Within the folds of a twisted and dilapidated world, at a certain Academy, two young men were preparing to exchange sword-blows.

One was a short and lithe boy, with eyes that shone with the spark of intelligence; the pure, naive intelligence of a particularly bright child, not yet turned cynical by the cruelty of the world.

The other was Chiros.

Gone was the kind, thoughtful, young man always looking to help anyone any way he could. As soon as he picked up a blade it was like a switch had been flicked.

Before Avakian stood a man who seemed to be overwhelmingly ready to kill him as quickly and efficiently as possible. The sheer certainty that Chiros wielded in everything he did was now being pointed directly at him.

"Ready?" Chiros barked.

"Uhh.. No?" Avakian replied hopefully, feeling incredibly small.

"No-one ever is." He launched forward at Avakian, longsword raised high.

He had learned his lesson from his previous bouts, and didn't try to block the swing directly. Instead he slipped right and held his jian perpendicular to the oncoming blade, in an attempt to get Chiros' longsword to slide away from him.

Once Chiros' longsword was out of position he moved in close, abusing his blade's shorter nature to try and thrust it straight at his heart.

His jian struck air. Chiros had somehow spun out of the way of his counterattack, and now was holding his sword-arm in a vice-grip beneath his armpit, as well as his neck in a half-chokehold.

In his current position Chiros could kill him by simply tensing his muscles, which would break his windpipe, and probably all the bones in his shoulder.

"I give." He wheezed, tapping the offending arm with his free hand.

"Better, but you need to be more mindful of your strengths and weaknesses. Letting a fight devolve into a contest of physical power like that is a bad idea. You've got quick reflexes; use that, be elusive, don't try to end the fight quickly by taking big risks." Chiros lectured, dropping Avakian to the floor where he floundered.

"I'm pretty sure taking big risks is the only way I'll ever beat you. If I 'be elusive', you'll just outskill me and I'll lose." Avakian tried to explain his perspective between breaths.

"This is training. You can't win training." Chiros shook his head. "The point of training is to lose. Learn to lose now, so that you win when it matters."

"So how should I best fight?" He asked frustratedly, not quite grasping Chiros' logic.

"Our clan has a style that I think would suit you." Chiros offered. "It's a style practised by many who try to avoid killing. It focuses on disabling an opponent's limbs by severing muscles and tendons. I'll start teaching you the forms tomorrow, I think you've earned a break."

Avakian was rather irate at his own performance against Chiros; the duo had been sparring since early morning, and he had still yet to land a hit on the tall elf. Worse still it became increasingly obvious how much the swordsman was holding back; sometimes he would randomly amp up his attacks to throw Avakian off.

They retreated out of the sparring hall and back to the kitchenette, for their first meal of the day. Chiros had his trademark giant pot on the stovetop, filled with a delicious smelling curry. He served a large bowl to Avakian before eating his directly from the pot.

Avakian was about to eat when he noticed something odd in his bowl.

"Hey Chiros, what's this vegetable?" He asked, lifting a tough, ring-shaped thing from his stew. "I didn't think we had those in the fridge."

"Oh, that's not a vegetable." He answered, mouth full of curry. "It's diced tentacle from that Void beast I killed."

"Huh, I thought you couldn't eat meat?" Avakian was a little confused, but didn't have any qualms about eating the tentacle monster.

"My religion makes an exemption for beings we kill in righteous conflict. Eat up, it's actually pretty good."

He did, the meat was tough but incredibly delicious, his palate humming with pleasure from the increased Void levels in the stew. Looking up at the clock he saw that he had less than an hour until his next class, 'Introduction to Cantrips'.

After he finished his curry, he showered and got dressed into his new clothes. Abarajitha had done incredibly well with the money he had given her, he now had a dozen full sets of clothes for any given occasion.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

He wore a red, collared, martial arts shirt, along with a yellow sash that went around his waist. The ensemble was completed with a pair of comfortable, laced boots.

Avakian walked to the erebology department at a leisurely pace, not having to rush to class as was his usual modus operandi. He arrived at the octagonal spire ten minutes early, and decided to enter the classroom ahead of time.

He descended the stairs and stepped into the same room that 'Novice Glyphcrafting' was hosted. The room was empty of occupants except for Samuel, who was scribbling furiously into a textbook, and Ellian, who was still playing her game console.

"Afternoon!" Avakian greeted.

"Hmm?" The old professor looked up. "Ah.. Avakian. I wasn't sure you would be joining us, given your injuries."

"I'll be alright. My injuries weren't physical." He explained.

"Well... If you say so. We might as well start class now; there are fewer students than ever this term, I wouldn't be surprised if you're the only one joining us today." Samuel explained with no small amount of mirth.

"Why's that? I thought cantrips would be popular, I can't imagine anyone not wanting to be able to cast spells." Avakian asked incredulously.

"You're right in a sense, but there's a high bar to entry. Most people don't realise that you need to be a very proficient glyphcrafter to cast even the simplest of spells. Usually we require students to pass one of the glyphcrafting courses before they take cantrips. You were an exception because of your circumstances and association with Kamatie."

Ellian switched off her console to join the conversation.

"I heard you cast a cantrip in your fight against the Void beast? Which one did you use?"

"I used the glyph I learned in glyphcrafting. The kinetic actuator rune." Avakian clarified.

Both Ellian and the professor grimaced at this.

"No wonder you used your whole Void capacity. That glyph isn't supposed to be used as a cantrip, it must've been hideously inefficient." Samuel winced. "Damn lucky it worked."

"Can you teach me a cantrip for self-defence? If I had a better one back then I might not have gotten injured." Avakian wondered.

"Not really, kid, sorry." The old man apologised. "Cantrips are slow, unreliable, inefficient and generally not useful in combat. They're generally used for tricks, games, or quality-of-life spells. The only reason your cantrip was so powerful was because of the truly massive amount of Void you forced into it."

"Yeah. Cantrips are pretty much poor man's wizardry. For self-defence you want something like this." Ellian made a dismissive gesture to a metal can on the table. The can instantly rose several feet into the air, where it stayed floating.

Suddenly she closed her fist, and the can crumpled, making a horrific screeching noise as the aluminium was compressed.

"Show-off." Muttered Samuel. "It's so unfair how I can't do that."

"Heh. Skill issue, old man." She laughed at the professor.

"Somatic void etchings?" Asked Avakian. "I thought you had to be born with those."

"Some people get them genetically, some people create them themselves." Explained Ellian. "Mine took around 4 years to get right."

The crumpled piece of metal orbited Ellian's head as she talked, Samuel watching it with a look of amused jealousy.

"How'd you create them? I can't imagine people carving out their own flesh to create glyphs." Avakian commented

"You'd be surprised." Ellian said dryly. "But you're correct that I didn't do that. It's a long process that involves casting spells within the body, gradually the glyphs are embedded into the flesh itself."

"It goes without saying that you need to have a certain physical tolerance to the Void to undergo this process." Samuel explained glumly. "Lucky bastards."

Ellian made a face at the old wizard. "You're already insufferable enough as it is, I can't imagine you with magic powers."

"It'd be glorious." The professor insisted.

"So how do I get started?" Avakian asked before the two got sidetracked by bickering.

"Start by creating a plan. Then bring it to us, we'll criticise your glyphs, and probably call you names for half an hour." Ellian jested. "After you've perfected the plan, imbed the glyphs onto your body by casting them constantly at an extremely low output."

"It's very important you cast them at a very low output." Samuel chimed in. "If you cast them with a higher output, they'll be activated, which if they're incomplete can have horrific consequences."

"Alright, I'm going to be pretty busy these next few weeks. Is it alright if I work on my plan in class?"

"Of course." The professor nodded. "As I mentioned, most students use the allotted class time to focus on private projects."

---

Avakian situated himself in a now-familiar armchair, and considered what to imbed as his ability. He thought back to his fight against Chiros that morning, and the advice the swordsman had given him.

"Be mindful of your strengths and weaknesses." He echoed, tapping a pen onto a notepad he had borrowed.

Ideally his etching would shore up his weaknesses while magnifying his already existing strengths. What kind of ability would compliment him?

Abarajitha's fire? Fire couldn't stop blade nor bullet, his only option would be to burn whoever was attacking him before they killed him, which seemed a risky gambit.

Ellian's psychokinesis? This appealed to him on a fundamental level, her power could be used as defence and attack in equal measure. She could catch attacks, as well as redirect them towards the wielders. The only issue was the time frame, Ellian said it took her 4 years to perfect, he had 2 months.

He decided to create his own etchings from scratch. He had settled for two distinct abilities, one he hoped would supplement his mobility and strength, and another to amp up his striking power.

As Avakian put his pen to paper, he once again felt a familiar something guide his hand.