Training Begins! Dominate the Dungeon! Part 5

The monsters were crawling towards the youngster, which made him sweat a little. He, however, still held his ground, and smiled shakily. Drawing a Rune in the air, the image of electricity crosses his mind, and thus he spoke, in a calm voice.

"Za'azu'a" After those words left his mouth, Kay extended his right hand towards one of the monsters. It was an immense dog, who seemed to have a horse's head and eagle paws. With his target on sight, the boy's hand erupted in light as a spark of a lightning left his hand.

His target convulse with a shriek of pain. As soon as all the skeletons soldiers saw that, they, along with some kind of really big spider, attacked the boy, who kept the smile on his face. Writing a new rune, he began another chant, the image of wind striking a mill making itself present in his mind.

"Ruakh!" Kay exclaimed, and a very strong gale threw his opponents off balance, making them fall on they're feet. His hand danced on the air once more, and a new rune formed itself on front of the boy. "Sela'" with this, a bolder of medium size was thrown against the spider, completely smashing it.

"Don't destroy them completely! We needed the spiders poison!" Liria said, reproving the excessive force Kay applied, and making him look a little sheepish. However, the sound of bones shaking themselves made the boy concentrate once again.

Drawing the first Rune he ever learned, and spelling it's word, Arafel, a thick haze made itself present in the battlefield, blocking the monsters vision. Kay, however, could heard them.

'Those bone sacks are so noisy I can hear them a mile away.' The boy though, drawing another rune, one to slowly kill the skeletons.

"Lohett" The boy said, making a couple of skeletons burn. They're pained shriek, together with the mist was frightening in it's own way. As they tried to navigate through the thick mist, more and more of seemed to fall. Kay soon heard a couple soldiers approaching him, those who weren't burning. Smiling to himself, he drew two runes with his Mana, surprising Liria.

'He already can use two at a time?' she asked on her mind, waiting to see if it would be double casting or merely a fluke. Either way, it was something impressive for an amateur.

"Lohett Ruakh" the human exclaimed, bursting the two spells at the same instant, making the wall of wind feed the blaze that initially burned the other skeletons slowly. This time however, the blaze grew in size and with it, a huge flame completely burned all the skeletons remaining. It was so hot that even the ashes were still lit with fire after the flame extinguished. The heat completely dispelled the mist and Kay saw only the convulsing dog still alive.

Kay fell on the ground, exhausted. Whipping a bit of sweat on his forehead, he exclaimed, with a tired voice.

"Man, that consumed way more Mana than I thought it would." Looking at his hands, he smiled. Finally, he was finally strong. But he still needed to gain even more strength if he wanted to win the Battle Royale. He couldn't get tired after firing a few spells. Getting up, he took his cutlass and went towards the dog.

Looking at the strange animal, still convulsing, Kay felt a little bit of pity towards the beast, however, he knew that the same aberration wouldn't held such feeling towards him thus, with a quick movement, he killed the strange thing, taking it out of it's misery.

"Good job, kid. Way better than I thought you would do. Now, let's make a quick analysis… but first, answer me this… HOW IN THE BLOODY HELL DID YOU KNEW HOW TO DOUBLE CAST!" She asked, letting her surprise and frustration blow. Kay looked at Liria, surprise on his face, and simply said:

"I just though that, by combining the two spells, the final result would be much more powerful. I mean, combining fire and wind, would make the gale enhance the blaze…"

'He deducted that on the battlefield?' Liria thought to herself, surprised by her student talent. She knew how nervous one could be in a live and death situation, especially when it was they're first bout.

"But still, I'm surprised. I mean, I thought that the cost of that stunt I pulled out would be from both spells, but it was way more than that." Kay said, rubbing his tired shoulder. "I wonder why though."

"Isn't it obvious?" Liria sharply asked, beginning to explain. "When you double cast a spell, your not only combining they're strength but also controlling how the phenomena you are trying to cause is going to affect the world around you. In other words, normally, you would just need to spent, let's say, 3 units of Mana to use Lohett, then it would be only a matter of pointing the direction and letting the magic do the rest. When double casting thought, you not only has two spells at the cost of one, but you also have to calculate the Mana output of the spell and how it affects the environment around you. If you doesn't do it, then your Mana does it for you, and it usually leaves the caster very tired."

"Why is that?"

"Well, it is quite simple. Two objects cannot occupy the same space, and just like this law is universal, it also affects magic. You can't double cast two spells at once, simply because two objects of the same mass cannot exist in the same place, and since Magic usually don't have mass…" Liria said, making Kay understand it quickly.

"Then two magics cannot be made at the same time. Instead, what I need to do is to combine those two spells, if I'm not doing this consciously, then my Mana does it for me…" Looking at his own hand, Kay once again saw how difficult his path is going to be.

"Exactly." Liria said, with a smile on her face.

"Then, how can I calculate it correctly?" Kay inquired, eager to learn.

"Being honest, this is still too advanced for you. Instead, I'm going to teach you about the elemental affinity and how it affects your spells. I'm guessing that, since you combined wind with fire, without knowing the basics of Double Casting, you have an affinity on either one of those two."

"How do you know that?"

"To simply put, it's how your looking after firing up all those spells. Knowing that you're an amateur at Mana control, and that you basically spawned spell after spell, along with that Double Casting, I guess it would be a pretty safe bet that your body wouldn't handle all of the stress… in other words, you would have died from exhaustion."

A grim silence made itself present, and the two kept staring at each other. Kay's blank look upon his face showed his incredulity and evident fear, all the while Liria was holding herself not to laugh her guts off of the panicked state of the youngster.

Unknowingly for both Runecrafters, these moments of peace would be short lived.