10/22/ AWAD 200

Jay finished his initial circle around the fort for surveillance and hunkered down for his early morning sprint. The fort around the ancient completed an hour before the first attack fortunately. The first guardian monsters were a herd of mutated deers thundering out of the forest. With the wall nullifying their initial charge, the herd only served as an increase in food supply. A week passed by with similar attacks.

He smiled. His sustained speed for his mana whirl had increased drastically. Plus, there had been no annoying instances of invasive telepathy.

Mana sight opened up a whole new world, and a variety of green hues were visible to his mana sight. Nothing but plant life appeared to be present.

Jay narrowed his eyes at a strange ripple and in one motion drew his shortsword to parry a blow to his head.

“Good job, taking two shifts would be--,” Seran said, shimmering into sight.

With a thrust of his bastard sword, Jay didn’t allow Seran to finish.

You didn’t forget to counter, good,” Seran smiled wolfishly, dodging the strike.

Seran followed up with a slash from the right, but the motions weren’t completely consistent with the ripples.

Jay managed to fend off the actual blow and asked with a grin, “illusion magic?”

Seran blurred to appear to the left of where he was before.

He scowled, “it's called auracraft, boy. I have no need for nonsense spells that won’t even work as well.”

Before Jay could offer a rebuttal, he sensed a blow from behind and dived forward into a roll. Turning around showed Jervoh was his attacker.

“What was that for?” Jay growled.

Jervoh only stared back silently.

There had been many times the urge to break Jervoh's face surged in him, but at the very least Jervoh’s actions had clear purposes. That didn’t dissuade Jay from trying to jump Jervoh at least once, though, a mistake. The attempt ended terribly with Jervoh leaving him hovering in the air until midday. Being reminded about the experience stung, the topic Kenjo guffawed at currently.

Jay glared at Gavon who broke down into laughter after recounting the incident. Even Jave and Hegan chuckled. Did they really think they were whispering soft enough?

"Oh sorry,” Hegan apologized. “The fact that even a northerner despised Jervoh and his teaching methods was hilarious. Almost everyone hated every second of Jervoh’s lessons. Luckily, we only had to endure long enough to learn glyphs to read contracts and do simple math."

Gavan, Jave, and Kenjo grunted in agreement.

Jay wasn’t truly annoyed, because he had eventually learned everyone’s names after staying so long. A little ribbing was par to the course in a community, but that wasn’t what Jervoh did.

“I will ask once again. What was your issue with me?” Jay gritted his teeth.

He had grown a lot under Seran. Maybe another try at thrashing Jervoh would work out.

“I was checking whether you were ignoring my magispeaking to you,” Jervoh uttered after the long silence. “After being attacked without provocation, your thoughts towards me would be furious. I couldn’t sense your rage even then, however. Congratulations, your mana whirl is fast enough for you to learn magispeak. how to defend yourself from magispeak and help yourself defend against magicraft attacks.”

Jay almost trembled with rage and had to stop himself from reaching his swords. A couple slow breaths calmed him down. Jervoh always found the worst ways to irritate somehow.

“I guess I do something with the mana that goes and comes from my head?”

Shannah’s advice to sense the mana he emitted from his body had been really helpful. Focusing on the mana coming off his head had made him feel like he was thinking the same thoughts twice.

Brain mana carried his thoughts somehow, and the mana whirl had a cleansing effect, apparently. Jay wasn’t ever a schizophrenic, and a cause and effect relation was established when the eeriness stopped as soon as he lurched back in fear. The thoughts he felt twice decreased as his mana whirl increased over the past two weeks.

“Talk about what you’re thinking or slow down your mana whirl. I can’t tell whether you are thinking like a cretin or not,” Jervoh said.

Jay refused to give up his newly earned privacy so easily, “your sister told me to get a sense of the mana I emitted from my body so I noticed how my the mana coming off my head somehow carries my thoughts. I assumed I would have to use that mana somehow.”

Jervoh sneered, “you are actually on the right track but not… quite. There would be no point in having a mana whirl. Yes, you use mana from your head, but only in small packages for telepathy. You use the mana you collect in your mana whirl to defend yourself. Since I said the skill you need to learn will help you defend yourself from magicraft attacks, what you have to do with whirled mana should be obvious.”

“I encase my body with my whirled mana?" Jay remarked, "that seems straightforward.”

Having gotten used to handling mana from speeding up his mana whirl, Jay found using the momentum of the whirl to spread his mana across his body trivial.

After foreign mana piercing the mana film Jay crafted registered in his mind, Jervoh smiled a particular sadistic smile.

[@$(&*@&)#%&(@#)!]

A sensation not unlike that of static of electronics assaulted Jay.

“Did you do that?” Jay ground his teeth seething in anger.

Jervoh could have definitely warned him.

[I suppose I could have.]

If Jervoh could see his thoughts, then he should be greeted with brutal thoughts. Jervoh didn’t shift from his bored expression, though, even after Jay thought of the most awful ways of thrashing him for five minutes.

“That was another magispeak package, so I don’t actually know whatever you’re thinking of me,” Jervoh smirked.

Jay drew his swords.

Seran was the voice of reason for once and calmed Jay down. His sword instructor had come back from his shift in the nick of time.

By then Jehan, Daven, Kefian, and Nafen replaced Hegan’s group, and they were in higher spirits. After a week of constant hacking they were almost finished cutting down the ancient. There would no longer be a fear of a swarm of monsters coming down on their heads.

Shannah had a much more pleasant way of training him with his mana shell. She would try to force Jay to listen to her through magispeak as they discussed the things he learned from Jervoh. Shannah’s erraticness the first time Jay met her had only been a one time thing, and exploring what he learned from Jervoh in more depth was fun. On top of that Jervoh was busy keeping watch.

The three hours went by fast and Jervoh promptly just pulled out a large book from his pouch, courtesy of dimensional magic. The book he pulled out was titled A criticism of the anthology of the rise and development of the Halfy road, might be worth it to ask to read it.

Exchanging a high five with Shannah after the particular productive session, Jay took his place as a sentry. His mana field now extended a yard from him and could be molded to bar magispeak or spells.

Nothing but plant life appeared to be present to his mana sight as before, but something intruded his mana field.

Jay drew his shortsword to block a blow to his back.

“Good, keep sharp,” Seran said but didn’t appear.

Jay spent the three hours of his shift also guarding against Seran’s random attacks, but the rabbits that neared the fort didn’t escape his attention.

“Jervoh we should go kill those rabbits shouldn’t we?” Jay asked.

A family of rabbits in the distance increased in quantity and proximity alarmingly.

With a grumble, Jervoh set down his book and gruffly asked, “where?”

Glaring at the rabbits Jay pointed out, he cast a spell. Both his hands became encircled with numerous glyphs glowing in his mana sight. The spell didn’t stop at dissolving the construct in carrier mana. Taking the shape of a cone, the spell shot up in a shrill. After entering a lengthy ark, the construct plunged downward at the unfortunate rabbits. On impact, the spell enveloped all surrounding life in a violent surge of mana.

“Sorry you weren’t supposed to look directly,” Jervoh remarked boredly.

Jay clenched his teeth in agony still suffering from seeing the sudden chaos in the manascape. No longer on his shift, he stopped focusing his mana sight. A crater wasn't formed as he expected. Instead the place hit became devoid of life. Only ash was left of the once vibrant area. The contrast between the small area of desolation and the steady vibrance of the forest was unnerving. Almost like a forest grew around a miniature desert, a reverse oasis. No, that didn’t even begin to capture the sense of unnaturalness.

“What you’re feeling is instinct your body's way of telling you not to get anywhere near the area of effect,” Jervoh explained.

Nothing seemed to make a move to fill in the vacuum. Not even random insects. Nature abhorred vacuums right?

"The sense of menace of the area should dissipate quickly. Rigidity doesn’t tend to hold in this world especially aberrant effects, but--" An implosion rang out behind him, “--that can be used.”

For a second, Jay was in awe at the sense of might but then remembered how much of an asshole Jervoh was.

“We won!” A border line war cry rose from the men as the ancient groaned and fell down.

Cheers went up from the town audible all the way here, only to be interrupted.

Jervoh boomed, "I would say I'd hate to be the harbinger of bad news, but you would know that wouldn’t be true. The Ancient still managed to call a swarm." His eyes shined, "This is going to be fun!"

A swarm was indeed in a rush towards them, and Jervoh had issues.

Jay couldn’t make heads or tails of what the mutated animals could have been. All of them had shapes in flux and in radically different ways. Some flickered like gases, morphed like water, or seemed to be the embodiment of plants squirming eerily.

An unnatural call rang through the forest. The sound an amplified bleat then a howl and then a piercing bird call, in a freakish amalgamation. A chaotic mass of air, water, and plant monsters surged forward in what seemed as on cue to that horrible sound to Jay but with a queer silence.

“It has been a while since I have had fun,” Master’s amused voice rose above the whispering she had been doing with her two apprentices.

Jay spun around to see her and her two apprentices appear to be working on a spell construct. Figuring his sight had recovered enough, he focused his mana vision.

He gasped in wonder. The sight was breathtaking and not just the complexity. Instead of a haphazardly placement, the rings of glowing glyphs were arranged as though an elegant piece of clockwork. As with all spell structures, the wonder disappeared, dissolved into mana that would carry the spell effect.

One second a tsunami of monsters flowed forward heralding destruction. The next second many monsters found themselves falling into several pieces. If Jay had interpreted the glyphs correctly, then temporal cracks formed in reality itself, killing many and trapping even more monsters.

Jay was in awe at the display of power. As soon as the cracks stopped growing, Seran jumped off the wall dashing towards the nearest monsters, sword drawn, and he followed suit.

Softening the fall with a roll, Jay ran at a different group of monsters. His swords appeared to bend like they were stuck into water as they passed through a crack and sliced into the necks of monsters. Pulling away his swords returned their shapes to normal, prompting a sigh of relief from him.

Not knowing how long such a spell effect could persist, Jay fell into a rhythm cutting down the surviving monsters. Until he got one his swords stuck, a swing too sloppy.

He pulled harder but even then felt no give. Looking back at the offending carcass, Jay realized the monster was still alive and held his bastard sword with its dying body. Another monster managed to almost take a chunk out of him, but both monsters had their heads liberated by him with his short sword.

Jay didn’t know what warned him, maybe the cause was a stroke of luck or his expanding hyperawareness, but he managed to notice the icicles cutting soundlessly through the air towards him.

Jay cut all ten down and almost stopped to marvel at the speed he was capable of moving at. However from where the shattered icicles hit, three plant monsters exploded into existence, intent to maul him.

A magispeak rhythm prompted him to lower part of his mana shell.

Jay retreated before letting Shannah’s magispeak into his head.

[Get back. We’ll finish the rest of the monsters. Saving more on mana would have been great, though,] Shannah grumbled.

Seran made a running leap on to the village wall and Jay followed suit. Up on the wall, Jay’s attacker was finally visible. The thing was an amalgamation and probably the very thing that let out the hideous sound from before. Having antlers, the monster looked like a former buck but had a wolf’s snout and tail, and wings. Unlike the sense of fierce beauty like that of a griffin, its parts gave off a horrible sense of deformity. In fact, its body seemed to squirm disgustingly.

Hovering up in the air, the abomination brought with it another wave. Even Jay knew with his amateurish understanding with his mage sight that Master, Jervoh, and Shannah could not pull off the same thing before. Maybe a strategic error? Anyway, he felt an impending sense of doom as the revived swarm collectively prepared a volley of attacks.

Then Master yelled and slammed a white and smooth stone on the ground, crushing it. Jay briefly wondered whether Master went mad but not for long. Fissures, not cracks, split the sky once again. The arriving monsters of the second wave fell to the ground like puppets with their strings cut, dead. The leader fared particularly badly, most of the fissures converging on him.

Jay really wanted to know how that was done.

Thinking the battle finished, Jay began to sheath his swords when he noticed the strangeness of the falling pieces of the ‘final boss’ like monster. They fell too much in sync. Falling speed was the same for all things, but this was too abnormal. There was a breeze and not even pieces of the wings were caught by it.

This was going to make him look really petty and stupid if he was wrong.

“Master, are you out of weaponry? The boss monster probably isn’t dead yet.”

“Why? Oh I see… Well aren’t we in a bit of sliccle?” Muttering, Master had a faraway look in her eyes.

Jay turned to Shannah, “you?”

“Out too,” Shannah answered.

Jervoh pointed where Master threw the stone down, “that was my plan and experiment.”

Nothing else? Jay felt like slugging Jervoh but held back.

“Seran, you also come over here,” Master called out.

Seran gruffed, “I can only provide half of my mana without dying, too old.”

When Jay turned back to Master, eyes filled with a strange light met his, “I have just enough mana to set up a fire spell for your mana and Seran’s to power. I don't know how much will be enough to kill, so use as much as possible.”

Jay sheathed his shortsword and tightened his grip on his bastard sword and mana whirl. Parts of his mana whirl still remained loose, though. An even tighter grip was necessary. His mana whirl was completely within his grasp, after what felt like an eternity. With a mental heave, he wrenched all the current in his mana whirl down his bastard sword and into Master’s construct.

His yellow mana mixed with Seran’s black mana taking on a golden hue before contact that set the body parts on fire. In mana sight, mana links of mana of a rotten mix of green, blue, and brown surged into existence between each piece of the monster’s body before fading away.

After ten minutes of constant watch, Shannah and Jervoh recovered enough mana to scorch the body to ash for good measure.

01/02/ AWAD 201

Seran required Jay to move slowly through the sword drills he taught him. Jay’s mistakes felt and were obvious for weeks. Fortunately, his learning curve was steep and Seran no longer snarled curses about his forms, only ever grunting to stop every once in a while. Jervoh’s spell probably helped.

"Well you did manage to do better than I thought you would," Seran gruffed.

Gina, Han, Saman, and even Jafta and Jefus were watching from the side. Maybe Jafta and Jefus wanted to cut down their kills so as not to ruin the taste. Jay had to thank Jax for giving him tips on herbalism the other day, but he wasn't there oddly enough. The strangest issue, though, was that Seran had made the drills look like a dance. Jay paused to ask, but Seran cut him off.

"I know what you are thinking. This isn't what you saw me doing, just the base I started from. Add to the drills as you gain experience.” Seran growled taking a swig of alcohol, "attack me."

Jay rushed Seran at top speed with a growl, and the following fight went by for a minute. That was functionally ten minutes as Jay traded blows with Seran. Parts and pieces of the drill he learned were put to use as Jay struggled to force an opening in Seran’s defence. At one point in kicking up the dirt to impede the other’s vision, Jay and Seran had to rely only on their mana shells or auras to sense the other's attacks.

Seran’s technique was much more polished, but he couldn’t keep his body acceled like Jay could in the end. After a wide parry with the shortsword, Jay brought his bastard sword to Seran’s neck.

“I won,” Jay coughed out.

Seran smirked, “that’s a pathetic way to pronounce your first win.”

Jay grunted in agreement and staggered off to Jervoh's lecture. There were still combinations of glyphs he needed to learn, and books would become easier to comprehend.

He would usually then go help with the lumbering. As long as the king was never mentioned, the people were far from being the cagey xenophobes he had originally imagined. They had quite a few fun anecdotes that kept him entertained.

Jay lept forward when a ripple formed in his mana shell. Shannah, up to her usual antiques, tried to sneak up on Jay. She knew how his mana shell had a two-yard-radius, yet still tried.

”Could you please stop doing that?” Jay pleaded.

Shannah smiled and said, “No, it’s fun and also beneficial for you.”

She was fun to talk to but could be so aggravating.

"Usual place right?" Jay asked.

Shannah held up a sign that said yes and another one saying she had some things to gather. Why did she waste mana on carrying around things like signs in her pouch? Then again those could be illusions. Jay turned his attention more to his mana sight, but the signs seemed real. Shannah did claim to specialize in illusions, though.

Shannah sort of reminded him about this one girl in highschool who also tried to randomly hug him. However, Shannah made less sense, since the annoying girl from highschool only did what she did to gain attention from everyone else. Jay appreciated how Shannah continued teaching him the way from before, though. His mana field and knowledge both lept forward in quality.

A couple minutes had passed since Jay had been sitting at the usual place in the woods for the lectures as usual. That was the most he had simply just thought about the things that happened for months. Everything other than the lessons he learned from Jervoh, Shannah, and Seran fell into a blur. Magi Silvia seemed to be working on something frantically.

Usually after so many minutes, Shannah would sneak up on him like before. Jay was looking forward to finally learning about magic beyond utility spells. Feeling a little impatient Jay began going through his sword drills. That was always relaxing. A deliberate series of motions he could either speed through while acceled or move slowly through.

Out of sword drills and patience to go through, Jay walked back towards town. He would probably get some sort of explanation.

The first sign was the smoke. There was more than usual in the sky but Jay dismissed that as the smith working harder than usual. Next was the smell. The wind brought an acrid smell but that could have been from the butcher. Jay saw him set up some meat to dry. The visual, though... that wasn’t something he could dismiss.

Instead of a picturesque village that could have pulled out of a high fantasy novel, flaming ruins were all that were left.