The Way Ahead

He had definitely changed tactics. Where before, Lefi was prioritizing quantity over all else, he now favored quality. Each snowball was perfectly aimed and devastatingly fast, as well as absolutely laden with a full rainbow medley of Skills.

Some, Edwin recognized as Skill-nullifying effects like the one that had broken Rillah’s wing. Others were more like Training Combat, which Edwin had extensive experience from training with the man, to lessen the damage inflicted. One last Skill Edwin had no clue what it did until it struck his snow-wall and flared, blasting a massive chunk of material like it exploded.

Edwin’s eyes widened. He wondered if he could get that Skill. He could probably get some use out of it… though on second thought, he was probably better off just focusing on blowing things up the normal way.

Fortunately, the structure-destroying Skill didn’t affect- if Edwin were to guess- anything alive, so while the snowballs hit with an absolutely insane amount of force and sent him staggering, it didn’t feel like he’d get anything worse than a mild bruise at most. It still stung, so he kept sheltering whilst figuring out some kind of strategy.

He popped his head up only to be met with a snowball to his face, blinding him temporarily until he cleared out the debris covering his eyes. The next time he snuck a peek, it looked like Lefi was busy sniping Yathal and Kyni. As Edwin watched, one projectile caught Yathal in his chest and actually sent the boy flying, albeit only a few feet. Sheesh. His next snowball hit Kyni and sent the dog tumbling through the snow as well in disarray.

The pup recovered quickly enough, powder snow covering his coat, and with an ear flopped back, dashed over to where Yathal had sunk onto a bit of loose snow and began to dig. Then Lefi turned back around, and Edwin had to bunker down behind his wall and hope that it held.

Rillah was still buried underneath her mound of snow. Hopefully she’d break out soon, they were losing badly without her.

Hmmm…

Edwin waited a few moments to hopefully let Lefi change his focus back to the duo and jumped up. Apparently, his motion had drawn the man’s attention, and he was immediately faced with a snowball headed his way. Fortunately, that was exactly what Edwin had anticipated, and he pulled on Unbound Tether as much as possible to push the snowball back towards Lefi.

Just as the Skill connected, Lefi’s Skill-breaking effect flared and shattered Edwin’s tether, letting the snowball carry on unimpeded.

Right. I should have expected that, Edwin realized as he dodged out of the projectile’s way. Okay, next plan then.

He tugged at an intact snowball some distance behind him with his Tether. While all of Lefi’s active effects on the former projectile seemed to have dissipated, it was still a really solid snowball, certainly sufficient for this.

The tiny ball accelerated under nearly a hundred Newtons of force- or more about twenty thanks to its light mass- jetting towards Edwin’s outstretched hand. As it neared, Edwin brought the hand he was using his Skill through forward in a whipping motion, trying to switch from attracting to repelling his weapon at just the right moment to have a massive length of momentum build-up…

Edwin mistimed it by a split second, and it veered far off to the side, and Edwin ate a snowball as punishment for his focus on dodging lapsing. As he recovered from being knocked sprawling, he saw a figure emerge from the snow, slipping into his tiny fortress.

Rillah looked like a mess. Her hair, normally nicely braided, had come mostly lose and was sticking every which way, soaking wet in some places and full of snow in others.

“How’s that Idyllic Form working out for you?” he teased.

Rillah stuck her tongue out at him, “It’s not all-powerful,” she countered quietly.

“Ah, of course. Fear the wet snow, I see, for it does more to ruffle you than skydiving.”

She rolled her eyes, “We’ll talk about that later. How’s it going?”

“Well,” Edwin floated just over the ground to his shelter. It was… not designed for two people, and he found himself very close to Rillah as they talked. Her breath didn’t have any distinct smell, but was warm as it blew across his face, and her eyes…

Nope, he dragged his brain back into cooperation. He wasn’t… he wasn’t going to let stupid emotions potentially mess up the most promising friendship he had on Joriah.

“Well,” he lamely repeated, realizing he’d spent too long in thought, “Not great. Without you drawing his attention, he’s able to focus way too much on either me or on Yathal and Kynigos. Every one of his snowballs has loads of Skills packed into it, or he unleashes hundreds every second. I’ve got no idea how we can beat him.”

“Foolish adventurers!” Lefi’s voice bellowed, “You thought you could defeat me, yet you cower in fear at my very presence! Truly, none of you can withstand my might.”

“Actually, hmm. What Skill were you using to create all those snowballs earlier?” he asked, tuning out Lefi’s continued boasting.

“Winter’s Flurry, coupled with some of my wind Skills. Winter’s Flurry can make a snowstorm, but then I can compact them into snowballs.”

“Okay then. Nothing that allows you to multiply shots taken, like what Lefi’s doing?” she shook her head, “Pity. Okay then… Hmmm. You said that your fire magic is stronger in the winter?”

“Comparatively, though ice still is my strongest. Why, what are you thinking?”

“What kinds of fire Skills do you have? Anything that’s persistent, that might be able to melt snow?”

In response, she summoned an amber flame to her hand, the same color as her eye. It was oddly alluring, the way that it flickered and danced, he could stare at it for hours… Huh, what was burning? Well, obviously it wasn’t a requirement, Edwin could conjure fire that just licked from his hand without consuming anything but mana, but that still had the appearance of fire burning his hand. But with Rillah, the fire just… appeared, in midair. It looked different and strange, like a massive, invisible candle sat right in front of him. It radiated an almost uncomfortable amount of heat… it should be sufficient.

Edwin frowned as he looked at the metaphysical parts of the fire, “I see three Skills in that. One is definitely a mental Skill. Care to explain?” Edwin flinched as a snowball whizzed right past his head, “Actually, remind me later when it’s calmer. How much control do you have over it?”

In response, Rillah allowed another flame to sprout from her hand, then each of the two hovering fires stretched out into long snakes, “Pretty good.” She answered.

“Awesome. Here’s the plan…”

-----

Edwin turned into a veritable blur as he unleashed his charged Tether, jumping a good ten meters into the air in the blink of an eye. Naturally, his action attracted snowballs from Lefi, but that was exactly what they were hoping for. As he began to fall, Edwin reached out and attached his Tether to Lefi himself, pulling as hard as he could.

100 Newtons wasn’t a lot. It was more or less the equivalent of holding something that was about twenty pounds, and Edwin knew that no matter how much force he could push Lefi with, it wouldn’t be enough to knock the guy off balance, not for someone with Packing.

If you suddenly found yourself twenty pounds lighter, on the other hand… That was significantly harder to cope with.

Edwin managed to catch Lefi just as he was mid-throw, and the sudden shift in his personal gravity sent him stumbling, tripping over his own feet for just long enough to let Rillah make her move.

A half-dozen fire snakes burst forth from where she was hiding, flying towards Lefi and encircling him with fire. The adventurer’s next snowball obviously tried to cancel out the Skill at play, practically glowing with whatever anti-Skill effect he was relying on, but the combined heat of the veritable fire tornado managed to just barely disrupt the Skills carried within the snowballs before they could in turn dissipate the magic.

That was the most iffy part of the whole plan, and Edwin mentally cheered. Clearly, using the Skill took some amount of time and effort, and considering Lefi hadn’t just launched a wave of Skill-cancelling snow at him right at the start, it had to have some sort of limit for the kind of projectile or attack it could be used on.

And as it turned out, a slushball, melting from the moment it started its flight, didn’t count. Did that imply that Lefi had snowball-specific Skills? No, wait. Focus.

Edwin landed back on the ground and looked on at the scene with pride. Yes, they’d escalated the snowball fight well past sane limits, but Lefi was now mostly toothless, unable to throw any snowballs through the bonfire between them. Of course, that might imply that he was similarly untouchable, but Edwin disabused that notion quickly. He once again took advantage of Basic Thermokinesis’ insulating properties to chuck a snowball right through the fiery barrier, where it caught Lefi by surprise and splattered all over the man’s head.

The fire faded away, Rillah panting from the exertion but looking radiant at her accomplishment. In a ten-foot radius around Lefi, the ground was bare of snow, winter grass hardily standing up to the heat and cold alike.

It didn’t stay empty for long though. Edwin was able to keep Lefi off-balance for a few moments by rapidly pushing and pulling on the adventurer with his Tether, just long enough for Rillah to flex her remaining magical prowess and catapult the entire hill of snow Yathal and Kyni had been on directly atop Lefi.

It took the golden-haired man almost five minutes to dig himself out, only to be greeted by a hail of snowballs from the victorious trio, and a mound of snow from a triumphant Kynigos.

It was barely noon.

They kept playing, but naturally toned it down after that. He honestly wasn’t sure if the gardens would survive another incident like that.

It was a good day.

The fire roared and crackled, billowing heat into their little room. It had been a very long and tiring day, and while Edwin technically still had enough physical energy to run a marathon, he was mentally exhausted. Their snowball fight had continued on for hours, but even once that was done they kept playing in the snow.

Yathal said that it was the best thing ever, and while there weren’t any kids running around in the higher-class part of Sheraith, Edwin couldn’t help but imagine the awe anybody Yathal’s age would feel had they been a fly on the wall for their war. There was somehow more snow when they finished than when they started, but given how much snow-conjuration had been going on Edwin wasn’t that surprised.

Inion had even joined in at one point, after they’d switched into less violent activities. While they found out that Apparatite didn’t normally make a good sled material, Edwin was able to manipulate the substance with a bit of guidance from Lefi into flexing under extreme pressure, making it more like a plastic than glass.

That was definitely something he’d need to investigate in the future, but he could already imagine some of the possible applications. Maybe he could make some sort of fiberglass-like insulation? Further testing required.

It did somewhat annoy him that Lefi was somehow able to understand Edwin’s Skill better than he did, but he figured that Lefi must have some sort of ability akin to Skillful Assessment. Just... way more detailed and sensitive. It was fine. So, they’d raced around on crystal sleds, magically creating a massive hill to race down, even making a few jumps.

If he were back on Earth still, Edwin would have never dared to go over a jump with a sled. But now that he could fly, the risks involved were seriously diminished and he could be reckless… well, he was still cautious, but he didn’t need to be as worried about crashes. He was at full Health besides, he probably wouldn’t even be able to break his neck in too bad of a collision.

They went sledding, they made snowmen- Lefi’s was a veritable statue, a twenty-foot tall representation of himself, though Inion one-upped even him by making an ice sculpture that was outright supernatural, a glistening representation of her home spring, with frozen waters nonetheless appearing to flow along.

Now, they were indoors, piled around a blazing fire. Inion and Lefi were amicably chatting off to the side, boasting about their respective skills with icy art. Yathal was drooped over Kyni, chest rising and falling rhythmically as he dozed.

Rillah and Edwin, meanwhile, were playing a game that was essentially a combination of Go and Chinese Checkers, maneuvering different-colored stones around a circular board to try and capture spaces. Edwin was still figuring out how to play exactly, meaning Rillah was absolutely destroying him, but he still made for a much better partner than Lefi, who had an actual Skill for the game.

The entire scene made Edwin’s heart ache. He loved this, so, so much. Having at least casual friends, just hanging around and playing games? It was amazing. But a part of him stayed reserved, unable to commit, unable to fully enjoy it.

It was stupid, he knew. Immensely so. This was almost everything he had wanted, wasn’t it? Except not really. His friends were more so allies of convenience. He wasn’t sure why Lefi stuck around but who knew why extroverts did anything? It probably had something to do with his existence as an Outsider, possibly spurred on by a bit of guilt.

Inion… he mentally sighed as he studied the fey. Was it even accurate to say that fey could have friends? Edwin honestly wasn’t sure. But she didn’t really feel like a friend, though he didn’t know if that was better or worse.

And then there was Rillah. He liked her, he really did. She was easy to talk to and enjoyable to be around. His time with her was fantastic. He couldn’t really be himself totally, but there was no way that he was telling anyone else about Earth if he could help it. He didn’t think there were any Skills at play, but… he could worry about that another day. He didn’t want to ruin this day.

“Your turn,” she prompted, and Edwin dragged his attention back to the game. She’d hopped one of her marbles over one of his, leaving her in the right position to capture two of his marbles next turn. He moved a marble to block her, only realizing when she smiled triumphantly that he’d fallen into a trap, and Rillah used her next turn to capture six of his, putting him in a very precarious position.

Edwin narrowed his eyes in focus, trying to escape her clutches.

He lost, of course. But the game was fun, he did really enjoy spending time with them, and the day was very, very nice.

So why wasn’t he happy? He should be. He was objectively in a great position, socially speaking. He had more people around him and willing to work with him than he’d ever had before, he should be happy. But he couldn’t beat it into his own emotions that he ought to be happy.

Was it… was it because he didn’t feel safe around any of them, not really? It was an interesting hypothesis, and fit moderately well with his observations. If he started being open with his feelings around Rillah, he didn’t know if she’d stay, or take them seriously. She definitely would just think he was being a drag, if nothing else. Lefi was a complete wildcard, and Inion…

He sighed. Inion, at least, wouldn’t leave. But it would still be awkward, and she would probably think he was just being a downer, and he didn’t want that.

He curled up on his bed. Why did he have to be so ridiculous? They’d be fine.

Maybe.

Did he really want to risk it, though?

He sighed.

Further testing required, I suppose.

Level Up!

Skill Points 988→1028 (Average level: 53)

Adaptive Defense Level 42→45

Alchemical Analysis Level 40→41

Alchemical Dismantling Level 46→49

Alchemy Level 94→95

Arcadian Elixir Level 35→36

Basic Thermokinesis Level 32→36

Bomb Throwing Level 57→58

Fresh Air Level 44→45

Improbable Arsenal Level 39→42

Longstrider Level 50→52

Memory Level 65→66

Numeracy Level 49→50

Prototyping Level 40→41

Refining Level 36→37

Ritual Intuition Level 47→50

Sapper's Apparatus Level 60→62

Skillful Assessment Level 50→51

Stamina Manipulation Level 3→4

Unbound Tether Level 11→19

Watchful Rest Level 38→40