by Saless
Chapter 54

"Try the other one." Mike suggested.

Sarah pointed the red wand at a large rock and said, "Macor." A ball of blue light shot from the wand to the rock, rocking it slightly but causing no discernable damage. At Vash's urging she put the wand down and tried again. When she said the word a larger ball of blue light, more intense than the first one, shot out from her hand and struck the rock. It rolled over backwards and cracked. "Whoa!"

"Hey, I just remembered! You said that last fireball you shot at the creature in the woods with that other wand was more powerful than you expected! You must be putting more power into these spells than the wands do!" Jill exclaimed.

Sarah, try your fireball now. Vash suggested. Sarah shrugged and cast a fireball at the same rock. They were all surprised by the size of the blast, as they hadn't seen it used in the open before. I think Jill is right. Unlike the other two wands, that fireball wand was from my previous master's world. That spell should have created a blast with approximately a ten foot radius. The fireball you just launched had at least a fifteen foot radius. Vash said.

"What does that mean?" Sarah asked.

It means you have a lot of power at your disposal. Try your fireball again, but try to put more power into it. Vash replied.

Sarah shrugged and said, "Vascor!" while concentrating on a bigger explosion. It worked.

Erica rushed to where Sarah had fallen as the shockwave had knocked everyone but her down. Lacking flammable materials, there wasn't much smoke this time. "Are you okay?" Erica asked as she helped her up.

"Yeah, I'm okay. What about Mike and Jill?" Sarah asked as she brushed the dust off of her.

"We're okay!" Jill said as Mike helped her up. "Where's Vash?"

I'm here. Vash said as he flew up onto Jill's shoulder.

"I think you should aim a little farther away if you do that again." Mike said.

"Yeah, I guess so." Sarah agreed, still a little stunned by how powerful her spell had been. The rock she had cracked before was now in pieces, some of them partially melted. "Did I really do that?" she asked incredulously, pointing at the remains of the rock.

"Wow, you melted it!" Mike exclaimed.

Sarah, why don't you practice that spell, aimed suitably far away from us, and try to alter the size of the explosion and the heat of the blast. Vash suggested. Sarah nodded and looked for the farthest target she could see. She began lobbing fireballs, slowly getting the hang of altering its size and temperature.

The others were looking on in awe at the amount of damage Sarah was doing to the hillside when Vash suggested Mike experiment with shifting. Reluctantly looking away from the spectacle he nodded and stepped away from the others before shifting into his first dragon form.

"Wow, you're huge! Can you breathe fire?" Erica asked. In answer Mike shot out a stream of fire into the nearest rocky hill. He kept it up for several seconds before he had to take a breath. That section of the hill melted and looked like glass.

Can you reclaim the wolf form you were forced into by my former master? Vash asked. A moment later the huge dragon was replaced by a large, but tiny in comparison, wolf.

"Hey, you're kind of cute like that!" Jill said with a grin. Mike jogged over and licked her face. Jill giggled and scratched him behind his ear.

"What am I supposed to do?" Erica asked.

Jill looked up and said, "Vash says you should try that sword and dagger of yours out on some rocks. He thinks they may be able to cut through them like your sword did the armor of that undead in the sarcophagus."

Erica shrugged and pulled her sword belt out of the car and strapped it on. Walking over to the nearest large rock she drew her sword and cut it in half. "Wow, I guess Vash was right!" she exclaimed. Sheathing her sword she drew her dagger and tried to cut into the rock with it. It wasn't long enough to cut it in half, but it sliced into the rock with ease.

While Erica examined her sword and dagger for damage after reducing the rock to rubble, Mike began trying out his different forms. At Vash's suggestion, Jill started trying to feel the thoughts or emotions of people she knew to see how far she could reach.

Sarah took a break from blasting the hillside, which was now half melted, to talk to Vash. "Had any luck yet?" she asked, as Vash was looking through their 'loot' again.

Yes. I think I've found a new sword for Mike. Vash replied, tapping the claymore sized sword they'd retrieved from the tomb. It was a fairly simple sword, but had runes of gold etched into the blade and rubies on the pommel and guard. The scabbard looked like smooth metal, golden in color but much lighter than gold. Like Erica's sword, this sword is lighter and tougher than usual. It doesn't have the ability to cut through almost anything like Erica's sword does, but it's a shape shifting sword. Normally it would just change from one type of weapon to another, but I believe it may be compatible with his own shifting power.

"What does that mean?" Sarah asked.

It means that when he shifts it may enhance his form by making his claws sharper and stronger, or something along those lines. Vash replied.

"Sounds good. Hey Mike!" Sarah called. Mike was flying around in his smaller dragon form at that point and landed next to Sarah before shifting back to human. "Vash found you a sword, you should try it out!" She went on to explain what Vash had discovered and Mike replaced the falchion with the new sword on his sword belt and strapped it on. The sword was so long it was dragging on the ground, so Mike took the belt off and put it over his shoulder, instead. Sarah tied the bottom of the sheath to the belt so it wouldn't bounce around too much.

"Okay, let's give this a try." Mike said before shifting back to dragon form. He held his right claw up and admired his golden talons. Looks like it works pretty well! he sent to Sarah. He stabbed at a bolder with his claws and they pierced the rock with ease. Then he shifted to wolf form, and his claws and teeth were all golden. He continued to play around with that while Sarah returned to the car.

I have another exercise for you Sarah. Try to cast your spells without saying the activation word aloud. Vash suggested before Sarah could retrieve her new bow. Just think the word instead of saying it.

Sarah shrugged and thought, Desma. She was blinded again by the light emanating from the magical items and quickly recited the word again. "Okay, that one worked." she muttered as she turned to the melted hillside she was using for her earlier target practice. Vascor she thought, and launched yet another fireball at the hill. She followed that up with the third spell, which caused a small geyser of liquefied rock to shoot up from the point of impact.

Good, now try varying the power of all three spells while casting them silently. Vash instructed. Sarah groaned, but got to it. Soon the hill was under another barrage of spells.

Erica came and took a seat in the car to watch Sarah's fireworks. Her powers being passive, she was stuck watching the others use theirs. Jill was just sitting there, and Mike was all over the place, shifting from one form to another. She'd watched him for a time, but lost interest when Mike started using indigenous animals, like a rattle snake. She was the only one who saw it when Sarah blasted the hill with a particularly large ball of blue energy. A huge chunk of the base of the hill was blasted away, dirt and rock spraying out in all directions. Fortunately none of them were close enough to get hit by it.

By this point they were all looking at the hill, and saw as it collapsed into a mound less than half as tall as it had been. "I think you might have overdone it a bit." Erica finally said after a long silence.

Sarah turned towards Erica with a weak grin, and fainted.