A Quest for the Stars

~Lenoria~

“What do you mean ‘tag out’? We have him right where we want him!”

Lenoria tried to see things from Alistair’s perspective. The giant was bleeding and badly injured, while the lad’s worst injury was some burn marks on his face. Even if the giant could go on for a longer amount of time than anticipated, at least Alistair was well-equipped to handle melee.

By contrast, Lenoria’s simple shirt of chains couldn’t possibly protect her from the giant’s heavy blows. There was no reason for her to enter when they were so close to winning.

“Listen to me, Alistair. You can’t go on fighting like that and hurt yourself. Please take a break and join me when you’ve recovered.” The girl stood almost side-on with her feet just about at shoulder-length apart. She placed her left foot forward while positioning her right foot at a right angle to her left one. She brought her right hand to the side of her face and her left to the front of it. “You’re a good man, Al. I’m not going to lose a friend just because he got careless.”

Alistair wanted to protest, but he caught a gleam from an object a few steps to his right. “Very well. Just get behind me if you get hurt!”

“You got it.” Lenoria braced herself. Their conversation gave the giant enough time to recover his footing and tower over her menacingly. It was his turn to attack.

Listen well, Lenoria. You’re small, but you’re quick. There are exceptions out there, but the general rule of thumb is the bigger they are, the clumsier they move. Outsmart them and outmaneuver them!

“Let’s see if your training paid off, old man.” Lenoria had a theory, and it was time to try the scientific method to see if it would work. But for that, she had to recall a painful memory.

Even if it is true, you must have done something to deserve it. Wouldn’t you say, you little half and half?

Her rage for Starflower returned.

I don’t wanna die!

As did her fear for the avian that killed her.

I promised Clara I’d be here to support her during her confession, but I should have talked her out of it instead! We’ve grown attached to the Guild, for the fat lot of good it did! Now look at us! When you think about it, I dragged her here! It’s my fault she’s trapped!

And her guilt for Clara getting hurt in the school fire returned as well. The turbulent mix of emotions moved the pendant around her neck, the black stone giving off a green light. The same light extended to her entire body and mixing it with the surrounding flames gave the battlefield an eerie glow. This led to nothing special, but the sight was enough to calm Chestnut and awe Alistair.

“Good people have always helped me out of a bind. Gabrielle, Alistair, and Clara. They had good intentions, but I always felt so helpless! I don’t want to be the damsel in distress, anymore!” Lenoria stared at the giant fiercely and unblinkingly. “I’m a girl, first and foremost! But I’m a scientist second! And pissing both off is something you’re gonna regret real soon, mister!”

The scientific method was a six-step process to answer any question. The first step was to review the question itself, and the second step was to hypothesize - make an educated guess - to help answer the question.

Lenoria asked herself how to use Pearl’s power better. And her hypothesis was Pearl’s advice.

You need to learn to control your emotions towards other people. It’s okay to love or show anger to others, but wishing ill intent is how someone gets caught in the crossfire.

And just moments ago, she had learned that the opposing Soulstone, Fornax, was powered by a strong emotion. The question now became “Can emotions also power the Corvus Soulstone, or any Soulstone for that matter?” It was time to move on to step 3.

Experiment.

~Giant Patriarch~

Humans and their speeches. The giant patriarch took the time to catch his breath when his two human opponents started bickering. The murderous look in his eyes had only intensified thanks to the humiliating beatdown he received from the boy. He was ready to finish him off, but thankfully the boy’s concubine stepped in. She wanted to try her hand at taking him down, something he believed she didn’t think through. Such a brave soul; the patriarch wondered how she’d taste like once her spirit and body were broken.

The time for wandering thoughts had to be set aside. The woman just started glowing in green. The light show was bad for his eyes, but he had adjusted himself well enough for the sun’s rays, so a little extra light didn’t hurt.

A scientist? What an odd title. Kings, knights, clowns. All bled the same, though admittedly clown meat was pure bliss compared to other kinds. He raised his axe to prove a point, but the girl wouldn’t back down. With two mighty swings, this would be over.

The girl shouted a single word. “Pearl!”

The axe came down. The girl yelped from the first strike, the axe blade slicing through her shirt. Blood spurted out of the left of her midsection.

Where was her resolve now? Confident again in his abilities, the giant’s eyes shifted to a flaming color as his cloak of fire returned. The girl’s weak cries of pain were music to his ears. One more swing ought to do it.

“How dare you turn off the flames, you worthless child? I’ll deal with you later.”

But the giant’s swing became increasingly heavy even for him, and a sudden increase in weight threw him off so much that he missed by a wide margin. He brought his axe closer and he was shocked by what he saw.

It was coated in black feathers.

~Alistair~

The paladin picked up and imbibed the vial Lenoria had dropped on the ground for him. The green lights were stunningly beautiful, but the fact Lenoria could do this unsettled him. He would have to ask about that later.

His concerns unfortunately became a reality when the giant struck Lenoria. A pained grunt escaped him, after which he immediately grabbed his midsection out of instinct. The ring around his finger reacted to the pain with a brief gleam. “T-the spell…” In this stressful time, he had forgotten about the rings on their fingers, which were the foci for a spell he cast earlier before they rode off from the compound.

[Shield Other]

~Lenoria~

“That was…too close!” A combination of Alistair’s defensive magic, her own reflexes, and Pearl’s fortune magic all helped Lenoria avoid certain death. She didn’t come out unscathed, but the giant’s attack was a lot weaker than she had expected.

Nothing had really happened when Lenoria brought back old emotions, so as part of her experiment she decided to bring one that called for the current situation. And that…was survival.

The desire to survive mixed with her dislike for the giant brought the results she needed. Poe currently hovered above the giant and rained feathers on him in the same way he did to Starflower during Lenoria’s meeting with Gabrielle.

“Very good! I don’t know what you did, but you controlled your emotions and cursed the enemy in front of you.”

The experiment was an overall success, and Pearl’s advice turned out to be correct. Lenoria was now resolving steps 4 and 5: Observe and Record, and Analyze the Information, respectively. After her experiment worked, she concluded that individual Soulstones could be powered by a person’s emotions.

The final step was to share this result, which had to be done later and away from Alistair’s ears. Poe didn’t escape the giant’s notice; their foe now had malicious intent in his eyes, and she wasn’t about to allow the monster to hurt her feathered friend.

Now was time to go on the offensive; Lenoria ran up to the giant and aimed low.

“YEOW!” The giant hopped with one foot in place while he grabbed the other with both hands. “MY SHIN!”

~Giant Patriarch~

A kick to the shin, even from someone much smaller than you, was incredibly painful. A sharp pain shot through the giant’s body, but after a brief bout of pathetic whimpering he planted his hurt leg back in place and stepped forward to end the girl for good. He didn’t want to kill her if he could help it, but she deserved torture more than the boy did.

The axe would be overkill if his aim was right. He dropped it in favor of his fists, which he launched immediately. He wanted to take his time with her later, so a simple knockout would suffice for now.

But the girl dodged each blow, weaving left and right. The giant’s fists were now coated in feathers that weighed them down. He could carry himself just fine, but attacking was a different matter. Why couldn’t he hit her?

~Alistair~

Alistair’s and Chestnut’s irises disappeared for a short time from shock after witnessing Lenoria’s dirty tactic. The girl had struck the giant on the shin with a perfectly placed boot. The boy instinctively grabbed his own shins to see if he was hurting as well and, for a brief moment, sympathized with the giant’s pain.

As he restored his wounds, the boy recalled his training days with Beau when the enraged giant forfeited his axe for his fists and missed every punch. When tempered properly, anger was a powerful tool. But when used blindly, it was as useful as a millstone in the middle of the ocean. Such an amateur mistake spoke much of the giant’s battle experience.

On the other side, there was Lenoria. She had no qualms about fighting dirty. Her tactics worked, sure, but they were far from honorable. And now she was resisting the giant’s cloak of flames? Had she been immune to fire this entire time? How much was she hiding from him?

The girl hadn’t spoken with him much until they met the old man on the road. He had been meaning to approach her before that but didn’t know how to go about it. If he had taken the initiative, he probably would have gotten a better gauge on her abilities.

Watching her take on a bigger foe than her made his heart beat…faster than usual. Why? It had to be the adrenaline; the situation called for him to be alert and on his feet, after all.

Yeah, that had to be it.

~Lenoria~

Silence hung in the air with the rising heat of the cackling flames. More blood dripped from the giant’s smashed head; his wounds now swollen over his frightened eyes. His cloak of flames died once again, and as hard as he tried, he couldn’t summon them back.

The girl stood before him, immune to his fire and watchful of all his movements. He boasted great strength, but his opponent was too fast for him to make use of it. There was only one thing he could; his ace in the hole, so to speak.

“M-mercy…” The giant opened his palms to halt the girl’s advance. “I-if you let me go, I promise I won’t eat people anymore!”

Seeing the giant plead for his life gave Lenoria pause. She was ready to punch him, but she saw her younger, naive self in his place. She recalled doing the same whenever Anne would torment her.

Please, Anne! I didn’t do anything this time! A-ah!

“Don’t listen to him, Lenoria!” Alistair’s firm voice snapped her out of her daze. “He’s only telling lies!”

Anne’s shadow dissipated into mist in Lenoria’s mind, replaced by Alistair’s hand. The boy gently placed his hand over the head of her younger frame, the healing light working its magic to remove the blood and head trauma she had received.

It was imaginary, but Lenoria nearly slipped into helplessness again. Being saved by Alistair yet again was a wonderful feeling all the same.

Her fury returned tenfold when her eyes returned to reality and caught sight of the giant grabbing a clump of burning ashes with his meaty hand. Balling her fist, she reached for his stomach with a single bound. The giant reeled his hand back to throw the ashes, but Lenoria’s fist was faster as it had reached his gut.

The girl quickly retracted her fist from the giant’s abdomen. The monster’s mouth was painfully agape, shocked by the girl’s strength and the wits to call his bluff. If only she had waited a little longer; he then would have blinded her with the fallen ashes on the ground and would have capitalized on that moment to finish her off.

Losing his remaining strength from that last punch, the giant fell to his knees and let out a mighty wheeze and bellow.

~Alistair~

The flames from the circle vanished when the giant fell. Seeing the behemoth on the ground drove the boy to run past Lenoria and finish him off. Firmly grasping his mace, the boy jumped and swung.

One strike. The mace caved the giant’s skull in, but the beast was still breathing, albeit unconsciously.

Two strikes. The giant’s head was further busted open, blood splattering all around him. The giant’s breathing ended as his basic brain functions ceased. Their enemy, prone and defeated, stopped moving altogether.

~Lenoria~

The circle of flames died down to mere ashes, allowing Chestnut to reunite with his master. Feeling proud of herself, Lenoria ran up to Alistair. "Woo-hoo! Teamwork!" She raised a hand, hoping Alistair would meet her halfway with his. But when he didn't even spare a glance, Lenoria slowly lowered it. "A-Alistair?"

"You really are something else." A swing of the mace splashed a little bit of the bloody gore it had on the grass ahead of the boy. "You jump in to rumble with a giant in melee, use some power I couldn't even see save for the green light, and to top it all off you used dirty, honorless tactics to secure a victory." His scolding tone softened with a side glance and a smile. "And yet...you were amazing doing it. Had I taken the due diligence to ask for the full scope of your powers before we rushed to the compound, we could have come up with a better strategy. Miss Bisset was right, you are a comrade I can trust."

Shocked at first from his initial tone, Lenoria's heart quickly melted after hearing the praise. "Y-you're not mad?"

"I can't say I approve of your methods, but my oath only forbids me from associating with the forces of evil." Alistair holstered his bloody mace on the strap around his waist. "Please forgive me for being distant. Can I count on you and Miss Clara to watch my back in situations such as this?"

Lenoria giggled. She grabbed Alistair's hand and gently removed the gauntlet. For her part, she removed one of her gloves and shook Alistair's exposed hand. "You don't even need to ask, and I bet Clara won't mind, either. And don't be sorry; just don't be scared to approach me or Clara about anything, okay?"

Up until now, Alistair's hand was limp, after which he firmly grasped Lenoria's hand and shook it. "Deal."

Lenoria quietly caught sight of Pearl hovering above the giant. A flock of ravens had gathered around her, the constant flapping of their wings heard in the air. The woman opened her palm above the giant’s neck, her skin color gradually shifting to take the form of the cosmos themselves.

With a simple beckoning gesture, the maroon Soulstone around the giant’s neck floated to her. Wrapping her fist around out, Pearl waited a moment before opening her hand again.

The Soulstone was gone.

“You’re safe now.”

Rewards

Encounter treated as having a party of 6+ people.

XP awarded for three CR 6 monsters: 1,200

XP awarded for one CR 7 monster: 535

Bonus XP awarded for creativity: 170

Total XP awarded: 1905

Lenoria: 11,995/15,000

Clara: 11,905/15,000

Alistair: 24,905/34,000