When Dave went down into the Ogres Lair my stomach tied itself into knots. When he came out covered in blood and yelling at us to run I felt like crapping my pants.

And that was all before the ogre fell down from underneath the bridge.

Mike reacted quickly.

"Stew. Terrance. Take that thing out so Dave can get away. Meagan be ready."

Stew reached the ogre first, without slowing he swung his club. The ogre took it on his shoulder only to have Terrance hit it in the face with a blast from his shotgun. It fell to the ground like its strings had been cut.

"Crap. Gilberto do what you can to give us some support. Meagan, you know what to do if anything happens." Mike gave his instructions and then took off down the slope.

I saw what he had seen. I had been so focused on Stew and Terrance I had missed four more ogres running out and surrounding Dave. Even as I watched one of them outmaneuvered Dave andgot a hand on him, grabbing him. I saw Mike circling around. I could help then.

{Fireball} hadn't done much but I knew stone could absorb a lot of heat. I was willing to bet that creatures who turn to stone would be even more susceptible to cooling off and becoming brittle than regular stone.

While eating breakfast I had put some thought into my spells. I'd never been good at doing reports in class so yesterday when it came time to talk about me theories on magic I hadn't shared all of my thoughts. I thought of each spell like it was a character, similar to those in the Chinese alphabet.

{Fireball} was basically the same 'character' as {Mana Bolt} with the fire portion brought out to its max. Metaphorically I used a giant brush to draw the 'line' corresponding to Fire, making it a larger part of the whole. To get Ice I should only have to minimize it.

Instead of bringing out the fire I minimized it.

Something didn't feel quite right when I tried to use it. Sending it forth the spell dispersed and tore out enough of my Mana to cast several {Fireball}s.

Almost panicking I tried again this time instead of minimizing I ignored it and brought out one that felt more... opposed... to the fire. This time I managed to cast {Ice Ball} but the mana within was forced into a different form than I expected. I didn't have time to puzzle it out.

I sent the {Ice Ball} forward and it streaked across the distance to hit the ogre holding Dave. It exploded into shards when it hit the ogres shoulder.

Mike was too close and got sent flying towards Stew and Terrance before I saw the ogre's arm fall to the ground.

"Run! Meagan, Gilberto! Run!" Dave yelled at us.

Meagan grabbed my shoulder and pulled me away. "It's time to go."

I followed her, running as hard as I could up the street. Meagan paced me, giving me encouragement as she glanced back periodically. What really got me moving though was the sound from the heavy footfalls behind us. The steady sound of rock slamming against the pavement.

I thought I was pushing myself as hard as I could until the sound behind us changed from a steady pounding of stone to the faster slap of fleshy feet on the road. I felt a surge of adrenaline as it gained on us.

"Little faster Gilberto. You can do it. Almost there!" Meagan's eyes were wide as she looked back.

I pushed my heavy legs to move faster and faster until the sound of the ogre started to fall back. My burst of speed didn't last long but luckily the ogre didn't keep up the pace for long either. I hope they had sacrificed their speed for strength and stamina. I could tell though that my own stamina was lacking.

I wasn't going to be able to get away. I had an idea though. If it worked we might even be able to take care of this ogre and have a decent chance to head back and help the rest.

"I have. An. Idea. Trust me?" I gasped out at Meagan.

"What is it?" She asked me.

Instead of answering her I cast {Ice ball} and turned to shoot it at the ogre following us. The ice cracked against its knee, forcing it back and dropping it to the ground.

I grabbed Meagan's hand and quickly pulled her around a corner. A doorway was ahead of us, I pulled her into the minimal cover it provided.

"I just need a minute. You have Imbue Spear? Right?" I gasped out.

"I've got it, but that one just laughed at Dave when he tried it." Meagan kept glancing back at the corner the ogre would be coming around.

We were only thirty feet from the corner, even if we had ducked into a doorway, we didn't have much time.

"I need to know Imbue. Let me hold your spear while you cast it." I held out my hand.

Meagan slowly lowered her spear into my hand while giving me a confused look. "Alright."

My breath had slowed almost to normal by the time I grabbed her spear. I watched her glance back one more time.

"Whenever you're ready, Meagan." I smiled when she looked at me. "Don't worry. You can always run if you need to."

"I'm done running away." Meagan looked into my eyes and I saw her smirk. "Unless I have to of course. Here it comes."

I closed my eyes and focused on my Mana Senses. I could feel the spell spreading over the spear and coating it like an arcane skin. I grimaced, that wasn't the heart of what I wanted. The essence of what I needed.

I moved my hands and lay them on her arm. "Again, please."

I caught the edge of the formation as it expanded. I moved my hands and put one on her head and one on her stomach. Since magic is stored in the abdomen and manipulated by the mind I should get what I needed now. I hope. "Again."

I heard the ogre as it walked down the street and stopped across from us.

"Gilberto. It's here!" Meagan said.

"Once more please. You should out run it easily." I wasn't going to get away from the damn thing, I might as well try my plan.

I saw all of it this time. How Meagan relied on the system to form the magic. The... mechanical... precision of it. Most importantly though I saw the formation. I saw how it both resembled and differed from Mana Bolt. Just like I had hoped, they were both basic spells. They were almost more useful in how much you could learn from them than what you could do with them.

"Alright. I got what I need." I grabbed her spear and focused on it.

I had figured out Fireball already so all I needed to do was transfer the elemental segment from one to the other.

‡ Imbue Flame(Spear) Unlocked ‡

"We need to spread out. When I cast my spell I need you to hit it as close to the same spot as you can." I started moving before I was done talking.

The ogre was back in stone form and was grinning as it walked towards us.

Reducing the fire in Mana Bolt had created ice ball but that wouldn't do what I needed. I found another element in the formation and brought it forth and made it as pure as I could. Pure in element and as cold as I could get it.

This only took me a few seconds but when I open my eyes I could see Meagan was about to step up to the ogre. I feed mana into the formation and yell at Meagan. "Not yet! Wait for me!"

She pulled back and I released the spell.

‡ Cool Ball created. ‡ ‡ You have created a unique spell! Original Mage Title gained. ‡

The perfectly round orb of supercooled water accelerated forward and struck the ogre. The water started crystallizing as soon as the orb broke over the ogre's face. It invaded the mouth and nose, even the eyes of the ogre, and expanded as it turned from a liquid to a solid.

"Now Meagan, hit him!"

The ogre stumbled around in a circle making for an awkward target. Meagan thrust her makeshift spear forward and misses. She jabs again and hits the ogre in the side of the head.

CRACK!

With a sound like a gunshot a fist sized piece of rock falls to the ground and the ogre released a muffled roar.

Meagan struck again and again until the ogre was laying on the ground with only a stump where its head had been.

I had fallen onto the ground once the ogre was dead. Meagan turned to where I was sitting and gave me a wide eyed look. "What was that?"

"Besides closer than I wanted? Just a new spell I came up with. I wanted to actually make stuff colder instead of just hitting it with a hunk of ice."

"And this?" Meagan shook her spear at me.

"I needed to apply heat too. So I figured out how to apply elements onto weapons from your spell. Well onto spears anyway." I shrugged at Meagan.

"Why did this work?" Meagan kicked at the chunks of stone on the ground. She looked like she was getting a little worked up.

"Right. Sorry about that. Still kinda in the magical headspace. Cold can break rocks, it just needs a bit of help. Ice expands and creates cracks that eventually breaks the rock. I just put everything together in a more extreme fashion than the usual cycle of seasons. I used your spear to provide thermal shock. The sudden heat caused breaks because of the different densities."

I stood up from where I was sitting and brushed my hands off.

"Ready to head back and see if we can get everyone out?" I asked.