HDMGF Book 2- Part 9

Suma’s POV

“Yes ma’am, I’m happy to.” Jake said then turned to me. “Suma, could you send me back before a doctor, or worse, my mum, comes back?” I sent him back, and as soon as he was gone, the Lieutenant let out another deep sigh.

“Now, Suma, do you have any other familiars to use during the exercises?” The lieutenant asked.

"No ma’am, only Jake.” I said.

“Fine then, while the others start training with their familiars, you will begin doing mana control exercises. Have you ever done anything like that before?”

“Yes ma’am, but it was a very long time ago. Back when I was still attending the academy.”

“Do you remember the Chatto variation?” She asked.

“Yes ma’am.”

“Good, begin doing that, and once everyone has finished their training, you will join us for our next session.” After giving me my orders, the lieutenant, and the rest of our squad, flew down into the pit and began doing battle drills. I found a quiet corner by myself and began my own exercises.

Mana control exercises are exactly what they sound like, they are specific techniques meant to improve the upper limit and precision of one’s mana control. There are seven basic variations, the one I was doing focused primarily on precision rather than amount. You start by forming mana into a tangible state, then shape it. I always started with a sphere when I did them in the academy, then moved on to more complex shapes like pyramids and squares.

It was easy enough to get started, and before long I was shaping my mana into increasingly complex structures. Just as I was about to finish a dodecahedron, I lost focus and the shape erupted. There is no danger when it fails, but it does release with some force, so the feathers of my outstretched wings were ruffled slightly. I relaxed for a moment, pulling my wings back to my sides to release some of the tension before starting again. I took a deep breath and began. This time, rather than starting from the first shape, I started from just slightly before I lost control. I was able to make it a bit further this time, almost beating my own personal record from my academy days, but just as I was about to, someone shouted, “SUMA, DODGE!” I looked behind me, then fell to the ground just in time to witness a fire spell zip over my head.

“Are you okay?” Lieutenant Datahu asked, not sounding overly concerned that I was nearly hit by a stray spell.

“Yes…” I said hesitantly.

“Sorry!” The voice yelled out. I was too preoccupied looking myself over to check, but it sounded like Nine.

“Watch your aim,” she chastised, “now do the drill again, everyone.” After that, I decided to relocate myself out of their lines of fire. I started again behind a large rock wall several seconds away from the pit.

Now that I was safely behind cover, I started the exercises again. I would like to say that I beat my own best, but I never did. I was too distracted thinking about my dream last night. Something about it was not perched right with me. I could not recall the entire thing, but I did remember having a conversation. I tried to picture it again in my mind, but the harder I thought, the further it slipped, and the more distorted it became. My eyes were closed as I tried to picture the dream, but I felt the mana exercise fail again, and started anew without bothering to open my eyes. I tried picturing that person’s face again, the one who I was talking to in the dream. Whomever it was, he looked a bit like Jake. Except this man was shorter, and wore strange garments, a bit like Jake’s “armor”, but it showed less skin than Jake’s. I gave up after a while, and opened my eyes to see a face staring back at me. It was made of pure mana, and it was that mystery man from my dream. It startled me, and I lost concentration, which shattered the image and the exercise. All that was left of the face was the force from the mana dispersing that quickly radiated out and away.

“How…?” I looked around, nobody was watching, so I could not ask if anyone recognized the man. I doubted they would anyway, if I did not, then they likely would not either.

“Suma,” the lieutenant said landing beside me. “We are starting the team training. Let’s go.” I followed her to the pit, and landed beside the others. The lieutenant perched in front of us, and explained what we would be doing. “For the next hour, we will be doing live fire magic drills. You will not be allowed to use your primary affinity, only your secondary.”

“Ma’am, may I ask why?” Rou asked.

“If you only train in a single affinity, then situations in which that affinity is useless will cripple you. If you only learn Water type magics, then a desert will be your undoing. Alternatively, if all you can do is fight, then you will be useless at all other times. Diversify your skills, it will save your life, and your squad’s as well.” After explaining, she created several targets by molding the ground at the other end of the pit. With a second spell, she turned the dirt targets into metal!

“Was that a transmutation spell?” Odens asked as shocked as the rest of us.

“Incredible, I thought only Royal and Court Mages could use such advanced levels of magic.” I said.

“You are correct. I learned the technique during my tenure as a Court Mage.” Lieutenant Datahu explained. We were all impressed, but no one had time to ask any more questions because she immediately ordered us to begin.

One hour may not sound like a long time, but when you are casting one spell after another, it feels like a whole day. By the end, my mana was drained and I was laying on the ground, Nine had vomited and collapsed from over-exertion, and Odens and Rou were desperately trying to use what little mana they had left to continue training. I would have been impressed with them if I did not know the reason; they were competing to see which one would last longer before passing out. Odens was victorious in the end, but only by a few seconds. You might be wondering why we pushed ourselves to such extremes, why we didn’t simply rest? We tried… once. Nine rested for a moment, but son after his target started moving towards him and attacking by shooting chunks of metal from itself.

“The longer you rest, the harder the training becomes.” The lieutenant proclaimed. Nine began casting his spells again, and the target returned to normal. When he final collapsed, I was sure he was going to be attacked again, but the target did not move.

“At least they know the difference between resting and dying.” Odens had proclaimed when he noticed it too.