Chapter 32: Chapter 31: Trailing Behind

"Poor performance, Rayse." Aleph said, catching Rayse by the ankles before he fell face first into the ground below. Lacey jumped down from above, grinning triumphantly.

"Good work, Lacey. Did you show him everything you could do?"

"Mmm. Well… I still have one or two things up my sleeve…"

"Hear that, Rayse? Lacey held back and you were still helpless. Do you have anything to say?"

"Uhhh… I didn't use Berserk?"

""..."" The pair just stared at him. They looked quite comical upside down, but Rayse was too embarrassed to care. Aleph sighed as he set him down on the ground.

"I do not think it would have helped this time."

Lacey handled him with ease. Sure, it was without their artifacts, but Lacey may as well have had hers. She was conjuring up 'solid air' all over the place. She used them as footholds and stayed in the air like a bird of prey. Well, if birds of prey sprayed fireballs at you from above.

Rayse was allowed a single spear which he used to pursue her, but fighting her in the air was just as terrible as on the ground. He eventually got caught in a hurricane that sent him spiraling downwards, at least until Aleph caught him.

"So? What do you have to say?" Lacey said as she stood over him with her smug, beautiful face.

"...I'll never try to save you again." Rayse said, openly sulking but holding back a smirk.

"Hahaha! Silly, just have some more faith in me! Or your companions in general. We had far more options that time than Berserk between Luna, Miss Iona and I."

She held out her hand, and he gratefully took it. What she said stung no less, though.

"Are we still on that? I already said I was sorry!"

"Yes, yes, but you've been on a stubborn streak lately so I wanted to remind you one more time is all."

Rayse wanted to argue some more, but Aleph got their attention.

"Since you got trounced pretty thoroughly, you now have a rare opportunity to watch Brandon fight. Look over there."

Oh, right. Rayse turned, completely forgetting that Brandon had to fight too. He was on the ground, heavily leaning on his weapon. It wasn't the beautiful claymore Aleph made for him, but a regular harbinger's cleaver. He had miniature cuts all over, looking up at the sky for something.

"Watch out!" Lacey shouted, but it was too late. Something came at him swiftly from above, something which he barely evaded. It exploded on the ground, sending gusts of wind in every direction. Rayse tried to shield his eyes from the dust, but luckily Lacey had already summoned a wind wall. They saw more cuts appear on Brandon's body as the unknown assailant stayed out of reach. A frustrated Brandon swung his sword in the air, seemingly wasting his energy. The real reason became apparent soon though, when another wind blade came screaming towards him.

"Aura Blade!" He answered, his blade glowing a deep crimson. He continued slashing, but this time every movement of the blade sent waves of sharp energy in the air. It collided with the wind blade, slicing it in half and moving unobstructed to it's source.

"Whoah!" Said a voice in mid air, as Brig appeared seemingly out of nowhere. He raised his hand up in a fist, shaking it in their direction.

"Whoops, easy there! Mister Aleph, what the heck are you teaching these kids!?" He shouted from above as he continued to dance away from the stream of aura blades that came his way. 

"Brandon's doing well. Despite his age and temperament, Brig is one of the more capable ones under Carrack." Aleph noted.

The pair threw blades of magic at each other, but Brandon was beginning to get used to them. He sliced each wind blade in midair, seeming to put Brig on the defensive. Eventually, it was his turn to get frustrated, causing him to come down from above, bringing a tornado with him. The winds were so fierce that Brig, who was in the middle of it, could not be seen. More importantly, the tornado redirected every single aura blade meters before they got close enough to do damage. Brandon gave up and took a serene stance, forming his signature massive blade.

The two attacks clashed, with neither one giving way. The tornado sputtered, with the giant magic sword finally winning out. It cut the very forces of nature clean in half, sending wayward winds out into the surrounding forests. It was quiet for a time after that, as the magic blade also faded back into nothingness.

"I give up!" He heard Brandon say from below. A surprised Rayse looked down from the clashing powers to see Brig placing a knife at Brandon's throat. He had his hands up, sword discarded on its side in surrender. Brig relented, withdrawing his weapon and giving him a clap in the back.

"You did pretty good there, man! Don't you think so, Aleph?"

"Quite so, although I believe you fought differently to how you normally would to facilitate such a result."

"What, me? I would never!" Brig threw his whole body back in shock before giving a subtle wink at Brandon's location. Not subtle enough sadly, because if Rayse caught it then he had no doubt Aleph would have too.

"I think I might tell Iona you have been slacking off. It was her idea to lend you to me while Eric recovers after all."

"No! Uhhh, sir Aleph, let's talk about this…"

As Brig's pretend shock became genuine, Rayse thought about the fight he just saw. He had been thinking he had caught up to his friends recently, but the past two spars showed him otherwise. Although he didn't fight as seriously, Brandon still had Brig on the ropes for a couple of stretches there, and Lacey? She completely dominated him. He had a severe lack of firepower without Berserk, but without his other equipment he was helpless against any of these people.

"...Rayse? Are you listening?" Aleph said to him.

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"Uhhh, yeah. Sorry, mister, I'll go take a walk. Clear my head a little."

He walked back to Aleph's new neighborhood, where construction had taken its way mostly indoors. He didn't see a lot of people out and about, but there were still too many people for his liking. He needed a place to think, and although deeper into the forest was an option, he really didn't want to run into any of his friends for the time being.

"I need a place where I can think…" He muttered. His eyes traveled to the old well. He hadn't gone into the sanctuary since the incident with Erebos. Not that he was scared to find him there… Well, he was, but it was more so because there had been too many things happening recently.

He looked around one more time for other people. Finding noone, he swiftly slid into the well hole down into the damp cave, closing the lid as he went. It was brighter there than usual, with mana crystals growing more abundantly than usual.

Mister Aleph must not have gathered them in a while.

The cave itself was a fine, quiet place, but he wanted something more spacious to practice on, so he stood in front of the portal and activated it.

 

Soon he was staring at the vast, sunny place that was Aleph's Sanctuary. It was peaceful, quiet, and most importantly, there was nobody here that would judge him.

"Perfect." He mumbled to himself. He took his position in front of the house, once again taking out the manameter. Even though he saw how potentially useless Berserk would be against a pure spellcaster, it was still the best thing he had in his arsenal. He had been struggling with adjusting his image for the spell for a lesser output, but seeing Brandon adjust during his spar gave him an idea.

"Dark Haste."

A soft, dark glow enveloped his body, instead of the wisps of wind that a regular haste spell provided. He did some spear exercises, testing out the new spell's effects. He expected the improvement to his quickness, but was pleasantly surprised by the noticable increase in strength. He looked at the manameter for a reading, and fistpumped as the glowing meter stopped at 30 units. 

He had been under its effects for about a minute now, enough time to feel some numbness if this was berserk. He took a deep breath, bracing himself before deactivating dark haste. 

"Whew." Rayse released the breath he was holding, certain that there was minimal adverse effects to his new spell.

"Is it because the spell isn't really affecting me internally?" He thought out loud. He would figure it out later. Right now, he was happy with the way this experiment was turning out.

Brandon gave him the idea when he copied Brig's wind blades. This Abyss attribute magic was dangerous, but the spells themselves were affected by intent. Similar to how wind can be both supportive and destructive, Rayse thought that similarly applied to Abyss magic. 

"Alright, now we're talking!" He rubbed his hands together. His next couple of hours were spent remaking his spells, creating variants that used this dark force instead of the elemental ones he had grown accustomed to. It resulted in most of them increasing in strength tremendously, albeit with a massive cost to their mana consumption. Some spells had completely different effects when used with the energy of the abyss. 

A darkbolt that carried immense force, but didn't burn whoever it hit. instead, the force explodes outwards on hit, scattering enemies over a wide area. The dark version of tailwind didn't even function the same way as his original spell intended. He'd have to experiment with it some more.

Rayse listed down his spells again, comparing them to the previous list.

Flame: 3/10

Firebolt: 10/50

Thrust: 10/70

Flying Thrust: 15 per second

Steel Rain: 10 for each spear used

Burning Thrust: 30

Tailwind: 50/200 every 10 seconds

Haste: 10/30 every 15 seconds

Berserk: 90 per second

Creating abyss magic had given him so many new options to attack with. Just you wait, Lacey, He thought to himself, With this, I can finally…?

"Ahh shoot." He realized his mistake just then. His offenses had improved, yes, but that wasn't really the problem in the previous fight. He deflated instantly, lying flat on the grass. He had gotten too excited because he had finally done what Aleph asked of him, which was to make a version of Berserk that was usable, but that doesn't really help him against opponents like Lacey or even Brig, who could keep him at a distance indefinitely. He'd either need to become much more mobile to catch up with them, or-

"You need a control spell." He heard someone say. He was instantly on his feet, spear snapping back into his hand. He pointed it at the stranger.

It was a woman. Or at least, it looked like one. She stood in front of him, looking unafraid of the spear in his hand.

"Nice form, kid." She continued, although whether it was genuine praise or an insult, Rayse couldn't say.

"What is your business here!?" He demanded. He didn't know her, but anyone that could access this plane was dangerous, no matter who they were.

"You need a control spell." She repeated, ignoring his question. She bent down to pick up the piece of paper he wrote his spells on and showed him.

"Look, see? I've been watching you for a while. You have a decent collection of abilities here, except you have a conspicuous lack of something to hold your opponents down. You need to start with that."

With that, the woman turned leisurely around and entered the house. Rayse stood there immobilized, spear still at the ready.

"...What?" He asked himself aloud after a while. But the woman was long gone.

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