Destin leaned away as Tempris skidded to a halt in front of him, lifting his hands to protect his face from flying dirt clods. He paused for a minute, then clapped energetically.
"Exactly, cheri, just like that. A marvelous cheetah you are. Remind me to show you to the zoo in Crocus, if we ever visit at the same time. I think you'll have a marvelous time."
Destin grinned and gave her a pat on the head, ruffling her long golden hair.
"An inspiring display. I don't think you've seen my magic, yet, but I'm sure you'll enjoy this."
Destin pulled Tempris close, her back to his chest and practically stepping on his toes. He warned her to stay still as a bright pink magic seal burst up beneath their feet, and a wall of flames soaring easily above Tempris' head sprung up surrounding them. The flames, with flickers of bright pink and white near the base, surrounded the two with a tight circle and obscured their view of the field around them. Aside from the tight quarters, the swirling funnel of flames was surprisingly comfortable - they looked like real fire, and genuinely seemed like it if Tempris reached out to touch them, but gave off no more heat than a warm summer's day and did not burn anything within the circle.
Destin, however, wasn't satisfied with just the bare minimum. He knew the spell could be larger. He'd seen it large enough to surround an entire house. The hunter pushed with his mana, straining against the confines of the juvenile spells he started with. The flames seemed to wiggle, though perhaps that was all within his own mind. Regardless, he continued to push through it, stretching his spell circle like an elastic band, waiting for it to snap in on him and lash out. It gave him resistance, and stretching it was not the most difficult aspect when he worried about not stretching so thin it might chose to collapse in on the two standing at the center.
That, however, would have been an unacceptable end. He was trying to impress his guildmate, after all.
The flames grew warm, for a moment, before dying down to a small, knee height circle of purely pink flames. Slowly, creeping by millimeters, the blackened circle of grass expanded. No smoke rose up from the ground as it expanded to nearly a half meter in all directions, before violently snapping back to half the distance and suddenly snuffing out.
Destin swore, in words that would seem foreign to Tempris but still identifiably violent curse words. He rubbed his face, wiping a bit of sweat from his brow and stepped away from Tempris. Perhaps, he thought to himself, it would work better if he was on the outside.
Motioning for the girl to stay in place, Destin stepped to the edge of the burnt grass. He motioned agian, this time casting the magic seal beneath Tempris' feet alone. He was sure it was just a trick of his eyes, but the hunter could have sworn the seal was larger. The flames lapped up again, obscuring Tempris from view, but Destin laughed breathlessly as he circled around the flames. It was definitely bigger. It was probably stronger, too, with the amount of mana being poured into it. He'd managed to exceed his own expectations for this training session, let alone the expectations of the housekeeper that had sent him out here.
Destin flopped into the grass butt-first. He knew that Tempris was some sort of pyromaniac, so he hoped this was enough flame to distract her for a moment; it was something to keep her from darting about the town with that firey sprint of hers. Heaven knows what would happen if she ran into someone, or several someones, in a crowded marketplace.
Destin kept up the flames for another minute or two, before releasing the spell with a lazy grin, no sign of having ever been inconvenienced despite the beads of sweat cooling on his brow in the chill spring breeze.
"An inspiring spell as well, yes? I had hoped to cast it a tad larger, but ah, c'est la vie. We can't have everything we want."
|