One moonblast after another, and Ciel soon realised another issue.
"Oh!"
Within the forest's shade, Ciel watched as Quia weaved behind a tree to dodge a shadehound's maw. Crunch, and the teeth chirped the bark.
Another blue ray flickered. The shadehound whimpered with its skin evaporated, leaving behind a purified crystal.
"Here." Ciel grabbed and tossed it to Quia. "Good job on being the bait."
"Eh- heh heh heh… you're a little too straightforward at times…"
The trees sprawled on the forest ground, surrounding the poor elf like a prison bar, a terrain Ciel chose to test her theory.
"Then you should've told me your magic's weakness." Ciel's eyes squinted. "I'm not used to human errors, so I could really vaporise you by accident."
"Well, I-I can take it. No need to use scary words…"
The elf's tone trailed off despite undeniably being too cautious of her new ally to a fault.
Ciel's eyes glimmered. Curiosity bloomed at her black eyes just as a magic circle flickered alight, humming of a force readied to be unleashed.
A
Quia, who summoned it, tossed the crystal mid-air. A paw then stretched from the circle and grabbed it, furry paw facing downward.
The paw, reaching outward, sized almost as large as the tree, the narrow space barely affording its majesty.
If the movement were a little less precise, the paw would hit the tree and lose its momentum.
An approving nod came from Ciel. "Good job."
She then patted the paw, brushing its soft fur with a soft strength.
The paw shivered like a high school girl in love. A huge gap began to open between its large fingers, letting the crystal slip away.
A certain elf bent down to catch it, frowning at the smiling Ciel.
After dismissing the summon who took 'advantage' of Ciel, Quia then stepped forward to her little sis with a confident manner.
"Hm!"
She then leaned her head in with a swift, casual hum.
Ciel paused at the gesture. Then, her eyelids gradually sank, before she merely walked past the still-leaning elf.
"I'll only consider it if you quit tossing your summon's limb into tight spaces."
"Hey! They were my servants in the first place, damn it!"
A loud, snorty complaint echoed in the silent forest, witnessed only by the green fireflies in Quia's lantern-
As the faint tickle of the green firefly grew on Ciel's cheek, so did the warmth in her chest.
For some reason, in this moment where no danger is afloat with a companion, she missed Summer.
She just really missed her.
—-------
As they weaved through tree after tree, Ciel munched on the crystals with a crunch, glimpsing through the thick leaves at the fiery leaderboard.
'Selvara Stormveill - 4'
She then observed, at the North, how the rainbow spires arose one after another, lives lost rapidly as if snuffed out by a massacre.
"There's no point hunting for mimic anymore."
Ciel frowned. "The worst has come. We need to face Selvara if we want to score high up in the leaderboard."
"Hm…" Quia clutched her chin, strolling side-by-side with Ciel, small steps accommodating Ciel's. "Technically speaking, don't we just have to hunt more mimics than her?"
"Too slow." Ciel shook her head. "And neigh on impossible. Selvara must have been hunting others too, and there's no guarantee that our speed will outmatch hers-"
A pause stuttered Ciel's steps before she resumed and tapped the back of Quia's hand.
Quia quickly understood the secret gesture, a signal of danger that Ciel promised earlier.
"Then are we going to wait by and do nothing?"
"Nope." Ciel acted just as normal as the experienced Quia. "We need to first scout out others for a team-up. There's a risk going against a stormveil alone."
"Eh? But I don't wanna!"
Quia, steering the conversation, strode ahead of Ciel with jumping steps, isolating the small white-head for just a moment.
"We two may be strangers, but I like you the best out of everyone I've met so far!"
The elf's acting, perhaps too exaggerated, stiffened the smile on Ciel's lips.
And soon, Ciel's enhanced senses tremoured again, this time the fireflies remaining a telling green.
She leapt, falling into Quia's embrace as the elf crooked an arm.
"Stellar.
A colossal wing, made of brown and sharp feathers, folded out from a magic circle to shield them.
Rustles echoed with the wing closing inward, hiding both the figures further in a fierce protection.
Moments after, the wing retreated to reveal three arrows lodged barely into the wing's hide, only to be brought back into the magic circle.
Another speed-up summon. This time, Ciel observed the magic circle more keenly.
Compared to when they retrieved the crystals into Quia's dimensional storage, this magic circle… spun.
Literally, the outer edge of the magic circle rotated fervently, its edge embedded with a hint of green hue, before flickering away into the air.
A voice broke Ciel's attempt to connect the dots.
"Surrender, now."
Surprisingly, that didn't come from the powerful Quia.
Ciel glanced ahead, spotting a humanoid archer, adorned with a leathery helmet with a metal clasp.
He was accompanied by the other two, not by his sides, but by Ciel's East and South, scattered around to surround them.
The East, bushes. The South, behind a tree.
Ciel was once again indebted to her System once again. Just a little more.
"Or we will take the point-"
Of course, Ciel didn't spare the man a chance to talk.
As she quickly ran east with her staff raised.
Surprise bloomed at the man, but it was all too late.
The blue ray shot and pierced through the bushes. A swish, then a short, armoured figure emerged with an iron shield, its surface scathed but unbudged by the moonblast.
'A dwarf. A counter to my moonblast, no less, though-'
Another presence crept up from Ciel's back. The Queen ducked down, a defeated smile creeping up her lips, as she watched Quia lunging overhead with an eager grin.
"Stripey."
A magic circle hovered above the dwarven, whose face hollowed with a knowing dread.
"Paw."
With her fist driven down, a paw plunged at the dwarf with her command.