by Andrew Rowe
Iron ignored her, shaking her head at me. “A waste. Such a waste. You must tire very quickly when using that technique, yes?”
“Absolutely. I could only maintain it for a handful of seconds at first. Now…I haven’t timed it recently, but I could probably hold it for something like forty or fifty seconds.”
Meilin’s eyes widened. “To hold a defensive technique with that strength for so long, your mana pool must be very impressive.”
I wasn’t sure what to say to that. I wasn’t sure if I was quite ready to tell Meilin how my magic worked yet, so I gave an honest if evasive answer. “That long would be a risk, and I haven’t exactly timed it. It’d be safer to use it for a shorter time.”
“I see.” From her expression, I couldn’t tell if that answer had satisfied her or not.
“Impressive as that may be, fifty seconds is nothing in one of these competitions. And if it drains you to unsafe amounts, you cannot risk using it regularly.” Iron folded her hands. “Over the next week, you will each be working on specific improvements in your techniques. Meilin, your stealth and nullification techniques are excellent, but your emphasis on shadow magic has created a gap in your abilities. For the next week, you will be practicing your enhancement magic. If you cannot harm Keras with his technique active, you stand no chance of wounding Diamantine’s wielder.”
Iron turned to me next. “Your body reinforcement technique is potent, but without proper control, you will exhaust yourself before you can claim victory. For the rest of the week, you will practice focusing your mana in a one part of your body at a time. We will begin with defensive applications of this technique. You will invoke a burst of metal mana just before an opponent strikes, reinforcing the part of your body that is about to be hit. By doing this, you will not burn mana continuously — only when you are about to be hit.”
I understood the intent behind the technique, but I could already see some problems. “That would require being able to cast extremely quickly, as well as properly anticipating exactly where the strike is about to land — otherwise it’s useless. If I’m too slow, or if I reinforce the wrong area, I’m going to take a serious beating.”
“Yes.” Iron responded. “You may begin practicing immediately.”
***
Hours passed. Meilin and I still stood in the training hall. Iron had left long before, and others had come and gone, but we continued to practice.
Metal mana surged into my right arm as I raised it to raised it to block Meilin’s strike — which whipped right below my arm and smashed me across the ribs.
I grunted as the sword exploded on impact and fell back a step, clutching my chest.
Meilin fell back a step as well, sweat beading on her forehead as she tossed aside the battered remains of the latest practice sword in disgust. “I failed again.”
I shook my head. “So did I. More so, really, given that you slipped my guard. If that had been a real sword…”
“It still would have barely harmed you.” Meilin sighed. “Even when I hit part of you that is not protected, I can barely scratch you…and that is with a mana-reinforced blade. Perhaps Xiaofan was right. I was not ready to enter this tournament.”
“Xiaofan…that’s your sister, right?”
Meilin winced. “She was, once. These days, I am less certain.”
I raised my arms, then waved for her to come at me. Meilin resumed her attack, unarmed this time, reinforcing her hands with mana. We’d been trading off between armed and unarmed practice, since it was easier for me to try to block when she was unarmed, and we were also rapidly running out of wooden training swords.
“What happened?”
“For years, we planned to travel to the Unclaimed Lands together, to visit the Earth Temple and earn a blessing from the crystal there. You know if it?”
“I haven’t been there, but I’ve heard about the elemental temples. One of the places I visited was similar. It had a spirit crystal.”
“Ah, yes. Of course, you must have visited such places to earn Dawnbringer. Forgive my foolish question.”
It would have been easy to let her retain her assumption, but that felt dishonest. “I didn’t visit the temple until after I obtained Dawnbringer, actually. Sort of messed up the whole earning Dawnbringer thing. Long story.”
Meilin gave me a quizzical look. “Truly? I did not think it would be possible to obtain the sword out of the proper sequence. You hold exemplary talents.”
I laughed. “I think you’re the first person who has seen that in a positive light. I can see why Reika likes you so much.”
Meilin flinched and looked away. “I…there is much I like about Reika as well.”
I smiled at her reaction. It was good to see Reika getting along with other people. “So, you’d planned to visit the Earth Temple with your sister.”
“Ah, yes.” Meilin took a breath. “We sought a boon from the Prime Crystal of Earth. You saw Diamantine’s powers in the opening ceremony, yes?”
“Density and brittleness manipulation, petrification, that ‘Weight of the World’ technique... Ah. You wanted a boon that would help you fight against it?”
Meilin nodded. “We believed it would be possible for the Prime Crystal to grant virtual immunity to Diamantine’s offensive powers, similar to the defenses granted by the medallions, but on a greater scale. Such would have been a tremendous advantage against the emperor.”
“What went wrong?”
“As we discussed it, Ari grew more and more excited. Grandmother Iron practically adopted all of us, and Ari…Xiaofan and I always saw him as a little brother. A troublesome and overly excitable brother, to be certain, but a brother just the same. I…could never say no to him, even when I should have.”
Something clicked in my mind. “You let him take your place in the group.”
“To my everlasting shame, I feigned disinterest as the expedition approached. Xiaofan and I argued, and…in the end, they left me behind.” She took a step back, shaking her head and lowering her arms. “Of the six that went to the temple, only Ari and Xiaofan returned. Both were terribly injured.”
I remembered the long scar on Ari’s neck. “What happened?”
“They will not speak of it, but I know this much — Ari blames himself for whatever happened in there. He was too young to go on such a dangerous journey…and I should have been the one in there with Xiaofan. If I was, then…”
“You think you could have prevented whatever disaster happened?”
“I don’t know.” Meilin shook her head. “But Xiaofan still has not forgiven me, I am certain. She has barely spoken to me since she returned, save to tell me not to enter the tournament. She believes I am weak and a coward. And, in spite of my best efforts, I cannot deny it. As I am now, I stand no chance to win this tournament.”
“You don’t seem weak to me in the slightest.”
“I can barely even hurt you when you stand still! How could I even hope to fight the crown princess?” She covered her mouth after her outburst. “Forgive me. I…”
I raised a hand to stop her. “No, it’s fine. I understand your frustration. When I saw the crown princess demonstrate her power, I knew I couldn’t fight her head-on with my current abilities either. But if we keep training, earn some magic items in the tournament, and figure out the right techniques, maybe we’ll stand a chance. Why all this focus on brute force? You’re an Assassin. You’d be putting me on the floor regularly if you used poison.”
“That…would have been the plan against the emperor. I trained almost exclusively with umbral and poison magic with the expectation that he would be my final opponent. When we learned the crown princess would be the final opponent, everything changed. Since the match, Grandmother and I have studied the princess. Her attunements differ from those of the emperor. Most importantly, she has the Paladin attunement — which allows her to flood her body with light, rendering her nearly immune to poison, disease, and compulsion. That simple difference has rende
red my entire skill set worthless.”
I shook my head. “Not worthless. Can’t you still hide yourself with umbral magic, or use it to neutralize magic?”
Meilin gave me a sad smile. “Perhaps I could hide, if my opponent was not a Seer. Perhaps I could neutralize her magic, if my opponent was not a Shieldbreaker.”
“That’s…difficult,” I admitted. “Maybe there’s time for you to earn a second attunement?”
“I already have.” She raised a hand and slipped off her glove, revealing an attunement mark I hadn’t seen on her before.
“When they left for the expedition to the Unclaimed Lands, I chose to increase my power in a different way. I hoped to gain some other advantage…but my second attunement offers no defense against Diamantine.”
“Ah, that’s how you have enhancement mana. I didn’t think Assassins had it, but I figured I was remembering wrong. But that…”
“Yes, a Shadow attunement, from your own homeland. It overlaps with my Assassin attunement almost completely. Compounding attunements with umbral magic makes me excellent at stealth, but alas, her Seer attunement is stronger than both of my attunements combined.”
“Why didn’t you mention the second attunement sooner?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Forgive me, but Valian attunements are not thought of highly in this nation. I was…not proud, when I received one from my second Judgement. I continue to wonder why I was given a Valian attunement — such a thing is uncommon when one visits the Hydra Spire. My test must have been unusual, but of course, I cannot remember it.” She took a breath. “It is also very weak, only Carnelian level. Barely worth mentioning. This is why Grandmother wishes for me to focus on practicing it. I trust her, but I cannot see it being strong enough to make a difference, even if I focus on it for weeks.”
I shifted my stance, thinking. “Why not get a third attunement, then?”
Meilin smiled. “Perhaps the Wielder of Dawnbringer could manage such a thing, but I know of only a handful of people who have ever survived a third Judgement. Even a second attunement is rare. Making an attempt when my second attunement is so weak would be unwise. Even if I was confident that I could succeed, Judgements take progressively longer for each attunement you already possess. There is little chance I would return in time for the end of the tournament.”
I nodded at her reasoning. “Hm…okay. So, the crown princess has attunements you can’t counter…why not neutralize those advantages, then?”
Meilin blinked. “What?”
“You’ve got compounded shadow magic from two attunements. Shadow magic can nullify other magic. Couldn’t you use that to disable someone else’s attunement outright for a little while? Maybe long enough to make your poison work?”
“I…do not know. Interfering with an attunement…it is not done. The works of the goddess are sacred.”
I shrugged. “Seems to me like you’d just be using what the goddess gave you.”
“I…perhaps. Your people and the people of Caelford have always been laxer on such matters. Even if I wished to do such a thing, however, I do not know if it would be possible.” Meilin took a breath. “Thank you for your perspective, and the idea. I will have to contemplate this further.”
“Shall we get back to work, then?” I grinned at her.
Meilin nodded. “Yes. I believe it is time for me to pick up a new sword.”
***
Later in the day, I met up with Reika to ask her what had happened with Shun, but she didn’t want to talk about it. Instead, I took her out and rented one of the little arenas for some sparring, and we beat each other up for a while. She felt a little better after that, but she still didn’t want to talk about whatever had happened. I didn’t press the issue.
Dawn encouraged me to find Shun and “murderize him” for hurting Reika’s feelings, but I felt that Rei was perfectly capable of murderizing anyone she wanted on her own behalf, and I didn’t really want to flee the city. I considered just finding him and asking what had happened, but it wasn’t really my business. If Reika wanted me to intercede on her behalf somehow, she would have asked.
As the week progressed, word spread rapidly about the wielder of Dawnbringer fighting in a “point bidding match” — which was the name that quickly spread about the concept — against a mysterious opponent that had wagered five times as much as the wielder had.
I still had over a week before the match, but I needed to be as prepared for it as possible.
I spent a little bit of that time studying the local board games, since that seemed like the most likely option for a challenge with a ‘choices’ theme — but given that studying hadn’t really helped with my last two matches, I didn’t put much emphasis on it. Instead, I spent most of my time during the week training with Walter and Meilin.
Now that Walter knew I didn’t have any attunements or a shroud, he focused primarily on showing me the local sword styles, as well as established techniques for countering them.
My main training goal was figuring out how to make use of my heightened connection with Dawn. Some of the benefits of the changed mark were purely passive — I felt faster and clearer-headed all the time, at least as long as she wasn’t distracting me with stray thoughts.
The enhancement mana she was feeding me was a new benefit, and an absurdly useful one. It improved all of my physical capabilities further — my strength, my speed, and my resilience to harm. Enhancement mana wasn’t Dawn’s focus, so it wasn’t as pronounced as my initial speed increase or the improvements to my mental clarity, but it was still extremely noticeable. I’d gone from feeling like Walter was a roughly equal match to pushing him back relatively easily, and having to check my strength to avoid accidentally hurting him with my swings.
I had to admit, it was pretty nice.
Beyond just the passive benefits, we also experimented with seeing if I could make use of Dawn’s power more directly or in any new ways.
I was still able to make an aura of light like I had in the arena, but it didn’t have much of a use without the arena’s shadow effect suppressing my strength and speed. It did, however, give me a new idea to try — pulling that light energy inward, rather than pushing it outward.
Over the course of the next few days, I tried to make a Body of Light technique.
The idea was straightforward — to call enough light mana into my body to increase my speed, clarity, and magic resistance.
The problem? I simply didn’t have enough light mana to work with. Not yet, at least.
Instead, I found a different solution. One I’d considered in the past, but abandoned.
When using Body of Stone or Body of Iron, I was drawing in only one mana type at a time. I’d tried combining the two, but the diluted effect wasn’t any stronger, and it taxed my body in two different ways at once. I’d speculated that perhaps if I had two different types of sorcery to work with that complimented each other better, a combination technique might have worked better, but I didn’t have many to work with when I was young.
Drawing in fire mana was possible, but not generally helpful — it would have helped me with ice-based attacks on my body, but with the risk of hurting myself in the process. I’d briefly experimented with combining that with stone and metal, but it didn’t provide any useful results.
Now, however, I had several new types of mana to work with — and I already knew they could be combined effectively. After all, Dawn wasn’t just feeding me light mana. The power that was improving my abilities wasn’t light alone; it was a mix of light, spirit, enhancement, and perhaps others that I wasn’t even aware of.
So, when forming a Body of Light spell failed, I moved on to a new idea.
Rather than drawing in light mana alone, I’d try to draw in as much light, spirit, and enhancement power as I could, in approximately the same proportions as what Dawn was already feeding into me.
It would, in theory, provide me with exactly the same benefits Dawn already had been with our bond,
but in a burst of vastly greater power.
It worked.
I called it “Body of Dawn”.
There was only one major downside — the cost.
Body of Dawn was, in short, absolutely exhausting. Body of Iron was already tremendously fatiguing for me, but this was on an entirely different scale. I wasn’t able to maintain Body of Dawn for more than about two or three seconds without wanting to collapse.
Worse, the immediate aftermath of using it would drain everything related to it. My strength, speed, and magic resistance would all be decreased until my body had a chance to recover.
I understood why. I’d trained for many years with metal and stone mana to reach the point where I could use those abilities reliably. I’d never used light, enhancement, or spirit mana independently in the slightest.
With regards to those types of magic, I was a complete novice attempting to use an advanced technique. It was a huge risk.
As I trained with it, I knew my body would naturally grow stronger with all of those mana types. In time, that would make for serious rewards...as long as I didn’t push myself so much that I suffered permanent harm.
I knew I’d have to be extremely careful with that technique, but that didn’t stop me from being excited about it.
Body of Dawn sounded like exactly the sort of technique I needed to be able to compete against someone like Edria Song. And even without it active, hopefully training the technique would help me improve my speed and focus to the point where I could keep up with her more easily.
When I told Walter about the technique, he helped me practice with it. For the first day or two, it actually put me at a disadvantage. The enhancement was significant, but he noticed I used it and went defensive until I exhausted myself.
Even a couple days of practice helped, though. Once I was able to hold it for four or five seconds, I determined the technique was probably usable in a tournament, but only if I was at the end of a round. I’d be at a huge disadvantage if I used it and had to keep fighting afterward.
As I got better with it, Walter began to compensate. He’d summon more and more weapons, and I’d try to use my enhanced speed to dodge them and get into his defenses before I ran out of time.