POV Change - Max

A day ago or so ago...

After a small free for all brawl with the whole group of three that Jason ended up winning after he let me and Emerald fight it out. We all sat down to regain our lost mana.

The way that he won wasn't the friendliest of moves, but effective none the less. From now on we will probably have to wait for someone to make the first move instead of everyone just running at one another when we start the brawls.

Thinking about it more, we would probably have to make a rule for that. Either way we will deal with that problem when it comes up again.

Right now I should be focusing more on trying to regain my mana and maybe even focus on increasing it some more once it is completely refilled. And so that is what I do for the next thirty minutes.

I made sure to not spend too much of my mana in case one of them decided to get a really good hit in, so I didn't need to wait that long before I was able to refill it all the way. It only ended up taking about ten minutes to refill my mana. The rest of the I was focusing on increasing my mana limit.

If I had to compare the amount of mana that I had to other people the same age as me, I would most likely fall in the average category. I know that I don't have a huge amount of mana compared to others that grow up with a huge amount of mana crystals to absorb.

Those people are quite rare to find in this area though, so it doesn't matter to me. Being average isn't that bad considering that with my physical build being better than most humans my age, I am actually doing quite well for myself.

That is if we are comparing straight up power. If we start to look at certain skills then we will see that I am actually not doing so well.

Humans out of the three main races are quite balanced in terms of what type of magic is normally used. Where as in titan and halfling communities there is only internal or external magic being used on a regular basis, humans like to use both equally.

Well not equally, but they do use both a lot more then the titans and halflings.

And with New Haven being a human village, almost everyone uses both types of magic on a regular basis. For people that are not Jason, they just tend to use one a little bit more than the other.

Then there is me. A half-human, half-titan nobody that can only use internal magic well, while only just now reaching the basic level for external magic.

Every day where I don't instantly fall asleep from being too tired, I practice my external water magic until I fall asleep. This usually last about four hours. And for the past month or so I haven't been able to see any kind of improvement.

I do go to bed early, so don't be surprised that the practice time that I have with my external water magic is long.

The amount of improvement that I have gained over the past year alone is the same as a human youth with okay talent in external water magic would get in a little over a month of hard work. It just doesn't feel fair to me.

Why did I have to be born half-titan while not gaining any talent from my human side for external magic? I am the only one out of Emerald and Jason who doesn't use external magic.

If I had more than the basic level in my external water magic, then I might be able to at least try and use my external water magic to do something, but even to this day I still haven't reached that point yet. These kind of thoughts have been plaguing me for the past month or so.

Looking around I notice that Jason has a small ball of fire that he is moving around in random patterns. It looks like he is having no trouble at all keeping the pace that he is going right now.

To him that amount of speed that the ball of fire is moving around might be just a causal display of control just for fun. To me though that amount of speed is equal to my fastest speed with my amount of control that I have over a water ball of the same size.

Grabbing my water crystal from my pocket, I push my mana into it. In return a small ball of water appears above it that I already have control over. Moving the ball of water near my right hand, the same place where my elemental tattoos are, I just let it float there and stare at it.

Just thinking about my awful talent in external water magic just makes me mad. Letting out a sigh that escapes my thoughts, it doesn't go unnoticed by Emerald.

Jason is too busy playing with his ball of fire that he won't even notice if both of us leave without him.

Emerald being able to guess what the sigh meant, or at least that it wasn't a happy mood sigh. She throws a pebble at Jason so he would stop and pay attention to the things around him. "What did you do that for?" He says staring meanly at Emerald.

All she does is tilt her head in my direction so he would get the idea. She isn't the best in these situations so it is understandable.

After a few moments of Jason looking at me, he finally is able to clue in on my mood and starts to move closer to me. We were a little too far apart before to have a regular conversation so it was a needed change.

None of the events between Emerald or Jason went noticed by me though, as I was still staring at the slowly spinning ball of water above my hand. That is until Jason got too close for me to not notice, I noticed him then.

I am not 'that' zoned out right now.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Jason speaks in a calm tone not sure what to think of my sudden mood swing compared to when we were sparing not even a hour ago.

Not taking my eyes off of my spinning water ball I respond slowly. "Do you think that I am a bad mage?" Those weren't the exact words that I should have said, but right now just targeting one area where I am bad just didn't feel appropriate for my current mood.

Jason is quick to respond and starts talking the second I stop. "Of course you're not a bad mage. What would make you think that?"

"I just haven't been able to improve at all in the past month and I don't think that I will be able to make any big improvements in the near future. And by the time that I do make improvements both of you guys will already be super far ahead of me to the point that I won't be able to catch up no matter how hard I try." Pouring all of the thoughts that I have built up inside of me into that speech, I just talk and talk.

"Even now, I am not able to catch up to you guys. I just feel like I am worthless compared to the both of you. Here I am, only being able to use one type of magic okay, and then there is the both of you." Trying to hold back tears at this point. "You guys are great at both internal and external magic. And I just suck at both."

Emerald and Jason are just shocked to the point of having no words to say after hearing my rant. Nothing is said for a couple of minutes as all three of us are thinking of what to do next.

Finally Emerald is the one to break the silence. "And here I thought that you were a tough guy." I don't even look at her, afraid that I will just break down in tears. Which is something that I really don't want to do in front of my two best friends.

I am sixteen turning seventeen right now. I shouldn't even be feeling the urge to cry in the first place. That isn't how adults or very soon to be adults should be acting.

"The Max that I know is the kind of guy that continues on no matter what. People bulling you? You don't even pay attention to them. Training all day, every day? That is what you do no matter how much you don't feel like doing it. Practicing external water magic as much as you do despite having a really bad talent in it?" She pauses letting her words so far sink in.

Not sure what to do I just there silently. Sure enough she talks again. "You don't think that me or Jason haven't noticed your super long external water magic training before you go to bed? Neither of us could train for that long in one sitting. We would have to at least stop and move around after a hour or two. I watched once on one of your really long training moments. It lasted six hours straight, not counting the breaks for refilling your mana."

Jason just starts clapping and Emerald bows to him like this whole thing is just a planned show. Still not knowing what do, I just look at both of them, this time not having to force myself not to cry. Emerald's speech kind of kicked me out of the crying mood.

"So Max. You are awesome at what you do. But I got to ask. Do you even like using external water magic?" Emerald asks me. Even though I am not in the best state of mind right now, I can still tell that she is acting very odd right now. This is the most that I have heard her talk in a long time.

She must be really worried about me right now. I guess that I am one of her two best friends. Looking at it from her view, I can see that she is just trying to make me feel good about myself.

At least it is working somewhat. A lot of that improvement though is from the shock that Jason and Emerald were watching me train my external water magic training?

The last time that I trained that much in one go is the first night that we slept here instead of going back to the orphanage. I don't remember noticing them watching me at all.

Max, stop thinking about so many dumb things. Focus on what I should say back to Emerald. That question is one that I can just be quiet about.

Thinking it over in my head, the only thing that I like about external water magic is the feeling of closeness that I have with the water. That and I don't want to be the only one that uses only one type of magic, but that was already mentioned before this moment.

I don't feel that my current spells, which is pretty much just the standard water ball, has enough power to it with my level of control. My fighting style with my internal water magic relies on attacking just as much as defending, but external water magic can't really do either effectively.

That is just me though. External water (and air) magic is weak at the beginning and is only able to show its true potential later on once the level of control is a lot better.

So being honest with myself I finally talk again after a couple of minutes of silence. "No, I don't really like it. I only use it because of..." Is all I was able to get out before Jason cut me off.

"Then don't practice it anymore!" He yells at me. "You have practiced it enough to get enough control that you can use it when fighting so you won't hurt yourself when punching other people, so there is no real need to continue it."

"So what do you want to do?" He starts to back off, while pushing mana into his fire crystal making some fire appear above his hands. "Are you going to sit there all sad like and cry? Or are you going to have a good old fashioned fight and release some of that anger over how much you suck at external water magic?"

I am so glad that I have these guys as my friends. It will be a while before I truly stop working on external water magic since being a external water magic has been my dream, but with the help of these two I am sure that I will do just fine.

Getting up, I push mana into my water crystal, making more water appear above it. The small water ball that I had before was lost due to me losing control of it after I stopped focusing on it.

Moving the water towards my hands, I make it so the water completely covers them.

Mages do this so the element around their body will absorb the shock of the punches they throw. While at the same time still sending the entire force of the mage's punch towards their target.

Earth magic is the best for this, and is why it is hailed as the king of defense compared to the other elements.

A smile appears on my face as I send mana throughout my entire body which makes me feel super strong compared to normal. Dashing towards Jason, I get my right arm ready so I can land a right hook aimed at his face once I get close enough.

He was already waiting for me though, and sent a couple fire balls flying towards me. Making a quick stomp on the ground, I do a ninety degree turn for one step.

With the fire balls too far from him, he won't be able to turn them around so they get another chance, I dash towards him even faster than before. Hoping that I can get close enough to him before he has time to prepare more fireballs.

Sadly that wasn't the case as he sent a slightly larger one flying towards me. With me being as close as I am, I don't have time to dodge. With no other option besides taking the hit straight on, I cross my arms and hope that the water currently wrapped around my arms will be enough to handle the fireball's blast.

Luckily the amount of water that I had around my hands was barely enough and I wasn't taken out right then and there. Opening my eyes that I didn't realize that I closed during the blast, I don't see Jason in front of me.

He was right there before the fireball hit me, so where did he go?

As I turn my head to the right, I hear some movement coming towards me from my left side. Quickly turning around, I swing my left arm up into a L position hoping to at least block the punch that I know is coming my way.

Jason getting the jump on me was already throwing a punch that I was expecting him too. Too bad that it was with his left arm and not his right arm that I was hoping.

My left arm is the one that is 'blocking' his punch. So to him my arm is on his right, which means that he doesn't have anything blocking his path towards my face for his current punch.

Bracing for the impact that doesn't come, I try and think of what just happened and I just can't make heads or tails of it. Why did he not hit me? His punch should have been a good, clean hit.

Looking at Jason now he a couple meters away from me in a defensive position holding his stomach like it is in pain. He is not willing to take his eyes off of his now multiple opponents.

Who else he is looking at? Wasn't this fight just me and him?

Moving my head down at the spot where he was just moments ago, I notice a earth pillar sticking out of the ground on a angle. Based on a quick guess, that was the thing that hit him in the stomach and made him move away from me.

Thinking about it, he is a fire mage. Which means that his internal fire magic uses up quite a bit of mana even when just used on his arms/legs. So that earth pillar would have hit his stomach at a time that it wasn't protected by any mana. That must have hurt. I feel kind of bad for him, but more so just glad that I wasn't the one to get by it.

Moving my thoughts back to more important things. A earth pillar sticking out of the ground can only mean one thing, a earth mage. So who else can it be besides Emerald.

The person who is a earth mage within twenty minutes of here at least.

Turning my head away from Jason, I notice Emerald standing a few meters from me in a pose that suggests she is not just a bystander to this fight.

Now in a triangle to each other, none of us move. All we do is send mana to our elemental crystals, making fire, water and some rocks appear above our hands. Most of which all get sent to our arms to protect us when we end up punching each other in the little while.

With Jason and Emerald being external mages, Jason gets a couple fireballs floating beside him. While Emerald seems to be sending her mana towards the ground so she can make earth pillars at a moment's notice.

A long time ago we made a rule where she wasn't allowed to use earth spikes during sparring matches, so she uses earth pillars instead. They don't hurt as much, plus healing bruises is a lot easier then the holes that well placed spikes can make.

Sending even more mana towards my arms and legs. I look at the both of them, giving both of them a nod of 'I'm ready'. They reply back with the same type of nod.

Unknowingly a big grin appears on my face as we all step forward and make our first moves.