Ruinous Return

The sound of lapping waves was not something Lyn was familiar with. Growing up in a land locked, middle-of-nowhere town, she'd never been to the ocean before coming to Ghomar. And even when she had arrived during her first summoning, they didn't hang around the coast just relaxing. Sleep eluded her as the rhythmic surging kept her awake.

Thankfully, the memories of past trauma were not coming to her mind as she lay there, staring at the ceiling of the tent. They were locked away in her mind, and if she really wanted to, she could recall them. The Destroyer mana core had let her push them away, partitioning them in her mind. She could recall those horrors of the battlefield, seeing her classmates and friends brutalized, and every instance of abuse she suffered throughout her life. And for that capability to keep them locked away, she was extremely thankful. For the first time since coming back as what she was now…she felt some modicum of peace. Every other night she had either been distracted by sexual partners or fallen asleep drunk. No chance to think about the past.

But now, with no distractions of the flesh, she could reflect. And as she reflected on the past, she found herself not overwhelmed by the memories, but rather perusing them. As if she was in a library, and picking books from shelves, able to re-experience the memories if she desired. It was…meditative. The Destroyer Core bubbled in her torso as she looked back at the deaths of her allies, and kept her from experiencing the anxiety, dread, and horror of those moments. She was able to examine her past with a critical eye, rather than just reacting with panic and instinctual responses.

And she had made mistakes. The more she examined her memories of the past, the more she realized the stupid mistakes she had made during that first summoning as the Scout hero. She had pushed away the other heroes to pursue her own development. She had used them for her own ends. Training with James and Kory? It was to improve herself, not build a bond. The same with studying under Thomas. And even Misty was someone she had unwittingly used to gain mastery of Elenthir. All because she was pissed off that they called her the weakest hero. And because of what? The fucking statue that gave her a class? The more she dwelt on those memories, of being jeered at and made fun of…the angrier she grew.

Sleep wouldn't be something she would get that night. Fuck this, she thought. If I can't sleep, I might as well get some training in. She got out of the tent and glanced over at the group of guards that – until she stepped out, were just monitoring her. Now that she was in view, they became alert and watched her closely. She gave them a friendly wave and walked into the ocean; willing her armor to recede so she could feel the warm liquid on her skin.

Mana cores could be exercised just like a cardio workout. Most on Ghomar would cast spells until exhaustion, and then wait for their mana to replenish. But Kory, the football and all-around sports guy he was, figured out a better way. Lyn recalled his instructions with vivid clarity.

The heroes, eighteen of them at that time as two had died already, were laying down in a large lake. "Going for a swim is nice," she had said, "But shouldn't we be doing something more important?"

"This is important," Kory snapped back. "Fucking getting a ripped mana core is legit the best thing. Just go underwater, and push mana up and down your body." He took a deep breath and submerged himself. A few moments later, brilliant, red light emitted from him – the color of his mana – and the water around him bubbled. Not from heat, but from energy.

"Oh, I get it," Trisha said as she observed the process. "He's artificially increasing his heartbeat…mana-beat? He's making his mana core constantly push out and redirect mana, just like a during anaerobic exercise the metabolic demand increases, and the heart has to increase its cardiac output." She smiled and took a deep breath, submerging herself in the water. The light-green mana flowed around her, and the same roiling of water occurred. One by one, the heroes immersed themselves.

In the present, Lyn took a deep breath and laid back. She focused on her Destroyer mana core and felt the immense store of power within. She opened all her mana channels and began to move the mana through her body. But she went further than she had ever taken the exercise by holding the mana at the end of each limb during the circulation, engorging the mana channels and ensuring they remained wide and open, just how they were when she returned to Earth and had ripped them open to their widest.

Not utilizing mana channels would cause them to shrink over time, and she hadn't really stressed her mana in a while. She felt the burning strain in her muscles, and they slowly expanded to accommodate the increased mana flow as the channel widened to its maximum width. Only when her mana was almost completely gone did she release the pressure and sit up, taking a deep breath of the warm, salty breeze. She looked around and saw the group of guards staring.

"Hey, Destroyer." Lyn looked to her side as Naila came over and stood ankle-deep on the shoreline. "What do you think you're doing?"

Lyn stood up and faced her, "I'm training. Increasing my mana capacity and engorging my mana channels."

The woman stared at her. "Why?"

"I can't sleep. Might as well do something useful."

Naila walked over to the guards, talked with them for a moment, and then left. Lyn shrugged, took another deep breath, and went for another round of mana circulation. When she came up, the woman was back on the shore with two curved, wooden practice blades. She tossed one to Lyn, and she snatched it out of the air. "I'm curious to see the prowess of a Destroyer."

"Internal spells or all natural?" Lyn asked as she strode up onto the beach.

"All natural," Naila replied with a smirk. She raised her wooden sword in front of her, left hand extended to assist in a parry.

Lyn hefted the practice blade. It was styled like a scimitar or cutlass. Thanks to the Spellblade core she had consumed, as soon as she gripped the hilt, a rush of information filled her brain. Training that was peerless and unmatched, the wisdom and guidance of countless blade masters filling her memory. Her muscles instantly memorized the required movements. Nami's core fucking rocks. She grinned manically and flourished the blade. "Let's do it."

Naila stepped forward and chopped at Lyn from above. She deflected the blow with ease, but the woman's greater height and reach prevented Lyn from dashing in to strike a blow of her own. Tsk, gotta play defensively. Naila slashed from the left and Lyn stepped into the blow, deflecting at the elbow with her offhand and striking with her own blade. The Ari woman used her own arm to deflect the flat of the scimitar, pushing the blow upward. She tried to reach into the blow and grab Lyn's arm to pull her off balance.

Lyn instead turned into the larger woman, throwing the sword upward and using the momentum of her spin to throw an elbow jab into her chest. Naila staggered back from the impact, and Lyn disarmed her of the practice blade with her left hand, before catching her own blade a moment later in the right. She flourished both and twirled them in her hands. "Care to continue?"

Naila stood up and nodded. Lyn tossed her the practice scimitar and waited once more for Naila to act first. But the larger woman was cautious, keeping at the very edge of her attack range, and using her longer reach to harry Lyn's defenses. No blows got past her, and she deflected each without issue. But they were at a stalemate as both were fighting defensively. I can keep this going forever…but I need to prove my dominance. She intentionally let her guard down, and on the next deflection, feinted being off balance as she 'lost' her footing in the sand.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

Naila bought the bluff and closed in with a savage sideways chop. Lyn dropped to the ground into a split, the scimitar passing overhead. She used her thighs to push herself up and forward, stabbing forward with the wooden sword and catching the larger woman in the abdomen. "I win," she said with a smile. The larger woman brought the blade back towards Lyn, a look of anger and frustration across her visage. Lyn held up her draconic claw and grabbed the weapon, "I won. You can stop."

The larger woman tried to pull the practice blade away, but Lyn squeezed, and the weapon snapped in half. She looked at the broken blade, then back to Lyn, and then threw a wild haymaker.

Lyn simply stood the rest of the way and deflected the fist with her practice scimitar, smacking the woman's arm aside before delivering a savage standing kick to her torso, sending her tumbling back. "You lost. None can defeat the Destroyer," she growled as her voice dropped to the draconic tone.

Naila gripped her stomach, "That wasn't a killing blow," she grunted in between breaths. "I've stabbed a Valagonian through the stomach, and he kept swinging."

Lyn frowned and walked forward, kneeling next to the woman. "Have you been impaled through the chest? The abdomen?"

The woman frowned and shook her head. "Can't say I have."

The memory of being flung into the obsidian outcropping by the Demonic Dragon before going back to Earth lingered in her mind. She shifted her voice back to normal. "I have. I've been impaled on a spire of rock the size of my leg. Most people don't keep fighting after that." She tapped Naila on the stomach with the tip of the wooden scimitar. "Who was this Valagonian you fought?"

"Some giant of a man wielding a hammer."

Oh really? "Did his skin appear like iron? Was he screaming and shouting?"

She blinked a few times and sat up, "Yes…"

"Well…he wasn't a normal man." Lyn stood up and held a hand out to assist the other woman up. "That was the Berserker hero. You're lucky you lived. When did you fight him?"

Naila took the offered hand and pulled herself up, "Six years ago. We were on The Rill, on a trade voyage. We arrived in Ishtok and set up in a small village." She shook her head, "I remember it so clearly. Riders, coming from the edge of town. Whooping and shouting. Screaming 'kill the pointy ears!' We held off the forces until the merchants had boarded the ships, and then fled ourselves." She shook her head, "I'm hard to scare…but that man was a monster. He ripped the scimitar from my grip even though it was lodged in his stomach. He swung the hammer down at me, and I barely scrambled backward in time before the earth split apart."

Lyn nodded, "Kory Smith. And let me guess, he pulled the scimitar out of his stomach, grunted and cursed at you, and as you ran away someone else came over and healed him?"

Naila looked at Lyn with a puzzled expression, "You…yes…exactly that. A tall, hooded human."

In her time with the Duskari, Lyn had been told about Kory's Killers, his mercenary outfit he put together to help patrol the Valley of the Volcano's exterior mountains and prevent anyone from entering. If she fought against him and was able to inflict injury, she's a potent warrior in her own right. Lyn gestured to her tent, and the woman followed her. She sat on one of the cushions. "You've survived a fight with the Berserker hero. That's a claim to fame right there in and of itself."

Naila sat down across from Lyn and stared at her, "How do you know of this?"

Keep the ruse going. Only the heroes, Gael and Vael know the truth. "Well, I am the Demonic Dragon reborn, after all. The memories may be foggy at times, but I recall fighting against the Berserker hero several times over my prior lifespan." At least that wasn't a total lie, she thought. In fact, Kory was the one who was the most open to sparring practice with her when the other heroes were busy doing something else.

This answer seemed to satisfy Naila, and she nodded, visibly relaxing as the tension left her shoulders. "You are skilled with the blade."

"You think that's impressive?" Lyn chuckled and pulled Cataclysm from the hip-socket on her armor, willed it to shift into a spear, and held it aloft as the weapon ignited with the blue lava of her mana. "I'm much better with a spear." The weapon surged with the other elementalism types she had acquired, and the colors danced around the small tent.

Naila's eyes went wide, "That's what your mana charge looks like?"

"No," Lyn stated. "This is just how the blade works. It's solid mana." Which also kind of sucks, because the Spellblade core lets you do thought-only mana charged weapon spells.

"Have you tried charging it with mana?"

You know…I haven't. She closed her eyes and thought of the appropriate words for a simple spell. "Leithio nin thalion ritha / a lest nin megil a thalion / en i aine." The various elements that were swirling around the spear vanished, and whilst the blue lava tip was still there, the rest of the weapon was surrounded by motes of swirling gold and silver light.

I can mana charge the weapon, she thought with glee. Which meant, if she was up against a stronger opponent, she could determine from their skin what body enhancements they had undergone, and 'tune' her weapon's elementalism type to something they were not inured against.

"Impressive," Naila stated. She crossed her arms, "Perhaps you can answer a question for me."

Lyn put Cataclysm away, "I'm not a teacher, but I can try."

"I've only been told to mana charge my weapon before a fight…but never why. It's just been drilled into me to do it before a fight. That, and an internal bolstering spell for speed."

"Alright. Let's say you have an opponent who has a barrier spell active. One that is versatile, or what I'd call a 'basic' barrier spell. The most generic type meant to protect against all harm on a battlefield or in a fight. The one that every basic soldier who has enough mana to use is taught. With me so far?"

"Mhmm."

Lyn crossed her legs and sat up a little straighter. "Right, so if you hit a barrier without a mana charged weapon, it will just bounce off harmlessly. When you mana charge it, you can deal damage to the barrier. If you have enough mana for elementalism external spells, you can mana charge a specific element instead of generic mana."

"But what's the benefit to that?"

"A single element type can more effectively break through or beat down a generic barrier." Incanting a quick verse, she raised the sand in front of her into small spikes before hardening it. A cluster of twenty spikes, and a single spike on its own. Like the bed of nails science experiment. "Put your hand down on the cluster and press, like this." Lyn pushed down and felt the dull tension of the multiple points.

Naila hesitantly placed her hand, and slowly applied pressure. Her face lit up with surprise as she didn't feel the expected stabbing pain. "What does this mean for single-element mana charged weapons?"

"I'm getting to that," Lyn stated as she pointed to the singular, solitary spike. "Put your palm on that, but gentle pressure."

The woman shook her head, put the tip of her finger on the point, and pressed very gently before pulling her finger back. "Yes, there was pain. What is the point?"

Lyn smirked, "Your hand is the barrier spell. The cluster of spikes is like a simple mana charged weapon; it technically is 'untyped' or 'generic' mana, and so it will not pierce as effectively. You could also think of it as 'all' elementalism types, if that helps." She pointed to the singular earthen spike. "This, however, is like having a single type of element charging your weapon. It can pierce the barrier more effectively." She held up a finger, "However, if this single spike was mana charged with fire elementalism, and my barrier spell was worded to specifically protect against flame…it would have no hope at all of getting through."

Naila's face went stern, "But this doesn't apply to, what, nine out of every ten warriors? Since most do not have enough mana for barriers, let alone elementalism external spells."

"Very good," Lyn replied as she laid back on the bed. "Everyone on Ghomar has a mana core. Everyone can use internal spells, including mana-charging a weapon. And everyone can use any external spell type. But some just don't have the mana for the more…impressive spell types. You're right. Most people you come across or fight will be able to do an internal spell, mana charge their weapon, and maybe use a barrier spell."

And for whatever fucked up reason, I don't have access to all the external spell types like the regular people here, Lyn thought. Must be something about being the Destroyer mimicking the heroes' limitations or some shit…good thing I can 'unlock' those other spell types through core consumption.

Naila stood up and bowed slightly, "Thank you for the lesson."

"You're welcome," Lyn stated, looking the large woman up and down. She grinned, and willed her armor to recede, as she muttered the spell to suppress her draconic nature. "Care to spend the night?"

Naila turned and a sly smile spread across her face, "Let me close up the tent."

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