Readying myself for the next experiment was just a little odd, as the situation was both similar and dissimilar to the one I had been in the night before. The biggest similarity was that I had positioned myself on a hillside and was planning to poke a fairly large bear. Granted, this particular bear had an affinity for waves of burning sludge fired as artillery barrages, meaning it might be a Soviet bear. Or maybe a German one, I could recall some stories about ludicrously sized artillery pieces during the Second World War, but that wasn’t too important at the moment. And, in regard to the hillside, this was also where the biggest difference came in.

Instead of standing on the ground, I was now standing in the biggest tree I could find, having positioned myself on the highest branch capable of supporting my weight with my wings out, just in case I needed to make a quick escape. The wings were just another layer of security, as I didn’t want to get sludged or burned by the poked bear; neither sounded like a good time.

But the metaphorical bear wouldn’t poke itself, so I had to do it, even if there would likely be some retaliatory destruction coming my way right after my poke, which was why I was on the tree with my wings out, adding another layer to my evasion plans, just in case I needed them.

Looking around one more time, I conjured a single scrying construct to give myself an additional perspective to aid with aiming and sent said construct out, while already starting on the projectile. Usually, I used fairly small projectiles with my Ice Magic, rarely anything bigger than my forearm, compensating the small size with a large number of projectiles, thus making accuracy not all that important. After all, if you launched four dozen projectiles covering a fairly large space, it was almost certain that one or two would hit, while making dodging difficult as well.

However, small projectiles had a lot less individual power and, even worse, it was a lot harder to launch them across long distances, especially if you wanted to hit them accurately, as was the case now. So, instead of many small icicles, I was now conjuring a sizable Javelin, easily twice my own height in length, made from Hard Ice and inscribed with a few runes to improve the projectile. Runes of Wind to aid with its travel, Runes of Earth to improve its hardness, Runes of Ice to cause additional devastation when it hits and Runes of Darkness to bind it all together into a somewhat unstable formation, the vastly different elements otherwise too volatile to function together. It was quite the sight, a massive icicle, shining with ethereal colours and having arcs of eldritch lightning spark off its length.

Pleased with my work, I felt a faint grin tug at my lips, especially once I focused more of my attention on the construct some five hundred metres ahead of myself and about fifty metres in the air, allowing me to see past the billowing ash and smoke. Thanks to that construct, I didn’t need to get too close for comfort to aim my creation, though I did have to hurry, I was fairly certain the sludge men would soon destroy the construct, they had done so before.

The grin on my face turned decidedly malicious as I focused additional power on the Icicle hovering above my hand, the projectile too large to hold in my hand, and then, with a burst of Overflowing power, I launched it forward, its trajectory controlled by the runes I had engraved and the lingering connection to myself. It was less a thrown spear and more akin to a guided missile, especially as I could continue to adjust its course according to the images I could see thanks to my scrying construct.

I even needed to employ Bullet Time at the end, allowing me to guide the last few moments with pinpoint accuracy, right through the chest of one sludge man, the Javelin ripping through its middle before a surge of power into the various runes turned the projectile into a fairly sizable bomb, the volatile magic I had tied into it discharging in an explosion of eldritch energy, freezing large chunks of the area solid.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

However, while I made sure to store the images in my mind, I wasn’t really looking at them in real-time. Instead, the moment my projectile hit, I let myself drop off the tree, letting my wings catch the air so I could glide away, just in case there was a retaliatory barrage coming. I had decided not to shadow step, as I was uncertain if our enemy might be able to detect Shadow Stepping after Lia used the technique to escape before, so I wasn’t about to give them additional information on it, if they paid more attention or something like that.

My wings, on the other hand, could carry me away without any additional magic, working like a hang glider or one of these base-jump suits. They wouldn’t get me far without magic, but they let me glide a few hundred metres in a short time, and once I had that distance, I let myself relax a little and increase my altitude a little.

Once I put another kilometre between myself and the burning zone, I dropped down to the ground, vanished my wings and pulled my cloak tightly around myself, disappearing from the world for all intents and purposes. Sure, I was still physically in existence, but my existence was concealed to the highest degree, just edging between reality and the plane of shadows. I wasn’t truly present in either, the uncertainty adding yet another layer to my cloaking while protecting me from harmful effects on either side of said divide, at least that was my current theory. I had yet to encounter anything able to find me in my normal concealment state, so I had no idea if this improved concealment actually helped, and I couldn’t know until Lia managed to learn it or we found a foe able to find me.

After all those steps, I was sure certain that I wouldn’t get gooped by a wave of burning sludge any time soon and focused on the images I had seen through my scrying construct, my eyes widening in surprise when I realised that said construct remained active. And that the hillside I had used to launch my attack remained undisturbed, there had been no retaliation at all, making me wonder if I should be happy or deeply worried. After all, I had just poked a bear, but the bear had completely ignored the poke. So if the bear had ignored the poke, it was quite likely that my poke hadn’t done anything, a realisation somewhat confirmed by the images my scrying construct had transmitted.

Those images showed how the javelin had entered the goop man’s chest and exploded right in its centre, spreading goop all around. Only now, the goop wasn’t burning any longer, but was now frozen. As was the ground, and nothing regenerated in that area. However, I could also see a slightly strange, completely black object get tossed clear of the explosion, flying a dozen metres away from it and landing on burning ground in the area. A few moments later, a new goop man regenerated, or maybe was generated, in that exact spot, making me wonder if the object I had seen tossed clear was some sort of core holding these goop men together, similar to a few elementals we had encountered on Mundus.

Whatever the case, I was quite certain that objects like that one were important and needed to be researched a lot. But that was for later.

For now, I continued to watch the newly generated goop man toss more fire onto the patch of frozen ground, slowly, but surely, making progress, though obviously not quick enough for whatever directed these creatures. Soon, the goop man was joined by another, both working together to banish the Ice while I, out of curiosity, used the lingering connection to my Astral Power to channel a bit more into the patch, creating a temporary stalemate between me and the two goop men.

Not that the stalemate lasted all that long. Sure, I was capable of outperforming two of these goop men, even on their favoured ground, but I was working through the Astral River, lowering my efficiency, and the goop men got additional reinforcements. Soon, there were half a dozen of them standing around the patch of Ice, all throwing burning sludge on it, while I was pouring Astral Power into it.

But I learned quite a lot about them, and the way they were trying to neutralise my influence. Sadly, even though I tried to make the patch of Ice explode, it didn’t work that easily and soon, I cut my losses, letting the patch of Ice get burned away. This would be exhausting.