Chapter 15

“You’re still too slow,” Colin said, shaking his head as he casually backhanded Az’s Force Lance out of the air, sending it crashing harmlessly off to the side with nothing but his bare hand coated in an aura of mana.

Az didn’t have the energy to reply, nor the desire to make an excuse. His old teacher and friend was right. He was too slow, not just in his movement, but in all aspects of his fighting.

He had long reached the level of familiarity with the basic Force Lance spell necessary to be able to cast it reflexively, but even though he no longer had to take time to visualise the spellform, it still took time to channel his mana from his nexus to the spell, and for the spell itself to build and release, not to mention the projectile travel time of the lance itself. Asmodeas wasn’t fully sure what he could do to improve the speed of the spell short of learning a more advanced variation of it, but then a large part of his effort made into being able to cast it instinctively would be for naught. He knew from his studies that a mage could slightly modify a spell that had been engraved on their soul by using their will during the casting process, but did altering the speed of the projectile produced fall under that domain? He simply didn’t have the experience to know.

Colin had of course learned the spell and variations of it during his time in the city’s army, so he was quick to reassure his young ward that some of the problems he was facing would resolve themselves in time. As his spirit matured and his skill as a mage grew, Az would be able to channel more power into his spells more quickly and with greater efficiency, so that would further reduce the time taken to cast any spell, whether he needed a spellform or not.

The question of increasing the speed at which his Force Lance travelled was a more nuanced one. It was true that he could learn a more advanced variation of the spell, but that would require quite a bit of time for him to get to a level of familiarity on an equal stage with the current Force Lance he used; time he simply did not have if he wanted to be ready for the tournament.

It was not in question that he needed to increase the effectiveness of the spell, though he was considering focusing exclusively on his Lightning Spike spell, even if it required so much mana and much finer control. His opponent in his last duel before the tournament’s announcement, Tomas, had been able to dodge his Force Lances fairly easily, and Az was sure that he would be even faster by the time the tournament came around, not to mention any other hidden powerhouses in the class that he might face. And Az was sure that there were more than a few hidden talents among his peers, Michael had hinted at as much in a conspiratorial whisper during one of Zim’s training exercises a few days back. Apparently bets were being made about the results of the upcoming tournament, even among those not enrolled in the class. He had been mildly offended to learn that he was not the favorite to win; that honor had gone to someone called Elayne Elan, a prodigy of the famous Elan family of Tente, one of the nearby mountain cities. Michael said she was following in her family’s footsteps of practicing potent fire magic. Az looked forward to facing her in the dueling ring.

During the few days he had spent practicing with Colin so far, Az had seen some slight improvements in the speed that Force Lance travelled when he focused his will right before releasing the spell, but it wasn’t much of an improvement. Perhaps the best course of action was to focus on increasing the amount of power he forced into the spell and how quickly he could ready it. That was not to say that he would give up on increasing its travel speed entirely; Az was hoping that as he continued to train his will under Dorian’s guidance he would start to see greater improvements in this regard too.

Much of the last few days had been spent in relentless sparring with his old mentor, Colin, with a particular emphasis on improving Asmodeas’ body enhancement skills. The house Tantalus guard had agreed with Az’s assessment that his speed was his greatest shortcoming at the moment and had immediately set out to help him reforge it into his greatest strength. So Az had been ran through a relentless training regime consisting of sparring with the older man, dodging the man’s barrage of spells while ordered not to attack back and the exercises he had personally found the most difficult; practising going from being at rest physically and spiritually to casting his strongest spells as quickly as he could over and over again. The last was a training tool that Colin found great joy in, while Az found it utterly miserable. The act of trying to pull as much mana as possible from his nexus at once and brutally forcing it into a spellform as quickly as he could left the boy feeling like his mind and spirit were being repeatedly pummeled by a large mallet. Explosive power was earned by explosive training, Colin had explained rather smugly.

Asmodeas was not yet so confident in his abilities as a mage to second guess his old trainer’s choice of training exercise, but he did think the man was getting rather too much enjoyment out of seeing him suffer. Still, they had only been at it a few days, and he couldn’t deny he had seen some gains already. His spells came together more easily and powerfully, where his mana had once flowed out of his nexus in a stream, now it was a wide river, powerful and smooth.

His physical abilities were coming along rather more slowly, even with all the mana-powered sparring they were doing. Colin had him walking around most of the day with mana flooding his body, continuously empowering his muscles, bones and tissues. Hours were dedicated just to practising the Mantis’ Song training kata, and while Az was beginning to feel that he was able to move more gracefully through the exercise’ motions, he was still nowhere close to the speed and fluidity with which Tomas had moved during their duel. While Az was feeling somewhat dissatisfied with his rate of progress, Colin on the other hand was quite pleased, even offering praise towards his ward’s growth. The logical part of Asmodeas knew that by the time the tournament came around he would be much faster and stronger due to his efforts, but he could not help but feel a sliver of resentment towards whatever twist of Fate had seen him not blessed with more talent as a body enhancer. It seemed his innate ability for spellcraft was not quite matched by his affinity for body enhancement. It seemed that there was no cheat or shortcut that would allow him to improve more quickly; hard work and time were the only deciding factors.

The frustration of slow progress had sent him pursuing other avenues that were promising, though had yet to bear fruit. In particular, Az had been looking into what were often called “Haste” spells, or if the author was being particularly verbose, “Cognitive and Physical Motion Augmenting Spells.” He found he rather preferred the former naming convention. There were a litany of such spells to be found in the library, and though Az had taken inspiration from many, he was attempting to put together a spell of his own creation, as much for the valuable experience in spellform construction as for finding the right spell for his needs. He had yet to construct a spell that produced the effects he desired, namely the acceleration of his physical and mental abilities, but he was making progress. Hopefully, Az would have another tool in his arsenal he could rely on in the tournament.

Of course, he could not devote all his time to training, for there were many other things that demanded his attention. He still had classes to attend, though he felt he was learning much more during his training sessions with Colin or in his own independent study. Dorian was being more frustrating than usual to deal with, only divulging a smattering of questionably useful bits of knowledge in response to Az’s usual badgering. Most of his classes had been spent practising the mana compressing exercise, though Az did not truly mind the practice.

Outside of Dorian’s class, the others were progressing well, if a bit slowly for Az’s liking. Zim was continuing to introduce them to new spells and variations of the core three battlemage spellforms. He had inadvertently given Az some ideas on where he could take his Force Lance next, but he was still working out the details. Asmodeas didn’t really like the Fireball spell; it was fine if you wanted to wipe out a stationary target or depopulate a small village, but it was excruciatingly slow. It made the Force Lance look like the Lightning Spike. Surprisingly, he found he quite enjoyed working on the Shield spell. Dorian’s training was showing impressive results when it came to personal defensive spells. Az could easily reinforce any Shield spell he cast with just an expenditure of will, allowing him to take much more of a battering before his spell began to falter. It felt like he was pushing outwards on the shield that surrounded him, using pure determination and grit alone to reinforce it.

Kayla continued to be a competent, if somewhat cold teacher and had introduced her small group to a multitude of useful spellforms of varying complexity. Each class presented new challenges, and Az found he actually enjoyed the time spent learning from her. In fact, he was beginning to think she was warming up to him, his tainted noble blood be damned.

The art of enchanting continued to prove as frustrating as it was rewarding, though Az found he never was able to devote quite as much time to its pursuit as he wished. Ms. Lare had arranged for some documentation regarding the tournament’s rules to be delivered to each student’s room and the use of weapons and other enchanted items had been openly encouraged.

Az had thought about asking Colin for some further sword-fighting tutoring, but he really didn’t care for the weapon. He had practiced with spears a few times over the years, and found them to be a much better fit. From some books he had read in the library, Az had learned that it was common for mages to fight using weapons that enhanced the potency of their spells and so an idea had begun to take root in his mind. Could he enchant a spear to better conduct his Lightning Spike spell, increasing its already formidable power to greater heights? It was a compelling prospect, but so far all Az had managed was to electrocute himself and explode a number of spears he had “borrowed” from his family’s armory. The electrocutions were nothing more than a painful annoyance; his own mana had a reduced ability to harm him compared to real lightning, and his body had already become impressively durable by the standards of a normal human. Still, it was a work in progress, and experimentation is the mother of invention. He realised he really should ask Colin to implement weapons into their sparring, but the idea sounded like it only promised further pain. He’d get around to it, eventually.

Body Enhancement class seemed to be steering completely towards having the students practise manipulation of their aura; that is, covering their body in a layer of mana and directly controlling its intensity and movement. So far all they had done was concentrate aura on their fists and use them to punch rocks to dust. Quite literally, dust. Az had just stared at what had once been a proud rock with a feeling of stunned disbelief. He was still a fledgling mage, and he had just pulverised a rock to a fine powder with nothing more than his fist. It made him think that he really should have been more courteous to mages like Colin growing up. A few occasions where the young Tantalus boys’ antics had driven the man to red-faced frustration sprang to mind. Perhaps they would not have had such a propensity for mischief if they had known he could quite literally have turned them to dust with a wave of his hand. The power of magic was, Az reflected, terrifying.

In contrast, Az was finding Introductory Magical Theory painfully dull. He loved magic, he really did, but learning about it in such an inorganic and formulaic manner was mind-numbingly boring. Experimenting with spellforms and body enhancement was exponentially more enjoyable than listening to a lecture for an hour and attempting to stay attentive even as they dissected the “principles of mana conservation” for the thousandth time. Personally, Az found that he learned much more when he set about to accomplish something with mana; the accumulation of knowledge and research along the way often was vastly more rewarding than what he had set out to do.

There was a lot to keep him occupied, sometimes the realization of all that he had yet to uncover about magic made the whole endeavour feel hopelessly futile. Az felt that he could spend a thousand years learning and yet only possess mastery over the smallest fraction of magic. He had known since he was a child that the path of a mage was a long one, but it seemed the higher he climbed the further away the peak receded. A journey of a thousand lifetimes might not be enough to reach the heights he longed for. The feelings of despondence and melancholy that swept over him in those moments were like an anchor dragging him down into unfathomable depths, but feeling the hovering nexus of power within him always seemed to cut the chains that bound him, pulling him back into the light. It did him no good to focus on how far he had to go; only by focusing on the next step would he ever reach his destination. Perhaps he needed to make more time to attempt to socialize, or visit his family. What was it that people his age actually did anyway? Sometimes, that felt like a more enduring mystery than all the secrets of magic combined.

Az resolved to take some time once classes had ended for the week to pursue something not directly tied to his progression as a mage, though he found that difficult to imagine. Was it still a break if he went for a walk while circulating mana though his body with every step? Probably, he reasoned…