Caelum's moment had finally arrived. He sensed the shift in his identity. His insides felt like they were on fire as his energy burned white hot. He thought back to his mother who had been able to create balls of fire that were so hot they could actually sear through animals. This meant that even if the projectiles only flew close to their target, the target could still sustain significant damage.
Caelum tried to make his flames even hotter, adopting a similar stance and started to concentrate his energy. He sensed the energy's raging form inside of him - it was like a tiny animal pawing at his insides, pleading to be let out of its cage. Caelum grinned now, allowing the energy to continue expanding within him. At this point, the scratches felt like raking claws, pawing and scratching at him. Strangely, he didn't mind the feeling at all. In fact, he welcomed it as a sign of strength and what was about to emerge from his very gullet.
His energy still didn't satisfy him, so he pressed down on it and forced it to condense. He felt it move and saw that it was growing more spastic—a tiny ball of enraged energy inside of him. When the dam was finally broken, he began to open his mouth. A sudden change occurred inside the small condensed ball of fury; heat seemed to be surging out of it, filling his lower body with wave after wave of power. By focusing, he coerced that power to coalesce, to assemble and collapse in on itself. Inside, what he saw was an angry ball of fire that was already scorching hot.
He could feel the energy ball expanding inside of him now, indicating the overwhelming strength of the impending attack. After all, this was no ordinary stream of fire that he was trying to create. Caelum pressed even harder on the energy, crushing its hot mass back to its original size so he wouldn't lose control, but now he could feel its energy radiating from within.
He was already struggling to contain the power that was inside of him. He felt the energy push back against him as he applied pressure, struggling to break free. He closed his eyes and held his stance while he concentrated. It was as if a turbulent white flame had been let loose inside of him and his insides were on fire. He struggled with himself and eventually relaxed, taking in the refreshingly crisp air. The building ball of energy inside started to settle and was now sitting, growing a little bit every second as his reserves were depleted.
It felt as though a new energy was being wrapped around the ball of energy inside of him abruptly. These strings, which were even hotter than before, whipped around, covering his energy and slicing and deeply cutting as they did so. The ball of energy inside him appeared to be unhappy with the action and was attempting to break free from his control while rattling around inside him. With a roar, he opened his mouth and thrust inward, squeezing and bending the energy while sensing its expansion outward — it appeared as though the energy was fighting itself.
He knew that now was the moment to begin preparing his energy for the impending attack, so he pushed deeper. The internal energy started to give way under the pressure, pushing down and tearing into one another until the inner strands' force forced through and divided the mass into three pieces. Caelum sighed slightly, as if a heavy weight had been lifted off his shoulders. He felt a faint spinning sensation, as if the energy pieces were whirling around each other, after the energy inside of him broke apart into three masses.
Raw heat shot through his body, and he could feel the mass squirming and twisting inside of him. It was alive with power. He steadily concentrated, applying pressure to the energy and compelling himself to bring it under control. The entire mass felt as though it was contracting as he pushed, pressing down with all of his might. He sensed it already - it was starting to rise through him, to the base of his throat, where it settled and became very fast rotating.
He pushed up one of the small energy balls and forced it into his mouth while keeping his attention on the trees in front of him. He forced the energy out of it with a forceful blow as it stopped inches from his lips. The orb blazed white hot and less than a diameter across as it collided with the air, and it shot forward with incredible speed. He felt another one rise to his throat, ready to go as soon as it left. Blowing once more, he released it. Likewise, the second sphere shot ahead, blazing with a dazzling white light as it approached the edge of the trees. The first one had already hit the trees by now, swooping through a few and leaving yawning holes in its wake.
He summoned the last ball and spat it forward before the last had flown more than a few feet. Once more, a bullet resembling white fire shot skyward, severing holes in a straight line as it struck the trees. Caelum looked down at his hand and felt a sharp pain shoot up his arm. Numerous blisters had developed along his fingers, already swollen and filled with pus. He winced once more as he lifted it up to inspect the damage, then healed them with his saol. He was not immune to fire, yet.
He thought, "Amazing! It was hot enough to burn me!" Excitement struck as he dashed toward the tree line to evaluate the strength and extent of the attack. He found his first target as he entered the forest's edge… an old, thick, rotting husk that was only a few feet wide. He reached forward and touched the opening he had made. The ash of what had burned away remained, even though the flaming orb had not actually touched any of the remaining wood. The hardlight bullet that had been encased inflames was still slightly warm to the touch, must have left a trail of devastation in its wake as it flew. Gazing ahead, he discerned that it had, in fact, continued its journey, piercing three additional trees prior to its successful extraction from the outcropping. Clearly, every bullet had the same amount of power because they had all caused comparable damage.
Caelum was not surprised by the technique's sheer power - recalling how his mother had created seven of them, he started to wonder if he needed to use more energy or if the quantity of bullets was a sign of his proficiency. With his burned hand in his hand, he started to return to where he had been standing with the intention of repeating the technique.
Caelum returned to his previous position and started to make energy, feeling at ease once more. He opened his eyes to find the world whirling around him, suddenly exhausted. Feeling that the heavy use of energy had exhausted him, he lowered himself to the ground, allowing his body to rest for a bit.
As he looked forward, the trees and sky gradually slowed down and eventually stopped. Feeling that he had recovered his poise, he started his next attempt. He applied pressure to the energy in an attempt to create more "bullets" as he felt it start to split and align. His idea was met with resistance by the energy, which made him feel queasy by pushing back at his insides. Still not ready to give up, he closed his eyes and visualized the energy swirling around.
He could feel it, a long extended burst of energy that coalesced in a tiny and white hot ball. The energy he had released earlier was combining with it and pressing down on it in a way that resembled a net, pushing the energy until it broke. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to coax the energy-like mesh to split any further due to its unwavering resistance to reveal itself to him. He opened his eyes and saw the trees that were already damaged.
He reasoned, "I might as well minimize the damage I take if I'm going to get burnt for using this. He took a deep breath, allowing his energy to settle, and then released the three tiny hardlight projectiles.
Caelum did not disperse his attack as he had done previously - instead, his shots flew in close proximity, resembling tiny, blazing lights. The tiny balls of blazing hardlight were hardly perceptible as they flew, created a trail of steam before they reached the tree line. They raced forward and as they got there, they flew into the first tree, creating three round holes. Proceeding ahead, they swiftly passed through foliage behind it.
The trees were caught in a slight wind gust, which caused the ashes from the scorching bullets to fly into the air and swirl before being carried away. The numerous holes, each leaving a unique impression on the trees, were still there.
Overtaken by his inexperience with such draining attacks, Caelum staggered for a moment before collapsing. The grass swirled and danced before his eyes as it swam in front of him. The cold air caressed his face as he blinked in an attempt to stop the spectacle in front of him. He finally succumbed to the daze and spent several hours lying there, stretched out on the ground. He was abruptly awakened by a distant crash. He snapped out of his reverie and turned to face the sound. Finally, the hole-ridden corpse of one of the damaged trees collapsed under the weight of its own collapse because it had given out and swayed too much in the wind.
As he stood up, realizing what had happened to him, he brushed off the front of his clothes. There was now a tiny bit of dried mud stuck to his face, giving his chin the texture of grainy sand. He tried to ignore it, but it was useless, so he got himself and his belongings and went to the pond nearby. He knelt down and cupped a tiny handful of water to his lips. He felt the cool water trickle down his parched throat as he took a deep drink.
He saw dead grass and mud clinging to his chin, as well as bags under his eyes, when he looked in the reflective pool. He took another handful of water and sprayed his face with it before turning to look once more. The grit had mostly disappeared by now, but the black circles that were encircling his eyes persisted. Gazing downwards, he recalled his assault on the trees moments before he had rested.
He looked down at his hand, remembering the sensation of it being burning hot. His thumb and palm pulsed a fiery red, and there had been blisters on top of blisters. It was no longer burning, it was already healed with the help of druidism, but he could still feel the heat radiating from it, a warning against hurting himself until he was more resistant to fire.
He paced himself and turned to face the damaged and destroyed trees from his earlier attacks as he made his way back to the eastern edge of the clearing. Now that the projectiles had damaged their structures, several of them had collapsed. He gave his burned hand another rub and then brought his hands to his temples, considering how he could get better at this. Trying to maximize his use of energy, he wondered first about the sheer amount of energy he was using and whether making the fire even hotter would help.
Warmth surged through him as he poured more saol into his glands and willed it to contract even more, for it had started to pulse inside him with every second that went by. The energy pulsed out and then in, repeatedly, in a similar manner, at first slowly and then starting to obey more easily. Eventually, it came to rest, extremely compressed, probably no bigger than the size of a pea. The energy ascended and eventually settled close to the base of his throat, sending a faint burning sensation up into his mouth.
His body yearned to let go of it even though it was an integral part of him - it was like a foreign impurity, a refined resource among the raw. He could feel the energy expanding slightly every second as it spun rapidly in its chaotic pattern, drawing in more and more as it became denser. Now that each orb had grown to a diameter of approximately one inch and possibly reached a density and mass of that, Caelum sensed that the time to act was now.
Caelum took a moment to gather his thoughts before launching his attack and took a deep breath. He could feel the air rushing down and combining with the energy that was lying just beneath his lungs. He could feel the heat as they combined, and it was almost too much for his body to handle. He felt like lashing out.
There was a tiny tree, no bigger than two inches across, to his left that he decided wasn't big enough. The first target would be the big tree right in front of him, followed by the smaller tree, which was about six inches across. Thinking to himself that he would need to have perfect aim and judgment, he fired the second orb through the first tree and into the second. He knelt down, taking a moment to mentally mark his targets.
He released the trapped air inside and wished for the first mass of energy to follow. He aimed slightly to the right as it shot forward, hoping to hit only the tree in front of him and miss the second tree that was right behind it. He drew up the second, turning right and taking a small step to the left as the white orb shot forward. He released it with a cocked head, feeling the intense heat crackle as the tiny sun shot out of his lips and into the sky. At last, he pivoted to the left and jumped slightly with his right leg, giving him perfect aim towards his target. The last tiny orb burst from him and shot toward the target at an incredible speed.
Caelum just… wanted to cool off after that. He laid down and could feel a cool breeze coming in through the clearing. He grinned to himself because he knew that today was the day he had made great progress with his breath weapon. He laid there for a time then decided it was time to get back home. He received a nod as he walked by an aelf wearing a recognizable flower in their hair. He waved back and started walking back into the more busy part of the basin. He strolled for several miles until he came to a nice tree that dropped delicious fruit.
He bit into some as he gazed down at a puddle that had formed in the mud. He imagined what it must be like to turn into water. He'd seen an Aqua mage do it once, but the thought dissolving the very basis of their being made him nervous. What if it went wrong and one perished? He heard that other mages could turn into elements as well. Was it all it was cracked up to be?
He reasoned that he might as well do this while focusing and filling his mind with the ideas required to will himself to become water. When he got home he rested all while pondering about the idea of turning into water. He imagined that he'd feel his legs melt at the base of his feet as his metaphor formed and responded to his will. He looked to see that he actually was turning to liquid. He panicked. This must have been some sort of sick dream. But if it was a dream, all his hard work earlier was for nothing!
He focused slowly at first, and then all of a sudden it felt like he was falling, falling quickly to the ground. At last, his entire body gave way, and he became a body of water. He looked around, still able to see fairly well for his current condition. It was strange, because it felt like he was lying back on the ground, looking up and seeing everything around him in a peripheral vision. Caelum chose to learn how to move in the technique and did what he could only describe as "flowing himself" forward, guiding himself with his energy.
Not a single person had noticed him in his current form as he moved from his home to the a forest path. He thought that someone would definitely notice the strangely moving water as it flowed through the woods. He noticed that he could move more easily around other bodies of water as he swam around. When he finally made up his mind to see how far he could go, he discovered a small stream that led into a nearby pond. He could feel the water coursing through him down the small incline as he merged with it. He made a snap decision to hitchhike and hurried into it.
He pushed himself out of the narrow stream that would have otherwise sucked him into yet another direction. As he moved along the path, he was stepped on by multiple aelves, which resulted in tiny splashes all over his body. With every collision, he felt pressure to maintain the shape even though it did not hurt him. Caelum kept walking down the path toward the market as the throng of human slaves in the area finally dispersed.
His odd movements along the ground seemed to alert the aelf sitting outside and eating as he approached. The aelf grew a wooden spear, and as he approached Caelum's puddle slowly, the spear seemed to dance with energy. The man was inches from his sword as he spoke loudly now. "If you do not show yourself, I will destroy you."
Caelum decided it was best for himself and let go of the technique as he gradually started to change. Even after he had finished reforming, the aelf stabbed him in the chest, not knowing that it was a dragon. A human sneaking around was not acceptable. Caelum dreamt that he died from the attack. A quick death, but a death nonetheless. He dreamt that his body turned back into water as he died, as if he had been water the whole time. His essence began to slowly crawl across the ground before it was sucked into the earth where he would forever remain.
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