Wild Summer Night

The trip to Hoseka was a rather lenghy one. But V had a good reason for it. The Hosenka Town seemed to have been dubbed the Spa Town, which had plentiful hot springs and the like. V's body had a lot of physical pressure on it, because of his numerous adventures and it was progressively getting tougher and tougher to recover. He was hoping that the hot springs would accelerate the process. That was one of the reasons. The second arose during his time in the train, as he overheard something about summer festivals. He had completely forgotten about the solstice. While back home it was a meaningful date, it wasn't because of festivities.

After he overheard that piece of information, V noticed something else plaguing him, besides the past mistakes. He felt kind of tired or spent. The feeling wasn't prominent, which was most likely the reason why he noticed it only then. He would just have to shrug it off or fight through it. Nothing he hasn't done before.

As soon as the tattooed man entered the town, the festival mood was palpable. The people, the décor. The sun was already setting, so V reckoned that he was going to spend the night. Then again, he needed a bit of time to recover. The Guild could very much function without his presence. He was a link that wasn't important, disposable. But he still had to keep himself in fighting shape.

His feet took him through the surprisingly filled streets of the town. Various stalls lined the sides, with vendors yelling their slogans to get people to buy their products, services or participate in games. None of which really enticed V, save for the possible food, if he felt hungry. He was almost sure that very little hot springs would be open, considering it was the time of the festival, so his recovery would have to wait a little bit. But he could at least try to enjoy himself, right?

The tattooed man eventually reached what could only be described a great stack of logs, that he could only guess would become a bonfire at some point during the evening. He slightly dragged his feet along the pavement, his body slowly giving up. The cane clicked against the stone, as he moved forward, positioning himself in between some of the festival-goers - a brightly drressed lady and a half naked man. Sounded like a proper festival. While the logs weren't lit quite yet, a group of dancers was putting on a show with fire magic. As enticing as their moves were, the man would only quietly sigh as he shifted his weight onto the cane and took out his Book of Poems, reciting some of his favourites in his head.

The tattooed man was fixated on the words written on the visibly well used pages, until a voice brought him out of the trance. The half naked man that was standing next to him was asking him about the poem reciting. V would bring his gaze up and turn his face to the side to face the stranger. He was about to reply the stranger, but an annoucement rang through the air, saying that the lighting of the great bonfire will begin shortly.

The mage would close the book with a snap and put it away. It was no longer needed. "I was simply proverbially killing time." He would reply to the stranger as the music of the festival started to grow more intense and then suddenly stop. Shuffling of the crowd could be heard, as they came ever closer to the site of the great soon to be bonfire. V's gaze would shift from the stranger and fixate upon the show unfolding in front of them, instead. The dancers had stopped dancing, leaving the stage to several torch bearers, who approached the pile of logs from three directions.

Pure silence filled the air, as the lit torches touched the mountain of logs, catching the flames. Soon enough loud yelling of happiness and glee came out of the crowd as the bonfire had been officially lit. The tattooed man would only smirk to himself. It looked kind of nice. But something emerged from the growing flames. Four little sparks that seemed to have minds of their own. They flew around the bonfire a few times, before speeding towards V and then circling around him. "Such icy aura!" A high pitched voice would say. "He needs to learn about the beauty of fire! Summer will be forever!" An another one exclaimed. It didn't take V long to figure out that it was the sparks around him talking. They were not even sparks to begin with, he was wrong. They were little sprites, most definitely intent on causing some mischief. "Talk about a strong, silent type." A third voice would grumble as the sprite in question stopped in front of V. "Helloooo? We're talking to you!" She would say, being clearly irritated by V's lack of response. The sprite grumbled something as she flew into his face, burning his right cheek.

The burn wasn't intense, but he felt it. Fire was his weakness, after all. Although he wouldn't normally use his body as a means of dealing damage, it seemed like the right option to choose. V would have a layer of ice cover his left hand and forearm, as he lashed out in front of him, knocking out two of the sprites in process. The two remaining sprites gasped and flew downards to check on their kin. The tattooed man would wince at the lashing motion he did, slowly putting his arm into place it was before. Even though he practically only hit air, the suddenness of the motion struck pain into his shoulder. "Don't touch me." He would say through gritted teeth. But the heralds of eternal summer were only starting to come out.

More sprites and even what seemed to be mages emerged from the bonfire, sending the festival into chaos. Festival attendees started to run around in panic, evacuating the space. The man next to him protected himself with water. One of the female mages who appeared from the bonfire proclaimed that summer would last forever and marked her words by sending some fireballs flying around. While they did not hit a person, some of them damaged nearby buildings. The man next to him gave a rather flirtatious reply to the woman, that V thought could be omitted, but there was no going back at that point. The stranger next to the tattooed man then used water to retaliate and get rid of an another wave of fiery sprites that had appeared along with the mages. It was turning into a rather chaotic festival, if V had to say.

Thankfully, since the people had evacuated the area in a hurry, the two men who remained had free reign to get rid of the worshippers of summer. V would smirk, as he felt ice energy building up, despite the strange feeling of tiredness that he had been experiencing and snapped his fingers. The energy manifested itself into four icicles behind V's head, that took aim at the two mages. Two icicles for one mage. After a brief delay, the icicles launched themselves. One of the mages managed to destroyed one of the two icicles heading her way, but the second found its mark. The second mage wasn't that fast with her reactions, getting hit by both icicles. Their cries filled the air as demonic ice made contact.

Surprisingle enough, however, V had not felt the need to adjust his position during the lukewarm fight. He had only been pestered by some sprites up until then, though as he thought of that, the less damaged mage sent a fireball flying at him. The tattooed man knew that he didn't have enough dexterity to dodge. Instead, he quickly covered himself in a layer of his demonic ice and braced for impact that came shortly after. The protective layer of ice did its task successfully and blocked the incoming damage, even though V very much felt the fireball hitting him.

V would sigh a little, as he took a step back. The more distance he had, the better. The man next to him seemed like the kind of mage that would charge into a fight no matter what the odds were. "Feel free to run rampant. I can cover you from here." The tattooed man would share his thoughts on strategy, but he was not sure if the other would be willing to listen.