Thalanda soars above us causing small reverberation in the air every time he flaps. How do they know my father? I sigh and rub my head. I’m seriously going to die early from all this intrigue —Fricking schemes. I glare at Devonte’s back.
We slept within the Capital and left yesterday morning. I look behind me and see the city far in the distance. I continue dragging myself along the dirt path and see various caravans pass by us heading toward the city.
After some time, Thalanda dives down and stops in front of us.
“That should be far enough. Now, hop on.” the giant bird says.
How’s he talking if he isn’t even moving his mouth? Devonte grabs me by my waist and jumps onto the bird. My stomach rushes into itself as the Thalanda takes off and the wind rushes past me. I hold on to the bird’s feathers for my life and let out a grunt as my ears pop. I feel my hand start to slip and scream for Devonte or Thalanda. Suddenly everything stops and I open my eyes to a surreal sight. Clear blue skies run above my head, and below me as far as the eye can see are clouds floating. I look at the large sun, seemingly lavishing in the sky and gracing my face with sunlight.
“I scared you there, didn’t I,” says Thalanda as he lets out a short laugh.
Devonte starts to conjure up water mana into a large bubble around us and proceeds to spread out the Water Mana over the Thalanda’s feather creating a large platform. He conjures a seat for himself and opens the large bag that he’s hulking around, taking out several different types of weapons.
“While we’re travelling across the continent, we can choose the weapon you’ll copy for your permanent construct and replicate it. At least to a certain extent,” he says.
I nod my him and click my tongue, “Small problem, I already have a weapon.”
I summon Glacial Torrent and wave it around. His eyes stick to the weapon and I can see the gears moving in his brain.
“Alright. I would recommend creating armour, but I believe that’s out of your grasp for now,” says Devonte rubbing his chin.
“How about a mask like yours?” I ask, remembering how cool it looked.
“That could work,” he replies.
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“No, listen, when you’re creating the construct, form it in your mind and then let it shape slowly as the mana comes out. If it’s too complex, then create it as simple as you need. A plain mask with no holes or anything,” says Devonte.
I fall on my back and rub my pounding head. Why does it hurt so much? I glare at the gorgeous pink, orange and red sky. How dare you look so beautiful while I suffer. Groaning, I pick myself up and try again.
I imagine a plain curved sheet of mana in the form of a mask with no holes, runes or designs, and push my mana slowly out using Water Construct. The ability allows the Mana to harden the second it gets released from my hand, shaping it into the desired form. The pressure mounts in my head and I struggle to keep the mana from dispersing. The mask finally forms rather crudely. I jump up in joy.
“Hell yeah,” I scream
The mana in the mask disperses and I sit down, feeling the effects of my training.
“Sleep for now. We’ll be reaching The Glade in less than 3 days at our current pace. You’ll have all of tomorrow to practice. The day after you’ll pick a rune, study it and on the last day you’ll create the actual permanent construct. Mind you, you’ll only create it if you can perform creating the rune with it,” says Devonte.
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“Won’t we stop to let Thalanda rest?” I ask in confusion.
“It will take much more than simple flying to tire me out,”
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I continue to practice creating the mask the next day and although it doesn’t get any easier, I manage to create it consistently.
Devonte stops me when he’s satisfied with my progress and makes me look through a Tome called ‘Enchantment Runes for Novices.’ I read through the book and see the simplistic effects the runes have. Minor sharp rune: When attached to a weapon, keeps the weapon with a working edge. Underneath the description is a small weird-looking rune.
I move on to the next one. Minor Red Chameleone rune: When attached to an item, changes the colour subtly to red. I read through more runes and noticed that most of the runes in this book are useless. I finish the book and walk to Devonte who’s fighting with a dummy made from water. Will I be able to do that with Water Construct? I hope so.
“Most of the runes here are useless. Do you have another book,”
He walks over to his bag and hands me a single folded page, “Major runes are too complex for you to try replicating with such a low Mind stat, not to mention are extremely expensive to get a hold on. There’s a Minor sustenance rune on that page. It isn’t very strong, but it will be relatively useful for you. The only reason I didn’t give it to you immediately is because I wanted you to understand that most Minor runes don’t do much. And the ones that do, like the one in your hand, have an extremely limited effect.”
He goes back to training and I unfold the page. Minor sustenance Rune: Provides a small but steady stream of nourishment to the player, staving off hunger and thirst for a day. The rune underneath the description is a vertical line with two other horizontal lines crossing through it.
I create the mask again but this time with the sustenance rune covering where my left eye would be. I activate Water Construct and let the water mana out of my hand. When I get to the portion where the small rune will be, I lose my control and the Mana disperses. Frustrated and tired from today’s practice already, I get up and ask Devonte if he would like to spar.
He grunts as I propose the idea, but doesn’t outright reject it. A smile appears on his face and the platform starts to warp beneath me into a fighting ring.
“There are two ways for you to win. You can either push me back enough where I touch the fence or you can make me bleed. Oh, a couple of things before we start, I’ll be limiting myself to your strength and agility, and you’ll struggle to even hit me if you don’t come at me with the intention of killing me,” he says.
I nod and summon my glaive, not waiting for him to announce the start of the match. I attack him to test out his defence and he parries without any trouble. We go back and forth testing each other’s limits causing me to think back to the mountain I stayed at during my childhood. Where I and Raven learnt how to fight from the old man. I don’t know where you are you crooked old son of a—. But I hope you’re suffering.
I shift awkwardly as I fall into the first form of the Glaive, ‘The Bastion’. The Glaive isn’t my primary weapon, yet that crooked old man still taught me how to use it. I grimace as I remember how difficult it was for me to handle the weight of the weapon when I was a child.
Devonte strikes at me, but I dodge and hit him with the butt of my glaive. He continues to attack and I either dodge or parry with little effort, redirecting his energy. Seeing an opening, I shift to the second form, ‘Ravager.’
I spin with my Glaive in a sweeping arc, aiming to catch him off guard, but he moves out of the way deftly. Not willing to give him the tempo, I continue to attack him.
He counters easily and I notice the smirk on his face become wider as we move in our little dance. I do my best to keep my barrage of attacks and use the reach of my glaive to push him back. Our weapons produce sparks as we clash and the salty taste of my sweat fills my mouth.
Our battle reaches a peak and we both move backward. I stare at Devonte who hasn’t even broken a sweat. As if in agreement, we both lunge towards each other and he bypasses my glaive, drops his weapon and twists to get behind me, throwing me onto the floor all in the same motion.
I stand up and look at the glaive that I dropped on the floor behind Devonte. He sends a flurry of quick punches and knees me in my stomach. I do my best to block him, but my efforts are wasted. He gets behind me and puts me into a headlock, leaving me no choice but to give up.