Drake's Misguided Adventure

Chapter 19 - Find Your Counter

A heavy, thick, nauseating fog lays on the once pristine town. Incapable of seeing anything past her reach, Faye falls hopelessly lost. Her attempts to make it out of the fog are worthless as whenever she tries to activate a location spell, her two adversaries are quick to prevent her. Launching wind or rubble at her to force activation of her magic to repel the attack. On top of that, they're maintaining a constant distance from her so she can't even use them as a means to determine how much travel she's actually done. She shifts her focus on inching closer to the guy as he for sure would lack the knowledge needed to keep this stalemate alive. Yet, despite her efforts, she doesn't feel his aura getting any closer.

Is this an illusion, she thinks. No, Aina's only talent in illusions is manipulating the mist. The only bearing she has that she is indeed moving is the ground underneath her feet. At the start she was on pavement but now she can feel the softness of the grass she is standing on. Thinking back, before she engaged Aina, she made sure to create a mental image of the town.

From their initial position, in the direction of their companion and her desired location, a t-junction was just a few hundred feet ahead. Going left, would bring you to the outskirts of town. Nothing but the plains and empty roads were there so it makes sense for them to lead her down that direction but it didn't feel right. She may not know her whereabouts but she knows in what direction she moved her body. When she headed to the guy, they were on her left, at that point Aina created this fog and Lo tore cracked pavement off the road then hurled it at her. If they were to always be coming from her left then it wouldn't do her any good thinking about it, but they haven't all been. A couple of times Lo appears in front of her and attacks head on in appearance, in truth, all her attacks have been to her left side. Meaning, they want her to go right.

If that's the case, this works out great for her.

No, it's too early for that. She refuses to let Aina of all people get the better of her.

"Don't forget your place, Aina!" Faye muses. She stops in her tracks, abruptly throws her arms up wide, and ensues a wild chaotic sphere of wind.

Aina tries hard to keep the fog going but her magic supply was already significantly depleted keeping the fog up and thwarting Faye's previous attempts to break out. A major benefit of mastering one's Calling is the lesser amount of magic it consumes compared to other spells. In the end, she has no choice but to give up sustaining the fog.

Faye holds out her right hand, palm down, towards Aina, Lo sees this and begins to move in front of her; yet, Faye smirks.

Aina realizes what she planned but it is too late.

Lo is already directly in front of her.

Faye turns over her hand and causes the ground on the edge of the field to erupt. The pavement flies in the air. Faye unleashes a strong burst of air to cannon the mid-air rubble towards Lo.

Aina moves her hands to protect Lo. She releases her own powerful wind of equal strength, but Faye undoes her magic and the debris gets sent her way.

Too predictable, Faye says to herself, she hasn't changed one bit.

The silver-eyed girl opens up her body and accepts the incoming 'attack'. Over a dozen fragments of the broken pavement, ranging from pebbles to tennis balls, strike her body full force.

All the while, she smiles.

Lo desperately runs to Aina to protect her from something undefendable.

Faye's body twists, bends, and contorts upon impact but her smile never wavers.

Aina, furrows her brow. Her eyes stare firmly at Faye.

There is no preparation. There is no defense. None of it will do any good. The best she can do–is breathe.