Chapter 39: True saint mage (Second part)

I didn’t die.

This was my only thought when I opened my heavy eyelids to look at the disaster around me.

The dust didn’t even settle so I couldn’t get a clear view of what was around me, but I already figured out everything I needed.

The deviant was still there, rampaging and changing the landscape along with its mood, but I couldn’t get away from its fury.

My legs were both snapped while my right arm was bent at a strange angle. A rock hit my head and opened a bloody wound on my forehead. Blood was flowing endlessly from it and obstructed the view of my left eye. I had no other choice but to turn my head to inspect my left arm.

However, it was gone.

Only a small pool of blood remained instead of my arm.

I had trouble seeing all the wounds on my body, but I was still able to see a long branch firmly stuck in my stomach causing blackish blood to flow endlessly.

I didn’t even know if I was in pain or not.

I wasn’t wounded this time.

It was beyond that.

I was broken.

I regained consciousness just before dying, like a small flame burning stronger before going out.

"I didn’t make it … in the end…"

My heart was filled with unwillingness, but no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t move. Tears gathered at the corner of my eyes as I realized what happened.

My spine was broken.

I was paralyzed.

I could only watch the rampage of the monster hundreds of feet away from me while waiting for my last breath.

"Jordan, I’m coming…"

My vision was getting blurry.

My breathing slowed down.

My consciousness slowly disappeared while everything around me turned black.

This was the end.

However, after a few seconds, the cold place where I was started to warm up. The darkness around me disappeared, replaced by a dim light slowly becoming brighter.

My vacant consciousness became clearer.

My senses that had disappeared were coming back.

The smell of dust, the taste of blood in my mouth along with a sharp pain coming from my entire body appeared. Even my hazy vision began to grow clearer.

I looked at my left arm. Blood already stopped flowing from my wound and was healing at high speed.

At first, I didn’t understand what was happening, but after a couple of seconds, I realized that there was only a single possible explanation.

The potion I took to heal the wound on my back earlier was still effective and saved my life.

However, I didn’t take enough potion to heal all my wounds. I needed to take another one from my backpack hanging on my arm and lying by my side when I realized there was a wound that couldn’t heal.

The dark blood coming from my belly didn’t stop.

The branch in it didn’t allow for any regeneration. Even with the remnant of potion, I knew that I would die soon if this wound didn’t heal quickly.

I couldn't die like this.

I frantically tried to move my right arm, but a piercing pain assaulted me. A pain so strong that it was as if my whole body was screaming at me to stop moving.

However, I continued.

Slowly, painfully, I grabbed the piece of wood in my stomach.

Only death awaited me if I didn't take a potion, but I couldn't take it with that in my body.

I didn't have any choice.

I gritted my teeth and pulled the branch out as fast as I could.

“Arg!”

After what seemed like an eternity, I succeeded. I grabbed a potion from my backpack as quickly as I could. The few vials I had left were curiously still intact despite the violent shock. Maybe in normal times, I would have wondered what kind of material these bottles were made of, but I could not at that moment.

The noise I made while pulling the branch out seemed to have attracted the attention of the deviant.

Its gigantic head was fixed in my direction as I swallowed a vial of potion.

The healing of my body finally accelerated. It couldn’t be called a healing anymore but a regeneration. Even my left arm began to grow back. I watched my body coming back to life but I couldn’t rejoice. 

The giant deviant was coming at high speed toward me while swallowing everything on its way.

My limbs regenerated at high speed while the wounds on my body were closing up. The miraculous potion was perfectly working, but it was too late.

After a couple of breaths, the gigantic monster stood erected ready to attack.

Unable to move, I closed my eyes in despair just before the jaws of the monster closed on me.

The smell of blood was all around me, but the pain didn’t appear. Only the frightening and unexpected scream of the beast.

"Huh?"

I opened my eyes only to see the wide back of a small man only a couple of feet away from me.

His long dark matted hair flowed along the wind. He had broad shoulders carrying a large golden battle axe covered with blood.

I watched dumbfounded as this small man turned his bearded face to look at me.

His dark eyes made his face appeared quite young despite the small wrinkles in the corner of his eyes.

“Don’t worry lassie, I will handle it.”

His grave voice filled with playfulness almost seemed surreal in this situation but made a small ray of hope appear before me.

The roar of the beast covered his next words.

The monstrous head of the deviant had a large wound, but its ferociousness didn’t disappear.

On the contrary, it seemed to have entered a state of frenzy.

I watched with fear lingering in my eyes as its immense body began to twitch in a weird manner.

I swallowed the blood I still had in my mouth to speak with the strongest voice possible.

“Careful! It’s going to attack!!!”

However, despite my desperate warning, the man only smiled playfully at me before answering in a relaxed manner.

“I know, I know. Don’t scream like that”

As soon as these words left his mouth, he bent his body before jumping like a cannonball toward the beast.

I didn’t know if it was possible to call it a jump anymore as the small man not only crossed the distance between them with a single leap but also reached its head dozens of feet away from the ground.

“World wave”

The man hacked at the beast at high speed with its golden axe while shouting those words in a growl.

Contact was made between the two of them before the man fell back to the ground at high speed.

*Bam*

He landed heavily but steadily only a couple of feet away from where he jumped.

The deviant didn’t seem hurt in the slightest. Despite that, he put his axe on his shoulder before turning his back on the deviant to look at me.

“Still well and alive? Pretty tough for a kid”

I looked at him in the eyes, but I couldn’t find any trace of concern for the deviant.

I rapidly understood why.

The deviant let out a shriek filled with pain nearly enough to make my eardrums explode if I was closer.

Its long body strangely undulated before stopping and falling to the ground.

The twitching of its giant body was enough to wipe the entire region clean, but only a couple of breaths later, the furious movements of the beast became duller before stopping completely.

I watched dumbstruck at the mountain-like corpse lying on the ground without any apparent mortal wound.

This undefeatable opponent, who destroyed my entire body, died by the hand of this man in a single blow.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t accept that this invincible existence bringing death and fear was totally wiped out without any apparent real effort.

I couldn’t understand.

“How? How did you do something like that?”

I asked in an amazed voice.

The man just took out a long pipe from his pocket before replying in a cheerful voice.

“Magic. What else could it be?”

He lit his pipe with a snap of his fingers and put it in his mouth. He closed his eyes with a satisfied expression on his face before looking at me still lying in a pool of blood.

“Oy, instead of asking that, are you alright?”

I struggled a few seconds to straighten my upper body. The pain was still strong, but it wasn’t worth mentioning compared to what it was a few minutes ago.

I looked at my left arm.

My missing limb was back.

I didn’t sense any pain or any real discomfort except for a light stiffness.

I couldn’t help but be amazed at the miraculous effects of this potion.

“Cough”

I turned my focus back to the man who pretended to cough to regain my attention.

“Ah sorry. Yes, I will be fine in a moment. Thank you very much for saving me.”

“Sure, don’t worry. However, you were almost dead earlier, so how is it possible that you're almost healed now?”

I knew he was going to ask me this question. I could tell a lie to cover the existence of the potion, but it did not seem like the right thing to do to my savior.

I struggled for a few seconds before answering honestly.

“An elf friend gave me a potion. I didn’t think that it would be so effective.”

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“Ah, so it was an elf’s potion. No wonder then. You’re a lucky little girl. Elves usually don’t give these potions to outsiders. You must be on really good terms with them.”

I watched him anxiously, but even after mentioning the potion, the man didn’t seem to mind and continued to smoke joyfully.

I sighed with relief when I noticed that there wasn't any greed in his eyes.

I only had two potions left. It was like having two other lives, so I was still determined to keep them with me. However, with his strength and experience, I knew that any lie would have been obvious. Therefore, I had to tell him the truth even if I had no chance to stop him from stealing them if he wanted to.

I relaxed and, while I was still healing, I remembered how he called me.

“By the way, I’m not a girl but a boy.”

The man who was humming a little song while smoking finally looked at me in surprise.

“A boy? That can’t be, you have such a pretty little face. Ah, what a shame. I thought I was saving a future beauty but… it’s a boy. What terrible luck!”

“Ah?”

The man continued to mutter shameless words as if I wasn’t just a couple of feet away from him. His strange internal speech made of mumbled sentences continued for so long that it gave me enough time to heal completely.

He finally shut his mouth and continued to smoke while totally ignoring me.

My previous good impression of him became poorer after his curious speech and his reaction to the news that I was a boy.

However, even if this man was a lunatic he still saved my life.

I stood up with my gaze fixed on this strange man. After standing up, I noticed that he was really short for a grown man.

He was only a bit taller than me who was only ten years old.

However, his short height didn’t give the same feeling as mine. He didn’t seem fragile like a kid but, on the contrary, steady like a mountain and strong like a beast.

His black tunic couldn’t hide the muscles of his upper body or the strength in his short legs while his large battle-axe completed this warrior image that his whole body emanated.

“Thank you again for saving my life.”

I gathered my thoughts and decide to thank him once again.

He finally turned back his focus on me. His expression was the same as before as if his previous speech didn’t happen.

“Sure, I had to kill this Krath anyway so it didn’t bother me. My name is Jazor, I’m a member of the red Dwarven tribe.”

His introduction was totally normal compared to his previous speech. He even confirmed my thought about his race.

He was the first Dwarf I was seeing but his short build didn’t leave much room for mistakes.

“I’m Sillath, nice to meet you.”

I hesitated to tell him my name but still decided to trust him.

“Right. Then Sillath, what are you doing on your own so far in the wilderness? Are you a part of the Advanced town?”

My eyes lit up when I heard him mention the Advanced town.

I avoided his question and asked him in a respectful tone.

“I’m trying to find this town, do you live there?”

Jazor didn’t seem to mind that I didn’t answer his question. He continued to smoke before answering in a lazy voice.

“Sure, I’m working there as a mercenary. It’s three days away from here. If you want to go there, then you can just go with me. I’m going back now that my mission is over.”

“That would be perfect. I don’t know how to thank you.” I hurriedly answered.

“No need for that. I told you, I’m going back anyway. Then if your wounds are healed, let’s go right after I finish taking the core of this Krath.”

He sighed a little before walking toward the gigantic corpse in a dejected manner.

However, after only a dozen steps, he stopped.

As if recalling something, he slowly turned to look my way. His beard didn’t hide the small smile on his face.

“You said that you wanted to repay me for saving your life, didn't you?”

My body stiffened when I heard his sentence mixed with a difficult to hide happiness.

“S..Sure”

“Great! Then come here”

I walked toward him with hesitant footsteps.

He put his large hand on my shoulder and showed me the corpse of the deviant with his other.

“You see this corpse? There is a small core the size of my fist somewhere in its head. I need you to find it for me.”

"A core?"

This was the first time I heard about the existence of a core inside the body of deviants. However, in front of his insistent expression, I didn’t have much time to wonder about it.

I could only walk toward the giant corpse while wondering how I was going to find something so small inside this giant head.

I turned to look at him, hoping for some advice.

However, he was already sitting on the ground while smoking his pipe in a relaxed way.

One hour later I finally brought him the small dark core. I was exhausted and covered with the blood of the beast.

“Over? Took you longer than I thought. Then let’s go!”

He happily took away the core and began to walk at high speed without even thanking me for my labor.

I ran after him but his speed was not a joking matter.

"He’s not trying to shake me off, right?"

I continued to follow the shameless dwarf in a frantic run with a small smile on my face.

I escaped a certain death and even gained a precious ally to reach the town.

I just had this unpleasant sensation that I was just a new free labor for him.

---------------------------------------------------

Nearly three days passed since my encounter with Jazor, the mysterious and shameless dwarf.

We were only a few hours away from the town.

These last days were kind of peaceful as no matter what kind of animals we encountered, Jazor easily disposed of them.

I didn’t have to fight, but he still made me work. Mostly cooking and making camp. I had trouble adjusting to this new role but I didn’t complain.

He saved my life and took me with him to the town. I couldn’t easily repay this debt, but helping him that way was the only thing I could do.

I tried to fight with him at first, but I soon realized that I was totally useless.

The difference in strength between us was just too large.

I was starting to have confidence in my new abilities after defeating a possible Saint mage, but seeing him dispose of any threat with a single punch made me realize the gap in strength between us.

He was strong and I was weak.

I knew it but I couldn’t understand how the gap could be so large.

I was able to defeat a Saint mage so he was a Master mage. This was my conclusion after seeing him fight.

Unable to restrain my curiosity any longer, I decided to ask him while we were quietly walking together.

I avoided bringing up this topic for the past few days, but now that I had a better understanding of his personality, I finally asked him.

“Jazor?”

“Hmm?”

“Are you a Master mage?”

“Nope.” he lazily answered while exhaling a mouthful of smoke.

“Then you’re a Saint mage.” I asked dubiously.

“Yep”

“What kind of magic do you use?”

He inhaled a mouthful of smoke before answering lazily.

“Earth.”

“But I never saw you summon any earth. When I look at you fighting, it’s as if you’re just casually punching your opponent.”

“Well, I do punch them.”

His casual answer made me wrinkle my brows.

“Not with a normal punch.”

“Of course.”

“Mind telling me how you do it?”

“I don’t mind”

“…”

I waited for his answer for several seconds before losing some of my composure.

“Mind telling me now?” I asked a little annoyed.

This was the part of his character that I had the most trouble with.

He was lazy.

He wouldn’t move a finger if something didn’t catch his interest. For example, even after three days together, Jazor didn't ask me any detail about my circumstances. He just knew that I spent some time alone in the wilderness and that I needed to reach the Advanced town as soon as possible.

Most of our discussions ended early because of his bad habit to ignore me after a couple of sentences.

However, this time I didn’t let him ignore me.

“Jazor.”

“…”

“Jazor”

“…”

“Jaz…”

“Ah fine! I use the same earth magic that I used against the Krath to save you. This is a magic of contact. I need to touch the opponent to use it. The strength of the blow doesn’t matter much because this magic mostly ignores external defenses and destroy the internal organs.”

I was left speechless after his fast explanation.

“A magic directly destroying the organs? How is it possible?”

“It’s only one of the aspects of the earth element.”

“One of its aspects? What do you mean by that?”

He sighed a little before answering in a depressed voice.

“You don’t even know that? How the hell did you survive on your own until now?”

“I was lucky I guess.”

As I recalled the near-death experiences I had these last weeks, even I didn’t know if I could be called lucky or not.

“Well, you’re a kid so, in fact, it’s not that surprising that you don’t know about it.”

Seeing that he continued to smoke without finishing his explanation annoyed me even more.

“Jazor!”

“Ah right. Open your ears wide and listen well. Do you know why only Saint mages are true mages?”

“Because they are the only one who mastered the three barrier magic of the element.”

“Wrong.”

“Wrong? Then why?”

“Simple. Because they use their own magic. Barrier magic had been made to help the kingdom develop new useful mages among ordinary people. Anyone who works hard enough can master these magics, but only those who have talent can go beyond that.”

“Beyond?”

“Yes, beyond. Magic isn’t just about creating the element and manipulating it a little to make it useful. If you’re only able to do this much, then even if you have the title of Saint Mage, you won’t become a true mage in your lifetime. Do you think it’s possible to kill a Krath like the one who attacked you only by firing earthballs?”

“Totally impossible.”

I answered immediately. I still had a lingering fear in my heart just by thinking about this terrifying monster. In front of it, my battle experience, my will and all the tricks in the world weren’t of any use.

This was a difference in strength.

A difference between our existences

“That’s right. It’s impossible. A Scholar mage learns to change the speed of its attacks, a Wise mage can change the form and a Saint mage learns to control his magic and its consumption. This is what the kingdom spread. This is what most of the common people will know, never questioning this fact, passing their time perfecting their barrier magic. These people aren’t mages. Even those wearing the title of Saint mages aren’t true mage if they just use the barrier magic.”

The lazy dwarf finally ended his speech. It was the first time I saw him get so fired up.

I quietly thought about his words.

Hirillë already explained to me that the rank didn’t matter. As a result, I wasn’t really surprised.

“You still didn’t answer my question. What do you mean by ‘aspect of an element’?

“When I say aspect, I mean a feature of the element. Each element is different. You can’t use water the same way you do with earth. Each of them has its own strength, weakness, and secrets. We call that the aspect of the element. It's not something I can teach you. This is something that every mage must understand by himself before creating his own magic. Of course, it’s still possible to guide you. Magic universities exist for this purpose after all, but you still need to rely on yourself to deepen your understanding of an element and create your own magic. For example…”

He stopped in his track and put his hand on the ground. Before I could ask what he was doing, I began to sense the earth shake around me.

I didn’t even have the time to ask anything when he straightened his back and started to walk again.

“See, I used one of the aspects of the earth element. The same one from which I created the attack we were talking about earlier. You know what it is, isn’t it.”

I only hesitated for a couple of seconds before answering.

“You can create earthquakes. You use these vibrations in your attacks to ignore the physical defense of your opponent.”

For the first time, he put his pipe out of his mouth while exhaling a big cloud of smoke. His shaggy beard had trouble hiding the large smile on his face.

“You have a sharp mind, kid. That’s the most important if you want to become a good mage. You’re right. I tried to understand this aspect of the earth element. How earthquakes are formed and how could I do the same. After understanding the basics, I was able to create my own earthquakes. Deepening my understanding allowed me to integrate this principle with my attacks. After learning the three barrier magic, my title was already that of a Saint mage, but it’s only after understanding this aspect of the earth element that I was able to become a true Saint mage.”

I engraved these words in my memory.

I understood that even the man I defeated wasn’t a true mage. He only used barrier magic to fight.

He was strong but he wasn’t a true Saint mage.

However, Jazor was one.

If I hadn't already understood most of his speech on my own when I was pondering about my sacred magic, then I would probably be a little lost after his explanation.

In fact, creating ice from water was probably one of the aspects of this element.

If I guessed well then if I tried to understand this aspect of the water element, I would be able to create ice after some hard work.

I could use it without understanding much of the water element because I was able to use it directly.

This was what we called Sacred magic.

I didn’t need several years of practice but I used it only by understanding the key point of changing water into ice.

It was probably only possible because of my abnormal soul giving me a great affinity with magic.

I was sure of it.

Each element had its own secret, its own aspect.

Studying them to understand these aspects and use them to develop new personal magic was what made a true Saint mage.

Sacred magic was a shortcut to do that. Instead of slowly studying the aspect of the water element, the affinity of my soul with this element allowed me to create ice directly. I saved an incredible amount of time, but I also lost something in return.

I didn’t study it enough to understand and control it. That’s why I had to reduce its power. If not, this magic would have already destroyed me along with my opponents.

These thoughts rushed through my head and distracted me from the rest of our journey.

After a couple of hours, we finally saw a large town hidden in a small canyon. Large dark walls made of hard-looking earth were circling around it.

The thoughts invading my mind since my discussion with Jazor finally stopped.

I looked at those dark walls.

Beyond that was my only hope to help my family.

"Finally…"

Each day I spent on my own looking for this town was like a torment.

A torment bringing my fears together.

Fear of failing.

Fear of getting there too late.

However, I didn’t fail.

I followed Jazor toward the town with large strides devoid of hesitation.

This time, I still had a chance to change the fate of the people I loved.