Raven Magic

Raven Magic (カラスの魔法, Karasu no Mahō) is a bizarre Caster Magic created and used by the Independent Mage Erie Reinhardt. It revolves around the user creating raven constructs out of their magical power and using them for various purposes.

Description
Raven Magic (カラスの魔法, Karasu no Mahō) is a very strange magic, that, in its simplest explanation, allows the user to transmute their magical power into constructs that shape and act like ravens, and said ravens have a variety of potential purposes. Generally, when the user creates them, they slowly emerge from the user's body or parts of their clothing, sliding out smoothly (they generally emerge from black clothing, hair, or both when released) and beginning to flap their wings and fly around once they have safely exited. Once they have entered empty air, they generally fly around within a 3-4 foot radius around the user, since any further risks having their creator dispel them in order to save magical power, and it is generally this distance in which they are the most useful. These created birds often appear to have rudimentary intelligence, but rather it is more likely that they operate within a set command or purpose given to them by the user before they are fully created, and the magic to create them is simply being compressed together in order for the bird to take form. The purposes for which the birds can be used after being created and released varies, depending on the user and how they want to utilize the birds. The most immediate use is to have the birds act as a shield of sorts, as they are semi-solid and large clusters of them can be used to block attacks that are either magical or physical in order. However, each individual raven is generally very weak and can be broken with a single attack, magical or otherwise, so it is generally wise to have them cluster in massive groups in order to take larger attacks. However, for magical attacks that are massive in scale, they can still be blocked, but only with a truly incredible number of birds that would consume all of the user's magical power to create if it didn't kill them outright. Another use is to have the birds gather around the user's limbs, acting as a form of armor, and delivering damage by having the birds' magical power detonate as they strike the opponent (usually in large groups to gain the greatest amount of potential damage delivered). The birds can also act with their shield function when in this state as well, blocking up-close attacks that endanger the user's limbs, and the user can even detonate the birds once the attack's blow actually lands, dealing damage to them as they attack while still defending the user.

Another potential use for the ravens is to super-compress them into various shapes for use in combat, generally in the form of weapons, such as swords, shields, and other hand-held weapons (guns are generally hard to use as it would require several ravens to form the gun and several more to actually load it, not counting the complexities that would be required in order to actually create a functioning gun, making it rather of a poor decision to attempt to build a gun with these). In terms of melee or some projectile weapons created with these ravens, they are generally lighter than their actual counterparts might be, due to be constructed mainly of magical power and a vague, semi-solid black 'skin' providing it with structure (a la, the skin of the ravens created). Due to this lightness, swordsmen or other weapon wielders who decide to utilize weapons made in this way find it slightly easier to wield this and can deal faster and deeper blows with these weapons (though some have initial difficulty wielding them due to said lightness, while experienced users of the magic can wield raven-based weapons with greater precision than actual weapons). In addition to creating weapons, users can compress the ravens in order to create a variety of other potential constructs, the most popular being using a massive amount of ravens to create temporary wings that the user can glide on, though they are subject to wind currents (while also relying on them) much like actual birds.

Users of this magic generally form something of an attachment or connection to the ravens that they create, mostly due to the ravens being created of their own magical power. Users can also reabsorb the ravens back into their own magical power, allowing them to share the various sights the birds have seen while active, as well as occasionally receiving information on the opponent should the birds manage to perch on the opponent for a short period of time. Long users of this magic have even observed a peculiar phenomenon; if one has used this magic for long enough, their magical power will begin to always manifest itself in flocks of ravens, whether the user has intended to create them or not.