“Despite all that serious talk, nothing changes.” Bennett breaks the ice with none of us in the mood to speak on our way back to the western wing. “You’ll train with the other kids, you’ll attend lessons and you’ll have practice and drills in the evening.”
Then what was the whole point? Are we just some rare trophy? Compared to those monsters in that room we’re useless. Maybe after five-plus decades, we could scratch their toes but until then…
And the Fist only asks for a few years of service? We won’t even reach the average level here by that time just based on my leveling rate thus far.
Eh, not my problem, as long as they keep their word. OR, maybe they’re trying to persuade us to stay, showing off their heavyweights and their cool castle so we would keep being mercenaries of our own accord... As long as they don't force anything I don't mind, changing my view on things was never easy so just let them keep trying,
After this experience, I’m not in the mood to socialize so I just ditch the others as soon as the instructors go back to their own thing. An irritating Victor, a talkative Kayla and that little prick are the last thing I need this early. If not for the mood I would've sent him drooling on the floor again.
As there is almost an entire hour left until breakfast and there’s no way I’ll go back to sleep for such a short time, I make my way to the courtyard. Since it's empty right now because it's too early I can use my magic freely, no need to restrain myself to wind.
“Some elemental combos?” I ask myself, just for old times' sake.
Old… it was only around two weeks ago I left home. Thinking back on my parents, house, and friends doesn’t fill me with as much grief and emptiness as it did before. It still stings and I still think about mom and dad every so often but this is just how things are now, I have to suck it up.
Anyways, back to magic. What elements should I use? Maybe fire a~nd wind? Fire needs oxygen to burn, the more air the hotter the flames, sort of.
Since I need to grind Mana Spear sooner or later I form a smaller fire core and surround it with a swirling layer of air. The result looks… menacing. Seething flames glowing incandescent, pushed and compressed by the whirling aircurrent around them. I stare at the weapon in a daze, unable to take my gaze off it.
Sadly forming it takes a good few seconds, a short time that's more than enough for most things to kill me, and requires control I’m barely able to maintain. Even taking a step would tip the fragile balance I’m trying to uphold.
And still, one question floats in my mind.
Can I compress it further? Make it hotter?
There’s no room left for caution and what-ifs. I just do it as the nudge from curiosity is too strong and I don’t even try to resist it. And so I force the air mana to push inwards on the flames, to draw in more air, way more air while letting the flames go wild inside. By now I only need the flames and leave control over them to the winds surrounding it.
I only now realize that my mana is being rapidly consumed as I feel the familiar weakness caused by Mana Dependant. I know there is more to achieve here, and that my method is laughably ineffective so I make a snap decision and abandon the spell. I don’t let it simply dissipate, no no no, I fire it across the shooting range hearing it basically howl as it flies toward the target.
When the spear impacts the target dummy it engulfs even the two next to it in a fiery explosion. Since the flame core of the spear reached quite impressive temperatures even the dummies made from rocks and dirt suffered some serious damage.
“Wow, nice.” I expected something more, honestly. Especially after pouring my entire mana reserve into it.
[Your class Skill [Mana Spear] has reached lvl 7.]
One thing is clear, it’s not worth it. The mana spent far outweighs the damage it can cause. It’s still damn cool and my head is already spinning with ideas about how to improve it like using some of the pressure inside to make it go faster, adding a little spin so it doesn’t fly so wobbly and concentrating the blast forward.
“Another try.” I walk over to the huge Hadron crystal sitting in the courtyard to top off my mana.
I repeat the spell a few times, then try playing with a water and wind combo Mana Blade. It works all right, nothing special. The earth and air mix scattershot on the other had… It would turn squishy enemies into a red mist right away. Although most likely even some thick skin or Endurance in the low hundreds could stop it, the earth projectiles are just too small and fragile. I had to recharge my mana from the absolute unit of a crystal for the third time now, making me feel sluggish after the last one.
Overwork probably.
Breakfast should be in a few minutes so I’ll wrap this up after this last trick. I realized after my last spear 'Why not hold the crystal while building the magic?' Just have one hand on the big white rock and suck up the mana, right into the magic.
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Martha searches the hallways, looking for the little devil as she likes to call Elyssia. The little part is self-explanatory and she's a devil because of her temper and talent. A reckless, foolhardy and with a head on her shoulders that is destined to do incredibly great or stupid things. One that’s incredibly exhausting to cultivate.
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After arranging for today's lecture she went to look for the four breathing and walking problems, however she only found three. At first, she guessed Elyssia went back to sleep or visited the bath, but no, she was nowhere to be found. A servant reported to her that a kid was seen in the courtyard, making a mess of the place. Let’s say it wasn’t hard to guess the culprit.
“Breakfast should be available already.” She sighs “Why can’t this girl just be like the others? All of them are restless and a bit rebellious but this one…”
As she rounds the corner to the archway leading out the courtyard she feels like something’s very wrong out there. The shadows are leaning in the wrong direction compared to where Solaire should be at this hour. She doesn’t hesitate and teleports into the doorway, space magic is quite costly yet since she doesn’t fight much she has plenty of mana to spare.
The sight that welcomes her freezes even the veteran mage for a second. A girl standing near the large glowing crystal in the middle of the courtyard, one hand on the stone and the other raised towards the sky. Her eyes are closed, her face scrunched in concentration, and her skin pale with visible light blue veins running beneath it.
She’s shaking a bit, her body not strong enough to handle the amount of mana flowing through it. One's mana vessel is only able to handle a mana flow close to their mana capacity but the thing above her hand tells stories about the amount of arcane surging through the small body.
A brilliant spear, of fire similar in size to the girl’s arm yet scorching far beyond her reach. The air around the rod glows white and the winds violently whip around, distorting the air due to its heat. The grass in a five-meter radius beneath the spell is burned to the ground and the heat is felt even where Martha stands. The sun seems to shine dimmer as the mighty spear illuminates the courtyard.
The girl doesn’t even seem to realize what she has created. Her mind is solely focused on her spell and feeding mana into it while ignoring her body's degrading condition and her surroundings.
“Eli!” Martha shouts. “Eli cut off the spell! Stop pulling in more mana!” Sadly the shouting has an unforeseen consequence. Elyssia’s eyes snap open just as she loses concentration and subsequently control over the spear, something she shouldn’t be able to wield in the first place.
As soon as Elyssia opens her eye the air cocoon around the spear cracks and explodes, threatening to swallow everything around it.
Martha teleports in without thinking, trying to shield Elyssia, she grabs the girl and jumps back to where she stood a second ago. Thankfully the level of magic wasn’t high enough to do actual damage to her, only a few burnt strands of hair and her clothes being singed on one sleeve. The same can’t be said about the little devil’s limp body smoking in her embrace.
The explosion from the spear sends a shockwave through the courtyard, the heat stored inside blackening the earth as it’s finally released. Some of the windows crack, others shatter, and sand and dust get thrashed into heated air making it barely breathable.
Thankfully Elyssia is unconscious. If she weren’t it would only be a matter of time before she passed out from the pain of losing the arm she held up, all the way to her elbow. Her entire right side is covered in smaller burn marks, blistering as they cool. The only saving grace was that the magic was her own and so none of her mana turned and ravaged the small body. All this damage is just the side effect of the spear overheating the air and the pressure tearing flesh apart.
“Gods dammit you careless little idiot.” Martha curses. She rummages through all her pockets looking for a healing potion but she doesn’t have any on her. It's useless inside the Fort with all the proper healers in the first place.
People begin to converge on the courtyard. A blast of this scale is not something that ever happens in a place only used by beginners. From the windows all around to the hallways leading to the courtyard armed members appear, ready to defend their home.
“Healer! I need a healer here. There’s no attacker, it was an accident.” Marhta shouts but people are a bit too slow to react. “By the Abyss get a fucking healer before she dies you halfwits, NOW!” Her raised voice does result in a woman sliding beside her administering the girl's wounds even before coming to a stop.
“Just what happened here? She in no way can use any magic of the magnitude we heard, especially not with that level.” The woman asks, her name is Freeda if Martha remembers right, checking over Eli’s wounds and assessing her condition. “Just looking at her is enough to guess where the mana for the spell came from. Those ice blue veins all around her body mean she used around six times her own mana pool doing whatever idiocy caused this.” She then turns to Martha as some of the commanders arrive. “Just what did she do?”
“That’s something we’d like to hear as well, and who’s going to pay for the repairs?” Asks Ehrhardt, the commander obsessed with wearing his overcoat, while gazing over the courtyard and then Eli.
Martha scratches her cheeks, unsure of what she saw but still trying to piece it together.
“When I arrived she was standing next to the Hadron crystal drawing mana constantly to feed a flame spear as big as her arm. I’m not even sure the word flame does justice here… it was burning white hot and looked almost solid. She somehow used wind magic to regulate the fire or something. The magic itself dealt no damage to me whatsoever, with that said if someone high level were able to replicate it… Siege-tier.” Those words were enough to drive home the meaning, as understanding dawns on everyone’s face.
Siege-tier spells or projectiles are usually created by multiple mages working together or with a magical siege engine. A good example would be the new Starlight Cannon, the brainchild of a few brilliant gnomes introduced just weeks ago. Despite all that, the little girl here accidentally created a spell rivaling those, not in power of course, no, but in potential destructive capability.
“Take her back to her room. By the looks of it, she’ll be out for a few days.” The commander orders. “I expect a report in fifteen minutes in my office.” Then he addresses the crowd. “Everyone dismissed.” He shouts, making the mercenaries return to their duty.
Even after the healing magic worked its wonders to put Elyssia back together, the effects of mana overuse remained. The burn marks healed while the stump on the other hand, where her left hand should be, might need a few more healing sessions to be back.
“How bad is it?” Martha asks
“Bad.” Arrives the medical verdict. “Her body needs rest, a lot of it. The arm I’m going to be able to recover of course but it might take a long while, she’s only level 18.”
Martha nods, scoops up the limp little Elyssia and marches back with her to the girl’s rooms.
“You need to stop ending up like a wreck or else I’m not going to take you into the forest ever again, you hear me?” She talks to the unconscious, drooling girl. “I’ve lived centuries now, and fought in battles where rivers of blood flowed between the mounds of corpses yet you’re going to be the death of me, little devil.”
She lays Elyssia down in her bed, after getting her changed, since her clothes got burned, again. As Martha leaves she looks at the girl with an irritated smile.
“It's gonna be a real hassle to feed someone unresponsive you know. Even skipping morning exercise like this…” A heavy sigh leaves her mouth. “Let’s make this report to the senseless bastards searching for a way to weaponize the girl.”