FSE

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Of course being stuck with the sniper to follow when you don't exactly know the ropes isn't all that much fun. I suppose it would be fairly safe, though. And at this point in the training that is probably almost for the best. Keep me out of the way so that I can survive long enough for them to give me some decent training. After that then start to acclimate me more to how to actually fight. Given what I saw when I did the combat training sessions I'm just about worthless in an actual fight right now.

So I do what I felt is also in my best interest for the time being. I brought my book. I know it's probably set up for me to not bring it. There is that heavy disincentive to bringing a book that valuable to a battle. Heck, even several of the people on both teams very strongly urged me to choose not to bring the book with me. I know that ultimately I'll need to stop bringing it. Eventually if I rely on it too heavily it'll become more of a crutch than a boon, to get to the point where I will require it to be able to figure out what spell to use if magic is required rather than my own intuition, however good or bad it may be. But I was adamant about bringing it. It's not like I would learn anything from the actual battle anyway.

Our building is actually fairly well fortified. There's only one or two easy ways into the building itself. Most other entrances have been heavily boarded up over the battles, which means probably a lot of buildings will be constructed fairly similarly. As a precaution after we arrive at the building where I'm to sit watching Jack be a sniper I place my book down just long enough to take one of my mines, arm it by pumping in some fire magic and sticking it in the gap of the door. I also place one on the stairway leading up towards where we're positioned on the second floor of the building. Once there I begin flipping through the pages to my spell book, looking to see what spells may look interesting to learn.

"Hey, lassie, come here a moment," Jack half orders.

"I'm not a lassie. I'm a guy. And my name is Rose."

"I don't give a flying fuck what you think you are. You will be female eventually. So you're a lass. But get your ass over here and fucking help me for a moment. It's not a field trip after all."

I grumble but choose to ignore him. The general rule I was told is that it is perfectly fine to work on resisting the acceptance of our form in any way so long as it did not jeopardize the mission, and attacking Jack on this issue probably would do just that. Even still, I smack him a bit on the back to show I don't approve of such things.

"What do you want?"

"Take those binocs. Use Far Sight. Tell me what you see," Jack responds as if nothing had happened.

"Far Sight?" I ask, not sure if I had seen that one yet in my book.

"Yer a fucking bookworm and ya still haven't read the fucking part about being able to see things?" Jack exclaims exasperatedly.

"Well excuse me for not having memorized a thirty pound book in a day."

"No excuses. I'd have thought you the intelligence to know which fucking spells were important. Far Sight is a spell to see long distances clearly. Just close your fucking eyes for a moment and feel for a glowy little shit of a light in the center of your forehead. Turn it up all bright-like and then shine it down into those binocs. Tell me what you see from that."

I grumble but such an ability might come in handy. I close my eyes and try to find some source of light coming from my forehead. I don't actually find anything like that. Knowing that just giving up is unacceptable I think about what he's probably trying to get me to do. Far Sight and center of forehead makes me think of something using a third eye system. I suppose trying something to that extent might work.

"Let my third eye open and see all that stands before me," I mutter under my breath so that Jack won't pick it up. It's not exactly a spell so much as a willful command but it does seem to have some sort of impact. I can feel a sharp pain in my forehead and then sort of sense things around me so much better.

But the problem is that it's almost overwhelming to see, picking up on everything around me. So I follow the second half of the instructions and find that the binoculars must be enchanted themselves as it focuses this strange new sense to the small area directly in front of the binocs. The odd thing is I can see a bunch of red lines all over the place.

"What's with all the red lines?"

"Good, you got it to work. About fucking time. I'd hate to have to deal with a fucking useless spotter. Those lines are lines of fire. If a gun were to be fired that is the path the bullet would take. If you see someone you might see something similar around a melee weapon. Now, do you see that sign on the far right corner of that building up ahead? Where's my line pointing on it?"

"Um, let me check," I comment.

Moving with this thing is tricky. I can't pull my head away or else I suddenly see everything in all directions again. Instead I have to try and zoom out a bit, then find what I think is the object he wants and then zoom in. Sure enough, there is a red little line on the sign heading towards where we are.

"It seems to be in the middle of a D."

"Hmm, okay, guess it got off a bit," Jack makes an expression I can only imagine is a frown before pulling his eye out a bit and adjusting some dials. "How about now?"

I repeat this process though it does take a few tries for him to get it just how he wants it. The thing he's apparently aiming at was the dot at the top of the I in that sign, making a joke that he should fire off a round just to make sure that it's dotted correctly. After that he waves me off, telling me that should he find an actual target he'll grab me again.

"So why couldn't you use this thing yourself?"

"Doesn't work. The moment I move the angle of my gun will change. It's impossible to both know where the gun is looking and see through those binocs. I don't even use Far Sight all that much, too distracting. Eventually you'll learn how to apply a filter or two on it to make it easier. Still, it's only one big distraction. I wouldn't use it that much. It's more of a pop spell if you kin me. Pop it on, see where everything's at, pop it off. Really fucking simple."

"Sure. Though I wonder," I speak up a bit while we're still talking and there's no awkward pause to try and overcome, "have you ever encountered a spell that didn't feel complete?"

"Not really. Unless it was something I was just learning in which case bugger all and could tell the effect. What you getting at missy? You mess up all yar pretty little mines?"

"No, I did those all just fine. If I hadn't we'd have probably seen a few blow up as people have set them, including the two I set on the way up here. I'm talking about Projected Flames."

"The one pansy-ass spell that you said you learned? You mean you haven't actually mastered such a fucking simple spell?"

"No, that's not it. I can perform it just fine. It's just that it feels like it's missing something," I admit, hearing an explosion in the distance causing me to pull out the binocs again and look through, trying to find the explosion. I see something crawling away from the site but the shape doesn't look familiar. "Not one of ours."

"Yeesh, took them long enough to blow one up. I swear they don't fucking know how to place the damn things. But yar a daft fuck if you think there's anything more to Projected Flames. It's a starter spell. The first fucking spell any fucking pyro goes for when they get the book. They learn it or don't and they only use it long enough to realize that it really isn't that good then go on to other spells. And you're dead," he laughs as he takes a shot at the individual crawling away from the blast.

"I see," I comment, wondering if it might just be my imagination that's doing it then. That I'm simply not used to casting spells yet. But other spells felt just fine. There didn't seem to feel anything wrong when I was using the heal bruise spell.

"You know what, hand me some of those fucking papers you got. I'm gonna scatter a few."

"You're going out there?" I ask, heading back to the paper and grabbing a few pages that have the mine spell written on them.

"Fuck no. I got a special cartridge," he states as he puts the rifle away and pulls out what looks almost like an elongated grenade launcher with a scope on top. "I put the paper in here, charge it up, fire it where I want and presto. Instant fucking mine wherever I want. Show those fuckers where these things are supposed to be placed."

He takes one of the paper, rolls it up really neat and tidy. Given his personality I had half a thought he would have crumpled it up in a tight ball but I suppose there is the notion that the pages are rather expensive and there is no guarantee that the spell will work as well when crumpled up. But then again I would imagine that something that theoretically will survive being shot out of a launcher should be able to survive a little crumpling. Eh, in any case I watch him put it in and then take aim at a few locations and fire. With each shot he takes some extra focus and I can see the projectile fly out glowing red hot. I suppose in some regards it probably would need to be charged up, else it would be worthless and he's apparently charging them up before firing them off.

And considering how casually he's doing it, I'm guessing that he's used this launcher in this regard more than once or twice. Else I would have thought he'd be very reluctant about shooting it off when there's a chance it might detonate right in his face. It takes me a moment before it finally clocks. Perhaps the reason that my spell doesn't feel complete is because it isn't complete. That maybe I'm just firing off the canisters without anything in them. I exclaim loudly, startling Jack but I don't pay any attention to that as I'm rushing back to my book and flipping back to the fire spell section. Odds are if this thing will actually work then I'll need to pick a spell that's easy to combine, thus the same element. And on top of that I need to find an offensive spell that will give me a good idea of how effective it works, doesn't go off immediately and won't potentially kill me if I don't use it right. I eventually find one. It's a fire spell, and one that can be triggered to ignore people wearing a designated sigil. Once detonated it sends out a bunch of flaming snakes that will chase after any available target, be it structure or a person who doesn't have the sigil. I do my best to memorize what is needed for the spell and then walk over to the window again.

"Give me a target, I want to try something."

"Uh, sure. See that building there?" Jack points at one near to where he was placing the mines. "There's quite a few of them barricading themselves there. And the way these are built it will make getting in there tedious if not dangerous. So if you can poke a hole in a wall there that would certainly help the team nearby quite a bit. Even if it distracts them."

I get a good look at it to get it into my mind and then stand right up to the window so that I can get a good shot at it without having to stand on a chair or something. I adopt the pose for Projected Flames and take aim at the building wall. Since I expect to be potentially a recoil I spread my legs a little wider. I then begin to mentally work on casting the other spell, using my right arm as the focus to the spell since my left is required to launch the Projected Flames spell. I force the picture of my sigil on my mind, straining my ability to focus to the limits. And then anticipating this thing blowing up in my face I close my eyes and brace myself for what might end up hurting quite a bit. I push myself to the limit and will the spell to go and the act of letting go launches me backwards and into the wall a few feet off the ground. I can hear the spell still going though as though Projected Flames is ordinarily a fairly quiet spell this one is screaming like the devil. I hear a small crash and then release my other hand and see a bright light from the other side of the window.

"Jesus fucking Christ!" Jack exclaims. "I told you to poke a hole in the thing, not blow the fucking building up. Just what the fuck was that? Since when did you know an A class spell?"

"Ow," I respond, the only thing going through my mind at the time. "It worked, but. Ow."

I push myself up and check myself for injuries. There's a throbbing in the back of my head and when I raise one hand to go press against it I feel something wet. Pulling my hand back out I can definitely see the sign of blood. Well isn't that nice. On top of that probably a few bruised ribs by how much it hurts to talk. One of my arms is definitely broken and from the pain in my rear end so is my tail. Yet it didn't seem like most of this damage is the result of the spell itself so much as it is the result of hitting a wall.

"Okay, good to note," I add, still very much dazed and can't really hear much from one side. "Next time I do something like that definitely have a mattress behind me."

"Jack, come in," Hammer calls over the radio, sounding very agitated over it all. "What did you hit?"

"Don't look at me, mate. Lassie's the one that's responsible for that mess. She wanted to try something and wanted a target. I gave a valid target to throw spells at. I didn't know she was planning on fucking orbital cannoning the fucking thing. Jesus Christ. Remind me never to piss you off with a firecracker like that."

I debate trying to heal my wounds as I try to see what impact they're talking about but that thing took a lot out of me. Even the thought of using my magic makes my head a little dizzy. I guess that's a one off type of thing. At least it is in the state my body is in right now, a day and a half after the transformation. But nothing seems to be too severe so I should be good to wait a bit before healing my own wounds. I reach the windowsill and look out, my jaw dropping in the process. A good portion of the building I was aiming at has collapsed or disintegrated, leaving a large pile of rubble on the side closest to us. Further there are streaks of fire still burning leaving that area for about twenty to thirty feet,

"What was that?" Hammer asks back over the radio. "That was Rose?"

"Uh, yeah," I state, grimacing slightly from the exertion on my body. "My bad. I just had an idea I wanted to try."

"What spell was that?"

"Projected flames," I respond.

"Bull shit. Projected flames is a fucking D class," Jack interrupts. "There is no way that spell could accomplish that level of destruction."

"I had inspiration. I saw you put one spell into something else so I figured that's what Projected Flames are, little capsules for other flames. So I put Agni's Snakes into Projected Flames and had the one fire the other off. I will probably not be doing that particular combo any time soon. That really hurt."

"I'll, fucking say. You flew like a little fucking birdy from what little I saw out of the corner of me eye and the size of that hole in the wall. But that will probably make short work of the people in that building and much of the rest of the battle. A fucking spell like that everyone would have seen. All the volunteers likely will surrender pretty quick-like. The rest, probably make a rush and see if they can't take you down before you can do something like that again."