Ambient Mage

Charlotte nodded back at me.

"Hey Aurelia, I'm sorry you were pulled away from Lucas for this."

I looked at the woman talking to me.

"Oh my, are you appraising me?"

Rose said arrogantly.

I leaned in close to her ear.

"I wanted to see the face of the person arrogant enough to say they would wed with my own husband."

I leaned back to see the horror on her face.

"I didn't know that you-, I'm sorry Ms. Aurelia for my indescretion."

She reverted back to formal speech with me.

"That's enough Aurelia, she's just trying to help us out with the wall."

"Forgive her, she's just on edge because Lucas isn't waking yet, and she enjoys scaring the ever loving god out of people."

"Oh."

I smiled back at Rose.

I leaned back into her ear, which led her to yelp and jump away.

"Fufufufu."

"You're cute, like a rabbit."

I patted her head.

"I don't mind women liking him, after all he is the best man here."

"But just so you know, you will join the vetting process."

"I almost think the losses I will incur from that, make it unservicable to pursue Lucas."

"Oh, so business minded, perhaps you wouldn't be a good fit."

"I said almost."

She was getting angry, it was so cute.

I hugged her.

"You are like a little sister Rose."

"Huh?"

She was squirming in my arms.

"Just, relax Rose, this is her way of doing things."

After I let go, Rose began speaking in an exasperated tone.

"How exactly does Lucas put up with this?"

"He's got a crazier crazy, apparently."

Rose looked at me for confirmation

"It took my parents combined to get him back to earth, one time when he let loose."

Rose looked shocked.

"I knew he was strong from the minotaur and Tyrant fight, but that exaggerated?"

"Well, my parents did limit their power somewhere to the 6th or 7th level."

"Make no mistake though," Charlotte said interjecting in between, "one of his spells, turned night into day in the duchy, and we in the capital picked up his mana signature."

"Ah, Charlotte, we aren't allowed to speak about it."

"That was a verbal promise, and besides we're here to warn Rose, the consequences of pursuing such a person."

"So what you're telling me is he is a massively powerful person, who more than once, went crazy, but is also very protective of his people?"

"Yes."

"Are you sure he isn't a dragon?"

"Honestly with his sky high pride sometimes, I wonder the same thing."

The three of us convened in our little group harmoniously.

"Charlotte."

Claudia had asked for Charlotte.

"Ah, Aurelia, you're here?"

I smiled again.

"And what do you mean by that, Ms. Evenfold?"

Claudia froze up at my tone and formal speech.

"Claudia Ev-"

I didn't let her finish her greeting or curtsy before flying into a hug.

"Claudia, how are you doing?"

"Aurelia?"

"Yes?"

I cocked my head to the side.

"When was the last time you slept?"

"Um..."

"Maybe 22 hours ago or so."

"Right, Charlotte, left for the wall, and Aurelia was left to care for Lucas alone."

"We have about 30 minutes for rest until the final wave starts at earliest."

"We'll have some healers put you to sleep for a while okay?"

I didn't want to.

"Muuuu.... I don't want to."

"Baby Aurelia is here."

***

*Charlotte's Pov*

"Baby Aurelia is here."

The others looked at me confused.

"Sometimes she when she's tired or not awake enough, she acts a little like a baby."

As if to prove my point, Aurelia put her arms around my shoulders, like a baby falling asleep in their mother's arms.

With that I held Aurelia up and stroked her head.

"Well, cancel the healers, she's out."

"I'm going to lay her with Lucas."

Rose and Claudia understood.

For the next half hour, even with my basic magic capabilities I put up a decent silence and cloaking spell around Aurelia and Lucas.

I had Aisha leave the room and I used the artifact to heal Lucas.

***

30 minutes quietly ticked by with only Aura's rhythmic breathing and Lucas' rising and falling chest to tell me time was still moving.

The two reminded me of the time when I was younger and I stumbled in to my parent's chambers, because I was scared.

Naturally they welcomed me to their bed.

The night maid, responsible for me was reprimanded and punished for letting me leave without an escort, but in the end my insistence led her to stay as my maid.

From then on, however, I always had 2 separate maids at all times.

A luxury I had for a few years.

Now in a surprising twist, I was like the maid, watching over the sleeping royal.

When I looked down at them I remembered the times we all slept together as children.

Lucas and Aura were much cuter then.

Now Lucas was handsome, and tall.

And Aura, fiery and assertive.

I missed the easier times.

Someone broke into the room.

"That's a lot of sighs, for a princess."

"Did you come to peek or actually come grab me, Rose?"

"It's time, Charlotte."

"Alright."

She got up and geared up.

After that, I dropped my spells, to which Aura put more up.

I woke up Aurelia who lagged. behind us in leaving the room.

There was no doubt in my mind what she was doing.

"Charlotte."

Maria called out to me.

"We need to move."

"Alright, where are the three of us being stationed?"

"In the center, since spreading you thin, when there's more 5th tier beasts than people makes no sense."

"Wait, how many beasts are coming in this wave, if the other 5 are coming all together."

"We estimate nearly 1000."

That number blew me away.

"Rose has al-"

"Yes, she has mobilized, every able person, even if they're still injured."

"At this point, the danger between facing the Tyrant and this wave is equivalent."

"Not because they are equal in power, but they are both powerful enough to knock down our camp."

"Great."

I felt a little twist in my stomach.

A magic spell flew down past the wall.

Maria and I went to the wall's center, and watched where the impact had occurred.

Dead bodies, fresh dead bodies.

"Charlotte."

I turned around to a familiar voice.

"Armoria?"

"Hey, we found ourselves a support character running around in the west side."

She held Harry by the collar.

"We?"

"Yep."

Kimoria poked her head out from behind Harry.

"Where's the rest of your team?"

"They are back at the 'Base'."

"They were assholes, really."

"Sorry princess."

"I don't mind, with what's happened, manners, aside from the basic ones, are quite unneccessary."

"Sure, so we heard the fighting start."

"Actually Rose and I were up here trying to figure out what happened too."

"Rose Castellan."

She extended her arm.

"I'm Armoria, this is Kimoria."

She shook her hand, as Kimoria waved.

"I think we all know this doof."

She pulled Harry even further up towards us.

"Can we stop now, you've had your fun."

She let go.

"Charlotte what happened to Lucas?"

Her face became a little more solemn, as did Rose's.

"I'll tell her Char."

Aurelia spoke up.

"Thanks."

With that Rose and I scooted over to the site.

"Ma'am they're encroaching on our position and fast, but only on the sides, the ones in the middle are creeping in."

"I see, keep up the suppressive fire, don't forget to switch out."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Charlotte, let's get you Claudia and Aurelia for the biggest fight of your lives."

I followed her in agreeance.

"Aurelia, Claudia, are you two stocked up on any gear you may need?"

"Yes."

"Perfect, I'll try my best to scuttle as much resources into the two of you where I can pull from the not needed piles, but we need to work out a battle plan."

"We need your firepower to destroy this wave, it's probably going to be hours long this time."

"Whereas the previous waves only took 20 to 30 minutes leaving us time to prepare a little before the next wave, the 5th tier beasts are rallying all the monsters here now."

"They'll likely be pushed into the outer area like cattle to the slaughter."

VWoooosh.

"Well, I guess it's started in full now."

"Charlotte, Aurelia, I need you two to deal damage, Harry, Claudia, I need you two to support them."

"I'll get the supply folk to get you your recovery and mana potions."

She left.

I nodded to Aura, then to Harry and Claudie.

With that we jumped down to the floor and began clearing house.

***

After the air began becoming saturated with monster blood, the first 5th tier beast emerged.

Steel Serpent <★★★★★>.

A mid rank 5th tier beast.

This one was a weaker adult since, most adult Steel Serpents are advanced rank 5th tier.

Aurelia and I began to make room to fight the thing.

Claudia started to drop the buffs, and began to fight it with us from long range.

I slashed at it's tough body with my greatsword, auraless.

It was too thick. My rapier wrapped in aura probably wouldn't drive too deep into it's body either.

So I began to wrap my greatsword in a large swath of aura and swung down.

Aura used mana chains to tie down the snake and Claudia used gravity magic to hold it still for a brief moment.

The oppurtunity they gave me wasn't going to waster however, I split the snake in half.

It started to slither faster, and attack in a wilder pattern.

I was going to impale it through the mouth.

"Claudia, my rapier."

She understood.

"That's risky princess."

"Then protect me."

Harry at this, began to push many defensive buffs my way and offensive buffs towards Aura.

He understood.

Claudia seeing him commit, began to as well.

"Char, what are you planning?"

Aura and I stood next to each other watching the serpent posture up.

"I'm going to stand in it's mouth and stab upwards through it's head."

"I like it, but next time I get the kill."

"Sure."

We began to shift around the snake, it watched us.

Then we charged towards it's body, it whipped around with the rest of it's body.

I dodged and Aura simply blocked the tails sideways movement.

It stunned the snake.

I began to manifest aura onto my rapier, it was too much, and it began to become like sludge.

I didn't channel it through my rapier yet, just around it.

The massive aura signature snapped the snake back to reality.

Then it began to posture once more, getting ready to swallow me.

Then it flashed forward.

In the instant, Aura's chains held the snake back, while Claudia's magic forced the snake's mouth open.

I jumped into the mouth and stabbed the snake with a fully aura blade and ended the thing's life.

I threw my greatsword back over the wall.

I was going to hunt this next with more speed.

Aurelia followed in suit, using lower circle spells in quick succession.

The beasts were being torn apart before, now they were bleeding out and dying from brain or heart death.

The change started to affect the available area to me and Aura so we called some to collect or burn the bodies.

Ash and the smell of burning monsters filled the air, and once again 5th tier beasts entered the field.

"Two of them."

Harry quickly identified.

"Koroga and a Scarmillado."

"A what?"

Maria was heard over comms.

"A large boar-bunny and a hyena-centipede."

"Is that the best description you have? Basic animals?"

"Well, see for yourself."

He wasn't far off from their physical traits.

"Don't be fooled by their appearances they are quick things."

"Reccomendation on which we should focus on first?"

"Definitely the Koroga."

"If you beat it, the Scarmy might eat it, as it's a scavenger hunter."

"Which may give you a window to beat down on it."

"Got it thanks Harry."

Aurelia and I moved to the south side of the wall towards the Koroga.

"This things is dangerous, Aurelia."

"I can see that, how are we going to kill this thing?"

"I have a few ideas."

"Test them and we'll go from there."

"Alright."

Aurelia ever the battlemage took the brunt of the aggro as I began to experiment with weak spots, and places to kill it.

"Charlotte you got any plans yet?"

"Yeah, I got one."

I moved to Aurelia as she backstepped far enough away from the monster.

"If we can get the thing on it's back or side we can feed it some of the magic mines."

"And you're sure the thing won't just eat them or devour the crystals?"

"It shouldn't I fed it an unstable crystal, and it did do some damage."

"So you're saying we need to feed it lots of powered up mines?"

"Maybe 5 or 6."

"Let's make it happen."

"Rose, we need 6 powered mines, we're going to take this thing out for good."

"Alright, in the mean time do you think you two can survive without Claudia or Harry? The north side needs help."

"Take them."

The comms clicked.

Aura and I began to close off the beast's path to escape.

In just a few minutes we had our newly fashioned mines.

"Ready Aurelia?"

"Sure."

I manuevered my way into the Koroga's blind spot and let it charge Aura.

Once there, she cast an ice spell making the monster slip, and I used my aura blade to knock it off it's feet and careening into the corridor walls, butt first.

The Koroga was certainly stunned.

With that, Aura and I force fed it the sack of mines.

"Eat this."

Aura said, before forcefully shutting the Koroga's mouth with magic.

We both left the immediate are quickly as the explosion blew the head of the monster off of it's body.

"Disgusting, god I hate this."

We heard someone on the wall say, as they watched the head land on the ground near the wall.

I yelled up to her.

"Don't worry we all think Michael is."

That got a snicker out of the girl on the wall.

"I heard that."

We heard a voice come over the orb.

A short laugh burst out between Aura, the girl, and I.

***

*???'s Pov*

I watched as my husband picked up our daughter, happily.

"Alea come here."

We sat out in the sun under a tree's shade.

The plains were full of green grass now.

The craters and mounds that had once filled this place, this battlefield, were covered in beautiful flowers.

"▌▄▌▀▐ , come here."

He held our daughter in our hands as she giggled at his beard scratching her head.

 I stood up as I reached out to him.

"This is the victory, we won for ourselves."

I nodded.

We kissed as our daughter crawled up his chest.

"Papa, I want to fly."

"Alright then."

He reached around himself and held ▌▄▀▐ up as she transformed into a▐▐▀▌▄▐▌▀▬.