27:

  “Don’t be silly now, there’s no way those ice needles are piercing through a third-circle mana shield,” Cynthia called out even as a barrage of ice needles kept plinking against the chamber’s automatic defense.

  A few seconds later, the barrage came to an end, only for Lucan to realize that the ice shard that Cynthia had been controlling using her second circle spell was nowhere to be found. It took him longer than it should have to realize that it had exhausted itself in the barrage, which meant that her spell demonstration had come to an end.

  Lucan’s spiking heart rate finally eased up a little as his lungs recalled how to breathe again. It was one thing to learn about magic from a journeyman mage with a crippled mana heart, who made him practice his spells against stationary targets and only very rarely was able to offer him practical demonstrations and quite another to have the second-year valedictorian of the best magic academy in the kingdom pummel him with second-circle spells.

  Even though Cynthia’s spell had exhausted itself, the mana shield that had kept him alive took a whole minute to wink out of existence, as if the formation spell didn’t want to take any risks of an immediate followup.

  “So, what was that?” Lucan asked, his tone inquisitive now that the initial fear had faded a little. “How is Hummingbird different from Ice Bolt?”

  “I didn’t lie when I told you that Hummingbird was identical to Ice Bolt when it came to weight and shape,” Cynthia energetically began her explanation. “But it truly wasn’t any different outside of the added maneuverability, then you’re right, it wouldn’t justify the mana cost as a second-circle spell. Instead, it needs to take advantage of that manoeuvrability to increase its lethality, so the spell circle was modified to include the barrage of ice needles you faced. The downside is that once the ice needles are triggered, I can only influence their general direction— Mana Control no longer works after that point.”

  “Because your mana can no longer envelop all the needles?” Lucan asked.

  “And because it stops being considered as a single object,” Cynthia added with a nod.

  “So Hummingbird is a spell used to get in your opponent’s blindspot and then pepper them with a hundred ice needles?” Lucan guessed.

  “Yes, but it’s not a spell you’d want to use against an enemy mage. Quite the opposite in fact. It’s most effective against multiple mana beasts actually. Of course, on a battlefield, it would work very well against enemy knights as well, as long as they don’t have a mage to shield them. It’s hard to evade something that small at the speed hummingbird sends those ice needles flying at, even if you do have supernatural reflexes,” Cynthia explained.

  Right, because they’d just bounce off against a mana shield, Lucan thought. Or just did, in fact.

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  “Who came up with that spell?” Lucan finally asked, his worries forgotten for a brief moment as he found a long dead passion showing a few sparks that might suggest a resurgence.

  “It’s one of the second-circle military magic spells that Ice-affinity mages can learn. It’s hard to credit it to any one mage because its spell composition has likely been tweaked around dozens of times before we’ve ended up with the modern day hummingbird,” Cynthia explained.

  “So you can learn a powerful spell like that for free?” Lucan asked.

  Cynthia threw her head back and to Lucan’s abject confusion, laughed out loud.

  “What’s so funny?” Lucan asked, a little defensively.

  “Oh sorry, it’s just— that’s really funny coming from a Velmoria, y’know? You can consider hummingbird a gift from the academy, sure, but the truth is that it’s not particularly powerful while requiring the mage to be skilled in manoeuvring the projectile while also requiring their active focus. Compared to your, erm, Lord Velmoria’s Frost Warden, hummingbird is an academy project at best,” Cynthia explained, her tone softer than usual in lieu of the delicate topic she was addressing.

  “I see,” Lucan replied, even though inwardly he did not. What the hell is frost warden?

  “Now, now, let’s not get distracted. I promised you a show and for that I need you to trigger the mana shield again. So, attack me?” Cynthia declared with gusto.

  “Attack you?”

  “Wait— don’t you dare try to punch me,” Cynthia hurriedly added, her tone one of genuine worry as if she had just recalled something important. “Use that unimpressive wand that’s tethered to your waist and attack me with a spell.”

  “I only know one offensive spell,” Lucan muttered under his breath, almost hoping Cynthia wouldn’t hear him.

  “Let me guess, Mana Bolt?” Cynthia asked.

  Lucan nodded.

  “Well, that wasn’t really a guess because I was briefed about your situation,” Cynthia said with a shrug.

  “But I never took the test?” Lucan asked.

  “Have you forgotten who runs the academy, Mr. Velmoria?” Cynthia asked with a teasing smile.

  Right, shit. Of course the kingdom knows about my capabilities. However slim my odds of actually being the heir to house velmoria are, that doesn’t change the number of intelligence files they have to maintain on me.

  “Okay, fine. I’m rusty though, so it might take me a bit,” Lucan warned, before drawing his wand and pointing it in Cynthia’s direction.

  He took deep breaths to calm himself and then closed his eyes entirely. In a real battle he’d be dead ten times over, but if he wanted to shift those odds even slightly in his favor then he needed to give his earnest all to casting the weakest offensive spell possible— an insignificant feat by any benchmark, yet one he hadn’t managed before because he’d given up before the starting line.

  First-Circle Generalist Evocation Spell- Mana Bolt had three major spell matrices that judged the length, intensity and curvature of the spell, while the spell circle’s pattern was something he had memorized early on and was comprised of primordial magescript, a language that was said to be passed down from the age of the first mage, that was written in a latticework pattern.

  Lucan didn’t know how to read primordial magescript and he sure as hell didn’t know what it was, but he could memorize patterns if it came to it and even after years of drink, it was simple enough that he could recall it.

  He began to construct his first spell in years in his mana core.

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