“And can you choose whether they use the ice magic or not?”
“Good question—let’s find out.”
I focused on the shuriken stars in my hands. An idea struck me. I lifted my left hand to my star belt and moved it across, once, then a second time. Now, I was holding six stars in my left hand and six in my right. Still, there seemed no change in the weight of the belt that held them.
With an effort of will, I brought my attention first to the stars in the left hand, then to my right. I felt the ice damage within the shuriken stars, ready to take effect, but not awaiting my input before doing so.
“I didn’t realize before,” I said to Cara. “The elemental damage is there to be used, but it’s not the default. Let’s see...”
I let the ice take effect on the stars in my left hand, but not the ones in the right. It was working... for a moment. Then the magic wavered and fell apart.
“That’s strange,” I muttered, “it’s not working.”
I tried again. And again. No matter how hard I tried, I could not bring the ice magic into only the stars in one hand but not the other. Either both hands took on the ice magic, or neither did.
“Well, at least you can choose to freeze or not for each new flight, just not when throwing double-handed.”
“It’s true,” I said, still feeling a bit disappointed, “but I’d like to be able to control the magic with more detail than that.”
I let the ice take effect on both handfuls of stars, then flung all the stars toward the already frozen tree. The result was impressive—I was holding six in each hand, twelve in total. The stars multiplied, then multiplied again, until a flight of nearly forty shuriken stars, all trailing hissing ice tails like many little comets, smashed in a mass into the tree. The ice expanded, coating the tree again and again until there was nothing but a formless lump of ice where the tree had been.
Cara whistled. “That would have been useful when you were fighting the troll.”
“It would have been, but I think it might be harder to immobilize a moving creature, particularly something so big as a troll.”
“I’m going to try something,” Cara said. “I want to see what effect an exploding arrow has on the ice.”
She pulled an arrow from her quiver and treated it with some liquid from a bottle at her belt, her actions lightning fast. Then she drew and released in one smooth motion, and the arrow flew toward the tree, trailing fire. It slammed into the thickly-layered ice, slicing through it and penetrating deep into the core. There was a thundering explosion, and the whole thing blasted to pieces. Chunks of ice and massive splinters of flaming wood flew everywhere, pattering down all around us like deadly rain.
“That was impressive,” I said.
Cara smiled at the compliment. “It seems that the presence of the ice makes my arrows more powerful. I would never normally expect an explosion as big as that.”
“Good! That’s new. Let’s try again—do you have enough arrows?”
She pulled her quiver around and checked. “Yes, I have enough to experiment with. Some of the Tengu had bows about the same size as mine. Their arrows would work for me. I can resupply from those arrows later on.”
“All right,” I said, drawing just one shuriken out from the shoulder sash. “I’ll throw this at the ground over there and we’ll see how it works.”
“Ready,” Cara said, nocking a treated arrow to her bow.
I flung the shuriken at a bare patch of earth just beyond the tree line. It trailed ice as it multiplied to three stars that hurtled through the air then struck the earth and stuck, sending a broad patch of ice blasting out in every direction across the brown dirt. There was a twang as Cara released her arrow.
The results were impressive.
When her arrow hit the ice patch, it exploded with massive force, blasting earth and stone in every direction. There was a loud boom, and earth pattered down all around us. The explosion left a cloud of black smoke. As that cleared, we saw that a ragged pit had been blasted out of the earth. Though a lot of earth had flown up into the air and been scattered, most of the dirt had simply been thrown to one side, where it lay in a relatively neat pile, like sand that had been kicked by a giant foot. The pit was not huge, perhaps three feet deep and six feet across, but it was a large amount of earth to have moved with one attack.
“That’s a lot of force!” Cara exclaimed. “We’ll need to remember that next time we face enemies in battle.”
It was true, but it had given me another idea too, an idea that would let me try out the extra strength that I had added from the troll upgrade. I glanced over at the wreck of the shrine.
“We’ve made a bit of a mess over there,” I said to Cara. “Why don’t we tidy up a bit?”
“What do you mean?” she asked, looking puzzled.
“Prepare another arrow. I’ve got an idea.”
When she was ready, I pulled three stars out and hurled them into the shallow pit. This time, since there were more stars, the ice patch was thicker and more impressive. It half filled the pit.
Cara fired her arrow into the ice, and again there was a thunderous explosion and a lot of earth was blasted onto the ground. The pit was much deeper now, easily twelve feet deep and eight across.
“Now what?” asked Cara.
“Now I test my troll-strength upgrade.”
She followed me back over to the battlefield, understanding dawning on her face as she did so. When I got in amongst the dead Tengu, she retrieved a few of their arrow-quivers from their shoulders and pulled them to one side
