A Harrowing Holiday

If the fight was mellow before, now it was pure chaos for Garnet. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed some rather inappropriate things, among others. Such as being given a speed boost, by the looks of it, if the Inkling had to guess. His legs felt lighter and he himself felt like he just could get to places faster than before. Somewhat like when he turned into his squid form, but not quite exactly like it. The Inkling briefly wondered if the spell that had been casted on him by the spider lady Song would work on him even in his squid form. Though that was sort of out of question, for the time being, as he couldn't even use weapons to spread ink to have something to swim in. Again, he was hit by that now all too familiar pang in his heart, knowing that he couldn't do anything to help out the rest of his team.

He was about to move forward, when a group of - namely three - harpies swooped down near him and began their assault on the little elves. The elves tried to retaliate by throwing the iced snowballs at them, but they just nimbly flew away from their reach and dodged them. The harpies then continued their assault, clawing away at the little helpers. It made Garnet glad that he was on their good side. He was ready to confidently move forward, especially now that he had proper cover and distraction in form of the harpies, but yells of battle stopped him in his tracks. The Inkling was tempted to run back. But even if he did, he knew that he wouldn't be able to do anything. He shook his head in defeat and went on ahead, instead.

It was tough, trying to be sneaky in a place that Garnet was absolutely not familiar with. It was quite different from all those times he was put into a Splat battle and he knew exactly where to go and where to point his team, if they needed his assistance. But this... just hunks of snow and trees. And an occasional rock. Yells and screams behind him to complete the atmosphere. One could only wonder as to how he had ended up in such a situation. Most likely because of the Magic Council. Garnet's thoughts were a bit too fleeting, considering the circumstances. But he believed that he could afford it, as there were no pesky little elves in his vicinity. At least from what he could see. The Inkling would stand up straight to stretch out his legs and back. Even though the movement speed enhancement from the spider lady had proven itself useful, it didn't stop his muscles from aching. He wasn't used to crouching a lot. Garnet was usually standing and shooting and then turning into his squid form if necessary. As much as this was vastly different from the battle style that he was used to, he reckoned that all of this would prove to be very useful experience in the future.

The Inkling scanned his surroundings. While he wasn't too far off from the overall fighting, he was far enough that he couldn't see any elves. The shrieks of harpies and roars of white bears were quite audible and Garnet sighed. What he would give for his earphones right about then, to pump himself up with a song or two from the Squid Sisters. Regardless of that, he needed to find the portal and do it fast. He walked into the space that he had been avoiding this whole time because of the elven menace. Puffs of hot air escaped his mouth as he kept on looking around and walking forward. He was trying to find it visually, but then the Inkling remembered something very important. He was a mage. Who couldn't get the hang of his magic, but that was besides the point. Since he had gained magical powers, it also meant that he could sense magical presences. The issue was that he had no idea how to do that.

Garnet didn't feel anything or anyone in particular. Perhaps he was supposed to focus? Even though he knew that it was extremely dangerous, the Inkling closed his eyes, despite his better judgement. Again, he didn't feel anything changing. Garnet frowned as tried to focus better. Still nothing. He needed to try a different approach. If something didn't work even after attempting it again, it was best to just try to think of an alternative. That was one of the things that he had learned during Splat battles and saved a lot of his matches. Instead of just empty focus, Garnet tried to think of the rest of his team who was fighting little ways away from him. The uniformed women, the spider lady and the rest of them. Once more, nothing was different, but then he felt something. It was as if he could tell where they were approximately. As if their magic left behind traces that Garnet could then pick up on. The Inkling smiled. And was then subsequently hit by an iced snowball into his head.

The Inkling lost his balance and fell into the snow because of the element of surprise. The white Toni Kensa long sleeved sweater did only little to keep out the invading snow and Garnet tried his best to get back up as soon as he could. His head hurt and his view of the snow and trees spun as he scrambled back onto his feet. Garnet heard a giggly laugh, coming from the direction that he had originally come from. As soon as his vision cleared, he saw the culprit. It was an elf, who most likely dodged attacks from the harpies. The Inkling grit his sharp teeth as he massaged the spot on his head that was hit. It was just a snowball, yes, but he was caught off guard. Which he never shouldn't even have in the first place.

The elf cackled and gathered snow for an another snowball that he then encased in ice. Garnet's eyes shot wide, well aware of what was going to happen next. His head was throbbing, but he needed to do something, before he ate an another hit. His head was a bit less durable than his body. The little elf was smirking as he pulled back his arm, ready to throw. Garnet ducked and dashed to the side. The snowball only narrowly missed him. It seemed that the elf wasn't as dumb as he looked. He predicted where Garnet could possible dodge to and threw the snowball in that direction. Garnet had to retaliate, somehow. The elf was already done preparing the next snowball. The Inkling quickly looked around himself, finding a stick, that seemed to have okay durability. He dived for the piece of wood and the elf threw an another snowball. But this time, Garnet had the stick in his hands. He swung with full force and hit the snowball back at the attacker. The stick shattered into pieces in the process, but it seemed to work, wonderfully.

The snowball that was aimed at Garnet hit the elf instead and the impact knocked him out cold. He may have not been able to properly use his magic yet, but he still had his glorious aim. "Ngyesh!" The Inkling threw his fist into the air in victory, but the sudden movement made his head spin a little. Right. He had to take it easy for a little bit, until the headache went away. Though that would have to wait. He had things to take care of before that. With the elf of surprise out of the way, the Inkling focused once again. He felt the rest of his team again, but he was not looking for them. Garnet was looking for the portal. He kept on scanning the area. Then he found something. A trace that was unlike the others around him. It felt incredibly unique, so he could only assume that it was the portal that he was looking for. All that was left, was to follow the trail.

The portal wasn't far. It was just a quick jog away to the right of the area that he was avoiding before. Garnet saw the shimmering circle with edge composed of festive hues. The edges faintly pulsated, but he couldn't see anything in the center. Though at the same time, he couldn't see through it. The Inkling came closer to the portal. He didn't know what to do. He didn't have a magic that specialized in closing and opening things. He didn't really have anything. Garnet almost made up his mind to run back and get somebody much more knowledgeable than him, when he felt as if... something was pulling him towards the portal. Some unseen force and was trying to convince him to not run away, but deal with the problem he had in front of him. The Inkling grumbled, but stayed.

Garnet walked up to the portal, but he kept enough distance between him and the magical circle. He didn't want to get sucked into it and be transported elsewhere. Who knew? Perhaps it was just a one-way portal, if there was a way to make one like that. None of these thought actually brought him any closer to solving the problem at hands, though. The Inkling frowned again and swiped his hand where he assumed was the surface of the portal. His hand faintly shined and where his hand touched the portal, a bit of it disappeared. He quickly pulled his hand back in surprise. The faint glow disappeared as he pulled it away. Garnet's eyes darted between the portal and his hand. Was his magic special? Was his hand special? Or was that just simply how the portal could've been gotten rid of? The Inkling had no idea. But he was going to erase the portal from existence.

The Inkling swiped his hand over the portal, making it disappear bit by bit. It felt like he was wiping a dirty window clean. Once he was done, Garnet stepped back and nodded. Just like that, the portal was gone. He could only hope that it was the only portal. When he was searching for the traces of the portal he didn't feel anything else that resembled that trace, other than that one instance. Garnet let out a sigh of relief and turn around. His head still had this dull ache in it and Garnet was positive that there would be a large bruise left behind in a couple of hours. But that was the price of letting one's guard down while not being able to properly use magic. He shook his head. Did he even really help out the team? He wasn't sure. He wasn't paying much attention to the sounds from before, because of his own little problems that arose during his venture into the unknown. But he had to go back and check on them. He did leave them with still a number of invaders left to defeat and he wasn't planning on just abandoning them. Even if the best he could do was to hit back the snowballs with a stick.