[Omen of the Witchblade] Chapter 86 — Blood and Mist

Mel quickly figured out a few of [Condensate’s] limitations by zipping around the thermal springs dotting the landscape.

Firstly, if she only conjured one nail, she couldn’t wait several minutes to conjure another one. Creating the nails was an intrinsic part of the process before she could push or pull against them. If she created one, she had a limited amount of time to create the other two. If she didn’t, she would only have one nail to use until her cooldown was up. With the long cooldown, she wasn’t able to test it out as much as she hoped.

Secondly, creating “raw nails” as she thought of them wasn’t as effective as she thought. If they were loose, they needed to be held or otherwise put into something where they couldn’t rattle around or move.

If the nails moved too much, they shattered. They were fairly hardy against standard physical forces, but with enough effort, they would break. Rolling a nail around in a box buried in the ground shattered the nail in less than five pushes.

Gwen created a mold out of [Grav-bricks], using Thomas’ [Aspect Channel] ritual spell to forge the bricks with Gravity Aspect. They were unusually durable and dense. Unfortunately, when Mel tried to embed the [Condensate] nail into the [Grav-brick Mold] during the creation process, the nail broke down into mana.

Hush often hitched a ride on Mel’s shoulder, seeing the world from a new vantage point.

When the nails were embedded in something, they changed the properties of that item in a way that Mel couldn’t quite put her finger on.

The nails strengthened the material even though the ability warned that the surface needed to be able to handle the additional weight.

“It looks like mana infusion,” Thomas said with confidence. “That’s the effect of injecting mana into another inert item. That’s going to have a bolstering effect no matter what you do. Plus, it probably spreads the weight across the entire crystallized area around the nail. See all these tiny mist-colored streaks?”

Mel leaned in over the boulder. “Looks pretty boss.”

“Want to see something really interesting?” Thomas said, pulling back his hand. Mana gathered around his hand as he conjured golden light into his palm and solidified it into a bolt of electricity.

Mel, who had just embedded the nail in the boulder and didn’t want to wait on the lengthy cooldown, tried to stop him.

He was too fast.

Thomas threw the [Thunderbolt] right at the nail. It passed through without breaking it.

Mel stared. She grabbed Thomas’ lapels and lifted him off the ground, which was a sight to behold. At just five feet tall, Mel was more than a full foot shorter than Thomas. “You could have just told me instead of giving me a heart attack!”

Thomas was too busy laughing to notice the ridiculousness of the situation. Heath watched in awe and amazement at Mel’s strength, while Gwen had a thoughtful expression on her face.

Mel dropped Thomas a foot or two to the ground. While she grumbled, he straightened his clothing and said, “I figured you would like to know that the nails are highly resistant to magic. It should factor into how you plan on using the skill.”

“Still could’ve told me.”

“Where would the fun be in that?”

Mel couldn’t stay mad at him for long. He was only trying to help, and this was not something he would have done when they first met. He was clearly warming up to her, and she didn’t want to push him away.

Still, she said, “I’ll remember this.”

Thomas stopped laughing and cleared his throat. “Aside from the distance limitation and its physical weakness, what more do you have to test out?”

“I can’t hurt anybody with the nails,” Mel said, ticking the additional items off on her fingers. “They can’t be embedded into anything that’s considered more alive than plants. Would’ve been awesome to stick one into a monster and pull it to me, but nope. Creating more nails with other nails already created destroys the older ones, so I can’t stockpile them over time. Let’s see, what else?”

“You probably can’t eat them,” Heath offered helpfully. “They taste like glass.”

Mel wanted to ask a follow-up question, but realized it wasn’t worth the time or effort. Heath often had the strangest anecdotes. She still wasn’t entirely sure if he was screwing with them or not.

Maybe this is payback for me intentionally weirding him out when we first met, Mel thought.

With a shrug, she put the matter out of her mind.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Gwen asked.

Mel racked her brain for something else that she had learned while testing out [Condensate], but she couldn’t think of anything. Not until Gwen held out a kindling branch.

“Something like this?” Gwen wagged the crystallized branch back and forth. “You didn’t think I had forgotten, did you? You still want it, right?”

Mel was by her side in a second. She was already reaching out before she realized what she was doing. “Are you sure you want to give this to me?”

Gwen looked confused.

“I mean, this is the only way we know how to get new aspect skills, right? I’ve gotten three total branches in like two months. Even you two have only gotten double that during the same time. So that’s like…”

“About three branches a month,” Heath said. “If we have a limit of four skills and five attributes, that’s a total of twenty.”

“With four already given,” Thomas added.

“Right,” Heath said. “So sixteen. I think it’s pretty fair to assume that the trials offer greater rewards than anything we’re likely to find outside. If there is anything besides another trial.”

Mel motioned to the two men. “So at best we’re talking half a year to get all your aspect skills per person and that’s assuming that branches don’t get harder to acquire as you gain more skills.”

Gwen smiled warmly at Mel and offered the branch. “A Magi’s word is their bond.”

Neither a sense of immaterial guilt nor pride was going to stop Mel from accepting a gift.

I’m not Sylvie.

She took the branch, looking at the Green motes drifting off its surface. “Ohh, this is a new one.”

“I thought you might like it,” Gwen said. “Maybe we’ll be able to witness a bit more of your potential.”

[Kindling Branch of Knowledge (Green)]

(Aspect Skill Item)

(Epic)

A charred branch from the Eternal Tree. Soothing green motes of light fill the air with the scent of a refreshing spring rain. Though outwardly appearing as a partially charred branch, closer examination reveals thousands of pages have been delicately shaped and rolled to resemble a branch instead of a scroll.

Imprint: Use to unlock a Knowledge type aspect skill of the Green variety.

“Woah, that smells amazing,” Mel said, sniffing the branch. She realized how weird it looked and offered it to the others.

“It smells like home,” Heath said wistfully.

“Reminds me of the Fields of Valor after the rain,” Thomas said with a look of contentment.

Mel looked curiously at Gwen, wondering what the smell reminded her of. She seemed particularly pensive.

“It brings me back to the balcony tables at the Stardust Cafe,” Mel said, shutting her eyes. “You know right around the middle of autumn when the cafe is serving those little pumpkin cakes filled with chocolate mousse that sing spooky Halloween songs to you? Agh! I miss the Stardust Cafe so friggin’ much.”

Heath looked around as the Magi had a shared nostalgia trip. “What’s the Stardust Cafe?” he asked.

“The best eatery in all the Worldshards,” Thomas said immediately. “There’s no place better.”

“He’s right,” Mel added. “You can find anything on the menu there whether you’re a necram, demon, vampyr, tree spirit, djinn, or just a hungry student looking to unwind after a really bad potions class.”

Gwen chuckled. “Or a Remedial Defense class with Professor Rocamai.”

Thomas shook his head. “Essential Ethics and Laws with Professor Renton was worse. That guy could drone on for hours and hours, well after the class should’ve ended.”

“Could you blame him?” Gwen said. “He was an earth elemental. An hour to them is like a minute to us. Speaking of earth elementals, are you going to take a year just to use that branch or what?”

“Once you tell me what this reminds you of.” Mel lifted the branch.

“Oh…” Gwen studied the branch thoughtfully, then smiled softly at the memory. “It painfully reminds me of this bookshop tucked away in Pandemonium, near the Academy, that serves stormcloud scones whenever it rains. It’s a small place, squished between a bunch of other buildings, that made me miss New York at the time.”

“Worldshard Almora, right?” Thomas asked.

Gwen nodded. “Yeah.” She glanced at Mel. “That’s where Shrubley, Smudge, Cal, and Miranda are exchange students from.”

Mel knew exactly the aspect she wanted to bolster. She chose Blood immediately. [Sanguine Coat] was incredibly versatile. It might not have saved her life in the last battle, but it had saved her from taking more damage than she would have preferred.

If she could get a Blood support ability to empower her [Sanguine Coat] or otherwise bolster her already impressive kit, she would be happy.

Most of her skills lacked direct damage except for [Bane of Tartarus], so having something that could improve her damage output would be greatly appreciated.

She could deal well enough damage with her twinblade, especially since it triggered two different afflictions at the same time. Four if she used her [Fanged Flask]. Coupled with [Omen Mark] to stack those otherwise unstackable afflictions, Mel could deal high damage and lasting damage-over-time.

The problem had been finding enemies that were strong enough. Ironically, her abilities made her relatively mediocre at killing mass quantities of enemies. A typical grinding behavior that she suddenly found herself struggling to pull off.

While moving [Omen Mark] from one dead monster to the next was free and incurred no penalty, it also didn’t provide any sort of bonus. She had to start all her afflictions over again.

By the time she could build a bleed affliction to double-digits, the monster was usually dead. Coupled with a lack of area-of-effect attacks, Mel’s abilities were best suited to powerful targets.

Which helped to explain how she could take out powerful monsters and Stolst gang guardsmen that stood out among the rabble, but it also meant she needed to do something few people were willing to.

She had to constantly put her life on the line to earn her progress. Without Gwen and Thomas, or even Heath, she lacked the support to take the necessary risks that hunting big game usually entailed.

Alone, one wrong move could spell her end. Against weaker enemies, most people could recover or flee.

That’s why I’m so glad to have found some allies, Mel thought to herself. Together, they were far stronger than they were individually.

After a few seconds wondering what the ability would be, Shardscript burned into the air in front of her eyes.

[Knowledge Kindling Branch (Green)]

Please select an aspect skill to awaken: Divine, Mist, Blood, Serpent, Omen.

You awaken the [Blood Magic] Magic aspect skill.

It was always wondrous to watch the glittering font that appeared in shimmering strokes, as if written by an invisible, impossibly precise hand. More beautiful, however, was the ability itself.

And here I thought I capped out with [Sanguine Coat].

[Blood Magic]

(Blood Aspect)

(Copper, Green/Trait)

(Grade 1 [0%])

Cost: None

Cooldown: None

Blood fuels all things.

Imprint(Copper Rank): Any skill or spell can be converted to utilize the resource of blood instead of stamina or mana. Skills or spells used in this way have increased effectiveness based upon the rank of your Blood aspect.

Mel couldn’t believe her luck.

“Look at her grinning from ear to ear,” Thomas said, watching her. “She’s got something really good. What aspect did you pick?”

“Blood,” Mel said, still in awe.

At first glance, the skill seemed rather mundane. Even weak, perhaps. It allowed her to use blood instead of stamina or mana. Technically speaking, that included her own health. The kind of thing that would be foolish to the extreme to use.

Unless you happened to have another ability that gave you a literal coat of blood.

[Sanguine Coat]

(Blood Aspect)

(Copper, Violet/Special)

(Grade 8 [45%])

Cost: Considerable Mana, Modest Health

Cooldown: Long

Summon a coat of blood to rest upon your shoulders, increasing healing received, resistance to toxins of the blood, and improving combat parameters. The coat persists so long as it has enough blood to sustain itself. Additional expenditures of mana allow for further customization.

Imprint(Copper Rank): Conjure a coat of blood from any sufficient quantity of blood. Properties of the coat will change based on what type of blood is used. Provides additional physical and magical defense. Grants a secondary health bar. All healing effects are increased. Resistances to afflictions are increased. Grants [In The Blood].

[In the Blood]: While wearing the sanguine coat, all Blood aspect skills are enhanced. Physical attacks inflict bleed damage-over-time. Your sanguine coat can be healed through consuming additional blood or through standard healing.

With her [Sanguine Coat] providing a steady supply of blood, she could keep her mana in reserve until she needed it. Since she could draw blood out of any enemy, she could constantly keep her coat–and therefore her ability to use [Blood Magic]–topped off at all times.

So long as she was fighting, she would replenish the equivalent of mana from kills.

[In the Blood] enhanced all her Blood aspect skills, which created a positive feedback loop with [Blood Magic’s] enhancement of Blood skills fueled by blood.

She couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome.

“I’ve found my first perfect synergy,” Mel said with rapturous glee.

Thomas and Gwen looked on enviously.

“What’s a perfect synergy?” Heath asked.

“It’s when you have a skill or spell that pairs so well with another, that it’s like they’re two halves of the same whole,” Thomas explained. “They’re usually once-in-a-lifetime pairings that completely change your fighting style. Whole paths and sects are based on a single perfect synergy.”

“Sex?” Heath asked curiously.

“Sects,” Thomas said, stressing the T.

It still sounded a little like “sex”.

“They’re like guilds for martial artists,” Gwen added helpfully.

“Ohhh, like a dojo!”

The Magi shrugged at one another and looked back at Mel.

“Oh yeah,” she said with a stupid grin plastered on her face. “It’s all comin’ together.”

This would change everything.