Second Focus

Mia launches off the ground to prepare another slamming attack from the air, while Skylar and I launch more attack spells at the demon. It fires more missiles at us, and I notice the freezing effect is wearing off again. My mana dwindling, I fire more ice bolts at the boss, hoping to make things easier for Skylar and Mia.

The umpteenth wave of spears penetrates through the Cyberdemon’s exposed skin and it roars again. Mia comes down, slashing once more with both her dangerous cutting air magic and her swords, widening one of the many existing wounds on the boss. A sound like a whine comes from the mouth of the boss and I blast it with all the mana bolts I have mana left for.

The boss staggers forwards and glows a blue colour all over its body. I recognise exactly what’s supposed to happen based on the game. I sprint forwards and leap onto its chest, grabbing the cylinder embedded in its armour and ripping it backwards, throwing it away. The boss emits another roar, before dissolving into dust.

I land on my feet, slightly shell shocked from the fight, but very much okay. “Was that from the game too?” Mia asks, and I nod tiredly. “Good job loves. You okay Skylar?” I ask the umbramancer. “That was a fight and a half.” She jokes and I snort. We gather up the loot and exit the dungeon, walking back to our palace.

I use the last of my mana to repair Skylar’s armour before we check out the loot. Out of all the pieces of armour up for grabs, we got the helmet, the chestplate, the pauldrons, the talisman and the ring. We’re missing the gauntlets and boots, but we can try get those next time we run through the dungeon. We also got rocket launcher ammo, amusingly.

“Well it appears we’ve found a better set of armour for you Skylar.” I say, handing over the pieces of the shadow armour to her. “I can’t say no, can I?” “Consent is important, but you know just as well as we do that you need decent armour.” Mia says cheerfully. Skylar sighs, smiling at us. “You’re insufferable.” She says, handing me the light armour.

“I think this should be yours Mia.” I say after a few seconds deliberation. “Mine? Why?” “Because I don’t know where we’ll find air elemental armour, because we’ll be going to the skeletons dungeon next because I have a hunch we might find ice elemental armour there and because Ivy can’t wear armour.” I give out my reasoning, having already tested the last part a few days ago.

Technically she could wear armour, but it didn’t give her any bonuses, including to protection strangely enough. Armour pieces started to fuse to her when she wore them, and through Gaia only knew what kind of shenanigans, the armour acted like it was her skin. It was clearly a mechanic meant to prevent Ivy from becoming too overpowered, since her skin is already pretty tough.

“Fair enough. Gimme then!” Mia says and I giggle. Ivy and I sit back to watch Mia and Skylar try on their new armour. Skylar looks down at herself, nodding as she tests the feel of it. “This feels good. I like this.” She says half to herself. “We’ll go through the demons dungeon one more time to hopefully get the rest of the set. It says there’ll be more enchantments active with the whole set.” I say, and Skylar smiles appreciatively at me.

“Handy.” I say, looking at Ivy. “Ready to get hopefully a decent bit stronger?” She nods readily.

“There it is! I’ve been wondering when that would come up.” I exclaim. “Me too.” Ivy says, thinking over the choices. “The Mixed Martial Arts skill is probably the same as mine.” I think out loud, and the healer nods in agreement. “I think plant control. It fits me the best.” Ivy decides. “Are you sure?” I ask.

Ivy smiles at me, kissing me on the cheek. “I know you know how I feel. I am worried about what happened at the opera house, happening again. There is a part of me that wants to pick the melee damage dealer option because of that, but I’m not going to let it rule me. Besides, if this path leads to what I think it does, I’ll be able to solve that problem another way.” She tells me.

I nod, kissing her on the forehead. “I just want you to be safe and happy.” I reply. “I am. And we’ll make sure it stays that way, together.” She reassures me. Nodding, I tap on the plant control option, and the next window comes up.

“Definitely percentage heal.” Ivy says immediately. “Agreed. We’ve been wanting something like that forever.” I reply, clicking the left option. The window disappears and the next choice pops up.

“Grow plants. It’s the only one we can afford, but I would have chosen it either way.” Ivy says. “Really? Why’s that?” I ask, curious. “It gives me a wider range of options for dealing with things. I am unsure about the mana cost but it strikes me as useful in a lot of different situations. I’d rather have more options at the moment than be able to heal a bit better.” She explains.

Nodding in understanding, I tap the option and we’re done with her upgrades for the moment. “You’re not wrong. This armour really does suit me.” Skylar says, dragging our attention away from windows. We look up and see her clad in the dark shadow infused metal armour. It does look like something is missing with the lack of gauntlets and boots, but the armour really does suit her.

The black metal, with a couple of small dark purple mana channels running through the armour add to the shadow elemental aesthetic tenfold. For an extra effect, the eye slots in the helmet glow a dark purple colour, which serves to enhance the mysterious aura she gives off. “How is your movement in that?” I ask her.

Moving around in a few test motions, she nods, satisfied. “Perfect. It doesn’t restrict me at all. I can see easily too. There are only slight differences in how well I can hear.” Skylar replies. “Better than the light armour?” I ask, and the umbramancer nods enthusiastically. “So much better. Much more…me.” She says, and I laugh.

“Yeah this isn’t really me either.” Mia chimes in, and we look over to see her in the bright colours of the lumomancer armour. “I’m not a light mage.” “It’s better than nothing right? We’ll see if we can find air elemental armour soon.” I say. “It is better than nothing. Fine, after you get your armour, we look for a set that suits me better!” Mia pouts, and Ivy and I giggle.

For the next half an hour, we rest and recover our resources. Mia and Skylar strip off their armour so they can relax better, and we watch a random youtube video, the first that pops up on the recommended. We aren’t much paying attention to it anyway, we’re mostly just enjoying each other’s company and cuddles.

Once we’ve recovered fully, Skylar and Mia put their armour back on, ready for the next dungeon. Ivy and I check on our kittens before we leave, who seem pretty content to nap most of the day, waking up occasionally to eat some food. Satisfied that they’re okay, we go outside and I open the monster table, selecting the skeletons dungeon.

We breeze through the regular enemies of the dungeon, taking our time and care to make sure that we have enough resources left for the boss, but overall never really being too concerned about getting hit. Skylar’s shadow armour is serving her really well, much better than the light armour did. She’s still not doing the same damage Mia and I are, but at least she can fight without worrying about dying in three hits.

Ivy on the other hand, is having a blast.

“This is so cool!” Ivy giggles, tripping another enemy with a vine grown from the ground. Due to the new armour Mia and Skylar are wearing, as well as our general competence at this fairly easy dungeon, Ivy doesn’t have to worry about healing us as much. As a result, she’s been testing out her new ability to grow plants.

One of the fun applications that she discovered is that she can grow vines from the ground and trip enemies, a tactic that is especially effective against the already stumbling skeletons. The skeleton she targets, crashes to the ground a moment later, reaffirming the effectiveness of Ivy’s new strategy. Another vine from a pretty decently sized plant Ivy grew near one of the walls, shoots out and strikes an incoming skeleton, propelling it staggering forwards and damaging the skeleton with the impact.

“Glad you’re having fun babe!” I tell her happily, dodging a swing from a skeleton and returning a blow that sends the skeleton careening to the ground. I finish it off with an overhead strike and the enemy dissolves into dust a moment later. “Just try to conserve some mana okay?” I add. “Always my love.” Ivy reassures, smiling at me.