Xenarra: The Dragon Throne - Chapter 27 Erebus

After Dubh had left, I looked around at where he had left me. It seemed like the recruits didn’t get much. Also it seemed like there weren’t many. Looking around, I had only found twenty beds, ten of those were occupied. It looked like there was only one trainee squad here at the moment. I would have said it was odd, but I don’t know much about the rangers, to be honest, unless you were or are a ranger, I doubt, you would know much about them.

It took me a while but I finally decided on the bed I would sleep in. It was the most hidden and out of the way of all of the beds,. iIt also wasn’t near any of the other occupied beds as well.

I took off the leather armour that I had left on as well as the sword. Took the dagger out of its sheath and placed it under the pillow. This was in case Dubh did come in the middle of the night as he threatened. Then after getting into the bed, I quickly fell asleep, all of the previous days fatigue and exhaustion finally catching up to me.

As it turned out, it wasn’t Dubh who came in the middle of the night, but Erebus. “Adoh, get up. That’s not much to do here for you, but if you are here you can be useful.”

Slowly waking up by the shaking on my shoulder, I first thought that it was Dubh. So along that line of thought, my hand went to grab the dagger under the pillow. I found nothing.

“Oh, looking for this.” He held the knife in front of me. “It is an odd trait to keep weapons on you while sleeping, especially when you are friendly. Even more so for someone as new to the army as you.”

It was at that point, I worked out it was in fact not Dubh but it was Erebus. ‘If I got my dagger and attacked and hurt him. Lucky I didn’t. If I did the consequence of attacking a superior is death’

Thinking about the punishment, a cold sweat formed on the back of my neck. Seeing me begin to sweat, Erebus looked at me oddly. Then looking down he saw the dagger in his hand.

“You think you could have even made a scratch on me. Now that is funny. Kid come with me. I will show you why.”

He took me out and onto the plateau outside of the cave. I was able to get my armour back on though and I got my dagger back. Just before I left, I went back and grabbed my sword, nearly forgetting it.

Seeing me run back to grab my sword., Erebus just had a look of disbelief. I heard him muttering, “How can he forget his sword, especially after showing the intelligence of sleeping with his dagger.”

On the plateau, it was just us. I had my sword drawn and he had nothing. “So you don’t want to get a weapon or anything. You could get hurt.”

“Kid, you are about two hundered years early and missing a dragon if you think you can hurt me. Now come.”

I ran straight at him, with the intention of not allowing anytime to get into any position or cast any magic. As expected I arrived before him extremely quickly. I started with a stab, which he dodged, then followed with a slash at his torso and head. Both of those he dodged. After my third attack, he retaliated, this was with a normal looking punch to my chest.

My whole body and every sense I had, if I knew they existed or not screamed one thing. Dangerous. I jumped back, to get out of his range which would be limited, considering he had no weapon.

“It seems your reflexes and senses are at least good kid, though try harder, I am unarmed after all.”

‘Damm, if all of his attacks make me feel such a sense of danger. How will I be able to stay in close quarters long enough to land a hit. Unless I don’t stay in for long.’

I quickly looked around trying to find anything that could help me in my fight. There was nothing, just the empty, flat plateau.

‘If I go all out, I could maybe force him back and at least touch him.’

“comhlacht a fheabhsú.” I felt the familiar feeling of mana cover my body. Without any warning, I sprinted straight towards him. When I was about one metre away, I threw my sword at him. As I expected he was able to dodge the sword. Though by the time he had turned towards me again, I was right next to him with my dagger in hand.

With my dagger in hand, I attacked his neck with a stab. It was the closted vital point I could attack, that the dagger would be effective against. It was going well, then a pressure fell on me that was so great that I fell to my knees. The dagger falling to the floor alongside me.

The pressure felt so powerful, so dangerous, so bloodthirsty. My face and whole body was beginning to go white, I could also feel myself shaking as well. Then the pressure disappeared as if it was never there.

“Well done kid, that move at the end was good. You managed to catch me by surprise, though with a spell like that….Who taught you how to use mana?”

‘You are asking me about mana. I should ask you about what kind of attack or power that pressure was. It was too strong….too scary.’

“Umm, well, I wasn’t taught how to use mana, just how to sense it and the basics about being able to use it to enhance my body and weapons.”

He looked at me for a second. “Hey kid, how much do you know about mana?”

“Not that much sir.” I had finally managed to get back to my feet at this point.

“Come on, let’s sit down and I will tell you a bit.”

Going back into the cave, we found an empty couple of seats. Someone brought us both a drink and gave me a pat on the back. “You should be happy, new people, not many can get Erebus here to use his aura.”

‘So that is what it was. An aura. Though I heard that they were lost a long time ago.’

I had many questions about Erebus now. It was obvious that he wasn’t in charge here but was treated with a lot of respect as well as that he was not part of the five ranger units I had been told of earlier.

“Kid, I am going to keep this short and simple, ok?”

I nodded for him to continue.

“So basically mana is a type of energy that is present in the world and can be used in lots of ways. To name a few would be elemental magic, magic engineering and rune crafting, conjuration, spirit magic, necromancy and enhancement magic like you use. They are but a few. Some like elemental magic are about the use of certain elements, others are about the soul like spirit. Though enhancement magic is different. It is basically mages trying to use mana like Qi was once used.”

When he mentioned Qi, I was a bit confused, I remember Lance talking about it before but he never really said what it was. “Sir, what is Qi and the difference between it and mana.”

“You got there before me kid, let me finish first. So anyway mages have tried to use mana like Qi. They have had one problem though, the body of humans much like many other living things can’t absorb mana. So enhancement magic works outside your body, reinforcing parts of your body on the outside. Which I don’t understand how it all works but that’s the idea of it.”

“Umm, sir what about Qi, you didn’t answer my question.” He gave me a look that I thought would be able to kill me.

“Qi from what I know, is an energy like mana but it instead lives inside the body of humans and other living things. Would have been used I guess as a way to enforce the actions of the body. It would have been great for a warrior. It’s a shame the uses of it were lost.”

‘So thats what Qi is, it sounds like a wonderful energy as Erebus put it.’

“Go get some food kid, you need it.”