After hearing Lisryn agree to the idea of working on their teamwork, the group returned to practicing, sharing tips with her as they went. While they were cautious of her, she seemed to pick up things quickly, even just from hints. In the end, she was even able to share some advice of her own.
With a flicker of mana, Lisryn pulled a blob of stone out of the floor before stating, “My experience with wind magic actually helped with earth magic. With the wind, you make vortexes to control the flow of the air. For earth magic, you can mostly hollow it out with support structures on the inside instead, similar to the vortexes, but obviously less dynamic.”
Following her statement, she split the stone ball in half and dropped one side to the floor to be reabsorbed by the spire, revealing that the inside had a pattern of stone projections that linked together in a complex structure.
About an hour and a half into their practice, Lisryn stood up and stated, “I have to go back to my duties now; I will be back in two days so that we can get used to working together. I believe the attack will happen tomorrow, so be careful not to leave the city.”
After hearing the others acknowledge her statement, Lisryn headed back down the stairs, followed, as always, by her guardian.
Deciding now was a good point to relax, the others stopped their practice and began chatting instead, aside from Niphru. Rather than talking, he focused more on practicing his force magic, trying to make larger and more complex shapes with it. Several hours later, the group stood up and began walking back to their rooms, so he stopped what he was doing and followed Dawn back to their home.
Once they arrived and closed the door, he exclaimed, “I think I can achieve another goal soon! Watch this!”
Following this with action, he formed an illusion of a random person, placed a complex force construct around an arm, and a simpler one for a leg. He then moved them together with the illusion to walk to the other side of the room. Along the way, he used the construct for the leg to nudge a chair to the side slightly and then the arm to pick up a book, using another force construct to open it to a random page as he had the illusion sit down in the chair.
“Wow, that is amazing!” Dawn responded, smiling as she continued, “You certainly have me beaten in force magic now. I can’t make a full body out of it, not even close.”
Giving off a chuckle, Niphru replied, “Neither can I, really. I just have an arm and leg right now. My goal is to manage the full body, like it appears. Arms are really hard, though.”
Dawn nodded and remarked, “That is still incredible, and I assume the end goal is to be able to hide and instead interact with people as a human?”
Undoing the illusion and force constructs, he agreed, “Yes, people here seem fine with me, but when I’m outside the spire, I don’t want to cause alarm or get attacked. Especially when we go out for our training, as people won’t know about me.”
Dawn headed to the kitchen as she nodded and responded, “That does make sense. I hope you can reach your goal, but even what you did now should be plenty as long as you can hold the illusion and hide yourself at the same time.”
Niphru considered for a moment and, after determining what was most needed, stated, “I suppose all I need most of the time is only an arm, or both, right? I don’t think people normally touch legs or heads. I’ll focus on managing two arms.”
“That sounds like a good idea. Would you mind helping with the food? I think we should have something to celebrate!” Dawn exclaimed with a smile as she opened the pantry to begin gathering things for their meal.
With a nod, Niphru ran into the kitchen and jumped up to the sink. After rinsing his feet, he leapt onto the other end of the counter and began organizing tools to help out.
After a nice meal, the two of them sat down to read for a while, passing a few hours to finish off the day. Niphru opted for a quick shower, but Dawn took a long, hot bath instead before going to bed.
Since he wasn’t too tired, Niphru decided to return to the main room and read while he waited for Dawn to finish up. Once again, he smiled at how much easier things were now that he had managed to start using force magic, as getting papercuts on his nose had been a horrible experience.
By the time Dawn was done, Niphru had managed to read three chapters about water magic, having decided that it was what he was worst at, so he needed help with it more than the other forms.
After following her to the bedroom, the two of them settled in for the night.
Unexpectedly, a surge of mana woke them in the early morning, pulsing upward from the base of the spire in regular intervals. After several dozen had passed, a dull thumping noise came from the ceiling. A moment later, a voice sounded out from the same location, “To all residents, Arrival is currently facing a major threat. All mages are to contribute as much mana as possible, including drawing all possible ambient mana. This is not optional like the small incursions are. Please proceed to the levels where mana stones are stored, and simply push your filled crystals into the walls or floor.”
Surprised by the announcement, the two of them quickly got up and, after Dawn finished dressing, raced out of their room, spotting the rest of their group also exiting their rooms. As they began getting together, a shockwave passed through the spire, thrumming deep in their chests as the lights started to dim.
Moments later, Morris’ hawk, Kel, swerved out of the stairwell, rapidly heading towards them with a piece of paper hanging from their beak. Seeing that Kel was going too fast to stop, Dawn leapt forward and grabbed the bird, spinning to bleed off the momentum.
To her shock, Kel pecked at her arm as this occurred, beginning to wave the paper in their beak. Catching the hint, she removed a hand from the bird and reached for the note. Thomas, however, was faster, grabbing it and immediately beginning to read it out loud, “Come to my room. The door is open. Join me on the balcony.”
As the instructions said, the group ignored the notice that was now repeating and instead ran upstairs, quickly reaching Morris’ dwelling and heading for the balcony where he stood, holding a hand against the wall.
Hearing the noise as they sped towards him, Morris turned and gestured towards the wall with his free arm as an immense lighting bolt lit up the sky, connecting one of the other spires to a dark shape in the sky. “Quickly, I trust you can manage to channel directly into the tower; we need all the power we can get. This is worse than any prior attack; we can already tell that. Two barriers have already been breached!”
Without difficulty, all of them began pouring as much energy into the walls or floor as they could, flinching as an echoing boom sounded out a moment before another shockwave was felt, followed by a discordant shriek in the distance.
A moment later, a massive blast of rain slammed into them, stinging as particles in the water abraded their skin. With the next flash of lightning, a tight beam of water was seen descending from the clouds above into a glimmering barrier. Cracks raced through the shape before it flickered and died, another flashing into existence behind it, much smaller in size.
This time, the lightning lasted for several seconds, pulsing time after time, lighting up the sky, allowing them to see multiple blasts of various magic flying into the sky towards an utterly immense ball of water that was revealed by the slowly parting clouds.
Once again, a massive boom rang out, and a bolt of rock hurled from above them into the sphere before a shockwave blasted them once more. Another wail echoed in the distance, the sphere of water shaking and a dark shape moving within.
As the lightning died and the light faded, they could now place the other sounds they were hearing as various spells being thrown from the spires. Judging by what had been seen so far, one spire seemed to be using wind, which split the clouds, and their own was launching rock lances at absurd speeds. The central spire seemed dormant for some reason, while a spire on the other side was using lightning. Occasionally fireballs hissed as they struck the water, as well.
Suddenly, darkness flashed to light as a massive orb was launched upward from the central spire, slowing to a stop far above. The false daylight revealed multiple barriers shifting from the side opposite the apparent threat towards it. At the same time, it made the ominous shape in the water more distinct.
With the sudden appearance of the immense creature, nervousness passed through the bond Dawn and Niphru shared. Similarly, a thought emerged without a clear source, “What in the world is that…”
As the lighting died and the light faded,
Lightning?
Correct, thanks for pointing that out.