Origin ARS 4 (15 page)

A large sphere of water, much larger than any sphere of water Scott had ever summoned with his drowning sphere skill, appeared in the air. It went crashing down with great force. The energy required to generate the water caused her to falter slightly and fall toward the ground. She caught herself before hitting the unforgiving stone floor, but it was a near thing. All of her powers were extremely potent, overpowered by some estimates, but she was just a cute little fairy guardian. Unless she could access the true power buried deep within herself, she did not have the mental and spiritual stamina to use her powers frequently.

She picked up what looked to be a plain metal bucket then went to scoop the water up out of a small depression in one side of the room. She had to grab a cracked wooden cup and use it to finish the task of filling it since there was not enough water to properly fill it otherwise.

Ero quickly hopped into the water and started to swim around like her friends’ lives depended on it, because they did! “Sacred, sacred! Get sacred already! Oh!”

She did her fairy best to make the somewhat murky water pure, pristine, and sacred. Though, she did not have the time or the inclination to make it extra special sacred like she might have wanted in a normal time-frame.

Ero hopped out of the sacred water then gripped the bucket handle tight. Time to go! She used all of her strength to lift the heavy bucket into the air. She fluttered here and there in a wobbling zig-zagging manner before she managed to adjust herself to the situation.

Through the corridor she flew. The entire process had taken slightly more than a minute, and she knew that time was of the essence. However, she felt a sense of pride and accomplishment already. Both Scott and Rhea would survive! Ero had long thought that she was a bit superfluous when it came to protecting her charge. She was a fairy guardian, but she rarely did any guardianing. Guardianing was a word, right?

Just as she entered the center of the open area, tragedy struck. An arrow flew from a dark corner of the second level of scaffolding. It struck true, not on Ero’s tiny luscious body, but the bucket of water that she was carrying. A small explosion rocked the area. It did little damage to Ero due to the fact that she was not the true target, and her proximity to sacred water caused a bit of it to splash on her. That factor alone effectively protected her from the worst of the damage, but her poor bucket had exploded! All of her freshly made sacred water was wasted.

“That’s a no.” said the one who had fired the arrow. The bucket killer was a man who wore bright red leather armor and a scarlet colored set of bandanas that covered every part of his face except for the eyes.

Ero looked on in surprise as over two dozen more similarly dressed people started to appear from the shadows. Several rappelled down from the holes in the mine’s ceiling. As they did so, the music in the background changed from the quiet and mournful sound of mine traveling music to a dark and edgy electronic dance mix. The show was about to begin!

The fairy frantically flew toward the corridor that led toward Scott and Rhea. She hoped that if she were fast enough, she might be able to try to use his helmet instead. It might not work, and it might not even hold enough water anyway. But it was better than nothing!

However, such a fate was not meant to be. The bandana clad man snapped his fingers and a shimmering light rose up to block the corridor entrance. They had used a shield wall! She could not fly through such a barrier, it would be like trying to fly through a metal door.

She glanced back and noticed the other corridor was blocked off as well. She might be able to fly up through the openings in the ceiling, but when she looked, she saw that those openings had been blocked off. That was where they had been hiding! They must have been up on the surface waiting for them!

“You know, you bastards cost us a lot of time and effort. We were going on a raid later, but you killed nearly half our people.” said bandana man. He knocked an arrow into his bow and aimed it at Ero. She could probably dodge the attack if it was a normal shot, but he had already proven that he used explosive arrows. That could be a problem.

Ero did not respond verbally. Instead, she fluttered back and away from the thirty or so bandits that had entered the room. This was bad. This was fairy, fairy, bad!

“Hey, Gert. How much do fairy wings go for on the market?” asked bandana man. His name was obscured, so Ero had no way of knowing his real name. The same was true with the other bandits. Their masks, or something else, were used to make their real names unclear. Though, it was still obvious that they were murderers.

“Not enough. We’ll need to pluck her a few hundred times to make up for what we lost.” said a man wearing a similar armor and bandana set-up. The entire crew of bandits looked strangely similar. Perhaps it was part of the obscuring effect.

Ero yelped slightly then flew up in the air at high speed. She would be hard to hit or capture, where she was and perhaps it would give her a moment to breathe a little and to think. She needed to get to Scott and Rhea, but how!

Arrows shot toward her at a rapid pace and many of them fell far short, but a few came close to hitting her. Three of them impacted with the shielded area of the ceiling and caused a short series of explosions that made the shield shimmer. Ero’s eyes widened. Of course! The arrows! If she could just figure out a way to use those explosions.

The girl glanced at the corridor leading to Scott and Rhea. She could not get through the shield, but what if…

She dived down to avoid more arrows then started to circle the area. She led the arrow firing bandits on a merry chase that took far more time than she had liked. Finally, after several explosions and a few near misses, she coaxed them into firing at her near the corridor.

Four explosive arrows hit all around the shield wall, and her eyes lit up. She could see light through the other side of a large crack. Another round of arrows would do it!

She did not allow them to guess what she was doing, and quickly moved away from the corridor. She let them fire at her repeatedly and allowed a few near misses to keep them interested in actually trying to take her down with their bows. She was lucky that they did not have any fine mesh nets or even weighted sheets to try and capture here. They were prepared for normal sized intruders, but a fairy invader had never crossed their minds.

It was time, she was near the corridor once more. She zoomed forward then started to fly upward like she had changed her mind. Arrows flew and three more mild explosions rocked the area.

Ero saw her chance and she dived for the loosened rocks near the shield wall. The outer part, the part where the magical wall met the corridor edge, remained intact. The shield wall could not move to cover the new open space. It was a tight squeeze. She scratched and scraped her body badly moving through the newly formed space, but the bloodied fairy was on a mission. Her friends needed her.

The tiny fairy BFF flew as fast as she could through the corridor. “Scott! Rhea! Hide around the corner! The bandits are…!” Her words died on her lips when she saw what greeted her.

Rhea was on the ground and Scott looked ashen face. He panted and his body was soaked in sweat.

The sorcerer struggled to speak, but the only word he could muster was a silently mouthed, “Ero…” before he collapsed to the ground.

On the ground behind the portcullis, she bore witness to the bodies of her best friends. “Scott! I’m here! Give me your helmet!”

Ero fluttered from side to side and called out again, a growing desperation in her voice. Neither of her friends moved. Her eyes grew wide in surprise. She rushed down to them then started to tug at Scott. She cried out, “Scott! Get up! It’s not time for a nap… Give me your helmet!”

There was no response. His head was warm to the touch, but it was rapidly losing warmth. It became obvious what had happened. Her best friend had died waiting for her to save him. She had taken too long.

She looked over to the beautiful but equally deceased corpse of Rhea and her eyes began to mist over. In the background of her mind she could hear the bandits enter the corridor behind her, and for a moment she did not care. “Please…. Scott… Rhea…”

It was not until bandana man spoke, that she was reminded of the situation. “Ha, dead. You’re in my power now you little bitch. I’ve always wanted to have a guardian.”

Ero’s eyes narrowed. Her normally cheerful expression shifted to a pinched, angry expression. Her voice, typically sweet and upbeat, dropped several octaves and resonated strongly. “Power… You really want my power?”

“Listen to this bitch. I bet she thinks she sounds tough.” said the bandit with a laugh.

That was when the music stopped. Before it had been a normal, jaunty, battle tune. However, now it became something dark, something dangerous.

It was a soft melody, but it had an edge to it. The song that played in the background was primarily a tune that was presented via a piano score, but it was accompanied by the sound of twin electric guitars.

Ero stopped completely. She hovered in mid-air without so much as a single wing flap. “You kill my Scott… You killed Rhea, and threatened to pluck me like a chicken… and then you that say want my power?”

Ero’s tiny head turned toward them even as her entire body began to glow. Sparks of magical energy began to radiate from her, and her eyes flared brightly with an eldritch light. “I’ll let you have it!”

“Fire on the fairy!” snarled bandana man. Several arrows raced out toward Ero, but the tiny little fairy was protected by a sudden extremely powerful gust of wind.

A woman’s voice, one fairy similar to Ero, began to sing in the background as the glowing fairy started to grow in size. She had unleashed her greater power, a power she had not used since the first day that she had met Scott. Ero unleashed [
Storm of Emotion
].

~
Once in the long long ago, a girl cried out for a friend, a true he-ro
….~

It was not a power that she could easily use. She had to be in a desperate mindset, and be willing to allow her own existence to end. She was simply not strong enough to use it whenever she liked. However, she no longer cared what happened to her. She stopped holding back and reached deep inside the well of power that existed within her.

The human sized fairy raised her hand. Another gust of wind raced outward. Soon it turned into a continuous gale force blast that sent the bandits hurtling back. Ero had temporarily transcended her limitations. The truth was, that a guardian spirit was far stronger than a common monster. When they unsealed their true power they were actually an entire tier higher on their personal power spectrum. Ero, in her greater form was no longer simply a cute little tier one fairy BFF. She was actually a tier-two creature despite the fact that she was not level one hundred. She was more like a fairy overlord. In short, Ero was a boss.

~
Lost in a dark and lonely place, nowhere else to go
…~

The distraught and enraged greater fairy guardian moved slowly through the corridor while she continued to blow the bandits back. Soon they reached the end of the passage. The bandits on the far side of the area begged for the shield wall to be erected once more.

~
He came to her one day with an explosion and a smile
…~

The bandits had dropped the corridor shield in order to chase their prey. They had not thought that she would be capable of ascension to this level of power as such a thing was a true rarity among known guardian species. They had known nothing of the bond that Ero shared with her currently deceased, Scott.

The shield did manage to rise again, but just before it did Ero floated out and into the open air of the arena. The true battle would now take place. Each of the bandits could clearly see their predicament quite clearly. Above Ero’s head bright red letters flared into existence. Those letters spelled the word most terrifying for an unprepared party. It was the word Overlord. The system had detected the situation and chosen to make the encounter into an event battle.

~
Though he had a girlfriend, he said come with him a while
…~

Bandits attempted to flee into the depths of their domicile, but they could not leave the area. They were trapped in a battle with an enraged fairy who had awakened her true power and then been granted further temporary ascension by system administration.

“Fire! Fire!” snarled bandana man. The bandits readily began to do just that.

~
And she came….. And she caaa-ay-ay-aame
!~

However, their arrows never even had a chance to come close to Ero. A whirling wall of wind, much stronger that the protective wind wall that she had used during her first day with Scott, rose up to ward off the arrows. The howling barrier of wind was so powerful that it tore the rock ceiling away and exposed the mine area to the brilliant light of day. A storm cloud began to form overhead not long after, and within seconds a stinging rain began to lance downward.

There was no one alive to receive the benefits of her buffs, but there were plenty of bandits alive to receive the de-buffs that came with her attack. Mana and health were rapidly draining away from them with every second that passed. The bandits were easily in their seventies, level wise, but it did not matter. They were losing four hit points and mana per second. Much like Scott and Rhea they would die in a matter of a few minutes if they did not stop Ero.

However, unlike the hapless goblins of that fateful day not so long ago when Ero had last unleashed her power, the bandits were players. They could not attack her, but they might be able to outlast her. The background music continued unabated as the winds and water raged all around, and the bandits struggled to find a way to survive.

~
They faced many obstacles, they crossed the oceans. But their friend-ship they won out
…~

Bandana man shouted out in an unintended parody of the odd song playing in the background, “Hide under the scaffolds, drink strong health potions. We’ll wait the bitch out!”

The bandits stopped firing and soon ran to do as their leather-clad leader had directed. They still lost health, but the lack of direct contact from the rain reduced the damage.