Please read the author's notes. (Examples and explanation of moves and appearance+ Monster Sources)
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pat.treon:/Keanu_Eugene
CHAPTER START---
Standing in a small clearing made by his own power, the cracked stone floor ripples out like waves crashing across a sea frozen in time.
Yang faces the wall of the safe zone, the forest at his back, and all the way to the other end sits the campsite.
For the last three weeks after his training with Thalie, this is where he'd be, practicing something new with his magic. No longer trying to expel as much power as possible or mix elements, he wants to form his own magic circle.
As his magic builds and he compresses it down, he looks at the floor around him and frowns.
'My magic is better than when I started this training, but no magic lines on the floor, what am I doing wrong?' he thinks to himself while focusing his neutral magic power as much as he can.
After a few more minutes of this he leans over, hands on his knees as he takes greedy breaths, sweat pouring down his body from the mental and physical exertion of training all day.
"You---" he takes a shallow breath," gonna stay there, forever?" he doesn't even turn around.
"Please accept my request," Ais says from the cut-down tree she sits atop at the edge of his training area.
"You've been here for an hour, just go train with your own familia already, stalkers aren't my type and you're getting annoying," he brushes her request aside once more.
"One duel," her only response, the only one she'd ever given him in response to his indifference.
"Just drop it already, fighting you doesn't benefit me so it's never gonna happen, no reason means no fight," he explains while forming some water in the air and directing it into his mouth.
"Then I just need to make it valuable to you, what do you want?"
"Nothing you have princess, got the money. Got the power, and even got a beaut---" he cuts himself off immediately," got a good team, no reason to accept your challenge."
"So...if I get something you want, you'll accept?" her eyes widen slightly, a ray of hope shines through.
"Ugh," he releases a deep sigh," fine fine, get me something I actually care about and I'll accept, but I really only care about my adventure so good luck."
"She can figure that out AFTER she reports to Finn, he wants all the teams staying on the upper 40s to report to him now, get going Ais, everyone is waiting for you," Riveria says as she gets their attention, walking onto the stone training area.
With a small nod, Ais quickly begins running back across the safe zone toward the tents, but Riveria doesn't follow her.
Looking at the Elf with a raised brow, Yang sighs, seems he won't be left alone today, "do you need something, or are you here to just be creepy like the blonde?" his voice had a tinge of annoyance in it.
"Sorry to intrude, but what are you training, I can feel your magic across the safe zone, it feels forced..." she gives him a scrutinizing look, seeing no elements on his body.
"Well, I guess if anyone knew what was wrong it's you, I'm trying to form my magic circle, I've got the power and skill but it's not forming," he frowns a bit while rubbing his face in frustration.
"Your 'Battle Mage' skill, I recall..."
"Yeah well, I'd be insulted if you looked at my Falna then forgot what was on it," he gives her a definitely displeased look.
"Not our proudest moment, mine especially," she looked down at the ground, her tone somber as she recalled that moment.
"Whatever just, magic circles?"
"Right," she refocuses on the problem at hand, lifting her head to look directly at him," the mage skill allows the users magic power to raise and be focused significantly more than those without it, it's a staple for anyone that wants to be a great mage, the captain of Dian Cecht familia, Airmid is able to form a simple magic circle without the skill however which is an anomaly in itself, as long as you focus your magic it should form below you," she gladly explains.
"Yeah well I've been trying that naturally, nothing works, the magic just feels, strangled?" he wasn't even sure how to describe such a feeling," like it's being torn apart the more I focus on the pure magic."
"Hmm, show me," she takes a few steps toward him, standing in front of him as he silently takes a deep breath and brings his hands together.
As Yang builds his magic, Riveria feels magic that can't seem to fit together properly, each piece powerful in its own right, but like a puzzle made to fail.
"Stop," at her word he immediately relaxes and lets his magic simmer down.
"What's wrong?"
"Your magic is split into different parts?" she was a bit hesitant to ask, they'd pried into his life far too much as it stands.
"Yeah...Elementalist means the elements are mine to control, some harder to use than others," he explains.
"How does that work... how do you separate the elements, chants allow us to clear our minds of all thoughts and simply focus on the words and magic, but without chants, I can't imagine how magic would work," she explains, almost childlike curiosity in her voice.
"Hmm, so you just, what, clear your mind and pour magic into every word?"
"Precisely, as long as we have the magic and focus the Falna takes care of the rest, that's why mages train to be better at chanting and develop skills to make us more useful while chanting, we don't have to focus on anything else."
"Hmm," Yang takes a moment to think over what that means for their magic entirely," that means chants are like training wheels right, your magic is just a crossbow bolt, you load the bolt and the chant does the rest, right?"
"Precisely, as long as we can complete the chant and maintain a steady flow of magic our spells will not fail to fire."
"That means I gave up that reliable aspect for versatility---"
"And power," Riveria points out.
"Right, and power, but my magic needs way more steps than just focus magic and speak, maybe that's why?" he thinks aloud while lifting a finger to his chin.
"Extra steps, like what?" she was eager to learn about new magic, a sense of wonder hidden deep below her icy stoic demeanor.
"Well, first I need to figure out WHAT the element means to me while dividing my magic," Yang looks up to see an uncertain look on the High-Elf's face. "I mean like, ok, what's fire to you?"
"Fire... heat, fire is heat?"
"Ehh, yes and no, fire is just things moving really really fast, so when I want fire I think movement, when I want lightning I think of speed and a charge...a bolt I mean, every element needs that as I take a piece of my magic and convert it into an element. Then mixing elements requires me to think about all this at once, it became second nature now but I couldn't even get off the ground without exploding when I first tried to fly. Too much wind in the fire magic was a problem for a while..." he awkwardly admits.
"That's a lot to process all at once, and your magic hurts you yes?" she wasn't sure if the man even felt fire anymore honestly.
"That's a bit more complicated, regularly they do hurt me but I'm in a state of constant healing to keep myself in peak form, the harder I fight the less my healing can keep up, and if I do things like use too much cold I can get frostbite and kill the nerves, or overcharge my brain while speeding up my thoughts and I can just immediately die," that last bit made her eyes widen at the idea, she never imagined him using his magic like that, within his own body, insane.
"You speed up your own thoughts?"
"Not by much honestly, but I don't have the training Welf and Thalie have so it helps when we're in a fight or training, not that I ever win an armed fight against them... my resistance makes it weaker the stronger I get so it'll be useless soon..." he frowns deeply at the reminder.
"Right, you resist your own magic, even if it's trying to help you self-inflicted?"
"It's not like I can tell my immune system to stop fighting, so yeah I don't have a say in it, but anyway you got any idea about the magic circle?"
"Oh," he snaps her out of her theories about his elements," your magic isn't neutral at all, that's the problem," she says as if it were obvious.
"I'm gonna need a bit more info than that..."
"Elementalist, by definition it isn't neutral magic which you've been trying to use. Us 'normal' mages immediately form magic circles the moment we channel our neutral magic and as we chant they change to match the spell, but I believe you need to focus on an element then form the circle, try it." She takes a few steps back to give him space to work.
"Uh, sure... things might get hot," Yang says before taking a deep breath, willing his fire magic to come forth.
After a moment of silence, a ring of blue flames forms behind his back, "shit, any more ideas?" he asks, craning his head back to see the flames behind him.
"Don't move..." Riveria casually walks up to him and moves behind his back, an awkward silence permeates the area as she scrutinizes the Elemental Wheel. "Can you add another element to it?"
"Uh, that's kinda tough but yeah if I really want to, want me to?"
"No, I don't think that's necessary," she's hesitant as she raises a hand, then becomes more confident as she moves her fingers closer, then touches the...flames?
There was no heat, these were faux flames, almost like an illusion.
"There isn't any heat or pressure from these 'flames' at all, this is just magic made visible through concentration, like a magic circle..." she muses, a soft smile on her face as a look of realization dawns on Yang.
"Wait, that doesn't have any heat?" he was dumbfounded by this discovery.
"How did you not notice?"
"I barely feel my regular flames so why would I...if that's my magic circle..."
"It's incomplete, it's only a fraction of your actual magic circle, at least that's what I assume considering you can combine the elements into this, thing..."
"Elemental Wheel, now that I think about it, it makes sense that my magic acts weird compared to everyone else right."
"Nothing about you is ever normal, but that's not all bad right, powerful people tend to be unique after all."
"Hmm, guess so, is that why you guys are so determined to have me party up with you?"
This question catches Riveria by surprise, but not completely off guard.
"Something like that, you're definitely strong, Finn thinks you'll somehow get ahead of us in the dungeon, he's spent his life becoming someone everyone can look up to and with Zeus and Hera out of the way, the best way to do that is to lead the charge through the frontier floors---"
"And Braver thinks I'll do it without him, so better to be with me than after me, that kinda thing?"
"Precisely, Tsubaki told us you won't care and will continue your adventure."
"She's right, if you're incapable of getting there after all these years that's on you, but honestly I'm not too surprised you're stuck," Yang gives a playful shrug as he turns to face the campsite.
"What's that supposed to mean exactly," she gives him an intense glare.
"On the way down here I realized why my team is gonna get to floor 60 before you, it's simple really, all you think about is being strong, you aren't optimized for progress."
"What do you mean by that. We're the strongest expedition force in Orario..."
"More like the strongest fighting force that goes into the dungeon, your familia doesn't care enough about progressing to beat us to the frontier regions, sorry but that's just how it is, you can't be the best forever after all..."
"And how did you come to this conclusion? You sound like you have a plan to get to floor 60, do you?" Riveria asks as her gaze softens, truly curious about what this adventuring prodigy thinks.
"I figured it out when we had Tiona with us, she's strong and had the most experienced on these floors but we had to slow down for her and I even had to carry her across certain things, and yes...I do have a plan to get past the dragon vase, it's actually pretty simple but it doesn't fit Finn's style, being a hero and all that crap, not like he has the magic to pull it off anyway," he holds a small blue flame in his hand.
"You don't want to be a hero too?" Riveria was surprised by this, she had to be certain.
"Nope, so you can tell Finn to leave me alone I'm not here to be anyones' hero like him. Now if that's all we should get to camp before your damn fangirls and boys think I'm defiling your chastity or something," Yang groans as he begins to walk to the campsite.
"They wouldn't think that, do you really think that little of the members of our familia?" She was almost insulted by the joke.
"Yeah, I've met Loki, can't think that highly of you guys after that thing, not to mention you guys didn't make the best impressions on me before I got memories back..."
"Right, that's fair, so now that I've helped you with something you think is valuable... since you won't party up with us, how about accepting Ais's request?"
Yang immediately stops in place and gives her an annoyed look.
"Did you do all this just to get something from me?"
"No, I was genuinely curious about your magic and wanted to help, but Ais... she has her own problems, and communicating with people is one of them."
"Uh-huh, so?" he really couldn't care less.
"She wants to get to the bottom of the dungeon more than anyone I've ever met before, she thinks she has to be the one to get there, that if anyone does it first she's failed. The only thing she does is fight and now you're here and already level five, she can't rationalize the difference between her and what makes you special---"
"And adventurers speak with their swords, Welf says that sometimes... so she wants to fight to figure out what makes me unique?" Yang says in a bored tone.
"It's the only way she knows how, I'm sorry," she gives him a small bow.
"Both your daughters are becoming a pain in my ass, get away from one and another one shows up. You realize if Ais and I fight Lefiya might have a heart attack right, they've been attached at the hip since you got here," Yang points out in an annoyed tone, rubbing the back of his neck.
"She's an adventurer, and tougher than you think, she just needs confidence and experience on the front lines..." Riveria was a bit hesitant to speak on this, Lefiya tends to panic just as he alluded to.
"Fine, but if I win...WHEN I win, Finn clears my team to make a run at the lower floors once before we head back to Orario."
"Deal, I'll make sure he agrees," she responds with no hesitation.
"Jeez, you're seriously a doting mom, dunno about the whole getting someone to beat up your daughter part though."
"She can handle herself..." Riveria says, choosing to ignore the mom comment, knowing he simply doesn't care.
As they both arrive back at the safe zone, Yang sees his team and Tsubaki sitting in front of their tents looking over some weapons, everyone was going about their business as Finn was finishing up his meeting with the leaders for some of his quest teams.
Ignoring Tione and Bete, Yang walks up to the group as Finn dismisses them and stands in front of Ais. Standing almost a foot taller than her wearing only the combat pants from his mage armor that he was training in, his words cause a shocked silence to befall the campsite.
"Get your sword, princess, I accept your duel..."
END CHAPTER---
For the people that noticed I always described his Elemental Wheel flames as heatless, there's your payoff for having a good eye ;p
Next Chapter: VS Sword Princess