We had located a new lair to move to. It didn’t have a Tlaca but a group of fairies in it. At first we were sceptical as it’s very unlikely that the fairies killed the Tlaca but our investigation revealed that the fairies were led by a fairy queen.
They are not common but they might have been responsible for the Tlaca’s demise as they often posses something that I would consider ‘intelligence’.
The extent of the intelligence is still unknowns. The lair was swarming with fairies so this suggested good news.
Any idiot could win a fight against a Tlaca with an army, if there were only a few fairies under the fairy queen that would have been a different story.
The lair is in a gigantic hollowed-out tree which is quite near a water spire. We had our fill of spires but its existence meant that it produced fresh water. The spires are still a problem but the water spire could be considered neutral.
We packed everything and left the lair that had housed us for almost a year.
We flew for 3 sunsets and sunrises until we reached our destination. The fairies were spread thin and the aerial Tlacas had reclaimed the sky. It’s almost as if the fairy invasion never happened.
They’re still around but seem to be closer to the surface or hidden as fairies lose their advantage as their population drops.
The water spire and the large tree came in sight.
Our plan was simple; stop at the water spire, extract an enormous volume of water and flush the fairies out of the lair. Those that get flushed out will be frozen solid and they will be shattered into dust to get rid of them. We will fight the left overs, possibly luring them out toward the water spire.
Only water magic could be used in it’s territory and water magic would also get a large boost so this would be our best case scenario. Otherwise we would make multiple trips and continue flushing the fairies out until it’s just the fairy queen left.
A perfect plan! In the best scenario; every fairy follows us to the spire and we kill them all, in the worst-case scenario; we continuously flush the fairies and fight the fairy queen.
Most of the spire’s territory had been turned into a freshwater lake. It had several ice floats and watery life forms moving around in the water but that was of no importance.
Masses of water floated up as we gathered it into a sphere. What would normally be an arduous task had become trivial because of the high concentration of ambient water mana.
“I think this will be enough for a greeting.”
The water mass was transported to the lair. Muqu was in charge of moving it and I kept it from losing water and keeping it spherical. This feat would be easy on lower volumes, but as the mass and volume increase, control becomes harder, which was the reason we had split these tasks.
Our division of labor has one problem however. Shooting the water into the lair requires the water to move and to change shape. Unless we use collaboration magic, one has to deal with both.
“Azu if you would be so kind?”
My hair, which was dancing in the wind, turned into water as a mana wave erupted from me. I took control over parts of the water mass and blasted it into the lair.
Swarms of butterfly-winged women flew out giggling while producing buzzing sounds as they escaped and fled.
The water mass shrunk and the pressure decreased with it. Fairies were still escaping from the lair but many drowned fairies got flushed out too and Muqu froze solid.
She moved the water around that was pouring out of the tree, used it to catch every fairy she could, and encased them in ice with [Freeze]. I joined her after all the water had been blasted into the tree. We followed up with [Freeze: Shatter] to shatter it into fine dust, killing the fairies.
We kept going until we felt that there wasn’t enough water left and we returned to the water spire.
Water doesn’t disappear normally but this water had been created by magic. All primary effects caused by magic disappear after the mana supply stops. In this case it was the high ambient water mana near the spire that had produced the water. The moment we extract it, it starts to disappear. Slowly at first and then increases exponentially.
It’s one of the reasons water magic is deemed as the weakest element. Firstly water is needed to use water magic and secondly the water disappears afterward.
All water magic does is increase the volume of already existing water by 4 and allow the manipulation of it. This ratio of water multiplication might not apply to this spire but for water users, it is a volume multiplication of 4.
After the mana source disappears the volume multiplication lifts and the water ‘disappears’. Its preferred state is its gas state or water vapor state hence ‘disappears’.
Opposed to water magic, fire magic is deemed to be a strong element. While the fire created by magic would disappear, setting something on fire would be a secondary effect which would continue after the fire magic has disappeared. Similar applications apply to water too but they are generally less useful. Heating or burning materials and enemies is just more valuable than making them wet.
We gathered more water and went back to the lair.
“I hope this is the last round.”
“Me too, my [Acedia] might act up if this gets too intense.”
We repeated the act of flushing and freezing fairies until the water mass disappeared.
Nothing was coming out of the lair. It could be a trap, however.
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Muqu flew near the entrance, trying to get a better view. “Shall we just freeze everything and then shatter it?”
“But we might damage the tree.”
I liked Muqu’s idea but there would be no point if we killed the tree with that. The best way to solve this is to go inside and freeze any fairy, dead or alive.
“Let’s go Muqu, this tree needs some cleaning.”
The layout was simple yet spacious. It reminded me of the interior of the wooden hourglass base.
Fairies were spread everywhere and most were dead or near death. We finished them off with the [Freeze] into [Freeze: Shatter] combo.
The water was disappearing rapidly which made it harder and we had to reort to simpler methods of dealing with the fairies.
The main area had 4 fairies helping the fairy queen dry off. Those were the only ones who didn’t seem to have been affected much by our flushing.
“Ha! Let me help you get dry!” I froze the moisture on the fairies and started shooting [Hairpin: Azure Hairpins]. The fairy queen broke out but the others weren’t as lucky.
A blue streak passed by and Muqu crashed into the fairy queen. The whispering sounds Muqu produced clashed with the buzzing sounds the fairy queen produced and it became quite annoying.
Muqu’s whispering sounds only intensified when she got worked up and I had almost forgotten that this was something that is a fairy identifier.
Muqu spoke to the fairy queen in an unknown language and Muqu became angrier and angrier as the fairy queen spoke and laughed like a maniac.
“Azu, there is no hope for this moron! This tree was housing a spirit and they ate it!”
I got a flashback to the broccoli tree which was responsible for my imprisonment. Wasn’t that three a spirit too? It did get corrupted yes but my trauma didn’t care about that fact.
“Azu?”
“I’s nothing. Let’s destroy her.”
Azure petals gathered around me and I sent some at the fairy queen to shred her.
The fairy queen screamed and started to change. She abandoned the look of a maiden with butterfly wings and turned into a hideous 2 headed mosquito with a glowing abdomen.
It had compound eyes but every facet had red animal looking eyes. The buzzing sound intensified and one of it’s head stretched its proboscis at me and spat a beam of fire at me which I blocked with my fan.
“Are you insane?! You will burn the tree down!”
The other head aimed at Muqu and also spewed fire at her.
What are mosquitos weak to? My mind went through multiple possibilities when a simple one appeared.
Just a slap would do right? A [meteor Slap]! But what about the tree? Can I limit the damage?
The buzzing intensified as something crashed into me and an ugly mosquito head appeared above me.
“Aah! Get off me you creep!”
I felt a sting in my arm and it felt as if it was on fire.
“Azu! Get out of there!”
I looked to the side at my arm. Panic set in as the proboscis had punctured m arm and was pouring fire into my body.
“Hey that hurts!”
A blue streak crashed into the mosquito and launched it off me.
I clutched my mosquito bite which was scorched. Luckily it was my left arm so I could still swing my fan but I prefer swinging with 2 arms.
It still felt hot and my arm was shaking uncontrollably.
A wave of fire rushed at us and I swung my fan with my right arm to counter it.
“Azu, are you ok?!”
“Not really, it got my arm but that was my own fault.”
I froze the mosquito bite which helped but not by alot. It numbed the pain and reduced the shaking but I couldn’t exert force with it.
“[Meteor Slap] is too good for you!”
Water welled up as I used [Tsunami} followed by [Azure Sharks].
The mosquito avoided the sharks and came for me. [Ice Feathers] shot it down and Muqu formed [Ice Talons] on her feet, tore into the mosquito and ripped off one of its heads.
Fire streamed out of the neck and the other head screeched as the buzzing sounds increased yet again.
I forgot that Muqu is some sort of bird fairy, I don’t know how this works but birds should beat insects right?
The mosquito tried to sting Muqu but I had an [Azure Spear] break off it’s proboscis as it almost succeeded.
The azure petals gathered into flowers and filled the space as [Mistflower Field] was readying.
This abomination doesn’t deserve to die in a single painless hit, it deserves to get torn into shreds until it dies.
“Muqu, this skill isn’t ally friendly.”
Muqu nodded, flew over and grabbed me to fly out.
The mosquito tried to follow us but flew into a mistflower which set off the first explosion of petals which started the cascade.
Sharp petals flew everywhere tearing into the ugly mosquito. More and more mistflowers exploded and tore into the mosquito.
Muqu had blocked the exits with [Ice Walls] so we could watch but the mosquito couldn’t escape.
The petals settled, bloomed into more mistflowers and exploded yet again.
The explosions continued even after all the sound had died off in the lair.
“That’s brutal skill...”
“I used it a lot early in the fairy invasion. It’s one of my best skills to use against large groups or things that are hard to kill.”
The skill has one downside which is a non-issue now. I always hated the gore it created but gore had become quite a regular occurrence since I came to Nesher. It’s still disturbing but I prefer to stay alive.
The last petal disappeared and the lair was safe for entry.
“Yuck... why do you always make such a mess? First that bifurcated eagle Tlaca and now minced mosquito...” Muqu voice her disgust before putting her water magic to work to clean the space.
“Well besides the freeze shatter combo, water isn’t very great at leaving no mess behind. I haven’t delved into the acid branch and I'm not going to attempt it either.”
“Don’t mind me, I need to get used to this messiness. I know that spatiotemporal magic or fire magic would have been a bad idea too.”
I already knew what it really was. Muqu didn’t like cleaning gore. I don’t blame her; flushing guts from the wall isn’t something anyone likes.
I refroze the mosquito bite as it was throbbing and sending heat flashes. I might have someone check this out but who? The burrow is far, it would take a week of flying. Normal mosquito bites would pass and I hope this one would too.
My left fist clenched and I carefully lifted my left arm which was a bit discolored due to the cold I had applied to it. I couldn’t see it but I could feel it. Fire mana had been mixed into my mana system. It didn’t belong there and was nearing fire mana corruption.
I would have to get rid of the fire mana to even hope to save my arm. The cold would slow its process so I still have time.
We cleaned the lair and made it comfortable to live in. The barrels of energy drinks got their own corner and I made sure to get enough into my system. I sat down and focused and forced mana into my left arm.
It would be a challenge but if I could surround the fire mana with my own I would be able to isolate it so it wouldn’t spread.
My water mana herded the fire mana together and isolated it so it couldn’t spread.
While I had my left hand clench, unclench and clench again, I used my right hand to make a quick and sloppy seal to help my mana contain the fire mana and contain it.
It was unpleasant and my left arm hurt but I eventually succeeded. My left upper arm had a red glowing disk with a light blue ring around it.
The light blue was the concentrated water mana damming the fire mana. I sighed and relaxed.
“Azu, can I help?”
“i don’t know. I have no idea what i’m doing. I don’t know much about mana corruption, only that it’s bed and can be lethal.
I put my mana control to use and made a hollow needle made out of ice.
Muqu backed off. “What are you going to do with that?”
“Hope that the fire mana wants to escape, the concentration of fire mana there is higher than in the ambient mana.
I took deep breaths, chickened out twice and stabbed the hollow needle into the red area. It didn’t hurt as much as expected.
It was subtle but a trail of fire mana escaped from the hollow needle.
4 minutes was how long it took for nothing to leave. The spot on my arm was reddened but there was sill fire mana in my arm.
I tightened the water mana containing it and the hand-sized mark turned into a fingernail-sized mark. At least my arm wasn’t in danger anymore but this would need to get addressed someday.
“I am so glad that my improvisation worked. I don’t want to lose my arm.”
My left fist clenched and unclenched and the sensation returned to my arm, although slowly.
I wrote in my notebook that I need to find someone to help me get rid of the last bits of fire mana corruption.