4.

Death Saving Throw: 1/3 Fails. 0/3 Success.

2.

Death Saving Throw: 2/3 Fails. 0/3 Success.

16.

Death Saving Throw: 2/3 Fails. 1/3 Success.

+7 Hit Points: 7/75.

Opening my eyes with a groan the first thing I see is a raven a few inches away from my face.

You need to move, sir. Your companion is quite winded and has put all of her focus into evasion.

I try to move my arms to push myself up but there’s unexpected resistance. With a hard yank my right arm is freed as dirt and pebbles scatter into the air. Holy shit I’m actually embedded into the ground like a cartoon character. There’s a loud crashing sound off to the right, behind me. Pulling the rest of my body out of the ground as my back and ribs scream at me in pain I reach into my pocket and squeeze my sending stone. “Luna, I’m okay, but I lost my wings. What should I do?”

“Thank Harmony you’re okay! I only have enough mana for one spell, and if that doesn’t wrap this up then we need to flee. Get back to camp and pack everything up, you might need to use your flying potion in the worst case scenario.”

“Do you know if this creature dislikes anything in particular?”

“Gold, why?”

“I’m gunna pack everything up and then banish it. That’ll give us a minute to make as much distance as possible. Unless you wanna kill it, I could try that paralysis spell I used on you.”

“No, this is just a wild animal whose territory we’ve encroached upon. They already have a very low population, so we should only kill it as a last resort. Let’s go with your banishment plan.”

Alright, the boss has spoken. Luckily it seems like I’m out of combat, so let me dump some healing before I start moving. Lay on Hands all 10 points, Cure Wounds level 3.

+10 +18

Hit Points: 35/75.

“Thanks for the assist Cal, can you point me towards camp then go hover near Luna? I want you within 30ft of her and the bear so I can cast through you.”

It’s about 70ft south west, sir.

I just stare at the bird for a few seconds, “Which way is south west?” Callisid silently points a wing and I can feel the disappointment radiating off of him. “Don’t look at me with that tone of voice. I’m pretty sure the sun doesn’t rise and set in the same direction in this realm, but I haven’t asked.”

I didn’t say anything, sir.

That’s what I thought you lil’ shit. Turning away from the raven I take off towards camp. Within 10 seconds or so I’m packing up the tent and other supplies into Luna’s bag. “Luna the camping bag is ready for you to magic it wherever you normally magic it off to. I’m going to throw on my Mizzium and then fly back over there. You still doin okay?”

I throw on my backpack and then awkwardly place the Mizzium over the top of it. Luna replies but sounds even more out of breath than before. “The beast is quite persistent…. I did not think I would tire out before it, but that’s likely due to my mana running low. You’ll need to bring that camping bag with you as well, I can’t store it remotely.”

Shit. Well I guess I’m not using a sword anyways so both of my hands are free. I chug the potion of flying, grab the camping bag, and take off towards the mountainous space bear. Once I’m within 30ft of the ursa I let Luna know. “Alright I’m going to banish it now, get ready to move.”

I pull out a bit from my coin pouch and yell out the incantation for Banishment.

Arcana Check (Mizzium, DC: 18)

9 + 13 = 22.

A loud crackle echoes through the air and all of us stop moving for a few seconds waiting for something to happen.

Nothing happens.

Roll for Initiative.

19 + 5 = 24.

Fuck. Alright let’s try this one more time. Bladesong. Nothing says I have to actually be holding a sword to use the bladesong. “Ignis, when are you going to banish it?”

“I just did, it resisted it. Buy me 6 seconds and I can try again.” My action was the banishment spell and my bonus action was the bladesong, so my turn is already over. Luna fires off a pitifully weak magic beam at the bear, purely to try and grab its attention. Unfortunately it seems to not even notice the attack as the gargantuan creature slowly turns away from her and stares me down. “Do you want me to try banishing it again, or should I try the paralysis spell?”

“Try to banish it one more time if you can.”

The sound of trees bending and cracking rings out as the bear takes two big steps towards me. I’m only at 35 HP, I can’t risk getting hit by this thing once. It swings its paw through the air and it sounds like an airplane is flying at me from all the wind noise. Time seems to slow down as I fly to the left to try and evade the swing. I’m not going to make it in time, “Shield!” I throw out an empty palm and project the shield between me and the paw. It seems like I moved far enough to the left that the paw is forced to slide off my shield and gently push me out of the way.

Okay that worked for the first swing, where’s the second? I find my answer as the moonlight from above is suddenly obscured, looking up I freeze in fear as my eyes widen. It’s going to stomp me into the ground. I point my palm up and rotate the shield just in time. The paw hits the shield, and thankfully it doesn’t shatter it instantly. Unfortunately this doesn’t prevent the secondary consequence of being stomped, I’m being quickly pushed towards the ground.

Suddenly I hear wings flapping just a few feet away from me and the next thing I know I’m wrapped up in soft dark blue wings, and with a loud pop my vision is temporarily filled with a white flash. An instant later I feel grass under me and the loud pseudo-explosion from what must’ve been the bear stomping the ground is heard a few feet away from where I’m currently at. Luna teleported us, but how did she move when it wasn’t her turn? “Lulu, was that all of your mana?”

“No, but if I use my attack spell there’s a very good chance it’ll actually zero me out. If that happens it’ll take even longer for me to replenish my pool. More importantly, we are not out of danger, I only blinked us a few feet away. You need to banish it. Now.”

“My Goddess is a real slave driver sometimes. As you command, Your Grace.” I lean back away from the winged embrace so I can see the Ursa as I hold out another bit and shout the same incantation as before. This is my last 4th level spell slot, make it count!

Arcana Check (Mizzium, DC: 18)

8 + 13 = 21.

An even louder cracking sound permeates through the air as reality ripples around the bear, but to my absolute despair the creature remains. “Luna, how far can you teleport us?”

“If I’m in an unfamiliar environment like this I can only teleport as far as I can see, but that won’t be far enough to truly get us away from the Ursa. I don’t have enough mana to get us to any of the closest teleportation circles. Does that mean your spell failed again?”

“I’m afraid so. What do we do now?” This is all my fault. I shouldn’t have pushed her so hard to attempt the repairs on the Moonblade.

“Stay here, I’m going to hit it with my spell one more time.”

“Wait, I can just make us invisible and we can run away.” I should’ve come up with this earlier, but my brain was in fight mode. I was tunnel visioned on Banishment or Hold Monster. I place my hand on her neck and Invisibility at 3rd level, targeting myself and her. “Let’s go. This will last for an hour.”

I feel her pull away and stand up, and that makes me realize something. “Wait, Luna, I can’t see you. Which way are you going?”

Something unseen pulls on my hand until I feel soft fur in between my fingers. My hand continues to be pulled and I realize she’s pulling my arm around the back of her neck. “Now lean into me and I’ll lean into you.” She speaks just a few inches away from my ear, barely above a whisper. I follow her instructions and I’m glad she has blindsight instead of truesight. She knows where I am but can’t actually see me, and the reason I’m glad she can’t see me is because I can feel my face has heated up.

I can’t really explain why, but this feels very intimate. Is this pony handholding?

Yes. This is often how couples will walk to their destination together.

Really?! You pick now of all times to randomly chime in?

Although causing you to become even more flustered does bring me some level of amusement, the reason I’ve “chimed in” is to alert you that the Ursa Major is still following you.

Wait, is it actually? I glance back and see that it is slowly wandering in our general direction, but it’s not looking directly at us.

It’s likely tracking you with its nose.

“Luna, th-” I whisper out, but I’m interrupted.

“I’m aware. We likely have some time before it can hone in on us precisely, and I’m trying to think of a new plan.”

Author's Note

Listen I know this is really short, but I wanted to put out a chapter today and I just kept getting distracted while I was writing. I pushed through and stayed up like 3 hours later than I normally do to try and get this up to 2k words, but I think this is a good stopping point for the chapter and in 400 more words it likely won't be as good of a stopping point.

I also felt pretty scattered brain when trying to come up with the decision making process for Ignis and Luna, so if I completely overlooked a more sound strategy or better spells for this situation then I'm not gunna lie I would like to know about it in the comments. Mainly because if Ignis had super bad decision making this chapter it was because of ME being out of it and I feel like the character could've come up with whatever the better strategy is.

If the better strategy is some insane niche shit though, then I likely won't rewrite the chapter, but if its believable for Ignis to have come up with it then I'll most likely rewrite this chapter.

Anyways that's all, thanks for reading!