A frown creased Festus’ lips.
“All your men are attribute mages, correct?” he asked Daniel.
Beside him Daniel remained quiet for the time it took his teammate facing off against Oliver to cast the rune he’d conjured before he answered.
“Yes,” he said.
“And what is that man’s attribute?” Festus asked.
“Iron skin and burning blood.”
Festus took his eyes away from the training ground. “Burning blood?” he asked.
“Yes. At least that’s what he likes to call it. But it simply means he has a natural resistance to fire.”
Festus stroked his jaw in thought. “I guess that’s why he’s gone for a haste rune rather than something more defensive,” he muttered to himself. To Daniel, he added: “I guess we can call this one.”
“You don’t have faith in one of your own?” Daniel asked, surprised.
“It’s not about faith. It’s about knowledge. If this becomes a test of combat prowess, the outcome is easily predictable.”
…………………………….
Oliver swung his arm forward. The orb of purple, coalesced force mana shot from his hold like an arrow shot from a bow with a particularly taut bowstring. He hoped to catch the man before whatever intermediary rune he was casting activated successfully. While he doubted there was anyone he knew that could cast an intermediary rune, Festus had shown them enough intermediary runes for them to recognize a simple one even if they weren’t going to be able to cast it. The lessons Festus had given them did not cover identifying what the intermediary runes did.
Oliver’s opponent ducked to the side. He weaved like a boxer, stepping into the cast rune. The rune blew up in a spark of translucent red so soft it could have been pink. He followed the motion through and the orb missed him by a wide margin. His feet hit the ground and it was as if he took two steps too quickly for Oliver to follow. The movement left a trail of red line in his wake and he shot forward.
Panic crawled up Oliver’s throat and he swallowed it quickly. He still had more mana in his core, which meant he still had more spellforms with which to fight. His second orb remained securely within his grasp as he called on another orb. It flared a bright purple as it came to life. If it’s presence bothered the man he was facing, the man didn’t show it. He simply charged forward as would be expected of any boxer. His footwork was quick and he covered the distance faster than any Rukh rank mage could justify.
“Life of life, flood of floods, part the red sea and call on god.”
The man was on Oliver as the last words of Oliver’s spellform left his lips. The air rippled to their side as Oliver activated his second orb. The action was born more from instinct than actual strategy. Oliver had intended on delaying his use of the orb. As a Rukh rank mage, casting three spells at a time would not take a toll on him. Worry would only set in the moment he was required to cast four and above. Still, he had intended on working with only two at a time. The man’s sudden presence so close to him had caused him to react.
The man stepped to Oliver’s side, reacting to the swelling orb. However, his action put him right between Oliver and the spell he had just conjured. From Oliver’s hand an orb of purple swelled as gravity filled the space around him, rejecting everything. His opponent was stuck between a growing dome of force mana and a growing ball of water. It was a pincer attack Oliver was curious to see how he would escape.
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The man did not escape.
Oliver’s opponent tightened his form, tucked his body in and swung what would’ve been a body blow. His fist connected with Oliver’s growing orb. It struck the swelling air of dark purple and Oliver winced. Everything else happened in the time it takes to blink. Cracks spread all over the orb from where the man’s fist connected with it and the shattered immediately.
Refusing to receive something similar, Oliver dropped the second orb and darted away from his spot. The man followed without delay. He ducked low as he did. The ball of water blasted from the side like a geyser. It missed him completely as he stepped forward.
“Grow,” Oliver muttered, adding more distance between him and the man.
The orb he’d dropped was motionless on the ground and it obeyed him. With his release of the spell, the orb expanded. It drew everything around it in, a vortex sucking everything in, seeking an implosion of significant gravity.
Oliver placed both hands together, held out in front of him and prepared a new spell. He’d been learning with Chris for the past few months, trying to get a handle on his second specialization. Even though it was a specialization, he did not know it well enough to employ it in battle. At first, he had thought it odd. His gravity specialization had come to him naturally. He merely thought of it and it activated. Chris had shown her versatility time and time again. She did a lot of improvised spellforms and was always good at it. It showed that no matter how little her connection to any mana type was, she understood it enough to use it. Asking her for help on how to better connect to a second specialization seemed like a no-brainer.
According to Chris, the reason his second specialization was difficult was the same reason most people used only one limb for most of their tasks. A second specialization was like having two limbs. In Oliver’s case, his second specialization was his weaker arm, and using it in battle was like using one’s weaker arm to perform tasks that required finesse.
No risk to my life, Oliver thought, so let’s see if I’m now ambidextrous.
He called on his two specializations. He felt the mana around his clasped hands tremble. Ignoring it, he pulled all the force mana around him. He hummed as he did so. The sound was quiet enough that it would not be considered noise but loud enough that he could hear himself. In his time learning under Chris, he’d learned that actual sound helped him focus on the specialization.
When he felt sound mana gathering at his hands, he couldn’t fight the smile that creeped onto his lips. I’m doing it, he thought in barely withheld glee. I’m doing it in actual com—
A blur of red light flickered past him. Panic returned to him. It shook his focus. He turned, his mind contemplating on if he should drop the incomplete spell or invest more into it. He remembered the force of the blow that had shattered his gravity orb and hesitated.
He watched the empty expression on his opponent’s face as the man appeared right beneath him. Oliver knew he had lost. He wondered if it would be less annoying if the man looked smug about it right now.
…………………………….
“Ooh,” Zed winced as Oliver’s opponent’s fist connected. “That’s going to leave a mark.”
The blow was powerful, loud enough to echo through the entire training room. To his surprise, he wasn’t the only one who had felt it. Jennifer covered her mouth in displeasure and Ronda sighed.
“I swear he’ll learn everything except how to hold back,” Kid said.
Ahead of them, Ash looked back at them.
“And why was he supposed to hold back?” she asked Kid, scowling. “They’re the same rank. Holding back would’ve gotten him in trouble.”
Kid chuckled then stopped abruptly. “You’re not joking,” he said in surprise.
Ash’s scowl deepened.
“My gosh, you really think that—”
Another sound filled the air. It was explosive, booming across the room as the Olympian struck Oliver again. To Oliver’s credit, he didn’t fall. He staggered back on wobbled legs.
“Four spells,” Zed noted, unhappy. “That’s all the spells your friend allowed him cast.” He looked at Ronda. “Are you Olympians this good or is he a special case?”
“There’s nothing special about him,” Ash said.
“Except he doesn’t hold back,” Jennifer added.
Zed turned back to the fight just in time to catch Oliver drop to his knees. If this was what the mages out in the world were like, then he had definitely started the world on easy mode. And all he’d needed was one intermediary rune, he thought.