The wind brushed against my face as I spun through the air with a fiery lance in my hand, greatly reducing my accuracy. Only now did I realize I was used to fighting without moving from a spot. The death magic always made me feel invincible and untouchable to the point where a magic beast as capable as Vito lost to me and failed to move me from the spot.
The absolute power of the death magic came at the price of technique. If I could kill someone without moving a finger why would I bother running around and flipping while throwing fire spears?
This was another flaw I needed to work on!
My initial intent was to toss the fire spear at the head, but my hands weren't steady, I was constantly moving, and my vision was blurry. With no other choice, I had to aim for a bigger target and throw!
Swish!
I watched my fiery spear through the sky. However, the Nefarian Stalker came from an unexpected angle and slapped the fiery spell away, and it struck the ground.
Boom!
I landed on my feet, skidded back a few meters, and finally regained my balance. Instinctively, my gaze shifted to the fire spear stabbed into the sand and back to the Monster, turning to face me.
Only now did I realize my little stunt had thrown me to the other side of the arena where I was isolated from the rest of the group. If they didn't attack from behind, this monster could zone me out and crush me while I'm alone.
"I went in too deep," I admitted with a low chuckle.
It was a bad situation but I wasn't afraid. Instead, I assessed the situation. Even in its weakened state, this monster could slap away my fire lance. If I wanted to break its defense,I needed something much stronger, but they would require a longer time to prepare.
With its limbs chained this beast wasn't that agile,e so I held the speed advantage with my zephyr rings.
"If I hold out long enough, I can create an attack that can rock it, then I break through and return to the tea," I mumbled decisively while my grimoire pages began flipping.
"From the depths of the infernal blaze, I summon destruction unrestrained!"
My eyes revealed an amber light as the entire battlefield began heating up. I clasped my palms to get here,r and as I separated, an ever growing sphere of fire spiraled into existence.
Bam!
The Nefarian Stalker sprang forward without hesitation. It was trying to interrupt the spell!
"Embers gather, fury rises, and let chaos be unchained!"
I skated backward while chanting, watching the grotesque monster racing towards me like a rabid dog on steroids.
This bastard is trying to kill for real!
"Burning wrath, take your shape—Inferno Sphere!
Grow, rage, consume—Hell zone Grenade!" I completed the chant, but the fiery sphere had only grown to a head-sized sphere. I was pumping my mana into this spell, but there was only so much It could absorb at a time.
I needed more time to charge it further to increase its lethality, but time was not on my side.
Swish!
I darted to the left to avoid the Stalker's lunge. I was successful but it wouldn't let me go easily and swung its long hand at my fleeing figure.
My zephyr ring was fast, but covering nearly two meters in less than a second was beyond its capabilities. I felt something strike me, but it didn't tear through my skin; it melted through it.
The attack had grazed me but it cleanly shaved off all the flesh on the surface of my right arm, revealing my bones.
I skidded back in disbelief, glaring at the wound, but my focus was deep, the pain was numb, and I kept changing the Hell-zone grenade.
"I can't lose focus now or this will all be for nothing!" I gritted my teeth as my eyes turned pitch black and my shadow expanded, covering that entire part of the battlefield.
The Nefarian Stalker was facing my direction, reading to intercept if I tried to make a run for my team. I had to confront it and stagger it before making my escape from this enclave.
I was already near the edge of the southwestern part of the arena, so I couldn't retreat further. I had to make a stand, resist, counter, and escape.
My anomaly-level shadow magic was the only spell I could rely on because it was the closest magic to my death magic I could publicly use.
"Come, I'll take you on!" I yelled as shadow tendrils swarmed forward to protect its Lord!
But this monster must have never experienced fear in its life. In confrontational situations like this, I have seen beasts flee and the bold hesitate, but this monster flung itself at me without a care in the world.
Bam! Bam!
Bam! Bam!
Multiple shadow tendrils struck the body of the monster but failed to penetrate as it pushed forward—bulldozing through them.
"From the abyss where darkness dwells,
Silent shade, heed my will.
Slither forth, a creeping chain,
Bind my foe in endless pain!"
Shadow Magic: Shadow Bind!
More shadow tendrils were twice as large as the previous one, and this time, it came from below as the monster had stepped into my shadow zone. Many shadow tendrils bound its limbs, rooting it to the ground while the others dove in and pierced its skin from all directions, causing the monster to shriek in pain.
My shadows may have succeeded in impaling it, but the wounds were shallow. However, we succeeded in stopping it for a second but that was all I needed.
"IT'S OVER!" I bellowed. "FIRE MAGIC: HELL-ZONE GRENADE!"
With the Nefarian Stalker rooted to a spot, I got a good view of his exposed head, and I attacked without hesitation. My hell-zone grenade spiraled forward, its flames completely engulfing the Nefarian Stalker's figure.
Swish!
Without hesitation I bailed, speeding back to the side of my team while holding onto my bloody arm with a frown. Gazing at the wound, my frown depended as I realized something—the monster must have coated its claw in acid before launching the attack.
Pfff!
My zephyr rings abruptly burst out of existence, and I fell to my knees, clutching my head as it was bombarded by a piercing heading.
"Aaah!" I groaned as my vision blurred.
Breathing was difficult and I could feel my consciousness slipping away. I was sure I evaded the attacks and got away safely, so why am I losing consciousness?
"W-hat's going—on," I mumbled before the world turned dark.
There was no response, just silence and peace.
__________
Huff!
My eyes yanked open and I sat up abruptly, remembering the Nefarian Stalker was still standing. However, I found myself on my king-sized bed in my room. Beside the bed was a stool where Lucy sat, and her upper half lay on the bed, breathing lightly.
I shifted my gaze to the bedside desk ahead of her; there was a bowl and a clean towel.
"Did I get knocked out without realizing?" I muttered while rubbing my temple gently. "And why is she here?"
{Because you passed out. Triple casting put too much strain on your mind but you were able to brave through it due to adrenaline. As soon as your body detected it was no longer in danger, it shut down.} Lin explained but this left me a bit more confused.
"Triple casting?" I asked.
Lin sighed as if he was bored of teaching me everything. He was probably cursing and wondering why he chose a peasant who lacked knowledge of everything.
{Moving around with your zephyr rings while charging your hell-zone grenade and holding down the enemy with your shadow magic. Do you think your mind and body can handle channeling three different elements at once?!} Lin scolded.
"Oh," I mumbled and it all began rushing back.
There was a reason the battlefield was eerie silent and no one moved. It's because they were stunned by my double-casting and triple-casting.
"How rare is this skill?" I asked out of curiosity.
{Don't think too much about it. While only a few people have actually achieved the stage of triple casting anyone can master it if they practice long enough. It's impressive but nothing special.}
I rolled my eyes and replayed the battle in my head. Lin was right; I pushed myself a bit far in that fight just to escape the monster which is supposedly in a weakened stage.
My arm was bandaged—it was warm but it didn't hurt. I lay back down and looked up at the vaulted ceilings with a frown. If I were on a real battlefield, my silly mistake could have cost my life, and passing out in the middle of battle was a death ticket.
I need to understand my limits without the death magic and learn to stick to them.
The first combat class ended with an embarrassing defeat, and strangely, Lucy had taken the initiative to look after me, further worsening my relationship with Leo.
Like, I don't even like her and she's the one that chose me, yet he's taking out his anger on me?
Vicious glares were thrown my way at every given opportunity but they never dared to come close. While losing consciousness was embarrassing, I came to realize my fighting technique was more sophisticated than even that of Leo, the future king of this kingdom.
He wasn't sure why but he had no combat experience and mostly relied on instincts.
For the next few weeks, I followed the same routine. We were distributed to different training grounds and paired up as we spared against weakened feral-level monsters under a controlled environment.
With Professor Brighton, no one ever got seriously hurt. In fact, a week in we found out he could easily prevent any of us from getting hurt, but he would rather see us bleed and heal our wounds because we needed to get used to pain.
"You need to be able to stand and fight even after your left arm gets torn out," he said.
By this time everyone took his word to heart like it was the scriptures of the holy book. Just a week in, the jovial attitude had been banished as everyone realized how weak they were and how easily they would die outside the wall.
Our first and second classes were proof that these monsters existed and the rumors surrounding them were true. In fact, they were much more dangerous in reality than in the rumors.
We were certain we would be sent outside the walls to fight those things soon so everyone trained like crazy. They spent just as many hours on the training grounds as me, but for some reason, the library was always empty.
I frequented the library every night with a sore body but Mrs. Rose was always a pleasure to be around. I learned her name on my third visit, and since then, she would even recommend books and tomes.
Thanks to her, I came to realize that the academy library also had a grimoire section which had random grimoires of dead mages with records of their spell.
Of course, this only happened to mages without any noble lineage. With no one capable of magic in their families, their grimoire is taken away by the kingdom and stored in the arcane library.
Knowledge is power and must be passed down to the next generation to ensure growth. That way younger mages didn't have to start from scratch when creating spells. They could copy the spells of their predecessors and choose what type of spells suited them.
I made sure to take a good look at fire and wind grimoires and copy down a few spells I found useful before taking my time to study dark magic grimoires.
Shadow magic
Necromancy magic
Curse magic
Blood magic
By the time I was done, my grimoire was packed and my knowledge of the world could be considered impressive.
I was prepared for the first expedition!