Ascalon looked through the mission board, there were many missions to choose from, he had to make a sage choice, not only should it be a mission that they could handle but also complicated enough so Stella can prove her worth. He knows that the mission must be adequate for the healer to prove herself, if it is not then probably Lyle's gonna insist that they keep her around until she can prove herself for real. Although there is a chance that the last part doesn't occur, that's what Ascalon thought after looking back at Lyle and Stella, the latter disrespecting Lyle's personal space.
"So, Lyle, I think we should start getting to know each other better, don't you think?" Stella asked, intentionally pressing her chest against Lyle's arm, who was blushing very hard because of this. "Let's start with something simple, what is your favorite color?".
Lyle tried to remain calm by looking away. "I-I-I g-guess… y-yellow" He barely managed to formulate his words.
"Oh really? I prefer white personally, but yellow is also a nice color!" Stella stated.
Ascalon turned around once again to look at the mission board, after a bit of eyeing, he found a mission that actually caught his attention.
As Stella continued to make questions to Lyle and put him very nervous with her excessive physical contact, they were both interrupted by Ascalon claiming to have found an appropriate mission to take on..
"Check this, I think it's a good mission to prove Stella" He said as he pointed at the request poster.
"Collecting hallucinogenic mushrooms? Is that even legal?" Stella asked, looking confused.
"What?" Ascalon said weirded out.
"No, you moron, the one to the left" He said, pointing out more clearly at the mission he had chosen.
"Collecting water from a cave?" Lyle asked. "I guess that at least is legal".
The axeman smiled. "But it is not only collecting, that is not the reason I chose it" He said as he pointed out at the small letters in the poster
"There it says that the cave seems to be guarded by a crystalic monster, I've heard that those things are not easy to deal with! There is no way Lyle or I can take on it on our own, so, if Stella helps up with the creature, she will prove to be a worthy ally". Ascalon smirked.
He knew that crystalics were known for being very aggressive and tough beasts, if this didn't make Stella back up immediately, it would mean that maybe she is not as useless as he expects her to be, maybe. The axeman looked at the healer, waiting for her response.
Stella smirked and gave a thumbs up to Ascalon. "Fine for me!" She said.
Ascalon was surprised, this girl was brave, he would not deny that. But just bravery isn't enough.
The three of them walked to the counter of the guild where Lady Ladia was reading a book. The attendant of the guild noticed the trio walking towards her, so she put her book aside and turned her head to be face to face with them.
"Can I help you?" She asked.
Ascalon told her that they wanted to take the 'Water Cave' mission. Lady Ladia looked at her records and confirmed that no one else was currently working at that mission, so they were good to take it.
After signing up some papers for confirmation, Lady Ladia gave them a map and a bottle that the one who requested the mission had left so they could find the cave they had to retrieve the water from and to store the water, supposedly that cave's water had some special healing properties. With a map at hand they walked off the guild, Ascalon looked at the map and realized something.
"Wait a minute, I don't know how to read a map" He stated.
Lyle looked at him with a 'seriously?' expression, Stella chuckled.
"You didn't learn how to read a map? You were the most eager to become an adventurer!" The swordsman exclaimed.
"I'm someone who guides by his instinct, so I never saw the necessity of learning how to read a map, and I failed to consider a scenario like this…" Ascalon uselessly tried to defend himself.
Lyle took the map, he wasn't a map expert but he knew one thing or two on how to read one, although at first sight he was a bit confused by the map, until Stella quickly pointed out that it was backwards. Once the map was being held correctly by the swordsman, they began walking towards the south exit of the city. They took it easy for now, and even closed the map, not like they would need to use it until after leaving the city. The south exit was a bit far away from where they were, so in the meantime, Stella decided to get to know her possible new teammates a bit more.
"So, I can tell you aren't from around here, right?" Stella asked.
"That's right" Ascalon replied "We are from a little town on the outskirts of the kingdom"
Lyle shrugged.
"Wow, it must've been a long trip for you to get here!" Stella said. "What made you come here?"
Stella had assumed that they just came to the capital as it was a better place to be an adventurer/mercenary and all that sort of stuff, but she was sort of a curious woman and wanted to know her new mates deeply. Lyle shrugged again, letting out a little growl that weirded Stella out. Ascalon was about to respond to Stella's question without really much hesitation, but after noticing his friend's reaction, he thought that it may not be the best of the ideas.
"Well, it's a bit complicated" The axeman limited himself to say, the healer was confused and intrigued, but she read the atmosphere and decided that maybe it was better that she didn't continue asking about that, at least for now.
The rest of the way to the exit was spent in silence, Stella's question had left them all uncomfortable. Upon reaching the south exit and being let out by the guards without major inconveniences, Lyle pulled off the map once again and guided his friend and his possible new companion towards the cave they had to extract the water from, after some minutes of walking they finally got near the bottom of one of the mountains that surrounded the capital of Lisbea, before doing any impulsive movements, Lyle made them hide behind some trees and bushes near the cave, being questioned by Ascalon why had he done that, to which Lyle reminds him that the cave was supposed to be roamed by a crystalic.
And soon enough, Stella spotted the creature, pointing out at it for Lyle and Ascalon to notice it. The crystalic, a creature with a body like a rock, with four legs connected to it that were just as rocky as the main body and a little head positioned between its front legs, and the most highlighting characteristic of the creature and what gave it its name, all around its body it had several crystals growing on it, purple crystals that were known for being extremely durable, not to mention sharp. Taking down one of these creatures wasn't an easy thing to do, not only were they extremely resistant but also very aggressive, and if that wasn't enough, despite their robust body, crystalics were known for being beasts with a surprising agility, so running away from them wasn't easy deal, and if they didn't catch you running to stomp you with their heavy rocky legs, they could always use the crystals growing in their bodies to expel them violently to be like projectiles. What fearsome creatures.
"How the hell are we gonna get past that thing? It's too close to the entrance of the cave!" Lyle exclaimed, trying to not be too loud so the crystalic wouldn't notice them.
The three of them tried to make up a plan to evade the crystalic, although that didn't seem really possible as that thing didn't look like it was gonna move any time soon.
After some thinking, Ascalon was the one to come up with an idea. "I think I may have an idea", He said.
Lyle and Stella looked at the axeman, wondering what he had thought of. "I'll sneak into the cave to get the water, while you two distract the crystalic".
Both of them were not really convinced by that plan. "Are you sure about that?" Lyle asked, he was clearly afraid of having to face that thing.
"I think it would be better that I retrieve the water and you and Stella go against the creature, you are stronger than me after all" He said a bit downed.
"Bullshit, besides, power shouldn't be that much of an issue, it's not like we can hurt that thing anyway, right?" Ascalon replied, but Lyle was clearly not convinced.
"Besides… uh… you are more agile than me? You are a bit smaller than I am, and also your body is… lighter" He added, trying to convince Lyle. Emphasis on trying.
"And… my axe is way heavier than your sword! So I'm… gonna have trouble moving?" Ascalon added.
Ascalon's words didn't convince Lyle much, even Stella was wondering what kind of logic was that, but Lyle finally decided to accept Ascalon's idea, if he was insisting so much he should have a reason, right? He was his best friend after all.
The trio splitted, Lyle and Stella would go straight to face the beast while Ascalon sneaked around into the cave. Lyle wasn't really sure what they could do to distract him, but Stella had something on mind.
"I just remembered something I was taught many years ago in a class about creatures like this, apparently, the inside of a crystalic is fleshy, so, technically, you could make it bleed if you stabbed it inside its mouth". She said.
Lyle didn't really like the idea of getting so close to that thing, especially its face, they only had to distract it for long enough and then… find a way to escape.
The crystalic noticed Lyle and Stella standing before it, Lyle was shaking, Stella wasn't but she was clearly nervous, the beast roared at them as it stood up. With the beast focused on the pair standing before it, Ascalon sneaked inside the cave to look for that special water.
Lyle and Stella stood still before the menacing creature that roared once again, it rushed towards them but they managed to get out of its way, the crystalic was really agile.
The creature looked at its sides, trying to decide which of the two it should attack. Lyle and Stella moved around without a very clear idea of where to move, the only thing they had clear was that they shouldn't stay still near the crystalic. After looking at them both for a moment, the beast decided to charge against the healer, causing her to begin to run around just barely outspeeding the creature.
In a moment, the crystalic had managed to corner her after she tripped and fell, but Lyle attempted to attack it from behind, doing no damage to the crystalic's rough skin, but managing to anger it, causing the beast to change from targeting Stella to target him instead.
Lyle walked back slowly as the creature walked slowly towards him, like a predator evaluating its prey. He tried to not do any sudden movements unless the crystalic did the same, the more time he had to think on a way to not get obliterated by the beast the better. But luck was not with him today, he tripped falling into his back, which was a cue for the beast to attack, positioning itself in front of Lyle, the creature lifted its two front legs in the air, it was about to use them to stomp Lyle to death, but its legs were stopped midair by a transparent yellow shield that the crystalic attacked continuously to stomp Lyle.
Stella, who was standing some meters behind the crystalic, made a sign to Lyle to stand up and run away fast, as soon as Lyle did, Stella created a shield all around the creature. The blonde walked next to the healer and looked at the enclosed creature.
"Couldn't you do that before?!" He reclaimed, hyperventilated.
"I just thought of it!" Stella argued.
"Why didn't you tell us you can create shields?" Lyle questioned as he looked how the beast tried to break the shield surrounding it.
"Well, I forgot…" Stella replied. "You… forgot?" Lyle asked with a slightly judging tone.
"People sometimes forget stuff alright?!" Stella argued. "I just hope that Ascalon comes with that stupid water before I get tired of this".
While maintaining his distance, Lyle walked around the imprisoned beast in order to be able to see the cave Ascalon had entered to check if he was coming. However, he was interrupted by the crystalic's roaring, it was clearly getting desperate for being enclosed inside Stella's shield, the swordsman stepped back as Stella fought to maintain the shield over the beast, who desperate for freedom, began expelling the crystals on its body to damage the shield, causing it to break and briefly destabilize the healer, but even after the shield was broken, the crystalic continued expelling its crystals as projectiles, Lyle was promptly shielded by Stella who just managed to recover herself to react in time to protect the blonde, unfortunately she did not have the time to react to protect herself.
The healer fell to the ground, having several crystals encrusted over her body, the most prominent one was one crystal that had gotten embedded in her stomach, the biggest piece of crystal that had pierced all the way through. Stella spitted blood and fell to her knees for a moment to then fall completely to the ground, spitting blood into the grass.
The beast had to take a moment to recover, its body was left with barely any crystals on its surface and it had tired itself out by expelling all of its crystals so fast and violently.
Meanwhile, Lyle had his sight focused on Stella, not the first time he had seen someone in this condition, he had already seen corpses on full display when he fought the bandits back in Flower town, but this time was different, he couldn't say he cared about Stella, he just met her hours ago! But he knew that despite her personality being somewhat uncomfortable for him to be around, she wasn't a bad person, she wasn't someone who deserved… this.
Lyle held his sword tightly, an angry expression appeared on his face as negative thoughts invaded his mind, he was sick of seeing good people going through stuff like this. Something deep inside him clicked, his body began to irradiate a dark aura. He had activated his Dark Boost, his accumulated feelings from the tragedy of his town, his feeling of uselessness for not being able to help against the bandits and his feelings right now…
They all erupted into a powerful release of dark magic in the form of a big and imposing dark aura that surrounded all of Lyle's body. He charged against the beast, he knew its weak spot, before the creature could even notice, Lyle was standing right in front of its face, he forced his sword into its mouth and began to slash the insides of the crystalic who tried to bite the sword and overpower Lyle, but it was useless.
After a few seconds, Lyle jumped back, away from the crystalic that was now drooling blood, the beast tried to attack Lyle that it couldn't even move a few centimeters before succumbing to its own weight as its blood continued to drip from its mouth, soon enough, the beast had died of bleeding.
The dark aura surrounding Lyle disappeared, this was a bit surprising to Lyle, usually when he used the Dark Boost he would barely be able to stand because of how tired he would get, but this time, he was tired, but not as much as other times, he could still stand up just fine, for a moment at least.
"Oh sweet, you actually killed it!" Stella exclaimed as she stood up, completely recovered.
"Holy fucking-!" Lyle yelled, completely taken off by the healer.
"How?!" He questioned as he looked at her, all of the crystals on her body were now gone and the places where they had been embedded had been healed up entirely, although the blood that had come out of the injuries was still there. Stella smirked at the swordsman.
"Well, my dear Lyle, as I said, I'm not like other healers. Unlike them, I'm pretty tough!" She declared.
"Here, I want to show you something! Cut my hand!" She said as she extended her hand for Lyle to cut it, which he rejected as he managed to stand up.
"I'm not cutting off your hand! Are you crazy?" He said.
"Oh don't be a coward! Come on, do it!" Stella told him, shaking her hand.
The healer continued to attempt and make Lyle cut her hand, which he continued rejecting. It wasn't until an axe appeared out of nowhere and cutted off Stella's hand that their discussion finished. It was no one other than Ascalon, who just made it out of the cave with the water in hand, well, in a bottle, but the bottle was in his hand so it's the same.
"Ascalon!" Lyle scolded his friend.
"What? She was asking for it" Ascalon argued.
"Hey guys! Check this out!" The healer told them, causing both friends to look at her bleeding wound.
In a matter of seconds, Stella had regenerated a new hand, like if it had never been cut off. This was certainly impressive.
"I may not be a fighter, but you don't have to worry for me! It's really hard to get rid of me!" She said, proud of her abilities.
"Also I can create shields, I think I didn't tell you Ascalon" She added, realizing that the axeman hadn't seen her use her shields.
"No you didn't, but it's good to know." He replied.
The healer looked at the pair with a proud smile.
"So, I'm in or what?" She asked filled with confidence.
The friends looked at each other, Ascalon gave his friend a not convinced expression to which he was responded by a face that said 'Come on, you know she's good', which made the axeman sigh, resigned. They both looked at Stella.
"You're in", Ascalon said.
Stella jumped on joy of having been accepted, other people had rejected her without even bothering to know her first, so this made her really happy, she leaned in to hug both friends, almost causing Ascalon to drop the water and causing their clothes to get stained with some of the blood across spilled across Stella's body. She apologized for it.
Back at the guild, they delivered the water to Lady Ladia, who gave them their reward for completing the mission.
"Thanks for your services" The mature woman said.
"Derek, come here!" She screamed, causing a young boy to come from the doorframe behind Lady Ladia.
"Yes mother?" The boy asked.
"I need you to please deliver this water, here is the address" Ladia said to her son as she gave him the bottle with the water and a paper with an address written down.
The boy nodded and made his way out of the guild with a surprising speed, causing a little gust of wind on his way.
"Can he use wind magic?" Ascalon asked Lady Ladia.
"Exactly, he uses it for running though, he is no warrior" The mature woman said.
Ascalon was a bit impressed. "It's something really impressive for someone so young" He declared, the woman smiled and the trio walked away from her, looking at the gold they had received.
"I almost forgot, we have to reserve a room for tonight, I wonder if they have rooms with three beds" Ascalon said to himself.
"Oh, don't worry guys! I will not stay at the guild" Stella declared.
"Oh, so you have your own place?" Lyle asked.
Stella denied Lyle's supposition and told them that she'll be staying over at another person's house, and when asked who, she replied "I'll know in a few hours".
Ascalon did not understand, neither did Lyle at first but after a while he realized what she meant and blushed.
The healer grinned. "Well, it was fun but I think I need a shower" She said as she looked at the blood over her body, then she looked at Lyle and walked towards him.
"Would you like to accompany me?" She said with a seductive tone, pressing her chest against his, making the swordsman nervous who barely found the words to decline his teammate's invitation, who then looked at Ascalon and asked him the same thing.
"No, I'm ok" He responded very calmly.
"Puff… alright, see you two later!" Stella said, walking off swinging her hips with a sensuality that seemed natural to her.