16 Practicing Magic

The reptilian monster I had set out to find and was now studying was a massive thing. It must have been almost four and a half meters long and stood perhaps one and a half meters tall. Its skin and scutes were both ebony black.

The thing had the harsh amber eyes of many sorts of snakes, and its maw was filled with row upon row of sharp teeth. It was lounging in a relatively sunny clearing, and I stood several meters away from it. Its back was turned towards me so it couldn't see me and the thing appeared to be quite lazy. It was only because I had solid vision that I could see its eyes at all.

After studying it for a little bit, I took a deep breath and walked closer to the monster in front of me. I waited for it to detect me, and it took an embarrassingly long amount of time for the beast to do so.

When the monster detected me it demonstrated a speedy reaction time. It flared to life faster than I anticipated given its massive form and turned around to try and get a good look at me. Its body shot up and the thing leaped to spin around and lay its yellow eyes on me.

________________________________________________

The thing made an annoyed sound as it spotted me. I grinned at my foe, as the creature took its first steps towards me and roared. As it closed the distance between us it made its intentions clear by biting the air between us. The caiman was hungry and it showed.

My response was simple: I rose my hands. I pointed my index finger on my left hand at the thing and wasted no time before casting my first offensive spell: poison pistol.

A straight line of sickly green fluid shot forth from my finger. It sped through the air and connected with the monster, landing on the thing's nose. The monster reeled back in shock as the poison began to take effect.

"What does poison do?" I asked the system, speaking aloud as the monster began to react to the delibating effects of the poison it had just been hit by. The monster began to thrash around as if it were suddenly afflicted with the headache of its life.

[Poison inflicts harm on creatures over the course of a few moments to a few hours. The worst poisons can kill outright, but the poison from poison pistol, when cast at your level, is mostly used to make an enemy useless or otherwise incapacitate a foe.] The system revealed.

I grinned and began to edge closer to the flailing monster, studying it carefully. The monster looked at me, and I could sense fear in its gaze. Fear and rage. I rose another hand in its direction and the monster took a step back, but only for a moment. Almost a second later it lunged at me, now more determined than ever to attack.

Before it could lash out at me and get revenge for the poison it was suffering from I cast another new spell: "Acid Splatter". The spell manifested itself as sweat, sweat which I proceeded to speedily flick at my enemy with a swift flick of my wrist right as my opponent closed in on me. The acid sailed through the air and landed on the space of the thing's head between its two eyes.

The acid cracked the skin of the beast and began to hiss against its flesh as it burned it. The monster's response wasn't to roar. It was to cry out in pain from the potency of my magic. It backed up and fell to its knees as my poison continued to weaken it.

"It's almost time to heal it." I told myself, realizing that the monster was in a lot of pain. I smiled as I watched the thing for a second longer, before pointing my hand in its direction and silently casting another spell for the first time: "Tangle".

There was a second of silence before innumerable, green vines shot out of the ground and coiled around the monster's body. They speedily and tightly wrapped around the beast binding its limbs, before spreading its tiny legs apart. This caused the creature to fall onto its stomach. The monster was now thoroughly defeated and if it were a humanoid it likely would have been quite humiliated as well.

________________________________________________

"Sorry about that." I said to the thing, as I began the process of healing it.

I started off by casting "Cure Condition" on the monster, healing it of the poison I had inflicted on it. The monster sighed as the poison that pained it began to dissipate. I quickly cast "Create food" and conjured an apple for the monster to scarf down. It phased into existence in my hand.

I began to silently heal my foe, hitting the thing with two bursts of "Restore Health" so that I could heal the monster. I paid attention to my minimap and I watched as the monster's hit points climbed back to their maximum number. When the thing was fully healed I paused and considered how to best proceed from here.

"What should I do with you?" I asked, staring at the now fully healed monster. It glared at me, but the anger in its gaze was also tinted with confusion. It asked me a perfectly fair question.

"What do you want?" It asked. I took a second to gaze at it curiously.

For a second I considered lying to it. I could have easily told it that I was here for a more morally upstanding reason than the true reason why I had come here. Ultimately though, I opted for the truth. However cold it may have been.

________________________________________________

"I wanted to practice my powers. And you were here, in a state of constant aggression and hostility. I didn't want to hurt an innocent, neutral creature, and you were neither." I told the thing. It looked at me, confused and angry.

"So you practiced your powers on me?" It asked, defensively. I nodded at it. It made a noise, a roar of anger and disappointment. I listened to it, not phased by the intensity of the hateful sound.

"You... monster!" The thing hissed, angered at my decision to use it as my guinea pig. I chuckled at it.

"Why are you upset?" I asked coldly. Its baleful yellow eyes zeroed in on mine before it spoke next.

"You attacked me!" It roared. Which was only technically accurate and not at all the whole story. And I proceeded to tell the thing as much.

"That argument would carry more weight if you weren't a predator who devours all sorts of creatures to survive. It's true that I attacked you first, I'll readily admit that, but how many creatures have you attacked and killed? In equally cold blood no less. Not to mention... I haven't killed you and I even healed you from the wounds I inflicted on you." I told the thing. Its eyes narrowed as it considered my counterpoint. However I wasn't done.

"I also didn't attack first. You saw me and lunged. I only attacked after you began to make a show of intimidating me, snapping at the air between us. If you're gonna judge me, do so from a position of accuracy." I told the monster, annoyed at its revisionism. The creature fell silent and continued to look at me in heated hostility.

I smiled at it, enjoying the heated hatred I felt coming from it. It made sense for the creature to not like someone who inflicted pain on it so I could easily accept its anger.

"So now that you're powerless I must once again ask myself... what to do with you?" I muttered, grinning at the creature before me.

________________________________________________

"You are quite a strong creature. I'd like to recruit you, but I know that as you are... that'd be difficult." I muttered, as the creature silently glared at me. After thinking for a second I asked the system a question.

"Can I manipulate the "Tangle" spell without it coming undone?" I asked the system, as I considered a way to at least lessen the threat of the monster I had contained. I already knew what I wanted to do, it wasn't difficult for me to figure out too. I wanted to feed the monster a fruit I had created, but without exposing myself to its razor-sharp teeth.

[Sure! You can manipulate the vines easily with your force of will. This is even easier for you since you're a deity of nature.] The system explained to me, its voice easily entering my mind. I nodded, which was surely confusing to the monster I had defeated.

I refocused on the black caiman and the vines that bound its defeated form. I imagined the things tightening around the monster and binding it more fiercely. I heard a soft, pained sound escape the thing's mouth.

"Now... You and I should have a conversation." I said, speaking more loudly than my previous mutterings. My eyes locked onto the beast's.

"What do you want, you bastard?" The crocodile-like creature said, angrily. I chuckled as a response to it.

"Do you want your freedom?" I asked it, looking at the powerful creature. It nodded at me or did as much of a nod as it could. I tossed the apple I had just created close to its head.

"I'm gonna loosen the vines that are binding you in a second. When I do, eat that apple." I told the creature. It continued to glare at me. I waited a second, before doing as I said, loosening the vines to allow the monster the freedom to twist its head and scarf down the apple. It didn't, at least not right away.

When it didn't I rose a hand in its direction. I didn't cast any spells, I just opened my mouth to speak. All I had to do was speak to it.

"Listen... You've lost this fight. How this goes from here is up to you. You're already tied up and bound, would you just do things the easy way? If you do it'll be so much more pleasant for you." I said to it, speaking completely sincerely this time. The monster was emotionally disarmed by this and was still for a second.

"This fruit, right here? It'll empower you. It'll make you stronger. Consider it... a peace offering." I whispered, suggesting that I was offering the creature a gift. I wanted the creature to know that this was my way of ending the battle and that all it had to do was eat the "peace offering" I had prepared for it.

"And by not eating it... you're hinting that you'd like for me to continue our battle." I said, adding a touch of menace and steel to my voice at the end of my statement.

The beast was quiet for a second before it moved just enough to bite down on the fruit. And then its eyes opened wide in relief as the taste of it filled its mouth.

The creature began to speedily munch down on the fruit. And as it was doing so I received a notification.

[Influence over black caiman: 5%... 10%... 15% The black caiman is no longer considered hostile and is now considered charmed by you. Its intelligence is also very low, so it is naturally easy to persuade anyway.]

I grinned as I read the notification and with a flick of my wrists unbound the creature. Even as I did so I quietly asked the system what it meant for a creature to be charmed.

[If a creature is considered "charmed" it means that that being is incapable of being hostile towards you until the charmed condition is over. Your words are also more persuasive than they would be otherwise if a creature listening to you is charmed.] My companion and mental encyclopedia told me. Hearing that only widened my smile.

"Nice." I said to myself, as the caiman stood up and began to approach me.

[I suppose now we can begin to unlock more of your godly powers. Now's as good a time as any, anyway.] The system said, sighing into my mind as it began a process that made me smile.

The caiman came over to me, and didn't attack me, so I ran my hands over the same spot between its two eyes where acid had fallen earlier. A spot that was now healed and back to how it had been right before I struck the creature and began our short fight. The skin I felt under my fingers was tough and wet. It felt strange to touch.