It wasn't until a week later that I noticed the complete lack of ice mana. As usual, I warned the elders and told them it might be especially bad. The day before the storm many people spent the day preparing, stocking up on wood for the now commonplace hearth, making extra thick blankets, and doing anything else necessary to keep warm.
It wasn't until late afternoon that the storm hit. The temperature dropped drastically and snow started falling from the sky. The sea began to freeze over and everyone rushed inside.
We huddle in front of the hearth with thick blankets draped over us. My sisters were sleeping on my parents' lap while I was cuddled between Mom and Dad. I watch the fires dance with their subdued fire mana. I create two fairies to dance in the flames. One of them being my familiar.
The snow piled up outside as I nod off to sleep. I noted the Aydomrs swarming the seafloor, invigorated with the abundance of their element before I succumbed to my dreams.
I awoke suddenly with a pit in my stomach. The Aydomrs below are behaving erratically, hundreds, maybe even thousands of them are skittering about, fighting each other for territory. While they did fight in the wild it was never like this, why are they here, below the village though? My only guess was that something drove them out of their natural habitat.
Having a bad feeling I decided to stay awake. I watch as pinchers broke the hard shells of the other Aydomrs. I notice these crab-like beings all have an ice-based race and class. They locked claws, broke off legs, and ripped shells off. It was a massive battle royal. They shot their Bonds out, and they froze the water around them.
I saw how the class and Bond mana signatures grew slightly with each kill. It gave me an idea. I put a hand on the floor and summoned several fairies on the other side, ordering them to drill into the ice and then attack the Aydomrs.
It took several minutes to cut through the ice and several more fairies but now I am summoning more in my attack patterns.
Ting! You've killed an Aydomr (Minor), Ice Claw (Minor) Level 15, extra experience has been rewarded for being under-leveled and being solo, and for being in an enemy empowering environment.
Interesting, It was fairly easy too, With my Kyhosa and race bonus I am getting an eight hundred percent bonus and my high Bond level also helps a ton. If I assume each level gives me another one percent then that's over nine hundred percent bonus, but I don't really know how that all works. Also, the enemy empowering environment is probably referring to the ice storm. This is just too easy and such a good opportunity to grind levels.
Ting! You've killed an Aydomr (Minor), Ice Shell (Minor) Level 12, extra experience has been rewarded for being under-leveled and being solo, and for being in an enemy empowering environment.
This was too easy! And having no class means that even a level one out levels me! But that's also pretty interesting, my Bond level doesn't count. That means if someone is level ten but has one thousand levels in their bond they could be pretty terrifying. Of course, this is just an exaggerated example.
Ting! You've killed an Aydomr (Minor), Ice Child (Minor) Level 18, extra experience has been rewarded for being under-leveled and being solo, and for being in an enemy empowering environment.
Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 108!
I can see myself getting more than a dozen levels today.
Yafel started crying, waking mom out of her stupor.
"Shhh, Shhh" Mom soothed the baby and bounced her a little. When that didn't stop Yafels crying Mom began nursing the infant. Guess she was hungry, well, as hungry as a Runalymo can be. We can't actually feel more than a little peckish due to our mana sustenance.
After Yafel it was Yafe's turn then they all fell back asleep. I kept summoning fairy after fairy to kamikaze the experience fodder below. Since the fairies were just reshaped mana all it had to do to deliver its damaging payload was to touch the creatures.
Ting! You've killed an Aydomr (Minor), Ice Grappeler (Minor) Level 22, extra experience has been rewarded for being under-leveled and being solo, and for being in an enemy empowering environment.
Nice! Highest one yet.
I spent hours summoning fairies and the results are beginning to show
Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 109!
…
Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 114!
Sure it was slow going but this will so far be my highest gain yet! Hundreds of Aydomr bodies are now littering the floor but I felt something large enter my sensory sphere. An Aydomr the size of me, maybe even larger! It was picking up the others and crushing them in a single stroke.
I order all my fairies to dive-bomb it. Then more, and more. How much damage will this thing soak up?! And all I was doing was pissing it off, It lashed out at the fairies and other Aydomrs. It shoots out its light bond, a laser burning a support pole for the village.
That's not good. I made sure to move my fairies in a way so as to not have the lasers miss and hit something important.
I had long since run out of mana and was just summoning more as soon as I can. It took me roughly two minutes to recharge enough mana to be able to summon a new fairy. So far I've sunk over four hundred mana into this thing and it's still alive!
I don't want to tap into my Kyhosa reserves in case of an emergency but the average Aydomr takes three or four fairies to kill this one has eaten up twenty and is still going strong.
I am beginning to see why the fighters don't want to cull these overgrown Domrs, they're damn tough!
Soon another large one joins the bloodbath and attacks the injured large Aydomr. I kept summoning my fairies but had them wait until one was close to dying.
Ting! You've killed an Aydomr (Minor), Claws of Winter (Minor) Level 61, extra experience has been rewarded for being under-leveled and being solo, and for being in an enemy empowering environment.
Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 115!
Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 116!
That's the level difference I guess, It may have taken me ten or more thousand mana just to take it down. If I had a class and was at that level how much time and mana would it take me then?
I waited and built up more fairies to take down the large one. I could swim down and get all the Domr pearls after the storm. Just imagine the faces of my parents when they come home to hundreds of pearls. Actually, that's not a bad idea. It'll help jumpstart the family business with gems to work with!
Maybe this is what I could do to help the family business. I don't need mana weaving and enchanting! I can just kill Domrs. Yeah, that sounds like a great plan. We get meat, we get Domr pearls, and I get levels! I may want to get some sort of underwater combat or something, actually, these things can't swim, just row out to sea on the boat and launch fairies, easy peasy!
It's a shallow freshwater sea so most of the time my over fifty-meter sensory sphere can see the seafloor. Maybe if I push my sixth breakthrough even more can I see further per level? Just because the breakthrough level is maxed doesn't mean I can't still improve right? Can I get it to one meter per level? Let's double up on my training, It does not take much brainpower to summon these fairies with simple instructions {Attack the largest Domr}.
I began pushing my sphere range even more, It'll take a lot of effort and many weeks to achieve but that's just time. To further my training I began moving my sphere further out to sea, triple my training!
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Further out at sea is more of the same, domrs fighting each other. Thousands of Domrs, locked in mortal combat, is this what it's like every storm? What happens to all the bodies? Moving my sphere out I eventually hit a limit, perhaps some ten kilometers out. Looks like I've found my range limit. I start moving my sphere to the side but that's when I found something scary. I found a house-sized Todomr. The earth-aligned Domr was fighting off an Aydomr twice the size of a person. The Aydomr must have thought the piece of territory not worth it and left, heading in our direction!
I kept watch on the second-largest Domr I've ever seen, surely it'll stop before it got to us right? I mean, Just what level is it at? It moved slowly at least.
Ting! You've killed an Aydomr (Minor), Frost Shell (Minor) Level 63, extra experience has been rewarded for being under-leveled and being solo, and for being in an enemy empowering environment.
Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 117!
Ting! Your Bond has obtained level 118!
I finally killed the other large Aydomr after what must have been two hours. I stopped summoning fairies to recharge my mana for now, it'll take less than half an hour but I need to be prepared in case this oversized Domr threatens the village.
It took three more hours, for the Domr to get within a kilometer of the village. By now I had around eighty fairies summoned and waiting. I can have around a hundred out with my Kyhosa empowering me.
I shook Dad awake.
"Hmm? What is it?"
"What's the highest level Domr you've seen? Because there's one standing twice as tall as you heading for this village" I said.
"W-what? Twice as big as me? How do you know?" She asked.
"One of my latest breakthroughs in Sense Mana has allowed me to remotely view things. I have been keeping watch on it"
"T-this is bad! They normally don't attack villages but if they are in the area there is a high chance, That is probably the biggest Domr that has ever been reported!" Dad jumps up. "I'll try to reach Chyzu and Esofy hopefully we can scare it off"
"Where are you going?" Mom says drowsily waking up from the commotion.
"Aly has informed me of danger approaching the village, I'm off to warn the fighters." Dad says, grabbing another blanket and wrapping it around herself to defend against the cold.
"Kanato! You can't go outside, it's too cold!"
"I can use my bond for heat, Feyan, I'm the only one who can do this," Dad says and steps out into the chest-high snow.
It wasn't a blizzard, No air mana to create howling winds and biting frost. It's just very cold and snowing a lot. One could easily succumb to the cold but Dad's bond is fire, by empowering herself like how I do with my beauty she can stay warm. The more difficult part would be keeping the fighters warm.
I'd lend Dad my Kyhosa but I need it to build up my army of fairies to hopefully scare off the Aydomr with a painful punch. I mean, I'll be hitting it with almost a hundred fairies of twenty mana, but with all my bonuses it's more equivalent to a hundred mana. I can tell by the intensity of the Beauty mana that these fairies pack a wallop, still not as powerful as what Chyzu can do but it's literally the only thing I can do to help. All I can do is summon these fairies to hurt and distract the Aydomr.
Soon Dad came back with several fighters. Chyzu and Esofy may be the instructors for new fighters but they aren't the only ones that compete in the arenas, Only one is chosen to represent the village but there are more that vie for the prestige.
"It's not stopping" I inform the newcomers "It'll be here within a quarter-hour" There wasn't a minute measurement of time, just hours, days, weeks, months, and years.
"Are you sure it's twice the size as a person? That's almost twice the size of the largest found Domr." Chyzu asks. Bending down to me. Her demeanor is serious.
"Better question is, why is it coming here? They typically stay in their territories." Esofy said, thumbing the sword on her waist.
"It lost its territory" I reply. "There was another much larger Domr that conquered its territory"
"That makes sense, Domrs, when they lose their territory won't just settle for an unclaimed one, they will want to conquer a new territory." A mage says.
"Larger?" A lightning mage asks. "How much larger?"
"As large as this house" I reply calmly, summoning another fairy. If I have to I'll hit this fucker with over two and a half thousand fairies. My Kyhosa is fully charged up after all.
"As large as... There's no way we can fight that!"
"We aren't, we are fighting a smaller one," Esofy said.
"Good news though," I said. "The storm has passed. The Domr will be arriving at the western pier" I say before standing up. The ice mana had finally dipped below the surface, the storm is still pulling the mana down at a faster rate so there's actually less than ambient ice mana, save for the mana locked up in the snow and ice.
"What do you think you're doing?" Mom says to me.
"Watching the fight? I can summon my fairies to help and distract the Domr I won't be even close to the fight."
There was silence as everybody seems to be considering it, except Mom, oddly Dad was silent and she's the more protective one.
"No, you're not!"
"I have fifty thousand mana in my Kyhosa that can help, plus, If a large one the size of me is level sixty then this one must be close to level one-fifty, they'll be in great danger and every little bit helps. There is a real chance one of the fighters could die and I could prevent that while being in minimal danger myself," I argue.
"How far can you send out your fairies?" Dad asks.
"You can't seriously be thinking of agreeing to this, Kanato!"
"Hmmm, I don't know" I reply honestly.
"Then you can summon your fairies here and send them to help the fighters right? And you can view remotely too so you can watch the fight anyway"
That... made a ton of sense, why didn't I think of that?!
I nodded.
"By the way, how did you know of Domr levels?" Dad gave me an accusing glare.
"I-I might have been killing hundreds of Aydomrs below the village," I admit, drooping my ears and trying to make myself look small. "I-I figured after the storm I could swim down and collect them for meat and pearls to help us make money"
Dad just sighs. "We can collect them together later, no point in letting them go to waste."
"Able to kill giant Domrs in the safety of one's own home..." A martial fighter with an earth bond mutters and shook her head.
"Still, we all are close to or above level one hundred so we should be able to take this thing down, With little Aly, here providing distractions we'll be able to easily fight it off," Esofy says confidently. "About seventeen fighters plus one genius child"
"I still don't like it but as long as Aly is here I can't complain." Mom finally relents.
The fighters left, I follow them with my vision and then we wait. My fairies with the instructions of {Attack the giant Aydomr once it reaches this village} suddenly rushed toward the creature once it reached my sensory sphere again, now close enough to be considered "close to the village"
I started summoning a steady stream of fairies with {Attack Pattern: Distract} as well with the normal kamikaze attack. I sent out my familiar too to shoot out beauty beams at the giant crustacean.
All at once, the fairies struck the Aydomr. The fairies tried their best to burn their way into the shell but it was much tougher than it looked, barely a mark was left on the thing.
The fighters noticing my attacks readied themselves. There's still a layer of ice and snow to break through.
The Aydomer suddenly uses its water bond to lift itself up and out of the water, simply manipulating the ice and snow out of it's way. I watch as the mana simply moved according to its will, parting the frozen water like drawing back a curtain. The Fighters launched their attacks. The Domer swatting at the distracting fairies didn't defend itself from the onslaught of sudden attacks. Lightning burst out, fire seared into it with a spear thrust, Esofy's sword bit into a leg that she then tried to chop like a tree. Their skimpy clothes fluttered with their movements and with each strike.
Esofy said something, I couldn't hear her but the others started targeting the legs. The mages targeted the front while the martial fighters targeted the one at the back as to stay away from the bone-crushing pinchers.
It was starting to go well until an axe-wielding fighter was suddenly bashed with a swipe as the Domr turned extraordinarily quickly. With the snow impairing their movement I watched as the axe fighter was caught by the pinchers. The Aydomer radiated ice mana and suddenly the ice under the fighters encased their feet, trapping them!
I was thankful I couldn't hear but I watched, horrified as the Aydomr crushed the axe fighter, breaking her in two.
All hell broke out. The fighters had expected this to go easily, with so many fighters and me distracting the Domr it had to be. Four fighters panicked and scream in horror as the bloody corpse of their comrade fell and another pincher reached for another fighter. I ordered my fairy familiar to ram into the fighter at full speed to push her off balance.
It worked, the pinchers closing down centimeters in front of her eyes. The martial fighters are sitting ducks, some of them trying to break out but the ice keeps reforming!
It's a skill! I watch as the mana kept flowing from the Aydomr. There is something I can do, I can give the fighters a chance of escaping, but I promised not to use it, I can't use it without getting it past level one hundred!.
Crunch. Another fighter dead, the fire spear wielder this time. This was happening too fast, the fighters can't kill this thing before they all die! Is this what a level gap means? This had to be twice their level. People who never fought monsters and only fought without the intent to kill. They don't even have armor! They can't win against this thing; but if we can't kill this Domr here, It'll attack all of us. My friends, my family, my Mom, my Dad, my twin sisters wouldn't even have had the chance to live.
If it means defending this village, if it means saving lives, if it means saving my family then I have to use it!