sonovelo Chapter 205 - Book 7
Chapter 205 - Book 7
Felix spent his break trying to create his own versions of the Caster's Dueling spells that required as little focus as possible while still being useful. Most people didn't care at all how complex a spell was because they ended up in their spell list and only affected their cast time negligibly. In Felix's case, it drastically affected his cast time as well as how many spells he could cast at once, so it mattered much more to him.
Unfortunately, that meant there wasn't much literature in the library or content in his Spell Formation class that had to do with simplifying spells. Mana Structures had some content because it helped with enchantment and ritual efficiency but it was the bare minimum and relied on talent and creativity more than anything.
Going through all the textbooks he had found in the library, Felix's spell formation ability and intuition were significantly better to the point where he was far ahead of the current lectures in his Mana Structures class. Almost entirely because of fascinating it all was, he read through papers and textbooks on 2d dimensional spells that culminated with fractals, living spells and spell machines.
He even ended up briefly skimming through the sections on 3d and 4d spells but didn't spend too much time on it because he didn't really have any hope of using any of it any time soon. There was no way he was going to waste any time designing a spell using any of what he learned but his intuition started to veer towards them. As he worked on his own spells, he kept having ideas pop up in his head on how to more efficiently create the spells if they were 3d or he could use fractals and pattern channels.
The problem was that what he needed from spells seemed to differ greatly from what everyone else wanted out of spells.
There were many ways of making spells more efficient but almost never did the literature he found detail making spell forms themselves simpler. He was stuck trying to adapt everything he found but in large part, he was starting to wonder if there wasn't a better way using his own unique talents.
Until he found one though, Felix continued to pour over all the textbooks and re
If I could just-
Felix started to expand the shields as they were getting too fast for him to accurately block with just a coin sized shield.
-move a little faster-
3 points for Tanryel.
Damnit. -If I could just dodge-
Felix crouched down to make himself as small a target as much as possible so it was easier to block everything around him.
-some of them.
4 points for Tanryel.
FUCK! ANY OF THEM.
Frustrated with his inability to deal with Tanryel's speed, even though he had expected to be outclassed in Agility, Felix cast a fully spherical omni-shield, completely surrounding himself. As soon as he did so, Tanryel slowed down just enough for Felix to catch the growing smile on his face.
With the omni-shield surrounding him, and consuming 1.6 million mana a second, Felix was finally able to actually move. His focus problems were also alleviated and so he rose into the air, flying for the first time in the duel.
Tanryel didn't just stand idly by though, he kept up just enough pressure to ensure Felix had to maintain the shield and continue to supply it with a ridiculous amount of mana.
Felix could finally fire back though, with his remaining focus and so, he launched a bead of red in Tanryel's direction with as much Force as he thought necessary. As expected, Tanryel easily darted to the side but just as the bead reached its closest point to him, Felix unraveled the spell using the mana thread he had maintained.
The spell burst but Tanryel was easily fast enough to avoid it. Felix had hoped that by forcing him to dodge, the constant barrage he had been maintaining would slow but Tanryel was far too accustomed to duels.
After seeing how trivially Tanryel had dodged the first spell, Felix didn't bother with that spell anymore. Instead, he jumped right to his last resort spell.
Dropping to the ground, to regain some of his focus, Felix stood still-with the omni-shield protecting him-as he constructed a massive spell form in front of him. In terms of spell level, Felix estimated this one to be almost level 20. It was a spell he had worked on with Withrel who had dubbed it one of the messiest spells he had ever worked on.
Felix slowly grew a multicolored rainbow orb in front of him. After pouring over a million mana into the spell, the orb flew forwards towards the center of the arena then burst. Tiny orbs flew in every direction. Each orb a different one of the primary colors used in Caster's Duels.
Once the orbs were spread out mostly evenly, they each burst, releasing tiny bolts in every direction.
Looking around, it was a rainbow blizzard of icicles and, completely undodgeable. Tanryel, noticing the spell approaching him, pressed himself up against the edge of the arena and erected his own omni-shield. He only had to maintain it for a few seconds until the spell was finished and by pressing himself up against the barrier, he only had to summon half a shield.
Unfortunately, Felix couldn't make the spell maintain itself or have the bolts ricochet because the spell form became too complicated and it would consume far more mana than was worth it.
Still, that one spell had expended at least 2 million of Tanryel's mana, by Felix's estimation. It had also taken almost 9 seconds for him to construct the spell form and another couple seconds for it to release. That meant Felix had expended not just the 1.5 million mana the spell had cost, but also 16 million just maintaining the omni-shield.
Felix's worst case estimation of Tanryel's mana was about 25 million which meant Felix would run out of mana far before Tanryel ever would, if they continued like this. Given that fact, Felix either had to find a way to hit Tanryel in less time or he had to find a way to drop the omni-shield.
I have no choice. I have to drop it and find a way to dodge the bolts.
Grim winced in his mind, One more point and he wins. Felix, that isn't a good idea.
I don't really have a choice. I'm not nearly fast enough to catch up to him where I can guarantee hits.
We could come up with better spells-
And if we don't find them fast enough? Every second I maintain this stupid thing, even if I press myself up against the edge, I'm losing vastly more mana than he is. Even if we manage to come up with something, it will probably be too late because I won't have enough mana left to fight back.
Mind resolved, Felix gritted his teeth as he dropped the omni-shield surrounding him.
Listening wholly to his mana senses, he knew there was a bolt to his left, it was red. He knew it was moving towards him fast but he had no hope of winning if he didn't find a way to avoid it.
He tried to move backwards, stepping and contorting his body all at once to build as much speed as he could. He thought about trying to cast a Force spell to dodge, maybe even trying to use an instinct cast but if he relied on those, he would very quickly lose control of his body. The speed he had to move with, and the Force he would need, was more than he had practice with.
Just as the bolt was a couple inches from his body, right as Tanryel smiled, thinking the fight was over, Felix cast the shield and blocked it. Wiping the smile off Tanryel's face helped somewhat to offset the mounting frustration he felt over his lack of agency.
Another bolt came, from behind this time, a blue one. Felix already had a shield ready and simply added in the color component, just in case. This time he kicked off the ground and tried to dive to the right to avoid another bolt from behind him.
He ended up using the shield though. He just wasn't fast enough.
Two more bolts approached him at different speeds although they were timed to hit at about the same time. Tanryel had centuries of practice and knew exactly how to curve, vary the speed and time bolts to be as difficult to deal with as possible.
Felix only had one more shield ready but because of the way they were angled, he would either have to dodge both or neither. To buy himself time though, he shot forwards and used the shield to block the bolt in front of him. That just left the bolt behind him but also bought him a fraction of a second longer before it would hit.
Unfortunately, he wasn't sure it was enough. He managed to move the core of his body out of the way but just couldn't pull his arm towards himself fast enough.
Craning his neck, he watched in growing horror as the bolt slowly approached. His senses slowed drastically-though he had no idea why-which would have been nice and given him breathing room but in this instant, Felix was pretty sure it was just to taunt him. At least, that's how it felt.
It was his arm of all things. Realistically, he could have moved it at the same time as his body but he was so focused on just getting out of the way that he had just… forgotten. He had almost succeeded in dodging too, if he had just thought of his arm.
Felix, being who he was with the conviction he had, refused to accept defeat. As impossible as it was for him to escape the situation, he pulled on his arm as hard as his muscles would allow. He pushed them to their limits with everything he had, his mind, his willpower and his soul completely ignoring the risk of tearing his muscles in the process.
Rather than tear his muscles as he had expected though, his arm moved far faster than his body ever had. Leaving behind a trail of shadow, his arm simply moved through the air exactly as he had wanted it to. Having as much control and awareness over his body as he did, Felix knew his muscles weren't over exerted in the movement at all.
If it wasn't my muscles and I didn't feel any mana near my arm…
Ding You have become more proficient with the Class skill: [Legendary] Reaper's Sense (Novice I => Novice II)
Ding You have become more proficient with the Class skill: [Legendary] Reaper's Movement (Novice I => Novice II)
Huh. I am. An idiot.
Looking around, once again, everything was in slow motion, at least relatively. Before he had had trouble even following Tanryel's flight now, he saw the slight shifts his hands were making as he cast spells. He could tell when he was curving bolts and when he was slowing them down to coordinate their strikes.
He was even able to watch as Tanryel's expression hardened, realizing Felix had dodged that bolt.
This whole time… I recognized that it felt like the skills weren't doing anything. I just thought that was an exponential thing. That I wasn't fast enough for the effect to be noticeable. Turns out, I just had no fucking idea how to use them. They weren't doing… well, basically anything. Fucking hell.
A red bolt zipped towards Felix from the front while a blue one drilled down from above, a green on either side of him and a yellow one sneakily traveling right along the ground behind him. Felix not only sensed them with his mana senses, traced their approach with his new found skill but he also avoided them, easily.
It wasn't trivial but, compared to how impossible it had been to avoid the bolts earlier, it felt easy as Felix simply jumped backwards and to the side a little. He didn't even use a spell to move, he just knew he was fast enough.
Why now? Just had to try and force my soul to move my arm? That was all it took? Willful movement? That's dumb. Also… Why did The System just show me my proficiency going up in the middle of combat. I could have sworn I had it set to wait till the end of combat always…
At this point, Felix saw Tanryel's face go from serious to a frustrated frown and honestly, he felt similarly.
This is the same thing Peace was doing. AGH this is so annoying in so many ways. How did I not figure this out sooner, how did I not connect Peace's skills sooner. Why didn't I prepare better for this stupid fight. I feel like I just cheated. If I wasn't so overconf- arrogant, I could have won this without… I could have prepared better.
Briefly looking out into the crowd, now that his senses had sped up dramatically and he had so much time on his hands, Felix caught sight of a few people he knew. He saw Peace smiling and nodding as they locked eyes. He saw Melody frowning, seemingly recognizing what had just happened.
He also saw Ayred and Strig completely enraptured by the fight and also completely unaware of what was happening. They seemed relieved but neither of them seemed to recognize the significance. They likely thought Felix had been holding back until now.
Felix also noticed a couple of his professors, a few students and a couple Adepts he recognized in the crowd. The professors and adepts seemed mostly confused while the students were either enraptured or busy analyzing to try and steal the technique for themselves. None of them had the same reaction Melody or Peace did though.
Scanning the crowd, now able to process each and every face, he was pretty sure only Peace and Melody actually knew-or rather had any idea-what had happened.
Felix was rather frustrated with how things had played out, with him not being nearly prepared enough, nearly falling prey to his own arrogance then getting bailed out by a miracle. However, he had no intention of losing and he could only get answers to the questions now plaguing him after the duel.
Now that he could actually avoid bolts, the fight wasn't easy by any means, it was now however, within the realm of possibility. He still had a lot of trouble actually hitting Tanryel, he had no hope of actually hitting Tanryel with his impressive flight agility and the constant barrage along with his vast experience constantly kept Felix on his toes.
On top of all that, he was one point from losing the match which meant he wasn't allowed to make any mistakes yet, not until they were at least tied since they had to win by 2 points.
Spinning his body to the side to slip between a pair of bolts, Felix looked up and started tracking Tanryel with his eyes. His mana senses were focused on, and more than capable of, tracking all the incoming bolts at their current speed.
Tanryel, having noticed something had changed, began to shift his strategy. At first, he tried using even faster bolts since that's what had overwhelmed Felix the first time. Seeing the shift, both in the way Tanryel was casting the spells and in the bolts themselves, Felix was initially worried.
As the first blue bolt ricocheted off the outer wall Felix was already ready to cast a shield but quickly realized, he didn't have to. Even though it would have been impossible for him to dodge the bolt at that speed, it seemed as though Tanryel couldn't properly aim bolts at that speed either.
Having those bolts exist at all though meant Felix had to have some shield spell forms handy just in case one of the faster bolts actually managed to be on target.
Leaping forward with a shadowy afterimage trailing behind, Felix slipped through a series of bolts Tanryel had fired as he prepared some spells of his own.
Tanryel dove low to minimize the travel distance on his spells making them harder to dodge. He got too close though and now Felix could see his hands twitch and feel his crystals fill with mana.
They danced around each-other, Tanryel firing a constant barrage of bolts while Felix ducked and dodged as many as he could, blocking about 50% of them at first. Over time, that number dropped to just 5% as he slowly incorporated spells back into his movements. Mihto's training once again proving to be one of the best things he had chosen to do in a long time.
With some left over focus, Felix was also able to start testing various forms of attack spells.
The one he had used earlier took far too long to cast but then, he had thought it was his only option. Now that he had miraculously matched Tanryel's speed though, he had other options. Tanryel moving in so close, no doubt out of frustration, was also to Felix's advantage.
It made it harder for Felix to sense and dodge the bolts after they were fired, but he had an alternative way of foreseeing bolts, Tanryel didn't, as far as Felix knew. With Felix's unique method of casting, Felix could be almost certain he didn't.
Quickly blocking a bolt with a point shield, Felix stepped to the right mostly just to feint Tanryel as he fired a bolt from his maximum casting range to his left.
Tanryel saw the bolt too late to do anything about it.
1 point for Felix.
Finally.
Immediately realizing the close range was detrimental, Tanryel shot back up into the air to try and regain some distance but Felix followed as best he could. With Felix's senses being as heightened and sped up as they were, he was able to just barely keep up with Tanryel's flight especially considering he seemed to be using a cloak to fly. The cloak actually gave away his direction of flight by fluttering in the opposite direction just a fraction of a second before he moved.
That's probably never been an issue for him, ever. I wonder if he knows it's giving him away right now.
Maintaining the distance between them took all of Felix's focus at first but slowly, he grew accustomed to watching the cloak and slowly, his focus was freed up. Going for his next attack, Felix didn't bother with trying to feint instead pushing the bolt spell form as close to Tanryel's body as he could, minimizing the time he had to react to it.
2 point for Felix.
Jaw clenched, Tanryel immediately summoned a half omni-shield in between them making it impossible for Felix to do the same thing again. The shield was well within his mana control range but he had already made an agreement with himself that he wouldn't use it like this so he left it be as he thought of other ways around it.
Tanryel still had the ability to curve bolts around the shield so it didn't hinder him too much but Felix, didn't have that luxury. He couldn't even ricochet the bolts without using all of his focus which would mean he would have to drop to the ground.
All that left was area of effect spells and luckily, Felix had a few of those prepared.
As they danced through the air together, Tanryel desperately trying to regain control of the fight, Felix carefully constructed a spell form off to his side, unbeknownst to his opponent.
Once it was ready, a red bead shot out next to Tanryel's shield, just barely skirting by without being immediately blocked. Tanryel saw the bead and immediately switched directions but it was too late. Felix pulled on the mana thread and dismantled the spell, creating an explosion of red bolts in every direction.
3 point for Felix.
Felix was safely hidden behind Tanryel's own shield, not that hitting himself would actually matter.
He tried to repeat the same trick but this time, as the bead flew out, the omni-shield between them suddenly completely surrounded Tanryel making him impossible to hit.
Guess I just have to run him out of mana then if he's going to try and keep this up. He obviously knows he can't though so, what's the plan?
Felix knew something was going to happen as Tanryel stopped firing bolts at all and started filling both of the crystals in his hands with mana.
After a few seconds, which felt like forever to Felix with his new found speed, Tanryel's crystals glowed for just a moment before Tanryel vanished.
At first Felix had thought he went invisible but his mana senses sensed nothing, so he swung his head around. He immediately caught sight of Tanryel all the way across the arena on the opposite side.
Another Blink… Damn… I. Need. That. Spell.
Felix hadn't felt any spell forms involved in his casting though so he wasn't too hopeful he would be able to learn it.
He quickly blocked a couple bolts that Tanryel had immediately fired then tried to chase him down. Unfortunately, it was unlikely Felix would ever be able to close the distance at this point he could however, sandwich Tanryel between himself and his spells forcing him to make a choice. Either Tanryel dodged the spell saving mana but inching him closer to Felix, or he blocked it and wasted mana.
So long as Felix used omni-bolts, he would be forced to waste the maximum amount of mana blocking the spells. Felix didn't have the best aim with bolts though so he resorted to area spells. He was likely using mana faster than Tanryel was, firing omni-bombs like spells but, he also had vastly more mana so Tanryel would still run out first.
Tanryel knew that and so he tried his best to dodge the spells without letting Felix get close to him, but failed, twice.
Matchpoint for Felix.
At that point Tanryel was only allowed one more mistake before the fight was lost for him and so, he ran through every trick he had learned throughout his epochs of dueling. He combined curved and ricocheting bolts, bolts that ricocheted in the wrong direction, homing bolts, splitting bolts, delayed bolts. He also threw in area spells and everything in between.
As he did so, Felix ran through everything he could think of to hit Tanryel one last time.
They had a brief exchange that was more normal of a Caster's Duel, each of them casting various colors in turn to try and force the others hand but, that quickly devolved. Tanryel was too frustrated at this point and Felix couldn't waste time or mana on bolts which were unlikely to hit anyways. He had to make every spell count and so, he generally stuck to omni-bolts, bombs and shields.
Both of them knew they had to find some kind of trick to win, Felix's options far more limited than Tanryel's. On the other hand, Tanryel was pressed for time as he had finally realized he had no chance of winning a war of attrition.
Tanryel decided his best hope was to completely overwhelm Felix, hopefully making it impossible for him to retaliate and so, he began to craft and coordinate massive barrages. It took him a few seconds to set up the first one but once he did, the bolts were ceaseless.
From every direction, a thousand bolts at once of every color fired down on Felix's shield. Tanryel used mostly splitting, delayed and curved bolts to create the storm and it forced Felix to use an omni-shield. Tanryel knew he could switch to a point shield so he had to maintain the barrage to force Felix to maintain the shield.
Tanryel hadn't realized yet though, that a shield didn't stop Felix from fighting back. Summoning a single, simple red bolt spell form just outside of the shield, Felix aimed at Tanryel's stationary body.
As he released it, the storm of bolts stopped for just a moment while Tanryel blocked the bolt, his face now a deep scowl.
Overwhelming Felix and forcing him to maintain the omni-shield forced him to sit still so that didn't work at all. Felix's cast range meant he could fight back but Tanryel couldn't so long as Felix used omni-bolts. Felix didn't need to demonstrate that for Tanryel to realize it so he switched tactics.
Felix flew up, towards Tanryel as he darted off to the side to gain distance. He fired a series of bolts and area spells as he flew, trying to use one to force Felix into the others. None of that worked though as Felix felt all the spells, a byproduct of the Caster's Dueling spell form using mana in the bolts and shields themselves.
At first he thought he was just lucky that they used mana but once he dissected them, he realized why. They used mana because the way they blocked themselves was entirely based on mana attunements. Replicating the same effect with anything else would have been complicated though not impossible with sound, light or some other wave.
Using light made the spells unreactable so the fight would immediately devolve into both combatants maintaining permanent omni-shields until they ran out of mana. Sound was problematic because it became way too loud and Caster's Duel seemed to be designed as a spectator sport. Also, using mana was more apt for something called a 'Caster's Duel.'
Tanryel dropped a large shield behind him right as Felix was getting close then flew off, gaining a modicum of distance in the time Felix couldn't see him. They continued firing spells at each-other, Tanryel out of desperation and Felix in the hopes that he could slow him down.
They both knew the inevitable was coming though as Felix got ever closer.
Once again, Tanryel pulled the same trick, dropping a shield and changing direction but this time, something was different. He dropped the shield as close to Felix as he could, even letting him approach a little bit before he cast it. Once he was obscured, his other crystal began rapidly filling with mana allowing Felix to follow him as he reversed direction and shot right towards Felix, through the shield.
Felix recognized the amount of mana he was channeling into his crystal and was confident he knew what Tanryel was casting. Preparing his own bolt, Felix accepted the gamble.
Tanryel timed his movement so that he flew through the shield at the same instant as Felix, allowing him to get within a meter of Felix. At that range, it wasn't possible to dodge or block a bolt. He also didn't have time to sense what the bolt was and if he summoned an omnishield, Tanryel's hand would actually already be through it.
Felix suspected Tanryel was likely firing a split bolt so that he hit Felix 3 or more times simultaneously and won. Otherwise, this kind of gamble didn't make any sense. He also knew he was shielded on the other side so Felix couldn't just cast a bolt from the other side of the shield between them.
As Felix has estimated, the instant he got within an inch of the shield, Tanryel popped through from the other side, leading with his hand and the crystal floating from it. They released their spells simultaneously, Felix's as close to Tanryel's body as he could.
Unfortunately, he was expecting that and as soon as Tanryel released his spell, he vanished and reappeared, 10 meters behind his previous position.
Without using the computer in his head to perform any trajectory calculations, Felix already knew two things. Neither of them were fast enough, casting a spell or just moving to avoid getting hit and, Tanryel's 4 bolts would hit him first.
Luckily, he had a secret weapon he had been practicing whenever he found the time. His instinct cast Force spell was a weak Force spell and it didn't move him very quickly. It wasn't nearly fast enough for him to move to either side without getting hit. He may have been able to dodge one or two of the bolts but it would be way too close for him to ever be certain.
Instead, he pushed himself backwards, away from the bolts in a straight line, dodging none of them but slightly delaying all four hits.
Felix watched his bolt inching its way towards Tanryel.
He switched focus and watched Tanryel's four bolts spin and rotate through the air, seemingly moving much faster than his own.
Come on.
With 4 bolts in front of his face, Felix couldn't actually see anything behind them so he just closed his eyes and prayed, to no-one in particular. All he could do was hope he had pushed himself far enough backwards.
Winner: Felix Kade.
Felix felt relief wash over him followed immediately by horror as the crowd aroun dhim completely erupted. He dreaded dealing with an onslaught of people so he immediately started casting a portal spell to his dorm even before his eyes fully opened.
Once they were open, he felt relief once more as he saw the barrier around the duel remained. He had no idea how much longer it would stick around but luckily, by the time the portal was open, he was able to slip out without anyone stopping him.
In hi dorm, Felix immediately dropped and sat against the floor, not in some meditative lotus position but half curled around a single bent knee.
Entering his Soul Garden, he appeared in the open grassy field and immediately pulled up his memories of the fight. Grim could tell he wasn't in the mood at the moment to talk to anyone about anything so he waited respectfully. Felix could tell he was waiting in the back of his mind and appreciated his awareness but didn't acknowledge him.
Felix stood watching the fight through countless times, his initial sense of dissatisfaction only growing as he thought of all the ways he should have prepared but didn't. That dissatisfaction eventually melded with some amount of acceptance at which point Grim felt he was ready to talk.
He walked over but waited silently, letting Felix start things.
Felix sighed, "That didn't feel good."
"Would it have felt better if you had lost?"
Felix shook his head, "Honestly… I don't know. I don't feel like I should have won. I don't feel like I fought particularly well, prepared better, came up with a unique solution. We both just bashed our heads against each-other and because my mana pool is bigger, I win."
"Were it an actual fight, you would have been trampled."
"Yeah, that's a part of what makes it feel… wrong. Almost every aspect of a Caster's Duel is… it's like I was tailor made for them, or them for me."
"Almost every aspect. You also managed to match him in speed, it would not have been possible without that."
"Yeah, I know. That was… lucky as all hell."
Grim tilted his head slightly indicating he partially disagreed, "Maybe. I'm don't actually know but if I had to guess, those skills seemed like they were kind of just… lying in wait."
"You're saying I unlocked them, so to speak, because I needed them?"
"Something like that."
"I'll have to bring it up with Peace."
Grim nodded, "Unfortunate you couldn't talk to him after the fight."
"I mean… I could have. That crowd was just… Yeah no, fuck that."
"All you did was delay them, you know."
"Yeah and spaced out all the interactions. Now they're more manageable. Maybe I can get Melody to teach me some tricks for avoiding people."
"You'll have to find her first and considering her expression after you… upgraded?" Grim shrugged and sighed, "I don't know, maybe she doesn't want to talk to you yet."
Felix sighed, "Yeah, maybe. Guess we'll see."
Grim raised a single brow, his cover distorting in a weird, asymmetrical way, "You sound almost disappointed. Are you actually attached to her? I can read your thoughts… mostly, your emotions though…"
"Maybe. Not in the way you're thinking though, not yet. Maybe at some point in the future. She just… It's very useful having someone who knows things, can get in almost anywhere and is willing to pay for everything."
Grim nodded, "You said before that she reminded you of David. You think you ever could grow attached to her?"
"Of course. Just… don't feel that way right now."
Grim nodded in acknowledgement before changing the subject, "So what now? No more imminent deadlines."
"Yeah. Now I can go back and deal with everything I had pushed on down in priority on my todo list. Then, I'll have evaluations or initial exams or whatever to deal with soon enough."
"So what first? What now?"
Felix nodded, "Now, I collect my prizes. Starting of course, with the most important one, books." . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .