Flash Freeze

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Harry grinned uncontrollably as he heard the voice inside his head.

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"Mmm" 

Heather rolled over Harry out of exhaustion whereas he sat grinning at the discovery.

'It was true!' He shuddered in joy. 'It was all true!'

He looked at the sleeping Heather and carefully moved her away without waking her up. 

"Mm" 

As he removed her leg from over his body, she mumbled and turned around. Slowly getting off the bed, he slid into his clothes. 

"Hope she doesn't get mad at me for suddenly leaving." He mumbled and looked around him. Finding no one, he slowly made his way out of the room.

"Leaving already." 

He paused when he heard a soft voice but calmed himself as he saw who the voice belonged to.

"Ah, Tina." He smiled. "Sorry about that but I have somewhere that I need to be." 

Tina sighed. "She wouldn't like you leaving without informing."

Harry gave her a slight bow. "Please help me with this." 

Tina looked around. She knew Harry was not the type of guy to ask for help without a good reason. 

"Alright but you owe me for this." She shook her head.

"Sure." Harry winked at her and ran down the staircase. 

As he left the hallway, Tina stared at the door. "Why was he acting so weird?"

…

…

Harry was ecstatic, he was hysterical at the discovery of a way that could finally bring colours to his mundane life. 

He ran and he ran till he was out in the wild—  the forest of Ivory that encompassed the northern border of the Edenos kingdom. Just beyond the forest were the border walls, behind which one had to take permission to exit and enter. 

He had run two miles to enter the forest. Why? Because if anyone found him using Heather's skill, they would either send him to the church or experiment on him on their own. 

Both of which were unacceptable to him.

He took a moment to take in the beauty of the forest. It had gorgeous scenery but he knew it was quite dangerous. There were wild animals in this forest and each of those animals could cause him unimaginable pain. 

But he had no choice. The Edenos kingdom was populated and there was no better place to test out the new skill than in the forest.

However, the moment he calmed himself, a realisation dawned upon him. 

'Magicians possess a mana pool from which they feed mana to their spells.' He frowned. 'A spell cannot be formed without mana and I don't have a mana pool.'

Yet he believed there had to be a way for the spell to work. And the best option was to test it out.

A new skill user finds it difficult to use a spell when they first acquire it. But Harry had three skills that he acquired throughout the years and therefore he knew how to activate a skill. 

Different skills work differently but the basic activation and deactivation principles were the same. 

'It's all in the mind.' 

He looked at a tree that was a few meters ahead of him. 

'15 meters.' He thought. 'Better to create some distance.' 

Moving back he thought of the ways he could cast the spell. Despite being close with Heather, he rarely was with her when she trained. 

'Calm now.' He assured himself. 'It will be fine.'

The tree was in proximity of ten meters from him, which was within the skill's scope.

'The mind is the spark and the body is the tool to concoct a spell.' 

He focused on the tree and extended his arm. 

'A skill is a lock and a thought is a key.'

He closed his eyes and let his body relax. Over the years, he has learnt to use his skill more effectively and having a focused mind and relaxed body allows the skill to form easily and quickly.

Soon he felt a spark inside him, a trigger as he called it. And following that, his palm grew cold. He opened his eyes and using the same method he used for his other skills, he released the spell.

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*Swish* *Creak*

A white flash-bang surrounded the tree and within a second— it had frozen solid.

.

.

.

"Hah...Hah...Hahahhaha!" 

He laughed at the crazed discovery. He believed all this was an illusion… but no. The spark, the cold, the chill from the freeze —all made him believe that it was real, so very real.

The tree didn't just get surrounded by ice, it was turned into an ice sculpture. Its trunk, leaves, fruits and flowers have turned rock solid. And he dares say that he believed the roots were equally frozen.

An amazing but scary discovery. 

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'A cooldown?' He raised an eyebrow. 'Magicians can use such magic without pausing because of their man—' 

He paused and a deep frown emerged on his face. 'So, that's how the spell was balanced.'

Magic requires mana to form spells and magicians have mana pools in which they store mana— the essence of magic. And as long as they have mana stored inside their mana pool, they can use such spells repeatedly. 

Until their mana pool ran dry… after which they have to recover that lost mana through resting, meditation or potions.

'Since I don't have a mana pool, this is how my skill was balanced.' 

Harry didn't like having to wait two minutes to cast a skill but there was not much he could do about it. Another thing he realised were the skill's alterations.

A magician can freely shape their spells and control their strength. However, for Harry, everything was specified even in the skill description.

'That's pretty bad but I can get more skills.' He thought. 'Is the cooldown universal for all skills or does every skill have different cooldowns? If it's the former it will be a massive problem. But if not… it's not too bad.'

He sighed and thanked the gods for blessing him with at least a chance to move towards a brighter future. But that also came with a few risks.

'If someone finds out about this…' He let out a nervous chuckle. 'I will be killed.'

He walked towards the tree and examined it. 

"It's like every molecule is frozen…" He mumbled in amazement.

*Knock* 

He tapped the trunk with his knuckles and as he did that, his eyes went wide.

*Crack* *Shatter!*

The tree crumbled down right in front of his eyes. The same tree that stood multiple feet taller than him was now turned into broken shards of ice-cold rubble.

"Bloody hell…" 

He gulped thickly. "Note to self, never let the spell make contact with yourself."

Harry didn't know if it could harm the caster but he didn't dare take the chance. 

Striding back, he didn't realise that the noise he made had alerted the wild animals within the area. 

He slowly made his way out of that place but behind him was something that he had no clue about. 

*Grrrr*

It didn't take long for him to realise that he was not alone. A shiver ran down his spine as he heard the low growl. 

Jolting back he came face to face with a massive brown beast— a grizzly.

"Shit!" 

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[[A/N: Focusing on Marvel atm.]]