King's college, was said to be one of the greatest schools in the world, and would in fact see students from all over the globe travel for the privilege of attending its hallowed lectures. Said to produce new movers and shakers into the world with each passing year, it was a competition even among the world's elite to send your children to such a college.

Leesha couldn't help but think of her old college as she awoke on saturday, to the chill morning light of the winter sun. She was a dropout of that prestigious school, thousands of dollars and pulled favors presumably wasted on her. All because she didn't walk away with a pretty piece of paper that detailed her as a successful graduate. The thought had the half goblin clenching her sheets with her small fists as she stared up at her tiny apartment's ceiling.

Honestly, she didn't even know why she was thinking about school. No, that was a lie wasn't it? She was thinking about school because she had enjoyed being a student, Leesha had always loved to learn. She had been taken with her studies at a young age and was saddened to see so much work and effort on her part to end up amounting for not, even if it had been by her own choices.

With a huff she sat up in her bed and ran her claws through her hair wondering why these thoughts had come to her this morning, last night had been fine, fun even. Surely she didn't need to burden herself with a longing for something that wasn't to be? Besides she was already an accomplished spellcaster of an enviable level, one merely had to look to that to know her qualifications.

As if to prove that to herself formed the formula for her daily [Polymorph Creature] spell, letting the circle gather mana above the claws of her right hand. Watching the spellform glow in the soft light of her purple mana she considered the difficulties involved for just this spell and its apparent effects. She was casting it on herself, so she didn't need to apply any range modifiers, the effect needed to extend over a duration, and instead of having a timer it needed to persist.

Not the worst modifiers to have to deal with, but to be able to consistently cast it without fail spoke to her level of spell casting ability. Then of course was the spell itself to consider, [Polymorph Creature] was in effect a spell that rearranged reality on a small scale. Leesha could turn herself into a bird, or a fish, or even an elephant. But for those forms to function, she would need to know not only the anatomy of those creatures but an accurate enough make up of their composition to create a body that didn't just fall apart.

Effectively the spell required knowledge outside of spellcraft in order to be useful. Leesha had dedicated years of study to the anatomy of the various sentient species, animals and magical beasts in order to make full use of the spell. For a moment she let herself be lost in the wonder of just how amazing, how magically wondrous [Polymorph Creature] could be and then she finished channeling the spell, doing little more than make her slightly taller and altering her facial features so she couldn't be spotted in a crowd.

"Ah, I'm feeling a bit down in the dumps today aren't I? Dang it, last night was so pleasant too."

So saying Leesha got out of bed and went to the communal bathroom to wash up. a quick rinse and a change of clothes found Leesha looking presentable enough in the mirror. She'd opted for pants again,along with a button up blouse and coat. Today was a Saturday so she didn't have work and with an entire day to herself she thought it might be fun to take a tram out to the Hudson river.

As she made her way outside she was buffeted by a gust of cold air, winter was still in full swing despite the sun being overhead and nary a cloud in the sky. It took her a few minutes of reading the bus and tram routes at the nearest station, but Leesha eventually puzzled out which tram she needed to take to get out of the city. Soon enough she found herself seated on a fairly empty tram, the only other passengers far more bundled up against the cold than she was, even going so far as to give her an odd look or two as she settled onto her own seat. That said a look or two was all she got, this was the biggest city in America and weirdos abounded. A young woman without quite as much covering as you'd expect was hardly worth a second glance.

Though, belatedly Leesha realized that if she were going to do a halfway decent job of remaining hidden from her family, maybe dressing appropriately for the weather wouldn’t be remiss.

After a blessedly short ride, no longer than half an hour, Leesha found herself at the outskirts of the city stepping off of the tram in the direction of the Hudson river. Finally outside the city Leesha could cast in public without the need for a license or at least that was her current understanding of the law. What she needed now were two spell forms, both arguably less complicated than her daily [Polymorph Creature] spell.

The first would be for safety, and the second for transit. [Eldritch Force Field] was the first spell, and as the name implied it created a thin veneer of eldritch energy that would be able to absorb incoming force, while allowing Leesha , or rather anyone who cast the spell to exert force of their own, whether that be something as simple as walking or picking up an object, it would even allow something as complicated as casting spells through the field.

[Magical Flight] Was the other spell, one of Leesha's personal favorites. With [Magical Flight] active Leesha could move in any direction regardless of gravitational pull. It was rather akin to being gripped bodily by a [Telekinesis] spell.

With both spells set to persist until she dismissed them, Leesha took to the sky. Once again grateful that pants had come into fashion for women otherwise this would be a great deal more embarrassing, really how did the witches and wizards of old go about in robes and dresses without giving everyone a view of their ass?

Spiraling upwards into the air, the chill wind of winter blowing in from the sea Leesha grinned toothily from ear to ear before she oriented herself on the nearby river and took off at a good clip, settling in at about thirty miles per hour as she reached the river and began to follow it inland. Truthfully she hadn't been flying like this not since before her time at King's college, oh sure a short flight from the dorms to the classroom had happened occasionally. But not for the pure simple pleasure of flight. From the looks of things she wasn't the only one taking to the air today either, though not the busy sky of new york the bay and Hudson river was still rife with activity, some of which apparently flew.

The world below her was a winter wonderland, Ice covered the edges of the river, and snow hung heavy in the branches of the trees. With the sun overhead the world below was a white glittering jewel, dotted with homes, and roads.

With a quick three hundred and sixty degree spin, just as a treat, Leesha began to look for a place to set down. It wasn't hard to find an unoccupied section of the shoreline, and she flew down to a rocky outcrop along the river's edge, the outcrop itself rising a couple of feet above the slowly churning waterline.

"yeah, this'll do." Her voice was a husky whisper as she more closely examined the site, making sure that she would have a decent place to stand. Indeed a quick [Flame Blast] modified slightly to produce a continuous stream of flame cleared the rocky outcropping of its built up snow and ice that had accumulated over the course of the winter.

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"Behold! Revel in the glory that is launch platform one!" The goblinoid girl cackled, back arching and hands spread wide in an imitation of the demon lords and evil doers of old. "Muahahaha"

Now with sturdy ground to place her feet, Leesha dismissed her [Magical Flight] spell's persistent effect and stood proudly, overlooking the river as she eye balled where exactly she wanted to build her targets. The Hudson river was huge, and largely disused during the winter, but that didn't mean it wasn't seeing any use at all. So she decided she'd construct her targets all within fifty feet of the shoreline and stack them at fifty foot intervals heading up river.

For the next bit Leesha needed the [Transmute] spell, which in the simplest of terms changes the composition of whatever object it is cast on. Wizards of all sorts used to cause havoc with this spell, it was the most common of tricks to turn copper pennies into gold coins. Spend those coins and then walk away, the poor vendor or merchant unawares that their hard earned gold coins would revert to simple copper pennies the moment the caster was either out of range or stopped concentrating. The conversion to paper money had largely done away with that trick, though other countermeasures did exist for those who worked with gold or precious metals of the modern era.

Not that she was planning on using [Transmute] for that. No as she gathered mana between her hands and created three concentric spell circles so she could barrage the effects of [Transmute] Leesha considered the targets of her spell and her intended effect. She wanted to create three pillars of stone by converting the river bed of silt and pebbles, the water, and then the air above the water. She could brute force it, her spell casting ability would allow her to simply throw power at the problem in front of her. But that was sloppy, and while it might work in a pinch she was doing this at least partially so she could practice, certainly not just because she wanted a few targets to blow up.

Changing the state of matter was considered to be fairly tricky, gas to liquid, liquid to solid and so forth. Not to mention the further away from something's original state you changed it the more power was required to enact the change. Leesha had the power necessary, that wasn't really in question, no it was just tricky to change three separate states of matter in three separate locations while using only the amount of power necessary to enact the change. Letting herself take the time to enact a clean smooth spellcast took well of ten seconds of concentrated effort on her part.

But with a pulse of purple light from the spell form between her hands and the smooth flow of mana leaving her Leesha erected three stone pillars exactly where she wanted them. All three rising a good five feet above the water of the river, and with frowny faces seemingly carved into the rock. Which had been formed by her choosing not to [Transmute] certain sections rather than an act of actual carving.

Smirking Leesha began locking the mana in place to make the effect persist. Once that was done she considered what spells she wanted to use on the first target, it was the closest and therefore the easiest to hit.

"You know what? I want a bit of a boom, something thats got some real kick to it. So today I'm gonig to focus on guns." She announced to the empty air, not feeling at all lonely or forlorn.

[Summon Specific Object] Leesha's very first spell. Calling the spell circle into being was almost like going home, or seeing an old friend again. Everyone in her family learned this spell, and with the onset of the industrial revolution and the complexity of mundane items skyrocketing [Summon Specific Object]'s use had easily outpaced almost all other modern spells in terms of utility.

In contrast with the spells almost limitless ability to create complex items, based on the casters knowledge of them. Leesha was weilding the spell like a club, or rather a staff. Mana flowed through her chest and down into her spell circle, creating a simple straight wooden staff as long as she was tall. It could, by any standard would be considered an excellently made staff, of a material hardness not found in nature, with properly carved mana circets built into its core. But at the end of the day it was still just a stick. If her mother saw her now she'd probably make a fairly snide remark. Leesha mused to herself before with an expression of will she locked the mana of her new item down to make it persist. "Perfect. Lets start with lightning."

---

[Lightning Blast] This time Leesha didn't hold the spell or examine its properties like she had been for her last few castings. Instead she raised her staff and channeled her mana through it and formed the spell all in a single second before releasing a line of purple lightning at her closest target. A thunderous crack rent the air as the lightning crossed the distance in less than a moment and tore a chunk of stone off the targeted pillar. The stone that had been blown off the pillar returned to its gaseous state with a puff of mana.

"Hmmm, low and to the left." Taking a moment to center herself she changed her grip on the staff slightly, just like firing a pistol you could determine what you'd done wrong by examining where you'd marked the target. In her case she hadn't been supporting an equal distribution with her grip causing the blast to go slightly left, and the downward location of the shot would be from a slight flinch as the spell left her staff.

Resolved not to flinch and having properly adjusted her staff Leesha cast [Lightning Blast] again, and yet another crack tore through the air as the spell launched itself at the pillar. This time her spell was much closer to the center of the target, leaving a spider web of cracks running through the pillar and black charred mark where the blow had landed.

"Whew, ok not as out of practice as I thought I was. Good. Now let's really let loose."

If Leesha really wanted to maximize her damage output with the [Lightning Blast] spell she'd need to cast three spells. Two [Transmute] spells and a [Lightning Blast].

"Okay, order of operations, let's do this right the first time."

[Transmute]'s spell circle formed on the tip of her staff, this time with additional runes to create an effect over time. Releasing the spell form created a direct line of ionized air from the tip of her staff to the center of the stone pillar she'd been targeting, that would last for exactly three seconds. Then without a moment's delay she cast [Lightning Blast] augmented to give it a one second delay.

The last spell of this process, the second [Transmute] spell required precision timing on Leesha's part, and getting this spell to the point where she could use it in mock battles or sparring had proven difficult for the first and outright impractical for the second while she had been at King's college. It did however make for a really big boom, as the delayed [Lightning Blast] went off and arched along the path of ionized air, Leesha unleashed the [Transmute] spell circle that had formed at the end of her staff.

As the [Lightning Blast] reached the stone pillar, everything in a five foot cube was converted into plasma, or more accurately "lightning" which utterly shattered the stone pillar, and created a shock wave on the surface of the river that went out at least twenty five feet. Not to mention the dual thunderclaps from the spell, the second one much louder than the first had left Leesha's ears ringing.

The grin that split Leesha's face looked almost feral in its satisfaction, it had worked perfectly. Useless for a life or death situation where every moment mattered, but arcanists were at their most dangerous when they had time to set up the playing field.

A quick cast of [Polymorph] fixed the ringing in her ears, oh it wasn't a proper healing spell by any means, but if you knew enough about anatomy and what was wrong with the body you could get a similar enough effect for the effort involved.

"Well...I feel better." And that was the truth of it, Leesha hadn't spent much time practicing with her spellcraft since she had dropped out of King's college. oh, she'd never stopped using magic but it just wasn't the same as taking some dedicated time to really play with a spell.

As she began to get lost in memories of college and theoretical spellcraft that she might want to work on over the course of blowing up her next two stone targets, she was startled out of her reprieve by slow deliberate clapping.

"Ms. Amanecer. Truly a wonderful display! It is always such a joy to see talented spellcasters at work. Might I join you for a time?"

Turning Leesha was prepared to see a member of her family or perhaps one of their employees, it would have made sense for one of them to track her down eventually. Instead she came face to face with her fiance hovering just off the snow of the river bank, not thirty feet away.

"Dammit."