Chapter 649 (Patreon)

A/N : Sorry for the delay, I could have sworn I hit publish.

The days following the battle were pretty quiet for Ajax. There was some friction between Regis and the rest of his squad and Aranor but Ajax decided there was no reason to look into it any further trusting Aranor could handle the situation. 

One thing that Ajax was interested in was the news that their battlefield wasn’t the only one where the fighting had started. During the same day all the stalled out battlelines had moved again and while the beastkin hadn’t managed to breach any of their positions there were a number of casualties. 

“Why did you choose to join the war?” Ajax asked Arianwyn as they sparred. 

Ajax was far beyond Arianwyn’s level by this point but since he wasn’t using [Mana Syphon] or [Last Stand] and instead was focusing solely on getting a better handle on [Physically Enhanced Battlemage Style] the fight wasn’t as one sided as it could be. Ajax was still miles ahead, his fighting style making use of his higher Stats to pressure the princess but there was still a fight to consider.

“Besides the dungeons?” Arianwyn had trouble answering as she needed to keep chanting, Ajax had already let her establish her Domain before the spar started but even that wasn’t enough for her to keep up with his physical stats “Because I needed the pressure and experience to push my Skills without massively increasing my level.” 

One thing Ajax hadn’t experienced was the effect that cross nation delving had on the noble heirs who were already above level eighty but not yet past level one hundred. All of them would be competing in the same generation as those who would get to delve multiple nations' worth of dungeons from a young age and would have a large raw stat advantage because of doing so. 

“This war came at a bad time for you didn’t it?” Ajax was sympathetic to Arianwyn’s situation, the longer she waited to delve the Republic as well Brightstone’s dungeons the higher level she got and the fewer floors she’d be able to clear.

“It didn’t come at a good time for you either, they called you back from the Wild Lands I heard.” Choosing to speak was Arianwyn’s final mistake as it delayed her spell by just a moment too long. 

Ajax was pleasantly surprised to find himself already moving for the opening once he spotted it. One thing he noticed about his Legendary fighting style was that his body was moving almost on auto-pilot, once he trusted in the Skill, his body was reacting to things before his mind even had a chance to catch up to it. It also explained how Xavier’s own legendary style allowed him to use his predictive movements so much better if the style bypassed a lot of the thinking portion and just reacted correctly. 

“You move differently than you did back in the tournament.” Arianwyn said as her eyes stayed fixed on the dull sword at her throat. “You lean into your physical stats a lot more.” 

Ajax noticed this about his style as well. Unlike [Battlemage Style] or [Berserler Style], [Physically Enhanced Battlemage Style] seemed to push his body, his joints were already a little sore from the twists he used during the few spars they had so far. 

“My physical stats have grown a lot compared to back then.” Ajax deflected. “Its only right that I lean into them more even when I’m not boosting them.” 

Arianwyn caught the deflection but she didn’t push, instead she decided to focus on something else that had made its way to her from the reports of the last battle, she activated a privacy barrier before she spoke. “You used your odd Mana type that wrecked enchanted and apparently runic gear again. We didn’t get to see much of it at the tournament and Gryndor hasn’t shared much about it but it does come from you as well.” 

“I did discover it.” Ajax admitted after a moment to consider what to say. “But , oddly enough I’ve found it has limited uses for me outside of letting me safely weaken my opponent at the cost of high Mana.” 

Despite using Lightning Mana to create Magnetic Mana in his last fight Ajax saw full well the limitation of his tactic. Despite spending a lot of Mana trying to weaken and destroy the runic armor the champion wore, Ajax still hadn’t managed to quite break the armor despite putting one thousand Mana into the attempt. It was still a useful trick to have in his back pocket but more likely not one he will be pulling out all that often considering the rest of the options he had available. 

“But I won’t be sharing any more about that.” Ajax cut off any further questions. “My future father-in-law will probably be more suited to answering any questions about it.” 

While Ajax hadn’t developed the use of Magnetic Mana all that much, Duke Manashaper had put in years of research by this point into the Mana type. Considering that it gave the Duke a leg up against runic hybrid fighters as well as physical fighters by ripping apart their enchanted gear. The Duke had personally informed Ajax that he had managed to create to chanted spells that can use magnetic Mana safely.

“What about the other Mana type?” Arianwyn asked. 

This Ajax wasn’t so sure he wanted to share at all. Gravity Mana was not only something he hadn’t really shared with anyone yet but it had proved to be more effective than he could have hoped for against humanoid opponents. WHile gravity Mana wasn’t all that useful against large monsters since the increased weight also compromised the integrity of the ground it seemed to throw off champions a lot more. The change in the center of gravity alone meant they couldn’t rely on their reflexes as proven when Ajax had managed to hold a champion in range of his lighting for about half a minute with only four hundred Mana invested into Gravity. 

“That’s something I’ll be keeping to myself.” Ajax finally decided.

“That’s fine but you might want to consider that if the war starts going the wrong way the Republic might not be as respectful of your choices.” Arianwyn warned him. If the war was going badly the Republic would have little to lose by pressuring Ajax to share some of his secrets and Arianwyn was warning him not to blindly trust the Republic. “Especially when talking about something so effective on champions. According to Aranor you were using less than half the Mana on whatever it was to effectively trap that champion compared to what you were spending on Lightning Mana.” 

Ajax thanked Arianwyn for her advice as well as the sparring before he decided to check in with the scouts. While [Physically Enhanced Battlemage Style] was something he could practice without worry as long as he didn’t spend too much Mana the same was not true of [Last Stand]. Unfortunately because of the period of weakness that always followed the activation of the Skill training with it could leave Ajax in a bad spot here at the front lines 

“Where is Aurexion?” Ajax asked once he arrived at the scout tent, 

The captain in charge turned from the report he was writing ready to tear into whoever it was that would dare to just barge in like this, once he saw who it was however he quickly corrected his expression. “Your bond is flying by the enemy encampment. He should be returning in a few minutes.” 

Aurexion had lowered scouting deaths by more than 90% since he and Ajax arrived. The ability to fly so high above the ground while still getting all actionable intelligence meant that Aurexion could do the job of ten scouts in a quarter the time in would take one of them to clear a route with almost no risk since even if the enemy could reach him so high up he was still a champion level physical fighter that was at home fighting in the sky. 

“Where are the rest of the scouts?” Ajax asked as he looked around the almost deserted tent. 

“Most of them have been reassigned in the last few days since your bond has been doing a sweep of the surroundings at least twice a day.” The captain reported, it was the reason he had so much paperwork to do. While Aurexion could replace the scouts in the field nobody would dare ask the dragon to fill out reports about it.

“Let him know I’ll be waiting for him at the alchemy tent.” Ajax nodded to the captain before he took his leave. 

While the Republic had better alchemists than Ajax assigned to figuring out an antidote for the potent poison the beastkin were using, they had found Ajax’s insights on their progress surprisingly helpful. Ajax wasn’t all that surprised considering that while he might not have their experience or highly leveled Skills he did have a Legendary Inspection Skill to amplify his Rare [Alchemist’s Examination]. 

As he was walking towards the alchemist tent Ajax was already planning tomorrow's training session. He would be focusing on learning how to better apply Vibration Mana to his own body, either by increasing the impact of his blows or reducing the impact on his own body. Since he was planning on including Vibration Mana into his Pseudo-Mythic Skill it would be best to look into how one of his Skills might affect it.