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.
Kay and Liria, after a quick analysis about the youngster fight and magics, where walking towards the end of the first floor.Kay was wearing the hide of the dog he skinned, with Liria wearing another type of fur. Somehow, Kay thought, she seemed even more beautiful in that silver cloak. It was like the coat highlighted her skin and hair.Looking at his own hand, Kay remembered the talk he had with Liria."Your main affinity is fire." She had said, a couple minutes earlier, lowering the hand that was in front of his face."How do you know that?" He had asked in search for the answer."It's a little trick that the Runecrafters had come across a couple of centuries ago." She begun, with a nostalgic smile on her face. "Fact is, when using a spell, the element you used will mix in your Jing, and for us Runecrafters, we deterrence some of that Mana, with the characteristics of that element we just used. That is where lies our affinity." She finished the explanation."What is in your mind,
Kay woke up to the sound fire burning metal. Looking up, what he encountered was a tad unexpected.What was ahead was a two-headed blacksmith. One was a scarred, bald, human male, with a mighty auburn bear. The second was a Draconian, with red scales and a scar on it's left eye. It was breathing fire on a piece of iron, a formless sword."Finally 'waked, eh?" The dwarf-like head spoke, while the flames ceased and it's arms took the forge and bathed it in cold water. "Y'er gave us quite the spook, kiddo. Almost lost ya.""Who are you? Where am I?" He winced, his hand found it's way to one of it's many cuts, one particularly nasty."Easy there, kiddo. I ain't a nurse, ya know?" The sound of boiling water filled the place, the steam filled the cavern. "Still, y'er quite lucky. If I was a minute late, you'd be a goner."'Lucky, huh…' His thoughts went back to the woman who gave her life to save his, a frown marred his features and a deep sadness caved it's way into his heart. 'I guess… sh
Only after getting out of the blacksmith cavern did Kay noticed that he wasn't in the first floor anymore.Where the first floor was made only of chiseled stone, with runes illuminating the place, this one was made of jagged rocks. The runic power have faded long ago, with only a dim light stopping the everlasting shadow to completely engulf the place.Kay inscribed the runes that he saw back on the first floor and used they're power to navigate on the place, marking where he already went to.In that trek, he discovered a fountain, with some vegetation, mostly spice, growing alongside.After walking for a couple of hours, he run into a group of skeletons, that he dispatched with some effort, and felt his stomach groan. Sighting, he noticed that his throat was as dry as sand.While he knew that he could just go back and drink something, the fact that he found no meat begun to irk him.'Not only that, but my wounds are also beginning to hurt.' Turning back, he went towards the place whe
Kay eyed the subsiding flames with annoyance. It’s been a couple of hours and the inferno was still burning in the room. He got up from the jagged ground and proceeded to walk towards the room.The heat, that was as intense as magma, became weaker. Even if it was still strong, it was now akin to a summer day. Something much more bearable.Eyeing the content of his canteen, which was once again full, the black-haired youth walked with large and careful steps. His side was still hurting, but at least the bleed stopped.After finding the exit, a small tunnel that descendant into a looming darkness, he went to the next floor.The trek was as tiring as it was boring. Inscribing some runes here and there, Kay was feeling more and more fatigued. As much as he wanted to drink from the canteen, that would have to wait, since he needed to make a base on the third floor.However, he felt apprehensive towards what he would find there. He knew, thanks to the exploration, that the river on the cham
Kay's eyes brimmed of frustration and anger. He couldn't move his arms, couldn't fight back, nor could force that situation out. "That's disappointing… I wanted you to keep fighting, but guess that was the maximum you could do without blood runes." The plant demon whispered, inevitably turning his attention towards the passage that leads to the next floor. "A shame, but you won't be able to even scratch the last guardian." "What the hell are you on?" "Tell me, boy… what do you know about this dungeon history." It eyed the boy, searching for a sign that he was the one Jago was waiting. "I know what Liara told me…" He spat, remembering the end of his first love. "That shit about the first two magic kings, and how this place held a treasure of untold knowledge. That's all…" "Is it, tho?" With a heavy sight, the plant demon let the kid's legs touch the ground, which caused him to scream in pain and bend over. "Well, that's a shame. You don't know nothing about the world your in…" Pac
The training begun as soon as Kay spoke those words. With a bit of healing magic, which used the rune "I'hu'i", which meant "Mending", the youth felt as good as new.He had to use all his energy just to keep up with the flower demon. Each exchanged blow created shock waves and strong gales, but what was more annoying to him was how his fists hurt just by hitting it's exposed skin.Meanwhile, the monster was just smirking, it's attacks had, at the very least, five times his strength. Kay decided to take some space and began drawing runes, but each time he tried, the process was ruined by a different vine."Shit!" A small tear was made in his leg, one that forced him to hide and use the mending rune. After that, he run and then tried to double cast the gale and fire rune combination."So, you decided to play serious, have you?" The monster then flexed his muscles and thrust his chest forward. "Come at me!"And thus he did. The fire quickly spread, as the gale made the flames even strong
It took 3 whole days for Kay to make some progress while feeling his Qi. After that, it took him over a week to actually learn on how to use the energy in his spells."Faster!" His mentor screamed, making the youth wince. It took at the very least 10 seconds to cast a single spell this way. The process of casting was easier when he simply burned through his reserves, but now he had to feel the vibration and then calculate the exact percentage of power he was going to expend on both Qi and Jing.After some trial and error, he yelled: "How the fuck am I going to do this with your screaming?!""That's right, sorry 'bout that!" The flower demon then fell into a deep silence that was interrupted a few seconds later. "You're doing it wrong."Kay huffed and proceeded to glare at his own hand. "Tell me something I don't already know."The Flower Demon sighted. It was true that the kid's awareness was awful, but this was in a whole other league."Hey… what am I doing it wrong?" He asked, think
"Damn…" The Flower Demon cursed, feeling more and more overpowered. Not only he needed all his strength to keep his brother at bay, the vessel he was using was starting to lose a lot of blood, courtesy of the gaping wound on his center."ROOARRGHT" The creature forced itself out of it's binds and tried to cut the opponent in half.After sidestepping, it gave it's brother a good look. While Long always had black armor-like scales and used a massive sword, made of they're mother tooth, it's usually kind blue eyes now glowed a demonic red. Along with it came the cuts and bruises that it sported and all the blood that poured out of said scars, which showed how much it had been fighting over the centuries.The human-like dragon forced it to stop musing by shooting beams of pressurized water. Such thing was so fast and powerful that it completely pierced the Flower Demon body.It fell down, it's blue blood seeping out of his wounds as the dragon used his sword to pierce its chest.However,
In a dark room, filled with papers and info, a middle aged man face was illuminated by a computer. In there, he was moving files while ignoring the raging migraine that was splitting his head open.It has been years since this pain cursed his existence.He was a reporter by the name of John Doe and, like the name implied, he was the visage of the average Joe. He payed his bills, walked to his job as a reporter and, overall, had a common routine.Yet, he was far from what could be expected of a simple man.While his Magic was weak, his spell work average and talent for magic beyond that of a donkey, he was smart. Smarter than many around him.This, couple with his inquisitive nature and the ridiculous amount of free time he usually had led him to know things he wasn’t supposed to.He, for example, knew something was amiss with the way Amynistrad worked. He always looked towards other places to live, since power was all that mattered… and this lead to a few, disturbing, conclusions.Why
Michael was having a good day so far.He was walking away from a burning church, his blue flames were melting the walls, eliciting a small chuckle each time he turned back. His walk was calm and collected, a clear contrast to those around him, but he did not care.Sheep didn’t had any right to change anything, for they could not change anything.He eyed a mother, with her child, who both cried and held a small, wooden, symbol. After a quick look, he recognized it as a rosary, which ruined his good humor.Walking towards the couple, he extended his hand and allowed a prison for blueish flames to circle both. Entering the dome, the flames did not touch him, but welcomed him instead.Both mother and child looked at him fearfully. A look he enjoyed as much as hated it.His memory played a bit with him, showing another mother and child in their place, but they were not holding a rosary, instead, they were branded with a pentagram in their arms.The symbol of the East Resistance.A surge of
Felicia honestly couldn’t remember when it all started. All the hatred, the pain and scorn that mother directed at her brother, the same brother she loved… it all sickened her. She could still remember a time where they lived a happy live, where her mom wasn’t obsessed with all of this. The longing feeling in her chest almost made her yelp in pain. Indeed, they where once a big family. She always had a lingering suspicion that there was another thing at play, another thing that destroyed her mother mind, but couldn’t know what it was. Her mother had unstable moments, but the way she acted after Kay’s unique magic was found out… it was on another level. Almost like she felt threatened at his presence. It made no sense, for she was was powerful enough to ascend to nobility, even thought she didn’t even had a name before. It was unbelievable, but she was stronger than most of the Rosebury family combined. Not only that, but she also bore a magic that could restore the Rosebury’s puri
Kay eyed the small piece of paper in front of him with disappointment and bitterness. Idly, he considered just barging in the Rosebury’s and be done with this stupid ordeal, but calmed himself at the words of the Blacksmith, who watched his suffering with amusement. “Remember, Kid. A king’s someone who thinks before act.” The head spoke yet again. Kay knew why he was having that conversation. Yes, he was still angry at the way both of them tried to convince him to give it a rest, and while he knew why they were worried, he also was certain that, if he was to stop working, he would go crazy. So, he tried again to wrote the words that would either bring him together with his family or make them kill each other. Eyeing the paper, he sighted. “This ain’t going anywhere!” He threw his arms up in frustration, the water around him surging as his emotions got the best of him. After he saw both the table, floor and the blacksmiths drenched, he calmed himself down. “Tell me, kiddo… what wil
He woke up with a grimace. Eyeing his surrounds, he quickly calmed himself. The dream, if he could call it that, was so real that gave him chills, yet it couldn’t be anything more than that…At least, that was what he kept repeating to himself. For someone like him, who vowed to never be powerless again, having someone who could so easily enter his mind was terrifying. Even more so if he could control his dreams like that…“No… a dream! That’s all it is!” He stood up, his body aching and his legs trembling. Idly, he wondered if he was as tired as he seemed. Running a hand through his hair, he tested his feet, a grim smile plastering itself on his face. This will take it’s toll… specially on my plans for the next few days…As infuriating as it was, he had to meet his mother again. Not only he craved to see her face when she figures how her entire lineage was on his hands, he also had to discuss how they now served him.It was only normal, after all.No matter what his dreams said about
Kay rose from his slumber as an all too familiar headache exploded. Groaning, he tried to get up, but quickly dismissed the idea as pain shot through his nerves.He tried to remember what happened yesterday, but was drawing a blank. Even thought he kept forcing himself to remember how he ended up in that situation, all he felt was pain.Then, came a smell.He felt his mouth water at that. With renewed vigor, he rose from his bed and his door burst open. He felt himself drawn forward to the delicious scent.There, he saw a plate, full of blood and guts, waiting for him. His alarms shook as he took a tentative step towards the gory visage. His left hand went towards the spoon, it’s skin replaced by the familiar blue scales.He was about to eat, when he took notice of a small detail.Inside the plate, buried beneath the red, was a face… Zera’s face.He jolted himself as a presence made itself known in that room, that was quickly morphing and becoming a nightmarish space. The walls were m
He eyed the destruction with a frown marred on his childlike features. The infernal flame made his white hair stand on it’s end. He briefly wondered if this was fate… or if it was merely vengeance. “What an ugly sight… such vulgar flames shouldn’t be of your interest, Noah.” Nemesis, the Justice Arcana and a sister from the orphanage he grew, spoke with cold indifference. He knew her enough to not be surprised at this. They both wore their best attires, Noah’s was a bit roughed up, while Nemesis, like always, just seemed gloomy and dark. “He is, however, the one destined to bring the world I desire to see.” He made a clicking noise, suddenly remembering about the Fool’s last spell. “Still… for him to have dragon blood…” He shook himself. Plans would need to be made and he would need to make sure that Kay Rosebury would not be his enemy, but for now… he would need to proceed on his actions. He needed to form an alliance with the emperor in front of him. Their eyes met, one carrying
Why! Leon though, sending burst after burst of energy, trying to hit Kay, with little to no success. Why do you keep running? Why do you always run away, like a coward? Like father? With a mighty cry, he let his Mana run wild. Myriads of Magical Circles formed, the waves destroyed the entire area. Panic screams followed soon after. “Where are you? You coward!” Kay ran. His arm lay limp by his side, useless. His Mana was used with the sole purpose to stay awake, to not falter. However, this proved futile, as he could feel his eyelids heavy, his mind was drifting towards eternal darkness. Not yet? He kept counting the seconds, drawing more and more runes to keep Leon at bay. The fire was running wild, charred corpses were laying there. The disgusting smell filled his nostrils, kept him awake through the whole ordeal. At his left, he heard a woman crying. At his right, a man was seeking something, possibly his child. Kay realised, with a grimmace, that this was war. His bod
Took some time for him to map out Leon’s movements, but with his brother constant attacking, Kay felt like he got a good notion about how his opponent thinks. He kept quiet, slowly waiting for an opportunity, until he finally had the chance. Jumping out, he drew a quick rune and sent a wave of fire against his brother, whom blocked it with his shield. Then, Kay used the “Flame of Madness”, which shook the entire ground when impacted. This forced, much to his annoyance, Leon on his knees. Shooting waves of magical power, he expected to pierce the body of his older sibling, but the same sound of fizzling electricity filled the street. This gave him pause, until he heard the sound of a flame whip and grew his shield. Then, for his surprise, it was the ground that melted. Much to his annoyance, the molten rock shot towards his barrier, forcing him to dodge, lest he suffered more Mana consumption. How? He shot multiple waves, this time they were sent in all directions, hoping to pierce