"Your first challenge will be a simple one. You must prove to me that you are able to control their mana. As such I will chant a spell. It is your job to take control of that spell once I have finished forming it."
"Yes."
After I say yes a large amount of mana begins to surround the king. It just gets drawn into him. Luckily I am able to keep my mana under check. Otherwise it might have also been absorbed which would have made me unable to complete his challenges. I have seriously underestimated the amount of mana though. He has already gathered enough for multiple high tier spells. Once an insane amount of mana has been gathered he then begins forming the spell.
He started turning the mana in different elemental mana. Then he began mixing all of that elemental mana into a ball. As he put in more mana the ball began to grow in size. Soon the ball was large enough to hit the ceiling of the cave, but he still wasn't done yet. The ball began expanding to fit the cave. Soon enough it covered the kitchen.
Then after all the gathered mana was transformed into this ball it began to show some weird effects. It was like the ball was separated into different sections and each section corresponded to an element. Just from this I could already assume that taking control over this would be extremely difficult. I would have to convert the elemental mana into elements that I could use. While I was doing that I would have to keep the natural balance of the elements to make sure the spell didn't collapse.
"You may begin now."
I wanted to turn all of the elemental mana into wind mana. This way I would be able to control it easier as wind is my element. However if I did that, it would take too much time. I don't know how he is judging me, but I can be almost certain that time will be an important factor. As such I need to minimize the amount of time I take, while still completing the task successfully.
The only way I could do this would be turning the elements into water, fire, and wind mana. Even though they are not my element, I still have the link with Ana and Astra. As such I should be able to utilize the links to control the fire and water elements. I will turn light and lightning into fire mana. It should be fast since there are many similarities between the three. I will also turn dark and time into water. Then that would leave space and earth to be turned to wind.
With my thinking out of the way I began to act upon it. First I tried to engage the link between Ana and Astra. I would need their mana to do this after all. According to the link they were pretty close by, but getting farther away. I took an amount of mana that they wouldn't notice, but as they got farther I would have to take more. I had to finish this before they noticed then. With their mana flowing to me I then began to act upon my previous thoughts converting the mana.
It was an insanely difficult task that I had to do. I was multitasking 9 things at once. Turning light and lightning to fire were two tasks. Turning time and dark to water was another two tasks. Turning space and earth to wind was another two tasks. Maintaining and taking mana from the links between Ana and Astra was another two tasks. Finally making sure the entire ball doesn't become unbalanced was another task.
I had only ever trained in doing two tasks at once. I never thought I would need to do more than two tasks at once. I should have trained more back then. I can't change time though so I just have to work through it. I was splitting my thoughts over 9 processes so the work was slow. Even though most of those processes were similar it was still slow. As I continued doing it though I began to get faster and faster at it. However Ana and Astra were getting farther away. I didn't have much time left before they noticed, but I still had a lot of the ball to convert.
Since they were getting farther away I began to panic. If they noticed I was using their mana then they would think something was wrong. They would then probably come back to try to help me. I didn't want that to happen. The only way I could do that would be to complete this quickly. I would have to speed things up even if that made the ball unstable. With that done I began to quicken my pace at changing the mana. As I did that the ball began to shake and wobble. It felt like it would burst at any moment. The fire, water, and wind sections of the ball expanded at a visible rate. The other elements were receding.
After a couple more seconds of this the ball had been converted into fire, water, and wind mana. However I wasn't out of the woods yet. My haste had caused the ball to lose control. The spell began to separate. I knew if I let this happen I would get a bad evaluation. That is because I didn't take control of the spell. I had just converted it mana and let it dissipate naturally. As such I began trying to fully control the spell. With the balance between the elements gone it would definitely be harder to do. I would have to fight against the 3 clashing elements within the spell before even having a chance to control the spell.
I knew I wouldn't be able to control the spell the way it is. The clashing elements made that impossible. I would have to change the very nature of the spell to be able to control it. Instead of separating the elements into different sections, I would need to inlay the elements onto one another. This way I could use the clashing in a productive way. It wouldn't look like the same spell, but that was never going to happen. I decided to base it on the first time I had drawn mana from Ana and Astra. During that time water mana came from my left while fire mana came from my right. I had used wind mana in order to circulate the fire and water mana within me. I would have to do a similar thing here.
I would replace the inner core of the spell with water mana. It would have to be inside to make best use of its properties. Then the next level would be wind mana. I need the wind mana to be a buffer between the water and fire mana. It could then transfer the two types of mana to help calm the clashing between them. Then fire mana would encase the entire thing. Excess heat would be able to get away from the spell while the remains would be canceled out with the circulating water mana. While I was thinking of this, I was also performing the action itself. I didn't have the time to plan everything out. I just had to do it and hope everything turned out alright.
My inlaying was done and the spell was separated underneath. The clashing of the elements also calmed down as they worked in harmony to balance each other out. I was so tired from doing all this work already, but I had to continue. If I stopped here I wouldn't have controlled the spell. I would have just changed it to allow it to sustain itself. Gathering my strength I began to take control of the spell itself. This part was actually the easiest out of all of them. The 3 elements were working in harmony with each other. The king had also left control of the spell. I basically didn't have to fight anything to control the spell. I was just able to.
"I'm done." I said while panting. This has really taken a lot out of me. Especially when I had to speed up my process. That was definitely the hardest part for me.
"Yes you have gained full control over the spell. It seems like you changed the spell, but you were still able to take control of it. You have most certainly passed this first test. I fully believe that you will be able to control the power my daughter will have. It seems like you have been tired out from this though. I suggest you rest before continuing."
"Yes I will." I replied as I flopped down onto the ground.
Even though all of my mana had been recovered, my mental fatigue was still there. Doing 9 tasks simultaneously really did take a lot out of me. I need to practice multitasking more. I would never know when it could help me out in the future. I was just satisfied with being able to do 2 tasks simultaneously when I should have reached farther. While all of this was going on the spell was constantly dissipating it's mana. It shed of each layer of mana to reveal another underneath, and still maintained a balance somehow.
When all the mana had dissipated the king said, "I believe enough time has passed. It is time for your next challenge."
I quickly get up off the ground. If I am being completely honest I would have wanted some more time to rest. While most of my mental strength had returned, I was still feeling fatigued. If this was the easier of the tests then I would definitely need to be in my best shape for the second.
Even with these thoughts I said, "yes, I am ready for the next challenge."
"This next challenge will be an easier one. All you need to do is attack me with your best attack." As he was saying this he seemed to be getting into a position that was better for receiving attacks.
I didn't know what the purpose of this challenge was. The other one had obviously tested my control, but best attack. What exactly would that help him determine about me? I couldn't focus on that though. I needed to give him my best attack, but what would that be. Obviously a spell would be the way to go, but what spell. I didn't know if I had a spell strong enough to actually hurt him. I would still have to try though.
I guess my strongest spell would be the fire tornado. However that spell is only strong thanks to the continuous damage that it emits. He said to hit him with his strongest attack. As such it should only be a singular attack. If I used a spell with continuous damage I wouldn't know how he would respond. Then my next strongest spell would definitely be the spell sword. It is very sharp and could be enhanced even further if I used a reinforcement spell. However I feel like it won't be strong enough to hurt him even if I was reinforced. I would probably have to combine in some fire mana if I wanted to have a chance. I don't have much time to think. I just have to go for it and hope for the best.
"O spell of wind flow through my body to reinforce myself." I chanted this spell slower than I normally would. While I was chanting it I was thinking of a way to introduce the fire mana into my spell sword. The only thing I could think of at the moment was to combine the fire tornado and the spell sword. Taking the first part of the fire tornado spell to allow for the combination. Then taking the latter part of the spell sword to create the sword. If this didn't work then I would be out of options.
"O spell of fire, combine with the wind as a mighty blade of water that follows my movements to destroy my enemies."
It was again like that time when I was a kid and had first created the spell sword. Words had just came into my head even though I hadn't been thinking of them. This spell drew a massive amount of mana from Ana and Astra. I didn't mind about them noticing though. This would be the last challenge and would also affect Ana and Astra. As such they had a right to now. This spell however felt different from my other spells. It felt like I didn't have the qualifications to actually use it. Nevertheless I pushed through and forced the spell to activate.
As such a sword did appear in front of me. Since I didn't say form from my hands of course it would appear in front of me. While it was forming though my mana was chaotic trying to force me to stop the spell. Forcing my mana to cooperate the spell sword finally came into being. It was completely red. I couldn't see a trace of green or blue to signify water or wind mana. I could tell however that the core of the sword was water mana with a layer of wind mana over it. It felt really similar to what I had changed the spell ball too. I reached out to grab it and a wave of heat emanating from the sword. When I did grab the handle it burned my hands.
Pushing past the pain I continued to hold the sword. My mana was still trying to forcibly stop the spell, but I kept it in check. However doing so caused blood to come out of my ears and nose. I could feel it running down my cheeks and lips. My head hurt as if tens of blades were being slowly pushed into it. I could tell I would lose consciousness if I continued as is. I didn't want all of this to go to waste though so I staggered my body over to the king. Each step I took only worsened the pain and my pace felt incredulously slow. Normally I would be faster thanks to my reinforcement spell.
I pushed these unnecessary thoughts from my head as I focused on advancing one more step. Focusing only on reaching my goal. I was a couple of steps from swinging distance of the king, but those couple of steps felt impossible to do. My head was hurting even worse now. Those tens of blades seemingly stabbing into my head became thousands. Blood was even starting to come from my mouth. My hands were still being constantly burned by the sword. If I looked at them I would only see a burnt blackness that slightly resembled hands. Only two more steps though. I took those two more steps despite the immense pain coursing through me.
Once I was within striking distance I lifted my sword. This action like my others seemed painfully slow to me. The king was standing there as if mocking me for being so slow. He hadn't even moved an inch from the beginning. For some reason that ticked me off and I began to bring the spell sword down onto him. Even if I was moving slowly I was sure that it would still pack a punch. It's heat and sharpness should be enough to do that.
I moved the sword down onto him. All the while he hadn't moved still nor had he prepared any defenses. It was like he was saying he didn't need to do anything for my attack. Like he would just be able to casually take it. My sword moved slowly towards him. I would give him my best attack and then hope I had passed.
I didn't know why, but this kid interested me. Even when he knew I was the king of this entire forest, the strongest being within it, he still boldly spoke to me. He had actually challenged the decision that I had made. No one else would normally do that. Even if they did they would gather many to make sure they were protected, but this kid just challenged me. As such I decided to give him a chance to see the difference between us. I would show him why I was known as the king of the Forest of Calamity, but who would have expected these results.
I had given him two challenges to complete. They would be challenges in which I had the upper hand. He would never have been able to win. The first was to take control over a spell I had created. Since I wanted to show him the difference between us I used a spell that incorporated all of the elements. If one didn't have an affinity with every element then controlling this spell would be impossible. Also having an affinity with all elements didn't make one able to control the spell. As they were taking control of the spell they would need to maintain a constant balance between the elements. If even one section got bigger than the other then it would mess up the entire spell.
I never actually thought that he would be able to convert the mana into the elemental mana that he could control. While his speed was considerably slow his technique was flawless. It was like he knew that even a slight mess up would cause the entire spell to fail. However while he was converting the mana he seemed to be agitated for some reason. As if he had become a different person he began to forego his technique for speed. I didn't know why he would do that, but right when he did I knew he would fail. Since he was foregoing technique he would not be able to maintain the delicate balance of the spell. Even though he was changing the elements into his three affinities the spell still needed to have balance.
However he then began to do something astounding. While the spell was out of control he began to layer the mana. It was similar to my spell that seperated the elements into sections. He, however, separated them into different depths. He also layered them in such a way that would make use of the imperfections in the amount of mana. It was honestly an exemplary way to control the spell that I was in shock. I didn't even remember what I had said to him, but I knew I wished to study this spell more so I probably let him rest while I observed the spell.
It was very intriguing especially as it shed off its layer. I thought for sure that once the fire mana was gone the entire structure would collapse, but it didn't. The wind mana and water mana balance with each other without the use of the fire mana. Then when the wind mana was gone the spell only consisted of water mana. Since it was only water mana it didn't need any delicate balance and just dissipated naturally. This was a splendid show of control and made me realize how this person was able to help my daughter.
This however just gave me more reason to show him the difference in our power. It would force him to leave the forest along with my daughters. I could tell that they would have a better life with him than with me. As such I gave him the next challenge of injuring me. I didn't explain any of the details to him and just told him he needed to hit me with his best attack. He seemed confused for a couple of minutes before he started chanting something. I knew that humans and the like needed to chant to use spells so I wasn't too shocked.
I patiently waited for him to finish his spell. Whatever spell he used he should not be able to hurt me with it. The amount of mana naturally gathered around me was too high for him to break through. Right now there was even more as I had just finished using some of mine to use a spell. However I didn't wish to underestimate this person. He had impeccable mana control so I also chose to circulate mana within myself. This would help strengthen me. After a long time he had finished chanting, but instead of attacking he went to chant another spell. I let him do that and waited for him to finish his second spell.
When he had completed his second spell I was shocked. That was because I had lost sight of him. I didn't know what happened next, but I felt fear. It had been such a long time since I had felt this feeling, but I remembered it well. I feared for my life because of what this person had done. However just as soon as this feeling of fear had come it had gone and right beneath my feet was the same person. He looked extremely hurt with blood coming from his ears and nose. His hands seemed to be burnt. If even the spell user became like this due to the spell I worried how I would have become if it had actually connected. The only thing I could think of would be death.