Trial and Flame

by Kevin Murphy

  Jinx growled defensively, but a sharp look from Mina quieted the protective beast. When Mina’s HP fell just below 50 percent, she cast her spell.

  Within a second, her body was fully immobilized. Her form became rigid—feet planted in place. Her skin bloomed into a smooth though bark-like green-brown carapace. Rather than covering her in a bulky, protective mass, the transformation made her appear like some sort of forest nymph. Wispy silver and green leaves jutted out tastefully from beneath her blonde hair. Her hit points and mana refilled nearly instantly.

  “No way!” Melee cried out. “The dumb skill’s useful and she looks good as a tree? Hit her!”

  Nodding at Mina’s recovered HP, Roth laid into her with all he had, adding his newly acquired mining pick into the flurry. Iron and energy pelted the druid-turned-tree from all sides as Roth circled around her. Mina’s HP never dropped below 95 percent before promptly filling back to full. Then, Roth’s skill ended.

  “All right,” said Melee as she repeatedly lifted her large sword by its hilt just enough to drop its flat back into her other hand with a satisfying *thud*. “We tested it that way, now we’ll test it my way. Get over here Dakkon.”

  At Melee’s request, Dakkon stepped up to tree-Mina.

  “On the count of three,” Melee said. “One… two…”

  Melee swung her weighty sword with all of her strength, knocking Mina’s health down to 88 percent, which had nearly refilled itself by the time Dakkon struck.

  [You have slashed Mina for 71 damage.]

  [You have slashed Mina for 64 damage.]

  [You have stabbed Mina for 89 damage.]

  For the first time, Dakkon’s melee attacks felt unacceptably weak. Each strike barely added to the damage sustained as Mina rapidly regenerated.

  Melee stopped swinging and dropped her shoulders, both eyebrows raised in surprise. “Wow, Roth, I thought you must’ve been holding back.” She paused for the span of one deep breath then turned to face Dakkon. “How about you burn her a little?”

  Dakkon was reluctant, as he knew all too well that heat-based damage in Chronicle hurt quite a bit more than most other damage types. It seemed that the developers didn’t want players to casually wade through raging infernos or dash across pools of lava. But the game wasn’t restrictive, either. If someone had enough health and force of will, they could try—so long as they were inclined to suffer for it. Still, Dakkon realized that it was better to find out how well Mina’s new form handled fire now, rather than having her light up like a bonfire at some future critical moment.

  Dakkon concentrated on forming the energy for Burning Sigil, trying to double-cast the tricky skill as he did with each presented opportunity. He drew an ‘X’ across the druid’s body and thought the trigger words.

  The ‘X’ on Mina’s body spouted out fire. The flames licked across her treeified features, but the fire did not spread.

  [You have burned Mina for 51 damage.]

  [You have burned Mina for 48 damage.]

  [You have burned Mina for 48 damage.]

  Dakkon had failed to double-cast the skill once again, but it was probably for the best. Tree-Mina still seemed to take reduced damage, even from fire, but the reduction was not as powerful as it had been against melee attacks. Had he managed to double-cast his spell, he might’ve done far more than singe the druid’s bark.

  “Looks like she can’t reduce fire damage by as much,” Dakkon commented. “Want to give her an arrow, Cline?”

  Dakkon expected a protest from his kindly friend. Instead, an arrow near-instantly embedded itself into tree-Mina’s side. After a moment the arrow was fully pushed out by some mechanism of the healing.

  “Reduced for me too,” Cline said.

  “All right, girl, c’mon out,” said Melee. “I think we’re done beating on you for now.”

  The wispy leaves on Mina’s head quickly lost their almost-ethereal quality. When Mina moved her arms, thin bark fell away from them in clumps. When she moved her legs, the bark shattered and previously unseen roots that had connected the bottom of her feet to the ground withered and were served. Finally, shaking her head, she rid her hair of a majority of the leaves.

  “Well, how’d it go?” Dakkon asked. “Did anything hurt particularly badly?”

  “I could barely feel a thing,” said Mina happily.

  “Oh good,” Cline quickly said with some relief in his voice.

  “I could see and hear, but I couldn’t say anything,” Mina said. “I tried to message Melee directly, but it didn’t go through.”

  “I heard you, all right,” said Melee. “Just figured the message wasn’t particularly important.”

  “What’d she say?” Dakkon wondered aloud.

  “‘No. No. Don’t,’” Melee said, rolling her eyes. “Just before Dak and I jumped on her.”

  “Well who would want to be hit by your stupidly massive sword?” Mina snapped at Melee.

  “Relax,” said Melee. “You’re right as rain. We needed to test the skill, remember?”

  Mina huffed to show her indignation.

  “Well, it’s a pretty damned useful skill,” said Roth. “You’re officially our best tank. How did the mana regeneration go? Can you heal forever?”

  Mina’s lips curled into a devious grin. “Full mana nearly instantly. The skill is nuts! During the day, at least, I can fully regenerate to keep on healing.”

  “Wow,” Dakkon added his amazement to the mix. “Congratulations! I guess Roth isn’t the only one with a powerful new ability, after all.” He remembered at that instant that he had gained his own new skill to practice. The break from walking was looking more and more promising by the minute.

  “Was that one of those double-castings, Mina?” Roth asked.

  “Actually no,” admitted Mina. “I can’t begin to imagine how powerful that might be.”

  “Well, time to eat!” said Dakkon, eager to kickstart his mana regeneration so that he could play with his new skill, ‘Mold Flame.’ Cline had already been pulling supplies from their travel sacks.

  They group ate at a leisurely pace, save for Dakkon who scarfed his dried meat down like a competitive eater. After he’d finished, Dakkon searched for a nearby clearing to serve as a testing ground.

  Mold Flame turned out to be an interesting skill. Dakkon could suppress and snuff out the flames which he created directly via his Flame Lick and Burning Sigil skills as well as the flames created indirectly through fire’s tendency to spread. Between this skill and his ability to serve as a one-man firetruck, he was all but guaranteed not to start an uncontrollable wildfire. Fire he didn’t create was a different story, however. Using a tinderbox from their travel supplies to start a small blaze, Dakkon seemed to have no influence over it at all—except for when a gentle breeze happened to cause the flame to lean in the direction he was thinking about.

  His control over the fire was fascinating to behold and surprisingly easy for him to grasp. Soon, he could create a ball of flame or a thin sickle. He could spin the flame around itself. He could even—against both natural law and common sense—have the flame flicker downward toward the ground instead of up. He attributed how quickly he learned to use the skill to its similarity with controlling the flow of heat through thermomancy, which he had already put in the work for—wrestling with those skills until they were his to command.

  The next round of experimentation was an effort to combine his new skill with another one, as he had done before using Thermoregulate and Flame Lick. He went through the possibilities, attempting to test Mold Flame with each thermomancer skill one by one. Either his new skill wasn’t compatible with his thermomancer abilities, or he didn’t understand how they were supposed to combine. Despite the new ability’s similarity to transferring temperature, it made some sense that it wouldn’t work. Mold Flame’s description specified that it manipulated fire, rather than heat.

  He began testing Mold Flame with other fire evoker skills. Focusing on the sensation of produci
ng a jet of flame from the tip of his finger with Flame Lick, Dakkon siphoned mana to his finger. Once the small flame magically ignited, he spoke the words, “Mold Flame.” The flame extending from his finger looked just as it always did, but his mana began depleting far more rapidly than normal. He ended the skill to conserve his mana and to think.

  The drain must mean that he had combined the effects of the skills, but he hadn’t received a new combination skill. Why? Afterburner was created by combining a thermomancy skill with a fire evoker skill—skills from two different classes. He had frequently combined thermomancy skills with each other in the past without gaining any new abilities. That seemed to suggest that combination skills might require multiple classes. Still, the mana drain had been pretty hefty for doing basically nothing.

  Dakkon produced another fire via Flame Lick, then used his new skill to play with its shape as he monitored his mana. The mana drain was high, but it had seemed even higher before when he activated the skills at close to the same time.

  Next, Dakkon recreated the experimental test run. Pushing more energy into the tip of his finger, he activated Mold Flame just as the fire was due to appear. A simple flame arose again, and his mana quickly drained.

  [You have gained a rank in Mold Flame!]

  Dakkon waved his hand around and the flame acted naturally. Then, he thought of keeping the flame still as he continued to wave around his hand. The flame froze in the air as Dakkon pulled and stretched it longer. Before he ran out of mana, Dakkon released his manipulation of the flame, and it rose tall to its fully-stretched length from the tip of his finger.

  [You have gained a rank in Mold Flame!]

  Dakkon sat, ruminating as he regenerated his mana supply. He had rapidly gained experience in his new skill and produced some peculiar effects. He was onto something—he didn’t know what, but he could feel it. He’d just managed to stretch the fire like putty. The long band of fire that he’d created had retained its length and shape when he released his grasp on it. What if he could retain enough control over the flame so that it didn’t immediately shoot skyward? If he could move the fire cord around without it simply stretching, then perhaps he could find some use for the ability.

  Dakkon set to the task with determination. It was clear that this was no longer like playing around with thermomancy. Instructing a flame to retain only certain properties was a new and confusing art.

  [Your focus grows unshakable. You have gained a rank in Disciplined!]

  “—akkon!” Dakkon vaguely heard, before he was shaken out of his concentration.

  “Hey man, it’s been over an hour,” said Cline. “Everyone’s ready, so let’s get moving already.”

  “Oh?” Dakkon said, dumbly. “Oh, right. I was lost in thought.”

  “Obviously,” Cline said, shaking his head. “We’d better get a move on, Melee’s trying to talk Roth into a fistfight.”

  \\\

  Dakkon was bored. He’d been riding on Nightshade for hours. The ‘path’ which they followed consisted of occasional breaks in the trees. Scenery was simply one tree after another. Despite moving slowly through the woods, somehow they hadn’t been attacked by monsters in the wild, which Dakkon assumed must be an incredibly common occurrence in Chronicle. At his current level of boredom, he wasn’t sure if the low encounter rate made the party lucky or unlucky.

  “Dakkon, let me ride on Nightshade for a bit,” requested Mina.

  Surprised by the request, but happy to oblige, Dakkon hopped down from atop his proud black horse. Nightshade nuzzled Mina, likely hoping for some form of treat, as she approached to take over.

  “It’s lunchtime and we’ve been going non-stop,” griped the usually-pleasant Roth. “It’s time for a break!”

  The party had been walking for nearly 24 hours. A break was certainly long-past due.

  “Fair enough,” said Dakkon. Then, after another moment he added, “I think we ought to get everyone a horse at the next big town.”

  “Oh, you think?” Roth said, testily.

  Dakkon could understand where his friend was coming from. At the start of the walk, they’d been merry and talkative. Walking day after day, however, was far from an enjoyable experience. Not needing to stop and sleep only served to compound the tedium. The concerted, never-ceasing drudgery tended to drain the fun out of any conversation, too.

  There was no road that they could follow, but they’d stuck close to a stream on one of Dakkon’s maps which served to constantly tempt Nightshade’s ever-thirsty lips. Now at rest, Dakkon let his horse drink freely.

  For his friends, the break would be a good time to recharge their batteries a bit. For Dakkon and Cline—judging by the sound of arrows already imbedding in trees—it was another chance to further hone their skills. Everyone was grateful for the break from walking, and Dakkon felt incredibly grateful for his friends’ commitment to the journey.

  Resuming from yesterday’s training, Dakkon stretched his flame.

  [You have gained a level in your secondary class: Evoker (Fire)! Current level: 16]

  [You have gained a rank in Mold Flame!]

  [You have gained a rank in Flame Lick!]

  He was gaining decent experience for his skills, much as he had when he first started combining thermomancy abilities. What he was not doing, however, was making any real headway. He had managed to allow portions of the stasis-locked ribbon of flame to dance on their own without the entire tendril flying skyward, but as cool as that might look to decorate an obsidian mantle for the 40 or so seconds that he could maintain it, it still wasn’t useful. He needed to approach the problem from a different angle.

  On his following attempt, Dakkon recreated the semi-locked state he’d managed before, then attempted to tug on the flame as he imagined it trailing along behind him. To his excitement, it worked. In that state, the fire streamer would retain its length as he dragged it along.

  Hope renewed again, Dakkon pulled his creation around the trunk of a tree. Rather than snuffing out the flame, the fire coiled around the tree as a rope might. It also left a singed black line where it had passed along and he could smell the bark being singed.

  “Now that is interesting!” Dakkon thought.

  Nearly 30 minutes after his breakthrough, Dakkon had gained enough control over the form of his cord of fire that he could wiggle it around in the air. Then, like having some sort of epiphany, he leveled up.

  [You have gained a rank in Mold Flame!]

  Suddenly, the flame before him felt more tangible. In a reckless act, Dakkon reached out his hand and grabbed the red-hot rope.

  [You have burned yourself for 44 damage.]

  He could feel it in his hands—hot, but somehow solid in a form which he had bestowed to it.

  [You have burned yourself for 52 damage.]

  With a swift swish to the right with his arm, his motion transferred down the ribbon of fire like a weightless whip.

  [You have burned yourself for 38 damage. Remaining HP 936/1,070]

  [You have learned a new skill: Flame Whip!]

  Dakkon dropped his focus in satisfaction and the solid flame disappeared. He’d done it. Considering he had not thought he could make a new skill from abilities of a single class, he wasn’t fully sure what exactly ‘it’ was, yet—but, his labor had borne fruit. He went to his skills to have a look and found it in a new section of the combination skills.

  |————

  |Combination Skills

  |————

  |Class: Evoker (Fire)

  |+Flame Whip – 1— 0% [ ]

  |Class: Thermomancer + Evoker (Fire)

  |+Afterburner – 1— [______________________]

  |+Flame Whip: This skill allows its caster to form and control a whip made from flame. A flame whip is weightless but can be as difficult to break as the will of its creator. Produced through combining Flame Lick and Mold Flame.

  Dakkon excitedly re-summoned the whip by thinking its name. The whip’s handle appeare
d in his right hand, and its remaining length hovered just below in a compact, floating coil.

  [You have burned yourself for 40 damage.]

  His own skill was hurting him. That was a problem which needed to be addressed immediately. He poured mana into his right hand in an attempt to create a cold, thermomantic glove with which to handle his new skill. His mana drained rapidly chilling his arm through which the glove and whip were being channeled.

  [You have burned yourself for 15 damage. Remaining HP 881/1,070]

  He still took some damage, but now knew it could be significantly lessened. Before he had the chance to celebrate, however, he ran completely out of mana. It was apparent that his new skill came with a high cost, and—at least for now—he’d have to choose whether that cost would be paid mostly with hit points or with mana.

  Dakkon was eager to continue testing out his new skill, but he had already spent nearly twice as long practicing as the day before. The group needed to be moving on. This had been their longest in-game break so far, implying everyone was more and more willing to just be done with their trek. Dakkon stood up slowly—not even he wanted to walk or ride—then made his way back to the others. He’d need to rally everyone back to the cause.

  “Hey guys, ready to go?” Dakkon said once he’d returned. Roth was zoned out in a state which showed his attention was elsewhere.

  “Just about,” said Cline. “Roth said he ought to be about five more minutes.”

  \\\

  Over the next 19 hours, they continued to travel. Walking relentlessly was a grueling and tedious task. It would have been significantly easier to bear if they knew precisely where it was they were heading. On this stretch, at least, they saw to punctuating the perpetual left-foot-right-foot monotony with a bit of sport.