The White King

I Was The Sun

Nacah sighs, shaking his head at the image of Schwarz dislocating his wrist again.

"You're supposed to break the log, not the other way around," he says, not even bothering to hide his disappointment at this point.

Schwarz could put his hand back easily enough and the pain didn't seem to bother him, but he just didn't seem capable of doing genuine soul techniques.

To be fair, it was a difficult set of skills to master since the soul was independent of magic, but this was getting kind of embarrassing.

An entire week spent trying to get him to create a blade around his hand mid swing rather than before, but he just wasn't getting it done.

"I have an idea," Schwarz interjects into Nacah's thought process. "What if I, you know, just create the blade in the first place!"

To emphasize his point, a white glow comes over his hand and allows his next chop to cut the thing in half.

You know, now that I think of it, I never did explain WHY he was doing this.

With an almost inaudible sigh, Nacah begins his lecture.

"Organized soul magic is as old as the beast kings- surely you know of them."

Schwarz nods back at him, disabling the blade over his hand and taking a seat on the perfectly cut wood.

"The beast kings used soul magic to empower four different weapons, the Binatang series, while developing fighting styles around them. The thing is, the technique to enchant was only known to the original four, Jian (G-an), Zhi (Z), Ling, and Meng (Think 'hang')."

"Okay..." Schwarz replies, prompting him to continue after Nacah had paused. "What does that have to do with what you're teaching me?"

He laughs a few times, shaking his head. "I'm TRYING to teach you how to replicate my technique instead. Rather than empower weapons, you're conjuring them with your soul."

Schwarz nods, still not seeing the point. "And...?"

Narrowing his eyes at his student, Nacah frowns. "And you're going to learn how to improvise on a moments notice before I teach you anything else. Is that clear?"

Schwarz looks up to the point where his pupils mostly vanish behind skin, his tribes equivalent of rolling your eyes. "Of course, wise one."

Despite his attitude, Schwarz does continue attempting what he was instructed.

Thank Kos, Nacah thinks with a sigh. With Schwarz busy, he might as well check up with Octanus.

It had only been a day since she'd woken up- slightly less than one, actually- and she wanted some time to recover.

With Donn doing... Whatever it is he does and Nua hunting, there wasn't much else for him to do.

That in mind, he walks out of the... Does it count as a clearing if tree stumps were still there? You know what, I got something else.

That in mind, Nacah makes his way towards camp, a place around a mile north of the cave he'd settled in before. As nice a shelter as that was, caves weren't for everyone.

Octanus, either asleep or accurately feigning it, was lying on a hammock held between two great oaks. A glance below her curled form would reveal a fallen book.

Huh... I don't remember her having that...

Kneeling down to pick it up, Nacah flips the book to it's front cover.

Lo and behold, a title.

Hammerspace.

She's... She's studying dimensional magic?

Hammerspaces were essentially pocket dimensions, but they were vastly more useful than that. The problem is the upkeep.

Most spells have absolutely no cost after the cast itself is over, and this dimensions is no different in that regard. The upkeep came from the fact that the spell never technically ends.

Yes, you stop cycling your magic to actively use the technique, but the ability itself siphons magic away at a slow but constant rate.

The question became something more akin to 'Why is she learning an upkeep based magic if she couldn't maintain it', but with a lot more words like 'hell' mixed in.

Social courtesy probably wasn't high on the priorities of a wildland tiger pan.

Regardless, he sets the book down. He didn't need a hammerspace and what she decided to learn wasn't really his problem.

His problem was training Schwarz.

I guess I gotta step it up a notch.

Rather than return to him, Nacah smiles and walks off into the woods. There was always something he could use.

~~~~~

Nua had stopped hunting by now. There wasn't much more you'd want after being dragged down by more than a hundred pounds of already cooked and preserved meat.

Speaking of which, Nua was gonna need more salt.

All the more reason to join Octanus on her trip into town tomorrow. For now...

He lies atop a boulder, basking the in suns glory. Free from the expectations of the military or the need for nourishment, he was enjoying the calm summer day.

That, and having an average body temperature over 110 felt fabulous.

It's a shame most cat pan can't enjoy the pleasure of three straight hours of sunlight, but keeping your brain from overheating and dying was kind of important. As a wizard, he got to cheat on that.

A little ice shield protecting his face from the light while also cooling the air around it, perhaps?

Ah...

Unfortunately, as will always happen when you relax for a while, you eventually ruin it yourself.

In this case, all it took was thinking about the Hokori.

More specifically, thinking about the two that had attacked. The second one could be justified based off of the Pansa's death, but the fact that it was even there...

It was unsettling, to say the least.

Nua sighs, raising one hand up to bat aside the ice barrier. He needed to confirm something before he headed to camp.

Specifically, he needed to confirm whether that was a fluke, but that meant he'd need to find a Hokori.

He may be significantly faster than Octanus, but that would still take a while. This far from Central...

Nua throws himself off the boulder, landing easily into a half step. With a moments hesitation, his feet come alight with a glowing blue.

It was a maintained spell, one that required continuous casting and payment, but it only occupied the users legs. As such, he would still be able to create shields and the like, should a problem come up.

He might not have his motorcycle or enough magic to teleport where he needed to be, but Mana Skates would certainly shorten the trip duration to a day.

Mana Skates was a fairly simple ability taught to any field agent in the Eastern empires. To put it simply, they acted as friction changing devices.

If you wanted complete traction, there you go: you can now use any surface as if it was Velcro (although it still has to hold your weight). Don't want friction? You're on super-ice, congrats.

It was pretty cool, but you had to be alert to use it.

Speaking of being alert.

"ROAR!" a monstrous voice rings out, shaking entire trees with just the shockwaves of its voice.

It seemed the trip wasn't necessary after all.

The thing had come to him.