Insulator

2.3 - Blue Girl

I was out of money. I never had much with me or paid much attention to it. It wasn't until I found myself looking through my inventory for the last scraps of wealth I had, that I realised I was out.

I guess, I need to pay more attention... Would be unfair of me to starve to death before accepting my punishment...

And so, I decided to join a party.

The small group assembled were quite unfortunate, brutes with no loyalty or morals to be found. It made sense that these were the ones to lack regular companions, but it still hurt to think I was in the same category as them, though I had probably done way worse than what they had...

I didn't really pay attention to what our mission was. We were to go to some place and do something. I just kind of followed their lead, my head in the clouds. It looked like it was a spiteful revenge mission, so it was easy enough to prove my "worth", in my ability to destroy. I was fine with taking whatever small share they offered me, as I wasn't a greedy man, able to live off it for a long time, so I was fine with just joining them for the ride, not participating.

They came across a lone girl, wandering through the forest. With the overwhelming advantage they thought they held, the group naturally went after her, ready to kill her and take her valuables.

A few of them just walked towards her with small knives. The girl held no weapon, and with a field user, we had a lot of information and protection for things like magic or reinforcements, so they thought they had little to worry about.

"I take it your group plans on attacking me..." the girl said, unfazed. "I don't suppose there's anything I can say to avoid this conflict?" She held her hands in the air, no desire for battle. In the palm of one of her hands, was a little stump, like a piece of bone was sticking out. I had never seen anything like it.

The group of them closed in on her, replying to her question with laughs and sneers. It was an ugly site...

Humans are the worst...

One of them slashed at her with their knife, but she dodged it and stepped back.

Click.

A strange sound came from the girl, and then her body began to glow, her skin beginning to cover up by a layer of blue energy. From the looks of the party around me, none of them were aware of this type of ability, but despite that, a cautious lot they were not.

The first man slashed at her again, to which she moved her arm in front of the blade. The energy layer didn't knock it back, but just caused it to change course, like it just slipped off her. She just punched the guy in the face, knocking him backwards, though not appearing to have any special effects to it.

The mage of our party started firing at her, but her layer seemed to absorb it. Her body had become so deeply covered, that you could no longer see the girl's appearance, just seeing a vague, blue, humanoid shape, instead.

They continued fighting. The girl would jump around as if she were weightless, sometimes appearing to float in place, other times moving faster or higher than usual, like gravity no longer affected her. She would occasionally give warnings, asking them to stop, but they just continued to attack, blinded by rage and anger, using the concept of pride as an excuse for their desire to kill someone that embarrassed them by not easily going down.

Her attacks were all surprisingly normal in appearance, though. A lot of her skill felt more comparable to that of a martial artist, being agile, dodging and moving. Her strikes were all punches and kicks, though the damage they inflicted began to increase more and more as the fight lingered on. Instead of seeing bruises on the bodies of those she struck, burns were appearing instead.

She didn't have any desire to kill them, it seemed. While I appreciated the sentiment, it did create a scenario opposite to a stalemate, where one side would have to give out eventually. The ugly, weak, humans were basically animals at this point, just angry and lacking in any real common-sense, as they stubbornly continued to attack the girl.

It got to a point where they were all injured, panting and clutching their burns, getting ready to attack again. The blue girl just stood there, waiting, looking at them, trying to decide what to do. Because she was finally still, I noticed the blue energy seemed to be deepest in colour at her one palm that had the bone in it.

I slowly walked towards her, and she didn't attack me, aware that I showed no signs of malice, like the others did. I reached out and touched her hand. Despite burning the others, the blue aura was cool and lacked temperature, almost in a calm or pleasant way. It was a unique ability, indeed, so I used my ability, curious of what would happen.

If this was the source of your blue aura, then what would happen if I sealed it temporarily?

The response was much more potent than I expected. Instead of the blue aura disappearing, it actually grew thicker and stronger around her. I held her hand tightly, but her body began to weaken and struggle as it continued, forcing her over, to the ground. Whatever was happening took a great toll on her body...

"That's perfect! Hold her still like that!" one of the men behind me yelled, as they all began to get up. "Now's our chance!"

The girl did appear to be vulnerable, but I wasn't taking sides in this fight, especially not theirs...

"Don't come any closer! Stop!" I replied.

But they didn't listen. They just told me to shut up and keep doing what I was doing, completely oblivious to either of our true abilities.

There was no saving them.

I released my sealing and stepped back, hoping the girl had time to defend herself. What happened next shocked everyone there, as from her hand shot out a large beam of blue energy, now aimed directly at the group of attackers who were but metres ahead of her. The energy was so thick and wide that it covered their entire bodies, instantly turning them into charred corpses.

The blue girl, still shocked and looking up at the large path of destruction ahead of her, was panting and sweating profusely. She sat down, exhausted and out of breath.

"..."

"What did you do to me?" she asked, eventually, my existence the only other left.

"All I did was seal the area around your palm. I didn't know what it would do, but your ability and that small piece of bone on your hand made me curious. Are you going to be alright?"

"Oh, I'll be fine" she insisted. "I don't suppose you can do that indefinitely? Do you want to try it again, for a longer period of time?"

For someone part of the group that persistently tried to kill her, she sure seemed to trust me. I said that I didn't mind trying it again, but had to explain something to her first. I was by no means an expert, of course, but I showed her how the effects of magic worked when truly contained, my little exploding bottle trick convincing her well enough, that it was a dangerous thing to try.

She thought for a moment, then decided to wait for now to recover, and try another time. So she ran off back into the forest, continuing whatever it was that she was up to.

That's how I met the strange girl of blue...