The following day at work passed by easily enough, especially since I was finally getting caught up on all of my assignments. I spent most of the time working on balancing Jadis' remodel, attempting to progress the point where I was able to run it subconsciously, like breathing or blinking. I wasn't sure that I'd actually be able to get it that automatic, but even if I only needed to dedicate a fragment of focus to the technique, running it for sixteen hours or so each day should grant me some truly impressive ether reserves in time.

One day was hardly enough to let me reach that level of skill, though, and I wasn't even able to pick Fable's brain over the topic, as Charm was the one who came in toward the end of my shift to take over. I did have a topic that I wanted to ask Charm, however, so I turned to him.

"Hey, Charm, you seem to know a lot about bloodlines, cultivation, and strange power mixing."

"I mean, I wouldn't say a lot, but I've got a solid bit of information on it, sure," the muscular older swordsman agreed. "What's the matter?"

"Would taking a cultivation path that can't progress infinitely, and that fuses with my bloodline, also fuse into my magic when I did the ritual to become a dragon mage? Or would it change my bloodline and cause it to be… well, to use your words, would it make my bloodline too shonky to work with a dragon affinity?"

Charm ran his fingers over his beard, seemingly lost in thought at the question, then shook his head.

"I wouldn't do that. I'm not gonna say dead end paths are all bad. They serve their purpose. But the interactions between cultivation and bloodlines tend to favor cultivation, and I do think that integrating prana into your fire could well wind up eating your bloodline, and not having it work for a dragon affinity anymore."

"Prana?" I asked, tilting my head, and Charm waved his hand.

"Prana. Chi. Life energy. Soulforce. They're all just words for the power of life. My point remains the same – I'm not sure it'll go well. If you wanna do it, hold off until you're an archmage and dragon mage first."

I thanked the man for his insight before I headed out and spent the rest of the day on a date with Salem. We went to a play in the city following a classical love story – this one with far fewer questionable anti-draconic sentiments – and then headed out to get some dinner together, before eventually retiring to my room.

The following morning, everyone gathered together for Applied Mage Combat, and I glanced at Yushin. The horrific smell around her had entirely vanished, and she now smelled far more strongly of poison – it was clear that her bloodline had merged with poison cultivation, producing a far stronger whole.

"Congratulations on your breakthrough?" I asked, though it was more of a question than a statement. She smiled, proud enough that for her, it was practically beaming.

"I am in the first step of the energy drawing stage!" she said proudly. "This stage ranges in strength from an especially potent second circle warrior all the way to fourth. Even with the rest of my relatives helping, it will likely take me the rest of this semester and most of next to progress through the eight steps of the stage. It is still a considerable power increase, and perhaps even a world record advancement pace."

Jackson's eyebrows rose, then he grinned and pulled her into a tight hug, which caused Yushin to blush. I frowned as I smelled something enter the range of my senses.

"Congratulations," Salem said, and I started to turn my head.

"Indeed," Gerhard said. "It should help you today."

I had already turned around, but Salem yelped and turned to see him, while Yushin and Jackson shifted to look at him. An instant later, Henry appeared out of a fold of blue light.

"Today's lesson is a fun one, as you're getting paid," the Erudite said. "It's also fun for me, since I don't have to arrange too much for you. Gerhard?"

"A rebellious faction of the family has paid off a group of pirates to run up the coast, harassing the shipping lines that I have been establishing, killing the sailors, capturing ships, and taking cargo," Gerhard explained, smoothly taking over from the headmaster. "Your job will be to attack the pirates and drive them off. Preferably, you'll destroy their boats and prevent them from being able to continue to harass produce and grain importation."

"Why won't you do it?" Jackson asked, frowning. "That seems well within your power."

"It's about the message," I said, sighing. "If Gerhard has to step in to stop them, that will make him look politically weak. If he sends underlings, it will send the message he doesn't need to do everything himself."

I mentally cursed myself for not making the time this weekend to meet with the naiads and negotiate with them for components, or for the naiad's kiss ritual. The components were the lesser issue for now – being able to breathe water or air as needed would be nice, even if I did have some solutions.

Stolen novel; please report.

"There are five ships, and you'll have the class period to get this done," the Erudite explained. "Tell me when you're ready, and I'll teleport you there."

I turned to face my friends, running through my mental list of spells.

"I can cast orb of air, which should help us if we get sent overboard. Does anyone not know it?"

Jackson raised his hand, and I nodded.

"I'll cast it on you, then. Everyone else can take care of themselves. If we want the best way to damage their ships long term, we should aim for the masts. Sails are expensive, and damaging them is good, but masts are worse. I think. I'm not a sailor."

"It depends on how damaged it is, I think," Jackson said. "But if we can fully snap it off at the base, or burn the whole thing to charcoal, I think it should be a major detriment."

"How powerful are these pirates? Do they possess any sort of magical arts?" Yushin asked, turning to look at Gerhard.

"Some of them have assorted magic, of assorted levels. The leader of the group – I hesitate to call her a captain or admiral – seems to be a reasonably powerful wielder of destiny magic. The reports are uncertain, but she seems most likely to be a gold rank of some sort, either with a combat destiny and marks that grant her some water abilities, or with a water magic based destiny and marks that allow her to extend her powers to combat."

"Do ya' think we're supposed ta' be usin' stealth?" Salem asked. I considered it for a moment, then shook my head.

"None of our new spells seem especially useful for that. Stealth is a useful tool to have, but it's not the only option. No, I think we need to go in hard and heavy. We're going to be outnumbered, even if most of the crew are weaker than us. With our flight magic, we should have the mobility advantage, at least in the short term."

"No," Yushin said. "I will kill the captain. My affinity makes me perfect to eliminate the strongest threat. Then, during the confusion, Jackson can burn their sails and start on the masts. Emrys, you will defend him, while Salem helps me make my escape."

I grunted. I didn't love the plan, but I was willing to admit that it was a good one, so I raised my wand and swished it down, chanting out a few words as I wrapped myself with invisibility. Salem and Jackson followed, while Yushin used a more complex and powerful version that incorporated her affinity magic. I cast greater arcane armor over myself, while most others began to cast their own protection spells. Salem spun a psychic connection between all of us while I passed my broom to Jackson and began to cast flyte and levitation on myself, forgoing windshield as it would attract too much attention. With everything ready, Yushin spoke up.

"We are ready. If you can teleport us behind the captain, that would be ideal."

"I'll teleport you on the boat," Henry said, before sweeping his staff out. We were swallowed by blue light, and appeared a few moments later on the deck of a ship. I shifted, tensing to get my balance under me, even as Jackson grabbed onto my forearm for balance. He slowly lifted up into the air while I did the same, working to make sure that I kept the weave of invisibility wrapped around my body. I felt a flush creep up my face as I realized that Jackson was actually having an easier time of it than I was and resolved to practice more.

We had gotten about eighty feet up in the air – still within crossbow range, annoyingly – when there was a spike of darkness, and a tall woman slumped to the ground. Yushin appeared for an instant, even as the cries went up around the ships, and Jackson cursed. He re-appeared, standing atop my broom, as he thrust his hands out. At once, three pillars of flame descended from the sky and rammed into the sails of the three pirate vessels. Within an instant, they were ablaze, smoke filling the sky. Seren and I sucked in a deep breath, clearing it around us, even as Orla appeared next to us.

Shouting rose up from the vessels, and I turned to the leftmost one, which was the fastest to react. I slashed my wand out, conjuring a set of shields to cover us, even as I chanted out another spell, the newest in my protective arsenal. A wave of crossbow bolts from another direction flew towards us, where they were met with a wave of blue light enveloping Jackson and I. The arrows slowed, then as Orla barked, they turned and fell to the sea below.

"Hah!" I cried, even as Seren drew in more of the smoke, stopping it from clogging Jackson's lungs.

An instant later, however, I was pivoting my shields and my new buckler spell. Eleven spells, or comparable attacks, were streaking toward us, and my anti-arrow spell didn't protect us from magic. Most of the attacks were arcane missiles, which the shields stopped easily, but one of them was a fish made entirely out of water that actually sent splintering cracks through the shield, another was a of wind that was clearly produced by a bloodline, and the strangest was a spike of green-gray light that seemed to completely ignore my shields, passed through my buckler, and forced me to throw Jackson off the broom to avoid it.

I swooped down, catching him with one hand as I soared back up to the broom, and began to cast summon lesser elementals, dumping ether into the magic as quickly as I could, mentally cursing myself. I hadn't fought in a while, and I was getting rusty. I should have thought about using elementals earlier.

"Protect us!" I shouted in the elemental tongue of air, before rapidly switching to the bloodline language of fire. "Spread the fire through the ships!"

I deposited Jackson back on the broom and spun as a massive ball of fire exploded through the air, launching right toward us. Judging by the smell, it was the product of a fire affinity, similar to Jackson's. Seren laughed and launched himself off my shoulder, slamming his blue-green body into the flames, which began to writhe and compress, drawing into his body as he battled the mage for command over the fire. I let him at it as I started to compose a spell, using Maugrim's surge to restore my ether mid-casting as I felt my pool beginning to drop precariously low.

Then, I heard Jackson shout in triumph as concentrated, white-hot pillars of fire slammed down into the masts of the ships, lighting them like candles. A blink later, Yushin and Salem stood next to us, floating in the air within my bubble of elementals and protective spells. I flicked my wand out at the main ship's largest mast, finishing my spell. My magic combined the erode matter spell with a curse to worsen the effects of fire damage, as within moments, the mast of the ship crumbled into ash and dust.

Jackson held up his hand, and began to say a prayer, calling to Effervesce to save any of the pirates willing to repent for their attacking of innocent ships, and within moments of finishing the prayer, we were all swallowed by blue light.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.