Worn Out

While things had been chaotic at first, Elmo was surprised at how much of a stalemate things had gotten so quickly. After the tents had gone down on the side where they'd been retreating from, the line had been formed and neither side seemed to be gaining ground.

It wasn't that surprising that they weren't making much progress, but what Elmo found surprising was the fact that their side wasn't losing ground like they had been at first. In a way, it almost felt like a dance. Where each side went through motions that didn't really have much, if any, effect on the others.

Elmo still was able to use his terror spell that would reduce their opponents numbers by one at a time. Though, Elmo was already starting to run out of stamina to charge his MP. If he continued, he was certain that he'd quickly become more of a liability than an asset. Not that he could think of what else he could do.

However, Elin seemed to be doing well at healing the few that they were able to knock out and removed the enchanted armor. A few on their side were caught with having a helmet forced on them, but in most cases others were able to remove the helmet just as quickly, as there didn't seem to be any straps to hold it in place.

While it seemed like they weren't able to gain any ground in this fight, Elmo was confident that they were. Just very slowly. Though, he wouldn't be surprised if they still failed, simply because the enchanter clearly didn't care about the health of those that it controlled. Which meant that as their side started to tire, those who were enchanted would be able to start to gain ground themselves.

Elmo was starting to think that they should try to retreat. If they could rest, then they'd be able to come back later, but even though they were gaining ground now, unless something changed that allowed them to press an advantage, it was only a matter of time before they started to lose ground.

However, Kim was one of those in the thick of the fighting, so he couldn't really talk to her about it. Out of everyone, she seemed to be the only one that their opponents were using their weapons on. Even though Kim was clearly trying to merely subdue them rather than kill, they were swinging their swords intending to kill her.

Elin was more or less running back and forth, trying to keep up with those who were knocked out and having their armor stripped. While they were getting a person here and there along the line, Elin wasn't moving as quickly as she had when they'd first started. Either she had already been struggling and Elmo just hadn't seen it or she was running rather low on stamina.

Either way, it was clear to Elmo that they weren't going to be able to count on her help for much longer. In addition to the fact that they were probably going to have her become a liability herself, just as Elmo knew he was close to being.

Elmo wasn't sure how long it was that they held the line, but Elin was no longer running and merely walking slowly from one person to another, occasionally taking a small drink from her MP potion, as she healed the next person. Elmo wasn't sure but it looked like she was getting rather nauseas. He couldn't tell if it was from fatigue or if she'd gotten sick at some point, but it was clear she wasn't looking too good.

When things started to turn, Elmo was surprised. Not so much that it was happening, as he expected it to happen sooner or later, but it wasn't turning in the direction he'd expected. Rather than them having to turn and run, the line of their opponents were breaking. He couldn't be sure what the cause was, but that didn't mean he planned on complaining about it.

All he could feel other than surprise was relief about it. Relief that the end was in sight. That they weren't going to have to retreat, which meant that he'd be able to rest sooner rather than later.

When everything cleared, he was surprised to find Jonas helping with the others removing the enchanted armor. Jonas seemed to not find anything out of the ordinary, but Elmo couldn't help but wonder where all the others who should have been under the influence of the enchantment.

There had been a lot more people who had been given a piece of armor than there were who were milling around at the moment. It felt like they were missing part of the army that had been following them around for a while. Like this was merely a first act.

"Kim, we need to discuss what I learned," Jonas said as the last piece of armor was removed.

Elmo suppressed his groan. He wanted to sleep, but could tell that this was going to be something that wasn't an option. That he and Elin would need to attend, no matter how tired they were.

Idly Elmo wondered if he should add more points to his Str or Con when he had the option later on just so that he'd have more stamina. Which meant that he'd be able to last longer overall in these kinds of situations.

However, he quickly dismissed the idea. It didn't matter how long he was able to last if he wasn't able to do anything significant in future fights. Especially when he didn't know what might happen or what they might encounter.

All he could be certain of was the fact that if the meeting didn't move quickly enough, he was liable to fall asleep during it and he wouldn't be surprised if Elin was the same. While Kim and Jonas likely had more stamina, especially Jonas at the moment, he hoped that they'd understand that they shouldn't have the meeting take very long, he couldn't be sure if that would happen.

Still, he slowly followed Kim and Jonas as they made their way back to the tent where they'd had their last meeting, where Kim had left Elin when this whole mess started.

During the trip, Elmo wished that they could just pick a random tent and hold the meeting there. Where they could just get it over with that much sooner so he could start getting some sleep.

As it is, when Jonas, Kim, and Elin ducked into the tent, Elmo almost passed it by. He hadn't even noticed them changing the direction they were moving in. He had pretty much shifted to auto-pilot. If Elin hadn't stopped to grab his arm, he couldn't say when he would have stopped walking or where he would have ended up.

When they settled inside the tent, Jonas spoke quickly. Either he was interested in getting to sleep himself or he was worried that he wouldn't be able to hold the attention of his audience for long. Regardless of the reason, Elmo didn't care to complain about it.

"I'll make this short," Jonas said. "First, Aquis was the one behind the enchantment, I'm not sure how much he told us was just a load of bull, but he isn't as friendly towards us as he first appeared. I can't say what his plan is, but I wouldn't be surprised if we'll have to deal with him eventually. Whether we want to or not."

"Did you convince him to release those he'd enchanted?" Elin asked, sounding like she had more energy than her appearance indicated.

Jonas shook his head. "No, I wasn't," Jonas replied, then paused for a moment. "In fact the subject never came up. All we spoke about really was about if he knew who was behind the enchantment. He lied and I came to a few realizations, some that had nothing to do with that enchantment, but that we hadn't really resolved."

"So, there wasn't anything overall useful that he said?" Kim interrupted, sounding more annoyed than she had so far this night.

"No, not really," Jonas replied. "However, I suspect he might have a system."

"Hold on," Kim said, looking more fatigued than Elmo would have suspected. "You just said that you couldn't trust anything he said, so what makes you think that he'd be honest about having a system?"

"My suspicion about that has nothing to do with what he said to me. It has to do with what he said when he didn't realize I was there."

"But I thought that he said that dragons couldn't be moved around by the… whatever," Elin said, her eyes drooping. Her fatigue clearly interfering with her ability to recall what had exactly been said.

"Well, if he lied about controlling the enchantment, then we probably can't trust most of what he said," Kim replied. "Don't worry about what he said that contradicts what Jonas said, alright?"

Elin nodded sleepily while Elmo suddenly wondered if Kim would object to him sleeping here. Not because he wanted to sleep in the same tent as both of them, but rather because then he wouldn't have to leave and find another tent to sleep in.

"Oh, and one last thing," Jonas said suddenly as Kim looked like she was ready to call it a night. "When Aquis started to walk away, I can't be sure if I actually saw this, but one of his feet had a flame come out of it for a moment. It was brief, but I'm pretty sure it was there."

Elmo nodded, not really sure he should pay attention to it. As they were all tired and Elmo really didn't want to deal with anything more right then.

Kim merely sighed. "Well, whatever if was, we should worry about that in the morning. I think we're not going to be able to do much else tonight, even if we had wanted to."