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1320 Words
“Before we go, I think it’s important that we all talk about how we did in the fight. We should address what went right, and what went wrong, too.”
Annie snapped, “We got f****d over. That’s one.”
Emily bumped her sister’s shoulder with her own. “Yes, but we still weren’t perfect. I’ll start. The timing was awful. I didn’t have time to fully absorb my new skills, and selfishly chose to continue absorbing the skill I was on, even though it would have doubled my damage output had I stopped. I prioritized getting it to my core spirit over the team as a whole. Sorry.”
She was looking down and pulling at the grass by the end of her critique. Matt didn’t hold her decision against her in the slightest.
Conor spoke first, though. “I doubt you would have chosen that if real lives were at risk. In the end, this is a game. I don’t blame you.”
Liz patted her knee. “It would’ve taken months for you to fix that. Don’t feel bad. Anything else?”
The mage twirled a blade of grass around for another moment before she added, “My synergies with Aster were good but not perfect. Same with all of you. [Bolt] isn’t the perfect skill for aiming, but it’s my highest base damage skill. I’m happy with how I handled the wall, though. I had never done anything like that, and I was able to hold my position when they were shooting at me.”
Annie went next without prompting. “My lack of range f****d me over pretty well. I need to spend time at an archery range soon. We never really needed it before since I usually protect Em. But now, I don’t need to block for her. I could do a lot more damage if I had a ranged weapon.”
As she paused, Matt offered, “Feel free to keep the crossbow. I have a few more. Besides, the bolts are standard, and pretty cheap. I can offer a little training, but I’m no expert.”
“Thanks.” She grinned at him and said, “I think I might take you up on that, but we’ll see. For what went right… Hmm. I’d like to think my killing of the healer and leader went really well. It would have been better if I got away, but I never expected that to happen.”
Conor, who sat in between Annie and Matt, took her finishing as his cue.
“My lack of range is always a problem, but same with my defense against range and magic. That was what finally got me. An arrow went through my thinner stomach armor. Speaking of that, does anyone know what happened to our gear?”
No one knew, so he continued, “I was pretty happy with how I handled myself, since Matt and I held the entrances, even though we aren’t ideally matched. We made a good wall. Even when he went on the offensive, I was able to hold my own.”
Matt nodded. “I could have mentioned my Concept earlier. Sorry, mana is basically money, and people get weird about it. If we had more mana at the start, we could have done a little better, I think.”
He paused to think, and Emily looked as if she wanted to say something, so he nodded toward her.
“I don’t want to nitpick, but you could have also flooded a room with ice, and Aster could have frozen it solid. If we thought of that, we could have just held up on the third floor with the second and fourth rooms solid. Then, we could’ve been nearly impossible to attack, and would’ve been able to rest and attack at our leisure. Eventually, they would have blown the building apart or chopped through the ice, but it would’ve been a lot better for us.”
It only took him a minute to agree with her. She was completely right. “You’re right. I need to think like a mage, and that’s new to me. I’ve been blade only for a while, and when fighting monsters, I mostly use [Hail] to give Aster free ice. I should be treating it as the full skill it is. Any chance I can do some mage training with you?”
She looked surprised, so Matt explained, “Liz is more of a mid-range hybrid, and she relies a lot on her manipulation skill. That’s not the kind of fighting style I need to work on.”
Emily looked pleased at his asking for her help. Matt really could have asked Liz, but he knew that she wanted to push her plans of creating a Path union forward. “I’d be happy to help. I’d also like to buy a crossbow and do some training. It would be good to see if my Talent works with enchanted bolts. Even if it doesn’t, I could still save some mana with it.”
Liz was last up. “My blood spells were useful, and I was able to set up quite the trap downstairs on the first floor.”
Annie interjected, “Yeah, I meant to ask. What did you do? Even the ceiling was covered in blood. s**t, girl.”
Liz flushed slightly. “I left pools of blood and waited for them to come to the floor, and then I just started spinning it as fast as I could, with my Concept strengthening the blood. I made it sharp. But it could have been a lot better by using skills instead of [Blood Manipulation]. It’s expensive, and I’m not used to having skills to take up some of the burden. So, I fell back to what I was used to instead of what I could do.”
The five of them talked for a while, but when they exhausted their suggestions for each other, they all got up and followed Matt and found Aster half asleep in a pile of bunnies.
When he asked her what she thought she could have done better, he only got, “No mistakes. Good kills.”
He debated grabbing his bond for a better answer but, in the end, left her in her pile of fluff. She was having fun, and could always find him when she wanted. He also knew that with this being a hospital, no one would harm her or be mad at her for foxing out. For all her increased mental intelligence, she was still a child.
Matt half-expected to find more hospital beds on the other side of the relaxation room, but there they had a temporary suite for teams to bunk in. They were small rooms with three tall bunk beds, but they would work for a single night of sleep. He dreaded sleeping in them later that night. He doubted that he’d be able to roll over with how narrow they were.
No one was allowed to leave the hospital until they were examined the following morning.
This dorm area contained a distinct mix of vassal teams. There were even a few people that he remembered from their fighting. It was mostly eyes, chins, or body shapes, but he was ignored for the most part, due to his lack of armor.
Liz was not. It seemed that she had made quite the impression, as more than one person flinched from her gaze as they passed by.
Meanwhile, the gym was calling Matt. He wanted to work his body and make sure that nothing was amiss, but he put his urge aside and held Liz’s hand. He wasn’t sure how she would respond to the attention. She did have a particularly visceral combat style. Getting sliced apart was one thing, but being eviscerated with your buddy’s blood was another.
“You okay?”
- Writer
