Tirfarthuan wrote:There is potential, of that I have no doubt, and I think that Lina could definitely learn something from the adaptability of Anything Goes. Magic in the world of Slayers seems almost stagnant - nobody really creates new spells, they simply dig up old, semi-forbidden or outright insane ones, including the very-much-forbidden Giga Slave spell (*cough* 'Summon God' *cough*) or find mystical artifacts to empower their mainstream ones. This is very much the opposite of the Nerima mentality, where the martial artists slice, splice and outright invent moves and styles to accomplish their goals. Genma created two schools of techniques. Genma! And the closest thing Slayers has to that is Rezo the Red Mage, who hasn't really done much in the way of spell creation. For a world of magic, Slayers is very set in their ways. I can understand not really being able to do one better than the Giga Slave, but surely someone can come up with a better spell than Ra Tilt for non-black mages.
Actually, if you pay closer attention to the anime, or read the light novels (I'm not sure about the manga) Lina invents numerous new spells, and she likely isn't the only one. Sure most of the high level spells like Giga Slave already existed, but I'd like to note that after accessing the Clair Bible, Lina actually created alternate versions of the Giga Slave and Ragna Blade, and I believe the Ragna Blade mod she made on the fly, if I recall correctly. One spell she invented whole cloth was the one she uses to create giant cut gems, she can take a small, but flawless (or near so) cut gem, and a whole bunch of crushed up flawed gem dust, mix the gem dust in water, and create some simple pentagram based magic circles, then use a simple spell she created to turn the gem dust and water into a larger cut flawless gem. It's one of the main ways Lina eeks more money out of some of her finds, and saves on carrying weight and obvious value of her belongings, since flawed gems aren't worth much, nor are particularly small gems, but she can, with a moment of privacy and a small bit of magic, turn the flawed gems using the tiny cut flawless ones as a base into much more valuable large flawless cut gems, and gems weigh less than equivalent bags of gold.
Lina has also figured out numerous variations of the basic fireball spell, turned the basic light spell into a flare effect to blind enemies, and invented the technique to absorb spells with the Sword of Light in order to temporarily enhance it's powers.
There are other forms of spell creation in the series. Rezo the Red Priest developed new and original chimera creating techniques which were used on Zelgadis. Rezo also created various original mazoku/human fusions, including the Rezo clone which itself created an original form of magic combining both human and Mazoku techniques. In some recent stuff mages have made new techniques related to various modified Zannafar stuff. I've heard that Lina creates a spell to use the Dragon Slave like a sword at some point, as an alternative to the more dangerous Ragna Blade. Slayers isn't without the creation of new spells and techniques. Although I'll admit it doesn't often prove prominent in the bigger fights.
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