Syliph rubbed his hands together the air felt cool to the touch, but yet a hint of warmth still sat in the air from earlier in the day when the sun had been out. Rolling his hands through his green hair he felt that it was soft to the touch, not rough and abrasive like he thought it would be. Yawning, he realized that he was tired, but he quickly shoved the idea off, he had promised that he was going to cast some spells and learn some new ones, he needed to get stronger if he was going to get anything done.

Syliph walked up the isle of the outdoor theater, stretching his legs every few steps or so to get ready for whatever strain the spell casting placed on his body. Up at the front he did a few yoga poses, centering himself as he did so. Standing up on one leg he'd slowly lean foward, extending one leg out behind him. He;d lean foward slowly, extending one arm and leg out, he'd continue until he was a vertical line, his mother had taught him yoga as a child to soothe his soul, it was a goodway to get rid of any bad feelings and "soothe one's soul." as she had put it. Standing back up, he'd lift one more foot up, this time straight in front of him, while leaning back as far as possible without falling over. After finishing this pose he'd do one more to calm and center himself for spell casting, as it was a difficult art when you tried a new spell. Sitting down on the stage, he stuck his feet out in front of him, then slowly leaning forward with his arms extended, he waited for that stretching feeling before he continued, leaning the rest of the way he held onto his feet, getting a nice stretch before he'd tried casting his new spell.

Standing up he raised his hands and cracked his knuckles, a resounding chain of popping noises echoed throughout the natural theater, smiling he was ready to cast one of his new spells, and personally this one sounded pretty interesting.

Syliph would hold his arms up as if he was holding a bow, the string tout with tension. Extending from the left fist, two semi-arcs of light extended, forming what resembled a bow, next, from the right hand a light arrow formed. The arrow had red light that slightly resembled flickering flames. Collecting the last bit of mana to cast the spell, he'd make a "letting go of the arrow" motion and the arrow would fly across the field, impaling itself into the side of the hill, if it had been a person, it would have done C-rank piercing damage. The spell would also have consumed 50 mana, leaving Syliph with 500 mana.

Stepping down Syliph ran over to peer at the hole in the ground where the light arrow had been, suddenly from the ground, a human-like form began to shape itself from the ground.
507/3000
note: I realize that the mana is 500, not 600, but this was originally posted when I had 550 not 650 mana.

spell cast:

The earthen shape continued to form itself until his ancestor, Capricorn, stood in front of him, "Its nice to see you again Syliph." Was one of the few things that slipped from his mouth. He looked slightly stressed and irritable, he fumbled uselessly with his fingers, looking for something to do. Deciding to fill the awkward void of silence, Syliph spoke, " How are you even here? I thought you all were residing in the astral plane?" He asked. Capricorn rubbed his temples, unsure of how to tell his many great grandson what he was going to have to do. "Well, since you asked, the shrinking connection between the astral plane and the mortal realm has allowed us to project our forms onto the element we serve, in my case, that's earth." Capricron became awkwardly silent one more time. "I have been elected to tell you a verdict from our zodiac council...the majority of us voted for you to join a dark guild, we believe this would further our success in later battles, we're sorely unprepared in any fight that's to come and we need to know anything we can about the holy knights and radical Illumins who will strike the first chance they get to exterminate our peop-." Capricorn was cut off by Syliph.

"So, let me get this straight, I'm supposed to join a dark guild? I've barely made one friend, who mind you, is a part of a LIGHT guild, and joining a dark guild is not something that would bode well for any friendship with a light guild member! Who even brought up this vote?!" Syliph asked dramatically, filling the theater with the sound of his voice, he had probably just surpassed the sound level of Capricorn, who had just flinched at the noise, "It was NOT my choice for it to go this way, I would have much preferred some method where we cast a spell or get you to hire someone to stalk the holy knights for us, but Libra," Capricorn rolled his eyes at the name of his older brother, "Libra believed this was the best choice, and we were outvoted 9 to 3, and by we, I mean Me, Pisces and Cancer all voted against it, but we were not the majority so it was tasked away, and in this case, unlike normal scenarios, my vote did not hold 2 votes." Like any knowledgeable scholar, Capricorn continued to explain the vote system, "Any vote brought up by one of my siblings is first examined, and whoever most symbolizes the votes (the god's values obviously) has two votes, this is to prevent a tie breaker, and so far it has been successful, even tough, I believe it should have been my two voted becaues your related to me, and not Aries's two votes because they are, our 'enemies'." Capricorn mocked his siblings by rolling his eyes and making weird faces.

Rubbing his hands in his face Syliph sighed, he didn't want this kind of responsibility, this wasn't what he had signed up for, he had signed up to protect this people, well this was protecting our people. Waving his hands he waved away Capricorn, he needed some alone time, "I need to be alone, tell them I'll do it." He said. Capricorn mumbled in response, "It had never been an option."

Sitting down on a bench Syliph looked up at the sky, he really wasn't ready for any of this, he just wanted to have a normal life with friends who didn't hate him for his religion or what guild he had been forced to join. He had just made friends with Kerii and he really didn't want to ruin that relationship, he had worked impossibly hard on it and he hurt all over from all that running they did, well that was a hyperbole, he had recovered a few days ago, but he enjoyed the memories of their fun time, even though they hadn't really spent that long together, he really did hope to meet her more than just one time. Angrily Syliph sat up and walked over to a tree, angrily breaking off one of its branches and throwing it one the ground, he already knew this night was going to get harder, and to be honest he really didn't want it too, he had worked so impossibly long to get to this point, and now he kind of wanted to give up, learn a new magic, and pretty much run away from responsibility, he wanted to disappear, but he knew he couldn't do that, he had promised, Ameliae had found him and followed him for weeks.

Walking back over to the stage he prepared to cast another spell out of anger, he was quite upset and he had just discovered that breaking stuff was a great way to make one's self feel better.

Standing up on the far side of the stage Syliph would turn to the same tree he had broken the branch off of, if his distance estimating was right, he could easily do this, as it was not out of 10 meters, the range of the spell, it was probably only 5-8 meters away from him. Snapping his fingers light would fill the dark theater. Glowing hard light leaf constructions would form a ring around syliph, exactly 1 meter away. The leaves would have a reddish-orange tint, kind of like autumn. Snapping once more the leaves would condense in a mass in front of Syliph, still one meter away. Barely pausing for a second, the leaves would all straighten out and shoot the 5 to 8 meters towards the tree. They'd hit with thunk as they pierced the bark, doing C-rank piercing damage as a whole mass. Peering over at the tree he'd see that there were multiple little holes. Closing his eyes he'd center himself to judge how much mana he'd have left, approximately 450 mana out of a total 550 mana. Sliding down he took a quick rest
1509/3000

Spell Used:

Looking up at the stars he noticed one grow brighter and brighter until it almost seemed t be blinding him. A woman figure floated down, she seemed to be made of water, but as she got closer she finally condensed into what was the zodiac god cancer. Smiling as she floated above him she reached her hand down and ran it across his face, the water hand felt cool to the touch, "I realize you see this as unfair but you have to accept it, we all did, and you have to recognize the greater cause. All i want to do right now is huddle you up in a blanket and rock away the darkness, but I can't do that, than you'd never become what you need to become. So, instead I'll trust in you, and watch you, and lead you, and I'll show up by your side exactly when you need me, raining motherly hell on any bastard who tries to hurt my children's future." Cancer smiled, she was probably the one who watched over Syliph the most during his hardships, at lease he really hoped so, what had happened to him at a young age was such a terrible thing that he couldn't always come to term with the memories so he'd seal them away and they'd never come out, they'd be like that little secret door in the back of your house. Cancer spoke again, "I must leave now, but I'll leave you with this, one extra spell." Cancer tapped his fore head lightly, leaving behind an image of a bright blue shield, with her symbol plastered on it, "Take good care of that spell, save lives with it, I'm counting on you." She said. Than with the snap of her finger she flew back up into the sky, she seemed to have left as fast as she had come. Standing up Syliph was ready to try and cast a new spell, the one Cancer had given him.

Syliph would take in a deep breath, he'd place out one hand in front of him, almost instantaneously blue light would begin to flicker into existence before him, as soon as the light began it gushed forth, condensing into hard light construct of a circular shield that was 6 ft by 6 ft. The shield had a maximum distance of 10 meters, just lie any C-rank shield. Seieng how much damage he could take Syliph would climb on top of the stage and take a daring dive. If he had fallen and taken the full damage, it would have been a b-rank bludgeon, but the shield was able to take up a entire b-rank worth of damage and Syliph was completely fine. The shield would have had Cancer's zodiac symbol plastered across it, a tribute to her protection. Once more centering himself he'd notice he had 400 of the 550 mana that he had started with, it felt nice to have fully trained himself, but he knew he had one more thing to come to terms with.
508 words
2010 words I think out of 3000

spell used:

Looking back he finally knew he would have to have some kind of motivator, he had already really finished training all he needed now was just a way to have the motivation and go out and do it. Looking up to the sky he silently prayed, "Leo, faie el re paxxit yu feer." Translated it ask Leo for the passion to do this.
Suddenly orange light would coalesce in his hands forming a lists of names in his hand, hundreds of them were scribbled down.
the list seemed to go on and on.




Syliph seemed utterly surprised by how long the list was, and weirdly he felt the need to read the entire thing, as if it was his purpose, and at the bottom in little purple ink there was a little note, "Syliph, I hope this helps you come to terms with what we've asked you to do, this is a list of everyone who has ever been killed at the hands of the illumin and belongs to our religion, I hope you understand."
-leo

Syliph lulled over on his side, he didn't really feel the passion. The list was deep (emotionally that is.) But it certainly didn't stir something deep in his soul, he felt sad, but finding the emotions to react to this was hard. Sighing he looked for someway to distract him as he tried to deal with he had just been approached with. Standing up he cracked his knuckles. Once he was prepared he snapped his fingers, once he did this he became all jittery inside like you had just gone down some slide that made your insides flutter like some ethereal butterfly. Looking at his hands he took on a gold-like fog substance, looking around he pushed himself towards the left. With some unknown force he flew five meters and suddenly stop. The ethereal butterfly mood seemed to leave immediately and Syliph sat five meters away from where he last stood, the spell would only take up about 25 mana. Sighing he sat down, he had used quite a lot of mana tonight and he could feel the his pool being a little more depleted than it usually was. Sitting down he decided another nap wouldn't hurt, taking a nap probably wasn't the best idea.

Taking a breath the world seemed to become an elongated savanah, animals of all kinds seemed to stretch on forever, it kind of reminded him of the titan forest back in Oberon, where huge beasts roamed along the forest floor, they would occasionally wonder in to a village or campsite and eat someone, well it tended to be multiple someones, but it made sure that there wasn't a food shortage for at least a few moths, and Syliph was pretty sure a few of the hidden tribes hunted those exclusively. Running from the distance a glowing lion rushed forth, as soon as it got within a few meters it leaped and morphed into the one and only Leo the lion. Leo smiled, it was toothy smile and was framed behind a scraggly red beard, Leo rolled a hand through a tousled red mane of hair that stuck out at all ends. "Ahh, Its nice to see you again, fully clothed this time I see." Leo let out a hearty laugh, he sounded like someone with a really deep bass voice, who had a frog in his voice. Syliph rolled his eyes at Leo's comment, "It was not my choice for that to happen and I'm pretty sure you know that." Syliph responded. Leo laughed and playfully punched Syliph shoulder. "I realize seeing the note might have been hard," He began, "You for so long shut up all your emotions that related to those memories, this was a way to unlock them a little bit, you need to feel the passion for this cause, If you don't we won't be able to succeed in the long run and it'd be a huge failure if we lose, our people might DIE. So I'm asking for you to pull back into those memories and let yourself feel those again, you need to be able to accept those memories and use them to motivate yourself, if you don't we'll never be able to survive, and your village won't be the last village to see that happened. Are you ready?" He asked. Syliph was completely unsure of what was about to happen but he shook his head anyway and closed his eyes, (in a dream mind you). Leo snapped his fingers and the dream world melted away into his own memories.

He sat in the half burned, half falling down remains of his old house. It was a scene from a child's nightmare, he stood there huddled up by himself, leaning against what use to be his bedroom, the one he shared with his sister, his face was streaked with tears, There was a wound across his head, or was it just dried blood, Syliph couldn't really remember what it was, those weeks he mostly sat and cried, and ate the minimum amount of food possible, he had been deeply depressed and his life over those few weeks hadn't been that great, he had survived, and that had really been it. The scene changed to the day he had left his village. His wounds had healed and he held a small backpack of food on his backpack, the last of his food that wasn't about to go bad. He looked around checking the rest of the village, if he ever returned here the village would probably be gone and overgrown, they had had to keep most of the trees for cover, but they made sure to thin some out for the crops, the last he saw of the vision was when he left the village. Then he woke up, he was back in the theatre, standing up he left, he hoped he had a good training night, he had learned some new spells and he felt that he was ready for something new.

Spell Cast:

3000/3000