=========================

Chapter 17: Behind the Mana

=========================

Both were already warmed up.

Julia stood in front of her opponent, a boy her age. A sword in his right hand, he seemed confident.

He had an emblem on the back of his gloves; a man with a sword on his shoulder. He had the blue-crystal Life Armor on.

‘A scion from old noble house, eh.’

From the look of it, he seemed confident of his swordplay. Most likely from a family of low nobility, charged with guarding areas of the empire back then.

Naturally, one from such a family ought to inherit some swordplay.

He looked straight at the girl with purple tunic, now donned the Life Armor. He had heard of her. Her sudden fame annoyed him. He thought she did not deserve such, as it was just her luck; being born with a Peak-Affinity.

In addition, it was Ultima Peak Affinity; considered the most destructive force on the battlefield.

When he first heard this, he frowned.

‘What’s so good about it? She’s just a frail-looking girl. I don’t even need sword to take her down.’

Since the sparring was a test of skill, he did not say of such. Among the candidates, there were many others like him, consoling themselves they would fare better against her, one on one.

‘Plus, the name Ultima was overrated. It’s just a support-type mana.’

While Ultima was named as the most destructive mana; its primary magic use was support-type. People who never encountered the practitioner of this mana had a difficult time comprehending the reason.

Why would you call mana with support-type magic, the most destructive mana?

Of course, those who did the research would understand. However, not many youngsters did that.

As Julia stood still in front of her opponent, Natalia walked towards her. She checked her gloves. There were not many exclusive magic-users among the candidates, thus she had forgotten to check her gloves before. A judge must confirm that the magic user wore the Limit Glove properly.

After a moment, she nodded.

“Don’t aim at the eyes or the head. But since its magic, you can attack the limbs. Oh, try not to attack at a certain sensitive spot, alright?”

As she said so, she winked, patting her shoulder. Julia nodded in earnest.

A weapon user was prohibited to attack limbs, but a magic user was allowed to. At a glance, this might sound unfair, and it certainly was.

However, the aim for the sparring was to observe their skill. Magic attack was too difficult to control, especially against moving opponent. Its use in battle usually was aimed in area effect, since mage usually acted as support or long-range attacker. Even for a mage knight, asking to attack only the body was a bit of a stretch.

Since magic-user had this advantage, the use of Limit Glove balanced the whole deal.

As for weapon users, being able to aim the body would prove that they were skilled enough to be restricted as such.

‘Mage knight? Ha! Such an absurd thing.’

Many thought that the Supreme Guardian’s introduction of ‘Mage Knight’ profession was ridiculous. Mage was not supposed to be in the frontline; that was the long-standing belief. It had been eight years since the introduction, but many still held that belief.

That was because the Mage Knight’s performance in battle was unheard of.

“Alright, ready?”

Natalia already backtracked to her judge position, right next to Kent. She raised her hand, then made a chopping motion downward.

“Start.”

The sword user moved, sprinting to her side.

Julia had her palms open, violet mana filled her hands.

He slashed upward.

She shifted her body, barely avoiding.

The boy clenched his grip, she noticed.

She turned her body sideway as he pulled the sword downward.

‘Vicious movement, aggressive style.’

Krone noticed his sword style, focusing more on offense. It was a sword style fitting for those who consider themselves brave warrior.

‘Got you!’

When Julia evaded, he already calculated her movement. In a blink, he tapped the ground several times.

Charge.

It was a charge, with his sword moving sideways towards her.

Within that short timeframe, candidates held their breath.

The so-called prodigy, defeated so soon!

That thought crossed their mind.

That thought was short-lived.

She fell to her back, as if slipping. Her head reached for the padded ground.

Deliberately.

She thus avoided the strike.

Yet with her position, her chance of avoiding the next one was slim.

She was too close to the opponent.

‘No problem.’

She hurled her left hand. Violet, fist-sized mana ball came out.

Too close to avoid, it hit.

‘What?’

Striking his right knee, it delivered shockwave, burrowing into him.

It was not painful, but felt as if waves of ants landed on his leg.

Just for a short moment.

‘Bitch! You think that’s enough?’

He pushed his weight on his sword.

At such a distance, where she was practically below his sword, there was no way for her to evade.

Yes, no way.

‘No worry.’

Julia concluded. She was confident.

The boy too, was confident.

“Eh?”

His sword did go down, but its tip went up as his right leg went down.

His leg failed him.

In the short moment of him distracted, she rolled out of his range. Turning, she shot yet another violet ball.

“Wha—”

Pa!

The sound was weak, yet it permeated throughout the ring. However, the violet mana did not give any indication of damage. He felt as if someone patted his chest, albeit a bit hard.

Still, a pat was weak.

‘This weak, you dare call yourself genius?’

The boy smirked. He made a mistake just now, but knowing his opponent’s attack was that weak, he regained confidence. He stood up, noticing she was preparing another of those balls.

‘She merely channels mana on her left. She could prepare two at once, but that would restrict her movement.’

Krone noted.

Her proficiency was already a solid practitioner level, almost stepping into adept. Kent and Natalia noticed this as well. For a young girl her age to reach practitioner level, it could be said she was either a genius or a freaking hard worker. To reach adept at her age, in Kharlussian history, only one such a person was recorded.

‘By twenty, she could very well reach master level.’

Such thought crossed both judges’ mind.

However, in this sparring, her opponent did not realize this. He thought of her as lacking in practice. Even if you had Peak-Affinity, so what? Without enough practice, your magic would still be weak.

The boy walked confidently towards her, while she continued to keep the distance. Her serious yet tender face confronted his overbearing presence. The image reminded those around with outdated story of a maiden facing a bully.

Unfortunately, the maiden had no hero to her rescue.

The scene filled his ego.

‘Ha! She’s a girl after all. So adorable, I don’t even have to be serious…’

Plop.

“Eh?”

His right leg went down. His eyes widened.

Why did it fall again? There was no injury, and he felt no pain.

Yes, no pain at all.

Until;

“Daria-vis.”

Julia knew the time had come, and took action.

She gripped her right hand towards his direction, the violet mana on it dispersed.

“What?”

He, along with the audience, could not believe their eyes. Her mana that dispersed just then, gathered into him; into his right leg and chest.

“What happened?”

“The mana moved on its own?”

“It’s homing! How is that possible?”

“I heard only master-level can..!”

The audience murmured. With the judges so close, they dared not make loud sound.

Julia stood still, while her opponent remained immobile. He tried to stand, yet his right leg did not listen. Not knowing why, he dragged it with him.

“You, what did you do—”

No nonsense, Julia clapped her hands together over her chest.

“Enclad-Gus.”

Simple incantation.

More mana flowed out of her, rushing into him. The violet mana filled the ring, giving audience a fantastic show of light.

Unfortunately, only violet light was available, moving.

Ahh…

The boy gasped, his body shook. His face reddened, he started to sweat.

Pain.

Stinging pain.

It was as if his right leg had thousands of ants biting, chipping it down as they crawled on it. As for his Life Armor, the blue crystal started to lose its light. A little bit of pain spread into his chest.

Not only that, the pain from his leg was spreading, moving up.

Ahh!

He shouted, falling onto the ground.

The audience was dumbfounded.

Soon, writhing cries of pain filled the ring.

Seeing this, Kent nodded. Natalia raised her left hands;

“Alright, that’s enough.”

Hearing this, Julia released her hands. The violet mana stopped flowing into him, leaving him gasping in heavy breath.

The pain subsided.

She looked at the judge, with expression of inquiry. The judges nodded, signaling her they had seen enough. She relaxed herself, sighing.

“She, she channeled her mana into him?”

“The hell, she can do that?”

“She restricted his movement, then…”

“Hey, isn’t that unfair? Not a tiny bit too.”

“Is that why they say violet mana is the most destructive?”

The audience, witnessing this for the first time, had a revelation. They had heard that violet mana was primarily support-type, so they wondered how she was going to use it to win.

Support-type, yes.

However, it did not mean it did not possess any offensive capability.

What she did just now was the Daria-magic series, the first three steps. It was magic specifically for violet mana users.

The first step was to deliver the violet mana. Then, wait till it took effect; paralyzing the veins and then the limb.

The second step was just to send more mana, using the already invading mana as the destination pointer.

The third, was to activate the invading mana to become aggressive. In addition, she repeated the second step sent to ensure continuous attack.

That was the Daria-magic series.

Though recorded in the library, it was generally unknown to the public.

Although it was painful, it could not kill an opponent unless you poured massive amount of mana. To kill your opponent this way, too much mana would be used, and too time-consuming. It would be easier just to plunge your knife into the opponent while he was paralyzed and writhing in pain.

Just using this to kill, the opponent would be tortured by the extended pain. It was inhuman and ineffective to be used as offensive magic.

Despite that, it was suitable for this test, since the candidates were youngsters unaccustomed to pain.

Witnessing her performance, Krone frowned.

He had seen the execution of the Daria-magic series before; so he was not surprised. He praised her bravery, doing such a daring maneuver.

Yet he was frowning. Julia turned to him, eyes as if asking for acknowledgment.

As a courtesy, he nodded to her.

His simple action made her smile ear to ear, but Krone thought nothing of it.

Instead;

‘Her mana flow was a bit, hm, weird.’

He turned to his right, to the judges.

He knew at least Natalia noticed it as well. She was young, but her mana sensing ability was the best among the knights there. He even suspected her ability was on par with him. He was not a specialist mana sensor, but he had polished it in the frontline in order to survive.

His sensing ability was high.

She however, was the real deal. One gifted with mana sensitivity. Even without the long life-death experience in the frontline, she had reached such a level. Should she experienced the frontline, her level would leave him far behind.

‘Wonder how I should note this… Sir Kent didn’t notice anything, should I note it?’

Regarding Julia’s mana flow, she felt odd as well, but was quick to shake it off. She had not ever met a Peak-Affinity magic user before, thus she related it with her unique affinity. There was nothing weird, she concluded.

‘Yes, that must be it.’

Even when her sensing ability was on par with Krone, she did not think much of it.

Krone however, could not do so.

Different experience, different judgement.

‘I need to get it over with!’

He ran away from the ring, rushing towards one end of the nearby building.

Noticing his movement, Natalia was startled.

“Candidate Krone, where are you going?!”

“Washroom!”

“Make it quick!”

“Yes Ma’am!”

Kent raised his brows while she made a sulky expression.

“Can’t he say something first, gosh.”

“I thought the washroom’s over there?”

Kent pointed to the back of the platform. Krone had run towards someplace far, nowhere near it. Natalia had a vein popping over her head, her left eye twitched.

“Whatever. We’ll just lecture him when he get back. Number 108 and 109, step forward!”

…

Natalia’s voice resounded behind him as he gained distance.

He decided to get down to it right away, thus he had no time to waste.

He had to go further away from Natalia, she would notice what he was doing.

No time to waste, since after using mana, Julia’s mana channel would disperse the residual mana. The time it took should be around a minute.

He had to distance himself from Natalia, since he was going to channel mana into his eyes. Doing so nearby her would be akin to shouting ‘I can channel mana into my eyes!’ right into her ear.

Not to mention being rude, normal human cannot channel mana into eyes; at least not yet, or not in public knowledge.

While he could use his eyes’ trait without mana, what he was going to do was more advance than merely zooming in and out.

Feeling that it was far enough, he stood beside a tree’s shade right next to the building.

Channeling mana… Optimizing, bypass the flesh. Focus only on mana veins.

He mentioned this inside his mind, a habit he formed to help him focus on his work. There should still be around thirty second or so before the mana residue fully dispersed.

His eyes shone white.

He saw her.

She seemed to turn to his direction, wondering what made him rushing away from the ring.

His eyes bypassed her clothes and flesh.

The image of her whole body filled his vision.

Julia’s body.

Her shape was great, wait, no. He was focusing on her veins.

The image had veins linking her spine with the rest of her body and limbs.

The highest concentrations of them were two; the back of her head, and the one below her belly-button. Seeing nothing wrong with the upper side, he observed the lower side.

Specifically, he observed the veins with violet colour still remaining.

His eyes tracked the mana veins right to the back of the belly-button, further down near her butt.

He reached the location of her tail bone. A little shiny one within it; grabbed his attention.

He shuddered.

His knees weak, and he kneeled on the ground.

“Impossible. They only appear after ten years…”

Refusing to believe what he had seen, he again concentrated his mana into his eyes. Her tail bone was visible to him, its sharp look and triangular shape.

His vision however, was concentrated on the shiny thing, a little glimmering. Its shape was akin to a fennel seed, while its crystal texture made it more like a shard of ice.

Finger-sized, it was within her pelvic bone, linked to the tail bone.

This time, he knew he did not make a mistake. Taking out his gloves, he touched his spatial ring.

Within it, he sensed eighteen of something similar.

They were almost similar in shape and texture, just different in colour and size. All eighteen were considered ‘dead’ and would thus lose their power gradually. After a few years, their power would wane so much each could be considered a mere husk.

The one within her however, was vibrating.

“The hell, within her… It’s not dead, it’s a living one. But how?”

He knocked his head, hands on his forehead.

Eyes sharp, he retracted his vision.

“Fuck it! Inside her…”

He stood up, silence. He did not want to make a wrong conclusion, thus he calmed himself first. His right hand on the tree, he took a long breath.

Slowly, he opened his eyes.

“…There’s a core.”

…

[Always see things beyond mere surface.]

- Kharlussian Proverb

========= Chapter 17 End =========