13, The Tower, Next Floors and First Spell. Part 2

Octatus reached down on the floor and deactivated the spell that separated me from his destructive magic.

"Come here Etanali, I want you to try spell casting now. Your affinity should be high enough, try and cast the wind spell you wanted to hit me with back at my house."

Instead of walking towards him like I would normally, my eyes drifted towards the crystal figure sitting on his shoulder.

If it could do all that to the hardened ground it could do far worse to me.

Noticing my gaze he laughed.

"The blade bat isn't much more than a puppet at this tier, you don't have to worry about it doing anything. I'm just keeping him around to help show the effect of my third spell."

"If you say so."

Trusting his words I stepped forward into the area defined by the short walls, then Octatus kneeled down to activate the isolating barrier.

Watching the barrier being raised I asked him a question.

"Is the barrier also made with spatial magic?"

"It is, do you have an interest in this element?"

I nodded in confirmation.

"It seems to be very powerful and would have many uses like attack, defense and movement"

"That's a very good analysis of the element. Space is one of the Prime Elements encompassing all things alongside Time. We can test if you have an aptitude for them after we are done on the fourth floor if you want. Now what was your thought process while forming the spell earlier? Visualize it then hit me with it."

"It's a dense sphere of wind or pure mana, like what was used to form my cores."

This statement caused Octatus to laugh hysterically, only speaking after a good few minutes when he regained control of himself.

I gave him a blank look at first which slowly turned to a frown as he continued to laugh.

Wiping the tears from his eyes he finally spoke again.

"I'm sorry Etanali, I'm not laughing at you. It's just everything you say is so grandiose, it's like you want to perform flips in the sky without learning how to crawl. Using untainted mana in spells is a very complex technique. First you need to purify elemental mana. Then that mana would need to be woven into the spell afterwards without losing control over the mana or the element taint you removed from it. It is also common practice to taint your cores themselves with an element at a certain point in order to reduce the difficulty associated with using that element. At this point using wind will be the only way to cast your spell. When you grow much more powerful I'm sure you will be able to upgrade the element or even use pure mana at some point."

I reached up and scratched my head in embarrassment realizing once again I was wanting to bite off way, way, way more than I could fit in my mouth.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts and closed my eyes to focus and start moving my mana.

Earlier I didn't do anything consciously so this was new territory for me.

I tried to remember how the mana felt when forming the cores, as well as the steps of how the anime character learned the technique.

Rotation, Power, and Containment.

I tried to pull mana from the core in my stomach but it didn't feel like I was doing it right.

I then thought about the spell more in depth, asking myself 'where should I get the air from?'

The solution came from an obvious place, I spent so long modifying the organ yet I hadn't explored its capabilities.

I focused on my lungs and drew mana from both of my other cores, one coming down from above and one up from below.

I visualized it merging with the air as it gathered in my lungs, and I started to feel something accumulating there so I knew it was working.

It also felt very natural for some reason.

Like an action I was meant to do that I hadn't done in a long time, similar to stretching in the morning after sleeping in an odd position.

My lungs started to feel full and tingly so I exhaled strongly out my nose while imagining the air flowing down and around my arms to the palms of both hands.

Keeping my eyes closed I created 3 layers of air and had them spin in different directions.

The outside layer spun clockwise, the middle layer spun counterclockwise, and the third layer spun away from me on a vertical axis.

With the spinning layers in both hands I started to bring them together, but before I could get them close Octatus interfered.

I felt a wave of mana interrupt my breaking my focus and dispersing my spell, I opened my eyes and stared at him in confusion; expecting an explanation.

"I am sorry for interrupting, it's just that I wanted to save myself the trouble of healing you again. It was a good idea, but for your next attempt you should do 3 things. Start with both hands together, make 4 layers instead of 3 and NEVER try to merge spells, even if they are the same or seem compatible. It almost never goes well for you, the results often land your belt on the walls. But it was a very good first attempt."

Realizing he saved me from having my mana explode in my face or go out of control I thanked him and closed my eyes to start the process again.

I repeated the process of gathering mana in my lungs and mixing it with the air then exhaling it down my arms.

This time I had the air go down between the palms of both hands creating a single ball of air with 4 layers.

My right hand was responsible for two layers of counterclockwise rotation and my left hand was responsible for two layers of clockwise rotation.

I also changed the order of my stack, now going counterclockwise away from me, then clockwise towards me, then on a horizontal axis counterclockwise, and clockwise as the innermost layer.

This rotation felt much better, but it still didn't feel optimal.

With the rotation stable enough, I began to push more and more mana into the spell.

Drawing on the mana core in my stomach I made the wind spin faster and with even greater force without it losing its shape.

Unlike earlier the core responded swiftly and without resistance this time, quickly strengthening the spell.

I felt it begin to destabilize slightly so I quickly stopped increasing the amount of mana going into the spell allowing it to stabilize.

Now with a satisfactory amount of power, I began to think about how I should go about compressing it.

I decided to remove the useless space inside the sphere first instead of compressing it from outside.

This made the sphere go from the size of a basketball down to the size of a dodgeball, at that point I felt there was no space inside of the spell that didn't have a purpose.

From that point I thought the spell was stable enough to begin compressing it from the exterior.

I began to condense the ball slowly while making sure I didn't lose any potency or hinder the rotation speed.

It continued to compress until I began to feel the wind fight back so I allowed it to expand slightly until it became stable.

The spell was now the size of a baseball sitting between my two hands.

It was stable enough that I didn't have to worry about it dissipating but I didn't think my control was good enough to only hold it in one hand like I should.

The wind around me was blowing slightly in a mix of directions so it was clear my containment wasn't perfect.

Deciding to continue anyways I pulled my two hands back to my right hip and looked at Octatus to see if he was ready for me.

He was just standing in front of me with a small smile and nodded his head, giving me permission to attack.

Seeing he was prepared I pushed both hands forward in a classic anime pose.

"HAAAAAAA!"

I sent the ball flying at him while yelling in exertion and concentration as I struggled to keep the spell's shape as it flew through the air.

The ball of condensed wind flew towards him at a good speed, faster than I can run but it felt lacking in comparison to the spells I had seen him use earlier.

But that was to be expected as this was the first spell I had successfully cast, Octatus in comparison had probably cast so many spells it would be impossible to count them all.

The spell soon hit his chest and he still had his calm expression on his face but after a few seconds his eyes went wide in surprise and he was forced to take 2 steps back when the spell released its force, dissipating and creating violent winds that blew both of our hair all over the place and threatened to blow me away.

The bat on his shoulder though was still undisturbed.

Before I could be launched away Octatus clapped his hands and the wind stopped raging and turned into a gentle breeze until it regained its calmness.

"Well done Etanali! That spell was very nice. Of course it still needs a lot of work, but for a first successful cast it was very potent. I would say you probably have a peak affinity with the air element, just one stage below a perfect affinity. You could definitely kill someone in the Basic Tier if they received that attack head on. Once you iron out the small flaws and reduce the cast time it would probably be a spell at the high or even peak level of the Basic Tier depending on its optimization. You could probably get two stones from it too, the majority of basic spells focus on maximizing one or two aspects. The spell you cast used 3 which all complimented each other resulting in an overall strengthening of the spell. It's very impressive considering you have had no training, overall it was very well done."

"Thank you second father! It wasn't quite what I wanted to be since I Intended it to be a one handed spell for use in close combat but I hope to get it there eventually. I was afraid to hold it with one hand in case it would spin out of control or simply fall out of my hand."

"Very nice, the idea has a lot of potential for a multitude of other elements too. Don't worry about not being able to do it right the first time, once your spellcasting training starts I think you will have no problem ironing out the issues. Now I think it's time I show you my last spell before we go up to the fourth floor. You didn't exhaust yourself too much did you?"

"Nope, I could probably cast it 3 or 4 more times before It would start to get dificult."

"Excellent! Now I will lower the barrier so you can leave. Oh I forgot to ask, what did you want to call the spell?"

"I would call it either Tornado Ball or Spiraling Sphere, but I think I like Spiraling Sphere more. Which one do you like?"

Octatus looked up from kneeling on the ground and said.

"I like the name Spiraling Sphere, you should go with that one. The shield is down now so you can exit the area."

Trusting the pranksters words I walked over to the barrier and smacked face first into the invisible wall.

Octatus' laughter accompanied my sore face.

"Got you! Such a great reaction, I've actually lowered it this time. Now do you understand why the isolated areas have small walls? Imagine doing that multiple times, just trying to get across the room."

"Very funny."

I said while rubbing my face with my left hand.

I reached out with my right hand to make sure he was telling the truth this time, he was.

I resumed my seated position outside the barrier to watch his third spell.

"The spell this time will be using the Heat Element."

Following his dramatic routine Octatus clapped his hands and said the name of the spell.

"12 Dancing Fairies"

In front of him one long thread appeared and then split into 12 thin strings, then they ballooned up making them look like cocoons.

When the cocoons ruptured they revealed 12 human-like figures with elegant wings standing not much bigger than a finger in height.

"This spell is more difficult than the others since each fairy can be assigned a different task, but I will just use one to show you the power contained in a single fairy."

Octatus commanded the crystal bat from his shoulder to take flight and fight with one of the 12 fire fairies while the other 11 were ignored.

The bat didn't go invisible this time as it repeatedly charged and slashed with its wings but it seemed to be unable to do any damage to the small figure no matter how many times its attacks landed.

"Now the fairy will begin its counter attack. Ignite"

With this word nothing visibly changed except for when the bat's attack landed, this time its wing melted the instant it made contact with the fairy.

With its wing gone the bat fell to the floor but it uncurled another wing from its body which saved it from crashing but caused it to become slightly smaller.

When the bat attacked the fairy again the fairy simply moved so instead of hitting it with its wing its body would come into contact with the bat's body.

All that was left of the bat after they collided was two razor thin blade wings falling to the ground which shattered when they landed

This scene caused my palms to get clammy.

The thought of all 12 of these small beings radiating such temperatures made me very glad for the barrier between us.

"The fairies are intangible constructs made out of heat, in a similar way the bat was formed of crystal . The bat spell focused on stealth, sharpness and speed, while the fairies focused on mobility, raw destructiveness and versatility. They can chase opponents, self-destruct or even merge together for a greater increase in power. Since the bat was made of crystal it was a tangible object, but since heat is not tangible the bat was powerless against the fairy. This would have changed if I had added a secondary element to the bat, then it would be a more even fight but that is besides the point. Anyway those are my 3 favorite spells that don't get crazy dangerous. What one did you like the most?"

Amazed at the control and versatility of his magic as well as his knowledge of the theory behind it, it took me a few seconds to respond to his question.

"I don't think I could choose. All three of them were amazing in different ways. The scariest spell would probably be the lotus, but I would also hate to ever face off against the bat. But the fairies, I don't know what I would even do to fight against that."

Octatus smiled at my responses, and then dispelled the 12 fairies along with the barrier.

"Hopefully you will never have to face them then. You see now why so many people have died due to magic. It is really cool, but also super dangerous to fight with and to use. There are just so many variations of spells and possible spells that can be created. Shall we go to the fourth floor now?"