The snow was deep; about halfway up my shins and significantly restricted my agility and ease of movement.
Understanding my intentions, my opponent quickly followed suit and made for the trees shortly after I had landed.
Before I lost my initiative I began to cast the 2nd grade spell: ‘icicle hail’. Icicle hail conjured a swarm of 3 to 5 icicles which would be propelled in a direction of the caster’s choice.
By the time the hail of icicles arrived, my opponent had already landed on the tree. The first icicle managed a near miss on his left arm, but the other 4 fell hopelessly off target as he managed to dodge in time.
In an effort to remain on the offense and buy some time for my next spell, I reached into my belt and flung one of my throwing knives which to my surprise was on target.
Nevertheless the boy saw the throw coming and with his enhanced reflexes was able to mount a defence with his sword.
A metal clang of disappointment filled my ears as the knife was effortlessly deflected by him.
However, the attack had bought me enough time to unleash my next spell: ‘shadow chains’. Shadow chains is a 2nd grade spell which conjures shadow chains from the ground to bind an opponent in place.
The chains are made of the darkness element and are able to sap a victims strength and mana; one of the many applications of the darkness element. The longer the target remains restrained, the harder it becomes to break free.
Even though I had cast the spell from his own shadow to lessen the burden of conjuring the darkness, he was still standing a good 35 yards(32m) away from me. I felt a significant portion of my mana vanish as the chains snaked their way to my opponent.
Casting spells from a distance consumed more mana than those in proximity for two reasons:
- In order to move a spell form away from themselves, a caster must create a chain of mana to maintain the link between them and their spell. Without a continuous connection to the caster, the mana will disperse since the caster will no longer be able to inject their will into it.
- The farther away a caster moves their mana from themselves, the faster it dissipates, requiring more mana to create the balance necessary to form a spell.
Despite the heavy burden on my small mana pool, the spell went off without a hitch as several shadow chains began to wrap themselves around the boy’s leg.
After a failed attempt to strike at the ethereal chains made of darkness, he reached for another of his throwing knives and hurled it at me.
A sharp pain radiated from my right leg as the knife struck me. To make matters worse, the pain had caused me to lose my focus. It was only for a second, but it was enough to break my steady flow of mana and caused my spell to diffuse.
No longer restrained by the shadow chains, my opponent activated quick feet and began to traverse the trees in an effort to close the distance.
To slow his advance, I cast the 2nd grade spell ‘wind blade’ which quickly accelerated a thin and densely packed blade of air.
I aimed the spell to strike one of the tree branches my opponent was leaping to and to my delight, it worked like a charm. The branch was severed as the boy’s feet began to land on it and he soon fell after the branch.
With haste, I removed the blade stuck in my leg and cast a grade 2 healing spell to restore my leg to its combat ready state.
The knife had not penetrated deep or hit any vitals and the wound was fresh, so I was sure that the 2nd grade spell would be enough.
Throwing knives were quick and subtle but lacked power and required a clean hit to vitals or a strong poison in order to kill their opponents.
Satisfied with the effect of my healing spell, I returned to my battle stance as my opponent had finally recovered from his tumble.
My last spell had almost completely drained my mana and I needed to save some for infusion spells in case the battle turned into close quarters.
As I ceased my spell casting, the boy soon enough closed the distance and we found ourselves crossing swords on the same branch.
He opened up with a series of heavy attacks which I skillfully parried with my shorter blade. My form was much better as I managed to nick him in between parries.
Whenever he pushed me too close to the edge of a branch, I would leap to another branch to gain more space.
My cuts were shallow, but I couldn’t risk going for anything deeper without dropping my guard and exposing myself to attack.
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As I inflicted more and more shallow cuts on my opponent, his form became sloppier as the blood loss began to affect him.
In a desperate attempt to turn the tide of battle he executed a flurry of slashes and stabs fueled by adrenaline.
For a moment I was overwhelmed by the weight of the hits which began to dig through my blocks and into my forearms producing shallow wounds.
Smelling blood, he wound up for a large horizontal slash which completely disregarded his own defense.
Without hesitation I immediately used a burst of infusion magic and exploited the gap in his defense. I lunged with great speed as I reversed my grip and placed my left hand on the pommel of my spatix.
I plunged the blade into his heart before he could release his swing. The shock from the wound caused him to release his blade and it fell to the snow with a crunch.
His body fell soon after and I took a moment to catch my breath. My heightened state of mind soon settled and I found myself alone again.
There I was, sat on a branch overlooking a pristine white canvas that was stained a vibrant red as though an artist had spilt some paint on it.
I, who only 11 months prior came from a world where murder was unthinkable, now found myself overlooking a corpse. A scene painted by my own two hands and an eerie silence broke only by the howling winter winds.
I hadn’t meant to kill the kid, it was only self defense after all. Under the pressure of battle I had resorted to instincts which resulted in the boy’s death before my fervour faded.
The whole scene was tragic, but to me the most tragic part was that I felt nothing.
I felt sorry for the kid, but only because I was conditioned to. Underneath all my social conditioning from earth I felt nothing. Neither sorrow nor joy, just an emptiness which had begun to feel so familiar.
My mind dwelled on the scene for quite a moment before I began to move on.
A dimming light drew my attention back to the moment as I realized I only had about an hour till the end of the exam. I trudged my way back to the south gate of the citadel and managed to arrive some 30 minutes before sunset.
My pace was slower than expected because my mana pool had run dry after the last fight and I was unable to use quick feet. I should begin regularly bottoming out my mana if I wish to grow my mana pool quickly.
I handed the sack containing my rabbit to Master Korbyn who gave me a nod and sent me back inside the citadel.
The sun would soon be gone but I had plenty of day left to get some reading in. I needed to clear my mind and wanted to look into a method for quick casting.
Magic did not require chanting or hand signs to cast a spell, but some mages still used them to help with the visualization step.
I have used hand signs for casting my 2nd grade spells up until now, but I wanted to see if I could remove that step and find a method to shorten my spell construction time as well.
The library never disappoints as I soon found a grimoire that piqued my interest. It was titled ‘how to cast quickly: a guide for dummies less fortunate mages’ by M. Quintus.
I scanned the pages looking for any useful chapters. Despite the author being an insufferable narcissist, I found the book to be actually quite genius. Specifically the chapter titled ‘duplication’.
Duplication is a method of visualizing which allows for rapid visualization of shapes which with a little practice could cut your spell casting speed in half.
The process involved constructing parts of a shape or rune and reflecting symmetric portions to assist in the shaping of matrices and runes.
For example, you only needed to shape ? or ? of a circle and by simply using it as a template, you could make a full circle for your spell matrix without having to shape the whole circumference with visualization.
The technique had effectively no downsides and was applicable to any application of mana shaping.
Another method for shortening spell casting was to engrave a physical spell form onto objects or artifacts which would then only require you to provide mana for activation.
While engraving was intriguing, it required high grade metal with high mana compatibility in order to work and I had no access to the metals or engraving techniques, so I would have to stick to practicing the duplication technique for now.
While I was practicing shaping a semicircle with my mana and duplicating it, I was startled by a sudden hand that grabbed onto my shoulder.
By instinct I reflexively yanked the hand as I drew my knife. In less than a second I was holding my knife to Mara’s throat.
“Wait! Calm down, didn’t anybody teach you it’s dangerous to play with knives?” She reprimanded me with a nervous smile.
“Sorry, just a habit.” I responded as I removed my blade from her throat and resheathed it.
She relaxed as soon as I removed the blade and began to speak again. “If you’re still here then you must have passed, right?” She asked expectantly.
I nodded my head. “And Austin?” I asked in reply.
“Don’t worry he’s fine. He said he was heading to bed early because he was exhausted from the exam” Mara answered.
Images of Austin jumping from trees and chasing after winged rabbits began to fill my mind as I cracked a smile and scoffed.
“And what of the other students?” I inquired.
“Beats me, I haven’t seen any of them since the start of the exam.” She replied with a shrug.
It wouldn’t be long before classes resumed for the second year and everyone would notice the absence of one of our classmates.
I wasn’t sure if I should tell Austin and Mara about the boy I had killed, but I decided to keep it to myself for now.
Not that the two had any love for the boy, but I estimated that they may view me differently after learning about it.
We all knew we were destined to become killers one day, but that first step still felt so far away. Perhaps they would not judge me so harshly after their own first kill, but for now I’ll pocket the issue.
In the few weeks that followed the exam, we were given our first real break from classes. It only lasted for 2 weeks before the next year would begin, but it felt like the first breath after having my head under water.
With the help of duplication I was finally able to break into 3rd grade spell casting and knew I would soon be picking up new spells again like it was black friday.
I was able to teach the basics of duplication to Mara and Austin as well, but they still had an elementary understanding of Euclidean geometry so my lessons quickly turned into algebra and geometry class.
It turned out that the mathematical formulas I had learned back in highschool geometry class allowed me to quickly define and replicate shapes with blinding speed since the formulas had been engraved on my brain.
I felt a bit nostalgic at the prospect of acknowledging that my math teacher was right and his class wasn’t useless.
By the end of the 2 weeks we were given, Mara and Austin had also been able to cast their first 3rd grade spell although they still struggled with mathematics and were unable to acquire new spells at the same rate as me.
I had finally found an application of my earthly knowledge in this world. An advantage who’s results were immediate and apparent through the application of duplication.
I had always known that math was essential for spell crafting, but most mages in this world are ill suited for the intellectual field of spell crafting and opt to learn already proven and tested spells.
I found myself too busy keeping up with the fundamentals for magic and our combat training to put any meaningful time into attempting spellcrafting.
And so the weeks had passed as we prepared for the return of classes. I had begun having nightmares the day after the exam. I would dream of my blood soaked hands and a crowd screaming bloody murder. No amount of effort could scrub the blood from my hands.
At the same time the guilt would fade as soon as I woke. It was as if there was an internal struggle within myself. Like the angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other.
I had begun to suspect that my senses were being dulled by the compound with which they had injected us.
The nightmares never stopped but I was able to steady my mind through meditation in my dreams which allowed me to remain asleep throughout the night.
Class would resume tomorrow and I hoped that by informing Mara and Austin I could lessen the burden on my heart. I had begun to dread the sleep that was once my only solace. I would do anything to make it stop, to make the night calm once again.