Instead of spending the rest of their journey hanging over the edge of the boat feeling sick, Azrael devoted himself to the single simple task of poetry – or rather formulating a chant for one of his favourite spells – [Fire Bullet]. He was, however, very careful to not allow anybody to hear what exactly he was saying, but from some of the glances he was getting they probably all thought of him as a mad man muttering under his breath. At least they were all good enough to generally leave him alone.

“… blazing and…no. Ugh.”

Azrael revised his phrasing for the x hundredth time. It just wasn’t quite flowing how he wanted.

Originally, he’d tried just using some generic phrasing, before he’d considered the imagery for [Touch of Frost]. James had picked a very specific aspect of ice – its deadliness. The image was of a world so completely frozen that nothing could grow. It was a world devoid of anything that could produce heat or light – no sun, no fire – no hope of surviving. It was the end. It was absolute zero. His [Firebullet] was a bright, flashy projectile.

At the beginning he’d considered dragon’s breath, meteors, shooting stars and a whole host of other ideas, but none of them seemed to fit. In the end he’d tried to decide on aspects that he wanted to include, jut like [Touch of Frost] had its own. The three he had were; ‘fire’ (obviously), ‘flying true’ and ‘pierce’. The last one was more of a test on whether he could get the system to ‘imbue’ an additional aspect into his spell.

“Heed me… no…fly fast? Strike fast?... uh… burn… burning? Burning bright?... blaze and burn?”

Azrael scratched the side of his head, chewing on the side of his lip as he considered.

“Come forth and burn bright… nope. Definitely not. Uh… Bippity, boppity, boo. Fire bullet, I choose you!”

He sighed. Nothing was really ‘clicking’. Bullet was a hard word to rhyme with, as was pierce. If there were words, then he couldn’t recall them. He decided to drop pierce. [Fire Bullet] was more of an impact spell anyways. Keeping a chant short was better in combat situations anyways.

There was one intro that he was sort of fond of though. He felt it just rolled off the tongue.

“Know my name, hear my call…” he tried thinking of what might come next “Uh… Know my name, hear my call, Burn strong, burn bright… nope.”

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Should he just use the one he’d made earlier? He tested it out.

“Hear me and heed me, born of blazing fire, let everyone fear me, pierce like a bullet – Fire bullet”

No. Still a no. There was no rhythm, nothing.

He collapsed against the ship’s side in despair. How hard could it be? Should he just do a James? No rhyming or anything. He imagined himself pointing his finger at an opponent.

“You fill burn, you will suffer, you will die in hell – fire bullet.”

“Hell on earth, burning purgatory – fire bullet.”

“Be cleansed in flame – fire bullet.”

No, no and no. None of it gelled. There was no theatre, no drama. A fireball was basically the smallest derivative of a games’ most powerful creature’s ability – dragon breath. There was a level of standard that needed to be uphel… wait? Fireball? At the edge of his consciousness he felt something tapping him on the shoulder.

Suddenly, Azrael felt something stood up in a flash of clarity. Something fell over and he heard someone curse close by, buy he didn’t want to lose the moment.

He raised a finger, pointing it towards the sky in proclamation.

“Know my name, hear my call, burn bright, fly fast, [Fireball]”

Nothing happened and for a moment everyone held their breath. There was nothing. Why didn’t… oh… Azrael spoke again, this time forcing his intent upon the world.

“Know my name…”

There was a sudden twist in the air, his voice taking on another tone. Despite his voice seemingly still sounding the same, there was a resonance with the world around him.

“…hear my call, burn bright, fly fast.”

[Fireball]

The world responded. He felt it shift, he felt the mana around him move to accommodate his request. It accumulated at a single point, struggling with the immensity of his image, with the intent hidden beneath those simple words – power and fire.

The mana bubbled and boiled, it shifted and it roiled and in a single moment it ignited – sending a second small sun roaring into the sky. Gold flames burn against the blue sky, blindingly bright and blisteringly hot. Like a comet, it raced upwards with great force, as if to challenge the sun. By the time it vanished, everyone on the expedition was trying to blink spots out of their eyes.

Azrael had spoken and the world had responded.

He grinned, finding a new skill add itself to his [Status]

Congratulations!

For vocalising your intention to the world, while spellcasting, you have gained the skill [Chanting]

[Chanting]

My words are my will.

You are able to better manifest a spell, by properly vocalising your intent to the world.