บท 11: Affinity for Fire
Later that day.
Arthur returned to his room late at night with a body covered in bruises and cuts from Elizabeth's tough sword training. And because he was a magic user, his body usually recovered faster than most humans who couldn't use mana—another reason for her not holding back on him despite being a beginner at all of this.
She was obviously stronger than him, and it was going to take a while for him to measure up to even half her strength. She had a magical affinity for fire and relied on fire magic in combat to strengthen her attacks. In his past life, fire was considered the strongest of the primal sources because of its destructive power…and its users were few since many found it hard to control. Fire magic was driven by strong emotions like rage, fear, and even sometimes love. And if those emotions were not kept in check, a user was capable of burning down an entire town.
He placed his sword against the wall and threw himself on the well-laid bed while facing the ceiling, "I used fire magic when I first woke up in this world. If I remember correctly, I created fireballs in an instant. I wonder if I can do it again?" he muttered to himself.
"Why don't I just try it now?"
He thought loudly while staring at the ceiling with his intelligent green eyes. He knew he wasn't going to get any sleep if he kept such a thought on his mind.
"Ugh…darn it."
Moving past curfew was forbidden, but this was the perfect time for his magic training since he had spent most of the sword practice with Elizabeth. And it's not like time was on his side with the selection exam approaching. That's right...he was a serious student who couldn't waste time on things like rest. He had to see what he could do as a magic user.
He wasn't sure about his ability to cast spells, but after watching Elizabeth draw fire from nothing and using it in combat, Arthur was sure he could at least try to recreate what he saw her do today.
***
The wind howled around him as he stood under faint the moonlight. He grinned menacingly after sensing a wholesome wave of natural mana coming from the trees around him. It almost felt like he could touch it with his bare hands. He had escaped the dormitories after feeling like he wasn't going to sleep until he found the perfect place for his magic training—and lucky enough, he was able to locate a small man-made forest not so far from the academy.
'Perfect.'
He then produced a grimoire from his small bag and placed it on the ground after making sure no one else was around to see what he was about to do. He had borrowed it on his way here, and he prayed no one notices its absence for the rest of the night.
Then, he put his brand—new sword aside, opened the green-covered book, and started reading through the runes written inside of it. He looked through the pages for about ten minutes, searching for anything related to fire magic. But to his disappointment, the book only said little about fire magic…and its topics were mainly centered around the basics of how to draw mana from the air and converting into magic.
Arthur already knew all that, so this was useless.
"Fine. Then I'll do this again," he snarled, shutting the book with a grunt.
'How do I do this?'
He tried to recall the day he used magic for the first time when he was instantly reincarnated. He remembered feeling nothing but fear, so he chose to draw out that fear and panic from that day.
'I can do this.'
He braced himself by inhaling a breath of air and concentrated the little mana he had in his body. He just needed one fireball to confirm that he could use fire magic to support his party during the exam that was now just days away.
He lifted his left arm halfway, with his palm facing a tree, and imagined flames creating themselves on the surface of his hand. According to Elizabeth, his gift didn't require him to know the spell most of the time, but rather its intention or purpose.
While concentrating, he could feel the mana in his body flowing to his left arm from his chest.
But there was something else, the mana was increasing at a rapid rate.
"What the….."
And suddenly, strings of purple light started flowing from the air and collected themselves in front of the palm he had put forward. He watched as they began to curve themselves into a ball of purple flames storming with vicious magical energy.
Arthur felt strange from what he had summoned. And although the magical energy coming from the flames was incredible, he didn't feel drained at all. Instead, it was the plants around him that had withered after having all their energy drained out of them.
"It's draining mana from the environment," he noted. "This must be a demonic quality that has just awakened."
Quickly, without moving his hand he used his foot to pull his sword towards him and grabbed it with his right hand. Carefully, he stabbed the fireball with the magic longsword, and it was then erased from existence the moment the blade absorbed the mana since it was a strong conductor. And as expected of something so special, it neither cracked nor shattered after absorbing a fireball that strong.
"Incredible!" he scanned the blade once again—it was unscathed.
When he tried to recreate the spell using the absorbed mana, he ended up creating a normal fireball of normal magic energy.
"So it's only me who can create the purple fireballs, not even the mana can be replicated. I see," he narrowed his eyes in thought before canceling out the spell.
Still, he couldn't believe that he hadn't lost any mana during all of this. It seems his magic was triggered by emotions, fire being his main attribute and the source of his power. It was ironic since fire was the power used to destroy demons.
"I couldn't even use any demonic powers back then…why now?"
His breathing quickened after he remembered his painful death and the face of the woman who killed him. Drawing out his emotions from then also revived his haunting trauma. Her voice was clear in his head like she was standing nearby him—and he couldn't help but tremble in fear.
To him, she was the scariest being in the world. Something within him just couldn't let go of what she did to him. The mage had broken his mind by giving him hope and immediately stole it back by killing him in the most painful way possible.
He started to shake, but he clenched his grip around his sword and swung it over and over again in order to turn that fear into strength. Her cold gaze that night still flashed in his mind and just remembering her blue eyes sent a chill down his spine.
Tears started to fall from his eyes as he put more and more strength into his swings. And after fifteen minutes, each swing through the air was now being accompanied by a strong gust of wind that blew fresh leaves off trees, sending the rest of the forest into a panic.
'Why?'
He let go of the sword and its metal clattered as it hit the ground before falling on his knees. He gazed up to the stars and thought of his mother to clear his mind. It seems she was still protecting him even in a second life.
"That last swing was incredible, but you need to put more of your physical strength into it." A female voice came from behind, and he rushed to turn over.
Shocked, he couldn't find words to say to her. He didn't expect himself to encounter her so soon.
The air grew tense between them once their eyes met in a single glare.
"Y-You…" he gulped, trying to hide the fact that he was frightened by the current situation.
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