Using the ink from a Cold monster’s Beast Core, I had drawn a Cold tattoo onto Amelia’s skin. She had been capable of casting that same spell, which meant she had a Cold affinity. I had also drawn a Cold tattoo onto my own skin, but I hadn’t been able to activate the tattoo. From this, I had gathered that I didn’t possess a Cold affinity.
Until last night.
Something had changed when I’d made love with Amelia. The vision I’d had of a powerful ice goddess in a frozen wasteland had coincided with my sexual climax. After that moment, I had somehow acquired a Cold affinity. My Cold tattoo, marking the flesh of my right arm, was now active. I simply needed to fill it with Mana and I could cast its corresponding spell.
I was eager to test my new affinity, so while I walked with Amelia toward Brightwater town, I kept my eyes peeled for an appropriate location to do so.
We had been walking for a couple of hours when we came to a spot where the road dipped and forded a little stream. The water bubbled across the shallow stony bed of the ford.
“Wait,” I said as Amelia was about to step into the water.
She froze. “What’s the matter? It doesn’t look that deep.”
“It’s not. But I want to try something.” I crouched down and put my hand on the water.
Taking a breath, I focused on my Mana pool and channeled my Mana into the snowflake tattoo on my right arm. The tattoo began to glow a light blue. I intentionally didn’t activate the spear component of the tattoo as I pushed the Mana out onto my palm to form a ball of ice, just as I had formed balls of fire yesterday. By not activating the spear in my tattoo, I hoped it would just produce more ice rather than a projectile since the spear was the modifying symbol that made spells into projectiles.
As I pushed out ice onto my palm, the water on the surface of the stream around my hand started to freeze. I focused harder as I channeled more Mana out through my tattoo, and the patch of ice grew.
“You’re using the spell in an interesting way,” Amelia commented. “You’re only activating a portion of the tattoo. Do you think I could try it?”
“Go for it,” I said, my hands still outstretched over the stream.
Amelia knelt beside me and also put her hand on the water. We both pushed our Mana through our Cold tattoos and then out into our hands. The patch of ice grew swiftly with our combined efforts, but the water was moving swiftly, and even together we could not freeze it completely.
“I was hoping we could freeze the whole stream so we could just walk across,” I said as I got to my feet, a little disappointed. “Looks like we’ll have to get our feet wet.”
I stepped to a stone about halfway across and grinned as I reached out a hand to Amelia.
“That was still rather spectacular,” she said as she crossed.
“It was amazing,” I said as we both reached the other side. “I wonder what we might be capable of with a little more practice?”
“There are many things I don’t know about our abilities,” Amelia said as we continued walking. “My knowledge of the elements is purely theoretical.”
“That reminds me, do you know what might happen if I combine my spells?”
“You mean, if you attack a monster with both spells at the same time? It might confuse the monster, which I’m sure would provide an advantage.”
“That’s not quite what I had in mind,” I said. “I mean, what would happen if I threw an ice spear at a fireball?”
“That’s a good question. It would seem to defeat the purpose of having an ice spell, since it wouldn’t be cold anymore, but I suppose it’s worth an attempt.”
We’d come to a wide spot in the road, and off to one side there was a spot where the trees gave way to a rocky outcrop. There was a deep cutting in the rock, as if stone had been quarried there in ages past. At the base of the cutting there was a wide patch of coarse gravel. I pointed at it.
“I’m going to try combining my spells now,” I said. “I’ll aim for that gravel patch, so the fireball can’t set the forest on fire.”
We stopped. I glanced up and down the road to make sure nobody was approaching from either direction, then I pulled some Mana from my pool and pushed it into my left arm. The Fire tattoo lit up as I infused it with Mana.
Then I reached for some Mana to push into my ice tattoo. Immediately, the Fire tattoo started to fade, as though I could only empower one tattoo at a time. I wasn’t satisfied with this conclusion, so I reached with my willpower and pushed the Mana back into my Fire tattoo. Immediately, the ice tattoo completely faded.
“I can’t do it,” I said. “I can’t control both strands of Mana at the same time.”
“What you are attempting sounds like a great challenge,” Amelia said.
“Damn. I wanted to see how the two elements might interact.”
“Wait a moment,” Amelia said, her face lighting up in a bright smile. “I can cast an ice spear! Perhaps we can work together?”
Not for the first time, I was taken aback by the ingenuity of the beautiful scholar.
“That’s brilliant,” I replied. “All that learning is good for something after all.” I nudged Amelia playfully.
“Hey, watch it! I might just see how good your defense against ice attacks is.”
I held up my hands. “Only joking. Come on, let’s see if we can make this work. Tell me when you’re ready to cast the spear.”
It took Amelia a little longer
