A Light Strike
Despite Michael's exhaustion however, he still had one more spell to try... He has the others back away a good distance as he focuses on the recently lightning struck stone, "Light Strike Array!" he exclaims, throwing a hand up at the sky before swinging it downward.
At first, nothing happens but not half a second after he'd cast the spell a small beam of light comes down from the sky. It doesn't do any damage, but it was merely the calm before the storm. A second after the spell was cast, the beam abruptly expands, more light gathering to add energy to it.
The power of the beam increases exponentially, and all in one burst, light gathers into a huge searingly hot burst. Fire explodes outwards from the light beams targets, incinerating anything unfortunate enough to be caught in or nearby the beams radius. The stone that'd been there earlier was ruined, melted into slag.
"Ooooooh!!" Illococoo exclaims as the group watches this unfold before their eyes. Truthfully though, despite how impressive it looked, Michael wasn't happy with it.
It took too long to cast, for the spell to land, gave too much of a warning where it'd strike, and used too much mana. He'd only be able to hit an injured mudcrab or a stationary target with it, as no one smart enough to formulate words would be idiotic enough to get caught in it...
Still, that didn't mean Michael was out of ideas. If he was quick enough, he could cast Light Strike Array, then cast Hex or Shackles to hold the enemy in place for it. Combine that with a cast of Dragon Slave and Laguna Blade, and Michael didn't think even a dragon would come out unscathed.
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With all the excitement over, Michael and the others set to work on grabbing the tents and storing them in his inventory, Medresi spends some time trying to interrogate him over his magic, but he just ignores her and continues reading the Candlelight Tome, while the others work on the Telekinesis Tome.
The group had 'unanimously' agreed to have Medresi drive the cart as everyone else concentrated on their own studies, and by the time they drove past Ivarstead, Michael had managed to manifest a small spark of light in his palm.
To be honest, it was strange for him to personally cast the spell, as most of the time he'd had the spells ingrained into him via the Book of Heroes. The act of channelling his magic into the strange formation the Tome taught made him feel both intrigued and disappointed. The latter because what he was capable of casting was nothing compared to the abilities the Book of Heroes granted... He persisted nonetheless, as he didn't want to be completely reliant on it on the book for his magic.
The only spell he could actually cast himself was Ether Strike, but even then he needed Rhasta's Serpent Wards to be present to use it... At least now he had something he could call 'his own'.
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Hours pass, the group occasionally glancing over at the Throat of the World that sat right next to the road they were using. It towered over them, piercing the skies and making Michael wonder just how people were supposed to traverse up it. No doubt the journey would take days, and with the low temperature and glacial winds up there? Without a huge amount of preparation, you'd freeze to death in hours, if not minutes. The closest thing he could compare it to would be Mount Everest back in his original world.
While the Throat of the World didn't quite meet the height of Everest, it was probably two, three, or maybe even ten times as dangerous. Not only due to the chaotic weather, but also due to the creatures that lived up there... Everyone who played Skyrim remembered that single fucking Frost Troll that'd set up shop on the path to High Hrothgar, piledriving your ass if you dared tried to get into melee range of it...
Fortunately, Michael and his friends would only have to go up there once, as Tiffania could just teleport them back up if they ever needed to return... And with Illococoo's interest concerning the Thu'um, it as looking likely that they'd visit the place one day.
Regardless, the journey continues on. One of the notable things the group had run into was a Dark Elf who wore black robes with a literal fucking skull painted the front of it. If that didn't scream 'NECROMANCER', he didn't know what did.
The Dark Elf attempted to invite them to dinner, but they refused and wished him a good day, leaving the man to trouble someone else.
One thing Michael gave special attention to was a Standing Stone they spotted not far off of the beaten trail. In the game, these things would allow you to change the Perks you could have, he wasn't really sure how the mechanic worked or the lore behind it, but he knew they worked.
It was Medresi who decided to illuminate the group of the Standing Stones actual uses, or at least, purported uses, as these things hadn't seemed to have been used for many decades.
She explained that every person in Tamriel was born under a Birthsign that corresponds to a specific constellation. These would confer the person's abilities, gifts, or affinities towards specific things. For example, the Standing Stone they were looking at now was called the Ritual Stone, which corresponds to the Ritual constellation.
Medresi says that most who are born under it are generally gifted with more intelligence than your average person. This more often than not leads them to become more rational, less emotional, and more willing to delve into less morally accepted lines of work. Specifically, the Ritual has the reputation of birthing Necromancers and Daedra worshippers. Though, whether this was because of the stigma pushing them into such things is another line of discussion entirely.