B4 – Chapter 30: A night of learning

Tristan could hardly sleep. He was too excited about the new spells he now had access to at Fifth Order. His Pocket Dimension II held plenty of those rods that could take an artificed spell, and he saw no reason to wait. Getting out of his sleeping bag, he went outside.

Now that they were in the open, they had returned to a watch rotation. Eloise was on watch, and she glanced at him as he got out of the tent. “Can’t sleep?” she asked.

Tristan sat down and spun his crucible, activating the Pocket Dimension II amulet, and pulled the Omnitome and some of the rods he could artifice out. “I just can’t get the idea of Fifth Order spells I have access to out of my head.”

“Ah. I understand. It is often all-consuming, that desire to try new spells.” She stood up. “Then I’ll take your watch later. Don’t drain all your essence with your activity.” She went into the tent and closed it behind.

Tristan flipped to the section on ice elementalism and began reading greedily. He’d figured out that the spell type contained very little in the way of utility, and instead focused on offense and defense. As such, he directed his attention to one spell of each as Zeltana’s words of advice echoed through his mind.

I can’t spread myself too thin, he thought. Just focus on ice, fire, and lightning elementalism. The lightning I’ll artifice since I don’t want to deal with the backlash. I should work on memorizing the fire and ice. The rest I can just artifice. But this is the last Order that I can artifice, since Sixth Order and above cannot be artificed, apparently. But, based on how much essence those seem like they will cost, I would want to use them sparingly.

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Glacial Bolt (Fifth)

Spell Phrase: The mighty glacier cracks and splits, crashing down upon my foes. Feel the chill of its doom.

Spell Gesture: Raise both arms, and blade your stance. Put your left foot forward, and right foot back. Extend your left arm, and hold your wrist at a forty-five degree angle, blading your palm as you do, so that you are looking at the top of your thumb in a side-profile. Your right arm should be extended behind you, also bladed with flat palm, and thumb pointing down. You may swap this stance if necessary.

Other Notes: This spell manifests a large projectile. It does not cause physical damage, like the First Order spell Frost Flurry. Instead, the projectile will freeze anything it passes through. Objects with lower freezing points will not be frozen through wholly. Generally, larger creatures are only slowed and buffeted by the spell, while smaller ones can be instantly eliminated. Essence should be pushed into the forearm of the leading limb.

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Tristan stood up and practiced the motion. It was easy to perform, and after repeating the spell phrase written in Dragon’s Tongue on repeat. When he was sure he had it memorized, he spun his crucible, aimed down at the shadowed pool they had made camp near, and uttered the words.

He felt his crucible empty precipitously, to half of its maximum, and saw a phantasmal, blue sphere fly forward. Everything it touched instantly froze. Grass, rock, wood, water, the fish in the water – everything living died in that split-second, and the little cracks of blades of frozen grass snapping under their own weight sounded like the tinkling of thousands of little bells.

Tristan felt sluggish and was gasping for breath at the huge essence expenditure. He tried to gauge the distance and determined the spell traveled fifty feet, and the sphere appeared to be ten feet in diameter.

That’s a scarily powerful spell. If I used that against kobolds in an Elemental Realm, they would be instantly dealt with. Once more, he felt a profound sense of fear at the might essence-weavers of higher Order capacity held. The ability to near-instantly wreak death upon their foes was awe-inspiring in a terrifying way. It’s not fair, this type of power. Who in their right mind would give this power to us? Not that he was complaining, Tristan savored the feeling of essence pounding through his body in time with the racing of his heartbeat, and the cooling chill that radiated through him.

He turned back to his Omnitome and flipped to find the defensive spell in ice elementalism, his desire to learn more driving him on like an all-encompassing hunger.

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Cryogenic Cube (Fifth)

Spell Phrase: None may enter or leave this icy tomb!

Spell Gesture: Cross both arms in front of your torso, hands balled into fists, and the palms facing in toward your chest. As you utter the spell phrase, pull your arms down, across each other. End by flourishing the arms out at your sides.

Other Notes: This spell creates a defensive fortification that surrounds you, extending in fifteen feet in all directions. It acts as a defensive fortification, but can also be used to isolate a singular individual with the user. Essence should be focused into the forearms.

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Tristan practiced the phrase and gesture until he had it memorized. Then, he waited as his essence refilled. When it was three-quarters of the way full, he cast the spell. Ice began to crust over his body from the backlash, though their bulk was the only minor annoyance. He watched as a crystalline, silvery cube appeared around him, isolating him from everything else. And then the temperature dropped drastically. The grass inside the cube began to freeze, and the ground just outside the cube also began to crystallize.