>>6124964Her skin boils and pops, then combusts and melts. She was so confident before, outside the boat with her umbrella and just being out in the day, only to be laid low by the deadly laser that is that great burning ball in the sky. Slowly and painfully, the flames around her grow as her skin falls away, first revealing her horrid flesh, then blood-stained bones as she howls in pain. Soon after, the pool of gore collecting at her feet starts to dry into dust as her bones turn a bleached white, and the final bits of the woman who was just alive evaporate from her body as the boat continues to split and fall apart. Once more, you get the feeling you’re a little girl again. The one watching a scary foreign movie on the TV to distract yourself from the arguments of your parents upstairs. This time, however, the heat from the flames is very real, but the disappointment when it ends remains the same as you are forced back into reality. Was that all? Your mind asks; it all seems to be over far too soon.
In your hand, your sword soon follows suit and slowly fades to glowing particles that dance in the sun’s rays, and all that’s left around you is a sinking vessel, three bodies, an inquisitor treading water, Lorina-senpai and Alyssa-san looking down on you through the cracked roof, and a knight whose armor is evaporating into mist on the other side of the crack revealing the sight of an unconscious James. “Is everything okay?” Lorina-senpai lamely asks after a pause to observe the wrecked boat.
“Yeah, everything’s fine,” You reply just as lame as your eyes turn back to the ashes that used to be a Stranger, “Everything’s just fine.”
“What about them?” She says, raising her sword, Sturmfahrerin you remind yourself, towards the other Strangers. Maybe you should name your sword?
It doesn’t say anything at that.
“If they’re still alive, they’re clear. We should still bring them in, though. Can you try and heal them, and I’ll try to steer us to land?”
Lorina-senpai nods as Alyssa-san collects James, and the Inquisitor swims to the slowly sinking vessel. You’re just glad that even the large river you found yourself in, you can even see the bridge you were on earlier(!), is a calm one, and you can get away with simply beaching the boat. Then, it’s not long to get everyone off, and all you have to do is wait for the maid to collect reinforcements. You kinda just stand there awkwardly for a bit as Lorina-senpai heals Maxwell, who took the worst of the blows, and the Inquisitor inspects the wreck for things you might have missed. Seo-yun seems to have fainted from shock sometime during the skirmish, and Minato-kun’s slime has hardened into a rather solid shell as he enters a state of hibernation/healing, as Lorina-senpai explains. Apparently, it’s something his kind can do when it loses a lot of its mass and can be fixed when it gathers enough magic to make more.
