Chapter 25 - Battle Prelude Pt.1 (1/2)
Probably too much talking, not enough action.
That comes of splitting up a larger chapter I guess.
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A smile on my face, I summoned a *Torchlight* which floated in front of my hands, colored light green. Entering the meditative state, I could see the mana thread connected to me and feel the spell, tiny droplets of mana floating through to fuel the spell as it floated in front of me.
A single thought, the light turned blue and I widely grinned. Another thought was all it took to send it moving away from me, floating to the end of the hallway where I then effortlessly sent it moving back. Then I sucked the mana away from the spell, reversing the flow of mana in the connection.
More accurately however, I tried to. My mana reserves were full and the mana just evaporated into the air as tiny invisible streamers from my pores. Interesting actually, the majority of the mana was evaporated from my fingers as I would expect but across my body were still tiny outputs of mana. Probably a leap in logic, but its likely I can cast spells from more than my hands.
However from these experiments I could already see what my favorite part about this new skill was, I had no need at all to focus on maintaining the spell or the connection. The gamer ability handled it all for me.
When I learned this from manually creating the connection the second I lost focus on it the connection shattered and the spell was disrupted, bursting apart in a flare of light. But using the gamer ability, I had no need at all to focus on the connection, forgetting about it as it hovers there un.o.btrusively until I turn back to it, my mind always sensing the small connection but easily ignoring it.
Summoning Torchlight's in earnest, I spammed them into the air with their lights reduced with the tint of green. Several hundred lights swam in the air around me before I began to slow down, the sensations of hundreds of connections slowly making me dizzy. Slowly my mana declined, the drain overwhelming my regeneration.
Then I began to control them, swirling the lights through the air and pulsing through the colors of the rainbow in simultaneous harmony. Red, yellow, blue, I pulsed through them as if we were at a rave party as the sole guard looked on in fascinated wonder.
Then Lily's door slammed open, squinting through the brightness as she glared at me behind her hand.
”Knock it off” she snapped, taking another breath as if going to say something more. Closing her mouth, she spun back around and stormed into her room as I killed the lightshow, leaving a solitary red light hovering over the terrified guard in mourning.
I couldn't help but smile, it was the first time I had seen her ruffled. Not terrified, not sad. But ruffled. Her messed up hair also was a little cute.
Sitting back on the couch and staring at the light in thought, I began to wonder what other alternatives I could explore with this.. Not much really, I only knew a few spells. A sustained light beam would probably work, similar to a floating spotlight, as would controlling lightball through the air. But honestly, those two spells are kind of useless in their current state. Wonder how realistic lasers are.
The other spells I had at my disposal were gravity cloak and gravity well. Gravity cloak would be the most useful, and gravity well could potentially be deadly if I moved it somewhere nasty, say their skull. But as for Gravity Cloak, its probably time to try that out.
That of course, being flight. I had done it before, but the sudden jolts as you need to switch out Gravity Cloak's just for the tiniest modification to your flight plan was quite nausea inducing. Especially because this essentially made a smooth flight impossible as you would need to gradually increase and decrease the speeds instead of doing this in a sudden and single change.
Applying a gravity cloak to my body, I sent a command through my connection and slowly floated up into the air. My stomach felt a little queasy at the loss of gravity, but I can deal with it. I can also deal with the eternal falling sensation, it honestly isn't that bad. Just disorientating.
Testing it out, I slowly began to accelerate down the hallway, my body smoothly flying through the air carefreely. De-accelerating as I reached the end of the hall I was pretty pleased to note the lack of discomfort in the actual flight, the sickening motion having disappeared. The only thing that was a downside to this would be the weightless sensation, but as I said before its a minor downside. Not really sure how I can go about fixing that either.
The other minor problem is not knowing what to do with your arms and legs, especially when gravity wasn't in the equation. But I'd dealt with this problem before and the only real solution was to hold a pose as you flew, even if it felt unnatural.
I began to show off to the guard who watched in utter fascination as I glided through the air, holding a graceful poise as I tested my control. Speeding up and testing de-acceleration I moved through the paces as I tested my limits. Eventually I could no longer take it, stomach crying quits as I began to settle back down to the ground.
If I ever do this as a method of transportation, I'll probably see about using something to stand on. Then again, it could be difficult trying to balance the platform as well as perfectly negating weight. Maybe if whoever is riding on it knows to stand perfectly still.
Feet touching the floor, I discarded the gravity cloak as I turned to the guard with malicious intentions and a kind smile ”Want to try it?”
He hesitated, a slight tinge of fear on his face as he licked his lips nervously. Glancing towards Lily's door, he paused a few seconds before deciding with a hesitant smile. ”If its no trouble”. Stepping closer as I gestured, the spell was applied.
Silent screams of horror, his body trembling with fear and fright. The next hour was the worst night of his life as he flew at neck-break speeds, arms flailing uselessly and eyes pleading for mercy. Not a sound did he dare make as I flew him dangerously near the walls, skimming alongside the ceiling and suddenly braking just before hitting the wall as I experimented and tested my control.
Coming her of her room the next morning, Lily noticed the s.h.i.+vering guard and seemed to hide a small smile. Sending the guard on a small errand she looked at me before returning to her room ”Best wake up Kane”
Lazily getting up, I stumbled to his door and rapped on it, collapsing back on the couch as Kane opened it in record time with a confused look when he noticed Lily wasn't up. He looked at me with eyebrows raised before silently beginning to wait for the princess as he leaned against the wall, unwilling to ask me to move over on the couch.