Lillian suppressed a sigh as she made her way to the palace. She’d had enough of dealing with squabbles for the day-, nay, the month. People got riled up over the most preposterous things.
She’d have thought that becoming an important official and commander would make people quit doing that kind of stuff around her. Or at the very least getting her dragged into it. No, instead she had to deal with the exact same stuff just in a different capacity. And this time she wasn’t allowed to just bash people over the head to resolve it, she had to use words and resolve things with diplomacy.
On top of that, people who should know better seemingly threw all common sense to the wind as soon as someone retaliated in the same manner. Overall it was extremely aggravating and had left her exceedingly distressed and needing a way to vent.
Maybe she could spar with Castella.
Lillian was always thankful that Castella had decided to stick with her. The companionship the girl had brought to her journeys had made many things much more bearable over the years.
She remembered finding her nearly a century ago. The young girl had been completely lost in the unmapped wilderness near the Kril’koth Mountains. Her ancestry wasn’t exactly able to be legitimately proven, but Lillian was almost certain that Castella was at least one-quarter draconic. If not a full half-blood.
Given how some of her powers took effect on her body, she wouldn’t be surprised if that was actually the case.
Castella had been completely tight-lipped about anything before meeting Lillian though. Although that wasn’t saying much when the girl was tightlipped about everything, she wasn’t overly fond of speaking in general.
Initially, Lillian had thought it was because she just didn’t really understand the language. She knew that wasn’t the case now, given she had communicated minor needs to Lillian over the years.
No, she fully believed that it was for some other reason. What that reason could possibly be, Lillian had no idea. And not much of a desire to pry into it either. If the girl wanted to talk she would, if she didn’t she wouldn’t. It was really that simple.
Lillian did her best to suppress another sigh as she walked onwards at a steady gait, Castella following two steps behind her to the left. Lillian had told her it was right for her to walk by her side, but she had stubbornly refused.
Deference and respect. There was a fine line of distinction between the two, the latter representing acknowledgment of capability. The former represents an acknowledgment of authority. You may defer to someone you don’t respect and you may respect someone you don’t defer to. Castella did both with her actions and somehow emulated that in a way that was almost as explicit as stating the words out loud.
Now it was time for Lillian to embody that as she went and reported to the Queen.
She did let out a small sigh at that.
The Queen of the country probably wasn’t what most people thought of when they thought of the ruling class. They probably expected extravagant clothing and eccentricities. But the Queen had none of that, she was almost casual in her demeanor and the way she dressed. Exceedingly subtle colors and jewelry.
They still established her position given their unique and stellar craftsmanship, but she did her best to make sure they didn’t stand out.
Although, it wasn’t like she needed them to help her stand out in any way. Lillian wasn’t sure if her looks were fully natural, or some by-product of her classes. The Queen was, almost literally, breathtakingly beautiful.
Long dirty blonde hair with perfect waves. An exceedingly regal facial structure that gave her sharp features that seemed almost artificial in their perfection, with eyes that were a sapphire blue and seemed to glow with the light an enchanted gemstone might have. Her figure was the envy of almost every woman and easily attracted the attention of all the men, especially now that the king had passed several decades prior.
Lillian didn’t have high hopes for their chances.
She was dressed in what was simple clothing for royalty. No robes or extravagant dresses, just an almost criminally plain shirt that was almost a little more form-fitting around her ample bust than had probably been intended, along with a matching pair of long pants.
No doubt made out of some expensive and pleasant material. She wore a simple silver crown that was more on the diminutive side, but not quite a tiara either.
The Queen gave her a soft smile as she approached,
“Lillian, you’re back. I’m excited to hear what you have to tell me.”
Lillian had to once again suppress a sigh, guard duty was not one of her favorite postings. She did what was required of her. And right now what was required was serving the Queen in the ways she needed, given that it would not do to have her leaving the nation again. Not after last time. So sending her daughter in her stead and making sure she was sufficiently guarded was necessary.
She did what was needed. Even if she didn’t want to.
Finally, after what seemed like dozens of hours, Lillian was able to retreat to her quarters. She felt that she deserved a few days to herself. And you better believe she was going to make use of them.
Maybe she would go out somewhere with Castella? She’d have to think about that, it was always difficult to get that girl to relax. But there were still things she enjoyed doing that could be considered relaxing.
It had taken Lillian the better part of a decade to find out that Castella enjoyed pottery. She didn’t have any classes for it, but the girl still managed to make phenomenal pieces of work. They generally sold pretty well on top of that.
And no one really knew it was her who was making them since she had been smart enough to release them under a pen name. Silver Sullivan. ‘Twas a curious name, but Lillian didn’t press her on that and was more just happy that Castella had a hobby that she could enjoy in her downtime outside of training and more training.
She’d definitely see about making time for that with her soon.
Lillian suppressed the hot rage that was building in her chest as she listened to the bell toll. Who, in their right mind, would declare war on them? Lillian had half a mind to go out there herself and personally end the fight. If she could’ve gotten away with it.
Generally, rules of engagement, the very thought causing her to scoff, were very much against the mass-killing of a bunch of low tiers and giving them a chance of success without the higher tiers completely decimating the battlefield with skills that were impossible to deal with.
Whatever, she would give them 24 hours to make their attack before issuing the order for them to surrender before she fought back. That should be enough time for them to try and get whatever it was they wanted out of this attack.
Imbeciles.
Lillian must’ve abused orphans in a previous life for all this to happen when she was the one in the capital. She must have been a downright abominable person. First war and now the Harbinger?
She suppressed a groan of pure frustration and she was armoring up. First things first she would go and check on the Queen. There she would meet up with Castella and they along with the Queen's closest advisors would plan their next course of action. This would probably involve her and Castella getting involved in the fight and seeing if they had the ability to at least drag the fight out long enough to make the beast bored and go home.
That’s at least what it had always seemed like to her, as Castella had often emulated similar behavior when she was younger. Going around from place to place in their travels and challenging strong opponents to fights, then getting bored and leaving when things didn’t work out the way she wanted them to.
That seemed to be what the Harbinger was doing to Lillian’s eyes, but she didn’t necessarily care. All that mattered was if she and Castella were going to be able to do anything about it.
From her place above the palace, she was able to see everything that was happening. She raised a slight eyebrow at seeing the strange Elf again.
[Level 1²]
He’d tiered up since she'd seen him last a couple of days ago. Had he taken part in the skirmish? And survived? Impressive for someone at such a low level. Although his current situation seemed much more dubious than fighting a war.
Especially since The Harbinger had turned around to aim its next attack at him specifically.
Oh, he noticed. Keeping an eye on his surroundings, not letting himself get distracted.
Sprinting away is a good choice normally, not likely to help here. His next moves caused her to raise her other eyebrow as she watched him gain height by using conjured barriers to stand upon and leap higher up.
Watching The Harbinger attack though she realized the beast had expected this to happen and had been tracking him. And now he was stuck in the air with no way to feasibly get out of the way.
She started to shake her head when the beam came out only to stop and watch in surprise as Alex accelerated, going three times faster than he had been and creating a series of slanted barriers and in a mirroring pattern that allowed him to launch himself into the sky putting him hundreds of feet above where he had been in the span of a single second.
Genuinely impressive, a class skill? No, not likely. An enhancement probably. Enhancements were just about the only thing that could create such a disparity in capability. The criteria was that it probably activated in dicey situations like this. It probably had a cool downtime as well.
Interesting. A ghost of a smile passed over her face as she watched. It would’ve been a shame for him to die here.
What happened next surprised her just as much.
An angel? No. A champion? No, not strong enough for either. A paladin then. Of Palacene it seemed. You didn’t see many of those.
Although it looked like he wasn’t going to be strong enough to actually push back the Harbinger himself.
She let out a soft sight next to her causing Castella to shift slightly.
Looks like it would be up to them to try and do something about this in the end.
She spared a glance at Castella who gave her a slight nod in return. Leathery draconic wings were sprouting from her shoulders, explicitly expressing her position as the Dragonblade.
Lillian pulled her sword out before propelling herself forward with her signature gravity magics.
She moved slowly at first taking her time to build up a charge. She built and built until it felt like her chest was going to burst from how much power she was holding on to.
Castella realized what she was doing and let Lillian create some distance so she wouldn’t get caught up in the attack.
Lillian held it for a few more seconds as she crammed as much of her mana into the ability as she could before she finally took a stance to strike with her sword.
Lillian finally released the skill and was propelled forward at supersonic speeds. The air around her thundered, emanating a shockwave, as she instantly crossed the gap between her and the target of the attack.
The attack connected creating another shockwave that blasted away any of the people nearby that had still been fighting. A couple of pings caused her to frown as she realized several low-level and possibly civilians were killed in her attack.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have the leeway to hold back here. Many more would probably die. None would blame her for the ones caught up in her collateral, it was an unspoken thing that many didn’t like to talk about, and for good reason. It was bad for citizens' morale to realize just how many died to the ones trying to save them in the first place.
She unleashed another skill in tandem with her first as she connected, placing a crushing atmosphere around The Harbinger. This channeled skill had extremely good efficiency, especially since she’d been cultivating since tier five. The longer she held this one the stronger the weight would grow upon The Harbinger.
She had no doubt this would be a battle of attrition. And it was her job to make sure she won, this was the skill she planned to win with.
A small smile came to her lip unbidden.
“Foul monstrosity,” She called out to the Harbinger from where she stood in front of its face. Her blade hadn’t seemed to do much damage to it other than cutting off a small chunk of one of the horns on its head. “Return from whence you came, you are not welcomed here, nor anywhere else in this kingdom. I speak for the Queen when I say leave now or face destruction.”
With her final words, she leveled her blade to its eyes. It stared at her, before proceeding to take another step. Her lips tightened into a determined line on her face. She hadn’t expected this to work but she had to at least try.
“So you have chosen.”
She said then lifted her sword in an overhead stance and whispered her next skill,
[Skill Combination: Gravitas]
She then swung forward causing the air she swung through to rend and warp. It carried through until it hit The Harbinger and proceeded to twist its form around in the attack. Through the twisted view as the gravity warped the dimensions of the space in front of her, she saw The Harbinger struggle to control its body.
Suddenly the skill fractured and the gravity of the area returned to normal. Even her channeled skill was cut off.
Surprise and alarm in equal amounts came to her face, had it dispelled the skills affecting it? This was completely unheard of.
She tried to identify it, but it came back with nothing. Like there was just nothing to identify in the first place. It just didn’t make sense.
What was this thing that had abilities that seemed like magic and skills bestowed by the system and yet didn’t return anything on the same skills given by the system?
She growled as she launched forward again. Castella had felt she had waited long enough and came in from behind to mirror her strike. With unspoken ease, they coordinated their blows against its neck.
They both instantly accelerated to their top speeds crossing the distance in a single instance and connecting with attacks powerful enough to create deafening waves of sound and shockwaves through the air.
Together they continued to coordinate attack after attack, Castella’s normal blows here doing much more noticeable damage than Lillians. In terms of raw physical attack strength, Castella had the advantage there. Especially with her slab she called a sword.
Lillian would bridge the gap in that strength by increasing the weight of her blade with one of the skills in her gravity class.
But even with the considerable increase, Castella was still outdoing her by a considerable margin, carving gouges through The Harbinger's rock-like exterior.
Lillian nodded as she saw the damage Castella was doing. Lillian created some distance between her and The Harbinger and called out to Castella, “Castella, it’s all yours for the moment. We’ll go with Plan I.”
Castella nodded and activated one of her skills now that Lillian wasn’t in range and let out an inhuman roar.
Any adventurers still in the vicinity covered their ears as Castella roared, likely not expecting anyone besides The Harbinger to be so impossibly loud.
To Lillian's surprise, the skill actually worked and The Harbinger turned to look at her instead of carrying on with its march towards the palace.
Lillian pulled her focus from what Castella was doing and began building up another skill. This one was quite a bit larger than her charge from earlier. With any luck it would also do considerable damage, and if she was truly blessed today it might even remove a limb from the bastard.
Well, if this didn't work she had several other ideas to work through. Lillian had a lot of stress to work through right now, this seemed like a wonderful way for her to blow off some steam.
Lillian suppressed a sigh as she made her way to the palace. She’d had enough of dealing with squabbles for the day-, nay, the month. People got riled up over the most preposterous things.
She’d have thought that becoming an important official and commander would make people quit doing that kind of stuff around her. Or at the very least getting her dragged into it. No, instead she had to deal with the exact same stuff just in a different capacity. And this time she wasn’t allowed to just bash people over the head to resolve it, she had to use words and resolve things with diplomacy.
On top of that, people who should know better seemingly threw all common sense to the wind as soon as someone retaliated in the same manner. Overall it was extremely aggravating and had left her exceedingly distressed and needing a way to vent.
Maybe she could spar with Castella.
Lillian was always thankful that Castella had decided to stick with her. The companionship the girl had brought to her journeys had made many things much more bearable over the years.
She remembered finding her nearly a century ago. The young girl had been completely lost in the unmapped wilderness near the Kril’koth Mountains. Her ancestry wasn’t exactly able to be legitimately proven, but Lillian was almost certain that Castella was at least one-quarter draconic. If not a full half-blood.
Given how some of her powers took effect on her body, she wouldn’t be surprised if that was actually the case.
Castella had been completely tight-lipped about anything before meeting Lillian though. Although that wasn’t saying much when the girl was tightlipped about everything, she wasn’t overly fond of speaking in general.
Initially, Lillian had thought it was because she just didn’t really understand the language. She knew that wasn’t the case now, given she had communicated minor needs to Lillian over the years.
No, she fully believed that it was for some other reason. What that reason could possibly be, Lillian had no idea. And not much of a desire to pry into it either. If the girl wanted to talk she would, if she didn’t she wouldn’t. It was really that simple.
Lillian did her best to suppress another sigh as she walked onwards at a steady gait, Castella following two steps behind her to the left. Lillian had told her it was right for her to walk by her side, but she had stubbornly refused.
Deference and respect. There was a fine line of distinction between the two, the latter representing acknowledgment of capability. The former represents an acknowledgment of authority. You may defer to someone you don’t respect and you may respect someone you don’t defer to. Castella did both with her actions and somehow emulated that in a way that was almost as explicit as stating the words out loud.
Now it was time for Lillian to embody that as she went and reported to the Queen.
She did let out a small sigh at that.
The Queen of the country probably wasn’t what most people thought of when they thought of the ruling class. They probably expected extravagant clothing and eccentricities. But the Queen had none of that, she was almost casual in her demeanor and the way she dressed. Exceedingly subtle colors and jewelry.
They still established her position given their unique and stellar craftsmanship, but she did her best to make sure they didn’t stand out.
Although, it wasn’t like she needed them to help her stand out in any way. Lillian wasn’t sure if her looks were fully natural, or some by-product of her classes. The Queen was, almost literally, breathtakingly beautiful.
Long dirty blonde hair with perfect waves. An exceedingly regal facial structure that gave her sharp features that seemed almost artificial in their perfection, with eyes that were a sapphire blue and seemed to glow with the light an enchanted gemstone might have. Her figure was the envy of almost every woman and easily attracted the attention of all the men, especially now that the king had passed several decades prior.
Lillian didn’t have high hopes for their chances.
She was dressed in what was simple clothing for royalty. No robes or extravagant dresses, just an almost criminally plain shirt that was almost a little more form-fitting around her ample bust than had probably been intended, along with a matching pair of long pants.
No doubt made out of some expensive and pleasant material. She wore a simple silver crown that was more on the diminutive side, but not quite a tiara either.
The Queen gave her a soft smile as she approached,
“Lillian, you’re back. I’m excited to hear what you have to tell me.”
Lillian had to once again suppress a sigh, guard duty was not one of her favorite postings. She did what was required of her. And right now what was required was serving the Queen in the ways she needed, given that it would not do to have her leaving the nation again. Not after last time. So sending her daughter in her stead and making sure she was sufficiently guarded was necessary.
She did what was needed. Even if she didn’t want to.
Finally, after what seemed like dozens of hours, Lillian was able to retreat to her quarters. She felt that she deserved a few days to herself. And you better believe she was going to make use of them.
Maybe she would go out somewhere with Castella? She’d have to think about that, it was always difficult to get that girl to relax. But there were still things she enjoyed doing that could be considered relaxing.
It had taken Lillian the better part of a decade to find out that Castella enjoyed pottery. She didn’t have any classes for it, but the girl still managed to make phenomenal pieces of work. They generally sold pretty well on top of that.
And no one really knew it was her who was making them since she had been smart enough to release them under a pen name. Silver Sullivan. ‘Twas a curious name, but Lillian didn’t press her on that and was more just happy that Castella had a hobby that she could enjoy in her downtime outside of training and more training.
She’d definitely see about making time for that with her soon.
Lillian suppressed the hot rage that was building in her chest as she listened to the bell toll. Who, in their right mind, would declare war on them? Lillian had half a mind to go out there herself and personally end the fight. If she could’ve gotten away with it.
Generally, rules of engagement, the very thought causing her to scoff, were very much against the mass-killing of a bunch of low tiers and giving them a chance of success without the higher tiers completely decimating the battlefield with skills that were impossible to deal with.
Whatever, she would give them 24 hours to make their attack before issuing the order for them to surrender before she fought back. That should be enough time for them to try and get whatever it was they wanted out of this attack.
Imbeciles.
Lillian must’ve abused orphans in a previous life for all this to happen when she was the one in the capital. She must have been a downright abominable person. First war and now the Harbinger?
She suppressed a groan of pure frustration and she was armoring up. First things first she would go and check on the Queen. There she would meet up with Castella and they along with the Queen's closest advisors would plan their next course of action. This would probably involve her and Castella getting involved in the fight and seeing if they had the ability to at least drag the fight out long enough to make the beast bored and go home.
That’s at least what it had always seemed like to her, as Castella had often emulated similar behavior when she was younger. Going around from place to place in their travels and challenging strong opponents to fights, then getting bored and leaving when things didn’t work out the way she wanted them to.
That seemed to be what the Harbinger was doing to Lillian’s eyes, but she didn’t necessarily care. All that mattered was if she and Castella were going to be able to do anything about it.
From her place above the palace, she was able to see everything that was happening. She raised a slight eyebrow at seeing the strange Elf again.
[Level 1²]
He’d tiered up since she'd seen him last a couple of days ago. Had he taken part in the skirmish? And survived? Impressive for someone at such a low level. Although his current situation seemed much more dubious than fighting a war.
Especially since The Harbinger had turned around to aim its next attack at him specifically.
Oh, he noticed. Keeping an eye on his surroundings, not letting himself get distracted.
Sprinting away is a good choice normally, not likely to help here. His next moves caused her to raise her other eyebrow as she watched him gain height by using conjured barriers to stand upon and leap higher up.
Watching The Harbinger attack though she realized the beast had expected this to happen and had been tracking him. And now he was stuck in the air with no way to feasibly get out of the way.
She started to shake her head when the beam came out only to stop and watch in surprise as Alex accelerated, going three times faster than he had been and creating a series of slanted barriers and in a mirroring pattern that allowed him to launch himself into the sky putting him hundreds of feet above where he had been in the span of a single second.
Genuinely impressive, a class skill? No, not likely. An enhancement probably. Enhancements were just about the only thing that could create such a disparity in capability. The criteria was that it probably activated in dicey situations like this. It probably had a cool downtime as well.
Interesting. A ghost of a smile passed over her face as she watched. It would’ve been a shame for him to die here.
What happened next surprised her just as much.
An angel? No. A champion? No, not strong enough for either. A paladin then. Of Palacene it seemed. You didn’t see many of those.
Although it looked like he wasn’t going to be strong enough to actually push back the Harbinger himself.
She let out a soft sight next to her causing Castella to shift slightly.
Looks like it would be up to them to try and do something about this in the end.
She spared a glance at Castella who gave her a slight nod in return. Leathery draconic wings were sprouting from her shoulders, explicitly expressing her position as the Dragonblade.
Lillian pulled her sword out before propelling herself forward with her signature gravity magics.
She moved slowly at first taking her time to build up a charge. She built and built until it felt like her chest was going to burst from how much power she was holding on to.
Castella realized what she was doing and let Lillian create some distance so she wouldn’t get caught up in the attack.
Lillian held it for a few more seconds as she crammed as much of her mana into the ability as she could before she finally took a stance to strike with her sword.
Lillian finally released the skill and was propelled forward at supersonic speeds. The air around her thundered, emanating a shockwave, as she instantly crossed the gap between her and the target of the attack.
The attack connected creating another shockwave that blasted away any of the people nearby that had still been fighting. A couple of pings caused her to frown as she realized several low-level and possibly civilians were killed in her attack.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have the leeway to hold back here. Many more would probably die. None would blame her for the ones caught up in her collateral, it was an unspoken thing that many didn’t like to talk about, and for good reason. It was bad for citizens' morale to realize just how many died to the ones trying to save them in the first place.
She unleashed another skill in tandem with her first as she connected, placing a crushing atmosphere around The Harbinger. This channeled skill had extremely good efficiency, especially since she’d been cultivating since tier five. The longer she held this one the stronger the weight would grow upon The Harbinger.
She had no doubt this would be a battle of attrition. And it was her job to make sure she won, this was the skill she planned to win with.
A small smile came to her lip unbidden.
“Foul monstrosity,” She called out to the Harbinger from where she stood in front of its face. Her blade hadn’t seemed to do much damage to it other than cutting off a small chunk of one of the horns on its head. “Return from whence you came, you are not welcomed here, nor anywhere else in this kingdom. I speak for the Queen when I say leave now or face destruction.”
With her final words, she leveled her blade to its eyes. It stared at her, before proceeding to take another step. Her lips tightened into a determined line on her face. She hadn’t expected this to work but she had to at least try.
“So you have chosen.”
She said then lifted her sword in an overhead stance and whispered her next skill,
[Skill Combination: Gravitas]
She then swung forward causing the air she swung through to rend and warp. It carried through until it hit The Harbinger and proceeded to twist its form around in the attack. Through the twisted view as the gravity warped the dimensions of the space in front of her, she saw The Harbinger struggle to control its body.
Suddenly the skill fractured and the gravity of the area returned to normal. Even her channeled skill was cut off.
Surprise and alarm in equal amounts came to her face, had it dispelled the skills affecting it? This was completely unheard of.
She tried to identify it, but it came back with nothing. Like there was just nothing to identify in the first place. It just didn’t make sense.
What was this thing that had abilities that seemed like magic and skills bestowed by the system and yet didn’t return anything on the same skills given by the system?
She growled as she launched forward again. Castella had felt she had waited long enough and came in from behind to mirror her strike. With unspoken ease, they coordinated their blows against its neck.
They both instantly accelerated to their top speeds crossing the distance in a single instance and connecting with attacks powerful enough to create deafening waves of sound and shockwaves through the air.
Together they continued to coordinate attack after attack, Castella’s normal blows here doing much more noticeable damage than Lillians. In terms of raw physical attack strength, Castella had the advantage there. Especially with her slab she called a sword.
Lillian would bridge the gap in that strength by increasing the weight of her blade with one of the skills in her gravity class.
But even with the considerable increase, Castella was still outdoing her by a considerable margin, carving gouges through The Harbinger's rock-like exterior.
Lillian nodded as she saw the damage Castella was doing. Lillian created some distance between her and The Harbinger and called out to Castella, “Castella, it’s all yours for the moment. We’ll go with Plan I.”
Castella nodded and activated one of her skills now that Lillian wasn’t in range and let out an inhuman roar.
Any adventurers still in the vicinity covered their ears as Castella roared, likely not expecting anyone besides The Harbinger to be so impossibly loud.
To Lillian's surprise, the skill actually worked and The Harbinger turned to look at her instead of carrying on with its march towards the palace.
Lillian pulled her focus from what Castella was doing and began building up another skill. This one was quite a bit larger than her charge from earlier. With any luck it would also do considerable damage, and if she was truly blessed today it might even remove a limb from the bastard.
Well, if this didn't work she had several other ideas to work through. Lillian had a lot of stress to work through right now, this seemed like a wonderful way for her to blow off some steam.
