Chapter 60: Mistflower 6: Departure

The bridge of nature energy connected to the other side and gave off a strange green glow. It chased away the fairies, creating a clear path toward the other side.

“Azu, you’re in charge of protecting me while I bring this to the other side, work Sym to the bone. It’s time to depart!”

Mishelly crouched and placed her hands on the Carrot room which started to shake and rose slowly.

“Whoa! I’m a flying rabbit!” Sym messed around and fell off the Carrot room.

“Sym, you idiot!” My fan flew down and caught the reckless rabbit.

“I am not going to save you the next time you fall off, please behave...”

“Heh, Azu you sound like his mother.” Mishelly smirked and poured more nature energy into the Carrot room which sped up and started following the bridge of nature energy.

“Please don’t joke about that. It's not funny...”

The Carrot room floated up and slowly moved over the bridge. It caught the attention of the fairies as there was no way this would go by unnoticed.

My fan was on standby in case I would fall so I used [Mistflower Field] without my fan. Mistflowers formed a shell around us. Not quite a barrier but any fairy flying into it would trigger [Mistflower Field].

“That’s better, now our vision is filled with beautiful flowers instead of ugly fairies.”

“Ugh, my ears...can you also do something about that noise?”

“Sym, stop complaining and curl your ears like any competent rabbit!” Mishelly had dropped her goofy character and was putting her all into moving the Carrot room.

“Mishelly, what would happen if you needed to rest? We won’t drop right? Or does Sym have to take over?”

“We will be fine, this is a bridge so we will stay suspended when I have to rest don't worry. It would be nice though if Sym took over but...I’m not relying on that....”

“Hey! I could do it if I wanted to!”

Sym’s hubris got ignored as we focused on our tasks. I continued sending out mistflowers hoping this wouldn’t be needed.

“Azu! Make sure to create a window for Mishelly! She can’t see where she is going like this!”

“Sym... please let us focus...this Carrot room follows the bridge. I don’t need to see where I’m going...”

Do the rabbits have some sort of school where they learn these things? It seems Sym didn’t pay attention if that’s the case. His stupid questions sure helped me understand the rabbits better. I will just pretend to be smart and let Sym ask all the stupid questions.

The mistflowers exploded and scattered petals everywhere as some fairies broke through the shell I had created. It seems our rest was over.

I gripped my fan and sent [Hairpin: Azure Hairpins] at the surviving fairies.

“Mishelly, I don’t want to complain but how long will it take for us to arrive and can it go faster?”

The shell was greatly disturbed and getting attacked from all sides. Petals and falling fairy chunks were everywhere. Replenishing [Mistflower Field] while shooting [Hairpin: Azure Hairpins] wasn’t a great deal but that was assuming we would reach our destination on time.

“Uhh, it will take 4 hours at this pace and going faster won’t change that as I will have to rest more often.”

Mishelly stared at Sym. “It would go faster if that guy helped out though but it seems he doesn’t know how, which might make things worse.”

Sym was firing [Wind Blasts] at the fairies but most missed as the scattered petals of my mistflowers shredded them into pieces before his attacks connected.

The floral smell of Sym’s perfume got driven away by the smell of shredded fairies.

“Everything has just been terrible lately...is there nothing beautiful left in this world?!”

The giggling intensified as if to answer my cry of frustration. A large beautiful woman with colorful butterfly wings broke through the shell of mistflowers.

“Beautiful? You called me?” The large fairy giggled, waved a staff, and sent a horde of laserbears at us.

“You can’t fool me! You’re hideous under that disguise! I won't forgive you for ruining fairies for everyone!”

The laserbears did what they do best; being ugly and shooting lasers.

“Stupid laserbear fairy! I’m used to dealing with lasers! You can thank that bitch goddess.”

[Ice Mirrors] appeared and trivialized the laserbear attacks. Mostly...

“Azu! You missed a spot! The big fairy is doing something! Also, can you heal me? I got hit by a laserbear!”

I had forgotten why Sym wasn’t very popular in our day shift...

“Tick tock, 2 rabbits and a witch on a floating rock. Where are you going? From far to near, how about you play with a laserbear?! Hahahaha!” The big fairy laughed and charged a big laser.

The surrounding fairies body blocked any mistflowers I sent at her.

“How vexing. Sym, protect Mishelly, I’m going in!”

I hopped on my fan and released a mana wave. It’s time to get serious. My hair trailed behind me like a blue stream as my mana ballooned and a [Tsunami]went out. The mass of water only hit several fairies before it dropped and made a large splash down below.

“Ah...using [Tsunami] while flying certainly isn’t a bright idea...As long as it hit something it’s fine though!”

[Azure Sharks] can’t be used, what about [Azure Chain]? It’s a bit inefficient as is [Azure Spear] or [Hairpin: Azure Hairpin] as they hit only 1 target.

It didn’t matter in the end, as long as I could use [Azure Mist]. These fairies were using magic but with different mana runes. [Azure Mist] should work but I have no backup in case it doesn’t.

An [Azure Spear] formed in my hands and I wielded it to smack fairies aside and pierce them. It’s the best I could do.

[Mistflower Field] followed and [Azure Mist] went out after [Mistflower Field] shredded several fairies.

The floating Carrot room was covered in a blanket of azure mist and fairy screams surrounded us.

I returned to the Carrot room and sat down. [Azure Mist] is normally a fire-and-forget skill but I would have to put in work to have it follow us.

“Sym, I need to focus to keep this around us. You deal with any unforeseen circumstances.”

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“Pretty witch! Where are you?! Aaagh! It hurts!” The big fairy screamed and yelled out orders but nothing could find or hit us currently.

“Whoa! What are they doing?! Can’t they see that we’re over here? Yoohoo! Over here stupid fairies!”

How has this guy survived for so long...it truly is a mystery. We can indeed see perfectly fine through this mist but the fairies can’t, calling for them won’t help.

I ignored Sym while concentrating on my [Azure Mist].

“Hey Azu, what did you do? There are petals everywhere!”

“Sym, can you please let me focus, that’s [Azure Mist] we should be fine unless your recklessness exceeds my awesomeness.”

“Want to find out? How about you Mishelly? Want to see what is stronger?” Sym said ass he poked Mishelly.

The Carrot room stopped moving and Sym got kicked into the floor. “She told you she wanted to focus! The same goes for me! Shut up!”

Mishelly returned to her spot and started to move the Carrot room again.

The big fairy was displaying disgusting behavior, it ate the parts of its fallen kin and gradually grew. It was the only fairy that hadn’t been shredded by my ultimate skill. She even called more fairies into the [Azure Mist].

Enemy behavior like this bothers me as it means she has a trick that could cause a reversal.

It went on for 2 hours when the Carrot room stopped. It woke Sym and he rubbed his head. “Huh? Are we there yet?

“No Sym, I need to rest. Azu, what’s the deal with that gigantic fairy? it’s unsettling.”

“I don’t know, it just won't die, and its acting like a psychopath...”

The fairy’s feeding frenzy was quite grotesque so we stopped focusing on it.

“I wonder how high up we are.” Sym walked over to the edge to look and Mishelly bound him with vines.

“Absolutely not, nobody will fetch you if you fall!”

“Come on Shelly! I’m not that reckless!”

The binds around him tightened. “Don’t call me Shelly and we all know that you will fall off!”

“How about Elly?! Or Mishe! Hmm that doesn’t sound so good, how about Misha!”

Well, that was awkward...

Mishelly wasn’t amused though. “Fine, go fall off if you want to. I will cut my break short as the less I rest the sooner I can get home and away from this guy!”

The vines released Sym and she started moving the Carrot room again.

She had never cancelled her Rabbit mode and the tips of her tails started becoming red after she started.

“Sym, what is that?” I pointed at the red on Mishelly’s tails.

“Oh, those are tails! They get big and fluffy in our Rabit mode!”

“I... I know that...I mean the red on her tails...”

“Oh... that happens when we use our Rabbit mode too often or we get extremely stressed.”

I’m sure that he is contributing to Mishelly getting stressed...

“What happens if her tails get redder?”

“She will die. Like dead dead regardless of how many lives she has left.”

That doesn’t sound good... I always thought these rabbits were stress resistant, or maybe it’s stress caused by overusing magic or nature energy...

“Anyway to get rid of it?”

“Oh, rest should do the trick. That's why we have day and night shifts even though we can fight for several days!”

“So this wouldn’t have happened if you knew how to move this Carrot room?”

“Exactly! Wait! This isn’t my fault!”

Sym started making excuses so I ignored him. The gigantic fairy was charging a laser and was mostly unaffected by the damage she got.

“Oh my, this is a problem. Sym, can you block lasers by any chance?”

“I have 85 lives so I can block 85 lasers!”

“No that’s not what I meant and... Don’t most rabbits have lives in the triple or quadruple digits?”

“It’s because they think they hate carrots but they secretly love them! I’m the only true carrot hater!”

What a weird thing to be proud of and I’m not sure that’s correct either...

“Don’t worry! I will show you how cool I am!” Sym displayed confidence. I hope it’s real and not misguided. I've seen rabbits pull off various acts that I would consider miracles so he might be able to do so too.

Sym went into Rabbit mode and hopped from air pocket to air pocket. He went straight for the giant fairy and started firing lasers at her. A flower bloomed on the fairy for every laser that hit her.

It looks pretty but how is making the fairy prettier going to help us?

Another swarm of fairies flew into [Azure Mist] and was forced to regain focus. Wren had chosen him for a reason. He might not be as incompetent as he lets on.

I was being put to the test as Sym was loud and making strange noises.

To watch or to focus?

My focus instantly dropped as drowsiness set in.

“No not now! Stupid [Acedia] It went so well!”

[Azure Mist] started to lag behind and it would be a matter of time before we would move out of it.

I forced [Insomnia] on me to stay awake but one thing was for sure. My focus was broken. When will things go my way?

“Haha! Take this! [Flower Drain]!”

The flowers on the big fairy bloomed and seemingly sucked the moisture out of it, making it look ugly. At least the laser stopped charging.

“Haha! How do you like that! I will turn you into an empty husk! Take some more! Here! And there! And oh...”

A laser shot through Sym’s torso as he had gotten careless.

“Ouch, that’s going to leave a scar...”

It got patched up with nature energy but it made me worry for him. That surely must have knocked off at least 1 life.

The big fairy dropped its disguise and turned into a cluster of enormous laserbears. The ticking sound got louder, hurting my ears.

The ticking sounds were as if they were overpowering my thoughts.

Tick tock, tick tock... as if my thoughts were getting drowned out, tick tock..

I had enough of it and brought down a [Meteor].

Tick tock, tick tock. So annoying. Tick tock.

And then... silence.

Did I die?

Did I go deaf?

Did the [Meteor] wipe them all out? No that can’t be right. There is sound. It’s the rumbling of the [Meteor] falling.

“Waaah! Azu! Are you trying to kill us?!”

Sym hopped back over air pockets toward us.”

“Uhh maybe, what happened to the sound?”

“Oh, that obnoxious giggling? I cast [Silence] on them! Am I not amazing?!”

The fairies were still doing fairy things but it was as if every one of them had been muted. [Silence] isn’t uncommon but a swift application to so many targets is...

“That’s amazing yeah, how did you do it?”

“Well, you see? I had this cute chick I had a crush on once but I kept getting found out sneaking around trying to peep on her. I worked on my sneaking skills but she could always hear me so I came up with this!”

“You...made this to peep on your crush?”

“Yup! I can’t believe that it came in useful!”

It was as if he cast [Silence] on me too as I was speechless.

The [Meteor] pushed the fairies to the ground and exploded below us.

“Didn't you report to us that they are resistant to fire?”

I was still aghast by this man and stayed silent.

Sym waled to the edge and looked down. “Ahhh! I knew it! They’re not dead! But...let’s [Rabbit Kick] them while they’re down!”

Sym jumped off the Carrot room and that was all there was to it.

“Huh? Sym wait!”

But it was too late. Sym had already jumped off. How reckless can a rabbit be...

I fought against my drowsiness and tried to move the [Azure Mist]. It had been left behind and casting a new one would be more efficient.

The [Azure Mist] got canceled and I waited for fairies to approach to hit with [Tsunami] but they never came.

I took a short break, shared some snacks with Mishelly, and went to the edge to find out what Sym had been up to.

Fairies were swarming around him while he was kicking them away.

“Sym! Come back!”

No reaction. I yelled louder but he didn’t seem to hear me.

“Azu! Pay attention! Sym’s [Silence] is still in effect! More fairies are approaching!”

I turned around and saw a swarm approach in silence. It was surreal but the only sounds were natural sounds, sounds the magic made and the sound we made.

“I hope that Sym can manage to pull through.” My fan unfolded and another [Azure mist] combo went out.

I continuously bit my finger to stay wide awake and focused so the [Azure Mist] could follow the Carrot room.

Fairy after fairy got shredded in silence. Some in their hideous form, others in their beautiful forms. Some had patterns on their wings, others magic circles. Their physical appearance didn’t seem to vary much. There were 12 or 13 different looks in total but the patterns or magic circles on their wings were always different.

I bit my finger again to regain focus as it was slipping, just as my consciousness.

I need to stay awake!

Mishelly’s tails were progressively getting redder and redder, one-third of her tails had turned red and she also seemed to struggle to keep focused.

3 was too low of a number for this mission but there weren’t many free hands either... one or 2 rabbits less on the shifts might not have made a difference but who knows...

Our destination was getting close. About 3 hours had passed but it felt like an eternity. Mishelly had only taken a 5-minute break. My break was also short and Sym...Sym hasn’t returned yet...

Fairies were still swarming at a particular spot in the distance, the spot where Sym had jumped down. Surely he didn’t...

I got the shock of my life as the sound returned. The swarm in the distance stopped what they were doing and spread out.

I bit more focus to keep focus as more fairies flew at us.

Lasers shot from our destination and sniped the fairies down.

“Hold on Azu! Just 20 more minutes! Where is Sym? Tell him to return!”

I wasn’t sure...the sound returning combined with the fairies dispersing is a bad sign. I tried to take my mind off it as all I needed was to focus for 20 more minutes.

Sym isn’t dead, he just escaped. The rabbits always escape. That must be it!

I bit another finger and focused on completing my task.

Sym was an idiot but he didn’t deserve to die. Sym is fine. Sym is fine. Yet...my tears disagreed.

“Ugh, stupid tears...”

Think of fluffy stuff, think of happy stuff. Think of cake, of mistflowers, of magic theories, of nerding out on the new and unknown.

I repeated those thoughts and bit my finger whenever they deviated. A long and painful 20 minutes.

A tremor shook the Carrot room and Mishelly collapsed.

Rabbits gathered around us, thanked and congratulated us. Nature energy got applied to us for healing purposes and to recover our stamina.

“Thank you, your job is done. Great job.”

I wanted to protest as we had lost a rabbit but my focus slipped and dragged my consciousness with it.