NOVEL NEXT Ch.38: A Little too Much & Things Break
I spent most of my time talking with Mark using up my time in the Artist’s Trove. I was now sitting in Mr. Minnow’s class waiting for him to dismiss us for lunch.
“I hope you’ve been taking notes while you were at these three areas!” Mr. Minnow began, his voice sounding mischievous. This made the class fall silent as if we all were going to hear a family member died. “Because you’ll be having a pop quiz this Friday!” Cheered Mr. Minnow with a devious grin. The whole class groaned and one guy even cried tears of pain.
Before he continued Mr. Minnow took a deep breath. “But really, I can’t have a field trip if there’s no education tied to it! So it’ll be a written quiz about what you saw, discovered or realized what different monster races were doing there! I want you all consider what area you’d like to visit more often once you all converge, same for those who already converged!” He finished with a smirk. “Now get outta here and enjoy your lunch!” He said with a stern face.
Soooooo, I ate lunch alone for a while. Belle ran off with Steph and Emily again, I get he’s a supportive guy but I could use some friendship or some notification that things were ok or if I needed to do more than what I was doing. Looking at my lunch, I wondered if I could face plant my mashed potatoes for the hell of it. Maybe doing something stupid might take my mind off of things……….No, it’s best not to, giving more reason for that church to bug me isn’t something I need or something more troublesome. My eyes narrowed at the potatoes. “You’re lucky today. But watch your back.” I mumbled before smiling. I stabbed the potatoes with a spork, eating a good helping for revenge! I chuckled to myself, knowing how silly this all was but hey I am my mother’s son. With that I ate more of those accursed potatoes that tasted creamy with butter and fresh garlic, could use some bacon though or some corn….and bit of pepper too.
“Total ghost town here.” Came a friendly voice behind me.
“Damn, I was hoping to talk with Emily a little more.” Came another.
“Hey, how’s it going?” I asked before devouring more of these potatoes.
“Nothing much, just getting my team in shape for the race. Dagon point is a death trap!” Kathy said as she sat down. “One I plan on making my bitich!” She announced, her voice sounding like musically hyped. I couldn’t help but smile at her excitement.
“Want a cheer squad?” I asked with a smile.
Her feathers puffed up and her pupils almost swallowed her eyes. “REALLY?! Uh- yeah I would love that!” she said giving me a thumbs up with her single wing finger.
What? But I always see her races…. Don’t I? This made my smile almost fall into a frown.
“Uh! You don’t have to worry too much if the timing doesn’t let you come.” She instantly added in a nervous rush. “…Though I would like you to come…” She half said, half mumbled.
Shit! “Uh n-no, I’ll show up just give me a date and I’ll make time.” I replied trying to keep calm.
Kathy stared at me, narrowing her eyes, leaning closer. “Hell yeah!” She said with a huge smile before jumping to hug me tightly. For someone with wings and only a thumb, she had a strong enough grip that she was clinging to me. She wasn’t even using her legs, it was all arm strength!
“I’ve been going to your races. M-maybe I could get a hug too?” Asked Mark with a hopeful smile.
“You just want a monster girl to hug you don’t you.” Kathy stated, looking down at him from her hugging post.
“Yeah! I’ve heard harpy hugs are like a warm morning blanket!” Mark freely admitted.
Kathy looked at me. “Think we should spoil him?” She asked.
“I don’t know…. He could get creepy about it.” I said a tilt of my head.
“True, but he did ask.” She said thoughtfully.
“And he admitted his intention too.” I agreed.
“Hmmmm, but…maybe....” she mumbled out loud while narrowing her eyes with a smirk.
“He just might……” I said with mock fear before smiling.
“Come on guys! I’m right here! Stop teasing me with your bedroom eyes and a fluffy hug.” Mark said trying to get our attention.
We just stared at him, raising our eye brows, unblinking for a moment, just watching him. Having two physical girls looking at him made Mark blush before he slowly look away, trying to fidget with his bag zipper.
“I’ll consider it…. if you bribe me.” Kathy finally said.
“Let me guess, you’re fishing?” He asked with a smile.
“I’m always fishing for trout.” She said looking at her talon.
“Fine… You got a deal.” He finally said with a smirk.
After lunch I went to the training room, hoping I could finally master this stupid rock strengthening thing! Maybe then I can move on to something more magical, like the fire breathing, so I don’t go and end up wiping out half the city by accident. Thoughts of video game dragons casually blasting balls of pure energy half the size of a continent played in my head. Imagine putting mana behind one that was actually serious?!
Inside I found Jaque slowly moving his arms, a single palm facing away from his body, the other facing his belly. His arms were slowly snaking around each other, twisting and turning while he kept his eyes pinned on a small figure made of rock a few meters away from him. I could barely feel a soft wind caressing my arms, flowing in the direction of Jaque. Closing his eyes, he paused his movements, only tilting his wolf ears side to side as if looking for something, then both ears faced the rock figure. His eyes snapping open, he pulled his palm back before swinging like a whip, at the same time a green energy flew from his palm. It was shaped like a curved sword and rapidly flew at the rock like a bullet but before hitting the rock, Jaque moved his palm again in up, side and angular motions. The green blade responded by slashing at different angles around the rock figure, it was so fast you could only see the after images of the blade as it cut the air. Once he stopped moving his arm, the green blade vanished, leaving behind a pristine stone figure, untouched by the blade.
“wow….” I was stunned. He had so much control that he didn’t harm the figure at all!
Jaque turned to me. “So what did you think?” He asked. Did he know I was here? Before launching his blade?
“You didn’t destroy the statue at all! That was, well, amazing! I might be able to keep my mana and magic from hurting people!” I said with excitement. “will I learn this soon?” I asked hopefully.
“No.” he said before handing me another rock and patting my arm. I just stared blankly at him.
“Because I’m not trained yet? Or is it because only you can use it?” I asked still hoping that he didn’t mean to show me something use but not let me teach me anything about it.
“This technique focuses your mana into something deadly. If you look at the statue you’ll see what my power did.” He said while motioning to the statue. Looking at it, I realized that the rock figure was now angular and pointed. But that sword didn’t even touch the figure….right?
“The sword still cut the figure…. Maybe it was just my perception? And you actually aimed at the statue?” I said looking at the figure.
“Very close! But not my aim was not the mannequin itself.” He clarified with an approving nod.
“Ok…then the blade…” I tried something outside the box. “Flattened the rock by moving floating mana? Maybe compressing it?” I asked while turning back to him.
“Yes there was mana being compressed but the sword itself wasn’t doing it. Very close wise Oliver.” He stopped, tilting his head and making a grimace, his face turning red and smoke rising from his ears. “Perhaps pulling out that mana pole you discovered might help.” He said with smoking ears.
“How did you know about that?” I asked rather surprised. I didn’t tell him anything about because I thought it was a little…well, floppy? Like a wet towel?
“A glowing orb mentioned it to me. She said it was really funny and moved like wet towel?” He said with some confusion. “I do not know why she would compare it to a, ‘personal’ toy. Mana is something to be taken very seriously.” He said while shaking his head.
That only made me more embarrassed at the floppy stick. Shaking my head I focused pushing out my mana, being careful to aim it away from us. Like before the mana shot out like it was a small train and crashing into the ground before I stopped pushing it. Then it lay there like someone use the world’s largest ice cream dispenser to make this floppy mess…
“OOOooH! I haven’t seen such complex mana constructs since I battled an Inabeetle five years ago! I think you should meet her –uh, him? But she acted like a woman but is…. A father? But why call all their children daughters…?” this confused him so much that the smoke turned black and his face looked like he was about to explode.
“So you were going to teach me something about this pole thing?” I asked and flopped it around for better measure.
“Yes!” his attention instantly snapped back to me. “Do you see how the construct affects the very ground?” he asked while pointing at the floor. Looking at it, I saw some small rocks being pushed away like there was some invisible force.
“How…. Wait, is the mana pole having another effect?” I asked before turning back to Jaque with curious eyes.
“Yes it is my disciple! That is due to leaking mana. No matter how grand or skilled you are, your magic will always leak a portion of mana and this mana still has some power.” He said with a proud nod.
“Then your blade was still cutting the rock with leaking mana!” I said flapping my wings. “But why say no to teaching me?” I asked wondering his reasoning.
“That blade was a small sized spell but I was focusing my mana and yet it damaged the figure. Your mana construct isn’t a spell but if you were to use focused mana in attack magic….” He said.
“The results would be…. like a bomb?” I asked and Jaque nodded. I was annoyed that mana continued to be my rival, always putting new traps in my way. Now I had to worry about focused mana spells cutting into people!
“Now I want you to practice on your rock and don’t focus too much mana into it.” He said before returning to his slow arm movements.
Looking back at the rock, I realized he did all that to tell me I’m using too much mana. I shook my head as I began to try strengthening the rock again. Maybe I was just over thinking things? If it’s all based on amount then… I thought about a stream of water slowly filling up a pond. And you know what? The rock was bit harder!
I can’t believe that mighty dragoness will take me beyond my small tiny little glass! Dragonesses are quite another existence! Yes…………………. Now I just have to finish her challenge and crush that waste of air space, that mountain harpy might make for a good ground firework though. Hmmmm the thought of something so ugly making a beautiful piece of art. That was enough to my wings tremble.
“Martha! Don’t forget to clip a few feathers while you’re at it.” I shouted at my scaled toy.
“Yeah, yeah…” She grumbled in boredom as she stomped over to my first wall.
“Please! Don’t hurt me! I’ll quit the team! Anything but my wings!” cried a trembling mess of a mountain harpy. Too bad it wasn’t the one I was after, then again, I have to make a beautiful display.
“Now see here, you were… walking around, probably not paying attention and knocked over a heavy ball. No….a large bag full of metal weights landed on your wing.” Said my right. Ooh, I do love her stories, though they can be a little too long….
“Tom hurry up, we have another wall to meet before we have lunch.” I said with false annoyance.
“Right away!” she said, picking up her pace. Once she was done, that piece of dung was left in a warm confusion as Martha raised her clawed foot.
CrAcK!
Mommy always said dragonesses gave the biggest glasses.
