Life was good. The sun was out and shining, the breeze was blowing softly and rustling the grass and Ziann's crimson cape. The feeling of dry grass brushing across his boots was like no other. It wasn't damp, it wasn't muddy, it was just all peaceful and nice... Life was awful. The dry heat coming down from above made Ziann sweat under all his black clothing. A bee kept flying next to him and buzzing in his ear. He didn't have the strength to even swat at it. His arms drooped to his side. "Will you just leave me alone..." He pleaded with the bee. A few more of its friends showed up and began to again buzz in his ear.

That was it! No more would Ziann stand for this Outrage! A small white magic circle appeared in his right hand as he gathered up magical strength. He pressed his ring finger to his palm and began to generate a bit of solid wind around the finger tip. "Wind Make: Breeze!" A little orb of air shot out as he flicked his ring finger back into line with the rest of the digits. The bees just dispersed as the spell dissipated harmlessly after ten meters. It was almost like they were taunting him. Laughing at him. A few of them came close and actually dared sting him on the right hand. His casting hand. How. Dare. They!

The emotion quickly left Ziann and he sighed. If his power wasn't enough to defeat a group of bees, how would he ever become a great Mage? He was just a few months past his thirtieth birthday, and this is what his magical power was equivalent to? A little ball of wind that a bee can dodge? As he was about to slump to the ground on a tree stump, the swarm of bees returned to bug him further. They got up in his face and threatened to kamikaze into him and die. After all, once a bee stings it devotes its entire life into the defense of its hive. Once its stinger is embedded, there's no living through it. Maybe that's how Ziann needed to live. Like every attack would be his last.

Pushing through the Depressive state his Bipolar Disorder was threatening to overcome him with, Ziann straightened up and pointed a threatening finger at the cloud of bees that was continuing to grow. "No more. Bow to me!" His left hand adopted his Wind Make Stance with the ring finger pressed to the palm and he dragged it down his right arm, shimmering wind forming a small shield down the forearm's side. "Wind Make: Buckler!" As the bees started to dive bomb him, he rebuffed them with his new shield of wind. The bees were repelled, angry, but Ziann was unhurt this time.

Maintaining the shield would take concentration and focus. He continued to block the bees as they came at him from multiple sides in a pincer maneuver. He simply lunged backwards as they closed in, raising the shield to block his face as he did so. This was better, but he needed more strength. He needed a bigger ball of Wind to strike down these bees. A bigger blast, a stronger blast, a Gust of wind, not a simple Breeze. Pushing off the last of the straggler bees from his buckler spell, he dismissed the shield and little wisps of wind scattered into the warm sunny day.

There was an experimental Spell that Ziann hadn't tried to master yet. The Gust spell of his Wind Make Magic could be big enough to disperse these bees. Crush them and leave their corpses in a pile. He'd need to gather them into one place first, though, to take them all out at once. Ziann ran towards a tree and they began to give chase. While he ran he went over the plan. Run while growing the Wind orb, jump, plant his foot on the tree, jump off of it, throw the Gust spell at the chasing horde of bees. While they chased, they would hopefully clump up enough to let the attack hit most if not all of them. This newer, bigger ball of wind would hopefully crush their little bodies into bug juice. As he neared the tree, he stuck out his right hand and formed his hand sign. The running helped to grow the orb as he constantly funneled more magic into it. The magic seal held firm as he added the wind from his running into the array.

When he got close enough to the tree, he jumped, planted his foot, and began preparing to jump off of it and change direction. It went almost perfectly, good enough to warrant a whoop and Ziann flew through the air towards the chasing bees. "Woooooo.... Wind Make: Gust!" The ball now fully grown to its full 1 meter diameter size, Ziann hurled it towards the ground where the chasing bees were located. It slammed into them and crushed most of them instantly, scattering and dispersing the rest who retreated instantly at the sight of most of their comrades becoming an insect paste on the ground. A fair sized impression in the dirt was proof that Ziann had managed to conjure a good sized orb of Wind and crush the insects with it like the insects they, well, actually were. Landing on the ground and tucking into a roll, Ziann started to sweat more and pant from the exertion. While his brain chemistry was trying to force him into a down mood, he resisted.

He felt good from the use of the magic to defeat this random enemy in the wilds outside of Baska. He was headed there to try to find purpose and a job or two. He didn't know what was in store for him there, but the rural town would be his next stop. Before he went in, though, he walked himself through the motions to better cast the Gust spell. He wouldn't always have the time or freedom to run and add the wind to his spell casting that way. Practicing on the tree he had just jumped off of, he moved through the motions of casting. Finger down to the palm, Wind Make magic activation, ball generation, flick his finger back and send the whole hand worth of air towards the tree.

This wouldn't be quite enough to generate more than a Breeze of Wind. So, he cocked his hand back towards his body, channeled the air, and as he flicked his finger forwards he pushed outwards with his whole hand. The wind generated was more than enough to fit a Gust of Wind and took a fair sized chunk out of the tree. With another whoop, Ziann moved to where he had scarred the tree and etched a large Z into the depression he had caused with his Magic using a stone lying on the ground conveniently. With confidence he could use the Spell routinely, he headed into town.

Life was good...

1179/675 Training WC required.