I was sitting on a chair made of sculpted vines, listening to my personal tutor talk about magic theory and practical applications as a part of my after-training lessons that I was supposed to do. Every day after everyone else gets done with their training, I come here and learn about a variety of magic manipulation techniques, and how to more precisely control my mana. I may not make it sound fun, but it was actually pretty interesting. Recently, I learned a mana control technique. Apparently there are a lot of variations, but he just showed me a few.

“Now enlarge the mana sphere, but don’t let your concentration waver, or it will rupture.” My instructor, who didn’t have a name, told me. He was perched on a metal pole, about ten feet behind me.

“What happens-” BOOM! The sphere exploded like balloon going off in my ear. “In hindsight, I should have known better." I yelled and rubbed my ringing ears.

"I literally just said to concentrate.” He said shaking his head.

“It didn’t do that last time.” I said.

“That was the Noako variation, this is the Chatto. Do you remember how I described the Noako?” He asked.

I thought for a second, “You said it was more about output than control.”

“Yes, exactly. The Chatto variation is the exact opposite. So failing here is more likely, and a little less dangerous because you aren’t using as much mana.” The Noako version was pretty simple to do. He had me build up a lot of mana, and release it in a single blast. He said it was to improve how quickly I could utilize my mana and to improve how fast I could store it up.

“Wait, what do you mean less dangerous? Was the Noako one not safe?”

“It was safe enough, for you.”

(Well now he tells me.) I thought to myself. “What do you mean ‘safe enough for me’?”

“Your own mana is unlikely to hurt you, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous. Why do you think I’m perched over here?” He pointed out.

“Yeah, but what would it do, I mean?” I asked.

“Well, I don’t know about your inversion mana, and I’m not too keen on finding out, but depending on the attribute one possesses, a rupture could have a variety of effects to anyone caught in its path. Energy is more likely to burn you, Nature causes mold to grow sometimes, other times plants in the affected area die, and Memory attribute mana once caused me to relive an entire day in my mind. So, it really depends on the mage.” He explained.

As he explained, I restarted trying to form the sphere, and it popped again. “You seem to be having significantly more trouble with the control variation.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know why. I mean, my Railgun spell must require more control than this, so I don’t know what I’m doing wrong.” I said confused.

“Did you perhaps use a magic circle for your spells?” The instructor asked.

“I don’t even know how they work.” I said.

“I’ll put it in a lesson when I get a chance. Perhaps your visualizations need improvement? How are you picturing the sphere in your mind?” He asked.

“I-I wasn’t. Was I supposed to?” I turned to him and asked.

“It would help, yes, but it isn’t always a requirement. Actually, many high-ranked mages pride themselves on not needing to rely on visualizations when doing this training.”

“How can you tell the difference?” I asked.

“Using visualizations makes the sphere smooth, but using only your own manual control causes lines to appear.” He said. I looked at the sphere I was forming. There were countless lines moving in every direction; like a ball of yarn, but translucent.

“Can I try with a visualization then?” I asked.

“You can, but I would prefer you to not to have to rely on them. In combat, you won’t always have time for such things, so you should get used to training the harder way if you can. It will help you on the long term.”

“So… I shouldn’t use them?” I wondered.

“You can, but sparingly. Build up your abilities without them.”

“How am I supposed to use a visualization sparingly?” I asked confused.

“The way I do it, is by only imagining the outline of the sphere, not the finished product.” He explained. I turned away from him and refocused back on the sphere, doing as he suggested on picturing a hollow circle in my mind. It really made a difference; the sphere was far easier to maintain this time. I was able to maintain it for thirty seconds before it ruptured again.

I practiced this way for about an hour. Apparently, once you are able to make the sphere and maintain it for a full minute, then you start making other shapes; I never made it past the sphere. After my training was done for the day, I found Suma and went home. I needed to prepare for tomorrow, and for the favor that Lieutenant Datahu asked me to do for her.

“Are you ready Jake?” Suma asked as we finished my preparations. Lieutenant Datahu had a condition for her co-operation with the memory delve: she wanted a sparring match with me.

“As I’ll ever be.” I said summoning my armor, Jericho, onto my body.

“Do you have a plan to win?” Suma asked and perched on my shoulder armor. I started walking to the pit for the bout.

“I am not expecting to win, she is a professional with years of experience. I’m just some lucky idiot with a couple pointy magic sticks.” I said.

“That is true.” She agreed, maybe a bit too quickly though. “Then perhaps I should ask: do you have a plan to not be horribly maimed?”

“I’m going to put up Aegis, and summon Destiny, then activate their runes. Hopefully that will keep some distance between us.” Aegis is a shield I had made for me, and Destiny is my spear. Both were fitted with magic runes by an acquaintance of mine in exchange for letting her do experiments on me.

“Jake, you do remember that she is a ranged attacker, right? It is her specialty.” Suma pointed out.

“Yeah, but so am I. My weapons work well in case someone gets close, but all of my attack spells work best at a distance.”

“JAKE! You cannot attack her with your attack spells, she would be obliterated!” Suma shouted.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

“Don’t worry, I won’t use Railgun or Lightning Bolt. Besides, those take too long anyway. I was just going to use my fireballs and the runes on my weapons.”

“Even still, it seems too dangerous.” She said worried.

“Won’t there be healers standing by?”

“Yes, but healing magic has its limits.”

“I’ll be careful.” I said. A few moments later, we arrived at the pit for my match. There were dozens of other Neame perched on poles and vines set up around the pit’s dome. Members from every squad had come to watch, even the Captains and the Major had come. As we got closer, Suma flew over and perched with the other members of our team.

“Are you nervous?” Odens asked.

“A little.” I said.

“That’s probably smart.” Nine said laughing.

“Any last words?” Rou asked jokingly.

“Very funny.” I said ducking under one of the bars of the dome and dropping into the pit.

“Please try not to get hurt too badly Jake!” Suma said.

(Even you, Suma?) I thought. The Lieutenant landed on the ground at the other end of the pit. In between us, Captain Gigoales, our team’s leader, landed.

“Alright,” the Captain started, “the rules are as follows: no lethal spells, no purposefully maiming one another beyond healing capabilities, no using summoned creatures or familiars, no leaving the pit, and absolutely no hard feelings after you lose.” When he said that last part, his eyes cut to me for a moment. I sighed; I knew I wasn’t going to win, but did they have to keep reminding me? “Do you both consent to this bout?”

“I do.” Datahu said.

“I do.” I said.

“Well then.” The Captain flew up and out of the ring quickly. “BEGIN!” The Lieutenant started before I could summon Destiny, but I was already in my armor and had Aegis, so I wasn’t caught off guard. She launched the attacks with fire in rapid succession. Pang! Pang! Pang! One after another they hit Aegis, but I barely felt it. I summoned Destiny and pointed the tip at her. I activated the runes and a softball sized bullet of air shot out at her. In an instant she spread her wings and bolted straight up; the bullet just narrowly missed her tail-feathers as it hit the ground behind her. As we started the fight, the cheers from the other squads began.

“You got this Viking!”

“Get him Lieutenant!”

Fanning her wings again, and turning on a dime, she dodged a second bullet I had fired. Trying to keep track of her in flight was like trying to watch a bumblebee fly around; my eyes almost couldn’t keep up. She launched two more attacks from the front. Pang! Clang! The first hit Aegis, but the second connected with the armor on my shin. That one I felt. Even through the metal, I could feel the force of the attack; like someone shoved my leg to the side. I managed to avoid losing my footing, and activated the rune on Aegis. A wave of force exploded from the shield, knocking me back slightly with the recoil, but not too severely; I had plenty of time to practice and get used to it back in boot camp while training with the attack mages. The wave hit her and sent her flying to the other end of the ring, but it didn’t seem like it hurt her much.

I dropped Destiny to the ground and shouted, “Fireball!” I sent a weakened version of my normal fireballs at her. It was much smaller, because I used less mana, and it was a brighter purple than normal as well. I thought she would dodge it; I was wrong. Instead, she caught it with mana wrapping and did a barrel roll. The fireball changed directions midflight and was flung back at me. I had dropped Aegis to my side to cast the spell, and couldn’t react fast enough to put it back up. My spell hit me square in the chest plate, knocking the wind out of me. At the time, I was surprised, but thinking back on it, I was grateful the attack didn’t hit her; even holding back, I still put way too much power into that attack. It might have really hurt her.

“Vines!” She shouted, casting her first verbal spell of the match. Instantly, the vines that were scattered randomly around the pit started wrapping themselves around my arms and legs. I activated the runes on my armor, not bothering to think specifically about which one and simply activating them all. I knew I had one rune for times like this, but didn’t have enough time to remember where it was. I felt several things happen all at once. My chest stopped hurting as the healing rune activated, I stopped breathing so heavily as the stamina rune kicked in, and a massive blast of air shot out from every inch of my armor, forcing the vines off of me. Splinters and chunks of vines shot across the arena, and I quickly stood back up and summoned Aegis while the Lieutenant was distracted with that. It didn’t take her long to adapt though, she dropped to the ground and put up a wall of vines to protect her. I Summoned Mori, my sword, and activated its rune. A slash of air whipped towards the wall, leaving a gash, but not doing anything to draw her out. I thought about using a spell to create some kind of trap around the wall and her, but wasn’t able to because several vines had started wrapping themselves around my legs again. I was about to activate the runes again, but the vines suddenly went taunt and I was pulled off my feet. I hit the ground and was dragged for a second before I tried activating the runes, this time nothing happened. Well, I still got the healing and the stamina boost, but there was no explosion.

I had dropped Mori and Aegis when I was toppled, so I resummoned them and cut the vines with Mori. I stood up quickly, and cast a spell that engulfed the wall of vines that had been protecting the Lieutenant. I thought I had managed a miracle and won, until I was hit in the back five times and had my organs rattled. Clangclang! Clangclang! Clang! I fell to the ground and the Lieutenant landed gracefully next to my battered body. It felt like one of those scenes in anime where somebody gets rocked hard, and they cough up a liter of blood.

“Ugh…” I moaned painfully. She definitely broke one of my ribs with that last one.

“Winner! Lieutenant Datahu!” The Captain announced.

(Yup, that’s about right.) I thought.

“Good job, Sentinel, and thank you for the bout. I will be sure to put in your memory delving request.” She said.

“No problem, thanks.” Was all I was able to strain out. She flew away, and I activated my armor’s healing rune. Suma landed beside me after a few seconds, and I finally managed to gather enough strength to sit on my knees instead of laying down.

“Well,” she said sympathetically, “at least you didn’t die.” I was pretty sure she was teasing me, but it felt kinda “touch-and-go” at times during the fight.

“Yeah, and she agreed to put in the request. So, that’s good.” I said checking my ribs; they had healed, so I stood up. Rou and Odens flew down and landed beside Suma.

“I lost two Gimlin seeds on that fight, Jake.” Rou shook her head sadly; I don’t think he was really that worried about it though.

“I made two.” Odens added laughing.

“Your confidence in me is overwhelming.” I said sarcastically.

“Don’t take it the wrong way,” Odens said. “I probably couldn’t beat you in a bout, but you were fighting the Lieutenant. That match was decided before you ever even showed up.”

“Well, she was a Court Mage after all.” Rou nodded.

“Are court mages really that impressive? I mean, I lost, yeah, but was it really that obvious what was going to happen?” I asked confused.

“Yes Jake,” Suma said plainly. “That is why I asked if you had any sort of special plan before you started.”

“What makes them so special? I got my butt kicked, sure, but why was everyone so certain I would lose?” I asked. “I mean, even I knew I was, but… why?” I had been hearing people talk about Court Mages and Royal Mages for over a year now, and they were always words of praise, but I have never heard even a single description as far as I could remember. Other than that they were extremely strong and skilled.

“Well, to start, all Court Mages have battlefield experience, so right away that should tell you something.” Rou said.

“And they are all chosen from the best of the High Mages.” Odens added.

“Yeah, that’s the ranking system all mages fall into, right? Suma mentioned something about that.” I asked.

“Yes. Even achieving High Mage status is a feat in itself, so becoming a court mage is a rare event.” Suma said. “As you know, I am a Medium Class.”

“I think most of the people here are. Although, I heard there are one or two High Class mages in second squad.” Odens said.

“What does someone have to do to go up in ranks?” I asked.

“Perform well on the battlefield; that is the main qualifying factor.” Suma said. “But there are a set of trials as well. I do not know what they are however.”

“I heard you had to slay a lesser dragon single-handedly.” Rou said.

“No one knows though. It’s a very well-kept secret.” Odens said.

(So, no one knows much about the Court Mages, and rumors are all most people have to go on huh? I guess that explains why people are so quick to pretty much mythologize them.) I thought.

“Well, all that aside. You did well in your match, Jake.” Suma complimented.

They all talked a bit more about stories they had heard of court mages, and they told me a legend about some famous Court Mage that fought Vikings. After that, Rou and Odens left, and Suma sent me home for the day. Good thing too, after all that healing, I was exhausted. I plopped down on my bed, and texted my mum that I was home safe, then went to sleep. There wasn’t anything left to do now, except wait to see if we get approved for a memory delve. Honestly, things have been going fairly smoothly for these last few days, I should have known something was going to happen.

“Familiar Zachariah. You have been brought before the Royal Council to explain the events and your actions that occurred during the battle of Dragon’s Fall Bay.”