Chapter 68: Mana pt. 2

Kaius’s eyes bored into the jagged shard of stone that hovered in the air between him and Porkchop. They’d been at it for a couple of days now, and he was finally at the finish line. Fire Manipulation and Water Manipulation had quickly followed his first skill. Getting capped as he waged a war against his friend for dominance over the aspected mana.

Fast it might have been, it was also draining. Wearing down on his mind. The first day he had managed two skills, but he had been left feeling like a ringed out cloth. The training left him with a splitting headache that no amount of cold water and Health could fix. In the end, it had been a warm meal and a good sleep that had fixed the issue. They’d decided to slow the pace after that. Squeezing skill training into two days instead of three was of no real benefit if it left him insensate after all.

Kaius yanked on the rock, grunting as he strained against Porkchop’s control of the element. His mana slowly trickled away. They’d decided to up the stakes for the last level. Manipulation skills could affect more than just raw mana. They also offered control of their relevant physical elements. Unfortunately, it came at a cost. Requiring both more focus, and active investment of one’s own mana to effect change to the physical.

It was ruinously difficult. He could already feel his teeth creaking in his mouth from how hard he was clenching. Trying with every iota of his mind to claw at Porkchops control. It wasn’t working. His friend’s Crystal Manipulation was too close to earth, offering him more control that he had had with the other elements they had been practising with.

Still, that didn’t mean Kaius intended to give up without a fight. Porkchop had been far too smug with his victories. Rubbing it in Kaius’s face that he couldn’t win, even with a skill matched to the aspect. He’d go down swinging. Porkchop’s wealth of practice might have made him simply better at raw manipulation, but gods dammit no one was going to be able to say that he didn’t at least have gumption.

Grunting, Kaius tore at the stone. Just barely managing to encourage a few motes of dust to float in his direction. He could feel his mana draining, getting close to bottoming out. Dust wasn’t enough, he needed at least a pebble, nay, a shard. Even a fragment would do.

Mana gushed forth as he focused his intent on a small jagged edge of the rock, straining with all his might on the section of stone. His headache spiked to new heights, the light through the windows starting to feel as though it was lancing his eyes.

Honing his focus was tough, isolating the small section of their battleground requiring more from him.

There was a subtle crack. A sliver of stone, barely a fingernails worth, drifted a few hairsbreadths from the greater whole. Porkchop growled, the shard freezing. Kaius breathed heavy, battling for purchase. He was so close.

His mana guttered out. The stone shot towards Porkchop, thumping into his chest and causing him to yelp.

**Ding! Earth Manipulation has reached level 20!**

Kaius laughed at his friend’s misfortune, wiping at his forehead as he took in air in great, heaving gasps.

“I win again.” Porkchop sniffed imperiously. “It’s like you dont even try.”

Kaius leaned over, snatching a pillow from a nearby arm chair and hurled it at Porkchops face. “Oh shut up.”

Porkchop chuffed in his best attempt at a laugh, the noise sounding more like a rapid fire of breathy grunts.

Kaius rolled his eyes at his friend’s antics.

“So, are you going to merge them now? You said it would probably take some time to get your formation in place. I’m already itchy to keep going after the Champions.” Porkchop asked.

“Soon.” Kaius answered. His head still ached something fierce, and with the growing demands of his legacy skills on his willpower he wanted to be in top shape for the upcoming merge.

He understood how Porkchop felt though. At first it had been nice to take a breather, an extended break from the nonstop vigilance and violence of pushing further into the Depths. At least, as much as break-neck skill training could be. As the weeks had bled together, that feeling of rest had disappeared, leaving restless tension in its wake. They had so much to do, and just a little over a year to do it.

He knew it was necessary. Taking this break actually sped up their timelines. Neither rune masteries nor manipulation skills lended themselves particularly well to the vigours of combat. It was still hard to feel like they had stagnated. Now that he knew there were Honours on the line. There were only so many champions in this city, and he doubted there would be enough to get Porkchop Born for Slaughter, nor the Honour that they suspected existed for killing the Champions as a group.

At the very least, he was on the verge of working on spell casting. That excitement was the only thing helping him maintain his focus. Just one more skill and he would be ready.

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Then it would be time to practise mixing spells with his swordplay. Something he absolutely would be making full use of in combat with Champions.

“Give me an hour or two for my headache to clear up, then I’ll do it.” Kaius said.

“Fine, but let’s find something to do until that happens. Sitting here doing nothing is torture.” Porkchop said, rising to his feet.

Porkchop, as always, was a little bit of a drama queen. Kaius rose to his feet all the same, patting his friend on the back and heading out of the sitting room.