Chapter 291: Sorceress of the Storm
Charlie’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.