The Hunter Mage

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Vernon watched the group display their magic in groups of twos and they were all pretty good. None were amateurs, they seemed to be pretty familiar with stretching out branches and boy did they do a good job.

He watched each of them carefully trying to soak in as much information as he could. Hoping that something in what they did would be the trigger for him to show what he could do.

Soon enough, it was down to just him and Nevil and their teacher thought it was great they should both go together. "Oh, it's just you and Vernon left. You should go together."

Vernon frowned, this didn't seem to just be chance but he didn't think Pam knew that he and Nevil had some sort of relationship beforehand. He glanced at Nevil who threw his head away at just that moment.

He scoffed loud enough for the girl standing next to him to hear and turn her head in his direction. He looked away before they could make eye contact and made his way to the stage. He got there before Nevil and picked his plant in a pot. Well, not that it made any difference if he licked first, he was still going to fall woefully.

He glanced at Nevil as he walked up to the other plant pot before quickly returning his gaze to his. He squinted as he stared hard at the plant, hoping that something magical would happen. He almost laughed, as if that wasn't the point.

"Are you ready?" Pam asked, jolting and returning Vernon's attention to her.

"Pretty much," he muttered under his breath just as Nevil nodded. Even though he didn't feel the slightest bit ready, he was going to take this head-on.

"Alright, that's what I like to hear. You may begin BUT…" her voice thundered and everybody jerked a little in response. "Don't go overboard. If you feel a little tired, stop immediately, okay?"

Vernon found himself nodding even though she was probably not talking to him. After all, how was he going to lose Mana when didn't even have any?

He didn't bother closing his eyes this time as he tried to do magic, for some reason he wanted to see his failure. It would be nothing new. Nevil on the other hand got to work immediately, whether it was an attempt to show off or piss Vernon off, he wasn't sure which.

Vernon soon found himself distracted by Nevil's display. The boy was good. He didn't just make his branch longer but twirled them around, made them all fancy and cool. Vernon thought a particular branch looked like someone's hand.

He quickly got himself and turned his attention to his back to his plant that was staring droopily at him and for a brief second, he imagined the plant mocking him. He shut his eyes and tried to get a feel of what he did earlier.

He wasn't sure what he was doing and he didn't think in the slightest that it would work but he was tired of being the weird one, the one with just the glowing eyes and wanted to be more. Here was a venture to do as much magic and he could and he didn't even have that.

He felt that feeling again, in his toes. He wasn't sure what it was but noticed that he stopped feeling it whenever he thought about feeling it. It was a little hard to explain. However, he just concentrated on the warmth and tried to spread it all over his body. It wasn't easy.

He felt his eyes close tighter as he didn't want to lose it and for some reason, it triggered younger memories of when he would watch Nevil do magic. As he struggled, he quickly felt the warm feeling spread up to his knees.

He didn't want to lose it because each time he did, he had to start again and it got harder with each try. He wasn't sure what this warm feeling was but for some reason, he felt like he was doing something right and he didn't want to stop.

The warmth slowly spread to his shoulders like his mother slowly creeping on him to tickle him. Just like her approach had been slow, her assault was the exact opposite. This was exactly how he felt when the warm feeling got to his shoulders, it immediately spread to his fingertips, ignoring his neck and head.

Vernon felt this warm feeling flow out of his fingers and he fell to the ground with a loud thud just as he heard reactions. It was somewhere between a joyful scream and a surprised scream.

He opened his eyes feeling very tired. The first thing he noticed was the tiny plant, only it wasn't a tiny plant anymore but a tree, maybe not a tree-tree but it was surely way bigger than what had been there before he closed his eyes.

The tree had flowers, lots of them. He stared in awe, shocked at it. He still couldn't comprehend that this had just happened and looked around to confirm that his mind wasn't playing a trick on him and everybody could see what he was seeing or the worst part being they were playing a prank on him and that this wasn't his doing.

He looked at Pam with confusion on his face, just as she rushed at him smiling widely. "Are you okay?" She asked as she squatted to height with him sprawled on the floor.

He looked at her for a full second, a little stunned and unsure of how to say his words. "Yes," he replied, snapping out of it.

"Can you get up?" She asked as if she didn't believe him.

"I think so," he replied but getting up wasn't what was on his mind at the moment. "Did I do that?" He asked, pointing to the tree bush as he kept his gaze on Pam.

"Yes, Vernon. You did that. It is absolutely marvelous and the prettiest tree bush I have ever seen in my life."

He smiled at her response, feeling very wholesome. She stretched out her hand to him and he took it. She pulled him up to his full height, he wobbled a little, and barely a second later, he fell. He was out like a lamp.