The Third Party - Chapter 28

Ken’s POV (12 yrs. and 3 months old)

“What was that all about?” I turned to Wilbert who asked.

“My support magic tool got destroyed.” I showed him the ash left behind, making his eyes widen along with Celine’s brief confused look then mirrored his.

“How?!” asked Celine. I put my right forefinger to my lips and said…

“Secret, I’ll tell you guys later, for now, we’ve got a class to attend to.” I smiled at them and walked towards the field. “Come on guys! Let’s not be late!” I shouted back and sprinted off.

“You won’t get away from us that easily.” said Wilbert.

“Wait for me!” shouted Celine catching up to Wilbert with their weapons in tow. I’m here first! (smiles to himself) Now what would be a good show to present, using moon magic would be overkill, how about ice and lightning, I haven’t seen them use one, in fact, I haven’t seen them use magic other than teleportation, except for princess Lang of course, a-

“What are you thinking?!” SWEET MOTHER OF ALL–

“What’d you do that for?!” I shouted at Wilbert for shocking me, he just looked at me cheekily, a bubble of laughter he’s struggling to suppress. “And you just had to shake my shoulders, ugh! Not you too Celine!”

“*chuckles* Can’t help it (shrugs) your reaction was funny though.” She said. “Anyway what were you thinking about?” I smiled. Awww They’re worried for me.

“I was thinking what magic shall I use for today’s combat class, got any suggestions?” I asked, holding my chin with my hand.

“Hmmm, how about water.” -Celine-

“No, use fire.” -Wilbert-

“What about wind?” -Celine-

“Wait, go with earth!” -Wilbert-

“A-“ and here we go, the usual banters of the two, haha, why do I even bother asking if they end up arguing.

“Alright, alright, I’ll just use the four basic elemental magic.” The two looked at me as if I offended them, with their look and all.

“What? Don’t look at me like that.” I hid a smile as I turned around so they could not see-

“AH! NO! DON’T! Tickle me!” (frantic laughter and pleads for help rang out from Ken’s mouth as the two kept assaulting him and finally stopped after the other two had their fun with him.)

“You three really have the gal to play around even under this sunny noon.” said Lila who just arrived along with the others fully clothed in their armor while some are still approaching. Thank goodness the two stopped.

“Good everyone’s here, shall we start?” I asked and stood up and helped these other two hooligans. They nodded along and formed two lines while I walked up front.

“Glen, Allen, help me reshape the terrain.” I said, and the two nodded.

“Okay” -Allen and Glen-

“I shall now start.” Using my raw mana and their mana I injected it into the ground below us and connecting with the world’s natural mana to move the mass of land at will to create various terrains for combat class,

Also because by borrowing their mana which are better affiliated to nature it becomes more easier for me to move or create terrains, how am I able to use their mana you ask?

Simple, through concept magic, but I’d name it connection magic covered as arcane magic, so as not to be suspicious, hehe, isn’t this name even more questionable for a spell? Or a type of magic?

Welp, they didn’t try to question so maybe they’re fine with it? Oh wait, they still have to learn how my kind of magic works since it’s not native to this world, worst of all, I just created it.

Anyway, I’ve added this new feature a few months ago when I accidently used the flat terrain to my advantage during one of my duels with Glen, as you know he uses earth magic so it would have been to his advantage, but with my craftiness in combat, let’s just say things turned into a rocky world for him, literally.

So we have a three ascending platforms parallel to each other, behind it is an enclosed plain with the wall reaching ten feet ending at the side of the field, and an elevated platform on top, on the sides of the first platform were three pillars on each side and at the edges of the field are rock towers to be used as either shields or hiding places, remember that the earth formations are being created in front of me so the back part still isn’t affected, now unto it.

After turning around, I sent a thought to Glen and Allen telepathically, depicting what platforms they’d want for this part would be, the two agreed for it to be a canyon of some sorts, after agreeing, I created a rupture on the ground causing quakes to happen as I pull apart the earth underground,

But by sliding the mass upwards and sideways made the earth still stable but easy to put back without exerting too much energy after the fight, after the slide, a canyon was created which trailed from my position to the outwards of the field and slightly trailing to the left side to extend the canyon, and I stopped reshaping the terrain, now to replenish some lost energy.

I know this may seem unrealistic but with magic, anything’s possible, now-

“Is this safe?” asked Allen as he positioned himself by my side, you mister have been doing this quite more often now.

“Glad you asked that” I replied. “Hmmm, I don’t think so, as the structure of the canyon seemed to have gathered the mass on one side, although we may have elevated it, the part where the curve of the canyon seems to be unstable, can you check it for me please?” Allen nodded and used his magic to scan the area.

“It’s finished, the mass does look and feels unstable, with my magic sense, I’ve found parts of the mass to be either ready to collapse or waiting to collapse. We just need to be careful not to explode strong spells near that area.” explained Allen.

“Good, we’ll start with the class then.” I said, with one final glance at both terrains.

“Aren’t we supposed to fix that part first?” said Allen looking concerned.

“Let’s live it be, for unexpected terrains are better ways to train our instincts in avoiding or escaping such situation.” I replied.

“You do have a point.” He said, I smiled and thought to myself how many more interesting terrains I could shape.

“Before we start, let’s put up a barrier.” I said and walked to where everyone followed by the two. “Everyone join hands.” Everyone complied, but it’s only a matter of time before someone a-

“Why?” Spoke too soon. “The accurate answer Riyah is that by combining our magic to create a barrier I could manipulate the barrier to nullify everyone’s attacks from passing its enclosed space.” I explained.

“Then how are you going to do that?” she asked. “Through your mana recognition, have you ever wondered why your own spells don’t hurt you, I’ve noticed this trait when you showed your magic the other day-“

“Wah, how did you-“ -Riyah-

“Woah, let me finish, don’t worry, I didn’t do it on purpose, I caught a glimpse of your power by chance when I took a walk from class.” She turned beat red, okay… poor choice of words.

“Let me apologize first Riyah, for not informing you ahead of time, but I just could not help myself, the idea rushed into me so fast that I could not stop my mouth from blasting off on its own, hehe sorry.” I said sheepishly.

“It’s okay, anyway, you’ve discovered something, tell me, I’m curious to know, how can you say that my spells don’t hurt me? And what’s mana recognition?” she said, thank goodness this didn’t make things weird or anything.

“Well, umm, I have to explain first that I just made that word up, but let me explain.” I said holding out both my hands and being almost awkward before everyone could react as their faces almost turned sour.

“Mana as we know, is the world’s energy, and the energy that is needed by our body, and so, I speculate that once we have accumulated the world’s mana, it turns into our personal mana, having its own distinction from other people’s mana.” I said showing them my raw mana on the palm of my right hand, having the color of purplish blue. I continued…

“Now recognition on the other hand in simple terms means the act of recognizing things after having experienced or seen it, now we put them together, it now means that our mana recognizes us and the spells that we use,

This kind of idea have haunted me in the past, but after seeing how your spells recognize you or how your magic recognized you, it clicked.” I finished explaining with a smile on my face, and a look of disbelief on a few of them, while a mix of astonishment and the former is etched on the majority of them. You guys don’t believe me? I-

“But why do you say it’s mine when the idea clearly came from you?” asked Riyah, which stunned me.

“Oh, umm, I’d like to say that its ownership of the idea, it is true that it was my idea at first, but it was you whom I saw do it on their own, so I don’t get to own it.” I explained.

“But my brother has this kind of trait.” She rebutted.

“Then it’s both yours.” I explained, of which she gave me an unbelieving look, looking at my friends for some kind of answer as they try hard to stifle their laughter. What are you guys laughing at?

“Don’t worry Riyah, that’s just the way Ken is, but be warned, whenever he owns something don’t ever try to take it away from him, you’ll just get kicked.” said Wilbert.

“Hey I do not!” I said jokingly.

“Yes you do.” said Wilbert mischievously.

“I-“

“Uh… Uh, before you start a quarrel with me, I’d like to stop you right then and there before you blow us all up.” said Wilbert holding a finger on my face ushering me to shut up. Fine.

“Fine now that everyone understands now, let’s put up the barrier first, hold hands everyone.” I said, and they complied as we formed a circle.

“Now, let out a sliver of your mana and focus it on a single point, be careful not to collide it with other’s mana or it would create chaos as having our mana distinct from one another makes it hostile to each other.

Gradually enlarge it to the size of your fist and hold.” I explained, they complied right away and soon different orbs filled with their mana appeared one by one on different locations in front of them.

“Now everyone, close your eyes, I’ll take care of the rest.” they did as told and now I’m free to finish the spell. “One last reminder, focus on keeping your mana stable if you think that its energies are depleted, replenish it immediately and no matter what happens don’t lose focus.” I said.

“Are you sure this is safe?” asked Lila.

“Nope, but don’t worry, no one’s going to get hurt.” They abruptly opened their eyes as shock registers on their face, I just smile at them cheekily and said…

“Protection Magic: Mix Barrier.” A white colored magic circle appeared below our feet as my magic flew to their mana drawing it out and flung itself to the sky as it formed a barrier of multicolor around the field enclosing its triangular shape.

After it settled down the colors disappeared as a translucent mirror seems to have replaced it, with the concept of mana recognition, now our spells will just get nullified once it passes, and there the barriers done.

“I thought that was going to hurt but it didn’t” said Glen.

“Yeah me-“ a series of concerns radiated from everyone as they settled down from the adrenaline rush.

“Alright everyone, let’s begin our session, on this combat class, you’ll be fighting either one of the masters or against’ one another. I will be teleporting all of you to different locations of the field along with the other masters so prepare yourselves,

But just to be sure, don’t use any fatal spells or attacks seeing as this is only an exercise, take caution, but don’t limit yourself too much so as not to hinder your growth in battle.” said Master Ulysses who appeared just as everyone’s chatter died down.

Haha look at their shocked expressions whom got spooked by master’s entrance, oh don’t worry about me, I noticed a slight mana fluctuation from the barrier as master passed by, I’ll explain to you guys why he can do that in a later time, in fact, all the masters can do that.

“Understood Master Ulysses.” we simultaneously said once they’ve settled from the shock, well except for the other four, who wore varying expressions. I must say, they’re putting up brave fronts.

“We shall now start *snap*.” *blink* Damn, I really want to learn fast casting just like what master did earlier, for fast-casting allows me to dish out spells with relative ease and haste, saving me time from charging it up,

But isn’t there a principle on which type of spells is allowed under fast casting -other word I’d like to name it is flash-cast, hmmm… maybe I’ll use this term in the future once I’ve comprehended the basics behind such principle-.

Anyway, I’ve just gotten teleported and I’m pretty sure everyone else is too, in case you are wondering whether the field is large or medium in size, I’d say it’s about four football fields in total, pretty spacious isn’t it, that’s why whenever class is about to start I’d always rush everyone to get ready so we could go to the center, yes, at the center.

Nope, don’t blame me -even though it’s my idea-, for everyone have agreed upon the idea once I have explained to them the reason why, let’s just say the main reason is that I want to maximize all discomfort that we undergo to adjust accordingly to any situation we are thrown into.

And right now I’m inside the canyon, looking around, this must be at the entrance, quite near everyone, doesn’t this give me some type of advantage? Master did say that we would be teleported at any random place, I wonder how they are doing–

“Will you stop talking to yourself?” Oh Saber, he’s going to be my opponent? fair enough. He just gotta smirk now does he?

“Can’t help it.” I said and smirked back at him. “Let’s train?” I asked and he nodded, as he took out his two half an arm’s length daggers, and I took out my scythe.

“You do know that you’re in a disadvantage, right?” -Saber-

“Yeah, I’ll manage, Wind Magic: Surgical Sweep!” with a swing coming from the back to the front with my scythe, a burst of wind flew directly towards saber, creating smoke along the way, now to cover myself ‘Illusion Magic: Mirage’, a stealthy spell to surprise him.

3rd Person’s POV

With Saber’s vision obstructed, he sidestepped to the left and planted himself to the wall as he suspects that Ken will throw a random spell at his past location, and true to his prediction, Ken did throw a spell at the location he was at seconds ago.

The spell dispersed the dust scattered in the air indicating that it was a wind spell, with the smoke clearing, he deliberately casted a spell to conceal his presence so as not to spoil the element of surprise, with the spell ‘shadow meld’ made him invisible to the naked eye even at daytime, but he was shocked for as the smoke disappeared, so did Ken.

He stood still with his back plastered at the wall to avoid any surprise attacks from behind leaving his front exposed for a quick counter attack or escape, but with Ken using an invisibility spell, he had to be careful, or he would lose without even doing much of a counter-attack. He adjusted his blades so that they would be facing down, perfect for quick attacks.

Suddenly a patch of dirt dipped in front of him indicating that someone was there, with a push from the wall propelled him forward as he activated another spell, named ‘Shadow Prance’ that allows him to leap forward while enchanting his weapon with shadow magic,

He aimed the skill at the clearing where the movement he last saw and upon thrusting, he got contact on a solid material as Ken was hit.

Turns out Ken parried the attack while his concealment disappeared along with Saber’s, his right dagger aimed at the body of Ken’s scythe as the two struggle to push the other, the two backed off by jumping back and armed themselves, with a quick twirl of Ken’s scythe to his back, he launched his wind magic ‘Scythe cut’ towards Saber.

Saber leaped unto the air, performing one summersault avoiding the spell before landing and rushed towards Ken with his still active spell on his blade, Ken dashed to the left and Saber followed,

The two then proceeded deep into the canyon with Ken at the front, and Saber gaining in on him, with the corner close by, Ken pushed himself with a burst of wind propelling him forward and with his Scythe stabbed the wall to let him swing right to the direction leaving Saber still chasing, he was so close in hitting Ken.

Upon arriving at the turn, Saber was welcomed with Ken’s blade almost hitting his face luckily he sidestepped to the left using the momentum as leverage to add more chance in evading the sudden attack, he twirled and got his footing while Ken retracted the outstretched blade just in time to parry again Saber’s attack.

The two continued fighting on the corner, with blades clashing against blades, with twirls of the scythe to carry out a momentum against the fast pace attacks of the daggers by either parrying the daggers with its curved blade or the tip of the iron rod.

Ken is playing with his scythe like a stick, almost with no difficulty in swinging it and parrying the attacks, but if the weapon he was parrying was a blunt one, then he would definitely be having a hard time defending.

“Earth Magic: Earth spike.” Earth spikes the length of one meter and the size of half a meter burst out from the ground aiming at Saber with the swing of Ken’s scythe upward, half-caught and half-expecting the attack, Saber jumped back in time just as the blade and spike protruded at him.

“Shadow Magic: Smokescreen.” chanted saber as black smoke formed from where he was standing and spread around, obstructing Ken’s vision, smiling to himself, Ken just casted ‘glow’ to pinpoint Saber’s location, a cheat skill, he thought, so he just stood still pretending as if he’s anxious of what Saber’s going to do next.

Saber sidestepped from left to right, and sometimes adding a dash while flinging small shadow daggers towards Ken, which was avoided easily by him, then Saber remembered that despite Ken being a human, he was extremely sensitive to mana thus rendering his tactic useless, he switched to another approach which literally meant, fighting Ken again, head on.

He leaped from a blind spot where Ken wasn’t facing at the right with ‘Shadow Prance’ facing his two daggers downward aiming at Ken to finish the fight, but contrary to his belief, Ken easily parried his attack with a quick twirl of his scythe hits Saber’s daggers halting their advance,

With a quick push of his left hand together with surgical sweep, pushed Saber back distancing themselves three meters from each other.

The two had almost been drenched with sweat due to the battle coupled with the intense heat of the high noon, and slightly labored breathing, Ken thought to himself how much they have improved from before and felt proud with himself and his friends.

“Still want to continue?” asked Ken.

“Of course, how about we kick it up a notch?” replied Saber, his demeanor slightly changing, this time he decided to give his best for this exercise.

“Let’s remember not to push ourselves too hard since this is just an exercise.” said Ken in a singsong yet serious voice. Saber nodded and dashed towards Ken in a blink.

And so the fight continued with parrying one another’s attacks, but this time with a more speed and precision to their strikes, Saber appreciated the fact that Ken adjusted to his fighting style occasionally using spells here and there so as not to give too much of a disadvantage to him.

But he can’t help feel that he needs to fight against those who would use all of their tools up their sleeve in order for him to improve his fighting than before, for the next time that him and Ken would fight, he’ll request the other to not hold back anymore, he wants to see the fruits of his labor.

Ken’s POV (12 yrs. and 3 months old)

-after two hours of combat class-

“You’ve improved Saber since the last we battled.” I have noticed that he has increased his times of engaging in and out of combat, I’ve even sustained more injuries this time, looks like I need to catch up more in terms of speed.

“*nod*, but are your wounds alright?” he said, I look at them and, hmmm….

“I’ll be fine, but let me heal that burn on your shoulder first.” I walked towards him and hovered my hand on his right shoulder were I accidentally burned during the fight, an occasion where I predicted where he would pop out, I expected that he would be able to dodge, but sad to say, my blade grazed his skin along with it getting burned.

After patching up his burns and wound, along with scratches here and there with regeneration, I healed myself up with the same spell.

“There, all better, now we just have to wait for the others to finish theirs.” I said and turned towards the field looking at the colorful spells flying everywhere where the others are training.

Saber and I decided to end our fight earlier than the others since we’ve sustained enough damage for the class along with the fact that we still have to use our magic for later, coupled with the fact that the space we were fighting is on the brink of collapsing.

I’m saying the word ‘fact’ for quite a while now.

“Okay.” said Saber, “I’ll recover some strength while waiting.” I nodded at him and he proceeded to squat under a tree and replenish his energies, of course we went out of the barrier so as not to get caught in the crossfire of everyone.

I’m still up and ready to train but with us having even numbers, who will I fight when everyone are busy fighting one another, I’ll just recuperate and-

*BANG*

Huh? A huge fire spell, who could have done it? Good thing the barrier neutralized the impact before it could cause more damage, and why would they direct it at the barrier anyway.

Oh, someone’s fighting on the air, hmmmm… is that, master Klein? Aaand…Princess Lang? Makes sense if the fire spell came from either of them, but then again I didn’t see where that spell came from so maybe it wasn’t them.

Oh well, let’s just relax and recover some energies, I placed my scythe at the ground beside me as I squatted down under the shade of another tree parallel to the tree where Saber is resting.

I looked back at the fight again, and casted my ‘sound alteration’ spell to nullify any sound coming from outside in a two meter radius, with my increase of magic power the radius has reached over one kilometer but with my crafty mind, I’m able to adjust the radius that I want.

Only the closer the barrier is, the denser and clearer it is to see. I look at my scythe at the ground and think to myself, what I should tell my friends later. (smiles)

-after thirty minutes of rest-

‘Ken, everyone’s finished fighting.’ -White-

‘Okay, I’ll get ready now, but first I’ll wait for them to ask for the barrier to be put down before withdrawing it.’ I said, and stood up from squatting, grabbed my scythe, strapped it on my back, and walked towards the edge of the field.

Right on time, everyone gathered at the center of the field one by one, hmm, is there some sort of debris gathered at corners of the field, or at the edges of the field? Let’s find out.

Wow, they’ve made a mess, should I say that it was to be expected or- (ground shakes, Ken looks at the direction of the canyon)

…

Great, now they’ve done it, *sigh* let me check first if anyone got caught on the landslide, ‘Detection Magic: Landscape survey’ an area of effect skill that allows me to carve out the terrain in my head giving me a distinct image, letting me see through objects obstructing my sight.

Good no one got caught on the landslide, but who triggered it?

I walked towards where everyone gathered, and noticed that Saber was walking beside me. I looked at him briefly and turned my attention at everyone who looked haggard and unkempt, haha, funny.

“Good work everyone, now proceed to the town to get yourselves patched up by our healers.” said Master Klein, so far, the masters are the only ones who look decent, with little scratches here and there, still, no one has ever damaged Master Lana? Well, it’s to be expected since we’re still not at their level of power.

“That won’t be necessary master, Healing Magic: Revitalized Ground.” with a slam to the ground using the palm of my hand, grass and flowers grew and spread around giving with it a soothing feeling to everyone over the patch of grass and flowers.

A wide area of effect spell that heals allies in a slow process, the green colored magic circle below the patch of grass is its only indication on how wide the patch of grass covers, and right now it covers just everyone and a good amount of space.

“Well that works.” commented Wilbert.

“Okay, let’s all proceed to the next class.” said Master Klein, we all nodded as the masters walked away.

“Let’s deactivate this barrier and reshape the field shall we.” I said as everyone complied by nodding and saying yes.

-That afternoon-

“We’ll be going home now guys, see you again tomorrow.” I said cheerfully as we finish for the day, our friends waved and nodded at us, us three then started walking out of the village – or maybe town, I’m still wondering how I should call it-.

“Do we teleport or walk?” asked Celine.

“Let’s walk, I have something to tell you guys.” I said catching their attention as their eyes widen.

“Oh, what is it?” asked Wilbert.

“Let’s start walking first.” I said as they complied and we walk side by side. “Remember what I told you at the cliff the other day Celine?”

“Yeah I remember. Why?” she asked looking slightly anxious, if that is what she’s feeling.

“Well, I think the day has come to tell you guys a secret.” Celine’s eyes widen in realization and then confusion as to what I’m referring to, she shot me a questioning look and I approved of the sign as depicting to that topic she had always been curious about when she caught me singing a sad song, well the melody sounded sad, she didn’t recognize the song entirely.

Wilbert just Looked confused, I smiled at them and continued.

“Have you guys ever wondered why I have a scythe as a weapon, coupled with what happened earlier?” I asked, and they nodded. “It’s because this scythe is a magical weapon, and with it carried a destiny.”

The two looked at me with their wide eyes, disbelief written on their face, I smiled again. This is going to be a very long talk.