"Ryo!" A male voice called out, followed immediately by the clashing of metal on ivory, the sound of flesh ripping soon joining the symphony of noise. A separate, more manly voice screamed out in horror as other audio filled the air, serving only to distract him.
"Fusion of Nature and Fire… Burning Forest!" Ryo proclaimed, pointing his staff to the sky, striking it to the ground with as much force as he could, a dual–coloured spell circle appearing underneath his feet. Its green and red halves glowed brightly, and trees began rapidly sprouting up around Ryo, protecting him and the other people present. The trees reached a great height, blocking Ryo's vision of the monsters behind. Everything seemed quiet for just a second, the sounds of horrific creatures muffled by the artificial woods.
The sound was soon sucked out of the air, each person present only able to hear their own heartbeats. They thumped, and thumped, and thumped, but no other noise came through. A red diamond-shaped symbol appeared in front of Ryo's face, and he jabbed his rock finger through it. The air rushed back towards the trees, and they spontaneously ignited, forming a massive blaze. The trees that Ryo had created were alight like a beautiful firework show, but all good things must come to an end. The makeshift defences disintegrated, taking no prisoners with it as the corpses of rabbit-like creatures laid barren on the field in which they were fighting. Ryo sighed a breath of relief, hoping that they had all been taken care of, but of course, that's never the case. A second wave of monsters descended upon them. "There's more coming, Kevin!" Ryo yelled, looking at the man who was currently being healed by a pink-haired girl.
Kevin, a blonde man who ran the party 'Rising Sun' spat up a bit of blood. "Can't you do anything about it?!" He yelled at Ryo, who looked around at his teammates. The only other one left standing was the party's assassin, Andreas. "Come on, Andreas! Get your head in the game!" Ryo yelled, preparing a second spell. "Don't tell me what to do, Hyandean!" Andreas yelled back with a scowl, rushing headfirst into the oncoming rabbit-like monsters, known as Achrons. Andreas sliced a horned one to pieces, quickly wiping his daggers with his arms before moving onto a non-horned one, trying his best to clear up as many of them as possible. "Andreas! Get out of the way!" Ryo yelled, pointing his staff forward. "Spell of Water… Tidal Wave!" A blue spell circle appeared in front of Ryo, and all hell broke loose
A torrent of water came rushing out of the spell circle, with Andreas barely avoiding it. The sounds of water almost matched that of a rising tide, or a whipping wave. The current of water grabbed every monster, bruteforcing them into rocks to damage them before Ryo performed a second spell. "Spell of Water… Hydro Sphere: Collection!" The water that had been pushing the monsters suddenly stopped, seeming to be frozen in time. Soon, a rumbling was audibly heard by all present, as a metric ton of water rose into the air, forming itself into a ball. The water swirled around itself to keep its shape, sticks and rocks rotating around with the Achrons, some white, some grey, and one horned Achron was so close to black you could almost mistake it for a shadow. "Everyone! Get away from this now! I'm going to drop it!" Ryo screamed, causing everyone to scramble to leave the area, including the injured Kevin.
Ryo stopped casting the spell, and the Hydro Sphere came crashing down, dispersing the water in all directions, Achron corpses flowing with it. Ryo wiped his forehead, sweat flowing off him like a waterfall. He heard Kevin yell something at him, but he wasn't able to tell what. He turned around, and saw Kevin pointing at something near him, so Ryo followed Kevin's finger and saw the black Achron pushing itself to its feet. He got himself into a fighting stance, but instead of charging at Ryo, the Achron quickly made its way to one of the white Achrons. It used the horn on its head to stab the white Achron in the neck, the fur matted with blood. Ryo watched as the fur of the Achron became pitch-black, and it started convulsing.
Soon, a cacophony of bone-crunching, spine-chilling noises came from the creature, as arms sprouted from its torso, its feet seemingly vanishing in favour of two arms with horns in place of hands. Andreas made his way over to the creature and attempted to attack it, but he was repelled by a mysterious force dubbed the "Evolution Barrier" by adventurers. Monsters that were in the process of evolving were invincible, and they always seemed to be at full vitality afterwards. "God damn it, Hyandean! You just HAD to let it evolve into a Umichron, didn't you?!" Andreas yelled at Ryo, not even bothering to use his real name. Kevin, now fully healed but with a wound in his armour, rushed over to Andreas, taking to his side. "Ryo, I was trying to tell you to kill it!" He proclaimed. "By the time you pointed him out to me, it was too late! You know it takes a bit of time to cast spells!" Ryo shot back, immediately earning himself a glare from both Andreas and Kevin, causing him to back off.
An unholy screech filled the air, causing each person present to cover their ears, the frequencies of the sound directly causing pain. The other three members of the Rising Sun party made their way over to Kevin. Kyoka and Amelee Relt, a Longswordsman and Healer combination, as well as Arthur Eltrhim, a Fighter who had recently joined the party, all stood beside Kevin, leaving a decent bit of space between themselves and Ryo. Arthur was limping slightly, but he decided to make the first move, rushing forward with his shortsword in hand, only to be swatted away by the Umichron. The devilish creature rushed forwards, its newly-white fur gleaming in the sun. Andreas made a slash at it, but it jumped high enough to avoid the attack, and, using its weight, planned to take a stab at Amelee, the Healer. Kyoka stood in the way, pushing Amelee backwards while brandishing her longsword, clashing with the Umichron's left arm-horn hybrid. However, she was left defenceless to the one on the right, and as such, a sharp horn was shoved through Kyoka's torso on the right-hand side. She immediately spat up blood, causing Amelee to scream bloody murder.
Kyoka's body was dropped to the ground, and Amelee immediately got to healing, casting the spell "Greater Heal" from a short distance. Unfortunately, she wasn't paying attention to the Umichron. It leaped towards her, trying to stab at her with the same horn that was used to attack Kyoka, the wind rushing past as it made its attack. Kevin tensed up, turning his head as he anticipated a second scream to erupt, but instead, the sound of the earth moving beneath his feet filled his ears. A large, thick tree erupted from the ground beneath the Umichron, trapping it in the air, the branches of the tree being used to prevent Amelee from taking any damage so she could focus on the healing. "Spell of Fire: Fire Bolt!" Ryo quickly yelled, sending streaks of fire at the tree, repeating himself over and over again to continuously strike the Umichron. It released a second unholy screech into the sky, its fur set ablaze by Ryo. Amelee looked up for the first time during her healing process, watching Ryo cast bolt upon bolt in order to protect her.
Kevin, watching Ryo's attacks, rushed towards the Umichron, brandishing his sword, as Andreas and Arthur backed him up. Kevin jabbed his sword into the Umichrons skull, trapped in a blaze of fire and branches, as Arthur and Andreas made quick strikes at the body of the beast, blood spilling out of the wounds. The creature spasmed out, hitting Kevin in the leg, sending him flying to the floor. However, the sword remained, and soon, the creature stopped moving. The tree holding up the Umichron disintegrated, and Kevin pulled his sword out of its skull, wiping it on a single non-bloodstained section of fur before sheathing it. Amelee let out a sigh of relief, and just as she was about to speak, Kevin shot her a glare that only meant one thing. He wanted her to shut up.
Ryo sat down on the grass, taking in deep breaths in order to relax his tensed body, the rocks on his left face itching slightly. He lifted up his robes and his shirt to check the damage to his torso that he had sustained earlier. The rocks that made up the right side of his torso were shattered, but thanks to them, he hadn't taken any internal damage. Ryo pulled a pencil and a small notebook out of a pocket in his robes, which he labelled "Observations".
'Hyandeans are a race of people that have a strain of a genetic mutation called "Rockskin" which gives them a rocky exterior for parts of their skin. It varies from person to person. However, people like Kevin, a "Utopian" do not possess any genetic mutations naturally.' Ryo jotted down. He began to put his pencil back into the pocket where they'd come from, only to have his notebook slapped out of his hand by Andreas, who had bent down to stare Ryo directly in the eyes. "We wouldn't have had to fight that fucking thing if you had killed it earlier, you stupid Hyandean!" He screamed at Ryo, spit flying into Ryo's eye. "I told you earlier, I didn't have enough time to cast any magic!" Ryo snapped back, only to get a slap across the face. "Don't forget your place, scum. You're only here because Kevin wanted a Wizard for the party. You're useless to us otherwise." Andreas retorted, walking away with a scowl on his face. Ryo looked at Kevin, who was watching this go down, but Ryo's mood fell further when he watched Kevin simply turn around, not providing even an ounce of discipline.
Ryo stood up, dusted off the bottom of his robe in order to remove some of the grass, and walked over to his notebook. He picked it up, swiping away some of the dirt on it. He placed it back into his pocket, and made his way slowly over to the corpse of the Umichron, the others leaving it behind for him to deal with. He pulled two things out of its body. A small, purple gemstone known as a Mana Stone, and a small piece of paper. On it was information about Umichrons as a species. 'This is going in my book'. Ryo thought to himself, pocketing the new entry, and bringing the stone over to Kevin, who snatched it out of his hand. "Thanks." Kevin said, almost begrudgingly. Ryo sighed in response, before signing his name onto a piece of paper titled "Quest Completion Form". It was a form adventurers had to sign immediately after completing a quest, detailing what they had killed, any loot they had obtained, as well as which party members remained alive.
"We all made it out of this one without much injuries." Kevin noted, shooting a quick look at Kyoka, then Ryo. "However, we might not be so lucky next time." He continued, rolling up the form and placing it inside his armour. 'I just want to go home.' Ryo thought to himself, as everyone started loading themselves into a hired carriage that brought them to and from adventuring sites. 'Maybe if I save their lives again, they'll start to appreciate me more.' Ryo pondered, knowing deep down that it wasn't true. He had been treated like this since he started adventuring with this party over two years ago, but they paid him enough to live, so that was enough for him to stay.