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Leo

Asking around the market for information regarding runic magic proved to be a fruitless effort, as well as becoming incredibly uncomfortable for the normally reserved human. The rumor of his stamina seemed to be spreading through the town faster than a plague, because every other elf they asked tried to lead the conversation to said activities, and the selarins were not much better. He didn't have as much of a problem with the dwarves, that is until one decided to cop a feel, which promptly ended the investigation.

‘I’m fine with the odd sensual or chased touch, but out right grabbing my junk is another matter…’

They decided to head to the fields so he could experiment with his magic, opting to try asking around again later as they didn't want to give up on avoiding the healer, because the situation with her was thoroughly fucked.

They greeted Glia as they passed the town's walls, exiting out the smallest and most untraveled gate. Now that he got a good look at her, she was just a little taller than him, and seemed to be the same subspecies, ‘Subrace?’, as Elaria, but she had black scales and her facial features were a lot sharper. She had bright blue eyes and a tail that was as long as her body height, which tapered a lot less than Elaria's, ending as a rounded tip. And her form was fit, but a little more filled out than Elaria’s, which made her curve in all the right places.

“Hey Glia.” Elaria greeted with a cheery tone.

“Oh hey, Elaria? …” Glia responded with a bit of confusion, as she noticed her ankle. “How the hell did you get a healer to fix that? It looked pretty fucked the other day.” She questioned while her blue eyes peered over Leo suspiciously.

“Well it turns out that Leo here isn't such a dumbass after all, he lear-knows healing magic.” She half admitted to her friend, but he noticed a slight twitch of her tail.

“Why didn't he heal you before the trip back?” Glia asked the green scaled selarin with a raised brow, while taking a glance at her tail.

Leo stepped in upon realizing the obvious tell and seeing that she was drawing a blank on how to answer. “I had temporarily lost my memory when I hit my head on a rock. When she tackled me we fell down a hill, that's how she twisted her ankle and I got the head injury.”

Glia looked between them with a questioning expression. “Riiiight… So what brings you to this ass end of the wall? Lost something?” She inquired, seemingly resigned to their explanation.

“No, I just needed somewhere open and secluded to experiment with my magic. Do you mind if I practice on the grassy field here?” He asked the obsidian scaled beauty.

A wide grin appeared across her face. “Not at all! Watching a mage fling spells is probably the best entertainment I could ever want! It will be a nice change of pace from watching grass grow.” She answered excitedly, while her tail whipped around in anticipation.

Elaria shakily walked over to sit next to Glia, her jelly legs still not entirely gone. “I'll stay here by the wall and wait for you to come back. No offence, but as much as I would love seeing you cast new things up close, I don't think it would be the safest idea.” She explained while shifting her legs to find a more comfortable position.

“Fair enough.” He responded in complete understanding, thinking that it was probably the wisest course of action.

Leaving the pair back at the wall, he walked out onto the field until he was nearly on the other side, because he wanted to use some of the trees on the forest's edge as test subjects. Now that he finally had time to experiment, his mind started to draw a blank on what he should do or where he should start.

‘If the information from the booklet is right, then I should be able to do damn near anything. I guess I should test my limits, but I shouldn't attempt something like splitting an atom. Gotta remember that even though there's no danger in the process of casting the spell, there is once the spell is cast. Messing with that kinda shit is a good way to set off a nuke to the face, and that's the definition of stupid. Gonna file attempting anything like that under an Oh shit scenario.’

His gaze fell to the ground. “Right then I should start small, let's try something fairly obvious.” He thought aloud.

He knelt down to pick up a few small pebbles, then stood up and placed one in the palm of his hand. Levitation felt like moving an object through thick water, not exactly what he would call effective as a combat spell.

Tilting his hand toward a tree, he tried to cast a spell to launch the pebble like a bullet toward it. Nothing happened.

The dumbfounded man stared dumbly at his hand. “Huh? I guess it failed...”

He tried to cast the spell a number of ways, from fast to just trying to knock it out of his hand. He visualized how the pebble would launch differently every time, and each attempt seemed to fail, which further added to his confusion.

“The fuck?” He spat in deep annoyance at the lack of any reaction while scowling at the small rock.

He started scratching his head trying to figure out why it was failing. ‘Am I missing something? Do I not have enough mana? Is my visualization off? Do I really need to shout ‘Gun’ when I cast? No... I think I need to go about this differently...’

Leo held out his hand with the pebble, but this time his palm wasn't tilted toward anything. He cast levitation on it, then when it was floating in the air, slowly rotating, he tried to cast the same spell on it. This time he felt it go through, and the pebble spun very fast, but didn't move anywhere.

“Well that did something…” He trailed off with a blank stare.

Taking a moment to think, he watched the spin of the pebble start to slow. ‘Does force already need to be applied or…’

A light bulb went off as his eyes widened at finding the missing piece of the puzzle. “Acceleration!” He shouted in realization, with an accompanying facepalm.

He tried the spell again, tilting his hand toward the tree. This time instead of just trying to apply a set and constant force, he took into account the acceleration, essentially snapping the spell. This time the pebble shot out with a sharp cracking sound, then he felt instant pain.

“F-FUCKING S-SH-HIT!” He cursed out through gritted teeth, as the pain from his hand caused an indescribable agony to shoot through his body.

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The palm of his hand looked shredded, likely from the shock wave that spread out across it. He cast a healing spell on reflex upon seeing the damage, completely healing the wound in seconds.

“Thank fuck for magic…” A sigh of relief escaped him as the excruciating pain vanished.

Refocused, he looked over at the tree he was aiming at and saw bark missing at the point of impact, as well as a small hole at the center with a crack running up and down it.

The technical success made him take a moment to order his thoughts. ‘Well I know where I went wrong at least, my visualization was fucked. I was only thinking of applying force, no acceleration. The initial kick wasn't doing anything because I hadn't properly taken into account the acceleration, and the spell must have piggybacked off the levitation spell to make it spin. I was applying force but my intent and the principles I was applying didn't match up, visualizing a path and direction without the specifics behind the motion ended up being half assed, so the spell failed.’ He paused to let out a chuckle.

“God bless your soul Newton.” He thought aloud in an amused tone.

‘Now I just need to launch it without making minced meat out of my hand… Wait, why do I need to know something so specific for this and not healing magic? Maybe It's a matter of directing mana?’ He shook the tangent from his head and tried to feel around at his mana in an attempt to gauge just how much he used, but didn't sense any noticeable change, either that or he couldn't tell the difference.

“Damnit!” He was becoming irritated by the fact that he had no idea how much he had to work with.

Undeterred by his lack of understanding, the inquisitive human set out to do just that as he continued with his testing, casting levitation on a few pebbles while spacing them out. Taking a cautious step back, he then cast the same spell on each one, visualizing and applying different levels of acceleration. Feeling around at his mana while doing so, he got the impression that he was taking a sip from it every time he cast a spell. The more acceleration he put into the spell, the larger the sip.

And sensing that he didn't really spend anything even after casting a dozen or so spells, he decided to alter his next spell out of boredom. He marked about several scattered trees in his head, then he cast a spell on a single levitating pebble to go through them on a visualized path he constructed in his mind. In an instant, with the force of a fifty cal, it went through a few of them before getting stuck.

“Fuck me, that actually worked?!” He exclaimed in utter shock, now questioning what could actually be done with magic.

He truly didn't know how to feel about what he did, because while it wasn't anything like a nuclear detonation spell, the implications of what he could do with this alone frightened him. If he could path a spell then he could have the spell track heat, sound, light, electricity, maybe even heart rate. Probably could set it to path around anything, and never stop until it hit its target like some real world looney toons aimbot.

‘I think I'm done experimenting down that path for now… Gonna try something else a little less, terrifying…’ He eyed the pebbles in his hand that now felt a little heavier.

Tossing the tiny projectiles as much as hopefully the idea of ever using that specific spell again, he started thinking about what he should cast next. After a few moments in thought, a childish grin crossed his face before he started to visualize his next spell.

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Elaria

Elaria was sitting against the town walls while watching Leo, who seemed small as he was on the other side of the grassy field. She thought it was a good idea to not be in the direct vicinity if he decided to start actually playing with fire, but all she could make out was him just pacing around with the occasional sound of a branch snapping.

“Ugh… I thought I'd get to see fireballs, ice lances, hell maybe even nature magic given his skin color…” Glia complained, while her arms propped up her head on her legs.

“Maybe he's trying to remember more of his spells…” Elaria insinuated, just trying to make sure she believed Leo's story.

Glia scoffed as she rose from her position of boredom. “You really expected me to buy that?” She questioned critically, much to Elaria's discomfort.

Noticing her reaction, Glia sighed exhaustively and continued. “Elaria look, I've gone through basic with you. I can tell when you're trying to bullshit, you've done it enough times to the drill instructor that you give off a pretty desperate tell.”

“Wait, Really?!” She yelled out in surprise.

Glia nodded while pointing to Elaria's tail. “Your tail does a slight tremble before and after, good way to tell where it starts and ends. You're just lucky that the instructors never caught on, but your new friend definitely did.”

Elaria's eyes darted to her tail with slight betrayal. ‘Well that's something I need to address…’ She mentally noted as she frowned.

The obsidian scaled selarin slouched back against the wall, raising an eyebrow as she glanced at her. “So who is he? The escaped slave story is pretty fuckin weak considering he's a mage. Putting a mage in a slave collar is just asking to get yourself killed, and I cant imagine anyone stupid enough to teach a slave magic.” She asked and stated incredulously.

Elaria paused a moment before answering, running a hand over her tail while she came up with a response. “You're right...” She sighed. “But I can't tell you. For one, it's not my secret to tell, and two, you really don't wanna know. Trust me Glia.”

A slightly worried expression crossed her friend's face, before she relented and gave her a knowing look. “Fine, I'll drop it for now. But you've gotta tell me, what's he like in bed?” She pressed further while smirking at her legs.

“Glia…” Elaria said disapprovingly.

“Oh fuck off with the prudish act. You and I both know how your mind works, especially after we got turned down by those dwarves during our first week stationed here. You've been pretty much oozing I need a fuck energy since then, not to mention the bitching you did under your breath. I mean serio-” Glia stopped her rant and swung a finger in Leo's direction.

“Holy shit, that's a high jump, he could clear the wall with that one!” Glia yelled out with an arched brow and an entertained smile.

“Wow... I wonder what kind of spell that was, it didn't even seem to hurt when he landed.” Elaria wondered in amazement.

Glia leaned back on the wall, while her previous disappointment in Leo had completely vanished. “It looks like this won't continue to be a complete bore. So Elaria, spill.” She ordered with her attention somewhat more focused on the mage across the field, and with a resigned sigh, Elaria told Glia the details of her bedtime activities.

When Elaria finished, Glia's blue eyes were wide, but then quickly narrowed at Elaria's tail. “Did you manage to get that under control, because that story seemed like a massive pile of bull shit.” She challenged, but there was a curious hope in her eyes.

Elaria shrugged while wearing a smug expression, and noted that she felt a little stimulated from sharing her experience. “All of it was true, and you'll see once your shift is over. The rumor about it should have reached every corner of town by now.”

“Huh… Say Elaria…” Glia started in a sweet tone.

Elaria sighed, knowing exactly what Glia was going to ask. “No I don't have a problem if you want to sleep with him, and yes you can go and try for it. It's his decision though.”

Glia let out a halfhearted laugh while scratching at the scales on her hand. “Sorry, had to ask after the slight aggression when you passed by last time.”

Remembering what she said, Elaria grimaced. “Yeah, I apologize for that. The stress of that day was really getting to me, and like you said, I really did need a fuck.”

Glia chuckled before looking back in Leo's direction. “No worries, I just hope he performs as we-HE'S AN ARCH MAGE?!” She screamed out in complete shock.

Elaria rapidly looked over to where Leo was supposed to be, but he was gone. She turned back to her friend, who was slack jawed with their head aimed to the sky. She traced her gaze until she saw him using one of the staple spells cast by arch mage's, and she could only mouth two words in disbelief.

“Flight magic…”

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