They're simple illusions, rather than conjured constructs, so they don't need exacting detail, nor any sensations — they would radically increase the essence cost of the process and it's simply better to invest that same effort and power into the combatant to render it more capable and durable.
Speaking of the construct, I look over and see Gail has nearly drained the Aero battery and is positively radiant with the gray essence whirling around them. They step to the side and begin draining the Terra battery next before walking over to me. To give them space, I back up a dozen steps from the center where they'll focus their casting.
A whipping wind fills the area as they near the center and they begin a long-winded incantation. Gail has always relied on lengthy incanting to ensure their constructs are as complete and thorough as possible. While I rely on the teachings of the Lexica Arcana for quick and easy spellcasting, proper incanters like Gail can manifest far more potent and elaborate effects according to their mindset and whims — at the expense of time.
Incanters typically are better for prepared fights like duels, or going into dungeons where the threats are relatively contained — less so as active fighters like me. But back home one particular school of blade dancing treated every moment between a blow as space for incanting, and led to very potent warriors — constant pressure with a weapon alongside the occasional burst from a spell to control the rhythm of a fight.
By the breath of the boundless sky and the strength of the steadfast stone, I call forth a form both unyielding and unbowed.
O' wind, weave within it a will to endure. O' earth, grant it a body that bends but does not break.
Rise, nameless guardian of the proving ground! Stand tall, strike true, and suffer without cease!
Until my hands tire, until my will wanes, until the lesson is learned — remain!
As they go along, I watch insane amount of essence they're holding onto begin to physicalize into a roughly cuboid shape initially that steadily has its edges shaved off — as though it's a slab of stone being carved by a sculptor to eventually reveal…a very angry-looking punching bag.
When it fully materializes, it's a stack of slimes, all wearing determined faces that combine to make a sort of stationary tower of jelly that is growing carapace as I watch.
It takes another minute before it loses its hazy, indistinct quality. When Gail finishes, they're looking a little dazed — which is normal as conjuration is very demanding to begin with because of how complex even simple objects are in terms of essence. But, they're among the best. So I'm not at all surprised when they turn to look at me with a weak smile and thumbs up.
"Should last through any punishment ya can throw at it. If you need anything, just flag me down. Ya know where I'll be."
That said, they make their way out and leave me in the relative silence of the artificial "outdoors" of the training room. Standing there, looking at a tower of slimes slightly taller than me, staring at me with a stack of six angry, determined, faces in each of the colors of the base essence types — red, blue, green, brown, black, and white.
Gods Above, I hate slimes.
I do a bit of stretching before squaring up with the gently wobbling tower as it burbles at me in a vague approximation of the noises a slime would make. But once I'm set I step forward with my right foot, plant, and throw a punch at the highest slime — whose eyes widen in response before the impact.
A loud plap rings out as I drive a section of carapace into the construct with enough force to crack it. In response, the slime tower wobbles backwards away from me without moving its base. It takes only a moment for it to swing back my way with a bit of exaggerated force.
Reacting, I hop left and wheel for another punch as it enters the space I was just in and crater another section of carapace with the blow — causing it to spin anti-clockwise around its axis at speed to come at me from my left faster than I can reposition. Instead, I brace my arms and take the impact.
It hurts.
I didn't realize I'd hit it that hard. I guess Serafina was right. Solo clearing the den alongside all of the active fighting I did over our little journey set me up for some pretty serious growth. Either that or it's just been way too long since I threw a punch outside of armor and have lost track of exactly how strong I've gotten.
Probably a bit of both.
It might also be how much more I've been able to use my Sanctus lately, too. I've always been focused on the active benefits of using it, but the passive growth aspect is probably considerable too. Gods Above, I wish I had someone I could just talk to about it.
The moment it recoils from the impact, I return the favor, aiming a bit lower so as to not over-damage one particular section of the construct and risk it breaking down too soon. The "gut punch" sees the slime tower spin the opposite way, which I meet with a raised knee strike to arrest its movement — shattering another carapace segment.
A reset.
I watch as the carapace on the topmost slime reforms over a few seconds and resolve to pull back on hitting it as hard as possible and to instead treat it to some more tender, fast, strikes in time with each return swing.
The blows announce themselves to the space in quick, and quickening, succession. Every so often, I make a point to catch the tower to return it to its starting position when I start to build up too much speed to be practical.
After a reset, I step away to roll my shoulders and wipe forming sweat from my brow. My everything is loosening up pleasantly. Lungs have the good kind of burn going on, and the pain from the slimes "attack" on my forearms has dissipated fully.
"Alright. Warmed up." I announce it to the room as I walk towards the entrance to get Gail's attention for the next bit.
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In short order, Gail is standing with me at the sneering spire of slime. "All at once?"
"Yeah, I'm not worried about it. It'll give me a good reason to practice my Aero spells."
"Alright. If they deal any serious damage they'll back off, though I doubt that will be an issue. I put a couple surprises in their routine for you. Have fun." Another thumbs up, this time accompanied with a wink as they say the command word after making some changes to the constructs mentally.
The moment the word leaves their mouth, the red slime at the top of the tower launches itself at me, apparently propelled by the lower slimes.
Something I wasn't remotely ready for.
Thanks, Gail.
It smacks me in the head with a wet slap and a taunting burble as it bounces away and the other slimes scatter to generally surround me while the red one recovers.
Rubbing the side of my head and cursing, I raise a forearm to block the green slime trying the same maneuver and punish it with a punch following the block, sending it arcing through the air. The noise it makes as it sails away sounds almost like it's excitedly shouting "whee!".
It makes me smile for a moment before a slime bounces off the middle of my back, knocking me off balance for another one to use the opening to bounce off my stomach.
Each impact doesn't really hurt, but it's just enough to make me start to lose my composure, so I draw Aero from within myself and shape it into an imbuement while I keep moving. Stepping around a central point on the ground — sometimes dodging to let a slime sail by after misjudging an attack, other times blocking and then punishing an attack I can see coming.
They don't let up and are leagues more durable than normal slimes by default, let alone with the added carapace. So I manifest the Imbuement, empowering my general physical and mental alacrity and watch the slime that just bounced off one of its siblings for extra speed and height slow down by degrees, giving me enough time to feel out its arc.
The moment before it arrives, I cartwheel backwards, kicking it straight into the air with every bit of force I can manage from the maneuver, sending it squealing away from me before it softly plops into the ceiling and begins a slow descent.
A moment later, another slime catapults itself at an area I've been leaving open for the last few exchanges while trying to determine if they were adapting — and they are. Gail put a good bit of effort into these "surprises". Normally they're a lot more lackadaisical about this stuff unless specifically asked. I appreciate the effort to make this training more worthwhile, but the decision to do it unprompted is odd.
My momentary distraction is punished with a slime catapulting with the help of two others into my stomach, knocking the wind out of me in preparation for the red slime to come down and land on the back of my head, driving me straight into the ground with a heavy thud before bouncing once more for good measure. It gives me an altogether unpleasant reminder that the ground is not soft earth, but just an illusion cast over smooth stone as my head bounces off of it once, leaving me a bit dazed.
That daze gives the slimes the opening they've been apparently waiting for as they start to fire themselves at me in rapid succession, repeatedly succeeding in knocking me over whenever I start to rise with a shot to the ribs, the back of my knees, or a supporting hand.
The way they're deliberately working together to keep me on the ground is infuriating. Again, each blow doesn't really hurt, but it's enough force to prevent me gaining any purchase, so it's more annoying and frustrating than anything else.
I wait for the moment when the next wave of impacts is going to come, and release a [Puff] directly under me to pop myself off the ground, and a second smaller one to right myself.
The first burst sends the three that were airborne sailing away while the others try to correct for my sudden motion and fail, gliding wide to one direction or another instead of colliding. It gives me a few moments to breathe as I assess my far-more-competent-than-they-have-any-right-to-be enemies more thoroughly.
As I watch with my perception sped up due to my continued Aero usage, I see them burbling as they move together into two groups of three. Two elemental slimes following the order or chaos slime respectively.
The order slime and its entourage are hopping along eagerly, seemingly racing to see who can reach me first, while the chaos group holds back.
They're organized into teams. I'm fighting what has to be the most intellectually capable slimes to ever plop around on this planet.
"What gives, Gail?" I grumble as I formulate my plan. I manifest [A Fire Inside] with three times the essence I would normally use. It rapidly settles into my muscles, which start to burn with tension as I coil.
The three in the Ordo group act how I'd expect any aggressive slimes to act. The moment they're in reach, they fire themselves at me as a group, but all from the front. I bat the Hydrus and Terra slimes aside and punch through the Ordo slime. The little bit of carapace I strike is driven through the construct's body as it bursts — exploding into freed essence.
The downside, though, is that I feel a sharp pain run up my arm from the impact, the effects of my spell succeeding in greatly increasing my strength, but not making me more durable. As such, for overcommitting to the attack so thoroughly, I just strained a muscle badly and will be suffering until I can treat it.
Luckily, though, the two other slimes in that team dissipate alongside their leader. Which is good since it confirms my theory.
I turn to the group that has been hanging back — the Perditio, Aero, and Ignia slimes — and start to stalk towards them, planning to end this quickly.
The Perditio slime seems to realize what's coming and burbles at the other two and begins retreating. It just, in effect, seems to have told them to die in its stead.
What's worse, the two remaining ones look determined afterwards, like they're getting ready to make some sort of noble sacrifice against a monstrous foe. They don't matter though. So I burst into motion, bashing the Ignia slime with a forearm strike that sends it, mostly harmlessly, flying. At the same time, I aim a kick at the Aero slime and it is sent sailing, clearing the way for me to get to the Perditio slime.
The Perditio slime angles away from its previous path to head towards the Ignia slime that is trying to recover from being sent sailing. To…regroup, I suppose? Whatever the reason, it's probably the fastest slime I've ever seen — which has to have been deliberate.
Not faster than me, though.
I stride a few more times to cover the gap and it turns at me and burbles a wet yelp noise and bounces high into the air. As I move to plant myself to leap after it, I see a spark out of the corner of my eye and see the Ignia slime manifest a small firebolt and spit it at me from its mouth.
I curse and throw myself forward to let the bolt sail harmlessly behind me. The little bastard starts trying to manifest another, dimming with every second that it channels the power using its starkly limited supply of personal essence.
I ignore it though, the Perditio slime plops down in front of me, facing me, and looking me dead in the eyes for a moment before it tries to bounce away. I reach and snag it before it can…
And my hand goes right through it, dissipating an Aero-based illusion — based on the color of essence it breaks down into after the phantasm shatters.
I bite my tongue, I want to start yelling at these pests, but decide against it since it would serve no purpose. Instead, I step to the side as another bolt of weakening flame targets me while I scan the room. The Aero slime looks like it's deflated — probably due to the stress of manifesting and guiding the illusion. The Ignia slime continues to spit tiny fireballs at me, but they've weakened to the point that I don't even need to avoid them.
I find the Perditio slime when it appears from thin air and slams into my face, causing me to fall over, but I manage to grab the little monster in both hands on the way down and squeeze until it pops. Predictably, when it perishes, so do its allies.
I opt to just lay there for a while as the illusion around me starts to break apart with the training done, leaving me in the vast white space breathing heavy and dispersing the Ignia and Aero I imbued myself with over the span of the couple minutes.
Watcher as my witness. If I can remove slimes from our blessed world, I will do it.