Richter rolled his eyes at his friend’s weak humor. The two of them walked a bit further away and then faced a wall of bare stone, twenty yards away. Sion looked at his friend for a few seconds. “I am not sure exactly how to explain this. You remember how I explained imbuing before?”
Richter nodded. It had been a turning point in his time in The Land. Imbue Arrow was the skill that had kept him alive more than almost any other. He remembered every word Sion had said, “You told me to imagine my mana as a field around my body, ‘both imperceptibly thin and massively powerful.’ It was the first time you weren’t a total dick to me.”
“Yes,” Sion said with a smile. “The enhanced skill starts the same. The second step of extending the field around the arrow feels the same as well. The final step, however, is where the skill changes.” The sprite paused for a moment before continuing, “I did not understand what I was doing unconsciously at first, but the more I practiced, the more I recognized the truth. I was no longer simply channeling my own power into the field.” He looked at Richter meaningfully.
Richter thought about it for a moment, then the answer was obvious, “Your pixie.”
Sion nodded and raised his voice, “Sapir!”
The air pixie descended from right behind Richter, buzzing by his face. Sion looked at his meitu’meidon mischievously, clearly expecting his Companion to be startled. When the chaos seed remained nonplussed though, he just grunted in dissatisfaction. To cover his irritation, Sion moved faster than the eye could follow. He drew an arrow, sighted on the cliff face, imbued his arrow with mana and Air power and released. The blue aura that always characterized sprite imbued arrows was tinged with a distinctive yellow as it blurred towards the stone. It exploded against the cliff and Richter could see the faintest of yellow, electrical discharges play across the rock for a split second before they dissipated.
Richter considered what he had heard, “Will your enhanced skill work even if you are far from Sapir? He cannot go into battle with us.”
The pixie started protesting immediately, “I can fight. I want to fight, Unca Wichter!”
Sion spoke up so that Richter didn’t have to, “No, Sapir. You are still too young. You will stay here and protect the village.”
The pixie’s wings started beating faster in agitation, “But-”
“He ditte da no picate,” Sion said firmly.
The pixie boy stuck his tongue out at the sprite and flew off towards the Quickening, leaving a trail of disappearing yellow sparkles behind him.
“So you use pixie-speak when you need to be firm?” Richter asked with a small laugh.
Sion smiled after his meitu’meidon, “Sapir is a good lad, but he and his brothers and sisters are all still so young. I will need to get him stronger before he comes into battle.” He turned back to Richter, “The bond he and I have seems to work independent of distance. I have traveled miles from him since we bonded and my arrows still have the Stun capability. You see now though, my friend. Despite your ability, you have no pixie to augment your attacks.”
Richter chuckled, “Who needs a pixie? I have a dragon!”
Alma had been hovering above them all the entire time, which was how the chaos seed had known that Sapir was watching them. She now swooped in from behind Sion and blew air on the back of his neck as she sped past. The sprite’s reaction was much more colorful than Richter’s had been.
“What the hell? Gahhh! You flying rat!”
Sion fell to the ground, cursing Alma the whole time. She gave a toot of triumph that complimented Richter’s loud laughter.
“You are an asshole,” Sion spat from the ground.
Richter raised both eyebrows at his friend and said, “Don’t start shit, won’t be shit.” That earned even worse epithets from the sprite. The chaos seed just chuckled again, and turned his attention to his soul familiar.
*You heard all of that, my love?* Richter asked psychically.
*Yes, master* she responded. *Try to draw on my magic.*
For the next several minutes, Richter imbued his arrows. He went through the steps as slowly as possible. Visualize a mana field, extend it around his arrow, invest his energy into the field. His arrows glowed gold and he released, as he had done countless times before. Alma had access to Air and Life magic and so he thought about drawing on both of those powers, individually and then together.
Nothing.
Richter had her summon her mana, but stop just short of casting a spell. Still, there was no change that he could detect in his shots. People had started to come over and see what their lord was doing, but one look at the frustration on his face communicated that this was personal time. They decided he shouldn’t be bothered.
Sion’s mood improved as he saw the building irritation on Richter’s face.
“Fuck,” Richter said quietly. “What am I missing?” he asked Sion.
“I told you. You need a pixie. When I imbue my arrows, I can draw on the essence of my connection with Sapir.”
Something about the way Sion said it this time pulled at Richter’s mind. Maybe it’s not about the magic, he thought. Maybe it’s about the connection.
He nocked another arrow and imbued it. Rather than trying to draw magic from Alma though, he just found the bright spot in his mind that represented their Psi Bond. This time, something flowed through the small gateway in his psyche and manifested in the real world. Fine ribbons of energy, like white-blue lightning, began to play across the surface of the golden aura surrounding the arrow. In surprise, Richter released his arrow.
The arrow blurred towards the rocks and detonated with its customary boom, but this time he could see secondary damage! The blue-white lightning played across the cliff-face for a moment before disappearing.
“Ya ta!” Richter shouted, throwing both hands in the air.
Congratulations! You have evolved your subskill Imbue Arrow. Your new subskill is Enhanced Imbue Arrow. All levels that you had gained in the original subskill will be transferred to this evolved subskill. Changes include: 1) The baseline mana flow of 10:1 mana:sec has improved to 20:1.
2) The baseline mana:damage ratio of 10:1 has improved to 5:1.
3) The original leveling bonus of investing mana 5% faster has improved to 10% per level.
This was awesome! If he was reading the prompt right, then his enhanced subskill let him pour mana into his shots faster. More than that, Enhanced Imbue Arrow doubled the damage for the mana invested! Basically, meidon sprites could hit twice as hard and twice as fast as they could before the bonding. The sprites believed that pixies possessed the other half of their destiny. If that destiny was opening a can of whoop ass, then Richter definitely agreed! To make it even better, every level he gained in the subskill increased the mana flow by ten percent rather than five now! There were even more changes waiting on successive prompts.
4) Your connection with your Psi Dragonling allows you to invest extra Psychic damage into imbued shots. Deepening your connection with your familiar will increase this damage.