บท 49: Runic Shields
Chapter 49.
01. Reskeme stood beside his flaming barrier nervously glancing from Kellar to the Cup on the other side. He was proud of his creation, the barrier looked cool, it was bright, tall and wide. Reskeme could finally cast layers on something other than himself and he was proud of his achievement, he now had to wait while pacing back and forth for the mage to start throwing rocks. Keller didn't wait for permission, he threw his rocks hard and fast, the shield sparked and flashed with green fire. Each rock deflected and sparked on fire flying in different directions, The Master mage was having fun and kept throwing rocks. The mage was hitting one spot of the shield and soon the area he was targeting in front of the cup started to fail running lower on mana.
02. Reskeme was confused, He had thought all of his runes would work together, it appeared that only one on the top and one on the bottom were working together. Reskeme slapped his forehead, He hadn't connected the separate runes to each other. Reskeme was wondering how he could do that, His two runes failed after getting hit by 15 rocks that were thrown by Kellar from a close distance. Reskeme smiled, He was at least able to be happy that his barrier would stop one or two arrows before falling apart. Kellar had stopped when the two runes faded with his 16th throw, the master mage walked over to his cup of coffee and picked it up lovingly.
03. Reskeme gave the man an odd look, Kellar said," what? you thought I would actually spill my cup of coffee, do you think I'm a savage or something?" To Reskeme Kellar actually sounded offended at the mere thought of wasting hot coffee. Reskeme decided to jump in before Kellar could call him out on losing the bet. Reskeme said," give me one more chance, ill create a barrier, if you can break through with twenty rocks I will do as promised. Kellar said," of course I will do it for two weeks of menial tasks." Reskeme coughed, he thought for a moment, but the thought of silver coins was too tempting to pass up. Kellar said, "a Piece of advice, link each of the runes together with a thin link of mana."
04. Kellar smiled like it had been his idea for the rematch, Reskeme grumbled and stepped a good distance away. He collected his thoughts and connected each rune as he created it with a small thread of his mana. He activated the first four runes checking to make sure that they wouldn't destroy each other before he started on the next ones. Reskeme channelled harder creating 4 more runes, two in the air and two on the ground connecting them all together with mana. He then channelled the mana in the runes creating the shining barrier of green mana. Reskeme was not happy it had taken so long, it had taken him about twenty seconds to create the shield, not exactly a good idea to stand still with no protection, He also had to keep in mind that the shield would only protect him after it was complete.
05. Reskeme turned to Kellar who was standing behind him staring intently at the shield, Kellar was channelling mana and looking at the shield with an odd expression. Reskeme shrugged, the mage was probably just looking for more things to make fun of. Kellar had rocks in hand and moved into position to get ready to throw the rocks. The mage threw the first 15 rocks at the flaming wall, each rock sparked and bounced off with no apparent effect, unlike last time all the mana in the shield swirled across the entire shield, the mana would move from being still instantly to the object as it struck before deflecting it. Reskeme was smiling happily thinking about all the things he could buy with his silver. His happiness was crushed when the mage did the unexpected and surrounded his next rock with mana as he threw it.
06. Reskeme shield flickered using a large portion of the mana shield to deflect the object, This was followed by 3 more rocks that were equally covered in red fire mana. Reskeme felt defeated, his shield was fading and appeared to be failing with the small amount of mana it still had. The last rock easily broke the mana wall and passed through clattering to the ground. Reskeme said," that is cheating you were using mana." Kellar said," I only said I would break it with rocks I never said I wouldn't use my mana to help the rocks do more damage." Kellar stated as he turned on his heel he said" your tasks will include setting and unsettling the tent when we travel. You will also learn to make this fantastic brew called coffee."
07. Reskeme watched the mage go knowing the man had only said the bit about the tent to taunt him. He checked his mana gauge, he thought he should be fine to recast his illusion again but that shouldn't be a problem, the late afternoon sun was fading and it would soon be dark. Kellar called back, " Relax and recover some of your mana, Also getting food and drinking lots of water makes your recovery time a lot better." Kellar said," practice your mana wall for a while, If you can get your shield to where you can cast it under ten seconds it might actually be useful to us." The master mage left an annoyed Reskeme staring at the blackened rocks scattered across the dirt and grass-covered ground.
08. Reskeme did just what Kellar said, he practiced casting flame runes in the air with his mana and linking them together in a straight line to create a wall. This process was difficult, If he placed the runes too close then the mana wall would be too small, if he created the runes too far apart they wouldn't connect together and the shield would burst apart into flames. Reskeme was using as little mana as possible, he found that channelling a massive amount of mana was extremely draining and caused him to try and work to fast with the pressure on his body. Whereas channelling a small amount of mana as possible and creating the threads of mana for the runes as thin as possible only required a fraction of the normal mana cost.
09. Reskemes head was hurting with the focus required to create such small lines of mana in the air, each rune was as he remembered it, and was connected by a line of mana. He had been channelling for twenty seconds and still going, the thin stream of mana he was channelling was much easier on his body allowing him to Channel much longer before stopping. Reskeme finally finished channelling all 8 of his runes, each rune was half as thin as the previous time and connected to each other. Reskeme channelled mana into the shield, He felt the pull and his veins screaming at him to stop. 30 seconds of channelling later he had a shimmering barrier in front of him. Reskeme stared at the wall of mana, he was unsure if this wall was better then the previous one had been, It had taken him much longer to cast and required much more focus to create but this mana wall just looked different.
10. Reskeme wasn't sure what to do, He decided he should cast a shield-like he had before and compare them side by side. Reskeme stepped away and quickly cast his next shield over the next twenty seconds, wincing as his mana veins burned him much more intensely than before. he thought either way two shields were enough channelling for the day, he was exhausted and with that last spell, he was just too sore for more. Both walls were the same height and same width, the nagging feeling at the back of Reskems mind told him something was different, however. He noticed one of the shields looked like a calm lake whereas the other looked like a raging river. His first shield had been channelled with thin and precise runes, It appeared to be making the mana rush from one set of Runes to the other at a rapid pace.
11. Reskeme Shrugged, at this point in his magic training he had soldiers on the walls and ones doing their other duties watching him curiously. He was doing magic stuff and all of them wanted to have a good look, after all, who didn't want to be able to create fire from their fingers. Reskeme looked around, he had an idea, Reskeme waved at a soldier with a bow, he asked the man," can you test my shield for me with your bow." the archer was just as curious as he was to see what might happen. Reskeme pointed at his first shield with fast-flowing mana, he said, "this one first." the archer shrugged pulled an arrow to his cheek and fired, the arrow was turned to ash in a moment while being deflected.
12. Reskeme helpfully pointed to the other mana wall, the archer got the hint and drew his bow before shooting the second shield. His arrow managed to penetrate the shield, it still burst into flame but the mana didn't react quick enough and the arrow managed to pass through the shield in a burst of flame and ash. Reskeme waved away the soldier and picked up his own rock, he threw it at the shield that the arrow had managed to penetrate. His rock was easily deflected by the shield and sent clattering to the side. Reskeme threw rocks until he came to the conclusion that the faster moving the mana the quicker it would react to whatever struck the shield. Reskeme wondered what Kellar might say to his idea, he decided the mage would probably say something that would completely shatter his confidence like always.
13. Reskeme sat against a pole and watched his two flaming barriers, he was happy to note that leaves and even dust was being turned to ash or deflected whenever the wind picked up. He waited for a full hour, his second shield fizzled out and disappeared leaving only the shield that had taken him 30 seconds to create. That was odd he had channelled that one before the second one, Reskeme was starting to realize runes were extremely important to do properly if he wanted his spells to work properly. Reskeme held the crumbled and faded rune he had been given by Kellar, the paper had not had a good time with all of his travel. He winced at the thought Of asking Kellar for another rune. It was fine though Reskeme Remembered what this rune looked like and it seemed to not matter too much if he didn't make it perfect each time. He did however notice if it was too far off from the original rune, the spell would fall apart and break all the others. When casting a spell with a lot of mana that could be bad.
14. Reskeme watched the sky slowly turn dark, the last rays of light fading and noise starting all over the fortress as people moved into positions with bows and other weapons. Reskeme was wondering if it was just a waste of time when a distant drawn-out howl reverberated through the night. Reskeme was instantly on his feet, he remembered that sound and was now on high alert, his run through the dark forest with enemies all around had made his body panic at the sound. Reskeme was happy he already had his armour and cloak on as he looked for master mage Kellar, the man was climbing a wall to stand on the walkway. Kellar said," you get to practice that new shield of yours, I hope you didn't waste all of your mana, those could really save me from wasting mana to block pesky javelins."
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