Cici had been pretty angry at first as I relayed the encounter with that terrible woman, but she had quickly changed gears, and even began to laugh, the sound musical even inside just my head, as I had told her about what followed.
"That's one way to clear the room. Or... the yard, in this case." She said, and I knew she was grinning, "But good on you, darling. I would have slapped her myself if I was there. No one talks about our Rissa that way."
"No. They don't." I agreed firmly, and she chuckled.
"Well then, I see there's nothing to worry about. I was having a very pleasant conversation with Valerie, so I'll let you get back to it. Hopefully no more distractions pop up. I know you can handle anything that happens." She said, before I got the mental equivalent of a smirk,"Have fun, my love."
I smiled, gave her a mental kiss, which was interesting by the way, and the communication ended. By this time, we had reached the magic range, where the only person left there was Elise, the blue haired water magic user. We approached at casual pace, the woman's eyes on us, specifically me, the whole time. I tried to give her the most innocent smile I could.
"Sorry about all of that. We came here to use these." I said, pointing down the range, "Didn't expect all of that to happen."
The woman looked at us for a moment, and then to my and Clarissa's surprise, the woman let out a small laugh. She had a soft and refined tone to her voice.
"That was the best thing I've seen all day. I really don't like that woman." She said, and I scratched the back of my head as I chuckled.
"Definitely wasn't a fan either." I said, and she laughed again, "Do you mind if we use this?" I asked, pointing to the spot next to her, and she shook her head.
"Not at all. I can already tell you'll be a lot more interesting company than those other two." She said, and both Clarissa and I nodded in thanks.
"Thank you." Clarissa said aloud.
"Of course." She said, and then her voice dropped, "Besides... you got rid of Delvin. You've earned a lot of respect from me just for that."
I smiled despite myself.
"Wish I could do it again." I said, and she smiled right back. She seemed all right in my book.
The woman kept her smile for a few seconds, then turned, and went back to looking down range, and readying another spell. Glad I didn't scare everyone in here at least. It wasn't my intention, but I was super fucking pissed. Now though, as I looked over at Clarissa, and her cute and eager smile, I felt a lot lighter, and together, we walked up to the range.
"Do you want to go first?" I asked, and Clarissa hesitated a moment, before nodding, some of her hair covering her eyes from the movement.
"I...can. I am not as impressive as you, but..." She said, but before she could finish, I reached over, and brushed her hair out of her face, and tucked it behind her left ear. She turned a lovely shade of pink.
"Clarissa, if you just stood here and did nothing, I'd still find you to be one of the most impressive women I've ever met." I said, her blush intensifying, but her smile returning, and then asked, "Would you mind if I asked you to share your information with me? I'm very curious."
She didn't answer right away, but as she studied me, and the gentle smile I gave her, she eventually nodded, and took a deep breath. After a few more heartbeats, Framework screens popped up in my vision.
[Information]
[Name: Clarissa Osark]
[Age: 19]
[Race: Human]
[Class: Ice Mage (C-)]
[Designation: Baroness]
[Stats]
[HP: 1, 800]
[Mana: 8,750]
[Stamina: 2,175]
[Strength: D]
[Dexterity: C-]
[Agility: C-]
[Intelligence: C+]
[Willpower: C]
[Perception: C-]
Yes, while admittedly not very high, it was unfair to compare her to the people she was surrounded by, name myself, Cici, and everyone else we'd met in this city. I meant what I said to her. More than any of this, I was falling for who she was, and not what she could do. Plus, I was a lot more interested in the next part.
[Skills]
[Ice Shard (C-): Summon and fire off sharp shards of ice. Power, casting speed, sharpness, and projectile speed are based on this skill's rank and your Intelligence stat. Uses very minimal mana to cast.]
[Ice Ball (C-): Summon and launch a ball of ice. Where the ice ball lands, it explodes into smaller ice shrapnel that pierce foes in a small area. Can be charged with more mana to increase the size and effects of the ice ball. Power, charge time, casting speed, explosion radius, density of ice shrapnel, area of effect, and projectile speed are based this skill's rank, and your Intelligence stat. Uses minimal mana to cast.]
[Hail (C-): Causes hail to fall around the user, decreasing your enemies visibility of you, as well as doing a small amount of damage. Can be cast continously at the cost of increase mana expenditure. Area of effect, damage of hail, and the amount of hail summoned is based on the rank of this skill, and your Intelligence stat. Uses minimal mana to cast. Uses moderate mana to maintain.]
[Ice Shield (C-): Create a shield made of ice at a targeted location. Can be cast with more mana to increase the size of the shield. Durability of the shield is based on this skill's rank, and your Intelligence stat. Can refresh a current Ice Shield's durability at an extra mana cost. Can create multiple Ice Shield's at the cost of an increased mana cost. Uses moderate mana to cast. Uses moderate mana to refresh shield durability. Heavy mana cost to create more than one shield.]
[Ice Shaping (C-): Can use your magic to shape various objects made of ice. The amount of mana used is dependent on the size and density of what you create. Damage of shaped objects and durability is based on this skill's rank, and your Intelligence stat. Can refresh a shaped object's durability at an extra mana cost. Varied mana cost to cast. Varied mana cost to refresh durability of shaped objects.]
"Holy shit." I said, unable to properly articulate my thoughts.
It was a lot more than I used to seeing. My skills for example, while very strong, were simplified in terms of how the Framework described them to me. Clarissa's on the other hand? They were a lot more descriptive, even more so than what I've seen with Cici's skills. I also thought her skills were pretty awesome sounding.
"Disappointed..?" Clarissa asked, and I quickly shook my head.
"Hell no. Clarissa, this is really awesome to me. I'm excited to see what you can do. I just really haven't seen skills so... descriptive." I said, and Clarissa giggled.
"Mages and magic users like me tend to have a lot technical aspects to our magic and mana usage. We have to keep track of so many things, as well as properly manage our mana usage, as you no doubt saw. For example, a magic user like me running out of mana? If I was in a fight... that'd be a death sentence." Clarissa said, and I nodded slowly.
Someone that used a sword, or any other weapon for that matter, could use their prowess with said weapon to fight, and use their skills sparingly when needed in a fight. Someone like Clarissa, or even this Elise woman here, relied on their magical skills to fight. They had more than just mana deprivation to worry about in that case, because they would quite literally not be able to fight anymore.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that while she wasn't saying anything, the Water Sorceress was paying attention to our conversation. She actually seemed satisfied with what Clarissa was saying given the slight nod she subtly gave as she continued to cast her own magic. I wasn't quite sure what her deal was, but given how her soul looked to me, it wasn't anything bad. There was something there though. Her soul was clean yes, but it wasn't bright. It almost looked like it was... haunted by something... like something terrible weighed on her soul.
I brought my attention back to the woman I was here with. I didn't know this other woman, but she seemed to be holding up well despite whatever it was that plagued her. I had enough going on in my life, what with the women in my life, and all of the things I no doubt had to do in the near future, to worry about a random person's problems. For now...
"You don't have to think about any of that right now, Clarissa. We are here just to practice, and have fun. Will you show me your magic?" I asked, and the woman in question blushed cutely, but she nodded.
"Yes." She said, taking a breath as she stepped up to the range, "Okay... here I go."
She lifted one hand, and I actually was a little awestruck when I saw her hand and fingers begin to frost over. A chill radiated from them, one that I could actually feel from my spot next to her. Then, right in front of her, I saw her mana coalesce into a small shard of ice.
"How cool." I said, my interest increasing exponentially. I really thought it was awesome.
The blush on her face darkening, before determination filled her bright blue eyes. A moment of concentration later, and suddenly, the ice shard shot forward at a speed much faster than I assumed given her C- rank. It crashed into the target, and shattered. Then, seconds after that one hit, another one hit, and then another, and another still.
I watched, genuinely impressed, as she was summoning dozens of ice shards at one time, firing them off one after another. I could actually use my vision to see some of what she was doing with her mana, and not only was her control over her own mana excellent, but she was barely using any mana at all to cast her magic, despite shooting off dozens of ice shards by this point. Even the woman next to us had stopped what she was doing to watch, and she looked genuinely impressed with Clarissa as well.
A smile had begun to form of Clarissa's face, and that smile only grew wider as she kept up her assault on the poor target across from her. Soon, a larger amount of mana converged in front of her into a basketball sized ball of ice, and with a flick of her wrist, she lobbed it towards the target. It arched upwards before descending at an angle, like she was throwing a grenade. It slammed into the target with a loud crash of shattering ice, exploding into what looked like hundreds of smaller shards of ice that actually hit the other two targets down range.
"Holy shit." I muttered, looking at her with new found appreciation.
Clarissa was cementing herself into my heart very quickly, and her magical prowess had no sway on that. That being said, I couldn't deny the pride, and the warmth that filled me at seeing just how proficient she was with her magic. Lower rank or not, she was damn good, so much so that even the woman next to us weighed in.
"Very impressive. The magic itself is not super strong on its own, but your control, and the way you use your mana is very precise. You've obviously practiced a lot." Elise said, her words causing Clarissa's face to turn pink slightly, but her small smile was filled with pride in herself.
"Thank you." Clarissa replied.
Then, in a move I didn't expect, she summoned about 6 floating daggers made of ice, and shot them at the target with surprising speed. That was different.
"A lot of my free time was spent practicing and training with what I could. I may not be as strong as a lot of people, but I did what I could to become intimately familiar with what I could do. My ice shaping lets me create almost anything I want, although it does use more mana than my simple ice shard." She said, and I couldn't help but smile.
On top of everything I was growing to love about her, she turned out to be a little badass as well. That thought also made me realize something I hadn't before. This women of this world knew who they were, but more importantly, they knew what, and who, they wanted. They didn't get confused, they didn't create unnecessary drama, and they didn't drag things out for no reason. I wanted Clarissa, and Clarissa wanted me. She was intentionally showing me all she could do in order to impress me. She didn't have to any of that, and yet...
"Clarissa, you're incredible." I said, her pink cheeks turning red, but her smile wide, and content.
"I agree." Elise said, butting into the conversation again, "Once you increase your rank more and evolve your class, you will be a force to be reckoned with."
She was an odd woman, but she was genuine in her praise. I made a mental note to pay more attention to her if we ended up running into her again. With that, Clarissa, with a bright smile on her face, spent roughly another 10 minutes firing off different variations of her skills at the target before I saw a bit of strain on her face. With one final large ice shard, her hands returned to normal, the frozen look fading. Her smile did not fade.
"Okay, that was a lot of fun." She said, looking at me with her bright blue eyes, causing my heart to momentarily stop. She was so beautiful it almost didn't make sense.
"Do you feel better?" I asked, and she nodded quickly.
"Oh yeah. I didn't really realize how everything had been affecting me until now. I felt like I was casting out all of my worries and frustrations everytime I cast my magic. I feel... lighter." She said, and I just smiled at her as a I came over, and gently rubbed my hand in a circle across her upper back.
"This is why we are out today. To relax, and enjoy ourselves. I'm happy that you feel better. Your smile is something I love seeing." I said, and she blushed so much it made me chuckle, before she surprised me by leaning into my side.
"When I'm with you... I feel like I can just be myself. No people to manage, no town to worry about... just the chance to be me." She said softly, and I smiled as I brought my arm around to her opposite shoulder, and held her close.
"That's all you have to do." I said, and she breathed out a happy sigh as she leaned her head against my shoulder.
"Pretty public place to be showing so much affection." Elise said, although her tone seemed more amused than annoyed.
"Don't care." I said simply.
The woman just looked at us, smirked, and then asked.
"Say, isn't your turn?"
That caused Clarissa to look at me with shining eyes.
"Oh, yes! I want to see some cool black fire again!" She said excitedly, and that made the other woman's eyes open in surprise.
"Black... fire?" She asked, and I just chuckled as I released Clarissa, and stepped forward myself.
"Sure. You got me a little fired up after seeing that." I said, and then I rolled up my sleeves a bit more.
Instinctively, my energy covered my body to protect my clothes from being burned to ashes. I held my arms out to my sides, and summoned my power. For me, it wasn't like using a skill, but more so... it was just me doing what I told my mana to do. It was strange, as I could use my skills, but they were almost more like suggestions rather than just skills. Not that I thought about it for too long. My power let me keep those close to me safe. I didn't want anything else.
Black and white flames covered my arms, and it wasn't just Clarissa that gasped, but the woman next to us as well.
"I've... never seen magic like this before..." Elise said, and I couldn't help but smirk at the awe in her tone.
"It's beautiful.." Clarissa said, stepping closer to take a better look, "I seen it before when..." She paused, coughed, and then continued, "Anyways... being this close is so much different. Just you doing this... the mana coming off of you is incredible."
I could now feel the eyes of what other people had stayed in this training area on me as well. Holding back or not, I still gave off a lot of power. That was even more so as I held my palm out, and summoned a small fireball, the black and white fire swirling around and burning brightly.
"Incredible..." Elise muttered as she just stared at the ball of fire.
"It is... what are you going to do with it?" Clarissa asked, and I just grinned.
"Time for some fireworks." I replied.
I used my manipulation to surround the range in a dome of energy that would prevent it from causing any damage to the surrounding or from accidently harming anyone. And, as much as I knew I could destroy the targets down range, I really was trying not to break any more of the Guild's shit. So, once that was done, I launched the fireball forward, and it flew with the speed of a speed bullet, before crashing into the target, and erupting with immense force.
The flames expanded outwards to the very edges of the dome I had created, and I heard Clarissa yelp in excitement, and Elise actually choked on seemingly nothing.
"How is this possible??? And what is this?" Elise asked, pointing at where the flames were stopped by my dark translucent barrier.
"I created something like a shield to keep the flames contained." I said, her eyes widening further as I said that, "Even when I hold back, I always seem to overdo it."
She just stared at me, her mouth open like a fish out of water.
"You... made a shield that big... while casting all of this? How? And... you're holding back? Just who in the hells are you?" She asked, and I smirked, and I smirked.
"Name's Elias." I said simply, and she just continued staring at me, but that was all I was going to give her. A fellow Delvin hater deserved my name at the very least.
I then summoned about 3 dozen smaller fireballs in front of me, which made multiple people gasp, and fired them off in quick succession. I could not do anything about the noise, and as such, multiple small explosions of crackling fire filled the air. This was me holding back considerably, and yet, it was still absolutely absurd. I really needed to do stuff like this more often.
I kept summoning fireballs, shot streams of fire from my hands, and even made the ground under the targets erupt into columns of fire, which stopped about 30 feet into the air thanks to my barrier. I will admit that I was showing off for Clarissa a bit, but this was also very good practice, and was helping me temper my mana control even more. Not enough that I felt comfortable with dispelling my protections, but given a bit more practice, I think I could do just fine.
The thought almost made me laugh. People spent years upon years growing their power to become stronger, and here I was, having to cut almost all of my power down just so I didn't accidentally burn the city down. Yet thanks to this power, most of the people of the village had survived, my Cici was safe and stronger than ever, and I was able to keep the other people in my life safe, like Clarissa, Valerie, and the rest of them. I couldn't ask for more, nor did I want more.
The future was uncertain, but I knew more bloodshed was on the horizon. I was going to go and take care of that asshole in the fox siblings home, and then I had the nobility to take down, especially those fuckers in Farendell for what they did to Valerie, and what they continued to do now. However, right now, all I needed to do was have a good day with Clarissa, and show her how much she meant to me now. That was something I could definitely do, and something I very much wanted to do.
The sun was now starting to slowly go down, so I decided to wrap up my pyrotechnics display. With one final usage of mana, I erupted my entire barrier with flames, black and white fire looking like destruction from the pits of hell sent on high, and the way Clarissa squealed in glee made my heart beat faster. The Water Mage, Elise, could do nothing but just stare as the flames slowly fizzled out, her eyes wide and her jaw practically on the ground. The flames went out on my hands, and I looked over my date with a grin.
"What did you think?" I asked, and she came up to me and hugged my tightly.
"That was amazing! The power, the control, the amount of mana you threw out without even breaking a sweat! Gods, that was incredible!" She said excitedly, and I laughed as I wrapped her in a hug.
This girl seemed to get more animated, and extra excited when it came to magic. That was good to know. I was also enjoying this side of her, and even though this woman blushed more than I thought was humanly possible, she did seem to be getting over her shy demeanor a bit more as we were together. Not that I minded that part of her. It was super cute, after all.
"Holy... hells..." Elise said, and I turned to where she was looking, and all I could do was grimace.
I kept my promise, as the targets themselves were still in one piece, as was the area outside of the range. But the ground, and the dirt of the range itself... yeah, most of that was now a big crater in the ground. I had been so focused on hitting the targets that I hadn't even noticed.
"Well... shit." I muttered, Clarissa doubling over laughing as she surveyed the scene.
Note to self. Put a barrier on the ground next time as well. I was still learning... but yeah, so much for not fucking up anymore of the Guild's stuff.
"Is everything okay out here? There was so much noise, and...." Liandra said as she ran outside and over to us, only to stop, her eyes widening as she looking down the target range that I had rearranged. I scratched the back of my head nervously.
"I'll pay for that."