First, let us talk about magic. What is magic, and how can it be used? Everyone in the world is capable of using magic; once a being is born, they just naturally harness the surrounding magical essence and take it into their bodies as if it were as natural as breathing. Almost everyone and everything can use magic, as long as they are capable of experiencing emotions to a certain degree. from simple ones such as fear and anger to slightly more complex emotions like empathy. If you can feel something, then you are capable of magic, as emotions dictate your magical affinity, usage, and capabilities.
However, just because everyone can use magic doesn't mean everyone is equal in terms of abilities. There are those who use their sadness to conjure magic quicker; those who use anger to produce powerful single-shot blasts; those who use envy to mimic other abilities, albeit at half their full potential; and so much more.
Now, this might sound like magic is one-dimensional, but it is not. There are dozens, if not hundreds, or even thousands of deviations, like fire magic for anger and fire magic for brute force. One can use their anger to put more fuel into their fire magic, outputting slower but more powerful blasts. Or they can use brute force for outputting more magic in a short duration but with a much lower firepower.
This is why everyone has their own unique magic, as everyone else feels various emotions; however, because of this too, there's no single linear path to learning magic because not everyone has the same emotions. Academies, scholars, mages, and everyone else along these lines can only guide other people to a certain extent before they have to walk their own paths. And this is also why no single country in the world has a large concentration of powerful magic users, as magical knowledge is not something that could be cultivated by a collective but only by an individual. And individuals usually tend to go down their own path of choice.
Now let's move on to mana. Magic is nothing without mana; after all, it's what fuels the phenomenon. Without mana, one cannot use magic. But there has been no recorded case of someone without mana so far in the history of the world. Once you are born, you cry for various reasons, and that is an emotion. It enables magic to flow through a body and makes it a vessel for mana. And just like magic, not everyone has the same quantity or quality of mana. The quantity and quality of one's mana are defined by their connection with their emotions; the more in touch they are with their emotions, the better their mana is. However, everyone only has a certain undefined limit to how much mana they can store in their vessels; you can only feel that you've reached your limit, but you can never go past it, except for one being. The hero.
In a sense, a hero is nothing special. When the gods bestow herofication on someone, it only removes their mana limit and lets them store as much mana as they can in their vessels. A normal human who has better training and understanding of their own capabilities can beat a hero who only knows how to strengthen themselves and swing their swords. But of course, this is not to say that heroes are pushovers.
They are called heroes for a reason. Having more mana means they can put more fuel into their magic. For example, a fire mage that uses anger as their medium to conjure powerful magic is capable of destroying a small village with just one fire blast, that is because they use their anger to increase the magnitude of their magic. However a hero who is not using anger as a medium, can still produce a similar result just by putting more mana into their magic to increase its magnitude. And that's what differentiates a hero from a non-hero, simply put: power.
Raymond dodged spears of ice shot towards him with ease; although he could just smash the icicles instead, he decided against it as to not break Elena's spirit this early in the fight. Raymond had not gone on the offensive just yet, as he was gauging what level his daughter was currently at. He wanted to know first if she was capable of fighting him earnestly without him holding back.
However, from what he can see so far, Elena has unfortunately not done anything that would garner his attention. only that a lot of the icicles that flew towards him had now melted on the ground under the scorching hot sun. Some of those icicles had scattered around him when he broke a few, then some that he let pass him. which made him think that some of those icicles seemed slow, as if they were meant to fall all over the area randomly.
Raymond stopped moving and looked around him, the ground glistening from the countless ice shards scattered all over that had now melted into puddles of water. Even the exact position he was standing on was a bit muddied due to that. He looked at Elena with a large grin on her face and slowly, Raymond realized what she was trying to do.
"She got me." [Raymond]
"You've finally realized now? I know you were going to gauge my fighting capabilities first, that's why I decided to use my usual 《Ice Spear》 first, but I knew you'd catch on early if I just simply did that so I increased the numbers of the spears to make distract you. But none of that matters now since you're well within my playing field." [Elena]
Elena stretches her arms wide and closes her eyes, a large quantity of mana slowly started gathering around her but was quickly accelerating.
"Ah- crap! I won't let you!" [Raymond]
"《Speed》" [Raymond]
He casts his own magic and to try and reach Elena but it was too late.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
Raymond was suddenly blown away for about a dozen meters away from Elena by a cold and freezing wind. The ground started freezing, and ice was forming from the water puddles that were created by her icicles from earlier. Even the mud froze solid. Large spikes of ice arose from the ground, surrounding Elena. And just a bit above Elena's head, a floating ice crown formed. Then she spoke with a cold tone.
"《Ice Domain》" [Elena]
"Ice domain. It's an ice mage's magic that creates a field of ice around the caster, not only does it make moving hard for swordsmen like me, it also makes the surroundings harshly cold and increases the mana regeneration of the caster as long as they're inside the frozen field. Although her field is smaller compared to the ones I've fought from before and the way that she needed water around to complete the field, it means that she still has a long way before she can completely recreate a full Ice Domain cast." [Raymond]
"That's some nice magic you have there, but do you think this is enough to stop me?" [Raymond]
Raymond stands up and stomps his foot on the ground, causing a mini earthquake that shattered the ice around him and sending shards flying all over, Elena moves the ice spikes around her and uses it as a shield from the ice shards.
Raymond then started heating up. He coats himself with mana and increases his temperature, it starts melting the ice around him but as he looks down, it only melts those that are touching his skin while those that aren't are still very frozen.
"This is some powerful magic you have, but whatever, let's begin!" [Raymond]
Raymond launches himself towards Elena, he brandishes his sword and swings it towards her but it was blocked by one of the spikes that's surrounding her.
Raymond looks to his left and sees an opening, one of the ice spikes the shattered after blocking the shards that flew towards her. He then shifts his balance to his left and dashed towards the opening, only to be blocked by an ice wall this time. He peeks at the other side of the ice wall and sees Elena smirking at him.
Feeling a bit annoyed, Raymond increases the mana on his sword preparing for an attack-
"If I can't find a way in, then I'll just make one!" [Raymond]
He swings his sword wide open to smash the ice wall in front of him, but before the sword makes contact. The ice wall suddenly bursts into a thousand small icicles that launched towards him in high speeds.
Raymond tried to block with his sword but some icicles managed to get through, although it did no damage to his skin. It all just melted once it came into contact.
He looks at Elena's expression and sees no sign of frustration from her failed surprise attack, Raymond knows that she is still planning something and he can't let his guard down.
Raymond jumps away and waits for a few seconds to see if another trap might spring up, but none appeared.
"Are you getting scared, papa?" [Elena]
Elena taunts him.
"I should be asking you that question instead; you're cooped up inside that tiny frozen throne of yours. Don't you feel cold? Just come out already." [Raymond]
"Of course I won't do that. I'm a mage, you know? I can't fight man to man with brutes like you." [Elena]
"And here I thought that you'd use some swordsmanship that I taught you, as a swordsman, I feel a bit sad." [Raymond]
"Then if you're sad maybe you should surrender for now? It doesn't seem like you can win against my magic after all." [Elena]
"Well I can't do that." [Raymond]
After a short exchange, Raymond comes back to thinking about a strategy. Being a swordsman, most of his skills are melee with little to no ranged options at all. He can still use fire magic however he is saving it for last because if even his fire magic won't work, then he doesn't know what to do.
"But then again, if she can't even damage me either then she still loses anyway." [Raymond]
"Hmm? Did you say something?" [Elena]
"No, nothing. Ignore it. Let's go back to fighting." [Raymond]
"Now show me what you have in store for me." [Raymond]
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Elena stood comfortable inside her small frozen fortress, while Raymond was outside casting several buffs on him. He has tried brute forcing his way in but all of it was foiled through various means. From ice spikes suddenly sprouting from the ground, a large wall suddenly being erected that explodes into a thousand shards, or strong gusts of frozen wind that blows him away from her. He was at wits end but he knows he still has one last trick up his sleeve, fire magic.
"Elena, you really leave me no choice, huh. Okay fine, it's time to go all out!" [Raymond]
Raymond stretches his left hand and balls it into a fist.
"《FIRE BLAST》!!!!!" [Raymond]
He shouts at the top of his lungs, and then a beam of fire appears in front of his stretched hand that shot towards Elena's frozen fortress in a blink of an eye, when all of a sudden-
"《Mirror》" [Elena]
A cold tone echoed throughout the frozen field. Then a large oval-shaped ice block that was twice Raymond's size appeared in front of the fortress. The Fire Blast hits it, and then it gets reflected towards Raymond, hitting him in an instant and throwing him away for a few dozen meters. However, despite that, besides his tattered clothing, he did not receive any damage.
"Wow, you didn't receive any damage from your own magic? I guess they did call you Raymond The Stone for a reason." [Elena]
He wasn't surprised that despite being roughly 50 meters away from her, he can still hear her voice. After all Ice Domain lets its caster hear and see everything that is within her field, it can also transmit her voice. Raymond slowly stood back up as he dusts himself.
"Of course, I'm still the hero after all. But what was that? Wasn't that 《Mirror》? Oy that's supposed to be a high tier magic, how are you capable of doing it?" [Raymond]
"I don't know either, one day I just felt like I could use it. So I thought of hiding it from you while I secretly trained myself with it." [Elena]
"I see. Well I'm sure you're not lying to me, but well we'll find out anyway after I beat you." [Raymond]
"You can try! Not even your magic worked on me, what will you do now, old man?" [Elena]
"Ugh- to be called an old man by my own daughter." [Raymond]
He looks at Elena with a smirk on her face.
"But still, 《Mirror》 magic, that's a magic I rarely see. But if I recall it correctly, wasn't it a certain noble family who can use that magic..? Ah whatever, I need to focus on this for now." [Raymond]
Raymond scratched his head trying to find a way through Elena's defenses. Whenever he tries brute forcing his way through, he gets stopped by countless ice shields and he tries to just keep on breaking them he will eventually run out of mana first despite having way more than Elena. That is because the Ice Domain is draining his mana while increasing Elena's mana regeneration, making a battle of attrition not an option for him. And neither can he use magic as it will always only get reflected back to him by her Mirror.
Although Raymond said in the beginning that he would fight her as the hero, he cannot truly go all out. He is easily capable of literally flipping the battlefield to remove Elena's frozen fortress, but he is afraid of hurting her and, even more so, killing her in the process. Which is why at the moment, he is only actually fighting Elena with less than 10% of his full potential.
Raymond thought to himself that he could try increasing his output a bit and run to the fortress again, but immediately decided against it as he might just get blown away again anyway.
He kept thinking on what to do next when suddenly-
"Wait, blown away? I kept getting blown away. But ice mages aren't capable of wind magic, those strong winds comes from the ice themselves exploding. Wait a minute..." [Raymond]
Raymond looked back and forth from the fortress and the ground he is standing on, and suddenly, he had an idea.
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