"Ha! And you were upset that you were the only one not teaching her anything. Looks like you got your wish." Dewi teased.