CelestialShadow
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Chapter 49 - New attack
🕑 Added 2023-12-11 18:30:20 +0000 UTCStable. Strengthened. And then volatility, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32. Adion’s mind was focused as he once again tested out his new attack.
The tree in front of him shot out splinters as the space the tree occupied got pushed away to make room for Adion’s volatile space.
“Hoo,” Sahra sounded impressed, “It certainly looks deadly. But I’m guessing it’s not something you can expect to do against a Diamond mage. It might not even work against us. Not that I’m volunteering as a guinea pig.”
“If we had more time, I’d be willing to bet that this might actually cause some harm to a Diamond mage,” Benji said, “You could freeze a Diamond mage in space just like anyone your strength, after all. It will only last for as long as it takes them to react, though, and they can immediately break out, so it’s not much use. But with a sneak attack like this to the head. I can see it happen.”
“Yeah,” Adion nodded, “Since I can’t affect the space inside living beings, it becomes a battle of Will, with my Authority over the space surrounding them and their ‘Authority’ over the space in their bodies. And I’ll lose that battle instantly against a Diamond mage. But with this, I might be able to do some damage if I time things right. I’ll need more practice, though.”
“How long do you think we’ll have?” Benji asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe two weeks?” Adion shrugged. They had been in Rettor for two weeks already, and Adion thought that Eulen wouldn’t have patience exceeding one month.
“But there is another problem you would have to work on if you wish to succeed in the sneak attack,” Lomin said.
“What’s that?” Adion asked.
“I don’t know how well practiced you are on the different aspects of aura, but are you confident in being able to hide your killing intent from a Diamond mage?” Lomin asked.
Adion felt a chill run down his back.
I had forgotten about that.
Hiding anything else in his aura was something he had complete confidence in. But killing intent was different. It was something you didn’t need any practice in aura to spot. Even non-mages would feel killing intent. Adion might be able to hide it somewhat, and even fool weak mages. He wasn’t sure. But a Diamond mage, even one who didn’t focus on aura, had sharpened their danger sense through their life. Eulen would surely notice something if Adion tried to kill him as he was now.
“Damn, that complicates things,” Adion said, “I’ll have to give that some attention during the remaining time. Hopefully, I’ll manage to distract him enough that he won’t notice. The fact that I’m a Bronze mage should also make sure he isn’t on guard against me.”
“You know, you could always forget about it,” Sahra said, “It’s not like we have to stay in the Empire. We could run far away. Even if they’ll look for you, I find it hard to believe that a thorough search will be done across the continent. What you’ve shown them so far isn’t that special.”
“No,” Adion shook his head, “I don’t want to live like that. And I think the odds are in my favor.”
“All right,” Sahra shrugged, but Adion could feel she was feeling uneasy.
“Let’s go back for now,” Benji said.
No one objected, and the group headed back to the inn. They had been hunting beasts and letting Adion experiment with his new attack for the past hours.
There’s so much to do. If I could have some more time, I would be a lot more confident.
Adion had thought long and hard about what kind of concept he could make use of to make a powerful attack. But he eventually realized that it wasn’t something he could force. He would need time, and that was something he didn’t have at the moment.
So he decided to make use of the concept he had already grasped, ‘stable,’ which was always used when he freezes his opponents in space. Adion was not sad about that, though. He soon realized that ‘stable’ could almost be called ‘strengthened.’ It was the same concept, Adion just thought of it in a different word. And he would need his space strengthened no matter what kind of attack he used in the future.
So how would he make his strengthened space take over space protected by someone else’s Will? And how could he do damage in that space? The solution Adion had thought of was to make his space strong, but volatile.
He used his Authority to take over just the space the size of a fist. He then Willed it to be stable, just as when he freezes someone. Then, he split the space into two equal volumes and controlled them to slide against each other, fast and sporadically. Then he would split them again, into four pieces. And once again, control them to move around in the same way. He had kept increasing the number of splits and could now, after two weeks, control 32 pieces of space that together make the size of a fist. The space was strong but moved chaoticly, and the result could be seen on the tree Adion had just decimated.
The problem is that even though the tree is alive, its Will is basically non-existent. Forcing his volatile space into the body of a Diamond mage can’t compare. He would need to practice a lot. Both the amount of splits and how fast he could make the different parts slide against each other.
Even though it was still far from being a reliant weapon against a Diamond mage, Adion was extremely pleased. He had been a little caught up on concepts ever since he found out about them. Concepts were really useful and something he would give the time it deserved, but they didn’t control every aspect of magic. Adion’s teleportation was an example of this. He could come up with a clever application of his powers and then figure out what steps he would need to take to get there. It would be clumsy and take a lot of Will in the beginning, but with enough practice, just like his teleportation, it would eventually be something almost done naturally.
His teleportation wasn’t quite there yet, of course, but it was getting close.
Adion thought his new attack was a perfect mix of his Authority, his concept, and his own application of how to make them obey his Will in the manner he wanted.
And this was just the first step, only a tree, but eventually, Adion aimed to make his own space capable of destroying even space itself.
That was far away at the moment, though. And Adion needed to focus on practicing his attack on an active Will.
Maybe I can ask Rufus to conjure some earth or rock and try to protect it with his Will against my attack. And eventually, I might be able to use it against the Silver beasts we encounter on our hunts.
But first, I need to practice hiding my killing intent.
And that is just what Adion did as he came back to his room at the inn.
I have a pretty good idea where my killing intent shows. I just need to practice hiding it. If others can feel my killing intent so well, I can feel it even clearer.
Adion sat down on his bed and focused on his aura. He imagined the white masks killing his parents, and imagined standing face-to-face with them again. Immediately, his killing intent surged. It was hard to focus on the scenario in his head while being aware of his aura at the same time.
I guess this is why it’s so hard to hide killing intent. Even if it has an obvious presence in your aura, it basically disappears as soon as you focus on it. Unless you’re about to kill someone for real, I guess. But it’s hard to believe the scenario in your head while making yourself aware of the killing intent. As well as being afraid for it to disappear before you can practice hiding it.
Adion kept on practicing for the next few hours, sometimes succeeding in grasping his killing intent and pulling it to his body to hide it.
The most important part is to be able to hide it before it gets noticed. Could there be a way to preemptively hide something that will appear in your aura? If so, I’m probably far away from succeeding.
Adion got up to stretch his limbs a little and started focusing on his new space attack instead. He couldn’t do any damage against a Diamond mage as it was now, so he couldn’t leave it be just because of his aura practice.
I should just try to make myself emit killing intent throughout the day at random intervals. Attempting to hide it as quickly as I can. In particular when hunting beasts, that will work as a perfect practice opportunity.
Maybe I can spend some time practicing feeling the ‘aura’ of my pills as well. I haven’t gotten around to it yet, and I feel like every aspect of my aura that I practice will help everything in the future get easier.
But that’s for another day. I should ask if Rufus is available as a practice partner. As I am now, my best chance is probably trying for the good old tactic of stabbing Eulen with a sword.
—
The two weeks that Adion had estimated he would have before being called by Eulen came and went, and Adion had now been in Rettor for a little over two months in total.
Adion was standing next to a middle Silver beast he had just killed, the back of its head completely smashed in. A testament to how far Adion’s new attack had come during the weeks of training.
“That attack of yours is getting real consistent,” Rufus commented, “It’s almost better than your freezing-thing, right?”
“Well, it’s a bit too exhausting at the moment,” Adion answered, “But it lets me fight at a distance. I’m going to make a pretty big leap in power once I’ve practiced this some more.”
“I can’t believe that Eulen hasn’t called back for you yet,” Rufus commented, “You think he might just let you go? Maybe he forgot about you?”
“I doubt it. He must’ve thought I would return by myself. He’ll probably be pretty mad once he realizes he has to call me back himself,” Adion answered.
“Well, let’s hope we get some more time then. It won’t hurt to get some more practice in.” Rufus said.
“True,” Adion nodded and grabbed the dead beast in space using his Authority.
“Even seeing you killing a beast almost a full stage stronger with an invisible attack, te fact that you never have to carry dead beasts might be the thing about your abilities that I’m most jealous about,” Rufus said as he looked at the Silver beast’s body, appearing to float mid-air.
“It is quite handy,” Adion nodded, “Unfortunately, I still have to carry it physically the last part to the Outskirts Guild. I have experience in how people tend to overreact at my way of carrying beasts.”
“Haha,” Rufus laughed lightly, “I can imagine. I’d like to see people reacting to this new attack of yours, though I imagine most people experiencing it will do so firsthand, and not be too happy about it.”
“Yeah,” Adion nodded. The two made their way back to the outpost. Adion and Rufus had come out here to practice, as they had many days prior. Today, they were attacked during practice, which wasn’t very unusual.
“It’s probably a good thing to keep secret. Not that I’m planning on revealing anything else about me, but if I’m known as a Gifted in the future who can only freeze space, this might be useful as a surprise to my enemies.”
“Well,” Rufus said, “Glad I’m not your enemy then.”
I wonder where the limit for the ‘space shredder’ lies. Ugh, I really should come up with a better name for it. Even in my own head, I can’t help but cringe.
Even if I manage to find some Words of Truth like Lomin, I might be too embarrassed to say them out loud if this is what my naming skills amount to.
“Adion!” Adion heard Sahra’s voice up ahead. She was running toward him and Rufus.
“What’s going on?” Adion asked.
“That guy Konfed is here, the one working for Heavenly Light,” Sahra said.
“Did Eulen finally call for me to come back for the Oath?” Adion asked.
“It seems like that’s the case,” Sahra nodded, “Benji’s at the inn talking with him. I said I would go to get you.”
Adion nodded with a serious expression on his face, “It seems like it’s time then,” He paused for a while before speaking again, “Konfed is the one you’ll have to capture then.”
“I know,” Sahra said, “Will you kill him?”
“I’ll probably have to. It depends on the situation, “ Adion said, “If things are relatively calm, we might be able to bring him to Gerrinswood to swear an Oath of silence.”
“An Oath is no guarantee, though,” Rufus said, “Even with a Moonlight Oak, it’s not sure to kill him if he breaks his Oath. And he might spill your secrets in some way without being aware of it, which would leave him unaffected and the knowledge about you spreading, now even worse than ever before. There would probably be an active hunt from the entire Heavenly Light.”
“Haa,” Adion sighed, “I’ll make the decision later. For now, let’s get moving.”
“Are you nervous?” Sahra asked.
“A little,” Adion answered honestly, “I’m not naive to think that everything will go according to plan. But I still think we have a very good chance of succeeding.”
“Well, you’ll have us to back you up,” Sahra said with a smile, “Though…If you fail to kill that Eulen guy, we’re all probably going to die.”
“No pressure!” Rufus said with a grin and slapped Adion’s shoulder.
“Don’t worry, he’ll die,” Adion said, “But after that, things will get messy.”
“We’ll take care of it,” Sahra said, “Focus on the Diamond mage.”
“Mm,” Adion nodded.
When they entered the inn, Adion immediately noticed Konfed. He was sitting opposite Benji and Lomin, tapping his fingers on the table impatiently. It would probably have come off as threatening if he wasn’t only a peak Iron mage.
Konfed soon noticed Adion as well and stood up to meet him.
“Adion, Ganta! What are you doing? How long were you planning on taking?” Konfed said in a flustered voice.
“Sorry, I was just about to head back. I had a lot of thinking to do,” Adion said, “It’s a big decision, after all.”
“I understand that,” Konfed nodded in sympathy, “But you shouldn’t have taken this long. Eulen is pretty pissed. Better to decline immediately if that’s what you’re going to do. I hope you won’t after making him this long, though.”
“Not at all,” Adion shook his head.
“Good,” Konfed smiled, “Then let’s get going. I’m afraid I have strict orders to take you back immediately. I even have my own carriage to bring us back fast.”
“Mm, let’s get going,” Adion said. He looked at his teammates and saw that the situation had already landed, and they were ready. They had gone through the plan many times, but things rarely went according to plan.
I won’t let any of you die, don’t worry. Adion thought, and followed Konfed out of the inn along with his teammates.
Comments
Irakli Jishkariani
Haaaa, reading adion's hope-based planning is really frustrating. And I'm skeptical when he says he has good odds. He doesn't know that much what diamond mage can do and as was mentioned he didn't even have experience against gold let alone diamond. It is incredibly reckless plan in my eyes. And it was not clear if he mastered hiding his killing intent or what is he going to do with other gold and silver members. He has to kill diamond, several golds, whole army of silvers and bronzes. I expect lots of plot armor to even survive that.
WiseBison
First of all, glad you enjoy the story :) So I'll try to explain my thoughts. Well, it is more like he feels that is the less risky option. And I think it was solved in a way that makes sense. I wanted to use this as an opportunity to remind readers that every stage is not invisible to the ones below. I think it's pretty common in xianxia that for example a 'Gold' can take on 100 'Silvers' and they won't be able to do make a scratch. But it doesn't quite work like that here (I had a brief mention of this in chapter 5 I believe where it was explained that even a Silver mage would die if a non-mage stabbed a knife in their heart.) So his confidence isn't completely out of nowhere if he manages to plan things right in these two months. As for him finding his family and sending letters, that's definitely an option. But all he knows is that his family has been murdered by some powerful hidden enemy, now he just assumes that his brother, sister and grandfather should be at Cyalis, and he is heading there in time to start school. As for why he chooses to train in the Outskirts instead of going straight there? He ponders about this in later chapters, but I think it makes sense as he has great motivation to get stronger. More than reuniting with his family fast, he feels too weak to make a difference as he got out of the Endless Forest. Sending a letter could work but it is a long distance, he started out without much money. He also doesn't know their exact location and who might be able to intercept the letter, or if his family will even believe him. I think he just wants to focus on increasing his strength at the moment and reunite with his siblings the right way. Not sure if that made sense? That was the thoughts I got from reading the comment at least lol. Always happy to hear opinions and questions from people who actually enjoy the story so don't hesitate if there is anything else you wonder :)
silder
Not going to lie - I've really enjoyed this story up until now, but this storyline seems extreme. Aidon hasnt tested himself against even a Gold - how does he have any confidence in this? He needs to find his family rather than tinker around... I feel like that wasn't properly explained? Also, are letters not a thing in this universe to where he could let his siblings know he's alive?
