“Well, that was fun. You good now, Aetherion?” Aella asked casually, arriving at the massive dragon slightly later than the group. “Behave from now on, Kay?”
Acting as if she didn’t just threaten the dragon’s life, Aella gave the mental command to see her status before anyone could react to her presence.
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Aella Rossi | Foxin | Young Dragon
EXP: 77,500 | Level 35 (50%) | Stat Points: 0 | Skill Points 34
Dragon Slots: 1 used, 0 remaining
Dragon Core: Auilanthros Stormweaver | Rank: 2
Health: 12,948/51,000 | Mana: 6666/37,500 | Stamina 7625/9522
Traits: 2 Tails | Whirlwind Maestra
Dragon Skills: [Dragon’s Breath] | [Electricity Manipulation] | [Water Manipulation] | [Wrath]
Personal Skills: [Foxfire LV 2] | [Transformation LV 2] | [Charm LV 1] | [Appraisal LV 1] | [Whirlwind Maestra LV 1] | [Advent Compass LV 1]
STR: 170 | DEX: 140 | SPI: 75 | AGI: 160 | MND: 45 | CHA: 120
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‘I still need to figure out what I wanna do with those Skill Points.’ She thought to herself, lamenting her limited skill usage.
She didn’t use [Foxfire] actively, [Charm] wasn’t going to be leveled up for obvious reasons, and she got no benefit from leveling up [Transformation]. She couldn’t guess what [Appraisal] or [Advent Compass] would do when leveled up, so there wasn’t any reason for her to waste her points on them, and she needed to be minimum level 51 to upgrade her [Whirlwind Maestra].
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While by no means a useless skill, Aella didn’t like using it for two key reasons. The first was the fact that it wasn’t her own Mana. If she’s out of Mana, it’s certainly an option, but she couldn’t amplify its power with [Sylpheed’s Whisper], so it was just worse than her wind in every other scenario.
Secondly, ambient Mana is immensely volatile and inconsistent if you don’t have a barrier or array of some kind to gather and refine it. Some areas just have so much Mana that a Foxin who was strong enough could create a miniature sun, and other places are so devoid of Mana that even getting a spark was difficult. Aella wasn’t trusting her life to a gamble that, at best, had a neutral payout.
Shaking her thoughts away, she returned her senses to a playful “Chirp” from her partner, Stormy, as he landed on her head.
Seraphina, ever the caring soul for her dragon companion, even in his aggressive and reckless outburst, knelt beside the giant dragon, examining him for any injuries that weren’t healing properly. Her gentle touch and worried eyes scanned over Aetherion, ensuring he was not seriously hurt.
“Aella! You could have gone easier on him, you know!” Seraphina pouted, secretly just glad that both of them were okay.
Letting out a small chuckle, Aella shook her head in denial. “You underestimate Aetherion’s strength. Although I have no visible wounds, both my Health and Mana are around 25% right now.”
She was pretty sure she had some internal injuries, but those sort themselves out in a couple of days' worth of meditation. Regardless, Aella turned her attention to Blair.
“Auntie Blair, how long until breakfast is ready?” she inquired, not only being a little hungry herself but hoping there was enough time for her to do what she wanted before.
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Blair, who had been observing the scene with a mixture of parental concern and pride at the fact that Aetherion managed to match Aella evenly, smiled. “About thirty minutes, probably? Knowing Indigo, he’s probably preparing something big since you’re guests.”
Nodding as she was about to speak, Stormy playfully bit down on one of her ears. “Ouch, Stormy, WHY?!” Aella yelped, her hand tails instinctively reaching to grab Stormy while she grabbed her ear in pain.
‘I need to get into the habit of always having a thin layer of Mana reinforcing my body for this little rodent!’ She lamented inwardly.
The sudden yelp drew the attention of Cid and Seraphina. The prior of which observing Aetherion from a distance in amazement while the other was still making sure her partner wasn’t in too much pain.
Their gaze shifted from Aella’s ear to her fluffy tails, their expression shifting from curiosity and amazement to delight as they looked at each other. Almost in unison, both children moved toward Aella while she was distracted, both aiming for one of her tails.
How could they not? They were so fluffy, and there were even two of them, one for each!
Aella’s eyes widened in surprise, a small squeal escaping her lips as she fell to the ground from the unexpected groping of her tails. “Hey, hey, careful!”
‘And my tails…’ She continued inwardly.
Despite her use of her tails in combat, the tails of a Foxin were just as sensitive, if not more so, than their ears without any sort of reinforcement. What was worse is that when Foxin gain a tail, their body moves closer to perfection.
Less stamina usage, higher energy conversion rate, smoother skin, more muscle mass, and, unfortunately, softer and fluffier tails.
“Aunty, help me!” she playfully cried out, her initial surprise turning into feigned distress.
She wasn’t going to lie and say it hurt. Unlike with her gremlin of a Dragon, the two kids were being… Somewhat careful. It was like a massage from two amateurs, it could be better, but it’s not the worst experience ever.
Blair laughed at the scene, the warmth of the moment melting away any residual tension from the ‘Training’ session. “I think you can handle a couple of cuddle monsters, Aella.”
Aella was about to let out a demonic screech in retort off the fact that Blair was laughing at her plight but instead let out a small sigh before smiling, allowing Cid and Seraphina to cuddle with her tails as she got up, her earlier serious and slightly stren demeanor replaced by a playful and nurturing one. She glanced over at Aetherion, who avoided eye contact with her while still seeming to enjoy the lighter mood, confusing Aella greatly.
‘What is his problem? Mood swings?’
Whatever the case was, the battle with Aetherion went better than she could have hoped for. Not only did Aetherion seem to calm down, for the time being at least, but Seraphina and Cid were clearly at least okay with each other's presence which was more than she could ask for. She expected that it’d take the entire duration of this sleepover and then some to get the two to like each other but this was a great start!
The room, once filled with the intensity of battle, was now a space of laughter and almost feeling like that of familial warmth. At the current moment, Aella couldn’t be happier. For once, her heart genuinely felt like it might be full.
Seraphina and Cid were both good kids, and she liked seeing them happy. Even if her plans with them were less wholesome, that didn’t change the fact that she was growing fond of them.
In her own words, her single largest flaw was that she got attached to people too easily. Hiding her compassionate side behind a no less real veil of insanity. Despite not knowing either of these two children for more than a couple of weeks at most, they felt like kids or grandkids of her own.
“Oh, right. Seraphina. Mind if I ask you something?”
Perking up from Aella’s tail while not letting go of it, Seraphina nodded. “What?”
“What exactly is Aetherion’s Affinity?” Aella asked. She already figured it out in her head but part of her refused to let her accept the answer she came up with.
Seraphina paused to look at her status. “Uhm… Technically speaking, he has 2. [Earth], which is what he fought you with, and [Heaven], which he can only access by a skill which we don’t know the activation conditions for… Each one gives him two different elemental abilities. What about your ability? How'd you send Aetherion flying like that?” She explained, not thinking too deeply about it before asking her own question.
"I just mimicked a hurricane on a small scale. It wasn't anything special." She responded.
A small scale in more ways than 1. Gale's False Dance is exactly as its name suggests was fake. It's a simplified and downgraded version of a spell Aella used quite often, which she eventually upgraded further. In other words, it's the fake version of an already downgraded spell. Still, for such a low-tier spell, its efficiency wasn't all that bad.
‘Heaven and Earth?’ Aella’s eyes narrowed for a few moments as she confirmed her suspicions. ‘Aetherion’s ability is related to the 4 fundamental forces.’
Affinities came in two types. Purely Magic, like the generation and manipulating of say, darkness. Normally, Darkness isn’t something you could interact with as it’s simply the absence of light.
Creating Water, Fire, manipulating space, or some other element out of Mana falls under the same principle. The other is the Manipulation of the physical realm. To move earth or steel, to freeze water particles to create Ice.
Seraphina’s ability, as far as Aella could understand with her limited information, was the very embodiment of manipulating the physical realm. To manipulate [Gravitational Force, Electromagnetic Force, Strong Nuclear Force, and Weak Nuclear Force].
The connotations of having such abilities were immense, even if you didn’t understand how Magic worked.
A comrade Aella had in her previous life, someone who was comparable to the [Divine Council] in both Authority and Power got there because of her absolute control over one of these fundamental forces, that being Gravity.
The [3rd Alice of Wonderland] Violet Curious Raven.