"Yeah, just like that," Kefira said. "Isolate the Traveler and Eternal Affinities in the point of your knot. They're not Space and Time, but when you join them together, there should be some synergy that brings those pure components out. Keep infusing it. You should be able to feel a threshold reached when it's saturated enough, and then you should be able to overlay it with another knot."
Kefira was instructing Reivyn on one of her signature tricks for empowering her Spells. She normally couldn't perform such a feat, though, unless her soul was unlocked. She couldn't demonstrate the method to Reivyn for that reason, so she was left with just trying to explain it to him. She had learned it all on her own and didn't know the more intricate details because she had only her own feeling of the Mana and Affinities to go on.
One of the things that sealing a portion of her soul did was to seal her access to one side of the Space/Time Affinity. She had told Reivyn that with her father having access to the Time Affinity, she had focused on that portion of it for much longer, and one of the goals of her Life Experience expedition this time around was to get more experience using the Space side, and she could choose which one was sealed when invoking the amulet. The Affinity level was identical, as it was technically one Affinity, but her usage of them wasn't.
"I don't know," Reivyn said, failing to accomplish the task once more. "It seems to me that because the two Affinities are so specific, I can't draw out the application that you can."
Reivyn let the Mana go as he mentally reviewed what he was trying to do. The way that Kefira used her Affinity allowed two or more knots to occupy the exact same position, but his own Traveler Affinity made the knot want to move about. As soon as he infused the Affinity into the point of the knot, it felt as if it wanted to dance away from his grasp.
The Eternal Affinity made the knot seem like it wanted to remain completely unchanged in its current state, which made perfect sense to Reivyn. Putting the two of them together into a single knot created a point that vibrated with energy. It felt like it had the potential to launch itself a mile away in an instant, yet it was being held in place by an invisible force.
Kefira had described her trick as making the knot seem ethereal, and she could just place another identical one on top of it. Reivyn wasn't seeing that kind of result at all, no matter how much effort he put into the exercise.
"You may be right," Kefira sighed. "It might require additional Space and Time Affinities, or it might not be possible without a more pure Space Affinity. I haven't talked to any Mages that have the Space Affinity, just ones that have tangential Affinities like you. I've only tried to show this trick off to one of the court Mages, one trusted by my family, so I don't know the extent of the difficulties.
"I had hoped that if you also had access to a tangential Time Affinity, it might make up for it, but you might need either the Space Affinity exactly or a purer version of a tangential Affinity. I just don't know."
"It was worth a try," Reivyn said. "And the practice hasn't been for nothing. I've gained a couple of Levels in my Mana Manipulation, and I feel as if I can exert more control in line with my Level."
Reivyn returned his attention to the road in front of them. He was riding on a horse next to Kefira, not the same one he had arrived with, as it had never been recovered from their initial base camp that had been overrun by the enemy forces. Only the Major and his staff still had their horses, as the other officers had walked on their own two feet when they initiated the first battle.
The horses he and Kefira were riding on were extras that had been brought with Kayzor and his army. Serilla also had her own horse, and she rode just a little behind and to the side of Kefira opposite Reivyn. Kayzor rode with his staff just a little ahead of them in the middle of the column. He was the commanding general of the 50,000-strong army, but he didn't need to micromanage everything, so he frequently fell back to talk with his sister.
The rest of Kayzor's army had caught up with them a day and a half after the fight with the soul beast, except for the cavalry. They hadn't had the opportunity to rest for very long, though, as they had to be immediately dispatched to deal with the escaped giant spiders. It wouldn't be good to let them scatter too far and escape the desolate sands into the surroundings. If a large group of them got away and happened onto a village or community, it could be disastrous.
The cavalry had stayed outside of the loose sand, and Kayzor had sent word ahead to them. They had been ordered to circle around and try to prevent any large groups of spiders from escaping. If they were bunched up, it would be necessary to catch them, but if they spread out into smaller groups, they would be just like any other roaming monster. Adventurers or patrols would likely kill them before they had a chance to cause any damage in that case.
Even though the cavalry was mounted and able to move faster, the desolate sands were huge. It would be well over a week to just get into position trying to circle around the whole thing, but luckily, the position that Reivyn and his battalion had taken up was on the complete opposite side of where the reinforcements had arrived from, and many of the spiders that would have gone north or west had ended up grouping up with the horde that had attacked their position. Not only that, but the group of spiders that had fled in the southeast direction had been eradicated by the army on their way to the center of the desolate sands.
The cavalry split in half, one heading further north to block off the east and northeast and the other heading west to block off the south and southwest. Kayzor ordered his army to dispatch a battalion in the same four directions to pincer the spiders between the groups.
The operation had taken six days to complete, and Kayzor and the volunteer battalion had already exited the desolate sands. There was no reason to meet back up in the center of the desert. The volunteer battalion, led fully by Major Dobrik once more, had already begun to split up and escort the civilians back to their cities scattered around the desolate sands, and Kayzor and the imperial army had waited near Kirlon for the others that had been split off to handle the beasts to return.
Reivyn and Kefira hadn't idled about in that time, either. They had continued practicing where they had left off, and that had eventually led to Kefira trying to teach Reivyn the previous method of overlapping the knots. Kefira had explained that with her Affinity Level, it wasn't yet possible to overlap the entire structure of the Spell, so she had opted for the knots for efficiency.
"I have another question," Reivyn spoke up. "If you're making multiple knots for every position in your Spell, doesn't that slow down the Casting time significantly? Not only do you have to use whatever Affinity your actual Spell is consisting of, but you have to create additional points all over with the Space Affinity infused into it."
"Yeah, at first," Kefira answered. "When I first experimented with the method, it was completely unusable in an actual combat situation, but practice increases the speed that it can be done. When my Affinity Level and mastery reached a certain Level, the System took over a portion of the heavy lifting. I'm capable of doing a double-knotted Spell just as fast as a single-knot Spell.
"Adding more still takes time, but it's not that crazy. Being in the Mage Corps with the soldiers protecting us out front also allows me time to focus if I need to, but there are also diminishing returns. I've found that anything more than four knots just isn't worth it. That might change when I'm able to do more than just the knots, but it's definitely not something that will be infinitely scalable. I would guess that if I include the entire Mana Weave structure, plus the imagining, eight or nine would be the maximum effective layers."
"That makes sense," Reivyn said. "What's the benefit of doing so instead of just empowering more Mana into your Spells, though?"
"Not everyone is like you," Kefira rolled her eyes. "There's an upper limit that one can boost their Spell power when using their System assisted Spells. I can't just drop a thousand points of Mana into a Level 1 Spell and make it super strong as you can. We have to be inventive in how we work around the restrictions. I can use all of the same tricks as everyone else, but this one, at least for now, seems to be unique to me. I'll be able to have just a little more oomph to my Spells that others won't be expecting."
"Noted," Reivyn eyed her up and down, sizing her up for a fight.
Kefira reached over and shoved his shoulder.
"We look happy," Kayzor said as he sidled his horse up next to them. "Did you finally succeed in whatever Kefira had you doing?"
"No, we figured it was a lost cause," Reivyn answered, exaggerating a dejected sigh.
"Well, look at that," Kayzor smirked. "The wonder boy can't do everything." He winked and broke out into a grin to show that he was just joking.
"Wanna fight?!" Reivyn flexed his bicep and glared at Kayzor over his arm.
Kayzor held his hands out, waving them in denial.
"No, no, no," Kayzor said. "I'm no good with Magic. Even though I was born with Mana, my talent is nothing to speak of in that regard, and I've focused mostly on my Martial Skills."
"That's no problem," Kefira said, a gleam in her eye. "Reivyn has done some training with a sword, just like how our family has a minimum requirement to achieve. Maybe you can give him some pointers."
Kayzor looked at his sister in surprise before looking back to Reivyn for his opinion.
"I don't mind," Reivyn shrugged. "I could go for some sparring."
"Well, not to be dismissive or anything, but if you're the same age as Kefira, then I have a decade of training on you. Not only that, but my Stats are going to be considerably higher than yours, too. Are you sure you're up for it? I could always have one of my other company-level officers spar with you."
"It should be fine," Reivyn said. "And you can always relegate your Stats somewhat. Let me see," Reivyn paused to double-check his Stats. "Just control your Strength and Dexterity to around 760 if you can."
"760!" Kayzor exclaimed. "What would that be, a couple of hundred points difference? You think you can handle a 200-point or more gap?!"
"What? No!" Reivyn denied. "That's around what my Strength and Dexterity are. It would be an even matchup."
"You're joking, right?" Kayzor looked between Reivyn and Kefira. When they didn't have a reaction, he looked at Serilla, and she just shrugged. "760?! Aren't you a Caster? My Strength and Dexterity are only around 1,200, and I'm mid-Tier 4.
"My Intelligence and Magic Stats are much lower than your Strength and Dexterity. How did you get your off-Stats so high?"
"Trade secret," Reivyn replied. "You don't think I wear heavy armor and carry a sword around for no reason, do you?"
"Alright, well, in that case, I'll try and relegate my Stats to around that. It's not something super accurate, though, so it will probably be closer to 800 or so."
"That's fine."
"Ok~ay. I guess we'll have a little match when we stop for the evening."
Kayzor cantered back to his position to resume overseeing the army. Kefira chuckled as he left.
"He's in for a surprise tonight," she said. "I won't tell you what his Skill Level in Swords is, but it's probably pretty close to yours. That being said, Swords aren't his main Martial Skill."
"Oh, yeah? What's his main weapon?" Reivyn asked.
"Spears. The Spear is the mainstay of the army, and in order to be a better commander, he devoted a lot of attention to training with all of the weapons that his soldiers would use, and training in the spear isn't a waste of time, either.
"I'm sure you've realized it, but training in a wide array of weapons for a Martial Class can unlock some better Classes for people who can't reach the required threshold in one specific weapon. My brother is good at both. Not only has he trained in a lot of different weapons, but he's also good at a lot of them with high Skills. He's a Master of the Spear, and he's close with Swords."
"That's great," Reivyn nodded. "I'm looking forward to it."
----------------------------------------
Reivyn and Kayzor stood apart, swords at the ready. They weren't decked out in their armor, and they didn't have shields, either. They were just using some wooden practice swords, and their Vitality was high enough that there was almost a 0% chance of seriously wounding one another. It was possible for things to go seriously wrong even with practice weapons, but that was for amateurs. Not being Skilled enough was more dangerous when it came to sparring than being highly Skilled.
Reivyn calmly assessed his opponent, and Kayzor did the same. They didn't have a large crowd watching, as there were more important things to do than watch a bout between the commanding general and a Caster. That didn't mean there were no observers present, though. Several of the staff officers were watching, and Kefira and Serilla were obviously there. Nobody was cheering for either side, though, as this was just a regular sparring match.
Kayzor glided forward quickly and launched a test strike at Reivyn. Reivyn didn't budge and expertly parried the attack. Kayzor nodded his head and then closed the distance to exchange several moves.
The two took turns in stabbing, slashing, and evading, circling around each other, and Kayzor's face lit up with surprise at first and then a grin. He increased the pace and intensity of his moves, and Reivyn matched him strike for strike.
The clacking of the weapons rang out into the evening air, and the staff officers began to watch the bout with more appreciation. Kayzor continued to speed up his attacks, and he began to throw in some trickier maneuvers as well to see how well Reivyn could respond.
Reivyn never missed a beat, and the two continued their exchange. Reivyn took the opportunity to perform a couple of his own more intricate attacks, as well, and Kayzor was pleasantly surprised. Reivyn could tell that he had started off a little apprehensively, but he was beginning to enjoy himself.
Kayzor wasn't lying when he said that he couldn't be too accurate with relegating his Stats, and Reivyn was occasionally pushed back by a heavier or faster strike than he could handle with his Stats alone. His Skill Level of Weapons Master, though, prevented Kayzor from gaining an upper hand in those situations. He calmly maintained his stance and was still able to counterattack to prevent Kayzor from gaining momentum.
The two moved back and forth around the little arena they had set up, getting faster and faster while maintaining their precision. The watching officers began to sweat as the match picked up to a point where it was hard for them to follow along. Reivyn was not only able to keep up, but he was even able to occasionally put Kayzor on the back foot despite his advantage in Stats.
The practice match continued on for close to ten minutes. Both parties had incredibly high Stamina, so they were able to perform at high intensity for extended periods of time. The match finally ended when Reivyn took advantage of Kayzor striking too hard to bait him into overextending. Reivyn pretended to lose his balance more than he previously had, and as Kayzor attempted to move in to capitalize on it and gain the momentum, Reivyn's sword swept past his defense and struck him in the abdomen.
"Oof," Kayzor cried out involuntarily.
The two stopped in place, Reivyn's posture was tilted a bit on the back foot, and Kayzor was reaching forward, but Reivyn's practice sword appeared to hold him in place, resting against his ribs. The two straightened their postures up and looked at each other with respect.
"Very nice," Kayzor said. "I must say that I am pleasantly surprised. Your Skill in Swords has to be right at the Master Level, or even a few points higher."
"Yeah, I'm a bit familiar with Swords," Reivyn replied with a smile.
"Being too humble is also a form of bragging," Kayzor rolled his eyes. "You've clearly put in a lot of time and effort into your Swords Skill. Do you have any other weapons you've trained in? How about another match?"
"Sure," Reivyn said. "Kefira told me you're a Master of the Spear, so how about a spar with spears? To take advice from you, I can tell you that I'm just as skilled with a spear as I am with a sword."
"Really?" Kayzor was taken aback. "When did you find the time to practice your Magic if you're that well-versed in two different weapons?"
"There are special circumstances behind it," Reivyn said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.
"Well, fine with me."
Reivyn and Kayzor handed their wooden training swords to one of the watching officers, and they were handed spears with rounded tips in exchange.
The two faced off once more, standing with their spears at the ready. They had already gotten a good gauge of how each other moved, and after hearing that Reivyn was just as skilled with a spear as he was with a sword, Kayzor didn't bother with any probing attacks. He dashed forward and struck like a viper.
Reivyn spun his spear up to deflect it up and to the side, but Kayzor maintained a good balance, using the momentum of the strike to twirl the spear around and bring it back in a continuous motion to strike at Reivyn once again from the other side. Reivyn was used to sparring with his father, who had considerably more Stats and tricks than Kayzor did, so he wasn't caught off guard by the move and deflected it as well.
The two once more entered into an intense struggle of back and forth with jabs, swipes, twirls, and parries. The wind from their spears was strong enough to blow the clothes and hair of the spectators watching from tens of yards away.
Kayzor suddenly leaped back and thrust his spear into the air.
"March of Spears!" he shouted.
Reivyn quirked an eyebrow at the strange behavior. He hadn't witnessed anyone call out a Class Skill to activate it in a long time, not since he had been part of the Lord's Retinue back in Magron. He didn't maintain the facial expression for long, though, as ethereal spears matched the movement of the one thrust into the air by Kayzor, except they exploded out of the ground in a line headed straight for Reivyn.
The ethereal spears moved much faster than he would even be able to Charge his opponent, and it reached him in the blink of an eye. He desperately dove out of the way, barely avoiding getting pierced from below by the Skill.
"Thousand Lances!"
Reivyn was still in the middle of scrambling to his feet when the next shout entered his ears, and he hastily brought his spear up, spinning it in a circle to block the next assault. Kayzor's arm seemed to disappear as he thrust forward, and dozens of jabs launched out in a similar fashion as his previous Skill. They weren't completely ethereal strikes this time, though, and they were empowered by actual thrusts from Kayzor's spear.
Reivyn was unable to maintain his block of the Skill with his spearmanship, and several of the strikes moved past his guard at lightning speed. He was struck seven times in seven different spots across his torso, from top to bottom. The power of the attack picked him up off his feet and launched him several yards back. He landed on his back with the wind knocked out of him.
He rolled over to his knee, propping himself up with the training spear. He had to maintain the position for a moment to recover his breath, though. He could inhale just fine, but when he tried to exhale, it was like he had no power behind it. The pain in his stomach and ribs wasn't all that much as Kayzor had only used the appropriate amount of strength for the Skill, but the loss of not being able to expel his breath threatened to induce panic in Reivyn.
He felt his blood throbbing in his temple as he struggled to breathe, but he fought to maintain his calm. After only a few seconds of labored breathing, he realized he wasn't having any feelings of asphyxiation or anything.
Oh yeah, I can hold my breath for over an hour because of my vitality, Reivyn remembered.
Kayzor and Kefira reached him at the same time and helped him to his feet. Kefira had a worried look on her face as she looked at Reivyn, but once she realized he was completely fine, she turned a fierce glare onto her brother. Kayzor had a look of embarrassment on his face.
"Sorry about that, Reivyn," Kayzor said with a strained smile. "I got a little carried away."
"A little carried away?!" Kefira shouted. "I didn't realize it was customary to use Class Skills in a friendly sparring match. I thought the purpose was to pit your Spears Skill against each other."
Reivyn waved his hand and shook his head when Kefira looked at him. He finally expelled his breath, and his breathing returned to normal.
"It's alright," Reivyn said. "What I'm really curious about is why you shouted the Skill names when you invoked the Skills. Isn't that something a newbie would do?"
"I did it for your benefit," Kayzor replied. "Even though I got caught in the moment and wanted to secure victory, I still knew we were in a sparring match. I guess you've never participated in a spar where you go all out with your Class Skills. It's customary, at least in our imperial army, to shout the names of your Skills the first time you use them against an opponent in a spar.
"It allows the participants to understand exactly what their sparring partner is doing, as well as gives them a fraction of a second heads up."
"I guess that makes sense," Reivyn replied. "Are those your Tier 4 Class Skills?"
"The Thousand Lances Skill is one of them, but the March of Spears is from my Tier 3 Class. My Thousand Lances Skill is still very low, only about 12, which is why there was nowhere near a thousand spear thrusts. If I Level it up to 100, there would literally be a thousand thrusts in the span of just a few seconds."
"That's... actually pretty amazing," Reivyn nodded his head. "Imagine being able to fuse that Skill with an infusion of your Mana. I imagine pumping the Piercing Affinity into your spear would make a truly deadly combination."
"Oh, believe me, I've been told," Kayzor tilted his head toward Kefira. "I'm just not that great with my Mana Skills and Affinities. I've been working on it, but I have a long way to go until I can do it easily."
Reivyn slapped his hand down on Kefira's arm as she surreptitiously lifted his shirt to check his body for wounds. He gave her a look, but her eyes flashed in excitement.
"You're going to have bruises on your stomach and chest from that attack," she said, bouncing up and down.
"Why do I feel like you're happy about that?" Reivyn quirked an eyebrow.
"Come on! I'll apply a balm to reduce the bruising and swelling!"
"Oooh," Reivyn was quick on the uptake.
Kefira grabbed his hand and began dragging him away, followed by Serilla. Reivyn tossed his training spear to one of the watching officers and let himself get led away.
"See you tomorrow, brother!" Reivyn called out over his shoulder.
Reivyn didn't look back to see the reaction on Kayzor's face, but Kefira tilted her head back and laughed.