Running along the wind of the forest, we travelled at high speed between the trees. To our great joy, Mizuko agreed to become our mount. To prove to her that we didn’t lie to her about the great restaurant, we got her the best meal they had. Her reaction to the actual food was a show in itself, as she ate the whole thing in only a few minutes.
Our direction was the small clearing I found with Lavanda yesterday. As there was a lot of space and water, it made a great training area close enough to the city. To allow us to ride on her back, Mizuko used magic to drastically increase her size. If before she was no bigger than Hybry, if I didn’t take into account her nine tails, now she was almost as big as Randal. She told us that she could grow even bigger, but that this was enough to have us on her back.
With me, Reylia and Phyralia, holding on to her comfy, fluffy fur, she dashed with ease toward our destination. On her back, we were a little tight, but not that much considering it was our first ride. With experience and more adjustment of her seize on the way, she altered her size little by little until we found the perfect balance between not too big and comfortable. Holding Hybry in my arms, it wasn’t long before we reached the training ground near the river.
Before leaving, Tara decided to go back to the inn and leave us to our day. As I didn’t really have any plan for her specifically, I didn’t mind. I always thought that she had a motherly attitude toward Hybry and now the dragon egg. I didn’t know if it was because she had been a mother before I slaughtered her entire family and adopted her into my own, but one thing was sure, her maternal instincts were sharp.
“So, what do we train today, elven or magic training?” Even if I was the one asking them to train me, they were the ones to decide what should be my priority for the moment. We would get to other subjects and areas at some point, so I was fine either way.
“Elven training!” They said in unison.
“Even if you weren’t born a pure elf, you are one now. The simple fact that you can’t do a simple trick like camouflage is almost an affront to the entire race. Why be a pure elf in the first place if you don’t know what differentiates them from half-elf.”
“Let's not waste any time and get camouflage out of the way.” Closing her eyes, Phyralia began taking big breaths as I could see small details about her change. First, her emblematic long and sharp elven ears disappeared into normal human ears. Her hair grew a few inches and changed from her previously blond to a darker colour still in the yellow range. Lastly, I could very clearly see that her average breasts changed to a closer melon size, causing her to recoil lightly to the new weight on her chest. It goes without saying that her shirt and armour were holding on to the best of their ability against the unexpected pressure.
When she finished, her breath was a little exhausted as she supported both her new assets with her arms. If she hadn’t been in front of me, I wouldn’t have believed that this was the Phyralia I knew. Her facial structure didn’t change at all, but if it wasn’t for it, it would not be possible to recognize her.
“Lesson one,” She said, still exhausted. “Camouflage modifies your body's very structure, allowing you to shape it into whatever you want. It is impossible to change the face, skin damage or your gender, but pretty much everything else can be modelled to your desire.”
“Still, this is not easy.” Reylia continued in her sister's stead. “First, as you see, this is very exhausting. Your body uses both magic and its energy to do the modifications. You can’t do it if you’re out of either of them. As long as you know how you can pretty much change into whatever race you want. The only thing you can’t change into are species too different, like monsters and animals. At first, you only be able to camouflage into species in which blood flows through your vein, as your body instinctively knows its own composition.”
“Great! How do I camouflage, exactly.”
“Since you were born to a human mother, your body should be able to change easily between human and elf. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Let your heart relax and try to feel every inch of your body.”
Doing as she instructed, I closed my eyes and took a deep, long breath through my nose. Since I was already used to meditating with Lavanda, it wasn’t long before my heartbeat slowed.
“Perfect, now imagine a single thing that you want to change about your body. Your hair is the simplest part to change, so try that first. Concentrate on the magic in you and let your instinct do the work. Camouflage is a survival tool as its core and your body know how to use it. You only need to find that tool in you. When you do, just focus your magic on your hair.”
Deep in my mind, I focused on my elven instinct. I searched and waited as I let go of any doubt or insecurity and let my instinct take charge of my body. Feeling the flow of magic deep within me, I focused it on the core of my hair and tried to change its colour. My mind and body were getting tired just from trying to do so, but I pushed on nonetheless. At some point during the process, even without opening my eyes, I sensed that my hair gradually changed to the black colour I was aiming for.
As I continued and pushed the transformation, I felt some kind of resistance and instead of going the way I wanted, my body tried to revert my work to what it was before. Doing my best to not undo what I had done, I sensed that the process was almost completed and focused all my thoughts on finishing it. The whole thing was like pushing a giant boulder uphill as if my body didn’t like where it was going.
At some point, my body stopped all resistance and I felt like everything was back to normal. Opening my eyes, I saw that my hair was now the same black as Lavanda's hair, exactly what I wanted. I couldn’t contain my smile as I suddenly felt tired. I sat on the ground, trying to stay awake.
“Good job!” Reylia and Phyralia said together.
Phyralia soothed me as I felt her smooth hand against my hair, admiring my work. “It’s normal if you feel tired, so don’t push yourself. Your body used its energy to do the actual change, so it is not something you can do endlessly, at least not without rest and experience.”
“With time, you be able to do it quicker and easier, all while using less energy. For now though,” Eyeing my black hair, she patted my head vigorously, until they were all messy enough for her taste. “You've done great, but it is not the end of your training.”
“I know we just started, but can’t we wait, I’m tired.” At my word, Tenta who served as my belt, unrolled and vanished into the ground. Seconds later, it was back with a handful of tasty mana leaves. This time, it had the kindness of letting me eat them instead of shovelling it all down my throat.
“See you be fine! We are practising your magic next anyway, so as long as you have mana, you’re in no state to complain.”
“What kind of spell are we talking about?”
“It depends, first tell us about what spells you generally use.”
Uncorking the two bottles attached to my real belt, I controlled the two liquids inside and made them float in a spear-shaped position behind me. “I use water and plague pretty much the same way,” Manoeuvring the two liquid spears, I slashed at the empty air and aimed at a tree to show them what I meant. With a single dual lateral slash, my attack pierced about two-inch deep into the tree. My water blade was finer and so ended up a bit deeper, and as my acidic blade was thicker, it melted around the point of impact, but did not go as deep as the water. With the demonstration done, I retracted the two liquids back into their bottles, as I didn’t want to lose too much of them.
The main weakness of this usage was that the more I attacked with them, the less liquid I had left, as acid that melted something was instantly lost and water splashed into too small droplets couldn’t be controlled. If I ever had a source nearby I could always replenish my reserve, but this wasn’t something I could count on in the middle of a battle or everywhere for that matter.
“I see, I see,” Reylia mumbled. “What next?”
“Fire I guess, I can use it like a flamethrower or a concentrated ray. For the sake of the forest, I won’t do any of those. Once, I also created a burning aura around me for a few seconds.”
“Flamethrower… I think I get the idea, what about your other affinities?”
“I never use shadow or light before. That is one of the reasons I bought Flashbang. Since this is a magic sword, this makes it easier to cast spells using light, although I am pretty new to it.”
“Got it, what about shadow?”
“Not a clue about how to use it.”
“Great, we are focusing on that then! Since your plant affinity seems the most developed of them all, and I have no idea what you can do with it, we leave it to you and your tentacle to find ways to use it. Phyry!” Reylia turned to her sister. “You’re the one with the shadow affinity between us, can you teach her a few spells?”
“I thought you said that. Fine. But I already use a lot of mana with the camouflage I showed you before and turning back also sucked me dry, so I be teaching you only two shadow spells for today. This is a very mana-hungry affinity, so we won’t be able to do much more than that. And, you still have to turn your hair back to blond before we go back to Dawnriver. For most, pure elves and their camouflage ability are just rumour, fairy tail almost, let's keep it that way.”
Searching in Mizuko saddle, Reylia took out multiple cooking wares such as pans and some ingredients. “While you both be busy, I be making some food with what we bought before leaving the city. Can’t leave Mizuko's stomach hanging for too long, can I? I’m no professional cook, but I’m rather confident in my cooking skills!”
“I look forward to the restaurant again, but in that wait, there is little harm in trying your food, I guess. Do your best.” The kitsune said, desperately trying to hide her growling stomach, responding to the word food. Her fluffy fur barely muffling just how hungry she was.
In the middle of our small camp in the clearing, I was panting from exhaustion on the grass. Phyralia taught me two spells for the better part of the day before it started to get dark. The whole process has been extremely exhausting, more on my mana than anything else. Just like she warned me, shadow affinity spells consumed a lot of mana and needed a constant flow of magic to function properly, making it awkward to use in an elongated fight. Worse yet, only a very few of them could deal actual damage to an opponent. As she explained, they were more for disturbance and getting slight but critical advantage rather than pure power.
Snaking on leaves and soup, we were chatting in the camp after a long, but productive day. Feeding some dry jerky to Hybry who heads happily battled for the meat, just playing with him brought a smile to my sweaty face. After all, he was one of the reasons why I wanted to get better.
Protecting my family and familiars was an obvious reason and a righteous one, but Hybry was a more special case than the others. As a calamity monster, he was fated to become extremely powerful and dangerous, just like his father, who almost killed me. If it wasn’t for Tenta or rather my plant affinity altogether, I would have been lost.
While the fact that it was a matter of time before Hybry could grow and claw any enemy that may dare to look at me wrong, which I know Hybry wouldn’t take dearly if it was to get known people were bound to try to kill him before he gets to that point.
Calamity monsters were not very appreciated and were considered a threat to be taken seriously should one appear. Even if it took a lot of manpower just to repel one, people with the means would not spare Hybry if they had the opportunity to kill him. The fact that he was young only made it more tempting for them to preventively end the threat before it got out of hand.
Some people may even try to kidnap him for research or the merit of having a calamity monster as a pet. Unless I swore allegiance to someone, I was basically a wild card that was unpredictable to everyone and a potential threat. I had no intention of pledging loyalty to anyone except maybe the gods since I owe them this very life, far better than my last one. The best way to avoid any of these situations was, at least for now, to lie low and avoid parading Hybry to those I don’t fully trust.
The fact that I have more eyes catchy familiars did help in that since two giant fire-breathing lizards, a mean-looking spider bigger than a child and a dog in decomposition were more noticeable than a little hydra that constantly stay in my arms, generally using my boobs for pillows.
Since Mizuko was also a kitsune, something rare, she too was distracting away from my cute hydra. I accepted a long time ago that it was impossible for me to just avoid having people stare at me and my familiars, so the only thing to do was keep their attention away from Hybry at all costs.
While we rested, Mizuko lay near the river, slowly enjoying a large bowl of meat soup that Reylia had prepared. It was not her first serving, and she seemed to appreciate the soup, that she kept calling acceptable more and more as time went on and asking for another serving as soon as her bowl was empty. I wondered if increasing her size made her more hungry, but it was our job to feed her, so we didn’t ask.
In the midst of her feast, Mizuko perked up her long ears as she abruptly stopped eating. With her eyes wide open, she tilted her head to better perceive what was bothering her. Realizing that something was wrong, we began to pack up the camp as quickly and quietly as possible. If a monster had approached, I would have sensed it with my root detection ability, so at least I knew it wasn’t that.
“What is it, Mizuko?” Kneeling beside her, we finished packing up our improvised camp and were ready to leave this place.
“There was a magical spell used a few kilometres up east, big enough that I sensed it from here. Whatever it was, it must have been something extremely powerful.”
Hearing Mizuko's words, Phyralia suddenly turned worried. “East of here is the Dungeon and a small village nearby… Mizuko, do you know what affinity the spell was?”
“Fire, I’m pretty sure it was a fire spell. I can smell something burning in the same direction.”
“You’re sure?” I asked.
She nodded. “I am confident in the art of magic, I know what I sensed.”
For a brief moment, we didn’t move, knowing full well what such a powerful spell could mean.
“What… do we do…” Reylia muttered.
“We should go help!” Phyralia started tying her bags on Mizuko's saddle.
“Are you crazy sister?! This is suicidal, whoever did that must be at least someone the level of an S-rank adventurer! We don’t stand a chance!”
“What, you want to let that village burn to cinder?”
“No, but what if it’s a new calamity monster? We should get back to Dawnriver and tell the guild about it! Maybe it's just an adventurer who lost control of his spell! Maybe there’s nothing to worry about!”
“I do not know much about your adventurer,” Mizuko said. “But, I guarantee that this is not the work of a monster. The way they use magic is very different from the way your people cast spells. Wait … I can feel it was not someone alone, at least ten people worked on this spell, and their mana signatures are still in the spell residue. This is a collective work.”
“Bandit maybe?”
“Probably, we should go to the guild and warn them!”
“Come on,” Phyralia shook her sister out of her shock. “If they need so many people just for that one spell, then they must be pretty weak, we can take them on! We can save the village!”
“It is also possible that they used all their mana with that spell, but they have the advantage of number, that much is sure.”
“See! Listen to Emery, each of us has the abilities of a B-rank adventurer. These scrub stand no chance against us!”
“Rhaaa, fine! But, if it gets too dangerous, we leave! Promise me that! I won’t risk both of your lives!”
“I swear it.”
“Same, but first I’m gonna try scouting the area from here.” Putting my palm against the ground, I extended my connection to the root system of the forest as far as possible, concentrating on range rather than spread.
As I searched the direction, the ground eventually grew hotter and hotter until my mind was forced out of the roots by the infernal burn of the village in fire. The ground over there was far too scorched for any grass or root to have been close enough to the surface to feel anything but general movement, nothing precise. In some places where the flames didn't reach too deep, I faintly felt a repetitive change in the pressure on the ground.
Many steps pursued a smaller group of people. Those being pursued must have been villagers because the other group followed them religiously in a straight line wherever they went. At some point, more people joined the chase, and I felt some arrows penetrate the ground.
At the very least, I had a general sense of the area, because some of the houses must have crumbled on themselves, creating heavier patches of pressure on the roots deep under them.
When the following group stepped into burn territory, I lost track of the villagers, only to feel their hunters disappear after them.
“It clearly bandits,” I said. “Some people are still alive, but not for long if we don’t do something to help them. There is no way the guild can make it in time.”
“Let go then!” The sisters yelled together. As getting help was not an option, Reylia had now agreed to go. She wasn’t going to let an entire village die without doing anything.
Climbing on Mizuko, we settled quickly on her back, and I held Hybry tight in my arms to make sure he didn’t fall off. We gripped on Mizuko's fur and at our signal, she sprinted toward the burning village with haste.
We were adventurers, it was our job to help people in need, even if the odds were against us.
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https://pixai.art/artwork/1671715922191422510?utm_source=copy_web
