There was no better way to find out than to try it and no better time to try it than now. Sophia triggered the Martial Technique and watched it. Unlike any spell she knew, there wasn’t a spellform that was filled with mana; instead, she had to move in a pattern the Guide showed her. A pulse of mana drained with each movement; the Guide shifted each one slightly to form a symbol stamped in the air with mana and connected to the other symbols with small threads of mana. Even before the short dance was complete, Sophia could vaguely sense a runic pattern. It wasn’t in any of the languages she knew, but she could still tell what it was and it answered one of the questions she’d had about Martial Techniques the whole time.
They did cost mana. It simply wasn’t the spellcaster’s mana that was used. Instead, the technique user created a pattern that was enhanced into a runescript by the Guide. The runescript that pulled on the natural mana that surrounded everyone and created the effect of the Martial Technique.
The idea of using mana to create a runescript wasn’t new to Sophia, but she’d always been taught that it was inferior to spellforms because, without a medium, any runescript capable of maintaining itself would be far more complex than the equivalent spellform. If you were going to take the time to use a runescript to avoid the mana cost and do it yourself, you were better off using a physical medium and simplifying the runescript; it would be faster. Summon Echo was definitely not an exception to that; the runescript was dizzyingly complex and Sophia could tell she wasn’t seeing all of it; her Aural Mana Sense was decidedly not sensitive enough.
Even with the Guide’s help, “casting” Summon Echo took several seconds. A ball of multicolored light formed, floating above the sand, then seemed to explode into confetti and a very small feathered dragon, at least compared to other dragons. Her long colorful horns made her height similar to Sophia’s, but her shoulder was only somewhere around Sophia’s waist. She glowed in the light, almost like she was internally lit by the magic she carried.
Echo [https://i.imgur.com/kU5dEKI.png]
Sophia felt a small spike of envy directed towards her summon. She looked a lot like how Sophia had always envisioned her dragon-form, if she ever managed to figure out how to properly shapeshift. She was even not far off from the correct size for a dragon Sophia’s age. It was clear now what Summon Echo was doing; this was an echo of a part of Sophia. She wasn’t a duplicate or controlled by Sophia, but Sophia still guessed that the echo would try to do what she thought was best for Sophia, or at least the reason she was summoned.
This echo was summoned to test the ability.
As if she heard that thought, the small dragon grinned at Sophia, then crouched and sprang into the air and flew up into the sky far enough to be among the lowest clouds. She zoomed down and flared her wings at the last moment, curving back up into the sky only to dance in the air at the sheer joy of being freed from the bonds of gravity.
Sophia was pretty sure it was exactly what she would have done if she were suddenly able to fly easily and freely the way the little dragon did. She felt Dav’s warmth as he moved to stand next to her and watched the sky with her, but it was a long moment before she realized that he didn’t always seem to know where to look for the dragon, while Sophia did. That must be part of the spell, as well.
Sophia turned to look at their other companion. Amy didn’t seem to notice the dragon until she flew a little too close to the owl, who had finally made it well up into the sky. Amy almost seemed to jump when she saw the dragon; her wing twitched and she slid sideways and started to fall. The feathered dragon bolted forward, slid under Amy, and caught the on her back. The protrusions Sophia had assumed were spines or spikes of some sort flexed under Amy’s weight and bent, more like stiff feathers than anything else.
The dragon glided to the ground and landed near Sophia and Dav. She stayed still only long enough for Amy to slide to the ground, then she zipped up into the sky to dance with the clouds once more. Amy stood uncertainly in the sand, her feathers ruffled but clearly none the worse for the experience.
Muffled laughter from beside Sophia gave her Dav’s opinion on the whole sequence. He’d clearly seen it all. Sophia suppressed a matching smile; owl-Amy’s ruffled feathers and spread wings told a story of consternation that was surprisingly hilarious. It only got funnier when Amy turned on the couple, clearly indignant, then waddled away rather than trying to fly.
“I shouldn’t laugh,” Dav muttered from next to Sophia, “But that expression! I didn’t know owls could say that much without words.”
Sophia nodded as she lost the battle against her grin. It was funny, especially since she somehow knew that her summon hadn’t meant to interfere with Amy’s flight; she’d just wanted to fly with someone else.
Sophia wanted to be up there in the sky with her, and maybe she would later. For now, she wasn’t done testing Summon Echo, so she shook her head and focused on what she knew and what she needed to do. The smile stayed fixed on her face.
She now knew she could summon an echo that would act independently, though there was also a tether that pulled a little mana from her each moment the summon was active; that made sense, especially since summoning the echo cost no mana in the first place. She couldn’t be certain how good the small dragon would be in a fight, but if nothing else she’d be useful as a flying attacker; she could move quickly and with the scales and claws of a dragon she ought to be able to fight well.
Sophia suspected that she also had a breath attack of some sort, though until the little dragon came close enough again Sophia couldn’t ask her to use it. She might know where the dragon was but she couldn’t give her commands over that linkage. She had no doubt that the dragon would respond to verbal commands, however; she’d just have to wait until she calmed down enough to return.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Could she summon another? What would the effect of Eldritch Overcharge be on the Martial Technique and the Echo? How much mana would it cost? She wouldn’t be able to evaluate how much better it was in a fight until she was in one, but she could at least find out if there were any negative effects.
Sophia glanced over at Dav and found him glowing with the same soft green light as his Healing beacon. “Testing something?”
“Embody Summon,” Dav answered with a grin. “I finally have a good way to make my beacons mobile, even if I can only embody one at a time.”
The green glow faded. Dav pointed at the ground and Sophia saw a dart, no that had to be a thorn, shoot out of his finger and thud solidly into the sand. Dav winced and rubbed that hand with his other hand. “And I’m not going to use Thorn Emitter that way. That stung. I think I can maybe…” Dav trailed off and Sophia saw a series of dark bumps rise from his skin and his armor. They developed wicked, hooked points, then disappeared almost as quickly as they appeared. “Nope, not that either. Ow.”
Sophia frowned. She wasn’t sure which Summon spell that could have been. “Was that the fire bud?”
Dav shook his head. He continued rubbing his hand. “Thorn Emitter again. Embody Summon is weird; Healing Beacon only had one path it could take but Thorn Emitter had two, clearly throwing thorns or simply having them. I don’t like either of them.” He paused for a moment, then chuckled. “I’m not sure if I want to try Eyes that See or not. It affects me to begin with.”
Sophia shrugged, then offered, “Better to try it now?”
Dav hesitated a moment longer before he triggered the Ability and cast his Summon. His eyes began to glow and turned purple but didn’t change shape the way the spell normally shifted them. More glowing eyes opened all across his armor, replacing individual scales with eyelids. It was one of the oddest things Sophia had ever seen, especially when they all blinked in unison.
Dav started to turn his head, then froze and clearly dismissed the effect. The eyes closed, turning back into the normal patterning of the armor. “That could be useful, but it’s going to take practice. It’s not seeing magic like normal, it’s seeing everything around me instead.” He paused and bit his lip. “Does it actually make more eyes?”
Sophia nodded slowly. “Some of the scales on your armor become eyelids. It’s an interesting effect.”
Dav raised an eyebrow at her statement. Sophia could only envy the fact that he could move one at a time. “That still seems worth it, but it’ll take some getting used to. Care to spar after we finish going through our Abilities?”
Sophia nodded. She looked forward to that; even if she didn’t, it was probably the only way Dav was going to get to try out his Sword Forms Ability.
“Your turn again,” Dav said with a grin. “I want to test my other summons before trying them with Embody.”
Sophia tilted her head to the side. She was pretty sure it was still her turn since she was still testing Summon Echo, but maybe it counted separately since she was also testing Eldritch Overcharge for the first time. On the other hand, it wasn’t like they’d set up formal rules or anything; they were just showing off for each other.
Sophia really hoped this would be spectacular. Summon Echo was good, but surely an Overcharged one would be better?
Sophia cast the spell, then started the Summon Echo Martial Technique movements. She could see how the spell interacted with the technique’s runescript; it affected both the Affinity and the size of the connections between the different runic symbols drawn with her mana. It was a complex interaction that was probably only possible because the Martial Technique was done with a runescript. That made her wonder exactly how the spell worked with Dav’s Summons. It clearly did, since he’d used it with the older ones, but Sophia was pretty sure those were closer to spells than runescripts. Maybe it widened the mana threads used to make the spellforms?
As Sophia completed the short dance, a ball of darkness shot with light, like a cloudy night sky, floated above the sand in much the same position as the ball of light that formed after a normal Summon Echo. It spread quickly and exploded in a profusion of light and darkness that revealed a far darker purple dragon outlined against a night sky for a moment before the backdrop faded away and left the dragon behind.
This dragon was taller than the original echo; her shoulder was the same height as Sophia’s, which made her the size of a large horse rather than a big cat. Her scales were a variegated deep purple instead of the paler blue of the original summon, but they were still filled with light. Her wings were batlike, far more like the traditional Western dragon than the birdlike wings of the other Echo. They were still colorful, but instead of glowing brightly-colored feathers, they were filled with shifting images that reminded Sophia of the false-color pictures of stars and nebulae taken by Hubble.
Eldritch Echo [https://i.imgur.com/3mcNU9w.png]
The dragon nodded at Sophia with a wide grin before she took off into the sky to fly loops with her sibling. Sophia grinned up at them for a long moment, then realized she needed to see just how many of them she could summon. The mana drain wasn’t significant and an army of dragons would be absolutely awesome.
Sophia moved in the steps of the Martial Technique, but nothing happened. They might as well have been the steps of a normal dance, rather than a Martial Technique that was the next thing to a spell. It seemed like the Guide wasn’t about to let her summon more than two Echoes. Sophia had to wonder if that was a true limit or if it was simply because her Ability was level two? It could also be because she’d Overcharged the second one; maybe you were only supposed to have one Echo, but Eldritch Overcharge could overcome the limit?
Sophia tried again, but although she could cast Eldritch Overcharge, the Summon Echo Martial Technique still failed to do anything at all.
As Sophia gave up, she watched both dragons descend from the clouds and land near Amy. They seemed to be trying to teach her how to fly by example. Sophia watched for a few minutes, but Amy started following their directions fairly quickly. Sophia hoped it helped; Amy was having severe issues even getting off the ground. The flight Sophia’s first echo interrupted was the only time Sophia had seen her actually get high, and she was only about ten feet or so above the sand when she was startled.