All my senses are heightened while using [Advanced Mana Sense]. And when I say ‘senses,’ it’s because if you concentrate enough, you can perceive Mana even with your tongue. There are species in nature that do that, in fact. But what’s important is that Lord Juler taught me to fight using every sense because the energy world is too complicated to navigate otherwise. He told me that it wasn’t the Vanedenis who invented this, but a much more ancient population they once fought in war. Allegedly, they were the only ones to have really whooped their asses. But the great thing is that they taught some ancestors of Lord Juler, the Epodes family that he made famous, one of their techniques. Why they did that is a mystery even to Lord Juler, but it certainly created a whole new generation of insane slap-ready [Battlemages] and one bullying [Supreme Archmagus].

He says that I’m far from learning the whole martial thingy but that I’m not that bad either. The first thing that you learn to do is to perceive the world through [Advanced Mana Sense], which is ‘incidentally’ the first skill that the book is supposed to pass on to you. Now, the second step is to learn how to fight through the messy [Advanced Mana Sense]; it takes a lot of vomit to learn how to do that, especially in a made-up world. The actual inner workings of how that is possible are beyond me. Lord Juler tried to explain some of it, but my traditional magical theory is as bad as my modern magical theory is good.

I can smell Appius’s Mana now, though. It’s thick and based on air currents.

Lightning Magic.

I feel a colossal shield starting to form in front of me – and I feel it on my skin. It’s nothing puny like what Atticus or Adriana attempted to do. No, the man is carrying a staff that looks all crooked in the energy world, but that’s also a bright beacon of Mana. And the patterns coming from the staff make it so that the shield is up in almost a second.

[Light]

[Light]

[Light]

I start casting [Lights] inside the spell matrix, but it’s too powerful to be completely disrupted. Appius reworked his spell into something densely packed and super-efficient. The usually feebly squiggly lines are as sturdy as steel wires. But it’s enough to avoid having the shield form around him completely. I could lead with a [Gamma-Knife], but I have no idea what this person can do. The long casting time means anything could happen, and I’m not ready to fire off my last ace in a second. I need to lure him into using something really powerful. Then, if I can hold the line, I’ll pulverize a major vessel in his brain and give him a fatal stroke – the same that happened to Adriana.

Now, the problem with the shield that Appius is summoning is that Lightning Magic is made of exactly what you are thinking: lightning. And when you touch [Lightning], you get zapped.

But, the shield being very thick shield and made of Lightning, it’s not efficient to have the shield cover you at a 360-degree angle. So, imagine more of a crescent moon in this case. And that’s good to block powerful attacks or stupid monsters.

But what happens when you have a crazy running [Mage], trained by a Vanedenis, thirsty for blood?

I see the [Lightning Bolt] coming my way as soon as he starts casting it. And trust me, it doesn’t take long before I have a very fast and deadly attack aimed right at my head. Now, I would like to say that I used my mighty lance to deflect it like they’d do in the coolest of those stupid Japanese cartoons, but that’s not how it works in real life. Instead, I create a small [Advanced Hexagonal Three-Folded Shield], small enough not to burden my Mana reserves but thick enough to deflect the bolt. Not block, just deflect. Efficiency is everything, Joey Luciani – that’s what the old bag says.

No one is talking now; it’s just magic and my badassery.

I’m extremely close to the front of his stupid shield.

See, the lance I’m wielding is not as much for beating as you would think. I’m not good at that. Not yet, at least. But I learned many neat tricks and advanced techniques when I was studying the latest Cantrips from the damned book. And one of them is how to insert pre-formed matrixes inside your spells and trigger them at a moment’s notice. You would usually employ those when you need to curve a particular spell around an obstacle. That’s what it’s used for.

Usually.

I trigger the spell of the [Advanced Light Lance] that I’m holding in my hand.

With a swoosh, I’m behind the umpteenth bastard trying to take my life for the most stupid fucking reason. I mean, once or twice, I can understand it. But three times in a row? That’s too many idiots. And no one tries to help me, except for a supposedly-dead, freakishly hot Vanedeni-monster-Princess? Everyone has a limited allotment of tolerance. And I’m way past my reserve.

I smile as my feet glide on the ground while I hold the moving [Advanced Light Lance], basically acting as a button ski-lift at very high speed. I mean, why not flash a smile before I beat this idiot up?

[Mages] don’t have the battle reflexes you would expect from any Gold Rank. Not even almost-[Archmages].

Now, I’m a couple of feet away from Appius’s face, and I just keep smiling at him as I raise my other hand to where I’ve started an [Advanced Light Lance] matrix as soon as I triggered the other spell. Well, who said I was going to actually beat him up physically? I’m an academic, mind you.

“Say cheese.”

[Light Overcharge]

[Overcharged Polarization Field]

[Light Acceleration]

[Light-Bended Reality]

[Overcharged, Accelerated: Advanced Light Lance]