Mature Content Warning: Not much if any

Author's Note: Another short-short chapter, but this ends to training and such arc. The next few chapters will deal with the actual liberation of the mermaids and the aftermath of certain things.

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Chapter 12: Elf-Blocked

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All eyes were on Scott as he called upon his new power. He had not fully realized what having access to primordial magic meant. He had thought that it was just a spell that could be charged, a common thing in games.

The watery attack speared outward with great force. His companions clapped as though they had seen a great show. He knew that the spell could have great attack power, but the type of interest it had garnered was strange to him.

“You still don’t see it?” asked Rhea?

Scott shook his head. “Other than the charge ability, and the increasing damage, no.”

The elf maiden smiled. “That’s probably because you have not gained any normal water spells. You should have enough ability points... Try one.”

The sorcerer glanced at his beautiful love interest for a moment then called up his skill menu. He did have plenty of ability points to burn when it came to something as simple as a class one spell. The sorcerer selected his class one water spell option, “Drowning Sphere.”

Scott envisioned a sphere of water that fit around someone’s head. The spell, when used, looked remarkably like his vision. The ball of water that was formed floated in the air roughly one arm-length from his position. It moved as his hand moved. After roughly ten seconds it fell apart.

“That might be useful when it’s mastered, but I don’t know what’s so great about it.” said Scott.

Rhea grinned at him. “You’ll see. Check your blue fang spell.”

Scott squinted at the girl for a moment then checked his spell information. He blinked twice and then his eyes widened with excitement. He immediately called out, “Blue Water Fang!”

The spiraling columns of water and the lightshow were no different than before. The water moved to a sphere above his head, just as it always had. When he released the spell and it fired off toward his target, a broken barrel, and impacted heavily. Up until that point it was no different than before. However, immediately after impacting the target, the water swirled quickly and formed into a perfect sphere that encased the barrel.

He could combine water-element spell effects with his blue water fang spell! “That’s not bad...” Scott could see many possibilities for such a power. It wouldn’t be terribly useful against the Shar-Shar, a race that breathed water, but it might drown a Corpse Rat or two in the future.

“Not bad.... Seriously? Try again! This time charge it as much as possible.” demanded Rhea. She was more than a little annoyed by how casually he dismissed such a great power. She could not learn them in her current class.

“Bossy.... But I like it.” said Scott. He grinned at her and Rhea snorted in response.

“I’d like to see it too, Scott.” said Ero softly. She currently sat on Rhea’s shoulder and looked quite happy to be able to sit there.

“Yeah, like, that would be so cool.” said Kiley.

Neira nodded her head. She wanted to see it, too.

Scott shrugged then repeated what he had done before. “Blue Water Fang!”

Instead of casting it immediately, he charged it four times. The result was incredible! When the spell hit the large sea shell he was aiming at, a much larger sphere of water rose up. If he had to guess, it could have potentially encased a normal sized car in a perfect sphere of water. He immediately realized that he could potentially drown several rats at once! Even better, the effect lasted for well over half a minute. If he had to guess, he would have said that charging the spell stacked the effective usage time.

“That’s awesome, but it makes my mana drop like a rock.” said the man. He fully intended to use that spell in the future now that he could attack additional effects to it, but it did require a lot of mana to use.

Rhea laughed at him. “True, but just look at the effects! If you master your drowning sphere, the mana cost would drop by a lot.”

“That could be useful... I wonder how I should upgrade it. I still haven’t chosen an upgrade.” said Scott.

“Any of the upgrades would be great. I mean, it’s an absurdly powerful spell already.” said the elf.

“Yeah, it looks like something I could do if I ever had my abilities unlocked.” said Ero.

Scott looked to the fairy then acquired a thoughtful look. “Does it make me a bad person to admit that I sort of want to go drown some people just to see how much damage it will do?”

“Yes.” replied several voices at one.

“Good to know.” said Scott. He had mostly been joking about drowning people.... mostly.

“If you want to know how much damage it can do, just consider your intellect and the force of the spell.”

“It could do up to four hundred points of damage?” Both the primordial spell and the Drowning Sphere had a force of one, but his force-up bonus after reaching level ten increased all spell damage by one force level. The combined force of the spells increased the damage factor to four.

Rhea said, “Sure, if you don’t charge it. If you do charge it, you’d be doing that much damage every ten seconds to a small group.”

Scott rubbed his chin. So, the tradeoff for expending most of his mana was the ability to generate up to sixteen hundred points of damage in less than a minute. Honestly, that was something he could do with one of his other spells with far lower cost.

After he said that aloud Rhea rolled her eyes. The high elf sighed loudly, “Yes, at the moment you’re right. Master both of those spells and you’ll see the difference.”

“I think my biggest issue is that my class one spells have no cool down period. I can just cast them to my heart’s content. I also don’t have to stand there with my hand out like an easily targeted moron.” said Scott.

Rhea calmed down a little then said, “Well, that’s true. Drowning Sphere is only a class one spell. Of course, if you went full damage you could have a force of up to twenty-two for every single cast of that spell.”

The elf raised a hand into the air and loudly said, “I guess that isn’t a big deal either. It’s just a spell that allows a force of twenty-two for the horrible cost of five mana.”

Scott opened his mouth then blinked. Had he heard that right? “That’s eleven thousand damage in less than a minute.”

She smiled at him again. He was finally starting to get it. However, her hair nearly stood up on her head when he spoke again.

“Not bad, but it’s too resource intensive. A little over one hundred eighty damage per second is a crappy tradeoff when I can spam my other spells without a cool down, and do several times that amount.”

“What will it take for you to admit how awesome this spell is!” exclaimed Rhea heatedly.

“Why are you so personally invested in this? I can’t help it if I can spam sixty burn spells in the same amount of time that it takes me to cool down from a max cast of the blue water fang spell.”

“You’re over-trained! What sorcerer at your level could do nearly a thousand points of damage per second with a class one spell while wearing nothing but blue swimming briefs!” cried Rhea. She loved that he trained so hard, but come on.

He had a rare spell, with high-end functionality and he treated it like it was nothing special. It was infuriating.

Scott shrugged. “I’ve never met one personally. Am I special or something?”

He knew that he was far from special. Any sorcerer could have stats similar to his if they had forsaken their second class spells and special attacks to focus mostly on their attribute development. He had a few bonuses due to his titles, but beyond that there was little remarkable about him.

Rhea sighed loudly then nodded. “I’ve always thought so, but this is annoying. How is it that you’re more powerful without using a primordial spell? There is something weird about that.”

“No idea, but if it makes you feel better, it’ll probably be better later.” said Scott.

She nodded. “Yeah, higher tier spells and greater spell effects would be good.”

“I do wonder how I should upgrade it, though. Pure damage seems like a waste considering how it won’t even compare with a class one spam session.” said the sorcerer.

The elf maiden nodded at him. It was true that his raw damage was better when using class one spells. “Maybe additional effects would be useful?”

“Maybe, but wouldn’t that mean that I would have to add other water spells?” asked the man. He could not afford to purchase a class two spell with his ability points.

“Actually, I am not certain. I am not a primordial magic master. Sharde uses primordial fire, so she might be able to tell you more about it.”

“When we finally get to Eizen, I should talk to her a bit. There might be something we are missing.” said Scott.

Rhea sighed. She had never practiced such magic. Everything she knew, admittedly she knew a good bit, was second hand knowledge.

“I’ll wait till I know more before making a decision.” said Scott. He was not terribly impressed with the destructive potential of his new spell currently, but in the future it could be quite dangerous.

There was a brief lull in the conversation after that. A lot had happened recently, but no one had anything uniquely interesting to say.

“What now?” asked Ero. It was the most logical thing to ask at this point.

The mermaids looked at each other and then they looked at the others in the group. Neira said, “Do you want to train a little more, or do you want to go fight the Shar-Shar? There is plenty of time left, probably.”

Scott felt a little uncomfortable leaving those poor girls in the hands of their captors. Training was important, and he could honestly use more of it, but there was a limit.

He looked to Rhea and then to Ero. The Shar-Shar were not supposed to be that strong, not even as strong as the ones they had faced here. Yet, they would only have one chance at it.

Rhea nodded. “We should train tonight and set out in the morning to finish this.”

Neira smiled brightly then clapped her hands together. “Great! That’s, like, so great!”

Kiley nodded her head enthusiastically. Finally, they would go help their friends.

“Let me take a brief nap to recharge my mana. We can hunt till around midnight then come back.” said Scott.

“A brief nap does sound nice.” said Kiley. The mermaids had been up on guard duty most of the day. Ero could protect the island when her power was in effect, but she had not been using it recently. They were in training after all.

“I’ll take watch since I slept the day away.” said Rhea. As far as the mermaids knew, that was true.

Scott walked over and gave her a warm hug. “Your snores gave me courage.”

She punched him on the arm then shook her head. “Goof...”

He kissed her on the cheek then said, “Good night dear.”

Rhea giggled a little then smiled. “Good night...”

“Good night Rhea!” exclaimed Ero before fluttering off toward Scott.

The little fairy found her lower half in a tight feminine grip immediately afterward. She gasped and struggled a little.

“Hey, Rhea... What’s this?”

The high elf grinned at the fairy. “There should be two people on guard duty if it can be helped, right?”

“Wha...? But... But...” The fairy reached toward Scott then made a cute little grunting noise, much like a lonesome puppy.

“Ooooh, Elf-blocked.” said Scott in a cheery voice before slipping off into the tent.

“No fair! No faaaair!” cried Ero.

Scott immediately walked back out of the tent and over to the tiny little thing. He stroked her cheek with his finger then granted her a smile before walking back inside.

A brief, awkward, moment passed. The elf held onto the fairy, and the fairy held onto her annoyance.

“Don’t you like spending time with me, little sister?” asked Rhea sweetly.

Ero pouted at her then unleashed a loud snort. “Yes, I do...”

The elf pulled the little fairy forward and did her best to kiss the annoyed little dear on the cheek. She whispered, “I’m working on it.... OK.”

Ero sighed. She knew what Rhea meant without having to ask for clarification. The goddess of love just needed a little more time to work through her feelings.

The fairy kissed Rhea on the lips gently, a far less sensual sight that might have been implied. It was more like a younger sibling sharing a simple moment with an older one. “OK...”

The elf maiden released her fairy companion then walked toward the closest high sand dune. It would be a long few hours. Ero fluttered along beside her, neither would have the tender moment that they currently desired. The sorcerer in their life was too tired for romance.