I'm putting my interest in for the Evil Academia RP. I'll have to come up with a nice, scary power to terrorise the heroes with.
King Cosmos
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Hmm, well that was less useful than expected; Oberon had been hoping to see his total health and mana supply in numerical terms, not just ‘full’ and ‘depleting’, but he supposed it was better than nothing. The fact that he was already 40% of the way towards his next level was a surprise; either the Giant Slime had been worth a lot more than he had expected, or his experiments helped to increase his total experience points while also building towards new skills. He would have to monitor that metric more closely in the future so that he could figure out what did and didn’t contribute.
His evolution tree was somewhat enlightening as well. To be honest, the Sprite hadn’t expected anything to appear so even a little information was more than he had hoped for; three known evolutions and four unknown, making for seven overall. The three he knew were in line with the options he had been given when he had evolved before while the other four must be species he was unfamiliar with. The stars or dashes must denote compatibility; he remembered something like that being shown for his options last time.
Oberon shook his head to rid it of the ringing in his ears. Reading this information… and thinking about his last evolution… it reminded him of something. Floating. Seeing things from above. He’d been speaking to someone, back in the cave… he couldn’t remember who though, or what they had been saying.
Another shake and the ringing stopped, Oberon turning back to the rapidly deteriorating Mana Orb in his hand. He dismissed it, the Mana dissipating and blowing away on the last of the easterly wind as the Sprite crossed his arms and began to think.
The spell hadn’t worked first try, which was to be expected. It had spread out like before, beginning to spin, only to break apart as it increased in speed; like with the Aqua Orb he had lost energy to the process but rather than being washed away by the current or carried away by the wind, it simply felt like it was falling apart.
Before he tried anything else he would need to recover his lost Mana. He needed to think so Meditation wouldn’t work, so instead he moved into an area where a beam of sunlight pierced the veil of leaves above his head and activated Gather Light, basking in the ray’s warmth as he turned his mind to the current problem.
The issue was that the Mana spread itself out too much as it spun, breaking apart and flying away like petals shed from a tree in a breeze, degrading further and further as it increased its rotational speed. So, why not stop it from spinning? If he counteracted the spin, worked to keep the Orb together and stable, would the spell hold? He could create a solid bubble, like the Aqua Sphere but filled with air instead of water. He couldn’t imagine that such a spell would do much damage, unless he compressed it down enough that it could punch a hole in something, but it might be useful for knocking an opponent down or back.
That solution didn’t feel right however. It would mean fighting what the Mana was trying to do naturally, forcing it to do what he wanted; it might work and he might produce a new spell as a result, but he felt like it wouldn’t be the Wind Break spell. It wanted to spin for a reason, just like the Light Ring wanted to flatten out and become a halo that was thrown, it was trying to do something, achieve some shape or form that it felt was natural. Maybe he should lean into that, instead of trying to fight it?
It spun and then it broke apart… but it didn’t fade away. The Mana separated into smaller pieces, like petals as he had described them earlier, like little bits of paper caught in the wind; it was only after it separated into these small pieces that it began to flutter away, each shred escaping his control as it left the main Orb. What if that was the spells final form? Those little petals of wind-infused Mana? Instead of trying to prevent that breakdown he should let it happen but try to hold on to the pieces before they could fly away.
Once his Mana had fully recovered Oberon tried again with this new strategy in mind. He created another Mana Orb, floating above his outstretched palm, and closed his eyes. He drew the surrounding air into the Orb, feeling it begin to spin once more, faster and faster, as it began to inflate with the air it was drawing in. As the first fleck of Mana began to separate from the whole he tried to expand his senses, tried to grab the petal before it could escape and bring it into the orbit of the spinning Mana Orb. As more and more pieces began to break away he tried to do the same, holding on to each shred as he envisioned the spinning Mana Orb gradually breaking down and becoming a swirling mass of these individual pieces instead.
@Zeroth
His evolution tree was somewhat enlightening as well. To be honest, the Sprite hadn’t expected anything to appear so even a little information was more than he had hoped for; three known evolutions and four unknown, making for seven overall. The three he knew were in line with the options he had been given when he had evolved before while the other four must be species he was unfamiliar with. The stars or dashes must denote compatibility; he remembered something like that being shown for his options last time.
Oberon shook his head to rid it of the ringing in his ears. Reading this information… and thinking about his last evolution… it reminded him of something. Floating. Seeing things from above. He’d been speaking to someone, back in the cave… he couldn’t remember who though, or what they had been saying.
Another shake and the ringing stopped, Oberon turning back to the rapidly deteriorating Mana Orb in his hand. He dismissed it, the Mana dissipating and blowing away on the last of the easterly wind as the Sprite crossed his arms and began to think.
The spell hadn’t worked first try, which was to be expected. It had spread out like before, beginning to spin, only to break apart as it increased in speed; like with the Aqua Orb he had lost energy to the process but rather than being washed away by the current or carried away by the wind, it simply felt like it was falling apart.
Before he tried anything else he would need to recover his lost Mana. He needed to think so Meditation wouldn’t work, so instead he moved into an area where a beam of sunlight pierced the veil of leaves above his head and activated Gather Light, basking in the ray’s warmth as he turned his mind to the current problem.
The issue was that the Mana spread itself out too much as it spun, breaking apart and flying away like petals shed from a tree in a breeze, degrading further and further as it increased its rotational speed. So, why not stop it from spinning? If he counteracted the spin, worked to keep the Orb together and stable, would the spell hold? He could create a solid bubble, like the Aqua Sphere but filled with air instead of water. He couldn’t imagine that such a spell would do much damage, unless he compressed it down enough that it could punch a hole in something, but it might be useful for knocking an opponent down or back.
That solution didn’t feel right however. It would mean fighting what the Mana was trying to do naturally, forcing it to do what he wanted; it might work and he might produce a new spell as a result, but he felt like it wouldn’t be the Wind Break spell. It wanted to spin for a reason, just like the Light Ring wanted to flatten out and become a halo that was thrown, it was trying to do something, achieve some shape or form that it felt was natural. Maybe he should lean into that, instead of trying to fight it?
It spun and then it broke apart… but it didn’t fade away. The Mana separated into smaller pieces, like petals as he had described them earlier, like little bits of paper caught in the wind; it was only after it separated into these small pieces that it began to flutter away, each shred escaping his control as it left the main Orb. What if that was the spells final form? Those little petals of wind-infused Mana? Instead of trying to prevent that breakdown he should let it happen but try to hold on to the pieces before they could fly away.
Once his Mana had fully recovered Oberon tried again with this new strategy in mind. He created another Mana Orb, floating above his outstretched palm, and closed his eyes. He drew the surrounding air into the Orb, feeling it begin to spin once more, faster and faster, as it began to inflate with the air it was drawing in. As the first fleck of Mana began to separate from the whole he tried to expand his senses, tried to grab the petal before it could escape and bring it into the orbit of the spinning Mana Orb. As more and more pieces began to break away he tried to do the same, holding on to each shred as he envisioned the spinning Mana Orb gradually breaking down and becoming a swirling mass of these individual pieces instead.
@Zeroth
Seeing the damage caused to the surface of the tree he had fired at, and the resultant system message about his new skill, the corners of Oberon’s mouth lifted up into a grin at his success. It might not have been much in the grand scheme of things, but as the first elemental skill he had intentionally created from nothing and after a day of unsuccessful experiments he was happy with even a small victory.
He couldn’t stop there however; he still had the Wind Break and Wall spells to complete and then he wanted to start work on creating some more defensive abilities to go alongside his new offensive spells. Whether they would take the form of elemental variations on his Shield or Wall spell he didn’t know; one would likely grant resistance to the element in question while the other would form a barrier of that element. Both would be useful to have.
Ideally he wanted to finish at least one defensive ability before nightfall, at which point he and the others would likely retreat to their makeshift cave where they could discuss what to do about the Goblin tribe that was to return tomorrow morning and decide on their course of action. It was going to be a busy, tiring day followed by a potentially dangerous one.
Allowing himself to bask in his success for a moment longer, Oberon turned his mind back to the Wind Break spell he had started earlier. Creating a spell from air would probably be a more difficult prospect than creating a spell from water or even light. Air was ethereal, insubstantial and difficult to work with; water by contrast was easy because it had a physical presence to it and light was possible to work with because of his nature as a Sprite and the fact he already had Gather Light as a skill. That being said, all he could really do was try and see what happened. He had had some success earlier, before he had lost his concentration, so it wasn’t impossible by any means.
Moving away from the stream, Oberon started by raising his arm and holding his hand out with palm upraised and forming a Mana Orb above it. He then closed his eyes and tried to do what he had done with the stream, drawing the surrounding air into the Orb as he had done with the water and trying to hold it together. If it wanted to change shape like the Light Ring had he would let, only restricting it if it felt like the Orb was about to fall apart. If it felt too dense he would attempt to loosen his hold on the Orb, allowing the diffuse nature of air express itself without letting it go entirely. It was a process driven more by feeling and following the flow than anything else, guided by an awareness of the mistakes he had made while creating his previous spells.
Whatever the result, after his first few attempts had fallen apart Oberon would open his eyes and take the time to restore his Mana. Strangely even though he had been experimenting most of the morning, then used a few spells against the Giant Slime followed by more experimentation, after he had recovered from the Mana Burn this morning he had not received a single warning about his MP running low.
Even though he had evolved and levelled up several times in the past few days, he didn’t think his Mana reserves had risen that much, had they? Unfortunately he didn’t know what his total MP was nor how much his spells cost; even though he had system messages and skills points, it seemed this video game-like existence didn’t come with a HUD. “System: Show current HP and MP status.”
It had been a while since he had messed around with the system functions available to him. He knew he could view his skills at any time, as well as his status and inventory, but what else could it do? He’d tried opening his character tab once, and while it had been successful he remembered the migraine that came with it; an influx of too much information at once or the result of seeing something his mind couldn’t handle? What else could he see that would be useful to him?
“System: Show current experience or level progress. And show… show my evolution tree.”
@Zeroth
He couldn’t stop there however; he still had the Wind Break and Wall spells to complete and then he wanted to start work on creating some more defensive abilities to go alongside his new offensive spells. Whether they would take the form of elemental variations on his Shield or Wall spell he didn’t know; one would likely grant resistance to the element in question while the other would form a barrier of that element. Both would be useful to have.
Ideally he wanted to finish at least one defensive ability before nightfall, at which point he and the others would likely retreat to their makeshift cave where they could discuss what to do about the Goblin tribe that was to return tomorrow morning and decide on their course of action. It was going to be a busy, tiring day followed by a potentially dangerous one.
Allowing himself to bask in his success for a moment longer, Oberon turned his mind back to the Wind Break spell he had started earlier. Creating a spell from air would probably be a more difficult prospect than creating a spell from water or even light. Air was ethereal, insubstantial and difficult to work with; water by contrast was easy because it had a physical presence to it and light was possible to work with because of his nature as a Sprite and the fact he already had Gather Light as a skill. That being said, all he could really do was try and see what happened. He had had some success earlier, before he had lost his concentration, so it wasn’t impossible by any means.
Moving away from the stream, Oberon started by raising his arm and holding his hand out with palm upraised and forming a Mana Orb above it. He then closed his eyes and tried to do what he had done with the stream, drawing the surrounding air into the Orb as he had done with the water and trying to hold it together. If it wanted to change shape like the Light Ring had he would let, only restricting it if it felt like the Orb was about to fall apart. If it felt too dense he would attempt to loosen his hold on the Orb, allowing the diffuse nature of air express itself without letting it go entirely. It was a process driven more by feeling and following the flow than anything else, guided by an awareness of the mistakes he had made while creating his previous spells.
Whatever the result, after his first few attempts had fallen apart Oberon would open his eyes and take the time to restore his Mana. Strangely even though he had been experimenting most of the morning, then used a few spells against the Giant Slime followed by more experimentation, after he had recovered from the Mana Burn this morning he had not received a single warning about his MP running low.
Even though he had evolved and levelled up several times in the past few days, he didn’t think his Mana reserves had risen that much, had they? Unfortunately he didn’t know what his total MP was nor how much his spells cost; even though he had system messages and skills points, it seemed this video game-like existence didn’t come with a HUD. “System: Show current HP and MP status.”
It had been a while since he had messed around with the system functions available to him. He knew he could view his skills at any time, as well as his status and inventory, but what else could it do? He’d tried opening his character tab once, and while it had been successful he remembered the migraine that came with it; an influx of too much information at once or the result of seeing something his mind couldn’t handle? What else could he see that would be useful to him?
“System: Show current experience or level progress. And show… show my evolution tree.”
@Zeroth
As Torrent continued her experimentation, collecting water from the stream in her mouth and firing it forward, Oberon watched her from a safe distance as he gave some consideration to the information he had just gained. The ability the Lesser Wurm had just used was called Wurm Breath, something apparently created by combining two or more abilities into a single, hybrid skill; judging by its description it was likely a combination of the fire breath Torrent had used earlier and one of the poison abilities both Torrent and Ash had learned from their starting point of being Fanged Lizards.
There were Hybrid Skills which combined multiple elements or attributes into one and could be either magical or physical in nature, and True Hybrid Skills which were the same but also combined magic and physical together. The existence of such skills was interesting and opened up yet more possibilities when it came to creating new skills or expanding on existing ones; it probably helped if the skills in question were already similar in nature, such as the two breath attacks Torrent had combined. He would have to consider this more later.
For now he was more interested in the last part of his analysis, namely the idea that the Wurm Breath would be best countered or blocked by an Earth or Water spell. While creatures that were aligned with a certain element, such as Digbie or the Stone Slime back in the cave, were resistant or weak to attacks of certain elements because of that alignment, the Sprite had never considered that the same would be true of spells.
It made perfect sense however, so much so that he was annoyed at himself for never thinking of it. The Wall spell he had been working on earlier was elementally neutral and as such was neither strong nor weak against anything that he knew of, but the Earth Wall that Digbie used would naturally be better at blocking some kinds of attack and weak against others. This meant that not only would he need to learn as many offensive skills as possible, covering as many elements as he could, he would also need to learn the equivalent defensive ability to allow him to counter as many abilities as possible.
Before he could work on that however, he wanted to complete the Aqua Sphere he had been working on; he didn’t want to leave another project unfinished before moving on to the next one and learning a Water spell would be the basis for his water defence later on anyway. Torrent was also working on a water ability of her own, presumably trying to learn how to shoot water the same way she could breathe fire or poison by using the water from the stream as a starting point; she seemed to have taken his theorising before into consideration.
Oberon used Magic Analysis on the stream of water leaving Torrent’s mouth, hoping to pick up on something even if it was an incomplete skill at the moment. With that done the Sprite turned away from the Lesser Wurm and went back to the small pool of swirling water to continue his experiment. He had seemed to be making some progress earlier but the Aqua Sphere still felt too diffuse, too light to hold the water for long. If he tried to use it as an attack it would mostly likely pop like a water balloon on impact or burst before it even made it more than a couple feet rather than do any damage. In a way it was similar to his first few attempts at Mana Dart; even though it was the right shape it was too flimsy to work the way he wanted it to.
So, why not try the same solution?
If he compressed the Mana Orb down, with the water inside it, would it become solid enough for him to use as an attack? Creating another Mana Orb and lowering it into the water was a familiar act at this point, as was attempting to draw water and therefore water-aligned Mana into the Orb, but this time he went a step further and began to compress the water and the Mana the way he had done with his Mana Dart and with the Flame Lance earlier.
He squeezed the water-aligned Mana and the Mana-infused water into as small of a sphere as he could without destroying the cohesiveness of the spell, as far as he could before the tightly compressed ball offered too much resistance, and pulled it from the water. Assuming the shape held, he would then fling the Aqua Sphere at the nearest tree he could see, firing it forward in much the same way as the Mana Orbs and Fireballs he was used to dealing with.
@Zeroth
There were Hybrid Skills which combined multiple elements or attributes into one and could be either magical or physical in nature, and True Hybrid Skills which were the same but also combined magic and physical together. The existence of such skills was interesting and opened up yet more possibilities when it came to creating new skills or expanding on existing ones; it probably helped if the skills in question were already similar in nature, such as the two breath attacks Torrent had combined. He would have to consider this more later.
For now he was more interested in the last part of his analysis, namely the idea that the Wurm Breath would be best countered or blocked by an Earth or Water spell. While creatures that were aligned with a certain element, such as Digbie or the Stone Slime back in the cave, were resistant or weak to attacks of certain elements because of that alignment, the Sprite had never considered that the same would be true of spells.
It made perfect sense however, so much so that he was annoyed at himself for never thinking of it. The Wall spell he had been working on earlier was elementally neutral and as such was neither strong nor weak against anything that he knew of, but the Earth Wall that Digbie used would naturally be better at blocking some kinds of attack and weak against others. This meant that not only would he need to learn as many offensive skills as possible, covering as many elements as he could, he would also need to learn the equivalent defensive ability to allow him to counter as many abilities as possible.
Before he could work on that however, he wanted to complete the Aqua Sphere he had been working on; he didn’t want to leave another project unfinished before moving on to the next one and learning a Water spell would be the basis for his water defence later on anyway. Torrent was also working on a water ability of her own, presumably trying to learn how to shoot water the same way she could breathe fire or poison by using the water from the stream as a starting point; she seemed to have taken his theorising before into consideration.
Oberon used Magic Analysis on the stream of water leaving Torrent’s mouth, hoping to pick up on something even if it was an incomplete skill at the moment. With that done the Sprite turned away from the Lesser Wurm and went back to the small pool of swirling water to continue his experiment. He had seemed to be making some progress earlier but the Aqua Sphere still felt too diffuse, too light to hold the water for long. If he tried to use it as an attack it would mostly likely pop like a water balloon on impact or burst before it even made it more than a couple feet rather than do any damage. In a way it was similar to his first few attempts at Mana Dart; even though it was the right shape it was too flimsy to work the way he wanted it to.
So, why not try the same solution?
If he compressed the Mana Orb down, with the water inside it, would it become solid enough for him to use as an attack? Creating another Mana Orb and lowering it into the water was a familiar act at this point, as was attempting to draw water and therefore water-aligned Mana into the Orb, but this time he went a step further and began to compress the water and the Mana the way he had done with his Mana Dart and with the Flame Lance earlier.
He squeezed the water-aligned Mana and the Mana-infused water into as small of a sphere as he could without destroying the cohesiveness of the spell, as far as he could before the tightly compressed ball offered too much resistance, and pulled it from the water. Assuming the shape held, he would then fling the Aqua Sphere at the nearest tree he could see, firing it forward in much the same way as the Mana Orbs and Fireballs he was used to dealing with.
@Zeroth
@Gardevoiran boy, Oberon sure would love to analyse *everything* you just found.
“Feelings?” Oberon looked at Torrent curiously, wondering at the wording she had used. When the Lesser Wurm had seemed to explode with fire earlier, while inside the Giant Slime, that was her using the fire inside of her, her ‘feelings’, and pushing it out? “Yeah, I guess you could put it that way.”
Torrent walked away so she could practise her skills further away from him, leaving the Sprite to ponder on what she had just said. Was the idea of creating fire by pushing out your feelings just evocative wording or was it something more than that? Unlike the other spells he had seen so far, like Stone Shot or the Aqua Sphere he was working on, Fireball didn’t use any existing material to become fire; it just snapped into being, seemingly from nowhere. It was something he had wondered about before since it didn’t fit into his theory like everything else did.
Perhaps fire spells fed off the caster’s own energy, like their body heat, or perhaps it was formed from some less concrete but more romantic notion like the caster’s ‘inner fire’ or something. Maybe it didn’t need anything, and it was possible to cast elemental spells without any kind of medium to make it work. Using actual water to form an Aqua Sphere could be kind of like training wheels to help new magic users learn the spell, while more experienced individuals could cast it from thin air. Fire could be an exception because there was nothing physical to it; it was just heat and light after all.
Through all of this he couldn’t help but feel like he was scrabbling around trying to understand the most basic concepts of magic in this world, concepts that proper students of magic probably learnt during the first day of their studies. At some point he wanted to get his hands on a real book of magic or talk to a real magic user and figure things out. As fun as experimentation was it was equally frustrating not to know these things.
Still, it was interesting that Torrent thought of her fire spells in that way; feelings being expressed, or the fire inside you being brought forth. He was already fairly certain that intent was a strong component of spell casting, one that helped guide the Mana to do what you wanted it to, so it was probably equally true for your general approach to magic as a whole and the terms by which you made sense of it. Oberon thought of magic as a natural force; Mana was everywhere it seemed, in living things, in the air, even in the water and the ground and sunlight it seemed. Magic to him was manipulating this naturally occurring substance. Torrent thought about it her way, Crispy thought about it his way and Digbie and Ash likely had their own understanding of how they did what they did with Mana.
He should ask them about it sometime.
Meanwhile, his attempts to finalise the Aqua Sphere spell by absorbing water into his Mana Orb was progressing well, if the system announcement was any clue, but the fact that the streams current was destabilising the Mana Orb was a problem he would have to deal with. He flew into the air, looking around for some part of the stream where the current wasn’t as strong that he could move to, or else looking for something he could use to dam the current and provide some shelter for his experiments. After a little while he found what he was looking for in a small part of the stream was blocked off by a rock jutting out from the shore, the obstruction forming a kind of eddying pool where the water swirled around in a circle rather than flow onwards.
Creating another Mana Orb, Oberon sank it into this new part of the stream and began his experiment anew. He closed his eyes and tried to draw the water into the Orb, this time paying more attention to the stability of the Orb in case the miniature whirlpool was still enough to break the Mana apart even if it no longer washed it away.
The Sprite continued this until he was interrupted by Torrent’s shout. Releasing his latest attempt, the Mana Orb being washed away in moments by the stream, Oberon turned towards the Lesser Wurm as she fired a stream of intense fire into the water. Before the spell was finished Oberon use his Magic Analysis on it. “Wurm Breath?”
@Zeroth@Old Amsterdam
Torrent walked away so she could practise her skills further away from him, leaving the Sprite to ponder on what she had just said. Was the idea of creating fire by pushing out your feelings just evocative wording or was it something more than that? Unlike the other spells he had seen so far, like Stone Shot or the Aqua Sphere he was working on, Fireball didn’t use any existing material to become fire; it just snapped into being, seemingly from nowhere. It was something he had wondered about before since it didn’t fit into his theory like everything else did.
Perhaps fire spells fed off the caster’s own energy, like their body heat, or perhaps it was formed from some less concrete but more romantic notion like the caster’s ‘inner fire’ or something. Maybe it didn’t need anything, and it was possible to cast elemental spells without any kind of medium to make it work. Using actual water to form an Aqua Sphere could be kind of like training wheels to help new magic users learn the spell, while more experienced individuals could cast it from thin air. Fire could be an exception because there was nothing physical to it; it was just heat and light after all.
Through all of this he couldn’t help but feel like he was scrabbling around trying to understand the most basic concepts of magic in this world, concepts that proper students of magic probably learnt during the first day of their studies. At some point he wanted to get his hands on a real book of magic or talk to a real magic user and figure things out. As fun as experimentation was it was equally frustrating not to know these things.
Still, it was interesting that Torrent thought of her fire spells in that way; feelings being expressed, or the fire inside you being brought forth. He was already fairly certain that intent was a strong component of spell casting, one that helped guide the Mana to do what you wanted it to, so it was probably equally true for your general approach to magic as a whole and the terms by which you made sense of it. Oberon thought of magic as a natural force; Mana was everywhere it seemed, in living things, in the air, even in the water and the ground and sunlight it seemed. Magic to him was manipulating this naturally occurring substance. Torrent thought about it her way, Crispy thought about it his way and Digbie and Ash likely had their own understanding of how they did what they did with Mana.
He should ask them about it sometime.
Meanwhile, his attempts to finalise the Aqua Sphere spell by absorbing water into his Mana Orb was progressing well, if the system announcement was any clue, but the fact that the streams current was destabilising the Mana Orb was a problem he would have to deal with. He flew into the air, looking around for some part of the stream where the current wasn’t as strong that he could move to, or else looking for something he could use to dam the current and provide some shelter for his experiments. After a little while he found what he was looking for in a small part of the stream was blocked off by a rock jutting out from the shore, the obstruction forming a kind of eddying pool where the water swirled around in a circle rather than flow onwards.
Creating another Mana Orb, Oberon sank it into this new part of the stream and began his experiment anew. He closed his eyes and tried to draw the water into the Orb, this time paying more attention to the stability of the Orb in case the miniature whirlpool was still enough to break the Mana apart even if it no longer washed it away.
The Sprite continued this until he was interrupted by Torrent’s shout. Releasing his latest attempt, the Mana Orb being washed away in moments by the stream, Oberon turned towards the Lesser Wurm as she fired a stream of intense fire into the water. Before the spell was finished Oberon use his Magic Analysis on it. “Wurm Breath?”
@Zeroth@Old Amsterdam
Together with the others Oberon helped move the supplies Ash and Torrent had gathered back to their hideout, the points he had put into Lesser Flight and Faster helping to speed things along somewhat. Even so, the multiple trips back and forth wore him out and by the time they were done the Sprite was beginning to regret his choice of starting creature; what he gained in magical ability came at the cost of having a body that was small and physically frail. In the future he may need to look into ways to increase his size or strength, or maybe he should take the time to finally learn the telekinesis ability the Wisp had shown him back in the cave.
Once they were settled in again Ash left almost immediately, asking them not to bother her unless it was important. Oberon was curious what the standoffish Pygmy Drake was working on, but asking her didn’t seem like a wise idea at the moment; he’d ask her later, if he got the chance.
Instead he turned towards the others, Digbie and Torrent, eager to share with them the discoveries he had made while he had been alone in the camp. “While you were gone I think I found a way to make spells of each element in a fast and simple way. It looks like plain Mana has an easy time absorbing the qualities of whatever’s around it, so if you hold a Mana Orb near to something like the stream and try to draw it into the Mana Orb, it’ll change the Orb to that element. I’ve started work on spells for water and air and I’ve already made a spell out of light.” He had no idea if this was something that the other two would be interested in, especially Torrent, but he was excited to have made a breakthrough that helped clarify his understanding of magic in this world and if it helped them to understand it as well then they should know.
It occurred to him that he didn’t know much about the people he was currently with or what their lives were like before this world; he was fairly sure Digbie was younger than him, by a lot actually, but nothing more than that. Ash on the other hand felt a lot older and Torrent… well, it would take a while to unpack the implications of what she had said about not knowing how old she was, or how throwing herself at threats was all she knew how to do.
“I’m going to go back to what I was doing before; the more elements we can use the easier time we’ll have during fights in the future. You’re both welcome to join me.” With that Oberon broke away from the pair, heading back towards the stream and kneeling down at its bank. Water had been easier to work with than air had been, so he would focus his efforts here first.
He created a Mana Orb in his hand and quickly submerged it in the flowing waters, closing his eyes and trying to feel rather than see what was happening. Repeating what he had done earlier he tried to draw the water into the Mana Orb, absorbing the element into the unaligned Mana and changing its elemental nature in the process.
@Zeroth@Old Amsterdam@Gardevoiran
Once they were settled in again Ash left almost immediately, asking them not to bother her unless it was important. Oberon was curious what the standoffish Pygmy Drake was working on, but asking her didn’t seem like a wise idea at the moment; he’d ask her later, if he got the chance.
Instead he turned towards the others, Digbie and Torrent, eager to share with them the discoveries he had made while he had been alone in the camp. “While you were gone I think I found a way to make spells of each element in a fast and simple way. It looks like plain Mana has an easy time absorbing the qualities of whatever’s around it, so if you hold a Mana Orb near to something like the stream and try to draw it into the Mana Orb, it’ll change the Orb to that element. I’ve started work on spells for water and air and I’ve already made a spell out of light.” He had no idea if this was something that the other two would be interested in, especially Torrent, but he was excited to have made a breakthrough that helped clarify his understanding of magic in this world and if it helped them to understand it as well then they should know.
It occurred to him that he didn’t know much about the people he was currently with or what their lives were like before this world; he was fairly sure Digbie was younger than him, by a lot actually, but nothing more than that. Ash on the other hand felt a lot older and Torrent… well, it would take a while to unpack the implications of what she had said about not knowing how old she was, or how throwing herself at threats was all she knew how to do.
“I’m going to go back to what I was doing before; the more elements we can use the easier time we’ll have during fights in the future. You’re both welcome to join me.” With that Oberon broke away from the pair, heading back towards the stream and kneeling down at its bank. Water had been easier to work with than air had been, so he would focus his efforts here first.
He created a Mana Orb in his hand and quickly submerged it in the flowing waters, closing his eyes and trying to feel rather than see what was happening. Repeating what he had done earlier he tried to draw the water into the Mana Orb, absorbing the element into the unaligned Mana and changing its elemental nature in the process.
@Zeroth@Old Amsterdam@Gardevoiran
Fierabras - Saber
“Agh, I thought I’d have a chance to draw sword, but the enemies are all dead already.” Saber looked past the young man to where the strange soldiers were currently dissolving into piles of what looked like mud, a disappointed look on his face partially hidden by his helmet.
“No matter; a victory is a victory I suppose. Are you hurt boy? I have something here that can cure anything if you need it!” Fierabras reached towards his belt and drew out a flask with a cork stopper, the contents within sloshing around thickly inside. The grin on his face as he proffered it towards the youth seemed friendly, if a little eager.
@Grey@GreenGoat@ItMeGritty
In
One Piece: The Great Age of Piracy (Sign-up's Always Welcome!)
→
7 yrs ago
Forum: Casual Roleplay
West Blue
Somewhere out to sea
Ricardo the Iron Bull
“This is your last chance to surrender. Drop your weapons and relinquish control of your ship to us; failure to comply will only delay the inevitable.”
The sound of harsh, mocking laughter was the only reply that came from the pirates above, Ricardo tilting his head back to be able to see the mass of sneering faces peering over the railing of their ship. The galleon they had been pursuing for the last couple of hours was much larger than his own small marine vessel and judging by how many sets of eyes were on him now its crew was at least twice the size of his own. Clearly, they did not take his demands seriously.
Nonetheless he looked confident, standing tall on the deck of his galley with his arms crossed over his broad chest, most of his crew of twenty lined up behind him with rifles held in front of them; the guns weren’t aimed at the pirates just yet, instead resting in the palm of one hand and against shoulders as if they were lined up for inspection, but the implicit threat was there.
“Who does this idiot think he is, giving us orders? Doesn’t he realise how much trouble he’s in?”
“The marines all have big heads now just because they caught Gold Roger; think they own the seas.”
“Well, this one won’t have his head much longer, putting holes in captain’s nice new boat like this.”
More laughter rang out as the pirates joked among themselves. Indeed, Ricardo and his crew had managed to put a few holes in the larger ship before catching up to it, cannons and harpoons flying between them as they chased the pirates across the open waters of West Blue; a few of those harpoons were still stuck in the other vessel, ropes tied to the missiles connecting the galleon to their galley and forcing the pirates to stop and deal with them, hence the current standoff.
Ricardo raised his eyes slightly, looking past the amused faces to the sails above them and the stylised crossbones that decorated them; while the skull was normal the bones had been replaced by a pair of thin wooden clubs covered in iron spikes. “This is the vessel of the Iron Club Pirates, yes? Led by Captain “Iron Bar” Tetsubo?”
“Did you hear that? Our captain’s famous!”
“If he knows who we are he should know not to mess with us!”
“Surrender.” Ricardo cut through the voices of the pirates, interrupting their talk with his simple demand. “Or I will come up there and make you.”
There was no laughing this time, no jokes, no mirth. Maybe it was the new intensity that had entered Ricardo’s voice that let them know his patience had run out, or maybe it was the more direct threat of violence against them. Either way things were deathly silent in the moments following Ricardo’s statement until the sound of heavy footsteps, interspersed with a third, heavier beat, broke the tension.
“So the marine wants to act tough, eh? Stop bullying my crew and come up here, eh? If you want me to drop my weapons you gotta come up here and take ‘em yourself.”
At the invitation Ricardo made his move. As he bent his knees the line of marines behind him braced themselves before he leapt, his galley rocking violently in the water as he pushed off of the deck and launched himself up and over the railing and the heads of the pirates to land on the deck of the galleon.
The pirate crew no longer looked so amused now that he stood on level ground with them, most of them seemed to be bracing themselves for a fight while more than a few were backing away or outright cowering in fear. The only one who didn’t look worried was the man Ricardo presumed was the captain; taller than the rest of his crew, though shorter than Ricardo, and broad, he had a bald head covered in scars and in his mouth was a lit cigar. One hand rested on the handle of a large wooden club as the head covered with iron spikes sat on the ground; it was identical to the ones on his sail.
Tetsubo pulled the cigar from his mouth, blowing out a puff of smoke as he looked Ricardo up and down. “Aren’t you a big one? The hell do they feed you guys?” He flicked his cigar to shake loose some of the ash gathering at the end before putting it back in his mouth. “No matter; what’s my bounty at these days?”
“4 million Beli; for the crimes of piracy, theft, assault… and murder.” Crossing his arms again, Ricardo settled in as he waited to see what would happen. It looked like Captain Tetsubo wanted to talk for a while, probably so he could put on a show of not being intimidated for his crew before he tried to attack; hopefully he wouldn’t be so predictable and he would just come along quietly.
The pirate captain looked a little shocked at the number, eyes widening before his face scrunched up in an affronted expression “Wha’? Only 4? I feel like I’m not being taken seriously.” He lifted his club, swinging the weapon up to rest on his shoulder. “Especially not if I have marines thinking they can just jump onto my ship like this.”
They never wanted to come along quietly. “I take it you’re not going to surrender then?”
“Heh, I don’t know. Do you boys think I should surrender!?” The answering roar from the on looking pirates, who Ricardo now noticed had moved to surround him and cut off any retreat, clearly expressed their wish, even if the accompanying shouts of get ‘im captain and show ‘im who’s boss weren’t also included.
“Well then, I think you have your answer.” Tetsubo lifted the club from his shoulder and began to grip it with both hands. He began to pace forward, closing the distance between them as he held the club behind him and wound up for a big swing. “If you want me to hand over my weapon so bad, I’ll give you a taste of it.”
The heavy, lethal weapon rushed towards Ricardo as its wielder swung it with all of his might, only to stop dead as it met the marine lieutenant’s palm. Ricardo had uncrossed one arm, holding it out before him as he caught Tetsubo’s swing before it could reach him. The crowd, who had not ceased their shouting or cheering since their captain had called out to them, now fell silent once more as everyone aboard the vessel stared in shock.
A trickle of blood ran down Ricardo’s hand and onto his wrist, the spikes of the iron club digging into his palm, before dripping down to form a small puddle on the deck of the galleon. If the marine felt any discomfort however it didn’t show on his face, his expression not having changed since he had first asked for the surrender of this ship and their crew. “This club… has hurt a lot of people.” The muscles in Ricardo’s arm rippled, the vein’s in his wrist and only the back of his hand popping as he suddenly twisted the club in his grip, snapping the weapon in half.
Before anyone could react he unfolded his other arm and struck Tetsubo with the back of his other hand, sending the captain rolling across the deck to crash into the wall of his cabin behind him. As the pirate slumped to the ground the marine dropped the half of the club he still held to the deck, the dull sound it made seeming to snap the remaining pirates out of their daze as they began to either back away from him or draw their weapons to attack.
Turning towards the side of the ship, Ricardo tilted his head back and let out a shout. “Boarding action!” A few of the pirates froze, letting those words sink in and giving the marines from Ricardo’s crew time to climb up the side of the ship and over the railing to attack them from behind even as others prepared to fight back. Despite their lower numbers, the marines were better prepared and hadn’t just seen their captain be defeated in one hit and were able to quickly subdue a number of the pirate crew before they could mount a proper defence. Walking towards the largest group, where the fighting was thickest, Ricardo began to assist his crew by attacking the defending pirates from behind.
Hearing heavier footsteps approaching from the side, Ricardo turned and raised his arms just in time to block a powerful attack from some kind of weapon. Sliding back from the blow, the marine lieutenant paused as he felt the pain radiating out from where he had been hit; whatever he had been hit with had been strong enough that he would likely have severe bruising after this, maybe even a fracture or two as well.
Turning to face his attacker, Ricardo was unsurprised to see Captain Tetsubo back on his feet. In his hands he held a club much like the one that had just been broken, however closer inspection showed that this weapon was purely made of iron instead of just wood with iron spikes. Tetsubo grinned around the cigar in his mouth, unaware or uncaring of the fact that it had been bent when he had been struck.
“You didn’t think that was enough to stop me did you? You’re not the first marine to try and stop me and you won’t be the last.” The pirate captain rushed towards Ricardo, swinging his metal club in a downward stroke that the marine dodged. A follow up swing was also dodged, as was a third. “My name and my flag are known and feared all across the West Blue, and I’m going to show you why!”
Ricardo continued to dodge each swing as Tetsubo continued his assault, wary of trying to block or catch the weapon after he felt what it would do to even his body. Just as troublesome as the power of each attack was the speed at which they came, as the Captain showed he was more than just a dumb brute; he controlled the weight of his weapon well, carrying the momentum of each swing into the next attack and losing little time between swings. Ricardo could do nothing but dodge until he saw an opening to attack.
The moment came as Tetsubo began to tire; his attacks slowing slightly as swinging around that heavy weapon began to wear away at his stamina. A slight paused after one swing to catch a single breath was the only opening Ricardo needed as he charged forward and drove his shoulder into Tetsubo’s chest. He pushed the pirate captain back, the man staggering as he sought to stay standing, giving Ricardo even more time to prepare his next attack. Holding his arms crossed in front of him with his hands flat to form an X shape, Ricardo lowered his head and ran at his opponent.
“Charging Bull.”
The attack name was not shouted aloud for his opponent or any onlookers to hear, instead being said at a normal speaking volume as if for Ricardo’s own benefit. As his charge brought him in front of Tetsubo he flung his crossed arms outward, chopping the pirate captain with both arms and sending him flying again, this time crashing through the wall of his cabin and coming to a stop atop a pile of shattered furniture and broken timbers.
The fighting around him came to a sudden halt as both pirates and marines stopped to check on the captain; through the hole in the way it was clear to see that Tetsubo would not be getting up this time, as his open eyes showed nothing but white.
It didn’t take long for the remaining pirates to surrender upon seeing their captain fall and Ricardo’s crew were able to round them up without issue; a few had been injured in the fighting but their coordinated assault had worked well and they were experienced. Even outnumbered they had fought well. The pirate crew, including the still unconscious Tetsubo, were gathered in the centre of the deck and surrounded by armed marines. “You are now in our custody and will be transported to the nearest marine base so you may be arrested and charges officially brought against you. Any attempt to escape will be duly prevented and result in extra charges brought against you.
“Marines!” Every marine on deck snapped to attention. “Take any injured pirates and secure them in the brigs of either ship; they are to be provided treatment and to be made comfortable. These men are our responsibility now. The remainder will stay on the deck and be kept under armed guard. Sergeant, you have the helm of the galley; lead us home. I’ll stay here and help keep guard.”
“YES SIR!”
----
East Blue
A seedy bar on Starter Island
Shigeuchi the Trickster
The amber liquid swished around the inside of the glass as the holder swirled it around, his single eye getting lost in the motion as he seemed to almost put himself into a trance. An unlit cigarette hung from between his lips, more as a fashion statement than anything else; the man hadn’t smoked a single one since walking into the bar several hours ago.
Letting out a sigh which concentrated years of weariness into a single exhale Shigeuchi threw back the glass, downing the whiskey in one before lowering it back to the bar with a tap that seemed loud for how quiet the establishment was. The bartender made to refill it, uncorking the bottle and stepping forward, but the pirate placed his hand over the top of the glass to block him.
“No more for me.”
With a nod the bartender moved away to attend to his other patrons, the elderly man placing the bottle of whiskey back on the shelf as he went. Shigeuchi moved the glass aside and placed his elbows on the bar to lean forward, chin resting atop joined hands and one eye closed as he sank into deep thought.
Or fell asleep.
Definitely one of the two.
It had been weeks since his captain’s idiotic first born had left home, sailing off with nothing but a dinghy and a ton of paper, weeks since the captain’s first mate had told him to go keep an eye on him. Admittedly Shigeuchi wasn’t doing a very good job of that.
Since leaving the fleet he had seen neither hide, nor hair, not steering wheel of the kid. He had heard no word of the so called ‘Red Lion’ or even a rumour of a red-haired kid wandering around; and the kid was nothing if not memorable with that thing in his hair.
No bounties, no news, nothing at all. No clues to help Shigeuchi find Shiki’s wayward son.
So Shigeuchi had come to Starter Island, the world renowned floating boat yard of East Blue where many an aspiring pirate or merchant found their way; some of the finest ships in the world could trace their not-so-humble origins back to this place. It was also famous for being the place Gold Roger earned his first ever bounty and if there was one thing anyone knew about Nikko it was that he was crazy about Gold Roger.
Where better for Nikko to begin his journey than the place his idol started his?
Yet even here, no one had seen or heard tell of a red-haired youth fitting the kid’s description. It was starting to look more and more like Shigeuchi was going to have to return to the fleet empty-handed and try to explain how he had somehow lost the eldest son of their captain.
Maybe he would just stay here and drink instead.
@Reflection
As the Slime deflated Oberon let out a sigh of relief; although he hadn't felt in much danger himself during the fight, the near miss from the tendril at the start being an exception, he was still glad to see the end of combat. He was all too aware of how easily things could go wrong; this was not the predictable, safe environment of a video game, no matter what anyone else thought. Beetle's exploded, enemies levelled-up and caught you off guard with their new strength and maybe a Giant Slime could surprise you by being smarter or stronger than you thought.
This was a living breathing world with real and intelligent life forms. He had to remind himself of that sometimes, but every new combat just reinforced the concept in his mind.
Ash was currently admonishing the Lesser Wurm about her reckless tactics against the Giant Slime, which was something the Sprite could agree with. "Is anyone hurt? Torrent? Digbie?" The Goblin should have known better than to just stand in front of the Slime as it barrelled towards them and Torrent should have known better than to jump head-first into a creature that was accustomed to swallowing its prey whole. Maybe it was something he should bring up once they made it back to camp.
After gently scolding Torrent, Ash wanted them to help her carry her spoils back to the camp. Oberon would gladly help, but before that he had something to deal with; he had levelled-up after defeating the Slime and he needed to distribute some of his skill points before anything else.
He had no idea why the number of skill points they got with each level seemed to have jumped up so much, or why it seemed to be so inconsistent, but right now it meant he had 12 points to work with. Once again the Sprite decided to allocate them to skills that he would not easily be able to level up otherwise and since he had come so close to being caught by the Slime's first attack against him a few moments ago he put the points into Lesser Flight and Faster. "4 points into Lesser Flight II, 5 points into Faster."
With that done he flew over to where Ash was waiting, landing next to the Pygmy Drake so that they could start figuring out how best to transport the dissected frog back to their camp.
@Zeroth
This was a living breathing world with real and intelligent life forms. He had to remind himself of that sometimes, but every new combat just reinforced the concept in his mind.
Ash was currently admonishing the Lesser Wurm about her reckless tactics against the Giant Slime, which was something the Sprite could agree with. "Is anyone hurt? Torrent? Digbie?" The Goblin should have known better than to just stand in front of the Slime as it barrelled towards them and Torrent should have known better than to jump head-first into a creature that was accustomed to swallowing its prey whole. Maybe it was something he should bring up once they made it back to camp.
After gently scolding Torrent, Ash wanted them to help her carry her spoils back to the camp. Oberon would gladly help, but before that he had something to deal with; he had levelled-up after defeating the Slime and he needed to distribute some of his skill points before anything else.
He had no idea why the number of skill points they got with each level seemed to have jumped up so much, or why it seemed to be so inconsistent, but right now it meant he had 12 points to work with. Once again the Sprite decided to allocate them to skills that he would not easily be able to level up otherwise and since he had come so close to being caught by the Slime's first attack against him a few moments ago he put the points into Lesser Flight and Faster. "4 points into Lesser Flight II, 5 points into Faster."
With that done he flew over to where Ash was waiting, landing next to the Pygmy Drake so that they could start figuring out how best to transport the dissected frog back to their camp.
@Zeroth
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