A fairly long time ago, during one of the least happy experiences of his life, he had more or less made a loose promise to Verena that he would show her the inner workings of the magical element that was Solar. When some time later, they went and took on another assignment to venture into an altogether different dungeon that was fairly similar in the sense that it carried quite a bit of emotional weight throughout, he had made a similar promise. When the royal knight exams came up, that had more or less been swiped under the rug and forgotten about due to the hectic lifestyle he had been living, which only amplified itself even further by the magic knight exams which followed right after. And with what was perhaps the highest ranked and dangerous mission in his life coming up, the incursion against Aamon, there was a chance that it would all lead to one final blaze of glory in which he’d end up burning out for the sake of the country.

Strangely however, he felt like he was currently in something many might refer to as the “eye of the storm”, a moment of peace and quiet calm stuck in between two hectic periods. With the social gathering of his new squad to make him feel somewhat at home, people starting to look up to him within the magic knight community and becoming more well known throughout the country as a whole for his deeds, Griswold was more or less enjoying his time off so he could just revel in the good things that were coming his way. And while he knew full well that this things were usually short lived, he very much wished to make the most out of it while it lasted, as there was a chance he wouldn’t get to enjoy for long. Even though his incursion team was in possession of one magic knight captain, one of the three great spirits, a vice captain and a soon to be vice captain, part of him felt like they were going in without ample preparation, which was perhaps the only thing that truly bothered him at present.

But with all of those things being what they were, if there was ever a time to make good on his promise, it was likely going to be now.

As per his request, the two had met out in the fringe, in a rocky area of a wasteland in which most of the actual life was either up in the air or dwelling underground. As one of his biggest issues with outdoor training sessions or magic knight missions outside of towns and cities was the general disregard for natural life, he imagined that this was the kind of place where he could let loose a bit. At least enough to show Verena what his magic was about. Aside from some small talk, the way leading up to the fringe had been more or less a quiet one as Griswold just enjoyed the scenery, at least up until the time where they wandered into the wasteland that had been created during the war between the diamond and the clover kingdoms. While he had heard stories, it was a period of time of which he knew surprisingly little, though that was to be expected given how little he usually cared for the quarrel between humans over monetary reasons.

And truth be told, as they traveled, he had noticed that Verena had been doing it on her own, without using a golem to aid her, which was in and of itself rather rare. Because for as long as he had known her, the only time she had actually seriously moved was during their royal knight exam, which was by itself rather briefly too. Not being the kind of person who worried himself over others, he imagined she was feeling better, good enough to do these kinds of things without really experiencing any issues. So when he finally did ask, he got to hear the story that explained some of what he had seen during their examination battle, which had struck him as odd at the time. Still, to think that she had been cursed to such an extent was not something he was aware of, as he had always believed curses could only harm to such an extent, and were capable of being dispelled… decursed, whatever the word for it was.

To think that her lifespan had been limited to only twenty-five was strange, for if he had been cursed with it, it meant he’d only get to live for another three years before he’d croak. Something like that really put things into perspective, as he had always been working towards things primarily for the sake of others, rarely thinking about what it was that he truly wanted. Coincidentally, what he wanted was more or less for the forsaken region to thrive and to make it so at least one of the magic squads within that same region would be pushed as hard as it could be, to be the best that it could be. He never really gave any thought to settling down, getting a dog even the thought of children, though that worked out just fine for him. After all, he wasn’t the type for it, nor was he exactly a people-person. He found the most joy when working to secure the safety of those he considered to be his people, his fellow peasants and commoners, and that wasn’t likely to change any time soon.

“I see. That’s quite a lot to digest, though I imagine the magic knights will be working hard on that if Lydia of all people is the one coming up with potions and solutions. Besides, in a way, taking that potion makes you just like the rest of us, as no one knows exactly when or where it is that they’ll eventually keel over and die. So I guess that at least is something to feel good… or at least better about.”

Not really sure what to say in response to something like that, mostly because he had never exactly been told about somebody dying beforehand, getting to prepare for that eventuality had never been a part of his life. After all, the family and friends he once had back in the enclave were all full of life and in good health, until one day the entire settlement and everyone in it just disappeared, leaving only a hole in the ground where it had once been. That kind of thing did not give you any time to process the idea of someone passing away as it came so suddenly, and on such a large scale. So in that respect, this too was a new experience for him.

“If you’re ready to begin too, I suggest getting out some golems of various shapes and sizes, and we’ll go from there. And a fair word of warning, they won’t be around to promote the scenery, as I’ll be needing some of them to just act as target practice and some I’ll need to spar against. You’ll see soon enough why that is.”

1202

With the creation of the golems, it seemed that things had kicked off in a way that was fairly similar to the fight they had been in during the royal knight exams. The main differences between this and that were simple however. He was here to teach whatever he could with regards to solar magic, which was by itself a rather difficult situation as it more or less had come natural to him the moment he first picked up his grimoire, the other reason being that he couldn’t care less if he won or lost the actual spar. In a way, they both had but one thing riding on this, which was their own training working out and paying off, as both of them had to eventually face off against a different archdemon. So instead of focusing on winning something as trivial as a silly little spar, he would just use it for what it was in hopes of refining his own senses and maybe providing Verena with another golem.

“Okay so, Solar magic is about a lot more than just the sun, which is a common misconception among a lot of other mages. One such example is this spell, which uses lunar rock to fuel a barrage of sharp shrapnel. Observe.”

With a quick flick of the wrist, Griswold aimed while charging up a small amount of solar mana. Closing his eyes as he did so, he used his Ki to get a better read of the terrain, creating mental images in his head based on those he could actually feel within his range. As it was still relatively weak in comparison to some of his other features, tracking a target that was not moving all that fast at all was a good thing for him. So once he could actually locate his target with his mind’s eye, he fired his spell right at the large golem. Where he originally could only fire about one or two of them, he felt that he had managed to refine his control to the point where he could now shoot about seven of them, crashing them into the golem and shattering on impact. Because for as much as it was worth, it was not the kind of aspect he had been working on a whole lot, making this the strongest spell he could currently cast that was not related to stars.

Hearing how Verena had ordered her golems, he knew that there were two of the more durable golems, two of the same faster golems that had been encircling him as they had during the royal exam, leaving the fire golem that had attempted to assault him too. Hearing how the goal was for them to focus on defense but attack once they got within a twenty meter radius, that was something he could work with. As he had gotten a good bit faster since the last time they had met, which had turned the whole situation into somewhat of a cat and mouse game where he had to just keep pressing on in hopes of cornering her and closing in that way, harming her directly was not something he had to worry about today. Channeling his mana in preparation of another spell that would make it hard for the fire golems to outright attack and prioritize keeping themselves safe first, he would again explain what he was going to be doing first. This was a moment of education after all.

“Then there is the “star” based portion of this magic, which admittedly can take on a variety of different shapes and sizes, as well as manifesting themselves in different ways. For instance, this is a spell that fires several projectiles at designated targets, following them around until they leave their radius or hit their targets. For example’s sake, I’ll fire these at your fire golems.”

No sooner nor later than having said those words, he released the mana he had been building in the form of two small and fast moving suns, he would have them chasing after the fire golems. While this too would take a bit of focus, him having to keep his focus on everything going on around him and keeping himself in a state where he might respond to them as soon as something presented itself meant that he had to reduce his speed of movement so as to not trip over his own feet. Trying to expand his focus to the point where he could also lock in on the fast moving golems that had the ability of flight, he was not about to let one of them get the drop on them like they had done during the exams. So as he tried to prepare himself for something he knew might very well happen a second time, pushing the boundaries of his focus proved troublesome when trying to keep so many different irons in the fire.

In that sense, he could only imagine how difficult it must be for someone like Verena to be controlling so many different kinds of golems at the same time, which just seemed immensely chaotic to him. That said, Verena was not the kind of person one would find on the frontlines, smacking things with sharp sticks while controlling said golems. In a way, that made him feel somewhat better about himself, as he had to constantly worry about getting hit by his adversaries, how to utilize his mana in terms of offense and defense, but also in the sense of increasing his speed or strength. Adding golems into that kind of setting was not something he himself was ever going to be capable of, especially not as he was now. Maybe once he managed to increase his own sensory means, be it through Ki or otherwise, to the point where he could keep track of his surroundings more accurately, that was when he might attempt to get into golemancy.

But with the rate at which things were developing now, that seemed like it was going to be a very long ways away for him. Besides, given the direction of his personal development, he wondered if golems were even the way to go to begin with.

1037 (2239)

With the two fire golems destroyed and one of the golems dubbed as “Terra” being harmed to some extent, the other golems that could fly and utilize sound that he believed were called “Sonia” were moving outside of his reach, which made things rather tricky as he would need to first sense the approach before being able to respond with a counter attack or other means of dodging. But even without his Ki to back him up, it was not all that hard to hear the large earth golem approaching his position, the weight being something he could both hear and feel with every step it took. Having given Verena some bits and pieces of what solar was really like, there were still some other factors he could throw in there, though they were likely going to be better off if he just showed it instead. On the other hand, it was something that was going to be rather hard to incorporate into a golem, or so he imagined.

In truth, he was not fully aware of the things a golem could or could not be made to do, or how one might be able to infuse them with mana for something or another after it had been created, as he primarily just focused on what magical capabilities he had. For him, knowing a bit about all things magic was not a waste of time or effort, though he’d rather be the guy that understood his own potential over that of someone else’s magic while having limited insight into his own capabilities. It was yet another one of those reasons why he was likely a good fit for the black bulls, for if he had been more interested in the magics of others, he might have been better suited for another squad such as the coral peacocks. Temporarily breaking that line of thought when he sensed the flying golems enter into his range, mana began to build up inside of his body.

Pushing it out of his body and condensing it around him, it would seem like he made a skin tight layer of solar mana. Using it to contain the constant flow of mana and keeping any of it from going to waste, it allowed him to both heal from a certain amount of the damage he took shortly after taking it, while also increasing his speed beyond what he was naturally capable of. As had become evident due to one of his earlier internal musings, Griswold had become a fair deal faster than he had been during their last encounter. Capable of moving twice as fast as that time, this spell went and added further advancements on top of it, which was at times exactly what he needed. Because of how he had become somewhat of a jack of all trades when it came to distances, there was really no place where he had a clear advantage or disadvantage anymore.

So even with his eyes closed, he was able to evade Sonia’s attack by pacing forward, allowing it to graze by him due to the more than likely unanticipated increase to his speed. As moving forward pushed him into the range of Terra, Griswold could almost see a very clear picture of his adversary in his mind, preparing to bring its fist down and pummel him into the dirt. But as said fist came towards him, it felt almost like the world was moving slower than it usually did, even though he was the one that had gotten faster. Experiencing the difference in the whole experience of moving this much faster than he usually did, he knew that he could move faster still, though that was not something he was willing to put up with as that would drain away his mana rather quickly. If anything, using multiple means of speed enhancement were only to be used when planning the quick downfall of an opponent, not to amuse himself or others during a spar.

As he was now, he could even use the same fundamental trick to increase his physical power by several leaps, which might even allow him to smash most of these golems without the use of his weaponry. Again, doing something like that would more than likely just take up too much of his mana. So as he slid to the side, letting the large fist and arm pass him by and smash into the earth, after which he made his way back once again to evade the sweeping strike of the other Sonia. Even when moving as fast as he did, putting in a proper counter attack was something that required his extrasensory capabilities to be pushed further due to some fairly detrimental side effects that came with it. Aside from the obvious drain on his mana when boosting his own speed, the amount of focus required to maintain his “Ki” sense not only meant he’d need to slow down a little, it was also still limited to a fairly small radius.

By mastering his Ki senses, he hoped to rid himself of most of these detrimental effects, or at least push them up and away to a point where they would not hold him back. In the sense of his range, he imagined everything eventually reached a point after which it was no longer as useful as it was on a smaller scale, or in the sense of magic, would cause a spell to straight up fizzle and die when moving outside of its own parameters. So to think that his sensory abilities would be any different was obviously a load of nonsense. As for him having to slow himself down in order to properly focus on where his enemies were, what they were doing and set up a proper counter to it that wasn’t just him evading it, that would more than likely be something he could get rid of entirely. He was confident in that manner, as he had already managed to push himself further than he believed himself able to.

“I didn’t have a lot of time to announce that, but this is yet another form of how solar can be applied. For this particular spell, I use solar mana to create a thin screen around my body to keep any excess mana from seeping out and going to waste, using that to heal most of the wounds I’ve sustained, as well as increasing my total velocity by quite a stretch.”

Not feeling a reason to bring up the fact that it could also be used to do things like increasing his physical strength, there were in fact some others spells he would wish to use in the actual fight. And because they were in a wasteland, he did not need to worry about doing any damage to nature, as there didn’t seem to be a single blade of grass or sapling of a tree around for miles. Due to the fact that he wasn’t using his eyes right now and could not sense all the way to where Verena had positioned herself, he had no idea that she was already trying to bring something along the lines of a solar golem into being. So when things fell quiet for a bit, he went ahead and asked for the difficulty to be cranked up a bit, something that was not all that uncommon for him at all given his personality. But that was just the way he was. He knew that he would never be able to push himself beyond his current capabilities if he took things slow and just went with the flow of things. Sometimes, things just had to be forced to move.

“If you’ve got something else laying around that might make things more difficult, feel free to throw in some of it. I don’t die easily.”

1310 (3549)

Without going on the offense, Griswold instead used his speed as a means of evading the unconnected fists of the Terra golem that were being forced towards him, even if it felt more like pistoning than punching. Normally, the speed he had now would be more than enough to deal with a bunch of golems, though this was by no means a normal situation. Not having his eyes to rely on made him a lot more careful since he did not have as much time to respond to any and all incoming threats, and for good reason. With his eyes being his primary means of warning and providing response, taking that part out of the equation forced him to focus on this hard to explain force that was called Ki. Only knowing that it was something that initially originated from one of the lands to the east, he could not exactly remember the name of it.

Knowing there to be several of them thanks to Hania’s explanation regarding the matter of those nations some time ago, it did not seem all that odd for a practice like Ki reading to have also made its way to the land of clover. Barely evading one of the striking Sonias that used one of the punches from Terra as a distraction, the dark haired individual noticed exactly how hard this whole thing was when having to keep it up for a prolonged duration. When he had first gone about practicing it, he had done so with one of the young black bulls members that wanted to be trained to become stronger. In response, Griswold had offered just that, but had decided that he would do so by effectively limiting himself with a blindfold and a wooden practice weapon. Due to the sheer difference in speed, having to limit his own for the sake of focusing and anticipating attacks had not been too much of a stretch.

But when dealing with an inanimate enemy that utilized raw strength and striking power, along with one that utilized speed and slicing prowess, that became a lot harder for a plethora of reasons. They did not breathe, leaving nothing to specifically listen for on that front, such as a temporary break at the moment of striking and exhaling. They did not hesitate in their movement like the average human would, especially when believing they themselves might suffer a detrimental loss by pursuing their current course of action. While they might not seem like much, they all afforded him with precious fragments of seconds that he now had to do without, making every fraction of a motion that much slower. And when dealing with multiple opponents, being slower was not something one wanted to be, as that meant giving away the one thing the outnumbered party had going for them.

That said, Griswold was perhaps not the greatest scholar in the kingdom, what with him not being a scholar at all, though he was by no means stupid. Learning quickly when threatened or under attack, it was in battle that he got to shine the brightest. It had taken him no more than a few seconds to figure out that the larger golem was just a means of distraction as it could clearly take a hit, as well as dish one out in the case of it being ignored. But the Sonia golems were, due to their speed and ability to lacerate a foe with relative ease his primary focus as he could barely outpace them as he was now due to the imposed limitations of using his Ki. So as he leaped and bounded back and forth to evade the attacks that were thrown at him, he sensed something else entirely, something so large that it did not even take any real sensory means to notice. Whatever it was, until it entered into his range, it was something that had to get put on the backseat for now.

But as he got a better feel for what to expect from the golems, who seemed to more or less be moving out of their base directives as Verena was clearly busy doing something else, there came a moment where Griswold felt confident enough to aim for a counter attack. Reaching for his black blade, he once again evaded the pistoning fist of the larger floating golem, using the same momentum of that dodge to strike down in an attempt at destroying the one that came in to cut him. Believing his senses were at the very least sharp enough to have timed this attack properly, it was not longer after it that whatever Verena had done let itself be known by making it into his extrasensory range. Opening his eyes for a moment to see what this new arrival was as he could tell that it was big, he saw a fire golem that was far larger than the two that had been blown up earlier.

“Well…. That’s more like it.”

Dashing back to dodge the initial strike, it was clear that this thing was a mix of being fast, durable and strong, though he had no idea as to how strong it was exactly. Were it not for the fact that all of these golems were making it hard for him to just walk around and figure out exactly how powerful and fast it was, Griswold would have loved to take his time when it came to dealing with this thing, though that had to wait. With his sword still in hand, he had some defensive means against whatever it was that came at him, especially if it were either Terra or Sonia. Believing to have taken at least one of them out, it would only be a matter of time before he would be able to get the others too. That was, unless Verena had taken back the reigns and returned to directly controlling her magical minions. In that case, it was very likely that this was not going to be over for quite some time.



1010 (4559)

To Griswold, the thing he was facing right now was more than likely the largest thing he had faced before on a long list of enemies, which was to be expected to some degree. Out in the land of clover, the amount of monsters that could be found were fairly well contained due to the large amount of human settlements that dotted the landscape. Within the noble region, he had come to expect that most of the actual “monsters” were more or less created by mages, such as the cheese elementals he had faced there at some point. That, or some rich guy had shipped in a monster to have as a keepsake or a novelty item, after which it escaped its bondage and made its way into the world. And even those were generally no larger than the average human, in the worst case no larger than something the size of a bear.

While there were a bunch of larger enemies he had encountered, perhaps the largest of them had been the large crustacean dwelling at the bottom of the ocean with the army it had at its disposal there. Truly, that whole ordeal had been an odd one that he would sooner choose to forget than remember, though his mind rarely worked that way. Obviously, he had managed to kill that thing, as well as a lot of other enemies that more or less came with a set of instructions. Having killed werewolves, vampires, magically enhanced statues, powerful hostile mages and even dinosaurs, it had all been molding him. Having fought against so many different beasts, monsters and skilled enemies, Griswold had managed to improve his sense of Ki to levels that were a fair bit greater now than they had been some months ago. It meant that every fight, every battle had been good for more than just the people he had saved because of them.

It had also pushed him that much closer to being able to fight ever stronger threats. Threats such as Aamon and his lackeys that would undoubtedly make themselves known soon enough, as it made sense that they would determine the battlefield where this show of force would be taking place. After all, he himself had no idea where the archdemon had holed up during all this time, even though he had already gone about tracking down some of his followers when they had shown up and begun causing trouble at Balgon prison. Showing his worth there, he could only imagine how much more powerful than him Aamon truly was. So as he evaded the attacks, he could feel the searing heat that radiated off of the elemental, proving that it was in fact very powerful and well worth the mana to summon and keep around. After all, not everyone was as fast as he could be, or possessed the means to properly defend themselves against it.

That said, he was still nowhere near fast or strong enough to take on Aamon, though he imagined that that was why Cyrus and Ardere were coming along as well. Compared to them, he was but a peasant grasping at straws, hoping one of those he managed to grab would hold and let him climb higher. But as was the case with so many of these things in this world, it was not often as easy as hoping for something, or the divide between peasants, commoners and nobles would have closed ages ago. By the time he had noticed the blast of water coming his way, the mana entering into his sensory radius, the only way to actually dodge it now was to go further beyond. With a burst of mana surging through him and amplifying his physical properties, namely his speed, he managed to evade the attack as he zoomed across the battlefield. Leaving a hole that was gradually filling up with water due to the torrent that was fired from a distance, Griswold opened his eyes to see what was actually going on.

Still being relatively new to the use of Ki, the amount of situations he had managed to use it in had been, to say the very least, interesting. As a mage, one learned to do things such as sensing mana and the like, as well as using their own mana in order to utilize spells, which was no longer something anyone considered to be much of a feat as almost any person within the land of clover possessed at least some level of magic. With the amount of mana a person had defining their potential in most cases, the average mage hailing from the forsaken region did not really have much hope for a future as a magic knight, what with the average commoner having more mana than a peasant, and a noble having yet even more than a commoner. And for how common it was in this land to be able to use mana for your own purposes, so rare did it seem to be to possess a decent grasp on Ki.

To perceive the world in a different manner, seeing the natural mana that to some extent existed within all things as a sort of thread that bound everything together, whether they be an ant, a monster, a human, a dog or the fire spirit itself. All things were connected in some manner, and through the use of Ki, one could in a sense open their third eye and see these kinds of things. When he had first dug into the whole concept a little bit deeper, this all sounded like a lot of words used to explain something really simple, as scholars often did. But the more he came to use it, the more it seemed like the explanation given was not even all that far off. To him though, it did not feel so much as mana as much as it felt like something more, like an underlying kind of energy that he became able to sense the more he opened himself up to it and practiced it.

In that sense, it had been much like a new muscle, which had been weak and incapable of doing anything on its own at first, but the more it became used and worked, the stronger it became to the point where it could actually be utilized in a fight. Feeling like he could sense things such as movement, like being able to feel the kinetic energy radiating off of things in motion and being able to respond to it, almost as if he was gradually awakening to something more than what he was capable of doing now. Because as he could feel these kinetic energies, it was almost as if he could tap into that kind of thing, like he could feel a sense of mana radiating off of that same energy like something he could almost grasp, yet it was as of this moment still out of reach. Whether it was actually what he believed it to be, an advancement of his own power that would enhance him in the not too distant future, or just a feeling, that still remained to be seen.

At this point though, there was really no use in continuing the spar any longer, as he had more or less managed to pick up what he had wanted to achieve along the way, which had more or less been to push the limits of his sensory radius, as well as increasing his reaction time alongside it, having felt that it was easy to forget that his body might not be able to move as fast when he was so caught up in his own focus. Judging by how Verena wanted to “Try something”, he figured he would give her the room to do exactly that, hoping that it might aid her in figuring out how to utilize solar magic for the sake of her golems. Using her water and fire golems to perform some kind of display by shooting fire and water into the crater, it did not really make a whole lot of sense to him as it seemed like a waste of mana. When it appeared like she attempted to control the energies that were being freed by the clashing of those two elements, Griswold believed that she might very well be up to something.

Watching the bright colors and a display of bursting rock, he could tell that she had done something just now, even though he did not really understand what it was. In spite of that, it seemed that she was somewhat glad, maybe even happy with the results, which led him to believe that she had also achieved what she had come here for today. Releasing his spells to stop the constant drain of mana, he saw how Verena had fallen to her knees, which made him believe that he was right in assuming she had gotten what she wanted out of all this. That at least was good to know, as it meant he was not the only one who had been able to learn a bit more about himself. When she claimed that she could still keep going, it seemed that she had not yet come to the realization that he had already managed to learn what it was that he needed to learn in order to use his Ki more effectively and with less of the detriments in place. If nothing else, it would allow him to last longer against the demons.

“There’s no need, I’ve gotten exactly what I needed, thank you. I imagine you've also found what you were looking for?.”

Being relatively calm about the fact that he had achieved what he had set out to do, he knew that there was still plenty he needed to if he was to actually master the use of his Ki, and sensing both mana and kinetic energy by the same standard. Ready to leave, he waited for Verena to get ready herself as it was still a fairly long trek back home, especially so shortly after expending so much mana.

1679 (6238)

[Exit]