Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

Kalliope was laying on the ground gasping for air that seemed to refuse to enter her lungs. Every breath brought pain, but that pain told her she was alive. She had been at Fort Sella for a week or two now, and she had still not seen any combat. Kalivas refused to let her join any of the scouting missions until he thought that she was ready.

To prepare her, he offered to train her personally until he was satisfied. At first, she was ecstatic to receive tutelage directly from him, but if she knew that it would have meant the hell she has endured the last several days, she might have felt differently at the time.

The training he tasked her with was to use her Arts non-stop for several hours at a time, pushing her to the brink and sometimes over the edge into mana exhaustion. Allegedly this was to increase her ability to push past her limits by acclimating to the feeling of mana exhaustion, but it also was supposed to increase her mana capacity as well as fine control at the same time.

Kalivas had said when she is able to direct the mana for an Art to different parts of her body instead of only the part the respective skill actually uses, then she could be done. Kalliope thought she was insane. Everything she knew about Arts was that the mana was exclusively used for the part of the body, or the weapon, that it was designated for.

If she used a Dagger Art, the mana would concentrate in the dagger or daggers she was holding. If it was a Sword Art or a Shield Art, then the mana would collect in her sword and shield respectively. However, Kalivas told her she needed to siphon some of that mana away and pull it to other parts of her body? What does that even mean?! Is that a thing?

"You look like crap." A deep voice called out to her from above. Even though she had her eyes closed, she could still see a shadow cover her eyelids.

"Well, Uncle, I feel like it. Whose fault is that?"

"Yours. The longer you take to master the skill, the longer you have to spend feeling like this."

"I don't even know what it is supposed to look like, Uncle! Can you at least show me?"

Kalliope opened her eyes and looked up at the strongest warrior in Eroa who was watching her with curiosity. He put his hand to his chin as though he were pondering something. Kalivas then reached down and picked her up by the back of her clothes like a parent does to a pup.

"I had hoped you would be able to do it without a visualization. Your brother was able to after all." Kalliope's brow twitched. "Watch me closely, I will slow the activation for you."

"[Axe Arts: Heavy Slam]!"

Kalliope watched as mana collected in his battleaxe as per normal. Then she caught something strange. She watched as some of the glow of the mana seemed to dim from the weapon, the mana then started to collect in his feet and legs, making his boots give off a soft glow. He then allowed the Art to fully activate.

Kalivas rocketed into the air and came down with a massive slam attack with his battleaxe spraying dust and rocks everywhere. Left behind was a massive crater. The height of the jump he made was physically impossible for a normal person. Even he shouldn't be capable of jumping that high by normal means.

Kalliope's eyes were left wide open. "How in the world could you jump so high?!"

"The mana gathered for the activation of an Art can be manipulated somewhat. The energy released by activation can be used in creative ways. It is a rather difficult skill and only a handful of people I met can do it. However, it can add a near endless amount of possibility into your fighting tactics."

"How so?"

"What you saw was me splitting the energy between the attack and jump about fifty-fifty. But, you can also split it other ways like forty-sixty, ten-ninety, or eighty-twenty. By having these different combinations of speed versus power from your attacks your opponent never knows how fast you are going to hit, or how hard. It can trick them into making mistakes." The man explained.

"I see… okay, I will do my best. Thank you, Uncle, for showing me." She said while bowing.

She felt a large hand ruffle her hair and ears on the top of her head before he chuckled and walked away. There was no way she could pull it off tonight since she was already beyond tapped out. But tomorrow would be a new day and a new opportunity to grow.

"I've got this!"

*****

Lucius stood alone in the room he rented. It was small, but large enough for him to swing his weapon around a little without hitting anything. Now that he had access to his magic abilities, he felt a little stronger. Though, he was still stuck in the Novice Rank.

Most of his magical skills could not inflict much damage on the kinds of monsters they faced, but if they were fellow Novice Rank warriors or unranked monsters, then they would feel a world of hurt.

He remembered something that his master, Wally, had taught him regarding mana manipulation. It was how he was able to use his Arts to boost his speed and strength or switch up the weapon or part of the body that he could use the attack with.

After the fight with the Quillow Beasts on the road, he had wondered if the same thing was possible with his magic. Turns out it was, which was how he was able to make the Thunder Clap spell activate from his blade instead of his hands like the spell would normally activate.

"I just need to figure out how to channel it better…what if I…"

He closed his eyes and thought about the spells he could use at the moment and their abilities. The one that best suited his needs for his training was the Lightning Charge. Though, when he looked around at his room, he decided to go elsewhere. Apparently the Guild Hall had a training area in the basement and some of them were private and could be rented.

The whole space was free use, but if you were trying something you wanted to keep close to your chest, it cost money.

Even though it was the evening, there was an overnight staff of receptionists. About five of them were stationed at the desks to help out any adventurers who needed to perform any duties at night time. You could not take a quest after hours or turn them in, but you could use the other services.

Lucius quickly went downstairs and rented a training room in private. It only cost a handful of gold.

He was thankful he had received his share from the Quillow

Beast quest and materials. Rena's gift wiped out nearly his entire savings, costing nearly ten thousand gold coins. He saved up every single coin he was paid as her retainer, the quests they did, the items they sold, everything. Rena insisted on covering the costs of their stay at the inn since it was a shared room and she was the one buying potions.

He had offered to do these things, but she adamantly refused him.

It was her birthday and he just had to celebrate it with a big gift both for that, and for repaying her for everything she had done. The reason for its price? The cat-shaped pendant on the choker. It was a single-use item that would take a one-hit-kill attack before shattering.

He shook his head clear of the thoughts of her beautiful smile after receiving the present the moment he entered the private training room.

"Alright, let's give this a try…" he mumbled. "[Tempestas: Lightning Charge]"

Electricity danced around his body, just like the first time, however instead of letting it settle into his muscles and increase his speed, he forced it to dance along the outside of his body and then flow into the tip of his sword. Sweat beaded on his forehead as he felt like doing this was taking more mana than usual.

When doing this with his Arts, it always used close to the same amount of mana. Sure there was a little loss, but this felt like a lot. However, it did not matter. The first few times would be tough, but eventually he would master this like he had before.

Wally was a master at this manipulation skill. Eventually he hoped he could perform 'channeling' like the old magician could do, however he would need to be much stronger than a Novice Rank to do that, and have access to much, much more mana.

Lucius swung his sword while the electricity danced up and down the blade. It hummed as he swung it and left behind arcs of lightning as he swung it through the air. For his next experiment, he struck a target in the center of the room.

He watched as his blade sunk into the straw dummy and it exploded outward with a loud crack as the energy of the spell was dispersed instantly inside of it.

"Well that will be useful…" He muttered while panting with sweat pouring off him. It was a really useful application of the skill, but it was nowhere near ready yet. For now, this would be added to his growing list of hidden trump cards. Ones that even his best friend did not know about yet.

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