Alice’s Effort

'What the hell are they doing?!'

Ena was already worried about them, and seeing them head straight at the chunks of rocks that were being thrown towards them only made it worse. She knew it, she shouldn't have let Alice go to Ellie who's mind works differently.

"Marie, this is why you should've let me went," Ena said in a monotone voice.

"What's the problem?- WHAT ARE THEY DOING?!" Marie exclaimed when she saw the two.

"I told you I should've gone, I'm the one who actually has rational thoughts unlike Ellie here. It's too late now, let's watch what they have in mind."

...

"Are you sure this is a good plan?!" asked Alice.

"Nope! Ena would kill us when we get back but that's if we are even able to come back alive!" Ellie replied.

"I don't know why I went with this suicidal plan. Also, aren't the rocks coming at us even faster?" asked Alice.

She was right, when they were still farther away, the rocks that were thrown at them were fast but not to the point where they couldn't dodge. However, when they got closer, it was taking more effort than before to dodge them.

"You're correct, it might be because we shortened the distance between them and us which gave them an advantage. Also- WATCH OUT!"

Lightning crackled through the air as Ellie swiftly grabbed Alice out of the way of the large boulder that came towards them at an intense speed, if Alice was hit by that, who knew what would happen.

Alice was shocked at what just happened, even though she was listening to what Ellie said while paying attention to what was in front of her, the boulder was somehow able to bypass her senses.

"It's exactly what you're thinking, they must have a highly skilled wind magic user to do this. By wrapping the boulder that was made of earth magic with wind magic, it allowed the boulder to become invisible to the human eye as well as being invisible to one's senses."

"It's called, Wind's Suppression," Ellie added.

It was similar to Ena's Chi Concealment.

"Wind's Suppression...that's the first time I've heard of something like that," said Alice.

"It's not surprising, only the highest level of wind magic users can use it. What made it deadly was the second layer of mana that was added onto it, it would multiply the force by two times making the original impact worse than it already was," said Ellie.

"Amazing..." Alice muttered.

Alice was amazed that such a thing existed, it proved that she still had a long way to go.

"Enough praising! We could see them now! They're...they're..."

When they got closer, that was when it finally hit them.

"'They're humans?!" Alice exclaimed.

They thought they were humans due to the intense amount of magic users and their skill level, but in reality, it was real people that were attacking them.

But that didn't calm them down, it only made them worry since they were going to go up against an enemy with real intelligence.

Alice and Ellie immediately dived behind a wall and leaned against it to calm down.

"What should we do?" asked Ellie.

"How should I know? This was supposed to be your plan, don't you have any backup ideas?" asked Alice.

"Nope, I thought they were mutants so I charged forward thinking I would outsmart them, I never thought they would be humans," said Ellie.

Alice rubbed her temples in frustration and said, "I regret coming here, it would've been better if I stayed with Ena and left you alone here."

"Oi! What's with the change of tone?!" asked Ellie.

"It's all your fault, moreover, start thinking of ideas while I try to find a way to reach them without us being seen," said Alice.

Alice didn't bother to hear Ellie's reply and started thinking about what to do.

As she started thinking, more and more ideas were gathering in her mind. Pieces of plans would add onto each other trying to find a way to make the strategy work.

"I got it!" Alice exclaimed.

"What is it?" asked Ellie.

"You did say that those who are very skilled at using wind magic can conceal objects correct?"

"Yes, I did say that."

"What if I can recreate that, but conceal ourselves?"

"HA?! Do you know what're you saying? It's impossible, as far as I know, you don't have any talent in wind magic at all," said Ellie.

"Kuh...that kind of hurt but anyways, it's not about talent. It's about creativity."

"Creativity?"

"Yes, creativity. Fire magic, the magic I'm skilled in, has properties of wind in it since wind is needed to create fire. And with that in mind, I might be able to recreate the concealment but with fire, though it might only last for a few seconds."

"Why're you looking at me like that?" Alice added.

"You do realize that what you just said is insanely absurd correct? Do you know how hard it is to conceal something? Especially a living thing at that." said Ellie.

"I know but, I realized something. All this time, Ena was protecting me without me even knowing, I was just sitting back and relaxing being...useless, I had no idea things like this were happening."

"Now that I'm here, I want to become stronger and become useful to her. I don't want to sit back, relax, and let Ena do all the dirty work. Now that I can finally prove it, I don't want to waste this chance to prove myself by doing this." said Alice.

Ellie couldn't understand half the things Alice was trying to say, but that was because she didn't know the feelings Alice harbored for Ena. Seeing how determined Alice was, Ellie couldn't refuse and signaled her to do it.

"Thank you."

But that didn't mean Alice could do it on the spot, she needed a visual image of how the concealment worked. Luckily, another one of the concealed rocks passed by, and Alice was able to see it.

"Perfect."