27 Erebus (2/2)

With my dagger in hand, I attacked his neck with a stab. It was the closted vital point I could attack, that the dagger would be effective against. It was going well, then a pressure fell on me that was so great that I fell to my knees. The dagger falling to the floor alongside me.

The pressure felt so powerful, so dangerous, so bloodthirsty. My face and whole body was beginning to go white, I could also feel myself shaking as well. Then the pressure disappeared as if it was never there.

”Well done kid, that move at the end was good. You managed to catch me by surprise, though with a spell like that….Who taught you how to use mana?”

'You are asking me about mana. I should ask you about what kind of attack or power that pressure was. It was too strong….too scary.'

”Umm, well, I wasn't taught how to use mana, just how to sense it and the basics about being able to use it to enhance my body and weapons.”

He looked at me for a second. ”Hey kid, how much do you know about mana?”

”Not that much sir.” I had finally managed to get back to my feet at this point.

”Come on, let's sit down and I will tell you a bit.”

Going back into the cave, we found an empty couple of seats. Someone brought us both a drink and gave me a pat on the back. ”You should be happy, new people, not many can get Erebus here to use his aura.”

'So that is what it was. An aura. Though I heard that they were lost a long time ago.'

I had many questions about Erebus now. It was obvious that he wasn't in charge here but was treated with a lot of respect as well as that he was not part of the five ranger units I had been told of earlier.

”Kid, I am going to keep this short and simple, ok?”

I nodded for him to continue.

”So basically mana is a type of energy that is present in the world and can be used in lots of ways. To name a few would be elemental magic, magic engineering and rune crafting, conjuration, spirit magic, necromancy and enhancement magic like you use. They are but a few. Some like elemental magic are about the use of certain elements, others are about the soul like spirit. Though enhancement magic is different. It is basically mages trying to use mana like Qi was once used.”

When he mentioned Qi, I was a bit confused, I remember Lance talking about it before but he never really said what it was. ”Sir, what is Qi and the difference between it and mana.”

”You got there before me kid, let me finish first. So anyway mages have tried to use mana like Qi. They have had one problem though, the body of humans much like many other living things can't absorb mana. So enhancement magic works outside your body, reinforcing parts of your body on the outside. Which I don't understand how it all works but that's the idea of it.”

”Umm, sir what about Qi, you didn't answer my question.” He gave me a look that I thought would be able to kill me.

”Qi from what I know, is an energy like mana but it instead lives inside the body of humans and other living things. Would have been used I guess as a way to enforce the actions of the body. It would have been great for a warrior. It's a shame the uses of it were lost.”

'So thats what Qi is, it sounds like a wonderful energy as Erebus put it.'

”Go get some food kid, you need it.”