--- Lily ---
Lily found herself cackling as she looked at Kat, stuck in place as she was. "You do realise I can break out of this if I really try right?" said Kat. Lily just ignored her and kept laughing. "Seriously the only reason I stopped is that the wood started to grown," Lily kept chuckling though they were dying down.
"I can also probably..." Kat summoned up a bit of demonic fire and suddenly the shadows binding her limbs froze over and snapped. "Huh..."
Lily pouted at the sight of her spell being destroyed so 'easily'. At least when Kat was trying to physically escape she had to actually try, but a small application of demonic fire and it was already freezing over? Perhaps the shadows had become a bit to physical. "Really?"
"Lily, this spell, while interesting yes, is not as strong as you were making it out to be. It took half of your mana, looked extremely obvious and as such fails as a trap, and it took slightly over half of your mana to cast. I don't know how it took so much mana with it just being a Rank 2 spell, but perhaps that's just something I'm misunderstanding.
It is strong yes, but strong for a Rank 2 spell and nothing more," said Kat slowly.
Lily continued to pout at this of course, even as she grumbled, "But it worked! It worked really well!"
Kat sighed and pulled Lily into a hug. "I know you're very proud of your first, truly workable spell," said Kat let her fingers run through Lily's hair while her tail kept them both bound together. "And I won't deny that it's quite useful... but for the amount of mana it costs? It's pretty inefficient and I saw you stumbling when you cast it, so it's not something you can cast in the middle of fights.
"Which means it's a trap... but the shadows you cast it on look so weird. They seem to move and look a bit more like a puddle of ink. They've got an odd, oily shine to them and if they're close to other shadows? I'd say that just makes them stand out more if anything. So, while I admit it's very cool you got something workable, you need to calm down, at least a little bit,"
Lily pouted further but leaned into Kat's hug and let herself be calmed down. Kat was right, she was perhaps... a bit overzealous. After her string of failures and the break Kat provided with the fish, Lily had dived right back into her spells with more mixed results this time.
Sadly that mix seemed to range from 'nothing' to 'actively bad for Lily' instead of anything good... right up until this last spell.
"I think I could do some real damage with it... potentially. Of course, only if I got up close and personal with it... and while I wouldn't be against taking a risk like that if I thought it was necessary, especially to save a whole world... it's a huge risk for what would probably by a nasty cut. Nothing immediately deadly.
"So I'd want a good support spell. Which might be in my books... but I don't have them. Just my notes. And supporting spells weren't really what I was looking into because I wanted to be useful on my own. A combatant in my own right...
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"And I'm thinking that perhaps that was a poor decision. Utility spells can always be useful and if I tied down my opponent with efficient defensive and utility spells I can then attack them with my shadow.
"Um... sorry I guess I'm just rambling here. I don't really know what I'm doing... and I think I've proven that a few times over now," finished Lily with a sigh.
"Look, I'm not entirely sure I agree with that... but it also seems like you've spotted a path forward. Maybe you can't do anything against this dragon, maybe your help is instrumental and you need this spell to do it. I can't see the future... but I DO trust you to figure things out. You've always been good at thinking things through and I'm sure you'll come to a satisfying answer," said Kat gently.
"Thanks Kat," mumbled Lily into Kat's shoulder. "I think... I think I WILL keep working on this. I don't have the notes to work on anything better right now and I've seen some success. It's a pain to test because of the mana requirement but I can split my attention between tweaking the spell and testing it. It'll probably be my project until we find the drake,"
"If that's what you want to do I'll support your efforts," said Kat with a grin.
Lily sighed as she pressed herself further into Kat's embrace, letter her sensitive nose pick up on Kat's unique sent while her ears simply took in Kat's heartbeat. It was a steady thing, rarely changing even when Kat was in more extreme situations. Perhaps it was a demon thing, or perhaps it was just Kat.
To Lily it was a comforting sound and with Kat's scent enveloping her Lily could do nothing but smile.
"Thanks Kat," said Lily as she rubbed her cheek against Kat. "As long as you promise to keep helping me test my spells, probably in the evening or something, then I'm sure I'll have something come the drake fight. It may not be perfect, it may not be the best spell ever... but maybe it can hold back a dragon for a second,"