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Chapter 291: Sorceress of the Storm
🕑 Added 2024-09-20 15:11:01 +0000 UTCCharlie’s eyes sparked with electricity as energy swirled through her. She had become the embodiment of the storm, hovering over the expectant battlefield: a conduit for storm mana. One hand gripped her staff while the other pinched her fingers against her thumb, holding back the first bite of lightning.
Bolts crackled far above, warning them all of what would come, responding to the mana she expelled as she directed it to flow through the Underlayer. A vortex was building, using her as its anchor. The amount of power that was being generated was impossible to be completely held back, and it expelled electricity in bursts even as it accumulated more. It fought against her grip like a rabid animal fighting a snare.
While the lightning storm came to life, miles above them all, eager squalls twisted across the surface. The winds tousled her already messy hair, and the thick cloak that she wore over her Ghost Reef Standard Issue armor snapped in the air as it was whipped by the impatient wind. Dust devils danced through the dirt, spinning out from her central vortex, but none of the human soldiers paid them any mind, comfortable with the turmoil that she was creating as if it was as regular as the afternoon rain showers that swept across their tropical island home. They had the utmost faith in the timid girl, as she was one of the greatest forces among them.
The precipitation was the slowest to form, manifesting a more solid presence beyond the energy required for the other two ingredients of her storm, but Ghost Reef’s army patiently waited for her to complete her combination spell. The truth was she was combining several different skills into one, ignoring the guidelines established by her class-based abilities. Rather than simply generate a storm, as her class was wont to do, she was making something she could control more directly.
Eventually, tiny droplets formed, subtle compared to the booming explosions of lightning high in the sky, and rather than falling to the ground, the drops spun in the air, carried higher by the wind as they coalesced into even larger manifestations.
This was the twentieth settlement they had visited in South America, and by now, the actions of destroying the invading Primal Constructs were practically routine. The type of opening salvo changed depending on the presence of any Siege Bosses, but no matter what, Charlie presented the first strike on behalf of Ghost Reef. It was her job to set the stage for their battle, putting the momentum firmly on their side, already becoming ritualized tradition.
Over time, as she developed a better understanding of her Storm Affinity and how it interacted with the omnipresent mana of the environment, she relied on the system less and less. In the first place, her skills had provided her with a level of improvisation that was unusual compared to other classes, but after Coop described his skill evolutions to his allies as having his training wheels removed, she was among those who had begun experimenting even more, coloring outside the lines, so to speak.
Basically, the way she saw it, the system gave them buttons to press that activated the skills on their behalf, like a video game, but if they mastered the skills they could deviate from the exact guidelines provided to them and do what felt like actual magic. Mana was pliable in that way, modifying itself based on the affinities of those it touched. The system’s control over the power hidden within seemed rather superficial to her. She saw the presence of the system as more concrete through its stranglehold over the galactic community than through its ability to manipulate mana.
Charlie was a step ahead of the rest of the residents thanks to how her class and build incorporated dynamic innovation into the system guided skills, compensating for the varying scales possible in her spells. Was there anyone more versed in the practice of sorcery than the Aeromancer of Ghost Reef? Probably not, but she still lacked the confidence to declare herself a powerhouse on the level of Camila or even her parents. The support of her family and friends gave her enough assurance to perform a role with them at her side, but unlike so many others, Charlie had yet to grow through the assimilation.
Still, Charlie was no ordinary mage. She was an Aeromancer, a wielder of the tempestuous elements, and the second highest level human on the entire planet. The power of the storm was her speciality.
As the invaders, an army of Elite Primal Constructs mixed with a few familiar Field Bosses, summoned their defensive bubble-like shields, she rose higher into the air, hovering with sheer power swirling around her. Her heart was pounding in sync with the flashes of lightning high above, forming claws of light that burned afterimages into the sky, silhouetting her elevated form, desperate to be given permission to strike. In response, she guided even more mana into the approaching storm. The invaders would be taught a lesson that the storms of Earth where she drew her inspiration were a bit more extreme than the community’s standard.
The Underlayer didn’t make the process easy, turning what was normally like fanning smoke clouds in one direction into forcefully diverting a river’s current, but she could manage something for a short while, and that would be enough for her to get the message across. Her allies would take care of the rest.
The vortex of mana intensified around her, laboriously converting pure activated mana into her storm type, and sending it up into the sky where it expanded across the Underlayer and immediately started to erode. The hazy sky of vaporous clouds darkened as she continued siphoning more energy into the air, transforming the ceiling from a wispy white shroud to an angry purple and a gray that was so dark it was almost black as it was bolstered by the Aeromancer’s authority. The clouds sank toward them, heavy with her contribution. The lightning provided most of the remaining illumination, but only in short bursts, establishing a haunting atmosphere for Ghost Reef’s troops.
Charlie raised her Unique Storm Staff as winds engulfed its form, adding her free hand to its surface. The head glowed with energy, becoming a single searing light in the storm shaded battlefield. The weapon was one of many gifts from Coop, crafted by the Grandmaster Artisans of Ghost Reef. While holding it tight with both leather clad palms, keeping the head directed toward her enemies. A low rumble echoed across the ceiling of the massive caverns, a final precursor of the storm’s fury. She maintained her concentration, envisioning the first strike, as she finally unleashed the storm, sparks leaping from her fingers to her eyes and into the staff before reaching forward, a small hint of what was coming.
A blinding flash of bright blue lightning exploded through the air, incomparably larger than the branches that had been arcing across the sky while the energy grew. The thick bolt crashed into the largest group of invaders like the broad trunk of an ancient redwood, carefully carved into a spear of searing firepower, less of a sharp bite and more of a crushing smash. Thunder boomed across the Underlayer, shaking the dirt beyond the first control point and well into the others, announcing the doom of those that dared trespass on Earth.
The blast melted the protective bubbles of the Primal Constructs beneath a thousand scattered fingers of chain lightning. As soon as their shield failed, those caught in the immediate vicinity were vaporized. The excess energy leapt to the nearest Constructs, seeking them out with a life of its own. The raw power of the lightning was too great for them to resist.
The lightning chained across the army, wiping out entire clusters as it bounced back and forth before growing too weak to destroy its victims. Even then, it wasn’t done. Instead of outrightly defeating them, it left those that were struck momentarily stunned, twitching as they lost control of their faculties. The solitary lightning strike would have been a suitable assault, but it was just the beginning of the storm. The roiling clouds swirled while the lightning danced through the crowds and a cascade of smaller strikes followed before the second part of her opening salvo landed.
Charlie continued to weave the storm, bolstering the formations with mana while guiding them like a conductor dictating an orchestral tempo. A wall of wind surged through the Underlayer, as if taking a miles long running start, slamming into the defensive formations of the invaders in the front even while they contended with the lightning storm. The soldiers of Ghost Reef stood firm, as if their feet were anchored in stone, while the wind knocked the aliens back, annihilating the enemy’s forward formations.
The blast of air wasn’t as devastating as the lightning, but it still mangled the frontline, turning their shields into sails that tossed them into the backlines they intended to protect, which had already become a smoking storm of lightning. They became projectiles themselves and chaos reigned throughout the invading army.
The lightning was the first to fade, but the Primal Constructs struggled to regroup as they were pummeled by gusts of storm winds, all while Ghost Reef’s army patiently waited for their turn. Charlie’s storm wasn’t finished with just wind and lightning.
The Primal Constructs were relentless in their own way, never surrendering, even in the face of such disruptive power, and they pressed forward, leaning into the gusts as they returned to their feet, intent on killing the source of the attacks.
Their persistence was a mistake, for the wall of wind was a mere precursor to the storm of water blades that surfed on the squalls that followed. Clean slices carved through armor and shield equally, the edge of water impossibly sharp. Waves of wind carried the penetrating blades, catching the already pummeled invaders by surprise.
The dirt was decorated with thin puddles, only as thick as a string, while wide sections of the Primal Constructs disintegrated into mana smoke. At this point of the event, after weeks of additional progression for the human defenders, the invaders were clearly outmatched.
The whole assault was ending even while the initial blast of thunder still echoed through the cavern. Despite the multi-pronged assault, it all happened in a matter of seconds, mostly caused by the erosion effect in the Underlayer. The pure mana simply didn’t allow for her storm to linger, but that didn’t stop her from dramatically flashing the power of her Aeromancer build.
Charlie let herself sink toward the ground, letting the others take their turn while using a gentler breeze to control her descent, but Emmanuel caught her before the toes of her boots touched the dirt.
“That’s my girl!” He bellowed while holding her up in the air, proud of literally every action she took, no matter what it was.
“Dad!” She squeaked as he brought her into an embrace and smothered her. “Shouldn’t you be cleaning up?” She tried to point out, but her voice was muffled by his broad chest.
“It’s Mr. Gibson’s turn.” He stated, understanding her attempt to redirect his attention, his voice so deep it resonated almost as much as her thunder.
Ghost Reef’s army rushed into the Primal Construct invaders, crossing the no man’s land in bounding dashes, taking advantage of the destruction that Charlie had caused. Gibson’s party cleaved straight through, taking the lead, while Camila rushed to the flank of the control point and disrupted any leftover organization among the metallic aliens. Without a Siege Boss to direct their combination attacks, she was free to roam on her own.
Meanwhile, the squads of locals they had met from the various settlements enjoyed the spectacle, already knowing that the best thing they could do was stay out of the way. For the most part, they intended to join Ghost Reef after the event concluded, but for the time being, they were escorting them through the continent while learning more about those that had come to help.
The battle would be done in a matter of minutes, probably even faster than Coop could manage. Though they lacked his mobility, they outnumbered even his phantasms. Still, Charlie and Emmanuel kept an eye on their progress until it was all over. The process of clearing and claiming the control points had become routine in the weeks that they had swept across South America and this settlement would most likely be the last before they reached Antarctica.
After the first control point was secured, the army reorganized as they sought to meet the inevitable Construct defense in the field before taking the next objective. Charlie was responsible for capturing the first point, so the fact that she was being crowd controlled by her father wasn’t a major problem.
“Release my daughter, you oaf!” Madison cut in, returning from where she was buffing fighters while giving her husband a threatening look.
He spun, putting Charlie on the opposite side, defensively. “She’s my daughter!”
“Mine too!” She played along by dodging back and forth to try and get around the man’s torso. “And it’s my turn to squeeze her.” She declared before he ultimately submitted. Charlie accepted their love, feeling lucky that they were together despite the apocalypse. There weren’t many as blessed as she was.
The next part of the battle would be routine, as the Primal Constructs split their forces in an effort to reclaim the lost point. They basically threw away any advantage they held in numbers by following a procedure that allowed Ghost Reef’s army to take them on in smaller sections. The second point’s army would be wiped out in the field, and the control point would be defended by half as many enemies, then the third point would do the same, and so on, until the objectives were all under human control. Even Charlie could see that the Primal Constructs lacked the in-battle tactical nuance that would be necessary for contending with human armies, relying entirely on their knowledge of the system and numbers to defeat their enemies.
Once Charlie was firmly on the ground, standing in between her parents inside the first glowing ring, her mother assessed her performance. “You need to tighten up your control of the winds.” Her mother observed astutely. “It looked like manifesting the water blades distracted you, and the wind was weaker for it. The currents were already dissipating into the Underlayer before you released the squall.”
Charlie was surprised. “You could tell?” She wondered shyly.
“Of course.” Madison nodded. “Though, when I manipulate mana, it’s with only one general affinity, so it’s probably a lot simpler.” She added before catching Emmanuel keeping his eyes elsewhere. He couldn’t escape that easily. “What about you? Any advice for your daughter.”
“Nope! She’s flawless.” He declared, squeezing her beneath his arm. It was pretty clear he hadn’t developed his insight into mana nearly as much as either of the women in his life.
Madison shook her head, smiling dangerously. “You should come to Olani’s class when she gets them started. You’ll probably learn something.”
“It’s gonna conflict with leg day with the boys.” Emmanuel pointed out. “We’re also exploring how to manipulate mana, you know, but it’s mostly an internal thing when we do it.” He added after his wife seemed disappointed. As if to prove the usefulness of his exercise, he flipped his weapon onto his shoulder, flexing, while lifting the Unique Gravity Warstaff with ease, despite the fact that it weighed tons.
His new weapon was the most recent unique crafted item created by Garod. Unlike Charlie’s Storm Staff, which used three individual relics: the Tear of the Sea from the Sapphire Armada’s surrender, the Charged Heartwood used to create Kukulkan’s domain, and the Seed of Wind that was being held by the Avatar of Huracan, his weapon only needed the Speck of Collapsed Star that Coop took from the Void Queen in the Yucatan. Apparently, a relic of that particular affinity was far more difficult to find than any of the other three, but Coop was just dumping such things on his crafters, directing them to make this and that without any care in the world.
As a result, the residents of Ghost Reef were gradually increasing their advantages, not only in areas of combat prowess and levels, but also in their equipment. Unique items were wielded by more than a dozen individuals already, and more were on the way.
Emmanuel’s Warstaff was basically a pitch black barbell, lacking the runed embellishments that Charlie’s staff had carved along its surface, but he could freely manipulate his weapon, so long as his Strength held out. Whenever it was his turn to defeat a Siege Boss, he increased the length so that it was like he was wielding a fully grown palm tree, and added to its weight so that it was like swinging a school bus. Even the most massive monsters in the event couldn’t handle it, but Emmanuel’s internal manipulation of mana and free control over gravity meant that it was the perfect weapon for him.
It seemed like there were two schools of magic forming as the residents of Ghost Reef better understood their affinities with mana. Charlie and her father represented examples of each type: internal and external control.
Madison continued playfully reprimanding her husband. “There’s still so much about mana that we need to study and you’re distracting our foremost researchers? Have you at least seen the updated Affinity Chart that the Cleary Brothers made?”
Emmanuel chuckled. “When they showed it to me, Tiny was still calling it a cosmetology chart and Junior had to explain to him the difference between cosmology and cosmetology. Apparently, the middle brother was the one prepping to teach Elly about makeup.”
Madison laughed and shared a look with Emmanuel before they both gazed at Charlie with a nostalgic look. Charlie knew they were thinking about some embarrassing story, so she tried to keep them from going down memory lane. “What does it look like now?” She prompted.
Madison chuckled knowingly before going along with Charlie’s effort. “They put Mists in the middle this time.” She stated.
“Really? Don’t they look up to Coop a little too much?” Charlie wondered. The Cleary Brothers were practically addicted to the leaderboards and had become Coop’s biggest fanboys.
“Maybe. But it actually works.” Madison responded. “Plus, Coop’s affinity isn’t mists, it’s Spectral, which they shifted into the first ring on the Death side.”
She drew a picture in the dirt to display the major Affinity Families as defined by humans. She paired the opposites, starting with Stellar on top and Void on the bottom. Then, she placed Chaos top left and added Order to the bottom right, followed by Life top right and Death on the bottom left. The last to be added were Infernal on the middle left and Divine on the middle right. As Charlie understood it, the last two were only included in the previous iteration and were the most speculative of the bunch, but now with Mists in the middle of the whole chart, it seemed like they were satisfied with how it balanced out.
The process of building the chart had been a lot like deciding what color to paint a room by taping color swatches to the walls. A lot of it was just based on how various residents felt once they saw the chart come together. It was mostly for fun, and it got most of the settlement’s residents involved, but it did have the potential to reveal more about humanity’s ability to connect with mana and the interactions between affinities. Why did certain combinations magnify each other and why did some fuse together? The affinity chart had been a conversation starter for several weeks already.
Though the drawing in the dirt lacked the colors of the real example, Charlie knew they were also being incorporated into the charts. The whole idea had been based on the color wheel, after all. Starting with red for Infernal and moving clockwise, they had red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple for Void, and black for Death.
“Where do your affinities go?” Charlie wondered. Both of her parents had relatively difficult to assign connections with mana, though the actual themes were pretty clear. Madison’s Graceful Affinity was clearly Divine, and Emmanuel’s Massive Affinity was almost entirely based on manipulation of Gravity through mass.
“Divine.” Madison answered confidently, confirming Charlie’s assumption.
Emmanuel shrugged. “Probably Stellar, but maybe Void. They haven’t decided where Gravity would go.”
“But those are complete opposites?” Charlie questioned the options he presented. Stellar was usually reserved for the Sun, Moon, and Star types in the previous iterations of the chart.
Madison nodded. “It’s probably close to the middle. There’s a bunch like that. If I recall correctly, Pestilence was another Affinity that might be Life or Death related and made things confusing, and it’s why they gave up adding Light at all, finding various people that had light-based affinities that could fit all over the chart. The survey of the residents had almost 4,000 unique Affinities and they don’t even know if the basic shape makes sense to demonstrate the relationships, so there’s bound to be patterns we don’t see yet.”
Charlie’s original Affinities had combined into a single Storm Affinity, but before that would have represented adjacent layers within the Chaos section and were the basis of the elemental assignments in that section of the chart. The separation of rain and water had been the cause of one of the previous evolutions to the chart. But even with just a single affinity, she didn’t think she had necessarily lost her original connections to the different types of mana either. It was more like the advancement was a blanket that broadly held rain, wind, and lightning all at once. Assigning it an individual position in the chart didn’t seem like it would work to completely explain her affinity.
Then again, to make it all the more confusing, it was all the same mana. Charlie imagined the affinities like socket types, where Storm Affinity was compatible with several types of plugs, others would have to connect in different ways to the same network of energy and could therefore be more limited or less efficient in drawing the mana to their type.
“I think unraveling all of this stuff is gonna take a lot of time.” Charlie concluded.
Meanwhile, the second control point was starting to transition to human control. The objective that she and her parents were claiming was just about to finish, so they prepared to rejoin the others for the third point.
“Are we going home after this?” She asked.
Madison shook her head. “We’re going to press on. Even if we don’t find more settlements, it’ll help Amanda map out the Underlayer if we know how far south the tunnels go.”
Charlie sighed, disappointed they wouldn’t head back to Ghost Reef early. Being away from home was hard, and the island had become their home.
