The Chained Watcher

✨Magic✨

~~~

Scar was sorting the different colors of glass into relatively neat piles when Grian came in. He looked up from his task and lit up, waving while turning away from the fragile objects.

"Oh, hey Grian! What brings you here?"

Grian shrugged noncommittally. "Nothing too urgent. I saw you bringing in more glass, and thought I'd check up on how your imbuing is doing. Made much progress?"

Scar nodded proudly. "Yeah, I've gotten pretty good at making my crystals, if I do say so myself. I've got a lot more control over what the actual effect turns out to be now too, but they've all got a specific shade that they work best with."

"Glad to hear. But I've been thinking a bit. Learning how to imbue magic into items is a good skill to have, but I probably should have taught you how to use magic a bit more freely before now."

Scar visibly perked up, leaning forward while eagerly prompting him to continue with an "Oh?"

"The downside of using magic items is one I think you're pretty well aware of by now. If you have the time and resources to prepare it beforehand, and the reaction speed to pull it out when needed, a magic item can very easily be the difference between winning and losing. However, if you can't bring their strength to bear..."

"Then I'm left helpless. It doesn't matter how strong my crystals are if I can't actually use them when I need them."

"Exactly. Which is why I put a bit of thought towards what you need to learn next."

"Can I start throwing fireballs?!" There's the reaction he was expecting. There was no doubt that Scar would have an absolute blast throwing fireballs around left and right, but the chances of him hurting himself are way too high with fire.

Grian made sure to shoot that idea down before Scar's imagination could get too carried away. "No, I quite like the forest as it is, thank you. What I'm going to try to teach you is how to use your magic to make a shield."

"A shield?"

He nodded. "Yep. Shield spells are very versatile, and you could even use them when a creeper spawns in your poorly-lit base. There are a lot of variants though, so I'll just teach you the basics. You can try adding an elemental twist to it later, preferably in a less burnable area."

Considering how deep underground their base is, it should be safe to use magic, so long as he makes sure it's kept to a minimum. He waves his hand, pulling out a thin wisp of purple magic to coil around his fingers. The stark lack of extra energy being fed to it leaves it very faint, with the color almost matching his current wing and eye color.

Scar focuses intently, and he begins. "So, first things first. There are two fairly standard shield types: hard and soft. A hard shield acts like you would probably expect a shield to act, and just does its best to prevent anything from breaking it or bypassing it, be it magic or physical."

The curling magic moved in front of his hand, assuming a circular shape akin to a small buckler the size of a dinner plate. Grian knocked on it lightly, showing its solidity.

"This is usually what this type of shield would look like, though adding some kind of element to the mix can change it up. It works best for attacks you know are coming, since you can position it differently to better deflect an attack."

Gathering the magic back into the thin wisp, he guided it to a different shape while speaking. "Then we have soft shields. These act more like a bubble-vator, in that they apply a repulsive force instead of trying to stop the attack dead in its tracks. A lot of omni-directional shields work like this, since it will push away the danger and keep it at bay."