Something inside Elijah churned, and he became worried about this mission. A mission that was almost guaranteed success with two orange core mages.
Within the confines of the small winding cavern filled with puddles, the deformed formation of twelve slowly made their way towards a battlefield. With already being passed Nova40, and entering the cavern, Elijah expected them to be in formation. Defense and offense strategically in the front and back. However, The two orange core mages were in the very front, right next to each other, and were bound to take all the kills if any kappas were to appear in front of them.
Elijah was cackling in the back next to Trey and Theon.
"Is something scary making you laugh?" Trey was weirded out, and expressed his feelings in a monotone voice.
"It will be okay. I am just surprised at how the plan we worked up has been completely thrown out the window. If it comes to it, I might have to reveal my strength. Trey, You haven't told anyone right?" Elijah seemed to radiate the back line full of mixed emotions. Fear, confidence, and debauchery.
"N-no."
All Elijah wanted to do was gauge his reaction, and what he got from it, was betrayal. Without knowing what would happen, Elijah continued as if everything was normal. A snake slithering in tall grass, and was ready to pounce when its hunter thought they had caught it.
"Haha! We found one!" Damir shouted as he turned around with his hands to his side. Flames engulfed his fists before completely turning around, and a devious grin blanketed his face. The son of a devil had just awoken.
With quick steps, the duo of Damir and Cael ran around the corner with mana enveloping their body. Hoarse screeches were echoed off the walls, as well as the light of fire.
"We may not even have to do anything…" Novius, who was at the front of the party with Raylen, rounded the corner only to see two figures standing over mutilated and incinerated bodies. The hard shells of the kappas were broken across the floor, and looked something like a terracotta material.
Elijah waited for Damir and Cael to move forward. "I think you might be wrong.
Behind the party, we're bubbling noises coming from a few of the scattered puddles. Up until this point, the party had avoided stepping in the puddles to not sour their shoes. Everyone knew very well that the water in this cave was not hot enough to boil.
A slimy pair of hands with dismantled claws exited the water, and slowly grabbed a hold of the earthen ground. The sole weakness of these beats was how slow they moved, which made sense when compared to turtles.
The familiar bald head and brown beak rose out of the water, and the slitted blue eyes of the kappa stared forwards.
"What are you waiting for Elijah?!" Raylen was beside himself watching Elijah watch the kappas rise from the water. Novius stopped Raylen from helping, and left it to the rear. They didn't want Damir and Cael to intervene.
A translucent portal secretly appeared in front of Elijah's chest, from which he pulled a short black sword from. Instead of using magic, Elijah's thought was how well would his physical strength hold up against a kappa.
Trey erected an earthen barrier that shot up from the ground. His hands became dirty from the ground, and wiped them on his brown and black garments.
Unfortunately for Elijah, without magic enveloping his sword, the damage he could do was null, and resorted to combining his water and space magic together. One limit he noticed was not being able to create a water blade in the environment and have it be sent towards his target. Only still spells, or spells like spatial shift and separate were able to have motion, hopefully only for now.
Multiple heads fell to the floor along with the bodies that followed after a wave of Elijah's hands. Trey was flabbergasted at the sight of a simple water blade decapitating the heads so easily, but still continued to send earth spikes from over the barrier.
Bubbles were appearing from the puddles within the party that were moving forward, so Theon set his hand inside the different puddles, and watched as he received smirks. The puddles were being completely frozen, which does not take much mana for Theon. Instead of creating ice, he is without a doubt using a principle of what makes ice… Well, ice!
Temperature.
Damir and Cael came back around a curve to regroup, which surprised everyone. "We have reached the lake. Unfortunately even for us, we can't go alone. These kappas are throwing their water spears now." Said Cael while intently looking at Elijah.
Everyone came to an agreement, and decided to split up into three groups of four. Each group would go in different directions while creating barriers along the way. If too many kappas appear, and are throwing spears, running through the cover while picking them off with magic would be the best option.
Within the small veil of shadow, the party observes the lake while keeping an eye on abnormal behavior. The possibility of an orange core kappa was well within their expectation now.
"I see two. Each on the far ends of the right and left side. There could be another one, but that giant waterfall is blocking the view." Cael said.
The lake was rather beautiful, condensed greenery and floristry draped from the ceiling of where the waterfall came from, and slowly dissipated into empty spots of stone that scattered the ceiling. Overgrown vines were hanging from the ceiling close to the waterfall, and on the edge of the large cavern, was nothing but dirt and stone.
To make sure this cavern did not cave in, earth mages reinforced the ceiling with a ribbon of stone that stretched from the opening to the ground. This ribbon lined the ceiling and walls, and was in the number of forty. It gave a romantic and greek feel to the cavern.
"Three, two, one, go." Damir gave the countdown, and walked to the left.
Carl's group went to the right, while Elijah's group went to the center.
Screeching noises were heard, along with the wind being split as water spears were thrown. Trey erected an earthen wall just in time, even when the spears were falling short. Wind blades were sent by Alexia that killed some, and mutilated even more after passing through the heads of the kappas.
Raylen covered his sword in fire, and sent a ball of fire that exploded in the face of a kappa. Shortly after, the head fell off its neck when its vision and face was severely burned.
Meanwhile, Damir was lobbing balls of fire that took the heads off on contact. The difference in strength was plainly visible.
The calm and proud son Cael was utterly surprised by the menacing strikes coming from the boy with a cold temperature escaping his body. Sharp and long primitive swords of ice were held in both hands, that could expand into a shield and retract back into a sword on command. "I wish I had an affinity like that…" Cael muttered under his breath as he continued to chop the heads off of kappas from close range, and from a distance.
What makes the ice affinity so special is the natural effect it has on the surroundings even at a low core stage. Being able to manipulate a solid structure with the natural effect of cold, or freezing being applied took it to greater heights compared to a wind affinity that can do the exact same thing. This was never intentionally done by a mage, but happens naturally simply because of the principles ice must follow.