Wincing at the pain in his hand, Oberon recoiled away from the failed magic as the spell once again dispersed. Looking down at the source of the pain he could that a thin wound like that of a paper cut had formed across his palm and a single drop of blood welled to the surface, the fragments of wind-infused Mana apparently being sharp enough to slice through skin with ease even if the resulting injury was shallow. What had happened? He’d heard something like the rushing of wind after a snap and then he’d felt something slice across his palm, but what had happened or even how or why eluded him; the reaction had been too fast for him to comprehend.

The Sprite cast Minor Heal on his hand, because when you have the ability to heal small injuries instantly you might as well use it, and the paper-thin cut sealing shut as the magic did its work. Then, before he started up another experiment, he cast Shield I on himself to protect himself from any more magical blowback he might incur.

What had just happened? Did the spell become overloaded somehow and explode? Possibly, but he wasn’t adding any more power to it than what was contained inside a regular Mana Orb, unless the Mana he was pulling from the air was enough to overburden it? Or was it because he was holding the shards too close together? It did seem like he couldn’t control their movements as much as he had hoped; rather than being a uniform swirling pattern the petal-like fragments of wind moved in differing directions and angles and different speeds.

No… that didn’t feel right. He wasn’t sure exactly what had happened, but he was sure that the spell didn’t begin to fall apart until after he had lost his concentration. It didn’t seem like the spell was exploding or falling apart, but it was clear that something had happened; something that had caused the snap and the rush and for one of the petals to suddenly slice into his hand. Was it because that shard had abruptly accelerated or because it had unexpectedly sharpened? Maybe it wasn’t that the spell was becoming unstable but rather than fact that it was succeeding. The shards were accelerating or sharpening enough to become dangerous, with the rushing wind either a result of the increased speed or due to the air moving around the now edged petals.

If that was the case… then how could he avoid harming himself with his own spell whenever he tried to use it?

Maybe he had packed the shards together too tightly and maybe he was also trying to form it too closely to his body. He needed to keep the fragments somewhat under control or else they would just fly away as he had seen before and the spell would lose cohesion and power until it failed entirely. However if he held the pieces too close together they risked bumping into each other with their varying patterns and speeds and he also risked hitting himself if he kept it too close.

So… he formed another Mana Orb and began the process again but this time, as he began to draw the surrounding air into the spell and it began to break apart again, he moved the focal point away from his body, moving it a little over a foot away from his foot tall body and holding it there rather than in the palm of his hand. This time as he felt the fragments begin to move away from the orb he held onto them but didn’t draw them back to the centre; instead he let them space themselves out more, allowing each to find its own orbit around the focal point to create a much more spread out shape than the tightly formed ball he had created last time.

Once the orb had completely broken down, assuming it hadn’t lost cohesion or injured him again, he waited until he heard the snap and the whistle again and took that as his cue to fire the spell. He pushed the swirling maelstrom away from himself, towards the same tree he had fired the Aqua Sphere at, and hoped for the best.

[hider=Action Report]
Cast "Minor Heal I" on self
Cast "Shield I" on self
Attempted to create "Wind Break" again, this time holding the focal point of the spin away from his body and allowing the shards to form more spread out orbits
[/hider]

[@Zeroth]