Majimonsters: Rosewood Journey

The moment those words escaped the Scholar's lips, everyone within earshot was either paling at the words or confused by them. I unfortunately was part of the latter.

The Scholar who made the statement was about to explain what it was to the others, but since I was fighting I couldn't just listen in. Luckily, I had an actual maji connected to me mentally to explain things in a faster manner.

[Voxea, what's aether armor]?

[Aether armor...well then this will be interesting...].

[Voxea]!

[Right, sorry my adorable student. Aether armor is a type of equipment we created to make our majimonsters tougher than normal. We figured out while creating monsters on how to make them special equipment that could augment abilities in a temporary manner as opposed to reworking them from the ground up. Evidently, we should be lucky it doesn't have any aether weapons either], Voxea explained

[Okay, but what does this aether armor do exactly]?

[Well aether armor is just that, armor made of aether. Well to be more precise, it's a defensive piece of aether gear made from a specific affinity of aether that makes the wearer resistant to almost all other affinities while also using the aether affinity it matches with to heal the wearer], she responded nonchalantly.

[Almost all?! Then how are we supposed to beat it]?!

[Abuse its weakness or pure force. Like I said, aether armor is made of a specific affinity of aether. The Grim Shrieker is wearing a piece of ice affinity aether armor, so we just need to hit with either a powerful fire technique or overwhelm it with one powerful technique after the other. But no ice techniques, because that will strengthen it instead].

[Aren't your most powerful techniques ice based], I asked.

[Unfortunately yes, so this will be a very interesting fight!], Voxea responded cheerfully.

After Voxea finished explaining, the Grim Shrieker let out a powerful scream before spreading its wings. With a single thrust, it launched itself straight into the air and began to hover above both Voxea and Agiros' Wooly Rammoth.

[Oh wonderful, it learned that the Wooly Rammoth can only hurt it up close and personal], Voxea commented.

[Well can you hit it then]?

[No, it's out of range for most of my non-ice techniques. But on the plus side, this means it's also out of range], she replied confidently.

[Then why is it glowing]?!

Even though the Grim Shrieker was several dozen feet up in the air, I could still make out the telltale glow of a technique about to be used.

[Well that's problematic], Voxea said.

A magic circle then formed in front of the Grim Shrieker and was aimed directly at Voxea and the Wooly Rammoth.

[And that's worst. Voxea]!

[On it], Voxea responded before using her wall technique again. With a wave of her hand, a dome of permafrost surrounded her and the Wooly Rammoth.

The Grim Shrieker took a deep breath once more, unhindered by any outside interferences, and let out a powerful scream aimed at the magic circle floating in front of it. As the scream impacted the magic circle, a stream of massive purple rings of energy shot out of the circle and proceeded to fly towards the permafrost shield at incredible speeds.

The rings impacted the dome one by one, bursting into harmless little sparks of aether. The other binders cheered at the impressive, almost perfect, defensive ability of the dome, but the reality was anything but perfect! For while the dome looked like it was holding, Voxea was screaming in pain in my head and I could feel she wouldn't be able to hold it for long.

[Voxea, what's wrong?], I asked in a mental panic. I was still pretending to be some powerful mercenary binder, so I had to take being calm on the surface.

[PainpainpainpainpainpainPAIN!], Voxea screamed in my head.

[Pain how?! From where]?!

[Thhheeee technnnniiiqqqquuueeee], she responded with what sounded like gritted teeth, [iiiittsss nnnooottt meannntttt to hurrrttt physicalllllyyyy. Iiiittt'sss atttaaaccckkkiinnng our soulsssss, and I'm allll soulllll]!

As Voxea kept screaming in anguish in my head, the permafrost dome began to wiggle and shake in an unnatural way like jellied fish. As the dome opened up, I could see the Wooly Rammoth looking mildly pained by the attack while Voxea was kneeling on the ground, flickering like a candle in the wind and clutching her head like it was about to fall apart.

Due to Voxea's distress, the dome ended up melting into useless mud, giving the Grim Shrieker an excellent opportunity to dive headfirst at her and the Wooly Rammoth!