Beatitudes

Swords and shield.

‘Calm down, focus, stir and imagine…’

The words made almost no sense to him as he felt it ring in his head but he also felt something click in understanding as his state of mind abruptly calmed down, bringing him to a new, unprecedented level of focus… he watched the hooves still coming down but yet to reach as he thrust his right arm horizontally above him in a guarding position. A single thought crossing his mind as he closed his eyes,

‘Guard, shield, barricade, something, anything!!’

The tensed expression on the trio watching could be said to be at its peak at the moment. But the tension on their faces that seemed about to burst out suddenly froze place as traces of shock began to appear in their eyes.

The reason for their shock was naturally due to the current situation of the ongoing battle as they watched from their bird’s eye point of view in the air[U1] . Harry  whose whole body could not be any tenser paused slightly as he laid witness to the scene below.

While I was just about to yell at Adam  by my side once again, obviously not sure if his body could bear the brunt of the beats heavy trample, I could see Isaac closing his eye at the moment he desperately thrusted his arm horizontally in the air above him, so he wasn’t able to see the results of his actions in what happened next, but I could see it.

On the hard mountainous forest ground, his eyes were closed as a cloud of white mist like substance bursted out of him as it came together in front of him, over the hand he had put in front of him. It was sort of a magical sight as I watched the cloud actually take a shape… the shape of a shield.

The shield glowed with an beautiful light with an odd symbol like writing on it that I couldn’t understand, it pulsed once then twice in quick succession as It grew even more solid looking. In the end, following his simple desperate thrust, a magical small sized white shield appeared above him placed perfectly below the hooves of the damn beast. It was… a bit awing to say the least…

The beast took no note of the white shield that had suddenly appeared under it hooves as it continued its tyrannical descent. A heavy thud sound followed the collision between the shield and the beast’s trampling hooves, but what was obviously different was the fact that the shield although previously looking unsubstantial and weak held its ground against the colliding hooves.

Isaac had shut his eyes tightly, not wanting to lose the last bit of his wits as the hooves fell. While he waited for the inevitable impact with himself, he got nothing of such an felt a peculiar occurrence.

When he opened his eyes, his mouth opened up slightly as he gazed in surprise at the magically glowing white shield separating and protecting him from harm just like he had willed…

A thorough bout of understanding and enlightening immediately flashed into his head as he broke into a grin shortly after, all he needed, all he ever needed was to will it, but he had never truly understood that fact till now. He yelled in relief and happiness in his mind,

‘I finally did it!’

Astral: Yes you did it… after weeks of trying…

Ignoring the implications under those words, I was just about to reply him when Astral  spoke out again, his tone more serious.

Astral : Focus

Coming back to my senses, the shield in front of me was visibly already cracked, the strength in the beast’s leg descent was still able to c***k it.

I focused all my thoughts as i exerted all my strength, forcefully pushing away the beast as the shield finally exploded into white mist fading away completely.

The beast stumbled backwards as it spread its legs to regain its balance, a slight confusion filling it as it looked at me again.

Using this window of opportunity, I got to my feet as I quickly backtracked away from the beast. Astral ‘s voice rang out in my head again,

Astral : So how did it feel, you remember how it felt right?

I knew he was talking about the way I willed the shield to existence. Now that I thought of it, I felt a kind of instinct imprinted within me that was never there before, I replied him while giving thought to that feeling,

“I do”

Astral : That energy should be your will and your ability allows you to manipulate it… you just might be able to end this battle now…

“Not just might, I’ll be ending it now. Its taken a fair amount of word count after all…

Adam  watched the scene unfold for a while before his body seemingly relaxed, the subtle black light flickering between his arms fading away like it was never there in the first place. The voice of the companion in his head ringing out again,

Horace: I see your thoughts turned out right…

Adam : I honestly almost didn’t expect it to fully work out, its played out like this several times in the past when he faced pressure. I kind of expected that same halo to follow him all the way here as well, but I couldn’t be sure.

Horace: Looks like he’s still our main character after all…

A relieved smile that no one could see was on Adam ’s face as he watched the ending scene of the battle unfold, this was a pretty long fight.

While I once again realized that I had spectators to this lousy battle of mine, I looked into myself, into the space where the white spiral seemed to spin very slowly endlessly, from where the misty white energy from earlier had come  from. I noticed that congealing a shield like that took a whole strand out of the spiral… after weeks of getting a class, I had come just the slightest  way forward in growing the spiral to the gargantuan height of golden excellence I had once seen.

Unlike Harry  who realized he couldn’t exactly cultivate his energy by just sitting on a spot, I could pretty much train my will wherever I was hence the little sized spiral that it was when I started training was still a small sized spiral but much bigger compared to before. I had actually even broken through into the tier one rank the first time I trained, now I had reached a fair level so although it seemingly took a sizeable amount to use my ability, I could barely keep it going for a few more tries. The cost was significant but that wasn’t something to think of now

A smile emerged on my face as I looked at the beast, a smile that told of the immensity of the payback I was going to give to it for all it had been doing to me. I basically now have no dignity in front of the few people leisurely spectating, I didn’t dare imagine I did after nearly being trampled upon, how embarrassing was that?

Focusing my attention once again, I decided to do try out my ability again. I felt and watched the whole process this time since I was pretty flustered the previous time so I was mesmerized by the magical nature of the ability unknowingly like how Harry  was.

I looked within myself, to where the white spiral ceaselessly rotated very slowly, where the burst of energy from previously had come from, as a strand of my will the furthest out from the spiral seemingly vanished. A burst of energy flowed along my arms as a white mist seeped out of my palms before condensing into runic like symbols that I actually surprisingly understood  despite the fact that it seemed foreign to my memory.

The runic symbols then expanded as it transformed into the object I had willed it to in my head. It was just a plain conical spike that I had in my mind but it still managed to look mystical with the same runic symbols flowing along its surface as it gave a soft mesmerizing glow. I held them in my arms as they felt pretty much solid, enough to pass as real objects.

By now the beast had obviously run out of patience after watching me for a while and seeing I made no move to attack. But I was just getting started, it reared itself briefly as it took a charging position, before breaking into a run with its horn pointed in my direction. Seeing it still being so bold and wild after my ‘power up’, I felt boiling indignation within me as I yelled at the damn beast, not caring whether it understood

“You damned animal, its time to kick your ass”

I flung one of the spikes in my arm and watched it whiz at a considerable speed towards the beast, the beast had seemingly sensed danger from it as it swerved away from an impact with it. But that was exactly what I wanted as I thrust my other arm forward, shooting the second spike in my arm at the beast right at the place were it swerved to, there was no changing directions now.

The spike hit home as the beast let out a miserable shriek, the joy filling me up and flooding out of my eyes could not be any more exaggerated, but I couldn’t help it cause this time the spike had actually injured the beast!

Unlike previously when the innumerable slashes of my sword did nothing but generate sparks against its disgusting hide every time I swung it, the spike I condensed with my ability pierced deeply into its body following my precise throw. Blackish blood spouted out of the wound I finally created as the beast trembled vigorously obviously in deep pain.

It looked again my direction as it took in my almost hopping due to extreme satisfaction visage with extreme hate and bloodlust, it seemingly forgot all about its bleeding wound as it charged at me again, the intent to pierce and puncture me visible for all to see, but I felt no apprehension this time as white mist bursted out of me again with increased fervor, a mystical glowing white sword grew out from my palm as two strands were consumed. The sword felt light but extremely solid,  and I could almost feel its sharpness cutting the air around it slightly. I swung it twice for a good grasp on it as I charged forward, all the weakness I was beginning to feel due to the battle escaping through my pores. I laughed excitedly as I met the beast halfway through its charge, employing the same tactic, I swerved to the right avoiding its sharp horn that aimed to skewer me for what I had done. The beast had put all it energy into the charge so there was no way for it to move away or change position, it was basically a lamb for the s*******r, and slaughtering it was what I intended to do as I swung my sword upwards with a mighty burst of energy. The edge of the sword coming in contact with the formerly thick and tough hide on its neck as it met no such obstruction this time, cutting all the way through with no pause or obstruction, the battle had been won.

 [U1]I may or may not have mentioned that they were spectating all their battles from a fair point in the skies in the previous chapters. Sorry : )