Supreme Magus

Chapter 3948: Fingers and Pinions (Part 1)

’Gods, yes. Thank you.’ The tingle in Solus’ scalp remained, but her mood improved. ’What about you? You could learn a thing or two from Ryla’s lesson and use it to defend yourself. Who knows, maybe Ral would learn along with you.’

’That’s a terrible idea.’ Kamila grunted. ’I would get addicted to the power of the Indech form, and once Ral is born, I would feel awful. Also, do you really want to teach Lith’s son how to train from the womb?’

’You are right and I was wrong. It’s a terrible idea.’ Solus shuddered at the thought of Raldarak making a to-do list and counting pennies in the crib.

’It’s worse than terrible.’ Kamila sighed. ’We already spend most of our time on a mana geyser or in the tower. Imagine if Ral uses his Indech abilities to escape, attack strangers, or grab things he shouldn’t touch.’

’Gods, I don’t want to think about it.’ Solus dropped the argument and asked for another chocolate puff while she tried to follow Ryla’s instructions along with the official class.

Morok focused on the water element, one of his natural affinities, and outdid Garrik in perceiving and stirring the world energy. The size of the blue streak in his energy wings was stable, but it covered barely one-third of their surface.

"It’s nothing much, Little Brother." The Tyrant said. "I’ve always been talented in water magic, and I got a brief experience doing this while fighting in Jiera by your mother’s side."

"I’m not jealous, Big Bro." Garrik replied, stuck at only one-sixth of his feathers sparking with lightning. "I was born with six eyes, so I have no idea if I have an affinity. I picked the element to practice at random. What about you, Uncle Lith?"

"I’m not jealous either." Lith replied while conjuring more and more fire element, painting his white wings red. "I’m doing pretty well. Much better than I expected."

Lith performed Swirling Wind slightly worse than Garrik, but he improved faster. At the beginning of the exercise, only a few of his feathers had turned red. More lit up by the minute, covering close to one-sixth of his wingspan

After a while, Lith surpassed the young Fomor and moved on to the darkness element. It felt awkward at first, but everything he had learned from the fire element worked just the same.

In a handful of minutes, over one-fifth of his feathers turned black. At that point, Lith switched back to the fire element. The black feathers burst into flames, but one-fifth of the wingspan was still his limit.

"You are really good at this." Morok had switched to his second affinity as well, but his black streak was barely visible. "Any tips?"

"Not really." Lith shrugged. "I don’t think I’m that good. Don’t ask me how, but I’m already familiar with this exercise."

He let the fire element go and conjured air, an element for which he had no affinity. Yet only a handful of feathers faded to white while the rest shone with a bright yellow.

"Less than a minute later, one-fourth of Lith’s wings released gusts of wind and crackled with lightning.

"That’s real talent, if you ask me." Morok said. "You almost caught up to my best element with three different elements while I’m still fumbling with the second."

"No, that’s not talent." Tista had given her all to master the fire element from the beginning, but had yet to manage to turn one-fourth of her feathers red. "He’s cheating as usual."

"Cheating how?" Ryla asked.

"You are familiar with this exercise because it’s very similar to Tiamat Fear, Lil Bro." Tista said. "The main difference is that we are injecting our will inside one specific element instead of in the world energy as a whole."

"You are right!" The sudden realization allowed Lith to move on to the earth element and light one-third of his feathers orange. "Tiamat Fear is a combination of Dragon Fear and Swirling Wind.

"I’ve been practicing part of my human bloodline abilities without even noticing!"

"Can’t you use Tiamat Fear as well, Tista?" Solus asked.

"I can. Sort of." She cleared her throat in embarrassment. "I learned the basics, but I don’t have Lil Bro’s sense of theatrics or his ability to confuse the opponent with lies to stall for time.

"Tiamat Fear takes a while to spread far enough away to be useful, and it’s a waste of time if the enemy gets away, so I never practiced it much. The few times I used Tiamat Fear, I cheated as well.

"I exploited the resonance with Lith, Elysia, and the Demons to ride their coattails."

"Then this is just the consequence of your actions." Lith tutted. "I know that Tiamat Fear is situational, but you should cover all your bases. You never know when even the most insignificant of your abilities might save your life."

He switched to the water element, and half of his wings turned blue.

"Lil Bro, be honest." Tista slowly and steadily improved, and so did the rest of the class, but at a slower pace. "Would you have spent so much time practicing Tiamat Fear if you had my Ethereal Aegis or the Queen’s Blessing?"

"No." Lith raised his hands in surrender. "I too would have focused on them, especially with my Dread Flames."

"Just like me." Tista sighed. "Except I can’t conjure Dread Flames, no matter how hard I try. I spent days hoping to get a single silvery spark, but nothing!"

"If you want to trade places with me, I’m more than willing." Zoreth was dead last.

Her forearms were filled with elemental power, but her attempts to stir the world energy produced just a few ripples. Moreover, without the wings, she had no way to understand when her technique improved.

She had to keep trying until it was clear she was stuck before changing her approach and starting everything from scratch.

"I’m sorry, Zoreth. I didn’t mean to complain." Tista said.

"Don’t worry. I understand your frustration and feel exactly the same." The Shadow Dragon growled. "Seeing everyone moving forward and being the only one who makes no progress is infuriating!"

Truth be told, Tista’s starting mastery over Swirling Wind was no better than Zoreth’s, but she learned with every mistake she made. The Arke, instead, had made plenty of mistakes and few improvements since the start of the lesson.

"Can you take a break, please?" Urhen asked.

"Sure. I can use a bit of time to collect the ruins of my pride." Zoreth grunted.

"That’s not the reason." The Balor took the Shadow Dragon’s hands and brushed them one at a time with her wings. "I’ve stood by your side as you practiced, and I noticed that the ripples you create are different from a Balor’s.

"Maybe this technique is not suited to you, and we need to find an alternative."

"Like what?" The Shadow Dragon said.

"I don’t know." Urhen shrugged. "That’s why I’m looking."

She filled her wings to the brim with darkness, light, water, and fire before using them to stroke Zoreth’s corresponding elemental arm.

"Thank the gods Byt didn’t come with me today." The Arke giggled as the feathers tickled her skin. "She would have gotten very jealous if she saw this."