Chapter 6 Part 2 of 2 (Patreon)

Another two months passed in what felt like a painful blink of an eye.

Erik was panting, shifting between the four golems that surrounded him as they backed up. He let out a relieved sigh and fell to a knee.

Xun Liang squatted down, a toothpick between his teeth. He took it out and pointed at Erik. “So you know the body pretty well, right?”

“I’d say so.”

“Then, are you blind or just being dumb? I told you to flow the elements through your body, not enhance them in sequence.”

Erik grunted; it was a familiar topic. “I’m doing what you said.”

“No, you’re doing what someone else taught you.”

Erik thought to Lee Perrin and about the elements running through his body.

“Thought so.” Xun Liang sighed. He tapped the toothpick against his teeth. “That could work. Come with me.”

Xun Liang stood. Erik got up, moving warily through the inactive golems, ready for them to try and hit him in the back. Only when he got out of the training square did he relax. Rugrat was getting beaten in his own space.

Sorry dude!

He hurried after Xun Liang.

“I think my wording might have been wrong. Stop trying to force the element through your body, use the properties of the element to create a reaction in your body. What if you increase the heat in your body, what if you increase the healing ability of your body, or the speed your muscles clench?” He waved Erik onto the teleportation formation.

“First of all, stop trying to control every little thing the element does, let it run a little wild, see what happens. Then start to increase your control. Learn the rules and then break them! Watch the Telarri. What’s happening when they use their elements? Think of the elements’ affects, primary and secondary and any diverging affects. With power over the elements, you can control the world. With power over mana, you can create another one.”

Erik appeared in the godforsaken forest to an old and familiar roar.

“Goddamn forest.”

Erik snapped around to face the Telarri. It came at him with lightning. He focused his senses on the creature, casting organic scan.

He dodged the crackling punch, lightning shooting out from the creature’s hand.

Erik took the hits, using the earth element and healing spells to keep him in the fight. Between the fast and furious blows Erik saw something incredible.

It’s channelling lightning from its elemental core, through the nerves, resonating with the bones!

Erik felt as if someone dumped cold water on him, hissing at the kick that hit him in the leg as he batted a fist to the side, deflecting the blow, another already coming for him.

The creature’s attacks were speeding up as Erik guided lightning through his own body, his movements slower than the Telarri’s still.

Stop trying to control.

Erik gritted his teeth and released the lightning element down his right arm. It struck out quickly, but it was unguided.

Use the nerves.

Erik directed the lightning into the nerves. He snapped out a punch that cracked through the air. The blast pushed the Telarri to the side. It looked at him in confusion for a second then yowled again and attacked once more.

Erik fired out his fists. They were like cannons, and he had to turn his body to aim his fists into the Telarri.

He was beaten up, black and blue with lightning all over when he returned to the teleportation formation.

Erik moved his fists without the lightning and then used the lightning element through his nerves. He said nothing to the watching Xun Liang, working on what he had learned, trying to infuse it into his mind, his body.

He saw the impulses, tiny as they were travelling through his body with every movement.

“Everything is just a puppet string away. The string is the nerves and the pull are electrical impulses. Muscles and everything add force on top of that small impulse.”

He felt he was just on the edge of something when he returned to the forest. Another metal element Telarri attacked him as Erik released lightning down his different nerve clusters, testing what happened.

He became the puppet master of his own body as he tried out the different combinations.

He appeared on the teleportation formation again, chugging a healing potion.

Each fight he developed, finding new nuances, tracing through his nerve system, through his muscles and body.

He threw his healing potion away, his mind focusing on the nuances of what he’d just experienced, the information filling his mind and the nugget that was just out of reach.

Time and time again he appeared on the formation pad, with just one word on his lips. “Again!”

He didn’t see Xun Liang’s smile as light surrounded him, chasing the epiphany so close at hand.

***

A whistle called the golems away from Rugrat. He coughed and pulled up his helmet, spitting on the floor. He couldn’t help but think this training was more suited to Erik with the close-range combat. Still nice to not get hit. He focused on Xun Liang, who took out his toothpick.

“Rugrat, next I want you to dodge without touching the ground.”

“Without touching the ground?”

“You have incredible control over mana and you’ve infused your smithing into your spells to some degree already. Like Erik, you have preconceptions about what is right from Earth. You have the ability to fly as free as a bird, but you keep yourself grounded. When you move through the sky you create panels of condensed mana to step onto. What if the mana was to move you directly? If you didn’t have to run across the sky, you could move without wasted effort.”

“The power from the mana launching me forward and then pushing off of it makes me faster than flying mages.”

“Yes, but most flying mages are just using mana. They’re not using fire elements, and they usually have the mana push against them instead of it pushing against you. And why are you flying with the force at the bottom of your feet? Your front and back has a larger surface area and you won’t be looking up all the time.

“What is mana?” Xun Liang asked.

“It’s a force we can manipulate to a much greater degree than elements and is an enhancing catalyst and form for elements.”

“Well thank you for the lecture, professor.” Xun Liang shot a mana bolt at a target. It went off with a large bang. Then he released mana from the mana gate in his wrist and it came out in a rush, blowing up dust and shaking the target. “Mana is energy—energy that we store within our bodies and through our will we can contort and guide.

“Passing the Eighth Realm Trial granted you greater access to that will—greater access to your body. Energy when it interacts with matter creates a reaction. Energy can react nicely or not nicely. The elements and mana are all different energy sources, but they can fuse and enhance one another, or in the case of elements, they can also weaken and subsume one another. Mana is your ally and your tool, but it is not your friend. Not until you can control it as if it was your finger.”

Xun Liang took in Rugrat’s puzzled look and smiled. “Take a few minutes and no more touching the ground!”

There was a flash from the teleportation room and a yell of frustration.

“What did you think would happen when you sent an impulse through your entire spine!” Xun Liang chided. Erik’s complaint was cut off with white light.

Rugrat thought about the mana bolt and the rush of mana from Xun Liang’s mana gate. He directed mana through the mana gate in his right hand, he felt his mana going down, but also the force from it being released.

He fired a bolt of mana at the target as well, using his domain to see everything. He fired another, and then another, watching the target and then focusing on the path of the mana through the air as it pushed the mana around the bolt away. It reminded him of a diver jumping into a pool.

A whistle caught him off guard as he solidified mana under his feet.

“The barrier will keep you inside the sparring area so don’t fly too hard or fast!” Xun Liang moved to an easel, pulling out a brush and paint.

Rugrat dodged the golems, but the mana blocks under his feet changed his height and he misjudged their attacks.

One golem jumped in the air, attacking him. Others followed.

Crap.

He tried using the mana to push and pull him through his domain, attempting to move with just mana and dodge four flying golems.

“Ow. Ow! Stop it will you!” Rugrat said, getting hit out of the sky like a broken rocket engine in a pinball machine, skidding into the ground. The golems retreated as he healed.

“Figured out what the golems are doing yet?” Xun Liang asked. Flares of reds, yellows, blues and greens adorned his canvas.

The golems attacked before he could answer. Rugrat’s frustration fueled his anger that in turn fueled his mind to beat these damn Golems and wipe the smile from Xun Liang’s face.