Karrel immediately ended the spell. The flames, the remnants of bricks, the dust, all of it disappeared, no longer maintained by his mana.
All that was left was a chunk of dark blue flesh the size of his head that fell down a few seconds later. A lump grew out and split open like a mouth.
"That was very impressive. You almost killed me. That would have been unfortunate."
"Thanks? I'm not sure what happened, it's not supposed to explode." He admitted.
"My magical knowledge is focused on body magic and alchemy." Trader explained. "I forced my body to produce a mixture of explosive gasses and used the blast force to escape the furnace. Otherwise I would have burned into a crisp. Still, the blast was more than I expected, probably something to do with your forge's fire. I think learning how different spells interact might be my new favourite hobby."
"So you're fine?"
"I lost eighty percent of my body mass and have to consciously emulate the function of multiple organs. I can heal from this, but I need a couple of hours. And food. Lots of food."
Karrel let out a sigh of relief.
"This is the first time I actually cast this spell on someone. My father taught it to me as a way to quickly melt large chunks of scrap metal. The fire also gets rid of impurities."
"It's powerful. Go bring me some food, and then we can continue the combat training."
"Alright. What do you eat, anyway?"
"If it was alive at some point, I can digest it. If it is currently alive, or freshly killed, I can restructure it directly into body mass."
"We are in a forest, can't you eat a tree or something?"
"Sure I can, but as you can see, I don't exactly have a way to cut things up. On that note, rip off a branch or two and give them to me before you go."
He did as instructed, laying the branches on the mangled creature. The mouth moved and started gnawing on the wood.
----------------------------------------
It took Karrel an hour and a half to return. Without the symbiote's enhancement, his stamina wasn't great when it came to jogging.
He set down a large basket full of fish in front of Trader, who now looked like a blue toddler missing all limbs except an elongated arm.
"Here you go, uncooked. As fresh as it gets without catching them myself."
"Thank you." She said and used the disproportionate limb to grab one of the fish. Her small head opened up into a maw into which the meal disappeared.
"Goddess!" Karrel instinctively took a step back.
"Sorry, I'm really hungry. I put all but the bare minimum needed for sustenance into regrowing my body. While I'm doing that, you train."
"The forge spell is really mana-intensive, though. A few uses and I'd be spent."
Trader's form rippled as the beginnings of a second arm sprouted out of their little torso.
"That's your emergency option anyway. But you can't use the little ember thing, that would get blocked by even a basic barrier. Do you have any other spell? Or do you have to make a new one?"
Karrel thought for a while. "Forge magic" wasn't meant to be used for combat, but… well, forging. Making alloys, shaping metal into a desired item.
When he said as much, Trader came up with a solution.
"Use the same spells you would while forging something, and simply treat your enemy as the metal. If everything else fails, hit them with a hammer."
That stoked his imagination. After a few minutes, he came up with a new spell. He took out a notebook he always carried in case a stroke of genius happened to write down a new enchantment array, and started scribbling. The formulas were much easier to analyze and optimise than if the lines of mana were just in his head.
By the time he looked up from the page, the basket was empty, and Trader looked mostly like when they first met, maybe a bit thinner.
"I think I got something." He said.
The blue alien stood up, reshaping to make the appearance of clothing once more, and clapped her hands once.
"Show me." They challenged.
The enchanter rose as well and whispered a chant before stretching his hands forward. A sledgehammer appeared in his grasp, and he took what he imagined to be a battle stance.
"I see you took my advice literally." Trader commented.
"Yeah, but there's more to it than meets the eye." He said, and took a swing.
The parasite didn't dodge, curious to find out what Karrel prepared.
Right before the hammer impacted her left side, she felt a surge of abstract magic on the opposite side. An anvil appeared, floating in mid air, arranged to be perpendicular to the hammer's strike.
Her entire stomach area was squashed between two pieces of steel. Thankfully, where a hominid would have their intestines, Trader had a mostly empty cavity meant to stretch over a host's body. The result was still gory as bits of flesh flew all around. As soon as the damage was done, the anvil unmanifested.
"How sustainable is it?" They asked a few seconds later, when the stomach was reformed.
"The upkeep on the hammer itself would drain me dry after… two hours, I'd say. The anvil only appears for a moment, so a single strike only takes as much as two ember throws. Half of the time I spent here was on optimizing this."
"Good job. Now, it's time for some real training."
Trader balled her hands into fists, and charged at the forge mage.
"Shit!" He exclaimed, barely blocking the punch with the hammer's handle. He wasn't able to intercept the second hand, which whacked his chest, making him stumble. While he was off-balance, Trader kicked him in the leg he put most of his weight on, and he fell to the ground.
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"Disastrous." The symbiote stated.
"Ow." Karrel replied.
"Get up." She said, giving him a hand.
He took it and stood up. He felt a warmth traveling up his arm and filling him with strength. Healing magic, he recognised.
She attacked again. This time, Karrel dodged the first strike and blocked the second, pushing the hand back. Before he could counterattack, his opponent kicked him in the side with a twirl before making him fall with a follow-up punch.
The training went on like that for three hours. The enchanter got marginally better at avoiding the strikes, but wasn't able to reliably get in a hit of his own.
"I'm done." He breathed out. Trader's healing helped with recovery, but there was no getting around the limits of human stamina forever.
Karrel also got very thirsty. Fortunately, the river the city was built next to also cut through the woods, so finding a secluded spot wasn't difficult.
After drinking some clear water, the two of them decided to take a short bath. He needed it more than Trader, the sparring session leaving him drenched in sweat.
On the way back, they bonded again.
[You know, it's not that weird anymore.] The host mused as Trader took charge of their shared body. Karrel's limbs were once more enveloped with the deep blue skin, the parasite's muscles taking the brunt of the work needed to run back to the city. She hid her presence again once the foliage started to thin.
Before they left the forest, however, Trader slowed down unexpectedly.
[We have company. I smelled two, but there may be more.] The alien explained.
As if hearing the telepathic communication, a man dropped down from a nearby tree, barring the way forward. He was wearing worn leather armor, and his face was covered with a simple wooden mask.
"Alright, pal, you know how this goes." He said in a deep, gruff voice. "Hand over all your valuables, beginning with whatever made you run so fast."
Karrel quickly looked behind, but found another bandit blocking the way. They were similarly dressed, but were much shorter. A gnome, probably, considering the litheness of their silhouette. They waved their hand when they saw him looking at them.
"I'm terribly sorry, but all I have is this empty basket and two silver coins." The smith said.
Trader meanwhile analyzed the situation.
[I don't sense any spells on them, and if you're attempting a mugging, you should have something prepared beforehand. So they either aren't very good at this, or are masters that leave no mana signature. But a master wouldn't have to rob people on a forest road, so I think they are just weak.]
"Then how'd you run so fast, huh? Is it the boots? Gimme those boots!" The lead bandit spoke again, taking a step towards Karrel and taking out a shortsword from his back. A wave of light travelled down the blade, symbols glowing on its surface.
[Oh, that looks serious. Can you tell what it does?] Trader asked, sending an image into Karrel's mind. It was the same sword, as seen through the symbiote's magical sight.
While Karrel was occupied deciphering the patterns, Trader raised their hands in surrender.
"You got me." She said through Karrel's mouth. "I'm taking them off right now. I don't want any trouble."
She slowly leaned down to take off the boots.
[It's ice. The blade will freeze anything it cuts. Might mess with our regeneration. There's a lot of power, but the array itself is shoddy. If you damage the pommel, it should break the enchantment.] Karrel provided.
[Impressive that you could tell by mana residue alone. You really are a master.] Trader responded.
Karrel's boots were standing a few steps in front of them, as the sword-bearing bandit approached to take them. When he bent over to pick them up, Trader sprung into action. The flesh-armor covered the entirety of their shared body as they leapt forward, aiming a clawed hand at the mugger. The man had quick reflexes, though, and parried the strike with his magical sword. Trader's claws were immediately covered in frost upon touching the blade. She retreated before the cold could travel further up the limb.
Behind, the second bandit took an opportunity to throw a dagger at them. The metal sunk into their neck with little resistance.
The blue skin receded as Karrel fell on the ground with a thud.
[We're gonna play dead for a second. I'm gonna weave a spell to take them both out at the same time.] Trader explained.
"Fucking shapeshifters… That's the second one this month." the shorter bandit complained. Their voice was high-pitched, though that was usually the case with the smaller races. They approached what they thought to be a corpse and started to rummage through Karrel's pockets.
"The boots look nice." The taller one commented. "Even if they aren't enchanted, this is still an upgrade for me." He began to take off his own, shoddy footwear.
During the next half a minute the thrower confirmed Karrel did not have much worth taking.
When the two stood up to leave, the blood that was pouring out of Karrel's neck wound surged upward, crystallizing into dozens of small crimson spikes. Before the bandits could react, the swarm of projectiles flew at them.
While about half missed, the amount of wounds caused by the rest was enough to make both of the criminals stumble and fall to the ground.
Trader finally closed the wound in their neck with a quick spell, and stood up. She walked up to the hunters-turned-prey and slit their throats with a claw, sealing their fate.
[What do people do with the dead bodies around here?] She asked while using a spell to clean the blood off of anything they might want to take, including Karrel's boots.
[Depends on the religion. Some people cremate, most just bury. There's one or two cults that eat their dead.] Her host explained.
Trader paused at that. Karrel noticed.
[You want to eat them?!] He asked incredulously.
[I'm still hungry after you blew me up. They are fresh.] She justified.
[That's still fucked up!] He said with exasperation.
[How? Explain to me how this is fucked up, please. They are dead. The soul is no longer connected to it, and its half of the mind is inert and dissolving as we speak. Nothing that made them people remains. The two corpses here are functionally no different to the fish you bought earlier.]
[But they used to be people!] He insisted.
[And the rain that pours from the sky used to be someone's piss.] She retorted.
[I don't think anyone's gonna change anyone's mind here.] He said after a few seconds. [I'll go on ahead, while you… get rid of the bodies.]
Trader detached herself, and pulled the corpses deeper into the foliage while Karrel tried his best to walk forward and not to turn around. After a few minutes, the parasite caught up, carrying a bag one of the criminals had in one hand, and Karrel's boots in the other. She handed them both to the smith. After he put them on, they bonded again, and left the forest in silence.
[I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable.] Trader spoke up when they crossed the city gates. [I could have waited until we could find some normal food.]
Karrel sighed.
[Today is… hard. A lot to take in, for both of us. Just… don't do that when someone that doesn't threaten us dies. We'll hold a proper funeral, in a fashion they would have wanted.]
[You already assume people close to you will die?] Her tone was curious.
[Well, people die eventually. And if we're going to be successful and I become a dragon, I'm going to outlive everyone I know. Except you and Lucienne, of course.] He explained.
[You're already thinking ahead. Good.] The symbiote approved. [I admit, I'm worried about a lot of stuff. Who messed with my mind? Are they watching me? And what's that droning sound I keep hearing?]
Karrel chuckled. [I can help you with the last one. Few years ago, a caravan of elves was traveling through the city. One of them, Peter, decided to stay. He lives near the main square.]
[So he makes this noise? How?] She inquired.
[He hatched in the Somber Swamps; there's tons of meter-long mosquitos and other monstrous bugs there. The high pitched shrill is an adaptation to keep those insects away. He can shut it off if he focuses, but once you get used to it, it's very useful. There are no flies or other stuff like that in a few blocks radius. Granted, he's not allowed near Jaina's apiary, but if you've got a wasp nest somewhere, he's your go-to guy.] The host finished his explanation.
[Elves… hatch?]
[Oh boy. Your implanted memory thing is really weird. Because since you didn't ask, I assume you know of elves in general, right?]
He received an image of her nodding.
[Tall, long-lived humanoids with pointy ears and faen ancestry.] Trader said, as if reciting an encyclopedia entry. [But I had no idea they laid eggs.]
[They do. And depending where the egg is incubated, the elf will be adapted to that environment. Forest? Wood elves. Caves? Dark elves, or the Drow, as they prefer to be called. And swamp elves apparently have an organ that makes a noise that's irritating to insects.]
[This is fascinating. You need to introduce me sometime. I just have to study his anatomy.] Karrel could somehow hear her rubbing her hands in anticipation, despite them staying firmly attached to his own.
[Didn't you say you want to hide your existence?] He asked.
[I don't want to hide forever.] She responded. [But I first want to make sure I'm strong enough. When I reveal myself, I need to quickly become too important to kill for being an abomination.]
[You're plenty strong to me.] The host commented.
[No offense, but you're an enchanter who has only seen combat today.] Trader countered.
He shrugged. [Fair enough. So, what do we do now?]
[Does this city have a bookstore, and/or a library?]