Group "Talk"
...
The group sat in a semi-circle, with Xander and Falael being furthest away from one another while Aubrey and Curtis were closer, and Mia lay in the center, fast asleep.
About 5 minutes had passed since Sergeant Alya instructed them to talk it out, and thus far, not a single word had been exchanged between them.
'... Kinda reminds me of high-school when we would be grouped up for projects, and you have the luck of being grouped with people you don't like.' Xander thought idly as he glanced at his teammates.
Falael was openly scowling at him. No surprise there. Curtis was looking around with wide eyes. Aubrey's gaze was downcast. And Mia... yeah.
"... U-Um..." Curtis mumbled out, breaking the tense silence.
"I... I think everyone did their best?" He finally said, which surprised Xander.
'For someone who looks like he's scared of his own shadow, it's surprising that he spoke first.' Xander was about to reply when Falael beat him to it.
"Don't patronize us you big oaf," They bit out. "We did horribly. Simple as that." His harsh words made Curtis shrink back, which annoyed Xander.
"Hey, he's trying to be positive. No need to butcher him for it." He said, irritated.
"Of course you'd defend him," The half-elf rolled their eyes. "Trash speaks for trash, as usual." A vein throbbed on Xander's neck, but he forced himself to take a breath.
'Calm down, even though your physical age is still below that of an adult, you're 29 mentally. They are still a kid, don't get worked up.' He shook his head and spoke.
"Look. Are you going to spend all your time being problematic or will you actually try to be helpful? Because if not, i have no problem leaving you out of everything." Xander said pointedly, and Falael's ear twitched.
"What makes you think I want to be involved at all?" They folded their arms.
Seeing this, Xander did not argue, he simply turned to Curtis.
"You did good with that ice spell back then. How were you able to time it?" Seeing Xander blatantly ignore them, Falael sputtered, but the other boy completely ignored him as he focused on Curtis who seemed flustered at the sudden praise and attention.
"I-I didn't do anything amazing..." Is pressed his fingers together. "I just... noticed that the rabbit was fixated on you... so I timed the spell when you two briefly... separated..." His voice got quieter near the end, undoubtedly self-conscious. But Xander was surprised.
'That's... neat, actually. With how fast we were moving, the fact he was able to time that is impressive.' Xander nodded to himself.
"That was impressive. Good job." He said earnestly, and Curtis looked at him with wide eyes.
"N-No... I..." He trailed off, but Xander smiled.
"Seriously, it was good. Fine, maybe your overall awareness wasn't great, but I could have done better too. There were a few solid seconds before the rabbit broke through the encasement. I could have capitalized on that, but I just stood there," He shrugged. "Mistakes were made, but we're meant to learn from them." Hearing this, Curtis blinked before lowering his head and giving an imperceptible nod.
Falael mumbled something biting, but Xander had already committed to ignoring them. No need to force someone who wasn't willing to cooperate.
He then turned to Aubrey and asked carefully.
"... Can I ask about your specialty?"
"..."
Xander sighed at her silence.
'She's embarrassed,' He noted immediately. 'Well, it makes sense, to be frank, she didn't do anything back then, and Sergeant Alya called her out for it.' He rubbed his chin, thinking about how to get the girl to open up. Then...
"... Analysis." She said quietly.
"Hm?" Xander and Curtis perked up at her words.
"... Analysis. I'm good at analysis." She repeated, a bit louder now as she finally looked up. Her eyes were a bit glossy, but she seemed more composed now.
"... Analyzing... what?" Curtis tilted his head.
"... Situations, creatures, magic, and so on. I'm not... good at combat, but I am well-versed in analyzing things." She explained.
"So you're a glorified decoration?" Falael said dryly.
"Ignore them," Xander said without missing a beat when he noticed Aubrey flinch at those words.
"Rather, I'm curious, were you inactive during the fight because you were analyzing the rabbit?" His words made her eyes widen.
"I... Yeah... Yeah, that's what happened." She admitted hesitantly, and Xander's eyes lit up.
"Can you tell me what you noticed?" He scooted closer, which startled her. His sudden enthusiasm was odd.
But Xander couldn't help it, if his instincts were correct, then Aubrey... might possess a very useful skill.
"W-Well... I noticed that the rabbit only focused on the one who unleashed the most recent attack. That tells me it only focused on what it registered to be the most current threat. Even though you were the one who engaged it the most, as soon as Curtis landed his spell, it immediately shifted its attention to him." She started tentatively, and Xander gestured for her to continue.
Seeing that he wasn't bored or put off by her explanation, but intrigued, her eyes widened, and before she knew it, her mouth was moving.
She spoke about how she guessed that rather than a summoned creature, the rabbit was actually a mana construct their Sergeant created, which explained its conflicting abilities, between its absurd speed and strength, apparent momentum manipulation, and energy based attacks, which didn't exactly make sense when put together.
The more she spoke, the more animated she became. Even though a lot of what she said sounded like conjecture rather than fact, the way she arrived at her conclusions made it clear that she wasn't just guessing randomly but reading patterns and putting two and two together.
The more Xander heard, the more surprised he became. Sure, he had made some prelimary judgments of his own, but within that short time, she had analyzed far more than him, and much of that information was actually useful.
Like how the rabbit never actually used external magic like the beam from before unless forced to. That told her that it couldn't unleash powerful attacks like that frequently as due to its likely existence as a mana construct, doing such would burn out its energy—and therefore lifeforce—quickly.
Or how it only ever attacked with its feet, and its attacks—while powerful and fast—were telegraphed to a degree and could be deflected with medium effort, as Xander showed.
Eventually, when she reached a lull in her explanation, everyone—other than Mia—stared at her, surprised. Even Falael listened and was begrudgingly impressed.
"... Why didn't you say any of this, though?" That was Xander's biggest question. The girl clearly knew what she was talking about, and a lot of this information would have made the fight a lot more bearable.
Hearing this, Aubrey's expression turned a little downcast again.
"... Usually, people don't listen to what I have to say because they write me off as useless as soon as I show I'm incapable of proper combat." That made Xander frown.
"That's nonsense. Not all mages are strictly combatants, there are countless artisans out there who dedicate their magic to their craft." He countered, but Aubrey shook her head.
"I... The magic I use isn't combative, augmentative, or constructive." She tried to adjust her glasses before remembering that, again, they were shattered. It seemed like doing so was a nervous habit of hers.
But now Xander was curious.
"So what magic DO you use?" He rubbed his chin as he regarded her.
She seemed reluctant, but under his expectant gaze, she said quietly.
"... Perception magic... I can boost my senses in various ways, which allows me to analyze things better." Hearing this, Xander suddenly understood.
Of all the schools of magic, perception magic was seen as... iffy.
Perception was good for a mage. Those with good perception could read mana flows or get a grasp of how powerful an opponent was. In the case of crafters like blacksmiths, it allowed them to more easily spot imperfections in their work and adjust them accordingly. In combat, it allowed fighters to predict and respond to enemy spells and tactics.
The problem was that perception magic was almost always used in conjunction with other magic. In fact, calling it perception magic most of the time was misleading. Perception wasn't an element, instead, people used different magic to increase their perception.
For instance, wind mages using the air to transmit sound into their ears better.
When used like this, it made sense.
But strictly by itself?
'On her own, it's not very helpful. There isn't much perception can help you with if you can't evade an attack or defend yourself.' Xander sighed inwardly.
In short, people considered her dead weight.
"Heh, no wonder you're so quiet. You think silence will hide your uselessness—"
SLASH
A deep sword mark appeared in the ground just inches away from Falael faster than they could react, causing them to freeze.
"I gave you the chance to sit the conversation out if you did not want to participate," Xander said slowly as he sheathed his sword again. "But don't think I will let you run your mouth freely." Hearing his firm rebuke, Falael reddened and prepared to say something biting, but Xander just glanced at them, and the half-elf faltered before snorting and looking away.
"... Anyway," Xander looked back at Aubrey who looked a little downcast, and he offered a small smile. "I think that's really impressive." The girls paused, then looked at him with a skeptical expression.
"I don't need sympathy." She said defensively, but Xander raised his hands quickly.
"Not what I meant," He said quickly. "Just... I think that's really helpful, if utilized properly, that is. When I was fighting the rabbit, I was too preoccupied not getting my head kicked off my shoulders to try and start analyzing the thing. But with your abilities, maybe I wouldn't have worried about that at all. You know, I could have focused on fighting and you would be giving me instructions on how to proceed." He shrugged, and Aubrey's eyes slowly widened.
"A-Actually..." Curtis suddenly piped up. "I... didn't cast my spell of my own accord..." He glanced at Aubrey and quickly averted his gaze. "... I noticed she was... very fixated on the fight. So... when she mumbled 'Now would be a good time to intercept', I cast my spell without thinking... Ah! I wasn't trying to... take credit for what you did! It just... happened." Curtis floundered at the end, but Xander looked at Aubrey in a new light.
'I see. That's... heh. Alright,' He found himself grinning. 'Maybe... this could work?' As he had that thought, he felt his stomach growling.
'Oh, right, all that fighting probably burnt through a lot of my energy.' He hummed and pulled out a leather pouch from his pocket. He opened it and pulled out a well-seasoned strip of meat.
Yet before he could even command his hand to take it to his mouth.
"Aum." He froze. Aubrey and Curtis froze. Even the fuming Falael froze.
Somehow, Mia, who had been entirely unconscious the whole time, closed her mouth on the strip of meat, chewed, and swallowed it with a look of satisfaction on a face.
Then she looked up at Xander, her amethyst colored eyes staring up at him in anticipation.
Xander's brain short-circuited, and in that moment, all he could think was...
'... What?'