But Zelos doesn't try to argue. He can't, for one thing. Mental exhaustion doesn't get in the way like physical exhaustion does, for another. But he's also getting the distinct impression that something's wrong, and this is how he fixes it.
Casting without talking, without that ready-made channel, is still harder than it has any right to be. Zelos shifts so that he isn't leaning backwards on his hands and a light brown circle of mana pulses over the ground below him. After roughly ten seconds of shaping the arte -- deliberately longer than it would take Zelos in a battle -- he thrusts an arm out, and several feet ahead of them in the open grass, small stones burst out of the ground.
Earth. Stone blast. Fire always came much more naturally to him.
After a few seconds' pause to make sure no one's about to cry out that he destroyed something precious, Zelos demonstrates the other two elements he has in the same way. Wind -- wind blade, much less impressive without something to tear into. Then lightning, striking the same point in the ground as the earlier stones erupted from.]
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But Zelos doesn't try to argue. He can't, for one thing. Mental exhaustion doesn't get in the way like physical exhaustion does, for another. But he's also getting the distinct impression that something's wrong, and this is how he fixes it.
Casting without talking, without that ready-made channel, is still harder than it has any right to be. Zelos shifts so that he isn't leaning backwards on his hands and a light brown circle of mana pulses over the ground below him. After roughly ten seconds of shaping the arte -- deliberately longer than it would take Zelos in a battle -- he thrusts an arm out, and several feet ahead of them in the open grass, small stones burst out of the ground.
Earth. Stone blast. Fire always came much more naturally to him.
After a few seconds' pause to make sure no one's about to cry out that he destroyed something precious, Zelos demonstrates the other two elements he has in the same way. Wind -- wind blade, much less impressive without something to tear into. Then lightning, striking the same point in the ground as the earlier stones erupted from.]