章 11: Chapter 21: Price of Blessing and Those Who Surpassed it
Let skip the boring part and said we dug up the Snappers.
I had to admit my fault here. I suck, badly, at disassembling carcasses. Cytortia and Lux cut up all the bodies in two hours while I nearly bungled mine. So that was how I found myself near the river bank contemplating on the nature of mana and what I should do.
I believed this is the power to help this worlds. People were stupid, mistake prone, full of flaws and only find solace in comparing themselves to other people's screw up. But despite all that, and sometime because of it, human also help out others in need. That's why people loved Superman. If you have absolute power, hiding it under the vault and hoarding more of it won't help anyone. Not only that said power, will act like a time bomb that will blow you up.
Hitler, Stalin, the french nobles, and the Greeks namely the Athenian and the Spartan. They wanted power and hoard it on top of other people back, using the power as the 'strong' and abuse it. In the end they lost. Hitler? He lost world war 2. Stalin? Probably assassinated by his own guard. The French nobles eat the french revolution in the face and then Napoleon rose to power to abuse the hell out of Europe. The Athenian massacred the Island of Melos who requested to stay neutral in its Peloponnesian war with slave abusing Sparta, only to exhaust themselves so badly that Phillip of Macedon wrecked both of them later. Even Machiavelli who wrote one of the realistic book on politic never get his job back after the Medici booted him into prison. Realistic was not enough. It might be better to be ruled by fear in the short run but in the end the empire built on slavery and brutality always crumble. Even Ceasar who benefited his people got stab twenty-three times.
So to quote the loser of the Peloponesian war who got kick in the nut by Karma.
The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.—The Athenian
And they said ancient Greek is the source of civilization. Yes, they were indeed classic. Classic at being a loser who slipped and broke their neck on the pool of blood they spilled. Look at their imitators. They were everywhere and they all died tragically.
Nope, the power I discovered should be about how to build resource up and make sure that the world grow into a brighter, less bloody place. In the end, USSR, Nazi Germany and the almost any tyrant in the world bit the dust at the first blow to the power-base. Hell, Superman as a character last longer than Alexander the Great's empire.
The question was how. How do I used the power to carry the world upward? Given our current strength, a shadow guardian who saved as many people as possible was the safest bet? But in the end that was only delaying the inevitable. We had to come out and shoulder the world as an example but what type of example should we be and how do we do it to create lasting consequence.
Scathach, noticing my inner dilemma, came and sat next.
"You are thinking something?"
I told her the problem.
"I see," Scathach nodded. "You want to use this power to help everyone and do the right thing but you don't know how you should do it."
"Yeah, how do be an exampled. Which type of people should I save? Should I be fear or be loved? In this case, I believe that being love and admire is not enough. But if you wan't to make the world better but, it is necessary to put fear into those jackasses first. And how could we help them without taking away their freedom to the point they didn't know how to help themselves. This is the dilemma. Do you had any answer?"
"You are wised for your age. Politic and society is a messy place so being a clear cut symbol like that would be a hard task," Scathach said. "You want to help the people but you don't know how?"
"How could be complicated?" Said Cytortia joining in the conversation. "We just help whoever need a hand?"
"Then they are going to need us forever?"
"Yeah, isn't that's the way things are?" Cytortia said. "But is it our right to judge them. Is it our right to tell them what is in their best interest? Take two of us for example. I am a goddess, descended from one of the oldest line, and you are a human who barely entered Phantasia. I am above you in every way and have all right to command you. Yet, here we are talking like equal. Both of us had something each other lack. I am going to admit that you are a better thinker than I will ever be but I can do something you can't lot of thing in fact. So I really need you here but, on the other hand, you wouldn't be able to do anything worth while without my support."
Yes, Cy, and I had no doubt that you have more charisma than I expected.
"You are right," I said. "In the end, I think that how we should do it. When it come to this you are much wiser than I will ever be."
"Good now it is time for the next training," Scathach turned into an adult form. "All if you are going to fight me."
...
"Why are we doing this aging?" Cy said as Scathach in her human form handed her a sword. "You know I cannot fight worth a damn right?"
That won't help Cy. My one week under her tuition had proven too me that her favorite form of teaching was live combat. She was more violent than the stock market during a depression and so stubborn on her teaching that I could call it insanity. No words would convince her away from kicking our collective asses.
And, to no one surprised, I was right
"Yes, that why you need to work on your teamwork." The brunette hair master of blowing up gigantic worm spun her spear. "This past weeks had you fixing up your weaknesses and become actually effective material. Now it time to forge you. I will count to five."
"Five."
I summoned the Blade of Ar'maskur in a flash of multi-color light.
"Four."
Lux saluted with her sword and ready her stance.
"One"
"Wait! You forgot two and three!" Cy yelled but Scathach knocked her out with a kick in the face that sent her flying in my direction.
I ducked as her body went flying over my head and splashed down into the water. That must be cold but I couldn't sympathize with her at the moment.
I went full on full defensive maneuver but, even with the boost from Ar'maskur, Scathach was too fast. I barely managed to block a devastating overhead blow, powered by her cartwheels, before she somersault behind me and attack with a lunge. I barely dodged that nasty one with my enhanced speed and full warning from my mana.
Lux was moving in, her body crackled with lightning. Noticing her, Scathach threw her speared which exploded with fire knocking her back. I took that moment of distraction and formed my [Photon Ring], firing at point blank.
I discovered way too late that I was baited, hooked and gutted as badly as Cy did.
Scathach shifted my [Photon Ring]'s hand slightly, causing the missed shot to flew awry and knocked the recovering Lux down.
Oh and my guard was opened to a sucker-punch that winded me up for kick in the face.
"Rem my boy, the master of defense would never be able to press an attack," Scathach said as my consciousness slip. "In close quarter, there are hundred of ways to interrupt magic or spell. That was why we still used sword and spear."
...
Lux got up and frowned. All her teammate are down.
"You move faster," she said readying her blade.
"My dearest student," the brunette woman spun her spear. "This was my true form. Here I don't need to hold anything back."
Scathach lunged. Luxinna dodged the spear by a hair-width and tossed in a counter that was pinched by Scathach's fingers.
"You had been putting in an overtime," Scathach said as Lux yanked her blade out. "I do love a diligent student."
Scathach then easily blocked and overhead cut and punted Lux back with kick the sent her flying into the air. Despite the solid hit, Lux managed to land on her feet while unleashing the stream of lightning that completely burned all the grass in the area.
Scathach whistled in compliment while tossing her spear which began to spin and blocked the lightning stream sending a bolt of lightning scattered and charring everywhere.
"Incredible," Scathach comment. "You took lightning magic incredibly fast. I had seen [Child of Lightning] passives before but you are the highest rank I had ever seen."
[Child of Lightning (SS)], it's a skills that symbolize the user natural affinity with lightning magic. At it weakest, Rank-A, it would already allow the owner to resist on lightning base attack and lower any effect lightning might have on them, while increasing the affinity for anything related to lightning magic and augmented it power.
At Rank-SS, Lux upgraded her [Lightning Stream] from Rank-C to much more malleable Rank-B in just a week. At her former rank she could produce electricity but now she could manipulate and alter its direction and shape.
The lightning stream finally stopped and charred the entire area. Scathach summoned back her spear and Lux twirled her swords and infused it with crackling lightning. They breath as one and Lux charged. The elf girl sent sixteen bolt of lightning sailing toward Scathach each one zigzagged right at the women in her biker jacket.
Scathach readied her stance. Her body straight, her leg in front and spear pointed downward. With smiled on her face she leaped, deflecting all sixteens the bolts of lighting which curved toward her, in a display of masterful spear work and magic defense. Then she landed while throwing her spear at Lux in an explosion that sent the girl sprawling.
Lux tried to steady herself but Scathach appeared behind her in a flashed of fire with a sword summoned in her hand. Lux managed to deflected the slashed at her exposed flanked but her footwork was ruin. This was followed quickly by a sweep at her exposed leg which knock her down.
Lux tried to get up but the spear pointed at her neck decided the winner.
"You guys put up a good fight," the brunette woman in black leather jacket transformed back into a badger. "Let tried again tomorrow."
And she left leaving Lux conscious but defeated
...
That night, when everyone was fast asleep, a girls climbed onto the roof of the moving Van to practice swordplay. The safety cord tied her down despite the speed of the car.
She thought back about today. How she lost?. The gap in their experience was evident and she doubt Scathach had ran out of trick. The main answer to that question was that she managed to take them down separately. Either overpowering them or exploiting their attacks.
Even Rem who had all the weapons he could ever imagined never get a chance to use it. Scathach forced him back to the point that the only thing he could have done was defend and that was only delaying the inevitable.
She only had to make up the difference.
She drew a wooden practice blade and unleashed her lightning.
Hence she will just had to try harder. If her weapon was only lightning, then she would use it in the way most cannot even imagine.
She tried to imagine Scathach's movement, her tactic and agility, as well as the stance and speed she employed
Lux Latoria sighed and danced in the moonlight. Lightning wove and condensed as she deflected the imaginary blast. Each stepped wove in a new footwork and punches clad with lighting. After thirty minute of moving she stopped.
"Still not fast enough," she huffed.
Catching her breath, the elves girl began her visualization training, recalling her battle with Scathach and the lecture Rem gave to her. She tried trace the way his magic felt but still fail to understand how his mana moved. Mana Sensory originally designed as a way to observe movement of energy not communicate with them. This meant that she had adapted that techniques.
Lux expanded her senses and tried to trace the energy inside everything. The way it moved. The way it vibrated. She didn't had Rem shortcut so she had to make the most out of what she had. The car was moving too fast for the surrounding to make any sense but she tried anyway. Soon her eyes got used to the speed as the electricity in her body unconsciously coursed over to help her cognitive prowess.
She grinned, interesting.
So she tried to do it consciously, let the electricity ran through her body her eyes. Normally, this would be lethal but Luxinna was a child of lightning. Her high tolerance to electricity allowed her to cope with the pain. After trial and error, combined with many hours of experimenting, she managed to taught herself one of the skill used by advance lightning magic user.
[Nueroelectric augmentation (A)]
It was the skill which allow the user to enhance their perception and brain activity. Given the high difficulty the lowest level of the skill was set at Rank-B, even then the user will have access to high speed perception and heighten reflex. The advance level used by veteran, which had a Rank of A, was an direct upgraded, giving the user immense cognitive ability and processing ability to the point that it seemed like time had slow down and even augmented speed an power of the user. Some creative user even used it to shorten their sleeping hours.
And with this ability, Lux further simulated her battle with her tomorrow battle with Scathach over 235 times, dancing with her blade until the dawn broke.
It was only then did she notice that she missed entire night of sleep.
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