"I admit to that," he nods, and onwards they go.

The next room contains two more Bloodstone crystals, but these don't react to their presences; instead, they seem to be feeding forcefields around two Bloodstone elementals.

"Mmm," she hums, peering at this. "This is a bit better. The shields look passable. But putting these after the draining crystals just makes it obvious how to break them, so I don't think it's into the realm of 'good.'"

She considers. "We're in a rush, so I'll try the quick method for dealing with ancient magical artifacts."

That is, hitting it. She picks a bloodstone crystal, and dumps the wastrels' hexes onto it. It's not like the crystal is going to be casting anything. Hopefully the hostile magic will cause the crystal to turn unstable to start draining magic, but if it doesn't, they have a spare.

Hitting the crystal does cause it to turn unstable, and it does start draining Vetareh.

"Good. Now, point in the right direction..."

She can cast backfire without some of its teeth. Just a little instability, not enough to blow up the crystal, just enough to disrupt its aim, so it goes for the closest target instead of her.

That works; the drainage hits the closest elemental's shield and both shield and crystal explode.

Elemental is not happy with this. Elemental charges. James summons a Flesh Golem to intercept it in its path—it's shorter than the elemental but bulky and made of muscles and spite, so it does its job.

Blink. Oh. Yes. She's not in echoes in the Mists anymore, people can actually attack her in response to her meddling. That is important to not forget.

"Ah. Right. Thank you James. Shield's down, you can all kill it dead now."

She'll assist with this endeavor, in fact!

The elemental... is fairly more durable than the White Mantle were. And mostly a physical attacker.

Ugh. Physical attackers. Why. Who would do that, when magic exists? ... Probably people that are annoyed with people like her, really. That's fair enough, actually.

She's just going to chain wastrels' hexes. And stay far away from it. She is squishy and delicate and looks better when she's not a smear on the floor.

The other four are nowhere near as squishy and delicate, and James's minions (he has now summoned a shadow one like the one from earlier, too) do a very good job of keeping the elemental busy.

Oh good. Then it'll eventually go down. Luckily for her, she is secure in her worth to the group, because she already took out its shield. She doesn't have to be good at everything.

And soon enough the elemental... explodes, sending James careening out at the wall.

She flinches. That. That wasn't enough to kill him, right, he's fine...?

Whoops how did she get over here next to him so fast, it's a mystery for the ages.

"James, darling, make some kind of affirmative sound if you have continued succeeding at not dying."

He grunts in what sounds like an affirmative sound!

    "The Commander's taken worse," says Rytlock.

        "Like that time with the puppets," suggests Canach.

            "Or in Tarir," remembers Marjory.

    "Or the paneer incident," Rytlock grunts.

            "Rrrr," shudders Marjory. "Let's not talk about the paneer incident."

"Oh, good. Then I'll consider this practice for all those other times he'll no doubt make me very concerned for his safety." She addresses James again, and her voice softens a little. "Do you need help, or do you just want to walk it off...?"

"'M fine. Walk it off," he mumbles, then groans as he resumes an upright position.

    "Shall we, then, Commander?" Canach asks, and this time he... fails to sound completely neutral. Looks like someone else was also worried.

"We shall."

"Right. I'll go piss off the other elemental now. Someone please keep it from squishing me in its anger."

Other elemental: welcome to the world of not having a shield anymore!

The fight goes much like the previous one did, except this time James is smart enough to dodge the elemental explosion at the end.

Good! That's good! He should not be near elemental explosions! She expects he'll do it anyway, because that seems to be the sort of person that he is, but she is going to take her victories where she can get them. Little victories.

Onwards!

    The next door is closed, and they can hear muffled voices on the other side. "Work faster! These Bloodstones won't collect themselves!"

James tiptoes over to the door (which is lacking in traps) with a finger raised to his (concealed) lips.

She edges a little closer, but not quite as far to the door, then purses her lips and tries to get a feel for the magic on the other side. Luckily for her, she has had so very much practice feeling bloodstone related things lately.

'Large bloodstone crystal on the other side. No large power source indicative of person/thing that absorbed the bloodstone's power,' she writes, where everyone (except, she supposes, Rytlock, unless his whatever-he-has is good enough at detail work to catch illusionary letters) can see it. She looks at Canach. He's the one that's supposed to be doing the 'rescuing' of the minister, after all, this seems like it's his show.

No further noises seem to be forthcoming.

    "Sounds like we have some fun ahead of us," growls Rytlock.

        "I will take the lead, Rytlock," says Canach. "I was given specific orders on how this was supposed to be executed, and cannot afford for you to blindly smite."

    "If that's a blindfold crack..."

        "Commander, care to take the door?" Canach says in lieu of responding.

"With pleasure," says James, opening the door with a kick.

        Canach is the first to rush in. "Minister Caudecus, it seems that you have..." He pauses and looks around. The room contains a Bloodstone crystal in the centre, surrounded by White Mantle. No one's obviously ministerly. "Oh. He's not here. Feel free to smite."

    "With pleasure."

James opening the door with a kick: kind of hot. Not that this observation shows in her face, or anything, her sense of professionalism isn't inclined to let her sink into eating the eye candy. ... Proverbial eye candy, since he's still covered in spikes and fire.

She surveys the room and—for the love of Dwayna they're still not grouped up—

"If we're smiting, can we get them to clump up in a large convenient group so I can hex them all?"

"With pleasure," says James before he grunts and sends a gauntlet made of shadow in the direction of the White Mantle farthest away from the group, and then the gauntlet is pulled towards them and every other White Mantle in the room is dragged with them. "Clumpy enough for you?"

"Yes, thank you," she says, flashing him a quick smile. Everyone in that group: enjoy your new hex that slows down all spellcasting and speeds up all spellcasting of anyone targeting you.

Now, is there someone that looks like a good mesmer torment target?

There's a fair share of elementalists and mesmers on the team.

    One of the White Mantle—this one's wearing finer robes, probably a lieutenant or something—gets up with a roar and swings her enormous hammer overhead to hit the ground with it, causing the ground to literally crack and shake. "Do you actually think we'd let you take him from us?"

"He's not yours to keep," says Canach from where he's getting up.

    "These fools must be taught their place!"