Bastion had many assumptions regarding the Arcane Corruption Ability and the attribute it granted. However, he had no idea if any of them were true. They were simply a mix of educated guesses from his studies on attributes, assumptions based on his knowledge of the mysterious ore, and a bit of his own desires for the Ability. None of it was proven yet, which is why he was currently in the training grounds staring at all of the girls and getting ready to fight a 1v4 to determine the limits of his new Class.
No declarations were made as the battle began with Lilia's mist lynx, Misty, spreading her mist to give them cover while Bastion simply waited. It was standard practice for Bastion to wait to be attacked first while sparring with the girls, and for Lilia to spread mist as soon as possible without Bastion there to defend them.
Once Bastion was completely covered, he heard the unmistakable sound of wings flapping accompanied by the howl of Seraphina's Scorching Wings granting her flight. The sound muffled Lilia's and Elyra's footsteps as they moved to surround him.
Diamond Armor!
Bastion covered himself in diamond while keeping a wide open stance, his sword raised to one side and his shield lifted on the other.
Bang bang bang.
Shots were fired, the bullets pinging against his chestplate and signaling the start of his offense. He charged forward, tracing the source of the bullets when he stepped on Lilia's landmine. He froze as ice crawled up his feet, restricting his movement. He took the time to lift his shield before using Shield Bash, slamming the bottom of it against the ice and breaking himself free.
Bang bang bang.
More shots rained down on him, accompanied by ice arrows and fire bolts shot from three different directions that seemed to rotate around him as time passed. He defended himself, slashing at the ice arrows while shielding against the bullets and fire bolts.
Suddenly, a pair of daggers slammed into his back, targeting the seams of his armor. Fortunately, his diamond armor covered all gaps, leaving none for easy hits. He turned powerfully, activating Shield Bash as he did so, but caught only shadows as his attacker slipped away.
"So far, everything seems normal," Bastion muttered. "My mana is fully contained and doesn't seem to affect mana converted skills like Diamond Armor or physical skills like Shield Bash. It seems to be limited to pure mana skills specifically. Although my diamond armor seems to resist magic better, it's hard to tell since my magic resistance increased."
Suddenly, a beam of searing heat slammed into his chest, knocking him back. The diamond covering him started heating up and hardening beyond his control as it underwent a secondary transformation from a different mana source. Strangely, it was taking much longer to heat up than usual.
Bastion raised his shield in response before receiving bullets to his helmet, ice arrows to his back, and daggers locking his sword while twisting to disarm him.
"This should be about enough," Bastion said before finally retaliating.
Diamond Rain! Arcane Lockdown!
Immediately, diamonds started raining down all over the training grounds as a dome materialized above, covering the bounds. The mist that had hidden the girls this entire time started thinning, then thickening accompanied by a furious meow, before thinning again until Bastion could finally see them.
They were moving in a clockwise rotation around him while keeping their distance, with Elyra hiding in the shadows all the while pelting him with cheap attacks that didn't cost much mana.
Diamond Shatter!
The diamonds along Lilia's feet started exploding, riddling her water barrier with shrapnel. The first few bounced off harmlessly until a third set exploded, burying themselves in the rotating water, causing it to visibly grow thinner. Lilia had to drop and refresh her water barrier to prevent it from collapsing, leaving herself vulnerable.
Ariel swooped down to try and pick her off the ground and save her from being continuously pelted, but that was when Bastion seized his sudden advantage.
Arcane Shackles!
Chains of blue mana shackled the pair together but visibly did little else as Ariel picked Lilia up and took to the skies. It seemed the skill was limited to shackling only two targets at level 1.
Bastion was about to continue the bombardment with Diamond Edge enhanced slashes when he felt Elyra preparing to attack again.
Arcane Sentry!
A blue ethereal eyeball materialized behind him and immediately honed in on Elyra's approach from the shadow world. It didn't attack but simply watched her intently as if daring her to appear. Bastion, meanwhile, received blaring warnings of an approaching assailant from behind, although it was unclear whether the sentry had read his connection with Elyra or actually detected her through the shadow world, which was less likely.
Suddenly, the dome of blue mana covering them shattered, freeing the girls from its containment. It seemed Seraphina had been busy bringing it down while Bastion was distracted with the others. That didn't stop Bastion from putting it back in place, but the mana drain from using so many skills concurrently and across such a large area was starting to weigh on him.
An alarm blared from the sentry as it started firing at Elyra, who ultimately decided to go through with the ambush. She tanked a few hits to the back, singeing her maid outfit, before thrusting forward with her twin swords to deal more damage.
Arcane Pulse! Arcane Sigil!
Elyra was immediately sent flying back as a wave of blue mana exploded out of Bastion, followed by a blue mark, a prison cell with a diamond in the middle, appearing on her chest between her breasts. She staggered slightly before slipping back into the shadows.
Bastion, meanwhile, could now pinpoint her exact position even within the shadow world. Although he wasn't able to target her, he did know exactly where she was, even if he couldn't see through the sigil as he had initially thought.
Their sparring match continued for a few more minutes, with the girls bombarding Bastion while he simply took the hits and retaliated in turn. None of them took the fight particularly seriously, opting for the more obviously dangerous options to give Bastion the chance to use his skills liberally while simultaneously studying the effects those skills had on them.
Once they were finished, they sat around the garden's gazebo over tea that Elyra served while discussing the results of the spar.
"That mana drain is incredibly annoying," Lilia complained openly. "It reduced my mana regen by a solid 20%. I can only imagine how much more devastating the effects are for those with low Wisdom."
"It was about a 50% reduction for me, Master, and I believe I have the lowest Wisdom of all of us," Elyra said.
Ariel would have had the lowest Wisdom stat if she hadn't increased it to sustain her wind magic for longer flight. Elyra, meanwhile, was a physical duelist and the least concerned about mana among them.
"The most annoying part, though, is that the mana drain stacks," Seraphina said with excitement. "When you shackled me to the ground, riddled me with diamond shrapnel, placed a sigil on me, bombarded me with your sentry, and contained me in that dome, I could feel my mana draining instead of regenerating. I would have run out of mana in less than five minutes if we hadn't stopped the fight."
"How was it on your end?" Lilia asked. "Did you regain the mana we lost?"
"No," Bastion answered. "But it did sustain my skills longer. Arcane Lockdown, for instance, didn't drain as much mana to keep up while you girls kept bleeding mana with each hit. Arcane Shackles was fire-and-forget, but it lasted longer when more people were shackled together. Arcane Sigil and the diamond shrapnel were the same. But neither I nor the sentry were able to retrieve the mana. It was as if we simply pushed it out of you, allowing those nearby to absorb it. Here, let me try something."
Bastion held Lilia's hand and sent his mana into her. Rather than feeling a direct loss, he felt a tiny trickle return, effectively lowering the mana cost at her expense.
"You're siphoning tiny amounts of mana while burning a far larger portion from me," Lilia pointed out. "I think most of it gets lost in the conversion from the Corruption."
"I think so too," Bastion agreed.
"Does this mean you can't heal anyone if you get the skill?" Ariel asked.
"I can, but it has the side effect of costing my target mana while lowering my own mana expenditure, assuming I'm in direct contact with them. If I'm too far, I can't receive the converted mana and reduce the cost of the skill."
"That's too bad. It's only marginally better than we thought," Lilia said. "Still, it's an amazing Ability overall. Anything made of mana that touches your own immediately has its duration reduced. Misty's mist, for example, doesn't last very long as long as it's contained within your lockdown. The same applied to my barrier when it mixed with your shrapnel. Fighting you is like having all our skills cost more, last for less time, and deal less damage to you all at once."
"You're basically a mage's worst nightmare," Seraphina said with a wide smile. "What kinds of skills are you planning to buy now that you know how Corruption works? Maybe a tether type, so you can drain mana instead of just burning it? Or a construct type, like diamond shrapnel? Oh! Maybe more sustained area-of-effect skills, like Arcane Lockdown."
"I don't know yet," Bastion replied. "I guess I'll have to find out tomorrow, once I see my options at the Mages Guild."
-----
Support me on Patreon
pātreon/babywrath