Seeking Something Higher [UD/BP]

Leopold shook his head at her inquiry. "No, not at all, ma'am," he replied. "It doesn't seem at all unusual that someone would want to know how to handle himself." He also said very little about his own prowess. Partially because he didn't agree with her assessment, and partially because he wasn't terribly eager to share his past.

"It's...nothing special," he said sullenly, nibbling on his own food. "Like I said, I used to be a castle guard... and magic isn't terribly rare there, so I just...asked one to help me. That was the only thing I could ever manage to get right from him. Everything else is just..." he trailed off. "Just things I picked up along the way."

He became entirely absorbed in his bread, and tried not to speak any more. It wasn't a happy subject and he didn't like to talk about it. Instead he just stared into the distance and scanned the terrain. Distant chirping and buzzing graced their little picnic.

He rose when he finished, brushing crumbs off his clothes. "Well... I guess we should get going?" he suggested. "That teacher isn't getting any closer..."

"Hmmm." Lamia focused on her own meal when Leo grew silent, and shut her eyes as she ate. Not because she was enjoying her meal THAT much, but because she had to calm the raging fires within her. They always got like this when they had been tapped into but not exhausted, and that had been the main reason she'd been upset at their training match having been over so soon. She felt her magic swelling in strength, as though indignant, and frowned in concentration.

Finally, Leo broke her focus just after she'd gotten it back under control, and she looked up at him as he suggested to continue the trip. "Probably a good idea," she said, getting to her feet. "Shall I lead?"

"Um. Only if you don't get too far away, ma'am," He muttered. They had come quite some way from Hyrule Castle Town, that much was true. But they still had a long way to go and it wasn't safe to go alone. Especially as this was unfamiliar territory to him; he had yet to admit that he had never strayed far from the castle town, but it was true all the same.

"I'm not very familiar with the fields yet... So let's take our time and make sure we don't get lost. Or worse." It was unlikely that they'd run afoul of highwaymen or the like, but it was never entirely certain, and it was going to be a long journey...

"Probably a good idea," Lamia said in response to Leo not wanting to get lost. "I have a map and compass, but it'd be altogether better to just know where we're going and not wander astray." Common knowledge, honestly. She struck her wrists together, the clanging noise her gold wristbands made on each other a comforting sound as usual. She picked up her belongings, taking the compass to hand and waiting until it had settled on the north. "Let's go, then."

She didn't know how long the two had been walking for, but Hyrule Castle Town was well out of view when they happened across a makeshift camp containing four men. Lamia saw them long before they caught sight of them- three of them were slim, but well-toned men in easy-to-move-in clothes, while the last one dressed in robes reminiscent of a traditional sorcerer. They all made some sort of effort to conceal their face, so it was no secret what they were doing here on a semi-well-travelled path.

Lamia tried to ignore them, uncomfortably tossing her ponytail over her shoulder as she approached them, but they got up and blocked her path. "Hey there, beautiful," one of the slim men said, "Where does the trail take you?"

"Nowhere important," Lamia said, knowing full well these men could reach for weapons more quickly than she could hope to. "Could you move out of the way so we can continue on our way?"

"Depends. Could the two of you cough up 500 rupees the man?" No, they could not. Lamia shook her head. "Then you're no goin' anywhere." Lamia took a wider stance, balling one fist and summoning her power. It didn't take long before her hand started to radiate heat, as well as a faint reddish hue. "You wanna fight huh? GET'ER, BOYS!" Lamia didn't wait for him to finish shouting and lashed up, connecting her fist to his chin and unleashing the Gerudo Dragon.

The other two drew a dagger and a crossbow respectively, while the last stepped back and started mumbling a spell.

"Sorry, sir..." Leopold preemptively apologized, "But we don't have time for this..." He immediately stepped to the outside of Lamia and the first man's range, and rushed the chanting one. The boy knew that mages were always difficult to predict and he had little desire to see what an immoral one would do. The youngest Haronite ducked under a fireball as he rushed, crouching and then using it to leap towards his target. Leopold didn't even try to stop when he reached the mumbling one; he just channeled his momentum into a sharp blow to his throat.

The highwayman coughed and momentarily clutched his throat, but Leo quickly put a stop to this by throwing a punch to his forehead. Stunned, the mage staggered back as Leo drew his weapon and bashed him in the stomach with the hilt before finally felling him with a heavy strike. The entire process took only a few seconds.

A bolt struck him, though, in the back, causing him to wince. He'd need help with that later... He circled the marksman. At least one was still focused on Lamia, but now that he'd lost the element of surprise... it would be difficult to find an opening.

Lamia didn't even watch as Leo took out the mage, busy as she was fighting back her own assaulters. She was sorely impressed to see the first attacker survive the Gerudo Dragon, or at least getting up shortly after he hit the ground a couple dozen feet away from her. He limped though, so instead she turned and grabbed the wrist of the man with the dagger, turning inwards and connecting the ball of her foot with his neck. He staggered back, giving the Gerudo a chance to pack her fists together and raise them above her head.

Her mother had warned her of how dangerous this technique was when attempted carelessly, and under normal circumstances she wouldn't have used it without a weapon to channel it through. However, she had little choice right now- she was overloading her dominant fist with her Gerudo Dragon, and she had nothing to channel her Fire spell through. Unable as she was to grab her weapons without being stabbed in the back, she had to channel through her bare hands.

As the man approached, her hands grew bright orange, and she decided it was time to release when he was about two feet away from her. She lunged forward, slamming her fists into the ground. The consequences were amazing. Around her, a large blast flared and torched the man, leaving her slightly out of breath but otherwise okay to the eyes of the unsuspecting watcher.

She was most decidedly not okay, she realized when she saw the red-hot glow of her wrist guards. Something was terribly wrong.

Leo's hair stood on end after Lamia's second Dragon, though he knew not why; he felt the power in the air and it gave him pause, which was a bad idea as the crossbow-wielder still had a bead on him. He hastily positioned his sword in front of him, but that it blocked the oncoming bolt was more blind luck than skill; he was too badly shaken to have intentionally deflected it, but the impact jerked him back to reality. He jumped to one side, picking up a rock as he hit the ground, and began running towards the ranged attacker.

The man with the crossbow tried to aim at Leopold again, but just as he seemed to steady his arms, the boy threw something towards him in an arc. The man winced and turned his gaze to the projectile, only to find it was a rock; not even coming his way. However, in the few seconds he had spent ascertaining this, Leo had already fallen upon him and a thick sword crashed into him.

As he fell, so too did a pendant that looked to hold a red jewel from his clothing...

No. No no no no no!

This was bad. She'd overtaxed her armour, and her fire was running wild. Any second now, she could blow up... and to make matters worse, she couldn't focus on meditation. The last crook had produced a dagger of his own and came towards her, ready to plunge it into her now that she was seemingly out of breath and defenseless. He was in for a surprise.

The moment Lamia tossed away a shred of her concentration, it was as if the last seal on her magic was undone. Suddenly, around her a ring of fire sprang up, circling around her wildly and knocking the man back, setting him aflame. She didn't care much for him, but fell to her knees in exhaustion after the flames died. She panted, and she felt like vomiting. This was exactly what she hoped would never have to happen.

Leopold Puerulus stopped and stared as the woman he was traveling with exploded.

That was not hyperbole nor was it any other figure of speech that he knew of; she literally combusted in the middle of the fight, and the pillar of flame subsequently consumed her opponent. Leo needed to mentally replay that event just to make certain that he'd seen it correctly. That burst of magic power was insane, and he'd never seen anything like it.

"Hey! Lamia!" he sheathed his sword and ran over to check on her. Instinctively, he took her arms and turned them round looking for wounds. There were no external injuries, but... her clothes had apparently not stood up well to her sudden conflagration. He was honestly amazed she came out so unscathed from that...

"Let's rest for now," he said in a surprisingly firm voice. "You have to be exhausted from that, and I don't think these guys," --here he jerked his head in the direction of the bandits--"will be of any more trouble."

"Don't touch me!" Lamia screamed, shoving Leo off a lot more roughly than she would have liked. "You don't understand! I could -kill- you if we're not careful right now..." She put her arms tightly around herself, clenching her eyes shut and forcing her fire back into her core. As she did so, she felt that most of the fire had actually died down- apparently the outburst from just now had drained her, and she fell forward. "I'm okay," she said to Leo before he would worry, and she rolled onto her back. "I just need... a few minutes of rest. Could you check the bandit camp for anything useful?" She didn't dare hope for a Green Potion, and truthfully, even if there WAS one, she wouldn't dare to ingest it anyway.

After a few minutes of laying on her back, she forced herself into a sitting position and crossed her legs beneath her. "I- I'm sorry," she said. "I'll explain. This is exactly why I have to go in training with a specialised wizard... I have to learn control so these kinds of things don't happen. My armour usually protects me, I don't know what went wrong there..."

"Oh, I think you'd be surprised by how hard I am to kill," he said quietly, almost to no one in particular. It wasn't as though there were any shortage of factors trying to do just that, that should have by all rights succeeded by now. They just hadn't had the fortune to. He was like a particularly persistent cockroach that way...

All the same he backed away to take a look at the thugs who had attacked them. He couldn't find anything that could place their origins or even their motivations, beyond simple greed. He supposed that that was just as well; the Golden Goddesses knew that they two were more equipped to deal with highwaymen than the average travelers, so it was well that they had fell upon people able to stand up to them. Leo didn't feel particularly good about inspecting corpses this way, and even less about possibly raiding them, but desperate times. As the pain from the bolt needled through him with his movements, he inspected them for anything that might have been of use. No healing items, which he supposed made sense. Lowbrow bandits were not likely to carry them... But he did find, among other things, the pendant from earlier. It seemed to be of an usual make...

"I think they raided another party before us..." the boy muttered as he tossed her the jewelry. Really, he was hoping to avoid the subject, but... "No, ma'am. That was... improper of me. All the same, I think we should take a brief reprieve here."

"That may be a good idea," Lamia agreed, "I have rations in my pack. You're free to help yourself to any if you like- just don't touch my weapons." She didn't get up, herself, instead putting her hand to her dizzy head. With her other hand, she reached down towards the ground and picked up the pendant that Leo had tossed towards her. It was certainly of interesting make; the pendant itself was almost entirely crafted from smoothed ruby, a material hard to make smooth, and framed with gold. What bothered Lamia was the marking on the pendant, though. She recognized it on sight, as it was everywhere in the temple and the training grounds. It was the symbol of Din.

"What were these common thugs doing with this?" she said, realising what the pendant was. "This is a religious symbol of my order. If they STOLE it from one of our temples, I will...." She clenched a fist, but when a fire started licking at her soul again, she immediately struggled to compose herself. She felt lucky to have survived the first burst. Another would likely kill her. To distract herself, she looked at Leo. "...why do you still have that bolt in your back? Get my wrap of bandage out of my pack, give it to me, and sit down in front of me."

Leopold was somewhat unnerved that they could have robbed a temple, of all things. Was nothing sacred? But before he could dwell on it, she brought attention to the bolt still stuck in him. That was... problematic, yes. "Well, ma'am," he said quietly, "if you'd permit me to say so, it's somewhat hard to reach a bolt that's... well... in my back." Nevertheless, he did as she asked and brought her the bandages.

"What about you?" He asked, turning around to let her dress the wound. "Aren't you hurt after... that?"

Taking the bandage from Leopold, Lamia tore off a piece and handed it back to him. "Bite on that," she said, "This is gonna hurt." She gave him a few seconds, and then put her hand around the bolt. An arrow she would have snapped and then pulled through his body, but both the fact that this was a crossbow bolt and the place it had lodged itself in made that impossible, so she could only employ one method of extracting it...

With a sudden jerk, she pulled it out in as straight a line as she could manage, immediately dropping it and putting her hand to the wound. She channeled her magic through her hand, although not shaping it into a spell, and eventually she felt her flesh reaching searing temperatures. Knowing she was very quickly cauterising the wound, she finally retracted her hand and set to answering his question. "Don't worry about me. I've always had a lot of fire coursing through me. If my body expelled it that violently, then it's probably better that it's out."

The only sound Leo made as the bolt came out was a sharp intake of breath. But the removal was swift and clean; very professional. He was silently grateful for that. Hopefully it wouldn't scar too badly. He was somewhat less prepared for the heat, though, and he let a small grunt escape his lips then. Ah. Was this another method of healing?

"Thank you, ma'am," he said once the burning sensation ended. "I suppose I'll have to mend this tear in my shirt, as well..." He'd do that by night. After a brief period of silence, he spoke again. "Are your own clothes damaged from that? I know a little of the needle and thread, so..." Truthfully, he was a tad intrigued. Were those garments distributed to each acolyte? They seemed to be of unusual make...