Tear A Path 284 99%

"If you can do it why think of all the complicated stuff?" Tess retorted in anger, with her suggestion she had in a expressed to everyone here that she truly thought Grendolyn was capable. As both a fighter and a woman, she considered this to be her humbling herself, in her eyes what Grendolyn seemed to be doing is trying to push her for more.

Like it or not, as women they had a sense for each other. "Don't flatter yourself." Grednolyn straight out spat from her mouth. "I'm not making my decisions based on you, how self absorbed are you?"

"If it's not because of me then why won't you just do it?" Tess retorted rearing for a fight.

"Doing it is simple for me, the moment I cast a spell I can probably wipe the lot of them out. But all your people will probably die with them." Grendolyn replied, in a calm and cold voice, tired of trying to battle with words against this girl. "Have any of you considered what you're asking mages to target?"

Suddenly the reason clicked in their minds. Yeah, fighting their enemies is good and all, but if they just simply attacked anywhere they wanted, especially onto the mountain which was looming on top of them all. At the very least, a landslide wasn't out of the question.

"So all of you have finally used your brains enough to understand?" Grendolyn spoke once she saw that all their faces changed. "Magic is fantastic sure, but it does not conjur something from nothing, it just uses our energy to control the flow or reaction of things already present in nature, moreso earth than any of the other elements. Whatever I use to kill them would come out from the mountain itself"

"If I just take a chunk out of the cliff to kill that whole group up there, nothing could happen. Or I could end bring the whole mountain down on us." She paused for two seconds, just enough for it to sink in. "I'm good at doing large spells, but even for me trying to protect each and everyone in this city if that happens is impossible. Minimally, more than half of you would die."

Ending with that information she left the room.

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"You lied."

"Huh?" Grendolyn asked as she turned to face Jeff.

"That last part. I bet, even if the mountain came down, you would be able to stop it." Jeff stated, his handless arms crossed behind his head.

"I didn't... completely lie." Grendolyn winced.

"Okay, which part was true?" He asked.

"Alot will die." She replied. "Not because of the mountain, because of me."

At those words, Jeff's gleefully squinting eyes began to open slowly.

"Have you ever heard of dragons?" Grendolyn asked, seeminly trying to change the subject.

"Yes, there used to be one in a nearby forest." Jeff answered.

"What do you know about them?" She continued the line of questioning.

"Tough teeth, scales and claws, ridiculous physical strength and endurance, fatal breath." He continued to answer.

"What about their habitats?"

"... I'm not sure, none were able to come even close to it's hide out. There's a pressure that tires them out as they enter it's range. Any that had told of it's story were only lucky enough to be the last of their group on that thing's menu while it was out on a hunt." Jeff began to sweat as he recalled the nightmarish stories the men at the pub frequently shared.

"Oh... yours must be an impure distant sub-species, probably weakened after generations of crossbreeding with different weaker animals." Grendolyn answered as if it was a matter of fact. Though it probably was, Jeff was unsure to how he should respond to such words. "Back where I come from anyone three tiers above you would probably still die even if they just enter within several miles of it. My parents could probably fight on par with one of them together though..."

"So you mean?..."

"Yup, even if I could stop the mountain from falling, I would need to release the suppression on my mana." She explained. "I've limited myself to small spells this whole time for that reason only. With the difference in our levels, they would die just from the pressure of being in the same area as me. Somehow there's a phenomenon that once the brain identifies ent.i.ties that are so powerful that there's no chance of survival, it proactively shuts down the body in surrender to it's own fate."

"More than half?" Jeff was looking for a silver lining in such a scenario, ignoring the fact that Grendolyn had considered everything she'd done up till now only small spells when all the mages here couldn't even measure up to half of the 'small spell', maybe if the casualties weren't that high it could be a viable last resort.

"More like 99%." Grendolyn replied apologetically.

"Hey!" Suddenly, Tess found them after chasing their traces around the building. Jeff had a habit of masking his presence, it was only because they were confined to staying under the protection of a roof from those shooters did Tess manage to catch up. "You said you can't use large scale magic right."

"Forget about it, I also meant using attack spells in general..."

"No! what if you didn't need to attack?" Tess said in expectancy.

One of Grendolyn's brows lifted up in intrigue.