Identify!
[Astylind Name: Water Pegasus]
[Astylind Level: Level-12]
[Astylind Grade: Grade-C]
[Anima Affinity: Water]
[Gender: Male]
[Description: Rare natives of Airadia. Most of their population gathers on the ocean. Only Recipient-level affinity with the water element, but highly skilled in its usage. Their specialty is to use the surface of any waterbody as a resting spot. They dislike ground, and especially abhor fiery surroundings.]
Ewan shot up towards them, leaving the premises of the Stormfalcon to avoid any stray damage to the ship. The Pegasi cried at him and gathered together, flapping their wings to hover. And with the bursts of an icy breath and a scorching blaze, Frost and Orange came out of their Dekoths, launching at the winged horses.
The two Pegasi neighed and hurled water arrows at them, blobs of water forming around with the flaps of their wings.
Frost retaliated with a salvo of icicles and cancelled the attack, while Orange exploded a few punches to decimate the incoming arrows. Nonetheless, it halted their advance. And before they could attack again, the blobs by the horses twisted into a crowd of small birds and zoomed at Frost and Orange. Their shrieks echoed in a symphony, and they launched a kamikaze attack, each bird exploding into small water needles shooting out upon their death.
When they surrounded Frost, he brought his clawed hands together, a frigid sphere flickering between, and erupted with an all-around icy shockwave that froze and shattered the little water birds. Orange, on the other hand, rampaged with a barrage, his bombardment of blasting attacks crushing his enemies, and wounds built up on him at the same time.
Yet, their outburst brought little change to the battlefield as the Pegasi formed more and more blobs by the time the previous crowd died. Frost and Orange matched the two winged-horses, but their Anima storage couldn’t compare, for the Pegasi surpassed them in levels—their higher grades barely balanced the field.
And so, Ewan also joined in.
Bloodlust!
His first cast went to Orange, and the spell now with over a hundred threads boosted the target with the standard of Step-1. The little monkey howled on its induction, his fur swaying with the outrage of his Anima, and he zipped away. The boom he left behind cracked the air, and the volley of red flash exploded the incoming batch of water birds.
Frost also moved ahead, and with several snowy magic circles appearing before him, he shot out a cluster of freezing rays, penetrating beyond the birds’ swarm and reaching the two Pegasi. They screeched when the rays approached them, and thick curtains of water enveloped the two—Frost’s spell waned and died when the curtains froze and shattered.
Ice Daggers!
The spell crystallized dozens and dozens of daggers around Ewan and whitened his starry sky, and with the extension of his Ryvia, they shuttled at the Pegasi. He reined in their force though, and idled the swarm around the battlefield, standing by to interfere and dart in at any time. When in Elementalist state, he led the battle, but as a Severynth, his Astylinds took the stage.
The male Pegasus reared and galloped at Frost while the female pulled up the ocean water into ropes with a screeching neigh and surrounded the airspace around Orange, whipping and entangling him. Frost sprung back—Ewan’s Ryvia assisting him and his daggers hindering the Pegasus—and maintained a distance for his spells, while Orange fought against the water-threads, blasting the ropes into droplets.
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Frost kited the male Pegasus and the female Pegasus kited Orange, thus sustained the delicate balance.
Phantasm!
Ewan cast and created a mirage of volcanoes rising from the ocean. The spell gobbled his Anima, and the result reflected it. The charred layers of solidified yet gooey rocks, the streams of orange glowing and bubbling lava, the torrents of steam rising from the ocean, and the boiling water—the staggering details painted a skin of reality on the illusion.
Firedust!
Only the missing scorch left a gap, so Ewan filled it with another spell. The fiery particles and sparks raged into a storm around the battlefield, singeing the targets. The Pegasi backed off, wailing, and fluttering their wings. The fire opposed their natural habitat, and the volcanoes represented its peak.
Fireflies!
And the trapping spell armed across the combat zone put the finishing touch in, albeit they were still of the Step-0 stage. When the combination of his spells bore fruit, when the Pegasi panicked against Frost and Orange under the adverse conditions, and when they stepped on some of the trap-spells, Ewan hovered back and let his Astylinds shine.
Frost broke out with a salvo of projectile spells against the retreating and injured male Pegasus, while throwing in couple of field freezing spell to control him. And Orange dove in headfirst, crashing against the water defense the female Pegasus put up, and unleashed his barrage, the shattered water droplets spraying around.
Aid!
Stigma: Positive!
Rekindle!
Stigma: Negative!
Blood Stasis!
When needed, Ewan still assisted his Astylinds from the back, biting the Novas coins to recover Anima, and prevented the balance from tipping into the enemy’s favor. And soon, as the shadow of an island surfaced from the horizon against the night sky, the two Pegasi lost their lives with lingering neighs and plunged.
“Kidd, Stefan, prepare them well, we’ll have horses for lunch…dinner,” he said, floating in the sky and dropping the dead Pegasi onto the Stormfalcon.
“Boss, what about the baby horses we fished before?” Kidd yelled from the top deck while Frost gulped down the two souls.
“We’ll have the whole family,” Ewan said. “Stefan, prepare the anchor, let’s dock at that island. We can stock up on drinking water and the materials we need.”
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Status: Healthy
Step-1 Severynth [Spirit-Nebula: Zeroth Surge]
Subtype: Step-0 Elementalist
Name: Ewan Ayres
Species: Human
Vitality: 7.0
Spirit: 25.3
Anima: [Fire – 19.3 | Ice – 5.3 | Blood – 0.7 | Mystic: 2.5]
Astylinds: 4 [Potential: 1]
Rolling Cat [Toast]: Step-1 Severynth [Spirit-Nebula: Zeroth Surge]
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Fire Monkey [Orange]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-B]
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Imp [Frost]: Step-1 [Level-10] [Grade-B]
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Bloodthorn-Lotus [Iris]: Step-0 [Level-8] [Grade-D]
Equipment: Common Clothes; Yurn [Neck Gaiter]; Moonkeeper [Crystal-Ball]; Rainwarden [Staff]; Blackfeather [Overcoat].
Storage: Journal; Elementalist—The Path of Anima [Subtype-Book]; Spellbook; Bloodlust [Spell]; Transmute [Spell]; Unknown Book [Radon’s Legacy]; Anima-Crystals [Novas Coins]; Hub-Connector; Ingredients.
Novas: 28,245
Crelith: 1,298