Chương 20: I Need to Get Stronger

Jonny was not looking at the platform, but he felt when Tommy began his circulation. It was like the other boy had turned into a black hole greedily sucking in the mana from all around. It went so far that for a moment, the mana density in the air around was reduced. Then, it started coming back out. Tommy was not like Jonny. Just as mana could go in, it could also come out. Some was refined and added to his core, condensing down with his own mana, but the rest cycled right back out and into the air.

He was like a whirlpool pulling mana in, but he was also like a lantern, emitting it right back out. Jonny immediately understood why Igrette was so certain that the magic beasts would come. Even he could have felt something like this from far away. He didn't know exactly why a beast would want to come to it, but there was no doubt that the beasts would sense it. It didn't take long for the first to arrive. It was a curious fox, creeping in from nearby and sniffing at the edge of the stone ring.

Igrette flared her mana outward, and it immediately retreated, and Jonny did not see it again. The next to arrive were a pair of birds that looked like iridescent crows, sparkling in the orange light of the sunset. They too were scared off by Igrette's mana. Their third guest was not so easily deterred. Jonny barely saw it at first, only noticed it when Igrette turned to glare.

It was a big cat of some kind, but its body was hidden in the shadows, so all Jonny saw was a single black paw and a pair of bright yellow eyes. It retreated the first time Igrette flared her mana, but soon reemerged on the other side of the ring of stones, and this time it did not immediately retreat, instead creeping closer to where Tommy and Helen were sitting with their eyes closed. Jonny looked up at Igrette to see what she was going to do, but found that she was already gone.

When he looked back at the big cat, Igrette was standing beside it, swinging her blade through the air to rid it of blood while the cat's head rolled away from its body. I didn't even see her move. She bent down casually to grab the panther's corpse by the skin on its back, and with one fluid motion, she flung it far into the woods, where Jonny heard a distant crash as it hit the ground. She then did the same with the head, tossing it in a different direction, before casually walking back to stand beside Jonny.

"It should draw some of the scavengers away from us," she explained simply. There was a lull in activity, as no new predators willing to challenge Igrette arrived. Jonny found his attention being drawn back again toward Tommy. The boy was still drawing mana in and ejecting it, but it was no longer a steady pull. It rose and fell, sometimes drawing in more, other times emitting more. In ten seconds, out twelve. Like breathing … Subconsciously, Jonny found himself matching his own breathing and cycling to Tommy's.

When he inhaled, his mana cycled faster than ever before, getting dense beyond anything he had felt, and when he exhaled, it slowed, getting close to the point of straining his channels as it expanded back out. He fell into a trance-like state, repeating the process over and over again, until he was broken from it by the sound of a distant screeching. He looked down, rubbing his stomach over where his core was. He didn't feel any different, but whatever that was had felt right somehow. Instincts …

He looked back up as the screeching drew nearer. Igrette was still standing beside him, sword planted in the ground, but she was now looking at him instead of out at the forest.

"Step out to the edge of the stone circle," she said.

"And watch closely." She lifted her sword from the dirt and raised it up. Not a single speck marred its metal, and it glinted orange in the last bit of sunlight as she walked forward. Jonny followed her, stopping right at the edge of the stone circle. Igrette stood beside him for half a minute until their attackers came into view. Jonny saw the familiar sight of a primaboar crashing through the foliage, followed by a dozen more.

Every single one was bigger than the one he had fought, with some being more than twice as tall. Igrette did not seem concerned at all, walking forward casually with her sword drawn. The primaboars screeched when they saw her, changing course to charge her instead of the stone circle. What followed was absolute carnage. Igrette was untouchable weaving through the beasts in ways that a half-blind person should have been incapable of.

She was moving faster than an ordinary human, but not as fast as she had moved when killing the panther, and Jonny was certain that this was deliberate. She wanted him to see her in action. Wherever she walked, primaboars died. Sometimes, she swung her sword gracefully, separating a head from a body with seemingly no resistance. Other times she was brutal, forgoing her blade and choosing to use her hands or feet instead.

One particularly savage axe kick folded a boar taller than Jonny in half, sending blood and entrails splattering all around. Occasionally, one would ignore her, trying to continue on toward the stone circle. Jonny silently hoped that they would make it to give him a chance to get in on the action, but whenever they did, Igrette would suddenly appear beside them, beheading them with a single strike before moving back to continue fighting the rest of the herd.

This time, Jonny was paying enough attention to see that she was not teleporting. She had simply planted a single foot and pushed off in the direction she wanted to go, launching her faster than a car in an instant. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. The herd of primaboars was more than thirty strong, but after not even a minute, all but one lay dead in the forest.

The one standing was the obvious leader of the herd, standing even taller than Igrette with tusks more than a foot long. It pawed at the ground with one of its front feet, then charged Igrette. The old nun casually stepped to the side and swung her sword, and the primaboar went crashing to the ground, both of the legs on one side severed. It screeched in rage and pain for only a split second before Igrette put and end to that with one more strike to its neck.

Her sword was not long enough to cut all the way through its neck, and yet somehow, it did, and its head rolled forward as blood poured from the flat stump. Igrette swung her blade one more time, cutting nothing but air as scarlet drops flew off and landed on the ground below. Then, she sheathed the sword and walked back. She moved slowly, allowing Jonny plenty of time to observe the corpses she had created. Some were cut, some were crushed, and one, she had literally torn its head off.

There was blood everywhere, yet somehow, barely any had gotten on her robes. And as she walked by, there was only one thing on Jonny's mind. I want to be able to do that. He had been wondering what Igrette was capable of and now he had seen it, and he wanted more. She hadn't broken a sweat. This was nothing compared to what she was actually capable of. And she wasn't even in the top 100 internal mana masters in the nation? What did that mean about the people at the top?

How far would Jonny have to go to even be able to see them moving? I need to get stronger. He knew this feeling. He had felt it when he was younger, watching the professionals fight. He had felt it the first time he walked into a gym, seeing the older fighters kick the pads so hard it sounded like thunder. He had felt it in his first amateur fight when he barely squeaked out a win against a superior opponent, only winning because his cardio was better. But he had never felt it more intensely than now.

The desire was so strong it drowned out everything else he was feeling, and it was all he could think about. How much harder did he have to work. How far did he have to go? When would he be able to do things like that? He was a good fighter by mundane standards, but even the old him, the best mixed martial artist in the world in the prime of his career, would lose to Igrette's left pinky toe. It wasn't comparable.

"Teach me," he said as soon as Igrette returned.

"Please." She studied him for a few seconds, then nodded.

"We will begin tomorrow. During your usual morning classroom time."

"Thank you." The next hour passed quickly. All the dead primaboars served as both a distraction and a deterrent. It was getting dark, and harder to see, but Jonny saw the silhouettes of things moving through the woods to feast on what Igrette had left behind. The pervasive smell of blood must have warned some of the other predators off as well, their survival instincts managing to overcome whatever was driving them toward Tommy. At the end of this hour, there was a sudden change in the way Tommy cycled his mana.

The rhythm of his breathing never changed, but the release of mana stopped. He inhaled, pulling mana in, but when he exhaled, no mana came out.

"Focus!" said Helen.

"This is the final step! Yes! Good!" The mana continued to go in without going out until one breath where Tommy did not exhale. He held it in, along with the mana, and for nearly half a minute, the world seemed frozen. Tommy did not breathe, the mana was not cycled, and even the magic beasts seemed to fall silent. Then, he let out a shake exhale and opened his eyes, beaming.

"I did it!" he announced.

"You did it!" said Helen, pulling him into a hug.

"Good job, Tommy! That was perfect!" Tommy giggled as she squeezed him tight and ruffled his hair, then sprang to his feet and immediately cast a spell. It was just a small light spell, one that Jonny had seen him cast dozens of times before, but it was different now. The light above his palm, which had been a pinprick hardly better than a firefly, now lit up the area all around, bathing them in soft white light.

"Congratulations," said Igrette, nodding to him, her mask back on.

"That was one of the fastest layer formations I've ever seen."

"Was it really?" asked Tommy.

"It was," confirmed Helen.

"You have talent Tommy." Tommy grinned, then turned to Jonny, pointing to the light in his hand.

"Jonny, look!"

"I see it," said Jonny.

"I formed my first layer!"

"Congratulations." Jonny spoke in a monotone, keeping his feelings hidden inside. Tommy didn't seem to notice, but Helen spared him a glance full of pity before saying something else that drew Tommy's attention back to her. I need to get stronger. Jonny didn't hate Tommy, but he would be lying if he said he wasn't jealous. That core formation ritual? The light in his palm? Jonny would never be able to do that. His body wouldn't allow for it. But I can still do it. I can make it work.

He looked down at his stomach again, recalling the odd trance he had fallen into while matching Tommy's cycling cadence. There was something there. Something important. He didn't know what it was, but for the first time since learning of his condition, he had a lead. An instinct he could follow. Igrette's words rang in the back of his mind.

"Everyone's body is different. Everyone's mind is different. Sometimes, when a method that works for others isn't working for you, following your instincts will work out better than stubbornly trying to follow someone else's methods." My body isn't normal. What works for them won't work for me. I need to follow my instincts. He clenched a fist and looked back up. Tommy was babbling at Helen, and Igrette was looking at him. He looked back at her, eyes filled with determination.

"I'm gonna be the strongest," he said.

"…We'll see."