LoHAV: Can We Really Be The Hero?

The ground chiseled and broke, depressing under the weight of the Main Character’s foot as the Party breathed in the zephyrs of livening air pervasive around the coast. Around them were sand. Sibilating, the golden grains of sand were scattered as whirls of wind brushed against them.

Scaling up an ascending earthen pathway of brown dirt, the Main Character smirked, wielding the Trident just leveled with his head.

“Are… you sure this is wise, lesser wizard? Because it’s not that I don’t trust you, I just… don’t trust those hippocamps is all…” Malideus vocalized as the body raised the trident, eager to try it out.

Stepping onto the edge of the cliff they had discovered recently, they viewed their surroundings. Scattered among the left side of their view, say fifty meters or so, were trees. A menagerie of trees by the looks of things.

These trees were merely outskirts to an even thicker, denser forest riddled with thorned, charcoal-black foliage.

There was an undoubtedly sinister aura emanating from this particular forest.

Magic surging around the Trident as the MC raised it high, it lit afire, shooting out arcs of electricity between its three tips.

“We’re not exactly in a position where it would be wise to refuse aid,” the Friar vocalised. “But yes, we should still remain cautious.”

“Oh right, I forgot!” Vaati mentally slapped himself. “To sum up, I did a Death Egg mk.II on the Equestria Girls world of my Equestria. Please fucking remind me to destroy the system of that shit as soon as possible before Trollestia takes that too.”

"Death Egg? Really?" Malideus deadpanned, casting a mental glare at Vaati.

“It was the lesser of two annoyances. So, what exactly are we doing with this… oversized fork made of gold?” Vaati spoke out.

The MC grinned as Ral guided their hand down to a strong grip. “Intriguing, the merponies are aquatic beings but they have a magical treasure that is lightning attributed.” He muttered, twirling the spear a few times.

“Logic doesn’t really play much of a role in our…” The Summoner fumbled a bit, uncertainty lacing his hesitation, “...escapades.” The Summoner hummed to himself, bringing the MC’s hand upon his chin. “Now that I think about it, actually. There are marine creatures capable of low-rate electricity, right?”

“Normally, I would like to find the properties of the Trident; abilities, type of metal used to make it, its flexibility, and many other aspects… None of which I can test, except for one.” He grunted as he drew their arm back, aiming the tip of it towards one of the nearby cliffs beside theirs.

“Audrey, mind seeing if you can break that cliff over there?” He asked, the trident suddenly dimming, the sparks of it vanishing as the crackles of electricity died out. “I wish to see how much damage this can potentially deal without any magical imbuement.”

“With my former body?” Audrey smirked as she spoke out, twirling the Trident around like a lance as she stepped towards the direction of the cliff just, say perhaps thirty or so feet away, yonder right to them. “Without a damned doubt. Not sure about this one though,” she stated as she leveled the Trident just above her head, poising it to be thrown.

“Eh.” Ral nonchalantly muttered, “If we break the Trident, chances are that we’ll find someone capable of fixing it. You just have to see what the blacksmiths that I’ve encountered in my travels are capable of.”

“Let it cleave through the winds, comrade!” the Summoner sing-songed, prompting Audrey to widen the smirk on the MC’s face.

With a bit of a revving shrink, the posture of the Main Character shrunk a bit as Audrey clenched the handle of the Trident a bit tenser.

Hurling the Trident forwards with a coordinated throw, the golden weapon pierced through the wind, whistling out as it spiraled towards the side of the cliff.

Embedding itself deep as shattered rock flung out from where it struck, the Trident let out a chilling resonance as it stuck itself to the cliff.

“Pft.” Audrey shook her head a bit, conveying her disappointment as she peered her head forward, squinting at the result of her throw. “Not amused. Should’ve at least obliterated half of that cliff with that throw.”

“Yes, yes.” The Summoner puppeted the MC, walking in a circle as he spoke, “Question is how are we going to get it back now?”

“Obviously, we use telekinesis.” Ral shot a smug smile as he turned to face the Trident--still afar in the distance and still suspended by the cliff. “And as I am an accomplished mage, I can pull this off without no arcane assistance.”

“Sure, sure.” The Summoner, bemused, flaunted his hand, gesturing Ral to proceed. “Go ahead.”

Expanding the Main Character’s footing, Ral steeled his posture as he extended an arm towards the direction of the currently-embedded Trident.

Tensing his mind, a fleck of sweat began to trickle out from the MC’s temple as Ral struggled and wavered, his mentality waning as he gnashed his teeth, his hand trembling from over-working it.

“Agh.” Ral drooped down, a feeling of dread and depression wringing out from his figure. “Can’t perform telekinesis… our INT level must be too low.”

The Summoner rolled his eyes as he spoke out, “Recall: Trident.” He extended his hand forward, displaying his palm.

Afar, the Trident crackled with thunder, enveloped by a blanket of magical light. Blaring out thunderclaps, the Trident dissipated from existence, vanishing into glowing dusts of fluttering, evanescing bits of magic.

The Summoner idly stared at nothing in particular, remaining motionless, his hand still expanded wide, as if expecting something

Flashes of bolting lightning began to sizzle within the opened palm of the Main Character, more or less, flaring the surroundings with blinding light.

Forcing his clutch close, the Summoner felt a cold surface within his palm as he gripped the radiance of crackling sparks. Flourishing away, swinging his arm to the right, a lengthy pole began to materialize, engulfed in running electricity.

Cascading, the electricity began to disperse as the Trident fully took shape, but still eclipsed by the flashes of lightning.

The cackling lightning finally dissipated, leaving the Trident viewable--completely untarnished and still somewhat emitting sparks of lightning.

“Pft.” Ral mentally dismissed. “A simple weapon-return spell?" He pondered for a bit, seeming hesitant. "Why didn’t I thought of that…”

“Anyways, we got what we haphazardly just threw at the side of a cliff,” Malideus stated. “What now, proto-brainiac?”

Ral shrugged off as he opened his mouth to retort, but before he could, he stopped himself, the Main Character’s mouth just hanging awkwardly open.

“Do you… hear that?” Ral spoke out as he began to walk towards the source of the noise--the end of the cliff, the pool of water below them.

It was a frothing sort of noise, much like intense bubbling.

“It’s sounds like sibilant water frothing violently…” the Summoner answered, their steps toward the end of the cliff wary and slow.

Audrey suddenly regained control. Yanking away the controller from the rest of the group, she began sprinting towards the end of the cliff. Stopping just at the edge, she peered at the bottom, spotting the vastness of azure water welling below them.

“I don’t know what the hell he just said!” Audrey exclaimed her statement, forming a gleeful smile. “But I did hear ‘water’ and ‘violently’ in the same sentence! And that means...” she trailed off, her giddy figure not bothering to finish her sentence.

Gazing down, she indeed spotted the patch of water that was seemingly suspicious--welling and spiraling like a miniature whirlpool, filling itself with bubbles. “Yes!” Audrey pumped her fist high. “I called it! Sea monster!”

“Oh good,” Ral muttered out with a straight-face riddled with annoyance. “More to hinder us of our travels.”

“Who cares?!” the Summoner psyched himself, stancing the Main Character’s figure, drawing the Trident. “We’re gonna get experience points--and maybe rare loot!

A tumor of water spreading out from the frothing bubbles, a texture of greenish black appeared. Towering over the patch of water were large, yellow eyes that seemed to have no irises and were just simply two analogous spheres.

“Wow.” The Summoner widened as he stepped back a bit, somewhat unsure what to make of out of the peculiar-eyed beast. “Googly eyes would’ve been better on that thing.”

Finally, the sea beast’s upper half finally emerged out of the blue depths, presenting itself brazened. It was some sort of serpentine fish. Its green scales rough and plating its skin like armored plates. Its snake-like body seeped out some sort of clear fluid.

However, upon its surface were clusters of exposed flesh, darkened and decaying with parasitic moss-like colonies nestled within them.

Its maw was guarded with a mandible, barely concealing its rows of fangs lining against its mouth cavity. Its face also had very lengthy whiskers.

“Damn!” The Summoner stepped back. “And I thought it couldn’t get any worse! Ral, what the hell is that?” The Summoner pointed the triple prongs of the Trident at the idle beast upon the water.

“It looks like some sort of eel.” Ral leaned a bit closer towards the eel creature that was waving around expectantly. “A very large and deformed one, that is.”

“Yeah? Deformed is a very large understatement-” The Summoner staggered back, interrupting himself, as the eel suddenly splashed forward, jumping high into the sky.

“What the hell!?” Malideus cursed out as he sprinted back off the cliff.

The eel smashing the ground with tenacity, the hill splintered and trembled, cracks forming across the base of the hill. The eel wriggled fanatically, ooze being splattered across the earth, the terrain being murked with slime, as it flailed.

“It jumped at us?” Vaati spoke in disbelief. “That doesn’t seem sensible!”

“Look.” Ral pointed at the eel’s body, pointing out the colonies of parasitical entities blotting the eel’s flesh with mossy bubbles. “Parasites… This eel must be under the influence of them!”

“How unfortunate.” Malideus jerked his hand, the Trident responding as magic began to envelope it, becoming nothing more than a figure of light. The Trident vanishing into embers of light, Malideus held his hand forward, summoning the Staff of Vodahmin. “Still. No pity for you, damned fish!”

The Staff of Vodahmin drafting into the opened palm of Malideus from non-existence, Malideus aimed it at the eel.

The eel desperately swivelled left and right, inching itself closer towards the Main Character.

Malideus smirked maliciously as he tapped upon the Staff’s mechanisms. The Staff’s tip suddenly kindled out a visible fire, its intense warmth filling the atmosphere feverishly.

“Wait.” The Summoner sighed out. “The Staff could change elements?”

Malideus blinked blankly. “Uh. Yes. Did I not tell you guys that before?”

Ral answered for the Summoner, “No. We do not recall you mentioning the multi-element of that staff.”

Malideus shrugged. “Meh. Whatever.”

Brandishing it across overhead, Malideus once more extends his arm forward, pointing the Staff exactly at the eel’s face.

“Fried fish!” Malideus yelled out as he channeled magic into the Staff. The Staff growing volatile with arcane torrents, it brimmed with power, its flame enlarging. The Staff at its zenith, unleashed the unwieldy amount of flame stored within it.

Infernos unrelented from the Staff, bathing everything in crimson fire. The dirt itself even began to sizzle, melting into thin lava. The air sizzled and distorted, Malideus still grinning madly as sweat profusely exited out of his face.

The eel beast’s silhouettes was obscured by the ludicrous amount of flames engulfing the area whole. Everything was consumed in purging flames as Malideus continued on perpetualizing the stream of flames.

Sending off the Staff with a flick, Malideus regarded the beast as cooked finely and ended the flames, still sporting his insane grin.

As the flames extinguished themselves, however, the eel’s body was seen once more, untarnished and relatively unharmed.

As such, Malideus hung his jaw loosely in astonishment as he drooped down in incredulity.

“What kind of fish is that?!” Malideus shouted out spitefully.

“Perhaps its the slime coating it?” Ral suggested. “Though, I have not exactly one explanation for why a marine animal would need fire resistance.”

“Whatever.” Malideus shrugged off. “Who’s next?”

“I’d like to try.” Ral stood a bit more finely, fixing his composition as he sported a determined smirk. “I think I still have access to one of my better skills.”

“Go ahead.” The Summoner nodded as he gestured at the still writhing fish. “I can’t do much without a more magical book yet.”

Nodding, Ral retracted his hand to his neck. Tapping the Izzet Keyrune hanging loosely from a chain swathing their neck, the Rune flashed out light in a blink. Suddenly, emanating magic from its sanctity, the Rune cascaded magic.

Absorbing the magic, Ral hummed out in satisfaction, “Right. Much, much better.”

“You didn’t tell us that either.” Malideus folded his arms together.

“Hey!” Ral defended himself, “Didn’t I tell you that this thing could give us mana?”

“Yes.” The Summoner nodded, looking downwards with closed eyes. Rearing his head leveled forward once more, he flared open his eyes once more. “But you didn’t say that we needed to tap it to gain mana from it.”

“Oh.” Ral titled his head a bit. “My mistake.”

Shrugging off that short incident, Ral positioned himself once more, staring the eel. Reaching forth, into the empty space before him, Ral summoned the Trident. As he flourished the Trident in whirls, he unequipped the Staff, causing it to vanish from sight.

Drawing the Trident high, lightning sparked from it, arching from each prong to the other as it flashed out violently. Suddenly, arcing out down, the trail of sparks followed it as the Trident was suddenly pointed at the eel.

“Good bye, foul fish,” Ral sing-songed as he stabbed the Trident downwards. A strike of lightning enveloping the Main Character, spouts of electricity protruded from the ground as dirt was coarsing with electricity. Even the air itself was cleaved and pierced with stabs of lightning emanating from the Main Character as a deafening, resonating piercing sound played out continually.

The fish actually being affected this time, its aegis of slime ineffective and was dried away by the searing bolts, was pierced and forked by the unrelenting electricity. Smoke coming from it, it suddenly went limp without no more than a struggle.

Still, the assault of electricity unrelented, spikes and spirals of lightning still pervading the atmosphere around the Main Character.

Finally, the electricity dimmed down as Ral felt a pang of fatigue running through his body. Seeing that he’s straining himself, he ended the display of sparks. Everything going back to as they were, the menagerie of lightning ended.

Panting in exhaustion, Ral stepped back from the Trident he has impaled straight into the ground. Looking around, eyes darting back and forth, head turning left and right, he was somewhat stunned.