Transcendence, page 40
part #6 of The Beginning After The End Series
The ground underneath my feet abruptly shot up like a spring, ejecting me into the air.
I was startled for a split second before realizing it had to be Buhnd. It had been less than a day since I’d met the bearded ball of muscle and he was already becoming predictable.
I was launched some twenty feet in the air, and when I managed to twist myself to face him, the old dwarf was waiting for me with an eager smile, his bulging arms stretched out wide as if expecting me to hug him.
A smile crept across my face as I siphoned mana into my hand.
At least I won’t be bored.
Chapter 47
Guest Teacher
“Switch!” Alanis called out just as my wind-infused fist was about to connect with Camus’s chest.
I muttered a string of curses, stopping my strike. How is it that over these past few days, the matches always seem to stop at such inconvenient times? She has to be doing this on purpose.
As if to answer my accusation, my trainer said, “Exactly twenty minutes have passed. Elder Camus will be switched for Elder Hester. General Arthur, please restrict your water magic.”
I wiped away the sweat pouring down my face, trying to take a breather before my next opponent arrived. Having my water magic banned meant I couldn’t use ice either. How frustratingly convenient for Hester, who would’ve been at a disadvantage against those two elements.
Glancing at the audience, I could tell everyone had been paying close attention to my fight against Camus. My sister was particularly engrossed.
Hester approached me until we were about a dozen feet apart. Tying her long grey hair back into a bun, she readied herself and assumed a dueling stance. Being a silver core mage meant that, although her strength was in conjuring, she could easily augment her body. The fact that she wore tight-fitting clothes and chose to use a conjuring ring rather than the traditional staff or wand meant that she wanted the flexibility of both long-range and close-range combat.
“Begin,” Alanis stated, her voice amplified by the artifact she was speaking into.
Hester immediately snapped her finger, a spark igniting between her middle finger and her thumb.
The blue ember was just a distraction, though.
Since I wasn’t using Realmheart, I couldn’t see the fluctuations in mana, but I could feel it. My body, enhanced through assimilation with Sylvia’s dragon will, seemed to instinctively sense that I was in danger.
I quickly propelled myself back, just in time to see a burst of fire detonate where I had been standing.
The explosion caused a cloud of smoke, obstructing my view of Hester.
She didn’t expect to hit me with that. She wants me to lose sight of her.
I swung my arms, manipulating the cloud of dust between us to shoot forward. The rock and sand in the air froze for a second before erupting forward into a shockwave of debris.
As I had predicted, Hester’s form came into view. She managed to shield herself with a panel of fire. It was my turn to strike back.
Augmenting mana into my legs, I flashed forward, gathering blue fire into my fists.
I struck at the panel of fire, expecting my flame to overpower hers. Her spell disintegrated, but to my surprise, Hester was no longer behind the panel of fire she had conjured.
That’s when I felt it again, the primal instinct that told me I was in danger. This time, it came from below my feet.
Blue fire swirled beneath me before erupting into a pillar of flames. For a moment, even my vision turned blue as an intense heat washed over me.
My aura blocked the attack long enough for me to manipulate the fire and keep it from harming me. If I took too much damage, the defensive artifact in my armor would activate, making it my loss.
Just when the heat was becoming unbearable, I was able to dispel Hester’s attack and break the pillar of fire—only to find myself surrounded by a dozen or so fiery spheres, each at least six feet high.
Given that I couldn’t see or sense Hester, and that each globe of fire would easily fit a grown woman inside, I knew she was in one of the globes.
If she was trying to annoy me with all these distractions, it was working.
I stomped the ground, conjuring earthen spikes. Only half the spikes hit their mark.
Note to self: Practice aiming with earth magic.
The spikes that did hit bored straight through the spheres of fire, causing them to disperse. But it didn’t take long for new spheres to manifest and take their place.
Before I could strike them down again, the flaming globes brightened, then launched their attacks.
Each globe seemed to have a mind of its own, as the attacks they fired were different from each other. One globe shot a barrage of small fire bullets, while another began spinning and releasing burning crescents.
I was forced onto the defensive by the barrage of attacks coming from all directions. I erected a stone wall from the ground to block the flame bullets and launched a blade of wind at the burning crescent, detonating the fiery spell prematurely.
My mind raced, trying to think of my next move. I couldn’t stay on the defensive, but I had no idea which flaming sphere she was hiding inside.
The temptation to just release Realmheart grew, but I knew that was just a shortcut, solving my inadequacy by blowing off most of my mana.
Think, Arthur. How would I try to fight me if I was Hester?
The only strategy I could think of was to get on my nerves until I let my guard down. That was the answer.
I let out a roar of frustration, wildly launching shockwaves of wind and blasts of fire at the globes. Of course, the ones I hit were replaced by new ones, but I continued my seemingly agitated assault.
Coalescing tendrils of lightning around my arms and legs, I flashed forward, getting close to the spheres of fire and striking them down.
For each globe I struck down, two more took its place until there were more than thirty spheres hovering around me.
Her mana pool is impressive.
Now the spheres began undulating and glowing brighter. I thought they were all going to explode, but instead each of the flaming globes shot a condensed stream of fire at me.
Is this the final attack? I thought, noticing that the spheres were growing smaller as they released their flaming beams.
I put on my best expression of surprise and horror and waited until all the beams were just about to hit me before I acted.
Siphoning a large amount of mana from my core, I engulfed my entire body in a suit of fire. It required absolute control to keep the fire from harming me, but timing it with Hester’s last attack would make it seem like I was hit.
Even with several extra layers of pure mana and fire mana protecting me from Hester’s barrage, I felt the fire singeing the hair on my extremities. I feared for a moment that I might actually come out of this bald, but my aura kept me—and the majority of my hair—safe.
Over the roar of the flames I heard Ellie call out in horror, but I kept my focus on my opponent. I knew Hester wouldn’t let her guard down even from this.
The next step was the hard part.
One thing any multi-elemental mage always had to consider was not just knowing when to utilize each of his elements, but how to utilize multiple elements in conjunction with one another.
Keeping the flaming barrier around my body, I split off a part of my focus so I could manipulate the ground underneath me.
I felt my flames tremble—a sign that my concentration was wavering.
Almost. Enduring the growing heat around me as I manipulated a hole into the ground for me to fit inside, I waited until I finally saw Hester’s silhouette through the layer of fire between us.
Now!
I collapsed my protective spell just as I fell into the ground, immediately restoring the ground above me so I was completely submerged.
The earth shook with what I assumed was Hester’s next strike.
Without wasting any time, I pushed at the earth around me, utilizing the seismic perception spell to sense where everyone was. I felt a ripple in the earth from a different location—the same perception spell that I had used, but far stronger.
Focusing on the task at hand, I shaped the earth around me, allowing myself to slowly move underground. Experts like Buhnd were able to travel underground as easily as if they were underwater, but unfortunately I wasn’t at that level.
It didn’t matter, though. It was Hester’s turn to be caught off guard.
I only needed two seconds to gather mana around my right first for my final attack. As soon as I was ready, I cleared the earth above me and bolted up to the surface and into the air by infusing wind mana beneath my feet.
Black lightning coiled around my right arm like a vicious serpent ready to strike. Just beneath me, standing on the ground, was Hester, her arms enveloped in fire fashioned into long blades with thin tendrils of electricity wrapped around them—no doubt her actual finishing move.
Hester whipped around to face me just as my body descended. She was too late. I was within striking range and she wasn’t in the safety of her fire orb.
We were playing to my strength now.
My opponent’s lips moved—whether she was cursing or chanting a spell, I couldn’t tell—as she brought up her flaming arm blades.
The black lightning tore free from my arm as I unleashed the voltaic charge at Hester. The black tendrils ripped through the air and our two spells collided.
A sphere of congealed fire and lightning formed from the impact, growing larger and brighter until it finally exploded with us at the epicenter.
KATHYLN GLAYDER
The explosion obscured our view of Arthur and Hester. My eyes flitted to Arthur’s little sister; I was prepared to conjure a barrier in case the shockwave reached us, but her bond had already responded, pulling her close with its body positioned to block any remnant of the blast caused by the colliding spells.
In my concern for Arthur’s little sister, I forgot to protect myself from the shockwave that resulted from the detonation.
I braced for impact, trying to raise a wall of ice in time, but to my surprise, the ground beneath me sank. I found myself a few feet below the surface as the shockwave passed harmlessly above me.
After the explosion subsided, I was raised back up and came face to face with Elder Buhnd.
“Careful, Princess,” he grinned before turning his attention back to the origin of the blast.
The cloud of debris caused by the explosion dissipated and I could see the two figures.
Though disheveled, Arthur was standing. My guardian, on the other hand, had fallen back. A soft pink glow surrounded her, signaling that her defensive artifact had been triggered.
Elder Buhnd clasped his hands together, obviously excited. “Haha! Brilliant!”
“The artifact worked seamlessly!” Miss Watsken exclaimed from the side, excited for a different reason.
“It’s worrying that you’re this surprised about the functionality of the device meant to keep my brother from dying,” Arthur’s little sister muttered, patting the dust from her clothing.
“I wasn’t surprised!” the artificer protested. “Just happy that there were no unexpected complications.”
“Mhmm.” Arthur’s sister cast one last look of doubt at Miss Watsken before turning her focus to her bond.
“What were General Arthur’s mana flow readings during that battle?” Elder Camus asked Miss Alanis. I listened in, curious about Arthur’s improvement over the last few days.
Miss Alanis’s eyes glowed in a myriad of colors as she assessed Arthur’s internal data. Eventually her irises returned to their original colors. “General Arthur’s mana flow for spellcasting earth and wind have increased by four percent and two percent, respectively.”
“And that’s a… good thing?” Elder Buhnd asked, his thick brows knitted in confusion.
“The rate of General Arthur’s growth is… impressive, to say the least. It has been less than a week, yet the improvement he has made with his peripheral elements is remarkable,” she replied before recording her newest findings into her journal.
“I think you’d be more helpful in the war if you led a larger group of soldiers, rather than trying to push that old body of yours,” a familiar voice sounded from behind us.
My eyes widened as I realized it was Commander Virion, and he was accompanied by General Bairon and Master Varay.
I immediately lowered my head in respect.
“No need for such formalities. I’m just here to check up on my youngest general,” Commander Virion said. “Actually, let me apologize in advance.”
I raised my head tentatively, locking eyes with Master Varay. My ice magic teacher regarded me with her strong gaze before turning her attention to the aftermath of Hester and Arthur’s mock battle.
“That sort of passive-aggressiveness is beneath you, Virion—I mean, Commander,” Elder Camus responded with a slight smile.
“Part of my job is making sure my strongest assets are as effective as they can be,” Commander Virion responded, smiling amiably as he squeezed Elder Camus’s shoulder.
“What are you apologizing for?” Elder Buhnd asked. “Don’t tell me you’re going to cut our play—training time short! I was just about to go next!”
“Actually, Princess Kathyln was scheduled to go next,” Miss Emeria corrected.
Master Varay approached me casually, tenderly picking out a piece of debris that had become lodged in my hair. “It’s been a while, Kathyln. You’ve gotten stronger.”
Blushing, I quickly combed my fingers through my hair, trying to tidy my unkempt appearance. “Thank you, Master. I’ve been growing in strength while training alongside the elders and General Arthur.”
She nodded before shifting her gaze behind me. I looked back to see Arthur pulling Hester back up on her feet. I could make out Arthur’s lips moving but it was impossible to hear what he was saying.
“I just arrived from a mission and have some rare free time,” she began, unclipping the fur-lined cloak from her shoulders.
The rich midnight-blue cloth fell to the ground, revealing her signature battle attire, a minimal navy armor with gold accents that looked like a gift from the asuras when she wore it.
I stepped out of the way and let her pass, already knowing what she was going to ask.
“At least the show’s going to be entertaining,” Elder Buhnd grumbled as conjured a stone chair and sat down.
“Umm, General Varay, I’m not sure the artifact has enough fuel to withstand a duel of this caliber,” Emily said, raising a shaky hand.
Without breaking stride, Master Varay locked eyes with Arthur. Even in his disheveled and worn-out state, his eyes gleamed as his mouth curved into a smile.
“Bairon. Help Miss Watsken fuel up her artifact for my little skirmish against our newest Lance.”
Chapter 48
Beauty in Magic
I watched as Arthur and my master faced each other, just a dozen feet apart. Their presences collided terrifyingly, submerging the room in a heavy shroud as they waited.
Finally, Miss Watsken’s strained voice croaked from behind us as if she was already regretting what she was about to say. “Th-The barrier is ready… I think.”
Her voice was soft, but Master and Arthur must’ve heard because their auras thickened around them. A shimmering veil of bluish silver surrounded my master—unlike Arthur’s aura, which was a myriad of different hues, no doubt because of his multiple affinities.
Commander Virion, along with the elders and even General Bairon, watched in silence, each of them afraid to blink in case they missed anything. I could sympathize with them—I was standing as close as I could without endangering myself.
Just the mere sight of them was awe-inspiring. I felt a sense of pride watching my master and the presence she had even in a room filled with masters of magic. I had no doubt that, regardless of the many sparring sessions I could provide for Arthur, training just once with Master Varay was more valuable for him.
Suddenly, my master’s body flickered and disappeared. Arthur reacted instantly, his form flashing away just in time to dodge her first strike.
Where her frozen lance pierced the ground, ice formed and spread.
Arthur seemed to want to test his own ice magic against her, because he responded by hurling a shockwave of frost.
With a flick of her wrist, Master Varay dispersed the shockwave, using Arthur’s frost to fuel her own magic. The white mist swirled, forming a dozen spears of ice around her. She clutched her fist and the ice spears responded to her call, shooting towards her opponent.
As impressive as Master Varay’s control over ice was, Arthur’s speed in dodging her barrage was even more splendid. His body seemed to have split and multiplied from the afterimages. I had heard that he was able to go even faster, but his body wasn’t able to handle the stress.
Someone beside me clicked their tongue. I turned to see Buhnd wearing an expression of frustration. “I see the young General was holding back on us.”
“Arthur has a tendency to hold back with anyone he even suspects is weaker than him. Against Varay, he can go at full strength,” Commander Virion said, his arms crossed.
“Why isn’t he using that form of his? Realmheart, I think he called it,” Hester asked, her face still strained after her duel against Arthur.
“I think it’s so he can enjoy the fight longer,” a light voice answered. “It’s not everyday you see my brother look so happy.”
Arthur’s little sister was watching from atop her bond as if in a trance. She had the same gaze I often saw on Arthur when he was truly focused on something. They really did resemble one another.
A loud crash drew my attention back to the battle. Where there had once been only a dirt field was now a snowy expanse. Master Varay, who had just blocked an attack from Arthur, waved her arm and manipulated the snow around her. A vortex of frost swirled to life, forming a spiraling serpent.
Elder Buhnd whistled in appreciation as all eyes followed Master’s creation. A snowy frost formed the long body of the dragon, and its jagged claws and fangs were made of ice.
