SWNOVELXO Chapter 1817 Practice at Range
--- Kat ---
Kat and Lily spent a good deal of time practicing before heading to sleep. The next morning it was more of whatever they felt like. The tournament was just one day away and there was some excitement in the air but most of it was muted. The rest of the team wanted to just relax for the day so they all started the morning with a nice breakfast Eleanora acquired from… somewhere? Nobody thought to ask before the meal had been devoured. It was an entirely vegan affair but that didn't mean it suffered in quality at all.
Once the meal was over Lily focused on mastering a few new spells for the tournament. She'd started practicing them the day before and just needed to polish them a bit so that she could use them in combat this involved convincing Kat to attack her a bit. It wasn't too difficult… though that was mostly because Kat knew how to pull her punches. A bit of demonic energy keeping her thoughts running swiftly and Kat could stop moments before Lily got injured for real.
At least, that was the case until Kat managed to release a blade of solid wind from her fans. Somehow. It flew straight at Lily and only the fact her girlfriend was treating this like a real spar let her dodge in time. Kat glanced down at her fans. "Ok… how the heck did I do that…"
Lily glanced down at the small gouge in the floor. [No idea but you should definitely figure it out. It didn't do too much damage considering the ground is just normal dirt but the fact you managed it at all means you theoretically have a ranged option to practice with.]
"Hmm… should we break here then?" asked Kat.
[I'm perfectly fine with continuing to spar.]
"And what if I actually hit you with one?" asked Kat.
[Then Nixilei can heal me! Look, I'm a lot tougher than the dirt here and even if I wasn't I can dodge and block. You need to figure this out and I still need more practice with spells. I can cast them stationary sure… but moving and dodging is another matter.] "Fine," sighed Kat as the spar was back on.
The spar continued but Kat found it hard to properly escalate to the point of causing Lily problems. After realising she could throw wind blades or whatever they were, Kat started to hesitate every time Lily started to cast a spell. Just in case.
Lily was not happy with this change in attitude and made that clear over the link. To make matters worse she started to intentionally move towards any attacks Kat delayed intentionally. The first time, Lily was actually a little concerned but when the wind blade barely managed to ruffle her fur Lily couldn't help but roll her eyes. "Lily! That was dangerous!" hissed Kat.
[Clearly it wasn't! I barely even felt that! If I hadn't seen it coming for me I would've thought it was just a bit of normal wind.]
"Ok, even if you were trying to make a point, there was no reason to take it head on! Nixilei probably can't heal eyes after all!" insisted Kat.
[While that's true… I took it on my left cheek. I turned my head so that it would miss my ears and eyes and even let it go for a fairly weak part of my body… but nothing. I didn't get hurt at all. Stop treating me like I'm made of glass. I know your fights are rather bloody at times but… well I'm Rank 3 now. A casual smack isn't going to hurt me and apparently I'm durable enough to withstand those ranged attacks you've got.]
Kat sighed. "Look… fine whatever. I'm not exactly pleased," [Now you know how I feel when you injure yourself for practice.] "but that really is as damaging as I can make the damned things at the moment. It's a neat trick… but it really is just a trick at this point. I'll… I'll step up the wind blades if you promise to treat them like they're deadly?" [Hmmm… fine.]
Kat wasn't entirely happy with the conclusion but started to unleash a barrage of wind slices towards Lily… and failed miserably. Only two out of every ten actually came out as wind slashes and most of those fell apart along the way. Lily didn't complain, Kat's thoughts made it clear this was not intentional… but that was the problem wasn't it. "Ok… any ideas what I'm doing wrong?"
[So… I've got two guesses…] "You are using the magic in the air," stated Eleanora causing Kat to jump slightly, having forgotten about the elf.
"Um… what do you mean?" asked Kat.
"From my understanding… perhaps it is an enchantment built into your fans you are just now using, or perhaps you are simply able to manipulate mana a bit yourself. What you seem to be doing is forcefully gather the mana in the wind with your swing and then throw it at your opponent. The reason so many are failing despite the fact you're repeating the motions is that you've given the area no time to 'fill back in' so to speak," explained Eleanora.
Kat frowned down at her fans. That… Kat shook her head and swapped to speaking out loud. "That makes some sense. Does that mean if I…" Kat gave a quick mental picture of what she was attempting to Lily and faced away from her girlfriend. Kat slowly moved both of her fans through the air in an intricate pattern meant to gather more mana towards her… and then unleashed it all, using as much strength and willpower as possible to launch the attack.
A much larger line then normal did fly out… but it broke apart before it hit the nearby hill. "It doesn't quite work like that… or rather because you don't have mana it isn't working," stated Eleanora.
Kat sighed. "So… what seems to be the issue then?"
"There just isn't enough mana there. Perhaps if your fans could store at least some mana you could do something fancier… but as it stands the concentration of ambient mana just isn't high enough here, or at least, not wind aligned stuff," stated Eleanora.
*Hmm… think I could, not right now obviously, but in the future, use your mana to control the wind to make a wind blade? Or heck some of your proper spells?*
[Um… well considering you syphon off the demonic energy I produce automatically… it would seem possible? I'm not sure how likely it is… and I do feel like that would leave me a bit useless but… I think we'd need to ask Nira.]
*Lily I very much doubt I can properly control mana. Maybe forcing it into my fans but that's it. I wouldn't worry about you being useless any time soon. Still… it is a shame that this is another dead end in regards to a ranged technique. The only people it might, theoretically, be good against would be wind mages pumping mana out into the air… and they could just redirect it because they're wind mages.*
[Eh… sometimes these things happen.]
*Are you trying to tell me that you've found a spell that's actually useless several times?*
[Yes. Er… sort of. I have half a dozen different spells that are 'launch projectile at the enemy but X instead of Y' and… well you sort of just pick the one that has the best damage to mana ratio. The real unique spells are what you want. Like… I didn't understand why I had to find my favourite paper launching spell back at the start… but I think I do now.]
[You need to find the one that just clicks with you because the dozens of variations mean basically fuck all once you're good enough at the spell. The important part is that the CASTING makes sense. There are versions of the Rank 1 papercut launcher that I still take a few seconds to cast whereas I've got my favourite down to basically nothing.]
*Neat… but what does that have to do with my failure to get a ranged attack?*
[Er… not much I suppose. Sorry.]
*No it's fine. It's just really starting to get frustrating. I want to run off and get a bunch of little ball bearings or… actually… hmm…* "Eleanora, you know anyone that sells a bunch of cheap aerodynamic metal? Possibly throwing daggers but I'm not being picky here," asked Kat.
"I'm afraid not Kat. At least, I know of none made with sufficient quality that you would be comfortable using them. Plenty of scrap you could throw, but it would simply be blocked by most weapons and armour. The good stuff is all carefully melted back down and smelted into something useful due to the cost. Even basic steel daggers will break… and you probably don't want to pay for daggers not meant for throwing that can pierce such armaments," answered Eleanora.
*Damn am I tempted… maybe I just need to start carrying around boulders or something. Throw those at people for the intimidation factor if nothing else!*