Orantal didn’t need a reason to really throw a party. She celebrated anything as long as it called for alcohol and food. She had no qualms spending her monthly allowance on supplies for a party, even for a pet animal. Her parents had to place a cap on her allowance when she started begging for more after only the second week of the month. However, it didn’t fence her from tricking her peers into providing booze.
While today was a celebration in honor of the Magical Graduates, Orantal was really celebrating her best friend embarrassing the Seniors, receiving an award in their stead. She knew next year that Elanya would receive the same award again as a result of being the top student. And she would throw her another party, because why not? It took some convincing and pleading for Elanya to come, and when she did, even in the scandalous outfit she picked out, Orantal had to congratulate herself. Elanya was a woman who tended to stay to herself, focusing on meticulous studying rather than engaging her peers in pointless social parties. Yet, Elanya had a soft spot for her best friend and roommate. As strong willed and defiant that she was perceived to be, she melted at the very sight of Orantal’s puppy, blue eyes and couldn’t refuse most requests that she asked.
It was summer break and classes were over, so Elanya chose to humor Orantal and her charade of a party. She knew that she didn’t have much time before working on her report with Nemedion--a report that would consume her whole summer. It killed being one of the few talented people in Yulin-dai. They didn’t even have a topic to talk about, nor interested in basic research. They wouldn’t pick some easy topic, boring everyone to tears with useless or common facts. Elanya wanted to wrap the crowd around her little finger with her discovery. She wanted them to admire the commoner that constantly exceeded them in every corporeality.
“Ellie! You made it!” Orantal screamed over the loud music playing inside The Rubies. She motioned them outside to the balcony where they wouldn’t be disturbed by the noise. “And look at you! You’ve quite the look right now.”
Elanya smirked as she looked down to commend her clothing. She wore a black halter top that was attached to her bottoms with tiny gold chains. Her bottom pants were also black, hugging onto every curve to her body, flaring out at the bottom of her ankles. Though she wasn’t one for jewelry, she kindly wore the golden bangles and earrings Orantal lent to her.
Over the past three years, the smaller woman had taught her friend how to apply make up and flat iron her hair. On Elanya’s light, chocolate face, her eyelids were shimmered with gold, her creases painted with black. Her skin was always clear of bumps, so she didn’t bother to cake her face with foundation, referring only a little bit of red blush and a sliver of highlight. Her large, heart shaped lips were a dark brown, pursed intensely as she watched Orantal’s guests stumble over themselves. Her short, candy apple red hair was tightly wound into a bun on the top of her head, complemented with a white and black flower.
“I can’t believe you picked out such a revealing outfit for me,” Elanya sighed.
“Come on, you already wear a ton of crop tops! They always expose your belly,” Orantal twirled around her friend, checking her out in a less than friendly way. “I think you don’t want people to know what you’re hiding in those baggy pants.”
In contrast to her roommate, Orantal wore a bright pink jumper with a bright red sash made of silk wrapped around her tiny waist. The short time from the graduation ceremony to now, Orantal had gotten her nails done in the same color and her usually straight hair was curled into a ponytail on top of her head. Still in the same fashion of Asarian Frost, there were two braids from the front of her head joined at the knot in the back of her head. To match the color scheme, she placed a pink colored crystal pendant in her hair. If Elanya was dark and seductive, then her friend was bright and pretty.
Elanya huffed, then turned outward to watch the happy mounds of people dance around outside. Everyone was out and about downtown, celebrating not only graduation, but the brisk summer breeze. She stared out into the distance, past the city buildings to one of the tall apartments recognized as The Tower. It was a beautiful building overlooking the park and its nearby lake. She wondered how it would feel to watch people dance from that towering building.
“I expected Elanya to be outside, away from the hustle and bustle, but not the extravagant host, Orantal Kain.” A voice sounded behind them.
“Nemedion! You actually came!” Orantal exclaimed, running to hug the tall man.
He adjusted his glasses and smiled at her. “Now, Ora, surely you know I’m not going to miss the biggest party to the start of the summer.”
Elanya snorted, folding her arms across her chest. “Nem, you know that I know that you don’t party. Ever.” Because we both spent our time studying to not fail our Mvag Language class, she thought to herself.
Nemedion always made a point to dress as though he were meeting Royalty. He wore a tight brocade vest of blue with a pressed white shirt underneath. Instead of a tie, he had his collar opened, showing a little bit of his chest. His sleeves were unbuttoned, folded up to his elbows, showing off his strong arms.
He moved closer to the pair and inspected Elanya for himself. “You’re dressed up very provocatively, aren’t you?”
“What? Even I have a fine taste for club fashion.”
“Indeed.” He chuckled.
Orantal giggled, swinging on the balls of her feet. “Well, I’m going back in. You two loners are welcomed back inside anytime.”
Elanya watched her friend leave the balcony, swaying her hips in a long blue dress. “What an eccentric woman.”
“Here’s another one standing in front of me.” Nemedion moved in closer to put his long fingers on the curve of Elanya’s hips, but she moved out of his reach, dodging his touch. “What?”
“Nem, you know that it’s not like that.”
“What is it then?” he asked, stepping forward one more time.
This time, he captured her hips underneath his palms, but she laid her strong hands on top of his defiantly. She didn’t want to do this right now, especially since they were going to be studying and researching together all summer.
“You knew how I felt about you and you still disregarded my feelings,” she began to peel his fingers from her sharp hip. “If you didn’t choose me as your first choice, then don’t expect me to do the same.”
“I have a duty to my family and estate that I--”
“That you what, Nem?” she interrupted. “You can’t just return my feelings wholeheartedly then ask me to keep this a secret. It’s as though you’re ashamed of me.”
Nemedion scoffed at what he thought was a ridiculous notion. “I am not ashamed of you, Ellie. But you must understand that Maryna is--”
Elanya turned away from him, finally able to wretch herself from him. “Is an established lady from an established family. Yeah, everyone knows that her family is filthy rich and has a relation to royalty blood, which is why you’re engaged to her.”
There was silence as Elanya continued to watch the dancing crowd below increase when a fast song started playing by a popular band in the square. She didn’t dance in public, but wished that she had the confidence to do so.
“I am your friend, Nem. I wish you respected me enough to not suggest that I become your mistress.”
“I want you, Ellie, more than I’ve ever wanted anyone else. Everyone sees our rivalry, our mutual respect and strength, but they fail to see what has been between us.” Nemedion stepped forward for the last time to reach for her, but she shoved his hands away from her space. Hurt showed deeply in his blue eyes.
“I know that you’re used to getting what you want, but you’ve lost this time. I’ll see you in the morning,” she walked down the stairs connected to the balcony and made her way into the spiralling crowd, lost in their ecstasy of life and fortune.
Elanya was a proud woman who never wasted an opportunity and never allowed anyone to get in her way. But she wasn’t immune to the woes of passion. When she had tired of school, thinking about giving up her dreams and heading back home to work with her father, Nemedion had pushed her forward. He had been a condescending brute, unable to be sympathetic to her plight. His words of her not being worthy enough to stand next to him was heart wrenching, a part of her broke underneath the pressure. As a commoner, she had come so far. She had been accepted into one of the top Universities in the country and proven to the wealthy that she possessed as much power as any one of them. It rubbed Nemedion the wrong way from the very moment they locked stubborn eyes in their first class together. Instead of the harassment she expected to receive for her defying the social status, he fired up a rivalry that made her magic simmer.
Sophomore year, everything hit her all at once. Projects and reports piled up, she wasn’t used to being so far apart from her father and she felt virtually alone when University was supposed to be a time of youth and adventures. The stress of not being any closer to finding her mother was making her sick. Her hair stopped growing, dark circles formed underneath her dulling hazel eyes. The image that she was collected and serious as a student was beginning to crumble in some of her classes, though she would not allow herself to fall below the other students who shunned her. At that point, she and Nemedion had taken their rivalry to the study rooms of the library, constantly studying and comparing notes. He hated seeing her desolate when he knew that she craved success. All he could do was pour his own frustrations onto her, doing an awful job of comforting her through her emotional breakdown. She didn’t show him her tears, but it didn’t stop him from finally embracing her in the study room and hungrily capturing her mouth with his.
Many times she thought that she should regret the encounter. Everything that happened after that kiss motioned into a sizzling chain reaction to which she couldn’t help herself. Elanya wanted to indulge a bit longer while she was young. And if it was with Nemedion, then she didn’t mind at all. At least, she didn’t mind until he brought up his fiancee. If he truly cared about her then why would he hide her like that? All her life she had worked extremely hard to surpass the ones that snubbed her, but was conflicted when it came to Nemedion. He wasn’t really much different from the other spoiled whelps being paid to go to school, but they had a moment that she couldn’t forget.
Elanya sighed while she continued to walk down the party filled streets. Booze, sweat and the summer breeze filled her nostrils as she melted into the crowd. Still frightened to dance in enjoyment with the others, she swayed back and forth through them as though she fit in. The people of different shades of colors; browns, blacks, yellows and peaches, meshed into an ombre of waves, swirling down upon the leaves falling in Autumn. The happiness felt in downtown Yulin-dai was something that she wanted to feel. Humans will celebrate, drink and live as long as something good is happening. So why couldn’t she enjoy this moment? The scene was much more appealing than The Rubies, to say the least.
A drunk man bumped into her, sloshing his beer from side to side. Elanya was quick enough to move out of the path of oncoming beer so it wouldn’t get on her clothes. With an attempt at an apologetic look, the man lifted his hands to her, one still holding the half empty glass of beer. “I’m sho shorry. Pleash let me get ya shome beer to make it up to ya.”
Elanya shook her head, trying her best to be polite. “No thank you. I’m fine.”
But he was very insistent, going as far to grab her elbow and pull her to his sweaty body. Before he was able to sprout anything else, she elbowed him in the stomach. He doubled over immediately and let go of the contents in his belly. Looking around frantically, she rushed away from the drunk man vomiting and melted in with another crowd that seemed familiar. There were some of the students from the University that saw her, despite the fact that she was trying to blend in with them, not converse with them.
“Well, if it isn’t the greatest mage of all time, Elanya Shunra,” a dark haired woman said sarcastically, venom dripping from her lips. “And you aren’t dressed in a potato sack like usual.”
Elanya stood up straight, narrowing her hazel eyes to the woman before her. She recognized her as someone from her class, but her name didn’t register. Elanya never really cared about the students in her class that meant to demean her, so she never took the time to learn their names. She decided not to retort and continued her walk down the busy street.
Angered by being ignored, the woman turned to face Elanya and scowled in her face. “How can you walk around here as though you’re better than us? So what, you can summon Moon Magic. Nemedion has twice as much talent than you do in his left pinkie.”
Shadows started to curl around her face and shoulders, reading the anger swelling in Elanya’s heart. She didn’t want to hear about Nemedion and she didn’t feel like being bothered by a nbody in her class.
Elanya pointed a shadow at the girl, to which she jumped back quickly from. “I don’t care what you have to say about me. I’m just as strong, if not stronger, than Nemedion. Now get out of my way before I zap you in the street.”
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
One day she hoped to control her emotions a bit better when she became mad. Her blank expression could only worked so much. Eventually she would succumb to the frustration and disappointment in her heart and her shadows would come to her. The human must embody control over their magic, but sometimes she thought that her Moon Magic had a mind of its own. There is much to learn about her Moon Magic, something the Moon Magus promised to teach her about at a later time, especially since she is an active user of her sword, Valla.
The unknown girl hastitly moved out of the way and into a crowded bar. Elanya sighed aloud as she took a minute to look after the girl’s departure. She was sure that she would hear about this from the Dean. Again. Her temper was known throughout the Dean’s office but because of her spectacular grades and her raw talent, he often just chastised her when she happens to snap on a poor victim. If she had the reputation that she thought that she had, then people shouldn’t be trying to test their fate with her. It was getting old. Getting compared to Nemedion was getting old. Getting angry at these pathetic nobles was getting old.
Once she made another step into the dancing and fevered crowd, she sighed again. Maybe it was a mistake for her to go out. She knew that she was out of place, but she was out of place everywhere she went. Her hazel colored eyes were not normal, and while many people in Gong-dai had dark skin, she was on the darker side. Then the brightness of her red hair frightened people. It wasn’t the normal red that looked orange in the sunlight, but a bloody red, dark and velvet. It only reminded her that her heritage may lay elsewhere. Outside of Vaikoln.
Spotting some empty tables near a bar, she made her way to sit down, hoping her annoyed attitude would keep people away from her. A server came to serve her. Out of respect, she changed her attitude into a polite and welcoming one, making the server feel more comfortable. She ordered a platter of fried cheese and some wine. Eventually one glass of wine turned into several glasses, leaving Elanya flushed while leaning on her table. When she closed her eyes for a moment, her memories meshed together creating a stream of unpleasant feelings. They contained the day her mother disappeared, the hardships of living with her father and the conflicted feelings that she had with Nemedion. Her heart ached. She was tired of these feeble emotions emerging after she spent so long trying to conceal them for the greater good of her future. When she waited for the ache to subside, she found herself conjuring magic in the palm of her hand. On the tip of her pointer finger, she lit a small flame of fire and watched the spark whither. Next she summoned a small ball of air and threw it up and down until it was no more. With the next element of earth, she created a rock then crumbled it in her palm, letting small pieces fall through her fingers. Lastly, with water, she made a stream go around her wrist and through the gaps in her fingers until it was too much to bother with.
Magic had always made her happy. She loved it so much. All the essence of life pulsed through her body like she was apart of the elements. She felt the fire in her veins, the chill in her breathe, the thickness of her skin and the wetness of her tongue. Everything was easy to become aware of when she cast her magic. But when she cast her Moon Magic, the awareness vanished. The darkness of the shadows always consumed her, engulfed her body in a cocoon of power. She wasn’t aware of anything but the soft caress of the moon light. But as she lay her drunk head on the table, her vision of the people blurring, she realized that her magic wouldn’t be able to console her human emotions.
Slapping both her cheeks, she shook her head rapidly to wake up from her drunken trance. Elanya knew that she was better than this. There was no time for sulking, nor any time for creating delusions in her head with alcohol. A good night’s rest and the opportunity to spend time with her father tomorrow will improve her mood. She hoped.
If Yahna didn’t shut the fuck up, he was going to sock her in the mouth. Rigesh didn’t condone violence nor abuse, but he was so tempted, especially since she was drunk like frat boys at a party. He had just wanted a good guys night out with Morio and a few coworkers but Yahna caught wind of it just as they were leaving the airport. As she was begging to tag along, Morio thought it would be funny for her to join them, and he had been right, he was bellowing loud enough to shatter windows as Yahna stretched herself across Rigesh’s lap. His other coworkers snickered too as they witnessed first hand why Rigesh had broken up with her. Yahna was obsessive and vain. She thought she loved Rigesh but he realized that she was only capable of loving herself and making her life dependent on other men. Being younger than her and still with his life ahead of him, he refused to take care of a grown woman. He broke up with her after a month and a half. Obviously, she still had not let go.
“Rigesh!” She squealed, alcohol slipping down her cleavage. “Please, Rigesh, take me back! I started cooking! I can clean your apartment!”
He sighed, trying his best to remove her persons without harming her, as much as he wanted to. He looked to the others who all feigned ignorance and ordered another round of drinks.
“Rigesh!” She hiccuped. “At least answer me!”
“She’s completely foxed,” Morio laughed, “go call her a taxi and get her out of here.”
“Yeah,” said Mazet, “we’re trying to drink here.”
“Alright, but you owe me for this Morio.”
His supervisor waved a lazy hand with a larger than usual shot in it. “I’ll pay you a thousand Duks just to see you so embarrassed. This one’s for you.” Turning away from Morio who was taking his much loved shot, he hauled Yahna up around his shoulders and struggled to get her onto the sidewalk. It was swarming with a ton of other drunk people, a lot of them being students from the University. He assumed that many graduated today and sought to destroy their liver before they’re forced into the world of being a true adult. Rigesh remembered how stressed he was when he was in school. He didn’t go to a prestigious school like Laoshin but he worked hard enough to be referred as a Knight. But with his obsession with rune etching and not seeing eye to eye with his captain, he wasn’t a Knight for long. The real world definitely kicked his ass.
He could hear Yahna mumbling under her breath, this time succumbing to how drunk she was, going in and out of consciousness.
“Umbara’s blood, this shit sucks.”
Yahna spun out, shoving through the crowd, yelling obscenities to other patrons at outdoor bars. Rigesh rushed forward to grip her wrist, but she fell backwards using her whole weight to go down. He tripped over her legs, unable to scramble apart from her loose body and went tumbling down. Someone caught Yahna before he was able to fall on top of her and crush her with his own body weight. He hit the ground hard but was thankful for the save.
He looked up and found annoyed, hazel eyes eyes glaring at him as they barely held a conscious Yahna in their arms. “You should be more careful. It’s too irresponsible to let a healer get this sick.”
He was being talked down to by a woman with the darkest of red hair, dressed like she had male clients waiting for her. But her demeanor and posture reminded him of someone strong with authority. He could almost feel the magic seeping from her piercing glare. However, what had terrified him was that she knew that Yahna specialized in healing. Did she do that just by touch?
“I apologize. It was out of my control.” Rigesh reached out to grab ahold of Yahna, all too worried about her safety. This woman was not from around here. She was darker than him, though not by much, and her eyes were a strange hazel shade. That was rare, if even ever seen. She had to be a student that had travelled from very far.
She scowled at him. “Hopefully, you’ll get her home safely. Out of the street.”
Without another word, he nodded and signalled for a steam taxi. He looked back and the woman was gone. He felt like he was being scowled at, even though it was obvious that he was older than her. He knew a look of hate and frustration when he saw one, and he wondered if it was him or someone else that had pissed her off.
“Raylith’s Light, you made for some good entertainment, Rigesh. I don’t know how you do it.”
He wanted to be drunk, but he didn’t even have the energy anymore. Today had been exhausting. He wished Yahna would leave him alone already. In their small acquaintance, Rigesh has had to call the authorities on her way too many times, only for them to brush her off because she’s usually too drunk to be harmful or even make sense. Every few days a week he saw her at work at the airport when it was time to refill the runes on the airships. She was much more pleasant to be around at work as her healing skills were excellent. She was the model employee, the prettiest face of the airport, but no one knew that she was bat shit crazy. Her persona at work fooled him when she approached him about dating. Never again. He would rather go after the scary red headed woman than have another go with Yahna. He shivered twice at both images inside his head.
“Well, if you aren’t going to finish the rest of your shot, then I’m game,” Sopon snatched the drink out of Rigesh’s hand and swallowed the rest of it down. The other guys shook their heads, chuckling as they convinced Rigesh to enjoy the rest of his night. He downed three shots, still refusing to indulge even though his body started to feel buzzed. He just needed to open up a little more, stop thinking about how shitty his day was. Rigesh had to remind himself that he was so close to completing his pistol. He will be able to do heavier casting and spells, finally overcoming his inability to use water magic properly. Accomplishing this feat with his meager magic was really something to celebrate about.
The next morning, Rigesh woke up with a horrible hangover strong enough to kill a horse. He was lucky that he had an off day from work, but he still hated waking up. If he didn’t have to deal with Yahna’s shit or Morio’s incessant teasing, he wouldn’t feel like this right now.
His cat, Targesh, snuggled at the foot of his bed, not disturbed by the moaning and aching of his master. His content purring was pissing off Rigesh, but he ignored the fluff ball for his shower. Rigesh thought about everything this morning. His favorite thought was the success of his pistol and what he could do in the future. If everything worked out, then maybe he would be able to go home to his small village and show his face to his family. It was an honor for someone as insignificant as he to be able to join the Knights and prove something to the privileged. But he wasted his opportunity by being arrogant and stubborn. Seven years after joining the military, four of those years with the Knights, he had traded in his military life for a life of bettering transportation. It honestly sounded less exciting when he thought about it, though he had to admit that the pay was super good. Not everyone could prove that they could work on transportation runes all day and not be drained at the end of the day. Rigesh may be awful at casting water magic but he had an excess of magic at his disposal from years of training.
After warming up with a solid shower, Rigesh dried himself quickly and put on a pair of shorts. He stretched his arms before he set up his station with tools and pieces to work on his pistol with. Thankfully, Morio remembered his promise and etched a Water Rune on the side of his pistol for him, but he wanted to continue to progress his invention further. Beside his amber colored pistol were black pieces that would make up his second pistol. Of course, he would never need a second pistol, but it would keep him distracted from future dawdling. He was extremely stressed after thinking about his life. His job was good, if one forgot about the fact that he had previously been in the Knights, one of the kingdom’s most powerful Regiments. Yahna was very beautiful, if one could get past the fact that she was worse than an overbearing mother refusing to let her son go. And living it up in Yulin-dai was a wonderful experience, but it would be better if he had his family here with him. Rigesh felt better when he was hiding away from everything in his apartment working on his pistol. A coward is what many would call him. To him, it was a coping mechanism to deal with his issues.
At least Targesh wasn’t mean, as long as he was fed and had some attention on him. The purpose of the cat was to make sure that he wasn’t feeling too lonely. Instead, he felt like someone’s bitch. Targesh definitely helped him when dealing with Yahna, since she detested cats and hated the way the beast looked at her. While Targesh never got in the way of Rigesh’s work, sometimes he felt uncomfortable feeling the bored stare of his cat in his back.
Rigesh reached his arm back and clicked his tongue at his cat. “Come here, boy.”
Targesh was too eager to follow the call. As usual, he leaped up into his master’s lap and curled himself into a soft, black ball. Rigesh ran his fingers through his fur as the cat purred, then set to work on his pistol.. He was too busy to try it after work after Morio finished the Rune for him yesterday, but now he had a whole day to mess around with it. If it worked like it was supposed to, then he could probably go out to the park and try out some magic. He hoped he could do some big spells before the park security guards kicked him out.
Magic was virtually everywhere, however there were rules to how much magic could be performed in a public place. Since not everyone was blessed with powerful magic, many could not be trusted to control themselves in public. Small sparks of magic were allowed, but if anyone was caught casting anything bigger than a small summoning circle, they would get fined, possibly even face jail time. Before Rigesh became comfortable with polishing up his technique in his expensive apartment, he would make his way to the park or an abandoned field to practice until some local authorities chased him out. He had paid his fair share of fines for causing slight disturbances in public with his inventions. On multiple occasions, his canisters blew up or he channelled more magic than he wanted to. After a couple of years of practicing and honing in on his magic, he was able to cast more stable channels without causing too much of a scene.
Toward the western part of the park was a vast area of forest that was left alone to preserve nature. Many people didn’t really hang around the dense forests too much for fear of finding something that they didn’t want to--maybe a private couple or a secret dealing? No one wanted to be caught out by a person that they could not handle. Rigesh had a spot deep within the forest that was marked with heavy usage by brown grass and a faint dark line from a summoning circle. It had been a while since he had time to come down to the park to practice. Most of the time he was only able to squeeze in enough time to reassemble his pistols and study his runic slides to understand how to channel his magic. Work had consumed his life, especially since his coworkers were becoming more busy with the influx of summer tourism. He would cherish all the time he had today and not waste an opportunity to progress further with his work.
With a quick flick of his wrist, he cast an Earth spell and a tall slab appeared from his the dark lines in the grass. With the slab he would be able to test out how strong his raw power was and how strong he could make his bullets. At another date he would need to focus on making magical bullets instead of enhancing regular fire power with his own magic. He walked about twenty paces away from the slab and took aim at it, closing his left eye for better accuracy. As he took a deep breath, he moved all his elemental runic slides into place, creating a small reflective light on the slab and started to channel some magic in his fingertips. Slowly he felt his magic flow from his fingertips and into the barrel of the pistol. The elemental runes on the side of his barrell began to glow while the runic slides began to slide. With accurate precision, he fired off one bullet, it’s unstable power cutting through the slab as though it were nothing. It crumbled to the ground. Rigesh smirked as he took a look at his pistol. “And that’s what success feels like.”
But knowing that he could shoot through his pistol with all elemental runes was not enough. He still needed to be able to cast spells through the pistol and channel enough magic to defend himself. His pistol was not an ordinary elemental pistol. Not only could he combine all the elements into one shot, but he should also be able to cast spells. If he was as reckless as he was when he started this project, he would have brought the tools for a transmutation circle and summon a creature to beat up, but he learned his lesson a long time ago. He wasn’t strong enough to control the beasts. And he didn’t want to risk summoning a dragon, or whatnot.
He cast another Earth slab, this time bigger than the first one. In an extravagant way, he spun on his heel and pointed his pistol at the slab, chanting some words with his spell. A bright pink light shot from the barrel of his pistol and into the slab, destroying it into large pieces, some of the edges seared. Before he could celebrate again, his head began to spin and he went down on one knee. Casting all of them together as one was too much for someone who wasn’t used to big casting. While this was a success, there was not any way to be sure that he could handle further use in the future. He would just need to practice some more and deal with the side effects. There were no more obstacles, only more progress from here. After taking a few deep breaths, Rigesh stood up and slid three of his elemental slides to the side, leaving only the water one. He was awful at Water Magic, but he should still see if his pistol will allow him to cast better. Without the previous strain when casting, a rivulet pushed forward and he shot them through the trees, impaling them with as much strength as possible. With the rest of his energy, Rigesh yelled loudly at his success then fell face first into the ground, welcoming the calm, cool darkness.