The Fearless War

Living On The Road

The routine that happened in the following days did not vary much from the first day, in the morning it was to wake up, feed the vocats, prepare breakfast and then get things up to tie the carriage back to the vocats and continue on the road, within the mornings and parts of the afternoons, the first days of the first week I went over the contents of the book I had read, even finding a technique to practice the handling of the mana.

While uncle Miles conducted, I practiced how to control the mana that was in the environment, with a basic breathing instinctively absorbed the mana to me and as part of the practice moved the flow of mana to circulate throughout my body at will, I started trying to cover my hands and arms, advancing more and more until I could make them cover my arms to breathe.

When I tried to start with other areas it became more difficult each time, I wanted to cover a larger area but it felt like I was trying to stretch a rope more and more while guiding the mana throughout my body, I then tried to absorb a larger amount of mana only to immediately feel a burning inside me while trying to separate all the absorbed mana. I had to find a balance first to cover my entire body. On the penultimate day of the first week of the trip I was able to cover my entire body with mana without any problem, so I focused on the effects of concentrating mana in specific parts of my body.

By covering my entire arms with a certain concentration of mana enveloping them, I could feel my strength increase as well as the speed of my movements in my arms, while in the case of my legs, one night I managed to jump higher than the trees and almost got stuck in several branches. I was able to modify my eyesight as the moment I could see the mana directly when I covered my eyes with a layer of mana. I could expect a momentary improvement to my movements and strength as well as abilities if I absorbed mana. the downside of all this is that after a certain time the mana inside me dissipated completely as if it were fuel.

"Oz, how are you doing with your practice?"

"You noticed huh?"

I had expected not to be able to keep secret what I was doing during the trip but at least I considered having some degree of privacy, something that had become impossible.

"Even when my eye is off, I can faintly see everything move, Oz. You could say it's like an alarm."

"Is that why you're always alert?"

"Yep, it was tiring at first but now it's just another instinct. From what I can tell you're already controlling your body better with your veins."

"It's like I had a new body and I had to force it every time I experienced something."

" It is because as your spiritual veins exploded, your physical body was also changed, more agile, faster and stronger."

It wasn't like the strength I had acquired was somehow bad, but that I suddenly acquired it without warning and had to learn to control it, even in the moments I managed to practice along with the mana movement, I could tell that I was nowhere near being able to control everything completely.

"I have a question uncle, The method I practiced these days is related to magic strengthening?"

"Yep, in specific the theory of strengthening is that you cover your body with mana in order to have a little more strength or speed just like a furnace requires burning, the mana serves as an accelerant to the body."

"And couldn't you give me some advice if you already saw what I was doing?"

"You would have understood me if I had said something?"

To tell the truth every time uncle Miles tried to teach me something in his concepts or ideas, I could not fully understand them, even to the point that I would lose my temper and try to throw something at him. Such was the last time he tried to teach me how to operate the forge to repair tools and I threw a bucket of coal at him.

"Anything else to say uncle?"

"Well not much, just that it will be quicker to visit Oldscar, I intended for you to practice the basics there, but we'll just focus on manifesting your magic. You already covered the bases, and I could sense that you started to concentrate on specific areas."

"Yes, but I just can't seem to get a steady flow, I still need to concentrate when I move mana."

"You don't lose anything by keeping trying, just don't get stuck in some tree haha."

I sighed at uncle Miles' provocative and stood up to get back on the road, we were already at the end of the first week and we would have to move on to get to a village where we could get supplies. We were already running low on the meat and supplies we had prepared and since we had brought extra furs, Uncle Miles planned to sell them to get food for us and the vocats.

The atmosphere along the road was beginning to change from a few days ago, it felt cooler and cooler even with the sun at its limit.  There was no snow yet, but it would not be long before the seasons would change completely. The leaves of several trees had already fallen completely a few weeks ago. Just like the leaves moving in the cold air, my mind was wandering as I leaned my body out the front of the carriage watching the road until Uncle Miles threw me an odd question.

"Oz, you remember you didn't have any trouble hunting animals as a kid, right?"

"Yeah, but I couldn't move as well as I do now. Why?"

"I don't mean that, just agh... you didn't mind the blood, did you?"

"Not really, I knew that if I didn't hunt the rabbits would become a plague, and with the mutant the same, I couldn't just stand by and do nothing."

"Well, I need you to keep that stance, try to free your senses, don't compress them and get your sword ready."

"How did you know?!"

"It's not time Oz, just do it."

I was stunned thinking the reason why Uncle Miles could tell I was controlling myself not to lose myself to the natural effort of my senses, but following his orders I let them flow and focused on expanding my hearing so I could understand his concern only to feel my back and arms tense as I unhesitatingly grabbed my sword from the rack it was on.

As I let go of my hearing, I could hear footsteps and voices around us. I could not discern what they were saying but just by the intonation I could tell that they were full of anger and violence; even though there were several trees without leaves, the plants that kept their appearance in the winter served as a hiding place for the people around us. They seemed to be following us, since, without us slowing the pace of our advance, their voices remained close.

"What do we do uncle?"

"Don't worry, just remember not to get yourself lost in the c*****e, I've seen enough people get wandering lost on that road."

Unable to do anything directly in that situation I tried to focus on my surroundings, I absorbed mana and concentrated it in my head; thanks to that I could hear in more detail how close our pursuers were.

"Don't lose sight of them, they are surely from a wealthy household."

The first voice I could discern was of a man with a deep tone while he ordered his companions, they seemed to be agile keeping the same pace without separating between them, while I tried to listen well to what they were saying I could discern another voice of a woman.

"But Andras, I told you I feel it is dangerous, I may not be able to see the mana roots like other smug mages, but I know for certain there is a mage with them."

"Don't go on Vlasta, just do the usual, go around them and we'll take care of it."

There seemed to be a mage with them and in a way, she could feel the spiritual veins of the people in the carriage even though it was just me and my uncle. I hadn't had a chance to see how more wizards fought or even what their veins looked like, since when my mother got angry with me, I couldn't stop the fight to see.

I had to decide quickly how to respond as the noises of people following us were approaching from both sides.

"Uncle, there's a mage among them."

"Good job, were you able to figure out which element she controls best? Nothing should be left out."

"No, but apparently she can feel the veins. She's feeling indecisive about whether to attack us or not?"

"Who wouldn't be if they managed to sense you? If you were able to use normal magic, you could move a mountain or make a hurricane blow away a city."

"Uncle, you're getting distracted, do you think they'll attack the vocats?"

"Don't worry about them, why do you think they have that fur?"

"Uncle! Here they..."

"Well good luck Oz..."

I tried to shout just as I felt the atmosphere feel even colder than it naturally already was, my uncle said a motivation and without warning jumped out of his seat and went to the right of the road just before what I had felt fell. The sky darkened for moments and as it cleared the area of the road where we were had become a dome of water that seemed to be freezing little by little.

I held my sword in my left and kicked the back door when I heard a small group of all those following us approaching. I went down making a s***h as I held my stance at the sight of the first blood coming from the neck of a person dressed in various wrinkled and torn clothes but before I felt horror at killing someone, I saw that they had weapons in their hands and their gazes were empty but with anger.

As I tried to control the group that had gone for the carriage, I heard screams and weapons clashing inside the area where Uncle Miles had gone. That side was exactly where I had heard the most voices but without asking for help Uncle Miles had jumped right in. From my side two people came at me with axes and I had to separate the sword to block them at the same time, while forcing I could with effort concentrate mana in my arms and cut them in the chest along with the axes.

"Phew, magic strengthening is no joke.... hey!"

The last of the group tried to pull the guard of one of my swords and I received it with a thrust from my left side straight towards the heart. I pulled the sword out of the body and flipped to the left of the path with mana in my legs and propelled myself into the bushes and trees. On the left side the noise had diminished but there was still constant movement. I reached the beginning of the bushes and saw a group of 10 people in formation as if they didn't know where to defend.

"What do you think you’re doing?! They're just two squalid!"

"Don't you think they should plan better before they become bandits?"

I tried to provoke them from a branch where I had landed to charge more mana. The group formed a circle whose center was the two people I had heard talking earlier. After shouting orders, the mage began to chant while four who formed the defense rushed at me.

I came down from the tree with my swords pointing downward, finishing off two at a stroke and with a downward swing I cut off the hands of the remaining two. As soon as I hit the ground I charged straight towards the remaining group and changed the stance of the right sword to cut more easily, the mage's chant was interrupted when she screamed as blood from her companions fell on her.

" f*****g Monster!"

The bandit chief pulled out a bastard sword and tried to crush me with its weight, but with my remaining mana I jumped sideways and threw my pseudo-rapier towards the mage and with the remaining sword slashed the chief's legs.

"Vlasta! Damn it … Agh!"

Even without movement in the legs his last action was to throw a side s***h with his weapon and at that moment I cut his head clean off. The water dome began to fall as it was no longer receiving mana from the mage who had created it. The low walls did not disappear completely as it had been frozen. I returned to the carriage only to find Uncle Miles covered in blood wiping himself with water that he had apparently collected from the dome.

"Took you a while Oz."