Chapter 8: Kolag.

Slay your enemies!

Leave none alive to oppose you.

And you shall be free.

Nuriss, the Maiden of War.

The brutish half-orc walks by my side for a long quiet moment. I’m running forward but it’s simply a hurried walk for her long legs. “You’re a good pack leader, chief. That is a good battle plan!” she says all of a sudden.

I step forward toward the dining hall, my heart pounding in my chest. It’s finally the time to test my magic, to see if my hard work had paid off. The time to strike is now, while Nolan still hadn’t recovered the mana he used during his attack, before he manages to sleep and recover his mana.

I enter the large hall and find a floor covered in gore. Sina hadn’t exaggerated, this looks like the hall of death all over again. I gasp. Mutilated corpses and puddles of blood stains the blue gem floor. The stench of blood and feces is vivid in the air. Most of the dead bodies in here are covered in too many slashing wounds, but some are impaled on short spears. The worst part is the two whimpering women being violated by a small group of brutes, and the three dead girls near them.

At the edge of the large hall, a small group of neophytes cowers behind a barricade made out of tables and the large suit of metallic armor who stands at the barricade's gap. The odd armored neophyte is fighting a group of five brutes and one evoker. He uses the barricade to his advantage so only two can attack him at a time. Other neophytes throw objects and furniture at the brutes who attempt to tear down the barricade from the sides.

The man's armor is dented and scratched. He moves back and forth in the narrow passage waving his fists, legs, and various weapons he wrestles from his enemies. I notice that they’ve already lost some people to him, and the bronze weapons they hold simply break on the gleaming metal he wears.

Yet he’s losing. He almost loses his footing from a spear swipe to his knees, and a large orc with a war hammer had already caved a few dents in the plate armor. Yet the armor miraculously holds. The silvery shimmering metal is a lot tougher than anything I’ve seen before.

Nolan—the man who caused all of this mess—is currently talking to Purson. I can’t hear what they're talking about, but I recognize the rage on Purson’s face. Janara is being held by a jumpy neophyte with a sharp weapon pressed against her throat, and it doesn’t give Purson a lot of room to play around.

Nolan is a gnome. I expected someone taller, this little guy is shorter than even me. But there is no mistaking the way everyone living in the room stays away from him. He is the leader.

I only have a short amount of time before they notice me.

Before I manage to think of my next action, Lezere picks a bloodied spear from the ground and throws it at the meter tall gnome.

“Boss, watch out!” One of the neophytes throws himself at the little guy, shoving him to the floor. The spear hits a brute behind them. He writhes in agony as he collapses with a spear in his spine.

“What the fuck, you idiot?! Just die!” Nolan screams. The guy who saved him dies, choking on his blood. The young white-haired gnome digs himself out from under the large corpse, and dusts himself as if he's not covered in blood from head to toe.

His hands freeze and his eyes open wide when he spots me. “What is that cunt doing here?! Kill her!”

Two of his goons throw their spears at me, but that isn’t something I fear anymore. “Latsa!” I call out as I form a pair of swift patterns in my head. I cast the ‘Minor Telekinesis’ cantrip altered with duplication patterns to include both spears.

From my cantrip books, I had learned about gems, the units used to measure mana. Each of the cantrip books had mentioned how many gems of mana they’ll cost to cast. My kinetic burst for example, would cost eight gems to cast.

This is quite high for a cantrip, and the fact I am capable of casting that cantrip five times before running out of mana means that my gravity mana pool has at least forty gems in store. I still don’t know how to measure one gem in my own mana, something that feels like bodiless liquid that flows within my body. But I can guess the rough idea due to the different costs.

A ‘Minor Telekinsis’ cantrip would cost a single gem per five seconds to cast, and one more per extra object I add via spell alteration patterns. I have plenty of these to spare. And unlike ‘Kinetic Burst’, there’s only a single pattern of mana to weave for each object, it’s like brushing a horse compared to ‘Kinetic Burst’.

The spears freeze in the air, under my complete control. I turn them around at the wide eyed brutes and: “Ritsa!” The spears are sent flying toward Nolan and his men.

Nolan ducks underneath them. The spears impale the legs of two of his brutes behind him.

The large gang simply stands there, mouths agape. Nolan steps forward. “Fuck! I’ll do it myself! Felul felik!”

*whoosh!* I jump aside in an attempt to avoid his magic. With a breeze, my arm burns in pain. I can feel the warm blood tainting my torn white sleeve, it feels as if a searing hot knife had scratched my arm.

“Felul felik! Felul felik! Felul felik! Fuck!!!”

I duck down behind a table and push it forward to be used as a solid cover.

Now I understand. His cantrip isn’t lethal. He can throw some sort of invisible blades from afar. They aren’t accurate, and they don’t cut very deep. If he manages to hit someone’s throat, or bleed them out, he’ll kill them. Otherwise, it only causes very shallow cuts. The number of corpses that have slashing wounds on them, and the fact he just cast these invisible blades four times; means the mana consumption for this cantrip is far too low.

Or he has a way to eliminate the mana consumption somehow… Nevertheless, he should still be tired. I have to get him to run out of mana, despite his way to cheat the cost… Because there’s always a cost…

I glance at Lezere who sits with her back to another table. She clenches a bronze axe, turning it in her hands. I need to attack him back, I need to make him feel like I’m fighting back…

“Latsa.” Forming the sequence with my mana in my palm, I focus on an abandoned spear and lift it in the air with my ‘Minor Telekinesis’ cantrip. ‘Minor Telekinesis’ lets me move objects with my mind as long as they aren’t heavier than 20 kilograms. However, I can’t toss the objects, nor can I move them too fast.

“Ritsa!” I form a second mana pattern and cast ‘Repulse’ on the spear, causing it to fly violently toward Nolan’s general direction. It’s a blind attack, and I doubt it’ll hit him, but it’ll make him angry. The cluttering spear tells me that I had indeed missed.

“Fuck! Go! Drag her out of there! She’s just a little girl! Flank her and push that damn table down!” This little guy isn’t what I imagined my challenger to be. I expected a cold, calculative man. Probably older, in his late twenties, who may gloat about his upcoming victory like a villain from the bard’s tales. Not this angry little gnome.

I take a risk to peek at the closing goons. Five of them are closing in while the rest stay back guarding their tiny angry leader, or to attack the large suit of armor behind them. “Felul felik!” the invisible blade pass right above my head, phew… I watch thin strands of my auburn hair float down slowly.

"Latsa." I lift a short bronze sword behind my cover. “Ritsa!” The pained groan tells me I hit one of the goons. Another scream when Lezere throws her axe at the other. “You don’t have to die!” I shout. “Do you really want to work for that brat?! He’s sending you at me because he’s nearly out of mana! Just leave the room and let us fight it out!” I call out to them. Shit I’m an idiot! I just told them they’re an actual threat to me.

To my surprise, they hurry toward the door. “Felul felik! Felul felik! Felul felik! Felul felik! Felul felik! Felul felik! Fuck! Fuck!” Nolan is screeching again and again. One of the goons drops covered in various cuts. But the other two manage to escape with mere scratches.

“You cunt, you’re supposed to be dead! If you won’t come out, I’ll kill your dear Purson! I’ll kill Janara too!”

Sorry, but I’m not that stupid! I roll my eyes at Lezere’s objecting snarl. “And if I come out you’ll kill me, and then you'll kill them anyway. We both know you’ll lose a valuable tool if you kill Janara and Purson!”

“Fuck you! All of your people are dead! What are you hoping to achieve anyway?! Come out of there and fight me like a man!”

I snort and weave a silent ‘Minor Telekinesis’ pattern. I sacrifice two more gems to add a silent cast pattern. I lift a bronze axe with a silent ‘Minor Telekinesis’ cantrip, keeping it close to the ground with my mind. “Are you for real? What about me looks like a man to you? And is that how you fight? Like a man?! Ritsa Trying to assassinate me?! Sending your goons at me?!” this time I cast a silent ‘Repulse’ in the middle of a sentence, I hope it’d surprise him.

Someone gurgles, I just killed another one of his goons.

“Fuck this! All of you! Stop standing and looking like baboons! Go! Corner her! I don’t think she can kill you fast enough with those flying weapons! She’ll run out of mana first! Go or I’ll kill you all myself! You too Purson! Or your dear girlfriend dies!”

The stomping sound tells me they all responded to his command. They charge forth, at least ten men and women, most of them are bigger and stronger than me, and a few of them have magic too.

I get up from behind the table. With such a mass going in my direction I know Nolan won’t have a clear line of sight, he’s too short for that. "Latsa." Spreading my hands I form four patterns and lift four different weapons from the ground and this time, I aim them. “Ritsa!!!”

I mess up my eighth pattern and one of my weapons only hits a shield and gets tossed to the side.

I managed to keep eight patterns back when I practiced in my room. But it’s different in a middle of a fight. Even if these are simply two identical patterns that I have to repeat four times.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Three of my floating weapons hit their marks. A slender black haired woman, a brown eyed orc, and a freckled man with green eyes, drop to the ground, clutching the wounds in their torsos. They get trampled by the charging group who attempts to circle around them as two people of the charging group stumble on their wounded bodies.

That leaves five who keep on charging, shields and bucklers raised to defend themselves from more flying weapons.

But they're all too close for a second attack of this type anyway. “Hod myrsha” I cast ‘Grounding’ directly at the leading man. The gravity below his feet triples and he staggers and falls on his face. Two of the others stumble on his limbs, and slow down. Yet the other two from behind recovered by now, a promise of death in their eyes. They separate, circling me and Lezere, finally realizing that staying close to one another is a bad idea.

Three of them attack from the right and three from the left. Lezere stands up to my right chopping spear heads with an axe, while I have to defend us from the left.

“Myrsha samir!” I cast my defensive spell as a pair of spears bolt toward my torso. For the cost of five mana gems, a red bubble flickers around me for a few seconds, and the spears’ momentum slows down the moment they enter my barrier. The weapons aren't stopped or deflected, only slow down by a steady repulsive effect. Enough for me to react and dodge in time.

“Chief! Don’t do that again!” Lezere calls out behind me, I slowed her down too, but also her assailants.

I sidestep the left slowed spear. Taking a little distance from Lezere’s back, I press my hand to the face of the youth who just tried to kill me. I see his shocked brown eye between my thumb and finger before: “Myrsha ritsa!”

His head explodes like a ripe watermelon falling from the top of the Sapphire Tower, showering me and everyone nearby with bone shards and brains.

Just as I had hoped, the violent gory sight of what I just did makes the two neophytes falter and take a cautious step back instead of attacking me. The other two who fell down in the charge get up from the ground with horror in their eyes.

Yes. These people are used to killing, but they also want to live. Each and every one of them went through hell in order to live, a neophyte’s life isn’t an easy one. They clearly saw that their weapons can’t reach me and that my touch is deadlier than any of their weapons. No one likes the idea of their head being blown to bits.

They’re all in over their heads, most of them just want to leave and live.

Then…”Just leave! My fight is with Nolan, not you. Unlike him I’ll not pursue if you leave, I doubt he can kill you all.”

“Lies! She’s out of mana, kill her!” Nolan screams from behind.

Many of them are uncertain. Some of them turn toward the entrance to the temple, but one of them steps forward shoving a spear at me.

“Myrsha samir!” The stab slows down as it enters my kinetic bubble. The guy leans forward, the sudden lost momentum causes him to lose his balance.

I catch him by the throat, his gray eyes and nostrils widen. “Myrsha ritsa!”

“Rod’ena!” Three vines wrap around my wrist and pull it away in the last moment. It stops me from blowing off his head. A panicked young man holds and pulls the vine that comes out of his hands, making sure I can’t place my hand on the the person who seems to be his older brother. The brute gives up on his sword and pushes me violently. I fall, and the back of my head hits the ground. My ears ring and everything turns white. “Myrsha samir!” I call out in panic hoping that my defensive spell would slow the incoming blow. I let out a relieved sigh when nothing hurts me.

When my vision clears out I see Purson standing over me with his arming sword aimed at my throat. The brute who pushed me is on the floor behind him.

I look around. Lezere is still fighting, surrounded by a small group. The brutish woman fights tooth and nail against three at once. I can tell she’ll be going down soon. A deep bleeding wound in her waist having a small piece of her entrails hanging out, I can’t fathom how she is still standing.

The same goes for the large neophyte in the battered plate armor at the other side of the room. I watch as a part of the barricade collapses. He's toppled over by three brutes and the large orc swings his warhammer at the man's helmet.

“Good job Purson, now kill her!” Nolan calls out.

“No!” I can see the conflict on Purson’s face.

“Need I remind you that she was willing to let Janara die?” The little monster inquires with a smug sneer.

“Let Janara go first!” Purson demands.

The little gnome approaches Purson’s girlfriend and presses his finger against her neck. “Kill that cunt or your lover dies!”

I see the resolve forming up in Purson’s eyes and I know that he’s prepared to kill me. I form silent patterns in my head, in an attempt to grasp the blade aimed at my throat with my mind, to move it aside from my neck. I'm getting low on mana, I can probably cast a few more cantrips before I run out.

Nolan screams, his words are unclear, and the shrieks deafen my ears.

The brute holding Janara had already let her go, he frantically wipes his hands with the bloodied robe he took from the ground, vapors coming out of cloth.

Janara ignores the brute behind her and steps forward, aiming her hands at the small tyrant. Clear liquid comes out of her hands, it sizzles and lets out vapors as it hits Nolan’s face, acid. Nolan falls backward squirming on the ground, his facial features disfigured beyond recognition. Janara puts her hand in Nolan’s mouth and let out a stream of sizzling acid down his throat, shutting him up for good. There will be no recovery from that.

Just like that, the battle is over. The neophytes surrounding us are either dead, wounded, or stopped attacking all together. While the neophyte in the heavy suit of armor walks forward with a clanking tired step, leading the group of the weaker neophytes he protected out of the gory room. He covers the naked girls with a table cloth and carries them both out of there.

“Janara!!!” Purson lets his sword clatter on the ground and runs to his girl. The two kiss, hugging each other passionately. Lezere shoves her entrails back into her wound licking her sharp bloody teeth. She pats a brute’s back, complimenting him on his fighting prowess, ignoring the fact the man had tried to kill her just a minute ago. She produces a small kit from her pouch, and I’m surprised to see that the man helps her sew the wound on her waist.

I stand up, still hearing my heart thumping in my ears. I pick a relatively clean chair as my seat, and sigh in relief. I’m alive, I survived this time. I can go back to getting stronger… there will be a next time.

The neophyte in the heavy suit of armor comes back into the dining hall. He stomps aggressively toward me, hand pointing sharply at my direction. “Do you still want to rule like an unlawful queen?!” he asks with an echoing voice.

I raise an eyebrow. “I never asked for this position, but I would be dead if I hadn’t taken it.” I reply, doing my best to project calmness as I steel myself for another conflict. Maybe the next time is sooner than I expected…

The armored man lifts his bronze sword in my direction, using it to point at me. “Monsters like you better die young… else you cause the deaths of millions…” The echoing voice is calm, the calm before a storm of violence. I want to see the man under that helmet.

My small group tightens up around me. To my surprise even a few of the men and women who originally fought under Nolan stand behind me. This weird man in his suit of armor never joined any of the gangs, he kept to himself until today. Why is he challenging my authority now?

“Why am I a monster?”

“This!” He gestures with his sword at the room covered with corpses. “Is your fault! It’s all your fault!” He stabs the sword in the air in my direction. “This could all be avoided!” There’s a lot of pain in his voice, alongside the anger and frustration.

“Maybe, maybe not. I can make mistakes, you can make mistakes, we all make mistakes, and some of them can cost people their lives. It doesn’t make me a monster,” I reply calmly.

“No, mistakes don’t make you a monster, but the calm way you say it does! You’re way too calm. You don’t care about all of these deaths, only about your power! Not a single sane human being is calm after seeing so much death!” He gestures with his sword at the bloodied room.

He has a point, I am pretty numb to the sight of death by now. I just have to survive, keep my bearing and get powerful. Then find my way to my family. No one else matters, nothing else matters.

“Then you can rule instead. As long as you maintain a stable peace and people can’t prey on the weak. I don’t really care who holds the position, I just want a peace of mind to study. I’ll tell my people to support you.” I say with a dismissive shrug. This isn’t worth fighting over, I am not here to take some imaginary throne. He seems altruistic enough to maintain the peace and do this job for me…

Lezere behind me tenses up, she clenches her large hand on my shoulder in a show of support. I wonder what she saw in me that inspired such loyalty. I pretty much kept to my room and practiced magic the past few months... why isn't she supporting Purson? He's the one who actually led everyone here...

The armored neophyte pauses for a very long time. I can hear his intense breaths echoing behind his metallic helmet. He lowers his blade. “Apologies milady for I was wrong, you are no monster.” He bows like a nobleman. “Kolag of house Befar! At your service, milady.”

This 360-degree turn in the conversation has me dumbfounded for a brief moment of silence. Wait, Kolag? The same Kolag who challenged master Rushmia’s authority openly? “How did you get yourself an armor, Kolag?”

“Not by choice I’m afraid. I cannot take it off, please don’t ask for the details, the memory pains me. I’d like to join your peacekeepers, milady, I am not beyond faults and mistakes myself. This massacre could’ve been prevented if I had done so sooner.”

At the corner of my eye, I catch a glimpse of Sina going through Nolan’s items. Was she the spy?

I pat Kolag’s arm as I hurry toward Nolan’s sizzling corpse. “What do you have there, Sina?”

“Nothing?” she backs off slowly.

“Take it out!”

“I just thought this was weird Marisha… here, take a look at that.” She hands me Nolan’s pouch.

I open it and count the gems. To my surprise these aren’t magical gems, these are diamonds. Yet some of them are magical gems, they still glow, while others look like regular diamonds.

Why aren’t they glowing? I’ve never seen magical gems lose their glow… I touch one of the glowing gems and close my eyes, it’s pulsing with mana. I never noticed it before, but now…

Of course! Gems! The unit which measures mana cost! These are actual magical gems. It’s not just a measurement unit, mages use them as money because they can draw mana out of them!

I try to draw the mana from the gems into my hand, but the mana stubbornly stays trapped within the gem. There’s a trick to it, something I still have no idea how to do.

“Thanks Sina, this is a useful thing to discover. You can keep some of these gems, but everyone here gets a share.” I throw her the small pouch. I don’t care whether she was the spy or not. She no longer has anyone to report to, it’s best to buy her loyalty. I need to figure out how to draw mana from gems first… once I do I’ll have an unlimited amount of mana, or at least as many as the number of magical gems I can carry...

The small gnome takes a step back, her tanned face is covered with an intense blush. “You’re not going to kill me for hiding this?”

I shake my head with a shrug. True, encouraging such behavior is bad, but it doesn’t warrant death.

“There had been enough bloodshed today, my friends, let us leave this place!” Kolag declares from the doorway. He has a point, it’s time to leave this second hall of death for the slaves to clean.

*~*~*

A piece of lore:

The word ritsa means: push, repulse, unattractive, unbalanced, unofficial, unlawful.

Ritsa Doesn’t mean anarchy defiance, or rebellion, there are other words for that.

Aside from pushing, the meaning of the word Ritsa aligns with the idea of: “upholding the letter of the law without upholding its spirit.”

Just like how the spell of ‘repulse’ works with the idea of pushing things away, but it doesn’t cancel the rule of gravity itself.

Tukado’s Repulse

Names: Tukado’s repulse, repulse, lesser push.

Element: gravity

Sub element: repulsion

Level: 0

Words: Ritsa

Translation: push/repulse

Patterns: 1

Range: 5 meters

Target: object or creature within range, weighing less than 20 kilograms.

Duration: instant.

Effect: Will violently push an object or a creature within five meters of the caster toward the desired direction. The heavier an object is, the weaker the push. Objects or creatures above 20 kilograms will only experience a shockwave push that might knock them off balance or stop them in their tracks. Objects below 1 gram won't be effected.

Cost: 3 gravity gems.

Altered cost: 2 gems per pattern.

*~*~*

Power level: 1st stage apprentice.

Mana pools status:

Fire: open.

Gravity: formed. 41 gems.

Cantrip known:

Fire: Nuriss’ Flame.

Gravity: Lumina’s Kinetic Burst. Tukado’s Repulse. Tukado’s Lesser Shield. Imari’s Minor telekinesis. Leo’s Pull. Leo’s Grounding. Alino’s Light Body. Alino’s Heavy Body.

Focus capability: 8 patterns

Injuries and scars: Missing two thirds of the right middle finger.

Social status: A neophyte evoker.

Wealth: 204 magical gems. 47 diamonds.

Items: A healing potion.