Chapter 7: Chapter 7: a thunderstorm

I keep my pace fairly high to distract myself from my recent defeat. I even forgo my humming.

It doesn’t take long before I get hungry though, since it’s been about a day since I last ate. To alleviate my hunger, I think a lunch break is in order. You might want to call it a breakfast, but I’ve been awake for a few hours, so sue me.

I can’t sit on the couch any more, but one of the pillows does fine on its own. Cooking it today might have been a mistake, since I charred some parts, while leaving other parts raw. I actually taste worse than if I hadn’t done it.

After my lunch, I pace myself a little better so that I can continue with my music. Well, for now you have to be generous to call it music, but I’m getting better. I even manage a sort of consistent buzzing tone now. Pushing it up to a higher frequency than the relatively low rumbling it’s currently at, is a bit tricky though.

The whole day goes by as I weave in between dead trees and craggy hills. Avoiding the abominations I encounter along the way. That is until I spot a pretty small one. It’s smaller than the one the golem fought and seems to have inadequate legs since it doesn’t really move, just squirming on the ground next to the hill I spotted it from.

I guess I can’t take revenge on the one that broke my couch, but I can at least take out some of my frustration on this miserable excuse of an abomination.

How to go about it though? The same way as the one with the golem, or more finesse like with the big one? Thinking about it, I had a few different attacks when it was a game, with direct lightning strikes only being a couple of them.

Maybe I should try an indirect strike? They were more powerful, at the cost of requiring a stationary target, or great foresight. This time I have a stationary target. So how do I get the clouds to attack it on my behalf? An indication of an idea wriggles around in the back of my head, and by electrifying my head, it sort of wriggles its way to the forefront of my mind.

I gather my mana for a lightning strike, but instead of directing it into the target, I direct it to go up through the clouds to drag more mana along with it.

The test is a success and a lightning bolt strikes the abomination. It’s quite loud, and I hear two thunderclaps. One from the bolt going from me to the clouds, and one from the clouds to the abomination a few seconds later.

The abomination squirms a bit more after the lightning hit, but appears to not be any worse off. I guess it’s time to put a lot of mana into it then. A smile appears on my face as I start to channel a lot of mana, before a thought strikes me. Wasn’t it possible to extract mana from the abominite?

Canceling a half finished spell turns out to be quite hard, so I redirect it to a rather large dead tree that stands a bit off in the distance. Of course it explodes into splinters. I did use more mana this time, and the distance was longer, so the delay between the thunderclaps are longer.

Taking out the abominite is easy enough. Touching it confirms that I can take mana from it, even with my feet. I’m pretty sure my smile turns into a vicious grin as I step up and stand on top of the crystal.

Starting the spell once again, but this time I mostly use mana from the crystal. Turns out the thing has a LOT of mana. Maybe as much as five times as much as me! Sure it’s a bit harder to use the mana since it’s not mine, but the sheer power of it is truly exhilarating. As I pass the point where the spell uses more mana than my total capacity, it starts to hurt a bit. Not really all that bad, just kinda like when your limb has fallen asleep. As more and more mana is feeding the spell, the feeling gets stronger and stronger. 

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The errant sparks of electricity that always surround me have grown in power to match my simpler attacks. Just as the feeling gets too much to bear, finalize my spell. The first thunderclap is powerful enough that I can see the shockwave move away from me.

I manage to stay standing, and looking up at the clouds I see many smaller lightning jumping around inside the clouds. It seems like the delay is rather large, and since I struggle to remain standing, I sit down on the crystal. I would prefer a cushion, but I find it hard to move my mana at the moment.

It must have taken two full minutes before my spell begin to go off. Unlike last time, it’s not a single lightning bolt, but multiple striking in the rough vicinity of the target. At the third minute, the biggest lightning I have seen, strikes the abomination. It EXPLODES! The shockwave takes a second to hit me, and it manages to knock me off the crystal. Soon afterwards, pieces of goop start landing all around me.

I just remain lying on the ground, looking up at the sky. I’ll look at the crater later, maybe there is some glass. Aside from finding it difficult to move, the clouds have gotten interesting. My spell might have started a thunderstorm. There is still the occasional flash of light coming from them, along with the corresponding thunderclaps.

Hopefully it doesn’t start to rain as well. Of course I feel a raindrop on my nose as soon as I think that.

It takes a good few minutes before I decide it’s feasible to move again, and rise up. The crystal is noticeably paler than before. The abomination is scattered all over the place, and the place it stood… is a glowing crater.

It probably took me a couple minutes to cast the spell, then it took three minutes for the main attack to hit and I was out of commision for a few more minutes. I guess this is more of a siegebreaker attack. Especially since the crystal isn’t really mobile.

As the rain grows more intense, I stow away the crystal and take a close look at the crater. Steam is rising from it as the rain hits it, and by the time I walk over to it, it’s no longer glowing. There is a fair bit of glass though. That might be something cool to make a memorabilia out of. 

Touching it, I can feel some mana in it, along with the, by now, pleasant heat. Extracting it from the ground is pretty easy, and I stow it away for later. For now I would like to get out of the rain. How I’m going to do that is still a mystery.

Seeing as there is no real cover nearby, I guess I have to improvise. I have a couple tables, they can probably cover me for a bit. I decide to camp at the top of the hill I fired the spell from because water flows downwards. I have two metal tables of equal size, three if you count the warped one, and one low wooden table.

Placing the metal ones next to one another gives me some cover, but the ground is already wet. Luckily the wooden table is short enough to fit underneath. That way I am off the ground. Add two cushions to the makeshift shelter, and it’s downright cozy.

The combination of exhaustion from being woken early and using what probably is way too much mana, has me unwillingly falling asleep to the sound of rain and distant thunder.