A New Spell

“Do you know how to use a weapon?” Tiaria asked.

“No, but isn’t it better to have one than not, you know, considering we are going out to fight monsters?” I asked innocently.

Tiaria shifted her head in consideration before opening up her side bag and pulling out a sheathed dagger.

“Here.” Tiaria pushed the dagger towards me. “If it makes you feel better you can take it, but according to Mira your best bet is probably your magic.”

“I thought you said magic was precious?” I asked.

“It normally is, but there is actually one way to gain more magic. The monsters we are going to cull are actually born with small amounts of natural magic. By defeating these monsters we can absorb that magic. This means that using magic to defeat monsters is fine, of course, so long as you only use a small amount of magic.” Tiaria giggled. I didn’t get the joke.

I kept pace with Tiaria as we slowly worked our way out from the main road into an ever-deepening forest. After what felt like an hour the forest seemed to change quite dramatically. The bright greens and oranges of the entrance to the forest were replaced with gradients of blue and shadow.

“You mentioned that you can absorb magic from monsters you kill right?” Tiaria seemed to jump a little bit, startled at my sudden question as the tension in the area had heightened.

“R-right.” Tiaria was obviously embarrassed to have been startled.

“So why do that?” I asked with an honest curiosity. What was the point of Tiaria putting herself in danger, and why was she the only one to do it?

Tiaria stopped walking and looked down towards the ground. “I’m not very strong, so I have to do everything I can to get stronger before the ascension. Once one ascends their abilities and strength is greatly multiplied, but anything multiplied by zero is still zero, right?” Tiaria laughed. I could hear pain masked behind her laugh.

“That’s scary.” I said.

“What is?” Tiaria seemed confused.

I scratched my head. “Well, I mean, if you are considered weak then everyone else must be absolute monsters. You are the strongest person that I know.” I gave Tiaria a big grin.

Tiaria paused for a second before giving me a warm, genuine, smile. “Thank you, Yu.”

Tiaria turned away from me and began walking again. I could tell from her gait that her mood had greatly improved. We walked for a few more minutes before I stopped again to ask Tiaria a question.

“So, how do I use magic?”

Tiaria stopped.

“Well, I mean, you were casting a pretty powerful spell continuously earlier, so you know how to cast magic, you just don’t remember how to consciously do it.” Tiaria had her arms behind her back and she turned to face me while speaking.

“So what do I do?” I asked.

Tiaria scratched her chin as she thought for a moment.

“First put your hand out like this.” Tiaria raised her hand straight out infront of her and closed her eyes. “Then, imagine that substance that we reached out to each other with, and visualize it. Once you can see this magical power inside of yourself then you need to imagine the spell.” Tiaria opened her eyes. I could tell she was thinking about something complex. “Since your best magical element is darkness, imagine the smell of death in front of you. Change that smell into a feeling and push your magic into it. Once you do that you should manifest a rot spell.” Tiaria pulled her hand back and shook her head in satisfaction.

“So just boom swish shoosh?” I asked while flailing my arms around.

Tiaria glared at me. “Just try it.”

I sighed and placed my arm out in front of me and closed my eyes. I looked into myself, remembering the feeling that I shared with Tiaria. I visualized that feeling inside of myself until I was confident that I had the mental image correct. I then imagined that magical power flowing from the core of my body into the palm of my hand. Next, I imagined the smell of death and tried to think of how it made me feel. I pushed that feeling into the magical energy that I had gathered into the palm of my hand.

“Whoa!” Tiaria exclaimed.

I opened my eyes after hearing her surprise. I was almost just as shocked. In my open palm was clearly a ball of blackish green mist.

“You did it! You cast rot!” Tiaria jumped up with happiness.

“Great.” I said. “So how do I stop casting rot?” I asked.

“Oh, right, just remove the feeling from the magical energy and then push the magic back inside of yourself. Super, super important to get rid of the feeling first though, or you will end up casting the spell on yourself.” Tiaria explained.

I did as she said and was able to stop casting the spell. I was suddenly very happy with myself.

“Well, that wasn’t so bad. Thank you for your help, teacher.” I gave Tiaria a grin.

Tiaria shook her head. “Well, now let’s practice.”

“Sure, how do we do that?” I asked.

“Try to kill that monster.” Tiaria said as she pointed to her right.

“That monster?” I asked, repeating what she had said.

I looked over to where Tiaira was pointing. I could clearly make out the bushes shaking. Suddenly a large figure moved into view. The monster that emerged looked like a giant sloth. It had large claws and thick fur. One thing I noticed right away was its eyes. It had four black eyes, two on each side of its face. It looked at us, sniffing at the air several times.

“Prepare your rot spell.” Tiaria said as she drew her sword. “It will come after me first, this one is attracted to holy essence.”

I reached my arm out and prepared my spell as Tiaria had commanded. However, the creature suddenly jerked its head towards me before lowering into a charging position. I could see Tiaria looking absolutely confused as the monster completely ignored her and focused solely on me.