I diverge from my fellows in their calls for mitigations and observation. We are the Storm and the Storm destroys that which attempts to fight it. Let us wipe these petty nations off the map and be done with it. Destroy these lesser bloodlines that they may no longer pretend at greatness and become a problem for the those of true strength. I only await the approval of my fellows to end this charade. – Letter from the Voice Cumulonimbus

Elijah, panting, let himself collapse to the ground before even attempting to respond to Niels. As he began speaking, he felt the presence of system messages. They were waiting just outside of sight for when he had a free moment for them. Deciding they could wait, he finally answered the other man.

“It feels strange. And incomplete. I can sense my new Ki Channels, but they don’t feel…right. Like part of them is missing.”

“That would be because most of them are. You’ve taken a substantial first step, but we’ll need to finish the process soon. If we wait too long it can have strange side effects. Nothing that can’t be fixed, but I wouldn’t recommend that route.”

Elijah pursed his lips at that, concerned and slightly annoyed that Niels hadn’t mentioned this before he made the attempt. He did his best to hide that annoyance as he asked the more pressing question, “What else do I need to do?”

“Don’t give me that look,” Niels eyes took on a harder edge and he used that voice again. The one that reminded Elijah of his old Drill Sergeant. “You were going to need to complete this process if you wanted any chance of surviving long term in your chosen roll. If we had more time I would walk you through the entire process before we started, but we needed to do everything we could to increase your likelihood of survival as fast as possible. That meant giving you the information you needed most and covering the rest later.

“I also couldn’t have you sabotaging yourself by worrying about what came next. The process is difficult enough without other worries on your mind. The next steps are comparatively easier, but make no mistake. They will be painful. Now that your arms and legs are completed, you need to finish the process in the rest of your body. The spine and torso come next, and will increase your resistance to poisons and internal injuries. After that will be your heart and lungs, granting you the engines necessary to fully support your new body. After that will be your head and brain, enforcing your final remaining weak point and enhancing your hand-eye coordination.”

Elijah thought over what Niels said. He could see why someone might abandon the process half way through if they knew they would have to do something similar at least three more times. Elijah himself would not have, or at least he thought he would not have. It also spoke to a certain level of distrust on Niels part that he would do what was necessary.

That was worrisome. Elijah needed these people to trust him if he wanted to create the relationship that would give him the best chance of surviving. He also didn’t like being kept in the dark, especially by someone who had decided unilaterally that they knew better. It was the worst part of being in a rigid system like the military, and something he had only barely been able to put up with.

He put those feelings aside for now though, they wouldn’t do anything to help him. Instead, he simply asked, “What’s the next step?”

#

It had turned out that the next step was memorizing another new pattern to force his Ki to follow. Similar to his arms and legs, he would practice carving a new route for the energy through his body (this time focused on his abdomen and spine). Same as before, he would be using miniscule amounts of energy for the time being until Niels was happy with his performance. Then he would need to force the new channels into permanence with a flood of energy.

The benefit to using Ki for this rather than Mana was that his body was more accepting of the energy. It was less painful and harder to keep the energy following the paths he had created. It also naturally healed him at a far superior rate than mana had, meaning he could recover from his attempts far faster. He didn’t anticipate taking more than four or five days to have the new patterns memorized.

Niels had led him through the exercise a few times, then walked away saying something about needing to patrol the area for monsters. Elijah had taken a moment to reflect on the experience and make a mental note that he needed to experiment with the changes to his body. Then he had finally allowed the system to bring up the notifications he had missed.

Congratulations, you have created a Ki Core! You have gained access to Ki, a Superior Energy attuned to the body.

You are at 25% completion of your First Ki Channel

· Extremity Channel – Cleared

· Spinal Channel – Blocked

· Cardiac Channel – Blocked

· Cerebral Channel - Blocked

Congratulations, you have gained the option to Convert your Spells to Arts. Arts are powered by Ki rather than Mana and may gain or lose functions in the conversion process. Please note that this conversion can only be reversed through special training unique to the Art. This option may be accessed in the System Shop at any time.

The first message was mostly what he had expected, simply the system acknowledging his accomplishments in successfully awakening his Ki. The second half was a little surprising though. The others had told him the system would provide a way to using his spells with his Ki, but they hadn’t ever explained the exact methodology.

It was interesting that the system was letting him choose which abilities he wanted to convert. He had expected it to simply change some of his abilities, or have Ki powered abilities be a new option when purchasing spells from the menu. Now he would need to make a decision, one more important choice to make that would define his future. No pressure, right? Just deciding the rest of my life.

It was like college all over again, but nobody telling him what he was good at and a lot fewer relevant life experiences that he could use to help him make a choice. Also, he only had a handful of weeks to choose and the impact would be immediate and permanent. Well, not entirely permanent. Only the first Ki channel is entirely unreversible. Everything else would just be…very hard.

That knowledge helped a little. A teeny tiny bit at least. Mostly. He quickly pulled up the next system message before he spiraled even further.

Congratulations, you have taken the first step in pushing your body beyond Human limits! By awakening a Ki Core and strengthening your body with the energy, you have reached a level of physical ability generally impossible for your species.

Congratulations! You have met the requirements to unlock new Racial Evolutions. You have met the requirements for basic Racial Evolution: Ki-Attuned Human. You do not meet the Racial Level requirements to become a Ki-Attuned Human at this time.

That was unexpected. The system had said he could become more, but Elijah hadn’t thought the system meant it literally. What was the difference between a Human and a Ki-Attuned Human? What would it mean if he became one? Was this the only Racial Evolution he had unlocked the requirements for? What were the limits?

He was just getting up to seek out a member of Hidden Opportunity and ask, when the Voice answered him for the first time in a very long time. Elijah hadn’t even thought about the mysterious will of the system since joining up with Niels and his team. That was starting to feel like a mistake, if it was willing to answer questions like this. He probably could have found out about the extra steps in creating his first Ki Channel if he had bothered to ask the Voice for it.

“Racial Evolution is the process by which one my progress beyond their physical limits. The greater one’s physical limits, the more difficult it is to evolve beyond them. A Ki-Attuned Human is a Human who has been warped by and evolved due to the natural presence of a complete Ki Channel in their physiology. Their Ki is more powerful and their control is more natural than a baseline human.

“As far as Racial Evolution options are concerned, all humans have the option to become a High Human upon reaching a sufficient level. A High Human, or Supra Hominidae, has no unique attributes beyond an overall improvement upon the human baseline and greater longevity. Humans are generally considered the weakest of the Sentient Races, with High Human being more equivalent to any other Sentient Race. Because of this, though, Humans have the easiest time adapting and becoming something more in line with their talents.”

A little humbled at his own carelessness with such a potent tool, he thanked the voice. “I’m sorry I forgot about you. Please continue to help me in the days to come.”

There was no response.

#

In the following days, whenever Elijah wasn’t practicing the next stage of opening his Ki Channel, he was being put through physical exercises. Niels had helped at first, but had eventually switched to scouting and patrolling around the camp. Thankfully, this sort of training was something of a specialty of Seba’s. While Seba and Elijah trained, Niels would leave Rory to protect the camp and clear a route slightly deeper into the dungeon. Theo, meanwhile, would be left to stock potions for later in the dungeon.

The exercises served multiple purposes. First and foremost, it allowed Elijah to slowly get used to the changes Ki had on his body. His strength and speed had increased thanks to his new meta-physiology, but that was just the passive effects of his Ki. He could also flood his muscles with Ki to increase his strength in explosive bursts.

Originally he was forced to flood his entire body, but with practice he had been learning to only add Ki to the muscles being worked. A process that currently required concentration and deliberate thought, but that Seba had assured him would eventually become just as natural as any other physical ability. Clearing his Cranial Ki Channels would especially help in that regard, but taking the time to learn now would give him better control in the long run.

The second purpose of this training was to increase Elijah’s flexibility and balance through stretching exercises similar to yoga. Ki had helped loosen his muscles, but not to anywhere near the degree it had helped his strength. His balance, meanwhile, was entirely unaffected currently. That would also change when he finished his Cranial Ki Channel. Like his use of Ki, though, Seba claimed it was better to learn now so he could get the most out of the enhancement.

At least once a day, Seba would run him through an obstacle course reminiscent of any number of Earth game shows. It was meant to be a way to consolidate what he was practicing with the rest of his exercises and put them to real use, and Elijah had to admit it was fun to watch his rapid improvement.

The results of this training were impressive, as he quickly realized he was subconsciously holding himself back. He could hit with easily twice the force of before, and run at far greater speeds. His skin was significantly more resistant to cuts and scrapes, and healed much faster when something did hurt him. When combined with his other healing abilities, it was possible to watch his skin knit itself back together when he was cut. At least so long as he had some blood to power his abilities and enchantments.

He still had a number of limits, but his actual arm and leg strength was not a limiting factor. Instead, he found himself gasping for air and heart thundering as they worked to provide the resources his muscles needed and failed to keep up. He had to limit the weight of things he picked up, too worried about damaging his internal organs or putting excessive strain on his brain. He had a hard time keeping track of his own movements. All things that Seba assured him would be resolved when he finished opening his Ki Channel.

There was a third purpose to the physical training, or rather Hidden Opportunity used the excuse of him needing physical training to help him address one of his other short-comings. His lack of formal training with a short sword and buckler. He had applied what combat training he had learned in the military to using them, but such training had never been a focus for him.

Seba had worked to correct dozens of minor issues from how he stood, to where he held his weapons, to the way he carried his weapons when not fighting. The man had been working to drill in a handful of stances, along with a half-dozen positions Elijah could hold his buckler in. He’d also been given a small booklet of various sword strikes to practice in concert with the buckler. None of it felt natural, at least at first, but it was slowly becoming more comfortable.

The book included a few more advanced techniques Elijah could practice once he had a solid foundation. Things like reinforcing the buckler with his sword hand or techniques specifically meant to be used in concert with spells such as his Blood Blade that could extend the reach of the weapon for a few crucial moments. There was even one that involved dropping his sword so he could forge a new one in the empty hand and take his opponent off guard, something that seemed ridiculous when he first saw it.

All told, he was kept so busy he barely even noticed before it was time to attempt the next break through with his Ki Channel.

#

“Great job Elijah, you did good work. Your internal control of your channels is impressive.”

Niels had taken a break to watch over Elijah’s attempt to carve out his Spinal Ki Channel. He had been the only one on Hidden Opportunities confident in his ability to interfere in the process if something went wrong. Thankfully, that hadn’t been necessary.

Like Niels had promised, it was a lot easier to accomplish the second step in the process. He only had to create one channel, though about twice as long and slightly more complicated than the channels on either arm. The final thing looked something like a trident head, with the joining point at the top of his pelvis. The general pain had been less than before as well, though the final flash of agony had not been reduced.

“Thank you, sir.” As he spoke Elijah had to force himself to maintain a casual stance, his body naturally attempting to take an “at ease” stance. “I’m working hard to meet your team’s expectations.”

“I know you are Elijah, and we are happy to have you joining us. We obviously underestimated your commitment, given your hard work the last few days. It is hard to know how someone will react to pain. Especially extreme pain like what we put you through. Have the changes been worth it in your mind?”

“Absolutely. I feel incredible, and understand why you said this would help keep me alive. The loss of mana hurts, considering I already didn’t have a lot, but I’ve been talking to Theo about which of my Spells to transform into Arts.”

“Theo was the right choice. He knows the most magical theory of any of us, and fully understands the process. Even if he’s never opened his own Ki Channels, he’ll have the best idea of how the change will affect your abilities. Have you put any thought toward your first Intermediate Spell or Art?”

“A little bit. I am leaning toward incorporating part of the Three Dragons Style currently and I want to advance whichever ability I end up focusing one. I am hoping to have a decision made by the time I finish with my Ki Channel.”

“A good approach. Take this time to research your options. Slow down on your channel if you need to, we have a little time. Take an hour each day to talk to Theo and think about what you want to do.”

“Thank you, sir.” Hoping to end the conversation on a high note, he took a moment to talk himself up. “Even slowing down, I hope to finish up by the end of next week.”

“Then we will plan to make our first real push to advance in two weeks. That should give you a few days to finish your spell fusion and start practicing a Combat Style.”

#

“The difficulty with transforming an Aura Spell into an Art is that Ki cannot exist outside the body for any extended amount of time. What people call a Ki Aura is really just flooding the area with your Ki and setting off an immediate affect by producing a multiplicative cascade. Good for ah big burst of damage immediately around you, but not so great for something that takes a while to show any impact.”

Theo looked more like a mad scientist than ever while wearing the full, brass facemask. He leaned over some kind of bubbling, purple concoction. Every few seconds he would fiddle with a small valve, adjusting the fire of what seemed to be some kind of magical Bunsen Burner beneath his newest creation.

“I was getting that feeling. Unlike Mana, Ki feels a lot, well I guess the term would be heavier. Mana feels eager to go out into the world. So quick to escape the trick is forcing the energy to take its time. Whenever I try to force Ki out of my body though, it’s like pushing a boulder uphill.”

“This is all about where the energy wants to be. You can think of Mana as the link between your soul and the world. Ki, meanwhile, is the link between your soul and the body. It still has flavors. Still gets attuned to you and your elements. But the stuffs half-life before breaking down into pure energy is a lot shorter. Your soul doesn’t attune it with the same type of intent as it does Mana.”

“What do you mean by that, intent?”

“Hrmmm”

As he was about to respond, the tincture started to bubble and Theo quickly held up a finger. Acting quickly, the man removed the flask from the burner and began to swirls it around. As he did, the mixture started to glow with what Elijah could only assume was Theo’s magic. From one of the pockets on his coat, the man pulled out a small vial of pink granules and slowly began adding the stuff into the heated liquid with careful taps.

“Grab the pitcher of water behind you and poor up to the third line on the blue based cylinder. The one with the yellow tablet in it.”

Moving quickly, but carefully, Elijah did as he was instructed. As soon as the water touched the tablet, it began to fix and foam. As Elijah continued to add water it quickly dissolved until the only evidence it had been there at all was the slight yellow tinge to the water.

Passing Elijah the flask, he grabbed the cylinder away and putting it beneath a burette as though preparing to titrate the liquid. “Continue to swirl that. Slowly and smoothly.”

Carefully, the man loosened the stopcock and allowed five drops to drip into the cylinder. Then had grabbed the flask away from Elijah and tipped the contents of the cylinder. He quickly corked the flask and began shaking it vigorously before turning back to Elijah.

As if nothing had happened, Theo quickly returned to the conversation. “People think that Ki cores simply refill more quickly than their Mana equivalents, but that isn’t really the case. This isn’t an exact comparison because I’m trying to apply physical concepts to a spiritual substance, but it would be more appropriate to say that Ki is simply less pressurized. You get more volume for less mass.”

The man waited, clearly expecting Elijah to ask about something. After a moment’s thought, he knew what it was.

“How can that be? I can feel my Ki pool. And while it might be a little more than the amount of Mana I lost, the difference is not enough to explain the fact that my Ki returns four, maybe five times as quickly. On top of that, what does that have to do with intent?”

“Let’s address the second question first. I call it intent, but there are a lot of words for it. The short and messy is basically this, intent is the amount of energy necessary to fight against natural laws by imbuing some of your will as a living being into the energy. It is what makes the energy actually do something instead of just dissipating along the path of least resistance. Because your Soul holds the most sway inside the body, magically speaking, it takes less intent to perform a desired action. Outside, it has to fight against all the other souls also trying to manipulate reality. This is also why using spells inside an opponent’s body is difficult.

“As for your first question, the problem is where you are looking. Your Ki Pool is only a side benefit of Ki. A little something extra for when the main course isn’t enough. Because of that, most of your Ki isn’t in your Core or Channels. It’s in your muscles and blood. You can enhance it more by spending Ki, but even absolutely drained your physical strength and durability is being empowered by a much larger reserve of Ki. The only way you’ll know you hit the limit of that reserve is by passing out.”

Elijah thought for a moment, then asked his next question, “I guess that explains why most Ki Arts are just fast, brief blasts of elemental energy. What about armor abilities then? Shouldn’t those break down since they are outside the body?”

For just a moment, Theo almost stopped shaking the flask. There was a look of surprise on his face. Then he cracked a smile and returned to vigorously shaking his creation.

“Not used to people asking about that. They tend not to think about it. The short answer is that armor abilities work different as an Art. Spells just cause the armor to form on top of your skin. That’s common knowledge. Arts do things differently. They actually form just under the surface of your skin and then protrude out. You could think of the bit inside the skin as the actual art while the stuff outside is just an extra bit.

“There are some unique aspects of that actually. Technically a powerful and capable enough teleportation specialist could teleport a Mage out of their armor. Wouldn’t work on an Arts user though. The required difference in power for that is high enough that it would actually be more effort than just breaking the armor, so functionally there isn’t a difference. Fun to think about though.

“Your soul also retains a decently high amount of control just outside your body, out to a range of maybe two inches before dropping precipitously until it hits its minimum at sixish inches. All told, armor abilities are still generally just about the most draining Ki Art you can use, but should perform pretty equivalently to a spell version.”

As the man continue to mutter about “Will Integrity” and “Soul Signal Degradation” Elijah was hung up on one particular statement from early in Theo’s latest revelation.

“What do you mean it forms under the skin and protrudes out?”

“Oh, you won’t feel it. You Ki will shut off the pain receptors at the site of puncture and keep the wound from bleeding or anything. It will also heal right back up afterwards. They aren’t even very big puncture, maybe a twenty-six gauge needle.”

Elijah felt the blood drain from his face as he imagined walking around like a pincushion. Before he could think about it too much, though, Theo began pouring his now glowing, golden concoction into five vials. Four of these Theo placed in straps on his bandolier. Straps Elijah would have sworn were full before. The last was handed to Elijah.

“What’s this?”

“A Holy element explosive. Usually you wouldn’t be able to keep it stable, but I added some extra ingredients and some of your Mana. Should stay good for a month or so.”

“Oh.” Talks with Theo could end bizarrely.

#

Later that evening, Elijah found himself sitting across from Seba while he studied the Menu provided by the System. He’d been building up a rather large stockpile of points and he had decided to start putting some of them to work. This brief training respite would be over soon and he needed to be ready.

“So what made ya decide to get a new spell Elijah.” Seba was lightly tossing a small knife around, performing tricks with it as they spoke.

“I want something that will help the team out more. Everything I currently have is about my own survival. As important as it was to focus on that before, now I have a team behind me. I want something that I can use as a force multiplier for you and Niels. I’m betting that will do more in the short term than anything else I can do.”

“Well, that and making sure you can keep us excluded from your aura. How’s the training with that spell going?”

The spell in question, Aura Immunity, had been something Elijah picked up a long time ago. The spell would let him exclude targets from his aura, but it had to be individually cast on each person whenever they entered his Blood Roil Aura’s range. Something that had proven difficult, but had gotten easier as he practiced the situational awareness exercises from Rory’s Style.

“About as well as I can hope. It’s still pretty slow, but at least I’m not just leaving people under the spell’s effects anymore.”

“Well, that’s to be expected. It’s still just a Beginner level spell. Bet’cha it gets easier once you bump your Aura up to Intermediate rank. Solid foundation and all that though.”

Elijah continued studying the descriptions of the various spell types while Seba twirled the knife on his finger, allowing the conversation to drop for a moment. Soon enough, the rogue couldn’t help but try to draw him back into talking.

“Any idea what you are going to buy?”

“Nothing for sure yet. I wish some of those hidden option Niels mentioned had popped up for my spells. The option to purchase an Augmentation spell would be fantastic. I’m basically debating between Enhancement and Aura. Niels says Aura can be a bit of a grab bag, so an option for a buffing Aura should be in there. Enhancement seems like the obvious choice, but those can usually only be used on the caster.”

“True, true. Not sure if this will affect your decision, but do you have the mana to maintain a second Aura spell? Those are usually pretty expensive.”

“Not directly, but if I use Sacrifice I could probably maintain a second while empowering my healing with Ki.”

“Seems like a good plan, but that will only work for so long. Healing any real, substantial damage is one of the most expensive uses of Ki. Especially with only one Ki Channel.”

“You aren’t wrong.”

Seba smiled at that, “Theo may be the specialist, with all his fancy magical education, but I’ve been around him long enough to pick up a few things.”

“Alright, let’s do this. Enhancement spell it is.”

#

“Can’t believe Niels has me training you like this. If we’d just left you there, we’d be out of this forest by now.”

Elijah had gotten used to Rory’s complaining by this point. The man had agreed to help him learn the relevant parts of the Combat Architect Style, but he had never been enthusiastic about it. He’d complained about every one of the sessions they had together, and had only gotten worse after Niels decided that Elijah’s new spell meant he needed to increase the priority of Rory’s training.

The spell had been called Blood Rush, and as Elijah had been hoping it was a single target spell that impowered whoever it was used on. According to the description, Elijah would insert his mana into willing ally’s bloodstreams. The spell would than do two things. First it would enhance the person in a way very similar to blood doping back on earth by improving the ability of the blood to carry oxygen to the muscles. Second, the mana would break down into something very similar to Ki and directly empower the person’s body. It wasn’t as efficient or as strong as actual Ki, but it was a noticeable improvement.

“How many blue hats were in the picture Elijah.” Rory had a smug grin on his face as he asked the question. He’d noticed Elijah zoning him out and used that chance to ensure Elijah would fail to answer him correctly.

The game they were playing to test Elijah’s progress with the style was pretty simple. Rory would show Elijah a picture for just a moment, and then ask him a question about the contents. Practice with the style should slowly give him a photographic memory for at least a little while, and make these sorts of things easy. He wasn’t there yet though, and even he was he hadn’t even looked at the picture.

“Four.” Elijah’s face was stone as he gave his answer. They both knew what was going on, and Elijah would give him nothing to prod with.

The grin sinking into a frown was all Elijah needed, the joy drained from Rory’s voice as he said, “Wrong.”

#

Seba and Theo were enjoying an evening game of cards while Niels and Elijah meditated outside camp. On the other side of the fire, Rory sulked. The man was worried that Niels was going to replace him now that Elijah, an actual tank, was around. The man should have known better than that. They’d both talked to him, but nothing seemed to get through his thick skull on the matter.

“What do you think he’s going to go with?” Seba asked. “His magic could go a lot of ways. Especially now that his first Ki Channel is fully open.”

“I’m not sure. If he was a more ruthless man, he could become quite terrifying as an assassin. His powerset is well made for making an opponents body tear itself apart.” Theo shuddered for a second, “Did you know his aura actually inserts his mana into opponents’ bodies? I haven’t told him that, but it’s true.”

Seba threw down a card as he whistled, “Damn…I thought that didn’t work. Absolute authority of the tenant soul or something.”

“That’s exactly what’s so frightening. His magic is like a parasite. It hides itself from the local soul, becoming incredibly hard to detect. This means not much mana makes it inside the body, and most of the heavy lifting is done by externally controlling the blood through attraction and repulsion, but it’s enough to be dangerous.” Theo grimaced as he took his time before throwing down his own response to Seba’s card.

Seeing Seba quickly respond to his play, Theo began frowning at his hand before he continued talking, “He could do something simple, like combining Blood Blade, Vampiric Strike, and Bleed. That kind of thing is popular among Blood Mages, and would cause every wound he made to bleed like he’d cut an artery. Be harder to heal too.”

“Nah, too offensively minded for that man. He doesn’t have the mindset for finishing a fight quick like that. Bet it would suck down your Mana like crazy too.”

Theo nodded in confirmation, “Oh certainly. You could throw in Sacrifice and have each blow power the next one, but then you can probably only manage two or three hits before you run out of juice without fresh blood around. A definite slaughter path.”

“Shit, that would be something. Would be great for a guy like me, but that one is way too invested in keeping the team safe to fully invest in something like that.”

Theo put his cards down on the table and indicated he was folding the round. “Agreed. The second option, which I find the most likely, is that he ends up folding Bleed and his Aura into his Armor spells. Most likely, that would cause his armor to take on increasingly defensive forms as he draws in more and more blood. Meanwhile, Bleed would cause his armor to more aggressively drink up enemies’ blood. That would be important because a transformation like that would mean the armor takes in less and less blood as it advances. The addition of his aura would mean that anyone within melee range would passively suffer the effects of Blood Roil too.”

“That sounds a lot more like him. Could definitely see that,” Seba began shuffling the cards as they spoke, carefully adding a few surprises as he did.

“Don’t think I didn’t see that you cheat,” Theo glared at the deck before pulling out a new one. “Third option? He adds bleed to his aura. It would mean that anyone inside his aura would bleed more and be harder to heal when they were cut or injured. Definitely has its advantages, especially against a large number of enemies.”

“So, you think what he does with Bleed is what will determine how his powerset turns out?” Seba didn’t display a hint of shame as he continued talking, taking the new deck and beginning to shuffle again.

“I think so. It’s his most underutilized spell, considering that blood can be used to strengthen so many of his other powers. Whatever he sticks it on will become his core ability. We talked a lot about how much he was weakening himself by not using the spell more.”

Seba quickly dealt out fifteen cards to each of them, placing the rest facedown in the middle. “Any other spells you definitely see being combined by the end of all this?”

Theo grinned a bit as he perused his new hand, not noticing Seba slip a card into his left sleeve and replace it with on from his right. “We decided Blood Blade and Vampiric Strike will definitely need to be combined. It should give him a weapon enhancement spell with an active component. Obviously, the various armor and aura spells will be consolidated. I tried to convince him to add Blood Rush to his armor, but he wouldn’t listen. Didn’t like that it would probably mean losing the option to enhance others.”

The two of them played a few more hands, Seba always making sure to let Theo win about forty percent of the games. Enough for him to come away the winner and a tiny bit richer, but not so much as to give up the ruse. He’d been keeping this up for months now, occasionally letting Theo “catch” him cheating and even letting the man win a few nights. He doubted it would last much longer, Theo would come up with his own scam. A new potion to see through the back of the cards or another truth serum slipped into Seba’s beer so Theo could game his new system.

As they continued to play, more focused and figuring out the others scam than the actual skills for the game, Niels and Elijah returned from meditation. The man was grinning, clearly happy about how the fusion of his spells had gone. Then he showed them the results.

“Well damn,” Seba said. “That’s better than I expected.”