Aww bless

Rebecca had been having a terribly dull morning. She’d woken up early, packed essential supplies and done morning drills before heading to the park. Once at the park, she’d opted to start with a jog through the normal side of things, keeping an eye open as she did so. Aside from a few bird watchers and a couple of other early risers, there’d been nothing of note.

Then she’d entered the Barrier, pausing only briefly to retrieve her combat equipment from her bag and strap her shield to her arm before she’d started a slow jog around the main pathways. Of course, if there was anything suspicious going on, it would most likely be off the beaten path, but a perimeter check was always a good idea. Besides, there were things in the deeper parts of the park that would be problematic to deal with, and if John was as green as he looked, he’d never manage to handle those by himself. Better to start with the safest places and then spiral deeper in.

Nothing had been out of the ordinary, of course. She’d completed a circuit of the park without spotting any sign that John or indeed anyone else had been doing anything along the main path, and was just jogging lightly back to her starting point when a figure emerged from the tree-line right ahead, skidded sideways, and ran straight into her.

John scrambled upright, blinking as he realized he’d run into Rebecca once more, literally this time. Reaching down, he dragged the startled woman upright and into a run, panting out an explanation as he went, “Elder…. herbihog… chasing…” To his relief, the brunette didn’t seem too phased by the sudden shift from being knocked over to a full out sprint down the path. Behind them, the crash of trees indicated that the hogs were still in pursuit.

“How many?” Rebecca’s voice wasn’t even slightly out of breath as they rounded a corner, John’s feet almost sliding out from under him once more on the rough path.

“One… and… a half dozen… juniors…” John gasped in reply, lungs burning with the exertion of their flight. A moment later, he half stumbled as Rebecca slowed rapidly, his feet skidding in the gravel as she dragged them to a stop. John stared at her, eyes wide with concern. “What are you doing? They’re right behind us!” he asked, tugging at her shield arm as the crashing squeals of the hogs grew closer.

Rebecca rolled the arm not wearing a shield and straightened up. “A handful of junior hogs and one elder hog shouldn’t be impossible to deal with, but their hides are tough so it’s always better to fight them while you’re not completely worn out. Now’s a bad time to ask, but what’s your combat style?” As she spoke, she drew the reassuringly solid looking sword that John had somehow not noticed was strapped to her waist in their flight.

John froze for a moment before responding, still unsure if fighting the massive beast that would any minute crash around the corner would be a good idea. “Not much that’ll be helpful…” he answered hesitantly, before adding, “I can cast a spell that boosts your chance to hit, and call for a blessing but other than that it’s just this.” He pulled his stick from his inventory and shrugged. “And I’m not very good with it.”

The brunette’s eyes narrowed, both at his words and at the sudden appearance of his weapon. “Blessing?” she queried, steadying her sword. John winced; he’d not thought that through at all - Malal had warned him about the risks of revealing he was involved with a chaos god, and he’d never actively tried to call Gaia up before. Trying his best to mask his sudden panic beneath the exhaustion of their flight and the panic he felt at the sounds of the hog growing ever closer, he nodded and tried to explain as best he could, “It helps a little? I’m not very good with it yet, but when it works, I can apply it to a weapon or something…”

Rebecca frowned. “Whose blessing?” she demanded, then added, “Well?” when he hesitated, much to John’s dismay. His only way out would be to show her, it seemed, and he was pretty sure that anyone associated with paladins wouldn’t be super keen on his calling up a chaos god - nor was he entirely sure what Malal’s power might do to the woman in front of him, given his prior conversations with the deity regarding how his domain interacted with magic.

There was only one thing for it. Reaching out to rest his hand on Rebecca’s sword hilt, much to her shock, he screwed up his eyes and hoped. “Lady Gaia, please bless this weapon so that your loyal servants can survive the trials you set before us,” he said with as much confidence as he could. Opening one eye, he glanced at Rebecca’s expression. “It doesn’t always work…” he managed, before stumbling back as her blade ignited, glowing with a rich golden fire.

Rebecca almost dropped her weapon at the sudden feeling of energy surging through her. The warmth was unmistakable - she’d been close enough when Moira had invoked her power before now to recognize the touch of Gaia anywhere. What John had cast was muted - a gust of warmth from an oven door compared to the baking summer sun that the Warden could invoke, but it was with the same sense of utter confidence in the righteousness of her actions that the novice took up a battle stance, shield in front and sword held to one side.

As the elder hog rounded the corner, its juniors squealing at its heels, Rebecca steadied herself. Despite the waves of warmth rolling up her sword arm, she was well aware that her equipment was not to the same standard of even a regular knight of the Order, let alone the bearer of the Rose. Trying to take the charge of the hog head on would be a quick recipe for a snapped shield and a broken arm at best. As John hovered behind her, his weapon sparkling with its own silver light at the tip, she hissed out a command, “Try and target the elder hog with whatever you’ve got that makes it easier to hit. If we can drop it, the others should scatter.”

John nodded; he was delighted by the fact that his hasty prayer had worked - and by the pop-up that had appeared while Rebecca was getting used to whatever it was that he’d done to her weapon.

Normally, getting almost half of one of his stats in a single reward would have John over the moon, but right now? He was just glad Malal had answered when he’d tried to bless his own weapon, and that the second blessing hadn’t caused the first to fade. At some point, he’d have to see if there was a limit on how many things he could bless at once, but right now wasn’t the time.

The castings hadn’t come cheap. John winced as he looked at his mana which was slowly decreasing despite the breakfast buff still being in effect. “I hope that works. I can do one, maybe two casts and I’ll be tapped out. Blessings are expensive… and there’s a ticking cost to using more than one at a time, “he said, steadying himself on his staff despite a deep seated desire to just turn and run regardless of Rebecca’s advice.

His companion shook her head. “One should do it; there’s a way the knights use to deal with these things quickly, but I never have the accuracy for it normally.” She bit her lip and shifted her feet slightly as John took aim. If his spell didn’t do what it said it did, this was going to be one of those fights that went sideways fast. The backup plan would be to split up and hope the hog would decide to go home if it couldn’t figure out who to chase. That was supposed to work… sometimes.

Flickering light formed in John’s palm, before skidding towards the elder hog as it drew close. The bolt splashed against the creature’s side, and Rebecca dived forward. Behind her, she could hear John moving towards the junior hogs, trying to buy her time by attracting their attention.

John stabbed his staff towards the closest of the smaller beasts, sending it squealing backwards into a companion. He was exhausted already from the run, but the repetition of basic martial drills that his tutor had made him do earlier in the week paid off in spades as he moved far more consistently than before. Gone were the wild, optimistic swings that left him off balance - he might not be a skilled fighter by any means, but he was at least starting to become an efficient one. Mostly. Claws clipped his ankles as he staggered back, his hp dropping rapidly as blows rained in from the lesser beasts due to sheer weight of numbers.

Rebecca winced as she saw John take another tusk to the leg, marveling at the fact that he was still standing. She’d need to investigate that more after this fight was done, but for now dodging the massive pig trying to turn her into a hood ornament for its oversized snout was the more pressing matter. For all her bravado, she was still just a novice; if Moira had been here, the Warden would surely have already defeated a beast as weak as this one… There! The warmth flowed up her arm from where John had blessed her blade, and she rolled under the beast’s snout as it lunged again. Rising, she shifted her shield arm up, gripping the pommel of her blade to add extra **** as she drove it towards the herbihog’s eye.

Panting, John dispatched another junior hog; he’d managed to take out three, but his hp was dangerously low. Behind him, one reared up on its hind-legs and clawed down his back, tearing his jacket and punching his health into single digits. With a grunt of effort, he turned and struck the creature in the stomach, his weapon breaking the skin and splashing him with dark blood as the herbihog staggered backwards. One more blow on its head, and the thing exploded into sparkling dust.

Wheeling to check for more attackers, John was surprised to see the remaining hogs fleeing back the way they had come - before a heavy thud behind him revealed the reason why. Turning, he saw Rebecca leaning on her sword and panting, the blade embedded in the elder hog’s eye at an angle that suggested she’d driven it clean through to the beast’s brain. Gold flames flickered up the blade for a moment - and then the woman staggered, dropping to one knee as John rushed towards her.