The upcoming dungeon raid was set to be executed in a month. The guild had to get several preparations made, and so did I. For starters, I needed to increase my aura control. Furthermore, in the excitement of reporting to Blunvir how well aura control worked, I'd forgotten to check my progress with the crystal. I quickly remedied that issue.
Name: Sparky
Species: Cleaning Spirit
Level: 14
Mana 125/125
Experience: 965/2800
Skill points: 5
Skills: Greater Cleaning Aura (Level 5), Greater Air Purification Aura (Level 4), Greater Sanitization proficiency (Level 6), Language Learning Proficiency (level 3), Memory Enhancement (Level 2), Analysis (Level 2), Telekinesis (Level 6), Mana Sense (Level 4), Mana Storage Capacity (Level 3), Mana Regeneration (Level 3), Aura Control (Level 3).
After checking my status, I headed up to the sewage pond to clean that out. Once I got there, I noticed that the pond seemed to be as filthy as the first time I went there. Odd, but I began to practice using aura control with my cleaning aura and air purification aura just the same. I found it was a little easier to control and shape the individual auras, but immediately noticed something odd. Something seemed to be repelling my auras. I hadn't noticed it the first time I'd gone to the pond, as I'd just been passively providing the auras at the time, but now that I was controlling the auras, it was incredibly clear. Interested, I attempted to push my cleaning aura into the sludge, and felt my aura be repelled. A bit peeved, I shaped my aura into a spear, and plunged it into the depth of the sewage.
I instantly regretted my decision when I felt a surge of anger coming from the sewage pond. Oops. What was once a calm enough seeming pond was suddenly an enraged pile of sludge. Well, this is bad. I suddenly felt something I didn't think I could feel in the first place. Pain. In a panic, I instinctively retracted my auras as closely as I could around me, lessening the feeling to a stinging sensation. The creature growled, and I felt a surge of energy from it. Mana?!? A stream of densely polluted gases surged towards me. I moved to dodge the toxic mist, but it tracked my movements. So, I did what any sane person would do in that scenario and flew away as fast as I could. "Hah! Can't get me if I put some distance between us, you immobile pile of sludge!" I shouted telepathically at the angry mass. That glee quickly turned to dismay as a scene anyone probably could have predicted unfolded in front of me. Why did I have to run my mouth? I thought to myself as I quickly resuming flying away as quickly as I could.
Lucky for the city, the sewage elemental, as I'm now going to call it, was located a decent bit away from the city, and as such, no one noticed the sewage pond leaving the hole it was in seemingly of its own accord and go oozing off at high speeds into the distance. Well, one guard saw it, but as it turned out, this guard had a habit of telling exaggerated tall tales, so everyone just assumed this was just another one of those and waved it off.
The sewage elemental was slowly gaining on me. I'd used my air purification aura to nullify the toxic clouds, but the elemental had apparently had plenty more mana to use, so it continued launching them at me as I eliminated them. At this point, I'd flown well over 5 kilometers away from the city without losing the pursuing mass, despite my numerous attempts to. Trees? Flattened. Rivers? Swan right through them. Ravine that was 20 meters across? Jumped right over it. Things were looking pretty grim.
Well, if I can't fly away on the ground, there is still one direction I can go. I shot upwards as far as I could go. For all of the speed the giant sewage elemental had, it couldn't fly... I hoped. As I went higher, I felt the pain lessen as the elemental's aura lost its effectiveness over the distance. And now we were at a stalemate. I had flown as high as I could, but the elemental would keep up with me and continue shooting the toxic mist at me if I tried to fly off in any direction, so I was better off staying put. "Well. here we go." I thought to myself grimly.
The elemental was too strong for me to take out, and to persistent for me to evade, and as such the remainder of the day was spent with the sewage elemental firing shots at me while I nullified them with my aura control. It would fire sludge missiles, poison gas, and toxic streams of water that reminded me of a firehose, while I would either use my auras to nullify the projectiles or dodge them if that failed. This continued through the night.
As the fighting went on, I felt it become easier to nullify the projectiles and to dodge the ones I couldn't, while the attacks from the sewage elemental stayed roughly the same power wise. I theorized that my skills were becoming stronger, as the elementals were staying stagnant as they didn't meet the requirements to increase in level. I felt a bit more hopeful. Maybe I can win a war of attrition? Unfortunately for me, as the night wore on, I noticed that its projectiles were going faster as well as becoming more accurate. Ok. New theory. It gained some kind of accuracy skill as well as a projectile speed skill. Things were suddenly looking much grimmer.
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The fight continued on into the next morning, where I was finding it more and more difficult to continue to resist the sludge monster. While my skills were increasing at a fast rate, so were the Sewage elemental's. At some point, it learned a skill that would allow it to simultaneously launch multiple attacks at me. I multitasked like never before, using telekinesis to deflect the stronger attack, while dodging and nullifying what I could, but it there was still no clear way to victory, so I fought on.
The day turned into night, the night into day, and the fight continued on. And as the fighting continued, I felt my own ability to combat this menace increase. I nullified more attacks and was able to use telekinesis to greater effect. As for dodging, at some point the monster's skills outpaced my own dodging skills, so while I still tried to dodge what I could, it became more difficult than the other methods I had. And so, the fight continued on for several more days.
Suddenly, I felt it. An almost imperceptible shift in the balance. I felt my aura begin to hold its own against the elementals. Not by much, but a little bit. I began to creep closer to the elemental, for the first time moving offensively against it. The elemental was, of course, still making me play a bullet hell game, so progress was incredibly slow, but progress was progress. Over the course of the next week, we continued in this deadly dance, me pushing closer as my auras grew in power, while the elemental fired ever more projectiles at me, until I was within the distance to strike back at it. I began to fight back, firing spears formed from my auras into the elemental, while still dodging the projectiles fired at me. It was a slow process, like everything with this creature, but finally, I felt it. The projectiles being fired at me slowly decreased, and then stopped entirely. Feeling my triumph at hand, I focused my aura into one last attack, and dealt the finishing blow to the creature.
The elemental died, leaving a mostly clean pond the size of the original sewage pit. The last of the sludge dissolved away, revealing something. I moved closer, and felt a moment of shock. Lying there in the water was... a female water elemental. I cautiously watched her. The water elemental woke up. She looked at her hands, with tears in her eyes and whispered to herself. "The nightmare... at last the nightmare is over." I moved next to her. "Are you okay?" I asked. "No. No, I'm not." She replied as the tears began to overflow from her eyes. The water elemental curled up in a ball and began sobbing uncontrollably. "Whenever you want to talk, I'll be here" I said, hovering there. I sat there for the next several hours. As I'd learned once upon a time, sometimes the best thing you can do is just be there for someone.
Eventually, the water spirit stopped crying and sat up, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Thank you. Thank you so much, for saving me from that living nightmare." She said. I didn't know exactly how to respond. I replied, "I'm glad I was able to help you. If you don't mind me asking, how did you end up inside that... that thing?" She gazed off into the distance. After a few minutes, she answered, "I don't know. I remember that I was in my lake, like always, when suddenly I lost consciousness. I woke up inside that abomination, aware of my surroundings but unable to exert any control. At first, it simply went around, and I watched in horror as it consumed the wildlife I loved so much. Eventually, it found its way to the foul waters by the human city, where it sat, gaining power for several years. And then you came along and saved me."
My mind was a bit of a jumbled mess. I was incredibly glad to have saved the water spirit, but I also had so many questions that I knew she wouldn't have the answer to. "Well, my name is Sparky. What's yours?" I finally managed to say. She looked at me with a bit of an amused look. "Sparkys a funny name." She said, with a small smile. "My name is Velmora." She replied after a bit. Neither of us really knew what to talk about, so we sat there awkwardly for the next several minutes in relative silence. Eventually, she got up. "Well. I do have a pond to manage." she said, breaking the silence. "Do you need help with anything?" I asked. Velmora thought about it for a moment. "No. Having my freedom for the first time in forever, well, I need some time to think. That being said, stop by for a visit once I've had some time to collect myself." "I'll do that." I replied.
With that, we said our farewells. I returned to the city as quickly as I could. Night had fallen by the time I'd entered the adventurer's guild. Blunvir was a bit upset when he saw me. "WHERE IN THE BLAZES HAVE YOU BEEN!?!" He bellowed at me. "I BEEN WORRIED SICK! THE RAID IS IN ONE WEEK! ONE WEEK! AND YOU JUST BLOODY GO AND DISAPPEAR ON ME?" I quickly explained the situation to him. He seemed, if anything, angrier then he was before. But the anger wasn't directed at me anymore, but rather some third party I was currently unaware of. "Those bloody cults." He growled to himself. Seeing how angry he was. I decided to let him stew for a bit and checked my progress in the crystal.
Name: Sparky
Species: Cleaning Spirit
Level: 20
Mana 400/400
Experience: 2475/8000
Skill points: 35
Skills: Super Cleaning Aura (Level 6), Super Air Purification Aura (Level 4), Ultra Sanitization proficiency (Level 6), Language Learning Proficiency (level 3), Memory Enhancement (Level 2), Analysis (Level 2), Greater Telekinesis (Level 2), Mana Sense (Level 8), Enhanced Mana Storage Capacity (Level 2), Enhanced Mana Regeneration (Level 2), Greater Aura Control (Level 1), Multitasking (Level 8) Evasion (Level 5)
I returned to the stewing guild master. "So, what happened?" I asked. He sat there for several minutes. "It's a long story, and I don't have time to tell it right now. With you back, we can finally finish the preparations for the raid. Once all is said and done, it'll be a two day ride to the dungeon, and I'll tell you the tale then." Without another word, Blunvir walked out to arrange the last things required for the raid.
To be continued...