Chapter 20: Betrayal 2
While he sat on the cold edges of the stone frameless tower window, Seth's mind journeyed back to his first lessons on mana sense- one of the first spells he learned at the academy. He remembered Professor Plum's words;
"Think of using mana sense as tapping into a network already in the air. Reaching out to the particles of mana floating all around us. Feel out each individual particle, and with a thin line of mana, reach out and connect to those particles. When your connection with them is good enough, move to the next, and the next. The further you reach, the further you see with mana.
If your element is fire, search for mana particles bursting with heat, If it's air find the gasses that make up the air, water do the same, earth, and Holy knight trainees, follow suit.
Mana sense is a bridge to greater spells. Master it and no untrained mage will ever be able to sneak up on you."
Seth eyes blinked open and the edges of his lips curled. Plum's words reminded him of truths about mana he had forgotten. The mana from his blood core was difficult to control and it was insidious, but it was mana, nonetheless. And he could reach out and tap into the corresponding particles in the air. Life Sense was probably the blood mage's version of mana sense.
He roused mana from his blood core, just like he did earlier that night, this time slower. The mana still flowed in beads and surged through his veins and muscles so violently, they nearly burst. Slowly, he released viscous mana and instinctively sent towards strange multi-colored spectral particles he found flowing in the air. They all turned blood red as the mana reached out and pulsed with life.
Seth's eyes opened to a mesmerizing sea of colors, that burst forth from nearly every item in the room. There must have been thousands of colors. Deep reds, magenta, pearlous white- it was entrancing. Seth peered deeper into the sea, desperate to know more, but was immediately forced back. The sea was dammed off from him, and the colors faded to a muted grey. He felt a sharp ache surge up his sternum, rising from his core and he reeled back in pain.
Seth immediately knew what he did wrong. He reached out to too many particles all at once and tried to glean all their secret and his mana core couldn't it, hence the backlash. This time, instead of trying to see the entire sea, he chose a single color- Scarlet red. The color that stood for blood.
He roused mana from his core up once more and focused solely on Scarlet Red. The connection snapped not a second after he established it, but yet he smiled. He was making progress. He expected to fail a few more times before he would be able to sustain the spell, and he was confident he was on the right path.
So he surged forth and established a new connection, and then another, and another. He pushed harder with every snap, and sure enough his persistence began to bear fruit.
With each try, the beads of viscous mana got smaller, and smaller, and he found it easier to maintain the flow for longer. After his fiftieth try, he managed to maintain a connection that passed the first chosen particles. His hand shone a dull red when he stared down at them, but everything beyond a single step was utter darkness. Pleased with his progress, he pushed harder still. He was determined not to give up, not while there was time still.
At the sixtieth try, he managed five in all directions, and after his ninetieth, the world faded to monochrome, and his vision stretched past the walls of the room, and several feet in all directions. In addition to the dull red pulsing within him, he saw faint particles of white, and green floating around plants and deactivated light crystals. His control was still lacking, and he'd have to practice more, but he'd succeeded, he'd learn life sense. Before he could celebrate learning the spell, he sensed their approach.
He felt them before he saw their life sense- altered silhouettes. Two muscular seething scarlet ilhouettes that writhed with power, and a smaller, ruby frame. They all quietly snaked up the stairs at a relaxed pace. If he had relied on his senses alone, he wouldn't have ever noticed. Sera betrayed him, the system was right.
His vision flickered, and colors of room washed back. Without sparing another moment dwelling on her betrayal, he pushed to his feet, faced the night air, and leapt out the tower's window.
The door burst open a second after Seth jumped, and Germo, Sera, and Brick dashed through the wrought door frame. "Get him," Germo ordered Brick. Brick nodded and leapt out the window with a slight smork on his face. He had been looking forward to testing the borderlander.
Brick bulky frame fleeted down the tower at breakneck speed. Several meters to the ground, his frame spun, as he cast a 'harden' spell and he dug his hardened sausage-sized fingers into the side of the tower to slow his descent. His determined eyes searched the edges of the tower and the fire-lit town below.
He jumped left, and hung from an open window, furthering his search to the unexposed sides of the tower. He moved onto the next window when he found nothing and then onto the next after that. It was by the fifth window that he caught a glimpse of his prey. He spotted Seth's knee jutting out the boundless edge and sprung into action.
With a spell "Earth manipulation" he willed several bricks from the wall, arranged them to form a steady earthen platform, pressed it against the tower, and traveled up at an incline, with a trail of dust flowing behind him.
At the other side of the tower, Seth stopped his trutch satisfied that no one had found him, and began his quick descent. He loosened his grip on the tower bricks and wedges he used for hand and footholds, and drifted to the ground, quickly gripping jutting bricks whenever he needed to.
He was halfway down when he heard a growing grate fast approaching from his left. He immediately activated life sense and peered and scanned the direction where the grate came from. He saw a burly man approach on what looks to be a platform stone. His brow slicked with sweat upon recognizing that his pursuer was brick and he pushed off the tower wall, transitioned into a backflip and plunged into the streets below.
Seconds later, Brick popped out of the corner and rammed his fist earth clad fist into the spot on the wall Seth perched earlier. The collision forced up a cloud of powdered stone and sent several pulverized chunks flitting in every direction.
Seth landed with a thud, and lost his balance and stumbled backward into a barrel. He regained his composure just in time to dodge one of the numerous falling stones. He briefly locked eyes with Brick through the dust and hurried to his feet.
His knees buckled as he pushed to his feet. He gnashed his teeth, and with a limp, hurried down the closest alleyway. As the seconds rolled by, the pain faded, and soon he was able to call on his speed to quickly navigate the backstreets of the town.
He broke into a full sprint when he flickered on life sense and spotted Brick a few hundred paces behind. He pushed past drowsy homeowners, drunks, and children.
Explosions went off behind him as Brick sent jagged tremor towards Seth. When those failed, he switched to launching stone walls, and large boulders at Seth.
Seth narrowly avoided Brick's attacks, dashing left, right, jumping and ducking, whenever the attack demanded it.
Seth finally burst out of the network of alleys into the town square, just before half of a building crashed on him. His light armor was covered in dust, and sand and his black hair was grey, but he emerged mostly unharmed.
The Townsquare had a fountain at its center, small gardens, closed shops to the corner, and wide roads, leading in and out of its cobblestone streets. Seth hurried towards one of the many roads and eyed the large wooden gates at the end of it.
He ignored the chaotic town around him, flicking past adults and children alike. He approached the tall gates to find it guarded by a familiar face. A quick scan with Life sense confirmed that he was no match for the armor-clad woman in front of him. Her body glowed fiery burgundy.
She wore a confident smirk on her face, light armor, and two long bracelets, made up of glistening metal blades on her forearms
"Let me pass," Seth began. "I have chosen to end all dealings with your team, and head and save my sister myself"
"Have you now?" Ren teased. "I find that strange because a little birdie told me you were far from done. In fact, she assures me you're set on revenge, and you're withholding information."
He had pushed it from his mind, but now that Ren confirmed it, he felt no rage, or hate. He understood why Sera refused him. In her position, he would've done the same.
"Try to force information out of me and I promise I won't let you have it, not until it's too late," Seth growled at Ren. Though he knew he couldn't beat Ren, he wasn't ready go give up. Not with what was on the line.
"Now you said anything about torture," Ren smiled. "The rest of the team aren't here yet. Who knows, maybe if you are fast enough, you can get past me."
She summoned a sword hilt from her bracelet, and pointed it at Seth. The metal slips that made up her bracelet began to slowly wriggle and clatter, and finally, half of them flew off her wrist, and melded onto the hilt she held, forming a long thin, slightly curved sword.
Nervous sweat trickled down Seth's brow as he readied his mind for the fight to come.
[Mission updated
Task: Escape Acerno.
Reward: Your life]
A notification screen popped up front of him.
He dismissed it with a wave and drew a deep breath. He summoned his estoc from his dimensional ring and dashed forward.
He led with a thrust, which Ren easily sidestepped, then he flowed into a low horizontal slash to his side, and continued with a whirl of devastating blows, targeting Ren's head, torso, and limbs.
She dodged everything he threw at her with an amused smile on her face, blocking a few close thrusts and slashes here and there. She parried some blows with ruthless efficiency but slowed down her counterstrike each time to give Seth room to block or dodge. She was toying with him, and Seth new it.
Seth's grew even more desperate striking and twisting, dodging and thrusting with everything he had, while Ren still countered effortlessly. With one arm wrapped around her back and curious eyes, she studied every move he made and began to block his strikes before he fully swung.
With each exchange, Seth felt his control slip. His muscles tightened and his speed slowed. He expected a vast difference in skill as they crossed swords, but assumed he would cover the difference with speed and strength. He didn't expect the difference in their strength to be so small, it was barely noticeable. And she had not cast a single spell during their exchange. He knew he couldn't win the exchange, so he chose to create a diversion and end the battle while she was diatracted.
He stepped back several feet, and flung a firebomb at Ren, at a wicked speed. Ren countered by firing a single shard of metal straight at the red-neon orb. It exploded in a violent boom, sending pieces of molten glass and fire in every direction. A large wave of flame scalded the cobblestone floors between them and both Ren and Seth took several cautionary step backwards.
Seth grit his teeth and dashed into the flames, he emerged at the other side with his blade overhead. Though his diversion was countered, he had to exploit every chance he got, no matter how small.
His blade shattered the cobblestone ground and he nearly stumbled forward, from the shock of the failed blow. He instinctivley raised his blade and readied himself for a counterstrike, but the attack never came. Ren wasn't waiting for him at the otherside of the wall of flames.
His eyes widened in realization, and he rolled forward, moments before Ren's attack struck behind him. He spun around to face her, but before he could strike out, he lost balance and stumbled backwards. The stone beneath him shifted. He tried to push to his feet once more, but countless floating razor-sharp blades stopped him.
"That was fun" Ren said with a content sigh.
"What do you think?" A familiar voice came from behind the blazing fire burning behind her. The fire slowly petered out to reveal the other members of the Red Hornet. The ground beneath them were charred, and each member dressed in travel attire, with their bags, and weapons dangling off their waists.
"He's better than I expected. Those borderland instructors must have done something right," Ren said.
"Good," Germo nodded and turned Seth, who had a scowl on his face as he looked at the members of the very team that promised to help him a few days prior.
"Sera told us about your plan, and I have to admit I didn't think you had it in you," he said with an approving smirk. "Ren tested you and she says you have potential despite what you'd have us think."
"Let me leave. If you have no intentions of torturing me, at least let me try to save my sister on my own" Seth growled.
"Just Shut up will you" Sera stepped forward. "You are in the team now."
"What?"
"I made a promise to you and I intended to keep it. When we found out you lied to us, I feared I would not be able to keep my promise, but the information you shared changed everything. I-"
"What Sera is trying to say is, you are back on the team and we will be rescuing your sister," Germo interupted. "But instead of you and Sera searching for your sister, you will be shadowing Brick.
"Brick" Seth looked to Brick, who in turn smirked and nodded. With their brief exchange still fresh in his mind, he protested, "I don't think-"
"He has a mana reinforcement technique that will increase your resistance to magical attacks. He's the only person who can protect you if you run into mages," Ren cut in. With a flick of her wrist, she recalled her spikes and sent back her sword to one of her interdimensional bracelet, which Seth noted had a large glowing gem just above the row of blades.
She and the rest of the team briskly walked past him. "Don't just sit on the floor," Ren scolded. "We have two days of travel before we reach Grechit. In that time, I want you to become twice the swordsman you already are. Germo has plans for you too."
Seth opened his mouth to protest again, but Ren cut him off once more.
"You'll fail miserably without my instruction. I don't see you winning a serious fight with an experienced mage." She mumbled a brief incantation and a short stub of earth pushed Seth to his feet. He almost tripped as he was rushed to his feet. He looked to her to her in anger, to complain, but like the rest of the group, she was several steps ahead of him. He grumbled to himself and followed.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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