Chapter 131

Weapons In The Hands of Children

(Thirty Minutes Ago)

Southern number eight returned to his spot and he appeared to look somewhat confused that I was not floundering while he was absent. The two people next to him, people who seemed to have originally been in on a ploy to disrupt my class, seemed to give him the cold shoulder.

Though apparently southern number eight couldn’t realize reality when it was hitting him in the face, as he seemed oblivious to what was happening. As the other two students seemed to actually be learning. That or if they weren’t learning, then their spell formations were getting better from just being around others, as their spells were denser and clearly under their direct control.

“What are you doing?” Southern Eight asked with a hiss to his voice.

“They are practicing their Interpretation phase of casting. For those of you who might not have been here, Interpretation is state two of four when casting a spell.” I state, trying to be cognizant of the fact that this student lost about two hours, and now that he was back, I had to once again try to teach him.

With a sneer, the weasel faced gentleman with a waxed mustache and goatee responded proudly. “Four parts of a spell? If you do it fast enough, there should only be one phase, the instant death phase.”

I just shook my head.

“By breaking a spell down into its four individual components, you can start to find ways to improve your casting time. As I am sure those around you can attest, they have learned new skills that will likely help them improve aspects of their casting.” I said, again still trying to be diplomatic here.

Reluctantly southern number eight, or Snate as I was beginning to think of him, turned to his comrades and they both seemed to nod in agreement. This is good, that means they were getting the skills I had been talking about. Or at the very least they were getting skills that would directly reinforce this stage of their casting. Or maybe they were just being nice and didn’t want to ruin a perfectly good afternoon out in a remote place at the edge of the known world, and ruin guild relations between our guild and their own. There were so many reasons why he should have just bowed his head and tried to dive into the lesson that I lost count.

I mean, I always thought it was a lot easier to be nice than perpetually mean, but this guy, Snate, seemed like it was up there with drinking water, as it was clearly something that just came naturally to him.

Not wanting to cause a fuss or seem like the man was getting to me. I simply said, “do with this time what you will.”

Then turning my back to the student, I tried to make it so my intentions were clear, as I wanted nothing else to do with this student.

Of course, like all petulant students the moment my back was turned was apparently the moment he had been waiting for as a malicious smile broke out on his lips as he began channeling energy into a powerful, well powerful to him Tier VII destruction spell.

“You know, you would be able to hide that spell better if you focused on the four fundamentals, as that would at least give me less time to react to your shotty spell work.” I say, then to further highlight what we were teaching in this class, I manifested my own Interpretation phase of a spell construct, made it visible, then had it go over right in front of the goateed Snate himself.

As my spell construct began snaking out and behind me, right towards the spellcaster he sneered for a moment, as he knew there was no way my tiny spell could hurt him. He was right, my spell could not hurt the man, but then again, my spell was never meant to hurt him.

Fizzle-pop.

With the explosion of a dud of a firework, his spell that he had been spending so much mana on burst into a cloud of smoke and mana in his face.

“Again, as you have just seen, the Interpretation phase is also what you can use to break apart another person’s spell. Rather than competing against another mage in the traditional way, you can just have your spell override the integrity of their spell and thus disrupt their spell before it becomes truly dangerous for you or for others.” I say most of this to the northern side, but then make sure to give the last few lines to those students at the southern field.

Southern number seven raises their hand to ask a question.

Seeing the gesture of civility coming from the members of a foreign guild who obviously came to cause trouble I was momentarily shocked by their courtesy.

“Yes, southern number seven?” I say while pointing towards the temporarily polite student.

“You are saying these can be used in Wizards duels?” The man asked, obviously intrigued.

Hearing that I nodded.

“Yes, this is the stage of control you would need to focus on if you wanted to be a Wizard duelist. If you all stay for long enough, I could teach the skills of a Mage Duelist, but know that I do not have that class myself.” I state, not trying to lie, but the skills offered by the Mage Duelist class seem lackluster when compared to other unique classes with specialized skills.

“You a mage duelist?” Snate hissed to himself.

I pretended not to notice or hear the slight, as it was said mostly under his breath, but I let it slide. Honestly, I too think the idea of me being a mage duelist was also absurd, as what would be the point? I want to encourage magic, not break others from being able to use their own gifts.

Southern number nine asks, without raising their hand, because apparently, they are not as civilized as number seven, “can you show us tricks to dueling now?”

Hearing that, I pause and realize that this might be a fun next step, as everyone clearly seems to be tired of summoning and then unsummoning their own will into a spell.

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“You know what, we can do that. Everyone pair up into groups of two. With this you will take turns both creating spells and trying to exert your will on your opponent to disrupt their spell. To do this, all you need to do is stand relatively close to each other, and then each of you try to create your spells in the same area. If you cause your opponent’s spell to burst into a cloud of smoke and mana, you win. Also, remember we are not actually casting spells. Anyone who tries to create a spell completely will be kicked out of this classroom.” I state.

I know, I should have seen the writing on the wall. This was the equivalent of going to a gun range and saying, rather than pointing at the target at the far end of the field, your job is to see who can draw your weapon on the person next to you the fastest. Not my brightest moment, but then again everyone seemed to be an adult with experience casting spells, I assumed they knew the dangers of spell casting.

Within seconds I saw spells getting into the third or fourth stage of casting, prompting me to cast massive disruptive streaks all over. I made sure to make sure my spells were visible when dispelling others. While I didn’t have to get too fancy with my casting, as the most essential skills I had to use were my Quick Casting, and Dual Casting skills, both of which were part of my bloodline legacy that I was never more grateful for than today.

While a few of the students were evenly matched when it came to casting, I did not take into account the difference in Tier rating, which did have a massive impact on the capability of different students and their ability to block or hinder others from their castings.

I guess I should have expected this outcome had I given it more thought or had more time to plan. But as it was, I realized one thing quickly, students with higher Tier ratings had an easier time stopping lower Tier spell casters and had a harder time getting disrupted by lower Tier spell casters.

Again, this should have been obvious to me, but I failed to recognize the disparity between mana being dispersed, as I was certain I could disrupt the spells of higher Tier casters by my focus and Will alone, but that was not the case here.

Then, while I was putting out a hundred sets of fires at any given time, I failed to keep vigilant track on my troublemaker, aka Snate.

I knew something was off, when I received a targeting thread.

Again, once you get to my level of understanding, identifying a targeting thread gives you the same sensation as walking directly into a spider’s web face first. Instantly, you begin to feel the annoying tingling itch, then the next thing you do is use your hand to wipe it away. Or as I have learned, grab the tread, and return it back to sender.

Crackle-zzap!

An arc of lightning left Snate’s hand, headed out towards me, before it curved back and ended up zapping troublemaker Snate right in his chest.

Silence.

Everyone was silent as they all stopped to see a mage apparently try dueling by lashing out a lightning bolt, only to have it arc around and target themselves.

“This is another reason why you practice the fundamentals, so you can prevent incidents like this from happening.” I say, choosing to make this moment a teachable moment. “Right here, we had a student trying to cast an attack spell directly on me. One that I was able to redirect back on the caster, due to his lack of understanding on the final part of a spell casting, the Manifestation part.”

I pause, then state, “by knowing the Manifestation part to casting, you too can prevent yourself from being the direct target of a spell and instead send the spell back to the caster. Speaking of which, you are out southern number eight.”

More silence.

There was a moment of hesitation, when Snate looked utterly dumbfounded, whether it was at being caught, being made to look like a fool, or being called out I couldn’t tell. Honestly, I didn’t care, but this was the second time this student had tried to interrupt my class and the first time he tried to cause me bodily harm.

Judging by his posture, it was clear he had suffered grave damage from the self-inflicted lightning blast, as he was clearly panting in pain. Despite all of this, “what? Me?”

“Yes, you, the moron with the waxed mustache and goatee.” I state, making sure to point to him, just in case he was particularly dense.

“You just attacked me!”

“You attacked yourself, we could tell as the bolt of lightning came from your hands, shot out, then returned back to you.” I answer coldly.

“Do you have any idea who I am?”

“Nope, do you know who you are? You did take a pretty good jolt there?” I quip back. Again, not deescalating, but I was kind of ticked at this moment.

Chuckles.

A few other students began laughing at that, which was good as it seemed to deflate an otherwise tense situation.

“Why you…” Snate began, but then started casting a particularly nasty bit of Death, Lightning, and Spirit Magic.

“So, you are one of those mages.” I said, then I paused as I realized he was going for an Armageddon type spell, one that would be so explosive that it would destroy everything within a few hundred feet of the impact site.

Seeing this, I just reacted, hiding my own threads of disruptive magic, and yes, I did mean threads. As I sent three differing threads that gave a counter resonance to the spell that Snate was casting.

“I would advise you to stop this.” I said, as my mind was mostly made up on what I would do. I would hook my spell threads into this caster, then cause him to either rip apart his own core to cast the spell, or he would stop himself from this little temper tantrum.

“You think I would stop? I am the master of destruction. I had been waiting to cast this, but I will do it here and now.” Snate began.

Yes, he actually monologued, then again, his spell work was so slow and sloppy that he likely needed to distract others from tackling him.

Seeing his own determination, I ramped up my own efforts, once again changing the targeting coordination to be himself. Then jabbing a few well-placed holes into his spell construct caused the accumulating mana to begin to leak out. This is sort of like stabbing a taped balloon, the tape maintains the overall pressure on the balloon, preventing it from bursting entirely, while clearly letting the air out. Same thing, all except, I wanted his core to bleed out. For only when the core was completely drained of mana could it be forcefully destroyed.

I almost felt bad, but then realized that this man was not only trying to kill me, but all the other guild mage guild members around me, my family, sort of. Definitely my daughter who was the only one running over to stop the mage.

Others nearby also tried to stop the mage, only to be attacked by surprise weapons. A quick draw pistol was fired at short range, knocking a guild mage southern number eighteen away. What? I’m bad with names, okay, sue me.

“Behold!” The mage shouted, casting the spell up. While he raised his head, he then tried to do a bit of misdirection, as he used an artifact ty try to Teleport away. Fortunately, I could also disrupt that spell easily as well, causing the talisman to crack and pop from the strain it was under.

Then the mage looked scared for a moment, as he realized he was stuck. Then looking up, he saw his doomsday spell rise up high into the air, only to pop gently.

Shocked.

Everyone was shocked, me included.

We had just been attacked by a member of a supposedly allied guild.

The mage who had a second ago tried to destroy us all, suddenly grasped at his chest, right at where his heart was. This was a sympathetic reaction, as the location for the spiritual core where magic is held is in roughly the same spot, thus if you feel problems with your core, you would naturally grab at your heart.

“What did you do?” Snate asked.

Hearing the words come from his mouth, I just stand there shocked. How do you answer that, “I didn’t do anything, other than allow you to destroy yourself.”

Then I realized my personal oath as a healer. While I generally had the compulsion to help others, I didn’t feel like I needed to heal this person, at least not yet. Not for a long time, as my mind began to take in just who this monster had tried to take away from me. My daughter, everyone of my students, which mostly comprised the entire mage contingency of the Midnight Hunters guild, along with a few other dignitaries from other guilds.

That’s when I realized I had failed.

I didn’t have enough of a plan to counter monsters. I didn’t trust the students not to try to hurt me, or others. I just felt like I had failed.

***

(Present Time)

“Then I said, you know they have a saying. Those that can do, do. While those that can’t teach. Then somehow, I ended up here.” I say my thoughts out loud, as I myself am still trying to piece together what happened. My hand reflexively patting the thick fur of an insanely large dire phase wolf.

Slurp.

A thick tongue that feels like sandpaper scrapes against my face, covering me with saliva.

“Yuck.” I say, only half meaning it, as I go to hug Kujo around his thick neck. “You know, I am a terrible pet owner, but I could easily see myself having a pet like you. I also have a dragon that I need to get back.” I muse to myself. Though right now my pet dragon is busy helping Simulacrum Number one continue to cure people of the Blight in the mage guild on the second floor of the Arcanarus Tower.

I then pause as I realize something, “hey Kujo, where is your lady friend?”

Chuff.

With that Kujo lowers his head to the floor and looks away, as things are clearly not going so well.

“Lady troubles?” I ask.

Chuff.

With that Kujo nods his head in agreement. “Well, look no further, for I have the ultimate story of love and romance to help you understand the mind of a woman.”

Chuff?

With this Kujo looks exceptionally interested, and even has turned his large head around to look directly at me.

“That’s right, let me tell you the story of Rahul and the Maiden. You see, it all began on a hot summer day…”

After an hour, the big lug was asleep. I am not quite certain he understood the complete intricacies of the enchantments Rahul was working, but he paid attention regardless. Then only after I felt the slow rhythmic rocking of his breaths coming in and out did, I realize he was asleep, while I was safely curled up against his overly large fur. Fur that felt like a warm blanket around me.

Then taking a moment, I realized with a good book and a pet, I felt so much better.

"It is amazing how much sharing a good book with others can improve your day." Then with that, I too fell asleep, letting the worries of my day wash away.