A fire. Of all the missions that they could have been given, they gave them..a fire. Well. This was potentially going to be either the easiest, or the most difficult mission. They had been broken up into groups, and led to different areas. And of course, Xiulan was the smallest person in her group, as well as the only woman. Of course, normally she wasn't one to really take on the role of leadership, but she looked back and forth between her two partners as her grimoire hovered up into her hand.

"Well, the slow and methodical approach has been thrown out the window. Who else here has water as part of their magic?" She asked. Should anyone else raise their hand, she would nod. "Alright. Well, one of us needs to stay out here and keep the fire contained. I'm not exactly the most adept at massively widespread coverage like that, so Im going to go inside the house and try to douse what I can while trying to find people. Whoever isn't going to be covering keeping the fire contained should probably do the same."

She said, in a rather..odd tone. Whereas in most situations that would make sense to be a very commanding tone, it just..wasn't. Xiulan's tone was more in line with presenting a suggestion than a hardline order. Truthfully, she wasn't in the best attire to be walking into a fire. The majority of her back was exposed, along with her shoulders and chest. But if she were to try and douse the fire from outside, it was more than likely that she would be unable to keep it from spreading. She did have a handful of wide area spells, but they were meant to heal. Sure, they used water. But they also were only small pools on the floor.

Ultimately, it meant that she was only really suited to be putting out things that were the sources of the fire. Sure, it meant some things might get punched through and doused. But it was something that she could handle. With that in mind, she made her way in through the safest opening she could find. And almost immediately, she was confronted with the brunt of her bad decision. The air was filled with ash, and she had to squint to see. This area was filled with nothing but smoke. Still, she crept her way through, hoping to find a person, or a source of the fire. Her eyes felt like she had just dipped them in glass, and were watering up every few seconds. It was rough to breathe. But she was still able to move through.

"Hello? Is anyone here?" She called out, unable to really see where she was going. But it didn't matter. They had been given a job to do, and she was going to do it. There were a lot of things that needed to be done to keep their homes safe. And there weren't enough people to do it. That was why the three of them were here, doing this exam. There were more people needed. So Xiulan kept pressing forward, hoping that they would be able to fix everything quickly, before the fire was able to spread.

Everything was burning. Her lungs, her eyes. Her skin. But Xiulan wouldn't stop. No..couldn't stop. She knew that she was only hurting herself at this point, she wasn't an idiot. But she was too stubborn to give up. She had told the little girl that she would make sure that her parents were safe. So even as she dove deeper and deeper into the smoke, Xiulan would merely grit her teeth and keep moving. Her vision was swimming with tears that kept overflowing, tracing tracks down her soot covered face. She kept taking twists and turns trying to find the staircase leading up. Much of this floor was filled with incredibly thick smoke. And even in this hellish scenario, Xiulan was able to put two and two together. The burning furniture had been an unfortunate coincidence. With this much smoke spewing onto the ground floor, it was more than likely that the actual source of the fire was on one of the higher floors. It was so thick..and she wasn't a sensory mage. Could she really break through this dense smoke and find the other people in the house? For a split second, her stubborn determination began to waver. And then she heard it. Tap. Tap tap. Tap tap tap tap tap. Rain. And as she kept moving, the pounding of rain only became stronger. That meant one thing: she wasn't the only one who could put this out. There was someone else on her team who could save the last person. Good. Eventually, Xiulan found the source of all the smoke spewing down into this floor. The stairway. It was belching black smoke. But that wasn't enough to fully obscure it. Xiulan could see that a few beams had fallen down, catching the top of the staircase as well as themselves. For most, that would be a very difficult challenge. But Xiulan merely released her Grimoire as she let out several hacking coughs, allowing it to float in front of her and open. As it did, a sea foam green aura came off of it as it flipped pages twice, the text glowing once again as she held a hand out in front of her, aimed towards the fallen beams.

"O-Ocean Magic: C-Charybdis!" She called out through her own coughing. At first, it merely seemed like she was going to try and douse the beams, as a thick pool of water formed below them..until it began bubbling and roiling..before letting out a large geyser of water, shattering the now damp, put out beams into splinters, as well as dousing the stairs. Between this and the torrent outside, the smoke was starting to clear. But it was still fairly thick. The source was definitely coming somewhere on the third floor. But Xiulan didn't have time for that. She sprinted up the stairs, calling out until she heard someone call out back to her. "Maggy? Maggy where are you sweetie? It's ok, Daddy's here!" Alright. That meant this was the father..but he seemed to be too panicked to have heard her. Instead, she followed his voice, eventually coming across someone who was flinging open every door he could find in a long hallway. The smoke here was fairly thick, and only got thicker going down. The stairway into the third floor. That was where the fire had started. "Sir, it's ok! Your daughter is outside!"

She called out after letting out another few coughs. That seemed to get his attention, as he whirled around, squinting at Xiulan. "W-Who are you?! Where's Maggy? Ingrid told me that I had to find her, that she would get out somehow!" He yelled, obviously panicked. "If Maggy is the name of your daughter, then she's fine! One of my comrades took her and her dog outside. She was on the first floor! I know that you're worried about both her and your wife, but I promise, we'll get them out. You just have to come with me!" She called out, covering her mouth and nose with her hand afterwards. It seemed to sink in, as the man merely nodded. So instead of speaking, Xiulan just gestured widely for him to follow. And as they got back towards some of the less smoke covered rooms, it seemed that they had come down at a rather fortuitous time. She heard the voice of someone else. As they got closer, Xiulan spoke up again.

"It's alright! The only one left is the mother! It looks like the stairway leading up to the third floor was the source of the fire! I've got the father, so you go get her!" She managed to call out as they entered the living room, and slipped out through that window. Not the optimal plan. But when the father saw his daughter, Xiulan hadn't been able to stop him. At first, being hit with that torrential downpour stung. And more importantly, she could feel the flow of mana through her body slow almost to a trickle. But still, she made her way over to the father and daughter. "Alright..your wife should be out here any minute now..but we've all suffered a fair few scrapes and burns. That's no problem though..I can fix that, if you two just stand still." She said, causing the father and daughter to nod after they finally broke from their happy, tearful embrace. Xiulan also nodded, holding a hand out as her grimoire once again floated up to her chest level, having left its little holster on her hip once more. This time, the pages flipped nine total times.

"Ocean Magic: Haven of Salacia." As she said those words, the water that had gathered on the ground became a deeper and deeper pool of water, coming up to the ankles of both the father and daughter..as well as Xiulan herself. Slowly but surely, these pools of water began to spin, creating a whirlpool beneath each of them. It was a slow method of healing, for certain. But it meant that it could be sustained until the mother arrived...and it gave Xiulan a chance to finally catch the breath that she had been lacking all this time.

[End]