My Bound now all sheltering from the growing storm, I need only be worried about my own safety. The lightning is of particular concern, the air already becoming filled with static.

  Focussing on the earth, I grow a spike of rock to act as a lightning rod. Interestingly, I find myself able to pull on my lava magic and generate a spike of granite far more easily than I would have when I only had earth magic at my disposal. I make a mental note to explore this further when I’m not in the middle of a tornado full of lightning.

  As the spike grows past my waist, I decide to make it even more attractive to lightning – I dump a large chunk of iron onto its top, then grow it to about three metres. It’s quite thin at the top – I don’t have a huge amount of mana at my disposal right now, and I’m prioritising speed over quality, though I do add what I can of my mana into strengthening the existing rock. Hopefully it will stop me from becoming a steaming corpse.

  Still staying down close to the ground, I wince as my lightning rod already starts attracting strikes, the aura of static the lightning gives off setting all my hair on end.

  Oddly enough, as I look at Windy, it seems like she’s still completely unaware of everything going on. The wind howls, the lightning rages, the clouds are as dark as night, yet the expression on her face hasn’t changed from the pure joy it was at the beginning.

  That’s more than a little worrying – can’t she control her new powers without losing herself in them?

  Close to her now, I carefully reach out to touch one of her clawed paws, flinching as lightning strikes again – drawn to my lightning rod.

  “Windy!” I call, having to shout at the top of my lungs to even possibly be heard over the sound of the storm. “Wind-whisperer! Pay attention to what you’re doing!” It’s worth a try. But apparently she doesn’t hear me. Or if she hears me, she doesn’t care. The wind continues to circle us at faster and faster speeds, the eye continues to shrink, and the lightning continues to strike. Not even my tentative touch seems to bring her back to awareness.

  Shaking my head, I focus again on the Bond between us, trying to grasp it with a firm hand. Once more, my mental grip slides away like I’m trying to grab something smooth and covered in oil.

  I close my eyes and try again, putting my full force of Willpower behind my attempt. I manage to grip the Bond for a moment, then it slips out of my grasp again. This isn’t working. Even being closer to her isn’t helping.

  Maybe what I had been concerned about is coming true – that having passed into the next tier, Windy’s Willpower far out-strips my own. Fear crawls through me, worst-case scenarios spooling through my mind, unbidden.

  I push them away. The situation is not lost. Not yet. But if I give up, it will be.

  There has to be a way to succeed here. Windy isn’t even paying attention!

  I run the description of Dominate and everything else I’ve learned about the Skill through my mind, searching desperately for something that might help me.

  And then, like a drowning man, my mind latches onto one little aspect, something I haven’t had to use in a long time. A way to bring a creature’s effective Willpower down artificially: a trap.

  Barely has the plan formed in my head than I’m putting it into practice.

  Once more tugging at my other Bonds, I pull the mana that they willingly cede to me, then immediately press it into the ground. I’ve worked enough with this area of earth that my connection to it is already improving; the pit I dig beneath Windy’s feet takes far less mana now than it would have at the start of all of this.

  It means that as soon as I’ve dropped the Pathwalker into the pit, I’m able to close it a moment later, trapping her physically inside with only her head above the earth.

  That makes her pay attention. Her eyes snap to focus on me; her mouth gapes open in angry threat. More of an actual concern is how the storm only gains more fury. Even pressed against the ground as I am, the wind threatens to lift me from the earth – or rip the armour off my back at least.

  The lightning falls with a speed that even my lightning rod is struggling to cope with – I sense that the rock is starting to warm; too much of this and even that will melt. The iron at the top has already melted and now coats the top section of granite like candle wax.

  I actually have to use Darkvision to be able to see – despite being full day, it’s become as dark as night inside the cyclone. Even large rocks are being whirled around the cyclone now, and I really hope that she isn’t able to direct them to fall on me.

  Forcing myself forwards, I pull several wooden vials out of my Inventory. I don’t need to check the symbols carved on their tops – I know what they are. Mana inhibitors, both to prevent regeneration and to poison the current supply. From Windy’s widening gaze, she does too. She clamps her jaws shut and twists her head as far away from me as she can. I just crawl closer.

  Give in to me and my Bond and I won’t have to do this! I tell her over the Bond, preferring to save my breath – the wind is whipping it away enough as it is.

  I am stronger than you! she responds, the first words she’s said since her Evolution. Her mental voice is stronger, more resonant. But I can still hear Windy in there. I’m going to have to make her submit.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Close enough now, I reach for her jaws. She twists her head to face me. Snapping at me. I ignore the attempt to bite me and instead grasp her bottom jaw in a way that keeps my fingers clear but gives me a decent hand-hold.

  She grunts angrily, and I see something forming in the back of her throat. Another cyclone?

  I duck as the attack fires at me, its passage ripping hairs from my head and scoring cuts along my scalp. More worryingly, the far more massive cyclone around us...wobbles. The wind takes on new ferocity, but also a sense of…wildness. Previously, it had a leash on it; now, it’s untamed.

  That last attack must have been a step too far for Windy’s control over her own creation, and she seems to realise it too – fear starts to overtake the joy in her spikes.

  There’s no choice now. Through my hand holding Windy’s jaw, I send a bolt of Flesh-Shaping. Her flesh resists me far more than it should be able to with a Dominate Bond still in place, but less than if there was nothing. I’m not trying to do anything complex, so I manage to brute-force it. Her jaw is now locked open and if she moves her neck, she’ll cause herself damage. The wave of fury that crashes through the Bond reveals that she knows it.

  Freed to move both hands, I keep myself out of range of another wind attack if she tries one. However, even as I pick up the vials, she stays in place – perhaps she can’t produce another attack so soon; perhaps she realises that this is the only way forward. The storm around us is completely out of control – boulders crash down near us; gusts of wind rip at both of us, feeling like knives in their strength.

  I grab two vials, thumbing off their tops, then tip them down Windy’s throat. Not pausing, I drop the empty containers and grab the next two, repeating my actions.

  The wind falters.

  I look up carefully, then have to quickly roll to the side as a boulder lands just where my legs used to be. I then roll to the side again as another boulder the size of my head attempts to take its place. Curling up, I squish myself between the rocks, using them as shelter as much as I can. I soften the ground beneath myself, making a little more space.

  The lightning isn’t striking as frequently, I notice next. There are still rumbles and thuds, but these sound more like the sound of heavy boulders hitting the ground.

  Abruptly, I realise that Windy might actually be at risk here. While tempted to let her be crushed by a boulder of her own making, I decide against it – I still have hopes that she doesn’t have to be an enemy and her sisters would definitely be angry with me if I let her die without good reason.

  Reaching out with my Earth-Shaping, I form a roof of protection over her head, angled to deflect the rocks away from her.

  Slowly, the wind dies down, light beginning to filter into the cracks between the rocks around. The lightning becomes less and less frequent and then eventually stops, the cloud which had been generating it now gone.

  I release Darkvision as the light is bright enough not to need its help anymore. Carefully unfolding myself, I move to stand up.

  Around me is a scene of devastation. Rocks litter the area around us, the surface scoured of any greenery. The destruction extends for about twenty metres, and includes the edge of the cavern beneath – thinner sections of roof have simply been ripped away and dumped near us. Raven’s wings are battered and beaten, blood spilling in many places from where he was struck while protecting his offspring, hopefully successfully.

  And yet, there is no sign in the sky above that the cyclone ever existed. No clouds, just blue sky and a bright sun approaching its zenith. I shake my head again in wonder.

  Turning my attention to the architect of all of this, I carefully ease the protecting roof back from above her head, making sure that she’s not accidentally killed by a dislodged boulder after all of this. Windy glares at me from her trapped position in the earth.

  Release me! she sends angrily along the Bond, her emotions rippling through her spikes.

  “Do you submit to me?” I ask her levelly.

  Of course not! she tells me angrily. I have Evolved. I am now Enlightened, worthy of being a Guardian in my own right. I am far stronger than you are.

  “Perhaps,” I acknowledge. “But do you really think you’d do a better job leading the village than I have?” She looks like she’s about to give an angry rejoinder, so I just continue relentlessly. “How many more Pathwalkers would there be if you had taken leadership of the village before? How many more Warriors? Would the food situation of the village have improved or just continued with the old methods of hunting? Would you have shared metal-shaping and rune-carving with the village and made it the envy of so many others at the Festival? And I’m not done yet bringing innovation.”

  Windy doesn’t reply for a moment.

  I am still stronger, she tells me mulishly. I sigh mentally at her obstinance, then close my eyes and reach for the Bond. Instincts stemming from the Skill in question are insisting that this is what I must now do; I’ve resolved to follow my instincts better these days.

  Trapped physically and with her magical capabilities restricted by the mana and mana regeneration inhibiting potions I gave her, she’s helpless and she knows it. Tier three or not, that has a massive impact on my ability to Dominate her. With the Bond already in place, the endeavour is made even less difficult.

  My grip does not slide away this time. Instead, I’m able to grasp the Bond between us firmly. Following an innate sense of what to do, I actually send some of my mana into the Bond itself. I didn’t even realise that was possible before. Using the mana, I impress on the Bond the need to hold, to limit, to control, to Bind. It accepts the commands willingly: they are, after all, the basis of the Dominate-type Bond itself.

  The Bond between us solidifies in a way I have never experienced before. Somehow I know that even once I release her from her physical confinement, she won’t be able to pull her way free of the soul Bond. It’s like I’ve replaced a cord leash with one woven with steel. If the gap between our Willpowers increases significantly again, she might be able to gain the strength to pull free again, but that’s likely to be a way off.

  Opening my eyes, I meet her frustrated gaze – she knows what I have done and she feels its strength even as I do.

  “When I let you up, are you going to challenge me for leadership?” I ask her levelly. She glares at me, her spikes roiling with frustrated anger.

  No. I just look at her steadily. No, village leader, she grinds out.

  It’s certainly not what I wanted to happen, and I don’t fool myself to think that everything is well now. But the other options seem worse. I just hope that this doesn’t blow up in my face later.

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